by Diane Allen
‘I’ve no money. Do you want to waste your brass on him?’ Kitty looked at her sister.
‘Just bed it is then. Grab his shoulder – we should be able to manage him between us.’ Exhausted, Daisy bent down and, with Kitty and Tobias, dragged Clifford up and into the spare bedroom of Grouse Hall, as he screamed in pain. All three looked at the man they hated, useless and bedridden. Now who had the upper hand? He’d dance to their tune for a while – that is, if he lived!
The tin bath in front of the kitchen fire was filled with steaming hot water, as both sisters took it in turns to clean their smoke-covered bodies and change into clean clothes.
Daisy towelled her hair dry while Kitty sat next to the open fire. ‘Your turn, Tobias. Strip off out of them rags. I’ve found you a vest and shirt out of the bedding box from upstairs – they’ll do until we can get you something better.’
‘I’ll drown in there.’ Tobias looked at the half-filled bath and the block of carbolic soap waiting to scrub him clean. He’d never had a bath before.
‘Nonsense! Come on, get in.’ Daisy grabbed his arm and pulled the loose-fitting rags over his head. She stopped for a second, catching her breath – Tobias’s body was a mass of bruises – and then glared at Kitty.
‘I didn’t know, Daisy. Honestly, I didn’t know he’d been hit that hard.’ Kitty was taken aback at the sight of the whippet-thin lad and his bruises.
‘Come on, Tobias, in you pop. Let’s get you clean, and we’ll cut this mop of hair afterwards. It is hard to tell if you’re a boy or a girl. And tonight, Tobias, you’ll eat at the table with us. Won’t he, Kitty?’
‘I suppose so – just this once.’
Daisy rolled up her sleeves and washed the lad gently with a flannel and the soap. She doubted if his skin had ever seen the light of day, as she gently scrubbed the dirt of years off his little body. Then, tipping his head back, she washed his long, black hair – the hair that told everyone that he was Clifford’s son. She rubbed him dry and dressed him in an adult’s shirt and vest that she’d found in the bedding box next to her bed, tying it around his waist with string and folding the sleeves up to his wrists.
‘There, at least you look clean. Now sit up here and let’s tackle this hair.’ Tobias sat still on the kitchen chair while Daisy clipped his hair short and even, the locks falling down onto the floor all around him. She stood back and admired her work. ‘Quite the young gent, Master Tobias.’ She smiled as the young boy looked at his reflection in the dirty bath water. ‘Let’s keep you that way.’
Daisy looked at her sister. She was weak, but she should have stood up to that bully, Clifford. No one should have let a child be treated like that.
17
The snow had melted and, although it was only mid-February, the weather was quite mild. Daisy looked at the horse that she had harnessed to the trap. She hoped she’d strapped it in correctly; it was a long time since she’d harnessed a horse, but they were nearly out of food.
‘Are you sure you dare go into Hawes? It’s a long way to go on your own.’ Kitty stood at the rundown garden gate, watching her sister tighten the horse’s girth and check the harnessing.
‘I’m not on my own. Tobias is coming with me, and he needs some shoes.’ Daisy climbed up into the trap and sat next to the little lad, who was beaming from ear to ear. ‘Besides, if I don’t, what are we going to eat? And I need some ointment for Clifford from the apothecary’s, to ease his pain a little.’
Daisy flicked the reins and clicked her tongue and the horse stirred into action. She swayed with the action of the gig, as the pair of them set off down the twisting track onto the road to Hawes. She looked at her sore red hands; they were no longer the hands of a cook and soft-skinned shop assistant. She let the horse take a bit of slack; it obviously knew the way well. It had been a hard four weeks since the barn had burned and Clifford had been bedridden, leaving the running of Grouse Hall and its livestock to her and Kitty. She’d fed the sheep throughout the cold snap, milked the cow, cleaned out the badly damaged barn and been nursemaid to the complaining Clifford when necessary. She hadn’t had time to think of her past life in Leeds or to write a letter, until last night, and that was another reason to go to Hawes, to post it to the Mattinson family and tell them her news.
