‘Farley Dene? No, sir.’
Her face was wearing the glad look that Sep had admired so much, and she stared at him speechless for a moment until she saw Lucy emerging from the herbalist’s doorway; then the gladness seeped from her face and her body as she said, ‘I think I’d better tell you, sir, there’s not only me, there’s me sister.’ She pointed, and at that he turned round and looked at the puny young girl hurrying towards them and almost tripping over her long coat, and without looking back at Emily, he asked, ‘Why…why have you to bring her along?’
‘My father’s at sea, my mother’s dead, there’s no-one; she was with me in me last place.’ That wasn’t a lie, not really. ‘I’ve got to take care of her. And…and I’d better tell you, she’s not all that strong. But she can run about, do errands and light work. I’ll keep her busy, she’ll be a help, and…and she only needs her food; I wouldn’t expect anything for her.’
Lucy was standing to Emily’s side now staring at the strange man.
‘Hello there,’ he said. ‘What’s your name?’
‘Lucy.’
A slight nudge from Emily and she added, ‘Sir,’ then repeated, ‘Lucy, sir.’
‘And yours?’
‘Emily Kennedy, sir.’
He half turned from them again, shaking his head as he looked down the street towards the trap, and he muttered something that Emily didn’t quite catch.
‘All right, you’re on. Where’s your things?’ he said.
‘They’re…they’re at me aunt’s in Gateshead.’
‘How long will it take you to get them?’
She reckoned up quickly. ‘Just under an hour, sir. We could be back within an hour, sir.’
He pulled a heavy watch from his waistcoat pocket, considered it for a moment, and said, ‘That’ll be all right. I have things to do; I’ll meet you back here in an hour.’ He nodded at her, then turned abruptly from them and walked away.
Neither of them moved, but watched him until he reached the trap; then, as if they had been shot into action, they both ran from the pavement and only paused a moment as they passed the first fish stall, when the man shouted cheerily to them, ‘You made it then? Good, good. You made it, surprisin’.’
Yes, it was surprising. She kept telling herself that as the tram rumbled along the road, and it was the first word she said to her Aunt Mary. Almost bursting into the house, she said, ‘Surprisin’, Aunt Mary, surprisin’, right out of the blue. I’ve got a job. It’s…it’s on a farm. Croft Dene House it’s called, in Farley Dene. And his name’s Birch. I’ve got to do housework, but learn about outside, dairy and milkin’ an’ things. And he’s takin’ Lucy. He made no bones about her, he just took her on. Didn’t he?’ She turned to Lucy, who nodded, saying, ‘Yes, Aunt Mary. And he seemed nice.’
‘Well, I’ll be damned! When you went out of that door I thought you had as much chance of getting into a job at this time of the year as I have into a convent. But you’ve landed one. Well, wonders’ll never cease. What’s he like? I mean to look at.’
What was he like? She screwed up her face, then said, ‘Well, Aunt Mary, it’s funny but he’s hard to describe. He’s gentlemanly like except…well…’
‘Except what?’ Mary Southern was leaning towards her. ‘Go on, except what?’
‘Well, his voice sounded a bit rough, ordinary like. But he was turned out like a gentleman, an’ his trap was smart…’
‘He had nice brown leather gaiters on, Aunt Mary, and brown eyes. And he had a fine long coat and…and a tall hat.’
Mary let out a great bellow of a laugh as she pointed at Lucy, crying, ‘There now, there now, she beats you at it, Emily; she even noticed his eyes matched his gaiters. You’ll go far, lass, you’ll go far…Is he fat or lean? Tall or short?’ She was now looking at Emily again.
‘Oh, he’s tallish; but not really tall; bigger than me da. An’ well-built, sturdy like.’
‘Did he give you any details, how many in the house and such?’
