by Joan Jonker
‘Of course I can! I’ll do anything to help you!’
Nellie was blazing inside at what she knew the rag man was doing to a small, innocent child. Thank God the little girl was too young to know what the dirty swine was doing, but that didn’t excuse him. And if she could help it, this child wasn’t going to have her innocence taken away from her and live her life thinking all men were filthy perverts. ‘No, I’ll manage.’ It took Nellie all her time to keep the anger out of her voice. ‘You stay here and keep a look-out. Yer sister should be here soon with help.’ While Maddy watched, Nellie crept down the entry towards the man, who was busy talking to the child, telling her not to cry, he wasn’t going to hurt her, he only wanted to show her something and then she could go home to her mam. The sound of his own voice drowned out any slight noise Nellie might have made on the cobbles, so when she grabbed him from behind by the neck of his shirt and coat and pulled him backwards with every ounce of strength she possessed, he was completely off his guard and unprepared for the attack. He tottered backwards, his arms waving madly in an effort to find something to help him stay upright. But there was nothing to get a grip of, only fresh air, and before he could pull his senses together he found himself lying flat on his back with Nellie sitting on his stomach.
‘What the bleedin’ hell d’yer think ye’re doing, missus! Gerroff!’
‘Yer’ll soon find out what I’m doing, don’t worry. By the time me and a few other women have finished with yer, yer’ll rue the day yer were born.’ After making sure the man’s raggedy coat was covering his nakedness, Nellie beckoned to Maddy, who was wide-eyed with wonder and admiration. ‘Come and get the child and take her to her mother.’
Maddy kept close to the wall, as far away from the man’s arms as possible. He was trying to shift Nellie, who was only half his size and weight, but she stayed put. And when the thought of being torn limb from limb by a gang of women made him desperate enough to punch her on the side of her face, she pulled her arm back and belted him with such force he could see stars. ‘Go on, girl, get out of this place.’
Little Emma, her face red with tears and her body shaking with heart-rending sobs, stretched out her arms. ‘I want me mam.’
Maddy picked her up and held her close. ‘I’ll take you to your mam now, darling, so don’t cry.’ She looked down at Nellie. ‘Will you be all right on your own, Mrs Bingham?’
‘I’ll be all right, and this feller’s going nowhere. Now take the child to her mother.’
Maddy took half a dozen steps, then turned her head. ‘I think you’re very brave, Mrs Bingham, very brave indeed.’
Nellie wasn’t used to compliments and didn’t know how to respond. In a gruff voice she said, ‘On yer way, girl.’
Maddy reached the top of the entry just as Tess led an army of women to the scene. Amongst them was Emma’s mother, Edna Wilson, who was weak with relief. She took her daughter from Maddy and smothered her with kisses. ‘I thought I’d lost yer, baby, that I’d never see yer again.’
The group crowded into the entry and the sight that met their eyes was one they’d never forget. ‘My God, I’ve never seen the likes in me life,’ one woman said. ‘She’s a bloody hero!’
‘Yer never spoke a truer word, girl,’ said another. ‘Let’s go and give her a hand.’
The first woman led the way. ‘We should string the bugger up.’
With fifteen women surrounding them, Nellie thought it was safe to get up, and she held out her hands for assistance. It was then the women saw the man’s open trousers and several kicks were aimed at him before a policeman came up behind them.
‘All right, ladies, I’ll take over now. That’s enough, I said.’ He pushed his way through the angry crowd, thinking it was his job to maintain law and order, until he saw the reason for their anger. If that little girl he’d just seen with her mother had been his daughter, he would have wanted to kill the man, never mind kick him. But he couldn’t allow his personal feelings to affect his work. ‘If you’ll all go home now, I’ll take the gentleman down to the police station and he’ll be dealt with there.’
‘Gentleman, did yer say!’ One irate woman, Fanny by name, shook her fist. ‘To class him as a gentleman is an insult to every decent man on earth.’
‘Ye’re dead right, Fanny!’ A neighbour of the Wilsons’, Jane, minded young Emma sometimes when her mother wanted to go to the shops and the weather was bad. And the woman loved the little girl as though she was her own. She now put her face close to the policeman’s. ‘If it hadn’t been for this woman here,’ she jerked her head at Nellie, ‘God knows what would have happened, he might have killed the poor mite.’
