Pride of Walworth

by Mary Jane Staples

  ‘Will that girl Annabelle Somers be comin’ to the committee meetin’ tonight, Nick?’ asked Alice, enjoying a chocolate caramel.

  ‘I’m trying not to think about it,’ said Nick, and then went to answer a knock on the front door. He found Tosh Fingers and his permanent grin standing on the step.

  ‘Well, ’ere we are again, matey,’ said Tosh, hat down almost to his eyebrows.

  ‘Nice of you to knock this time,’ said Nick.

  ‘Kind of yer to mention it, Nick. I’ve just come to see ’ow the guv’nor’s acquaintance is, not ’aving ’ad a postcard from ’im.’

  ‘That’s his bag you’re holding,’ said Nick.

  ‘Course it is, Nick, course it is. Didn’t I take it with me last time so’s I could sell ’is little ’ome-made gifts for ’im? It’s ’is living’, yer know, and it’s an ’ard livin’. But ’e keeps cheerful, and ’e’s nicely tucked away ’ere.’

  ‘What’s that mean?’ asked Nick.

  ‘Well, ain’t I admirin’ of yer Ma’s ’andsome residence? There ain’t many suchlike places in the East End that a bloke can tuck ’isself nicely away in. You ain’t said ’ow Toby is, by the way. He ain’t passed on, ’as ’e?’

  ‘No, he was up this morning,’ said Nick.

  ‘’Eaven be praised,’ said Tosh. ‘I’ll nip up and give ’im the guv’nor’s best wishes and return ’is bag to ’im, shall I?’

  ‘Don’t pick his pockets while you’re up there,’ said Nick.

  ‘Me?’ said Tosh. ‘Course I won’t, Nick, course I won’t.’ Up he went like an oiled machine. He was there for fifteen minutes. When he came down, Ma was waiting for him in the passage. ‘Well, ’ello, Mabel. ’Ow’s yer dear old self, eh?’

  ‘I’m not old yet,’ said Ma, ‘and I’ll thank you when you leave this ’ouse not to let me friends and neighbours see you. If you keep callin’ like this, I’ll get a bad name.’

  ‘I like yer jokes, Mabel, always did,’ said Tosh. ‘The guv’nor sends ’is regards, and ’e’s still keepin’ a friendly eye on Albert, yer know. I expect ’e’ll pay yer one of ’is ’elpful visits soon, bein’ attached to yer welfare like ’e is.’

  ‘Goodbye,’ said Ma.

  ‘See yer, Mabel,’ said Tosh, and eased himself out of the house as if all his joints were well-greased cogs.

  Pa, lining up to collect his evening meal on his enamel plate, was in his usual cheerful frame of mind, even though the chief warder had told him that official approval of his parole wouldn’t come through until Monday week.

  Too much haste to release you won’t look good. These things take time, said the warder. Understood, said Pa, I’ll arrive at me dear wife’s door like an unexpected surprise. Don’t sell any gold watches on your way home, said the chief warder, or you’ll have an unexpected surprise yourself, a nasty one.

  ‘Knocker?’ A whisper arrived at his shoulder.

  ‘I’m listening, old man,’ murmured Pa.

  ‘Ain’t they givin’ yer no favours for savin’ Brinkley’s life?’

  ‘Doesn’t look like it.’

  ‘Bleedin’ ungrateful sods. All you’re gittin’ is a broken arm? Might as well ’ave let that boulder do for Brinkley.’

  ‘I share your feelings,’ murmured Pa.

  ‘Knocker, yer still a ponce, ain’t yer?’

  ‘Good luck to you too, old man,’ said Pa.

  Chapter Seventeen

  ‘ANNABELLE, I WANT to meet this young man,’ said Lizzy.

  ‘Oh, he’ll turn up one day, Mum,’ said Annabelle, putting her hat and coat on.

  ‘Turn up?’ said Lizzy. ‘D’you mean all casual like?’

  ‘I’m not sure,’ said Annabelle.

  ‘Now listen, my girl, first you’re interested in him, then you’re not, now you are—’

  ‘No, it’s Cassie and Freddy and the football team, Mum.’

  ‘You must think I’m simple,’ said Lizzy. Despite Ned having said he liked the look of Nick Harrison, she was far from happy about what Annabelle was up to. ‘You haven’t joined that team just because you like Cassie and Freddy, it’s all to do with that young man, and don’t think I don’t know it. Annabelle, I’m not havin’ you finding ways of running after him, it’s not becomin’ for a girl. Now if you want to be respectable friends with him, you just bring him here to tea one Sunday, d’you hear?’

