The Servant Girl

by Maggie Hope

  ‘It’s hard, though, to think she has charge of the bairns,’ said Hetty. She sipped her tea and took a bite of the ginger biscuit, concentrating on it in an effort to prevent the tears. ‘I should have been back sooner.’

  ‘You wouldn’t get in next door,’ said Mrs Timms. ‘None of the neighbours have been in. I offered to help one time when Charlie had the quinsy, but she told me to mind my own business.’ Mrs Timms folded her arms and glared at the party wall between her house and the Hutchins’, as though she would burn a hole through it.

  ‘No, but I should have kept an eye on the children, Charlie at least.’

  ‘Well, there’s no doubt the poor lad bears the brunt of it. I don’t know what his father’s thinking of sometimes. She starts shouting at Charlie and lifts her hand to him, and what does that man do? He gets out of the way. He works all the hours God sends and I’m sure it’s just to keep out of the house. By, I knew when she came here, all mealy-mouthed, it would be a different story after she’d managed to wed him. Anyway, I don’t know what we can do about it. Let’s talk about you. How are you getting on? I heard you had a baby. A girl, wasn’t it?’

  ‘How did you hear – oh, never mind. Yes, a girl, Penny. Well, Penelope, but I always call her Penny.’

  Mrs Timms looked pointedly at Hetty’s third finger. ‘That chap who used to be always angling after you, was it? I remember, he was a blooming nuisance to the waggons going in and out of the pit yard.’

  ‘Penny’s father was killed before she was born.’

  ‘Eeh, I’m sorry, lass. Life’s a devil, isn’t it?’

  ‘Don’t be sorry, Mrs Timms,’ she said. ‘It was a while ago and I’m fine now. We have a nice place in Saltburn, Ruby Street. If you’re ever there you must come in and see us.’ She put down her cup and saucer and rose to her feet. ‘I think I’ll just walk down to the school, meet Charlie and Audrey as they come out.’

  ‘Yes. But be careful, lass, you don’t want to get him into more trouble.’

  ‘More trouble?’

  ‘Well, I mean she might take it out on him if she sees you with him.’

  The children were just coming out of school in rows two by two, walking to the gate. Charlie was easily picked out, he was a head taller than the others in his class. His shoulders drooped, though, and his stick-like legs dragged along in boots which looked too heavy for him.

  ‘Hetty! Have you come to see me?’ he shouted, and beamed all over his face.

  ‘Just you. You and Audrey, that is,’ she replied as the girl came running up close behind him. Now about eight years old, she looked careworn. Her checked gingham dress was spotless and there was a tear in the skirt which had been mended but it was too short for her and one leg of her knickers was hanging down to her knee. On impulse, Hetty bent down and put an arm around each of them. She kissed them. ‘By, how you’ve grown!’ he cried. ‘You’re going to be as tall as houses if you go on.’

  ‘We can’t stop,’ said Audrey worriedly. ‘Mother will be angry if we don’t go straight home.’

  ‘Surely you can spare me a minute or two? I’ve brought you presents.’

  Charlie began to jump up and down. ‘Presents? Like it’s Christmas, do you mean?’

  Hetty took three small packages from her bag. ‘One for you and one for you,’ she said. ‘But where’s Peter?’

  ‘He goes to the big school now, I can take his if you like?’ Audrey answered. But most of her attention was on her package.

  ‘You can unwrap it now, Audrey,’ said Hetty, and the girl carefully removed the red tissue paper and revealed a hair slide with glittery stars in a row and a comb to match. Her face lit up.

  ‘Eeh, thank you, Hetty,’ she breathed and the careworn expression slid from her face until she looked like any other little girl of eight.

  Charlie had a Dinky car and was already squatting on the pavement, running it up and down. ‘Brumm-brumm,’ he cried, totally absorbed.

  ‘Say thank you to Hetty, Charlie,’ said Audrey, and he mumbled his thanks. ‘We’ll have to go,’ she went on. ‘Mother will be cross, we must run.’ He got to his feet reluctantly, clutching his toy car, and she took his hand and they were away, running up the road to Overmans Terrace. Charlie looked back once and shouted something about Hetty coming back and she waved and nodded her head. She followed more slowly and when she passed Overmans Terrace saw all the doors were closed, though Mrs Timms waved to her through the window. She walked to the road end to get the bus back to Saltburn, resolved that she would come back again. She would keep in touch with the children.

