Edie's Home for Orphans

by Gracie Taylor

  That he chose not to share this information but preferred to let the village believe the worst of him, just as he allowed people to think he had refused to marry the girl he’d got into trouble, was typical of Sam. Edie knew he didn’t give a damn what anyone thought of him; in fact, he seemed to revel in being disliked. The irony was that he was actually rather easy to like once you got to know him – something Tilly had obviously discovered to her cost.

  Yes, it was going to be an awkward working day at the farm tomorrow. Perhaps the best thing would be not to mention it at all and hope things could continue as normal.

  Edie was glad to be pulled out of her thoughts by the arrival of the children. She stood up, groaning at the pain of straightening her back.

  ‘Hullo, here’s trouble,’ Jack said, grinning at the evacuees. ‘So you’re back again, are you? Just my luck.’

  Jimmy lifted his arms, and Jack swung the little boy effortlessly up on to his shoulders. Jimmy giggled with delight, holding on to tufts of Jack’s thick, shaggy hair as if they were reins.

  ‘How was school?’ Edie asked Aggie.

  She pulled a face. ‘We did times tables. What are times tables for anyhow? I won’t ever need them when I’m grown up.’

  ‘You’ll be surprised how often you do. I know they’re boring to learn, but they can be very useful.’

  Aggie looked as though she didn’t believe a word of it. Edie wasn’t sure she really did either.

  Jimmy’s arms had wrapped around Jack’s neck, and the gardener frowned at an angry bruise on the boy’s wrist.

  ‘What’s this, Jim?’ he asked.

  As usual Jimmy had no reply, but Aggie spoke up for him.

  ‘It’s that Charlie Armstrong,’ she said, scowling. ‘He pushed him. He teases Jimmy ’cause he’s shy and don’t fight, even though Charlie’s in the big class with me. Calls him a coward.’

  ‘Huh. There’s no bigger coward than the one who hurts those weaker than him,’ Jack muttered. ‘He ought to be ashamed to push a smaller boy.’

  ‘Did you tell the teacher, Aggie?’ Edie asked.

  ‘Nah, I pushed Charlie back,’ Aggie said, looking pleased with herself. ‘Told him if he picked on Jim again I’d thump him. That scared him. Didn’t want his gang to know he’d been done by a girl.’

  ‘Ag, you mustn’t do that. It’s not nice to hurt people.’

  ‘Charlie hurt Jim, didn’t he?’

  ‘That doesn’t make it all right to hurt him back. Otherwise everyone would be hurting each other all the time.’

  ‘But it’s not nice to tell tales either,’ Aggie protested. ‘That’s right, ain’t it?’

  ‘If someone is hurting someone else then it’s not telling tales,’ Edie said. ‘I’ll tell you what: I’ll talk to your teacher. Then you haven’t told any tales. Will that be all right?’

  Aggie cast a worried look at her brother’s sore arm.

  ‘S’pose that’s OK,’ she said cautiously.

  ‘Good. I’ll telephone Miss Padgett this evening.’

  Aggie looked hopefully at Jack, always their favourite playmate. ‘Hey, can we have a game, Uncle Jack?’

  ‘Not while we’re working, Ag, you know that. We can have a play before tea.’ Jack swung a reluctant Jimmy to the ground again. ‘Say hello to Pepper then go and change your clothes. We’ll be finished in a couple of hours.’

  The figure of Prue Hewitt strode into view, a look on her face that didn’t bode well for someone.

  ‘Agnes Cawthra, I want a word with you,’ she said when she reached them.

  The girl looked nervous. ‘I ain’t done nothing,’ she mumbled, taking a step backwards towards the comforting bulk of Jack Graham.

  ‘Haven’t you indeed? That’s not what Matilda tells me. I’m informed that in the past week she’s lost half a loaf of bread, five slices of corned beef, a tin of ham, six biscuits and three carrots. Would you like to tell me where they could have gone?’

  ‘Dunno,’ Aggie muttered. ‘I don’t know nothing about no ham.’

  She cast a worried look at Jimmy and Jack, and Edie noticed that it wasn’t just the children who seemed nervous. Jack, too, had the look of a man hiding a guilty secret.

  ‘Aggie, we’ve talked about how wrong it is to tell stories,’ Prue said. ‘Now, if you tell me the truth I won’t be angry. Did you take the food?’