The man took his helmet off and mopped his brow. ‘Yes, you did a good job, missus, but what made you look here?’
‘It was when I heard she’d gone out to get a balloon off the rag and bone man. Yer see, I’d seen the cart in the street, from me window, like, and I noticed it wasn’t the rag man what’s been coming since I moved into the street. I never gave it any thought at the time, till I heard the girl had gone missing.’ Nellie was trying to distance herself from the hands that were wanting to shake hers, and the arms wanting to hug her. Shows of emotion were something she couldn’t handle. ‘This is the only wide entry around here that’s bricked up at the end. It never gets used because the people in these houses use their front doors to get to the shops, it’s easier.’ She looked down with contempt at the man, who had managed to cover himself and was now pulling his cap down to hide his face as much as possible. ‘And he needed an entry. He wouldn’t have got far walking the child.’
‘That was good thinking on your part.’ The policeman smiled down at her. ‘The sergeant will want to take some details from you, so could I have your name and address, please?’
‘Bingham, forty-nine Willard Street.’ Nellie’s words were abrupt. ‘And now I’ll have to get back, I left a pan on the stove.’ She walked away, a lonely figure with her head bent.
The women stared after her, they couldn’t make her out. Then Edna Wilson, her daughter pressed close to her chest, ran after her. Half of the women followed, leaving the others to see what happened to the rag man. ‘Mrs Bingham, wait a minute, I haven’t thanked yer proper for what yer did.’
‘I don’t want no thanks, the child’s all right, that’s enough for me.’
‘But she might not have been except for your quick thinking.’ There were murmurs of agreement from all the neighbours. ‘I was out of me mind with worry, and God knows what the swine would have done to Emma if you hadn’t found them. None of us would have dreamed of her going with the rag man, and we’d never have thought of that entry. I will never forget what yer did as long as I live.’
‘I only did what any woman would have done under the circumstances. And now yer’ve got yer baby back, keep yer bleedin’ eye on her in future.’
‘Oh, I will, I won’t let her out of me sight.’ When Edna stopped trying to keep up with Nellie and came to a halt, the neighbours stayed with her. ‘She’s a funny ossity, isn’t she? She won’t even let me thank her.’
‘She’s a funny one all right,’ Fanny said, ‘but I take me hat off to her. There’s not many women would tackle a grown man like she did, considering it wasn’t her child.’
‘She’s always been a loner, and a troublemaker.’ Jane pulled on one of the long hairs sprouting from a wart on her chin. ‘I thought this might have made her more friendly, like, and she’d get along with everyone. But it seems I was wrong and she doesn’t want to get involved with her neighbours. Still, no matter what tricks she gets up to in future, I might rant and rave at her but she’ll always be a brave woman in my eyes and I’ll never forget what she did today.’
‘I never will, if I live to be a hundred,’ Edna said, kissing her daughter’s tear-stained face. ‘I owe a lot to her and I’ll never fight with her again. If she starts off, I’ll just turn the other cheek. For all I know, she might have saved my daughter’s life.’ She began wal
king again. ‘I’ll get the length of my feller’s tongue when he finds out. He’ll call me fit to burn for not keeping an eye on Emma. And I’ll have to tell him in case the police call.’ She let out a deep sigh. ‘He doesn’t understand that I’d need eyes in the back of me head to watch her all the time.’
‘That’s men all over,’ Fanny said. ‘It would be a different tune if they were the ones what had the babies. Men can’t stand pain. If my feller has a toothache he moans that much yer’d think he was dying. Silly buggers, the lot of them.’
‘To think all this was going on while I was strolling around the market.’ Ann shook her head as though she couldn’t believe what the girls had told her. ‘I’d have been home like a shot if I’d known. The child’s mother must have been out of her mind.’
‘She was, Mam, she was crying her eyes out.’ Tess hadn’t been allowed to go down the entry so she had no idea what the man had been up to. ‘And if it hadn’t been for Mrs Bingham, we might never have found Emma.’
‘How did she come to get involved?’ Ann asked. ‘None of the neighbours bother with her.’
