Forgive and Forget (22 page)

She kissed him back soundly and whispered, ‘Oh, yes, Leo. Yes, please.’

The following Saturday – the day of the postponed coronation festivities – Stevie was due to start his new job.

‘Can’t you come with us to the cel’brations?’ Miriam wailed afresh. Stevie knelt in front of her and took her hands. ‘I’ve got a job with the greengrocer along the High Street and I start today. I’m sorry to miss the fun – I was looking forward to it too – but this is much more important.’

Miriam sniffed and nodded. Young though she was, she already knew that the family had little enough to live on, and she’d also understood that Violet wasn’t going to her job at that lovely shop any more, though the little girl did not understand the reason for it. Not yet.

‘So,’ Stevie was saying, ‘you go with Polly and Dottie and bring me back something nice. All right?’

Miriam nodded, her curls bouncing.

So, whilst Stevie, his stomach churning with excitement and a little trepidation, set off to begin his first job, Polly, with Miriam and Dottie skipping along beside her, set off for a day of jollification to celebrate the crowning of the new King.

Stevie arrived home that evening, jubilant and bubbling with the success of his first day in proper work and expecting to be greeted by happy faces after their day’s outing. He struggled in with a box of half-rotten vegetables, declaring at once, ‘Mr Wilmott gave me these, Poll. I promise.’ He dumped the box on the table and grinned at the three girls sitting either side of the fireplace. His smile faded.

‘What? What’s the matter?’ When no one answered him, he said again, ‘He
did
give me this stuff, Poll. Honest.’

‘It’s not that, love,’ Polly said dully.

‘Then – what is it?’

Violet, who hadn’t been able to go because her condition was now very noticeable, said, almost with a smug satisfaction, ‘There was trouble at the celebrations. A group of louts started a ruckus.’

‘They was fighting, Stevie.’ Miriam put in, her face still streaked with salty tears. She hiccuped as she added, ‘I tried to bring you summat – a balloon, but it got bursted.’ Fresh tears welled. ‘A horrible boy bursted it.’

Stevie stroked her hair. ‘Don’t worry about me, love. I’m just so sorry your day’s been spoilt.’ He glanced again at Polly, raising his eyebrows in question. ‘But you’re both safe. That’s all that matters.’

Polly met his gaze with troubled eyes. ‘Yes,
we’re
all right.’

‘Tell me about it,’ Stevie said, sitting down and preparing to listen. He could see that both his sisters were upset and needed to talk about it. ‘I heard they held some of the events on Wednesday after last week’s postponement. And everything went off all right then. So – what went wrong today?’

‘There were
thousands
of people there, Stevie,’ Miriam said, her tears drying now she had a willing listener. ‘All milling about and hardly any policemen.’ She cast a glance at Polly. ‘Leo was there. We saw him, but I don’t think he saw us. Least, he didn’t come and speak to us.’

Violet laughed. ‘He wouldn’t want to be seen speaking to troublemakers.’

‘
We
weren’t making any trouble,’ Miriam said indignantly. ‘But your Micky was. He—’

‘That’s enough, Miriam,’ Polly said as Violet’s face fell.

‘He’s not my Micky any more, it seems,’ she muttered.

‘What caused the trouble then?’ Stevie said, trying to divert the conversation away from Micky Fowler again.

Polly frowned. ‘I’m not sure, but someone said it was because they were trying to charge for admission to the grandstand when the sports were supposed to be free for everyone.’

‘And the crowd got nasty?’

‘Well, just some of them, I suppose. But when a few of them started protesting others joined in and – and it sort of spread. Folks were milling around the winning post and the races couldn’t take place properly. The officials seemed helpless.’

‘A policeman came on horseback, Stevie,’ Miriam put in. ‘And someone – ’ here she cast a swift glance at Violet before adding – ‘threw a stone, or something, and it hit the horse’s head.’

‘After that it was just chaos.’ Polly took up the tale. ‘The crowd flooded onto the course. And more folk started throwing things. They couldn’t run the races properly and—’

‘And Polly said we should come home. Out of the way.’

‘Quite right too.’ Stevie squatted down in front of her and took her hands. ‘I know it must have been awful to see, but . . .’

