‘The kitchenmaid?’ Nellie exclaimed. ‘But she seemed so quiet.’
‘I know, as if butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth,’ the cook said. ‘But Nellie, these young ones’d learn you. She got her quarter’s pay two days ago then just mizzled away last night. Never said a word to nobody. I don’t know how she got her box out.’
Nellie immediately thought of Mrs Taggart concealing her bundle outside until she was ready to take it away but she said nothing. ‘Good luck to the girl anyhow,’ she said aloud. ‘She won’t be put on same as the likes of us.’
‘The quare one’s fit to be tied,’ the cook said gleefully. ‘Poor Elsie’s going mad with a gum boil but she won’t let her go to the dentist. The master’s sister is coming to dinner tonight and staying the night.’
Mrs Grogan appeared at the top of the steps down to the kitchen. She ignored Elsie who was crouched beside the fire holding a bag of salt to her swollen face and glared at Nellie. ‘So. You’ve condescended to appear,’ she snapped. ‘Do you think you can walk in and out as you please? Where were you yesterday?’
‘I told you where she was,’ the cook said before Nellie could speak. ‘I give you her message.’
‘Strange that the kitchenmaid disappeared the same night,’ Mrs Grogan said. ‘You’re all in it together. All the same. The scum of the earth. No standards. Well, there are plenty of people who want the job if you won’t do it properly.’
Nellie was furious. She quietly took off her sacking apron and folded it. ‘Then you’d better get one of them,’ she said. ‘I’m not going to be spoke to like that.’
There was silence for a moment as the three women stared open-mouthed at Nellie, then the housekeeper turned and flounced away.
The cook leaned against the table, shaking with laughter. ‘Good for you, girl,’ she said. ‘The gob on her. If that rolling pin’d jumped up and hit her she couldn’t have got more of a shock.’
‘What will you do?’ Elsie asked indistinctly. Her face was so swollen that her eye was almost closed and she rocked back and forth in pain.
Nellie leaned over her. ‘Never mind about me. I’ll get something,’ she said. ‘Listen, Elsie, get your coat and I’ll take you to the dental hospital.’
‘Oh, I can’t think with this pain,’ Elsie groaned. ‘Me mam’ll kill me if I walk out of me job.’
‘Not if she seen the way you was,’ the cook said. ‘You only live in Birkenhead, don’t you? Why don’t you go home?’
The next moment Mrs Grogan came back to the top of the stairs. ‘I’ve decided to overlook your impertinence this time, Ellen,’ she said graciously. ‘As long as you promise never to repeat it.’
‘Thanks, but I’m not willing to overlook yours,’ Nellie said coolly. ‘I’m off. I’ve got two days’ pay owing to me.’
‘You needn’t imagine you’ll get that,’ the housekeeper said, turning away, her sallow face now red.
‘Never even looked at me,’ Elsie said resentfully. ‘She wouldn’t care if I dropped dead.’
‘Yes, well, have sense, girl,’ the cook said. ‘Go with Nellie to the dental hospital and get that seen to, then go home to your mam.’
Elsie stood up. ‘I’ll go then, Nell, and see how I feel when they’ve fixed this for me.’
‘I’d have gone long ago if it hadn’t been for thinking of the mistress that’s dead and gone. I’ve had enough,’ the cook said. ‘But this one’s not getting the better of me. What I’ll do, I’ll go up and see the master tonight and I’ll queer the pitch for Mrs High and Mighty. I’ll tell him why I’m the only one left.’
‘But he must know the way servants never stay here,’ Nellie said.
‘Gentlemen don’t take no notice as long as there’s somebody doing the work and this one can tell a good tale,’ said the cook. ‘But he’ll get the whole story tonight and with his sister coming he can talk it over with her. I don’t think there’s any love lost between her and Grogan so we’ll see what we’ll see. I’ll make sure you get your two days, Nell. Call in tomorrow and see.’
Nellie and Elsie set off for Pembroke Place and just as they reached the dental hospital Elsie suddenly stopped and bent over the gutter. ‘It’s burst,’ she said.
Nellie held Elsie’s head, averting her eyes until Elsie finally straightened up and wiped her mouth.
‘I’m not going in there now,’ she said. ‘I’ll be all right now.’