  That had been the start. Five years later, as she finished off her correspondence and tidied her desk that Saturday morning before the promised outing to the fair at Redcar, she was thinking of how she had been waiting for Mr Hutchins the next time he had come into Saltburn. How she had persuaded him to bring the two younger children with him on Saturdays. She had been surprised at how easy it had been, had thought up every argument, but he had agreed to her suggestion straight away. And when the children came and she had taken them down to the shuggy boats and the roundabouts down on the sands, she found out why.

  ‘Dad said we could come no matter what Mother said,’ Charlie volunteered happily. ‘We can come every week, he said.’ He looked anxiously up at Hetty. ‘You want us to come, don’t you, Hetty?’ When she assured him she did, he went off, a carefree little boy for the day at least, a penny clutched in his hand, for a ride on the roundabout.

  Chapter 32

  That day, it was Peter who brought Audrey and Charlie to Saltburn. An almost grown-up Peter, for he had left school the year before and was working in the mine now.

  ‘Dad’s working today,’ he told Hetty. He was a tall boy, dark-haired and blue-eyed, his shoulders already beginning to broaden. He was the one of the Hutchins children she knew the least. Even when she had been living in their house he had been uncommunicative, spending most of his spare time with his friends, wrapped up in them. ‘I’m going to call in on Gran and see if she’s all right,’ he said.

  ‘We’ll wait for you, Peter, if you like?’ said Hetty. ‘Come with us, it will be fun.’

  ‘I will. I’ll not be long,’ he replied quite eagerly. He smiled and for the moment the grown-up was gone and there was a little boy again, looking forward to going to Redcar to the funfair.

  Charlie and Audrey were sitting with Penny, all in a row on the couch in the sitting room. The three of them looked glum, Penny almost in tears. She jumped to her feet as Hetty came in.

  ‘Mam! Oh, Mam, Audrey’s going away. She’s got a job in Harrogate. She’s going to be a parlour maid. And, Mam, she doesn’t want to go! She doesn’t, Mam.’ Penny looked hopefully at her mother, sure that she could do something, anything to stop it happening.

  ‘Is it true?’ Hetty asked Audrey and the fourteen-year-old girl nodded. ‘Mother says I’m old enough now to leave home and make my own living. Peter has to go too. He’s got work in Northumberland, in a coal mine. Mother says it’s only fair, she has done her duty by us and she’s not our real parent.’

  ‘Northumberland? But he has a job in Smuggler’s Cove, hasn’t he?’ Hetty didn’t trust herself to comment on Anne Hutchins’s other remarks.

  Audrey nodded. ‘Yes. But Mother says there’s not enough room for us all now we’re growing up. She says it’s time.’

  Hetty remembered the day she had left home and gone to work in Fortune Hall. But that had been so different. No matter how short of room they were, her family would never have let her go if it weren’t that they couldn’t afford to keep her. That was a time when the pits weren’t working and the village had been in a deep depression. But the iron mine at Smuggler’s Cove was working, Peter even had a job there. It was that woman of course. How could Mr Hutchins go along with it? But even as she thought it, she knew why he did. He was a weak man at bottom, dominated by his wife. And if she wanted the children out, she would work on it until she had her way.

  ‘You d
on’t want to go to Harrogate, Audrey? You know, you might be surprised, you might like it there. It’s a big place, lots of nice shops, plenty to do.’

  Audrey put an arm around her brother. ‘I don’t want to go. And if I do, what about Charlie?’

  ‘He will be all right,’ Hetty assured her, though she was far from sanguine about that. ‘I’ll keep an eye on him, and your dad will be there, won’t he?’ But not all the time he wouldn’t, and who would there be to stick up for Charlie then? she thought, but didn’t say it.

  Audrey’s expression showed what she thought of that argument, she wasn’t impressed at all. ‘He’s sitting the scholarship for the grammar school this year, though, and I don’t think she’ll let him go. I’m worried about it. You know, she told Peter it was a waste of time him even sitting when he was eleven, he was going down the pit, and that’s what happened. Peter didn’t mind so much, but Charlie minds.’

