The Urchin's Song (39 page)

The smell which had been wafting out of the doorway was considerably worse once Josie stepped into the dark narrow hall, but nothing prepared the three girls for the stench of the room beyond the passageway. As Mrs Howard opened the door and stood aside Josie took a deep breath, fighting back the urge to gag, but she heard Nellie or Gertie give an involuntary retch behind her. The room was not large - eight or nine feet by ten at the most - and the ceiling was low, but every single inch of available space was taken. Several women and one man were asleep on pallets set against the walls, one woman holding a young baby against her breasts by means of a shawl, and in the centre of the floor was a large table holding lengths of material. Around this were several high stools on which sat more men and women, and they were all sewing garments. In contrast to the floor which was filthy and showing evidence of cockroaches, the table was spotless.

Although the odour of unwashed bodies and stale air was bad, Josie realised the main source of the smell was from the back yard beyond the room where the privy was situated, and she didn’t like to dwell on the state of that. She fought the inclination to raise her handkerchief to her nose, conscious of the dull gaze of the occupants as her eyes searched each pale exhausted face, and then her glance took in Lily. Her old friend was sitting at the far end of the table, one fist rammed against her mouth, and if Josie hadn’t known Lily was in the room she wouldn’t have recognised her at first. The once big, buxom woman seemed to have shrunk and she looked terribly ill, her face gaunt and her clothes hanging off a frame which was little more than skeletal.

Josie heard Nellie’s whispered, ‘Lily . . . Saints alive,’ and assumed, correctly as it happened, that Lily looked to be in a worse state than when Nellie had first seen her all those weeks ago. It was a moment or two before she could speak over the great hard lump filling her throat, but when her voice came it was surprisingly normal-sounding as she said, ‘We’ve come to take you out of here, Lily. All right? Have you got anything you want to bring with you?’

‘What’s that?’ A tall thin man with a harelip spoke and now everyone at the table was motionless as he rose to his feet. He had been working at a piece of material the same as the others, but his seat was the only one with a back to it. Josie had noticed the young girl who had first opened the door whispering something to this man as they had entered the room.

‘These are friends of Lily’s, Elias.’ Mrs Howard sidled round Josie before she added, ‘This is my husband.’

Josie inclined her head, holding the man’s eyes with her own as she said, ‘I’ve thanked your wife for taking care of our friend, Mr Howard, but there is no need for her to stay with you any longer. We weren’t aware of where she was or we would have come for her before now.’

‘Would you indeed?’ The harelip gave his voice a slight lisp which was all at odds with the mean, bullet-hard eyes. ‘Well she works for me, see? Trained her, I have, and it’s cost me ’cause she’s not as fast as the others, and I’ve given her a bed and food an’ all. She’s not leaving.’

‘Trained me?’ Lily spoke for the first time since they had entered the room. ‘The other girl died where she sat and I was all you could find, that’s the truth of it.’

‘See?’ The man turned to his wife. ‘I told you how it’d be. You do someone a good turn and they kick you in the teeth. You should’ve left her where she dropped. Twenty odd suits and more we’ve got to get to Bennett’s or else we’re in trouble, and here’s one of me workers swanning off without as much as a by your leave.’ The voice had a whine to it now. ‘This is what comes of being kind and extending a helping hand.’

‘A helping hand?’ said Josie grimly. ‘The same helping hand these other people have benefited from, I suppose?’ Her head moved in a gesture which took in the miserable room and its occupants, but her eyes remained fastened on the tall thin man watching her. ‘If anyone else had taken Miss Atkinson in I would have made sure they were rewarded handsomely, but from what I have seen here my friend has more than repaid anything she owed you.’

Mrs Howard had now reached her husband’s side, and Josie turned away from their combined glare, staring straight at Lily as she said, in a tone which brooked no argument, ‘Get your things, Lily. You’re leaving here and you’re not coming back.’

It was some seconds before Lily spoke, and Josie thought for an awful moment or two she was going to refuse to leave with them, but then her old friend said, her voice breaking, ‘I . . . I haven’t got anything ’cept my coat, lass.’