‘No, only that I’d have to learn about outside work.’ She did not mention that she’d have to see to another invalid for that would set her Aunt Mary off talking again and she had to get away. And she said so. ‘We’ll have to be going, Aunt Mary, but…but I want to say thank you. If it hadn’t been for you I’d never have gone there the day. And you’ve been kind.’ She choked now and bowed her head, and Mary said gently, ‘Aw, come on, lass, come on, you’re not goin’ to start bubblin’ because you’ve got a new place. An’ if I hadn’t sent you there somebody else would have. God has a way of providin’, He makes the back to bear the burden. What for do we have donkeys?’ She now let out another laugh and pushed first Emily and then Lucy on the shoulders, ending, ‘Well, get yourselves away. But mind, don’t go and forget us. You’re welcome here on your days off, or at any other time. Yet God knows, when the next one comes’—she patted her stomach—‘I’ll have to entertain you on the roof…What’s this?’ She was looking at Emily’s extended hand and when she saw the three shillings in the palm she let out a high scream of protest, saying, ‘Oh no! Aw now, fair’s fair. Three shillings! Aw, be buggered! What have I done for that? No, lass, no, I wouldn’t take that off you.’
‘Go on, Aunt Mary, I can spare it. Really I can. I’ve…I’ve got a bit saved up.’
‘You’re sure, lass?’
‘Yes, Aunt Mary.’
‘All of that?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well, thanks, lass.’ Her voice was low now. ‘I won’t say I don’t need it an’ I can’t do with it, but I still feel it awful takin’ it from you. Aye, lass.’ She now took Emily’s face between her hands and squeezed it gently, adding, ‘You were welcome afore, but this has set the seal on you. I’ll never forget it, lass. A bit of a bairn like you givin’ me three bob, an’ the day of all days when, believe it or not, hinny, I haven’t got a penny for the gas.’ She nodded her head now. ‘It’s a fact, I haven’t got a penny for the gas. Well, as I was sayin’, God’s good an’ He provides for his own. But go along now, go on, else that fellow’ll be off in his trap an’ away without you.’
Once more she was ushering them towards the door, and when they reached the bottom of the street and turned round she was still standing there waving to them. They waved back, and Lucy said, ‘I like me Aunt Mary. She’s mucky lookin’ and her house isn’t clean but…but I like her. Don’t you?’
‘Oh aye,’ Emily nodded at Lucy. ‘You can’t judge people by the way they keep their houses or the clothes they wear. I’ve learned that much this day.’
‘Do you think we’ll like it there, I mean this place where we’re goin’?’
Emily smiled tolerantly down on her sister who wasn’t in the habit of talking, but the excitement that was filling her was loosening her tongue, and she said, ‘Well…well, we’ll have to make ourselves like it, won’t we? And you’ll have to do all you can to help me.’
‘Oh, I will, Emily! I will. An’ perhaps I won’t cough so much if I’m in the country.’
‘No, you’ve got somethin’ there, perhaps you won’t…’
The man was standing by the trap as if waiting for them and Emily had the idea that he looked relieved to see them, for he didn’t say, ‘I’ve been waiting for you,’ or, ‘Where have you been all this time?’ but he smiled at them and said, ‘Well, here you are then.’ Then taking the bass bag and hamper from her he pushed them along the floor of the trap, saying, ‘Come on, up you get.’
Emily helped Lucy up the high step and when she herself lifted her long skirt and put her foot on the step he put a hand on her elbow and hoisted her up. Then mounting himself, he gathered up the reins and said, ‘Get up there, boy!’
When the horse began to move and the trap swayed and Lucy fell against Emily they both looked at each other and smiled.
‘Do you know Fellburn?’
‘No, sir.’
‘Ah well now, you’ll likely come to know it in the future if you stay with us long enough.’
He made a little moue with his lips. ‘We’re going up the High Street now, behind us is a place called Bog’s End. That’s the low quarter of the town, so called.’ He again made the same gesture with his lips, indicating that his description was questionable.
A few minutes later, when they had turned out of the main street and were passing a park, he flicked his whip to the side, saying, ‘That’s the local park, and that road up there to the left leads to Brampton Hill. That’s the fashionable part of the town.’
