Swiftly, Emily fetched the first-aid box that she’d had the foresight to equip, from a shelf above her desk and hurried across the room to Flo. She staunched the flow of blood to reveal a long gash down the edge of the girl’s left palm that refused to stop bleeding, but, thankfully, it didn’t look too deep.
‘I’m not going to hospital,’ Flo was crying. ‘I’m frit of hospitals. I’ll see ’doctor me mam goes to.’
‘There, it’s not as bad as we thought. I’ll bandage it up and take you home to your mam. See what she says. Come along, and, whatever happens, you must have the rest of the week off. We can’t have muck getting in it.’
As Emily steered Flo down the stairs of the workshop and through the grinders’ workshop to take her home, Ida whispered to Nell, ‘We can’t manage all the work we’ve got, Nell, not even if Emily takes a turn at a wheel. We’ll just have to get someone else now.’
‘Have you heard of anyone?’
Ida shook her head.
For a moment, Nell was thoughtful then she gave a quick nod as if she’d come to a decision. ‘Leave it with me, Ida. I’ll have a think.’
The following morning, whilst Emily was busy in her little office, which had been partitioned off to keep out the flying dust, someone came tentatively up the stairs to their workshop above the grinders’. Emily heard the two machines slow down. She emerged from her office to see that both girls had stopped work. Ida was staring wide eyed, but Nell had crossed the floor to meet their visitor. Emily turned her head and saw the girl standing at the top of the stairs, ready to flee if she was unwelcome.
‘Come on in, Lizzie,’ Nell said, taking her by the arm and leading her forward.
‘Oh Lizzie!’ Emily went at once towards her, her arms outstretched in welcome. But as she neared the girl, she saw that Lizzie was much changed. Gone was the merry look in her eyes, her lovely hair was dull and lifeless. She was thin and her skin had a sallow complexion.
Emily took hold of her hands. ‘Whatever’s happened to you?’
Lizzie made a strangulated noise in her throat and then burst into tears. Emily put her arms around her and led her further into the workshop, making her sit down on an upturned box. ‘Ida, love, make Lizzie some tea, will you?’
‘I went to see Lizzie and her mam last night,’ Nell said, meeting Emily’s gaze boldly. ‘And told her to come and see you this morning. Emily, the pair of them are in a terrible state.’ Nell’s face was a mixture of emotions. She had once been close friends with Lizzie, but at the moment she was not sure how she felt. She needed to know just how much Lizzie had been involved in – or had known about – her brother’s activities. Had she really been so wicked that she’d encouraged Mick to set fire to Nathan Hawke’s workshops with Emily inside it? Nell and Emily sat down beside her, whilst Ida, having brought tea for the three of them, started up her wheel again and carried on with her work.
‘Here, dry your eyes,’ Emily said, fishing out a clean handkerchief from her pocket. ‘Drink your tea and tell us how we can help you.’
‘Oh Emily, I don’t deserve it. After all I’ve done to you, how – how can you be so kind?’
‘Because she’s a kind person,’ Nell put in. ‘Much kinder than I’d be in her shoes, I reckon, but we want to know the truth. So come on, Lizzie, tell us.’
‘I’ve come to beg your forgiveness, both of you, and to tell you that I never meant for you to be – to be attacked like that. Oh yes, I wanted some sort of revenge for what I thought Josh had done to me, but only to ruin your business, to get it closed down, but never – ever – to harm anyone.’ She looked so pitiful, looking up at them with eyes brimming with tears and pleading for them to believe her.
‘But is the reason you’re so apologetic now because you want your job back?’ Nell asked bluntly. ‘’Cos I could see last night that you and your mam are on the breadline.’
Lizzie nodded. ‘Yes, we’re – we’ve nothing. Steve Henderson’s gang broke into our house and took anything of any value and smashed everything else. We’ve nothing – and with Mick gone . . .’ She hesitated to mention his name, but it was the truth. He’d seen his mother and his sister never went short, but now he was lost to them. She was shaking her head sadly. ‘We never knew what he was mixed up in.’
‘You must have known,’ Nell said tartly. Although she’d been the one to invite Lizzie here, she was determined to get at the truth – the whole truth – and she was not so forgiving as Emily. ‘Where did you think he was getting his money from?’
‘We – we just thought he was wheeling and dealing, maybe just a little bit on the wrong side of the law. We knew he ran pitch and toss games, that sort of thing, but we didn’t know he was running a gang.’
‘He was leader of one of the worst in the city,’ Nell said bluntly. ‘He and his thugs used to meet folk outside their place of work on payday and just take their wages off them for no reason at all. He ran an extortion racket and poor Mr Hawke fell foul of that.’
Emily frowned and turned to Nell. ‘What – exactly – is this extortion racket everyone keeps talking about? I heard Trip mention it.’
Nell laughed wryly. ‘Where they target businessmen – usually small ones – and promise they will not smash up their premises if they’re paid money every week.’
