Love or Duty--A saga set in 1920s Liverpool (7 page)

‘So this is the child you are proposing to look after is it,' Captain Forshaw said gruffly looking over the top of his newspaper as she helped Kelly on to a chair and pushed it in under the table. ‘Well I must say she certainly seems to be far more presentable than I expected her to be from your mother's lurid description,' he added dryly.

‘Yes, well, you didn't see her yesterday when she first arrived here from Liverpool,' his wife retorted sharply.

‘Say “Good morning Captain Forshaw”,' Penny prompted Kelly in a whisper.

Kelly looked up at her with a puzzled expression on her face. ‘Is he your dad?'

‘Yes, that's right,' Penny said with a smile.

‘Does he live here with you all the time?'

‘Yes, of course he does.'

‘I never see my dad much,' Kelly sighed and tears came to her eyes. ‘He's a sailor and goes away on a boat. I think it must be much bigger than the one we were on yesterday because me mam says he goes all over the world in it.'

‘That's very interesting,' Captain Forshaw boomed. He turned to his wife. ‘Isn't breakfast ready yet?'

‘Mrs Davies has put the eggs on and Mary will bring them in any minute now as soon as they are ready.'

‘Are we having boiled eggs in their shells for breakfast? Does that mean that it's someone's birthday today?' Kelly piped up excitedly.

‘You'd like a boiled egg would you,' Penny said smiling at Kelly's enthusiasm.

‘Ooh yes! We only have them when it's someone's birthday. Oh, and at Easter. Sometimes my dad has one when he comes home from the sea and when he does he gives me the top of it,' she added dreamily.

‘Well you'll be getting a whole one all to yourself,' Penny told her as Mary came into the room carrying a bowl of freshly cooked eggs.

She handed the bowl first to Mrs Forshaw so that she could take one and then to Captain Forshaw who selected two. Then she placed the bowl containing the remaining two eggs in front of Penny. Penny put one of the eggs into the eggcup on Kelly's plate and removed the top and then spread butter on a piece of toast and cut it into strips.

As she ate her own breakfast Penny was conscious of the mess Kelly was making as she dipped the strips of toast into her egg before she ate them. She was obviously enjoying them very much so Penny said nothing, and hoped that her parents didn't notice that as well as getting it all over her face Kelly was dripping egg on to the blue and white check tablecloth.

Mrs Forshaw was not nearly so reticent and kept on tutting reprovingly, especially when Kelly put her eggy spoon down on the cloth instead of on to her own plate.

Worse was to follow. Kelly reached out for her glass of milk and in an attempt not to spill any of it on her new dress accidentally upset it on the tablecloth. At the same time she placed her elbow in the middle of her plate sending a cascade of crumbs on to the floor.

Penny quickly mopped up the milk with her serviette but not before her father had seen what had happened and frowned in annoyance.

When Mary came into the room to clear away after they'd finished Captain Forshaw instructed her to stay and keep an eye on Kelly because he wished to speak to Penny and his wife before he left for the office.

‘Give the child a biscuit or more milk or something if she is tiresome,' he told Mary curtly as he ushered Penny and his wife from the room.

‘The child is called Kelly so why don't you use her name when you are talking about her?' Penny said crossly once they were outside the morning room.

Captain Forshaw ignored her comment. In silence he ushered them into the drawing room and closed the door.

‘Penny, after this morning's display I hope you realize that the child you are proposing to look after hasn't been trained to sit at table and eat in a civilized manner. From now on I must ask you to feed her in the kitchen or if Martha Davies says that isn't convenient then you must use the morning room after we have finished our breakfast. You will also serve her other meals in there and not with us. Is that understood?'

‘I think it is a very appropriate decision,' Leonora Forshaw agreed quickly with a smug little smile of approval.

‘That is so unfair,' Penny exclaimed. ‘I agree she made one or two mistakes this morning but she is very unsure of herself. All this is new to her. You are treating her as if she was a pet animal. How do you think she is going to feel if she is isolated from us all at mealtimes?'