She’d sat and thought a long time before putting the words together. To say it was heavily edited would be telling a lie – it was barely telling the truth at all. All the negatives had not been touched upon, and the positives at Grouse Hall had been exaggerated out of all proportion. She didn’t want the Middletons to worry about her situation. Besides, it was looking brighter, now that Clifford was off the scene for a while. He seemed to have found a streak of humility since his accident, and Kitty and her sister were beginning to pull as a team, even though Kitty still could have a nasty tongue in her head, when it came to Tobias.
‘All right, Tobias?’ Daisy looked at the young lad, who was speechless and quiet. He looked quite respectable now. She’d cut the old shirt down to size and had made him a little suit out of what she had found in the bedding box. The clothes must have been old Tobias Middleton’s when he was alive, so it seemed appropriate that the lad was wearing his cast-offs. All that was missing now were shoes.
‘I’m all right. I’ve never been this far down the dale.’ Tobias’s mouth was wide open as he gazed all around him.
‘That’s the railway.’ Daisy pointed out the railway track that ran all the way down the dale. ‘I came back from Leeds on a train. It’s like a big carriage on metal wheels, and the engine at the front puffs out steam, making it run along the track.’ Daisy tried to explain to the little boy, as his eyes widened in disbelief. ‘We might see one, if we are lucky. I’ll stop at the viaduct at Dandry Mire. I can spare a minute or two to watch for a train.’ She smiled as Tobias asked her what a viaduct was. There was so much that the little soul didn’t know.
She pulled the horse up at the side of the road and looked across at the viaduct. It was short and stumpy, compared with the towering viaduct at Ribblehead. They sat in silence as they waited for the train. The smell of peat bog was on the air, sharp and clear, a mixed smell of heather and wild moorland grasses combined with the rich red peat of the fells. Daisy breathed it in; she loved the smell, and the cool northerly wind that was blowing and the snow-capped high fells. She sat back and closed her eyes for a second or two. Nowhere could compare to home, and she was glad to be back.
‘Shhh . . . Tobias, can you hear that? Listen.’ Both of them listened carefully as a train could be heard shunting down the line. ‘That’s it blowing its whistle to warn people it’s coming along the line. It must not be stopping at the junction.’
Tobias watched as the engine and goods carriages shunted down the track and across the viaduct. Steam billowed from its funnel as it pulled its heavy load along the long drag – a name that the railway men gave to the hardest piece of the Settle-to-Carlisle railway line.
‘It’s like a monster – look at all that steam!’ Tobias watched until it disappeared into the Ais Gill cutting, the last wisp of steam floating down in front of him.
‘One day, Tobias, I’ll take you for a ride on one. You’ll enjoy it.’ Daisy laughed as the little boy’s bottom lip trembled as the train was lost to the surrounding hills.
‘I’d like that, I think. It might eat me, though.’ He looked sombre.
‘It won’t eat you, Tobias. It just eats coal, like we put on the fire – that’s what makes it work and it’s where the steam comes from.’ Daisy smiled as she whipped the horse into motion. ‘Right, let’s get to Hawes and get some shopping done.’
It was market day in Hawes. The centre was full of farmers and their stock, and rushing housewives who were chatting with neighbours and market traders. Nobody looked at the young woman and small child as they tied the horse up outside the grocery shop run by Luke Allen. Tobias clung to Daisy’s skirts as she handed her list of groceries across to the lad she knew to be Luke’s son. He
r memory flashed back to the time when her mother had said they would be a good match. She might have been right, for he was a good-looking man.
‘Are you waiting for this?’ He looked up from the long list, and Daisy noticed his soft brown eyes.
‘No, I’ve some shoes to order for the lad.’ Daisy nearly tripped over her words, looking at the handsome man in front of her.
‘Have you an account?’
‘Well, I think he will have, but I don’t suppose there will be any credit on it.’ Daisy thought that if Clifford had any credit, she’d use it. Otherwise she would pay and be done with it. ‘I’m stopping at Grouse Hall – it’ll be under Clifford Middleton?’ She watched as he opened his account book and then closed it sharply at the mention of Clifford’s name.
‘You’re right – he ran out of credit a long time ago, and my father’s been chasing him for what he owes for months. Now, what am I going to do with this order? Have you money to pay for it?’ A long sigh came out of the mouth of Samuel Allen as he waited for an answer.
