Luckpenny Land (29 page)

‘Do you think Mr Davies could give me a bit of instruction? With the ploughing, I mean. I can’t afford labour. Nor a horse.’ But the prospect of ploughing even an acre by hand was too daunting to contemplate.

‘Eeh, course he would, lass. Be glad to.’ A plump lady in her fifties who, as she said, had never been blessed with children of her own, Hetty Davies looked with compassion upon Meg. ‘I’ll see if Will can lend you our Arlott for a day or two. He’s an old fell pony, bit of a clodhopper but reliable, not one for easy panicking.’

Meg’s heart swelled with relief and thankfulness. ‘I’d be most appreciative. There’s just one more thing you could help me with.’ The enquiring eyes were kind so she found the courage to continue. Clearing her throat, she began, ‘I’ve found myself a bit short of rams this year. I wondered...’

Mrs Davies stood up. ‘Say no more. I’ll send our Will round first thing. He’ll see what you need and put you right.’

Satisfied with her good neighbourliness, Mrs Davies said her farewells and climbed stiffly back into her cart. Instructing a very plump pony to walk on, she clicked the reins at it for some moments before it finally deigned to lift its head from the sweet grass verge and obey.

‘I’ll see you at church then, come Sunday. Don’t forget to put that child into school.’

Meg promised she would and waved goodbye, sighed with relief then danced a little jig of delight with Effie all around the kitchen.
 

‘Bacon for tea. I’ll find some eggs and we’ll have a real feast. Oh, things are looking up.’

‘Flour too, didn’t she say? Oh joy! I never thought to be so grateful for such a basic substance. We can have dumplings and potato cakes, soda bread... all sorts of good things.’

Effie’s small face was alight with the promise of satisfying the rumblings of her continuous hunger. ‘Do that mean that I dun’t have to go and see Mr Lipstock? Do that mean I can stay?’

Meg sobered at once and regarded the young girl before her, very seriously. ‘If I say that you can, Effie, you have to realise that the work will be hard. It won’t always be warm. Winter will come and we might get hungry again. We have a lot to learn with the sheep and we mustn’t risk losing any. We’ll have to go out in all weathers to look after them. This is a farm so we will get more and more animals, I hope, as time goes by. Perhaps even cows again one day. You will have to learn to like them or at least get used to them.’

Effie chewed on her bottom lip. ‘Will I ’ave to milk ’em? Hold their tits and things?’

Meg smothered a giggle. ‘Not if you don’t want to. But if you don’t milk, you’ll at least have to help sweep out the muck and clean the byre. I know you’re getting pretty good with the cooking but you will have to go to school, like Mrs Davies said. And church. If you live here, you have to become a proper part of the community.’

Effie would have agreed to stand on her head every morning if that was what it took to stay in this lovely place. ‘I’ve never been to no school.’

Meg looked shocked. ‘Then it’s long past time you started. You’ll also have to wash your face when I tell you to, instead of sneaking off and pretending that you’ve done it when really you haven’t. You’ll have to wear shoes instead of going barefoot. You’ll need to learn to keep your clothes tidy and wash them regularly. And you’ll have to get on with the village children, do your arithmetic and spelling and learn your scriptures, same as everyone else. Say please and thank you and no swearing. Do you think you can manage all of that?’

Effie gazed at Meg with her big dark eyes. She didn’t quite know what half of these big words meant. But if Meg wanted her to do them, then she would find out how, and do it. Very solemnly, she nodded.

‘I will, if you want me to.’

‘That’s settled then.’

They grinned at each other.

‘It’s going to be all right, Effie, you’ll see. Hard work, painful, difficult, and no doubt loads of problems ahead, but we’ll be all right. I know we will. Get slicing that bacon. I’m starving.’

The next day Effie came screaming into the kitchen as if the devil were on her tail.

‘There’s a man in the yard with two monsters.’

Meg glanced out the door then burst into laughter. ‘You’ve a strange idea of what constitutes a monster.’

