Pauper's Gold (33 page)

Bessie tried to smile, but she couldn’t hide the bleak look in her eyes. But Nell was grinning broadly. ‘Oh, you’re not going to get rid of us that easy, if that’s what
you’re hoping,’ she teased, knowing full well Bessie was wishing for anything but that. She moved and put her arm around Bessie’s ample shoulders and hugged her close.
‘There’s a house down the end of this very street to rent. It’s belongs to a mill owner, of course, but the old lady who lived there’s just died and—’

Bessie nodded. ‘Oh yes, I know who you mean. But her son works in the garret, doesn’t he? What’s going to happen to him?’

‘He’s married and they live next door to his wife’s parents.’ Nell’s eyes sparkled. ‘Luckily for us, she doesn’t want to move, so he can still go on
renting the garret and we can live downstairs. Jim’s sorted it all out with the mill owner and he’s paid a month’s rent up front and it’s ours from the first of December.
We’ll be married on that very day. Just think,’ she went on, her eyes sparkling. ‘We’ll be in our very own home for Christmas, and you and Hannah must spend Christmas Day
with us.’

As Bessie opened her mouth to protest, Nell added, ‘And we won’t take “no” for an answer. So there!’

Bessie’s face was a picture of happiness. ‘Then I’ll still see Tommy if you’re only down the street. You’ll still let him come and see me?’

Nell laughed. ‘More than that. I was going to ask you if you’d look after him whilst I carry on working for a bit.’

Bessie’s eyes widened. ‘Jim doesn’t mind you still going to the Gregorys?’

‘Not if Mrs Gregory will let me go just daily. Besides, it’s not long now until the lad goes to school and they get a governess for the little girl. I always knew the job wouldn’t last for ever. Mind you, madam asks me to do a
lot more for her now. Says I have a way with clothes and such.’ She touched her hair a little self-consciously. ‘So she might want me to continue as her lady’s maid. The one
she’s got at the moment is less than useless – worse than the girl that was there. You should hear her shouting at her.’ She laughed. ‘But she never shouts at me.’

Listening to the conversation, Hannah pulled a face. ‘She wouldn’t dare!’

Nell had the grace to nod and say, ‘That’s true, ’cos I’d only shout back and walk out, and one thing she can’t abide is having to look after the kids
herself.’

Bessie gave a snort of disapproval. ‘Some women don’t know when they’re well off. She doesn’t know how lucky she is.’

Nell’s face was sober. ‘They tried to take Tommy away from me, y’know.’ Hannah and Bessie stared at her. ‘Told me it would be a lot better for him if I let some
nice, well-to-do family adopt him. That he’d have a much better chance in life than being brought up in the workhouse.’ Bessie and Hannah exchanged a glance but said nothing, allowing
Nell to unburden a guilt that had lain heavily on her. ‘Maybe I should’ve done.’ She looked at the other two, tears in her eyes. ‘Was I being selfish, hanging onto
him?’

‘No, no, you weren’t,’ Bessie was swift to reassure her. ‘You have to do what you think best. A lot of girls in your position would’ve let him go and who’s to
say they weren’t right?’ Her mouth tightened. ‘A lot of ’em are forced into it, either by their families or by the authorities. They don’t want to give up their
babies, but they’re left with no choice. In fact, they’re not
given
the choice.’

‘I know,’ Nell nodded. ‘There was one poor girl in there who was desperate to keep her baby, no matter what, but they actually snatched him out of her arms and carried him off
to give to some well-off pair.’

‘Huh!’ Hannah said bitterly. ‘Another of Goodbody’s schemes. I dare bet he was paid handsomely.’ She glanced at Nell. ‘How come he let you keep Tommy
then?’

Nell smiled sheepishly. ‘He knew who the father was. It was Edmund Critchlow had me sent back to the workhouse when I told him I was carrying his child. I think Goodbody was a bit unsure
what to do to be right. Whatever he did could’ve put him on the wrong side of Edmund. So he chose to let sleeping dogs lie. He did nothing. Oh, he tried to persuade
me
to give Tommy
away, but no, he didn’t force me.’

‘Well, you’ve turned out lucky, Nell. You’ve found a good man who’ll love you
and
your son.’

‘Yes, yes, I have,’ Nell said, ‘But I’d never’ve had the chance to meet him if it hadn’t been for you and Hannah getting me out of that place.’ Her
voice was soft with love and gratitude not only for Jim, but for Bessie and Hannah too.

‘Oh, go on with you.’ Bessie flapped her away, pretending embarrassment, but secretly she was heartwarmed. Then, playfully, she wagged her forefinger at the girl. ‘Just so
long as you don’t ever take little Tommy away from me.’

