Dreams Can Come True

by Vivienne Dockerty

“I’m sorry, Hannah. I had to shift some barrels into the cellar and I just forgot the time. Can I walk with you up the road a little way? Please, Hannah, I’ve not seen yer to speak to fer a few days.”

  “You cannot. Surely you heard the train as it was pulling up at the station. It makes enough noise to wake the dead. If you can’t meet me on the station as we agreed you would do, then what is the use of us having snatched moments? Just make sure you are here at five o’ clock tomorrow, then you can meet me in the waiting room as planned.”

  With that, Hannah walked up the high street and onto Burton Road, leaving the poor man wishing he hadn’t promised to give his father a hand. Eddie loved every inch of Hannah Victoria Haines and guessed he had done since he was a small child. Mikey, Hannah and Eddie had been in the Selwyn Lodge nursery together – that is until his mother, Madeline had been given the sack for speaking out of turn. Eddie had been only three at the time, but for months he had felt that something was missing and life didn’t get any better when his mother gave birth to another child. He was apt to wander off when she gave birth to each successive one. At seven he could be seen hanging around the promenade, or playing in the sea, or helping the fishermen load their carts from the Middle Slip or pestering the donkey man to let him have a ride. His mother didn’t even notice some days that her son had gone, so busy was she with the others.

  Eddie found that if he slipped out of the side door of the Brown Horse tavern where he lived, by the time the postman had made his deliveries, he could see Mikey Haines and Hannah being taken to their school on the promenade; sometimes by their mother, sometimes by the maid. He would watch, feeling jealous that he wasn’t allowed to go with them. But when he had asked his mother why he couldn’t go to the Halkyn School, she had said the place was for rich children and he wasn’t one!

  If he wanted to go to a school, she’d let him go to the Catholic one on Burton Road, but he’d have to get himself ready in the mornings, as she had no time now she was expecting another child.

  Eddie hated all these babies that kept appearing in his world. He wished he belonged to the Haines family. They only had one boy and one girl.

  He started wandering further afield each morning, as soon as his vigil was over at quarter past nine. Along the coast to Gayton, making friends with the wild fowlers who rowed in their punts along the shallow gullies, whilst searching for targets with their gun. Onto Gayton Cottage where lived a pleasant man, then through the abundant bracken growing twice as high as Eddie, to watch the ponies and traps on the Heswall shore, loaded up with the fishermen’s catch.

  Then his freedom came to an end when one day his father insisted he was running wild and he had to be taught his letters. Eddie had felt he was wearing a ball and chain – though, not for long. A few months later he began to play truant and his teacher didn’t seem concerned, as Eddie was a disruptive boy and came and went as he pleased. Eventually though even she lost patience and Eddie was expelled. Ted took him on as his pot boy and he didn’t go to school again.

  Throughout it all the lovelorn lad still watched out for Hannah, who hardly ever glanced his way. He grew tall and strong with the heavy lifting and became more and more handsome each day.

  Hannah walked along the road, thinking about the feelings she had for Eddie. It seemed as though he had always been there in her life. On the perimeter of course, as they both came from two very different worlds. Hers had been one of feather bedding; her parents had given her every advantage in her life. There had been piano lessons at the Halkyn School, singing lessons with Madame Dupre and her very own horse called Simba, when Jack had built stabling at the bottom of the lawn. Her friends had been from the gentry. Two girls named Cecelia and Florence Adshead had been encouraged to call. They were classmates for most of her time at the private school and Hannah had visited their home on the Chester Road, a turreted dwelling called Causey Hall. She went with them to the dances, the ones that were held monthly at the Assembly Rooms, always chaperoned by an elderly matron, who looked over the young ladies’ fellow dancer’s first.

