Pride of Walworth

by Mary Jane Staples

  ‘D’you get that, you two twits?’ said Nick to Danny and Freddy. ‘See what you’ve done? You’ve landed us with two female committee members, and what with Cassie slipping craftily in every week on the pretext that she’s a spokesman for the supporters, we’re going to be knocked for six. No wonder I’ve got to see the doctor. You listening, Danny?’

  ‘Well, Nick, I got to say—’

  ‘Shut up,’ said Nick. Annabelle sat enthralled and thrilled. Crickey, what a lovely evening, what gorgeous fun, and what a way of getting her own back on Nick. ‘How’d you think we can run a serious football team with a committee stacked with petticoats and knitting? Mark my words, we’ll be voting every week on having to buy blue and white bloomers and funny hats for the supporters and probably rattles as well.’

  ‘Excuse me,’ said Cassie, ‘did I ’ear bloomers?’

  ‘I did,’ said Annabelle, ‘he came right out with it.’

  ‘Nick, I’m blushin’ for yer,’ said Dumpling.

  ‘I like yer rose-pink ones best, Dumpling,’ said Danny. ‘Still, I won’t say blue and white ones in the team’s colours wouldn’t look a treat on yer. I could be very admirin’ of ’em.’

  ‘’Ere, d’you mind?’ said Dumpling.

  ‘I’ll knock a hole in your head in a minute, Danny,’ said Nick. ‘D’you realize we’ve already heard some up-the-pole talk about knitted scarves and metal brooches? Where’s the money coming from?’

  ‘Oh, we could organize raffles and run dances,’ said Annabelle. ‘We could run the dances at Browning Hall. I know about Browning Hall. My mum and uncles used to go to dances there when they were young.’

  ‘Oh, aren’t you bright, Annabelle?’ said Cassie.

  ‘Yes, don’t she ’ave helpful ideas?’ said Dumpling. ‘She could be ever so valuable to us, and I ’ope the Rovers will come to be ’er life’s work till she’s about forty. We don’t mind you don’t live in Walworth, Annabelle.’

  ‘Oh, thank you, Chrissie, how kind,’ said Annabelle.

  Nick growled. Annabelle smiled.

  ‘I give up,’ said Nick. He reported on the team’s finances, pretty rocky with only a few bob in the kitty, and on a letter he’d had from the secretary of Portland Street United, whose team had fallen apart and wouldn’t be able to play any more matches. They never did have any stuffing, said Dumpling. As for the Rovers’ match on Saturday, said Nick, did anybody want to suggest that Dumpling played centre half, Cassie in goal and Annabelle centre forward?

  ‘Is ’e serious?’ asked Cassie.

  ‘Sarky, more like,’ grinned Freddy.

  ‘Are yer bein’ sarky, Nick?’ asked Dumpling. ‘Only I’d be joyful to play centre ’alf. Course, I wouldn’t be as good as you, but I’d do me best for the honour of it.’

  ‘Like to put it to the vote, would you, Dumpling?’ said Nick.

  ‘Oh, ain’t yer generous, Nick?’ breathed Dumpling.

  ‘Sarky, more like,’ said Freddy.

  ‘All in favour?’ said Nick, and they all eyed him. One could have said thunder was writ large on his brow again.

  ‘Er, well,’ mumbled Danny.

  Freddy coughed. The door opened, and Ma looked in.

  ‘Well, I never, no wonder I seemed to be ’earing a lot more voices than usual,’ she said, ‘there’s six of you. Still, you’ve got a nice fire to keep you warm.’ She spotted Annabelle. ‘My, you’re new,’ she said. What a lovely girl, she thought, who could she be?

  ‘Oh, ’ello, Mrs ’Arrison,’ said Dumpling, ‘Freddy’s cousin Annabelle’s come among us this evenin’. She’s a new supporter, and she’s on the committee now.’

  ‘Pleasure to meet you, Annabelle, I’m sure.’

  ‘That’s Nick’s mum,’ said Cassie.

  Annabelle took in the neat appearance of the perky woman and her friendly smile. So she’s his mother, with her husband in the Navy. Well, she looks nice.

  ‘How’d you do, Mrs Harrison, it’s a mutual pleasure.’

  ‘We’re just goin’ to vote on me takin’ Nick’s place at centre half on Saturday,’ said Dumpling.

  ‘Beg pardon?’ said Ma, blinking.

  ‘Yes, me at centre ’alf, would yer believe,’ beamed Dumpling.

  ‘Chrissie, it’s not natural,’ said Ma, ‘and what’s Nick going to do?’

