Eve and Her Sisters (16 page)

He relaxed slightly. ‘I wish I could have got my hands on him for two minutes. I’d give him presents all right.’

She said nothing to this. ‘The best thing we can do now is to get back to normal. It would be prudent for us all to keep more of an eye on Mary, but apart from that, we need to try and put this behind us.’ The words sounded hollow even to her own ears. Every time she let her mind relax, pictures of Mary with this man Nell had described came flooding in. But how could she have known what Mary was up to? She had thought she was with Kitty and Kitty’s parents, and at thirteen she couldn’t keep the girl locked up in chains. Even though that was exactly what she
did
feel like doing. She’d never know a moment’s peace now.

They travelled on in the silent snowy world, the snow thick on the branches of the trees bordering the lane and the horse’s breath a misty cloud in the bitter late afternoon.As they approached Washington, Caleb said softly, ‘You haven’t eaten all day, I’m sorry. We should have gone somewhere for a bite.’

‘That’s all right. It was more important we did what we did.’

‘And I’m sorry we missed your birthday too.Why didn’t you want to make it known?’

Eve had hoped he would have forgotten what Mary had said. ‘I don’t like any fuss, that’s all.’

He smiled but not unkindly. Shaking his head, he said, ‘You’re a strange lass.’

She smiled back but inside she was crying. He saw her as a strange lass and he was right. No one knew she was strange better than she herself.

 

‘Don’t take on, hinny. Likely they won’t come across him and this will be nothing but a storm in a teacup.’

Mary was sitting on Caleb’s mother’s bed. She had brought Mildred’s afternoon tea tray with two hefty slices of cake and a couple of the little pastries Mildred loved, but she had barely shut the door before she had burst into tears.

Wiping her eyes, she said again, ‘I hate the pair of them, I do, and Nell too. They’re all against me. And keeping the things he gave me. That’s nothing less than stealing.’

‘I know, I know.’ Anything that drove a wedge between Mary and the other members of the household and made the girl more hers suited Mildred. She had been a bit put out when Caleb had told her what had transpired; Mary hadn’t mentioned a word to her about any suitor. Carefully now, she said, ‘And he was a gentleman, this Nicholas? Respectful?’

Mary knew what she was asking. She also knew that for all Mildred’s championing of her, Caleb’s mother was straight-laced. ‘Aye, he was.’ Sniffing, she added, ‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about him. I was going to when I had the chance, I promise, but Eve’s kept me so busy the last weeks I’ve hardly had a chance to draw breath.’

‘Oh aye, I know, you don’t need to tell me. Never has liked you coming in here, that one hasn’t. Like I’ve always said, she’s jealous of you, lass. Nell is, an’ all. You’re bonny and different to them, different as chalk to cheese, and it gets up their noses good and proper. And don’t you fret about the little watch, I’ll get you something to replace that. All right? I’ll get in touch with my nephew, him that works in that little shop in Gateshead I told you about, remember?’

Mary didn’t, but she nodded anyway, her face brightening. She tended to shut off when Mildred went on about her extended family but she had learnt that as long as she nodded in the right places, Mildred was none the wiser.

‘It’s only a small shop but what they call exclusive and they have some nice pieces in there, according to my sister. I’ll tell her what we want and she’ll see to it he sorts something out. It’ll be your Christmas box from me, lass.’

‘Oh thank you, thank you.’ Her eyes shining, Mary beamed.

‘And, lass,’ Mildred lowered her voice even though there was no chance they could be overheard, ‘any time you want to tell me something you don’t want them others to hear, you come and see me, be it about lads or anything else. That sister of yours can’t stop you having lads, now then, just because none would look the side she’s on. Nasty bit of work she is, I’ve always said it.’ She paused. ‘Caleb said this Nicholas was getting on a bit, is that true?’

‘Not really, it was Nell who told them that.’ The more she had thought about Nicholas over the past twenty-four hours, the younger he had become and the more dashing. ‘He’s probably a bit older than Caleb I suppose, but we never discussed his age.’

‘Well, that’s nowt. So about middle twenties? Something like that? Twenty-five or -six thereabouts?’

That was stretching Mary’s imagination a bit too far. Prevaricating, she said, ‘I don’t know, it’s hard to judge some people’s ages, isn’t it? But he was lovely.’

‘Aye, well, it don’t matter anyway. They’ve treated you shabbily, hinny, but don’t you fret. If you spit in the wind you’ll get your own back, that’s what I always say. They’ll get their comeuppance, sure as eggs are eggs.’