  One evening at the Assembly Rooms, when Hannah had recently turned seventeen, a young man presented himself and asked could he claim one of the waltzes on her dancing card? Hannah had been puzzled; the young man looked familiar, but she couldn’t quite put a name to him. He was dressed very splendidly in a blue tailcoat, his fitted waistcoat was of a silver figured hue and his trousers were narrow and black. Upon his feet were patent leather shoes and his dark brown hair was pomaded into a front quiff. As he bowed low over Hannah’s hand, she noticed he was wearing short white gloves. She paused and looked in the direction of the chaperone, who nodded her permission back to her. Hannah remembered that her card at the time was staring blankly up at her, because she had foolishly come without a pen. So she had agreed to dance with him quite eagerly, rather than suffering the other girls’ pity for being a wallflower.

  The young man had taken her in his arms and had whisked her away competently. From the start, she was enchanted by his footwork and the intricate movements that he introduced as they glided around the floor. Little did she know that it was the work of Eddie’s mother, who had always been willing to practice dance steps at home with him.

  Hannah had come to rest later, breathless, and glad that the young man had brought her back in one piece. Some of her peers could be heavy-footed and were a danger to a young girl’s tender toes. The young man had asked if he could get her some refreshment. Again the chaperone nodded and the pair had walked to a table situated at the back of the hall. While they had sipped a refreshing glass of lemonade each, he had introduced himself as Edward Cornelius Dockerty.

  “At your service, Hannah Victoria Haines,” he had said in a mocking tone.

  “Eddie? Oh, you were the little boy who shared our nursery! Well, you have changed, I didn’t recognise you.”

  “And so have you changed, Hannah and may I say, delightfully so. I wonder, could I intrude upon your generosity and invite you for a stroll along the promenade one afternoon? We could catch up on where the years have taken us and perhaps get to know each other again.”

  “I think I should like that,” Hannah had replied, overjoyed that she was planning a tryst with such an attractive young man. This would be the first time that she had ever been alone with a male, other than her father and brother and she felt she was in for an exciting time!

  Had she known what an uproar that meeting would bring, she would not have readily agreed to it. They were seen walking together by Hannah’s grandmama, but that was only the start of things! What had annoyed Hannah more was her parents’ attitude, after they had asked who the boy’s family was, then their fury when they found who they were!

  “What was the son of a pub’ landlord doing at the Assembly Rooms? We thought it was only the better class of people who went there.” This had been from Maggie, who desperately wanted Hannah to meet the right type of man acceptable to the circles that she was now engaged in. She was on the Board of Governors at the hospital, the school and the workhouse, helping to raise funds for charities. She had been under the impression that only the sons of suitable people would be allowed to dance at the Assembly Rooms.

  “Yer mother has spent a lot of money on yer education,” Jack had put in. “Yer a cut above these lads from the village. Why do yer think we’ve never allowed yer to play with the children from down there?”

  “I thought it was because you didn’t want me to catch anything from the locals. That was what Mother said when there was the cholera epidemic.”

  “Go to your room, Hannah. Young ladies do not answer back to their elders. In future yer ter be banned from attending any social occasions that involve the company of young men, unless yer mother and I have approved of it first. Understand? Yer can come down later, when yer feel yer can apologize.”

  “ I can apologize now, Father. I am truly sorry if I have offended you or Mother.”

  Hannah had gone over to Jack and given him a big hu
g. Then she had smiled at her mother, blowing them both a kiss, and fled from the drawing room while she could.

  But it hadn’t ended there, thought Hannah, as she knocked on the door of Selwyn Lodge for Olive, the new maid, to come and let her in. She might be an obedient young daughter and not walk along the promenade with an unsuitable partner, but that hadn’t stopped her from seeing Eddie. Where else would she find a young man who adored every bone in her body? She wasn’t ready for marriage yet, so she would have some excitement while she could!

  Next day, Eddie was there on the dot of five as the train steamed into the station. He had waited until the outgoing passengers had come from the waiting room, then had dashed inside. Eddie was no longer dressed fashionably in the clothes that his Uncle Johnny had left in the wardrobe, while he was away at sea, but in a dark grey cut-away jacket over a white collarless shirt, black fustian trousers and a small bowler hat. But he was nonetheless dashing in Hannah’s eyes, as he peeped around the corner of the door while she alighted from the train. With her eyes sparkling at their daringness, she took one minute to be at his side.

