A Place to Call Home

by Evie Grace

  ‘You are wasting away.’

  Rose looked at her arms. It was true. She was all skin and bone.

  ‘You’re pining for someone,’ Minnie went on.

  ‘I beg your pardon,’ Rose said, glancing up.

  ‘I wonder who that could be …’

  ‘I’m not missing anyone in particular. I’m sorry I let Sam down and I’m a little ashamed that I haven’t thought of him since.’ She’d wanted to tell him face to face that they were leaving Overshill, but when she’d called at his house, his ma had told her that he’d gone out for the evening.

  ‘I was thinking about Freddie, not Sam.’

  ‘We’ll have less of that kind of talk, thank you. I worry about Donald, and miss living at the cottage, that’s all.’

  ‘I think you’d do better if it wasn’t for me holding you back.’

  ‘You must never say that again. I’ve done what anyone would have done. None of this is your fault.’

  Minnie returned to the subject of the state of Rose’s heart. ‘You were happy when Mr Wild came to call on us.’

  ‘He was good company, but he didn’t mean anything in particular by visiting us when he was passing.’

  ‘You mean it suits you to think that his attentions towards you were nothing special?’ Minnie leaned her hands on the table. ‘He offered you a place at Churt House.’

  ‘Yes, a situation, paid employment. He didn’t ask me to walk out with him, nothing like that.’

  ‘Perhaps he would have done if you’d given him a chance.’

  ‘He is a gentleman of great means as far as we know. He can have absolutely no interest in me – he will marry someone of the same standing as him.’ Rose wasn’t entirely convinced that this was likely. He had neither title nor place in English society, and people were suspicious of him. She did feel sore about Freddie, though. That night, she shed a silent tear over what might have been.

  As the summer passed, their hands grew rough and calloused as they continued to work in the dust and dirt. On a Friday three months later, Rose and Minnie joined the line of women and children waiting to be paid as usual. Abel sat at the table on the brickfield, doling out their money according to the notes in the ledger in front of him, now and again brushing the paper with his hand so he could read what he had written through the dust. Another man, his second-in-command whom they knew as Stamp, stood at his shoulder, looking out for trouble.

  Minnie shuffled forward in the queue. Abel counted some coins into her hand. She tucked them into the pocket of her skirt and stepped aside to wait for Rose.

  Abel looked at Rose as he dropped her money, one shilling at a time, on to her outstretched palm.

  ‘Is that it?’ she said, looking at the sorry amount. It wasn’t much of a return for a week’s grafting.

  ‘Let me see,’ – he ran his finger across one line in the ledger – ‘it’s what you’re due minus deductions. Unfortunately, you’re experiencing diminishing returns with the rise in the rate of interest.’ He tipped his head to one side, looking sly. ‘Didn’t I mention that before?’

  ‘No, you didn’t. Sir, this isn’t right. I’ve been paying you back.’

  ‘Not quickly enough, I’m afraid. That’s the trouble with taking advantage of credit when it’s offered.’

  She was caught in a trap, she realised. Abel had never had any intention of letting her pay off her debt. She was devastated.

  ‘Please, I beg you to keep to your word and let me pay according to our original agreement.’

  ‘We never said anything about fixing the interest rate,’ he said. ‘Come on, miss, I’ve been good to you, giving you work and lending you money.’

  ‘I’m very grateful, but I was caught between the devil and the deep blue sea at the time.’ She thought quickly, calculating how much she’d need for the rent on Monday. There wasn’t enough. She could ask him for more, but that would mean even less pay next week. She and Minnie were in a precarious state and she didn’t know what to do.

  ‘Are we done? Only there are others waiting.’ He jumped in, taking advantage of her hesitation. ‘You wish to borrow more to tide you over …’

  She nodded. She had rent to pay. Rent day wasn’t called Black Monday for nothing.

  ‘I have a suggestion,’ he said in a low voice, and seeing his eyes turn greedily to her sister, Rose began to tremble.

  ‘No, not that,’ she said sharply.

  Abel shrugged. ‘It’s up to you. I’ll ’ave her one day, though.’

  Blushing with shame, Rose turned away and joined Minnie.

  ‘What was the gaffer talking about?’ she asked.

