‘Tha’ll regret the day tha ever set eyes on him, lass. He’ll never change, not even for a grand lass such as thiself. Send him packing before it’s too late.’
‘Well?’ Walter broke into her thoughts. ‘Do yer marry me or don’t yer?’
‘Oh, Walter, of course I want to marry you. It’s just this place. I imagined we would begin our marriage in somewhere better than this.’
‘Somewhere like your Alice’s, I suppose. Well, that’s it then. We’d better call it a day.’
Ruth couldn’t bear it when she upset Walter. ‘No,’ she said defiantly, ‘we’ll look upstairs whilst we’re here.’
The stairs were dark and narrow; come to think of it, the whole house was dark. The first bedroom looked out on to the walls of the wire mill, and she strode across the top of the stairs into the other one, looking for something, anything, to be optimistic about.
‘There you are, you see, it’s much pleasanter at this side. We can see the river and the other side of the valley – well, a little way up at least.’
‘So we’ll take it?’ Walter asked, impatient to be out of the filth and stench.
‘Well, if it’s the only way we can be married, yes.’
Walter grinned and lifted her up by the waist, twirling her round in a circle. ‘So we’ll arrange the wedding, then. Nothing elaborate, mind.’
‘No, nothing elaborate.’ Ruth had the feeling her parents would want as quiet a do as possible. Her stomach churned as she realised she would have to tell them about this place, and tell them as soon as possible. In fact, tonight.
Alice sent George off to work after reassuring him that Lizzie would be well cared for. Her own house was kept permanently clean and sparkling and could be left for a couple of weeks without any noticeable neglect. Indeed, Alice was delighted to have something to occupy her days whilst Joe was at the office and had brushed aside her mother’s offer to look after Lizzie. If the truth were told, Emily wasn’t feeling at all herself, what with the worry of Ruth foremost in her mind, and though she usually found the slightest excuse to have little Harry to spoil she didn’t think she could cope with a lively toddler for the moment, and was very relieved at Alice’s offer to take over.
The nappies had been boiled and dolly-blued and were dazzling in their brightness as they blew in the breeze, on the piece of spare ground at the side of the house. Lizzie was lucky in that respect, Alice thought as she finished pegging out. George had fenced off the grassy triangle so that little Harry had a place to play, unlike other houses in the row. In fact George had done wonders with the little place and it was warm and comfortable and just as spick and span as her own more spacious residence.
Alice frowned as she thought of the place young Ruth was to live in. No wonder Emily was in such a highly strung state. She knew Lizzie would have to be told the news and that Ruth herself wouldn’t wish to be the bearer of such tidings. She swilled the doorstep and flags outside with water from the washtub and scrubbed them clean with the yard brush, leaving the tub turned upside down to dry in the sun, then she caught little Harry up in her arms, just in time to prevent him from sitting down in the water. He chuckled as if to say, ‘You only just caught me that time,’ and his aunt cuddled him close and stroked the baby-blond hair.
She went to check on the new baby in the pram – a gift from Joe and herself when Harry had been born – but little Olive was contentedly sleeping. Isaac said the baby was the image of Alice herself as an infant and she certainly had the same dark hair. Alice wondered what it would be like to bear a child. She had missed the last month’s bleeding and sometimes found herself in a state of panic as she thought she might already be carrying. One part of her thought it would be wonderful to be the mother of a child like Harry; the other wondered if she would find the burden too great. Could she give a child the love and complete devotion necessary for its well-being, or would the cold, unbending side of her manage to escape from the deep, dark recess of her mind where she mostly managed to keep it hidden away and prevent her giving an infant the love it needed?
She squeezed Harry and he squealed with delight. ‘What nonsense am I thinking now?’ she said to the gurgling child. ‘I’m a normal, warm, loving woman. Haven’t I proved it with thi uncle Joe? The nightmare years are behind me, Harry Crossman, and if I bear a child as bonny as thee I’ll make thi uncle Joe the proudest man in Cottenly.’
‘Baby,’ Harry said, pointing to the pram. ‘Mam.’ He pointed to the house and laughed at the sound of his own voice and Alice laughed with him. It had taken her a long time to learn how to smile, let alone laugh; it had taken a loving man to teach her.
‘I’ve some news for thee, Lizzie. I might as well tell thee before somebody else does. Don’t let it upset thee, though God knows it’s upset everyone else in the family.’
