Eve and Her Sisters (36 page)

‘I’m going to have to be away.’ Toby got to his feet. There had been two strikes at the pit already this year and they couldn’t afford for him to lose more than one day’s pay. Mind, with the owners having backed down on their demands for longer working hours for less pay due to this subsidy the government had brought in, there’d be more trouble ahead.What happened when the nine-month period was over? Nowt would have changed. But now wasn’t the time to be thinking of all that. As he looked at Eve’s white, strained face, the thought that had been with him all day surfaced again. He had a lot to be thankful for.

Eve and Nell stood up too, Eve leaning forward and kissing her brother-in-law on the cheek. ‘Thank you so much for coming, Toby. Do something for me, will you?’

‘Aye, lass. Anything.’

‘Take this for your train fare and for your mam to help out with having the bairns.’

As she stuffed the notes into the pocket of his jacket, Toby turned bright red. ‘Eeh, no, lass. No. I couldn’t do that.’

‘Please, Toby.’ As he made to fish the money out of his pocket, Eve put her hand on his arm. ‘I’ve got it, you know that, and it will make me feel better about having Nell here because I do feel bad at keeping her from you. I . . . I don’t know what I’d have done without her and then you coming today . . .’

‘Don’t cry, lass.’Toby looked helplessly at Nell. ‘It’s the least we can do. We’re family, aren’t we?’

‘Then if we’re family and you look on me as a sister, please take it. You’d do the same if the positions were reversed, and . . .’ she gulped in her throat, wiping the tears from her face with the back of her hand, ‘what’s money, Toby? It’s nothing compared to people, is it?’

There was a moment of deep silence. ‘No, lass, it isn’t,’ said Toby gruffly.‘And if it makes you feel better then I’ll say thank you most kindly. Me mam’s struggling a bit if the truth be told, this’ll be a godsend sure enough.’

Nell’s eyes mirrored her thanks to her husband. Only she knew what it would have cost him to say what he had. Leaving Eve in the drawing room, she saw Toby out.They clung together in the hall for long minutes.When he eventually disentangled himself, he said softly, ‘Come on, old girl. Dry your eyes.’

‘It’s so sad and it don’t seem fair.’ Nell scrubbed at her face with her handkerchief. ‘Why our Eve? You answer me that. And the bairn,Toby. She worshipped him, same as she does Alexander.You-you make sure you tell our lot how much I love ’em when you get back, all right?’

‘They know, lass. They know.’

‘Aye, but tell ’em, won’t you?’

‘I will, I do.’

‘And you.You take care of yourself.’ Again she was clinging to him. ‘Promise me you won’t take any chances what with them cutting corners on safety and the rest of it. What do the owners care if the roof comes down as long as they’re all right in their big grand houses. Promise me, lad.’

‘I promise.’ It was a futile promise and they both knew it. Some of the lads at the pit were good talkers and clever with it, and they’d told anyone who would listen about the history of coal mining and the struggles of the working class and the Labour movement. They knew that the Earl of Durham owned 12,500 acres and got more than forty thousand pounds every year from royalties just because coal was mined under his land, for instance. It had shaken Toby when he’d heard that. Especially in view of the fact that even the most basic safety procedures had been whittled away over the last years until every damn mine in the country was a death trap. They’d save a pound for their pockets and take a man’s life and think nowt about it. That was what they were up against. He said none of this, however, holding Nell tight one last time before gently moving her to arm’s length. ‘Goodbye, lass,’ he said softly. ‘Try and not worry too much. Your Eve is a fighter, she’ll come through.’

‘I know, but at what cost?’

Toby opened the front door. It was a cool night but pleasant. Nell watched him walk away until he reached the corner of the street where he turned and waved, then he disappeared from view.

She wiped her eyes again and straightened her shoulders. Then she shut the front door and went in to her sister.

 

The solicitor called the following afternoon. He was a quiet, sympathetic individual and spoke in plain terms. Mr Ingram’s will was very straightforward. Mrs Ingram inherited everything. ‘Everything’ consisted of the engineering works, this house and all it contained, a number of stocks and shares and a sizeable amount in the bank.There were also several insurances and things of that nature which would add up to a substantial sum. But he would not burden her with too many details at present.

He took a sip of the tea Daisy had brought in and cleared his throat.

Perhaps when she was feeling a little better she would like him to call again. They would need to discuss how she saw the future with regard to the engineering business and other matters that would not wait too long. But for now she could rest in the knowledge that she was financially secure for the rest of her life.

Eve thanked him and he left. As he was to say later to his wife over tea, you would have thought he had been discussing the weather, so little interest did Mrs Ingram show.

