At noon, after a morning of sweeping, dusting and changing the bed sheets, Olive once again found herself at the schoolteacher's house, ready to collect her daughter. As before, Rita Butterworth opened the door just a fraction and closed it again once Barbara was at her mother's side. Unused to such behaviour, Olive wondered what was behind the door, maybe Ms. Butterworth had a large dog, she asked her child.
“No”, replied Barbara, “She doesn't have any pets.”
As the walk was a cold and windy one, Olive refrained from quizzing Barbara further and instead concentrated on getting her children indoors to the warmth of their kitchen. Both Barbara and Godfrey will be hungry after all this fresh air, thought Olive, I'll toast us some teacakes with lashings of butter. It wasn't until mid-aftern
