Love or Duty--A saga set in 1920s Liverpool

by Rosie Harris

  Kelly loved the two pretty cotton dresses with matching cotton knickers that Penny chose for her and looked astonished when new white socks and a pair of brown sandals were added to the pile.

  ‘Now all we need are either some pyjamas or a couple of nightdresses. I suppose it will have to be nightdresses because of your leg,’ Penny mused.

  By the time they reached home again Kelly looked exhausted. She didn’t even brighten up when Penny told her that she could put on one of her new dresses and that she could choose which one.

  Kelly shook her head, yawned deeply and rubbed her eyes. ‘I’m tired, I want to go to bed,’ she said.

  ‘You haven’t had anything to eat since lunchtime. You are probably hungry,’ Penny told her. ‘Let’s get you all dressed up and then we’ll go downstairs for dinner. I’m sure you’ll feel much better after that.’

  ‘No!’ Stubbornly Kelly shook her head. ‘I want to go to bed,’ she repeated in a whining voice.

  ‘Oh very well, if that’s what you really want to do,’ Penny exclaimed in exasperation. ‘I’ll help you to get ready for bed and then I’ll see what I can find for you to eat and bring it up here for you.’

  Kelly brightened up, the tears and snivelling stopped. ‘Can I have a jam butty?’

  ‘You need to have something more substantial than that. Isn’t there anything else you’d like?’

  ‘A chip butty then, and could I have a sausage as well?’ she asked hopefully.

  ‘I’ll see what I can find,’ Penny promised. ‘Let’s get you into bed first,’ she added as she half carried Kelly towards the small truckle bed that had been set up on the far side of the bedroom for her.

  ‘I’ll see what I can find is what me mam always says when we say that we are hungry and all she can find for us is bread and scrape.’

  ‘I think I can do better than that,’ Penny promised as she helped Kelly to undress and put on one of the pretty cotton nightdresses that they had bought that afternoon, before helping her into bed.

  ‘Now you lie quiet for a few minutes and I’ll be back with a glass of milk and something for you to eat.’

  ‘Water’ll do if you can’t afford milk,’ Kelly assured her cheerfully. ‘Unless there is some of that lovely lemonade left; you know what you gave me to drink when we first got here this morning.’

  Ten minutes later, when she came back upstairs with a plate of tiny sandwiches and both a glass of lemonade and one of milk Penny found that Kelly was fast asleep.

  She put the tray down on a stool within reach of the bed so that Kelly would find it if she woke up. Then she straightened the bedclothes and made sure Kelly was comfortable. She looked so innocent and fragile, her dark hair, now clean and shining, fanned out against the white pillowcase, that it brought a lump to Penny’s throat.

  Captain and Mrs Forshaw were already in the dining room enjoying a glass of sherry when Penny went downstairs.

  ‘On your own, Penny? What have you done with the child?’ her mother asked, raising her shapely eyebrows enquiringly. ‘Have you taken her back to her own home?’

  ‘Child, what child are you talking about?’ Captain Forshaw asked tetchily looking from his wife to Penny and then back again. ‘Penny, you haven’t gone against my express wishes again have you?’ he asked angrily.

  ‘She most certainly has done so!’ Leonora Forshaw stated forcibly.

  ‘You mean she’s brought that little Liverpool street urchin back here to our home!’

  ‘Yes, Father, I have brought Kelly back,’ Penny said defensively.

  He stared at her in disbelief. ‘After all the warnings I gave you, Penny? I stressed that it was inadvisable to have anything at all to do with the Murphy family. Even Arnold warned you against the idea.’

  ‘I’ve brought Kelly back because I intend to look after her until she is better. As I explained to you all, I am doing it so that I am not taken to court over the accident.’

  ‘How long will it take for her to be fit again? Have you any proof that the parents won’t take any action? What will happen if they do?’ Her father scowled.

  ‘You can’t trust that sort of rabble,’ he went on giving her no chance to reply.

  ‘She was filthy dirty and absolutely in rags when she arrived here,’ Leonora stated with an exaggerated shiver. ‘I had to send Penny out to buy some decent clothes for her.’

  Penny shook her head. ‘She isn’t looking like that any longer, Mother. Wait until you see her tomorrow and then you’ll realize what a lovely little girl she really is.’

