The Loom (21 page)

‘Ee, well, Mr. Toomey, fancy that. Who would have thought that of Elsie Pierce? It just goes to show that some people’ll do owt for money.’

‘Aye, aye, it does that,’ Mr. Toomey replied in his ponderous voice.

‘Well, you’d think….’ On and on went the interminable conversation, punctuated by a few loud guffaws from the vociferous Mr. Toomey as Emma came out with a few laughable comments. It was the same every week. He always stayed and talked and talked. He normally didn’t come on Saturday but had been in the area and just ‘popped in’ (like so many others did, Leah thought in exasperation). Couldn’t it have waited until Monday, she thought, fuming because she had to catch the train to Blackpool at six?

She shivered again. She moaned, as the blah blah blab drifted in to her. Mam’s forgotten I’m here. I could be here till next week the way they’re going on. She was to meet Kathryn at the Blackburn Station and then they would both catch the next train to Blackpool. Kathryn was going to kill her because she’d never make it by six.

Peering though the crack again she could see the side of her mother and Mr. Toomey’s back, his stocky figure almost completely hiding Emma and preventing her from seeing Leah frantically gesticulating. She opened the door a little wider but that didn’t do the trick, either. It’s no good, she thought almost in tears, she’ll never see me and I could be stuck here for ages.

Leah seethed in frustration. She was freezing as well. Her mother did annoy her at times and this was definitely one of them. She’d been having a good wash in the tin in front of the fire when someone knocked on the door.

‘
Come in,’ her mother called from the scullery.

‘
Mam!’ Leah was standing in her knickers at the time and looked up in alarm. Emma peered round the door.

‘
Sorry, love, I forgot you were having a wash.’ Leah scampered under the stairs just as Mr. Toomey opened the door into the living area.

It must have been a good quarter of an hour since then and she’d get pneumonia if her mother didn’t hurry up, because there was a cold draught blowing under her knickers and her behind and all the rest of her felt like a block of ice.

That was the only thing wrong with her mother, her love of company. Yesterday it had been her three old aunts. Emma’s aunt’s that is, so they
were
quite old.

The visit had lasted hours. Leah eventually got fed up and went out. She could stand the gossiping, laughing, taking snuff but when they began to fart she was off. She went over to Annie Fitton who wasn’t much better.

‘
It’s like Windy Hollow in there,’ Leah shouted. Annie nodded. She was cutting a loaf of bread in her usual fashion with the loaf held against her chest and tucked under her chin, sawing away with the knife. Leah watched in fascination.

‘
Be careful you don’t cut your throat, Annie,’ Leah said loudly.

‘
It’s all right. This is the only way I can do it. Never could cut bread on a table. I’ve done this for forty years, so don’t worry,’ Annie replied.

She put the bread down after she’d cut two slices.

‘
Would you like a sandwich love? I was just going to make one for meself.’

‘
No thanks, Annie.’

‘
Aye, getting back to what you said. It gets like that when you get old. The plumbing system breaks down a bit.’

‘
A bit,’ Leah said, raising her eyebrows. ‘I almost got blasted out of the room, not to mention the smell!’

So with that episode yesterday and now today she’d be glad to get back to the Hall. At least there she had a bit of privacy. Then she felt guilty. It wasn’t her Mam’s fault that she liked people popping in all day.

When Darkie had got the job at the Hall they’d persuaded Emma to quit work. Emma had resisted at first but then she had realized just how tired she was. Staying home was like Paradise, but she needed company, she told Leah.

Leah looked through the crack again and was relieved that Mr. Toomey had walked to the door. Good, it looked like he was getting ready to leave. If only they’d both go through into the front room they could carry on their conversation for ever as far as she was concerned, just so long as she could get out from under these stairs. She was turning into a stalagmite.

She heard the door close with a click and rushed out from under the stairs and into the back room, shivering violently.

Emma returned to the living room looking shamefaced.

