The Buffer Girls by Margaret Dickinson Page B

as she recognized the familiar figure wheeling a bicycle
through the gates.
    ‘Trip! Trip, over here.’
    The young man in rough working clothes – dark trousers, wornjacket and cloth cap – looked up in surprise. ‘Good Lord! Josh and – and oh, Emily.’ He hurried across
the road, leaned his bicycle against a lamp post and flung his arms wide as if to embrace them both. ‘How good it is to see you.’ He hugged Emily to him and then picked her up and swung
her round. When he set her down, he glanced at each of them in turn. ‘But whatever are you doing here?’

    ‘My mother’s brought the whole family to Sheffield. She wants Josh to find work in the cutlery business.’
    ‘And,’ Josh took up the story, ‘she spoke to your dad, who said he hadn’t any vacancies at the moment but that he’d put a good word in with some of the other
owners.’
    Trip frowned. ‘Really? Father said that?’
    ‘Yes.’ There was a slight pause as Josh added hesitantly, ‘Why,is something wrong?’
    ‘No – no, nothing. It’s just that we
do
have a vacancy that would be perfect for you. I’ve moved up the ladder as an apprentice a bit and the lad who took my
place was useless. He was sacked two weeks ago.’
    ‘That explains it, then,’ Emily said. ‘It’s longer ago than that since my mother spoke to your father.’
    Trip’s face cleared. ‘Oh I see, yes, that’ll be it.’

    Although, to Emily’s sharp hearing, there was still a note of uncertainty in Trip’s tone, but then he said, firmly, ‘Right, no time like the present. We’ll go and see Mr
Bayes this minute. Come on.’
    When Josh and Emily arrived home well after dusk had fallen, it was to find Lizzie, washed clean of all the grime of her job, her hair shining in the lamplight and dressed in a
pretty floraldress, waiting with Martha. But their mother was in a fine old temper.
    ‘Where on earth have you been? Out gallivanting when I could do with some help with your father.’
    Josh put his strong arms round his mother’s waist, lifted her off her feet and swung her round. ‘Don’t be cross, Ma.’ It was his pet name for their mother, when he wanted
to get round her.
    ‘Put me down and stop yoursilliness.’ Martha slapped him on the shoulder and he set her down on the floor again. ‘And why shouldn’t I be cross, pray?’
    ‘Because, Ma, I’ve got a job and I start on Monday.’
    Martha’s anger evaporated in an instant and her mouth dropped open. ‘How? Where?’
    ‘At Trippets’,’ Josh said with a wide grin. Today was the first time Emily had seen her brother smile since their mother haddropped the bombshell of her intention to move the
Ryan family to the city.
    ‘Trippets’? But—’ Martha bit her lip and for a moment she looked uncertain.
    Quick to notice, Emily said, ‘What is it, Mam?’
    ‘Nothing, nothing,’ Martha said, a little too hastily. ‘Tell me how this has come about. Did you see Mr Trippet?’
    ‘No – we saw Trip.’
    ‘Thomas? Oh – oh, I see.’
    Emily couldsee that her mother’s mind was working furiously. ‘But – surely,’ Martha said at last, ‘Thomas isn’t in a position to hire folks. Is
he?’
    Josh shook his head. ‘No, but he took us to see the foreman – a Mr Bayes. Of course, because it was Trip doing the asking, Mr Bayes said he was willing to give me a trial.’
    But what would happen when Arthur Trippet found out? Martha was thinking, butaloud she said, ‘Then that’s wonderful, Josh.’
    Lizzie pulled a face. ‘It sounds as if you don’t need
my
help now.’
    Emily put her arm round Lizzie’s trim waist. ‘Of course, we do. You’re going to take me to see Mrs Nicholson tomorrow, aren’t you?’
    Mollified a little, though with her impertinent glance still on Josh, Lizzie said, ‘Tell you what, Emily, why don’t we go across to see herright now? I know she’s
home.’
    ‘Will she mind?’ Emily was a little doubtful about troubling the woman after a long day at