The Girl from the Tanner's Yard

by Diane Allen

  ‘Aye, lass, I’ve had nothing but earache from your mother. She says she thinks that Adam Brooksbank is having his way with you, and that you are daft enough to let him. She thinks it’s not proper, and that it’ll only end up in shame.’ Bill looked sternly at his daughter.

  ‘It’s not only me – you think the same, Bill. Now tell her that if it’s true, she doesn’t go back there. I’m not having her carrying on with a man like him. He’s her employer, and I’ve heard folk gossiping about him, saying that he thought more of his job as a peeler than he did of his first wife. It just shows what sort of man he is. I’ve kept that to myself until now, but it’ll not hurt for the truth to come out.’ Dorothy crossed her arms and looked at Bill and then at Lucy, her face stern and set.

  Lucy said nothing, but she was filled with anger and annoyance at them, for not trusting her and Adam.

  ‘Are you listening to your mother? If it’s right, what she thinks, then we don’t want you to work for him no more. And you’ll have to make yourself useful around the house or find some work in Keighley. I know it was me who got you the job, but I didn’t foresee this happening.’ Bill looked at his daughter and saw that her eyes were filled with tears, but at the same time Lucy looked defiant.

  ‘You don’t trust me or him – you never will. Well, it is right: I do love Adam and he loves me. You can go and ask him yourself, because he is a gentleman and is thoughtful and loving, and he would never take advantage of me. And I’d rather be living with him – wed or unwedded – than living here in this stinking hovel, where I’m just used.’ Lucy spat out the words, not worrying that they hurt the parents she loved and had always cared for. Adam was her world, her future, and she didn’t care if they knew it now. No one was going to stop her from seeing him.

  ‘You are talking rubbish, lass. What would he want with a slip of a lass like you? Your mother’s right: you’ll not be going back and working for him. I’m not having you trailing back here carrying his baby, because that’ll be what happens.’ Bill looked across at Dorothy, who was beside herself at Lucy’s admission of love.

  ‘He’s not like that. Adam’s never touched me in that way. He’s not like you, always getting my mother with child and then burying them in the lime pit. That’ll not happen to me or mine. You think I don’t know about the babies that over the years have been buried there. And it wasn’t only me; Thomas Farrington knew, but he can’t say owt, now he’s dead. You’ll not stop me from seeing Adam and working for him, else I’ll tell someone everything I know,’ Lucy raged. How dare they think her so low as to lift her skirts up that easily. She loved her Adam, and that would only happen when she was wed to him.

  ‘Get your bloody self to bed, madam, and don’t show your face to us until you’ve thought about what you’ve said. By God, our Lucy, you’ve a fearful tongue on you. One that’s hurt your mother. I never thought you could turn on your parents like that. Your mother and I were heartbroken over the babies we lost, but they didn’t deserve a Christian burial because they were not born right. But for you to throw it in our faces, like you have done tonight, just for the sake of fighting for a fella that’ll no more love you than look at you – I don’t know if we will ever forgive you. If you were younger, I’d take my belt to you. As it is, get up the stairs out of my sight and your mother’s.’ Bill stood up, shaking with anger, and looked at Dorothy, who sat sobbing and shaking. ‘Bugger off – get out of my sight, before I think better of giving your hide a good tanning.’

  Lucy pushed back her chair, making it clatter and fall on the hard stone flags of the kitchen floor. Tears overcame her and she sobbed as she ran up to the safety of her bedroom, flinging herself onto her bed and crying into her pillow. She tried to muffle the noise of her grief, as Susie stirred in her bed. She must not wake her up, else she’d be in for another barrage of words from her parents. But she hurt, she hurt so badly. She had to be allowed to see her Adam; she loved him and she was not about to lose him. However, she knew that the words she had said in anger had hurt her mother the most, and she shouldn’t have said them. It had been mean and cruel, and she shouldn’t have lowered herself to coming out with such words.

  Lucy closed her eyes and sobbed. The happiness that she had felt a few hours ago had disappeared, and now she was mortified and beside herself with shame, and with the knowledge that she would probably not be allowed back to Black Moss Farm again. Would Adam realize what had happened and come and look for her, or should she run away to him and defy her parents? She only knew that she couldn’t live without him in her life, and that she had to be near him.