 

It was three weeks after the funeral and Nell’s first evening home. She hadn’t wanted to leave Eve but her sister had insisted. ‘She said she had to get used to being on her own with Alexander at some time,’ Nell said to Toby as they sat in front of the kitchen range having a cup of cocoa together before bed.‘And with Elsie and Daisy living in, she said she’d always have someone to talk to if things got too bad.’

‘Well, she’s right, lass.’

‘But it’s not the same as your own flesh and blood, is it?’

‘No, but what were you going to do? Live there for the next umpteen odd years? I know it’s hard but the bairn and Howard are gone, lass. It’s done.’

‘Believe me, no one knows that more than Eve. The loss of Oliver hit her immediately - well, that’s natural, isn’t it, with your own bairn. But I don’t think she’d realised how much she was going to miss Howard. He was such a nice man.’

‘Aye, he was.’

‘She’s . . . well, she’s sort of lost, Toby. I’ve never seen our Eve like it, not even in the worst of times.’

Toby reached out and took his wife’s hand. ‘Like I said before, she’ll come through.’

Nell looked at him, a quiver in her voice as she said, ‘It’s frightened me, all this, Toby. I know I lost me mam and then our da and me brothers, and poor Mary, but this is different somehow. I can’t explain it but it is. Perhaps it’s seeing Eve so crushed, she’s always been so strong and unmovable. I feel like nothing is solid. Aw,’ she made a flapping movement with her hand, ‘you must think I’m daft.’

‘Course I don’t.’ He put his cup of cocoa down and stood up, pulling her out of her chair. ‘Come here,’ he said softly. ‘You don’t know how much I’ve missed you, me an’ the bairns. Nothing’s been the same.’

‘Let’s go to bed.’ Nell cradled his rough face in her hands. ‘I’ve missed you too.’

They were at the foot of the stairs when there was a knock at the back door. ‘Who the dickens is that?’Toby looked at her in surprise. ‘It’s nigh on ten o’clock. Look, you go up and I’ll get rid of ’em, all right?’

Nell was still standing in the hall when she heard Caleb’s voice. When she entered the kitchen he was saying, ‘I just wondered how she was, that’s all, but it’ll do tomorrow.’ And then he looked at her. ‘Oh, hello, Nell. I’m sorry, I should have come earlier but I only just found out you were back. I was wondering how Eve was.’

‘You’ve heard then? About the accident?’

‘Yes, I heard. You wouldn’t expect anything else in this place, would you? You can’t blow your nose but someone times how long.’

Nell stared at him. He sounded bitter but if half the stories about him were true, it was more than enough. He’d played fast and loose with more than one lass, had Caleb, since Mary had gone, and that sort of carry-on was bound to get about.You shouldn’t speak ill of the dead but how a man like Caleb hadn’t seen Mary for what she was, she didn’t know. But that was men. A pretty face and they were like bees to a honey pot. Quietly, she said, ‘She’s none too good but then you’d expect that, wouldn’t you, losing her bairn and man in one fell swoop.’

‘There’s still another child, isn’t there?’

‘Aye, and I thank God for it else I think she’d have followed Oliver and Howard, the way she’s been since it happened.’

‘I’m sorry.’ He stood for a moment, biting his lip.

It was Toby who said, ‘Sit yourself down, man. Me an’ Nell have a cup of cocoa about this time, do you want one?’

‘No, no, I won’t keep you.’ Looking directly at Nell, he said, ‘Pass on my condolences next time you speak, would you?’

Somewhat stiffly now, Nell said, ‘Of course.’ Caleb had turned to go when she added, ‘Course the only good thing in all of this is that he’s left her a small fortune, set up for life, she is. She could buy and sell anyone in this town ten times over.’

‘Is that so?’ Caleb’s voice was flat.

‘Aye, it is so. Mind, that don’t help when you’re grieving like Eve is grieving, but she’ll be beholden to neither man nor beast for the rest of her life so that’s something, isn’t it?’ She waited for a response but he just stared at her. ‘Howard, her husband, saw the worth of her, that’s the thing. Doted on her, he did. On the family an’ all. He knew he’d got a diamond in Eve. Which makes it all the more unfair now.’

Their eyes joined and held, and it was Toby who broke what had become a tense silence by saying, his voice over-hearty, ‘Are you sure you don’t want a drink, Caleb? There’s tea if you’d prefer it. Cocoa isn’t to everyone’s taste.’

‘No thanks, I’d better be going.’