  “Shut the door properly, stupid,” she giggled at him. Then Eddie took her in his arms. Stolen kisses seemed to be the best ones, because they both felt a thrill course through them as they abandoned all senses to each other’s charms.

  “Oh, that was wonderful.” Hannah purred and stretched upwards as if she had just woken up from a dream. Eddie could see the outline of her bosom as she had abandoned her cloak on a nearby bench. His knees went all wobbly and he took her in his arms again.

  “No, I’ll have to be going,” she squeaked, as his lips sought her luscious lips again.

  “I’ve been thinking. Could we have some time together in Chester? Could you manage to meet me next Wednesday afternoon? I’ve only got a tennis lesson then. I could say I have the cramps and have to go home to lie down in my bedroom. Could you do that, get away to Chester I mean, not come and lie down in my bedroom?”

  “If only,” Eddie replied. “ Yes, I’ll make some excuse up for me dad. I’ll meet yer outside the cathedral at half past one. I can catch the one o’ clock train.”

  So, with another hurried kiss, the couple then parted for home, to dream of what delights the following Wednesday would bring.

  Eddie stepped down from the train at the General Railway station, wondering which way the cathedral lay. He had never been on the train to Chester before, only once ever to the city and that was when he had travelled on the stagecoach, at age seven with his dad.

  Ted had given him a day out then, thinking that it would help the boy to settle down. Perhaps bond a bit with his eldest lad, now that Madeline had all the children to rear.

  Eddie was directed to the cathedral by a porter and soon found himself outside the imposing place opposite St Werburgh Street. It was a fine sunny day for the time of the year; what you could call an Indian summer. Hannah arrived a few minutes after, explaining breathlessly that their lunch at the college had been served quite late.

  “Where would you like to go, Eddie? Around the cathedral, or a tour of the walls? Or would you like to go to the new department store? It’s just opened on Eastgate Street. All the gentry seem to be patronising it. You should see the carriages all in a line in front of the doors! Or we could have a look around the market hall. There’s a cheese fair on at the moment, if you want to sample lots of different sorts of cheese. And the buildings here are quite the finest, all black and white timber and there are lots of shops on what are called The Rows. Oh, there’s so much to do and so much to see in Chester, Eddie. Tell me what you would like to do.”

  “Whitherest you go, then I will follow,” quoted Eddie, the only line he could remember from the hour he had once spent in Sunday School. He had been cajoled into going, because his mother had said you got to go on trips or attend the Field Days that they had every year. But Eddie couldn’t bear to be closeted, having to learn words so you could join in the singing, but strangely enough that line from the Bible had stayed in his mind.

  “Then we’ll walk along Eastgate Street and have a look in all the shop windows, the cathedral can wait for another day. It’s too nice an afternoon to spend it in there. Then we’ll go to the gardens by the amphitheatre. It’s lovely there on a sunny day and perhaps later we’ll walk by the River Dee. Are you sure you don’t want to go to the market hall, we could go in there for a cup of tea?”

  Eddie shook his head and held out his arm for Hannah to link it. He’d had to borrow the train fare from his father, who had grumbled at him when Eddie had told him that he was meeting a girl. He had warned him to keep his baby maker in his trousers, that they had enough of them already at the tavern and he wasn’t ready to become a granddad for a while.

  In fact Eddie was feeling rather hungry, but was glad that Hannah had said she’d had a meal at her school. He hoped his stomach wouldn’t start rumbling. He should have thought to have more breakfast, knowing he didn’t have money to buy a sausage or pie. He was a fool. But not such a fool when he thought about it. He was living a dream that he had thought about for many, many years. Just to be in Hannah’s company was all Eddie had ever wished for and now he could feel her closeness on his arm. Just how lucky could he be?

  Hannah was dressed plainly in what she would call her day dress. The crinoline was becoming the fashion of yester year. The hoop had gone, but a skirt could still be worn with several underskirts. She had on a plain grey skirt, high necked blouse and a bolero with long narrow sleeves. On her head was an oval shaped boater, trimmed with tiny pink flowers. She smelled of rose water and Eddie thought that he was in heaven, given that she had even considered meeting him!