  ‘Yes, Mum. One Sunday. Right-ho, Mum. Yes, I’m coming, Dad.’

  Ned dropped her off at the house in Browning Street, and said he’d be back at nine to drive her home.

  ‘You’re a good old dad, Dad,’ said Annabelle.

  ‘You couldn’t, I suppose, get yourself elected to a local committee for something or other instead of having to come here every Wednesday evening?’ said Ned.

  ‘Dad, I hate committees.’

  ‘This one as well?’

  ‘Oh, this one’s by itself,’ said Annabelle, ‘it’s fun.’

  Ned smiled and drove away. Annabelle knocked on the door of Ma’s house. Nick opened it almost at once.

  ‘Good evening, Captain Harrison,’ said Annabelle, ‘am I a bit early?’

  What a caution. Cool as you like and saucy with it. Nick couldn’t remember a time when he’d felt as frustrated and aggravated as now. I’ve a good mind to do a tickling job on her, he thought.

  ‘Yes, you are a bit early, you minx,’ he said, ‘but come in and I’ll sort you out on the quiet.’

  ‘On the quiet? Oh, is your girlfriend somewhere around, then?’ asked Annabelle, stepping in.

  ‘I went off her at Christmas,’ said Nick.

  ‘Oh, dear, what a shame,’ said Annabelle, ‘is she heartbroken, or have you been telling me lies?’

  That, of course, hit Nick on his raw edge. The whole family lived on a lie.

  ‘Never mind that, come this way,’ he said, and took her into the warm parlour, where she divested herself of her hat and coat. He placed them on the sofa. Annabelle, a delight to the eye in a warm sweater and skirt, fluffed her hair and smiled. Bless the girl, thought Nick, what a gorgeous creature.

  ‘Now look here,’ he said, ‘what’s the big idea?’

  ‘Big idea? I don’t know what you mean,’ said Annabelle. ‘I hope you’re not going to be all growling again. Just because you’re the captain and everything else doesn’t mean I’m going to stand for being bullied and scowled at.’

  ‘That’s done it,’ said Nick and went for her. Annabelle, exhilarated, hared around the table and chairs. Nick, having gone off his rocker, legged it in pursuit.

  ‘Coo-ee, Nick, we’re ’ere,’ called Dumpling, opening the front door by its latchcord.

  ‘Consider yourself saved by the gong,’ said Nick to Annabelle.

  ‘I didn’t know you were a hooligan as well as a growler,’ said Annabelle.

  Dumpling and Danny came in, and were followed almost immediately by Cassie and Freddy, and Nick had no option but to see them all seated and to open the meeting.

  Everything went to pot again as far as Nick was concerned. A discussion on last Saturday’s match was a three-way performance by Dumpling, Cassie and Annabelle. The Rovers had just scraped home by three goals to two, and it was Dumpling’s opinion that the blokes were still suffering from too much Christmas pudding. Yes, said Cassie, they all looked a bit over-fed to me. Annabelle said she thought their knees had a feeble look. Mind you, Danny didn’t play too bad, said Dumpling.

  ‘Well,’ said Danny, ‘nice of you to—’

  ‘He still looks a bit like the mornin’ after, though,’ said Cassie.

  Dumpling said she’d sort him out by making him run round the block ten times tomorrow evening. Still, she said, he could have played worse, and Nick hadn’t done too bad, neither. Annabelle said yes, she thought Mr Harrison hadn’t looked quite as full up with Christmas pudding as the others and had played quite a good captain’s game as the middle half back or whatever it was.

  ‘Centre half,’ said Nick, ‘and we don’t need to
discuss what we all had for Christmas dinner.’

  ‘Here, we ’ad turkey, would you believe, Annabelle,’ said Cassie. ‘Me dad brought it ’ome from his work on Christmas Eve. He said it dropped off the back of a goods train. He couldn’t put it back because the train was goin’ too fast, and as he didn’t want to leave it lyin’ about on the line, he brought it ’ome, and we cooked it.’

  ‘Downright sensible,’ said Freddy, ‘it’s always best to do a bit of cookin’ with a—’

  ‘Freddy, we don’t want to talk about turkey,’ said Dumpling, ‘more about why we nearly could ’ave lost the match last Saturday. You ought to keep to the point at a committee meetin’.’

  Annabelle said she supposed some changes ought to be made to the team for next Saturday, but didn’t feel she knew enough about them yet to offer any suggestions herself. But she’d been thinking about running a profitable raffle, and went on to detail how to organize it cheaply and effectively. The profit could be used to buy the wool for the proposed blue and white scarves for the supporters, which could be knitted by volunteers.

