William sighed, drained the pot of cold tea and thought, and here we are, Butler and Cook, married over twenty years. No children and nothing to look forward to but old age.
He had to admit that Rose was a good woman, always ready and willing to please him. He knew that it couldn't have been easy for her but she had never complained.
There was a knock, and his wife put her head around the door, ‘William? It’s the upstairs doorbell dear’.
‘Thank you Missus Blunt’.
He stood up and walked briskly upstairs to answer the door. On his way he thought of Sarah, all thoughts of Ellie were gone from his mind.
Chapter Six
Ellie turned the corner of Canal Street, her clogs clanging on the flagged path. There was no one to be seen, so early on this Sunday morning, but she knew her mother would be up and about, waiting to see her on her first day off.
Even after so short an absence, everything looked different.
How strange, she thought as she noticed, for the first time, the drabness of the back-to-back houses and the grubby curtains at the windows. That is, the windows with any curtains at all. Not everyone in the street bothered with such things, ‘only makes more washing’, they would say.
She heard a sound and looked across the cobbled street to see Ma Bagnall, her shawl wrapped around her shoulders, displaying a big grin on round face.
Ellie called to her. ‘Hello Missus Bagnall. Hope my noisy clogs didn’t wake you?’
‘Nay lass, I’ll be off to mass in half an hour so I was up anyway. Just popped out to say ‘hello’. Eh!! Ellie, it’s grand to see you. You look a treat, you do that’.
‘Thank you Missus Bagnall. It’s nice to be back’. Ellie stood for a moment, not knowing what else to say to the old lady.
‘Go on then lass, your mam will be ‘on pins’ waiting to see you’.
‘Yes I expect so. Good bye’.
As she walked towards number fourteen, Ma Bagnall watched her walk away. Eh!, with her back so straight and head held high she looks like she don’t belong here, she thought, that one always thought she was a 'cut above the rest'. Being in service will be a bit of a 'come down'. Still, a nice enough girl, for all that’. She shivered in the cold morning air, hurried inside and closed the door.
Before Ellie reached the house, her mother was outside to greet her. She held her daughter’s face between both hands.
‘Oh Ellie, it’s good to see you. Come in. You look so grown up. Eh! Lass you look lovely. Tell me all about it. You hair’s so shiny...’
‘Oh Mam, do let me in. You’re all out of breath’.
Maggie hugged Ellie to her chest then, eventually, let her pass into the house.
‘What did Ma Bagnall have to say then? She’s an old busybody’.
‘She just said hello and asked how I was’.
‘Aye and I bet she would have liked to know more, an all. Nosey old Sod’.
Ellie laughed at this and said, ‘oh Mam, she doesn’t mean anything’.
Maggie grunted and then went to the cupboard to get two mugs.
‘I’ve got the kettle on and I’ll soon have you a nice cuppa tea. Sit yourself down and I’ll not be a minute’.
‘Mam. Please sit down or you’ll have me thinking I’m a visitor’.
Maggie looked at her daughter and knew she was right. She was treating Ellie like a guest. She now felt embarrassed and found herself searching for something to say.
Ellie sensed her mother’s embarrassment so placed the basket on the table.
‘Look at this Mam. Mister Blunt gave it to me as I was leaving. I don’t know what’s inside’.
Together they untied the cover. Maggie’s face was a picture, ‘well I never’. On the top was a bag of apples, a little past their best, but nevertheless, good. Then a tea cloth, knotted at the top, which revealed five current scones. Also in the basket was a cob of bread and a big piece of yellow cheese. But best of all, a piece of lamb, the likes of which, Maggie had never been able to buy.
‘Well, all I can say is ‘God bless the man’, you must thank him for me. What a feast’. Maggie's face was alight with pleasure. Ellie saw, at the bottom of the basket, yet another gift. It was a brown paper parcel, tied up with string, and had ‘Ellie’ written on it, in blue ink.
‘I wonder what’s in here’, said Ellie, undoing the knot. She unwrapped a pair of shoes. They were of good black leather, soft and well made and the correct size. They were not new but she could see that the condition was excellent.
