The Windsor Girl by Sylvia Burton

I’ll be off to mass in half an hour so I was up anyway.  Just popped out to say ‘ hello’.  Eh!! Ellie, it’s grand to see you.  You look a treat, you do that’.
    ‘Thank you Missus Bagnall.  It’s nice to be back’.  Ellie stood for a moment, not knowing what else to say to the old lady.
    ‘Go on then lass, your mam will be ‘on pins’ waiting to see you’.
    ‘Yes I expect so.  Good bye’.
    As she walked towards number fourteen, Ma Bagnall watched her walk away.  Eh!, with her back so straight and head held high she looks like she don’t belong here , she thought, that one always thought she was a 'cut above the rest'.  Being in service will be a bit of a 'come down'.  Still, a nice enough girl, for all that ’.  She shivered in the cold morning air, hurried inside and closed the door.
    Before Ellie reached the house, her mother was outside to greet her.  She held her daughter’s face between both hands.
    ‘Oh Ellie, it’s good to see you.  Come in.  You look so grown up.  Eh! Lass you look lovely.  Tell me all about it.  You hair’s so shiny...’
    ‘Oh Mam, do let me in.  You’re all out of breath’.
    Maggie hugged Ellie to her chest then, eventually, let her pass into the house.
    ‘What did Ma Bagnall have to say then?  She’s an old busybody’.
    ‘She just said hello and asked how I was’.
    ‘Aye and I bet she would have liked to know more, an all.  Nosey old Sod’.
    Ellie laughed at this and said, ‘oh Mam, she doesn’t mean anything’.
    Maggie grunted and then went to the cupboard to get two mugs.
    ‘I’ve got the kettle on and I’ll soon have you a nice cuppa tea.  Sit yourself down and I’ll not be a minute’.
    ‘Mam.  Please sit down or you’ll have me thinking I’m a visitor’.
    Maggie looked at her daughter and knew she was right.  She was treating Ellie like a guest.  She now felt embarrassed and found herself searching for something to say.
    Ellie sensed her mother’s embarrassment so placed the basket on the table.
    ‘Look at this Mam.  Mister Blunt gave it to me as I was leaving.  I don’t know what’s inside’.
    Together they untied the cover.  Maggie’s face was a picture, ‘well I never’.  On the top was a bag of apples, a little past their best, but nevertheless, good.  Then a tea cloth, knotted at the top, which revealed five current scones.  Also in the basket was a cob of bread and a big piece of yellow cheese.  But best of all, a piece of lamb, the likes of which, Maggie had never been able to buy.
    ‘Well, all I can say is ‘God bless the man’, you must thank him for me.  What a feast’.  Maggie's face was alight with pleasure.  Ellie saw, at the bottom of the basket, yet another gift.  It was a brown paper parcel, tied up with string, and had ‘Ellie’ written on it, in blue ink.
    ‘I wonder what’s in here’, said Ellie, undoing the knot.  She unwrapped a pair of shoes. They were of good black leather, soft and well made and the correct size.  They were not new but she could see that the condition was excellent.
    Ellie wanted to cry, ‘how kind he is’.  How had he guessed?  He couldn't have known how much she hated wearing the clogs , she thought and was overwhelmed with gratitude.
    Maggie poured the tea and handed Ellie a pot.
    ‘Well you must have made a good impression at the big house for him to give you them lovely shoes.  What did you say his name was?’
    ‘Mister Blunt’.
    ‘Mister Blunt eh!!  Mmm!  And do you see much of that ‘sour faced Sod’ who let us in that day?’
    Ellie laughed, ‘ that’s Mister Blunt Mam.  He’s the Butler’.
    ‘Oh well I never’!  She laughed, ‘how can anyone so ‘toffee nosed’ be so nice underneath?  Wonder’s will never cease’.  Maggie’s legs came up as she fell back in her chair, laughing loudly.
    Ellie had to laugh too, but she was laughing at her mother more than anything.  In a strange way she had liked the Butler from the