by Val Wood
‘It’s a brothel quarter,’ Lily muttered. ‘However did I get to be here? First thing in ’morning I’m leaving!’
She chose what she thought was the cleanest room on the first floor and looked in a cupboard on the landing to see if she could find clean bedding. She was a fastidious woman even though she had always been poor, and didn’t at all relish the idea of sleeping in someone else’s sheets. ‘Especially when I know what they’ve been up to,’ she muttered darkly. She fished about in the cupboard and brought out several blankets which appeared to be clean though they smelt and felt damp.
‘Well, beggars can’t be choosers,’ she told herself, spreading the blankets across the bed. ‘And I’ll be glad to put my head down and my feet up.’
She fell almost immediately into an exhausted sleep, which was punctuated by dreams of chasing Billy Fowler with a rope. Once she called out Daisy’s name and sat up, unable to recall where she had left her, and then as she remembered that she was with Mr Walker she lay down and fell asleep again.
In the middle of the night she heard shouts and screams and loud laughter and turned over, putting her head beneath the blanket. ‘Damned whores,’ she murmured. ‘How am I supposed to sleep with that racket going on?’
She was drifting off again when she heard a loud thudding; she groaned and slid further under the bedclothes. ‘No place for a respectable body,’ she groaned, hunching her shoulders up to her ears as the banging continued. Then she sat up in bed, exasperated. ‘For God’s sake,’ she shouted. ‘It’s ’middle of ’night!’
‘Lily!’ She could hear her name being called. ‘Lily!’
Am I hearing things? Who knows my name? I’m dreaming. I must be. But no, there it was again, and again came the banging.
‘It’s somebody at ’door! Who is it? Nobody knows I’m here.’
She slipped out of bed and into her shoes, dragging a blanket round her shoulders and carefully easing her way downstairs. It was pitch dark and she kept hold of the stair rail until she reached the hallway. The banging had dropped to a steady dull thump on the door.
‘Who is it?’ she called. ‘Who’s there?’
‘It’s me.’ The voice was no more than a croak. ‘Alice. Let me in, for God’s sake!’
‘Where’s ’key?’ Lily called back. The door was locked but there was no key in the lock. ‘Where’s it kept?’
‘Hanging on ’wall to ’left of ’door. About halfway up. Be quick, Lily, please.’
Lily slid her hands up and down the wall and then felt the nail and a key hanging on it. ‘Just a minute. It’s so damned dark I can’t see a thing.’ She fumbled about trying to fit the key into the hole, then in it went and she turned it. The mechanism needed oiling, but as it creaked she pushed against it until she heard the satisfying click.
She cautiously opened the door. ‘Don’t you have your own key?’ she began, but stopped when she saw Alice slumped on the step. ‘What’s happened,’ she said, bending down to her. ‘Have you fallen?’
‘Help me in, will you?’ Alice looked up at her. One eye was closed, the other bruised and bloody; her lips were swollen and there was a cut across her face.
‘Whatever’s happened?’ Lily helped her up and brought her inside. ‘Who did this to you?’
Alice gave a soft groan. ‘It’s one of ’hazards of this game,’ she muttered through her distended lips. ‘But I never thought it’d happen to me. What am I to do?’ She started to cry. ‘I daren’t go out there again. I’m scared that I’ll die.’
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
There was no hot water, for the cooking range was stone cold and hadn’t been lit in a long while, but there was a water pump over the sink and Lily strenuously pumped the creaking handle until she was rewarded with a thin stream of brackish water, which after some perseverance ran fairly clean into a tin bowl she had located in one of the kitchen cupboards.
She found a sheet in the landing cupboard and tore a piece off it, and went through to Alice who was lying, weeping, on the bed.
‘This’ll hurt a bit,’ Lily told her, ‘but I’ll try and get ’blood off and clean you up a bit.’ She gently dabbed away at the cuts with the wet cloth, and carefully trickled cold water over Alice’s swollen eyes. ‘You’ll have a couple o’ shiners tomorrow,’ she said. ‘You could do with some red meat to put on them. If you’ve any money I’ll go and find a butcher in ’morning and get you some beef steak.’
Alice gave a muffled groan. ‘He didn’t pay me, did he? Took what he wanted and then beat me up. I don’t know how I got back.’
‘Why didn’t you bring him here? I thought that was ’whole idea of having a house.’
