Needing no second bidding the boys scooted off to join their mother and their grandmother in the dining room and inclining her head towards him, Amber made her way back upstairs and began to tidy the boys’ room. She wasn’t quite sure where she was supposed to breakfast until Daisy appeared with a tray a short time later.
‘I wasn’t sure what yer’d want, miss,’ the girl told her with a cheery smile. ‘So I’ve put a bit of everythin’ that were goin’ on. Just leave what yer don’t want. An’ cook says to tell yer that yer more than welcome to join the staff in the kitchen fer breakfast, if yer’d prefer it to havin’ it in yer room.’
‘That’s reet kind of yer, Daisy,’ Amber answered and then suddenly corrected it to, ‘That’s very kind of you, Daisy.’ She supposed she should at least make an effort to speak as the boys did – for the time she was working with them at least.
‘So what ’ave the little terrors got in mind fer today?’ Daisy asked pleasantly as she placed the tray on the table by the window.
‘They ain— haven’t really said yet,’ Amber answered as she eyed the food. There looked enough on the plates to feed her and the boys and she knew she wouldn’t be able to eat even half of it, but it was kind of Daisy to have thought of her.
‘I ’eard the mistress an’ Mrs Temple sayin’ they were goin’ shoppin’,’ Daisy told her as she turned to leave and with a cheeky grin she confided, ‘They do a lot o’ that when Mrs Temple comes to stay. I dare say yer ain’t got as many shops at the coast as we ’ave ’ere?’
‘I couldn’t really say seein’ as I haven’t seen much o’ London yet,’ Amber answered as she poured herself a cup of tea.
Daisy nodded. ‘In that case, if yer can wangle any time off I’ll ’ave to take yer sightseein’. I’m off next Sunday so we’ll ’ave to see what we can do. Ta-ra fer now.’ And with that she was off as Amber sat down to tackle the gigantic feast the girl had brought her.
As it happened, later in the week, which luckily passed with the boys on their best behaviour, Amber discovered that they were to go to church on Sunday morning with their mother and grandmother and then they were going to have lunch with them, so Mrs Temple told Amber that she wouldn’t need her services until late in the afternoon.
They were now into November and as she and Daisy set off on Sunday morning, the streets were shrouded in a thick yellow fog and it was bitterly cold.
‘Oh, this is horrible,’ Amber said as she pulled her scarf up over her mouth.
Daisy, looking quite resplendent in her Sunday best, which included a very pretty bonnet trimmed with silk flowers, giggled. ‘We call it smog an’ yer get used to it when yer live ’ere,’ she told her. ‘I don’t mind it meself. It’s the snow I don’t like. Do yer get snow in Whitby?’
‘We get it up on the moors but not so much at sea level,’ Amber answered, thinking how different Daisy looked out of her uniform. ‘Where are we going?
‘I thought I’d take you into the city to see the shops,’ Daisy answered good-naturedly. ‘Although most of ’em will be shut o’ course, wiv it bein’ a Sunday. Still, we can ’ave a look in the winders.’
Amber was lost in seconds as they moved on, although Daisy seemed to know the whole place like the back of her hand.
‘This is Oxford Street,’ Daisy informed her eventually as they turned into a street that seemed to stretch for miles. There were shops all the way down on either side and Amber was shocked. She had never seen so many all at once in her life. There were huge department stores with beautiful mannequins in the windows modelling everything from day dresses to evening gowns, shoes, bags and all manner of things, and dotted in between were jewellers’ shops displaying rings, bracelets and necklaces set with jewels in all the colours of the rainbow. Apart from a few people who were window shopping like her and Amber, the street was surprisingly quiet.
‘Crikey, we only ’ave one dress shop in Whitby,’ Amber told her. ‘An’ it ain’t a quarter as big as any o’ these.’
They strolled on for quite a while till eventually Daisy asked, ‘There’s a coffee shop ’ere that’s open, look. Shall we treat usselves to a cup o’ tea and a slice o’ cake?’
‘Why not?’ Amber found that she was quite enjoying herself and soon they were seated at a table in the window. A little maid came to take their order and they spent another pleasant half an hour chatting and enjoying themselves. The light was beginning to fade by that time, so reluctantly Amber told her, ‘I think we should be heading back now. I don’t want to get into Mrs Temple’s bad books.’
As they left the café and began to walk back the way they had come, Daisy asked curiously, ‘So ’ave you got a boyfriend back ’ome?’ She’d noticed a sad look in Amber’s eyes on many occasions and wondered if it was perhaps because she was missing a sweetheart she’d left behind. But before Amber could answer, a man dressed in little more than rags with straggly dirty hair ambled towards them with his hand outstretched pleading, ‘Spare a penny or two fer a poor ’omeless bloke, ladies?’
He reminded Amber of Trampy Ned, an old man who lived in and around Whitby, and she began to delve into her bag, but Daisy put her hand out to stop her and told him smartly, ‘N,o we ain’t. Now be on yer way else I’ll call a copper, matey!’
The man turned with a scowl as Amber looked towards Daisy in dismay. ‘But the poor chap was down on his luck,’ she said with concern. She always tried to spare a little for Trampy Ned back at home.
Daisy snorted. ‘Now look ’ere, you’ll ’ave to ’arden up if you’re to be ’ere fer any length o’ time. This city is crawlin’ wi’ people like ’im an’ most of ’em will spend anyfin’ yer give ’em on drink or drugs. The place is rife wiv pickpockets an’ all, so just make sure you allus keep your ’and on your bag. I should ’ave warned you before. They’re so good at what they do you don’t even know they’ve robbed you till you come to get your purse.’
When Amber looked shocked, Daisy chuckled. ‘Don’t be fooled by the posh shops.’ She shook her head. ‘London is a den o’ vice. There’s more prostitutes ’ere than anywhere, I reckon, an’ if you were to come out of an evenin’ you’d see ’em all standin’ on street corners toutin’ for business.’
‘Really?’ Amber looked around nervously but Daisy was quite calm.
‘Don’t worry, you’re quite safe wiv me,’ she reassured her. ‘An’ you ain’t likely to be out much on your own at night, are you? So you’ll be fine. I was just tellin’ you, that’s all.’
They did a detour on the way back so that Amber could get a glimpse of the River Thames and once again she was disappointed. On the pictures she had seen of it the water had been blue but in reality she saw that it was a sludgy brown colour with a lot of rubbish floating on it.
‘You wouldn’t fancy fallin’ in that, would you?’ Daisy grinned, then said, ‘Tell me all about Whitby.’
‘There’s nothing much to tell really,’ Amber told her. ‘Most of the people who live there are fishermen, includin’ me dad an’ two o’ me brothers. The other two work on the railways.’
‘Oh, an’ you didn’t get to answer me question – is there a boyfriend back there waitin’ for you an’ how long ’ave you worked for the Temples? I must admit I was surprised when I first saw you, most o’ their nannies were much older.’
