The Silent Lady

by Catherine Cookson

  ‘“A rich man?” I repeated.

  ‘“Yes,” he said; “a very rich man. Your employer, I’m afraid, led two different lives.”

  ‘I remember’ – she laughed here – ‘saying naïvely, “Well, what did he do in the other one?” and the solicitor man, he laughed too and said, “I don’t suppose you know anything about what is called the Stock Exchange? Well, he worked on that, but not alone. He had a friend, a rather superior friend, and they must have worked together looking to the future, for when businesses were failing and dropping to pieces they bought shares in them and in many cases profited greatly by it. Some are still hanging fire, but will one day surely rise. But it’s a pity for him he won’t be here to see the result of his labours in that direction. And I must tell you too, my dear, he made no real profit out of the fruit business; he paid the man who looked after it quite a decent wage. I feel the fruit business was a cover-up for his other life, because he detested this house and also this district. I think he moved in a different circle once he was away from it. Twice I saw him with a particular man. I was very surprised, but I didn’t show myself. It was his business, but he was my client, and I charged him quite high fees for my services, for I don’t like mean individuals, and I found him out to be mean in more ways than one. It is more than mean of a man, I think it is cruel, to watch a business die before his eyes, knowing that with just a very small effort he could save it. No, I am not going to be a hypocrite and say I am sorry to see Mr McIntyre leave this world. I don’t know about you, Miss Morgan. I think, in fact I am sure, you have more than enough to feel aggrieved about.”

  ‘You know what I said, Reenee? I even made him laugh when I said, “Me? I hope he’s in heaven at this minute, Mr Travis, because he’s left me this house. It mightn’t mean much to you, but it’s been home to me. You see, Mr Travis, I’ve had a bad four days thinking I’d be thrown out on the road again, because that’s where he picked me up from, you know. He found me sleepin’ among the filthy fruit boxes in the yard. So, yes, I do hope he’s in heaven.”

  ‘The solicitor patted me on the shoulder, “You are a very kind little woman, Miss Morgan,” he said; “I’m sure you’ll make a success of the fruit business, because you’ll look after it yourself and not have to pay anyone else. If at any time I can be of use to you, you’ve just to call on me and I can promise you,” he wagged his finger at me, “I won’t treat you as a client and put you on my charge book.”

  ‘Oh, he was a nice man, Reenee, and still is, for since then he’s called in once or twice to see how I’m gettin’ on. But to get back to the night Ham died. I’d been about to take that note to Mr Weir. He seemed to be the boss of the warehouse. Well, with all the fuss I never got the letter to him and I must confess I opened it. All it said was: “Come tonight.” So one day when he called I asked Mr Travis, “Have you met Mr Weir?”

  ‘“No, I’ve not, Miss Morgan.”

  ‘“You don’t know the man who owns the big wholesale warehouses?” I asked him.

  ‘“Yes, I know the man who owns the big warehouses, but it isn’t Mr Weir,” Mr Travis said.

  ‘“Oh, I thought it was. Anything I’ve wanted for the house or anything like that has come through Mr Weir. Mr McIntyre used to say, “Just tell Mr Weir what you want and you’ll get it if it’s for the house.”

  ‘“It was Mr Weir who was the visitor who came to see him?” asked Mr Travis.

  ‘“I don’t know, sir,” I said. “I only know that I wasn’t allowed to see him. Mr McIntyre made me stay in my room.”

  ‘“He did? While a gentleman was here?”

  ‘“Yes. Oh, yes. The gentleman seemed to have his own key, and I didn’t come out of the room until I heard him leave.”

  ‘“Well, well. You learn something every day, Miss Morgan,” he said. “Remember that.’”

  Bella now looked down on the white face turned towards her on the pillow, and she realised that her listener had fallen asleep. Eeh, she said to herself, I’ve talked her to sleep. She had heard of people being talked to death but never talked to sleep.

  Gently now she lifted the blanket and placed it over Reenee’s shoulders. Then she pulled her own cramped body upwards. She went to the fire and pushed the little brass tidy close to the bars to make sure that if anything fell out it wouldn’t roll on to the hearth. The fire had burnt down somewhat and there was no fear of any of the coal pieces toppling forward. Well, she told herself, she’d leave it like that for a time; then later she’d bring Reenee a night drink, although she wouldn’t disturb her if she was still asleep.

