Eve and Her Sisters (38 page)

Eve could imagine her father’s fists had a lot to do with that. ‘And you say you have lost a brother and sister?’

The smile dimmed. Tilly nodded. ‘Our Jed was nigh on three an’ me sister, Jinny, nine months when the influenza took them. She . . . she was me only sister. All the rest are lads.’

‘You work as a chambermaid. Do you like it?’

‘Like it?’ It was clear Tilly had not been asked this before.Then she shook her head, adding quickly,‘But I was lucky to get it, ma’am, I know that,’ as though Eve had accused her of being ungrateful.

‘What is your wage?’

‘Six and six a week, ma’am.’

Six shillings and sixpence a week, and for that she would be worked to death, no doubt. ‘How old are you, Tilly?’

‘Fifteen come the summer, ma’am. Me . . . mam can’t remember exactly when but I was born one day in the first week of June.’

Eve nodded, keeping all expression from her face as she thought, poor little mite. Her gaze dropped momentarily to Tilly’s hands.They had turned bright red as she had warmed up and were chapped and sore, but her fingernails were short and clean. Until she heard herself say it, she wasn’t conscious of having made the decision. ‘How would you like to come and work for me as a nurserymaid, Tilly? You know my circumstances from Mr Hutton, I’m sure. Until now I have looked after my boys,’ she stopped abruptly and took a deep breath, ‘my son, largely myself, but on the occasions I am out Daisy finds him hard to manage. And she was not employed for this purpose, of course. I feel it would be good for Alexander to have someone with him all the time, someone he can play with as well as care for him. Do you understand me?’

Tilly’s eyes were wide. ‘Aye, yes, ma’am.’ She glanced at Mr Hutton but he was staring at Eve.

‘I would want you to live in and a uniform would be provided.’ She thought rapidly. It would be in the child’s best interests to have as little contact with her father as possible. ‘You would have one half day a month off when you would be free to do as you please. Oh yes, and your wage would be ten shillings a week, paid monthly.’ She now turned to Mr Hutton and pretended not to notice his glistening eyes. ‘You would be more than welcome to call and see Tilly when you are passing, Mr Hutton.’

‘Thank you, ma’am.’

Her eyes returned to Tilly and she saw the young girl’s face was shining. ‘So? Do you think you could fit into my household?’

‘Oh aye, yes, ma’am. I would, I could. Thank you, thank you, ma’am. I can’t believe . . . Thank you.’

Eve smiled. ‘When can you start?’

Tilly hesitated. ‘I could come right away, ma’am, but they won’t give you a reference then. I’m supposed to work a month’s notice. An’ me da, well, he’s expecting me money.’

‘Do you feel obliged to work a month’s notice?’

Tilly stared at her uncertainly.

‘What I mean is, suppose I give you your first month’s wages in advance to give to your mother’ - she could not bring herself to say father - ‘and you start work here tomorrow, would you feel happy to do that? Would that make things . . . agreeable at home?’

‘Oh, ma’am.’

‘That is what we will do then. Mr Hutton can assist you to bring your belongings here tomorrow morning at nine o’clock.’ Eve’s voice softened.‘Don’t cry, Tilly. Everything will work out, I’m sure. Now eat your cake.’

 

Over the next months Eve was to look back on that cold snowy day in February as the start of the next stage of her life. Within days of Tilly arriving at Penfield Place, it was as though she had always lived with Eve. Alexander adored her and Tilly handled her charge beautifully. Daisy was glad to be free of the responsibility of Alexander when Eve was out and she got on very well with the new nurserymaid, as did Elsie. Tilly was so visibly thrilled and grateful to be part of the household that she would have won the hardest heart over.

In the spring, Eve bought a motor car. It was something she had been thinking about for some time and would give her a degree of independence hitherto unknown. She received only scant instructions from the salesman, but after several somewhat scary forays in the very early morning when few folk were about, she grew in confidence. There were few rules and regulations to adhere to on the whole, and she found driving mostly a matter of common sense.