Nell’s wedding was a quiet affair, but Bessie and Hannah had managed to scrape enough money together to give Nell a wedding breakfast at home, and to Nell’s
astonished delight, Mrs Gregory had given her one of her old dresses to turn into a grand wedding dress.

She and Hannah sat far into the night, cutting and fitting and stitching.

It was a merry party that returned to the house in Paradise Street, where Bessie and Hannah had put on a spread fit for a queen.

‘Going to invite the neighbours in then, Bessie?’ Flo Harris was hovering on the doorstep.

‘’Course we are,’ Bessie said happily.

Flo sniffed. ‘Thought the likes of us weren’t welcome, seein’ as how we didn’t get an invite to attend the service.’

‘You didn’t need no invite if you’d wanted to come. Free entrance at the church,’ Bessie retorted. Then she relented, adding, ‘Oh, come on in, Flo and stop moaning
for once in your life. And tell anyone else down the street, they’re very welcome if they want to come in.’

‘Ta, Bessie.’ Flo smiled. ‘I will.’

Half an hour later, it seemed as if half the street was crammed into Bessie’s terraced house. But her neighbours came with whatever little gift they could spare: pots and pans, bed linen
for the young couple’s new home and all sorts of useful items. One old man, a widower, gave Nell an apron that had been his wife’s. Handing it to her, he said, ‘If you look after
your man as well as my dear wife cared for me and our young ’uns, you’ll not go far wrong, lass.’

With a lump in her throat, Nell kissed the old man’s leathery cheek.

When they’d all eaten and drunk their fill and tottered back through the dusk to their own homes, there came a moment of awkwardness.

‘Well, be off with you then, the pair of you,’ Bessie said with brusque fondness. ‘You can leave Tommy here for the night. He’ll be all right with me ’n’
Hannah. It won’t be much of a honeymoon, but you ought to have your wedding night to yourselves.’ She pulled the little lad onto her lap and cuddled him close. ‘You’ll be
all right with your Nanna, won’t you, my little man?’

The little boy, wearied by the day’s excitement, put his thumb in his mouth, leaned against her and promptly fell asleep. The grown-ups chuckled softly and Jim, with a tender gesture,
touched the boy’s hair. ‘That’s good of you, Mrs Morgan. We’ll fetch him in the morning.’

‘No hurry,’ Bessie said.

Nell laughed softly. ‘For two pins I reckon she’d keep him.’ Above the child’s head Bessie and Nell exchanged a fond look. They both knew there was more than a mite of
truth in Nell’s teasing statement.

Jim put his arm around his bride’s shoulders. ‘Come on then, Mrs Smith. High time I carried you across that threshold.’

There were kisses and farewells all round and Nell joked, ‘Anyone’d think we were emigrating to the other side of the world.’ But even so, she gave Hannah an extra fond
hug.

‘Thanks, Hannah, for everything,’ she whispered. ‘But for you I’d still be locked up in that place.’

‘And but for you,’ Hannah murmured in return, ‘I might not have survived those first few weeks at the mill, especially after Jane . . .’

‘You would. You’re a fighter. A survivor. Whatever you want in life, you’ll get. Just be careful that you don’t get hurt yourself, that’s all.’ She pulled
back a little and looked into her friend’s eyes. ‘There’s something still brewing in that head of yours. Something that one day you’re going to do. I can see it. Sometimes
you get this far away look in your eye and it frightens me, Hannah, ’cos when it happens you look so grim and determined, I know someone, somewhere, is in for it.’

Hannah tried to laugh it off, but she was startled at her friend’s perception. Oh yes, she had a secret and yes, someone was going to be in for it, as Nell said. In for it good and proper,
if Hannah had her way.

One day, Edmund Critchlow was going to be made to pay.

‘You know, it surprises me that you haven’t found yourself a boyfriend before now,’ Bessie said as she and Hannah sat before the range late that night with
just the glow from the fire to light the room. After an exciting and busy day, they were content to sit warming their feet against the fender. Tommy was fast asleep upstairs and they would soon be
joining him. But for the moment they were enjoying the cosiness of there just being the two of them. ‘If I’m honest – ’ Bessie chuckled – ‘I’d’ve
thought you’d have found a feller before Nell. ’Cos when young Jim first started calling, I thought it was you he was coming to see.’

‘I think he did at first, but only out of kindness. I think him and that nice constable at the station wanted to know I was all right. But once he set eyes on Nell . . .’ Hannah laughed.

‘And you don’t mind?’ Bessie asked seriously.