‘Stevie – Eddie was there.’ Polly glanced briefly at Violet before adding, ‘With Micky.’

Before she could say more, Miriam cried, ‘It was Micky who threw the stone at the horse. We saw him. And our Eddie was with him.’

Horror-struck, Stevie stared at Polly. ‘Were they – I mean – did the police – ’ he swallowed painfully – ‘arrest them?’

Violet screamed. ‘Oh no! No! Not Micky.’

Polly and Stevie stared at her.

‘Oh, never mind about your
brother
,’ Polly said bitterly. ‘All you can think about is the lad who’s shamed you.’

Violet burst into noisy tears, whilst Stevie said gently, ‘Poll, don’t have a go at her. It’s not her fault.’ He paused and then asked hesitantly, ‘Did Leo see what happened?’

‘I don’t know. He could have done.’

‘Then, if I was you, I’d expect a visit later.’

When William came home, Polly whispered to the family, ‘Not a word to Dad. Not yet.’ They all nodded agreement and tried to carry on as if nothing had happened, but news travelled fast and bad news, it seemed, even faster.

‘Heard there was a bit o’ trouble at the racecourse then.’ He glanced at Polly and Miriam. ‘You both all right?’

‘Yes, we’re fine,’ Polly said swiftly, setting his tea before him. There was no point in lying to him or trying to make out it was nothing much. He’d hear the news all too soon and it would no doubt be reported in the local paper. ‘We came away, didn’t we, Miriam?’

The young girl nodded and dipped her head so that her long hair hid her face. ‘They bursted my balloon,’ she muttered.

‘What did you say, lass?’

Polly cast a warning glance at her sister. ‘Her balloon got burst – the one she was bringing home for Stevie. She’s upset about it, that’s all.’

At the mention of Stevie William’s attention was diverted. ‘And how did you get on today, son? All right?’

‘Fine, Dad. Mr Wilmott gave me some veg.’

‘It’s what you’re eating now,’ Polly put in. ‘I cut all the bad bits out, but there was still enough for our teas.’

William nodded. ‘Very nice too. He must be a nice bloke that Mr Wilmott. He was very good to us when Eddie worked for him. He must think a lot about our family. I don’t know why Eddie ever left him. He’d got a good job there.’ Polly held her breath. She’d never told her father the real reason behind Eddie’s departure from Mr Wilmott’s employ. But William answered his own question. ‘Still, I expect he didn’t want to be a delivery boy for ever.’ He pointed his knife towards Stevie. ‘But it’s a good start for you, an’ all. Just you mind you keep your nose clean and you’ll do all right there.’

They ate in silence until they heard the noise of the door opening and Eddie sauntered into the room.

‘Hello. Any tea going, Poll?’

Everyone, except William, stared at him. Then Polly, pulling herself together, said, ‘Get on with your tea, Miriam.’ Sitting beside her, she laid a warning hand on the girl’s knee and, when Miriam looked up, put her forefinger to her lips. Then she rose and went into the scullery to fetch the meal she had plated up for Eddie, half-expecting that the food would be wasted; she had not thought to see him come home as though nothing had happened.

But only minutes later the feared and anticipated knock came. Leo, wearing his uniform, stood there.

‘Where’s Eddie?’ he asked bluntly when Polly answered the door. ‘And don’t try to tell me he’s not here because I’ve just seen him come in.’

Her eyes widened at his brusqueness. No smile of welcome, not even a ‘Good evening, Polly.’

‘H-having his tea in the kitchen with the rest of us. Why?’

Leo made to step across the threshold, but Polly put up her hand, palm outwards. ‘Whoa, there. Just a minute,
Constable
.’

Leo’s expression softened a little and she saw the smile quirk at the corner of his mouth. ‘I’d just like a word with him, Poll. That’s all.’

‘Not while you’re in your uniform, you don’t,’ Polly snapped. ‘It’s official, I presume.’

Leo sighed and said heavily, ‘It’s official. Please, let me just have a word with him?’

‘Why, what’s it about?’