  After she made her quiet way back up the stone stairs to the kitchen, she was surprised to see Joe and Pimple sitting there.

  ‘Why haven’t you gone?’ she demanded.

  ‘Oh, well—’ They rose together to their feet, and it was Pimple who said, ‘There’s always another night, Bella; we thought the state she was in and you here on your own . . . well, it was better if we hung around.’

  ‘What d’you think happened to her?’ asked Joe. ‘It wasn’t an ordinary fit, like, was it?’

  ‘No, it wasn’t an ordinary fit,’ agreed Bella; ‘but I don’t know what happened to cause it, unless, as you said, it was me repeatin’ Hamish’s words when he went at me that night: “Don’t speak,” he almost ordered me. Well, that’s what I think it must have been. Those words hit her then as they must have done before when somebody yelled at her, “Don’t speak!” Dear God.’ She shook her head. ‘But to knock her out of her wits like that, it must have been something terrible that happened. Anyway’ – her voice changed – ‘I tell you what. If you’re not goin’ to spend your money on the idle life you can go and spend a bit of mine. What about goin’ to the bakery for pies and peas and a roll, and bringin’ them back here, and we’ll have them round the fire? What about it?’

  Like children who had been given a treat, their faces lit up, and straight away Pimple said, ‘Oh, yes, Bella, we’d like that fine. I’ll get the basins, will I?’

  ‘Do that; and here’s the money,’ she said, picking up a tin box from the mantelpiece. She took two shillings out of it, saying, ‘That should cover a good supper,’ as she smacked it on the table.

  ‘By aye!’ said Joe, as he picked it up, then added, ‘What if I scarper with it?’

  ‘You try it, and I’ll put the polis on you, that’s all.’

  The two men went out laughing, and Bella flopped into the easy chair by the fire and laid her head back. Then folding her hands in her lap and speaking to someone she knew not, she said, ‘Thank you. I’ve got a lot to be thankful for this night.’

  4

  It was towards the end of October. Autumn was here: there had been the first heavy frost in the night and now the day was bright and crisp.

  Over the past months the routine of the house had continued to run along with little change, but on that day three small incidents were to occur that would change the routine and the occupants’ way of living. The first happened around dinner-time.

  Reenee was cleaning the small window at the end of the hall through which the street could be seen. She was looking at four men, a street band, who were standing in the gutter. They had been playing a Strauss waltz, one man strumming a banjo, one beating a small drum, another blowing a flute, and the fourth playing the fiddle. The sound coming from the last suggested that the strings were slack. But they had stopped playing now, and one of them, the man with the drum, was talking to Joe, and they were smiling at each other. Bella had come in from the kitchen to tell Reenee to come and have her dinner break, and she had gone to her side and had looked out: ‘Poor souls,’ she said. ‘God help them! They’re walkin’ on their uppers. That one’s got paper stickin’ out of his shoe. What’s Joe on about? He seems to know the fellow.’ And she went out, saying, ‘I’ll soon find out.’

  Outside, Joe turned to her from the man. ‘He’s from my part of the country, Bella. Just up the coast, Whitley Bay way.’ Then, addressing the four-man band, he
said, ‘This is my boss, Miss Morgan.’

  The men all nodded, saying, ‘Pleased to meet you.’ Bella said nothing, she just stared at their starved faces. She had seen so many, more and more every day up this street. But this lot seemed to be welded together in their poverty.

  Joe said to her, ‘Would . . . would you mind, Bella, if I took them down to our place?’ He pointed to the gate. ‘We’ve still got the soup you gave us and some pies an’ that and—’

  ‘Stop your jabberin’. What use is your drop of soup and a couple of pies going to be to four of them? Take them down there, then send Pimple back and I’ll see to him.’

  ‘Ta, Bella. Ta.’ And as he turned to the other man Joe said, ‘Would you like to come down and see where we hang out?’

  ‘Me and me mates?’

