A Family Christmas (5 page)

‘Oh Herbert, they must come today. They’ll surely not survive another night in the open. We really should have sent them money for the train.’

‘I know that and I certainly would have if I’d known Mark was sending them off on foot. What in God’s name was he thinking of?’ He cringed at his blaspheming, and him a man of the cloth, but he was so shocked that his friend hadn’t been charitable enough to buy train tickets for the homeless boys.

‘Anything could have happened to them. Still, I always did think he had a mean streak about him,’ Louisa admitted.

‘Well, he never used to be mean. Perhaps it’s that wife of his.’

‘I wish they weren’t coming at all.’ At fourteen
years
of age, daughter Prudence was dreading the presence of three young men in the house.

‘We must show a little kindness to those worse off than ourselves, Prudence, so please try and make them welcome.’ Louisa wondered from where their daughter had inherited her miserable disposition. She hoped she wasn’t going to sulk in their presence, or worse still suffer one of her tantrums.

‘They could have changed their minds and decided not to come.’ Prudence sounded hopeful, but then the door knocker made them all start and her father hurried to let in the weary travellers.

Chapter Four

NELLIE GABBITAS SIGHED
with satisfaction as the empty plates and tureens were brought back to the kitchen.

‘We shan’t be getting any leftovers tonight Nellie; they’ve only gone and eaten the lot.’ Lily the kitchen maid dropped the crockery in the scalding water.

‘Don’t worry, I’ve kept plenty back for us.’ Nellie smiled to herself. One of the conditions she had insisted on when she accepted the job had been that she and the rest of the staff be allowed three good meals a day. ‘After all,’ she had pointed out, ‘I need my helpers to be healthy in order to put in a decent day’s work.’

‘Of course you must do as you think fit,’ Nellie had been told. The only condition in return being that no food must be taken off the premises. So that had put paid to sneaking out a ham shank for their Mary or a fruit cake for her brothers and sisters. Nellie would keep her side of the bargain; she would never do anything to risk losing her job. Cooking was much more satisfying than making beds and emptying chamber pots. Besides she was safe in the kitchen; in the bedrooms she had often had to
escape
the advances of randy young men and dirty old ones. Now she was safe during the day and had her own key to her room, just like the housekeeper.

‘Right then, Lily, if you’ve finished those dishes we’ll mucky some more.’ Nellie opened the door of the great oven and took out a dish of steak and kidney sizzling away in thick brown onion gravy. The aroma of roast potatoes and vegetables filled the room.

‘Run and fetch young Larry.’ Larry was the odd-job boy, who amongst other things looked after the stables and the occasional motor car. Lily didn’t have far to look for the lad. Since Nellie Gabbitas had taken over the cooking he was always hanging around at this time, knowing she would be feeding them a meal fit for a king. Larry wished he was older. He would have asked Nellie to marry him – she was a right good-looking lass and nobody could cook like her.

‘Right then.’ Mrs Cooper came and sat at the head of the kitchen table. ‘That’s me done for the day, so come on, let’s eat.’ The four of them served themselves, Nellie making up for the measly meals her mother had served. She fought back tears as she thought about her sisters and brothers. She missed them so much and the daft thing was, she actually missed her cantankerous old mother too.

‘Oh, Jane. You’ll have all the lads in Millington after you.’

‘I don’t think so – it’ll be you they’re after. You look beautiful, Lucy. Not that there’s many lads in Millington worth having,’ Jane giggled, ‘unless you’ve suddenly taken a shine on Lew Marshall.’

‘Oh! For heaven’s sake. He drives me mad, hanging round me all the time.’

‘There’s nothing wrong with him; the poor lad’s mad about you.’

Lucy wrinkled her nose. ‘I know, I suppose I do care about him in a way, I just don’t fancy him.’

‘Then for goodness sake tell the poor soul so that he knows to find himself another girl.’

Lucy blushed. ‘It’s not my fault. I’ve never encouraged him. He just won’t take a hint. Will you tell him, Jane? Let him down gently I mean.’

‘Oh yes, and then he’ll hate me for the rest of his life. I don’t think so.’

‘Oh go on, please.’

‘No, I can’t.’

‘Well then, he’ll just have to wait until I find someone else, then he’ll have no option but to make himself scarce.’

‘Come on, or we’ll be late.’

