It became even busier after four that afternoon. Schools had broken up for Christmas the day before, and so there were hundreds of mothers with children who had come up west to see the lights. It had started to rain heavily, so they were all taking shelter in the shops, and many of the children were badly behaved, touching everything and racing around.

‘Where on earth is Miss Stow?’ Julie Drysdale, the other assistant in the glove department, asked Molly. ‘Look what those blessed kids have done to the counter!’ She pointed to the sticky fingerprints all over the glass counter.

‘They’d have done that even if she had been here,’ Molly said as she went to serve a lady in a stylish, red, wide-brimmed hat. ‘I love your hat, madam,’ she said to the lady. ‘We’ve got some gloves that would match it perfectly.’

‘I’m sure you have, but I’m after some sensible, woolly gloves for my sister, who lives right up in the north of Scotland,’ she replied, smiling at Molly.

Molly was just ringing up the sale when Mr Douglas, the security man, came along. Molly had never seen him on the shop floor before; he was always in his cubbyhole down by the staff entrance and exit. He was there to see that no one took anything out of the shop with them. Staff purchases went down to him, too; he had to make sure no one added anything to the bag after paying for their goods.

She finished serving the customer and wished her a Merry Christmas, then turned to Mr Douglas. ‘A pair of gloves for your wife?’ she asked with a wide smile. ‘I hope you know her size.’

‘No, Miss Heywood, I’ve come to fetch you,’ he said. ‘They want to talk to you upstairs.’

Molly looked at him. Staff were summoned upstairs to the personnel office for a variety of reasons, but the message usually came by telephone, or through the department manager. She’d never heard of anyone being escorted there by Mr Douglas.

‘Now, please,’ he said, more sharply.

Molly felt faintly sick as she went up in the lift, wondering what she could have done wrong. It was clear she’d done something but, apart from being five minutes late to the counter last Friday morning, she couldn’t think of anything. But would she really be hauled out at such a busy time for something so trivial?

A voice from inside the personnel office responded to Mr Douglas’s knock, telling him to come in. He didn’t go in, though, just put his head round the door to say he had Miss Heywood with him.

‘Go in.’ He nodded at Molly, his face cold and blank.

Molly went in to find Hawk Face, the woman who had been on the interview panel, sitting behind the desk. She knew her now as Miss Jackson, one of the directors of the company, but aside from occasionally seeing her walk through the store, she’d had no reason to speak to her.

‘Miss Heywood,’ she began, not even asking Molly to sit down. ‘It has been alleged that you have been putting extra goods which haven’t been paid for into customers’ bags. As I am quite sure you are in total command of your faculties, I have to assume the lucky recipients are friends or relatives of yours.’

‘I’m sorry.’ Molly frowned, not really understanding. ‘There must be some mistake. I have never done such a thing.’

‘But we have two independent witnesses who saw you do it.’

Molly felt her heart plummet. In a flash she guessed that the two so-called witnesses were Miss Stow and Mr Hardcraft, but why they should claim such a thing was a mystery to her.

‘They’re mistaken. I have never stolen anything in my life, and this is theft you’re talking about, isn’t it?’

‘Of course it is. Any item taken from the store without payment or permission is considered stolen. A cunning way of stealing, too, as you personally would never have the stolen goods on you.’

‘Then why didn’t the witnesses call Security when they saw it happening?’ Molly asked, but the shock of being accused of theft made her voice waver and her eyes prickle with tears.

‘The first time, you were given the benefit of the doubt, but after that you were watched and, of course, you did it again, and again.’

‘I did not,’ Molly said with indignation. ‘Whoever told you this is a liar and a troublemaker. Get them in here, and they can say it to my face. I don’t have any friends or relatives in London to give anything to. The only people I know are members of staff.’

‘That’s not what I’ve heard,’ Hawk Face said, her dark eyes flashing with steel. ‘I’ve heard you have friends in Whitechapel.’

Molly was astounded. ‘I know one person there, and she is a Sister in the Church Army,’ she retorted angrily. ‘And she’s a frail old lady in a wheelchair. She can’t even go out alone, much less come up to the West End so I can pass stolen gloves to her.’

‘Come now! Do you really expect me to believe she is the only friend you have?’

‘I have friends back home in Somerset.’ Molly was aware that her voice was rising in her agitation, but she tried to control it. ‘But the only friends I have in London are people who work here and live in Warwickshire House.’

‘Don’t you dare raise your voice to me, Miss Heywood. Or deny something which senior and trusted staff members have reported. I want you to go to Warwickshire House now, pack your suitcase and leave. You may count yourself very lucky we are not calling the police.’

‘You aren’t calling the police because you have no proof or evidence of theft,’ Molly said, wanting to scream and stamp her feet at the injustice of it, but she wasn’t the kind to do that. ‘You only have the word of a spiteful spinster who doesn’t like me because I’m popular with everyone else. And I expect she’s influenced Mr Hardcraft into believing her story about me.’

Miss Jackson sat back in her chair, putting her two hands together to make a church spire, and looked at Molly over them, a reflective expression on her face.

‘Go quietly now, or I will call the police,’ she said after a second or two. ‘Aside from everyone seeing you taken away to the police station, you are likely to get a prison sentence and a police record. So just be grateful that I am being so lenient.’

She got to her feet, picked a brown envelope up from her desk and handed it to Molly. ‘Your wages, made up till the end of the week. But I want you out of the store now.’

‘I didn’t do this,’ Molly pleaded. She couldn’t hold back her tears any longer. ‘Please believe me, Miss Jackson. I promise on all that’s holy that I have never given any goods to anyone, or taken them for myself. This is an act of spite by Miss Stow because she is jealous of me. I love working here. I wouldn’t jeopardize my job by doing such a thing.’

‘Go now,’ the older woman said, and her voice was as cold as a January morning. ‘Mr Douglas is waiting to escort you from the premises, both from here and from the staff hostel.’

CHAPTER NINE

Molly caught hold of Mr Douglas’s sleeve as he ushered her out of the staff entrance and began walking her to the hostel.

‘I didn’t do this,’ she pleaded with him. ‘How can they throw me out of my job and home without any proof that I did anything wrong?’

He brushed her hand away from his jacket, his face cold and stern. ‘If the floor walker and the head of department say you did it, then that’s proof enough for me. I see thieves almost every day; they always deny their guilt. Now come along. It’s my job to oversee you as you pack your belongings and to escort you from the hostel.’

‘I haven’t got anywhere to go,’ Molly said, and the tears she’d tried to control spilled over and cascaded down her cheeks.

‘No good blubbing,’ he said brusquely. ‘You’ve got your wages. Go home to your folks.’