‘What is it, Alice? What’s wrong?’
Alice came straight out with it. ‘Our Ruth’s getting wed to Walter Wray.’
‘Oh, no! I hoped she’d come to her senses sooner or later.’ Lizzie rocked the new baby vigorously in an effort to bring up its wind.
‘But that’s not the worst of it. They’re to live down Wire Mill Place.’
Lizzie’s mouth dropped open, then she stammered, ‘But she can’t, Alice. Wire Mill Place is nothing but a slum.’
‘I know that, our Ruth knows that, but it’s the place Walter Wray’s taking her to and tha knows how infatuated she is with that awful man.’
‘Oh, Alice, we must do something. She can’t live there. Our mam will be so upset.’
‘Upset isn’t the word I’d use, Lizzie – deranged is more how I’d describe her. The last thing I heard she was refusing to go to the wedding.’
‘No! She can’t do that, not her own daughter’s wedding.’
‘I don’t know. Our dad was doing all he could to talk her round but without much success. Besides, he’s just as distressed by the whole thing as she is.’
‘I’m sure he is, but knowing our mam she’ll not only have the anxiety of her marrying someone like him but she’ll also worry about what folk will think of a daughter of hers living in such a place.’
‘I knew no good would come to our Ruth when she ceased going to chapel and began meeting him instead. Tha can’t turn thi back on God without repercussions, we all know that.’
‘Oh, Alice, how can it be anything to do with religion? George stopped going to chapel before he met me, and Joe doesn’t go either. Are you telling me he’s not a good man?’
Alice flushed. It was a thorn in her side Joe’s not being one thing or the other, but she couldn’t deny he was a good man, without doubt one of the kindest and most thoughtful people she had ever had the good fortune to meet. ‘Aye well,’ she said, ‘Joe’s different. He doesn’t booze all the money away as soon as he gets it, and never once has he tried to turn me away from my religion.’
Lizzie placed the sleeping baby in the cot beside the bed and tried to imagine how a house in Wire Mill Place could ever be made habitable, but all she could see were dirty, ragged children sitting forlornly on bare bottoms, too dejected to even play. ‘The children have rickets down there, Alice. I’ve seen them.’
‘Is there any wonder? The sun never reaches them, and I’ve heard tell the walls inside are bare brick, and they drink out of jam jars.’
‘What can we do?’ Lizzie was close to tears.
‘I could offer her money to do the place up, make it decent, but it would look as if I approved of her marrying him. Oh, Lizzie, what does she see in him?’
‘Well, that’s easily answered. You must admit he’s a handsome-looking lad, Alice.’
‘But our Ruth’s not daft, she’s probably the brightest of the three of us. Surely she can see beyond the smarmy smile and the broad shoulders.’
‘She’s in love, Alice, or at least she thinks she is. She might come to her senses later but right now she’s besotted with Walter Wray, and love does funny things to a person, makes you blind to their fault
s.’
Alice sniffed. ‘By the time she does open her eyes it’ll be too late.’
‘Oh, God,’ Lizzie said. ‘You don’t think she’s marrying him because she’s—’
Alice interrupted. ‘Expecting? No. Our dad asked her straight out. Seems he hasn’t touched her that way.’ She blushed deep red at the mention of such a subject.
‘Well, we can’t accuse him of that, then.’ Lizzie’s head jerked as she heard Harry stirring in the room across the landing. ‘That’s our Harry awake,’ she said.
‘Tha must have better ears than me,’ Alice said as she moved away from the bed. ‘I’ll go and fetch him.’
‘Don’t worry.’ Lizzie laughed. ‘It only takes a baby to develop your hearing. Your turn’ll come.’
Alice stopped in her tracks. She would have given anything to confide in her sister about her possible pregnancy, but it wasn’t something she could talk about, even to Lizzie. Besides, when she was sure, Joe would be the first to know.
She delivered a sleepy Harry into his mother’s care, then went down to make the tea. Spotting movement outside, she called back up the stairs, ‘It looks like you’ve got a visitor. Old Mother Buttercup is on her way.’ Memories of childhood came back to her, the happy part of childhood, before Grandmother Stanford’s time. ‘Can tha remember, Lizzie?’ she called. ‘When we thought she were a witch, and wouldn’t go near the cottage in case she bewitched us?’
