For a Father's Pride (24 page)

‘I can’t. He’s Tobias’s father – he can’t be all bad.’ Daisy watched Kitty as she struggled with her thoughts. ‘Come on, Kitty. I might be a bit
dim, but I’m not blind: Tobias is the spitting image of Clifford – anyone can see that.’ She turned and ran back into the barn, then grabbed hold of Clifford’s legs and
tried to pull him, but he was too solid. She turned around to see Kitty standing behind her. Kitty grabbed Clifford’s other foot and together they pulled him out of the barn onto the
cobbles.

‘He’s a heavy bastard!’ puffed Kitty. ‘Leave him, but let’s save the barn. If he lives, he lives; but I need my home.’ The three of them paused for a second,
looking at the body of Clifford, whose left arm and hand were badly burned, before getting back to saving the barn. Clifford was nothing to any of them, but they needed a roof over their heads.

Bucket after bucket was thrown at the devouring fire. The two women and Tobias were exhausted, but by the light of day they had saved the barn and their home. The last few dying wisps of smoke
rose into the air as Kitty, Daisy and Tobias gathered around Clifford while he moaned in pain and spluttered for breath.

‘He’s alive then. I hope he’s grateful to us for saving him.’ Kitty looked down at her husband, unimpressed that he was still in the land of the living.

‘I suppose we’d better get him into bed and comfortable. Should we send for the doctor from Hawes?’ Daisy looked at her sister.

‘I’ve no money. Do you want to waste
your
brass on him?’ Kitty looked at her sister.

‘Just bed it is then. Grab his shoulder – we should be able to manage him between us.’ Exhausted, Daisy bent down and, with Kitty and Tobias, dragged Clifford up and into the
spare bedroom of Grouse Hall, as he screamed in pain. All three looked at the man they hated, useless and bedridden. Now who had the upper hand? He’d dance to their tune for a while –
that is, if he lived!

The tin bath in front of the kitchen fire was filled with steaming hot water, as both sisters took it in turns to clean their smoke-covered bodies and change into clean clothes.

Daisy towelled her hair dry while Kitty sat next to the open fire. ‘Your turn, Tobias. Strip off out of them rags. I’ve found you a vest and shirt out of the bedding box from
upstairs – they’ll do until we can get you something better.’

‘I’ll drown in there.’ Tobias looked at the half-filled bath and the block of carbolic soap waiting to scrub him clean. He’d never had a bath before.

‘Nonsense! Come on, get in.’ Daisy grabbed his arm and pulled the loose-fitting rags over his head. She stopped for a second, catching her breath – Tobias’s body was a
mass of bruises – and then glared at Kitty.

‘I didn’t know, Daisy. Honestly, I didn’t know he’d been hit that hard.’ Kitty was taken aback at the sight of the whippet-thin lad and his bruises.

‘Come on, Tobias, in you pop. Let’s get you clean, and we’ll cut this mop of hair afterwards. It is hard to tell if you’re a boy or a girl. And tonight, Tobias,
you’ll eat at the table with us. Won’t he, Kitty?’

‘I suppose so – just this once.’

Daisy rolled up her sleeves and washed the lad gently with a flannel and the soap. She doubted if his skin had ever seen the light of day, as she gently scrubbed the dirt of years off his little
body. Then, tipping his head back, she washed his long, black hair – the hair that told everyone that he was Clifford’s son. She rubbed him dry and dressed him in an adult’s shirt
and vest that she’d found in the bedding box next to her bed, tying it around his waist with string and folding the sleeves up to his wrists.

‘There, at least you look clean. Now sit up here and let’s tackle this hair.’ Tobias sat still on the kitchen chair while Daisy clipped his hair short and even, the locks
falling down onto the floor all around him. She stood back and admired her work. ‘Quite the young gent, Master Tobias.’ She smiled as the young boy looked at his reflection in the dirty
bath water. ‘Let’s keep you that way.’

Daisy looked at her sister. She was weak, but she should have stood up to that bully, Clifford. No one should have let a child be treated like that.

The snow had melted and, although it was only mid-February, the weather was quite mild. Daisy looked at the horse that she had harnessed to the trap. She hoped she’d
strapped it in correctly; it was a long time since she’d harnessed a horse, but they were nearly out of food.

‘Are you sure you dare go into Hawes? It’s a long way to go on your own.’ Kitty stood at the rundown garden gate, watching her sister tighten the horse’s girth and check
the harnessing.