As he talked Emily nodded at him but made no comment. She wasn’t as much interested in the places they were passing through and his description of them as she was bewildered by all that had transpired since yesterday. Her mind seemed to be grabbing at yesterday, which seemed to be falling away into endless time. It couldn’t be just a day since she had seen and spoken to Sep. It wasn’t just yesterday she had been turned out of the house. Things didn’t happen as quickly as that. But they had.
Her attention was recalled to her new master. He was saying, ‘Now we’re leaving the town and there’s only Farley Dene Hall between here and the village. The house is about a mile and a half beyond the village.’
Following this he became silent. The horse trotted briskly, the trap swayed. Emily looked about her. She had never seen country like this. The only time she had been in the country was when she had gone with a school treat up Simonside, and they had sat on a bank above a stream near a pub called The Robin Hood. Some of the children had plodged but she hadn’t, she hadn’t liked to take her boots off as her stockings were all holes. This country was flat, but there were hills stretching away into the distance; the fields were mostly ploughed but there were a few with cows in them, and in others, sheep.
The road ran now between hedges and quite suddenly it began to twist and turn. The flat land disappeared. They went through a steep tunnel of trees and when they came out on the other side she knew a moment of fear for the road was now skirting a deep quarry. From where she sat it looked as if the trap, should it veer the slightest, would topple over the edge and roll down to where the water lay black and green at the bottom.
Lawrence Birch must have noticed her look of alarm for he laughed and said, ‘It’s all right, we’re not going over the edge. I usually come this way in the daylight for it cuts off quite a bit from the journey…We come into the village from the bottom end this way.’
As the trap swayed and rumbled over the narrow uneven road Emily thought it was a dangerous place even in the daylight. But then it was what you were used to, she supposed, and he was apparently used to driving this way.
The village appeared to her as a long straggly street with houses on each side interspersed with a few shops. There was a grocer’s shop, the window of which was high and the entrance to it, she noticed, was up five stone steps. She was intrigued by the name, John Rington, on a board above the shop window. Vans went all round Shields selling Rington’s tea. They had the name in big letters on the outside of the vans.
There were four stone-built houses between the grocer’s shop and the butcher’s shop. The latter shop amused her slightly as it was only in a house window, but through it she could see hanging a whole sheep and half a pig and a long loop of sausages, so she came to the conclusion that, small as it was, it must do a bit of business.
On the other side of the road from the butcher’s was a baker’s and corn chandler’s. It said so above the shop window. Beyond the shops on both sides of the road were more houses made of stone, and they looked old, but old in a nice sort of way.
On the baker’s shop side of the street was a public house called The Running Fox; then more houses, separate ones these with gardens in front and lying some way back from the road. Then at the end of the village stood a church. It was a real church like St Mary’s off Eldon Street in Shields or the one in the market; it wasn’t a ranters’ place. There was a graveyard next to the church, then fields, and almost opposite the graveyard was a blacksmith’s shop. This was right at the end of the village and, outside it, her master drew the horse to a halt.
Emily had noted that the village was very quiet, likely because it wasn’t yet knocking-off time for the men. Yet the bairns should be out of school by now. But she hadn’t seen any bairns; perhaps they had a long trek to school from here; perhaps they had to go right back into Fellburn. She also noted that the four adults they had already passed on the village street, three women and an old man, had looked at her new master but hadn’t nodded at him or given him the time of day, nor he them. Now she watched him dismount, then tie the reins to a wooden post that acted as a support to a lean-to beside the blacksmith’s shop.
Both she and Lucy turned in their seats and looked at the blacksmith’s shop. The front was wide open and the singey smell of hot iron wafted to them. Emily recognised the smell; there was a blacksmith’s on the Jarrow road. She had never seen inside it though because it was set high up behind a wall, but she had often smelt that odd aroma that she associated with a hot iron.
She could see the blacksmith standing near the anvil, and she noted something very odd. He didn’t straighten his back when her master spoke to him but went on with his hammering. When he did finally stop his hammering she heard her master say, ‘When shall I bring him?’ and the answer he got was, ‘Please yersel.’
