The Legacy (5 page)

‘Evelyne, is that you? It’s Mrs Evans, from the school.’

Evelyne had little Davey balanced on her hip, a duster in one hand, and her face was streaked with dust. Doris flushed a bright pink.

‘Do you think I could step inside for a minute? If it’s not convenient I can come back.’

The door edged open wider, and Evelyne coughed as she swallowed backwards. Her eyes watered, and Doris had to pat her on the back.

‘Would you mind coming into the kitchen, Mrs Evans, only I was just feeding little Davey?’

Doris followed her along the corridor. The smell of stale beer, cigarettes and cabbage made her nose wrinkle with distaste. Davey gurgled and threw a soggy, nasty-looking crust of bread at Doris’ head. A lot had changed since Mary’s death, and gossip about the Jones family was rife. Mike, the youngest boy, had run off to join the army, and Will, so rumour had it, had got Lizzie-Ann in the family way so they’d had to marry. The house was bursting at the seams.

‘Er, well, Evelyne, you certainly seem to have your hands full. Should I come back another day?’

With her free hand, Evelyne lifted the kettle and put in on the fire.

‘Will you have a cup of tea, Mrs Evans?’

Sidestepping a teddy bear, Doris picked it up and turned to put it on the dirty table, cluttered with crockery.

‘Oh, I don’t want to put you out.’

Evelyne smiled and went to sit Davey on a chair, looked around the room, then at Doris.

‘Would you mind just holding him while I make the tea?’

Poor Doris could hardly stand the smell of the child, and his nappy was sopping wet, but she held on to him and perched on the edge of a chair. It was a mistake, she knew it, and the girl looked terrible. She’d aged years in a matter of months, if that was possible. Her once clean, shining hair was dull and uncombed, and her face was so pale she looked ill. Evelyne was all thumbs, dropping the tea caddy; and she was so aware of the filthy state the kitchen was in that she tried to clear everything into the big stone sink.

‘I won’t bother with tea, Evelyne, but don’t you think he should have a clean nappy on?’

Evelyne flushed and grabbed Davey, so embarrassed she was near tears. Always a sensitive woman, Doris was just as embarrassed and made things worse by sitting awkwardly, perched like a brown crow.

Evelyne laid Davey over her knee and removed the dirty nappy, dropping it in a bucket. He gurgled and laughed, drooling as she washed his bottom. And all the while Doris coughed dry little coughs, and kept opening and shutting her mouth. Her hand was sticky and she took a small lace handkerchief from her handbag.

‘My Mama died, and I … well, I’ve been meaning to come and see you.’

Doris looked at her as she sat with her feet neatly crossed, her knees red and her bare feet so filthy Doris wondered when the girl had last bathed.

‘Yes, I know. Did you get my note?’

‘I should have written, I’m sorry, Mrs Evans.’

Doris stood up and straightened her hat. ‘It’s about your writing that I’ve come, Evie … Evelyne. Your last composition was good, more than good, I still read it. And the reason I’m here is to see if it would be possible for you to return to school.’

Evelyne tugged at a loose strand of hair. ‘I can’t do that, I’ve no time to come to school.’

‘But you are more than good, child, it’s a sin not to finish your education.’

At that moment Davey put a piece of coal in his mouth, sucking it. Evelyne bent down and took it from him, threw it on the fire and picked him up. She buried her face in the small boy’s neck and to Doris’ consternation her thin shoulders began to shake. Doris realized she was crying.

Although never one to show her feelings, Doris suddenly rose to her feet and wrapped her bony arms around Evelyne. Doris smelt of mothballs and her pale eyes were wet with tears.

‘I understand, I understand, you have the boy to care for, and the menfolk, but … here, don’t cry, child, here …’

She handed Evelyne her tiny handkerchief, and didn’t even mind when Evelyne blew her nose on it. She poured the tea and handed it to Evelyne, patted her head, and it all came out in a gush.

‘I know times are hard, but what I’ve been thinking is that if you have a few hours of an evening, when the little boy is sleeping, then you could come over to my house. It’s quiet, and all my books are there, and if you would like … well, what I’m saying is that I would be prepared to give you private tuition, I don’t want paying for it, but I would like it if you could manage just a few hours.’

She felt her hand gripped tightly, and the girl kissed it hard. ‘Oh, Mrs Evans, I would like that so much.’ ‘Well, then it’s settled, whenever you say - when it’s convenient to you.’