‘He wouldn’t come,’ Alice said. ‘I met him by ’New Dock and invited him back. He looked as if he might have had some money. He was just off a ship anyway. But he said no; he was scared of being trapped, I think, or of ’house being raided by ’police.’ Her swollen mouth quivered. ‘He was horrible to me, Lily. I thought I was going to die.’ She broke into a spasm of weeping. ‘A few weeks back a young lass was fished out of ’Humber,’ she gasped. ‘I knew her by sight. She’d been beaten up and then pushed into ’river.’
‘Hush, hush.’ Lily stroked her head. ‘Don’t think about it. You’re safe now.’
She felt desperately sorry for her. Alice was only young, eighteen at the most. Lily looked back at her own life when she was that age. Her husband was away it was true, but she had his return to look forward to. She had a child and a one-roomed cottage which she could almost call her own. And in a village, she thought, everybody knows what their neighbours are doing; they know if they are sick or in trouble with ’law. There are few secrets. But in a large town it’s different. What if I hadn’t been here? Where would Alice have gone for help?
‘Will you stay with me, Lily?’ Alice begged. ‘I don’t want to be on my own. Please!’
Lily agreed and climbed back upstairs to fetch her blanket. ‘I’d give owt for a cuppa tea,’ she murmured. ‘If I can find some wood I’ll see if I can get that range going in ’morning. It’d warm ’place up as well.’ The house felt cold and damp and had a musty smell.
What am I thinking of she thought as she lay huddled next to Alice, whose sobs were lessening. I’m leaving. I’m not stopping here. But where shall I go? What shall I do? And what shall I do about Daisy? And Ted? Is he still at Seathorne with that blackguard, or has he left? Thrown out, more likely. Then she too began to weep as the events of the last few days overwhelmed her.
She fell into a troubled sleep and was awakened once more by someone hammering on the front door. ‘I’m coming, I’m coming,’ she shouted. ‘Just a minute.’
She wrapped the blanket round her, blinking at the brightness of the morning as it streamed through the window. She went barefoot to the front door, unlocked it and opened it to find Cherie and Lizzie standing at the top of the steps.
‘What ’you doing here?’ Lizzie said in amazement, her mouth dropping open.
‘I might ask you ’same thing.’ Lily opened the door wider to let them in. ‘Had enough hot dinners to satisfy you?’
‘I would have stopped at that place,’ Cherie said wistfully, ‘but Lizzie wanted to leave and I wasn’t going to stop on me own. So we decided to come away as soon as we’d had our breakfast.’
‘Just as well you didn’t leave before breakfast,’ Lily said laconically, ‘cos there’s nowt to eat here.’
‘So why are you here?’ Lizzie asked again. ‘I didn’t know you were on ’game.’
‘I’m not!’ Lily said sharply. ‘So don’t be thinking it. I’ve just had a bed for ’night. Alice is here,’ she told them. ‘You know her, don’t you?’ When they both nodded, she said, ‘Come and take a look at her and see what can happen when you’re in this line o’ work.’
She led them into the room where Alice was trying to sit up. Her eyes were swollen slits and she peered towards the two girls. ‘I’m so stiff,’ she mumbled. ‘I ache all over.’
&
nbsp; ‘Best stay in bed, then,’ Lily told her. ‘Unless you’ve owt special to get up for?’
‘Jamie will be coming for some money.’ Tears trickled from between Alice’s eyelids. ‘And I haven’t any to give him. He’ll turn me out for sure.’
‘What happened?’ Lizzie asked, as Cherie’s face turned even paler than it was already. ‘A customer, was it?’
Alice nodded, hardly able to speak. ‘I shan’t be able to work for a week!’ she whispered.
‘I’m scared,’ Cherie said in a small voice. ‘What’ll we do?’
‘I’ll talk to Jamie when he comes.’ Lily was tight-lipped. She was angry. Angry with Jamie, with the man who had done this to Alice, with Billy Fowler who had put her in this predicament. Surely somebody can do something! ‘It isn’t fair!’ she said bitterly. ‘It just isn’t fair.’ Three pairs of eyes turned in her direction.
Lizzie shrugged. ‘Who ever said it was? Nobody’s ever done owt decent for me and I’ll not do owt for anybody else. Except for Cherie,’ she added. ‘Onny for her. I’ll look out for her.’