  ‘Don’t look at me,’ said Freddy.

  ‘No, I suppose not, Freddy,’ said Annabelle graciously, ‘and I suppose our captain doesn’t do much knitting, either, does he?’

  ‘Chuck her out,’ growled Nick.

  ‘’Ere, steady on, Nick,’ said Dumpling, ‘I don’t know what’s up with you lately.’

  ‘He was under the doctor last time,’ said Cassie. ‘It simply must be love.’

  ‘Oh, gawd,’ sighed Dumpling, ‘not our captain, it could ruin ’is football. Worse, it could ruin the Rovers.’

  It was like that all through the meeting, and it drove Nick barmy. Ma brought tea and cake in again, saying they needed something hot as it was cold outside. She gave Annabelle an inquisitive look. Annabelle smiled.

  ‘Nice to see you again, Mrs Harrison,’ she said, ‘and thanks ever so much for thinking of us.’

  ‘My, you’re a nice girl,’ said Ma, ‘’ave you got a nice young man?’

  ‘Oh, yes,’ said Annabelle, who had made up her mind ages ago that Nick was the one, never mind the dismaying moments he’d given her. ‘Yes, I have.’

  ‘That’s good,’ said Ma, thinking it was an escape for Nick, and went back to the kitchen to tell the girls it was all right, that Annabelle Somers had a young man and wouldn’t be a danger to their brother according.

  ‘What a very nice mother you have, Mr Harrison,’ said Annabelle, as Nick handed round the tea.

  ‘Annabelle, what d’you keep callin’ ’im Mr ’Arrison for?’ asked Dumpling.

  ‘Oh, I like to show respect,’ said Annabelle without batting an eyelid. ‘I mean, he is the captain and everything else, isn’t he?’

  ‘Oh, yes, some blokes do like to be that and everything else as well,’ said Cassie. ‘Freddy’s the same. Still, it does show they’re kind of manly. I feel sort of weak and feeble when Freddy’s doin’ a real manly act.’ Freddy coughed, and Danny almost fell off his chair. ‘’Ave I said something?’ asked Cassie.

  ‘I didn’t ’ear anything special,’ said Dumpling, ‘it ’appens in a lot of parlours. Mind I don’t call it manly, just daft and aggravatin’.’

  ‘Dumpling,’ said Danny, ‘might I say I don’t feel aggravated meself when I’m in yer parlour?’

  ‘That’s it, Danny,’ said Nick, ‘get her in her parlour and do a thorough job on her. Get ’em all in their parlours and do a thorough job on the lot of them.’

  ‘What a coarse brute,’ said Annabelle, ‘and doesn’t he get into foul tempers?’

  ‘He’s got a point, though,’ said Freddy, ‘I never met any girls that carried on more than you three – ’elp, who did that?’

  ‘Me,’ said Cassie, ‘I kicked you.’ She went on to say she had to address the meeting on behalf of the official supporters’ club, that everyone approved of having knitted blue and white scarves, that they’d knit them themselves when the wool was bought out of the raffle profits. Dumpling proposed the raffle, and that Annabelle be put in charge of it. Danny seconded it. Nick glowered at him.

  ‘You want to say something, Nick?’ asked Dumpling.

  ‘No, I just want to go home,’ said Nick.

  ‘Oh, the poor bloke,’ said Cassie, ‘’e doesn’t know he’s already home.’

  A few minutes later, just as the meeting ended, a car horn tooted outside. The time was a minute after nine.

  ‘That’s my dad,’ said Annabelle, ‘come to pick me up again.’

  Nick helped her into her coat and saw her out after she’d said good night to the others. The car was there, Ned waiting at the wheel.

  ‘So long, no hard feelings,’ said Nick from the doorstep.

  ‘Oh, by the way,’ said Annabelle, ‘my mother wants you to come to Sunday tea. She hasn’t met a football captain before.’

  ‘I’m sorry, I can’t,’ said Nick, more fed-up about Pa than he’d ever been.

  ‘Don’t be silly, of course you can,’ said Annabelle.

  ‘I can’t,’ said Nick, ‘for personal reasons. Ask me again in about eighteen months.’

  ‘My mother won’t wait for eighteen months,’ said Annabelle, and gestured to her dad, a gesture asking him to wait just a bit, ‘I don’t know why you’re being so silly. You haven’t got a girlfriend, I know you haven’t, and I simply don’t see why you can’t come and have Sunday tea with us.’

  ‘I can’t take you on as my girlfriend, if that’s what you mean,’ said Nick. ‘In any case, you mentioned to my mother that you’ve got a young man.’

  Annabelle stiffened.