  24

  ‘Just listen to her, Bill, she’s still crying,’ Dorothy whispered and listened through the bedroom wall to the sobs that had been heard all night. Susie lay between the couple, after being woken by her big sister’s grief, and stirred gently as Bill replied.

  ‘So she bloody should be. Coming out with what she did, and threatening to tell everyone our business if we don’t do as she wants. I’ve a good mind to go in and give her a good belting.’ Bill looked up at the ceiling. ‘That bloody Thomas Farrington was always creeping about the yard, knowing everybody’s business, and Lucy’s right when she says he’s best dead.’

  ‘It came out in anger, Bill, she didn’t mean it. We’ve all said something we didn’t mean, when roused. She was only fighting her corner. Perhaps Lucy does love Adam Brooksbank, but does he love her? I can’t see it myself; she’ll have read it wrong, and she’s only young yet. It’s best she has no more to do with him, although it sounds as if she is heartbroken. But he’s not right for her, and she should have nothing to do with him.’ Dorothy sighed; she was regretting saying anything about the matter now, as she lay listening to the sobs from the other side of the bedroom wall.

  ‘Aye, well, I’ll settle the matter this morning. It’s Sunday, so I’ll have a walk up that way and talk to him. Tell him that Lucy seems to have feelings for him and that she’ll no longer be working for him. It’ll be for the best.’ Bill turned and looked at Susie, who was still fast asleep between them and appeared angelic. ‘I wish children stopped at this size; they are nowt but worry as they grow older,’ he muttered.

  ‘They are always a worry, no matter what age they are, but usually I don’t tell you the half of it.’ Dorothy turned and looked at Bill. She remembered when she had told her mother and father that she had met the man she was going to marry, and their reaction to the news: that Bill Bancroft had not been good enough for her; that they’d hoped for better than the son of the local tanner. Listening now to the sobs of her daughter, she thought perhaps she shouldn’t have said anything. That she should have let true love run its course, because she too remembered words said in anger, and the hurt that her parents had caused, when she was denied seeing the man that she eventually wed. Their words had only strengthened her resolve to be with Bill. And now here she was, still married to him twenty-one years on, and with children around her feet and not much money to their names. But she did love her Bill, despite his moods and his love of a gill. Perhaps she should have said nothing. But like any good mother, she just wanted the best for her daughter, and she thought that was not Adam Brooksbank.

  Bill Bancroft strode out along the lane leading to Black Moss. He didn’t know exactly how he was going to approach the subject of his daughter being besotted by Adam, but the more he thought about it, the more he became sure that it was all Lucy’s doing. She was young and she knew she was attractive, and she got these fanciful ideas over fellas. Unfortunately, she had set her sights on Adam, whether he knew it or not. Despite telling Dorothy and himself that Adam said he loved her, it was all in Lucy’s head, and the best thing for her to do was leave his employment and find somebody her own age and, hopefully, better prospects. After all, Adam Brooksbank was a small-time farmer, living off a few acres that his father had left him. Although he looked like a gentleman, he didn’t own that much land, and Bill thought he’d never amount to much. A father wanted better for hi
s daughter – particularly the daughter who had always been special to him.

  Bill stood in the farmhouse doorway and looked quickly around him. The yard was tidy and well kept, with hens strutting and clucking around the few weeds that grew there, and the kitchen garden was weeded and full of vegetables. Adam Brooksbank was a tidy farmer, he’d give him that much; and the old farmhouse looked as if a lot of care had been put into it since his arrival. It was a pity that he had come with the news he had. But it was better for all if the man knew where he stood, when it came to Lucy’s supposed love for him. Bill picked up his Sunday walking stick, tapped on the closed door with the handle and waited.

  The door opened and Adam stood before him. He was in his shirt sleeves and looked surprised to see his visitor standing there on his doorstep.

  ‘Good morning. I wasn’t expecting visitors, with it being Sunday. Let me put my jacket on.’ Adam looked at Bill and wondered why he was calling so early on a Sunday morning. He left the door open and reached for his jacket, feeling as if he was half-dressed in front of the man who had obviously made an effort that morning and was in his Sunday best.