‘I’ve money. Tot it up quickly and let me know what I owe for today’s shop, and I’ll try and bring some to knock off his slate next time.’ Daisy felt embarrassed as Samuel pencilled in the prices next to the goods. The farmers’ wives were whispering behind her back. This was the one they’d heard Joshua Oversby talking about – the tart – and they started talking loudly about the young lad who was with her. She was Clifford Middleton’s floozy, but who was the father of the child, and where had he come from?
‘It’ll be two guineas for all this. Do you want me to put it in your cart?’ Sam looked up at the embarrassed young woman, noticing a flush in her cheeks.
‘I’ve only come in the trap – will it fit in that?’ Daisy felt stupid, for she’d never thought about how to get all the flour, sugar and other goods home and knew there was not enough room for her, Tobias and the groceries. She opened her purse and passed him two guineas out of her earnings from the Mattinsons.
An even longer sigh was expelled by Sam. ‘I’m going down to Sedbergh tomorrow. Do you want me to deliver it?’ He looked up at the eavesdropping customers, who were all pretending to be interested in anything but the young woman who was staying at Grouse Hall.
‘Would you? That would be a grand help. I’m sorry – I never thought of getting it home. I was too worried that I wouldn’t be able to handle the horse and trap. It’s been a long time since I’ve driven a horse.’ Daisy put her arm around Tobias, who was feeling claustrophobic by now, with all the curious womenfolk around.
‘I’ll do that – be with you about twelvish.’ Sam looked at Daisy. Now he knew who she was, but by, she was a bonny woman. It was a pity she was Clifford Middleton’s floozy. Hawes had been full of the gossip spread by Joshua Oversby, and of the sisters sharing Clifford.
Daisy smiled and put an arm around Tobias, guiding him through a sea of skirts towards the doorway. She held her head up high as she heard one of the mouthy women say loudly, ‘I don’t know how she dare show her face. And look at the child – he’s no shoes on his feet.’
Daisy pulled Tobias close to her and turned around.
‘I’m not deaf, or daft. I am Kitty Middleton’s sister, Daisy. I’ve come back home because I’ve been ill. I have no man in my life and, contrary to Joshua Oversby’s gossip, I do not sleep with my sister’s husband.’ She felt the colour rising to her cheeks in anger. ‘And I am about to buy Tobias some shoes, even though he’s no kin to me. Is there anything else you need to know?’ She stood at the doorway, looking at the aghast crowd and at the smiling face of Samuel Allen. Not a word was said as the shoppers decided they needed something urgently from the shelves.
‘See you tomorrow, Daisy,’ shouted Sam as the door closed behind her.
‘You look happy this morning. What’s wrong – did the chemist say yesterday that I’d not long to live?’ Clifford growled and winced as Daisy rubbed some ointment on his arm and hands.
‘There’s nothing wrong with you but this arm, and it is mending, I can tell – the skin is finally knitting.’ Daisy washed her hands in the bowl by the side of the bed and bandaged Clifford’s arm. ‘Another week or two and you can get back to work. Kitty and I are ready for a rest.’
‘You mean you can’t run this farm without me. Useless bloody women!’ Clifford grunted, then walked over to the window and looked out. ‘Who’s this bugger coming up the road?’
Daisy rushed over and looked out behind him.
‘Oh, bugger! It’s Luke Allen’s lad – he’ll be after some brass!’ Clifford swore, knowing that the only visitors they ever got at Grouse Hall were after money that he owed them.
‘He’s delivering some groceries. How did you think we were going to live, on what was in the pantry?’ Daisy wiped her hands on her skirts. ‘I went and ordered some yesterday and paid, so it hasn’t gone on your account. You’ve no credit anyway.’
She walked to the door, leaving Clifford watching Samuel Allen delivering goods from the back of his cart.
‘I’ve put your order in the pantry. Your sister showed me where to put it.’ Sam Allen looked at the woman who had stood her ground so well the previous day.
‘Thank you. I’m grateful that you let me place an order and delivered it – you could have done neither, and I wouldn’t have blamed you.’ Daisy was going to be honest.
‘Nay, I looked at that lad that was with you, and I couldn’t have let him go hungry – he’s like a whippet anyway. That reminds me: I took the liberty of picking these up from the cobbler’s – I thought I’d save you the trip into Hawes. There was enough gossiping yesterday for one week.’ Sam took a little pair of wooden and black-leather clogs from behind his back. ‘I thought his feet would be frozen without them.’ He smiled as he passed them across to Daisy.