  ‘Where is she now?’ Captain Forshaw demanded looking at Penny.

  ‘At the moment she is upstairs in my bedroom. She is sound asleep because she is utterly exhausted by all that has gone on today.’

  ‘She won’t remain that way for long,’ her father warned. ‘You’ll need to watch her; she’ll be into everything, nothing will be safe. She’s probably been brought up to thieve for everything she wants.’

  ‘Father, Kelly is six years old; she has a broken leg and is unable to walk without help.’

  ‘At the moment! Another couple of weeks and she’ll expect to have the run of the place. And what about her family? Are we going to have them calling every few days to see how she is?’

  ‘It’s not very likely. There are three children younger than Kelly and a boy who is older. I can hardly see Mrs Murphy bringing all of them over here to visit Kelly, can you?’

  ‘Who knows? You can’t be sure. If they think they might benefit from handouts of some kind then those sort of people will go anywhere,’ he muttered gloomily. ‘What has Arnold got to say about it all? Or doesn’t he know that you’ve brought this child here?’

  ‘Not yet because I haven’t seen him since I brought Kelly home.’

  ‘I don’t think he is going to like it one little bit,’ Leonora sighed. ‘He was very much against you even going to see this family,’ she reminded Penny.

  ‘I know that, Mother. I have to do what I think is right though, don’t I.’

  ‘You should have taken my advice,’ her father said bluntly. ‘If you’d listened to me I would have handed the matter over to Sidney Porter and let him deal with it. Solicitors are used to handling such cases and know how to treat those sort of people. It’s still not too late.’

  Penny shook her head, her eyes bright with tears. ‘No, I can’t do that,’ she insisted. ‘I made a promise to look after Kelly and I intend to keep it.

  Six

  Penny slept very fitfully because she felt so anxious about Kelly. She wasn’t too sure that she’d done the right thing by separating the little girl from her family and familiar surroundings and bringing her over to Wallasey.

  Kelly, however, was so worn out with all that had happened to her the previous day that she remained sound asleep until well after daybreak.

  When Penny woke up she found that Kelly was propped up in the little truckle bed eating the dried up sandwiches she had left there the night before and drinking the lemonade.

  ‘That milk tasted a bit funny, I think it must have gone sour,’ she commented when Penny sat up and greeted her and asked her if she had slept all right. ‘The rest of my breakfast is lovely,’ she added quickly.

  ‘That was supposed to be for your supper last night, not your breakfast, but you were sound asleep when I came back upstairs with it,’ Penny told her with a smile.

  ‘The butties were the nicest I’ve ever had,’ Kelly told her with a deep sigh. ‘I wish I could eat them all over again.’

  ‘Well you can have your breakfast as soon as we are both washed and dressed. Which of your new dresses do you want to wear?’

  Kelly’s eyes lit up. ‘You mean I can choose which one,’ she said excitedly. Then her face clouded. ‘I don’t have to get washed all over again like I did yesterday do I?’

  ‘No, you need only wash your hands and face this morning. Why don’t you lie there and decide which dress you want to wear while I go and have my bath,’ Penny sugges
ted as she slid out of bed and slipped on a blue floral cotton dressing gown.

  Kelly regarded her wide-eyed. Is that what you are going to wear today, miss. It’s ever so pretty, you look really lovely in it.’

  ‘It’s my dressing gown and I’m only wearing it to go to the bathroom.’ Penny smiled. ‘After I’ve had my bath I will be putting on a pretty dress the same as you are going to do,’ she added as she went over to the chest of drawers. She picked out some clean underwear to take through to the bathroom and then selected a sleeveless cotton frock from her wardrobe.

  When she returned dressed ready for the day Kelly regarded her critically. ‘I think your dressing gown much prettier than your frock, miss,’ she remarked.

  Penny smiled. ‘Listen, Kelly since you are going to be living here for quite a long time I think you should call me Penny, instead of saying miss, don’t you.’

  ‘Penny, Penny,’ Kelly repeated the word several times then frowned.