‘Why?’ Lily asked. ‘Why for Cherie and nobody else?’
Lizzie eyed her bleakly. ‘Cos she can’t look out for herself. She needs somebody to watch out for her.’
Lily nodded. Lizzie seemed so hard and in-different, yet she had a weak spot which the vulnerable Cherie had penetrated. She turned to Alice, who was resting her chin in her hands. ‘Who watches out for you, Alice?’ she asked.
Alice shook her head. ‘Nobody,’ she said. ‘I’ve allus looked after myself. Never had anybody.’
They all jumped as the front door crashed open and a voice called out, ‘Morning, ladies!’
‘Jamie,’ Alice muttered and slid down under the blanket. ‘Tell him I’m ill.’
‘You are ill,’ Lily said firmly. ‘Don’t worry about Jamie. I’ll deal with him.’
Jamie came jauntily into the room. His fair hair was tousled by the wind, but he was well dressed in a grey tailcoat and dark trousers, rather fancy for a working day, thought Lily, who knew nothing about fashion. He raised an eyebrow when he saw Lizzie and Cherie.
‘You’re back then.’ He grinned. ‘Didn’t think you’d last long being pious.’
Lizzie opened her mouth to retort, but Lily forestalled her, asking sharply, ‘Do you always come into a woman’s room without knocking?’
He glared at her. ‘It’s my house,’ he snapped. ‘Why shouldn’t I?’
‘Manners maketh man,’ she retaliated. ‘Have you never heard o’ that? No, course you haven’t. Now tek a look at Alice seeing as you’re here and then come wi’ me. I want to talk to you.’
Jamie looked down at Alice huddled under the blanket. She didn’t attempt to open her eyes, which would have been difficult anyway, because she didn’t intend to look at Jamie in case he asked if she’d been paid.
‘You’re in a mess,’ he said. ‘Was it anybody we know?’
She shook her head. ‘A seaman,’ she whispered hoarsely. ‘Never seen him before.’
‘A foreigner? Or local?’
‘He had a funny accent,’ she answered wearily. ‘But I don’t know where he was from.’
He began to ask her more questions but Lily interrupted him. ‘Leave her be,’ she said. ‘I’ll tell you what you need to know. Come out here wi’ me.’
She went out of the room and he followed her into the kitchen. She faced him. ‘She could’ve been killed,’ she said. ‘But it wasn’t here in ’house. They were out on ’streets somewhere. Near to ’dock, I gather.’
He made a disgruntled tutting sound. ‘Why didn’t she bring him back here? What’s ’point o’ me paying rent on this place if they’re going to stop outside?’
‘He wouldn’t come,’ she explained. ‘Alice thought he was afraid of being caught by ’police.’
‘Mmm.’ He screwed up his mouth. ‘Well, sometimes places are raided, but onny if there’s been trouble; if men have been robbed or owt, then ’constables keep watch.’ He glanced slyly at her. ‘Have you decided to stay, then? Going to watch over ’em like a mother hen?’
‘I might,’ she said calmly. ‘It depends. I’d have to mek a few rules first.’
He snorted. ‘You’re forgetting. You owe me. I’m ’one who meks rules.’
‘And it’s you who stand to mek a profit.’ She glared back at him. ‘And you won’t do that if these girls go out on ’streets looking for customers and get a beating. Much as I hate ’thought of it, they’re safer if ’customers come here.’
He rubbed his nose. ‘Well, that’s what used to happen when ’other couple ran it, but ’police were allus sniffing round. They’re up and down ’square all ’time.’
‘Aye,’ she said derisively. ‘I gathered it’s hardly a street of respectability. Women parading about and men on ’lookout. It’s disgusting!’
‘So it might be,’ he sneered. ‘But it’s life. It’s what happens. And you’re a part of it now unless you can pay me back what you owe.’
‘Nowt to stop me just disappearing out of Hull and going back to ’country,’ she said.
‘Oh aye? And what about your daughter?’ he asked. ‘How’re you going to feed and clothe her?’
‘Don’t think I haven’t thought about her,’ she said softly. ‘And that’s why I’ve decided to stop here.’ Her eyes had a luminous look; he saw a flash of green and then gold. ‘But there are conditions, and if you agree, I’ll make this into ’most respectable bawdy house in town.’
‘Bordello,’ he said. ‘It sounds better.’