  ‘Well, I haven’t,’ she said, ‘and do you have to be so unkind?’

  ‘Yes, if that’s what you think it is,’ said Nick.

  ‘I hate you, then,’ said Annabelle. ‘Goodbye.’

  That made Nick wince. Annabelle walked to the car and got in. Ned waved to Nick and drove off.

  Annabelle was so quiet that Ned asked, ‘Anything the matter, pet?’

  ‘I’ve made a mistake,’ she said, ‘he’s a rotter.’

  ‘Is he? You sure?’ said Ned.

  ‘Yes, and I don’t want to talk about him.’

  ‘Come on,’ said Ned, ‘what went wrong?’

  ‘I made a mistake about him, that’s all, Dad. Just don’t ask me to talk about it.’

  When they arrived home, she went straight up to her bedroom. Lizzy asked what the matter was.

  ‘She’s in love,’ said Ned.

  ‘And that’s sent her straight up to bed?’ said Lizzy.

  ‘No, not that,’ said Ned. ‘She won’t say, but I think it might be she’s just discovered there’s someone else, someone he hasn’t mentioned before. Well, you know how it is, a feller can have all kinds of faults, including being a crook, without getting the push from a girl. But having someone else in the background, that’s bound to turn him into a stinker. Annabelle’s opinion of him now is that he’s a first-class one.’

  ‘Well, if she’s in love with him,’ said Lizzy, ‘the sooner she falls out of love the better. Mind you, I didn’t like the way it all started up in the first place, and you have to have suspicions about a young man who’s not polite enough to come and introduce himself to a girl’s parents. No wonder this one didn’t. He couldn’t look us in the eye, I suppose. Still, I’m sure she’ll soon get over it, she might be a bit impulsive, but she’s got a strong will. We’d best not say too much to her, or ask a lot of questions. Best to let her get over it in her own way.’

  ‘Well, I’m not going to worry her with questions,’ said Ned, ‘and I’ll only give her any advice if she asks for it.’

  ‘It’s a shame, a girl havin’ her first serious feelings and bein’ let down by someone who’s a friend of Freddy’s,’ said Lizzy.

  ‘On the other hand,’ said Ned, ‘it’s only what I think. I could be wrong about there being someone else.’

  ‘No, you’re probably right,’ said Lizzy. ‘Unless – lor’, you don�
��t think he tried to get fresh with her, do you, Ned? I don’t think Annabelle would’ve liked that, she’d have been really upset.’

  ‘Well, she might just tell us the real reason if we leave her to herself and don’t bother her,’ said Ned.

  ‘Yes, all right,’ said Lizzy, who felt she could now go back to thinking about Annabelle marrying someone like a doctor later on. She’d make a very nice doctor’s wife.

  Annabelle woke up the next morning feeling that Nick Harrison ought never to have been born.

  Midway through the afternoon, Boots asked her what was wrong.

  ‘Nothing,’ she said.

  ‘Out with it,’ said Boots.

  ‘Life’s rotten,’ said Annabelle, ‘and so are some people.’

  ‘One particular specimen?’ said Boots.

  ‘I’m ever so busy,’ said Annabelle, keeping her head down. ‘Oh, blow, why can’t some men be more like you?’

  ‘Lucky for them they’re not, sweetie, I’m a shocker,’ said Boots.

  ‘No, you’re not, but he is.’

  ‘He?’

  ‘My lips are sealed about him,’ said Annabelle, ‘and for ever.’

  ‘I see,’ said Boots. ‘Well, let me know when all is forgiven.’

  ‘Never,’ said Annabelle, a woman doubly scorned.

  Boots smiled. His endearing niece was having her first real emotional problems. She liked to be in control of the games she played, and he wondered if she’d gone about this one in the wrong way.

  As for Nick, at this moment he wasn’t very fond of himself.

  Annabelle was an absent spectator at Saturday’s match, Dumpling was a suffering one, hardly able to believe what a feeble game Nick played. Fanny said she’d never seen him so dozy. The Rovers only drew the match, and that against a side Dumpling said they should have beaten hollow. It was such a blow to her pride that when Danny said he’d meet her in her parlour tomorrow afternoon, she weakly said oh, all right. Her dad, who’d refereed the game, said Danny was welcome in the parlour any time he liked.

  Dumpling had recovered a bit by Sunday afternoon, and was well able, in her own estimation, to keep Danny away from her jumper. Mind, it was a bit foggy outside, which sort of gave her an uneasy feeling. Well, fog outside and a cosy parlour inside had shocking memories for her. However, since she was in her nineteenth year, she reckoned she was old enough to handle Danny, fog or no fog.