  ‘Shouldn’t it be Auntie Penny? You are a grown-up and me mam says I always have to say mister, missus or miss when people speak to me. That’s unless they are friends of my mam’s and then I calls them Auntie or Uncle. Well, all except policemen and we calls them rozzers or scuffers. The man who calls each week for money is the tallyman. Do you have one of them coming to the door, miss … I mean Penny.’

  Penny shook her head. ‘No we don’t, Kelly. Now look, it’s time for you to come along to the bathroom. After you’re washed I’ll help you to get dressed and then we’ll go downstairs and have some breakfast. Have you decided which dress you are going to wear today?’

  Kelly screwed up her eyes in concentration. ‘The pink one,’ she said.

  Twenty minutes later in her new pink cotton dress and with her clean dark hair tied back with a piece of pink ribbon Penny had managed to find she looked quite different from the scruffy little girl she had been the previous day.

  Penny wished Kelly had looked like this when her mother had seen her for the first time. If she had then perhaps her mother would have been far more welcoming.

  Her parents were already seated at the breakfast table when Penny carried Kelly into the morning room.

  ‘So this is the child you are proposing to look after is it,’ Captain Forshaw said gruffly looking over the top of his newspaper as she helped Kelly on to a chair and pushed it in under the table. ‘Well I must say she certainly seems to be far more presentable than I expected her to be from your mother’s lurid description,’ he added dryly.

  ‘Yes, well, you didn’t see her yesterday when she first arrived here from Liverpool,’ his wife retorted sharply.

  ‘Say “Good morning Captain Forshaw”,’ Penny prompted Kelly in a whisper.

  Kelly looked up at her with a puzzled expression on her face. ‘Is he your dad?’

  ‘Yes, that’s right,’ Penny said with a smile.

  ‘Does he live here with you all the time?’

  ‘Yes, of course he does.’

  ‘I never see my dad much,’ Kelly sighed and tears came to her eyes. ‘He’s a sailor and goes away on a boat. I think it must be much bigger than the one we were on yesterday because me mam says he goes all over the world in it.’

  ‘That’s very interesting,’ Captain Forshaw boomed. He turned to his wife. ‘Isn’t breakfast ready yet?’

  ‘Mrs Davies has put the eggs on and Mary will bring them in any minute now as soon as they are ready.’

  ‘Are we having boiled eggs in their shells for breakfast? Does that mean that it’s someone’s birthday today?’ Kelly piped up excitedly.

  ‘You’d like a boiled egg would you,’ Penny said smiling at Kelly’s enthusiasm.

  ‘Ooh yes! We only have them when it’s someone’s birthday. Oh, and at Easter. Sometimes my dad has one when he comes home from the sea and when he does he gives me the top of it,’ she added dreamily.

  ‘Well you’ll be getting a whole one all to yourself,’ Penny told her as Mary came into the room carrying a bowl of freshly cooked eggs.

  She handed the bowl first to Mrs Forshaw so that she could take one and then to Captain Forshaw who selected two. Then she placed the bowl containing the remaining two eggs in front of Penny. Penny put one of the eggs into the eggcup on Kelly’s plate and removed the top and then spread butter on a piece of toast and cut it into strips.

  As she ate her own breakfast Penny was conscious of the mess Kelly was making as she dipped the strips of toast into her egg before she ate them. She was obviously enjoying them very much so Penny said nothing, and hoped that her parents didn’t notice that as well as getting it all over her face Kelly was dripping egg on to the blue and white check tablecloth.

  Mrs Forshaw was not nearly so reticent and kept on tutting reprovingly, especially when Kelly put her eggy spoon down on the cloth instead of on to her own plate.

  Worse was to follow. Kelly reached out for her glass of milk and in an attempt not to spill any of it on her new dress accidentally upset it on the tablecloth. At the same time she placed her elbow in the middle of her plate sending a cascade of crumbs on to the floor.

  Penny quickly mopped up the milk with her serviette but not before her father had seen what had happened and frowned in annoyance.

  When Mary came into the room to clear away after they’d finished Captain Forshaw instructed her to stay and keep an eye on Kelly because he wished to speak to Penny and his wife before he left for the office.

  ‘Give the child a biscuit or more milk or something if she is tiresome,’ he told Mary curtly as he ushered Penny and his wife from the room.

