‘God’s truth, Ellie, your ears must be wore out,’ Sam exclaimed but he answered all Tommy’s questions carefully and explained the work of a dredger that they passed.
The weather was slightly warmer on the Sunday when they went to New Brighton and they all spent a very happy day there. They watched a Pierrot show and Tommy joined lustily in the singing. ‘That’s what I’m going to do when I grow up,’ he informed his parents.
‘I hope it keeps fine for you,’ Nellie remarked but she smiled indulgently at the child.
They went to the fair and Sam won a prize in the shooting gallery and told Tommy to pick the prize. Sam’s score was high so there were several large toys which Tommy could have chosen but instead he chose a cup and saucer with Mother picked out in gold lettering on them. Nellie and Sam were both delighted.
While Sam was ashore Nellie served Janey’s meals in the parlour but there were no protests from Janey. She spent most of her time at home in the parlour now and seemed to have visitors on most evenings. Sam had given her money as usual when he arrived home, and again later in the week, and she seemed content to keep out of his way for most of the time.
Sam and George Adams kept their resolve to apply for ships early in their time ashore, although Buck declared that he was home until he was spent up. The two men spent one fruitless day at various shipping offices but at their second attempt Sam came home early.
‘We tried Lamport and Holt’s first,’ he said. ‘George could’ve got on but I couldn’t but we got on together on an Elder Dempster ship in the Sandon. The only thing is we had to sign running articles.’
‘What does that mean, Dad?’ asked Tommy, who was eating his dinner before going back to school.
‘Means we haven’t signed on just for one trip, lad,’ Sam said. ‘With running articles we could be away a long time.’
‘But why, Dad?’ Tommy persisted.
‘Because we’ll be trading round. Picking up cargoes. Putting in to different ports, like,’ Sam said. ‘But wherever we put in, lad, I’ll get something for you. Might even bring you a monkey.’
‘Oh no, Sam,’ Nellie exclaimed before Tommy could speak and Sam laughed.
‘Only joking, girl,’ he said. ‘But I’ll fetch you plenty, don’t worry.’
He seemed so cheerful that Nellie realised how worried he had been at the prospect of being without a ship.
She was relieved that he and George would be sailing together, especially as they would be away for a long time, but for herself she was sad at the prospect of a long parting.
Just when we’re real close and happy, she thought. No rows or nothing. I’ll miss him terrible and so will Tom. She tried to appear cheerful during the last few days but when Sam was leaving she broke down and wept. She had kept Tommy home from school and he and Sam tried to console her but they were all upset.
‘It mightn’t be all that long, Ellie,’ Sam said. ‘Who knows. I could be home in no time,’ but they both knew that it would be a long separation. It was easier for Sam to console Tommy by making extravagant promises.
‘I’ll bring you something from every port,’ he promised. ‘Bamboo whistle and face masks and a proper bongo drum.’
Nellie dried her tears and tried to smile as she kissed Sam goodbye.
‘What should I bring you, girl?’ he asked.
‘Just yourself, lad, safe and sound,’ she whispered and Sam kissed her tenderly. They drew apart and Sam looked at her thoughtfully.
She looked young and slim and attractive, in a dark skirt and a blouse of pretty material with white daisies on a blue background. Tendrils of her curly brown hair escaped from her bun and clustered round her forehead and her big blue eyes were bright with tears.
She’s changed, Sam thought. When he’d married her she had been like the child he remembered, with a white face and big frightened eyes but now she was different. Not frightened any more. Making friends in the street and going off on a train journey just with Tommy. Working with them toffs. She looks real posh herself, specially in that coat, but I’m still the same scruff I always was, he thought.
Sam was unaware that Nellie had made a special effort to give him a pleasing picture of herself for him to remember her by and he felt jealousy like a physical pain gripping him. This was what other fellows would see all the time he was away, he thought, and bitterly regretted listening to George about getting a ship.