With little Davey in her arms, Evelyne walked Doris to the door. Doris was excited, she chucked the baby under his chin and laughed when he tried to bite her, a strange, high-pitched squeak. Then she was gone.

Evelyne had to shake her father awake, Dicken was waiting to go on shift.

‘Da, Mrs Evans came by today and said I could have private lessons.’

Hugh swayed and stumbled as she helped him dress. He hadn’t even bathed the night before, he had got so drunk coming back from work.

‘You do as you wish, Evie … where’s Dicken? Dicken!’

Hugh left the house with his eldest son. Evelyne went back and began to clear up the kitchen, the broken beer bottles. The new lodger arrived back from his night shift, looked in for only a moment, then went into Dicken’s bed in what used to be Davey’s room, the little lad now sleeping with Evelyne. They’d had to take a lodger as lately the household was always short of money - the tin on the mantel always empty. Evelyne owed money at the baker’s, the pie shop, the hardware store. Things had most certainly changed. The Jones family had never been in debt before. With them being such a big family, and mostly men, there had always been wages coming in.

Hugh still worked the mines along with Dicken and Will, but Will needed his wages for Lizzie-Ann, and they were saving as best they could. But Hugh was getting a bad reputation as a drunkard. Poor Dicken not only did his own job of shovelling, but he hacked the coal face too, his father’s job. Hugh was perpetually drunk, but Dicken never confronted him - he worked without a word of complaint. He went to the pub with his father, watched him waste the hardearned money that rightly belonged to Dicken, but he could say nothing. The Old Lion was losing his roar, his shoulders were bent and his face was always filthy. At night he staggered home, leaning on his eldest son for support.

Dicken was worn to a frazzle, and he knew the managers were beginning to talk. The ‘measurers’ had been round - the men who counted the coal trams and picked over the contents to see if there were any stones or clay clods making up extra weight. The miners were paid by the tram-load so if the loads were down so were the wages. The wage for boys under fifteen was one shilling and sixpence a day, and over fifteen it climbed up by a few pennies a day. A twenty-one-year-old boy, even when married like Will, still only received three shillings a day.

The miners’ wages were scaled according to the job. There were truck-weighers, coal tram-weighers, engineers, stokers, tenders, strikers, lampmen, cogmen, banksmiths, rubbish-tippers, greasers, screeners, trimmers, labourers, small-coal pickers, doorboys, hitchers, hauliers, firemen … but the elite, who worked the big veins of the mines, were the colliers, the men who hacked and chipped away at the coal. They worked in teams of two, and were completely dependent on each other. One hacked and chipped, one shovelled and filled the trams behind them, as they burrowed like moles deeper and deeper into the face. If the shoveller sat down, too lazy or too tired, then the chipper would have to lay off too. Dicken had been working for both himself and his Da. He knew it would be found out and could not continue. That night, as they came up from the cradle, the manager called them over. They went into the office and stood, caps in hand, like guilty schoolboys. The manager, Benjamin Howells, was sorry - he didn’t like doing what he was going to do. He had known Hugh Jones since he was a boy, he’d been at Dicken’s christening in the chapel.

Ben spoke in Welsh - maybe he thought it would soften the blow - but it hammered down anyway. Hugh was given his employment cards and Dicken, of course, stood by his father and wanted his. Ben tried to reason with him, but Dicken was adamant so Ben handed them their cards and the week’s wages kept in hand, and the two men walked out. Ben sighed. What a waste to see a man like Hugh go to pieces; it was tragic. And the worst of it was, it looked like he was dragging that fine boy down with him.

Dicken and his Da were both getting drunk, drowning their sorrows. They called for drinks all round, banging on the bar for their pints. Dicken rose to his feet, weaving, and began to sing. He had a clear, high tenor, and stood with legs apart, eyes closed, while his beautiful voice soared.

Mike pushed open the bar door and stood framed in the doorway, looked first at his brother then his father. His boots were so highly polished you could see your face in them. He swung his haversack down and Dicken lurched into his arms.

‘Mike, is it you, lad? Mike … Da, will you look who’s back, an’ all togged out in his fine uniform.’

Hugh fell off his stool and climbed up, gripping the edge of the bar for support.

‘A drink, get a drink for my lad, the soldier boy.’

Mike could smell Hugh’s breath - he reeked and his clothes were stained and filthy. He shook his head and looked at Dicken.

