the maltese angel (18 page)

"Well, in that case I'll send Jessie out on the farm and I'll keep the young Master Gibson in petticoats for as long as I can."

They fell together, laughing; then, when softly he laid his lips on hers the kiss was broken by Annie's voice outside the door, saying,

"You've got a visitor, ma'am."

When Ward opened the door, Annie said, "Tisn't for you, 'tis for the missis."

"Who is it?"

Annie was suppressing a broad grin as she said, "She says to me her name is Miss Patsy Riley and she wants to speak to the missis. That's what she says. But she said it outside the back door, because I

wouldn't let her in;

I want to walk home to me cottage the night, not to be carried there by livestock. "

Fanny had now come on to the landing and she looked at Ward and said,

"Patsy Riley? The girl from the Hollow? What would she want?"

"I'll come down with you. We'll soon see."

But just before they arrived at the back door. Fanny put her hand to stay Ward, and in a whisper said, "Let me talk to her. Stay back." And this was meant, too, for Annie.

When Fanny opened the back door, both amusement and pity rose in her at the sight of the young girl: the heart-shaped face with the deep black eyes had been washed in a style; the hands joined in front of her, they too had been washed in a style, for the nails were showing rims as black as her eyes; the hair beneath the grey straw hat that had once been cream-coloured and had likely adorned some prim miss showed the ends of her straight black hair. She was wearing a coat which also, originally, had been made for some child of a bigger stature and better class. The skirt of the dress, which fell just below her knees, had evidently seen many rough washes, and her thin bare legs disappeared into a pair of heavy boots which, from their size, indicated they must be cramping her toes.

Fanny leaned forward towards her, saying softly, "Yes, my dear? You wanted to see me?"

"Do ya want any help, missis?"

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"Help?"

"Aye. Mindin' the baim, an' such. I'm good at mindin' hairns. I've seen to our squad. But me da cannot get set on; an' me ma's tried the fields, but they've got their own crews. An' so I thought, you see, missis ..."

"But aren't you going to school?"

"Oh ... Only half days now and then. Johnny, Mike and Shane go to keep the school-board man quiet; but Rob, he's stone pickin'. Not that that brings in much. You couldn't wipe your nose on what he earns."

Fanny's lids were shading her eyes; her head was slightly drooped; she said softly, "My baby is very young, and as yet I see to it myself."

"I'm not nitty now. I've cleaned me hair. Look." The hat was lifted with both hands from her head as far as the elastic band under her chin would allow.

"I did it with a small tooth comb an' washed it in the stream. It's not alive."

What Fanny was saying inside herself now was. Dear Lord. Dear Lord.

That a child has to come to this. She swallowed deeply, then asked,

"How old are you?"

"Nine. I'm the eldest now. There was three others, but they went with the cholera; an' there was another at ween Rob 'n me. She hadn't the cholera; she was just puny."

When a voice behind her said, "Fanny," she thrust a hand backwards and flapped it at Ward; then she said to the girl, "Stay there a moment now." She did not close the door on her, but, hurrying past both Ward and Annie, she went into the kitchen, and there, turning, she

confronted them saying, "I know what you're both going to say, but I'm going to say this: I mean to do something for that child. I don't know what, so you tell me."

"I don't want her in this kitchen, ma'am."

"Oh, Annie. She's desperate; she's in need of help, she's trying her best to be decent. You heard what she said."

"Yes, ma'am, I heard what she said; but I know that lot. Let her in here in the daytime and she'll go back to that mucky kip at night, and she won't be able to keep herself clean.

Don't you see, ma'am? she won't be able to keep herself clean. "

Fanny looked from Annie's straight face to Ward.

"Is there anything she can do outside; anything?"

"Oh, Fanny. What can she do outside, a lass like that?"

"Scrub. Sweep up. Help feed the animals ... anything."

"There's Carl to do that, and do you think he would put up with a lass in the yard?"