  Aggie flushed. ‘Yes,’ she mumbled. ‘I know it was naughty, but Jim gets hungry. He’s growing, Mrs Hewitt.’

  ‘Well, then why didn’t you ask?’

  ‘Because you might’ve said no.’

  ‘No one will say no if you’re as famished as all that.’ Prue crouched down to bring herself level with the girl. ‘Aggie, I know you understand what rationing is, and why we need to be careful with our food. Don’t you?’

  ‘Yes, Mrs Hewitt.’

  ‘And I know you understand, now, that it’s wrong to steal. Don’t you?’

  ‘Yes, Mrs Hewitt.’

  Prue looked into the girl’s wide brown eyes and sighed. ‘Well, this once we’ll say no more about it. But in future, Aggie, if you and your brother are hungry between meals, you must ask. If I find out again that you’ve been stealing, I’m afraid you will have to be punished. Do you understand?’

  ‘Yes, Mrs Hewitt,’ Aggie mumbled.

  ‘Good.’ There was an awkward silence as Prue fumbled for what to say next. ‘Did you have a nice day at school?’

  ‘Yes,’ Aggie whispered, chastened by her reprimand.

  ‘What did you learn?’

  ‘Times tables.’

  ‘And … did you enjoy learning them?’

  ‘Yes, Mrs Hewitt,’ Aggie chanted dutifully.

  ‘Good. Good. Well, I’ll see you at dinner, children.’ Prue went back to the house.

  When she was gone, Edie turned to Aggie.

  ‘Did you and Jimmy really eat all that food?’ she asked. ‘It sounds like you half-inched a real feast, Ag.’

  Aggie glanced enquiringly at Jack, who still wore the guilty look.

  ‘What’s going on, Jack?’ Edie asked. ‘Do you know something about this?’

  ‘The food weren’t for us,’ Aggie blurted out.

  Edie frowned. ‘You haven’t been feeding that stuff to Pepper? You could kill her with a diet like that.’

  ‘No. Not Pep. Can we tell her, Uncle Jack?’

  Jack sighed. ‘I suppose we don’t have any choice now. Miss Cartwright, would you come along to the stables?’

  Aggie took Edie’s hand as they followed Jack and Edie gave her fingers a squeeze. She was obviously about to be let into some great secret. What were the three of them hiding in here?

  Pepper swooped to Aggie’s shoulder as soon as they opened the door and gave her ear an affectionate nibble. The little girl had easily endeared herself to the bird through constant attention and scraps of food.

  ‘Evenin’!’ she cawed. With the combined efforts of Aggie and Jack she now had a vocabulary of three words, delivered in a comical mix of Cumberland and cockney.

  Edie blinked into the shadows, wondering what else there was to see.

  ‘In here.’ Jack pushed open one of the half doors to the stalls, and was greeted by a delighted yelp. A second later a tiny chocolate Jack Russell had its paws on his calf, and Jack laughed as he crouched down to let the little chap lick his cheek.

  ‘Coco!’ Aggie and Jimmy dropped to their knees so they could make a fuss of the puppy. He wagged his tail ecstatically, bounding from one child to the other.

  ‘Oh my goodness!’ Edie said. ‘Jack, what’s this?’

  Jack stepped back to let the children play with their pet. Pepper had retreated to her perch in the rafters and was regarding this energetic intruder with a look of indulgent superiority.

  ‘Aggie came home with him hidden in her satchel two weeks ago,’ Jack told Edie. ‘Found a lad trying to drown the poor little beggar in the beck.’

  ‘I had to bring him, Edie,’ Aggie said, looking up at her.
‘The boy was going to kill him! Said his ma couldn’t afford to keep pets no more since his dad got killed in the war. So I asked if I could have him and he said I could.’

  ‘That’s where the food’s been going?’ Edie said.

  Aggie nodded. ‘I give him a bit out of mine and Jim’s food, but that ain’t enough when he’s growing. I thought no one would notice. There’s always lots of food in the pantry.’

  Edie plucked Jack’s elbow and they retreated a little distance away.

  ‘Why didn’t you say anything to Prue?’ she asked in a low voice.

  ‘Missus isn’t a fan of animals. It was a hard enough job to convince her not to chase Pepper out. She wouldn’t be right happy if she knew there was a dog on the grounds.’

  ‘Then why did you tell Aggie she could keep him?’

