A Wise Child

by A Wise Child (retail) (epub)

  ‘No, he’s homeward bound now from Canada,’ Nellie said. ‘Another couple of weeks.’

  ‘I hope I can meet him some time,’ Meg said.

  ‘Of course you will,’ Nellie said. ‘You’re family now.’

  Before they left Bobby told Nellie that he intended to tell Mrs Handley about the engagement.

  ‘That’s a good idea, lad,’ Nellie said. ‘She’d be hurt if she found out and you hadn’t told her and she can make it easier for you and Meg to see each other.’

  Meg took off her ring and replaced it in the box before they left. ‘Just in case we meet someone on the train,’ she said.

  She looked sad and Nellie hugged her impulsively. ‘Never mind, you and Bob know you’re engaged and things will work out for you, you’ll see.’

  Meg hugged her in return and whispered, ‘It’ll be lovely to have a sister.’

  Nellie was relieved that they left before Janey returned but she was surprised that the old woman, usually so inquisitive, had stayed out for so long. She raked out some of the hot coals from her fire and took them through to the parlour grate, adding some sticks and coal to warm the room.

  Nellie was just about to go to bed when Janey returned and flung open the parlour door. ‘Who told you you could go rooting round in me room?’ she demanded. ‘Keep out, d’yer hear, and keep yer bloody nose outa my business.’

  ‘I made a fire because it was so cold out,’ Nellie exclaimed. ‘I won’t bother again.’

  She went upstairs raging but the next morning the old woman said ingratiatingly, ‘I didn’t mean to yell last night, girl. It was just me body clothes was in the oven and I thought they might get burned.’

  Body clothes! Nellie thought scornfully. If she wears any they’ve been on her for years, but she said nothing and let the incident pass.

  She had written to Mrs Handley after the visit there to thank her and her husband for their hospitality and to thank them for looking after Bobby so well. She was surprised to receive a reply from Mrs Handley written in beautiful copperplate handwriting, telling her that she would be welcome to bring Tommy for a holiday at any time.

  Now Nellie decided to write again to Mrs Handley to thank her for the offer and to mention Meg and Bob’s engagement. She thought that Mrs Handley might tell her more about Meg’s father and she was not disappointed.

  Mrs Handley replied describing Meg as a grand lass and saying that she thought Meg and Bob very well suited. Meg’s father was not well liked in the village because he was a morose bad-tempered man. She thought he had been different when his wife was alive but she had died when Meg was seven.

  He had brought Meg up and been a good father but had never shown her much affection. Nellie’s ready sympathy went out to Meg. Poor girl. To lose her mother so young and to be brought up by such a hard father. Me and Bob will have to make it up to her, she thought. Make a fuss of her.

  She looked over at Tommy who was eating fried bread and drinking tea before he set off for school. She pictured Meg at the same age being left without a mother and Sam being cast out by his father at seven to fend for himself. And when I was that age what a life I had. Nothing but drudgery and being battered by me ma.

  Thank God Tom had had a better life so far. Enough to eat and warm clothes in the winter. Granted this house is very near falling round our ears, Nellie thought, and in summer we’re tormented with bugs and fleas. I’m ashamed the way our bodies are covered with bites from them but in the winter they’re not so bad. All the walls are wringing wet but I battle with the bugs and we have the oven shelf to warm the bed in winter. Tom’s a lucky boy with a good home and a mother and father who love him.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Nellie was still being plagued by Charlie West. It seemed that almost every time she went out she met him.

  ‘He knows the way I go to work,’ she complained to Maggie Nolan. ‘If I see him I turn down a different street but when I get to the bottom he’s there waiting for me. He must run through the jiggers.’

  ‘He’s off during the day now,’ Maggie said. ‘You know he got an odd night playing the saxophone in a band? Well, now he’s got a proper place in a band. They was playing at Blair Hall last night.’

  ‘Must’ve gone to his head,’ Nellie said. ‘I don’t know why he bothers with me though. Gertie says girls are always mad after fellers in bands, even him, and he knows I can’t stand him.’

  ‘That’s probably why,’ Maggie said shrewdly. ‘He doesn’t like the idea someone won’t fall for him. And then he’s still got his spite in for Sam.’

  ‘I don’t know why,’ Nellie said and Maggie laughed.