  ‘The child is called Kelly so why don’t you use her name when you are talking about her?’ Penny said crossly once they were outside the morning room.

  Captain Forshaw ignored her comment. In silence he ushered them into the drawing room and closed the door.

  ‘Penny, after this morning’s display I hope you realize that the child you are proposing to look after hasn’t been trained to sit at table and eat in a civilized manner. From now on I must ask you to feed her in the kitchen or if Martha Davies says that isn’t convenient then you must use the morning room after we have finished our breakfast. You will also serve her other meals in there and not with us. Is that understood?’

  ‘I think it is a very appropriate decision,’ Leonora Forshaw agreed quickly with a smug little smile of approval.

  ‘That is so unfair,’ Penny exclaimed. ‘I agree she made one or two mistakes this morning but she is very unsure of herself. All this is new to her. You are treating her as if she was a pet animal. How do you think she is going to feel if she is isolated from us all at mealtimes?’

  ‘Well, I suppose you could ask Mrs Davies to let her eat with them in the kitchen,’ Captain Forshaw murmured.

  ‘I’m not sure if that is fair on them,’ Leonora stated very forcibly.

  ‘The only other alternative if you don’t want her to eat on her own is that you have your meals with her in the morning room,’ Captain Forshaw stated, not giving Penny a chance to pursue the argument.

  ‘Yes, that might be a much better idea,’ his wife agreed. ‘We certainly don’t want to upset or inconvenience Mrs Davies because she is such a treasure.’

  ‘If you decide to use the morning room Penny, then in the evenings you had better make sure that the child is fed and in bed by seven o’clock. If you do that then you can sit down and have dinner with us in a civilized manner,’ Captain Forshaw added pompously.

  ‘I think you are both being highly unreasonable,’ Penny told them heatedly. ‘I’m quite sure that seven o’clock is far too early for Kelly to be put to bed. How do you think she is going to feel about that?’

  ‘You should have thought of all these many different aspects before volunteering to look after the child,’ her father said dismissively.

  ‘In fact, you should have done what Arnold suggested and put the child in a convalescent home of some kind for a few weeks until she could walk again,’ her mother reminded
her. ‘If you’d done that then we wouldn’t have had to have any dealings with her whatsoever.’

  Penny took a deep breath then simply shrugged her shoulders in acceptance. She knew it was pointless arguing with them and she felt so angry that she was afraid she might say something she would later regret.

  ‘I’ll go and take Kelly out into the garden, she’s probably wondering what is happening,’ she said resignedly. ‘She shouldn’t be in anybody’s way out there and she can’t do much harm to the grass,’ she added sarcastically.

  ‘Well clean her up first; she has egg around her mouth and probably sticky hands. And do make sure she doesn’t pull the heads off any of the flowers or the gardener will be cross,’ her mother warned.

  ‘Shall I carry her through to the garden for you, Miss Penny,’ Mary asked eagerly when Penny said she was going to take Kelly out there.

  ‘Thank you, Mary, but I will be putting her into the pushchair. I need to take her upstairs first so that I can wash her face and hands and to find hats for both of us because the sun is already very hot out there.’

  ‘I’ll help her wash her hands down here if you like,’ Mary offered.

  By the time Penny came back downstairs with two straw sunhats Mary had already settled Kelly into the pushchair and offered to wheel her out into the garden.

  ‘I wish I could stay out here and play with her but Mrs Davies will scold me if I don’t get back to the sink and deal with all the dirty breakfast dishes,’ Mary said wistfully when Penny thanked her for her help.

  ‘Is Mary your sister?’ Kelly asked in a puzzled voice as Penny bent down and fitted the smaller of the two straw hats on Kelly’s head.

  Penny found it difficult to explain. ‘No, Mary’s not my sister but she lives here with us and helps Mrs Davies in the kitchen and with the housework.’

  ‘Why do you have someone to do the work? Can’t your mam do it? My mam does all ours. And the washing and shopping and there’s a lot more of us than there is living here,’ Kelly went on.

  ‘Yes, but this is a very big house to keep clean,’ Penny explained.

  ‘Why do you need so many rooms? We only have two proper rooms; the bedroom and the living room,’ Kelly commented. ‘We have a bit of the scullery as well but we have to share that with the people upstairs.’