  Hetty looked at Charlie’s flushed face. His glasses were slightly twisted and gave him an air of being even younger than he was. She sighed. What could she do? Apart from being here, someone to bring their troubles to. But Penny was looking at her trustfully, she expected her mother to do something about it, thought Hetty was a miracle worker. Penny sat close to Charlie, her hands folded tightly in her lap, legs crossed and swinging in the air and gazed at her mother.

  ‘Look,’ said Hetty. ‘Let’s just go out and have a good time today. I’ll talk to your dad the next time I see him, that’s all I can say.’ For it was no good giving the little family any false hope, she thought dismally as they all trooped down the stairs and out to the car.

  They had a good time at the fair. Peter took them out on the boating lake and they went on the dodgems and the Noah’s ark, and when they had had enough of the fair they went on the sands and played cricket with Peter directing the game and Charlie showing himself to be surprisingly athletic. Afterwards, breathless and happy, they ate ice cream and paddled in the waves just like the day trippers who were picnicking all around them.

  Hetty watched Peter. He had always seemed so much older than the other two and more interested in his friends than them, but today he was being especially attentive to them, showing Charlie how to bowl a spinner and commiserating with Penny and Audrey when they missed the ball. He was just realising how much he would miss his family when he had to go, thought Hetty, and she determined she would definitely speak to Mr Hutchins when she got the chance.

  That chance came the very next day when she met him in Station Square and asked if she could have a word with him.

  ‘I’m on my way to my mother’s,’ he said, and glanced warily at her and away again. He was very distant and Hetty knew she was barging into something which, after all, was not her business but she persuaded him to go into a nearby cafe for a cup of tea with her so that they could at least discuss it.

  ‘It’s about Audrey, isn’t it? She’s told you about the job in Harrogate?’ he asked as soon as they sat down. ‘You know she’s old enough now to go to work, and what work is there in Smuggler’s Cove?’

  ‘But to have to go as far as Harrogate, Mr Hutchins, when she doesn’t want to go,’ said Hetty. ‘She could get work in Middlesbrough, or even Saltburn.’

  ‘Oh, Anne says she’ll soon get used to it and love it there. Anne herself lived in Harrogate for a while. She says Audrey will be fine.’

  ‘But the girl doesn’t want to go, and she feels responsible for Charlie, she’ll worry about him!’ As soon as she said it Hetty knew she had gone too far. Mr Hutchins was standing up, signing to the waitress for the bill. He hadn’t touched his tea. ‘Really, Hetty,’ he said, ‘I don’t want to be rude but don’t you think you should attend to your own family and leave mine alone? My wife and I are quite capable of deciding what’s best for our family and that includes Charlie. Now I have to go.’

  Hetty could do nothing but watch him walk out of the cafe. She had said the wrong thing. What she should have said was that she would give Audrey a job. Why hadn’t she thought of it before? She got hurriedly to her feet and ran after him.

  ‘Mr Hutchins? Mr Hutchins, I’m sorry, I don’t mean to interfere, but naturally I’m concerned—’ She had caught up with him and put a hand impulsively on his arm. He stopped and turned a stern face to her.

  ‘Miss Pearson—’ he began, but she butted in impusively.

  ‘No, I’m sorry. What I meant to say was that I am prepared to take Audrey on as a trainee in one of my hotels.’ She paused for breath.

  ‘I think she’ll be better off further away,’ Mr Hutchins said, and Hetty caught what he really meant immediately.

  ‘Of course, she won’t be able to live at home. There will be accommodation provided for her.’ She watched his expression, feeling some hope. He was undecided, she could tell.

  ‘I’ll have to talk it over with my wife,’ he said at last. ‘I’m not promising anything. Anne really does think Audrey would be better off away on her own, where she can live her own life, not be thinking of others all the time.’

  ‘But you will think of it? Audrey could have a good career with us, a real career, not just in service,’ said Hetty, though she was thinking how clever it was of Mrs Hutchins to put forward that argument. The woman would do anything to be rid of the children, she thought, anything. Hetty was seething with indignation though she hid it from Mr Hutchins.

  ‘Look, I know you still feel for my children,’ he said. ‘You have been good to them these last few years. But I must consider my wife in this. I’ll let you know what we decide.’

