Settling the Account (18 page)

He waited until the evening, when Lizzie was
sitting in their bedroom with Rose at her breast. Suckling a baby
usually calmed Lizzie, but tonight Rose was being difficult:
refusing to feed, then crying fretfully when Lizzie made to put her
in the cradle.

‘I don’t know what’s wrong with her,’ Lizzie
grumbled as she guided a nipple into Rose’s questing mouth for yet
another attempt. ‘She seems hungry, then she won’t suck.’

‘Maybe she’s still getting the idea,’ Frank
said. ‘She’s only little.’

‘She’s a month old now, the others were all
feeding properly by this age. I’m not used to this silliness. Oh,
you’re going to do it at last, are you, Miss?’

Frank sat on the bed beside Lizzie and slid
an arm to enfold both her and the baby. ‘You seem a bit weary
today.’

‘Of course I am, with this child of yours
waking up half a dozen times last night,’ Lizzie snapped, resisting
Frank’s attempts to pull her closer. She relented, and let her head
rest on his shoulder. ‘I’ve got out of the way of these broken
nights, that’s the trouble. And Rosie’s not such a good sleeper as
the others were. Never mind, the worst of it’s over soon
enough.’

‘It’s hard on you, though, while it lasts.
It’s not as if you can have a sleep in the daytime to catch
up.’

‘Hah!’ was Lizzie’s response to the
ridiculous notion.

Frank stroked her hair. ‘I’ve got a bit of a
surprise for you.’

‘Surprise? What are you on about?’

‘Something to make things a bit easier for
you. I went visiting this morning.’ He took a deep breath, then
went on quickly so as not to give Lizzie time to interrupt. ‘I’ve
sorted out a girl to come around three days a week and give you a
hand with the work.’

‘You’d no business doing that!’ Lizzie said
indignantly, pulling away from his grasp. ‘I’ve told you I don’t
want anything to do with that nonsense. I’m not having some strange
girl in the house.’

‘But I’ve arranged it, Lizzie. I’ve told her
she’s to come.’

‘Then you can just go back there tomorrow
and tell her she’s
not
to come.’

‘I can’t do that. She’s coming tomorrow
morning, first thing.’

‘Oh, she is, is she? Without so much as
asking my leave, you tell some girl to come here? Who is this girl,
anyway?’

‘Ah… her name’s Maisie,’ Frank hedged.

‘Maisie? Maisie who? I don’t know any
Maisies.’

‘No, you don’t know this girl. You’ll meet
her tomorrow, though.’

Lizzie’s eyes narrowed. ‘What’s her name,
Frank?’

Frank gave her a sidelong glance, then
looked at the wall. ‘Maisie Feenan,’ he confessed.

Lizzie was stunned into open-mouthed
silence. She snapped her mouth shut and twisted around to glare at
Frank, the movement dislodging Rose from her breast. ‘Are you off
your head, Frank Kelly? It’s not enough that you go and get this
mad idea I need some girl hanging around under my feet—you’ve gone
and asked one of the Feenans?’

Rose began to complain noisily. ‘Now you’ve
got her going,’ Lizzie said. She stood up and paced around the room
in an attempt to comfort the baby, her full breasts threatening to
escape from her nightdress as she walked back and forth. ‘You’ve no
right to ask that girl. I won’t have it, Frank. I won’t have her
here.’

‘Just try her out—give her a go and see what
she’s like. She didn’t seem a bad sort of girl… well, not
considering the home she’s from. Let her have a go at helping
you.’

‘No, I won’t,’ Lizzie said. ‘When she turns
up tomorrow you can just send her packing. I’m not having one of
those Feenans in my house, and that’s that.’

Frank knew the folly of arguing with Lizzie.
‘All right,’ he said, feigning defeat. ‘I’ll do it if that’s what
you want.’

‘It certainly is.’

‘Yes, when she turns up I’ll tell her I’ve
changed my mind. Poor little thing, she’ll be pretty
disappointed.’

‘I can’t help that. You should have thought
of that before you went to see her without asking me.’

‘I’d better give her a day’s money for her
trouble, that’ll help a bit.’

‘What money? What do you need to pay the
girl for, just for coming around here when she’s not wanted?’

Frank was careful not to meet her eyes.
‘It’s not Maisie’s fault you don’t want her. I can’t send her away
with nothing.’

‘I don’t see why not. She won’t be doing any
work to earn it.’

‘She’ll have walked all the way here, then
she’ll have to turn around and go straight home again. It’s not
fair to waste her time for nothing.’ Lizzie seemed a little off
balance now; Frank pressed his advantage. ‘Actually, I think I’d
better give her a week’s worth.’

