‘Thank you, Uncle Harry.’
‘Your lad was killed, I believe.’
‘Aye.’ A lump rose in her throat. ‘He would have wed me when he came home, but ...’
‘Aye, that was a tragedy.’
When they returned to the kitchen, Janet was sitting with her hand on her heart. ‘I took a bad turn just now, but I’ve set most of the table. You’ll manage to dish up, Elspeth?’
‘I’ll do it,’ Harry put in, before the girl could say any-thing, and as he filled the three plates he said to his wife, ‘Elspeth’s to be looking for a job the morrow. She doesn’t want to be a burden on us, she wants to pay for her keep, as long as she’s able to work, that is.’
His wife looked surprised, but not displeased. ‘You’re not very far on by the look of you?’
‘Just three month.’
‘So you could work for ... four months yet, maybe more?’
Harry Bain frowned. ‘It depends what kind o’ work she gets. She couldn’t do anything heavy if she was getting near her time.’
The thin mouth was drawn in. ‘She’s a strong girl, and we’ll need every penny we can get if she starts eating for two. And she’ll need to remember we’ll be feeding her and the child after it’s born, though how Lizzie expects me to manage with an infant in the house ...’
‘Elspeth can start working again after it’s born,’ Harry interrupted, ‘and a new-born bairn doesn’t need much looking after.’
‘It’ll not stay new-born,’ his wife snapped, ‘and I’m not fit to be ...’
‘We’ll sort things out when it comes to it,’ Harry said, hastily.
Supper was eaten to the accompaniment of Janet’s solitary voice listing her illnesses and ailments, Elspeth having to turn her head away to avoid laughing aloud when her uncle winked to her to let her know that most of them were in his wife’s own mind. Her uncle was fun to be with, but she couldn’t see herself living in this house for long after the bairn was born. She would have to find a live-in job where they would not mind her taking it with her, but, as Harry had said, she could sort that out when the time came.
After seeing his daughter off on the train, Geordie Gray walked back home thoughtfully. When he went into the cottar house, he eased himself into his chair without saying a word, apparently deep in thought, and Lizzie waited a few minutes before she asked, ‘Did Eppie get away all right?’
Her husband roused himself. ‘Aye, but she didna look all that happy about the grand new job she’s going to.’
Lizzie held her breath. Surely unobservant Geordie hadn’t guessed? ‘She’d been upset at leaving home for the first time,’ she ventured, but the dark scowl on his face told her that he had seen through her lame excuse, and her stomach lurched as she waited for him to speak again.
‘You’ve been keeping something from me, woman.’
Alarmed by the accusation, she straightened the table-cover to hide her confusion. ‘What d’you mean, Geordie?’
‘You ken what I mean! She’s been looking poorly for weeks, and I can recognize the signs as good as the next body, though it took me a while. She’s got herself in trouble, that’s what it is. Isn’t it?’ he demanded fiercely.
Lizzie’s heart slowed with fear. ‘Aye,’ she admitted, ‘and the poor laddie was killed, as fine you ken.’
‘It was John Forrest, then?’ His voice was heavily sarcastic. ‘Are you sure she hadn’t been served by other men and all?’
‘No, no, Eppie would never have done that, and what chance had she, wi’ you never letting her out to enjoy herself?’
His face was turkey red now, a thick cord beating at his neck. ‘She must have been enjoying herself wi’ him long before she let on she ken’t him, the sleekit besom!’
‘She wasna. It was just once, when he took her home the night o’ the terrible storm. She took him in and there was nobody here, for I was at Janet’s.’
His frown deepened to a grotesque grimace, his eyes looked at her wildly as he sprang to his feet. ‘You mean to tell me their fornicating took place under my roof, and you ken’t about it?’
Lizzie shrank back as his hand came up menacingly. ‘I didna ken, Geordie, not till she told me she was having his bairn. I’d no idea that ...’ She began to sob.
‘That he’d served her?’ Another, more comforting thought struck him. ‘He must have forced himself on her, for she couldna have been willing.’
But Lizzie couldn’t allow him to think ill of the dead boy. ‘She loved him, Geordie, so I don’t think he ...’