‘I’m not on my own. Tobias is coming with me, and he needs some shoes.’ Daisy climbed up into the trap and sat next to the little lad, who was beaming from ear to ear.
‘Besides, if I don’t, what are we going to eat? And I need some ointment for Clifford from the apothecary’s, to ease his pain a little.’

Daisy flicked the reins and clicked her tongue and the horse stirred into action. She swayed with the action of the gig, as the pair of them set off down the twisting track onto the road to
Hawes. She looked at her sore red hands; they were no longer the hands of a cook and soft-skinned shop assistant. She let the horse take a bit of slack; it obviously knew the way well. It had been
a hard four weeks since the barn had burned and Clifford had been bedridden, leaving the running of Grouse Hall and its livestock to her and Kitty. She’d fed the sheep throughout the cold
snap, milked the cow, cleaned out the badly damaged barn and been nursemaid to the complaining Clifford when necessary. She hadn’t had time to think of her past life in Leeds or to write a
letter, until last night, and that was another reason to go to Hawes, to post it to the Mattinson family and tell them her news.

She’d sat and thought a long time before putting the words together. To say it was heavily edited would be telling a lie – it was barely telling the truth at all. All the negatives
had not been touched upon, and the positives at Grouse Hall had been exaggerated out of all proportion. She didn’t want the Middletons to worry about her situation. Besides, it was looking
brighter, now that Clifford was off the scene for a while. He seemed to have found a streak of humility since his accident, and Kitty and her sister were beginning to pull as a team, even though
Kitty still could have a nasty tongue in her head, when it came to Tobias.

‘All right, Tobias?’ Daisy looked at the young lad, who was speechless and quiet. He looked quite respectable now. She’d cut the old shirt down to size and had made him a
little suit out of what she had found in the bedding box. The clothes must have been old Tobias Middleton’s when he was alive, so it seemed appropriate that the lad was wearing his cast-offs.
All that was missing now were shoes.

‘I’m all right. I’ve never been this far down the dale.’ Tobias’s mouth was wide open as he gazed all around him.

‘That’s the railway.’ Daisy pointed out the railway track that ran all the way down the dale. ‘I came back from Leeds on a train. It’s like a big carriage on metal
wheels, and the engine at the front puffs out steam, making it run along the track.’ Daisy tried to explain to the little boy, as his eyes widened in disbelief. ‘We might see one, if we
are lucky. I’ll stop at the viaduct at Dandry Mire. I can spare a minute or two to watch for a train.’ She smiled as Tobias asked her what a viaduct was. There was so much that the
little soul didn’t know.

She pulled the horse up at the side of the road and looked across at the viaduct. It was short and stumpy, compared with the towering viaduct at Ribblehead. They sat in silence as they waited
for the train. The smell of peat bog was on the air, sharp and clear, a mixed smell of heather and wild moorland grasses combined with the rich red peat of the fells. Daisy breathed it in; she
loved the smell, and the cool northerly wind that was blowing and the snow-capped high fells. She sat back and closed her eyes for a second or two. Nowhere could compare to home, and she was glad
to be back.

‘Shhh . . . Tobias, can you hear that? Listen.’ Both of them listened carefully as a train could be heard shunting down the line. ‘That’s it blowing its whistle to warn
people it’s coming along the line. It must not be stopping at the junction.’

Tobias watched as the engine and goods carriages shunted down the track and across the viaduct. Steam billowed from its funnel as it pulled its heavy load along the long drag – a name that
the railway men gave to the hardest piece of the Settle-to-Carlisle railway line.

‘It’s like a monster – look at all that steam!’ Tobias watched until it disappeared into the Ais Gill cutting, the last wisp of steam floating down in front of him.

‘One day, Tobias, I’ll take you for a ride on one. You’ll enjoy it.’ Daisy laughed as the little boy’s bottom lip trembled as the train was lost to the surrounding
hills.

‘I’d like that, I think. It might eat me, though.’ He looked sombre.

‘It won’t eat you, Tobias. It just eats coal, like we put on the fire – that’s what makes it work and it’s where the steam comes from.’ Daisy smiled as she
whipped the horse into motion. ‘Right, let’s get to Hawes and get some shopping done.’

It was market day in Hawes. The centre was full of farmers and their stock, and rushing housewives who were chatting with neighbours and market traders. Nobody looked at the
young woman and small child as they tied the horse up outside the grocery shop run by Luke Allen. Tobias clung to Daisy’s skirts as she handed her list of groceries across to the lad she knew
to be Luke’s son. Her memory flashed back to the time when her mother had said they would be a good match. She might have been right, for he was a good-looking man.