  ‘Oh, nothing …’ Rose changed her mind. What was the point in hiding their predicament? ‘We are short of money to pay the rent and I don’t know what to do.’

  ‘We’ll manage,’ Minnie put her arm through hers. ‘We always do.’

  They walked back to the house in Abbeyfield that evening as the sun set. There was a nip in the air presaging autumn. Soon the brickfields would close down for the winter, then where would they go?

  ‘You will be careful in your dealings with the gaffer, won’t you?’ Rose said as they went up the narrow stairs to their room.

  ‘Why do you say that? I like him – he’s been kind to us. He gave me extra today. Look.’ Minnie pulled the coins out of her pocket. ‘An extra shilling. The other day when we were waiting for the dirt to come off the barge, he showed me a cat – she’s made a nest for her kittens under one of the upturned boats, the broken one down the far end of the wharf where the mud starts.’

  ‘You didn’t say.’

  ‘I didn’t like to. I know you don’t think much of him, but the kittens – they were so pretty, all black and white, like they’re made of patchwork.’ Minnie gazed at her. ‘I didn’t do anything wrong.’

  ‘I’m sure you didn’t, but I don’t trust that man. He is conniving and wicked. Minnie, do you remember what Pa used to say about gentlemen? Abel isn’t one and I’m afraid that he intends to do you harm.’

  ‘Oh Rose, you have gone mad,’ Minnie sighed. ‘He wouldn’t dream of hurting me. He’s nothing like our aunt.’

  ‘Just promise me you won’t go anywhere else with him, no matter what story he gives you.’

  ‘The kittens are real. They aren’t a story. Come with me and see them for yourself. Please … then you’ll know I’m telling the truth about Abel.’

  ‘I don’t doubt that there are kittens. It’s the gaffer I’m worried about.’ Rose noticed how Minnie set her mouth in a stubborn straight line before she responded.

  ‘Abel’s told me he’ll help us if we get into trouble paying the rent. He’s a good man. He looks after us.’

  Trying to change Minnie’s opinion of the gaffer was hopeless, Rose realised, because she’d already been taken in by his lies. There was only one thing for it – she wouldn’t let Minnie out of her sight.

  Life continued at Kingsfield through the end of August and into September. Any hope they’d had that they would be able to visit Donald again had to be put aside for now in the struggle for survival. The work was dirty, dusty and poorly paid, and they could only just make ends meet, what with Minnie struggling to sieve the dust from dawn to dusk, and Rose trying to meet the repayments of Abel’s loan, which she’d been forced into at the beginning, and was now turning out to be a noose around her neck. No matter what she did, she never had enough money to cover the interest in full, and the amount outstanding was rising slowly and steadily every week. She’d made a mistake in accepting his terms.

  The worst thing about the brickfield, though, was that she couldn’t get herself clean. When she returned to their lodgings, exhausted at the end of the day, there was only cold water from the pump and a tiny, ever-diminishing piece of soap that they’d brought with them from the cottage to wash with. She did her best with their underclothes, washing them and hanging them on the bedposts, not wanting to expose the patches and frayed hems to their fellow tenants. She still
had her pride. If she lost that, she’d have lost everything.

  Minnie was beginning to look unwell, her eyes sinking back in their sockets, her skin growing paler and her feet breaking out in sores. It wouldn’t be long before there came a point when Rose couldn’t cover the rent for the room to keep her sister safe and warm at night. She thought of writing to Arthur to beg for help, but she had no forwarding address.

  Another week came and went. The days were beginning to shorten and the nights to draw in, a reminder that the season was coming to an end and their situation would only get worse.

  On the Friday morning, Rose woke with Minnie snoring beside her as usual.

  ‘Minnie,’ she whispered, reaching out and gently shaking her shoulder. ‘It’s time to get up.’

  ‘Do we have to?’ she mumbled before raising her head and going on more cheerfully, ‘Can’t we wait until our maid knocks on the door, bringing hot chocolate and roasted pheasant?’

  Rose smiled, in spite of her worries. ‘Come on, stir your stumps.’

  After eating a sweet plum and a bite of stale bread, they walked to Kingsfield. On the way, Rose glanced up at the speckled gulls that were crying from the roofs of the buildings.

