A Woman Undefeated (21 page)

A choir sang Hark the Herald Angels Sing, their voices soaring to reach the rafters, then Come All Ye Faithful and Oh Little Town of Bethlehem. It was a wonderful morning and the emotion of it all had Maggie in tears. If only her real family had also been there, it would have felt like Heaven on earth.

They had scrunched their way through hard packed snow, on the way down to Seagull Cottage. Flakes of snow had begun to lie while they had been in church, which had made the scenery look magic. The hills over the sea were white tipped, as were the waves that crashed onto the shore. It looked as if a storm could be brewing, but it didn’t really matter at all. They would be warm
and cosy, eating a good Christmas dinner, courtesy of Farmer Briggs, who had supplied the bird.

Her mother-in-law, looking even plumper than she had in Killala, and wearing a heavy brown skirt, cream high-necked blouse, brown boots and a smart brown cape to complete the outfit, linked Maggie’s arm. Holding onto her companionably as they walked along, peering into the High Street shop windows as they passed them by, Maggie told Alice of her good fortune. Finding Betty had been the best thing that could have happened to the girl. As usual though, Alice, always looking for the main chance, tried to get in on the act.

“Yer say she’s getting’ on a bit, this lady who has the dressmaker’s?”

Alice’s eyes gleamed after she had heard Maggie’s words.

“Have yer thought about the future? What about gettin’ in and make it so she needs yer, then yer might be able to take it over from her one day?”

Maybe Alice and Maggie had more in common than the pair of them thought, because that had been exactly what Maggie had been thinking. A dressmaker’s establishment in the village could be made very profitable. Given that Jack might assist her with the purchase, seeing as he had helped out Alice with her house near the shore.

“She’s a long way off retirement, is Betty,” Maggie replied, not wanting to put her ambition into words, in case there was a malevolent spirit listening. “But I was thinkin’ that I perhaps could be her apprentice. I can sew very well and she says she doesn’t mind showing me how to do things. But, I’m stuck workin’ at the farm every mornin’. That was part of the deal when the farmer took Jack on and now that I’m expectin’........”

She didn’t get to finish her sentence, as Alice hugged her with such delight that she nearly lost her balance. Jack turned around from where he was walking with his brother and dad and wagged a finger.

“I knew yer wouldn’t wait until we opened our presents, as we
agreed. I should have had a bet with yer, how long yer could hold yer tongue!”

He was grinning as he said it though. He had been bursting to tell his parents, but they had agreed to wait until they got to Seagull Cottage.

Alice was so elated that she danced around, much to the surprise of other folk that were out for the morning air. She was also counting on her fingers, announcing that it would be an August babe.

“Oh Maggie, I’m so happy,” Alice cried. “What a wonderful time to tell us, on Christmas Day and all. This is the best present yer could give us. This will be a Christmas to remember after all”.

So it took all that time for a baby to grow inside you, Maggie mused, after all the excitement had died down. She would ask Alice more about it later, because she had lots of questions on her mind.

They had their festive dinner in the parlour. Just the family, as the residents that Alice was now looking after, had gone to visit kith and kin. The bed and breakfast idea that Alice had originally planned had been abandoned, after the packet ship ferry from Flint to Parkgate had been closed down. There had been a couple of drownings and people were loathe to risk the passage when a coach into Chester would connect with the Birkenhead train. Alice had managed to attract three clerical workers on a permanent basis, making her weekly income for full boarding to over thirty shillings. No need for Michael or Seamus to stir a stump now, but they still went fishing when the weather was good. Alice was glad to give her boarders freshly caught fish and they thought her cooking was the best around.

Maggie felt pangs of guilt as she passed over the presents to the family, though Alice was delighted to receive the newly goffered lace cap, which Maggie had laundered at the farm and Michael and Seamus seemed happy enough with the woollen gloves she had bought them. She felt that she should have spent more from the money that Jack had given her. She hoped it was
because she wasn’t used to buying presents and didn’t know how much to spend that had made her spend so little on them, but she did so love her cloak and boots that the pangs of guilt soon passed by.

Seamus seemed very anxious to leave the table as soon as the last morsel was eaten.