‘Well, I suppose you could ask Mrs Davies to let her eat with them in the kitchen,' Captain Forshaw murmured.

‘I'm not sure if that is fair on them,' Leonora stated very forcibly.

‘The only other alternative if you don't want her to eat on her own is that you have your meals with her in the morning room,' Captain Forshaw stated, not giving Penny a chance to pursue the argument.

‘Yes, that might be a much better idea,' his wife agreed. ‘We certainly don't want to upset or inconvenience Mrs Davies because she is such a treasure.'

‘If you decide to use the morning room Penny, then in the evenings you had better make sure that the child is fed and in bed by seven o'clock. If you do that then you can sit down and have dinner with us in a civilized manner,' Captain Forshaw added pompously.

‘I think you are both being highly unreasonable,' Penny told them heatedly. ‘I'm quite sure that seven o'clock is far too early for Kelly to be put to bed. How do you think she is going to feel about that?'

‘You should have thought of all these many different aspects before volunteering to look after the child,' her father said dismissively.

‘In fact, you should have done what Arnold suggested and put the child in a convalescent home of some kind for a few weeks until she could walk again,' her mother reminded her. ‘If you'd done that then we wouldn't have had to have any dealings with her whatsoever.'

Penny took a deep breath then simply shrugged her shoulders in acceptance. She knew it was pointless arguing with them and she felt so angry that she was afraid she might say something she would later regret.

‘I'll go and take Kelly out into the garden, she's probably wondering what is happening,' she said resignedly. ‘She shouldn't be in anybody's way out there and she can't do much harm to the grass,' she added sarcastically.

‘Well clean her up first; she has egg around her mouth and probably sticky hands. And do make sure she doesn't pull the heads off any of the flowers or the gardener will be cross,' her mother warned.

‘Shall I carry her through to the garden for you, Miss Penny,' Mary asked eagerly when Penny said she was going to take Kelly out there.

‘Thank you, Mary, but I will be putting her into the pushchair. I need to take her upstairs first so that I can wash her face and hands and to find hats for both of us because the sun is already very hot out there.'

‘I'll help her wash her hands down here if you like,' Mary offered.

By the time Penny came back downstairs with two straw sunhats Mary had already settled Kelly into the pushchair and offered to wheel her out into the garden.

‘I wish I could stay out here and play with her but Mrs Davies will scold me if I don't get back to the sink and deal with all the dirty breakfast dishes,' Mary said wistfully when Penny thanked her for her help.

‘Is Mary your sister?' Kelly asked in a puzzled voice as Penny bent down and fitted the smaller of the two straw hats on Kelly's head.

Penny found it difficult to explain. ‘No, Mary's not my sister but she lives here with us and helps Mrs Davies in the kitchen and with the housework.'

‘Why do you have someone to do the work? Can't your mam do it? My mam does all ours. And the washing and shopping and there's a lot more of us than there is living here,' Kelly went on.

‘Yes, but this is a very big house to keep clean,' Penny explained.

‘Why do you need so many rooms? We only have two proper rooms; the bedroom and the living room,' Kelly commented. ‘We have a bit of the scullery as well but we have to share that with the people upstairs.'

Penny felt at a loss. ‘Let's go and see what there is to look at in the garden shall we,' she said brightly in an effort to change the subject.

‘Is all this your garden?' Kelly asked in a bewildered voice as Penny pushed her up the path leading from the patio to the flower garden and then to the kitchen garden where there was a large vegetable patch, fruit bushes, a plum tree and two apple trees that were loaded with ripening fruit.

As they walked back to the patio Kelly insisted on knowing the names of all the bushes and flowers and Penny did her best to name them.

‘It's like being in a park, miss,' Kelly said in awe, her eyes shining.

‘I thought we agreed that you were going to call me Penny.'

‘Sorry, miss. I forgot. I wish I could play ball on the grass,' she said longingly.

‘Perhaps you will be able to do so soon. Once your broken leg begins to mend and it is strong enough for you to stand on it then you will be able to use your crutches to walk about,' Penny said encouragingly.