William Davies stood patiently waiting by the old yew chopping block. And two Shorthorn cows stood with equal patience by his side. ‘Hetty said as how you were needing a couple,’ he said by way of explanation. ‘They’re not me best by a long chalk but they still give good milk.’

When Meg asked about payment he shook his head with its white grizzled beard. ‘See me right some time. When you get on your feet like.’

‘That’s very kind of you.’ A shy man, unused to company, Will brushed her thanks aside, anxious to be off.

‘I’ve put the flour and rice in the lean-to. Let me know when you want to borrow our Arlott for t’ploughing like, and I’ll give you a quick lesson. We can sort out the tups you need to borrow when the time comes. Owt else you want, give me a shout.’ And touching the neb of his cap he refused all refreshment and swiftly departed.

Buoyed up by the generous support of her neighbours, Meg rode into town on her bike that very afternoon to find out the details from the War Committee about ploughing and came back pink cheeked with the thrill of discovery.

‘They’ll pay a grant of two pounds an acre when the work’s done. And there are more grants available for land draining.’

Effie looked blank. ‘Is that good?’

‘If we can do ten acres, that would be twenty pounds. Almost half the rent next quarter day.’ Whether or not she had ten acres good enough to plough Meg had no idea, nor where the rest of the money was to come from. But her optimism was soaring.

Seth Barton from Cathra Crag stopped off a day or two later with five young goslings and half a dozen turkeys. ‘I’m well stocked,’ he said gruffly. ‘They only need fattening up. Missus has sent a li’le bit of smoked Macon.’ This last proved to be a piece of mutton, smoked like bacon, delicious, and sufficient to feed them three months or more. Their winter was secure.

‘You’re very generous,’ gasped Meg.

‘Aye, well,’ Seth explained. ‘We were right fond of Lanky. It’s good to see the old place working again, and, beggin’ your pardon, we know help won’t be forthcoming from Joe. He won’t like the idea of you getting one over on him. You might do too well, and he won’t like that, will he?’ Seth went off chuckling, as if he’d cracked a joke.

They celebrated that night with a thick slice of fried macon and potatoes, followed by creamy rice pudding with a touch of homemade raspberry jam that Sally Ann had brought. Meg, who had never gone short of food in her entire life before, thought a king could not have eaten better. Effie knew it for a fact.

They fell into an easy routine. Meg found she could cope with the work so much better now that she wasn’t troubled by the nagging pangs of hunger.

Effie worked hard in the garden, digging and weeding. ‘Next spring we could grow onions and turnips and carrots,’ she said, getting carried away with newfound enthusiasm.

Monday was to be her first day at school and she was not looking forward to it.

‘You’ll love it, just you see,’ Meg assured her as they sat beside the fire together going over the day’s events, as they so enjoyed doing. ‘You’ll make lots of new friends.’

‘I dun’t bloody want to go.’

‘Effie! What have I told you about your language?’

She muttered a sulky apology. ‘Who’ll help you? Who’ll make the dinner while I’m gone?’ she protested.

‘We’ll make it together in the evening. It’ll be all right, you’ll see. You’ll love school. I did. Miss Shaw taught me and you’ll love her too, I promise.’

Effie looked astounded. ‘Is she that old?’

‘Go on, you cheeky tyke. For that, you can make the cocoa this evening.’

Without rancour, Effie happily obliged. Oh, yes, life was good. If only Jack were here, Meg thought, it would be perfect. A real family. Later, when she tucked Effie up, she sat on the edge of the bed and smoothed the sheets beneath the child’s chin with a tender hand. She was growing at last, her cheeks were plumping out a little and glowing with the good food and fresh air she was enjoying. The purple bruises on her body were almost gone, showing as no more than yellow stains on the pale flesh. Meg felt she had achieved wonders in such a short time but there was still room for improvement.

‘Do you need me to come with you on your first day? Only I’m pretty busy and...’

Effie made a scornful sound in her throat. ‘I’m not daft.’

‘Well, you can find the school yourself, can’t you, now that I’ve shown you where it is? You won’t get lost?’ She meant, you won’t run away, and they both knew it.