  ‘Nay, you needn’t stand on ceremony for me.’ Bill walked in behind Adam and looked around him. ‘I’ll not be stopping long. I’ll say what I’ve got to, and then I’ll be on my way.’

  ‘You’ll sit down surely and join me in a pot of tea. I’ve just brewed it and it’s a good Darjeeling, which I treated myself to on my visit into Keighley when I dropped my visitor off.’ Adam smiled and offered Bill a cup from the dresser, then waved for him to sit down. ‘Everything’s alright, I take it? Lucy is not ill or anything?’

  Bill sat down, with his hands balanced on the top of his walking stick, and looked at Adam and his fancy tea and best china. He shook his head as he was offered a newly brewed cup of a tea that he had never heard of.

  ‘Well, you could say that. You could class it as an illness – women get these funny dos, and they are hard to explain.’ Bill gazed around the room. It was spotless and lovingly kept and, looking at the ornaments and furniture, it suddenly dawned on him that although he knew Adam Brooksbank to dress as a gent, he might also be worth a bob or two. ‘My missus thinks it’s best that Lucy doesn’t work for you no more, because our Lucy has got it into her head that she thinks a lot of you – perhaps a little too much. It’s not being right, seeing as she is your maid. She even thinks that you feel the same way about her, although we’ve tried to tell her she’s probably dreaming.’

  Bill looked across at Adam and gazed around the room again. It was full of good-quality furniture and was not what he’d been expecting. He was even more concerned that he was probably making a mistake in thinking Adam Brooksbank was just another farmer, rather than in saving the virginity of his daughter.

  ‘But she’s right, Mr Brooksbank. I do care deeply for Lucy. In fact I’d go as far as to say that I love her.’ Adam sighed. ‘It’s taken a dear friend of mine to make me realize it. But Lucy and I have grown close, over the last months that she has worked for me. I owe her my life, and I will always be beholden to her for that. However, it’s more than that; she brightens up my life and makes me feel young again, and I do feel for her with all my heart. But I know how it must look – after all, as you say, she’s my maid. You must be thinking the worst of me. But believe me, my intentions are honourable. I’d never do anything to hurt Lucy or take advantage of her, in the position she is in.’ Adam looked at Bill Bancroft, who sat taking into consideration what he had said. He had not felt so awkward for a long time. His confession of his love for Lucy was not made lightly, and he tried to remain calm at the thought of Lucy’s parent forbidding her to see him again.

  ‘Aye, that will sit badly with her mother. She thinks the worst, you see, only seeing you taking advantage of our lass. You hear it so often, with these maids who go into service and are taken advantage of and then cast aside. She’ll not believe that you think that much of Lucy. I must admit that I myself am not happy with the situation, and if you don’t mind me saying, we had set the bar high for the man who was to marry our lass. She’s a bonny one and turns many a man’s eye. She could have the pick of the valley, if she played her cards right.’ Bill shook his head. He was uneasy with the situation, and although it seemed that Lucy had told them the truth about the love that she and Adam had for one another, it still did not make it right.

  ‘But would she be happy with anyone else? I might be slightly older than Lucy, but that makes me wiser. And perhaps I’m not a wealthy quarry owner or have huge estates, but I do love her and I will respect her, which is more than some of those young bucks that drink in The Fleece would do.’ Adam said quietly as he watched Bill thinking it all through. ‘I don’t want to lose her as my maid, or as the love in my life. What if I was to say that I’d like to marry her and make her my wife? We have only just declared our love for one another, but if that would put both your minds at rest, then that is what I will do, for I know our love for one another is true.’

  ‘Now happen you are being hasty man, and are as light in the head as our Lucy. You might wake up in the morning and regret every word you’ve said. I didn’t come here today to wed her off to you. Just to tell you that she’d no longer be in your service.’ Bill glanced across at the man, who obviously loved his daughter as much as she loved him.

  ‘I’ll not regret my words. I know Lucy will mean everything to me until my dying day. It’s simply taken me this long to summon up the courage to say it. I’ve already lost a wife that I held dear, through my own pride in wearing my police uniform, but I’m not going to let myself lose Lucy. She’s right: I do love her and always will do.’ Adam bowed his head.

