The Innkeeper's Daughter (33 page)

‘That’s right, there isn’t,’ Sarah chipped in. ‘I’m right sorry to hear this, Alice. Now sit down and I’ll mek you a cup o’ strong tea and we’ll think on what’s best to do. Mebbe Bella could come wi’ you when you go. She’s got a sensible head on her shoulders, an’ if there’s any writing to do she can do it, can’t you, Bella?’

‘Of course I can,’ Bella said sympathetically. ‘I’m so sorry, Alice.’

Alice’s lips trembled. ‘Well,’ she sniffled. ‘I’m worried about Ma and ’bairns, but as for Da – and mebbe I shouldn’t say this, but I’ll say it anyway – he won’t be missed. Not by anybody!’

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

AT THE BEGINNING
of October Joe and Alice moved to the Woodman and Alice’s mother and her band of siblings followed shortly afterwards. Sarah spent a week with them to help organize the kitchen and teach Alice and her mother how to deal with the kitchen range. They organized the sleeping arrangements, with Joe and Alice taking his parents’ former bedroom and Alice’s mother and the younger children taking the rooms that had been Joe’s, William’s and Nell’s, whilst Seth was sent into a paroxysm of delight by being allowed Bella’s former room in the loft.

Joe had made it clear from the start that there was very little spare money and they would all have to pull their weight. Seth said he was going to ask Harry Porter the blacksmith if he would take him on as an apprentice even though there was no money to pay him, and then eventually he would have a trade. It seemed that he had never taken another apprentice since William had left. Alice’s mother told Joe she would cook and clean and grow outdoor vegetables, for she knew how to do those things, and if he would build her a small glasshouse she would try her hand at indoor ones as well. And, she said, she would be willing to learn how to serve the ale.

Ellen Walker seemed to have grown in stature since her husband’s death, and no longer lived in fear; at his inquest the coroner ruled that the man who had caused his death was innocent of foul play as he was not the instigator of the
fight.
Mr Walker, the coroner remarked, was known as a violent man when in drink and had picked a fight with a mild-mannered stranger who happened to be a prizefighter. He was immediately set free.

Joe had discussed his drink problem with Alice before he had asked her to marry him, and she’d told him that she’d already guessed.

‘You were onny a lad, Joe,’ she had said. ‘My da was a drunk and Ma was never strong enough to stand up to him.’ She’d put her hands on her hips and there was a mischievous glint in her eyes when she said, ‘But I’m much stronger than she was, so just watch out, Joe Thorp!’

Whilst her mother was helping out at the Woodman, Bella had to advertise for extra staff, as she couldn’t manage on her own. She took on a man to help her in the saloon and a young woman to clear the tables and wash the glasses and tankards, and she asked Adam if he would run errands for her, which he was delighted to do. She sampled products from local bakers and ordered pies and cakes and bread from them to give to their customers, and was pleased when they all offered her a discount on quantity.

She’d done calculations in her head and discussed with Reuben that there was very little difference in cost, and when the hotel was opened they could consider buying in products from a good baker, which would free up her mother for doing other things. ‘Ma will object, of course,’ she laughed. ‘But maybe she’d like to try her hand at fancy cakes, and we could put on afternoon tea for ladies. Alice told me she saw ladies going into coffee shops, so we could perhaps persuade them to come here too.’

She saw the doubt on Reuben’s face. ‘I realize that ladies don’t go into public houses,’ she added, ‘but I see no reason why they shouldn’t come into a select hotel.’

‘I’m dubious only because you must decide what you want this place to be,’ he told her. ‘If you have ladies coming in, then you might lose some of your male customers.’

‘I’d considered that,’ she assured him. ‘And I thought that maybe if we invited the ladies’ clubs to come here, perhaps once a month and at a time during ’day – say, in a morning, when the men don’t come so often … Oh, Reuben, I can’t wait to discuss plans! I’ve so many ideas running round in my head. As soon as my mother returns I think we should have another meeting with Mr Allen and Mr Newby and begin!’

In her head she had already started to plan how the bedrooms would be. She would have to discuss the ideas with her mother, of course, but she was going to suggest that they had bedrooms built on the top floor for each of them and Henry. The roof space was long, running from front to back of the building, and would easily accommodate three or four bedrooms, and, she thought daringly, even a separate bathroom, where maybe one day they could have piped water.