‘She said she didna ken him before, so that story’ll not hold water. He must have forced her, for she couldna have been in love wi’ him as quick as that.’
Hesitating for only a second, Lizzie burst out, ‘We fell in love quick ourselves, Geordie, mind? That was what annoyed our Janet, for she thought you’d want her.’
Thrown out of his stride, Geordie growled, ‘I never wanted her, and she wed Harry Bain within a month o’ our wedding.’
‘That was just spite, for she aye had her eye on you.’
‘You’re trying to make me forget what I was saying, but it’ll not work. Elspeth would never have let that lad take his way wi’ her the very first time they met, surely?’
Lizzie thought sadly that he had forgotten what it was to be young and have feelings that were difficult to suppress. ‘They maybe couldna help theirselves.’
‘She’d been asking for it, the bloody little whore!’ he burst out, before Lizzie’s scandalized face, her tears stopped with shock, made him curb his language. ‘She’s a disgrace to this house, and she’ll never set foot in it again.’ He looked without pity at his wife and roared, ‘Do you hear me?’
‘Would you turn your back on your only bairn?’
‘I wish I’d never sired her, and if you hadna been so soft wi’ her, this would never have happened.’ Having fixed the blame squarely on his wife now, he sat down again, obviously searching for some other grievance to lay at her feet. Knowing that his silence did not mean that the awful confrontation was over, she waited fearfully for his next venomous outburst, but when he did speak, a touch of sadness had crept into his voice. ‘You should have given me other bairns. She wouldna have been spoiled if she’d had brothers or sisters, but once was enough for you, though I’ve often wondered how you got rid o’ the seed I planted in you.’
‘I never did anything. I wanted other bairns as much as you, Geordie.’ Lizzie began to weep again. She felt like reminding him how ill she had been after Elspeth’s birth, but he didn’t want to understand, and he was deliberately forgetting that the doctor had said she could never have another child. He was beside himself with anger at his daughter, and it would be a waste of time arguing with him.
He grunted suddenly, but he had lost the urge to wound her further. ‘I’m sure my seed was fertile.’ He paused for a moment. ‘But mind this. You’re not to write to her, and you’ll burn her letters without reading them.’
Nodding helplessly, she saw that his train of thought had changed, and knew that he wasn’t finished yet.
‘What’s Janet to say when she finds out about this, after getting a job for her ...?’ Breaking off, he eyed her with deep suspicion. ‘Or was that a pack o’ lies, and all?’
Lizzie’s heart sank even farther. He would go mad altogether when he learned of her scheming, but she couldn’t go on like this; she would be found out eventually. ‘Come on, woman, I’m waiting!’ he thundered, his fingers drumming on the arm of his chair. ‘Did Janet get a job for her or no’? It doesna sound like Janet to me!’
‘I couldna think on anything else to get Eppie away before you noticed. No, Janet didna get her a job, but I wrote and tell’t her about the bairn, and she wrote back that she’d take Eppie in.’ Lizzie braced herself for the next explosion, cowering away from him when he bounded over to her. ‘I ken’t you’d be angry at Eppie, and I just ...’
‘Angry?’ he screamed, his open hand taking her across the cheek. ‘I’
d have thrown the little bitch out ... like I should throw you out for the lies you’ve tell’t me! Never did I think my own wife would turn against me!’
‘I haven’t turned against you, Geordie, I was just trying to save Eppie. I could never have stood by and watched you putting her out of the house with nowhere to go, and her to be having a bairn. If you had, I wouldna have waited for you to throw me out, I’d have gone wi’ her.’
‘You’d have left me?’
She could see that this had shaken him. ‘Aye, I’d have left you, for I couldna have bidden wi’ a man who put his only child out in her time of trouble, and that’s why I got her away.’
He stood motionless for some time, then turned and sank down in his chair again, his body sagging like an empty sack. Although he had been strict with her, his daughter had been the light of his life, his everything, and what she had done was as though she had stabbed him in the back. He would have to shut her out of his mind now. At last, he let out a low moan. ‘Oh, God! The deceit that’s been going on under my very nose.’ Looking at his wife piteously, he suddenly straightened, his expression hardening once again. ‘Ha! She’ll get her punishment yet, for your Janet’ll make her wish she hadna been so free wi’ her favours. But don’t you forget what I said! You burn any letters she sends ... without reading them!’