‘Your tooth will still be bad,’ Nellie said, but Elsie was adamant.
‘No, I’ll go back and see what’s happening there,’ she said. ‘She’ll have to treat me all right now because I’m all she’s got.’
Elsie’s eye was still half closed and her face bruised and as they boarded the tram, Nellie looked at her.
‘Nobody’d think that a gum boil done that,’ she said. ‘You look as if you’ve been battered.’
‘I’d sooner have been battered than that,’ Elsie said. ‘I never got a wink of sleep last night.’
‘Then don’t let that one work you too hard,’ Nellie advised. ‘Mind you, I don’t think Cook will let her. I think she’s got the upper hand now.’
‘What will you do, Nell?’ Elsie asked.
‘I’m not worried,’ Nellie said. ‘I can live on me husband’s money and I’ve got a few ideas.’
She got off at the next stop and walked through to see Meg.
One of the ideas she had spoken about had come from Meg and it had made her more ready to throw up her job than she might otherwise have been. Meg had told her that she had been on a charabanc outing with Bob in the early days of her pregnancy and they had stopped at a small transport cafe.
‘We’d all taken sandwiches but the driver went in for a pie,’ she said. ‘It was a general shop as well so I went in for sweets and I got talking to the woman. The pies were on the counter and they smelled so tasty I bought a couple. She said a local woman made them for her and she sold dozens to fellows off wagons and carts and that. Why don’t you do something like that, Nell?’
‘But where would I sell them?’ Nellie said doubtfully.
‘There’s lots of places fellows stop on their way to the docks,’ Meg said. ‘You’d do well, Nell. The woman had barmcakes as well and she said the same woman done them for her. She said she was too busy to do them herself and it was true. She never stopped serving all the time I was in there. A proper little goldmine it was.’
Today Meg was lying on the sofa when Nellie arrived and she jumped to her feet looking guilty. ‘All you done yeterday, Nell, and here’s me lying down. I’m not pulling my weight, am I?’
‘Don’t be daft,’ Nellie said. ‘I done that yesterday so you could rest today. Plenty of time to work hard when you’ve got the baby.’
They laughed and as they sipped tea Nellie told Meg about events at Merton Road and brought up the subject of the pies.
‘I’d like to do it but I wouldn’t like asking in the shops,’ she said. ‘And I wouldn’t know what to charge.’
‘I’ll come with you to ask,’ Meg offered. ‘And you can work out how much the stuff to make them costs and then work out what to charge. Bob’ll help you. He knows how they cost a job.’
By the end of the week Nellie had worked out the cost of the pies and Bobby advised her to charge threepence ha’penny for them. ‘If you haven’t left yourself enough margin it’d be hard to raise the price but if they don’t sell at that you can knock a ha’penny or a penny off,’ he said.
Meg advised trying to sell them to a shop at the end of Knowsley Road. ‘He sells bread and eggs and fruit and fellows off the wagons and vans go in there for ciggies so your pies would go well. I’ll come with you to see him. We’ll take a few for him to try free.’
‘You’ve got a good brain for business, Meg,’ Nellie exclaimed, while Bobby beamed proudly at his wife.
Before all this Nellie went back to see the cook as arranged and found her in high good humour. ‘I got your two days, girl, no problem,’ she greeted Nellie.
‘Did you see the master?’ Nellie asked and the cook chuckled.
‘I did indeed although that one tried to stop me. She’s gone, Nellie,’ she announced dramatically.
‘Gone!’ Nellie gasped, while the cook and Elsie enjoyed seeing her surprise.
‘Tell her, Cook,’ prompted Elsie and nothing loath the cook launched into her tale.
‘I went up to see Mr La Roche the minute he come in from business,’ she said, ‘and I told him all that had gone on, everything. The way I was left with no help and his sister coming and the way the servants have come and gone with that one. I told him what she said to you. She’s a respectable young woman, I said, and she just walked out and small blame to her.’
‘Cook told him about me gum boil,’ Elsie said. ‘And you doing the steps in the hailstones.’
‘He just kept tut-tutting and saying, “Dear me,” but like I expected he said he’d consult his sister. I said the poor mistress would turn in her grave and he very near pushed me out. Upset, y’see,’ said the cook.
‘And he just told Grogan to go?’ Nellie said.