  Their faces alight, they followed Joe through the iron gates and down to the wash-house, which was no longer just a wash-house: an iron flap had been welded on to the front of the fire, and on it a tin kettle was bubbling away. And near the wall a bench had been constructed. On it stood a little oil stove, a frying pan, and above that a rack holding two tin plates, two mugs and some cutlery. The beds had been rolled up to form seats, a mat was on the floor and a curtain at the window, a real curtain that could be pulled across at night. Reenee had made it for them.

  Back in the house, Bella went hurriedly to the kitchen and said to Reenee, ‘God help them. That’s the worst lot of semistarvation I’ve seen. And one of them comes from Joe’s part, that’s at the other end of the country, what Joe calls the North-East. There must be many worse than these men. There’ll be trouble in the towns, you’ll see; things are desperate. But what am I talkin’ about? Get a tray out, Reenee, and some basins and cut up a new loaf.’

  Like a well-trained servant, Reenee did as she was bidden, and eagerly. After cutting the slices of bread she pointed to a dish of margarine on the table and looked at Bella, who nodded, and she spread the bread, then stuck the slices together until there were four large sandwiches. Then she took from her own plate two shortbread biscuits and placed them on top of the bread, and Bella, seeing what she had done, said, ‘Well, two won’t go very far among four;’ so she picked the two off her own plate and put these with the bread. ‘Bring me that bowl and I’ll fill it with soup. Can you manage this tray?’ she said, turning to where Pimple had come in, and he answered her, ‘Oh, yes, Bella. I’ll manage any tray with food on it.’

  ‘They’re a poor lot, aren’t they?’ Bella said.

  ‘I’d say they are, Bella. There’s dozens, even hundreds, like them on the road. But this lot, apparently, have clung together all the way from the North. Between them they haven’t a sound boot to their feet or a spare shirt to their back. They’ve been travelling round since eight o’clock this morning and haven’t taken a penny.’

  ‘Here.’ Bella went to the tin box again and, taking out a shilling, she said to Pimple, ‘Give them that. It won’t help much but likely it’ll go towards gettin’ them a kip tonight.’

  After Bella had let Pimple out of the door with the laden tray, she returned to the kitchen. Reenee was shaking her head, and as if she had spoken, Bella said, ‘Yes, it is a terrible state to be in. It’s not right, it’s the government; but what can you do with the government? I don’t know, and people with more brains than me don’t know either. Here! Let’s make some fresh tea; that teapot is cold enough for layin’ out.’

  It was as they sat drinking their tea that there was a knock on the front door again, and Bella said, ‘That’s Joe’s knock.’ As she rose to go to the door she was thinking it a pity the lass couldn’t push herself to open it; but when she faced Joe she said, ‘What is it now? You should be back at work.’

  ‘Aye, I know, Bella, but listen: they’ll not get anywhere to kip tonight for what they’ve got today. They’re determined to keep together through thick and thin, and they’ve already been through God knows what. Well, I’ve got two sheets of tarpaulin. They were thrown away from the warehouse, and you know there’s a leak in the wash-house roof, and I thought there might come the time when I’d have to cover the roof over. So if they’ve got nowhere else to go would you let them lie inside the gates? Well, I mean against the wall of the wash-house. It would be warmish there. They could lie on one piece and cover themselves over with the other.’

  Bella hesitated, then said, ‘Well, as long as they don’t make a rule of it, all right.’

  ‘And, Bella?’

  ‘Aye, what is it now?’

  ‘You know you’ve rigged us both out with Mr Ham’s things wherever they would fit us, shirts, pants and things like that. Coats an’ all. I know the one you got me is a size too big, but I always wear an old sweater under it, to push it out like. One of those fellows is about my size – at least, he’s big-boned, which is about all that’s left of him. D’you think—’

  ‘Yes, I think,’ barked Bella; ‘and I’ll see what I can do. If they’re not here in the morning you can tell them to call back. But don’t you make a habit of this, d’you hear? You could pick up hundreds you lived next door to at your end of the country if you had a mind.’

  ‘Aye, I could, Bella. I could at that.’ He was grinning at her. ‘But thanks all the same. I’ll tell them. And they’re grateful.’