Lily shrugged. ‘Means ’same thing. Do you want to know or not?’
Jamie nodded. ‘Go on then. Tell me your grand plan, though what it is I can’t imagine. You’re just a country peasant. How do you know what folk in town want?’
‘First of all I’ll tell you what I want,’ she answered. ‘And for a start this place needs cleaning up. You can’t expect anybody who’s anybody to come to a slum like this. Whole place needs scrubbing out; ’curtains need washing, ’bedding needs washing. It stinks like what it is,’ she said, wrinkling her nose. ‘But it needn’t cost you,’ she added, for she saw alarm on his face. ‘I’ll do it, and those girls in there will help me.’ She pointed towards the hall and Alice’s room. ‘That’s if they want to stop. You’ll bring soap and carbolic and you’ll bring coal and wood to light ’range so we can have hot water, and light fires in ’other rooms as well, and when we’ve finished we’ll want clean clothes.’
‘Don’t expect much, do you,’ he snapped. ‘How am I expected to pay for all of that?’
‘Oh, I expect you’ll find a way,’ she said sweetly. ‘You don’t seem ’type who’ll stick fast at owt so simple as finding money. Anyway, you’ll get it back as soon as ’customers start coming in.’
‘And what do you want out of it?’ Jamie gave a crooked grin. ‘Will you go on ’game as well? Make a bob or two on ’side?’
Lily eyed him narrowly. ‘If anybody had suggested that to me a week ago I’d have given him a worse black eye than Alice has, but I’m in an odd position and I have to mek a living and if ’onny way is working in a house of ill repute, then I’ll do it. But the answer to your question is no, I won’t be giving myself to any man, for money or not, and I’m mekking that clear right from ’start. My job will be to look after those girls, manage this house, keep it in order and try to keep ’police sweet. I’ll look after your money and mek sure you get paid. But them girls will need to be paid as well and so will I.’ She gazed squarely at him. ‘So do we have an agreement or not?’
He raised his head and surveyed her. He scratched his neck and then his chin and she noticed that he’d cut himself shaving as there were spots of blood on his neckerchief.
‘Right,’ he agreed. ‘We do.’
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
They agreed on the basics, with Jamie’s priority to bring in wood and coal so that Lily could light the range. She’d also told him that he should fetch bread and meat
so that they could eat. ‘We can’t work on empty stomachs,’ she said. ‘And if we’re to clean this hovel out we’ll need sustenance.’ He’d complained, but she ignored his mutterings and added that he should also bring some red meat for Alice’s eyes.
After he’d gone she went back into Alice’s room where she found Lizzie and Cherie sitting on the end of her bed, both looking very miserable.
‘Cherie says she wants to go back to Hope House,’ Lizzie said plaintively. ‘She’s scared of being beaten up like Alice.’
‘Then you should go,’ Lily said firmly.
‘But I can’t go without Lizzie.’ Cherie’s lips trembled. ‘I’m scared of being on my own.’
‘How come you’re working on ’streets?’ Lily asked. ‘You’re onny a bairn.’
Cherie bit on her lips. ‘Da died some time ago, and then my ma died, so landlord turned me out of ’house cos I couldn’t pay ’rent. I couldn’t get a job o’ work and then I met Lizzie.’
‘When was this?’
‘Onny a couple o’ weeks back.’ Lizzie answered for Cherie. ‘She was wandering about near ’pier. I thought she was going to chuck herself over.’
‘I might have done,’ Cherie whispered. ‘But then Lizzie gave me some of her supper.’
Lizzie nodded. ‘I’d made a bit o’ money that night and I’d bought a meat pie.’ She shrugged nonchalantly. ‘So I shared it.’
Lily gazed at Cherie. She had an air of innocence about her. Like Daisy, she thought. ‘So then you went to work on ’streets together?’
Cherie glanced at Lizzie. ‘No,’ she admitted. ‘I haven’t. Not yet. Lizzie did it for me. I daren’t, you see.’ Tears glistened in her eyes. ‘So Lizzie has been keeping us both on what she’s earned.’
‘That’s why we went to Hope House,’ Lizzie told her. ‘I thought they’d get Cherie some other kind o’ work, but they wanted me to stop as well and I didn’t want to.’ She shrugged again. ‘I was going to slip out when nobody was looking, onny Cherie caught me leaving and said she wouldn’t stop on her own.’