Ellie wanted to cry, ‘how kind he is’. How had he guessed? He couldn't have known how much she hated wearing the clogs, she thought and was overwhelmed with gratitude.
Maggie poured the tea and handed Ellie a pot.
‘Well you must have made a good impression at the big house for him to give you them lovely shoes. What did you say his name was?’
‘Mister Blunt’.
‘Mister Blunt eh!! Mmm! And do you see much of that ‘sour faced Sod’ who let us in that day?’
Ellie laughed, ‘that’s Mister Blunt Mam. He’s the Butler’.
‘Oh well I never’! She laughed, ‘how can anyone so ‘toffee nosed’ be so nice underneath? Wonder’s will never cease’. Maggie’s legs came up as she fell back in her chair, laughing loudly.
Ellie had to laugh too, but she was laughing at her mother more than anything. In a strange way she had liked the Butler from the beginning.
Throughout the morning Ellie went on to relate, to her mother, everything that had happened since she had last seen her. How she shared a bedroom with Kate and had to make the candle last a week. She told her about the rest of the staff and how some of them were nice to her, whilst, others had never spoken to her. Ellie watched her mother’s face light up when she described the china and the copper bottom pans and how the Master and his family had afternoon tea, served on silver platters.
Maggie took Ellie’s hand in hers and turned it over, looking at the red, palms. ‘You work hard enough, I can see that. Do you think you will ‘take to it’ Ellie?’
‘It’s all right Mam, really. I don’t mind the work but I miss you and the boys more than I thought I would’. Then Ellie remembered. ‘Hey Mam, I nearly forgot’.
‘Forgot what?’
‘Well, what do you think?’
‘Oh Ellie, stop playing ‘silly buggers’. How do I know what you forgot?’
‘My wages Mam. What else did you send me out to work for?’
She handed Maggie a small leather pouch, in which, she had been given her month’s money.
‘There it is. One pound, twelve shillings and sixpence’.
Maggie sat with the pouch in her hand and said, ‘you know Ellie, I don’t want to open it, because if I do, then I’ve done it’.
‘What do you mean, done it?’
‘I’ve sold you. That’s what it feels like. I’ve sold you’.
Ellie leaned over to her mother and kissed her on the side of her face. ‘Sold me? Not you Mam. You might give me away, but sell me? Never! Come on Mam, take the money. If it wasn’t for your care of me, I wouldn’t have been able to earn it, so please don’t think that way’.
Maggie emptied out the money, onto her pinny, and slowly counted it out. This done, she handed Ellie one shilling and sixpence.
‘That’s for you lass. You’ve done all the work, after all’.
Ellie protested, and her mother insisted, so she put the money into the pouch and dropped it into the empty basket. She had to admit, it was a nice feeling to have a little money of her own.
The boys had heard the talking and laughter and, knowing that Ellie was coming home, came downstairs eager to see her.
Sam was the first one down and threw himself onto his sister, saying, ‘Ellie. Is it really you? You look so posh’. Then turning to Maggie, ‘is our Ellie rich Mam?’
‘Don’t be a fool Sam, of course she’s not rich, she’s a maid’. She was careful to leave out the word ‘scullery’ becaus
e, in her way, she was as big a snob as anyone in the upper classes. ‘She’s brought you an apple each but you can’t have it till teatime so don’t even ask. And Sam, stop jumping all over the poor lass’.
Maggie, by way of habit, swung her hand at him which failed to connect. But she had to laugh when Thomas piped up, ‘hey Mam, has our Sam been practising? That’s the last three ‘cracks’ he’s managed to dodge’.
‘How are you Thomas’ asked Ellie, ‘I can see that you’re as cheeky as ever’.
‘Eh!! You look nice our lass. Have you got a chap then?’
‘No I have not and don’t intend to either’. She felt her face flush.
Thomas quickly glanced at his mother, fearing he may have gone too far. She didn’t like ‘boy talk’ in front of Ellie but he needn't have worried, his mother was busy dividing Ellie’s wages into four equal parts, one for each week until the next of her daughter’s visits.
‘One pile for each week till you come home again’, she informed Ellie, now smiling and obviously not feeling quite so bad about accepting the ‘proceeds’ of her daughter’s labour.