Effie shook her head very solemnly, then grinned her sudden, impish grin. ‘You won’t let my half of the bed to someone else, while I’m gone?’

‘No, I won’t do that.’ They exchanged happy smiles.

Meg hoped that the discipline of school and regular contact with the other children would be good for Effie. She’d succumbed to regular washing, agreed to sit up to the table and hardly ever resorted to her more colourful words and phrases these days. But Meg had so little time to spend teaching her that she hoped some of the other children’s finer points would rub off.

‘I think it’s all a waste of time,’ said Effie, as if reading her thoughts. ‘They’ll never manage to teach me owt.’ Secretly, the prospect excited her. Perhaps this was the start of her new life, her destiny. She might learn so much that one day she could get a job and earn real money of her own. Eeh, that would be grand. Then she could send some home to her mam.

Meg read her the
The Tales of Ivanhoe,
and Effie let her eyelids droop, enjoying the rhythm of Meg’s voice while she played out her mother’s joy and amazement in her mind.

Meg’s mind too was elsewhere as she read. Oh, Jack, if only you could see how happy we are here at Broombank. She would write to him in a minute and tell him of all the improvements she’d made already, and about the generosity of her neighbours. She wondered when his embarkation leave would come. It seemed almost sinful to be so happy when he was waiting to be posted overseas.

The postman had brought her a postcard the other day. It showed a picture of the Liver building. It seemed so far away it might as well have been on the moon. The thought of Jack going even further away filled her with cold fear, when all she wanted him to do was write and say he was coming home so that they could be married.

When Effie was asleep Meg sat on by the fire, feeling very alone. Effie was good company but still a child. Sometimes Meg ached for another adult about the place. For Kath. What was she doing? Why hadn’t she written? Too busy enjoying her new life no doubt. Oh, but it would be lovely to see her. Kath always helped put things into perspective.

I wonder what you’re up to, lass? Some mischief I’ll be bound.

Chapter Fifteen

Kath was having a hard time too, though in a different way, and Tam O’Cleary was her only friend. Had she not felt so very unwell and unlike herself she might have been tempted to take it beyond friendship for he was a good looking man. But this was not the moment, nor Southport the place.

Already preparations for war were encroaching upon life, making it less comfortable. The horses rarely galloped along the sands now and men in uniform shouted at her sometimes when she walked along it, as if they expected Hitler to arrive in a boat at any minute and kill them all. Kath ignored them and took no notice of the sandbagging that was starting in earnest along the front, the barbed wire that was being unrolled. She didn’t want to think about the war.

She had plans. As soon as the baby was born she would move on. When, how and where were still undecided for she knew it was not going to be easy. Aunt Ruby continued to watch her like a hawk. Kath told Tam as much one day as they sat in the sand dunes.

‘You always think you’re being watched.’ His reply, as usual, was light hearted.
 

‘You would too if you lived with that dragon. She sounds such a sweet dear, till you get to know her. Inside she’s like a wire pan scrub just waiting to scratch you. Why my mother imagined it would be a rest cure staying with her sister, I can’t imagine.’

‘And what would you be doing here then, might a fellow ask? Why should a fine healthy girl such as yourself be in need of a rest cure?’

 
Kath met his shrewd, velvet gaze. ‘Some people ask too many questions.’

Tam merely quirked his brow and looked out to sea, pretending to have lost interest. Kath let the silence hang till she could bear it no more.

‘All right then, I’ll tell you. I have to tell someone or I’ll burst. I’m pregnant. There. What do you think of that?’

‘The thought had crossed my mind.’

‘What?’

‘I hadn’t noticed the glow about you that pregnant women are supposed to have. More a sense of tension. I take it you have no husband and no intention of getting one?’

‘You take it correctly. I don’t want to talk about it. All right?’

‘All right by me.’ Once more Tam O’Cleary addressed his full attention to the sea. It was miles out, no more than a thin line of silver on the horizon. They huddled deep in the sand dunes, trying to avoid the chill wind blowing through the marram grass. Kath shivered.