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ready. She avoided looking at him.
"What are you grinning smiling about?" asked her mother. "I never
thought I'd see the day when you'd be grinning about the prospect
of spring-cleaning someone's house."
"It's just that it's a nice morning."
She wanted to skip as she went up the street. She did not go
round by the side of the house so she did not see that the word
TRAITOR had been repainted on the gable wall. She rode out to Mr
Blake's house on the top front seat of the bus pitying all the people
she saw hurrying to w spend such a day in a dingy shop or office.
Her mother thought she was going regularly to the Labour Exchange to
look for a new job.but she had never been back since the first day
after she had been sacked from the hat department.
Mr Blakes had taken his car out of the garage before she arrived.
It stood in the street looking shiny and clean. Kevin had washed it
only two days before.
"Good morning, Sadie." Mr Blake was cheerful. He always was.
She went straight to the kitchen to start making a picnic lunch.
She sniffed. There seemedto be a smell of bruning paper. She had
noticed it the day before too. She looked in the rubbish bin and
saw some charred paper. Mr Blake must have been burning old letters.
Strange. She frowned, then forgot it. As she buttered the bread
she sang.
When Kevin arrived shotyly afterwardsshe ran to meet him in the hall.
"How's Rafferty?" It was the first thing the bothShe asked at once.
