The Girl From Pit Lane

by Gracie Hart

  ‘I see that accounts for the less desirable garments that you have on display on your … shop. I take it they will eventually be collected by their owners, repaired as good as new?’ Jessica gazed around her.

  Mary-Anne nodded.

  ‘It is a good service you have for the less fortunate than ourselves. I will tell some of our staff of your services, but I myself will not purchase anything today.’ Jessica had an air of arrogance as she looked around the small poky shop and she didn’t quite understand what Grace and Priscilla saw in the dresses that they had been so quick to buy. They were pretty enough but she could not overlook her shabby surroundings. Besides, now that she had met Mary-Anne, the common girl who had attracted William Ellershaw’s eye, she was not happy. To offer her custom was a step too far.

  ‘Thank you, we will be more than happy to do any mending and alterations that you can send our way, miss,’ Mary-Anne said politely, even as she noted Jessica Bentley’s cool demeanour towards her.

  ‘Well, I would like to buy these new gloves and I promise to return once I am in need of something.’ Sarah Marsden passed Eliza a pair of white crocheted gloves, which their mother had made just before she had died. ‘How much are they? I have a little change on me, so there is no need for you to bill me.’ Sarah delved into her purse and waited for a reply as Eliza wrapped the gloves up in brown paper and string.

  ‘They are four pence, Miss Marsden, and thank you for your custom.’ Eliza smiled and, having wrapped the gloves in brown paper, passed them to the quiet woman who had patiently waited her turn.

  ‘Here, take this sixpence; I’m sure I would have paid all of that if I had bought them in Leeds and they are so beautifully crafted.’ Sarah thrust the sixpence into Eliza’s hands – Eliza had already upped the price she would have accepted for the gloves but she wasn’t about to say no to selling the gloves at almost twice the price.

  ‘Why, thank you miss, that is very much appreciated and we will both look forward to your return.’ Eliza smiled at Sarah, not quite believing that she would be willing to pay so much more than the gloves were worth. Apart from the hoity-toity Jessica Bentley, the ladies seemed very willing to overlook the shabby interior of their little shop. Money didn’t seem to have any value in these young women’s eyes and she didn’t feel one bit guilty at charging a guinea for a dress that had cost but a few pence to make. Eliza realised that in an instance their fortunes had changed, these young ladies with their fripperies had put food on the table and saved Mary-Anne from Edmund Bentley, which was all that mattered.

  ‘Yes, we thank you for your patronage, ladies.’ Mary-Anne shared a look of relief with her sister. ‘If there is anything we can do for you, please let us know. The dress will be delivered to your home, Miss Eavesham, and we will await your maid’s instructions, Miss Ellershaw.’

  Mary-Anne held the door open ready for the party to leave. As she did the stench from the slaughterhouse hit her nostrils and the sight of the drain running with blood onto the cobbled road from the slaughtered beast made her ashamed of the premises that they were in. She decided, in this instance, that honesty was the best policy.

  ‘I’m sorry, the butcher next door has just slaughtered a cow and I’m afraid we share the same open drain as him. Please take care of your dresses as you leave the shop and avert your eyes from the drain.’ Mary-Anne and Eliza watched as the group of well-to-do ladies tried not to show their disgust as they left the shop, holding their dresses well above their ankles and at the same time trying to keep from breathing in the stench from the freshly killed beast that filled the air.

  Eliza watched as they walked up the cobbled road, all four dressed in their finery, their skirts and mantels made of the finest materials, better than anything she could ever afford. She listened to them talking and discussing what a disgusting place to have to work in, and laughing about the second-hand clothes in the shop. Her heart dropped as she looked around at the small wooden hut and the now bare dolly tub and posser that adorned the window. They might have sold two dresses and made good money but the look on Jessica Bentley’s face had told the real tale. That she thought of them as not worthy of their money and custom, that they were just amusing themselves at their father’s expense. How Eliza wished she had been born into money! Had she been so she knew she would not waste her time having tea and fancies and gossiping with friends; she would have made her mark on the world. She sighed as she watched the gossiping group go into the tea room further along the street, the one that Mary-Anne and she had only ever dared to look through the window at.