Annie was waiting, as usual wearing her grey coat and best Sunday hat. She stared as her daughters came into the kitchen. Even her hard heart softened at the sight of them. She couldn’t hide the pride from her voice – even though she was always stressing the evils of pride and vanity. ‘Well, I must say our Mary’s made a good job of them frocks.’
She
bent to examine the stitching on the hem of Lucy’s new dress. ‘Aye, it suits you, lass; you chose the colour well, and our Jane’s.’

Lucy couldn’t believe her ears and Jane’s eyes widened; it was the nearest thing to a compliment Annie had paid either of them, or their Mary, for many years.

‘Come on then – the bell’s been ringing this last ten minutes.’

The church bells could be heard all over Millington. The congregation liked to hear them, except at eight o-clock on a Sunday morning. Most people tended to attend the evening service, so the church was usually packed. Annie preferred to sit near the back where she could see what the other worshippers were wearing. The conversation on the way home would usually consist of who had a new hat, or who was courting who. The same conversation would be repeated the next morning for the benefit of any neighbours who hadn’t attended the service. Reverend Goodman always gave an interesting sermon; he preferred to emphasise the qualities of goodness and kindness rather than the evils of sin. Tonight he began by welcoming three newcomers into his fold.

‘I hope you will all make them feel wanted and welcome in our church and community,’ he said, causing every eye in the place to turn in the direction of the Grey brothers, much to their embarrassment. Jane nudged her sister. ‘I bags the
one
nearest the aisle.’ She winced as her mother dug her in the ribs with a bony elbow.

‘They’re all lovely.’ Lucy’s eyes shone. Even the young one had the makings of a handsome man in a few years’ time. Neither girl heard much of the service, concentrating all their attention on the newcomers. Both were glad to be wearing their new dresses, the first new one either girl had ever owned. Annie wasn’t sure about Jane’s – it looked a bit short and flirty to her – but she let it pass, knowing it would annoy their Ben if she showed any criticism. Annie frowned as the pain in her leg intensified. Neither the Germolene, salt baths or Borax had made any impression on the sore. She decided she would see a doctor next week if there was no improvement.

When the service ended the two girls waited until Annie and William had gone home with neighbours, then they set off in the direction of the Memorial Gardens, where the young folk congregated every Sunday. For most of them it was the highlight of the week. Apart from the occasional dances at the Victoria Hall – which most of them couldn’t afford – and the cinema which opened a few nights a week there was little in the way of entertainment for the youth of Millington.

Dances at Cragstone or Longfield meant a walk of several miles and most parents objected to their children being subjected to the temptations they were sure were waiting in such places. So every
Sunday
the girls would saunter up the path by the clock, where there were seats hidden amongst the laurels and rhododendrons. There they would watch the young men walk along the bottom path, up the forty steps and down to where the girls were giggling and flaunting their Sunday dresses. The evergreens provided a hidey hole away from the eyes of any parents who would think it unseemly for their daughters to be in the company of young men when darkness was falling. The only one who was there with the consent of her parents was Dot Greenwood. It was a lonely life up at the farm and because Dot worked hard all week Boadacea thought her daughter deserved the company of people her own age. Dot was also considered trustworthy enough to protect herself, having being brought up on the farm and being familiar with the ways of procreation. ‘Just remember,’ Boadacea had reminded her daughter for the umpteenth time, ‘never give the lads an inch or they’ll expect a yard and always keep their hands, not to mention their you-know-whats well away from yer tuppence, and you’ll come to no harm.’ So when Dot had caught sight of young Robert in church she had waited in the lych gate and offered to show him and his brothers the meeting place of all the young people.

‘If yer want to come with me I’ll show yer where all our friends hang out. Come on, we usually have a bit of a laugh and I’ll introduce yer to ’em all.’

So, accompanied by Dot, who looked a picture in
her
Sunday hat and her best skirt and blouse, the three incomers set off to meet the youth of Millington. ‘We don’t allow any hanky-panky so just you lot behave yerselves,’ she warned them. ‘We’re all respectable round ’ere.’ Robert felt his face redden at the thought of any hanky-panky at all.

‘We’ll go this way tonight, but the lads usually go that way.’

‘Why?’ James was curious.

Dot considered a bit. ‘I don’t know, they just do. Tradition, I suppose.’ The crowd of girls could be heard from amongst the greenery surrounding the clock.

