A Wise Child

by A Wise Child (retail) (epub)

  ‘It’s expected,’ Katy said. ‘Look at Peter. He’s fine when he’s on his own with me but if anyone else is there he has to be the tough fella, the big boss ordering me round, like.’

  Nellie nodded. ‘It’s just the way they are,’ she said. ‘The way Sam nursed and cuddled Tommy in the house but when he was out where his mates could see him he didn’t take no notice of him.’

  ‘I saw a motto on a calendar once,’ Katy said. ‘“Don’t expect more from people than they are able to give.” I think it means the way Peter and Sam are, if you know what I mean.’

  ‘They can’t help it, like,’ Nellie said.

  ‘The way they was brought up,’ said Katy, ‘but this is where we’ve got a chance with our kids, Nell. We can bring them up different.’

  ‘Sam brought himself up really,’ Nellie said. ‘He got turned out to fend for himself when he was seven. His mam died and his dad disappeared.’

  ‘He’s done well, then. To turn out the way he has,’ Katy said.

  ‘He got sent to the reformatory at Heswall when he was eleven,’ Nellie said. ‘At least it was better than the Akbar.’

  ‘The Akbar,’ Katy exclaimed. ‘Me Nin’s brother got sent there for three years when it was the old training ship in the river. Very near killed him, she said. Mind you, that was ages ago, about thirty years.’

  ‘They learned Sam to read and write at Heswall,’ Nellie said. ‘With living rough, like, he’d never been to school.’

  ‘It’s a wonder the school board man never got after him,’ Katy said. ‘I used to be terrified of that fella because me mam was always keeping us home to mind the other kids. I don’t know how your mam got away with keeping you off all the time.’

  ‘I remember him coming one time and Ma carrying on at him but then Janey went out to him and he never came no more,’ Nellie said. She laughed bitterly. ‘Ma was saying I was too delicate to go to school and I was in the middle of a big wash, just putting sheets through the mangle.’

  ‘I wonder what Janey said to him?’ Katy said but Nellie had not heard her comments although she now wondered about them.

  Later, after the evening meal, which had been Janey’s favourite tripe and onions, Nellie diffidently asked the old woman how she had dealt with the school board man.

  Janey sniggered. ‘Your ma was bellowing at him but he was used to that. I just told him I’d report him for acting dirty with kids if he didn’t leave us alone. He was gobbling there like a turkey cock, red in the face, saying he’d never heard such a thing and he’d have the law on me. He changed his tune though when I said I’d get half a dozen women to swear he’d interfered with their kids.’

  ‘But he seemed so respectable,’ Nellie exclaimed. ‘Did he really do that?’

  ‘Nah,’ Janey cackled. ‘But he knew the women’d do what I told them. He was blustering there for a while but he knew he was beat. I told him: mud sticks and people’d say there was no smoke without fire. He never come near us again anyhow.’

  She laughed happily, pleased with herself, but Nellie looked at her with horror. No wonder people were afraid of the evil old woman, she thought. And she knows something about me that I want to keep hidden and something about Sam’s family that it would hurt him to know. She slept little that night.

  Nellie knew that Janey was annoyed that she was making friends in the street and one day when Katy called while Janey was there, to arrange an outing, the old woman said suddenly, ‘Why don’t you go to Newsham Park where you was in service, Nellie? Mr Leadbetter, wasn’t it? I heard he lost his son and daughter with scarlet fever.’

  ‘There’s a terrible lot of that about,’ Katy said in alarm. ‘Me mam’s heard the fever hospital’s full and three kids have died from round here.’

  Janey ignored her and fixed glittering eyes on Nellie. ‘Your boss has got no son now,’ she said. ‘I heard he was looking for any born the wrong side of the blanket.’

  ‘That’s got nothing to do with me,’ Nellie said faintly.

  Fortunately Katy was too concerned with the danger to her children to pay attention to Janey but later when she was alone Nellie thought long and hard about her problem.

  She was not sure whether Janey’s comments about the Leadbetters were true but in any case it was clear that the old woman was not going to let the matter rest. I’ll have to tell Sam in case he hears it from someone else, Nellie thought, but she quailed at the thought. If only Sam was not so jealous.