  ‘Eliza, come in. You must be freezing and don’t you feel sick with that smell outside?’ Mary-Anne called out to her sister from the doorway as she followed her gaze up the road at their departing customers.

  ‘I’m used to it, unlike the Miss Bentleys of the world.’ Eliza pulled her shawl around her and climbed the steps back into the workshop.

  ‘Well, didn’t you do well? You’ve sold the dress and we’ve got an order for another one from Grace Ellershaw, and the price you charged …! I couldn’t believe my ears and they didn’t flinch.’ Mary-Anne laughed.

  ‘It isn’t their money, though, is it? It’s their papas; they aren’t bothered. I wish we had money, Mary-Anne. I wish we could afford to run a proper shop in a well-to-do area. I’d give anything to know that every morning when I got up I wasn’t going to bed hungry or have to worry about how to pay the rent. It’s just not fair; we have more brains than the whole of those four put together and yet look at us. Thinking that we have made a fortune selling two dresses made out of stolen material and that we are now able to pay our way for the next month or two, providing we get payment. I hate this place; it’s dirty, it smells and we will never come to anything in a place like this.’ Eliza slumped down in her chair and stared out of the window. ‘I’m fed up of being poor!’

  ‘But an hour ago, we had next to nothing. Eliza, we will do it, we will turn our lives around. You’ve got to have faith. Grace Ellershaw and Priscilla Eavesham will wear their new dress to whatever balls they attend and their friends will want one just like theirs and they will have to come to you for their fitting, regardless of the building we are in. This is just the start, dear sister, and it’s all because of your skills.’ Mary-Anne knelt down and hugged her sister tightly as she sobbed.

  ‘I miss Mamma and I miss our father. Can you remember when we were nippers and we used to play around his feet in here?’ Eliza looked up at her sister.

  ‘Yes, and you were always in bother because you’d never be quiet. We can’t bring back the past, but we can look to the future and there is hope. Besides, just because they have money doesn’t mean they are happy. Just think of Grace Ellershaw, her father is nothing more than a bully and a tyrant, not like our dear departed father. Her life cannot be all roses. She’ll probably have to marry the man her parents choose for her.’ Mary-Anne held her sister tight. ‘Think of your Tom, because he is so sweet on you. I swear he is going to burst if he goes any redder in the face when he speaks of you to me. You have a good man there, one that will love you.’ Mary-Anne rose to her feet and looked down at her younger sister who was trying to compose herself.

  ‘I know, I’m just a bit jealous, I want so much for the both of us, but we have so little.’ Eliza wiped her nose and sighed. ‘At least we can pay the rent this month, so that saves you from that bastard Ellershaw. It’s ironic that he will be getting his own money back after his daughter pays us. I hope that she doesn’t get into trouble if he finds out … Or at least not before we get our money. I quite like her; she’s not such a bad soul.’ Eliza looked up at Mary-Anne.

  ‘Yes, she does seem to be the best out of that group, her and Priscilla Eavesham. Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt if we looked after those two with more care. You never know, something might come of it. Now, am I delivering the dress to Leventhorpe Hall or are you? And let’s get the bill written out; the upper classes are notorious for not paying on time and we need that money. We
will put a personal note in with the invoice, thanking her for her custom and saying that we hope she will return.’ Mary-Anne sat down and started to parcel the dress. ‘I don’t think she will be returning it. It looked near a perfect fit, so we have no problem with this one.’

  ‘You take it, Mary-Anne. I’d only come away from the hall feeling truly unworthy, after seeing how the other half live.’ Eliza sighed and tried to smile at her sister.

  ‘Don’t worry, I’m sure it will be a back-door delivery. I can’t see the butler opening the entrance door to me in my finery.’ Mary-Anne laughed and mocked a curtsy to her sister. ‘“Good afternoon, sir, got a dress here made out of nicked cloth from Leeds wharf, made by two penniless trollops who are charging the God’s earth and Miss Eavesham has just bought it.” You got to laugh, Eliza. Things will get better, I promise. Let’s face it, they can’t get any worse than what we’ve already been through.’ Mary-Anne tied the string tight and pulled her shawl over her shoulders after enclosing the invoice and note giving their thanks for the purchase.