The bedrooms they were using now could be redecorated and furnished and used for their overnight visitors, and one which was quite large could be divided and given an added dressing room and so be charged at a higher tariff.

‘And if Mr Newby and Justin Allen agree,’ she told Reuben, ‘we’d start straight away and without any inconvenience to our customers as all the work will be upstairs. Then I thought we could—’

‘Stop,’ he said good-naturedly. ‘Stop. Not all at once! You’ll frighten the brewers.’

‘Of course.’ She laughed. ‘I’m too fired up.’

He patted her arm. ‘You, Bella,’ he smiled, ‘are a singular young lady.’

She looked puzzled. What did he mean?

‘What I mean,’ he said patiently, ‘is that you are a most unusual young woman. Not afraid of a challenge.’

‘I have ideas,’ she admitted. ‘But I don’t always know how to carry them out.’ She paused and sighed. ‘I miss Joe more than I thought I would. He’d tell me if I was flying too high and too fast.’

Reuben nodded. ‘But Joe has to do things his way, and by
leaving
and going back to your old home he has freed you up to know your own potential.’

‘But I’m onny a young woman,’ she countered. ‘And not always taken seriously.’

‘I take you seriously,’ he vowed. ‘And do not run yourself down. Believe in yourself. Yes, I agree, there are some avenues not open to women, but with your strength of character you can do most things that men can do. However, now that we are alone, there is something I feel I must reiterate: a warning, perhaps, although it is not incumbent on me to pry into your private life.’

Bella smiled pensively. ‘I don’t have a private life, Reuben. I am what you see in front of you.’

He looked down at his hands, which like his feet were small and neat. ‘You are a young woman with prospects,’ he said. ‘A young woman in business and as such … forgive me,’ he murmured, ‘for I do not want to assume anything, but you may find yourself attracted to a gentleman who might wish to marry you, and of course I wish you good fortune and happiness in that, but I must also remind you that if you should decide to marry then your fortune becomes your husband’s in law.’

‘I know that, Reuben, we’ve discussed it before.’ She frowned a little. ‘You’re thinking of what Joe said about Mr Allen?’

‘Indeed.’ He seemed embarrassed. ‘I am thinking of him, for I do believe he has been paying you court.’

‘No!’ she exclaimed. ‘When he visits he only ever discusses business. Although he’s very attentive to both my mother and me.’

Reuben gave a little grunt in his throat. ‘I have noticed,’ he muttered. ‘And your mother always keeps a slice of her fruitcake for him.’

Bella hid a smile. He’s jealous, she thought.

‘I’m only thinking of your welfare, my dear.’ Reuben got up to leave. ‘I know I’m an old man but I have seen and heard much in my life and I do not wish to see you hurt.’

‘I won’t be hurt, Reuben,’ she murmured. ‘Mr Allen doesn’t
interest
me in ’slightest, no matter how charming he tries to be, and I’m aware that his charm isn’t always genuine.’

‘Ah!’ Reuben nodded. ‘So you are not taken in by that. Perhaps you recognize it because your heart has already been wounded? Although I cannot think that that is possible, when you are so young.’

Bella hesitated. Wounded, she thought, as if in battle? No, that isn’t ’sensation I feel. A sadness, perhaps, for something that can never be is how I would describe ’condition of my heart; sorrow for the loss of something which was never mine in ’first place.

‘Not wounded at all, Reuben,’ she assured him as she helped him into his coat. ‘Maybe slightly bruised.’

It was January 1854 and talk of war was all around them. In the newspapers, in the clubs and halls and universities. ‘As soon as I’m qualified I’ll be off.’ Hunter stretched out his legs in front of the fire and clasped his hands behind his head. ‘Ready to do my bit in the Crimea.’

Jamie, his hand propping up his head as he studied the book in front of him, looked up. ‘What? What did you say?’

‘You heard,’ Hunter said. ‘Another four months and I’m off.’

‘There might not be war, though I agree the signs are that there will be.’

‘There’s no doubt. The military are preparing already,’ Hunter said. ‘And I shall join them.’

‘You’re very sure that you’ll qualify,’ Jamie muttered. ‘I wish I could be so positive!’

‘You’ll be all right,’ Hunter assured him. ‘But I’m not going to wait for you. They’ll be crying out for doctors. Florence Nightingale is already getting her band of angels ready for the first ship that will take them.’