Mary helped herself to a chocolate from the box on Mildred’s bed. She wished Mildred
was
her mam like she’d told Nicholas. She wouldn’t have to do any work at all then and she could lord it over Eve and Nell and treat them as they deserved. And Caleb talking to her the way he had! She’d make him pay for that.

A sharp knock at the bedroom door preceded Nell opening it to say curtly, ‘You’re needed in the kitchen, Mary.’

Mildred sat up straighter in the bed. ‘She’s talking to me and it’s a private conversation
if
you don’t mind!’

‘She was delivering your afternoon tray and there’s work to be done. And I do mind. I mind very much when she’s shirking.’

Mary stared at her sister and with Mildred at her side dared to say, ‘Do the work yourself if you’re so bothered. I’m busy.’

Nell stared at the grossly fat figure in the bed. She didn’t doubt Mildred had been tickling Mary’s ears and making her feel sorry for herself. She was sick to death of the pair of them. ‘If you don’t come this minute I’ll tell Eve when she gets back.’

‘May I remind you your sister is not the mistress of this establishment.’ Mildred glared at Nell. ‘She takes too much on herself, you both do.’

It cut no ice with Nell. ‘It’s a good job we do, isn’t it?’ she declared boldly. ‘You wouldn’t have such an easy time of it if we didn’t. And you,’ her glare was more ferocious than anything Mildred could muster as she looked at Mary, ‘you get your backside back to the kitchen or I’ll drag you there.’

Mary only hesitated for a second. She knew Nell was quite capable of carrying out her threat. She slid off the bed and flounced past her sister into the passageway. Before Nell closed the door, Mildred spoke again, her voice holding the same imperious note. ‘I shall have something to say to my son about you.Your feet aren’t so far under the table as you’d like to think.’

For crying out loud! This old biddy was waited on hand and foot while she sat in that bed weaving her web like a great fat spider. She was as much responsible for what had happened as Mary, more so. She had fed Mary with fanciful ideas along with her boxes of chocolates from the minute they’d stepped foot in this house.The strain of the last hours and not least her worry as to what was happening with Eve and Caleb in Sunderland made Nell lose all restraint. From where she stood with her hand on the doorknob, she said, ‘You complain all you want, missus, and see if I care. And don’t think Mary’s going to have time to spare to sit and chat with you either. If she thought she was hard done by before today, she’ll soon learn she was in clover in comparison with how it’s going to be from now on.’

‘How dare you speak to me like that.’ And then as Nell made to shut the door without answering, Mildred added, ‘I know your little game, you
and
your sister’s, so don’t think I don’t, madam. You’ve set your stool out good and proper, the pair of you. Think you’re in clover here, don’t you? Well, Caleb’s not as daft as he looks, think on that. He wouldn’t take either of you as a wife, not in a hundred years.’

For a moment Nell was lost for words. She was barmy, Caleb’s mam. Stark staring barmy. Who had been talking about Caleb or being wed? And then unwittingly she did something which confirmed to the woman in the bed that the suspicions she’d had for some time now concerning Mary’s sisters were right. Nell laughed. A full hearty laugh. And then she shut the door on Mildred’s outraged countenance.

She was still smiling when she walked into the kitchen. ‘What were you laughing at?’ Mary asked aggressively as she took a loaf of bread out of the bread oven, slamming it on the kitchen table. ‘I can’t see anything funny in this place.’

‘Go careful with that, it’ll be nowt but crumbs.’

‘I said what were you laughing at?’

‘Your friend in there. Daft as a brush, she is. She’s of the mind me and Eve are after Caleb.’

Mary took another loaf out of the oven before she said, ‘She’s half right then.’

‘What?’ Nell stared at her sister.

‘Oh, I know you’re satisfied with your pit-yakkor but Eve likes him. She’d like nothing better than to be Mrs Travis.’

Nell snorted. ‘Don’t talk soft.’

‘I’m not talking soft.’ Mary brushed her hands down her apron. ‘She’s always liked him. Right from when we came here.’

‘As a friend, aye. We all like him as a friend.’

‘Not as a friend.’ Mary stared at her sister, a hard look. Like the night before, she appeared far older than her years. ‘I’m telling you she likes him in that way.’

‘Has she said that?’

‘Of course she hasn’t said that but I can tell. I can always tell who likes who.’