  She closed the door upon him and quickly went back to the kitchen. There she said to Reenee, ‘I’ve got to get back to the stall, but you go upstairs now, into my room, and the big chest in the corner. You’ll see it’s still got piles of his vests and pants and shirts and things in it. Spread them out on the bed. Then see what coats and trousers are left. Put them over the end of the bed so I can get at them. The small chest of drawers is mine, and what I’ve got to hang up I put in the single wardrobe next door. That’s where I used to keep me clothes before I went into the big room.’ She laughed now as she repeated, ‘The big room. His room. Eeh, I had a job to make meself get into that bed! I didn’t for two or three weeks, you know, not after he went. Then I scrubbed the whole place down and turned the tick over. But one day I promised myself I’d have a carpet in that room, not that old lino. Now I have to go out and face the blast. It’s chilly out there. I’m certainly not lookin’ forward to the winter.

  ‘Oh, don’t look like that, lass. I wasn’t meanin’ that you should help or come out. Please don’t take things to yourself. I understand your feelings. Don’t worry, lass. Don’t worry.’ And when Reenee’s hand came out and her fingers touched Bella’s sleeve it was a way of saying, ‘Thank you for understanding,’ and Bella always took it as such, and she said, ‘Of course. Of course I understand. Now let’s get on with it.’

  And they got on with it, and were waiting for the two lads to come in and take their meal down to their abode.

  When the special knock came on the door and Bella said, ‘That’s Joe,’ she was more than surprised, amazed, when Reenee sprang up and, almost at a run, went to the door, opened it and let the two men in.

  In the hall they turned and looked at her and their surprise showed. It was Joe who expressed it by saying, ‘You opened the door for us. That was good of you, Reenee. Ta . . . ta . . . thank you.’

  ‘Yes,’ put in Pimple; ‘thank you very much, Reenee.’

  ‘Will you come and get this and stop your jabberin’ out there?’ Bella’s voice came to them, and the two men went into the kitchen smiling. Neither of them remarked on what had just occurred, but Joe said, ‘I’ve got news for you, Bella.’

  ‘Aye, news? What kind of news?’

  ‘Well, you won’t have any more horses’ hoofs in your yard at night, that’s one thing I know.’

  ‘You do? Where did you hear that?’

  ‘Oh, that and a lot more. There’s been some fun, I can tell you, fun in the whole warehouse this afternoon. Talk about skittering! You know me and the likes of me are never allowed near the horse-driven vans when they’re being loaded, but this morning I knew they had been loaded because the horses had been put into trim. Then this aftern
oon Mr Dixon, the real head of this end of the show, well, he comes out quick and orders the pieces in the vans to be taken out and put here and there among bits of furniture in one of the removal vans, the big long ones you know. And then two other fellows came and led the horses out of the yard to God knows where. Then the furniture van, with all household oddments as if somebody was just moving house, was driven out of the yard. Now what d’you make of that, Bella?’

  ‘Well, I don’t know,’ said Bella; ‘you seem to know much more about it than I do. One thing I’m glad of, though, they won’t be coming here again.’

  ‘Nor any of their removal vans,’ put in Pimple, “cos they could never get round that corner and into the gate. The horses were manoeuvrable.’

  ‘Oh.’ Bella laughed and, turning to Reenee, she said, ‘We’ll be able to go to the lav now any time we like.’ And when Reenee hung her head, Bella said, ‘Oh, lass, see the funny side of it.’ On a sober note now, she went on, ‘They’ve still got a key to that gate.’

  ‘Oh, I can soon fix that,’ said Joe. ‘I didn’t work with joiners and carpenters for nothing. I can twist a lock until it wishes it was dead.’

  They were all laughing now; even the corners of Reenee’s lips were moving upwards. Although her lips remained tight it showed that she was indeed enjoying this joke.

  ‘What about your own orphans of the storm?’ Bella said to Joe. ‘Have you given them a time limit to come back?’

  ‘Aye, I have, Bella. I said if they weren’t there at nine o’clock the gate would be locked.’

  ‘Good. Anyway, if they come, I’ll give them a bite before they leave in the morning, and you can tell them we’ve got some odds and ends of clothing that might be of use. You two have had your share and even in your case, Joe, they only fitted where they touched. But poor Pimple there . . .’