  Nellie talked often to Tommy about his father and what they would do when Sam came home. The child was still small for his age but he was healthy with bright eyes and clear skin. Nellie bought a tablet of Pears soap and bathed him every night but even that annoyed Janey.

  ‘You’re laying up trouble for yourself,’ she jeered. ‘Sam won’t believe he’s his when he sees you trying to make a gentleman outa him. Pears soap, for God’s sake.’

  Nellie made no reply. She believed that Tommy would be less likely to fall victim to the diseases which were common in the neighbourhood if he was kept clean so she continued to bath him and dress him in clean clothes and to ensure that his food was not contaminated.

  Tommy was nearly eighteen months old when Sam returned and he was delighted with the child. Nellie again waited at home for him. She had dressed Tommy carefully and waited at the door for Sam and as soon as she saw him approaching she said to the child, ‘Here’s your dad, Tommy.’

  The child toddled to meet him and Sam dropped his bag and swung his son up into his arms. ‘By God you’ve grown, young fella,’ he exclaimed, grinning broadly, ‘walking an’ all.’

  He picked up his bag again and still carrying Tommy walked into the house and kissed Nellie.

  ‘This looks real homey,’ he exclaimed looking round the room which Nellie had again carefully prepared for his homecoming. ‘I’ve been thinking about coming back to this.’

  Nellie was pink with pleasure. ‘The wallpaper got mouldy but me and Bobby done it again,’ she said. ‘I got the sofa from the pawnshop and done it up. I thought you might have docked last night, Sam.’

  ‘We was supposed to but there was a holdup. Them bloody dockers were trying to warp us in before midnight though but luckily we couldn’t tie up till nearly six o’clock.’

  ‘I thought the sooner the better,’ Nellie said. ‘Luckily I didn’t tell Tommy just in case. He’s been like a hen on a griddle this morning.’

  Sam smiled proudly and sat down with the child on his knee. ‘I would’ve been glad to get in early last night. It’s them dockers,’ he explained. ‘If they can warp us in even one minute to midnight we don’t get no pay for today even though we don’t come ashore for bloody hours.’ He stopped abruptly. ‘Eh, I’ll have to watch me language, won’t I? Don’t want him coming out with swear words.’

  ‘He’ll be a while yet,’ Nellie said laughing. ‘Although he can say Bobby now and Mag.’

  ‘Can’t he say Sam?’ he said.

  Nellie looked surprised. ‘He says Dada and Mama and baba,’ she said, ‘he’s been saying them for ages.’

  Tommy was jumping up and down on his father’s knee and Sam hugged him. ‘Your da’s thick, lad,’ he said laughing. Tommy pulled at his father’s ears and chuckled with pleasure and Sam said suddenly, ‘He doesn’t half smell nice, Ellie.’

  ‘I bath him every night and I bought Pears soap for him,’ Nellie admitted. ‘I think it’ll keep him healthy but Janey thinks I’m daft.’

  ‘Don’t take no notice to her, girl,’ Sam said. ‘She doesn’t know what soap and water’s for.’

  Sam seemed reluctant to part with the child even to eat the bacon and sausage that Nellie fried for him and after the meal he lay down on the sofa with Tommy in his arms. Both fell asleep and Nellie crept about, careful not to disturb them.

  She wondered whether Sam had intended to go to the Volunteer but when he woke he seemed content to play with Tommy in the backyard, teaching him to kick a ball and hoisting him up onto his shoulders.


  Good job I’m not the jealous sort, Nellie thought. He’s hardly looked at me, but still, I’m made up he’s making such a fuss of Tommy. Shows he can’t have any doubts.

  She cooked spare ribs and cabbage for the evening meal on the gas ring which one of Bobby’s workmates had fixed up for them in the scullery. ‘It makes all the difference,’ she told Sam. ‘I don’t have to have a fire every day for cooking.’

  ‘Who done it?’ Sam asked suspiciously but Nellie was prepared for the question.

  ‘Some old fellow who works with Bobby,’ she said carelessly. ‘Bobby and me put together for the half crown he wanted for it.’

  She was determined to treat Sam’s jealous remarks casually as she felt that tears and protests would only make him more suspicious. It seemed an inauspicious time to tell him about Charlie West and Nellie decided to wait until Sam had been at home for a while.