‘You’ll do no such thing! The very idea,
wanting to give a girl a week’s wages just for turning up at the
door!’

‘Yes, I think I will. It’s only three
shillings.’

‘Three shillings! You’re not to give her
that.’

Frank managed a heavy sigh. ‘I don’t want to
upset you, Lizzie, but I’m going to give Maisie the money. I just
wouldn’t feel right with myself if I sent her away with nothing.
I’m sorry, but I’m going to do it. And that’s that,’ he added in a
deliberate echo of Lizzie’s words.

‘Ooh, you can be stubborn.’ Lizzie glared at
him, but Frank assumed what he hoped was a pensive air and stared
at the wall rather than meet her gaze.

‘Oh, all right, then,’ Lizzie said. ‘She can
come and work tomorrow—just for the day, mind you—then you can give
her a day’s wages. That must be what, a shilling?’

‘I think maybe I should give her a week’s
worth—’

‘Don’t you dare,’ Lizzie said.

It was time to let her think she had won.
Frank had already resigned himself to the chilly reserve any
overtures for a cuddle would be met with that night; there was no
sense getting himself into even more trouble.

‘All right, then, a shilling it is. That
should be enough to cheer her up a bit, make up for you not wanting
her. Of course, you might change your mind and decide you do want
her after all.’

‘Not likely,’ Lizzie said. ‘The very idea,
having some strange girl in my kitchen. ‘A shilling, indeed! I’ll
see that she earns her day’s wages,’ she added grimly.

*

Next morning Frank was on his way back to
the house after milking when he saw the small figure of Maisie
Feenan coming up the track. He waited by the gate that led to the
house, and as soon as Maisie drew close he went to greet her.

‘Hello, Maisie, you’re here bright and
early.’

Maisie took a step backwards and scowled at
him. ‘You said the missus’d be here.’ It sounded like an
accusation.

‘Yes, Mrs Kelly’s home, she’s inside. Come
on and I’ll introduce you.’ He made to take Maisie’s arm, but she
darted out of his reach.

Putting her strange manner down to shyness,
Frank led the way to the back door and into the kitchen.

‘Here she is, Lizzie,’ he said with a
brightness that was somewhat forced. ‘This is Maisie. Maisie, this
is Mrs Kelly.’

Frank watched anxiously as they sized each
other up. Maisie did not make an impressive figure. She wore the
same ragged dress he had seen her in the previous day, and looked
even grubbier than she had then. And she was painfully thin, he
realised. Seen next to the robust Lizzie, Maisie’s gauntness was
far more noticeable than it had been in her own home. She scarcely
looked capable of bearing her own weight, let alone wielding a
scrubbing brush.

Lizzie gave Frank a withering look, which
told him exactly what she thought of his idea of a suitable
servant. She turned back to Maisie. ‘So you’re going to do some
work for me today, are you?’ she asked. Maisie nodded. ‘I suppose
you know all about scrubbing floors, do you?’

‘I can do it,’ Maisie said, her attempt at
defiance sounding pathetic in Frank’s ears. Her eyes darted around
the kitchen, taking in the details of the unfamiliar room, until
she saw the table and what lay on it.

‘We’ll see about that. You might as well get
started, I’ll show you where…’ Lizzie broke off. ‘Are you listening
to me, my girl?’ Maisie’s head jerked around to face her for a
moment, but then the girl’s gaze slipped away again.

Lizzie followed Maisie’s fascinated stare.
She had not yet put away the bread and meat she had used to make
school lunches for the older children, and it was that that had
caught Maisie’s attention. Frank saw Lizzie’s puzzled expression as
she noted how intently Maisie was staring at the food.

‘Did you have a decent breakfast?’ she
asked.

Maisie looked away from the food, and rubbed
her wrist over her mouth to wipe away a small trail of saliva.
‘Didn’t have no breakfast,’ she muttered.

‘Why not?’ Lizzie asked, visibly shocked.
‘What does your mother think she’s doing, sending you off without
anything in your stomach?’

‘Haven’t got a mother. She’s dead.’

Lizzie was taken aback. ‘Well… someone must
look after you. Who gets the meals on in your house?’

‘Aunt Bridie does, ’cept when she’s too
busy. She was milking the cow. She let me have a bit of milk out of
the bucket.’

‘A bit of milk doesn’t fill a growing
child!’

Maisie was not listening; she was staring
once again at the food on the table.