‘Are you waiting for this?’ He looked up from the long list, and Daisy noticed his soft brown eyes.

‘No, I’ve some shoes to order for the lad.’ Daisy nearly tripped over her words, looking at the handsome man in front of her.

‘Have you an account?’

‘Well, I think he will have, but I don’t suppose there will be any credit on it.’ Daisy thought that if Clifford had any credit, she’d use it. Otherwise she would pay and
be done with it. ‘I’m stopping at Grouse Hall – it’ll be under Clifford Middleton?’ She watched as he opened his account book and then closed it sharply at the mention
of Clifford’s name.

‘You’re right – he ran out of credit a long time ago, and my father’s been chasing him for what he owes for months. Now, what am I going to do with this order? Have you
money to pay for it?’ A long sigh came out of the mouth of Samuel Allen as he waited for an answer.

‘I’ve money. Tot it up quickly and let me know what I owe for today’s shop, and I’ll try and bring some to knock off his slate next time.’ Daisy felt embarrassed as
Samuel pencilled in the prices next to the goods. The farmers’ wives were whispering behind her back. This was the one they’d heard Joshua Oversby talking about – the tart –
and they started talking loudly about the young lad who was with her. She was Clifford Middleton’s floozy, but who was the father of the child, and where had he come from?

‘It’ll be two guineas for all this. Do you want me to put it in your cart?’ Sam looked up at the embarrassed young woman, noticing a flush in her cheeks.

‘I’ve only come in the trap – will it fit in that?’ Daisy felt stupid, for she’d never thought about how to get all the flour, sugar and other goods home and knew
there was not enough room for her, Tobias and the groceries. She opened her purse and passed him two guineas out of her earnings from the Mattinsons.

An even longer sigh was expelled by Sam. ‘I’m going down to Sedbergh tomorrow. Do you want me to deliver it?’ He looked up at the eavesdropping customers, who were all
pretending to be interested in anything but the young woman who was staying at Grouse Hall.

‘Would you? That would be a grand help. I’m sorry – I never thought of getting it home. I was too worried that I wouldn’t be able to handle the horse and trap. It’s
been a long time since I’ve driven a horse.’ Daisy put her arm around Tobias, who was feeling claustrophobic by now, with all the curious womenfolk around.

‘I’ll do that – be with you about twelvish.’ Sam looked at Daisy. Now he knew who she was, but by, she was a bonny woman. It was a pity she was Clifford Middleton’s
floozy. Hawes had been full of the gossip spread by Joshua Oversby, and of the sisters sharing Clifford.

Daisy smiled and put an arm around Tobias, guiding him through a sea of skirts towards the doorway. She held her head up high as she heard one of the mouthy women say loudly, ‘I
don’t know how she dare show her face. And look at the child – he’s no shoes on his feet.’

Daisy pulled Tobias close to her and turned around.

‘I’m not deaf, or daft. I am Kitty Middleton’s sister, Daisy. I’ve come back home because I’ve been ill. I have no man in my life and, contrary to Joshua
Oversby’s gossip, I do not sleep with my sister’s husband.’ She felt the colour rising to her cheeks in anger. ‘And I am about to buy Tobias some shoes, even though
he’s no kin to me. Is there anything else you need to know?’ She stood at the doorway, looking at the aghast crowd and at the smiling face of Samuel Allen. Not a word was said as the
shoppers decided they needed something urgently from the shelves.

‘See you tomorrow, Daisy,’ shouted Sam as the door closed behind her.

‘You look happy this morning. What’s wrong – did the chemist say yesterday that I’d not long to live?’ Clifford growled and winced as Daisy rubbed
some ointment on his arm and hands.

‘There’s nothing wrong with you but this arm, and it is mending, I can tell – the skin is finally knitting.’ Daisy washed her hands in the bowl by the side of the bed and
bandaged Clifford’s arm. ‘Another week or two and you can get back to work. Kitty and I are ready for a rest.’

‘You mean you can’t run this farm without me. Useless bloody women!’ Clifford grunted, then walked over to the window and looked out. ‘Who’s this bugger coming up
the road?’

Daisy rushed over and looked out behind him.

‘Oh, bugger! It’s Luke Allen’s lad – he’ll be after some brass!’ Clifford swore, knowing that the only visitors they ever got at Grouse Hall were after money
that he owed them.