‘Yes.’ Lizzie laughed. ‘And we waited outside until she popped out and then peeped in her window, looking for her broomstick.’
‘Aye,’ Alice called. ‘Maybe she’ll put a spell on Walter Wray and make him disappear.’ They were still laughing when Old Mother hobbled in at the door.
‘It gets steeper, if you axe me.’ She flopped in a kitchen chair and set her basket on the table.
‘Aye, it’s a rare pull up that hill,’ Alice agreed. ‘I’m just making a fresh pot. Perhaps that’ll revive thee.’
‘I won’t say no, though a pot of good strong peppermint tay would do us more good on a day like this. Remind me to bring some up next time I call.’
Alice poured the tea into three cups and Old Mother rambled on about the various advantages of peppermint, camomile and other kinds of teas, some of which Alice had never heard of. Then Old Mother lifted the cloth from over her basket. ‘There’s summat here for Lizzie. Give her four drops a day in a drink of summat.’
‘What is it for?’ Alice eyed it with suspicion.
‘Just summat to get her strength back. She’ll need her strength with two little babbies to see to.’
‘But what is it?’ Alice examined the tiny green bottle.
‘Just an infusion of flowers: clematis, mimulus, impatiens.’
‘But our Lizzie’s perfectly all right.’
‘Aye, and we’ll try to keep her that way. What with an upset in the family, she’ll need her nerves calming. It takes a toll on the nerves having a babby if you axe me.’
Alice almost retorted that nobody was asking her, and wondered how she knew about the upset in the family, which could only be the worry about Ruth. Instead she drank her tea and let Old Mother chatter on. ‘Do you want to see our Lizzie? I’ll take thee up,’ she asked when the visitor showed no sign of moving.
‘Aye, and the babby.’ Old Mother struggled to her feet and followed Alice up the steep stairs.
‘I thought you were never coming up, Old Mother.’ Lizzie smiled.
‘I came as soon as somebody axed me.’ She looked at Alice closely. ‘Still, we have to make allowances. How’s the babby?’
‘Wonderful. Lovely. Don’t you think she’s like our Alice?’
Old Mother removed the bonnet from round the doll-sized face. ‘Aye, she’s a little beauty all right. Set some hearts aflame when she grows up if you axe me.’ She touched Harry under the chin. ‘And you’re a grand little chappy an’ all.’
‘Baby, bye byes.’
Old Mother chortled with delight. ‘Aye, the babby’s gone to bye byes. He’s going to be a clever one, just you mark my words this day.’ She suddenly stood up from the chair by the bed and hobbled to the door. ‘I’ll be off then, and don’t forget the drops, will you?’ Alice shook her head, and the old woman turned and looked at her closely. ‘Raspberry leaf, that’s the one you’ll be needing. Remind me to bring some up next time I call.’ Then she hobbled down the stairs and out the door.
Lizzie didn’t say a word, but could tell by the blush on Alice’s cheeks that another of Old Mother’s predictions was about to come true.
‘Tha must attend the wedding, Emily. Our Ruth’ll never forgive thee otherwise.’ Isaac’s face was chalk white and seemed to have aged ten years in the last month.
‘There shouldn’t be any wedding. You could refuse to give permission. She’s under age.’ Emily’s hand was trembling as she lifted the iron from the hob over the fire.
‘I’ve threatened that, tha knows I have, but she’s a determined lass. Told me in no uncertain terms that if I don’t agree, she’ll simply go and live with Walter out of wedlock. Surely tha doesn’t want to be a party to that, because I know I don’t.’ Isaac sighed. ‘No, lass, there’ll have to be a wedding and if tha won’t attend it then I shall have to take my lass to chapel on my own.’
Emily knew Isaac was right. Alice had been up at the house all morning trying to persuade her to show some interest in the wedding, if not for Ruth’s sake, then for Isaac’s.
‘Our dad doesn’t know what to do for the best. Thee and our Ruth’ll make him ill between the two of you, can’t you see that, our mam?’
Emily had begun to weep. ‘And what about me? Doesn’t it matter that the whole affair is worrying me to death? What kind of marriage will it be, Alice? Married to a wastrel and a drunkard. You know as well as I do that that’s what he is.’
‘Well, according to our Lizzie he is trying to turn over a new leaf. Nobody’s seen him in the Rag for a couple of weeks now and Joe says he’s even done overtime.’
