‘I said you don’t know what you’re on about and it’s true. My da and brothers had more intelligence in their little fingers than you have in the whole of your body.’
‘How dare you!’
‘You can’t compare the work in an inn to what my da and brothers had to do every day of their lives and you know it at heart.You’re just being nasty. You woke up this morning and wanted to hurt someone, that’s the truth of it.’
To say that Mildred was surprised by this milksop - as she had privately termed both Nell and Eve - confronting her was an understatement. For a moment she was lost for words and then her voice came like a bark. ‘That’s it, you’re out on your ear, girl.You can pack your bags this minute and be off.’ ‘What the hell is going on?’
Neither woman had heard Caleb. Mildred didn’t waste a second. ‘This . . . this kitchen scut has had the effrontery to insult me. Telling me I don’t know what I’m talking about and that I’m stupid.’
‘I didn’t say that, not the stupid bit.’ Eve’s face was now as white as lint but she wasn’t going to be dismissed without telling Caleb the truth. ‘Your mother was on about the miners’ strike and she called them morons. I said’ - she took a deep breath as she recalled exactly what her temper had prompted her to say - ‘that my da and brothers had more intelligence in their little fingers than she has in the whole of her body.’
Caleb stared at her in amazement.
‘There, by her own mouth she’s hung herself.’ Mildred was triumphant. ‘To be spoken to like that by the likes of her in me own house. I want her out within the hour. Do you hear me, boy? And without a reference an’ all.’
It was with some effort Caleb dragged his eyes away from Eve. He would have bet good money she didn’t have it in her to stand up to his mother like that, but perhaps he should have known. Beneath that quiet, gentle exterior she had guts, did Eve. Look how she’d stopped him in his tracks that day at the Michaelmas hirings. He had had no intention of taking her and her sisters on but somehow she’d accomplished making him do just that. They said still waters ran deep and it was the case with this lass for sure.
Bringing his gaze to his mother, he said, ‘We will discuss this later.’
‘Will we, by blighty! We’ll discuss it now, not that there’s anything to discuss. I’ve said my piece. She’s out where she belongs, in the gutter. That’ll give her something to think about.’
‘Eve, go and help Nell in the kitchen.’ He didn’t look at her as he spoke but kept his eyes on the furious woman in the bed. It was only when he heard the door click shut that he moved, coming to stand close to his mother. ‘You have to open your mouth to wound, don’t you? Always to wound. That little lass has worked her socks off since the day she stepped foot in this place and all for a measly half-crown a week. Well, I tell you something, Mam. If she agrees to stay after what you’ve said the day, she’ll be getting more than that.’
‘You’d do that? You’d take the part of a kitchen scut against your own mother?’
‘Can’t you see beyond the end of your own nose? She does the work of two women. Oh, Nell is willing enough but she needs to be told, directed. It’s Eve who runs the kitchen.And you might not like to hear it, Mam, but things are running smoother than they have for a good few years.We both know you should have got someone in there a long time ago.You weren’t up to it and the result is this.’ He gestured at the bed.
‘Listen to me, Caleb Travis.’ Mildred’s voice came slow and deep. ‘You take the part of a skivvy against your own mother and I’ll never forgive you. Never. And you know I don’t make idle threats.’
‘That’s up to you, but aren’t you forgetting something? If Eve goes, the other two go with her and that’ll be the end of Mary keeping you company. You thought of that?’
It was clear from his mother’s face she hadn’t.‘The bairn would stay here with me if it was put to her.’ Mildred recovered immediately. ‘She’s not daft, she’s as bright as a button.’
‘You’d do that? Purposely split them up after everything they’ve gone through to stay together?’
‘Don’t you look at me like that.You wouldn’t be taking this stand if I was on me feet.’
‘Oh aye I would. This has been coming for a long time and you know it as well as me. And let me make it absolutely plain for you, Mam. If that little lass goes, I go. And, like you, I don’t make idle threats.We both know my feet have been itching for a while now but you’re my mother and you need me here and so I’ve stayed. But enough is enough. And if I stay it will be as master in my own home. No more “boy”. You hear me, Mam? Now I’m going to see if I can talk her into staying and you’d better pray she agrees.’