  With this, Hetty had to be content. He turned away and headed along Dundas Street towards his mother’s house. Hetty watched him until he was out of sight. She wouldn’t give up, she vowed. And Charlie? She would do her best to see that if he gained a scholarship to the grammar school, he would take up the place. Charlie wasn’t for the pits, no he was not. He was a bright boy and probably had it in him to do well, go to university even. She felt a small pang of regret for Peter. She couldn’t think what she could do for him. For now he might have to go to Northumberland. Somehow she didn’t think Mrs Hutchins would give way on all three children. But, Hetty told herself as she turned the corner into Ruby Street, she wouldn’t lose touch with the boy.

  The following week, Hetty was waiting eagerly for Charlie’s and Audrey’s visit, not that they were going anywhere, but she expected Mr Hutchins to be bringing his decision. She hadn’t had much chance to think about it during the week, she had been busy with the builders who were altering the hotel in Whitby, telling the decorators how she wanted it done, a thousand and one things which were needed to prepare the place.

  There would be a restaurant too, she hoped, one to rival the restaurant in Pearson’s Ruby, and Steve was to be in charge of it. Mr Jordan had been training him for two years, he was ready. Yet what she liked about Steve was that he was always keen to turn his hand to anything. He didn’t ask any of the juniors to do anything he wasn’t prepared to do himself. It was a good trait.

  But it was Saturday afternoon and Hetty had trained herself to put aside the cares of the business and devote the weekends to relaxing with Penny. Not that she felt very relaxed at the moment, waiting for Mr Hutchins. Penny too was waiting. She stood in her place by the window and watched the street, the people streaming down from the coach park where the day trippers came in to the cliffs at the bottom of the jewel streets and the paths down to the lower promenade and beach. And there, in amongst them, were Audrey and Charlie.

  ‘They’re here! They’re here!’ she cried, and ran down the stairs to meet them, followed by her mother. Audrey had a letter in her hand which she handed to Hetty.

  ‘Me dad’s gone to Gran’s. He said to give you this.’

  It was permission for Audrey to come to work for her. A wave of thankfulness ran through Hetty. ‘Dad had a row with Mother,’ Audrey confided. ‘I didn’t know you had asked him to let me come here. Eeh, Hetty, I’m so grateful, I really am! Mother went m
ad, you know, but Dad didn’t back down this time. He said there was no reason in the world why I shouldn’t and she’d best keep quiet about it. And Mother went all red and shaking but she stopped arguing. So I’m to ask you when I can start?’

  ‘How about Monday?’ asked Hetty. ‘The sooner the better.’

  So it was arranged. Audrey was to come on Monday with her luggage and she had a room in Pearson’s Marine Hotel, right up at the top. Not much different from the one Hetty herself had had in Fortune Hall but Audrey seemed delighted with it. The only drawback was that Charlie was left alone at home for Peter had already gone to Northumberland’s Wylam Colliery.

  ‘He has nice lodgings,’ Audrey reported, ‘we had a letter from him. I don’t think he hates it as much as he thought he would.’

  Charlie said nothing, he was very quiet. Penny sensed how unhappy he was and stuck close by him in sympathy. To celebrate, Hetty took them all to the matinee at the pictures where Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was playing, and afterwards they ate a huge tea in the restaurant. All except Charlie, that is, who picked at his food. Hetty watched him anxiously but knew there was nothing she could do. And after all, he would be out at school for most of the day, and Audrey would go home to see him on her day off, and there was his father. But perhaps a film about a wicked stepmother had not been a good choice. It was Penny who made the connection and put it into words.

  ‘Are all stepmothers wicked like Snow White’s?’ she whispered to Hetty.

  ‘No, of course not, it was just a story,’ Hetty replied, but Penny wasn’t convinced.

  ‘I don’t ever want a stepmother,’ she said, and gave her mother a swift kiss on the cheek, Shortly after, Mr Hutchins came to the door for Audrey and Charlie and another Saturday afternoon visit was over. Next time there would only be Charlie coming from Smuggler’s Cove.

  When Penny was asleep, Hetty switched on the wireless and prepared to have a relaxing evening by herself for tomorrow she was again driving up to Morton Main to be with her family. This last week or two the atmosphere between them had lightened. They spoke more naturally together and Penny loved to go, loved to see the pigeons and would sit quietly with her grandda watching for them returning from a race, often her sharp eyes being the first to spot the leader circling round before coming down to the cree.