‘
I’m sorry, love, I completely forget you were under the stairs until Mr. Toomey mentioned how he found it hard to get up the stairs these days on account of his rheumatism. I nearly had a fit when I remembered. It’ll be a wonder you don’t get pneumonia standing there and me gabbing like a two bob watch. Ee, I could shoot meself, nattering on like that.’

Leah’s shaking had subsided to an occasional shiver.

‘
It’s all right, Mam. I know what you’re like. You didn’t do it on purpose but when you get going you never know when to stop.’

‘
Aye, I am a bit of a blabber mouth; me Mam was the same; talk, talk, talk, from morning till night.’ She looked at the clock. ‘If you hurry you can still catch that train.’ It was five thirty and the train left at six. She’d be lucky! ‘Come on love I’ll help you. I’ll go and get your dress from upstairs.’

Leah quickly put on her girdle, her knickers, fine silk stockings and a camisole. Her mother came in carrying her dress, holding it carefully. It was white chiffon with hand painted pale pink roses here and there on it, sprigged with a few leaves in a russet colour. Underneath was a pale pink slip.

The dress was beautiful, tight fitting to her hips and then falling in graceful folds to her knees. She had made it herself and also a russet green velvet coat. It matched the dress perfectly, as did her white silk shoes. She put the dress on and stepped into her shoes.

‘
You look lovely,’ Emma said, standing back with her head on one side. She was proud of the way Leah could sew. Even Mrs. Townsend was impressed with her skill and had even intimated that she would like Leah to make a dress for her. This outfit had hardly cost a penny. Miss Fenton took her up into the attics one day and they’d found trunks and trunks of old clothes carefully packed in mothballs. Miss Fenton had held up a long white high waisted chiffon dress from one of the trunks.

‘
We could use this for your dress,’ she said. Then they found a long russet coloured velvet cloak, ‘and this for your coat.’

‘
Mrs. Townsend won’t mind, will she?’ Leah said anxiously.

‘
No, no, she said for us to come up and take what we wanted. You’ll have to be careful with the unpicking, especially with that chiffon.’

That had been the hardest part. It had taken Leah ages but it had been well worth the effort, she thought, as she took a quick look in the mirror. She could only see her top half. Pity she hadn’t that long mirror at the Hall.

‘
I’d better get going,’ she said. She ran a comb quickly through her hair, which she’d let grow and now stood out from her face in an auburn halo. She picked up her bag.

‘
It’s a good thing you’re coming back tonight. You wouldn’t want to be saddled with all the paraphernalia you usually take.’

Leah nodded and hurried to the front door. Usually she was laden with all the things her mother packed for her, because normally she normally the weekend when she went to Blackpool. Emma even went so far as to pack fresh eggs carefully put in an old stocking with a knot tied between, because they did their own cooking at the lodging house where they stayed. Leah was always afraid she’d open her bag and everything would be covered in egg!

‘
Now be careful, love and make sure you don’t miss that last train back. I know what you and Kathryn are like, dancing mad and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if you got stranded there.’

‘
Don’t worry, Mam.’ Emma watched Leah almost run up Glebe Street in her finery. A few people stopped to stare. And no wonder, Emma thought, she does look lovely.

It still amazed Emma that working class people now patronized all the fashionable establishments and enjoyed themselves, like the Park Lane lot, dancing in the elegant ballrooms at Blackpool.

Blackpool had its huge Tower facilities, which included a gigantic ballroom, an indoor circus where the floor would suddenly disappear and then fill with water to form a huge swimming pool where high divers thrilled the crowd.

There was also the Winter Gardens complex, again with an enormous ballroom capable of holding hundreds of dancers. There were numerous elegant bars with palm fronded décors.

Then there were the Blackpool Illuminations: a three-mile promenade of millions of coloured lights, intricately bringing fairy stories to life for young and old alike. There were pantomimes and all kinds of entertainment on the beach (donkey rides were one), and a trip to this fascinating place was a yearly event much anticipated.