  “Did yer have any problems getting out of yer tennis practice?” he asked politely, as they wandered down the street.

  “No, there’s at least one young lady every week who goes down with the cramps, so they’re used to us coming up with that one. Oh, look, Eddie. There’s the Town Crier. Doesn’t he look fine in his wig and tricorn hat? It must be nearly two o’ clock already, it appears he’s going to ring his bell!”

  “Perhaps we should go straight to the gardens then, Hannah, or we won’t have much time together if we go into the department store.”

  “You’re right, I can go into Browns at any time. Let’s find a place to sit and enjoy the sun and there’s always a few pretty flowers lingering at this time of the year.”

  They sat on a park bench together while Hannah regaled Eddie with stories of various members of her group at school. Especially of her teacher, Miss Edmondson, who had a hairy chin and buck teeth and spat out saliva when she was talking to them!

  Hannah was an animated speaker and kept Eddie amused with all she had to tell him. If he hadn’t been in love with her before today, he was now; he was very, very sure.

  It was warm sitting in the sunshine and Eddie wished he could take his jacket off. He was wearing his uncle’s suit again with a different shirt more suitable for daytime wear. Eventually Hannah suggested that they walk on the banks of the river.

  It was cooler as they strolled along “The Groves”, watching people enjoying themselves in the pleasure boats, or feeding the many swans that swam along the river. Hannah kept glancing towards the refreshment stand, watching people purchase the dessert named ice cream. Eddie had one penny in his pocket and was worried sick that if she asked for one, it might cost more.

  “Would you like to try one of those ice creams, Eddie?” Hannah suddenly asked him. His heart sank into his shoes. It was going to sound as if he was a miser, when he said he’d not enough money for one.

  “My treat. I bought one a few weeks ago just to try, and it’s really delicious. Made from ice, milk and cream and some ingredient I know not what. I have a little money left over from my allowance, so I’ll get us two, shall I?”

  Oh, to get an allowance, Eddie thought. He was lucky to be getting his bed and board from his father, though he felt he did his share at the Brown Horse. Occas
ionally, if Ted was feeling generous, Eddie was given a little money to jingle in his pocket. It spurred his intention to find some paid employment – though doing what he didn’t know.

  “Shall we walk back after we’ve eaten these?” asked Hannah, as she came back bearing the creamy-looking mixture in two little pots. “I’ve had to pay a deposit on these bowls, so we’ll sit over on that bench and eat them there. See, isn’t that the best taste ever?”

  She looked at Eddie to see if he was enjoying his. Eddie agreed that he was. He could have stayed forever, watching her delicately spooning the ice cream onto her pink dainty tongue, longing to kiss those delectable lips of hers, to lick her cheek and the bottom of her chin, where like a child she had let the ice cream dribble. In fact if they had not been in public, he would have crushed her to him. The thought of which started a stirring in his loins. He had to see her, somewhere they could be alone together, but after her grandma had seen them on the promenade, he knew it was difficult for her to get away.

  They didn’t sit together on the train journey back to Neston. She had a first class ticket in the carriage with the plush seats. Eddie sat on a bench in the third class coach, crowded with shoppers as it had been market day. They both dashed into the waiting room as they got down from the train, there to do a spot of canoodling before they went their separate ways.

  “Do you think yer could get away for a few hours next Sunday afternoon, Hannah?” Eddie managed to gasp, as they both came up for air. “Say yer going for a walk with the dogs down to the shore.”

  “I’ll try, but someone might want to come with me and it could only be a short walk because it goes dark at half past four. Why, where do you want us to meet if I can manage it?”

  “I know of this derelict cottage on Brigg’s land. I used to take shelter there sometimes, if I was out walking and it came on to rain. If yer go down the lane at the side of Selwyn Lodge, you come to a gap in the hedge. Over that field takes yer to the lane where the farmhouse is. Past the gate and onto another field, where there’s a stream. You can hear it babble as yer walking. Then cross the footbridge which takes you through another field, then you’ll see a cottage on the lane. It’s called Lilac Cottage. You’ll know it by the bushes in the garden, though they’ve got very overgrown.”