  ‘I’ll be back in time for supper, so leave me some of that stew. The walk will do me good and will get me away from the smell of that drain, it is really making me feel quite ill.’ Mary-Anne picked up the parcel and invoice and opened the door. ‘Cheer up, we’ve done well today. Get a move on with that dress that you are holding, the dolly tub is looking cold in the window.’ Grinning at her own cheek, she walked out of the door and made her way down the street, leaving Eliza looking at the dolly tub display in the window, which she now thought quite frankly looked ridiculous.

  Well, you did your job, you sold the dress, she thought, as she moved the posser and the tub. Perhaps we could run to another tailor’s dummy for the window, although even the one I use for measurements looks past its best.

  Eliza glanced at the moth-eaten dummy in the corner of the room.

  If only I had money … the things I could do, she thought. But I don’t think I will, no matter what our Mary-Anne says. My only hope is John Vasey and the material he brings. I hope Mary-Anne keeps him sweet for both our sakes.

  ‘Good afternoon, we meet again.’ William Ellershaw stepped down from his carriage just in front of the hurrying Mary-Anne.

  ‘Good afternoon, Mr Ellershaw.’ Mary-Anne stopped in her tracks and pulled her shawl tight around her, hoping that the conversation with her attacker’s son would not take long.

  ‘In a hurry, I see. May I join you in your walk? A spot of fresh air would serve me well before I join my sister and her group of friends for tea. Any longer than a half hour of their giggling, I’m afraid, makes me weary and as they have been known to spend all the afternoon gossiping over their tea, you would be a welcome diversion.’ With his long black cane, top-hat and his elegant dress coat partly hiding the glint of a gold pocket watch hanging from his breast pocket, William Ellershaw was the very image of a well-dressed young gent, just yards away from the small tea-room that his sister was having tea in with her friends.

  Mary-Anne watched as the carriage and team of horses pulled away, leaving her alone with the young man that was looking her up and down with some interest.

  ‘If you don’t mind, sir, I’m not out for a walk … I have to run an errand.’

  ‘Yes, where are you off to in such a rush? And pray tell what is that package under your arm?’

  ‘I’m off to Leventhorpe Hall, sir. Miss Eavesham, a friend of your sister, has just bought a dress from us and I am about to deliver it, sir.’ Mary-Anne hardly dare look at the young man that stood in her way, thinking only of the demeaning manner in which his father had used towards her, at the same time feeling she had to explain her movements to him.

  ‘Has she now? And no doubt my sister did the same and expected you to deliver and wait of your money.’ William looked at the beautiful young woman who stood in front of him and saw her trembling either with the cold or fear – which one he wasn’t sure.

  ‘Yes, I’m to deliver and invoice Miss Eavesham, but your sister has yet to send her maid with her measurements and then we will deliver and invoice her, once her gown is ready. It really is no problem sir.’

  ‘Ah, but it is a problem, my dear. You will have already paid out good money for the material, not taking into consideration the time that it has taken you to make the garment. Please let me pay you for both gowns now, as I know my sister will definitely want the dress you will make her. As for the Eaveshams … let us say, not everything is always as it seems and you may be waiting a long time for your money. It can be my treat for Priscilla and that headstrong sister of mine, and I will see that this dress gets delivered when I escort Miss Eavesham back in my carriage.’ William reached into his pocket and took out his coin holder. ‘How much do they owe you?’

  ‘Really, sir, it is not your debt. I feel I cannot accept,’ Mary-Anne protested.

  ‘You will be doing me a service if you let me pay. I will win the respect of Miss Eavesham and save her from the embarrassment of her father not being able to pay you at this moment in time. And, as for my sister … well, what can I say? She’s my sister and is always there for me. I’m sure you can understand.’ William smiled and waited for Mary-Anne to reply.

