The Miner's Wife

by Diane Allen

  Jack went round to the back door, instead of going to the shop, as he didn’t want the local gossips to hear. He knocked loudly and waited for Meg or Harry to open the door to him.

  ‘Hold your horses, I’m just having a shave,’ Harry’s voice shouted from within.

  Jack waited for a second or two until the door opened.

  ‘Oh, it’s you, is it? What are you doing, skulking around here and not coming into the shop?’ He wiped the lathered soap off his chin and looked at the lad whose family had caused so much bother over the past days, as he opened the door to the caller.

  ‘Aye, I didn’t come into the shop because I wanted to talk in private, either to you or Meg. I went away, after meeting her family, with a bit of a worry and I want one of you to say it is unfounded.’ Jack hung his head; it seemed that he was always knocking on the back door with bad news.

  ‘What is it this time? Let me guess: you want tick until you are up and running at the farm?’ Harry threw the towel onto the chair behind him and scowled.

  ‘No, it’s nowt like that.’ Jack breathed in. ‘It’s her cousin. How sure is Meg that he is her cousin, because I know him as somebody else,’ he blurted out.

  ‘Nay, lad, you must be wrong. Agnes and Tom wouldn’t take him in if they didn’t think he were kith and kin. Who do you know him as, then?’ Harry looked at the concern on Jack’s face.

  ‘He’s the lad that helps with the packhorses when they come over from Liverpool with stuff needed for the mines. He’s even been known to help bring coal from Tan Hill to here. I’ve known him for a fair while, and I’m sure he’s the same lad.’ Jack looked behind Harry, as Meg caught his last few words when she came into the back room from the shop, and stared at him in disbelief.

  Harry turned to Meg. ‘I told you that Jack gave Dan – or whatever he’s called – a funny look as he went out. What do you make of it? Do you think he’s your cousin, or could he be an impostor?’

  ‘I don’t know. He seemed to know everything about my aunt and uncle, and he talked plenty about Liverpool.’ Meg thought back to her first meeting with Dan. ‘He had the money that my father sent my aunt, and he knew all about us. Are you sure you know him, Jack? That you aren’t getting Dan confused with another lad?’

  ‘No, I’d swear blind that it’s Seth. He knew I recognized him and all, because he pulled his cap down over his face. If it is him, he’s got a scar halfway down his left leg, where a mule broke it and the bone came through the skin. It took weeks to mend. He did it the summer before last, and old Willie was going mad about it.’ Jack stood his ground.

  ‘Well, there’s only one way to settle this, and that is to confront the lad,’ said Harry. ‘And we shouldn’t waste any time in doing so. He could murder your parents in their beds and we’d not know about it. I’ll close the shop in the morning and we will go over in the horse and trap. Jack, will you come with us, as you are the only one who knows him really, if what you say is true?’ Harry looked worried as he thought about the lad, whom nobody had ever met until the day he turned up at Beck Side. He could truly be anybody. Everybody had been so eager to take him in as their blood relative.

  ‘What the Devil!’ Tom looked out of the kitchen window at Beck Side and spotted Harry, Meg and another passenger, as they opened the gate at the bottom of the field that led up to the farm. ‘What’s so important they’ve come this early in the morn? We’ve only just finished milking and had our breakfast.’ He watched as they made their way up the farm path.

  ‘I hope Meg’s alright. She looked white the other day. I was bothered about her.’ Agnes opened the kitchen door and stood in the porch, waiting for the visitors to arrive.

  ‘I’ll go and clean the cowshed, now I’ve done my breakfast. I’ll get out of your way,’ Dan said, wanting to make himself scarce. He suspected what the early-morning visit was all about, and had been waiting for his time posing as the Oversbys’ nephew to come to an end, knowing full well that he had been recognized by one of the Owd Gang mine-workers. He’d packed some belongings, raided the cash box in Tom’s desk and hidden it all under the hay in the barn, to make sure his departure was fast. He’d had a fair run at playing the part of the nephew he’d found, ill and dying of cholera, on the roadside outside Lancaster; bleeding him dry of information about his past and where he was travelling to, before stealing the money from his pockets, when he was too weak and helpless to fight him off; and eventually leaving him dead on the roadside, as he took on the boy’s role as the orphaned nephew.