‘I knocked on her door and told her.’ Tess didn’t care if she got told off because, after all, if she hadn’t told the woman next door, then little Emma might still be missing. ‘Maddy told me you wouldn’t want me to, but I’m glad I did.’
‘I went with her, Mam, Tess didn’t go on her own.’ Maddy was quick to defend her sister. ‘And it’s a good job she thought of it because Mrs Bingham was brilliant.’ She had already told them how Nellie had floored the man and sat on him until help came. ‘I was afraid for her ’cos she’s only little and the man was as big as you, Dad!’
‘Well, events proved Tess did the right thing,’ George said, while wishing he’d been here to confront a man who would scare a wee child so, and frighten the mother out of her wits. ‘And they also proved that there’s some good in most people. For all the crazy, annoying tricks Mrs Bingham plays, she has a good heart. And surely that makes up for her wrong-doing.’
Just as Ann stood up to gather the dinner plates in, there came a knock on the door. ‘Oh dear, of all the times to call, when the place is a mess. Clear the table quickly, girls, while I see who it is.’
Lizzie didn’t wait to be asked in. She brushed past Ann, saying, ‘I know ye’re probably in the middle of yer dinner, but I can’t wait to hear what’s gone on. I’ve heard bits and pieces off some of the neighbours, but they said Maddy and Tess saw the whole thing.’ She winked at George. ‘Can’t get away from me, can yer, lad?’
‘Have you had your dinner already?’ he asked, always happy to see the woman who could bring a smile to the most miserable of faces. ‘You’ve been quick.’
‘I threw me dinner down and left my feller halfway through his.’ The girls came through from the kitchen and Lizzie beamed. ‘I believe you two were in the thick of it from beginning to end, and I like to get the whole story instead of bits and pieces. So sit yerselves down and tell Mrs Lizzie all about it.’
The girls were in their element, and took it in turns to tell what they’d seen and the part they had played. And Lizzie, clicking her tongue on the roof of her mouth, and shaking her head, added to the drama. ‘It was like something you see at the pictures, Mrs Lizzie,’ Maddy said. ‘Mrs Bingham sneaking up on the man from behind, it was really exciting. But little Emma was crying and asking for her mam, and that was sad.’
‘I wish I could have got me hands on him, the dirty swine.’ Just in time she remembered Jane had told her the girls hadn’t seen what the man was up to, Nellie Bingham had seen to that. And here was she, nearly letting the cat out of the bag. ‘I hope the police give him a good hiding, that’s what he deserves.’
‘I think Mrs Bingham frightened the life out of him. She sat on his chest, and when he tried to punch her, she gave him a real belt on his chin.’
‘Eh, she’s a real turn-up for the books, isn’t she?’ Lizzie said. ‘Everyone is saying she’s a hero, but apparently she wouldn’t even let anyone thank her or shake her hand. She’s a strange woman, and although I’ve called her all the names under the sun, I must say she turned up trumps at the right time.’
‘I like her,’ Tess said, surprising everyone. ‘She probably doesn’t like being the way she is, but she can’t help it! I didn’t like being the way I was when I was sick all the time, but there was nothing I could do to make myself better.’
‘Ye’re right, queen, of course yer are. I mean, look at me, I’m a good example! D’yer think I wouldn’t like to be all sweet and honey if I could? With a face like Garbo and a figure like Jean Harlow? Blimey, I wouldn’t call the King me auntie.’ Then Lizzie’s coarse laughter filled the room. ‘Ay, if I had the face of Garbo and the body of Jean Harlow, my feller would think he’d died and gone to heaven. He wouldn’t be going to the bleedin’ pub every night, he’d be frightened to take his eyes off me in case I waltzed off with someone else.’
‘And if I had the looks of Ronald Colman, Lizzie, I’d be the one to waltz you off.’ George fingered his moustache, saying, ‘This is the only thing I’ve got in common with him.’
Tess put her arms around Lizzie. ‘I love you just the way you are, nice and cuddly.’
‘Just as well, queen, seeing as ye’re stuck with me like this.’ She nodded her head and put on a sad face. ‘I was only talking about this last night to that rose on me wallpaper. She wasn’t a bit sympathetic. Told me to grin and bear it, and make the best of a bad job.’
