The Leaving of Liverpool (24 page)

As the summer wore on she worried less about Phoebe-Ann for she had other things on her mind. One was Edwin and the other was Miss Nesta Barlow.

She was far more at ease with Edwin now. She could tolerate him holding her hand and giving her a quick kiss on the cheek or forehead, but nothing more.

‘I still feel as though I can’t . . . Oh, you know what I mean!’ she’d tried to explain to him, when after they’d been to the cinema he’d tried to hold her and kiss her.

‘I thought that with time you might be more . . . comfortable. You are still fond of me, Em, aren’t you?’

‘Of course I am. You know that will never change. It’s the thought of . . .’

‘Don’t think about it if it upsets you.’

They’d been silent for a while before he’d taken her hand. ‘Emily, I want to marry you one day. I mean it. I’ll provide for you, I’ll be good to you. I don’t earn bad money, although I will be away for most of the time.’

She hadn’t replied. She’d thought how much she would have looked forward to that, once.

‘Just think about it. I’ll wait, Em, until you’re ready. You know me: “Old Dependable”.’

The tears had sprung to her eyes. He was so patient. ‘You shouldn’t have to wait, Edwin. It’s not your fault. It’s mine.’

‘It’s not been a year yet, Emily. You’ve got to give it time, like Albert says. Maybe I’m rushing you.’

‘No, you’re not. If . . . if things had been different I’d have wanted to get engaged.’

‘Do you?’

She felt so guilty. Was she being fair to him, making him wait? Yet her one dread was that he would get tired of waiting and find someone else. She’d tried to imagine what life would be like without him for she missed him while he was at sea. If she looked at it like that the future was bleak indeed. She
was
being a fool. She took a deep breath. ‘Yes. Yes, I do.’

He fought down the impulse to catch her in his arms and kiss her. ‘Do you really mean that, Emily?’

‘I do.’ She desperately wanted him to feel that she cared enough to make the commitment and yet she took comfort from the fact that some engagements could be long. Very long sometimes.

‘Oh, Em! I do love you. I want to hold and kiss you.’

She smiled. She had to try for both their sakes. She reached out and touched his cheek. ‘Then what’s stopping you?’

He held her as though she were made of glass and gently kissed her on the lips, yet despite all his gentleness and care, he felt her cringe and try to draw away. He was filled with compassion and admiration for her. She was trying to be so brave. ‘When will we tell everyone?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Let’s wait until I come back next trip. I’ll bring you a ring or would you sooner choose one here?’

‘You choose one for me. That way it will be special.’

 

She meant it, but she also was aware that it would give her more time to compose herself and to fend off all the questions that would be asked about when the actual wedding would be and she knew she couldn’t face that just yet.

The problem with Miss Nesta was amusing up to a point and she encountered it the day after Edwin had sailed. It was Miss Millicent’s monthly outing and she’d seen her off in her taxi and returned to the house.

‘Emily.’ Miss Nesta beckoned her into the drawing room and she wondered if another trip to the attic was forthcoming. She had become quite fond of the ‘yesterday chest’.

‘Will we be going up to the attic, Miss Nesta? I could take a tea tray up.’

‘No, but thank you, you’re a very willing girl, Emily. There is something you can do though.’

‘What is it?’ Nesta Barlow looked like a mischievous child, she thought.

‘Take this.’ The old lady held out what looked like a folded envelope and inside it was a half crown and on the inside of the flap were two words, ‘Sea Breeze’. Emily was mystified. Did Miss Nesta want some soap or other toiletry? ‘What is it?’

Miss Nesta looked around. ‘It’s a bet. I want you to find a bookie or some such person and place that bet for me.’

Emily’s mouth dropped open. ‘Miss Nesta! A bet!’

‘Hush!’ She smiled. ‘My brother, Tom, taught me how to do it. To study form. Of course I can’t have a racing paper or anything like that but I sometimes borrow Stockley’s paper. He doesn’t know of course. I pretend I want it for the news.’

Emily was still mesmerized. Was she hearing all this?

‘I used to do it quite often when Tom was alive. It used to be our secret. I got great satisfaction from it because Papa detested betting and gambling. It was my way of paying him back, you see. He never knew, more’s the pity, and quite often I won. Millie would have a heart attack if she knew,’ she whispered.