Shocked, Emily stared at her, her mind working furiously. ‘But – but we never got threatened.’
‘Of course we didn’t.’ Nell nodded towards Lizzie. ‘Because, then, she was one of us, but after she fell out with you – both of us, really – we became a prime target for Mick’s revenge.’
‘Did you know about this, Lizzie? About what he was doing?’
‘No, I swear I didn’t and neither did my mam. You can ask her, if you like. She’s heartbroken. She was so proud of him, thinking he was clever and shrewd when all the time . . .’
‘He was nothing but a nasty thug,’ Nell said.
‘Do you know where he is now?’ Emily asked.
Lizzie shook her head. ‘No, and that’s the truth, because me mam says if he ever dares to show his face around here again, she’ll drag him to the coppers herself. She’s so ashamed and so am I.’ Her voice faded away to a hoarse whisper.
Emily was thinking hard. She believed Lizzie, but maybe she was still being a bit gullible. She must consult Nell first before she said any more. She had grown closer than ever to Nell since their shared horrifying experience and she wouldn’t go against anything the other girl said.
‘Sit there a minute, Lizzie. I want to speak to Nell.’
The two girls went downstairs and out into the street so that they could talk privately and not be overheard.
‘What do you think, Nell?’
‘Employ her, you mean?’
‘Yes.’
‘Do you believe what she’s saying?’
‘I don’t know – that’s why I’m asking you. You’ve known her a lot longer than I have. Do you believe her when she says her and her mam knew nothing about what Mick was really doing?’
‘That’s the bit that worries me. Surely, they must have wondered why he always had so much money to splash around, but then,’ she smiled wryly, ‘mothers and sons, eh? They can be very blind to their faults and see only the best in them. And I was every bit as stupid over Steve when I first met him. For a long time I buried me head in the sand and refused to believe that he could have anything to do with gangs. How wrong I was,’ she added bitterly.
‘And Lizzie?’
‘I don’t think she’s a bad person, just a bit silly and – and spiteful. She got a bee in her bonnet about your brother – that’s the root of it all.’ Nell sighed. ‘Oh, aren’t we girls silly over fellers sometimes?’ She was thoughtful for a moment, but then she nodded. ‘We’d been friends for a long time before she got besotted with your brother. Is she over him, do you think, or is she trying to get close to you again to carry out some sort of vendetta of her own?’
‘I’ll ask her straight out.’
‘All right, and if she seems to be telling the truth, then, yes, we’ll give her another chance. Everyone deserves a second chance,’ she added wistfully and Emily believed Nell was thinking of Steve. But the father of Nell’s child was not prepared to give up his nefarious life just yet. Maybe in the years to come, if he did mend his ways, perhaps Nell would be prepared to give him another chance too. Emily hoped so. She would like to see her friend happy, but for the moment her concern was Lizzie and her mother.
They went back inside and Emily took hold of Lizzie’s hand. ‘Listen to me, if you’re telling us the truth, Lizzie, and you promise you’ve no more quarrel with either me or Nell, then yes, you can come back and work for us.’
‘But it’s Emily’s business now,’ Nell put in. ‘Not yours or mine. She’s the missus. You understand? It’s called “Ryan’s” and we all work for her.’ Nell prodded her finger towards Emily. ‘And I’ll tell tha summat fer nowt, Lizzie –’ Nell’s strong Sheffield accent seemed more pronounced whenever she was pressing home her point – ‘this lass is going places and I, fer one, am hanging on to her coat tails.’
Lizzie’s tears flowed afresh. ‘Oh thank you, thank you. You – you don’t know what this means to me.’ She stood up and flung herself against Emily, weeping tears of gratitude against her shoulder.
‘It’s all right, Lizzie. It’s all going to be all right. I’ll call round to see you and your mam after work and bring you some food, just like she used to do for us.’
‘Right, then, that’s settled and I’d better get back to me work, since we’re short-handed today,’ Nell said briskly but, as she turned away, she added, ‘But just remember, Lizzie Dugdale, one false step and tha’ll have me to deal with. Understood?’
Lizzie wiped her eyes and nodded. ‘Yes, Nell,’ she said meekly.
‘Tell you what,’ Emily said, ‘get yer hat on and I’ll take you shopping right now.’
The two girls looked at each other, both of them remembering the words Lizzie had said to Emily when she’d first arrived as a stranger in the city. It reminded them of the friendship they’d once shared.
‘Oh Lizzie, I’ve missed you so much.’ Emily hugged her tightly as they laughed and cried together.
Only now was it all really over.
The Clippie Girls
Margaret Dickinson
Sisters in love. A family at war. A city in peril.
Rose and Myrtle Sylvester look up to their older sister, Peggy. She is the sensible, reliable one in the household of women headed by their grandmother, Grace Booth, and their mother, Mary Sylvester. When war is declared in 1939 they must face the hardships together and huge changes in their lives are inevitable. For Rose, there is the chance to fulfil her dream of becoming a clippie on Sheffield’s trams like Peggy. But for Myrtle, the studious, clever one in the family, war may shatter her ambitions.