All this had flashed through his mind in seconds and yet at the same time he felt ashamed that he doubted Nellie. Although fellers gave her the eye even when she was with him she never gave them no encouragement and she only wore her coat when he was home. Aloud he said, more loudly than he meant, ‘You going to stick to the shawl while I’m away, Ellie?’
She looked up at him, startled. ‘Yes, of course, Sam,’ she said nervously, and he put his arms round her again and kissed her passionately.
‘Ta-ra, Ellie. Look after yourself,’ he said huskily.
‘You too, lad. Come home safe,’ she whispered, her arms tight round his neck.
‘Can I come up the street with you, Dad?’ Tommy asked. Sam said quickly, ‘No, lad. Stay here with your mam. Look after her.’ He gripped the boy’s shoulder, his head averted, then picked up his bag and stepped out of the house.
His mind was seething with various emotions as he strode up the street, nodding mechanically to people who shouted, ‘Ta-ra, lad. Good luck.’ Now he was sorry he had said that about the shawl. After the way he had battened down hatches on his jealousy all the time he was home, to go and say that at the end.
It was George who had advised him to fight his jealousy. ‘There’s no need for it, lad,’ he’d said, one night when they were sitting on a hatch cover getting a breath of air. ‘Rose says she’s a real good girl. Lives for the child and getting the place nice for you coming home. You’re a lucky feller and you don’t want to spoil it.’
I want to believe him and I want to believe Ellie, Sam thought, but it was little things. The way she let things slip then covered up. Like going to the doctor. Like when she let that slip about Charlie West going in the side door, then went red and wouldn’t look straight at him.
And the hints the old one had dropped that day he gave her some money off his advance note. About Charlie West always sniffing round. I told her it was all yarns about girls with that feller. It was lads he liked, but she stuck to her tale. Said he liked a bit of both, especially off married women. Made out he’d cleared off to Rhyl while I was home but he’d be back.
I should’ve belted her only she was old and she was trying to pay back for the money in her own way, Sam thought. Or it might have been spite against Ellie because she had spoke sharp to the old girl about spitting in the grate.
That’s partly why I didn’t tackle Ellie about it at the time and partly because she was that made up about that damson tart she’d done as a surprise. He smiled tenderly as he remembered Ellie standing by the oven after they’d had spare ribs and cabbage, then whipping the oven door open and bringing out the damson tart. She’d been like an excited child, especially when she’d brought in a big jug of custard too.
A crowd of Greek sailors passed him from a ship that had just docked and he felt bitter envy. If only he was coming home instead of going away. There’d be plenty of fellers home before he docked again, he thought. Plenty of fellers to try to make up to Ellie. I know she doesn’t take no notice to them, he thought, but one day there might be one that she’ll fall for. He was scowling when he met George by the Overhead to travel to the south docks.
They settled themselves on the train and the older man said sympathetically, ‘No joke leaving, is it, Sam? You had a good time while you was home, though, didn’t you?’
‘Aye, but it wasn’t long enough. I was a bit sorry I signed. Didn’t like leaving the lad,’ Sam said. ‘He’s gonna be changed when I get back.’
‘I suppose Nellie was upset too, same as Rose,’ George said. ‘But at least this way we’re looking after th
em, Sam, and this has got to be better than the last trip.’
‘Godstrewth, yes,’ Sam said, ‘there was a jinx on that right up to the last minute.’
‘I never come off a ship so scruffy,’ George agreed.
Suddenly Sam remembered looking in the mirror over the sink and seeing his dirty unshaven face and shaggy hair and a glimpse in the background of Ellie by the table neat and fresh and clean.
She made a joke of it about the barber, he thought, but I wonder what she really thought about me. We both started rough but she’s turned out different to me. Must’ve been what they learned her in that first place she’s always talking about.
He felt miserable again but they went for a pint before going aboard and Sam felt more cheerful when he met some of the crew and had a joke with them. When they went below a few men were already there and Sam was annoyed to see Bert Hagan.
Hagan seemed dismayed to see him and they nodded to each other unsmilingly.
‘I never expected to see him,’ Sam muttered to George but his friend said quietly, ‘Don’t worry, lad. He’s on a different watch. You won’t see him.’