She now saw Mr Birch stretch upwards like a man does before he throws out his fist, and his voice was like a growl now as he cried, ‘There’s other places, you know, Goodyear.’
‘Aye, twice the distance and twice the money.’
‘Now look here, you’re wrong. I tell you you’re wrong.’
‘You have your opinion an’ I have mine. Her belly’s there to prove that somebody’s in the wrong, an’ not only me but the whole village knows who it is.’
Emily now saw Mr Birch clench his fist tightly and beat it against his own chest like someone does when they’re choking, and his voice sounded as if he was choking as his words came to her, saying, ‘Con would never have done it, he’s not that way inclined. I tell you I know, he’s not capable of it.’
‘Aw, don’t act so bloody gullible, ’cos you’re not.’ It was the blacksmith now who was roaring. ‘He could never keep his hands off anythin’ with a skirt on, pawing at them. I’ve seen him with me own eyes.’
‘Yes, yes, he might, but it’s just a kind of affection. I tell you Con isn’t capable…’
‘Shut up, and get on your way! I know what I know, an so does everybody else. But I’ll ask you this afore you go. If it isn’t him, can you put a name to who it’s likely to be?’
‘Yes, yes, I can, and you’d be surprised. But it’s for you to find out. I can tell you this though, and I can swear on it, it wasn’t Con. Anyway, have you asked her who it is?’
‘Asked her! I’ve tried to knock it out of her.’
‘Does she say it’s him…Con?’
‘She doesn’t say yes or nay.’
‘No, she wouldn’t, she wouldn’t dare name him.’
‘They were seen together over near Bamford’s Farm. He was at his stroking business.’
‘She’s been seen a number of places besides Bamford’s Farm.’
‘What the hell do you mean by that?’
‘Just what I say; she’s a little trollop. And you won’t get her entry into my house through her belly, so don’t think you will. And…and put that down; you don’t frighten me, Goodyear.’
Emily, holding her breath, had half risen in her seat and she watched the blacksmith slowly lower the iron hammer, then Mr Birch turn away and march towards the entrance. But there he stopped and, looking back at the blacksmith, he cried, ‘You’ve begrudged me me good fortune, the lot of you. You can’t bear to see anybody get on, can you? But there’s one thing I’ll swear on, you won’t share in it through your Bella.’
There followed a moment of silence during which the two men glared at each other; then Emily sank slowly back onto the seat when she saw her master turn and walk towards the post,
and, having torn the reins from it, mount the trap. Then they were off again.
She did not look at him for some time but when she did his face was still black with anger. From what she gauged from the heated conversation she guessed that the blacksmith’s daughter was going to have a bairn, and someone connected with her master called Con was supposed to have given it to her.
The thought now entered her mind that in a very short while she’d meet this Con…Well, if he started any of his pawing on her she’d make him look out …
It was in the last rays of the dying sun that she saw the house. It was like nothing she had expected. She had seen two or three farmhouses in her time, one at Marsden, one up Simonside, and another the day they had gone on the school trip, but they hadn’t looked like this house. This was a big house, made of big blocks of stone, not unlike the stone used for the houses in the village, but it looked more yellow in the fading light. It was plain fronted and had three very large windows on each side of the front door; the second-floor windows were smaller than those on the ground floor, but even these looked enormous. The third row of windows were smaller still and she guessed these to be the attic windows. The roof was slate with four ornate chimneys rearing up from it like little turrets.
Her master drove the trap past the front of the house and round the corner, and here the side of the house looked almost as broad as the front for it flanked a big yard with a wall along two sides of it. In one wall was an archway.
She saw immediately that the flagstones that made up the yard were clean and not like a farmyard at all. Then her master drove the trap across the yard and through the archway. And here, she recognised, was the farmyard. But immediately she saw that it still wasn’t like any farm she had seen before because everything looked so spruce and clean. One side of it was flanked by byres, another by two big open barns, and on the third side opposite the byres were stables with what looked like little houses above them, four in all.
The Tide of Life Page 10