  ‘See a doctor,’ said Nick.

  ‘You and Chrissie both better see one,’ said Ma, and left them to it.

  The vote went against Dumpling. She took it sportingly, just like one of the blokes, while Cassie and Annabelle declined to be considered for any match. The team picked itself then, and the meeting came to an end, leaving Nick with the peculiar feeling that he’d been turned inside-out.

  ‘Me and Cassie’ll take you ’ome now, Annabelle,’ said Freddy.

  ‘No, I expect Nick wants to,’ said Cassie, ‘him bein’ in charge and Annabelle a new supporter.’

  ‘Thanks, but my dad’s picking me up at nine,’ said Annabelle, and Ma came back then, carrying a tray on which were six cups of steaming tea and a plate of rockcakes baked in the afternoon.

  ‘Here we are,’ she said, ‘I thought as there was six of you I’d make a nice pot of tea for you,’ She placed the tray on the table. ‘’Ave you ’ad a nice committee meetin’?’

  ‘Thanks ever so much for the tea and cakes, Mrs ’Arrison,’ said Cassie, ‘and we’ve enjoyed an awf’lly fruitful meetin’.’

  ‘Yes, we’ve got an official supporters’ club now,’ said Dumpling. ‘Annabelle’s been elected to it nearly unanimous, and she’s on the committee as well. She’s got lots of ideas for raisin’ funds.’

  ‘That’s nice,’ said Ma, thinking the girl just a bit too attractive for Nick’s good. Well, a young man like him, and a girl like that, Lord knows what might come of it if Nick went weak in the head about her. ‘Well, enjoy the tea, there’s sugar in the bowl for anyone who wants it.’

  ‘Mrs ’Arrison,’ said Freddy, as Ma departed, ‘you’re a woman after me own heart.’

  ‘No, she’s not,’ said Cassie, ‘I am.’

  Nick silently passed the cups and saucers around. His eyes met Annabelle’s. Hers were clear and innocent. The tea was drunk and the rockcakes eaten while she chatted away with Cassie and Dumpling. She’s going to send me permanently barmy, thought Nick.

  Someone knocked on the front door.

  ‘That could be my dad,’ said Annabelle, looking at her watch. It was just after nine. Nick answered the door. A man in an overcoat and trilby smiled at him.

  ‘Have I got the right house?’ asked Ned. ‘Is my daughter Annabelle here?’

  ‘Come in,’ said Nick, ‘she’s in the parlour.’

  He took Ned in, and Ned made a brief survey of the young people. They all looked pleasantly healthy, even the girl burdened with plumpness.

  ‘Hello, Dad,’ said Annabelle, ‘thanks for being on time. We’ve finished the meeting. This is my dad, Chrissie. He knows Cassie and Freddy, of course, but not you and Danny.’

  ‘Hello,’ said Ned.

  ‘Oh, and this is Nick Harrison, Dad,’ said Annabelle.

  ‘Pleasure,’ said Ned, and shook hands with Nick. So this is the bloke she says she’s not interested in any more, is it? Well, I should think some girls are. Looks a fine young man. ‘Are you the one who runs this football team I’ve heard about?’

  ‘I helped to run it until I fell ill,’ said Nick.

  ‘When did that happen?’ asked Ned.

  ‘About an hour ago,’ said Nick.

  ‘Uncle Ned, don’t take any notice,’ said Cassie, ‘he’s not ill, he’s just been a bit peculiar all evenin’.’

  ‘Yes, you ’ave been a bit growlin’, Nick’ said Dumpling.

  ‘A bit like God,’ murmured Annabelle.

  Nobody quite heard that, so Freddy said, ‘What was that, Annabelle?’

  ‘Oh, nothing much,’ said Annabelle, coming to her feet and picking up her coat from the sofa. Silently, Nick took the coat and held i
t out for her. She slipped into it, fastened the belt, then put her hat on. ‘Thanks ever so much for such an interesting evening, everyone, and I’ll see you all at the match on Saturday and here again next week, when we can talk about organizing raffles and so on. Oh, and do thank your mother for the tea and cakes, Mr Harrison. Shall we go now, Dad?’

  ‘I’m ready,’ said Ned, ‘good night, all. Perhaps I’ll come and watch your team in action one Saturday.’

  ‘Oh, you’d be ever so welcome,’ said Dumpling.

  Nick saw father and daughter out.

  ‘Good night, Nick,’ said Ned.

  ‘Yes, good night,’ said Annabelle.