  ‘They are a guinea each, sir, and I am much beholden to you for paying for them both.’ Mary-Anne looked up at the man who was counting his money out in front of her, without quibbling.

  ‘I do have one stipulation.’ William passed the two guineas to Mary-Anne and took the parcel from her.

  Mary-Anne turned pale. Was he going to expect the same of her as is father had? ‘I beg your pardon, sir?’

  ‘That is you come and join me for tea with these infernal women who think of me as either the target for their quips and japes or some prize to be won. I really don’t stand a chance against them. You can be their centre of attention for once.’ William laughed mischievously as he closed his money pouch and looked at the face of the girl he was enamoured with. Taking a girl like this to tea would put his sister’s friends entirely out of sorts but he also found that he wanted to spend time with her.

  ‘Oh, I couldn’t, sir,’ Mary-Anne protested. ‘It’s not right. I’m not dressed … I wouldn’t know what to do …’

  ‘You are perfect. Come, take my arm and help me survive the afternoon. Mrs Brookes’ cream scones are first class, you must have one of those and a slice of her caraway cake. I just can’t get enough.’ William held his arm out and linked Mary-Anne’s through it. ‘Come now, don’t let them intimidate you with their noise and looks. They are harmless creatures, believe me.’

  Mary-Anne looked up at the handsome dark-haired man on her arm and couldn’t quite believe the situation she was in. She breathed in deeply and stepped out hoping that she would not be like Daniel thrown into the lion’s den and that she would not be prey for the jabbering women having afternoon tea.

  ‘Well, that didn’t take you as long as I feared. You’ve only been gone a good hour. You can’t have delivered it yet. It’s quite a walk to the Hall.’ Eliza raised her head from her sewing and glanced up at the flushed face of her sister.

  ‘Rest assured it is delivered and I’ve got the money for both dresses, a full two guineas.’ Mary-Anne took the money out of her pocket and placed it on the table in front of Eliza, holding her breath as her sister gasped at the sight of the gold coins.

  ‘How did you manage that? I haven’t even started on the second dress yet but you’ve been paid for it?’ Eliza looked from the coins to her sister’s face. ‘You haven’t been up to anything you’ll regret, have you? Because there’s no need for you to do that.’

  ‘No, I’ll never do that again. I was just on my way to deliver the dress when William Ellershaw stopped me. It seems them at Leventhorpe Hall are not as wealthy as we thought and he insisted that he paid for both dresses as a gift to both his sister and for Priscilla, whom I think he must be sweet on. He then asked me to accompany him to tea at Mrs Brookes’ tea room where his sister and friends were at. I c
ouldn’t say no, he wouldn’t let me! You should have seen their faces when I walked in!’ Mary-Anne grinned and sat down in her chair. ‘I’m so full, I could do with getting out of this corset.’

  ‘You’ve had tea with all that snobby lot, while I’ve been sat here my fingers nearly raw from pulling this bloody needle through this thick brocade? I don’t suppose you gave me a second thought and brought me back a bit of cake or something.’ Eliza looked across at her sister with a smile on her face.

  ‘No, not a thing. It didn’t seem proper to ask for seconds for you! But what I do have is an order for a mantle from Jessica Bentley, who, when she realised that William had paid for Priscilla Eavesham’s dress, wanted to be part of the spending frenzy. But I rather think William will not be paying for her order – she will have to pay for it herself – as his eyes were on wooing Priscilla. Although I did keep catching him gazing at me, which made me slightly uneasy and I did worry when he first proposed that I joined them for tea, not quite knowing what his motive was.’

  ‘Bloody hell, Mary-Anne! Yesterday we had nowt all on to live, and now we’ve enough money to get us through to the autumn if we are careful, especially with the sale of the mantle, if she pays for it.’ Eliza gazed out of the window.

  ‘She will because they all do as Grace Ellershaws says as they are all desperately trying to catch her brother for a husband.’ Mary-Anne sighed.

  ‘But he’s so arrogant.’ Eliza suddenly looked way concerned. ‘He didn’t force himself on you in anyway?’