Tangled Threads (28 page)

‘There’s a cupboard under the stairs for food and that.’ Win opened it to show the empty shelves.

‘It’s all been left very clean,’ Eveleen remarked, feeling she should say something as Win led the way up to the next floor.

‘There’s only one bedroom,’ she said flinging open the door, ‘but it’s a good size.’

‘I thought you said three floors.’

‘Oh aye, of course, you could maybe use the room above here as another room for your brother.’

They climbed the ladder to the attic room under the eaves. It had the long window down one side.

‘These houses are often occupied by stockingers,’ Win said. ‘And this is where they’d work. I use our top room for drawing lace. The younger girls help me too with the
jennying.’

‘Tell me, what is jennying?’

‘The twist machines make the dress lace in breadths, each one separated by a draw thread.’

Eveleen nodded.

‘When it comes off the machine all in one piece, it goes to you in the inspection and mending room. There are various other processes – bleaching, dyeing, dressing an’ all that
– and then it’s sent out to homeworkers who separate all the breadths by “drawing”. They wind the lengths of lace on to cards and that’s what’s called
jennying.’

‘So now I know,’ Eveleen laughed and turned her attention back to their new home.

Jimmy could sleep to one side of this room, she was thinking, and leave space for her mother and Rebecca to work up here in the day.

‘There’s a tap in the yard we all share. It’s all right until it gets cold in the winter and freezes up.’ Win pulled a wry face. ‘The privies are at the end of the
yard and they’re all right until it gets too hot in the summer and they pong to high heaven.’

She cast her eyes to the ceiling, but she was laughing.

‘It’s great, Win. Thank you so much.’

‘It’s in good order,’ Win said, holding the lamp high. ‘There’s no damp patches on the ceilings or walls. When we moved into our place, you should have seen what
Fred had to do to make it weatherproof.’

‘It wonderful, really,’ Eveleen said, clasping her hands. ‘And it’s so near to work too. Only just round the corner. How can I ever thank you?’

The woman looked at her and said gently, ‘The look on your face is thanks enough, mi duck. Leave everything to me. I’ll see the rent man tomorrow and get you a rent book sorted out.
Now, come back home with me and have a bite to eat before you set off back to that home. You’ve a fair walk back and it’s starting to rain.’

By the time she arrived back at the home, Eveleen was soaked to the skin, but she didn’t care. She and Jimmy had work and now she had found them a house with friendly
neighbours.

The relief was enormous and the move, which they were able to do the following Sunday, was far less traumatic that either of their two previous, hasty departures.

Of course all her worries and responsibilities were not going to disappear overnight, but at least now her family were housed, fed and clothed. There was just enough money coming in from both
her and Jimmy to keep them. There would be none to spare for luxuries, but at least they had enough for the moment.

‘And you can both earn a little extra here at home lace-making,’ she said to her mother and to Rebecca once they were settled into their new home. ‘Or drawing and
jennying.’

Rebecca said hesitantly, ‘Eveleen, I’m sorry, but I’m not very good at pillow lace.’

‘What? Didn’t Gran teach you?’

Rebecca shook her head. ‘Yes, but I’ve never done much. Father always wanted me to work the stocking-machine at home. He – he said there was more money to be made.’ She
hung her head. ‘I’m sorry.’

Eveleen sighed and murmured, ‘It’s not your fault.’

This was a double blow. If her mother was refusing to help and Rebecca was not able, how were they ever going to earn that little bit extra that they needed so desperately?

‘Mam, will you at least teach Rebecca pillow lace?’

Mary shook her head. ‘Oh, I can’t think about that just now. Leave me alone, Eveleen.’

Eveleen turned away. There was no getting through to her mother when she was in this mood. She’d leave it a few days and then see.

But Mary’s mood did not dispel. She seemed permanently sunk in depression and despair and all she would say again and again was a pitiful, ‘I want to go home, Eveleen.’

‘I just hope this isn’t tripe and onions again.’ Jimmy pulled a face as he sat down at the table and looked down with suspicion at the plate Rebecca placed
before him.

‘No – no, Jimmy. I know you don’t like it. I wouldn’t do that.’ She smiled uncertainly, her eyes never leaving his face.

Watching, Eveleen sighed inwardly. Rebecca’s adoration of her rogue of a brother was plainly written on her face.

Jimmy stabbed at the food experimentally. ‘What is it?’