Sam was sitting on his bunk later, looking at the snapshot of himself and Nellie and Tommy taken at New Brighton, when another man paused beside him.
‘That your wife and nipper?’ he asked and pulled out a photograph of three children.
‘Them’s my three,’ he said proudly. ‘Didn’t half carry on when I was coming away. The missus was crying her eyes out.’
‘So was mine,’ Sam said quickly. The man looked young to be the father of three children but he told Sam that he had been at sea since he was fourteen and he was now twenty-six years old. His name was Billy Olafson.
‘It’s all right when you’re single, like, the sea,’ he said, ‘But it’s different when you’re leaving a wife and kids, isn’t it?’
Sam agreed. ‘Trouble is there’s nothing ashore though. Fellers are cutting each other’s throats for jobs and it’s getting worse.’
‘Me kids fret after me, the missus says,’ Billy went on. ‘I didn’t like leaving her neither.’
Sam waited to hear him say that he worried about other men hanging round his wife but when Billy only stood looking at the photograph Sam said carefully, ‘Plenty of people ashore who’ll take advantage while we’re away.’
‘I’m not worried about that. We’ve got good neighbours and her mam’s in the next street,’ Billy said. ‘It’s just the money. Me last trip she didn’t get nothing for five months but she can look after herself and the kids. Made toffee apples and sold them off a handcart to feed the kids but it’s a worry, isn’t it?’
Sam felt ashamed. Other fellows seemed to have none of the jealous worries that plagued him. It must be me. I’m bloody twisted, he thought, but soon he was too busy to dwell on anything but the ship.
Billy was on the same watch as himself and George and when they came off watch Billy talked again about his family as they ate their meal. He said that his eldest boy loved horses and was always hanging round the stables at the top of the road and Sam told him about Tommy and how much he had enjoyed the day in the country.
‘Is Nellie going to take him there for a holiday?’ asked George who was sitting near by. ‘She told Rose about Bobby’s landlady asking her.’
‘I don’t think so,’ Sam said. ‘She said she wouldn’t, like. Might do the wrong thing and make a show of herself and Bobby.’
‘I don’t see why she should,’ George said. ‘Bobby managed all right and he hadn’t been in good service like Nellie. It’d do the lad the world of good.’
The talk turned to other matters but later Sam wrote to Nellie, urging her to take Tommy on holiday to Yorkshire. He told her what George had said and finished by saying that a holiday would do her good as well as Tommy. ‘Don’t worry about your job,’ he wrote. ‘You’ll be sure of my money for eighteen months at least so don’t take any old buck from the missus. Tell her what to do with her job if she cuts up about you being off.’
Sam felt strong and protective as he read through his letter before sealing it. He could still back Ellie up and tell her what to do even if it was only by letter. And she’d make sure the lad didn’t forget him and tell him it was his dad told her to take him on holiday.
George was right, Sam thought. It was hard being away from them but at least this way they were looking after their families. Even if the money got held up at times they always had it to come. He settled down in his bunk, smiling cheerfully.
Chapter Fifteen
Nellie returned to work at the Duncan house, feeling low after parting from Sam, but expecting to be cheered by the cook’s salty comments. She found the cook also low in spirits.
‘Things have took a turn for the worse while you’ve been off, girl,’ she said.
‘What do you mean, Cook?’ Nellie asked.
The cook laid her finger to her nose and winked. ‘Trouble in store,’ she whispered. ‘All kinds of carry-on between mister and missus and them girls! Crying and banging round. You never heard anything like it.’
‘Perhaps one of them wants to marry a young man what the parents don’t like?’ Nellie suggested but the cook scoffed.
‘Don’t be daft, girl. You read too many of them penny novelettes. I think it’s business troubles.’
Nellie looked doubtful and the cook went on, ‘You know the missus has never liked parting with money for wages but for them – it was always the best of everything. Now she’s gone real mean and close with the food. Wants to know what’s happened to every bite that comes in the house and saying I could do things cheaper.’