  ‘Aye, all right, lad. It must be something important, to make Harry shut up shop and come over at this time of the day.’ Tom watched as Dan looked down the farm track at the three visitors, then saw him go into the barn before he went to the cowshed; he thought nothing of it, as he tried to make out who the third person in the cart was.

  ‘It’s that lad that we saw in the shop with Meg yesterday – the one that had rented the farm. Now what’s he doing with them both?’ Agnes exclaimed, as she and Tom walked to the garden gate when the visitors arrived in the yard.

  ‘Now then, Harry, what’s made you visit us this early? If I didn’t know any different, I’d say you must have pissed the bed.’ Tom made light of his early-morning visitors, while Agnes scolded him.

  Meg was the first to climb down from the cart, and she ran to her mum and hugged her. ‘Thank heavens that you are both alright. I’ve worried about you all night, ever since Jack told me his news.’ She stood back and turned to Jack as he climbed down from the cart and stood beside her.

  ‘What news is this then, lad? I hope it’s not the bad sort, else you can bugger off and take it back.’ Tom looked at the tall, dark-haired lad who seemed to be friends with his daughter – perhaps a little too much so.

  ‘Now, Tom, wait and see what he has to say. Where’s Dan? He needs to be present when Jack tells you his tale.’ Harry tethered the horse and looked at the couple, who had no idea what might be going to unfold.

  ‘He’s just gone into the barn – I’ll shout for him. Dan! Dan! Get yourself here, you are needed,’ Tom shouted across to the barn, but got no response. ‘Meg, go and find him. He must have gone to clean out the cowshed.’

  Tom looked stern as he walked in front of Agnes, Harry and Jack into the warmth of the kitchen.

  ‘Now, what’s this about, and why has Dan to be involved?’ He sat back in his fireside chair while Agnes stood by the window, and Harry and Jack pulled up chairs around the yet-to-be-cleared breakfast table.

  ‘Jack here says he recognizes Dan. He says he’s a lad from Liverpool that comes with the packhorses. He recognized him yesterday, but didn’t say anything until after you’d gone home.’ Harry rubbed his hand on his brow and looked across at Agnes and Tom.

  ‘Nay, that’s not right – he’s our Anne’s lad. Dan was with her when she died; he knew all about us when he turned up on our doorstep. Anyway, he’ll tell you himself, when he gets his arse in here.’ Tom stared at Jack, wondering if there was an ulterior motive to his accusation.

  ‘I swear, Mr Oversby, that lad’s real name is Seth, and he’s one of Willie Fawcett’s lads. He gets them from the workhouse, so that they can’t complain about the way he treats them. And in the case of Seth, he’s one of the more cunning ones. I wouldn’t trust him with anything I value.’ Jack looked across at Tom Oversby and knew that he wasn’t being believed. ‘If it is Seth, ask him to show you his left leg, to prove I’m right. It’ll have a scar on it, where a mule broke it when he was delivering supplies at Gunnerside.’ Jack didn’t mention the mine, or else he knew that being a miner would be held against him. ‘All he does is go back and forth to Liverpool with supplies for Willie Fawcett – he’ll have walked many a mile, if you ask him.’

  ‘Aye, well, we’ll see when Dan gets here. What do you think, Agnes? Do we have a cuckoo in the nest?’ Tom looked at his wife, who appeared shocked at the news.

  ‘I never have liked the lad. I couldn’t take to him one bit, but that’s not
to say he isn’t your Anne’s. I just thought he took after his father – cocky and with that awful attitude they both seem to have. Here’s Meg, anyway, but she’s by herself.’

  Meg burst in through the kitchen door. ‘He’s nowhere. I can’t find him anywhere. I’ve looked in the barn and the cowshed. I’ve even looked in the pig-hull and dog-kennel. He’s disappeared. I don’t know where he is.’ She caught her breath.

  ‘I knew he recognized me yesterday. He’ll have made a run for it, the little bugger, knowing that the game was up. You’ve nothing missing, have you? He hasn’t robbed you of anything?’ Jack asked with concern in his voice. ‘If I were you, I’d call the peelers – not that they’ll catch him. He’ll be miles away by now, as he’s built like a whippet.’