So it was that during April on fine afternoons, once she had finished at the church hall, she and Alexander and Tilly would go for a ride in the country. She took Mr Hutton with them on one or two occasions. Since he had been calling at the house to speak to Tilly once or twice a week, Eve had discovered she liked the irascible old man very much. And he was lonely. He never said this himself, but because since Howard had died she had moments of loneliness, she recognised it in others. All her busyness, however, couldn’t keep her mind off the worsening situation in the country between the miners and the government. She knew Nell was worried to death and she had every reason to be. Eve had thought about going to see her once or twice but the possibility that she might bump into Caleb restrained her. She was still feeling so raw and fragile after the loss of Oliver and Howard that she didn’t know how she would react if she saw him, and the last thing she wanted to do was make a fool of herself and embarrass him.

And then what everyone had been expecting happened. On 30 April, the coal owners closed every pit in the country and locked the miners out. Their terms to the miners amounted to pre-war wages and an extra hour on the working day.Their terms to the government now the subsidy had ended amounted to no state interference in the running of the mines, all strikes to be made illegal and the state to take over control of all funds belonging to trade unions.

It was war, but this time on England’s soil between the upper classes and the working class. And Eve was bang smack in the middle. For the first time since her marriage to Howard, she was brought face to face with the stark reality that she could not have a foot in both camps.The government had been shrewd enough to see what was going to happen and they had made plans for combating widespread industrial action. A huge force of middle-class volunteers was ready and willing to keep essential services running, so on 4 May when the unions backed the miners by calling for a general strike throughout the nation, a civilian army was ready to drive trams, buses and trains, distribute food and join the police specials. When Verity and Annabelle approached her to, as they put it, ‘do her bit’, she replied she would not be part of a strategy to rob miners of their rightful living wage.The terms to the miners were a disgrace, she said, and for Churchill to call the men who had slaved under the ground for coal during the war the ‘new Red threat’ and ‘worse than the Hun’ was unforgivable.

The result of this was that the instrument Eve had always been faintly suspicious of but which Howard had loved - namely the telephone - rang less, she received fewer callers, and invitations to soirées and other engagements markedly declined. All of which worried her not a jot. She was far more concerned when, after nine days, the TUC halted their action and the miners were left to fight on alone.

By the middle of September she knew she had to go and visit Nell and give her sister what encouragement she could. She had asked Nell and the children to come and visit several times but Nell had always replied that her place was with Toby while the lock-out lasted. And although Nell was still accepting the money Eve had been in the habit of sending her sister each month, she would not take any extra. Eve surmised, rightly,that Toby had forbidden what she knew he would term as ‘hand-outs’. He had long ago become aware of the arrangement they had, but when Nell had explained it away by insisting Eve was sending money for the bairns in her role as aunty, he had capitulated. But he would go only so far and no further.

Eve didn’t want to come between man and wife. But she was worried. From the talk at the soup kitchen and from miners who were now regularly knocking on doors asking for any work, however menial - ‘I’m a dab hand at grooming dogs, missus, or sweeping chimneys’ - she knew each week was becoming harder than the one before. And the lock-out showed no sign of ending. Even the most sympathetic of the miners’ supporters were getting fed up with donating and lending and helping.

Although it would have been very convenient, she knew she couldn’t travel to Washington by car. To arrive at the colliery town in a shining new motor car in the present desperate circumstances was unthinkable. So it was by train and cab she made the journey to see Nell one Tuesday in the last week of September. She’d left Alexander at home with Tilly. She didn’t know what to expect when she arrived and had warned Tilly and the others she might have to stay overnight.

It had been a surprisingly hot and dry September. The day was very warm.After the taxi cab had driven off in a cloud of dust, she stood looking at Nell’s house. She had expected . . . Well, she didn’t know what she had expected, but certainly not this curious lack of activity. She pulled her hat off and fanned her face as she glanced about her. Where were all the bairns? Then the front door of Nell’s neighbour opened, and a woman appeared in the doorway. Eve recognised her, and she said, ‘Hello, Mrs Ramshawe. I’m Eve, Nell’s sister.’

‘Aye, I know who you are, lass.’The woman’s voice was not unkind. ‘It was right sorry we were to hear about your man and the little lad. We all said a little prayer for you in church.’

‘Thank you.’