‘But they had that big dinner party just before Sam come home,’ Nellie said.
‘Throwing a sprat to catch a mackerel,’ the cook snorted. ‘These people don’t ask friends round the way the like of us do. They ask people for what they can get out of them.’
Susan, the girl from the orphanage, was peeling potatoes at the sink and the cook said quietly, ‘The missus’ll be wanting you to wait on and you tell her you want parlourmaid’s wages. Don’t let her give you charwoman’s money, Nellie.’
‘But I got took on as a charwoman,’ Nellie said. ‘To tell you the truth, Cook, I’m made up I didn’t get the sack for staying off while Sam was home.’
‘Don’t fret yourself, girl,’ the cook said. She nodded at Susan. ‘She got took on to train as a parlourmaid but she’ll never get nearer the dining room than this. They had two couples to dinner while you was off and you never seen the like.’ She raised her voice. ‘You didn’t take to the parlourmaiding, did you, Susan?’
The girl turned round. She was a large awkward girl with big hands and feet and a round face. ‘Oh Jeez, it was awful,’ she groaned. ‘I nearly run out of the place and kep’ on running till I threw meself in the river.’
‘Mrs Taggart was peeping through the door and she was wetting herself laughing,’ the cook said. ‘Susan spilled soup on the first feller and she went to pieces. What she didn’t drop on them she broke. Mrs Taggart said they was all cringing there, wondering what was going to come flying at them next. Poor Agnes took a dizzy turn and the missus kept saying, “I’m giving an orphan a home. Trying to train her.” None of us was a bit of good after and I don’t know what them lot in the dining room was like. Mrs Taggart said it was the best laugh for years.’
‘I’d better go up and tell her I’m here,’ Nellie said
‘Well, don’t let her walk on you, girl,’ the cook advised. ‘Stand up for yourself.’
Nellie promised that she would but she could feel butterflies in her stomach as she knocked nervously at the door of the morning room.
Mrs Duncan had been annoyed when asked for the time off and had warned Nellie that she risked losing her job but Nellie had been determined to be at home with Sam.
She was surprised to be greeted with a smile by her employer.
‘I trust you are rested, Ellen,’ Mrs Duncan said graciously. ‘Susan has not proved s
uitable for training as parlourmaid. I will have to return her to the orphanage unless of course she takes your place in the kitchen and you act as parlourmaid.’
Nellie was disgusted. The way they can blackmail you with a smile on their faces, she thought, but aloud she said meekly, ‘Yes, ma’am.’
‘It will be useful training for you and of course you can continue to help cook and learn how to cook also.’
Nellie left the room feeling annoyed with herself. Why didn’t I say I’d been acting as parlourmaid and kitchenmaid for ages and running after her daughters as well? I let her make out she was doing me a favour. I’m a right wet lettuce, as Katy would say.
The cook looked thoughtful when Nellie reported the conversation to her. ‘She’s up to something,’ she said. ‘Bothering to explain to you. I wonder is she going to get rid of Agnes?’
Mrs Taggart had come down from cleaning upstairs and she joined in. ‘I wouldn’t put nothing past that one,’ she declared. ‘Mind you, I think she’s trying to put a good face on things. There’s trouble brewing here or I’m a Dutchman.’
‘I don’t know what to do,’ Nellie said. ‘These hours won’t suit me the same. I only really wanted mornings while Tommy was at school.’ She saw Susan watching her anxiously and remembered Mrs Duncan’s words. She smiled at the girl. ‘I won’t do nothing for a while anyhow,’ she added.
A week later the cook was proved right. Agnes had been with the Duncans for over twenty years but when she had another dizzy spell she was swiftly despatched to hospital.
‘Just like poor Jane,’ Mrs Taggart said but Agnes was more fortunate than Jane because she was able to go to stay with her brother and his wife in Blackpool.
‘She won’t be going for no rest cure,’ the cook said. ‘Her brother’s fond of her, like, but his wife’ll work Agnes until she drops. You know what it’s like in them boarding houses.’
A Wise Child Page 21