Chapter Twenty
‘George, wake up, we’ve slept in.’ Ann shook her husband’s shoulder urgently, then slipped her legs over the side of the bed. ‘Come on, move yourself.’
‘I didn’t hear the alarm,’ George grunted, struggling to sit up while rubbing the sleep from his eyes. ‘Are we very late, or just a few minutes?’
‘Twenty minutes, so get your skates on.’ Ann draped a cardigan over her shoulders and shivered as her feet touched the cold lino. ‘Put an extra vest on, ’cos it’s freezing.’ She crept down the stairs without making a sound. It was too early for the girls to get up, they might as well stay in the warm bed until their father was ready for work.
There was a plate of toast and a cup of tea waiting when George came in from the kitchen after having a swill. ‘I’d have given anything for an extra half-hour in bed this morning, I was in a deep sleep.’
‘Never mind, there’s only six days to go, then you’ve got three days off for the holiday. It’s lucky Christmas has fallen at the weekend this year, so you get that extra day off.’
George munched on a piece of toast. ‘I never thought I’d say it, but I miss next door raking her grate out. I don’t always hear the alarm, but she made such a racket you couldn’t help but hear. I wonder what’s made her go quiet all of a sudden?’
‘I don’t know the reason, but she stopped the early morning racket the day after that little girl went missing. But she still gets up to mischief. Never a day goes by that she doesn’t throw something over the wall, or call names after me when I walk down the street. I’m not the only one she picks on either, she has a go at most of the women.’
‘Is she getting you down, love?’
‘Not at all! I just let her get on with it. In fact nobody answers her back now, so she ends up talking to herself.’
‘I wonder what sort of a Christmas her family’s going to have? I doubt there’ll be much fun in that house.’
‘Oh, now, I think you could be wrong. I know she’s been paying money into the sweet shop, ’cos I’ve seen her getting her card marked. And Bridie saw her buying paper decorations and tinsel, so she must decorate the house for Christmas. Another thing, she looks after her boys, they’re always clean and well dressed.’
George emptied his cup before pushing his chair back and getting to his feet. ‘She’s a hard one to understand, that’s for sure. But I’m beginning to think Tess was right when she said the woman can’t help the way she is. Perhaps something has happened in h
er life to trigger it off, who can tell? Anyway, as long as she’s doing us no harm, as far as I’m concerned it’s live and let live.’
‘You’re going to be late, George, you’d better hurry.’
‘I’ve decided to hop on a bus to Stanley Road and get the tram from there. It’s only a penny, and not worth my trying to make up the time. I can’t walk as quick as I used to so I’m going to mug myself and go to work in style.’
‘I don’t know why you don’t do it every day,’ Ann said, helping him on with his coat. ‘We’re not as strapped for cash now, it wouldn’t break the bank.’
‘We’ll see how things go after the holiday.’ George bent to rub noses with her. ‘I’ll see you tonight, love.’
Ann watched him walk down the street, then closed the door and made for the stairs. It was time to get the girls up.
‘While Maddy’s doing her homework, Mam, can I go outside with my skipping rope?’ Tess asked. ‘I won’t go away from the door.’
‘Make sure you don’t, because it’s dark out. Your dad will be home soon and we’ll be having our dinner.’
‘I’ll come in with him.’ Tess took the skipping rope from a shelf under the stairs. ‘I’m going to try cross-overs, so if you hear a scream you’ll know I’ve tripped myself up.’
‘I won’t be long doing my homework,’ Maddy told her. ‘Then I’ll show you how to do it without tripping up and breaking your neck.’
Tess shook her head. ‘I’d rather practise on my own so I don’t get laughed at if I make a fool of myself. I’ll have you a bet that by the time you come out I’ll be able to do one cross-over at the very least.’ After wrapping a scarf tightly around her neck she pulled on a pair of navy woollen gloves. ‘If I can’t, it won’t be for the want of trying.’
As Tess closed the door behind her and stepped down on to the pavement, she spotted Mrs Bingham’s elder son walking up the street. His head was bent and he would have passed her without a glance, but Tess stood in his path. ‘Hello! My name’s Tess and I live in this house next to yours.’