All of a sudden it was as if Fanny had put on inches: her back

stiffened, her chin went up, and, looking straight at Annie, she said,

"You've been on for some time, Annie, about the old dairy. When it's been hard to place the milk, you said that if a hand could be engaged they could make their pay, and more, through butter and cheese."

"Oh my God!" Ward turned from her, shaking his head.

"A dairy is the cleanest place on a farm, or should be, and you're proposing to put that lass in there? It's madness. No! No!"

"Yes, it's madness, ma'am. As he says, it's madness. Another thing: that churn needs some handling; it would take a young ox to turn it at times. "

"Well, let me tell you both' Fanny looked from one to the other now

'need makes people as strong as oxen. And she wouldn't go in there dirty; I would see to that myself: I'd strip her and clean her and dress her."

"No, by God! you won't do any such thing, Fanny. You're forgetting what you told me not fifteen minutes ago, you're carrying another

within you."

"No. No." It was Annie now who was shaking her head as she looked towards Fanny.

"You're carryin' again, ma'am, and you're proposin' to take on that thing outside? Oh, you must be mad indeed."

Fanny's voice was low now, and even had a sad note in it when she said,

"Yes. Yes, there's part of me quite

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mad. But it's a madness I mean to carry through. Ward, I've never

asked anything of you for myself; but now I'm asking this: I'm begging you to let me do this for that child. "

For answer, Ward went towards the fire, put his hand up and gripped the mantel shelf then lowered his head, and all he muttered was, "Oh, Fanny. Fanny." And through the tone of his voice she knew she had won.

Turning now to address her other opponent, a much harder nut to crack, she said, "Help me, Annie. I won't be able to carry it right through without your help, for I know nothing about a dairy, or butter or

cheese-making. But you do. And so that I can promise you she won't go home every night and come back lousy, I'll tell you what you could do.

It's like this: you were willing that Mrs. Killjoy should have the cottage next to you, so why not let Carl go into there; there's enough odds and ends in the attic to furnish a room. The girl could then

sleep in the loft. "

"Dear Lord in heaven! I've never seen anything happen so quickly, not even a miracle. You've got it all cut and dried, ma'am, haven't you?

Talk about a quick thinker. "

"When you want something very badly, Annie, and you know it's right, you know inside yourself that you've got to help that person, then God helps you to think quickly." She glanced towards her husband's back; then back to Annie, before turning and almost running out of the

kitchen.

In the yard, the girl was still standing as she had left her, and

saying, "Come with me," Fanny led the way across the yard.

She pushed open a weather-beaten door next to the cow shed and stood aside, indicating to the girl to enter, which she did with some

caution, looking around her in a half-fearful, half-defiant manner.

It was a square room, with a long stone slab attached to one wall; along another was a table holding buckets and bowls and platters, and from their lack of brightness the utensils showed that it was some time since they had been used.

But in the middle of the room stood a large wooden churn, its wheel as big as that of a small dogcart.

"This is a dairy," said Fanny, 'where butter and cheese are made. Now, my dear, I cannot offer you a position inside the house, but I would like this room cleaned up and made very bright again. " She pointed to the utensils.

"Then we might start making butter and cheese. But, you see, to achieve this, everything must be very clean, spanking clean, and the person who will work in here must also be clean." She paused, and looking down into the dark staring eyes and unsmiling face, she

emphasised this: "Very clean. You understand me, dear?"

"Yes, ma'am, I understand. An' I said me hair's clean, an' I'll wash."

Fanny turned her head away for a moment before looking back at the girl and saying, "I must be truthful to you: the persons who would do such work as required must be scrupulously clean ... very, very clean, and must not be in contact with anyone who is ... well, not so clean.

If my husband employed you, I would have to see to your well-being and clothes and such; but the main thing would be you would have to sleep on the farm. "

The girl's voice came brisk now, saying, "Not go back at night?"

"Yes, my dear, that's what I mean: you would have to stay here and only visit your people on leave days."

"No, no. I couldn't do that, missis. Me ma wants me at night; the hairns are fractious. Nights? No, no, I couldn't." The head was shaking violently now.