‘Pig’s fry. We call it “Poor Man’s Goose”. Silly name really.’ She tried to laugh light-heartedly, but the sound was forced. ‘There’s nothing of a
goose in it. It’s pig’s liver, heart and kidney.’

‘It’s like Mam makes,’ Eveleen said.

Jimmy brightened visibly. ‘Is it?’ He twisted round to look at Mary huddled in her chair by the fire. ‘Did you make it Mam?’

Mary shook her head. ‘I’m too ill, Jimmy. I have a dreadful headache. It’s the smell of this place and having to share the privy with all these awful people.’ She gave a
dramatic shudder. ‘I can’t stand it.’

Eveleen was tempted to defend their neighbours. She liked the inhabitants of the yard; they were friendly and had welcomed the Hardcastle family into their midst. But she bit back the words
while Jimmy pulled an unsympathetic face, rolled his eyes, and turned away. He took a mouthful, chewing it round and round, considering.

‘Not bad,’ he said. ‘Not bad at all.’ He cast a sideways glance at Mary before adding, ‘Not as good as yours, of course, Mam, but not bad.’

Rebecca was pink with pleasure and emboldened to ask, ‘After supper, shall we go out for a little walk, Jimmy?’

Jimmy stared at her as if she had taken leave of her senses. ‘A walk? Where to, for Heaven’s sake?’

‘Well,’ the girl stammered, her colour deepening but now through embarrassment. ‘I – I’d just like to get some fresh air, that’s all. I don’t mind where
we go.’ The remainder – ‘as long as I’m with you’ – went unsaid.

‘Fresh air,’ Jimmy scoffed. ‘Here? You must be mad. All you’ll get is a lungful of smoke or the smell from the sewers.’

‘The air at home was fresh and sweet and clean and . . .’ Mary dissolved into tears. ‘You see, Eveleen, Jimmy misses it as much as I do. Don’t you, Jimmy?’

Eveleen could not let this pass. ‘I seem to remember when we were living in the country, all he could do was talk about going to sea.’

‘And I still might,’ Jimmy said and, as Mary’s sobs grew louder, silent tears ran down Rebecca’s face.

The brother and sister glared at each other, but all Jimmy said was, ‘What’s for pudding?’

‘I don’t think Jimmy loves me any more, Eveleen.’

‘Oh Rebecca, I’m sure that’s not true. He’s so young. You both are. Only just seventeen. You were both very foolish, you know.’

‘But I thought he loved me.’ The girl’s eyes filled with easy tears. ‘He said he loved me and wanted us to get married.’

‘That’s what they all say.’ Eveleen could not stop the bitter remark.

Her eyes brimming, Rebecca said, ‘Did he just want to marry me because of my inheritance? That’s what Father said.’

‘Did he indeed?’ Eveleen murmured, her mind calculating swiftly. Her uncle was sitting on a little gold mine. Perhaps if Jimmy and Rebecca had not been so hasty, all that might one
day have become theirs. Why hadn’t she thought about that before? She wondered what consideration Jimmy had given to it.

Rebecca was speaking again, ‘Father said that if anyone ever did want to marry me, it’d only be to get their hands on his business.’

‘What a cruel thing to say.’

‘It looks like he was right, though, doesn’t it?’

Eveleen took the girl’s hands. They were cold. She chafed them, trying to warm the girl physically and raise her spirits. ‘Look, I know my brother’s not perfect. He’s
thoughtless and irresponsible but he’s not cruel and calculating.’ Hoping she sounded convincing, for she knew it was not quite true, Eveleen added, ‘Besides, he’s not
clever enough to have thought all that out.’

She could see that Rebecca was still not reassured, so she went on, ‘And he would hardly have got you into this state if that had been his reasoning. It wasn’t quite the best way to
worm his way into your dad’s good books, was it?’

Rebecca smiled tremulously and shook her head. ‘It was what he always said though, if anyone showed an interest in me. Any young man, I mean. He said it about Andrew.’

‘Well, that’s plain daft,’ Eveleen said at once. ‘Andrew truly loves you. Even I could see that and I’m certainly not the best judge when it comes to
men.’

Rebecca’s eyes were wide. ‘Why?’

‘Oh never mind just now. Maybe I’ll tell you one day. But not now. I can’t talk about it now.’

Rebecca nodded. She didn’t understand, yet she sensed that it was a painful subject for Eveleen.