A smile spread across Emily’s face. It was too absurd. Miss Nesta – a secret gambler.

‘I always win on horses that are named Sea or Ocean or are in some way connected with the sea and ships.’ She rubbed her hands together. ‘Oh, Papa would hate it and besides it’s so exciting and I don’t have much fun. It’s poetic justice, too, that I do win so often. Now, not a word to anyone, Emily. It will be our secret and if I win you shall have some of my winnings.’

‘But Miss Nesta, I don’t know any bookies!’

‘But you must do.’

‘I don’t! Honestly!’

‘Then ask your brothers or Mr Davies or your young man, but you’ll have to be quick. The race is at three o’clock and Millie will be back at four thirty.’

‘Edwin is away and my brothers are at work, and it’s illegal.’

‘Then ask Mr Davies. Now hurry up, Emily.’

All the way home she kept laughing to herself. Miss Nesta, of all people, gambling on a horse race! She could imagine Miss Millicent’s face.

Albert was in the yard when she dashed in.

‘What’s up, Emily?’

‘Do you know any bookies?’

‘What?’

‘Do you? It’s not for me – it’s for Miss Nesta. Look.’ She held out the envelope.

‘Miss Nesta Barlow?’

‘I know it sounds crazy but it’s true. She wants this on the three o’clock at Haydock. Apparently her brother taught her how to do it and she used it as a way to get back at her father for refusing all the offers of marriage. He hated gambling.’

‘So do I.’

‘What am I to do? I can’t disappoint her.’

Albert looked perplexed. ‘Ask your mam.’

Lily was as dumbfounded as Albert but in the end she said, ‘Go and see Florrie Harper. Her Harry knows a bookie. But don’t get caught! I don’t want to see the police round here and us all dragged off for illegal gambling. What’s the world coming to Albert? The likes of a lady like Miss Nesta gambling on horses!’

‘Well, they are a bit odd the pair of them but I never thought she’d do anything like this. It beats all, Lil, it certainly does.’

 

To everyone’s amusement and astonishment the horse won, and Jimmy was duly sent down to ‘Black Jack’ Costello for the winnings which Emily smuggled to Miss Nesta the following day. The old lady rubbed her little hands together in glee. ‘How much is it, Emily?’ she whispered.

‘Two pounds ten shillings, miss.’ She passed over the money.

‘Here, this is for you. I knew I could trust you and I think you will be lucky for me.’ She handed Emily the ten shilling note.

‘Oh, I couldn’t take all that, Miss Nesta!’

‘Don’t be silly. It’s for “services rendered” and I did promise you you should have something.’

‘I can’t take ten shillings!’

‘Yes, you can. I’ll hear no more arguments.’

Reluctantly Emily took the money and tucked it inside her dress. ‘What did you mean by me being lucky for you?’

‘Oh, this is just the start. You see, for years I haven’t had anyone to take the bets for me. Mary got too old, then she got sick, so until you came I couldn’t indulge my little “fancy”. Then I had to be sure I could trust you but you were so understanding about my yesterday chest that I knew you wouldn’t fail me and I was right.’

‘You mean you’re going to . . . ?’

‘Yes. Only once a week, mind. I’m not greedy and I really don’t have any use for the money. If I started buying things Millie would get suspicious.’

Emily didn’t know what to say. ‘But . . . but what do you do with your winnings?’ she asked, before she realized that it wasn’t her place to ask such a question.

Miss Nesta tapped the side of her nose with her forefinger. ‘That’s my little secret.’

Emily shook her head wondering just what she’d let herself in for. It was against the law, so she realized that some proper arrangements would have to be made with ‘Black Jack’ Costello or both she and Miss Nesta Barlow could end up in court.

 

When Edwin returned she had accumulated nearly thirty shillings she told him laughingly.

‘You’re having me on, Em! You don’t mean that she’s got a regular arrangement with “Black Jack” Costello to back horses?’

‘She has. The day before the race she writes down her horse on a bit of paper, I wrap it up and put it under the bootscraper by the gate and then he strolls past, bends down to tie his bootlace and picks it up. She only bets on horses whose names are connected with the sea though.’

‘What about her winnings?’