‘And she’s had such trouble persuading the authorities to allow them permission to travel,’ Jamie murmured. ‘How ridiculous it is, that because they’re women they shouldn’t treat wounded men!’

‘She’s had to fight her corner, I agree,’ Hunter said. ‘She’s
an
indomitable woman from all accounts. What about you? Will you come?’

Jamie pushed his chair away from the table. ‘I don’t know. I don’t feel that I’m ready yet. You’ve had more experience in the theatre than I have. I’m not sure I’m competent enough to saw off some poor devil’s leg.’

‘It’s not sawing off the leg that’s the worst part,’ Hunter admitted. ‘It’s watching them die from shock afterwards that gets to me.’

The surgeon they were following was slick with the knife. He didn’t hesitate. The patient was held down and the appendage was off and in the waiting basket before the sufferer realized what was happening. Jamie, on the other hand, knew if he were that surgeon he would mull over the consequences, debating whether or not the patient might survive if he tried to save the limb.

Four months, he considered. Hunter would have taken his finals, but as he had started later he wouldn’t have taken his. The war might be over before he was fully qualified, and he rather hoped it would be. He had no desire to practise in his early professional life on vulnerable fighting men.

He’d received a letter from his brother Felix bemoaning the fact that he was having to keep the estate going single-handed as their father was ill again, ‘or he says he is,’ he’d added. ‘I rather think he’s enjoying ill health.’

Which didn’t sound at all like his father, Jamie pondered, and wished that their old doctor, Birchfield, who had looked after his mother, was still in the district; but he had left Holderness and gone to live with his sister in Hull, where he was influential and well respected for his work at the Infirmary.

Jamie had written back and said he would come again when he could, but probably not until after his finals. Unless, he’d added, Felix thought their father’s illness was severe or chronic. He had travelled back to Yorkshire the previous Easter but the house was gloomy, his sisters hadn’t been there and he couldn’t help but reflect on the remembrance of how it used to be.

If Felix should marry things might improve, he thought. The house needs a woman’s touch, and though Mrs Greenwood did her best, it wasn’t her house to do with as she might have wished. But his brother, to Jamie’s knowledge, had no interest in marriage. Indeed, Jamie thought it was highly unlikely that Felix would appeal to any young lady unless there was one who would have him for his fortune and not mind his dour personality.

Jamie decided that on his next visit home he would call first on their former doctor; he had his address somewhere, or at least could easily find it, and ask him if he had any idea what his father’s malady might be.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

ANOTHER LETTER CAME
from William just before Christmas. ‘I’d hoped to get home,’ he wrote, ‘but we’ve been ordered to keep to barracks in case we have to move off abroad. I’ve been transferred to another regiment. 19th Foot. They needed recruits to fight in Crimea so I volunteered. I shall see some action an’ mebbe I was a bit hasty on reflection, but better to go willingly and I’ll probably get promotion. Can’t say I’m looking forward to it; they’re saying it’ll be very bloody with them Russkies, but it’s done now. Anyway, don’t worry, Ma: you know I’m allus lucky.’

But they did worry of course. The newspapers were full of the impending battle in the Crimea and of the tens of thousands of infantrymen and thousands of cavalry who would be leaving British shores, many of them never to come back.

Bella and her mother had expected that it would be a quiet Christmas without Joe and Alice, so on Christmas Day they invited Reuben to eat with them. They invited Adam, too, who was now a permanent fixture every night on the kitchen floor in front of the range since Bella had invited him to stay whilst her mother was away at the Woodman. ‘It wasn’t that I was nervous,’ she’d explained on Sarah’s return, ‘but I felt that I might have been vulnerable on my own.’

‘You did right,’ Sarah said. ‘Especially as folks knew that Joe had gone away and I wasn’t here either. Besides, Adam seems
a
reliable lad, and very willing. How come he’s on his own? Does he ever say?’

He never had and even Reuben didn’t know, although he said he’d known him for quite a few years; he’d often seen him in the streets of Hull, never begging, and always willing to work for a copper. It seemed that any money he earned went towards a bath at the bathhouse once a week if he could afford it.

On Boxing Day Bella asked Adam to help her shift some barrels down in the cellar before they opened up. In spite of being so thin and lanky he was surprisingly strong and Bella commented on it.