The cook laughed. ‘Not then,’ she said. ‘I done them a real nice meal, pulled meself out, but I was determined and Elsie served it.’
‘I washed me mouth out with salt water, Nellie, and Cook told me to lay on me bed for a coupla hours after I got back,’ said Elsie.
‘Yes, yes, like I was saying, I done them proud and afterwards me and Elsie was washing up – I wouldn’t demean meself to let that one help me, and Miss La Roche came to the kitchen. She said I’d done wonders to put up a meal like that and Elsie had done well to serve it.’
‘She was lovely, wasn’t she, Cook?’ Elsie interrupted.
‘Yes. Make us a pot of tea, Elsie,’ the cook said and turning to Nellie she drew her away. ‘What done it,’ she said winking at Nellie, ‘I let it drop about Grogan thinking of wedding bells. That was it. Before you could say knife the quare one was packing her bags. Miss La Roche has gone home to close up her house and she’s moving in here to look after her brother. Mind you, she never said nothing to me about what I’d tipped her the wink about, or to the master either, I don’t suppose. Just that she felt it her duty to run her brother’s house for him.’
‘No flies on you, Cook,’ Nellie said admiringly.
‘You’ve got to have your wits about you,’ the cook said. ‘I don’t know what she’ll do about staff, Nell. The master’s staying at his club for a few days.’
‘Don’t worry about me, Cook. I’ve got the promise of something,’ Nellie said.
She had decided to say nothing about the pie-making venture until she knew that it would work. Two days later Meg went into labour so Nellie’s plans were shelved.
A young boy came for her. ‘Me mam says Mrs Williams could do with you there because she’s started. Me mam says Mrs Williams is all right because she’s there with her and she’s sent for the nurse,’ he said, obviously reciting what he had been told to say.
Nellie gave the boy a threepenny bit and dashed to ask Katy to look out for Tommy before hurrying off to Meg’s house.
She found the mother of the boy, a widow from next door, with Meg and Meg was able to smile cheerfully at Nellie.
‘We’ve sent for the nurse but Mrs Williams has got a while to go yet,’ Mrs Saunders the neighbour said placidly.
‘This is nice timing, Meg,’ Nellie teased her. ‘You just gave yourself time to get nicely settled in your new house.’
The nurse arrived a few minutes later and Nellie and Mrs Saunders were banished downstairs. They took the opportunity to get acquainted. Nellie made tea and while they sipped it Mrs Saunders told her that she had lived next door since childhood, even after marriage.
‘My mam died fifteen years ago,’ she said, ‘and me and Joe took over the tenancy. We only had it as our own place five years when I lost Joe. Killed in a shunting accident on the railway.’
‘Have you just got the one child?’ Nellie asked.
‘No. I’ve got two girls married and a girl eighteen and young Stan at home.’
Nellie in her turn told Mrs Saunders that her husband was at sea and she had just one son aged nine. Meg would like a son, she said, but she would be glad to have a healthy child of either sex.
‘They’re young yet,’ said Mrs Saunders. ‘Plenty of time for half a dozen more.’
From time to time Nellie went upstairs to ask about Meg and found her tired but still cheerful. After a while Mrs Saunders slipped home and Nellie took out the ironing blanket and began to iron Bob’s shirts, but the nurse came downstairs.
‘I’m going to send for the doctor,’ she said, then seeing Nellie’s look of alarm she added, ‘just to be on the safe side. She got to this stage quite quickly but she’s not making much progress now. It’s a small outlet and she hasn’t got much strength.’
Nellie put the iron on the hob. ‘She had bronchitis bad,’ she said, ‘but she got over it. She’s still got a cough though. Do you want me to go for the doctor?’
‘If you don’t mind,’ the nurse said. She gave Nellie a note she had written for the doctor and Nellie hurried away. Oh God, don’t let her die, Nellie prayed as she rushed along. It’d kill our Bob.
She left the message and the doctor was at the house by the time she got back. Nellie had sent a boy to the works to tell Bobby what was happening and he too rapidly arrived.
They were joined by Mrs Saunders and spent an anxious hour before the nurse called Nellie. ‘Scald out a bowl,’ she said, ‘Scald it thoroughly then fill it with boiling water. Doctor may need to use forceps.’