Eve walked up the path to Nell’s front door and Mrs Ramshawe said, ‘They’re not in, lass. Did she know you were coming?’

Eve shook her head. ‘No, I thought I’d surprise them.’

‘The men have gone on one of their marches, Durham way.’ Mrs Ramshawe’s tone seemed to suggest she was not in favour of the march. ‘An’ quite a few of the women and bairns have gone tattie and turnip picking. Farmer Brown at West Pelton and Farmer Kirby on the south side are paying in swedes and kale and other vegetables. It might not be pounds, shillings and pence but it fills the bairns’ bellies.’

‘When will they be back?’ Eve asked politely.

‘Not afore nightfall, lass. Leastways I shouldn’t think so.’

Eve was mentally kicking herself. She should have said she was coming but she hadn’t thought for a moment Nell wouldn’t be in. She nodded her thanks to the neighbour and opened Nell’s front door, knowing it wouldn’t be locked. No one locked their doors in Washington. She walked past the front room where she knew Nell and Toby now slept, the lads having one of the upstairs bedrooms and the two little girls the other.

In the kitchen she stood looking around her. It was cool; for once the range wasn’t on. She supposed there was no coal now to keep the fire going night and day, it would only be lit when necessary. Everything was spick and span as always but it was a cleanliness that spoke of poverty.The kitchen shelves had little on them and the table’s oilcloth was devoid of even a crumb.

Eve placed the heavy bag of groceries she had brought with her from Newcastle on the table. Sorting through, she lifted out a joint of ham and slab of butter and some cheese which would need to be put on the cold slab in the pantry, the rest she could leave for Nell to put away. When she opened the pantry door, however, she stood quite still for a shocked moment. The pantry was all but empty. She stared at the bare shelves in dismay.

Returning to the bag, she now swiftly packed away the food she had brought, her mind made up. She would go and buy some more groceries. If the food was packed away when Toby came home he might not notice too much, besides which there would be nothing he could do about it.They hardly had anything to eat in the house, she had to do something. And Nell with four bairns. Her sister must be at her wits’ end.

Biting her bottom lip, she snatched up the empty bag. She should have brought more with her, she would have been able to if she had come in the car. She could have piled up the back seat. But no, it would have looked bad, it was better she’d arrived by train. She was well aware her good fortune would have labelled her an upstart in some quarters, she didn’t want to add fuel to the fire. It wouldn’t be fair on Nell and Toby.

Leaving the house, she didn’t look to right or left. She knew Mrs Ramshawe would be peering out of her window, the woman was one of life’s natural busybodies, and no doubt Nell’s neighbour would clock in the groceries when they were delivered but it couldn’t be helped. Walking quickly, Eve made for the Spout Lane branch of the Co-op at the junction of Front Street. She could get most of what she needed there; the shop had its own butcher, grocer and hardware department, besides millinery, tailoring, crockery, and boot and shoe sections.And they would deliver a big order immediately, which is what she wanted. Besides everything else, she intended to buy a sack of potatoes and a sack of flour and she couldn’t carry those herself. She would also make sure a cartload of logs for the range was delivered from Hobsons who had their yard at the far end of Front Street.

In the big sprawling shop she took her time making her purchases. There was no need to rush. Nell and the bairns wouldn’t be home until twilight, so she wouldn’t be going home on the train tonight which wasn’t altogether unexpected. She could sleep on the settle in the kitchen for one night. She needed some time with her sister.

After paying for her order which the assistant promised would be delivered within the hour by the Co-op’s trusty horse and cart, she made her way to the timber yard and arranged for the logs to be dropped off that afternoon. Then she began to walk back to Nell’s. She had no inclination to dally in this heat. She refused to admit to herself it was more the possibility of running into Caleb that was sending her hurrying back to the house.

She had reached the front door and had her hand on the latch when Mrs Ramshawe appeared on her doorstep like a genie out of a bottle. Eve sighed. She might have known.

‘Had a bit of a wander, have you?’ Mrs Ramshawe’s beady eyes went to the shopping bag holding a loaf of bread and some thinly sliced beef which Eve intended to have for her lunch. ‘Had a look round the shops an’ that, I suppose.’