‘Now then,’ Eveleen said briskly, changing the subject. ‘I’ve got a surprise for you. Since I can’t persuade my mother to teach you to make lace I’ve been
keeping my eyes and ears open. I asked Josh Carpenter if he knew of any way I could get hold of a Griswold. Like the one you had at home?’

Rebecca nodded.

‘And guess what?’ Eveleen went on triumphantly. ‘He’s found me an old one lying in one of the outbuildings at the factory.’

She smiled as she remembered the pleasure on the big man’s face when he had presented her with the rusting machine. ‘Needs a bit of cleaning up, but if you smile nicely at Fred
Martin, I bet he’d do it up for you. Good with machinery, is Fred.’

Eveleen had been ecstatic in her thanks and had even reached up and planted a kiss on the man’s fat cheek. He put his arm around her waist and squeezed her against his belly.

‘You’re a nice lass,’ he said gruffly. ‘Not like most of the girls here. They only know how to poke fun at a feller.’

Eveleen had felt a moment’s fear. Had her rash gesture of gratitude given him the wrong idea? But in the next moment he had released her, patted her shoulder and said kindly, ‘Run
along, mi duck, before I forget myself.’

Now she told Rebecca, ‘Fred’s cleaning it up. He said it’ll take him a week or so. All the needles are rusty.’

Rebecca looked the happiest she had looked for weeks. ‘That’s wonderful. Now I’ll be able to earn some money to help out. You’ve been so good to me, Eveleen. I do so want
to help.’

Good to her, Eveleen thought. We’ve been anything but good to her. It’s all our fault that she’s in this predicament and she’s saying we’ve been good to her. But
Eveleen kept her thoughts to herself and hugged her cousin.

Alone, Eveleen began to think more rationally about what Rebecca had told her. Rebecca was Harry’s only daughter, his only child and consequently his only heir.

Maybe . . . Eveleen’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully, calculating objectively. If Jimmy could be persuaded to do the decent thing and marry Rebecca, then maybe one day, Uncle Harry would
relent. Jimmy would be set for life and she could take their mother back home to Lincolnshire.

For once, Eveleen vowed, her rebellious young brother must be made to toe the line.

‘Jimmy, I want a word with you.’

Eveleen grasped his shoulder with a strength that was surprising for a girl. But her days on the farm were still not forgotten and, with walking to and from work each day and housework when she
got home each evening, she was as physically fit as she had ever been. Instead of being defeated by the sheer hard work of it all, Eveleen seemed to thrive on it.

‘Now what?’ he said, trying to shake her off, but Eveleen kept tight hold of him.

‘Walk home with me tonight and I’ll tell you. It’s the only time we get to talk alone. You never seem to want to stay at home in the evenings now.’

‘What, with that miserable pair? Mam just sits in her chair all day long and Rebecca keeps bursting into tears. She won’t even let me near her any more. Y’know, for a bit of
you-know-what.’

‘Wash your mouth out, you,’ Eveleen said angrily. ‘Don’t talk about your future wife like that.’

‘My what?’

If it hadn’t been such a serious matter, Eveleen would have laughed out loud at the look of horror on his face. Instead she forced herself to say primly, ‘Well, I hope you’re
going to do the decent thing by her. Surely you’re not going to let the baby be born a – a . . .’

‘If you think I’m going to tie mesen to that miserable cow, you can think again.’

‘Jimmy, please. Don’t talk about her like that. You’ve caused her misery.’

He twisted himself free of her grasp. ‘Leggo. I’ve got to get back to work.’

Eveleen released him, but she realized that her devious brother had said the one thing that would make her let him go.

Her eyes narrowing, her gaze followed him as he walked into the factory.

This time, there was no swaggering walk and cheerful whistle.

She was waiting for him outside the gates when she knew his shift ended. It had meant her leaving her work an hour early but it was the only time she could snatch a few moments
alone with him to try to talk some sense into him. She had pretended to be suffering stomach cramps to persuade the supervisor to allow her to leave.

‘I meant what I said, Jimmy. It’s your child she’s having. You know very well it is. I don’t want you trying to wriggle out of it by putting the blame on someone else.
Rebecca’s a good girl and if you hadn’t filled her head with your lies just to get your way, she wouldn’t be in that condition. And you know it, don’t you?’

‘Do I?’ Jimmy was determined to be defiant to the last.

‘Yes, you do,’ Eveleen flared.

They walked in silence until he said, ‘We’re too young to be tied up, Eveleen.’

‘You should have thought about that before. She’s well and truly tied up now, isn’t she?’

‘She should have said no.’