  He smiled drily. ‘I didn’t. Not at first. Told her he could stay for a couple of days while he recovered, then she could take him back where she’d found him and leave him for one of the villagers to pick up. There’re always homes on farms for ratters, even a runty one like Coco: he’d soon have been sorted out. Then she told me how she’d found him shivering, half-drowned, underfed …’ He sighed. ‘Well, I’m a soft old bugger. It’s obvious the lass senses a kindred spirit. I thought it’d be good for her to have a pet. Not an independent thing like Pep, but one that needs some looking after.’

  Coco was getting sleepy now – he was still a very little puppy, and a short play was enough to tire him out. Edie watched Aggie coo over him as she gently stroked his head, and realised Jack was right.

  ‘She was such a hard little thing when she arrived, wasn’t she?’ Jack said quietly. ‘That’s what happens when someone spends their life getting knocked down. They put up a shell, and if it stays there long enough, no one’s ever going to be able to break through it. This is just what she needs to bring out her softer side – something to love.’

  ‘We can’t keep him hidden though, feeding him on stolen food,’ Edie said. ‘Prue’s bound to come in here sometime, and the longer it’s kept from her, the angrier she’ll be.’

  ‘Aye, you’re right,’ Jack said with a sigh. ‘Suppose I wanted to wait until the little feller was out of the woods before I told her, in case she slung him out.’

  ‘You don’t think she’d do that, do you? I know she doesn’t care much for animals, but she’s not cruel.’

  ‘No, but she can be a stubborn old mare,’ Jack said with the twitch of a smile.

  ‘She’ll listen to you, surely.’

  ‘Aye, she might.’ He looked at the children stroking the sleeping puppy. ‘It’d be a right shame to take him off them.’

  Edie sighed. ‘We’d better do it now.’

  ‘Suppose so,’ Jack said soberly. ‘I’ll fetch her. You prepare the bairns.’

  While he went to find Prue, Edie knelt down by Aggie. Coco blinked sleepily at her, his tail giving a few limp thumps of greeting.

  ‘Aggie, sweetheart,’ she said gently. ‘I’m sorry, but we have to tell Mrs Hewitt about Coco.’

  Aggie stared up at her with a look of hurt disbelief that cut right into Edie’s heart.

  ‘But she’ll send him away!’ She picked up the little dog and cuddled him to her chest. ‘If she sends him away, he’ll die! Get drownded or starved or eaten by a fox. He’s too little to be on his own.’

  ‘I hope she lets him stay but this is her home, Aggie. It’s not right to keep things a secret from her, and steal her food, when she’s kind enough to let us all live here.’

  ‘But … but … it isn’t fair!’

  ‘I’m sorry, my love. We don’t have any choice.’

  The tears were welling up in Aggie’s eyes, and little rivers had started to trickle down Jimmy’s cheeks, when Prue arrived with Jack.

  ‘Now what’s all this about a dog?’ she said, looking irritated.

  ‘Mrs Hewitt, please don’t send Coco away!’ Aggie said, looking up at her with swimming eyes. ‘He’s only a baby. If you let him stay we’ll be so good an’ we’ll do all our chores an’ … an’ anything you want, promise we will.’

  Prue took a bewildered look at the puppy in Aggie’s arms, then turned to Jack.

  ‘How long has this been going on?’

  ‘He’s been here a fortnight,’ Jack said with a guilty grimace.

  Prue’s face darkened. ‘So that’s where our precious rations have been going, is it? On some mangy stray you thought you’d conceal under my roof?’

  ‘Cheggy, don’t be like that. We thought –’

  ‘You may address me as Mrs Hewitt during working hours, Mr Graham,’ she told him stiffly. ‘Perhaps you’d like to explain why you chose to aid and abet these acts of theft rather than bringing them to my attention?’

  ‘I thought it would be good for the children to –’

  ‘It’s not your place to think anything,’ she snapped. ‘Sometimes I believe you forget you are a servant here and not the master of the house.’

  Jack’s face crumpled, and he turned away.

  ‘I’m sorry, but the dog will have to go,’ Prue said. ‘We can barely feed ourselves, let alone every waif and stray that appears on the doorstep.’

  ‘No!’ Aggie jumped to her feet and tugged at Prue’s skirts. ‘Please, Mrs Hewitt, no! He’ll die if you send him away. Please, I’ll look after him. Clean after him and walk him, and let him share my food.’