He stood up, lifted the bible from the dresser then sat down at the table, and Lizzie leaned back trembling, but thankful that she had only suffered a slap on the face. She deserved more for telling him lies, and she was glad that it was she who had been at the receiving end and not Elspeth. A great sadness came over her then. He had washed his hands of their daughter, and clearly regarded this chapter of their lives closed.
Chapter Ten
Coming off the tramcar at the end of Union Terrace, as her uncle had instructed her, Elspeth crossed the two sets of rails cautiously, afraid of being electrocuted if she stood on them, and gave a gasp when a man walking alongside her placed his foot right across the metal, making him turn to her in surprise. ‘I thought you’d get killed if you stood on them,’ she blurted out, embarrassed at drawing attention to herself.
He laughed loudly. ‘You’ll only get electrocuted if you put one foot on the rail and the other one on the overhead wires to complete the circuit.’ Smiling broadly, he walked on ahead of her.
She looked up at the cables and realized that he had been teasing her, for they were too high to be touched with anybody’s foot. He must have thought her very ignorant. Going along Union Street, she kept her eyes open for the shop called Collie’s, which Uncle Harry had told her was at the opposite side. She spotted it at last, and made her way over the rails a little more confidently this time. A delicious smell of coffee wafted out of the large store – nothing like the shop at home, where ever-obliging Sandy Moir, genial in his shirt sleeves and big white apron, stood behind his counter and produced whatever his customers wanted, be it a packet of safety pins or a gallon of paraffin; a jug of syrup or a poke of sweets; a bag of flour or a packet of starch. But the counters and glass cases here stretched farther than she could see from the door, and trim girls in neat black dresses were serving customers who could have passed for the gentry from the big house just outside Auchlonie. Elspeth was sure that it couldn’t be the right place, but it said Andrew Collie & Sons over the windows, so she plucked up courage and went in.
One of the men assistants was feeding dark brown beans into a grinding machine. She hadn’t known that coffee came from beans – her mother had only occasionally bought small tins of Bantam as a special treat – and while she stood there, fascinated, she was approached by a smiling, middle-aged man in a smart dark suit and spotless white shirt. ‘Can I help you, Madam?’
‘Oh! I’m looking for the register – the register for jobs in service. Is this the right place?’ She felt like an intruder in the elite establishment and fully expected him to ask her to leave at once, but he smiled graciously. ‘Go straight through, Madam, and up the steps at the far end.’
‘Thank you very much.’ Elspeth was about to add ‘sir’ but stopped, fearing that she might make a fool of herself for the second time that morning.
She walked past a display of crusty loaves, tempting buns and cakes, counters and shelves filled with whiskies and exotic chocolates, and came to an area selling different grades of flour, oatmeal, rice and other cereals. She was afraid to stop – any hesitancy on her part might bring one of the men whose job seemed to be directing people. After the wines, teas and dairy produce, she came to a flight of six wide steps, at the top of which was a frosted glass door marked, ‘DOMESTIC REGISTRY.’ She tapped lightly on one of the glass panels and opened the door timidly.
A rather elegant woman looked up from her desk and smiled. ‘Good morning, Miss ...?’ Her voice was soft and friendly.
‘Gray. Elspeth Gray. I’m looking for a place.’
Accustomed to dealing with country girls, the woman knew what she meant. ‘What type of work? General? Laundry?’
‘Whatever there is, I’ve never been in service before. You see, I worked for the dressmaker at home, but I’m willing to take anything you’ve got.’
‘Do you live in Aberdeen now?’
‘Yes, in Rosemount Viaduct with my auntie and uncle.’
‘How old are you, Elspeth?’
‘I’ll be eighteen on my birthday.’
All the information duly recorded, the woman riffled through the pages of her large ledger. ‘This might be suitable – a doctor’s wife in King’s Gate is asking for some-one to cook and sew, and who is willing to look after two young children.’