‘Hiya,’ Dot called. ‘I’ve brought some friends to meet yer. This one is Robert but we’ll call him Robbie. This one ’ere is John and he’s James. They’ve come forty miles to live ’ere. Now this is Kitty, then there’s Jane and Lucy Gabbitas. This is Mable. So now we all know one another that’s all right. The lads’ll be here in a minute. They like us to think they’ve come up ’ere for a breath of fresh air, but we know different; they’ve come to see us, that’s because we’re all so beautiful, yer see.’ Dot laughed at her own joke and the others giggled. They all liked Dot Greenwood and were always made welcome at the farm by Boadacea.

‘How’re yer feet?’ Dot asked Robbie, as he was to be known from now on.

‘Not so bad.’ He felt embarrassed to be singled out for attention.

‘Aye well, if they don’t get better, me mam’ll soon make ’em right.’

‘Yes she will,’ Kitty Marshall agreed. ‘She can cure owt can Mrs Greenwood. Better than any doctor.’

‘The liniment she gave me dad cured his bad back in no time,’ Mable said.

‘We’ll remember that,’ John answered Mable, but his attention was on Lucy. He thought she was the most beautiful girl he had ever set eyes on. He blessed young Dot for bringing them up here. ‘So where do you all work?’ he enquired, glancing round at them all, but it was really only Lucy Gabbitas he was interested in.

‘The umbrellas,’ Lucy said. ‘All us girls except Dot. She’s lucky she can stay at home all day.’

‘Oh I don’t know about being lucky; I don’t have half as much fun as you lot and it’s not the best of jobs tramping about amongst the pig muck.’ Dot loved her work on the farm really and wouldn’t have swapped her life with any of them.

‘That’s where we work.’ Jane pointed to the building down in the works, surrounded by tall black chimneys and other buildings Jane went on to describe. ‘That one there is the rail mill and behind it the spring mill. This one in the bottom is where they roll the steel and cut it into strips to make our umbrella frames and all sorts of things. In the distance you can see the wire mill and the coke ovens and further still, though you can’t see it from here, is the coal mine; it’s hidden away in Sheepdip Wood.’

‘So that’s where I’m going to be working, starting tomorrow morning,’ John said.

‘Really? So you’ll be on the same shift as our brother, Ben.’ Lucy smiled. ‘I’ll tell him to look out for you.’

‘Thanks,’ John laughed nervously. ‘I’ve never done anything remotely like coal mining.’

‘You’ll be all right. It’s hard but they’re a good crowd to work with, give you their last penny the miners would.’ Lucy’s face clouded as she remembered the money the colliers had collected for them when their dad died. She wondered what had become of it. Certainly none of them except her mother had seen a penny of it.

‘Well, like it or not, that’s what I’m going to be doing.’

‘What about you?’ Jane turned towards James, the one who had caught her eye in church. He looked even handsomer close at hand. James looked into Jane’s warm brown eyes and knew he was going to enjoy living in Millington. ‘What?’ He tried to recall what she had said. ‘Oh! I’m to start in the wire mill, or so Herbert told me. Sorry, Reverend Goodman. That’s where we’re staying at present and although it seems strange calling him Herbert, that’s what he’s told us to do.’

‘He would, he’s lovely. So is his wife. Nothing’s too much trouble for either of them,’ Kitty said.

‘Not like that miserable lass of theirs. If she ever smiles her face’ll split in two,’ Dot said to the
amusement
of Robbie. He certainly liked Dot Greenwood. So long as she didn’t think she was his girl or owt like that they would get on fine. There was a hoot of laughter as the bunch of lads approached them.

‘Hiya.’ Dot took charge again. ‘Before you all start acting the fool may I present the vicar’s guests: John, James and Robbie Grey. John’ll be starting in’t pit tomorrow and James in’t wire.’ She suddenly realised she hadn’t enquired what Robbie would be doing. ‘What about you?’

‘I’m to be a joiner apparently, though I don’t know where. Herbert is to take me tomorrow.’

‘That’ll be with old Smiler,’ one of the young men laughed.

‘Smiler? Is that his real name?’

‘Oh aye.’ The lad winked at the others.

‘No it isn’t,’ Dot said. ‘Don’t take any notice; they’re playing tricks on yer so that you’ll call ’im Smiler when he’s never smiled in ’is life. Him and that Prudence Goodman’d make a right pair. No, his name’s Mr Grundy. Ee’s a bit miserable but he’s all right, he’s a good joiner and ee’ll treat you fair. He made us two new hen houses and right strong they are.’