‘Same thing, except I watch for him passing, then nip out and pick it up before anyone else does.’

He roared with laughter. ‘I just hope Costello’s trustworthy.’

‘He has to be. Our Jack and Jimmy have sworn they’ll shop him if he starts any tricks and, besides, she has agreed that he takes his “commission”, as she calls it, out of the winnings.’

‘How often does she win?’

‘Nearly all the time. I swear I don’t know how she does it and our Jimmy says Costello doesn’t either but he’s glad all his customers aren’t like her.’

‘The old man must be spinning in his grave!’ Edwin whooped.

‘That’s her intention.’

‘What does she do with the money? Surely her sister would notice anything new or extra?’

‘That’s the odd part. I don’t know. I asked her but she wouldn’t tell me. I do all the dusting and cleaning and I’ve never come across a hidden hoard. Maybe she puts it in the bank.’

‘Don’t be daft, Em. Miss Millicent would find that out and so would old man Mercer. Maybe she’s got other vices that she spends it on. She’s a rum old thing if ever there was one. I wouldn’t have credited it.’

‘Well, she’s not hurting anyone.’

He became serious. ‘You make sure you’re careful, Emily. You could both go to jail you know. She knows it’s illegal and so do you and you’d be accused of “receiving” or “aiding and abetting”, sorry about the pun.’

‘I will and so will “Black Jack”. It’s his skin as well. Mam was mortified but everyone else thinks it’s a huge joke. Except our Phoebe-Ann. I honestly don’t think she knows what’s going on, her head is full of cotton wool. Have you seen Alice Wainwright hanging around the docks with anyone from the
Maury
?’

‘No. Should I have?’

‘Just that the way Phoebe-Ann talks Alice must be practically engaged to someone on her. I don’t know who.’

Edwin recalled the day they’d seen Jake Malone sober and shopping but then dismissed the memory. ‘And talking of engagements.’ He drew a small box from his pocket and handed it to her.

She took it from him and gulped. The moment had arrived. There could be no putting it off now and really she should try to be happy about it. She was, she told herself. She’d been the one who had agreed to the engagement, to be otherwise wasn’t being fair to him. She was just being stupid. She opened it. A gold ring set with a tiny sapphire nestled inside. ‘Oh, it’s lovely, it really is!’

‘I thought seeing that you’ve got blue eyes that it would be nice, like. A bit different.’

‘Shall I wear it now?’

‘Do you want to, Em?’

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak, as he slipped it on her finger.

‘I love you, Emily.’

‘And I love you.’ She laid her head on his shoulder. She did love him. She did, but she knew she should have felt happier than this, that there shouldn’t be that curious feeling in her stomach as though it were awash with ice water. She felt that the smile was nailed to her face.

‘When will we tell them all?’

She raised her head. ‘What’s wrong with right now?’

He got up, pulling her with him. ‘At the rate you and Miss Nesta Barlow are going you’ll have saved up enough for the wedding before me.’

 

Their announcement was met with cries of joy and surprise from Lily, Albert and Jack. Jimmy, Rhys and Phoebe-Ann were out.

Lilly searched her daughter’s face with relief. Emily had obviously overcome her terrible experience at the hands of James Mercer and she was so relieved. She’d always liked Edwin Leeson and the announcement couldn’t have made her happier. She just wished Phoebe-Ann would find herself someone decent like Edwin. She said as much as she hugged him.

Albert pumped his hand and Jack slapped him on the back and made jokes about Emily making an honest man out of him and was he going to give up this wild life at sea.

‘Only if you’re going to pay my wages, Jack.’

Jack was glad that Emily had got herself a decent bloke. Mam would worry less and that would make things easier for Jimmy and himself, for they were both talking about emigrating.

‘This calls for a celebration. Jack, get down to the pub and bring our Jimmy and Rhys back home and get a bottle of something.’ Lily went for her purse but Albert forestalled her by pushing a note into Jack’s hand.

‘And if you see our Phoebe-Ann tell her to come home now. In fact go and call at that Alice’s and see if she’s there. She spends more time there than here these days,’ Lily called after him.

She turned to Emily. ‘Have you thought of a date yet?’

‘Don’t go rushing them, Lil,’ Albert laughed.

‘No. Give us a chance, Mam.’