  ‘Nay, we are not bothering them. Agnes, check Dan’s room! I’ll look in my desk. I found him rummaging in there on the odd occasion and thought nowt of it, and I told him to keep out. We’ve never had a need for locks in this house, and I wasn’t about to start because of him, but then I thought better of it, as his father was that light-fingered.’ Tom pushed his chair back and went storming off into the low-beamed room at the back of the house, where the newly locked desk stood with the cash box in it, while Agnes went up to inspect Dan’s room.

  ‘I can’t tell if he’s taken anything or not,’ she shouted as she ran back down the stairs after checking Dan’s bedroom. ‘He’d nothing when he came and we haven’t given him much, so it’s hard to tell.’

  ‘Well, he’s been in the bloody cash box. He’s broken the lock on the desk and I’ve the best part of five shillings missing from the cash box. And he’ll have that money I said he could keep, when he first turned up with it in his hand. I will call into Hawes tomorrow and tell Sergeant Thompson to keep an eye out for the thieving little bugger. I wonder how he got that money he came with? He must have met our Dan somewhere on the way, for him to know all that he did about us.’ Tom looked out of the window and gazed down the field. ‘I’ve been a bloody fool, being taken in by a no-good vagabond. And what’s become of my real nephew, I don’t know, and probably never will.’

  ‘You weren’t to know. None of us did, and we never suspected a thing.’ Agnes put her hand on her husband’s shoulder.

  ‘No, Father, don’t blame yourself. It was me who let him in at first, if you remember. I should have known by the way he acted, when he walked in here, that he wasn’t my cousin. But he knew everything, so he must, as you say, have met our Dan.’ Meg sighed.

  ‘Aye, well, it’s easy knowing everything with hindsight. The lad’s conned us all, and if it hadn’t have been for Jack here, spotting him, he’d still be conning you. So it’s a good job Jack had the mind to open his mouth and tell you of his suspicions. The little bugger; he’d know, as soon as he clapped eyes on Jack here, that the game was up. I bet he’s never run so fast in his life as when he saw us coming up the field this morning.’ Harry looked at Tom and his family and then at Jack. ‘What do you think, lad? You are the only one who kens him.’

  ‘I don’t think he’ll have done your nephew any harm. Seth’s not a murderer, but he’s obviously been with him, and he’s definitely taken advantage of your nephew’s predicament, as he has of yourselves.’ Jack looked solemnly at the family that was in shock.

  ‘Well, I can’t thank you enough for coming to tell us, lad. And you, Harry, for bringing them both. He’d have been made welcome here all his life, if it hadn’t been for you recognizing him. He must have thought we were idiots,’ Tom growled.

  ‘But what will have become of the real Dan? I can’t help but worry. Although we never knew him, we should still be concerned about his whereabouts and whether he is still alive.’ Agnes was nearly in tears.

  Meg put her arm around her mum and kissed her on her cheek. ‘We can’t do anything about him. Let’s just hope he is safe and that he’s being looked after. I’m so glad that “Dan” has gone. I really hated him.’

  ‘I miss you, Meg. You’ll come home soon, won’t you?’ Agnes looked at her daughter, whom she had missed so much over the last few months.

  ‘Yes, I’ll be home shortly. Give me a little longer with Uncle Harry, until the bad weather comes, and then I’ll come home.’ Meg looked at her mum and knew she needed her home, but at the same time part of her heart lay in Swaledale and she didn’t want to leave.

  ‘Meg tells me that you are renting a farm – The Rash, over near Muker.’ Tom looked at Jack. ‘If there’s anything we can do, you let us know. I’ll not forget you doing us this kindness, and letting us know about the bugger we have been keeping under our roof.’ Tom patted Jack on the back; he’d taken to the young lad and felt he should repay him. He was still trying to remember where he had seen him before, but his memory was letting him down.

  ‘Thank you. You really don’t owe me anything. I was concerned for Meg, as I know she cares deeply for you both.’ Jack looked across at Meg as she blushed and tried not to hold his gaze.

  ‘Aye, well, we’d better be heading back. I’ve a living to make, and I can’t do that if the shop’s not open.’ Harry walked to the doorway and was in haste to get back, now that he knew not much harm had been done.