‘I think you know that only too well, Polly, don’t you? You were there. I saw you with Miriam and the Fowlers’ girl. You saw what happened. And if you’ve eyes in your head you’d have seen Eddie, an’ all. Alongside the troublemakers.’

‘I—’. She was tempted, very tempted, to lie. But she couldn’t. It was not in her nature. As she’d said outright to Eddie. ‘I’ll not tell on you, but I’ll never lie for you.’ And now the moment she had dreaded was here.

She pulled the door wider and said heavily, ‘You’d better come in.’

As she led him through into the kitchen the rest of the family all looked up. Only Eddie calmly continued eating his meal.

‘Hello, Leo, lad,’ William greeted him. ‘What brings you here?’

‘Official business, I’m afraid, Mr Longden.’ Leo’s glance rested on Eddie. ‘Could I have a word with Eddie, if you please?’

‘’Course you can.’ William pointed with his knife. ‘There he is. Large as life and twice as ugly.’

‘Eddie,’ Leo began, ‘perhaps this’d be better done in private.’

William frowned, sensing that perhaps all was not well. ‘You can say anything you have to say in front of us all. There ain’t no secrets in this family.’

If only that were true, Polly thought, her heart sinking. If Leo or any of his colleagues had seen Eddie throwing stones, then surely he was about to be arrested?

‘Sit down, lad, and tell us what this is all about,’ William said.

‘I prefer to stand, Mr Longden, thank you.’

‘Suit yarsen,’ William muttered and carried on eating, blithely unaware of the bombshell that Leo was about to drop.

‘Eddie, I saw you on the common today at the celebrations. I saw you amongst the troublemakers and I saw you throw a stone at one of the policemen’s horses.’

‘Not me, Officer.’ Eddie grinned. ‘You must have been mistaken.’

‘No, I wasn’t, Eddie, because Micky Fowler was alongside you. You threw the first one and then he threw a second, the one that actually hit the horse.’

Eddie shrugged, still braving it out. ‘Micky has other mates, y’know. It wasn’t me.’

‘Then can you tell me where you were between the hours of two and four this afternoon?’

Eddie frowned as if trying to remember. ‘Out and about, but I didn’t go anywhere near the racecourse.’

‘You did, Eddie, we seed you,’ Miriam piped up before Polly could lay a warning hand on her shoulder.

Eddie glared at his young sister. ‘Then you need glasses an’ all, our Miriam, ’cos I weren’t there. See?’

Miriam quailed beneath his angry look, turned and buried her face in Polly’s apron. Absently, Polly stroked the child’s hair, but her attention was still on Eddie – and Leo.

‘What’s been going on?’ Now William was getting heated. He stood up and turned to face Leo. ‘How dare you come into this house and accuse my son?’

Leo held up his hand. ‘Mr Longden, I have come here to warn Eddie, not to arrest him. Not this time, but if any of my colleagues saw him then it’ll be out of my hands.’ He turned back to face Eddie. ‘I’m giving you an official caution, Eddie. I have to do that. You were seen amongst the troublemakers at a serious incident of public disorder.’

‘You mean this is going to be recorded?’ William said. ‘He’s going to have a criminal record?’

‘No – no, I won’t report it, but I am warning him. Any more trouble and I won’t have any choice but to take the matter further.’

There was silence in the room as Leo nodded to them all, turned and left the room. No one – not even Polly – saw him to the door.

William sat down heavily. The silence lengthened until at last he asked, ‘Were you there, Eddie?’

‘Course I was. It was only a bit of fun.’

‘I don’t call fighting and throwing stones at the horses and jeering and shouting at the police fun,’ Polly snapped.

Eddie glowered at her. ‘No, well, you wouldn’t, would you? Miss Goody-Two-Shoes with a copper for a boyfriend.’

‘Fat chance there’ll be of that now, I shouldn’t wonder,’ Polly muttered and, freeing herself from Miriam’s clinging arms, she began to stack the dishes, clattering them together in her frustration and anger.

When, oh when, was this family ever going to think of her for once?

In the July and August of 1911 the city suffered under a heatwave that was affecting the whole country and showed no signs of giving way. Day after day the temperatures soared into the nineties.