There was another anxious wait before they heard a baby’s cry and Bobby rushed for the stairs. The nurse opened the bedroom door a crack as his boots pounded up the stairs.
‘A son, Mr Williams,’ she said. ‘I’ll call you in a moment.’
‘What about Meg?’ Bobby shouted but she had closed the door firmly. He waited a few moments then knocked loudly on the door and the nurse opened it.
‘Don’t make such a noise,’ she reproved him. ‘They are both all right but your wife needs stitches.’
Bobby retreated downstairs, still looking anxious, but a little later the doctor came downstairs.
‘All well,’ he said briskly. ‘The child is small but perfectly formed and your wife is very tired but she should soon recover. You may go up now.’
Bobby seized the doctor’s hand in a grip that made him wince and Nellie said involuntarily, ‘Be careful, Bobby.’
They all smiled and Bobby bounded upstairs while Nellie escorted the doctor to the door. ‘Will she be all right, Doctor?’ she asked.
He nodded but asked how long Meg had been coughing.
‘I don’t know but she said it’s an old friend,’ Nellie said.
He pursed his lips. ‘Indeed. I’ve told her I want to see her at my surgery in six weeks’ time. Make sure she comes, won’t you?’ he said and Nellie promised.
Meg seemed exhausted but she smiled at them happily when they went up to see her and admire the baby. His face was bruised and his head slightly misshapen but the nurse assured them that this was because of the forceps delivery.
‘That will all be gone in a few days’ time,’ she said. ‘He’s a healthy little boy although he’s so small.’
The baby had a fuzz of red hair the same colour as Bobby’s and his face, although so marked, bore a definite resemblance to his father’s, with the same short upper lip and the cleft in the chin.
‘You couldn’t deny him, lad,’ Mrs Saunders joked and Bobby, proudly nursing his son, retorted, ‘I wouldn’t want to.’
The marks on the baby’s face faded as the nurse had promised and the resemblance to Bobby became even more marked.
‘Your ma had red hair, didn’t she, Nell?’ Meg said one day when the nurse was bathing the child and commenting on the resemblance. ‘Yet your lad is the model of you and of your dad, Bob says.’
‘You must have strong genes in your family,�
�� the nurse laughed but a feeling of bitter envy kept Nellie silent. If only Tom had shown a resemblance to Sam all her worries would have been solved. And here, where it didn’t matter, Bobby had this tiny replica of himself.
Something must have shown in her face because Meg said quietly to the nurse, ‘Mind you, for all Tom’s so like Nellie he sometimes has a look of Sam, hasn’t he, Bob?’
‘Yes, especially when he’s squaring up to his mates,’ Bobby grinned, and Meg looked warningly at him, but Nellie was too pleased by Meg’s comment to care. She sometimes thought that she could see a likeness to Sam in Tom’s expression and felt that it might be wishful thinking on her part but now Meg had confirmed it.
Nellie was pleased that her cleaning job was finished and she could spend much of her time caring for Meg and the baby. She expected Sam home within weeks and as usual she was also busily preparing for his homecoming.
‘I’ll leave the idea of the pies until Sam’s gone back,’ she told Meg. ‘He’ll have a good pay-off after such a long voyage and anyway I think I’ll have to find out a lot more before I start the pies.’
Meg was lying on the sofa still looking frail but she showed immediate enthusiasm for Nellie’s plans and wanted to know what Nellie had to learn.
‘For a start I don’t think any working man is going to pay threepence ha’penny for a pie,’ Nellie said. ‘I know Bob costed them from what I told him but I think I see where I went wrong. Them ones I made for a sample were too good.’
‘They were wonderful, them, Nell,’ Meg exclaimed. ‘I’ve never tasted nothing so good.’
‘But they were too good,’ Nellie said. ‘I used the best meat and stuffed them with it. I could do something as tasty with cheaper meat and less of it in the pies but a real good gravy. I’ve been looking round at places that sell pies and I’d never get threepence ha’penny for one, never mind what the shopkeeper puts on.’
‘Well, you’ve got time to think about it anyhow,’ Meg said. ‘Sam won’t be rushing back this time, will he? After being away so long and a good pay-off.’
‘It seems so long,’ Nellie said softly. ‘He’ll see a big change in Tommy too.’
A Wise Child Page 28