When Leah and Kathryn went for the weekend they stayed in cheap lodgings which only cost them two and six each. It was spotlessly clean and although Kathryn turned her nose up she put up with it because Leah couldn’t afford anything else.

On these weekends they thought of nothing but dancing. They’d dance on the pier in the morning to the pier band. In the afternoon it would be off to the Palace where Wilmington’s band played. They would only stop to catch their breath when Wilmington did his ‘turn’: handless cartwheels while still playing his fiddle.

The best time was the evening. Dressing up, dancing all night and falling into bed in the early morning. They would have a few hours sleep and arrive home late Sunday, absolutely exhausted.

Leah hurried into the station to see the train disappearing round the bend. She stopped in consternation. Kathryn would be livid. She’d have to wait an hour now for the next one, twiddling her thumbs because it was too far to walk home and back again. She cursed her mother. It was her fault!

She wandered up and down the station frozen to the bone until the next train came. She boarded it with relief and huddled in the corner trying to keep warm. Fifteen minutes later she stepped off the platform. Kathryn stood waving and shouting. Even from such distance she could hear every word.

‘
Where the bloody hell have you been? You promised me you’d be on the six o’clock train. Bloody night’ll be over by the time we get there.’

Leah hurried over. ‘I’m sorry, Kathryn. It was Mam’s fault.’ Kathryn glowered at her.

When the train came for Blackpool she wouldn’t talk and sulked all the way. Leah sat in the other corner and resigned herself to Kathryn’s bad mood. It’ll go when we get there, she thought, hoping she was right.

Blackpool was crowded with the usual Saturday night people, all out to have a good time. The huge ballroom of the Winter Gardens was filled with elegant dancers, women in glittering finery, men dandied up, many of them in black tux and snowy shirts.

Two bands at either end of the ballroom were warming up, Duraski’s, the one at the far end, looking set to play the first few numbers. The high pitched voices of the women and lower tones of the men echoed round the cavernous dance hall. Hundreds of lights blazed down from huge chandeliers, turning the ballroom into a fairyland of light and colour. Leah stood on the top step of the wide staircase, which led onto the ballroom below. She smiled in anticipation, her cheeks flushed. She loved these Saturday nights!

She decided to wait for Kathryn at the bottom. As she walked the chiffon floated around her. Eyes turned towards her. Her flush deepened. Normally there were a lot of people on the stairs but just now she was the only one so she stood out. Leah hadn’t seen Paddy. He stood watching as she walked, or seemed to him, to float down the stairs, her breasts rising and falling under the filmy material, her hair gleaming red under the lights. He caught his breath. Enchantment was the word that came to his mesmerized mind. This was an image of Leah which would come back to him time and time again over the years: the billowing white chiffon, rise and fall of her breasts, the halo of her hair.

Paddy’s feelings for Leah had not diminished over the years. Rather they’d grown stronger. Even her lack of reciprocation had not deterred him. What did grate on his nerves was the sneaking suspicion that she was interested in the eldest Townsend son. There was nothing he could do about that except hope it was temporary and she’d get over it. What chance did she have with that lot, he thought, as he watched her, even if she was beautiful? No chance at all if he knew the nobs. They kept to themselves those sorts and he only hoped that she didn’t fall for some of the soft-soaping, because he knew the nobs liked to play along with the lower classes and then leave them high and dry. And not always dry, he thought. But surely Leah was not stupid enough to fall for that! In the meantime he was willing to bide his time. When she got fed up of mooning over something she couldn’t have, he’d step in. He had patience and he was stubborn, which he hoped would wear her down. One day she might look on him as more than a friend. There was no law against looking though, he thought, his eyes devouring her.

Leah glanced over to where he stood. Her eyes flew wide with surprise.

‘Paddy!’ she said. ‘I didn’t know you were coming tonight.’

‘Aye, I thought I’d put me dancing shoes on and have a bit of fun.’ His mouth was as dry. Damn and blast that Townsend! ‘You’re a sight for sore eyes, Leah.’