‘Well, we’ll tell Eve you called, man, and thanks for coming. I’m sure she’ll appreciate it.’

Nell said nothing. She stood and watched as Toby ushered Caleb out. She was still standing in exactly the same position when he came back into the kitchen. ‘Why?’ He stared at his wife, his face angry. ‘Why, Nell?’

She didn’t try to prevaricate. ‘Because he’d got it coming. Eve don’t need him or his inn no more.’

‘He came round here to offer his condolences, you heard the man. Why be so prickly?’

‘Oh, Toby.’ She rubbed her forehead. ‘You don’t see, do you?’

‘No, I damn well don’t, so enlighten me.’

‘Eve’s always liked him. Caleb. Always. But he’d got eyes for no one but Mary. Eve worked in that inn from dawn to dusk and he took full advantage of her willingness. Look how she ran things when he went to war. And then Mary comes back and Eve’s—’ She stopped abruptly. Taking a deep breath, she said, ‘I want him to know she’s rolling in it, that she don’t need the likes of him. He’s always looked on her as some kind of a workhorse. Oh, it’s true, say what you like,’ she flapped her hand at Toby, ‘I know, I’ve seen it.’

‘So that’s why . . .’Toby sat down suddenly on one of the hard-backed chairs. ‘That’s why you didn’t want to tell Eve when Mary came back.You thought she’d stay here because she loved him.’

‘She would have.’ Nell’s chin was jutting out but her bottom lip was trembling. ‘I know Eve better than anyone and she would have stayed if she thought he needed her and she could help. And then the same thing would have happened all over again. She was worth better than that and I knew Howard liked her, I could tell. She would have thrown that away and then be left with nothing.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me? How Eve felt, I mean.’

‘I couldn’t. I shouldn’t have now.’

‘And does he know? Caleb?’

‘I don’t think so. No, I’m sure he doesn’t.Whatever he is, he’s not that bad. I think if he’d known how she felt he wouldn’t have flaunted Mary under her nose like he did. But the fact remains she does love him, Toby. Still. I’m sure of it. And he’ll never feel the same way about her.’

Toby’s brow was wrinkled. ‘But she married Howard.’

‘Which was absolutely the right thing to do,’ Nell said vehemently.‘Just because she loves Caleb it don’t mean she couldn’t love Howard too.’

Toby stared at his wife as though he didn’t know her. His voice deep, he said, ‘If I caught you looking at another man—’

‘Oh, don’t be daft.’ Nell walked up to him and put her arms round his neck.‘You an’ me are different.’

‘I should damn well hope so.’Toby shook his head.

‘I don’t understand women, I never have.’

‘Good. I wouldn’t want you to understand me, well, not completely.There’d be no mystery left then and if all the magazines are right, it’s mystery that holds a man.’

‘I can’t believe you read such rubbish and actually believe it.’ Toby’s hands had found their way to Nell’s ample buttocks. ‘Give me a bit of this any day and to blazes with any mystery.’

They pressed into each other, their kiss long and deep, and it was a minute or so before Toby said, ‘Come on, lass, let’s get to bed before I take you right now in front of the range. Mystery! You’re a one an’ no mistake.’

 

After leaving Nell’s back yard, Caleb didn’t immediately walk on but stood in the narrow dirt lane staring blindly ahead. The October night carried the chill of autumn and the full moon cast a cold white brilliance over his surroundings. He found his hands were knotted into fists and he consciously forced himself to relax his fingers, one by one.

So Eve was a wealthy woman, was she? But of course she was. He had known that before he had spoken to Nell. Only it hadn’t struck him in the same way somehow. Perhaps it was how Nell had put it to him, as though she thought he was after Eve’s money. He shook his head. Or was he imagining things?

No, no, he wasn’t. Look at Toby, he’d been embarrassed, he’d seen it in his face. Toby had cottoned on to what Nell was inferring. He looked back at the house. For two pins he’d go back and make her spell it out. He didn’t understand why, but it was as if she’d got a beef against him all the time. And what had he done to upset the woman? Nowt. No, all he’d done was to take the lot of them in years ago and then be a patsy ever since. First Mary treating him like dirt and then Eve taking herself off without so much as a by your leave. And then Mary had come back and he’d taken care of her when most blokes would have told her to sling her hook, ill as she’d been. He’d fallen over backwards for the lot of them so why Nell was so antagonistic he didn’t know. Considering the three of them had lived at the inn for years under his protection, it was the most natural thing in the world for him to offer his condolences for Eve’s loss, wasn’t it? And Nell had made him feel like some scrounger on the make when all he’d wanted to do was say he was sorry.