“He’s got a friend from up the promenade,” Alice confided. “A young lad the same age as himself, one of the son’s of the inn keeper at the Ship. What they get up together I don’t ask, so it will be just the four of us fer puddin’. Then I’ve got something to tell yer, but I wish I was goin’ to tell yer something else.”

It was said in a very mysterious manner. Even Michael seemed uncomfortable as they sat eating their plum pudding for dessert. Then her bombshell hit them.........

It seemed that Mr Arlington, he was the first lodger who came to live there, was a clerk who worked in the office of the Estates manager. It had come to his hearing that all the land, buildings, colliery and leases were up for sale. It wasn’t general knowledge as yet, but Mr Arlington felt it was his duty to alert his landlady. She might be offered a chance to buy her lease, or the house might be sold to a buyer over her head. With a place down the coast named New Brighton, being purpose built for the pursuit of leisure to attract the people of Liverpool, it had been thought that Parkgate would become a ghost town, only attracting bird watchers and walkers.

So the owner of all this vast estate wanted money to set up another seaside town. He had his eye on a place on the Welsh coast, with a long, wide beach and plenty of land to build hotels. It had a natural deep water harbour that would attract the packet ships from Dublin. Not like there, where the estuary was becoming so silted that even the cattle boats had difficulty mooring. If a buyer didn’t appear in the next three years, it would all be sold at auction. Mr Arlington was gloomy, because he would be out of a job as well.

“I wouldn’t worry, Mother, dear,” came the drowsy voice of
Jack, who was feeling the warm effect of the brandy that his Dad had plied him with. The second bombshell landed.........

“My fight with Feeney will see you right, there’ll be plenty of money then.”

He didn’t know what had hit him, as his mother leapt around the table and began to lay into him. He fended her off by pinioning her arms against him, laughing as Alice tried to slap him.

“Perhaps I should send me mother to tackle Feeney, eh, Maggie?” he said, still smiling at the little woman’s fury. “See where I get me fighting spirit from? You’ll see him off won’t yer, Mother? A big man like him trying to hurt yer son.”

“It’s no laughing matter, Jack,” Alice said soberly. “Especially as yer’ve a babby on the way. How’s Maggie goin’ to manage without yer, if yer leave her behind to bring up a son?”

“Maggie will manage very well without me. Isn’t that so, Maggie? She’d have her freedom at last from a marriage she doesn’t really want and plenty of money to live on.”

She could only sit there red faced and full of discomfort at his words, while Jack’s parents looked embarrassed and shook their heads disbelievingly.

They say “When drink’s in, truth’s out”. Had Jack been right with his surmising?Although Maggie had tried to live by the rules of a Christian marriage, all along he had not been fooled. Though she hadn’t wished him dead like he was suggesting, of course.

Maggie felt sick to her stomach and wanted to vomit. Jack had seen through the charade that she acted out each day. He knew from their childhood that she was naturally not submissive. It hadn’t been easy to be the servile one, in a friendship that had begun when she was ten.

She got up quickly and ran to the scullery where she chucked up her dinner and plenty of bile.

Yes, she would remember that Christmas. One for straight talking, but would she ever look directly into her husband’s eyes again?

They managed it somehow, they had to, didn’t they? They had
to keep their marriage going, without resorting to ugly words and inflicting pain. They had their baby to look forward to and a living to earn, and the months went by without that Christmas being referred to again.

Though Maggie did haunt the priest in his confessional box for many weeks to come. Her rosary beads became well used, as she daily atoned for the guilt she felt.

The weather didn’t help to make their spirits lighter either, with snow on the ground for days on end and a difficult trek to the farm each day. There was nothing for the men to do, except pull out stranded cattle and sweep the snow from the yard. The mistress took the opportunity for an early spring clean, whilst moaning all the while to her husband that at least one of the staff was earning her pay. The rest just idled, eating their heads off whilst waiting for the thaw, which would surely come any day.

At night time, Maggie made amends to Jack, sewing little sacks by the light of a flickering candle. He filled six of them. Counting his money into them like a miser and stuffing them into the feather mattress away from prying eyes. She didn’t know how much he had put in there, because the counting had been done in the bedroom alone.