When the tram on which Peggy is a conductress is caught in a bomb blast, she bravely helps to rescue her passengers. One of them is a young soldier, Terry Price, and he and Peggy begin courting. They meet every time he can get leave, but eventually Terry is posted abroad and she hears nothing from him. Worse still, Peggy must break the devastating news to her family that she is pregnant.
The shock waves that ripple through the family will affect each and every one of them and life will never be the same again.
Fairfield Hall
Margaret Dickinson
A matter of honour. A sense of duty. A time for courage.
Ruthlessly ambitious Ambrose Constantine is determined that his daughter, Annabel, shall marry into the nobility. A self-made trawler owner and fish merchant, he has only his wealth to buy his way into Society.
When Annabel’s secret meetings with a young man employed at her father’s offices stop suddenly, she finds that Gilbert has mysteriously disappeared. Heartbroken, she finds solace with her grandparents on their Lincolnshire farm, but her father will not allow her to bury herself in the countryside and enlists the help of a business connection to launch his daughter into Society.
During the London Season, Annabel is courted by James Lyndon, the Earl of Fairfield, whose country estate is only a few miles from her grandfather’s farm. Believing herself truly loved at last, Annabel accepts his offer of marriage. It is only when she arrives at Fairfield Hall that she realizes the true reason behind James’s proposal and the part her scheming father has played.
Through the years that follow, Annabel will know both heartache and joy, but the birth of her son should secure the future of the Fairfield Estate. Yet there are others who lay claim to the inheritance in a feud that will not be resolved until the trenches of a bitter world war.
Welcome Home
Margaret Dickinson
There are some things that even the closest friendship cannot survive . . .
Neighbours Edie Kelsey and Lil Horton have been friends for over twenty years, sharing the joys and sorrows of their tough lives as the wives of fishermen in Grimsby. So it came as no surprise that their children were close and that Edie’s son, Frank, and Lil’s daughter, Irene, fell in love and married at a young age.
But the declaration of war in 1939 changes everything. Frank goes off to fight and Irene and baby Tommy, along with Edie’s youngest son, are sent to the countryside for safety. With Edie’s husband Archie fishing the dangerous waters in the North Sea and daughter Beth in London doing ‘important war work’, Edie’s family is torn apart.
Friendship sustains Edie and Lil, but when tragedy strikes – and then Beth disappears – their relationship is tested to the limit. But it is Irene’s return, during the VE day celebrations, that sends shock waves through the family and threatens to destroy Edie and Lil’s friendship forever.
ALSO BY MARGARET DICKINSON
Plough the Furrow
Sow the Seed
Reap the Harvest
The Miller’s Daughter
Chaff Upon the Wind
The Fisher Lass
The Tulip Girl
The River Folk
Tangled Threads
Twisted Strands
Red Sky in the Morning
Without Sin
Pauper’s Gold
Wish Me Luck
Sing As We Go
Suffragette Girl
Sons and Daughters
Forgive and Forget
Jenny’s War
The Clippie Girls
Fairfield Hall
Welcome Home
Acknowledgements
My grateful thanks to Dennis Trickett, who kindly talked to me about his life in the cutlery industry of Sheffield, and also to Alison Duce, the Collections Manager at the Kelham Island Museum in Sheffield, for her warm welcome and help on my visit to the museum. And to Kenneth and Kathryn Ibbotson of Ashford-in-the-Water for the loan of some wonderful photographs of the village. As always, my sincere thanks to the staff of Skegness Library for their continuing help and encouragement.
A great many sources have been used in the research for this novel, most notably Diamonds in Brown Paper by Gill Booth (Sheffield City Libraries, 1988) and Back to the Grindstone by Herbert Housley (The Hallamshire Press 1998).
Although in this novel I have used real place names, streets and even actual buildings, the characters and events in the story are entirely fictitious.
My love and thanks to my family and friends for their constant encouragement, especially those who read the script in the early stages: David Dickinson, Fred Hill and Pauline Griggs. And never forgetting my wonderful agent, Darley Anderson, and his team, and my editor, Trisha Jackson, and all the team at Pan Macmillan.
Born in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, Margaret Dickinson moved to the coast at the age of seven and so began her love for the sea and the Lincolnshire landscape. Her ambition to be a writer began early and she had her first novel published at the age of twenty-five. This was followed by a number of further titles including, most recently, The Clippie Girls, Fairfield Hall and Welcome Home.
Margaret is a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller.
First published 2016 by Macmillan
This electronic edition published 2016 by Macmillan
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
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ISBN 978-1-4472-9087-2
Copyright © Margaret Dickinson 2016
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The right of Margaret Dickinson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Pan Macmillan does not have any control over, or any responsibility for, any author or third party websites referred to in or on this book.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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