  Now he was still in a good humour, sniffing the air and declaring that the food smelled good. ‘The grub was terrible on this voyage,’ he said. ‘A Chinese cook doped to the eyeballs half the time and the galley lads were dirty little scows. Never used to bother me but you’ve spoiled me, Ellie.’

  Nellie smiled. ‘I like everything clean,’ she said. ‘The cook in me first place was real particular. Everything had to be spotless. I think it’s safer for Tommy if everything’s clean and so far touch wood he hasn’t had none of the illness that the other kids have had.’

  Sam now unpacked his bag and proudly produced the presents he had brought home. There was a gaily coloured drum with fringe hanging from it for the baby, and for Nellie a gaudy scarf and two heavily decorated jars which released a musky fragrance when the lids were removed. For Bobby he had brought a tiny shrunken head. He told Nellie it was a fake when she showed signs of revulsion but later he told Bobby that it was real. ‘Don’t tell your sister though because she’d go mad,’ he whispered to Bobby who was delighted with the gift.

  Nellie decided to give one of the jars to Janey and asked Sam to give it to her.

  ‘It’ll take more than this to cover the smell of her fish,’ he joked, but he seemed too happy to refuse anything.

  Nellie had made her plans some weeks earlier for serving Janey’s meal in the parlour. She had bought a tin tray in the penny bazaar and now she laid it with a bottle of stout and a glass and a plate of bread.

  Fortunately Bobby arrived home before Janey and Nellie served the meal for him and Sam and put Janey’s portion between two plates. As soon as she heard Janey come into her room Nellie put the plates on the tray then, after knocking on the parlour door, carried it in.

  Janey was fumbling in the fishwife’s pocket she wore beneath her apron and she looked up angrily. ‘What do you want?’ she snarled.

  ‘I’ve brought your dinner, Janey,’ Nellie said. Her voice was calm although she was trembling as she put the tray on the table. ‘It’s cooler in here. I’ll make a cup of tea for you when you’re ready.’

  While Janey was still stricken dumb with surprise she escaped to the kitchen, shutting the door firmly behind her. She sank into a chair by the table and Bobby clapped her on the back. ‘Great stuff, Nell,’ he said. ‘You did it at last.’

  Sam looked from one to the other in amazement. ‘What’s going on?’ he demanded. ‘And what about your grub, Ellie?’

  ‘I’ll get it in a minute,’ Nellie said breathlessly, and Bobby explained to Sam that Nellie had been trying to pluck up courage to make Janey eat in her own room.

  ‘I have to let her come in here in the winter, like, until her fire burns up,’ Nellie said, ‘but she doesn’t need a fire now.’

  ‘You shouldn’t even be cooking for her, be rights,’ Bobby said. ‘It’s not as if she’s family.’

  Nellie nervously signed to him to speak quietly but Sam said firmly, ‘You done right, girl. You don’t want that dirty old scow near Tommy.’

  There was no sound from the parlour and Nellie waited nervously for Janey to appear but when she did she said nothing. She sat down by the table and Nellie placed a mug of tea before her, but then just as Nellie relaxed, feeling that all had gone well, Janey suddenly said, ‘I told you, didn’t I, about that fella you worked for? Joshua something. I heard he’d lost his son and now he’s looking for some of his by blows to take the lad’s place.’

  ‘Yes you told us,’ Nellie managed to say quietly. ‘With scarlet fever. Katy said the fever hospital was full.’ Her hands were trembling and she was sure that Sam could not fail to hear the tremor in her voice and the malice in Janey’s.

  He was sitting in his chair with Tommy standing between his knees but he only said in alarm, ‘Scarlet fever? The hospital’s full, you say. It’s that bad round here?’

  ‘Katy said it is,’ Nellie said. ‘But the whooping cough was bad last winter and Tommy didn’t catch it.’

  ‘He must be strong and healthy then,’ Sam said. He made no reference to Janey’s remarks and Nellie hoped that he had decided to ignore the old woman. She hoped too that he had decided that he could trust her and that during this time ashore she could tell him all that she had concealed from him.

  Chapter Six

  Maggie had hinted that Sam might be more demanding in bed after their long separation and Nellie found that this was true. Sam made love with a passion and urgency which aroused strange feelings in her and she found it difficult to resist the urge to abandon herself to them.