  ‘I do,’ she said. ‘One time there was a row in the Volley and Charlie wanted to fight Sam. He tried to hit Sam and Sam just held him off and told him to fight someone his own size then he walked out. Charlie never got over it but if Sam had hit him he’d have killed him. He was twice the size of Charlie. Bella told me.’

  ‘Everyone seems to know more about Sam than what I do,’ Nellie said resentfully.

  ‘I’m going back years now, girl, when you was away in service,’ Maggie said. ‘When Charlie was going to sea but fellers like him bear grudges for years.’

  ‘Has he given up his checker’s job, then? Is that why he’s always around in the daytime?’ Nellie asked.

  ‘I believe it give him up, more like,’ Maggie said. ‘He was always having days off, so he got his cards, but that doesn’t bother Lord Muck. He still seems to have plenty in his pocket but he’s still dodging his round if he can. You want to tell Sam he’s pestering you or tell Charlie you will.’

  ‘I never say nothing to him. I just get away as quick as I can,’ Nellie said. ‘The cheek of him, to think I’d bother with him when I’ve got Sam.’

  ‘He looks a proper little dago,’ Maggie agreed, ‘that sleeked-down black hair and his little pencil moustache and the size of him! He thinks he’s the whole cheese though.’

  ‘The answer to a maiden’s prayer, Gertie says,’ giggled Nellie and went into her own house, laughing.

  Sam arrived home a week later bringing some beautiful wooden animals for Tommy, carved by Indians, and soft leather gloves for Nellie. ‘You said in the letter about him showing things to the teacher, like,’ he said.

  ‘Oh Sam, he’ll be made up,’ Nellie said. ‘He’ll be home in half an hour.’ Sam looked rough and unkempt, his hair too long and thick and his weatherbeaten face unshaven, but Nellie smiled at him tenderly. She knew that his appearance belied his real nature.

  ‘Didn’t you have no barbers among the crew, Sam?’ she teased him as she brewed a pot of tea for him.

  ‘Didn’t have no time, girl,’ he said, standing up and peering into the piece of mirror above the sink. ‘It was a cow of a trip. Even docking everything went wrong. I’d better have a scrape before the lad comes home and I’ll go down to Hogan’s after.’ He ran his hand over his face, then through his thick curls. ‘I’ll get me money’s worth this time anyhow.’

  Tommy was delighted with his gifts and told Sam at length about the day he had taken his boat and drum to school. Sam coloured with pleasure when the boy repeated the teacher’s remarks.

  They had their meal before Janey came home and Nellie told Sam that the old woman seemed dirtier than ever. ‘She’s up to no good, I’m sure,’ she said, ‘I often hear people talking in the parlour but she never lets on about them. Maggie says she often sees Charlie West going in the side door.’

  Sam’s head jerked up. ‘Charlie West? Does he come in here?’

  ‘No, of course not,’ Nellie said hurriedly, ‘Janey keeps the door into here bolted when she’s in there at night. Maggie can see a bit of the entry from her bedroom window, that’s how she knows he goes in on the sly.’

  Tommy began to talk about the visit to Yorkshire but Sam’s response to Charlie West’s name made Nellie decide to say nothing about him waylaying her.

  ‘You should have seen our Bob’s bedroom,’ she said instead.
‘Spotless, no bugs or nothing and lovely furniture and a big soft bed. And the air, Sam, coming through the window. It was lovely.’

  ‘And the flowers, Dad, and the birds we seen,’ Tommy said eagerly, ‘and we didn’t half have a lot to eat, didn’t we, Mam?’

  They described the tea party until Sam laughed and said that they were making his mouth water. ‘Mrs Handley gave us a bagful of stuff too,’ Nellie said. ‘I wish we could have saved some of it for you, Sam, but it wouldn’t keep.’ She said nothing about the tart she planned to make with the jar of damsons, as she meant it as a surprise for Sam.

  ‘We didn’t give none of it to Janey,’ Tommy said importantly, ‘only the eggs. It would have been wasted on her.’

  Sam looked at Nellie and grinned and she said hurriedly, ‘Don’t repeat that to no one, Tommy.’ She turned to Sam. ‘There was a box of new-laid eggs and I boiled one each for us but Janey said they were no different to shop eggs. I shared the ham and the chicken and that with Maggie and Katy and give Gertie some parkin and eggs. They all appreciated it.’