There were occasions when Nell experienced the weird notion that she was the younger sister and not Mary. This was one of those times. Almost against her will, Nell found herself saying, ‘Does Caleb like her back?’

Mary smiled scornfully. ‘Don’t be silly.’

She was a nasty little so-and-so at bottom. Nell stared at Mary’s beautiful face and in that moment she could have slapped her. In a voice throaty with emotion, she said, ‘I don’t believe for a minute Eve likes Caleb in that way. You’re just telling lies same as you always do.You wouldn’t know the truth if it rose up and bit you on the backside.’

Mary shrugged. Tipping the loaves out of their tins on to the table she didn’t look at Nell as she said, ‘Please yourself what you think, I don’t care, but I’m telling you she likes him and he’ll never like her in a month of Sundays. She’ll spend her days working her fingers to the bone for him and his mam, like you will for that pit-yakkor, given half a chance. But whereas Toby might do you the dubious honour of giving you his name, Eve’ll end up a dry old maid.’

Her voice trembling, Nell said,‘You’re spiteful, our Mary. There’s something in you that’s plain cruel.’

For a moment she thought Mary’s face was going to crumple but then her sister tossed her head. ‘Why? Because I don’t want to end up like the pair of you? I’m not going to be worn out and bitter by the time I’m thirty, Nell. I’ve seen what’s expected of miner’s wives and I don’t want that sort of life, and I don’t want to slave here for ever either.And I won’t. I won’t.’

‘You just don’t want to work at all.’

‘No, I don’t.’ Defiantly Mary faced her. ‘I want to dress nice and have pretty things and go places, what’s wrong with that? You only have one life and I don’t want to waste mine in this dirty backwater where everything revolves around the pits. I hate the pits, I hate them. They took Da and the lads and every week there’s some accident or other. If I have to stay here I’ll go mad. But I won’t stay here. I have no intention of staying.’

Nell stood open-mouthed.This whole conversation with Mary had surprised her but nothing so much as the authority with which her sister had spoken the last words. This was no idle fancy spoken in the heat of temper. In fact, Mary wasn’t angry. More impassioned. ‘Where do you think you’re going to go?’

There was a pause before Mary said, ‘Somewhere. I don’t know. But it’ll be a long way from here, that’s for sure.’

‘But-but you’re thirteen.’

‘I don’t mean tomorrow, Nell.’

It was sarcastic and Nell flushed.‘I know you don’t mean tomorrow,’ she said sharply, ‘more’s the pity. You cause more trouble than a cartload of monkeys and you couldn’t care less. Talk about selfish. And the way you are about Eve! She’s been so good to you but you don’t see it, do you? You take and take and take. You make me sick and that’s the truth.’

Mary stared at her. ‘You’ve always hated me.’

‘Don’t be daft.’There was something in her sister’s face that suddenly made Nell feel acutely uncomfortable. ‘I don’t.’

The stricken look faded and Mary’s demeanour changed. ‘But I don’t care. I don’t need you or Eve or anyone.’

‘I don’t hate you,’ Nell repeated. ‘I don’t like you sometimes I admit, but I don’t hate you, you’re my sister.’ She drew in a long breath before she said, ‘If you’re determined to go when you’re older I suppose that’s up to you but in the meantime couldn’t you try and fit in here? It would make things easier for everyone, including you. And . . . and don’t say anything to Eve about leaving. She loves you. We all do,’ she added a little lamely.

Mary bit on her lip but any reply she would have made was lost as they heard the back door open, and the next moment Eve and Caleb came into the kitchen.

On the surface the next eighteen months were mostly ones of peaceful co-existence for the occupants of the Sun Inn. The year 1913 came and went, and as 1914 dawned the threat of civil war in Ireland and the grim prospect of war in Europe as the arms race gathered momentum barely touched the lives of the little community in Washington. It was incidents like a pit explosion in Wales when walls of flame and deadly methane gas took over four hundred lives, or the more militant suffragettes burning down a church in Scotland that were talked about.

The possibility of wars far away over the water were too remote, too distant to impinge on the lives of ordinary working men and women for more than a minute or two. But the rich owners of the collieries doing nothing about working conditions and spending nothing on safety, and the fight for women to have recognition within the law - these things were real. Who hadn’t lost a member of their family or a friend at some time or other to the pit? And what woman alive didn’t sometimes feel resentful that the scales were so firmly weighted on the side of men? There was unrest of some sort or other all over the country, and it began to gather steam as spring struggled to make itself felt.