  ‘Aye, thank you again, Harry. You take care now, and you look after my lass,’ Tom said as the three made their way to the waiting horse and cart.

  ‘I will, you know I will – she’s like a daughter to me.’ Harry smiled as he held his hand out to help Meg up into the cart. ‘Make sure you lock your doors tonight, in case the little bugger comes back.’

  ‘We will. Now get yourselves home, and take care.’ Tom and Agnes stood at the garden gate and watched as the horse and cart containing the three of them trundled down the farm track.

  Agnes shed the tears that she had been withholding, as she entered the farmhouse.

  ‘What’s up, Mother? There’s nowt to cry about now. The bugger’s gone and it’s a good job he has, else I’d not be responsible for what I’d have done to him.’

  ‘It’s not that. Did you not see how that lad looked at our Meg? She’s not a little girl any more, and the way that he looked at her, he has his eye on her.’ Agnes sniffed and tried to control her emotions. ‘She’s grown up. No wonder she doesn’t want to come home, as she’s her own woman over there, with Harry and his shop.’

  ‘She’ll be home soon. Harry can really do without her now. He’s been able to all along. He never seemed heartbroken over losing Mary; in fact, I heard he’s been seeing a woman in Reeth of late, so he’s soon come out of mourning.’ Tom put his arm around Agnes. ‘She’ll be back home before Christmas, and then you’ll be happy.’

  ‘I have a funny feeling she won’t, Tom. That we have lost our daughter to another, but I don’t quite know who,’ Agnes whispered as she went to clear the breakfast table, which served as a reminder of the trust they had put in the lad they had taken in as their own.

  22

  Jack walked back up to his mother and his home, pausing to talk to an officious lady dressed in her Sunday best, who was giving out leaflets to those who would take them outside the newly built Literary Institute, which stood square and proud across the road from Calvert’s, the blacksmith’s. The good folk of Gunnerside had raised the money for the building to be erected, and now it stood in all its glory with the opening date carved on its side.

  ‘Will you be joining us at our opening on Friday night, sir?’ the woman said as she thrust a leaflet into his hand. ‘Everyone’s welcome. We want to be able to give learning to this village. Arithmetic and reading and writing are badly needed within our community. We also have lessons on geology, for miners who need to be aware of how to find new seams of lead, if that would be of interest.’

  ‘Nay, I’ve had my fill of mining. I’ve recently lost my brother in an accident up at the Sir Francis level, and you’ll not be getting me back there in a hurry.’ Jack stopped to talk to her as he accepted her leaflet.

  ‘I’m sorry to hear that. Was he one of the souls who
died because of an incident with gunpowder? We have lessons on the use of that, along with dynamite, which is just as dangerous and needs careful handling. But we have an excellent library. Or perhaps you would benefit from learning accounting?’ The woman was persistent in making known the virtues of the Literary Institute.

  ‘Thank you, I’ll think about it,’ Jack said politely as he walked away, glancing quickly at the leaflet, but not giving it much thought. His thoughts were on his new venture into farming. He had stock to buy, and feed for the winter ahead, and the money he had saved would only just cover it. But most of all he could not stop thinking about Meg. She was not tied to his brother now and perhaps, given time, she would begin to realize how he felt about her – or at least he hoped she would.

  ‘Oh, you are back then, from your wild-goose chase to Wensleydale? Well, was it their nephew, or were you right and it was the packhorse man’s lad?’ Betty stood with her hands on her hips and looked at her son.

  ‘I was right. He’d made himself scarce by the time we got there. He’d seen us coming up the farm field and must have legged it, like a ferret out of a trap, knowing full well what would happen to him if he was caught.’ Jack slumped down in his chair and threw the Literary Institute leaflet onto the table.

  ‘Oh, aye, thinking of getting a bit of learning in your old age? I bet it’s that lass at the shop has put you up to that, and all. Why she can’t leave my boys alone, I don’t know. Since she’s come along I’ve had no sense out of either of you. And I’ll never get over losing my Sam in the way I did, but it’s not as if you care. You’ll be gone soon, leaving me to beg and scrimp. I’ll have to ask the parish to give me some relief, and those pious bastards won’t give me anything, when they know I’ve a son who should be supporting me,’ Betty wailed.