  ‘I’ll be at the doctor’s tomorrow, if I’m needed,’ said Nick. He watched them walk to a car. He watched them enter it. He heard the engine fire, and then away they went up Browning Street towards the Walworth Road, headlamps lighting the way for them.

  ‘Annabelle, you pickle,’ said Ned, as they turned left into the Walworth Road, ‘what’re you up to with that young man?’

  ‘Dad, I told you, I’m just interested in the football team, especially as Freddy’s a member and it’s got so much to do with where Grandma brought her family up. It’s like going back to my maternal roots.’

  ‘Can’t think why you went off Nick Harrison,’ said Ned, ‘he seems a fine-looking bloke to me.’

  ‘Bless me, d’you think so? I thought he was a bit ugly myself.’

  Ned, motoring past a lighted tram, said, ‘I find that a suspect remark. You are up to something, aren’t you? Your mother is having a job convincing herself you’re only interested in a football team. So am I. Three times you had tea in the City with Nick, and then suddenly it was just “oh, him.”’

  ‘You can go off some people, you know,’ said Annabelle.

  ‘So why, with the help of Cassie and Freddy, have you got yourself elected to Nick’s football committee?’

  ‘It’s not his committee.’

  ‘Come on, pet, out with it, what’s it really all about?’

  ‘Fun,’ said Annabelle.

  ‘Well, watch out that fun doesn’t turn serious one day and knock you for six,’ said Ned.

  ‘Oh, I shan’t lose my head, Dad.’

  ‘I’ve a feeling you might have already lost it without recognizing it’s gone missing,’ said Ned. ‘Never mind, pet, I’ll stand with you in all your trials and tribulations.’

  ‘Good old Dad,’ said Annabelle, thinking about the variety of stunned expressions on Nick’s face all through the hoot of a meeting.

  ‘She’s an official supporter, she’s been elected to the official supporters’ club and she’s on the committee as well?’ said Alice. ‘Who’s gone barmy?’

  ‘All of them,’ said Nick, ‘and it’s time I had a word with Freddy and Danny. Cassie’s got Freddy by his nose, and Danny’s besotted with Dumpling. Cassie and Dumpling performed a put-up job in getting this girl Annabelle on the committee, and Freddy and Danny got sucked in.’

  ‘Well, I don’t like it,’ said Ma, ‘I’ve got a feeling about ’er.’

  ‘So have I,’ said Alice.

  ‘D’you mean she might be after Nick?’ asked Amy.

  ‘Alice feels she might be,’ said Ma. ‘I wouldn’t mind about it if Pa was home and out of the Navy. I wouldn’t mind Nick takin’ up with ’er then. I’ve never seen a nicer girl, nor a prettier one.’

  ‘What about me?’ said Amy.

  ‘And me?’ said young Fanny.

  ‘Yes, you’re both pretty pictures,’ said Ma. She sighed. ‘It don’t become a mother to discourage ’er eldest daughter and ’er only son from ’aving special friends, except I know there’d be awkward moments about Pa. It’s gettin’ embarrassin’ with Gran Emerson and Ivy, with them askin’ after Pa so much, and that friend of Ivy’s ’usband sayin’ he’s never ’eard of a sailor bein’ away from home for years on end. I wish people wouldn’t get so interested in Pa’s whereabouts. This girl Annabelle now, if she gets interested in Nick, she’ll get interested in Pa as well, and ’is whereabouts.’

  ‘I’ve got that in mind, Ma,’ said Nick, who had.

  ‘It’s a shame, Nick,’ said Ma, ‘when she looks such a nice, kind girl. I’d be very approvin’ of you walkin’ out with one like ’er.’

  ‘Yes, I think she’d suit you, Nick,’ said Alice, ‘but it can’t be done, can it? Well, not yet it can’t.’

  ‘I’ve got so many reasons for feeling ill,’ said Nick, ‘that it’s a wonder I don’t need an operation.’

  Talk about women being like a Chinese puzzle, he thought, and talk about girls being like women well before they were. What was that ravishing young beauty up to if not trying to send him cuckoo? I’ll go grey if she keeps coming here to haunt me.

  ‘I just don’t understand,’ said Lizzy when Ned and Annabelle had arrived home. ‘Annabelle, you’ve never been interested in football before.’

  ‘Oh, I am now,’ smiled Annabelle.

  ‘You’ll get me really worried one day with the way you carry on,’ said Lizzy. ‘Are you sure you just want to share Freddy and Cassie’s interest in this football team, and that it’s nothing to do with that certain young man?’