  ‘It seems to have done Bobby a power of good living there,’ Sam said. ‘I wish I could see him again. You like his girl, then, Ellie?’

  ‘Oh yes, she’s real nice, isn’t she, Tom?’ Nellie said and the boy nodded.

  ‘I like Mr and Mrs Handley too,’ he said.

  After the meal Sam said he would go to the barber’s. ‘Do you want to come, lad?’ he asked Tommy and they went off together, Tommy strutting proudly beside his father. When they came back he carried a balloon given to him by the barber.

  ‘He said me dad done well to get a ship the way things are and getting worser all the time,’ he announced.

  ‘He wasn’t very cheerful, was he?’ Nellie exclaimed.

  ‘He’s right though, girl,’ Sam said. ‘Me and George were saying we’ll have to keep getting down and trying for a ship. No use waiting till we’re spent up, like. Won’t be no walkover getting a ship the way things are now.’

  ‘You and George do all right though, Sam, being big fellers and known as hard workers. Not like little fellers like Josh Jenkins,’ Nellie said.

  Sam grinned. ‘I laughed at what you said in that letter, Ellie, about Josh Jenkins’ wife and the things the other women said.’

  ‘Bella always sticks up for me,’ said Nellie, ‘I can’t do nothing wrong with her lately. She calls me to sit on the step with her.’

  ‘She’s a good one to have on your side, girl,’ Sam said, ‘especially with having no relations of your own, like.’

  ‘And Tommy’s all right going to school with Katy’s kids. All Bella’s grandchildren look after him,’ Nellie said.

  Sam looked over to where Tommy crouched before a stool on which he had lined up the animals Sam had brought him, gabbling to himself as he wove stories about them. ‘He looks healthy enough, Ellie, but he’s still on the small side, isn’t he?’ he said.

  ‘Me dad was small and Dr Wilson thinks Tommy’s the spitting image of him,’ Nellie said. She spoke without thinking but when Sam looked at her enquiringly she said quickly, ‘I just seen him for something but it was nothing.’

  She jerked her head at the child warningly. ‘I’ll tell you after. D’you know what he told me? He helped me dad to get me first place for me. Miss Agatha and Mr Ambrose were his friends.’

  ‘He done you a good turn all right, then,’ Sam said. He grinned. ‘Does he know how often you talk about them?’

  Nellie laughed. ‘Well, I was happy there. Very different to the life what I had here.’

  ‘Aye, that’s true, girl,’ Sam said. He stood up and stretched. ‘Come on, lad. I’ll take you up before I go out.’

  ‘That back room’s wringing wet,’ Nellie said. ‘But I’ve pulled the bed into the middle of the floor and put the oven shelf in it to warm it for him.’

  ‘Can I take me animals up, Mam?’ Tommy asked.

  ‘Just one,’ Nellie said but Tommy stood so long trying to decide which one that Sam said finally, ‘Ee are, lad, I’ll pick one for you. The reindeer.’

  When Sam came down after putting Tom to bed he said he was tired out. ‘He wanted to know all about the reindeers and the questions he asked! Took more outa me than a day’s work!’

  ‘I know, you answer one question then he asks you another one about that,’ Nellie said. ‘But he’s real clever, Sam. The teacher is made up with him.’

  Sam smiled proudly. ‘I’ll bet she is,’ he said. He had put Nellie’s share of his pay-off on the dresser and now he said, ‘I’d better get down to the Volley, girl. Get me hand in me pocket or me name’ll be mud.’

  Nellie went to the door with him and Gertie who was at her door across the street called, ‘Hello, Sam. Welcome home.’ Sam raised his hand in salute and walked away and Gertie came across to Nellie.

  ‘Sam looks smart, doesn’t he?’ Gertie said. ‘I’ll bet Tommy’s made up to have him home.’

  ‘Oh he is,’ Nellie said. ‘He’s just been to the barber’s with Sam. You know the fellers always clean up the ship and themselves when they come into dock but Sam said they didn’t have no chance this trip. A cow of a trip, he said, even up to docking. He had a shave though and went to the barber’s.’

  ‘He always keeps himself clean and smart, doesn’t he?’ Gertie said. ‘A pity you couldn’t go out with him his first night home.’

  Nellie looked surprised. ‘But he has to go to the Volley,’ she said. ‘He has to mug the fellers after getting paid off. All the fellers do it.’