Maggie turned her attention to the piece of lamb. It had already been cooked and some of the meat had been cut into clean slices, which still left a good-size piece.
‘We’ll have the sliced meat with some bread when Aunt Dora gets here. What’s left can be cut up and used for a stew and that should see us through half the week’.
She looked at her family, each of them, smiling. ‘It don’t take much to make you lot happy, does it? Well I think you're a grand lot and I wouldn't swap my kids for anything. Mind you, don’t let it go to you heads because I can still give a good crack when it’s needed, and don’t you forget it’.
Withholding the laugh, which threatened to choke her, Maggie turned to Thomas and added, ‘that’s if I can manage to land one any more’. Everyone laughed.
Harry said, ‘I believe you Mam. I still have a red mark on my ‘backside’ from last night. They were all in good spirits and enjoying Ellie's visit.
The three boys had their breakfast then went to work on the washing of the ‘pots’. They wouldn’t hear of their sister doing any of the clearing up, saying, ‘you do enough at the big house and you don’t want to do it on you day off, an all’.
She listened to their talk as they washed the dishes and smiled to herself as they discussed school.
Harry was saying how much he liked his new class teacher and he couldn’t wait for tomorrow because they were going to look for different leaves and wild flowers, around the playing field, and the one who found the most would get a prize.
‘What’s the prize going to be then Harry? A sticky bun?’ said Thomas, laughing at his young brother.
‘No, Silly. I don’t know what it’s going to be but it’s sure to be something good’, said Harry, he also wondering what the prize would be.
Sam’s face was straight, as he murmured, ‘I hate school. I never want to go there again’.
Thomas asked him why. ‘You always liked it before’, he said.
Obviously, feeling sorry for himself, Sam said, ‘it’s Willy Dixon, he’s always bossing me around and thumping me and I’m fed up with him’.
He then went on to tell them what Ma Bagnall had told him about bullies. ‘She said I should pray for him an ask God to forgive him then he would be nicer to me’.
Thomas had his own ideas and with his fists up in the air, like a street fighter, he said, ‘I’d smash him in the mouth and then ask God to forgive me later’.
Ellie tried not to laugh as she didn’t want Thomas to get into trouble with Mother, but she knew that Maggie, unlike herself, had not listened to a word of what was said.
When they had finished, the boys went off to play and Ellie and her mother spent a pleasant hour catching up with each other’s news.
About twelve o’clock, Aunt Dora came barging into the house. ‘Eh!! Maggie, I’ve had such a ‘do’ with Albert. I didn’t think I was going to make it today’. When she saw Ellie sitting there, she said, ‘hello Ellie love, are you alright?’
Without waiting for Ellie’s reply, she went on breathlessly, ‘he’s a daft devil, is Albert. Went out to rake up the leaves out back and fell over the blooming cat, didn’t he?’
‘And did he hurt himself then?’ Maggie tried to show concern.
‘He’s only gone and broke his wrist hasn’t he. Fancy, not seeing the cat. It’s not as though she’s a little cat. She’s the biggest cat I’ve ever seen. Well, what do you think then, eh!! Breaking his wrist?’
Maggie thought, should have broke his bloody neck, the old Sod. But what she actually said was, ‘it could have been worse Dora, he could have broken his neck?’
Maggie had an appropriate expression on her face as she turned it towards her sister. She did not, for one moment, imagine that Dora was taken in by her feigned concern. Dora knew that Maggie despised Albert. And she knew why.
‘Anyway he’s got it fixed now and he’s in bed for the rest of the day so I’ve no rush to get back’.
‘How’s the cat?’
As Maggie said this, she gave a sideways glance at Ellie, who was doing her utmost not to smile. ‘Well, I mean, did Albert fall onto the cat, or over the cat? Is the cat still ‘with us’?’
‘Eh!! Maggie, you’re my own sister, but you can be unkind’.
However, Dora’s face broke into a smile, ‘you’re wicked you are Maggie, you really are. What do you make of you Mam Ellie?’
‘Don’t ask me Aunt Dora, I’ll only get into trouble, whatever I say’.