  ‘What certain young man? Oh, him,’ said Annabelle.

  ‘Your dad has just said he seems a very nice young man.’

  ‘Oh, well, never mind,’ said Annabelle.

  ‘Never mind what?’ said Lizzy, while Ned stood by with a little smile on his face.

  ‘That he might be very nice,’ said Annabelle.

  ‘I wish you’d make sense,’ said Lizzy.

  ‘It’s an effort sometimes when you’re only seventeen,’ said Ned.

  ‘I’m goin’ to take a look at this Nick Harrison,’ said Lizzy. ‘If you mean to go and watch his team on Saturday, I think I’ll come with you.’

  ‘Mum, no,’ said Annabelle.

  ‘Why not?’ demanded Lizzy.

  ‘I’d feel soppy.’

  ‘Soppy?’ said Lizzy.

  ‘Yes, six years old,’ said Annabelle.

  ‘I’m gettin’ a headache,’ said Lizzy.

  ‘He said that.’

  ‘Who did?’

  ‘He did,’ said Annabelle, and laughed.

  Chapter Sixteen

  ‘WELL, WELL,’ SAID the Governor.

  ‘Spoiled his looks a bit, as you might say, sir,’ said the chief warder.

  ‘Very unfortunate fall of an accidental kind, Governor,’ said Pa, who had an ugly bruise on his forehead, another on his jaw and a graze on his cheek. He’d done what he’d known he shouldn’t, he’d delivered a complaint about Ma’s severely cut allowance into the grapevine. ‘Might I suggest some carpet treads on the iron stairs?’

  ‘I didn’t have you brought to my office to get my goat, Harrison,’ said the Governor, ‘but to ask you who knocked you about. I don’t allow that kind of thing in my establishment.’

  ‘Believe me, Governor, I’m not in favour myself,’ said Pa, ‘but when you trip on a stair, down you go, and that’s it. Very hurtful. However, Governor, now I’m here might I put a proposition to you?’

  ‘No fancy talk, Harrison, you hear me?’ said the chief warder.

  ‘Give you my word, Mr Saunders,’ said Pa.

  ‘That’s funny talk. Cut it.’

  ‘What’s the proposition?’ asked the Governor, and Pa put it to him with admirable clarity, even if he made use of a few unnecessary adjectives. The chief warder blinked, the Governor eyed Pa impassively.

  ‘Well, well,’ he said again.

  ‘Glad to have you consider it, Governor,’ said Pa.

  ‘I’ll consider it if you mention a name or two,’ said the Governor.

  ‘Now, Governor, I ask you fair and square, could I do that without first getting a guarantee of goodwill?’ asked Pa, gently rubbing his bruised jaw.

  ‘He’s a caution, this one,’ said the chief warder.

  ‘Harrison, if you can deliver, I can guarantee your almost immediate re
lease,’ said the Governor. ‘Note, Mr Saunders, how carefully the official reason for release must come about.’

  ‘Come about, sir, right,’ said Mr Saunders.

  ‘Proceed, Harrison,’ said the Governor.

  Pa spilled the beans, and not about the American lady’s jewels alone. The Governor, satisfied, and not unaware that results would add further to the distinguished nature of his record, gave Pa the order to dismiss.

  ‘Thank you, Governor,’ said Pa, ‘but first might I be awarded two days solitary on account of having been obstreperous?’

  ‘Ah, yes,’ said the Governor, ‘I take the point, Harrison. Make it three days, Mr Saunders.’

  Word soon got round, of course, that Knocker Harrison, far from having split on whoever roughed him up, had been so aggravated at being asked for a name that he gave the Governor a basinful of lip. It put him in the hole of Calcutta for three days. Well, said some hard cases, Knocker ain’t such a ponce, after all.

  Annabelle, the woman scorned, was at Saturday’s football match. Naturally gregarious, with an engaging personality, she mixed in effortlessly with the other girl supporters. Alice couldn’t help liking her, and young Fanny thought her not a bit stuck-up. Fanny also thought she wasn’t really very interested in Nick, she didn’t say one word about him, not even when he scored one of his cracking centre half goals. And at half-time, when the Rovers came off the field, she talked mostly to Freddy and Danny, turning her back on Nick.

  Nick accepted it was all just as well. The more he saw of her, the more he wanted to carry her off to somewhere private, smack her bottom, tickle her silly and then eat her.

  During the second half, she cheered all Freddy’s efforts, clapped when Ronnie Smith scored, and said oh what a shame when Charlie Cope failed to prevent a goal by the opponents.