“Here, get some stuff from that shop yer always on about and make us a pair of curtains for that little room,” he said, handing Maggie a few shillings one evening, when he’d got home.

“I’ll have a pole cut by the weekend fer yer to put ‘em on. Yer never know who cuts through this way, or who maybe is hanging around.”

She smiled to herself as he said it. Had the bare window mattered when she had complained? There she was in the tin bath once a week, but there had been no curtains talked about for privacy then.

She hadn’t seen Betty since they had made the cloak together and now Maggie had an excuse to call in. She decided to go to the village after work next day, as the thaw had come and the mistress’s
house was shining like a new pin. Her spirits lifted, as she imagined running her hands over Betty’s rolls of fabric, picturing what kind of garment each bolt would make. A flower sprigged dress, tight bodice and overskirt, or a walking out dress with flounces round the hem. There were all sorts of things she could tackle with a needle, but for now, a pair of thick curtains was within her skill.

It was late one night in April, that an urgent knocking came to their cottage door. It was Solly. Out of breath from running, he couldn’t get his words out, until Jack had sat him down with a tot of brandy. Then came the news that Feeney was imprisoned in Walton Jail. The fight was off and would be so until Feeney had done his time. Was it relief that Jack was feeling as he listened to the tale? Or would the love of money be his master? Maggie couldn’t tell.

“How long are we talking? What was his crime?” asked Jack of Solly. The little man could only shake his head sorrowfully.

“Dunno, I got told this from a man I was drinkin’ with. One of the navvie’s workin’ on the railway line. But, p’raps there’s another we can arrange a fight with? Reg’ McKeown is a crowd puller. Though they say he’s dirty, not many men have managed to beat him up to now.”

“And what about the money? Same bets as on Feeney, or less would yer say?”

Solly looked more cheerful.

“If we arrange it fer the evening of a wage day and I put word around the navvies and the quarry men, we should have enough interest. The colliery men are back at work as well, only sack fillin’ to begin with until the new owner opens a seam, but I could go down after work tomorrer and tell ‘em as well. Though are yer sure about this, Jack? Why not wait until we hear about Feeney, find out why he’s in and how long they’ll be keepin’ him?”

“Naw, I’m itching to getting back into it, Solly. Look at me muscles going to waste, I’m going soft. Yer know the last fight yer got me? T’was like tackling a man with one eye and one leg. No, I’ll keep me reputation intact until I meet with Feeney, then the
purse will be an even bigger one. Try to fix it on the floor of the quarry, there’s more room there than round the back of the Bowling Green tavern.”

“Jack,” Maggie began, as she had been allowed to sit on the discussion, “is it wise to be fixing up such a big meeting? If the authorities get to hear of it, you’ll be in big trouble. Maybe Feeney has been put away for that very reason........ ?”

“Keep out of it, woman,” Jack snarled, playing to his audience, showing Solly that he, for one, had his wife under control.

“Go to the bedroom and stay there ‘til I tell ye. This is men’s business and you’ve heard all yer need to know.”

Maggie was ready to give him a mouthful in retaliation, but shrugged her shoulders and did as she was told. If he didn’t want to heed her warning, then so be it. She had the babe to think of, but what she didn’t want was for its father to be in prison when she gave birth.

She sat on the bed, smoothing her hands over her expanding stomach. When she went next time to Betty’s, she would buy a dress length. The seams of her skirt were taut and pulling, and it wouldn’t be long before she couldn’t wear it at all. She thought back to the talk she’d had with Alice on Christmas Day.

It seemed that the baby built a little nest inside its mother’s innards. As the baby got bigger, so did the belly, then the baby got so big, it had to come outside. Alice had said that then the baby had to burrow, just like a rabbit coming out for air. It would come head first down the tunnel where a woman passed water. She would know that the baby was coming because she would have a lot of pain.

“Like when yer go to the privy because you’ve got the gripes,” Alice had told her. “But it’s worth it when yer get to hold yer little babe. Look at the size of me, giving birth to my two giants, but if I had me time all over, I’d go through the pain again.”