Casting another reproachful look at Frank,
Lizzie took hold of the loaf and cut two thick slices from it,
which she spread generously with butter then filled with several
pieces of cold mutton. ‘You can’t scrub floors on an empty stomach.
Come on, girl, get this inside you.’

For a moment Maisie stared in disbelief at
the sandwich in Lizzie’s outstretched hand. Then she darted forward
to snatch at it and ran over to the opposite corner of the room,
where she stood by the wall and swallowed hunks of sandwich as
rapidly as she was capable of forcing them down.

‘What on earth are you doing?’ Lizzie asked.
‘Why do you want to run off with your food like that?’

Maisie gripped her sandwich more firmly than
ever. ‘Didn’t want no one to take it off me,’ she said, her words
indistinct through a mouthful.

‘We’re not likely to take it off you, are
we? Honestly, you look like one of the cats when I throw them some
scraps. Come here and sit at the table like a civilised person, for
goodness sake—you’ll get indigestion eating like that.’

Maisie looked uncertainly from Lizzie to
Frank, then crept over to the table, clutching what remained of her
precious sandwich in two grubby hands.

‘Here, you’d better have this to wash it
down,’ Lizzie said, pouring a large mug of milk. She watched Maisie
finish eating and gulp down the milk. ‘Do you want another
sandwich?’

Maisie gave her an incredulous look. ‘Yes,’
she said in a voice that shook slightly.

‘Well, what do you say, then?’ Maisie stared
blankly at her. Lizzie pursed her lips. ‘Ask for it properly.’

‘I want some more to eat like that stuff,’
Maisie said.

‘And what do you say?’

‘I don’t think she knows what you mean,
Lizzie,’ Frank put in. ‘She thinks you’re teasing her.’

‘Of course she knows.’ Lizzie looked
thoughtfully at Maisie. ‘Didn’t your mother ever teach you how to
ask for things nicely?’

Maisie shook her head, then screwed up her
face in concentration. ‘Please?’

‘That’s better.’ Lizzie made another
sandwich, and watched it disappear almost as rapidly as the first.
‘You’re just skin and bone, girl.’ She turned to Frank and shook
her head. ‘She’s not strong enough. I can’t make a little scrap
like her scrub the floors for me.’

‘I
can
. I
can
scrub them.
You’ve got to let me,’ Maisie said, fear in her eyes.

‘Oh, I do, do I?’ Lizzie glanced at Maisie’s
hands, which were wrapped around the remnants of her sandwich.
‘Look at the state of you! I should have made you wash your hands
before I gave you that. And your face! I can hardly tell what
colour you are under all that dirt. Here, hold still a minute.’

She snatched up a damp cloth from the table,
pushed Maisie’s hair back from her forehead and rubbed vigorously.
Maisie tried to squirm out of her grip, but Lizzie was well
experienced in handling wriggling children.

‘I’ll have to chuck this cloth in the wash,’
Lizzie said. ‘Look at this big smudge here.’ She moved the cloth to
a dark patch on Maisie’s cheek. The girl let out a yell, and Lizzie
took a step back in surprise.

‘What’s wrong with you?’ She peered more
closely at Maisie’s cheek, which was now partly hidden by the
girl’s small hand. ‘That’s a bruise, isn’t it? How did you get a
whopper like that?’

‘Me dad give it me,’ Maisie said. ‘I don’t
care. I didn’t even bawl.’

‘What’d he do that for?’

‘’
Cause I said I didn’t want
to come and work here.’

‘But you do want to work here now?’

‘Yes.’ Maisie stared boldly back at Lizzie,
the effect marred by a tremble in her lower lip.

‘I see.’ Lizzie looked over Maisie’s head at
Frank and raised her eyebrows.

She sat down beside the girl and spoke in
what for Lizzie was an unusually gentle voice. ‘Well, Maisie, if
you’re as keen as all that, you can have a go at helping me today.
Then Mr Kelly’ll give you a bit of money to take home—that should
cheer your father up. But I don’t need anyone helping me regular—Mr
Kelly got that wrong, you see. He’ll pay you for today, but you can
tell your father I don’t need you to come again.’

‘What’d I do wrong?’

‘You didn’t—oh, for goodness sake don’t
start crying, girl. Whatever’s wrong with you?’

‘I’m not crying.’ Maisie sniffed noisily and
wiped her nose on her sleeve. ‘Me dad said if I didn’t do the work
proper, so you’d keep me on regular, he’d break my arm. He will,
too—he broke my sister’s arm once. She ran away then,’ Maisie added
enviously.