‘Penny, do you think my leg will be better again in time for me to go to school after the summer holidays are over?' Kelly asked pensively.

‘Oh, I'm sure it will be,' Penny assured her. ‘Which school do you go to?'

‘I haven't started going to school yet,' Kelly sighed.

‘Really? I thought you were already six?' Penny exclaimed in surprise.

‘I am,' said Kelly with a giggle.

‘In that case you should have been at school for at least a year,' Penny told her.

‘Me mam says that once I start going then if I stays away the school board man will come to get me. I don't think she wants me to go at all really because she likes me being at home to help look after Brian and Lily.'

‘Do you have to look after them very often?' Penny frowned thinking what a tremendous responsibility it must be for a six-year-old.

Kelly nodded. ‘Most of the time me mam only takes the baby with her when she goes out to the shops or to the market,' Kelly told her with a big sigh. ‘She says the other two play her up so she can't manage them as well as the baby.'

‘Why ever not?'

Kelly spread her arms in exasperation. ‘They don't like walking and me mam hasn't got a pram. She can't carry them as well as the baby and all the shopping now can she.'

‘So is that why you don't go to school?'

‘I suppose. I have to help me mam keep the place tidy, and I used to have to feed little Lily but she can feed herself now.'

When they went back indoors for their lunch Kelly didn't appear to notice that Mrs Forshaw didn't join them.

After lunch, although it was a very hot day, Penny put Kelly into the pushchair and walked to Vale Park.

‘It's nice but not as pretty as your garden,' Kelly told her after she'd been pushed right round it.

‘I'll bring you back here on Sunday and then you will be able to listen to the band,' Penny told her. ‘This is where they play,' she added as they paused by the bandstand.

She wondered if she would be able to persuade Arnold to accompany them. It would be a wonderful opportunity for him to get to know Kelly right away from the pressure of her mother or father's presence.

Later in the afternoon when Penny arrived back home she found that Mary had already set the table in the morning room for Kelly's supper. There was a plate of egg and cress sandwiches and a piece of chocolate cake.

‘Do you want a glass of milk to drink with that?' Penny asked.

Kelly shrugged her thin shoulders. ‘Not really, I'd sooner have some lemonade,' she said hopefully.

After she had finished her meal Penny took her upstairs and washed her hands and face.

‘I've never gone to bed this early before,' she protested as Penny helped her to undress and put on her nightdress.

‘You don't have to go to sleep right away,' Penny told her. ‘I'll see if I can find you some picture books to look at.'

‘You didn't have your tea with me so are you going downstairs now to have some grub with your mam and dad?' Kelly asked when Penny came back with a pile of magazines.

Penny felt her cheeks redden. ‘Yes, that's right,' she said almost apologetically.

‘They don't want me down there with them because they don't like me, do they?' Kelly muttered defiantly.

‘Of course they like you,' Penny protested. ‘It's just that they aren't used to having young children around the place … not since I grew up,' she added lamely.

She bent over the bed and kissed Kelly on the brow. ‘Would you like me to sit down and read you a story?'

‘Do you mean from a comic?' Kelly's blue eyes widened excitedly. ‘Sometimes my mam brings one of them home for me when she goes cleaning offices and she finds one thrown out in the rubbish bin.'

‘Your mother goes out cleaning?'

‘Of course she does; she has to earn money for grub and her booze. She only goes out cleaning at nights though and usually Lily and Brian are asleep by then. She leaves a bottle all ready for me to give the baby when it starts grizzling.'

‘Does this happen every night?' Penny quizzed her.

‘Nearly every night in the week except on Saturdays; that's when me mam goes to the pub for a bevvy with some of her friends.' Her brow creased into a frown making her look old beyond her years. ‘I don't know how she'll manage without me there to look after the little 'uns when she wants to go out. Perhaps she'll make Paddy do it.'

‘Paddy? I haven't met him. Is he your older brother?'

‘That's right. He always skedaddles off somewhere with his mates when they come out of school and we don't see him until bedtime. If he does that then me mam will have to take the baby with her.'