Mildred said nothing but her face spoke volumes, the pupils in her colourless eyes black pinpoints of fury as her son left the room, quietly shutting the door after him.
Eve was sitting on one of the hard-backed chairs at the kitchen table, Nell patting her shoulder ineffectually when he entered the room. He could see immediately she had been crying but she rose to her feet, her face white and strained but her voice steady when she said quietly, ‘I’ll go at once of course but please don’t dismiss Nell too. She and Mary need shelter this weather.’
‘I’m coming with you. We both are.’ Nell looked at Caleb. ‘And your mam asked for everything she got.’
He made no comment to this, indicating for them to be seated. ‘You’ve been here over four months now, is that right?’
Her green eyes huge, Eve nodded.
‘Then I think it’s high time we looked at your wages again. I’d like to pay you more but how about if we double it for now? Five shillings each a week.’ His gaze included Nell for a moment. ‘You both earn it, I’m well aware of that.’
‘But . . .’ Eve couldn’t go on, waving her hand helplessly.
It was left to Nell to say, ‘But your mother? She won’t stand for it. She don’t like me and Eve, it’s only Mary she’s got time for.’
‘My mother is aware of the offer.’
‘I . . . you . . .’ Eve tried to articulate what she was feeling but all she could say was, ‘You don’t have to pay us any more money. We don’t expect . . . You’ve been so kind.’
‘Five shillings a week each or nothing.’ A small smile touched Caleb’s mouth. ‘Deal?’
‘Deal.’ Again it was Nell who spoke when Eve couldn’t.
‘Good.’ He nodded briskly. ‘And I for one would like a cup of tea. I’ve got a mouth on me like a badger’s backside and my head feels like it’s going to explode, but at least the cold is gone.’
PART TWO
1912 - Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary . . .
Chapter 7
‘And where do you think you’re off to, madam? There’s a pile of tatties a foot high waiting to be scraped over there and they won’t do themselves.’
‘Oh, Eve.’ Mary gave a little toss of her head which set the daisies on her straw hat bobbing. ‘Kitty and her mam an’ da are going to Girdle Cake Cottage and they said I could go with them, been’s it’s my birthday.’
‘And you accepted the invitation without a thought of asking me if it was all right you went? Even though Saturday is our busiest day, especially at the height of summer?’
‘It’s my birthday,’ Mary pouted.‘I didn’t think you’d mind.’
Nell’s birthday - hers too, come to it - had passed unacknowledged. Mary was well aware of that. And since she had left school for good at the end of the summer term a week ago and started work in the kitchen, she had tried to sneak off more than once. Nell was serving in the front of the inn - an arrangement which had come about through Shirley leaving to get married at the same time as Mary had begun work in the kitchen - so at least Eve was spared one of the lightning rows between her two sisters which were becoming more bitter by the day. She drew on her limited store of patience.‘You can’t take off whenever you like, Mary. You know that. How many times do we have to go over the same ground?’
‘I
didn’t think you’d mind, not on my birthday.’ Mary’s big blue eyes filled with tears. ‘Please, Eve, please. Just this once. Please? I so want to go an’ I’ve been looking forward to it.’
Eve stared at her sister. She knew she was being manipulated but the underlying guilt at the back of her mind which had never gone away since she had found out about Josiah Finnigan made it hard to say no. Girdle Cake Cottage on the north bank of the river some miles away was a pretty little tea room, a very popular venue in the summer months. Folk travelled upstream from Sunderland by boat to have their tea and then returned on the tide, so there were always new faces to see and a lot happening. And Mary craved such excitement. Eve didn’t know why her sister was so restless and skittish - flighty, Nell called her - but as Mary had got older and the prettiness had turned into a beauty that even now, at thirteen, caused heads to swivel, Eve had become more anxious about her. ‘You say Kitty’s mam and da are going?’