Dora looked at Ellie but addressed Maggie, ‘I do believe your daughter is about to become a ‘young lady’. Then she said to Ellie, ‘you've got the right idea lass. Never take sides. Stay in the middle and you won’t get into any bother. Look at you Mam, never held her tongue for anyone, and look where it’s got her’.
Dora watched as Maggie pursed her lips, a sure sign that she had gone too far.
Ellie, quick to sense the change in atmosphere, asked, ‘shall I lay the table for lunch.. er ... dinner Mam?’ She had almost called it ‘luncheon’, as she had been doing over the last four weeks. Oh, she was glad she hadn’t.
‘Yes Ellie, I’ll help you, otherwise I might let me tongue run riot and lick your Aunt Dora to death’. Maggie laughed at her own sarcasm.
Ellie smiled with relief. Poor Aunt Dora sat down in the rocking chair and slowly let out her breath.
After dinner, accompanied by, ‘ooh! s’ and ‘ah! s’, Ellie told of the fine white linen; her twice weekly bath in a real bathroom, Kate’s comical behaviour and the fact that Ellie had never set eyes on the Master or Mistress of the house. ‘Not even once’. The afternoon passed pleasantly.
Later in the day, as shadows were beginning to form, Ellie said she would soon have to set off back to Thornton Avenue.
‘It’s a long trek and I don’t want to be out when it gets dark’.
‘No, course you don’t love, you never know who’s about in them posh areas. It’s always been said that the, so-called, gentlemen are worse than the pit lads. And I believe it an all’.
Ellie packed her shoes, carefully, in the basket and wrapped her shawl around her shoulders. She kissed Aunt Dora on the cheek and said she hoped Uncle Albert would soon be better, then went towards her mother.
Maggie had been busying herself at the sink, not wanting Ellie to go. As her daughter approached her she turned as if surprised, ‘you ready for off then Ellie?’
‘Yes Mam, I’ll see you next month’.
They both stood still, each looking at the other, neither knowing the right thing to say. Suddenly, Maggie hugged Ellie to her breast.
‘It was a sad day when I took you to the big house, and because of it, I’ve lost my little girl’.
‘Don’t say that Mam. You’ll always have me, you know you will’.
‘Will I? I don’t think so. You’re all grown up now and you’ll never know childhood again’.
&nb
sp; Wiping the tears from her eyes, Dora cried, ‘don’t take on Maggie. The lass will be back before you know it. Don’t go upsetting her just as she’s going back’.
Maggie knew her sister was right. She kissed Ellie and give her a push towards the door, ‘go on then; otherwise I won’t let you go. I must be getting soft in my old age’.
The boys were playing marbles on the path and Harry rushed to her, quickly, planting a kiss on his sister’s face. ‘So long Ellie, I’ll be counting the weeks to see you again’.
Ellie called her good byes and started on her long walk back to Thornton Avenue.
The church clock was striking six as she turned onto the driveway of the house and quickened her step, anxious to get in from the cold. The welcome warmth of the cooking enveloped Ellie as she entered the kitchen. Missus Blunt had just sent the last of the maids upstairs with the first course of dinner. She turned a flushed face to Ellie and could not fail to notice the look of relief.
‘Why Ellie, you look as if you’re frozen. Is it so cold outside?’
‘Oh Missus Blunt, you can’t imagine how good it is to come into the warmth’.
Missus Blunt was surprised at the tone of Ellie’s voice. If she hadn’t known better, she would have thought that the girl had been born into the gentry. Something Miss Maud had said to her, earlier, came to mind. Now what was she had said? Something about not letting the girl ‘get above her station as she had a high opinion of herself. However, Cook could not bring herself to condemn Ellie, not simply because of the nice way she conducted herself. That wouldn't be right. In fact, she quite liked the girl and spoke to her now with respect and fondness.
‘Well Dear, it’s nice to think that you look forward to coming back, even if it is only for the warmth of the kitchen. Come over by the fire and warm yourself before you go up to your room’.
Ellie thanked her and did as she was bid but was relieved when she was allowed to continue on her way. As she neared the pantry, she saw Kate scrubbing down the wooden draining boards, her face red with perspiration, and her cap, at a peculiar angle.
The Windsor Girl Page 5