  ‘Was I too rough, girl?’ he asked her when they lay exhausted.

  ‘No, Sam,’ Nellie said meekly. She was alarmed by the strength of the tide of passion which had risen in her. She had responded timidly to Sam on other occasions but she had never felt quite like this. Am I a bad woman? she asked herself in dismay. Mrs Hignett had told her that only bad women let their feelings run away with them when they were out with a young man. Not that I was ever out with a boy, Nellie thought.

  Once she had heard a recently married niece complaining tearfully to the cook.

  ‘It’s a man’s nature, Elsie,’ Mrs Hignett had said. ‘I’ve heard the mistress in me last place told her daughters before they were married it was their duty to lie back and submit to their husbands. That’s what marriage is about. You’ve made your bed and you must lie on it.’

  I wish I knew more, Nellie thought. She had never been able to make friends in the street or in school who might have enlightened her when she was a child because she spent so much time as her mother’s drudge. She thought of asking Maggie, but although a good neighbour Maggie could be very indiscreet. I wouldn’t want no one to know I was so daft, thought Nellie.

  In the novelettes it was always the other woman who experienced ‘unwomanly feelings’ for the hero and the heroine was always as pure as driven snow. I’d get no sense out of Gertie, Nellie thought, and I wouldn’t like to ask Katy. A married woman with a baby having to ask questions like that!

  Bella never encouraged dirty talk among the women who gathered by her step and the respectable women if they spoke of what they called ‘that side’ of marriage did so with impatience or resignation to the demands made on them by their husbands. Nellie had never heard anyone say that they felt as she did and she remembered her feelings with guilt.

  ‘I don’t bother with them foreign women when we’re in port, Ellie,’ Sam said suddenly. ‘When I was only a little lad me mam was always telling me to keep away from bad women in ports if I went to sea and I suppose it stuck in me mind. I don’t fancy other men’s leavings anyhow.’

  Nellie said nothing. What would Sam say if he knew how she felt? That she almost enjoyed it. He’d think she was one of them bad women his mam had talked about.

  Sam spent most mornings in bed then after a meal he would take Tommy to the corner shop for sweets or play with him in the backyard. He bought a brightly coloured ball for the child and never tired of teaching him to play football with it. The rest of the day and evening Sam spent in the Volunteer, ‘mugging’ men to drinks as was customary and expected from retur
ning seafarers.

  Maggie had secured a cleaning job for two mornings a week and Nellie looked after her two youngest children while she was out.

  ‘We can’t go wrong these days,’ Maggie said gleefully. ‘I’m making the most of it while it lasts.’

  Maggie thought that Sam might object to Nellie caring for the children while he was at home but Nellie assured her that it made no difference.

  ‘He’s always in bed while they’re here in the morning and even if he gets up he doesn’t mind. I think he really likes kids.’

  ‘Yes, he’s a good man,’ Maggie said. ‘I know he still sups every night but he never gets falling drunk, does he, or in any fights. Did you ever tell him about Charlie West?’

  ‘No, I thought I’d better not,’ Nellie said and she was surprised when Maggie said, ‘No, better not with him being so jealous, like, but Charlie’s lying low now, isn’t he?’

  And I thought no one knew the way Sam is, Nellie thought. You can’t keep nothing to yourself round here.

  She never accompanied Sam to the Volunteer, but stayed at home as most of the women did, so she was rarely seen out with Sam. At home he was still like the boy she had known as a child, kind and considerate with her and a doting father to Tommy, who always welcomed him with delight.

  He was a good friend to Bobby and the young boy obviously admired him. Sam discussed Bob’s job and his workmates with him and gave him good advice about avoiding bad company – which might have benefited Sam himself.

  Nellie continued to serve Janey’s meal in her own room and the old woman seemed to have accepted the situation. She sometimes grumbled at Sam when he was nursing Tommy or playing games with him.

  ‘You’re too soft with that lad. You’ll have him spoilt.’ One day she said jeeringly, ‘Soft Sam. You’re as soft as butter with him.’

  Nellie held her breath and Sam half rose to his feet with an exclamation of anger but fortunately the baby said, ‘Sam Sam.’

  Janey took advantage of the distraction to slip into her own room and Nellie said quickly, ‘No, Tommy. Say Dad, Dad, love.’