  ‘They’re waiting for their ma and pa to bring them fish,’ Minnie said wistfully.

  Rose turned at the sound of Flo’s voice as they continued along the street.

  ‘Morning! Look at you two scurrying ahead,’ she said, sending her boys in front of her. ‘You didn’t wait for us.’

  ‘I thought you’d already left,’ Rose said, and they hurried together through the gate under an enormous pale blue sky as the last of the mist cleared, leaving streaks of pink while the sun peered above the horizon, turning the dirty expanse of the brickfield to gold.

  Minnie dropped back to chatter to a couple of the younger women who had found their way to the brickfields not long after their own arrival: two friends who had drifted into Faversham when they had been unable to find casual work on the farms.

  ‘Minnie, stop gossiping,’ Rose called. ‘It’s time we got started.’

  ‘Don’t nag, Rose,’ Minnie called back. ‘I’ll be with you soon enough.’

  Rose decided not to take her to task in front of everyone for the way she’d answered her back – it could wait until later.

  With the mud sticking to her boots and the scent of the sea and dirt sharp in her nostrils, Rose took her place. One of Flo’s boys – Trouble, they called him – shovelled dirt into her sieve and she got to work.

  Knock, knock, knock. The damp from the early autumnal mist made the sifting a little slow to start with, but she soon got into the rhythm. She was stronger now, although her arms still ached by the end of the day. Minnie found it more of a trial than she did.

  She glanced along the semi-circle. Where was Minnie? Still talking, she thought resentfully. Had she forgotten how badly they needed the money? Rose hadn’t talked too much of her concerns about losing the room because she hadn’t wanted to upset her sister, but Minnie must have realised how dire their circumstances were as they’d been existing on porridge, bread and cheese, plums and water for two weeks.

  She caught sight of the two young women at the end of the row, and frowned. No Minnie. Her pulse tapped against her temple, fast and insistent. Where was she? She dropped the sieve at her feet and jumped up. Where was the gaffer?

  A sensation of dread slipped down the back of her neck like a cold key. How many times had she told Minnie to keep in plain sight?

  ‘What’s up, ducks?’ Flo reached for Rose’s arm to pull herself up.

  ‘Have you seen my sister? Please tell me you’ve seen her.’ She was panicking now. ‘He’s taken her,’ she added, looking round wildly. The gang were standing about, smoking and drinking tea. In the distance, another group of men were labouring, pulling down a stack of cured bricks and carting them to the wharf.

  ‘What are you talking about?’ Hope exclaimed.

  ‘Abel. He’s got my sister!’

  ‘Hey, calm yourself. You’re making too much of it. You know how ’e treats her special. He’s like a father figure, taking her to see how them kittens ’ave grown,’ Hope said.

  ‘It’s all right, Rose,’ Flo said. ‘He had some fish trimmin’s for them this morning. That’s where they’ve gone.’

  Reluctantly, Rose sat down again, looking and listening for her sister.

  ‘They should be back by now,’ she said, thinking she could smell the stench of rotten fish in the air. ‘Something’s wrong.’

  ‘The gaffer’s an ‘ard master, but I can’t imagine that ‘e’d do any ‘arm to our dear Minnie.’

  ‘He would. He told me he would have her one day,’ Rose exclaimed.

  ‘Why didn’t you say somethin’?’

  ‘I warned Minnie to watch out for him, but I couldn’t bring myself to speak of it to anyone else – not even you, Flo – because of the shame I felt at the way he spoke about my sister. This is all my fault!’

  ‘Of course it isn’t. You ‘aven’t done nothin’ wrong.’

  ‘I’m going to look for her.’

  ‘I’ll come with you,’ Flo said.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Rose said, aware that her friend could ill afford to pause in her toil.

  ‘You can say what you like, but I’m with you.’ Flo got up again, and together they headed down to the wharf. ‘Watch out,’ she warned, pulling Rose out of the way of one of the men who was struggling towards a barge with a pallet of bricks on his back.

  ‘Do you know where these kittens are?’ Rose wished she’d taken more interest in Minnie’s enthusiasm for them. If she had gone with her to see them, there would have been no reason for her to accompany Abel.

