It really hadn’t taken Ted long to slip back into his old ways. Hard work was not in Ted’s nature, Meg was soon beginning to find out, and although he liked the profits, he didn’t want to work for them. Three weeks after Ted’s return she was opening the bakery up by herself and had been told by him not to waste her time baking things that folk didn’t appreciate and couldn’t really afford.
She’d also had to give way to adding the sawdust to the bread mix. It had been that or lose her job – although Meg was beginning to think any job would be better than working for Ted Lund. However, the hours worked in her favour as her mother was getting progressively worse. Sarah didn’t return from the mill until after seven in the evening so Meg was needed at home.
Sarah had fitted into mill life with relish. She enjoyed the gossip and company of the mill girls, and although Meg still didn’t really know what her work involved, she seemed to enjoy it and the shilling that she brought home every week was more than welcome. Sarah was also spending less and less time with Harry, which her mam and Meg welcomed.
Meg leaned on the counter and waited for her first customer of the day. The shelves were not as full nowadays. Only the basics had been made in accordance with Ted’s orders, so the shop was not as busy. Meg thought again what she could do with the business if only it was hers. What a waste, she thought, as she looked at the solid bread that nobody wanted.
‘Mind the shop, George, I’ll take the local invoices out today,’ Joe Dinsdale said as he grabbed his overcoat and stepped out onto the wet surly streets of Leeds.
It might have been mid-summer but nobody had bothered telling the weather that, he thought, as he clutched the monthly invoices in his hands. He’d gone through the shop’s books the night before and had not had slept well after realising that the young lass from Ted Lund’s bakery had not paid the last month’s bill, nor had Ted or her been into his shop for the last three weeks. He wondered if anything was wrong, and more to the point, was he going to get his money? He’d heard Ted was back from his trip to Ireland, so that morning he had decided to pay the baker a visit and hopefully get what was owed to him.
The rain was trickling down the back of his neck by the time he reached Ted Lund’s bakery and he looked into the dimly lit shop and noticed Meg with her hands cupped around her face looking as miserable as the rain outside but soon saw her face change as he entered the bakery.
‘Good morning, Mr Dinsdale, it’s a wet day to be giving us a visit. What can I get for you?’ Meg smiled at him but didn’t get a smile back from the gruff businessman.
‘Is Ted in? I need to speak to him,’ Joe Dinsdale said and looked around him. The bakery had only half the baking it had a few weeks ago and there was no sign of customers.
‘He’s at home today. The weather has laid him low. I’ve opened the bakery and done what baking he said I’d to do,’ Meg replied, knowing that the shelves of the shop looked pitiful now Ted was back in control. ‘Can I help?’
‘No, it’s the organ grinder I need to speak to, not the monkey,’ Joe Dinsdale said gruffly. ‘I’ll go and see him at his home. Good day.’
Joe left the shop and stepped out back onto the rain-sodden streets, leaving Meg wondering why he had looked so annoyed at her. It wasn’t her fault that Ted was not spending any money that month at Dinsdale’s. He said they’d had enough of his money and until the shelves were near but empty he wouldn’t be going back. They would never be going back if it was up to him, she thought, because all they were going to be making again would be his bread of sawdust and that was not selling now his customers knew what they had been missing. He was a lazy, stupid man and didn’t deserve the bakery.
‘Joe, what brings you out on a day like this and to my house as well?’ Ted answered the loud knock on the door that had disturbed him from writing his letter of thanks to his sister-in-law, a letter that should have been written straight after his return from her.
‘It’s rather a delicate matter, not one to discuss on a doorstep, no matter what the weather. May I come in?’ Joe said and looked at Ted as the drips ran off his trilby.
‘Aye, you better had if it is that serious.’ Ted opened the door and showed Joe into his front room. ‘Now, what’s to do?’
Joe looked uneasy at what he was about to say. ‘It’s just that while you were away, the lass that you’ve got in the shop ran up a bill each month. Which was grand, I welcomed the trade.’
The trader hesitated as Ted smirked. ‘I bet you did. There’s still stuff on my shelves that she bought. I want nowt with making half the stuff she makes. I want a quiet life.’ Ted shook his head and looked at Joe. ‘Come on then, spit it out, man.’
‘Well, you answered half my question that you’ve enough stuff on your shelves and that’s why you’ve not been in this month. But my bigger worry is that last month’s bill was not paid. I’ve got the copy invoice here in my hand and it was never settled. Now, I know you’ve been away but it’s for a good amount of money, I could do with it back in my account.’
‘I’m sure she’s got it down as paid in her accounts book that she made up while I was away.’
Ted looked at the invoice that Joe had hesitantly given him and went into his kitchen to pick up the accounts book that he had placed upon the other paperwork for the bakery. He brought it back and showed Joe Meg’s sums for the shop. There, next to the amount owing she had written the word ‘paid’ quite clearly.
‘Do you have a signed invoice?’ Joe asked. ‘Because, believe me, Ted, she’s never paid me, no matter what she’s put in that book. George always makes sure the payments this large are made with me and believe me, I never saw hide nor hair of her with this payment last month. This lass of yours is trying to do a fast one on you. I’d go and sort her out and I wouldn’t have her in my shop on her own.’
The anger was quickly rising on Ted’s face.
‘I’ll sort it, Joe. I’ll come along later and settle this account. I’m sorry that you have had to come and see me about this. I trusted her and although she’s worked hard while I’ve been away, I’ve no doubt that she’s also taken advantage of me.’
Ted Lund felt his hackles rising as he saw Joe to the door. Meg Fairfax had to go. She’d shown him up for the very last time and he wanted his money back!
Meg saw Ted crossing the street to her and wondered why he was coming when it was near to closing. He never showed his face at this time of day. She looked at him as he slammed the bakery door behind him and turned the sign to Closed. He had her accounts book in his hand and his face was like thunder.