Hannah shook her head. ‘Oh no. Not a bit. I like Jim ever so much, but . . . but he wasn’t for me.’

For a brief moment she closed her eyes and she could see Luke’s face in her mind’s eye, see them running hand in hand up the hills above the mill, could almost feel the wind in her
hair.

‘You still haven’t forgotten that lad at the mill, ’ave you?’ Bessie said softly. Her face, illuminated by the soft glow from the fire, was full of sympathy.

‘No,’ Hannah said huskily. ‘I don’t suppose I’ll ever forget him.’

‘Don’t spend your life grieving for him, love. He wouldn’t have wanted that, would he?’

Hannah sighed. ‘I don’t suppose so.’ She was on the point of confiding in Bessie, on the point of confessing that one day she intended to go back to the mill, when a knock came
at the back door.

Bessie gave an irritated tut. ‘Now who can this be at this time of night?’

‘Sit still,’ Hannah said, jumping up. ‘I’ll go. And whoever it is, they’ll get a piece of my mind, disturbing folks this late.’

She threw the door open, an angry remark ready on her lips. Flo Harris, her arms folded across her thin chest, stood there. ‘Is Bessie still up? There’s summat I have to tell
’er.’

‘Can’t it wait till morning? We’re both dead on our feet. We’ve been up since five.’

‘No, it won’t wait. An’ she won’t want it to when she hears what I’ve got to tell her.’

Hannah sighed. ‘You’d better come in, then.’

Flo marched into the house, pushing her way past Hannah. There was a strange air of suppressed excitement about her. Whatever it was, she couldn’t wait to tell it, but, following her into
the room, Hannah had the uncomfortable feeling that this was not going to be pleasant news for Bessie. Flo was triumphant. Yes, that was the word. Triumphant.

‘Hello, Flo.’ Bessie, despite her tiredness, raised a cheery smile of welcome for her neighbour. ‘What brings you round at this time of night when most good folks are in their
beds?’

‘Ah, now you’ve hit the nail right on the head there, Bessie Morgan.’ Flo stood on the hearthrug in front of Bessie. ‘When all
good
folks should be in their
beds.’

‘Oh, sit down, do, Flo. I’m getting a crick in me neck looking up at yer.’

Hannah closed the door quietly and came to stand behind Bessie’s chair whilst Flo took the one near the fire where Hannah had been sitting.

‘So? What’s this important news that won’t wait till morning?’

Flo leaned forward and her eyes gleamed with jubilance. ‘I’ve seen your Peggy.’

For a moment there was utter silence in the room, then Bessie gave a cry and fell back in the chair. Swiftly, Hannah knelt beside her. ‘Auntie Bessie, are you all
right?’ Even in the shadowy light from the fire, the girl could see that Bessie had turned pale and she was holding the palm of her hand flat against her chest as if she had a pain.

Angrily, Hannah turned to Flo. ‘Why did you blurt it out like that? You could’ve been a bit more tactful.’

‘Huh! Sorry, I spoke,’ Flo said, making as if to get up and leave, but Hannah stood up and pushed her back into her chair. Standing over her, she said in a threatening tone,
‘Oh no, you stay right where you are and tell us it all.’

‘When . . . when did you see her?’ Bessie gasped, still holding her chest. ‘And where?’

Flo settled back, enjoying her moment of glory. She was sure of their full attention now. ‘It was near the pub. I’d just gone to fetch Harry his pint. He has one every night
’afore ’ee goes to bed. Just the one, mind you, I wouldn’t like you to think ’ee’s a drinker.’

If the situation had not been so fraught, Bessie might well have laughed out loud at this. The whole street knew that Harry Harris spent most evenings in the pub and only staggered home at
closing time. The jug of beer that Flo fetched most nights from the pub in the street round the corner was for herself.

‘Get on with it,’ Hannah muttered through clenched teeth.

‘She was hanging about outside the pub. Waiting for the fellers to come out.’

‘What feller?’ Hannah snapped.

Flo smirked. ‘Any feller’d do, long as ’ee’d still got the price for a bit of you-know-what left in his pocket. Shouldn’t be allowed. This is a decent
neighbourhood, this is.’

‘I know very well what my daughter is,’ Bessie retorted, ‘but you can’t resist any chance to rub it in, can you?’

Flo laughed. ‘Not my fault if I’ve heard tales, is it? She’s been seen in some of the worst parts of Manchester and—’

‘I think you’ve said enough, Mrs Harris,’ Hannah interrupted. ‘We’ll bid you goodnight.’ She grasped the woman’s arm and hauled her to her feet.