‘Put it on then.’ Josie was amazed at how firm her voice sounded and how cool she must seem on the outside, especially with the pitiful sight in front of her. She looked straight into Mr Howard’s face again as she said, ‘Something tells me you and your family don’t live in this establishment.’

‘What’s that to do with you?’

‘I’m right then.’ Lily had joined them now and Josie’s chin rose higher as she said, ‘You’ll have to answer for all this one day, Mr Howard. God won’t be mocked, do you know that? There will come a day when you’ll wish you’d never been born.’

She had expected some nasty retort along with a command to get out, but when the man merely continued staring at her, one hand now clutching at his shirt collar, she swung round, pushing Lily and the others in front of her as she said, ‘Go out to the carriage, all of you.’

The air wasn’t pleasant in the street outside, but it was fresh compared to the fetid atmosphere they’d just left.

‘How did you know, lass?’ Lily’s fingers gripped hold of Josie’s arm as the other two clambered into the carriage with no further bidding. ‘About him, Howard?’

‘Know?’

‘He’s terrified about anything to do with the hereafter. Superstitious doesn’t begin to cover it. He’ll look on what you said as a curse, he will, and he’ll be disappearing up his own backside in there.’

‘Not an attractive thought.’

And then, as Lily swayed slightly, Josie took the other woman in her arms as she said, ‘Why, Lily? Why didn’t you come to me or one of your other friends? You know there’s plenty who would have helped you. You’re ill, anyone can see that, and working in there . . .’ Josie couldn’t finish but hugged Lily to her.

After a few moments she held the other woman away as she said again, ‘Why, Lily?’

‘They . . . they aren’t all like you, lass.’

Josie looked deep into the brimming eyes and said softly, ‘Nellie came back looking for you that night. She was so upset when she couldn’t find you. I think at first she couldn’t believe it was you and by the time she realised it was, you’d gone.’

‘Oh, I don’t mean Nellie, not really.’ Lily flapped her hand before running it over her wet face and taking several deep audible gulps. Then, her tongue loosened, she burst out, ‘I’ve never taken charity in me life, lass. That’s it at heart. Me mam an’ da were the same; for right or wrong they believed in taking nowt from no one unless you’d earned it. After our mam died an’ me da got middling, one of me brothers was going to take him in, but on the morning he was supposed to move our Bernie went round there an’ me da had hanged himself with his own belt.’

Josie’s eyes had widened but now she said urgently, ‘You can’t believe that was right, lass. You can’t. You’ve more sense than that. I can understand about . . . the workhouse, but not going to live with your own kith and kin.’

‘Aye, well, I’ve no folk left, lass.’

‘You have now.’ Josie hugged her again and repeated, ‘You have now, all right? Let me help you.
Please
, Lily. And it’s not charity, it’s not. I . . . I’ve been a bit low recently, I’m missing home I suppose, and having you around will be wonderful. And we’ve always got on, haven’t we?’

‘But lass--’

‘No buts. Not one. Look, I’m doing all right now and if the position was reversed you’d do the same for me, you know you would.’

The tears were pouring from Lily’s eyes again but when Josie pushed her towards the carriage and the other two inside reached out eager hands to pull her up, Lily didn’t protest.

She was at the end of her tether, Josie thought, and who could blame her? If that place in there wasn’t hell on earth she didn’t know what was. Those poor people, and they all looked starving. As she joined the others it was to find Nellie had her arms tight round Lily’s slumped body and was saying over and over again, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,’ and Gertie was leaning forward holding one of Lily’s limp hands.

Josie looked at the three of them, taking in Lily’s closed eyes and the mortification and shame that was coming off the older woman in waves and, making a quick decision, she poked her head out of the carriage window and called to the driver, ‘Do you know a good pie and peas shop anywhere round here?’

‘I don’t right off, ma’am, but ten to one there’ll be one a couple of streets away if not at the end of the road. Them and the gin shops is what keeps folks alive round here.’

‘Could you drive to one, please?’ Settling back in her seat again Josie said quickly, ‘Do you fancy giving that man back there another gliff, Lily?’

‘What?’ Lily raised herself, taking the handkerchief Josie was holding out as she said again, ‘What do you mean?’