"An' me da. Well ... well, we go rabbit .. in'." The word trailed off.

"In that case," said Fanny, "I'm sorry, my dear. But you go home and talk it over with your mother."

At this, the girl looked round the room, and it seemed for a moment that she might be about to change her i51

mind. But turning, she darted out of the door, leaving Fanny standing with her head bowed for the moment. When she did go into the yard it was to see the girl running into the distance beyond the farm gate .

"Well, that's a good job," said Annie.

"You must have been mad, ma'am.

I can tell you, if you had taken her on she wouldn't have got into my kitchen, 'cos if she had, I would've walked out. Have you ever seen those hovels they live in, ma'am? "

"Yes, I have seen them, Annie, and that is why I felt I must do something for that child."

Ward's relief was the same as Annie's, although he didn't express it so plainly: "And there was the school, you know. They have been on her to go to school. And yet from what I hear, they keep the whole tribe from the Hollow to one side of the class, and the other hairns are told not to play with them. There's been mothers up there complaining before today."

As Fanny tugged at some straw poking out from a bale Ward had just stacked, she muttered, I could have seen to that, the same as Carl. "

Then she almost jumped at the sound of her husband's voice, for he barked at her, "By God! no; you wouldn't have seen to that. I put up with the lad and the time wasted; but I'll draw the line at another, and such another. If you had your way you'd have a school running in here shortly."

As they stared at each other, his mouth opened and shut twice before he turned from her and beat his fist against the stanchion of the barn, saying, "I'm sorry, dear. I'm sorry."

She did not answer for a moment; but then going to him, she placed her head on his shoulder, saying, "It's all right. I understand. And it's not the first time I must have tested your temper with my silly

ideas."

He turned towards her and, taking her by the shoulders, he repeated, '/

am sorry, my love. I am. I never imagined anything could make me bark at you. "

She was smiling at him now, saying, "Well, you have been proved wrong, and you were right." But although she thought them, she did not add the words, "I suppose."

At this he bent his head over her until his brow touched hers and he whispered, "I would do anything in the world for you, anything." To which she answered, "I know, dear. I know."

It was his statement that was put to the test the following morning .

Ward, Billy, and the boy had been up since before five o'clock lambing, and Annie had left her cottage shortly after five to get the fire

blazing and to attend two orphaned lambs that had been dumped into her kitchen. And she had just finished serving a number of long thick

rashers of bacon, six eggs, dabs of white pudding and slices of fried bread on to the three plates which she now laid before her master, her husband and the boy, when Ward asked, "Has she had her cup of tea?"

"Had her cup of tea!" Annie shook her head.

"This hour gone. And what's more, she's had her bite. But I wish she ate like you lot." She now flicked her hand across the table.

"Anyway, for the last hour she's been at her books, preparing stuff, I suppose, to knock into that one." And with her thumb she indicated Carl, and he, his mouth full, turned and grinned at her.

There was no more conversation until they had almost cleared their plates, when Billy said, "Another night like this 'un and we'll need an extra hand. What do you say, master?"

"Oh, I don't know. And yet... aye, perhaps yes. We'll see."

At this moment came a knock on the back door. They all looked towards Annie, who spoke for them, saying, "And who's this-at this time in the morning

"Well, until you go to the door you won't find out, will you?" Ward said to her. And she flounced out of the kitchen, only within seconds to flounce back again and

to go and stand close to Ward, her face almost near his ear, and to say, "You've got two visitors instead of one, an' they'll both be alive."

He stared at her for a moment before rising; then he turned his gaze on Billy as if to confirm his thinking, before slowly walking from the kitchen and through the boot-room, where stood Mike Riley and his

daughter Patsy.

"Mornin', master."

Ward's voice was a low mutter as he answered, "Morning." But then in a clearer tone he asked, "What can I do for you?"

"Well 'tis like this, master: your good missis, she gave this one here he nudged his daughter with his hip 'the chance of a lifetime

yesterda', an' the silly little bugger, what did she do now but turn it down 'cos she thought her ma couldn't do without her.