  ‘Well, I think it’s a pity none of them have the courage to change it,’ Gertie said.

  ‘Sam’s no coward,’ Nellie said indignantly, ‘it’s just the way things have always been done round here.’

  ‘I’m just talking general,’ Gertie said. ‘I know Sam does go out with you and Tommy and that but some fellers round here – the wives and families never see them when they’re ashore. They’re in the pub all the time until they’re spent up then they’re scrounging off the wives for ale money. I think Sam should’ve had tonight with you and Tom. Plenty of time for mugging them scroungers in the pub after that.’

  Nellie said nothing and Gertie hastily changed the subject. ‘Do you know what? Mrs Gilligan told me fortune last night,’ she said.

  ‘Go way!’ Nellie exclaimed. ‘What did she say?’

  ‘She said I’m going to have a disappointment but then everything will come right. I think she would have told me a lot more only Lettie come in just when it was getting interesting. She doesn’t like her mam telling fortunes.’

  ‘I wonder would she tell mine some time?’ Nellie said eagerly.

  ‘I’m sure she would but we’d have to keep it dark from Lettie. She is a gypsy like we thought, Nell. She told me she come up in a caravan for Grand National week and that’s how she met her husband. I’ll tell her about you.’

  Sam was still sober when he returned from the Volunteer and they went to bed and made passionate love, for once without the thought at the back of Nellie’s mind that a baby might be the result.

  Before they slept Sam asked about her visit to Dr Wilson and Nellie told him that it was because the nurse had thought Tommy’s birth might have caused some damage but the doctor had said that she was a healthy young woman.

  Sam was quite satisfied with Nellie’s edited version of her visit but very sorry to hear that Nurse McCann was so ill.

  Nellie snuggled into his arms and they drifted off to sleep. Moonlight was flooding the room when Nellie woke again.

  She raised herself on her elbow and began to study Sam’s face, thinking of Gertie’s words about his smart appearance. The barber had cut his hair very short but it still sprang in tight curls all over his head. He’s handsome really, Nellie thought fondly, looking at his wide brow and firm lips and the little cleft in his chin.

  She thought that Sam was unaware of her scrutiny until he half opened his eyes and peeped at her.

  ‘Would you know me again if you seen me,
girl?’ he teased her.

  Nellie blushed. ‘Oh, Sam, I was just looking at the way he cut your hair so short. I never noticed that little nick in your ear before. How did you do that?’

  ‘I’ve always had it,’ Sam said. ‘Don’t know how I got it or even if I was born with it. Didn’t have no time to find out before I got threw out.’

  He spoke bitterly and Nellie hugged him. ‘That’s all behind you now, lad,’ she consoled him. ‘I was only thinking about that when Meg was here. When she told me her mother died when she was seven and I thought it was the same age Tommy is now. Then I thought that you was seven when you had to start fending for yourself.’

  ‘Aye, when you look at him and think I was that age living rough, and Meg without a mother and the life you had, Ellie. You’d have been better off without your ma,’ Sam said.

  ‘Thank God things is better for Tommy anyhow,’ Nellie said. Sam smiled. ‘Aye, the oven shelf in the bed. I never had no bed!’

  ‘But we’re all better off now, Sam,’ Nellie said. ‘We’ve got an easy life now, haven’t we?’

  ‘We have, girl,’ Sam agreed, drawing her close and kissing her tenderly.

  It was a very happy time ashore and Nellie felt that she and Sam had never been so close. They were relaxed together, able to tease each other and finding endless delight in the evidence of their son’s intelligence.

  Nellie was careful never to give Sam any excuse for jealousy and she was relieved that Charlie West seemed to have vanished. She learned later that he was with the band in Rhyl for a three-week booking.

  Although Sam was only home for ten days they had two family outings, to Eastham Woods and to New Brighton. The days were lengthening but the wind was still chill on the day they boarded the ferryboat for Eastham.

  Nellie would have preferred to sit in the saloon on the boat but a quick glance showed her several unattached men standing or sitting there so she thought it wiser to go on deck with Sam and Tommy.

  She was glad that she did. They sat on the rafts on deck, Sam with one arm round Nellie and the other round Tommy, and she enjoyed breathing the fresh salt air and watching the shipping in the river. Questions poured from Tommy about a White Star liner which had dropped anchor in the river and the passenger and luggage tenders which fussed about her.