‘I’ve had Joe Dinsdale at my home this morning. I’ve never had a fellow trade person come chasing me for money. He says that you’ve never paid this bill that you’ve written down as paid even though you’ve no proof of payment. What have you to say for yourself?’ Ted barked.
Meg looked at him in utter amazement. ‘It was paid, I paid it just before you returned back from Ireland. I gave the money to George because Mr Dinsdale was busy with a salesperson and he put it into the till’s drawer to give him later.’ Her composure fled. ‘I’m not lying, I’d never lie, especially when it comes to money,’ she wailed, near to tears.
‘I don’t believe you,’ Ted said bluntly. ‘I think you’ve been taking advantage of me. It’s not just Joe Dinsdale that’s concerned about you. Henry Booth says you’ve been buying laudanum without a care in the world and I’ve noticed that you are living well since you started working here. I’m not having it, Meg. I’m sorry but I’m sending you on your way and once I’ve decided to decide what to do, you might be getting a visit from the peelers. I’ll not be taken advantage of. Now get out and don’t show your face in my bakery again!’
‘But I didn’t do it. Ask George, please ask George, he’ll back me up,’ Meg cried as Ted grabbed her arm and pulled her out from behind the counter and threw her protesting out of the bakery out onto the pavement, making her fall face down into the busy street.
‘Get out and stay out. I don’t want help like yours in my shop. I should never have taken you on. It was only because I felt sorry for your mother that I did so. You are a thief and a blatant one at that!’ Ted yelled for all the passers-by to hear making Meg feel totally ashamed as she picked herself up from the gutter.
Tears ran down her face and she was trembling as she made her way home. How could Ted Lund treat her like that? She had done nothing wrong, nothing at all. She had paid the bill, and she’d watched George put the money in the till. Surely if Ted talked to George he’d realize his mistake and want her back. He’d have to! She needed the money to survive. She sobbed and made her way back home, her head hung partly in shame and partly in anger at the injustice done to her.
Ted Lund stood at the counter and handed over the money that he said was owed and looked at Joe Dinsdale. ‘She says she paid young George over there, but I don’t believe her. She’s been spending money like water while I’ve been in Ireland. The bloody thief. I’ve sacked her anyway, I don’t want her in my shop and she’ll be lucky if I don’t call the peelers in to see her. I would if I didn’t know her mother was so ill.’
‘And I thought that she was a grand lass,’ Joe replied. ‘Everyone was speaking highly of her when you were away and her baking was the talk of these backstreets. I’m disappointed for you.’
Joe Dinsdale thought for a moment, then said, ‘Just let me ask George if he knows anything about it; I didn’t bother asking him when I came to see you this morning because, as I say, it is always me that sees to the monthly accounts.
‘George, when you’ve finished serving Mrs Palmer, can you come over here please?’ Joe shook his head and watched as George packed Mrs Palmers’ basket and then joined them.
‘Yes, Mr Dinsdale, how can I help?’ George looked at both men and couldn’t help noticing the anger on Ted Lund’s face.
‘The lass that’s been working for Ted here says that she paid you for the monthly bill last month,’ Joe explained. ‘Now, I’ve never seen anything of it so it’s causing a bit of a barney.’
Joe gave a searching look to his assistant who he trusted as much as his wife.
‘Aye, I remember her coming in. We were rushed off our feet that day,’ George said immediately. ‘You were talking to the salesman from Boston’s and I told her to come back later. But she didn’t want to take the money home with her because it was quite a bit.’ George looked at both men. ‘I took both the invoice and the money that she’d placed in an envelope and put it into the back of your till, Mr Dinsdale. I did tell you when you returned from your dinner with the salesman. You must have… forgotten,’ George said, leaving Joe in no doubt as to what he was being too polite to say.
‘Well, I’ve never seen it and I can’t remember you telling me. I wonder if that’s why my till drawer has been sticking of late. I’ve meant to have a look at it for the last week or two.’
Joe walked over to the till and opened the drawer with a push of a button but the action was slower than usual. All eyes were on him as he crouched down and put his fingers into the very back of the drawer and felt around for what he knew now had been making his drawer stick. Right at the back and wedged underneath the drawer and the structure of the till he felt the envelope and the money within it. The coins trickled out as he pulled on the envelope but the notes came out with the torn envelope paper and were there for everyone to see.
‘Well, it seems that your lass Meg was telling you the truth,’ Joe said. ‘I owe you an apology. I hope you’ve done nowt rash, Ted. She has paid me and it’s me that’s wrong.’ Joe stood with the money in his hand feeling foolish as he watched George go back to his counter without a word.
‘Well it’s too late now – I accused her of being a thief and sent her on her way. I’m not going back on my words,’ Ted muttered. ‘I’m sure she’s probably been helping herself to my money if I know her.’
Joe knew Ted was probably thankful not to be paying the bill twice, but felt the least he could do was to stand up for Meg. ‘She worked every hour for you, Ted Lund, she was nicely building that bakery up again for you single-handed,’ he said. ‘You could do with getting her back and letting her have her own way with your business. I’m glad that I’ve been proven wrong even at my own embarrassment. She’s an asset to whoever employs her.’
He knew it was pointless. Ted would always be a stubborn man, someone who looked at the pennies instead of the pounds.
‘Aye, well, I’m not taking her back on. You can have her if you want her, I’ll run my bakery as I want to run it and not how a jumped up bit of a lass thinks it’s got to be run. Now, good day. I’m glad that my business here is straight with you because I’ll not be coming back.’
Ted scowled across at George as he walked out of the store and back home, wishing that he had never taken Meg Fairfax on to help him in his bakery. She’d turned his world upside down and had been nothing but trouble.