‘Oh aye, and why is that? So he doesn’t have to help our Ruth fettle out that pigsty, I shouldn’t wonder.’
‘Well, I don’t know about that, but Mrs Wray and Mable have been working like horses alongside our Ruth. It isn’t half as bad now the walls have been scraped and whitewashed, and I’ve scrubbed all the floors and Walter’s cleaned out the closet across the yard.’
Emily spat on the iron and pressed furiously on the shirt collar.
‘Tha could at least go and look at the place, our mam, or make her up some curtains.’
Alice had gone on and on until Emily knew she was beaten. ‘Very well, but it’s for your sakes, mind, and our Ruth mustn’t come crying to me when it’s too late.’
‘Tha must learn to be more forgiving and tolerant,’ Isaac had said. ‘It isn’t Christian to hold grudges.’
‘Oh, and I suppose Walter Wray is a good Christian, the way he’s against our Ruth going to chapel?’
‘Nay, lass, tha can’t blame him for that. If she wanted to attend neither Walter nor anybody else’d stop her. I reckon she’s never been as keen on the chapel as our Alice.’
Emily couldn’t argue with that, and it was of some consolation that by all accounts Walter Wray was attempting to change.
If Emily had but known, Walter’s reformation was merely a flash in the pan, and though he had resisted visiting the Rag the overtime money was already spent on one of the obscenely painted women Ruth had hurried away from in disgust on the night of the visit to the Empire. And all the time Ruth was attempting to transform the hovel in Wire Mill Place into some semblance of a decent home in which to begin married life.
Alice was filling out round the hips and had let out the waistbands on her black dresses and skirts. Joe had hinted that she would look prettier in blue or even grey, but it was as though his wife was afraid of looking attractive. Sometimes he found it hard to believe that the profile Alice presented to the world by day could belong to the same woman who greeted J
oe in his bed. If he had but realised it, Alice had been conditioned by Grandmother Stanford into believing that vanity was the most deadly of sins, but nothing, not even the memory of Grandfather Stanford’s cold, dead face gazing from his coffin, could silence the murmur of tenderness which rose in a crescendo of passion each time she and Joe came together between the sheets. Now she was to present Joe with the ultimate prize and could wait no longer to give him the news.
She shared out the meat and potato pie she had made for supper and seated herself opposite her husband. She wished she didn’t feel so embarrassed as she attempted to tell him. ‘Does tha think I’m putting on weight, Joe?’ Her face began to burn and she gulped down a drink of water from the crystal tumbler.
‘You look fine to me, Alice.’
‘I shall put on a lot more before I’ve done, Joe.’ Joe paused, his fork in the air, and noticed the blush on his wife’s face. Alice knew the only way was to blurt it out. ‘I’m carrying thi child, Joe, to be born in February.’
The fork and the chair both fell with a clatter as Joe jumped up and reached for his wife. ‘Oh, Alice, how long have you known? You should have told me, and there you’ve been, scrubbing out for your Ruth. You must take care, lass.’
‘Don’t talk daft, Joe. Our Lizzie’s worked right up to the day, even the hour, and had no trouble at all.’
‘But you must take care all the same, lass. We want no complications. Have you seen a doctor?’
Alice laughed. ‘What for? I’m not badly, I don’t need any doctor. I shall send for Old Mother Buttercup when my time comes. She did well for our Lizzie.’
‘You’ll what?’ The glare Joe threw at her caused Alice to break into laughter again.
‘I said I’ll—’
‘I heard what you said, and you’ll do no such thing. What with her portions and concoctions it’s a miracle Old Mother hasn’t poisoned somebody before today.’
‘Oh, Joe, I shan’t be taking any concoctions. She’ll see me through the birthing, that’s all.’ She placed her arms round Joe’s waist and pulled him towards her. ‘And don’t start thi fussing. I’m not an invalid. I’m beginning to wish I hadn’t told thee.’ Joe kissed her, first on the forehead, and then, tilting her chin upward, a long hungry kiss until the longing began and she felt the hardness of him through her dress. ‘The tatie pie’s going cold.’ She pulled away. ‘We’d best eat.’ She picked up the toppled chair. ‘And another thing, I’d like to know where tha learned to kiss in such a manner.’
The Stanford Lasses Page 6