‘Aye, yes.’ Sensing victory, Mary turned on the charm which nearly always worked with everyone, except Nell. ‘Please, Eve. I’ll love you forever.’
‘Go on with you.’ Laughing now, Eve flapped her hand.‘But you make sure you’re back by five o’clock, Mary. I mean it. I’m going to be run off my feet in the meantime.’
‘I will, I promise.’
A butterfly kiss touched Eve’s cheek and then in a twirl of ribbons and lace Mary was gone. Eve watched her sister cross the yard, calling out something to Caleb who was unloading some meat for the cold store as she went. She looked much older than her years.The ever present worry turned into fear. And she was so beautiful. Fresh, lovely. This past year Mary had shot up and filled out but it wasn’t so much this that made Eve feel she wanted to keep an eye on her sister every minute of every day. Eve frowned to herself, turning away from the scullery window and returning to the dressed crab she had been preparing at the work table. It was something about the way Mary was with people. Eve did not think ‘with men’. She would not allow herself to think men. Mary was gay and coquettish with everyone, it was just her way. And she had always loved plenty of attention.
‘Where’s she off to?’
Caleb had come in without her hearing him, and Eve swung to face him. ‘Kitty’s parents have offered to take the pair of them to Girdle Cake Cottage for her birthday,’ she said quickly, sensing he wasn’t best pleased. Then, as his face relaxed, she added, ‘Why? Where did she say she was going?’
He smiled a little sheepishly. ‘Her exact words were, out to tea with some fine gentleman.’
Eve shook her head, laughing. ‘You know what she’s like.’
Aye, he knew what Mary was like. And how he was going to keep his hands off her until she was sixteen and he was able to make his feelings plain, he didn’t know. But he would have to. In spite of her silliness and flirty ways she was still nowt but a bairn.Three more years. He screwed up his face against the thought of it. And her living in the same house.
‘What’s the matter?’
Eve was staring at him with some concern and uncomfortably he explained away his grimace by saying, ‘A tooth’s giving me some gyp. It catches me now and again, that’s all.’
‘Oil of cloves is good for toothache. I’ve got some in the kitchen somewhere. I’ll sort it out for you.’
‘I’d as soon have a cup of tea if it’s all the same to you.’
‘Come on then.’ Smiling, she washed her hands in one of the deep stone sinks and then followed Caleb into the kitchen. He was sitting at the table and at the sight of him her heart flooded with the feeling she was finding more and more difficult to hide. She had first become aware of it a few months after they had been at the inn. They had been alone one night, Nell had begun the first of her monthlies and had retired early to bed with tummy ache. They had been sitting very much like this, having a cup of tea and a slice of cake together, and she had asked him if he would help her send for her father’s trunk which they had left with a neighbour. One thing had led to another and she had found herself telling him the whole story bit by bit, even the fact that she and Nell weren’t as old as she had claimed.
He had been very kind and gentle with her, drying her eyes when she had cried over Mary and telling her it wasn’t her fault. The next day he had gone himself to fetch the trunk and when he had returned she had noticed the knuckles on his right hand were raw and bleeding. He never told her exactly what had happened, merely stating that Josiah Finnigan wouldn’t touch another bairn for many a long day. It was then she had known she was falling in love with him and the feeling had grown month by month until now it was such a part of her she couldn’t imagine feeling any other way. It was hopeless, she knew that. Caleb did not love her and never would but he did see her as a friend and confidante and with that she was content.
No, not content.
The ridiculousness of such a thought made her movements abrupt as she mashed a pot of tea and brought out a fruit cake she’d made the day before. How could she be content, loving him as she did? One day he would take up with a lass, there had been more than one who had thrown herself at him since she had known him but none had lasted long. But there would be a lass he wouldn’t grow tired of, a girl who would capture his heart. But she’d face that when the time came.