  ‘The dog will have to go,’ Prue repeated. She looked down at the little girl, and her expression softened slightly. ‘He may stay tonight, then tomorrow I shall make enquiries about finding him a home on one of the farms. I’m sure he’ll be happy there.’

  ‘But it’s not fair!’ Aggie’s fierce scowl returned, and she glared up at Prue. ‘You’re … you’re cruel, that’s what you are! You don’t want us here, you just put up with us because the war people make you. Coco was the only pet I ever had, the only thing what loved me my whole life apart from Jim, and now you’re going to send him away. I … I hate you, Mrs Hewitt! I hate you!’

  The girl burst into tears and ran, sobbing, from the stable.

  Chapter 23

  Dinner that evening was a sober affair. Jimmy and Aggie had shut themselves in their room and were refusing to speak to anyone, although their soft sobs were audible from out in the hall. Jack, too, declined to sit with the rest of the household in the dining room, choosing instead to eat in the kitchen. He delivered his apologies to Prue at the table.

  She looked up at him. ‘So you’re sulking, are you?’

  ‘Just thought it were best I remember my place,’ he muttered.

  Prue was silent as they ate their meal: an over-salted corned beef hash that wasn’t up to Tilly’s usual standards at all. Tilly, too, seemed morose, her face pale and rather pinched. Edie, assuming her friend must be suffering from another bout of pregnancy-related sickness, respected her desire for quiet and didn’t try to draw her into conversation.

  ‘Prue …’ Edie began, wondering how to bring up the subject of Coco.

  ‘Yes, Edith?’ Prue’s face was as dark as thunder.

  ‘Nothing.’ Edie knew when the fight was over before it had begun. Perhaps tomorrow Prue might have recovered her good humour enough for an appeal to her better nature, but all Edie was likely to do now was make things worse.

  ‘Where are those children?’ Prue said, frowning at the places that had been set for them.

  ‘I don’t think they’re coming. Aggie’s very upset. I’ll take them some supper in a little while.’

  ‘You will do no such thing. I refuse to pander to the child because she chooses to go into a pet. If she doesn’t care to come to the table, she can go without until breakfast time.’

  Again, Edie realised it was no good to argue.

  Prue didn’t speak again until the very end of their meal.

  ‘Did you know?’ she demanded of Edie.

  ‘About the dog?’ Edie shook her head. ‘Not until today. I told the children it wasn’t fair
to keep secrets from someone who had been so kind to them, and they saw my point once I put it that way.’

  Edie had hoped this might pour oil on troubled waters, but Prue’s frown deepened.

  ‘So it wasn’t Jack’s suggestion I be told,’ she said.

  Edie flinched, realising she’d put her foot in it again.

  ‘Well, yes,’ she said. ‘That is to say, we both agreed you ought to be told at once. I suppose he wanted to give the children some time with the dog first. You know, it’s done Aggie so much good. Really softened her hard edges.’

  Prue barely seemed to be listening. She pushed away the remains of her salty meal.

  ‘If you need me I shall be in my room,’ she said, and disappeared upstairs without so much as a goodnight.

  When she was sure the rest of the household were in their bedrooms, Edie sneaked to the kitchen and loaded a tray with bread and cheese from the pantry. She felt guilty for taking food without permission, but really, it was too bad to send the children to bed with empty bellies. They’d known too much of hunger already.

  She added a couple of glasses of milk, then took the tray upstairs and knocked softly at the door of their bedroom.

  ‘Can I come in?’

  ‘No,’ said a choked voice. ‘We don’t want to talk to no one.’

  ‘Please. I brought you some supper.’

  There was a pause, then the door opened a crack and a tear-stained little face peeped out.

  ‘All right, you can come in,’ Aggie said graciously. ‘For Jim, not me. He’s been hungry ages.’

  Edie entered and put the tray down on top of their toybox. Jimmy started helping himself hungrily, and after a second’s hesitation, Aggie joined him.

  ‘Why didn’t you come down to dinner, you two?’ Edie asked.

  ‘We didn’t want to see her,’ Aggie said with a deep scowl. The little girl might look almost comical, her furrowed brow not at all in keeping with a mouth full of bread and cheese, if it wasn’t for the tragic look in her eyes.

  ‘Mrs Hewitt was angry. This is her house, Aggie. You ought to have told her right away, you know.’