Primrose Square by Anne Douglas

Anyway, she won’t mind if I go to night school, it was her idea.’
    As Mrs Petrie stared in disbelief, Elinor added quickly, ‘And I’ve only signed up for a class, I’m no’ leaving the Primrose, so there’s no need to say any more.’
    â€˜Don’t be telling me what to say or not to say, if you please! What is this course, then? French? German? Arithmetic?’ Mrs Petrie laughed shortly. ‘Just who do you lassies think you are?’
    â€˜It’s office procedures,’ Elinor answered coldly. ‘If you must know, I tried for typewriting but it was full.’
    â€˜Typewriting, eh?’ Gerda smiled. ‘Sounds good. Mebbe I’ll try for it next year, eh?’
    â€˜Aye, might be just up our street,’ chimed Ada. ‘Where’d you go for these classes, then, Elinor?’
    â€˜Now you girls can just stop all this!’ Mrs Petrie cried. ‘Hurry up with your tea and get back to work. Ada, never mind about classes – did you bring the papers down from the Quiet Room? Where’s The Scotsman , then?’
    â€˜It’s here, Mrs Petrie.’
    As Ada hastily gave her yesterday’s Scotsman from the sheaf of newspapers she had cleared from upstairs, the cook took out her reading glasses.
    â€˜Let’s see what’s happening in this terrible world,’ she muttered, unfolding the paper she always claimed. ‘That Kaiser fella’s always in the news, eh? I never did like Germans. Or any of thae Balkan folk. Always causing trouble.’
    â€˜How many Germans has she met?’ Gerda asked in a low voice, when they were outside the kitchen. ‘Or people from the Balkans, come to that?’
    â€˜As though Mrs Petrie needs to know folk before she hates them!’ Elinor answered, laughing, and Mattie touched her arm.
    â€˜Elinor, I’m truly sorry I told her about your class. Like I said, it slipped out before I could stop it.’ Mattie’s eyes were woeful. ‘Me and my big mouth, eh?’
    â€˜It’s all right, Mattie. She’d have to find out sometime, anyway – I only wanted to spare all the arguments.’ Elinor glanced at the clock in the entrance hall they were moving through on their way to clean inside windows. ‘Look, I’ll just be five minutes – I want to speak to Miss Ainslie. You get started and I’ll follow.’
    â€˜Miss A’s never going to worry about us changing days off,’ Gerda murmured. ‘She’s easy about things like that.’
    But is she going to be so happy about me not going to her suffragette evenings any more? Elinor wondered, as she knocked on Miss Ainslie’s door. Truth is, I have no time now.
    Gerda was right, of course, that the manageress would find no difficulty in giving her permission to the two maids to swap their evenings off. It was only when Elinor had to point out that she could no longer attend the suffragette evenings that she looked a little dismayed.
    â€˜Oh, that’s a shame, Elinor, when you were doing so well and becoming so helpful to us. Of course, I know you want to go to the class and I’m pleased for you, but couldn’t you have spared time for us as well?’
    â€˜You’ve forgotten, I only get one evening off in the week,’ Elinor told her quietly, at which Miss Ainslie put a hand to her lip and gave an embarrassed smile.
    â€˜Oh, dear, of course you do! What am I thinking of? And I suppose it wouldn’t be fair, to give you extra time off, just to help our cause  . . .’
    â€˜No, it wouldn’t. But I’ll still try to go to some of the outdoor meetings on Saturday afternoons.’
    â€˜That would be good of you. I know they’re precious.’ Miss Ainslie sighed. ‘If it were up to me, you know, I’d try to get you girls more time off, but the company would never agree. My hands are tied.’
    Always were, when it came to asking the