  ‘That way, I think, where the boat’s turned over.’ Flo pointed past the oyster bawleys as a gull screamed, except it wasn’t a bird … it was the heart-rending cry of a human being. A girl.

  ‘Minnie,’ Rose screamed back. ‘Where are you?’

  ‘They’re over there somewhere.’

  Rose and Flo set off at a run, passing the warehouses and following the bank until they reached the path where the boat’s hull stuck up from the reeds. Behind it, they found Abel fastening his trousers and three paces beyond him, Minnie standing in the mud, her dress torn and her pale breast exposed.

  ‘What have you done to her?’ Rose cried.

  ‘Nothin’ that she didn’t ask for,’ the gaffer said.

  Rose turned to Minnie. ‘Has he hurt you? Oh Lord above, he’s had his way with you!’

  ‘No, he hasn’t.’ Minnie kept shaking her head and repeatedly clutching at her bodice, trying to pull it up to protect what was left of her modesty. ‘We were only kissing, that’s all.’ She looked at Abel. ‘That’s right, isn’t it? Just a little peck on the lips. And I said he could do it,’ she went on fiercely.

  ‘Why is your dress torn then?’

  ‘It was the cat – she gave me a scratch for feeding her kittens. Abel kindly looked at my wounds. Rose, he was being a gentleman.’

  Rose almost laughed out loud. ‘A gentleman! He is a cad to bring you here under false pretences and expose you to ruination, because no matter what you say, your actions speak louder than words.’ She turned to the gaffer. ‘You will be judged for this.’

  ‘Oh, listen to you,’ Abel said, meeting her eye. ‘Your sister’s told you what happened.’

  ‘I think you must marry her now,’ Rose said, refusing to be cowed.

  He laughed. ‘Marry? I have a wife, four daughters and a babe in arms back at home.’

  This revelation shocked Rose to the core, and it must have shown on her face because Abel continued, ‘Life is tough and short, and you have to get the most out of it that you can.’ He glanced back at Minnie. ‘Take notice of your sister – no harm’s been done.’

  ‘Just leave her alone in future! If I see you anywhere near her …’

  ‘You’ll what?’ he said, grinning now. ‘Don’t worry your little head about
it. I won’t be going near her again.’

  Minnie uttered a sharp cry. ‘Abel, what are you saying?’

  ‘There’ll be no more kittens and walks by the creek.’ His voice was gentle, as if he did have some affection for her. ‘Here, let’s cover you up.’ He picked up her shawl, which was lying in a puddle, wrung the water out and placed it around Minnie’s shoulders. ‘There you are.’ He scowled at Rose. ‘Nothing happened! Sisters, eh!’

  Rolling his eyes, Abel strolled away back towards the wharf. Rose watched him retreating, filled with hate. How dare he hurt her innocent sister! She was only a child. Her ire rose like bile in her throat as she recalled her aunt’s treatment of Minnie, and now this. All she wanted to do was hurt him back, punch and bite and kick …

  She felt Flo’s hand on her shoulder, keeping her from running after him.

  ‘It will do no good,’ she murmured. ‘You can’t win – ’e’s the gaffer and he’s like the king rat who can do what ’e likes down here in ’is kingdom of filth and brick dust. If you go after ’im, he’ll ’ave you off the site in a second. Look after your sister.’

  ‘We’re leaving,’ Rose said firmly.

  ‘You can’t do that. You’ll end up at the Union.’

  ‘I don’t care. I really don’t care any more. Anything has to be better than this.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Rose. I thought you had more sense.’

  ‘I can’t bear the idea of watching that man walking up and down, giving his orders, and all the time thinking of what he’s done to my sister.’ And how he demeans me whenever he hands out our wages, and reminds me of my folly in accepting his loan, she wanted to add, but didn’t. He had planned this. He had set it up from the start. ‘He says he won’t touch her again, but I don’t trust him.’ She paused and reached out for Minnie’s hand. ‘Come with me. We’re going home.’

  ‘I’m not going anywhere.’ Minnie wrenched her hand away, spitting like a cat in a fury. ‘Why couldn’t you have left us alone?’

  ‘You will come with me, or I’ll leave you here and never return,’ Rose cried. ‘You can stay, mired in the mud and filth you’re making of your reputation by lowering yourself to associate with that man – a married man, I must point out.’