  ‘Then I’d better walk back down and tell my other half what we have said this morning. It’ll not please her, I expect. However, I can tell that you are a good man. You’ve looked after our lass well these last few months – perhaps a little too well, seeing as we are in this situation now. I’ve heard Archie Robinson talking highly of you, and he tells everyone what a good employer you are, and that you only show kindness towards him. You put me to shame, by the sound of it. I have to keep a firm grip on the motley lot that work for me in the flay-pits.’ Bill rose from his seat and looked across at Adam. ‘I never thought I’d come here and then go back and tell my old woman that you want to wed our lass. It’s a shock to me, let alone to her. I’ll not say anything in front of our Lucy, and then if you do happen to have a change of heart, she’ll not be hurt even more. We both love her, and we only want the best for her.’

  ‘So do I, Mr Bancroft, so do I. And I understand your concerns. However, love has no boundaries, and we can’t stop the way we feel for one another.’ Adam rose from his seat and accidentally knocked off the table the advertisement for the sale of High Ground, the Baxters’ reclaimed farm, which he had been reading.

  Bill bent down and picked it up, glancing at it as he handed it back to Adam. ‘Are you interested in buying this place? Have you enough brass? It’ll fetch a pretty penny, seeing as the courts are selling it.’ He held out the leaflet in his shaking hand for Adam to take.

  ‘Yes, I placed my bid yesterday – it’s for sale by tender. The magistrate’s dealing with it. I hope to secure it, for the land really. It would more than double my acreage, making this one of the best farms in the district. The house I’d be looking to let. I’d be staying here, this is my family home after all, and now that I’ve spent some time and money on it, I won’t be leaving it.’ Adam placed the leaflet on the table and opened the door for Bill to leave.

  ‘My old lass always admired that house. It’s set in the sunshine, not like where we are now. The houses on Providence Row are in a terrible state and aren’t worth wasting any brass on, as they are all subsiding. It’s only a matter of time and they’ll start to crumble. It’s a pity them bastards owned High Ground. Anyway, they got their just deserts and are all rotting in the cells now. I’ll go home and tell her what you’ve said, but I wouldn’t hold
your breath on seeing our Lucy in the morning. Once my Dorothy has got something into her head, it’ll take the devil to make her change her mind, and our Lucy will have to do as her mother tells her. I’ve nowt against you. I think she’d be happy with you, and that’s all I want for my lass in her life. It’s her mother you’ll have to convince.’ Bill slapped Adam on his arm and then stepped out across the yard, ready to deliver the news that the situation was a little more serious than both he and Dorothy had realized.

  Adam sat back down in his chair. He played with the poster for the farm sale in his hands and thought of Lucy. He should have gone down to the flay-pits and declared his intentions to her parents as soon as they realized how they felt about one another. She must have let her feelings be known to her mother, and now obviously Dorothy was worried about her daughter’s reputation. Lord, he’d not awoken that morning with the intention of asking Bill Bancroft for his daughter’s hand in marriage, not quite yet. He would have preferred to have taken his time and courted Lucy for longer, to stop any gossiping tongues from wagging and coming to the wrong conclusion about such a quick marriage. Ivy was right; she’d told him he’d be wed by winter, but he’d just laughed and told her not to talk so simple, although in his mind he had been thinking about it. Ivy might be proved wrong, anyway, if he couldn’t convince Lucy’s mother that he was serious, and that he did love Lucy and was not simply a letch who lusted over her. He only hoped that after talking straight to Bill Bancroft, Lucy would return to him in the morning as usual. If not, then he’d pay the flay-pits and the Bancroft family a visit, because he had to see his Lucy and reassure her parents once again that their daughter was to become his wife, whether they liked it or not.

  Lucy had moped about the house all day. Her mother had been curt to her in conversation and had asked her to do several chores that were never expected to be done on a Sunday, as it was a day of rest. Her father had disappeared straight after his breakfast, saying that he was going for a stroll, which he did most Sunday mornings, so it was not out of character. But it had meant that she’d been left with her mother and younger siblings, with her older brothers leaving the house to wander the fields in the warm sunshine, sensing that there was tension in the usually happy home.