‘Mun, he’s drunk out of his mind.’

Mike soon discovered that since his Ma’s death their father had rarely been sober.

Evelyne checked the stew and left the pan half on the stove. She knew they would be late again. She had hoped to go and see Doris, but she had not had even a minute to herself for weeks. Lizzie-Ann was no help in the house; if there was work to do she swooned.

‘Oh God, I can’t, Evie, not in my condition. A woman in my condition should not lift nothing heavy, I don’t want to have a baby like little Davey, now do I?’

While poor Evelyne washed and scrubbed, Lizzie-Ann sat with her feet up. It was true she made Evelyne laugh, especially when she put flour over her face and blacked her eyelids and lips like Theda Bara. She could do endless movie-star impersonations.

‘You know, soon as I’ve had this baby, I’m going to London,’ she would say.

The lodger, a coloured gentleman, fascinated Lizzie-Ann. She would ask him to turn his palms over and then shriek with delight at the pinkness of them. Josh Walker was a kind-hearted man whose family lived in Leeds, like many coloureds who had arrived in the village. There was hardly a house left in the village without a lodger of some kind, Italian, Indian, black … well, there was one house. Doris Evans kept her four rooms to herself. The war, everyone said, was taking their men and replacing them with outsiders.

That night Dicken and Mike carried their Da home between them. Evelyne was so happy to see her brother that she forgot about going to see Doris. Somehow she made the stew go round, pushed her worries away. Tomorrow was another day and she’d manage to get a little meat from the butcher.

‘Evie, want to walk awhile with me?’

Mike smiled, slipping their mother’s old shawl around his sister’s shoulders.

‘I’ll be gone by morning, going to France. I’ll write to you, and send you pretty things … oh, Evie, Evie, come here.’

She went into his arms and held him tight. She loved him so, she thought her heart would break.

‘Dicken’s coming with me. Now shush, it has to be, they lost their jobs at the mine, this way he’ll be able to send money home, and me too … but what of you? You’re so thin, and I swear you look older, older than you should …’ Mike could not say how he really felt, how sad he was to see his sister so gaunt, so pale. It was obvious to him that she was working herself into an early grave.

‘It’ll be for the best, Evie. With me and Dicken gone it should ease the burden on you. You have a lad? Someone that’s courting you?’

She hung her head as she walked alongside him, flushing bright red. ‘Be off with you, Mike, there’s no boy interested in me, an’ I’m too young yet even to be looking.’

Mike pulled her to him and kissed the top of her head.

‘You are special, Evie. Tell you what I’ll do, I’ll bring a handsome soldier home for you on my next leave.’

The two boys were dressed and ready. Evelyne slipped into the kitchen, afraid they would go without saying goodbye. Dicken ruffled her hair, but he was close to tears. ‘Take care of Da for us, we’ll be back.’

Mike smiled and blew her a kiss, as hand-in-hand with Dicken she walked them to the door. ‘Evie, think about seeing that schoolteacher. You’ll have more time now, promise me?’

She smiled but couldn’t speak, she was too close to tears.

‘Goodbye, darlin’, and God bless you.’

She watched her two brothers walk down the cobbled street, their arms about each other’s shoulders. Will came and stood behind her, put his arms around her, ‘So they’ve gone. Da was too drunk to understand last night; I’ll tell him.’

Deep down he knew his own days at home were numbered, he could be called up at any time.

Six months had passed since the schoolteacher’s visit, and Evelyne popped a note through Doris’ door. She had worked out how many hours a week she would be able to spend with Doris, although it had not been easy to arrange. Lizzie-Ann refused to take charge of little Davey so Mrs Pugh had promised to look after him.

‘I don’t know why you bother learning, Evie. Find yourself a boy, that’s what you should be doing.’

Evelyne looked at Lizzie-Ann. She was wearing only her bloomers with one of Will’s shirts over the top, her belly sticking out.

‘I’ve no interest in boys, Lizzie-Ann … if you could turn your charms on at the bakery I’d be grateful, we’ve no bread.’

‘I’ll do me Theda Bara for that old bugger … well, go on, if yer going.’

A plate of sweet, home-made biscuits and a glass of warm milk were waiting for Evelyne, and Doris had been back and forth to the window to see if she was really coming. All her precious books were laid out neatly on the table with a clean notebook, ready for work to begin.