If only she had something about her. She sliced the fruit cake and put two thick shives on a plate and pushed it towards Caleb. Nell would always be plump but as her sister had matured, the wealth of her bust and the generous curve of her hips had drawn some lads’ eyes to her, and Nell had an easy manner, she was witty, warm. Mary was already a beauty.Tall and slim, with a mass of golden hair, she’d have the lads falling over themselves to walk out with her. But she herself had neither Nell’s womanliness nor Mary’s beauty. She wasn’t ugly: perhaps it would have been better if she had been because her plainness made her unnoticable. At least ugly people got a reaction of sorts. And she had long since ceased hoping her small breasts would bud into something fuller. Tall and thin, she had no shape at all.
‘This is grand.’ Caleb had already finished one slice of cake and now reached for his mug of tea. ‘You’re a canny cook, Eve Baxter. Everything you make melts in the mouth.’
‘And you’ve a silver tongue, Caleb Travis.’
‘Not so. Even my mother has been forced to concede your fruit cake is second to none.’
‘Not in my hearing.’ Since the time she had stood up to Mildred a state of war had existed between them and would until the day one of them died. Only the fact that the trouble with Caleb’s mother’s back had proved to be a permanent thing which confined her to bed most of the time had enabled Eve to stay at the inn. She had little to do with the older woman, rarely venturing into Mildred’s room. She cooked her meals but it was Caleb or Mary who served them. Eve knew that had she been forced into greater contact with Mildred she would not have been able to stand it. Mildred was a spiteful woman, cold and calculating, and she knew from various comments Mary had let drop during the last three years that Caleb’s mother had done her best to turn Mary against her.
Mary herself was well aware of Mildred’s strategies and found them amusing, taking everything she said with a pinch of salt whilst being careful to keep the older woman happy. Mary benefited from this in various ways. Mildred had given her the odd trinket or two, along with a fine brooch which had been Caleb’s grandmother’s. Barely a month passed without Mary receiving a monetary gift from her benefactor for some little thing she had her eye on. Things she made sure Mildred heard about.
‘What would we do without you, Eve.’ Caleb took another big bite of cake.‘You walked into this kitchen and took over as though you’d been born here. I think that’s what really riles my mother. She’d have felt better about it if you’d struggled.’
‘I did at first.’ And at his raised eyebrows, ‘No, I really did, Caleb, but I suppose I’d been running things at home for so long and then with working at the vicarage I’d got used to cooking for a lot of folk when they had t
heir dinner parties. I was off school more than I was at it when I was a bairn.’
‘But you can read and write well.’
Eve shrugged. ‘I suppose so.’ She did not add that the older she had become, the more she understood the thirst for knowledge which William had displayed and lamented her lack of schooling. In spite of being a kind man, Caleb was solid working class. She had heard him speak scathingly of the suffragette movement, especially in the wake of the trouble last year when women had smashed windows in government buildings and business premises. And when more violence had erupted a few weeks ago in June he had expressed the view that a woman’s place was in the home and not meddling with matters they did not, could not understand.
It had been one of the few occasions in the last three years when he had made her truly angry. The outcome of the somewhat loud and terse discussion which had followed had been an agreement between the two of them to disagree. She knew that if she said now that reading and writing well was not enough for her, that she wanted to learn so much more about so many things it made her head whirl when she thought about it, he would not understand. It was fine for a woman like Marie Curie to win her second Nobel Prize for her work on radium in Caleb’s eyes. She was one of the gentry and furthermore a foreigner. But an English working-class woman? That was different altogether. It was even more galling to admit that had he for even the slightest moment been attracted to her, she would gladly have put aside any longing for self-betterment like a shot.
‘What’s the matter?’ As she lifted her eyes from her cup of tea, she saw that his deep brown gaze was fixed on her face. ‘My mother hasn’t upset you, has she?’
‘Not at all,’ she answered truthfully.
‘What is it then? Something’s put that look on your face.’
‘I can’t help my face, Caleb.’ Her earlier ruminations gave the words an edge and quickly she added, ‘I suppose I worry about Mary when she’s out, that’s all. She’s too impetuous and she’s not a little bairn any longer.’
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