‘I could manage that fine.’ Elspeth couldn’t believe that it was so easy to find work in Aberdeen. Before Uncle Harry had told her about this place, she had pictured herself having to trudge from house to house asking.
The woman finished writing and held out a card. ‘There’s the address. I can’t guarantee that Mrs Robb will engage you, of course, and if not, come back to me and I’ll look for something else for you.’
‘Thank you,’ Elspeth murmured, then added, hesitantly, ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t know where King’s Gate is.’
‘No, it’s my fault, I should have told you. A number three tram will take you, ask the conductor to put you off at the top of Fountainhall Road. If you turn left, you’ll be on King’s Gate, and the doctor’s house is not far up on the left hand side.’
Elspeth walked back through the shop, too preoccupied to pay attention to its treasures, and stood uncertainly in the sunshine outside, wondering if the doctor’s wife would be anything like Mrs McLean at home. She was an old dragon, and never kept any of her maids for long. Still, it would be a job, if she got it, and beggars couldn’t be choosers.
Mrs Robb turned out to be a young woman of perhaps twenty-five, with wavy fair hair and dancing blue eyes which regarded Elspeth approvingly as she took her inside. ‘I don’t have to ask if you can cook – all country girls can cook – and I see from the card that you worked with a dressmaker before, so the sewing will be easy for you, and the children are really no problem. The hours are from eight in the morning until eight at night, meals provided, with a half day off every week and a Sunday once a fortnight.’
Elspeth smiled nervously. ‘If you think I’m suitable, I can start as soon as you like, Mrs Robb.’
‘I’ve no maid at the minute, so ... is tomorrow too soon?’
‘No, that would be fine.’
‘Right! I’ll see you at eight o’clock, then. Don’t look so worried, I’m sure you’ll manage very well. I will supply your aprons, and I don’t insist on a cap as long as your hair is clean and tidy.’
Mrs Robb opened the front door for her, then asked, ‘Do you know how to get home from here?’
‘I’ll have to take the tram back to Union Street, and ...’
‘I saw on the card that you live in Rosemount Viaduct?’
‘Yes, with my auntie and uncle.’
‘Well, there’s
a much quicker way to get there. You came here on the number three tram? That route is called the Queen’s Cross Circular, and it goes into town again via Rosemount Viaduct. Get on at the same stop where you came off, and no doubt you will know your aunt’s house when you come to it. Goodbye, Elspeth, and I won’t mind if you’re a little late in arriving on your first morning, but once you find out how long you take to get here, I’ll expect you at eight o’clock sharp every day.’
‘Thank you, Mrs Robb.’ Elspeth’s head was reeling as she walked to the tram stop, but she liked the look of her new employer. Mrs Robb was a real lady, very slim and stylishly dressed, but her manner was friendly and cheery, and the work didn’t sound too hard.
Janet Bain’s face tightened when her niece burst in. ‘Must you be so noisy?’
‘I’ve got a job, Auntie Janet.’ Elspeth’s excitement was too great to be squashed by the cool reception. ‘I’m to be working for a doctor’s wife, and Mrs Robb’s really nice, and I’m to be cooking and mending and looking after her two bairns, and she’s going to supply my aprons. She said I won’t need a cap, as long as my hair’s neat and tidy.’
‘Really, Elspeth, your chattering has given me a head-ache. You’ll have to remember I’m not strong.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry Auntie Janet.’ A little deflated, Elspeth kept quiet for a short time, until her high spirits could be held in check no longer.
‘The Robbs bide in King’s Gate and I’ve to start at eight the morrow morning. I’ll finish at eight, and I’ve a half day off once a week, and a Sunday off once a fortnight, and ...’ She broke off as the woman’s hands jerked up to her head. ‘I’m sorry, Auntie Janet, I forgot you’d a sore head. Will I make you a cup of tea?’
‘A cup of tea might help if you would only stop speaking.’
The hint of a whine in her aunt’s voice irritated the girl, but she said nothing until the tea had been made and drunk. ‘Is your head better now?’ she asked, knowing quite well that the headache, if it existed at all, was not nearly as bad as the woman was making out.
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