She blushed as she took them from Sam. ‘Thank you, that was kind of you. Can I make you a cup of tea and a sandwich for your bother?’ She wanted him to stay. It was the first decent company she had met since she had come to Grouse Hall.
They heard a loud knocking on the floor rafters above, as Sam thought of a reply.
Kitty appeared in the doorway. ‘That’s Clifford with his walking stick – I’ll go and see what he wants.’ She decided to make herself scarce and to shut her impatient husband up, for she could see the looks that Sam Allen was giving her sister and decided to let nature take its course.
‘I’ll stop for a drink. Don’t worry with the sandwich – I’ll be fed down in Sedbergh.’ Sam watched as Daisy lifted the kettle and poured the scalding water into the teapot. She was an attractive woman, but she’d got a wedding ring on her finger.
‘Milk?’ Daisy smiled and pulled up a chair across from Sam, who had made himself at home, sitting down at the table.
Sam nodded. ‘Where’s the lad at then? Don’t put his new shoes on the table – it’ll give you bad luck.’ He moved the tiny pair of clogs off the table onto the floor.
‘He’s out in the barn. The cat’s just had kittens and he’s playing with them.’
Sam sipped his tea. ‘Are you stopping here, or are you returning to your husband before long? Tell me to mind my own business, but I couldn’t help but notice the ring . . .’
‘Oh, this! I sometimes I forget I have it on. My husband’s been dead nearly five months now. We were only just married and he died on our wedding night. I don’t know why I wear it – habit, I suppose.’ Daisy sipped her tea slowly. ‘And you – are you married, have any family?’
‘No, my father keeps playing hell with me, says he’ll have no one to leave the shop to, if I’m not careful.’ Sam gulped his tea back. He’d found out what he wanted to know. Daisy at Grouse Hall was free of a husband. He’d deliver the groceries any time, to see the blush on those cheeks.
‘Families – you can’t do owt about them. Look at me here.’ Daisy’s heart fluttered as Sam rose from the table.
‘Well, you know where I’m at, and I’ll call in on my way down to Sedbergh. I go
there every Wednesday. My father sells his bread there, and I go and pick him up.’
Daisy’s eyes clouded over and her throat choked with tears. ‘I used to go to Sedbergh market with my father – we used to go early on a morning and come back by dinnertime. It seems an age ago.’
‘I remember him. My father took over his place in the market when he became ill. Is he still in the Moor?’ Sam looked serious. He didn’t know how to approach the fact that Tom Fraser was in the lunatic asylum at Lancaster Moor. ‘I’d forgotten you were his daughter. I’d better make sure our bread’s all right, if you buy some.’
‘Yes, he’s still there. I don’t think they’ll ever let him out. I’ve not been to see him – we lost contact a long time ago. Don’t worry about the bread. I make my own.’ Daisy smiled.
‘Well, we’ll have to compare recipes.’ Sam lingered next to the open door. ‘See you shortly, Daisy.’
‘Yes, see you soon.’
She watched him trundle down the track from Grouse Hall and wave as he reached the main road.
‘He seems like a good match. Happen our mother was right about one thing,’ whispered Kitty in her sister’s ear.
‘I don’t know what you mean.’ Daisy gazed after Sam. She wouldn’t admit it, but perhaps Kitty was right.
18
‘So, are you going to tell me about this lass?’ Luke Allen looked at his son as he stacked the highest shelf in the grocery shop. It was Sunday morning and the shop was closed, so Luke thought it was as good a time as any to ask his son about the lass he’d been visiting.
‘Why, who’s been talking about me, and what’s it got to do with them?’ Sam blew the dust off the top of a tin of Lyle’s Golden Syrup, placing it carefully back on the shelf, before climbing down the ladder. He wiped his hands on the cream shop apron and looked at his father.
‘Well, let’s just say the whole of Hawes has been telling me about my lad wandering down the road to Grouse Hall on a Wednesday, when I’m away at Sedbergh. And now you’ve taken to disappearing of a night, so it must be serious business.’ Luke looked at his son. He wanted the best for him – not some woman without a penny to her name. He had a business to inherit, so he’d need a worker and someone with a business head.