‘How about we get enough pies and stuff for all those people back there and take them in? For the people in the other rooms too - there
are
people in the other rooms?’ And at Lily’s nod, Josie continued, warming to the theme, ‘We’ll get milk for the baby and children, and beer for the others too, and bread and oh - masses of stuff. Yes? If we gave them money old Howard might well find a way to take it off them, but he can’t stop food going in their bellies today. If nothing else they’ll eat till they’re full for once.’

‘You an’ your sister come with me an’ at least you’ll go home with full bellies the night.’
Vera’s words came back down the years and Josie realised she had never really forgotten them, or what it had meant that night, so long ago now, when she had eaten her fill for the first time she could remember.

‘Do you mean it?’ Lily sat up straighter. ‘There’s a good few of ’em, you know,’ she added through her tears.

‘That doesn’t matter.’ Josie grinned. ‘Do you fancy giving Howard and his wife one in the eye then?’

‘Do I ever, lass. Do I ever.’

By the time the carriage returned to Hanging Row the four women were sitting with parcels of pies wrapped in newspapers which reached to the ceiling, or so it seemed, and the good-natured driver had cans of peas, along with several of milk, propped next to him on his seat. Josie had also bought beer, fresh loaves of warm bread, chunks of cheese and a large barrel of biscuits, and now there wasn’t sight of a tear from Lily, caught up as she was in the excitement.

It was the Howards’ daughter who opened the door again. This time Gertie stayed with the carriage and horse, and the driver came with Josie into the room in which the Howards were; Lily and Nellie distributing food into the other rooms. It was evident the driver had expected trouble after Josie had told him what was occurring when they were waiting outside the pie shop, but the Howards were like a pair of lambs as Josie encouraged everyone to eat and drink in the room in which Lily had worked. It might have been something to do with the bulky figure standing guard in the doorway - the driver was a big man, and imposing, and he had large hobnail boots and enormous hands - but afterwards Lily said she was sure it was more to do with what Howard himself would have seen as a visit from the witch who had cursed him.

The thanks from the inhabitants of the grim sweatshop were heartrending, and even the driver’s stoical countenance was moved with compassion, the extent of which became apparent when, on reaching Park Place, he refused to take the money for the fares, even when Josie tried to press it on him.

‘What a nice man.’ As the four women watched the carriage depart Gertie summed up what they were all thinking. ‘And he looked so tough on the outside, didn’t he?’

Oliver didn’t look particularly tough on the outside; he was elegant and handsome, and with an undeniable air about him, but not tough. Josie turned to the others, her expression thoughtful. Would he have been touched like the driver had been by what they’d witnessed that morning? She didn’t know, she admitted silently, and that bothered her greatly. It also bothered her that she was going to have to oppose Oliver with regard to the one stipulation he had laid down about her helping Lily; namely that her old friend would not reside under their roof. It would only be for a short time, until Josie could find suitable accommodation, but at the moment the other woman was ill and in need of a doctor and that took precedence over everything. She didn’t want Lily disappearing again, and if she farmed her off somewhere that was exactly what would happen - she felt it in her bones. Lily needed to be with people who cared about her even more than she needed food and medical attention, but Oliver wouldn’t see it that way.

 

Oliver did not see it that way. He returned home that afternoon feeling tired and irritable, having lost a great deal at the gaming table the night before - money he did not have in the first place. Instead of the serene, orderly household which had been his before he’d married, he felt as though he had walked into a bear garden, he flung at Josie moments before he stalked out of the house after growling that he would have dinner at his club.

He did not drive the horse and carriage to the Gentlemen’s Club in Oxford Street of which he was a member; he walked instead, and all the time his mind was worrying at his mountain of debts rather than the fact that he had left his new young wife in tears.

He had been a fool to be tempted by that game last night, he told himself wearily. He’d known it even before he’d sat down, damn it. But Stratton had made it difficult to refuse. The thought of the other man caused Oliver to walk more slowly, wondering for the first time whether Stratton knew Stella had been his mistress. It was possible. He was a wily old bird, Stratton. Oliver would have to be careful of playing against him in the future; last night he had felt something was amiss, but how could you accuse a lord of the realm and one of the Prince of Wales’s confidants of cheating at cards? Moreover he’d had no proof, just a gut instinct.