For a dreadful moment Ellie thought that Elizabeth
was actually going to demand that she left immediately, but to her relief the other woman’s gaze flickered and she looked away.
‘Very well then, but if this woman is to remain overnight it must be in your room, Ellie, and the child with her.’
Not bothering to make any reply, Ellie shepherded the Japanese lady and her child towards the kitchen. Tonight the three of them would have to share the bed she had shared with Henry, and then tomorrow…
There was only one place she could go now, Ellie recognised. Only one person she could turn to.
It was only when she was on the verge of falling asleep that she remembered the potions she had been at such pains to buy. She would worry about them tomorrow, she told herself wearily, as she tried to close her ears to the muffled sobbing of the woman curled up on the other side of the bed, the woman who was mourning Henry in a way that a woman mourns the loss of the man to whom she had committed her life and her love. After all, what possible difference could one more day make?
‘But why do they have to come with us, miss?’ Maisie demanded sulkily as Ellie settled her three charges as comfortably as she could in their carriage. There was no way she could leave Maisie behind to fend for herself, and Ellie hoped her father would understand why it had been necessary for
her to bring three unrelated people home with her. She had decided against telephoning him with any advance warning of her arrival, and instead planned to plead her case with him once she had arrived. The Friargate house may not be large but it did have extra bedroom space on its third and attic floors, and Ellie wasn’t too proud to occupy one of them, nor to set about getting herself some work in order to contribute to the household expenses, both for herself and for her newly acquired responsibilities – because Maisie, the Japanese girl, whose name was Minaco, and the little girl, whom she had named Henrietta in honour of her father, were now her responsibilities, Ellie recognised.
She had arranged that the trunks she had packed so speedily this morning with all her belongings would be collected from the house and then transported to her in Preston.
She had already learned from Minaco that it was Henry who had taught her to speak English and that on his departure she had found herself a job as a translator in order to support herself once the money Henry had left for her had run out.
‘He promised me that he would send me more, and that he would come back to me,’ she had told Ellie, with eyes full of tears.
Ellie’s heart had ached for her, despite her shock.
Preston would always be her home, Ellie acknowledged, as she guided her charges through its streets. It was market day, and the town was busy. Several people recognised her and stopped to talk to
her whilst looking curiously at her small entourage.
At last they reached Friargate, and Ellie was relieved to see that the shop was empty of customers and that only her father was standing behind the counter.
‘Ellie!’ He looked older and somehow smaller as he hurried over to hug her. ‘Me and Maggie were both sorry to hear about your Henry. A sad business, that was, lass. Suicide.’ He shook his head, as Ellie stepped back from him.
‘It’s because of Henry’s death that I…we are here, Father,’ she began quietly. ‘Henry’s father does not…will not…’ Ellie could hear someone passing outside, and, not wanting to have their conversation overheard, she reached out and touched her father’s arm, begging him, ‘Can we not go upstairs? This is not the place to discuss what I have to say to you.’
Her father frowned. ‘Well, I’m not sure as Maggie would like that, Ellie. You see –’
‘What are you saying I would not like? Oh, it’s you,’ Maggie announced as she suddenly appeared in the shop, carrying her baby daughter. Giving Ellie a sharply disagreeable look, she demanded, ‘And who might this lot be?’
Ignoring her stepmother Ellie turned in desperation to her father. ‘Father, please, I must speak with you. Henry’s father has refused to take in Minaco and her child, despite the fact that they are both morally Henry’s responsibility, and since my role within the household has been taken over
by Henry’s cousin’s wife, I have had no option but to leave myself. Father, please, may we stay here with you?’
‘Stay here?’ Maggie interrupted sharply, jiggling her baby on her hip. ‘I’d like to know where, seeing as there’s a houseful here already.’
‘A houseful?’ Ellie queried, looking in bewilderment from Maggie and the baby to her father.
‘Maggie’s mother and her brother and sister are currently living with us, Ellie,’ her father told her uncomfortably, avoiding meeting Ellie’s eyes.
Ellie could feel frightened tears burning the backs of her eyes. Did Maggie’s relatives have more claim on him now than his own flesh and blood?
‘Father, please,’ she begged.
‘Don’t you go giving in to her, Robert Pride,’ Maggie warned him angrily. ‘It’s hard enough trying to feed the mouths we’ve already got wi’out tekin’ any more in, thanks to you letting the business go to rack and ruin.’
Ellie felt for her father as she heard the angry contempt in Maggie’s voice.
‘Not more’n half a dozen customers you’ve had in all week,’ she continued, glowering at Ellie. ‘Only last night you was saying business was so bad that you wanted me to try to get m’sel’ summat at one o’ t’ mills whilst Ma looked after the babby!’
Ellie ached for the misery and shame she could see in her father’s eyes as he looked at Maggie.
‘If your mother had young Andy and Susan in
her room with her, Ellie could have those two attic rooms, and –’ he ploughed on.
‘What, you would turn my family out of their rooms to house this lot? Over my dead body,’ Maggie announced.
With every word her father and his second wife exchanged, Ellie’s hopes faded. It was obvious to her that even if Maggie were persuaded to make room for them in the house, there was simply not enough money coming in from the shop to keep them all. The shop-front windows, like those of the house, had their paint peeling from them, an air of shabbiness surrounding them.
Even without the enmity towards her that she could see in Maggie’s eyes, Ellie recognised that it would be impossible for her to move back home.
She felt sorry for her father. Rather than distress him any further it was best that they left, she acknowledged wearily.
‘Very well then,’ she announced quietly, clamping down on the weakening feeling of panic churning her insides. ‘If we can’t stay here then I had best go and find somewhere we can stay!’
‘Try down by the docks,’ Maggie suggested, her face flushed. ‘There’s places there that take in the likes of her,’ she added, nodding in Minaco’s direction. ‘Seems like some of them sailors have a liking for her sort!’
‘Maggie!’ Ellie heard her father object, but Ellie didn’t lower herself to make any response. She just hoped that Minaco had not understood what
Maggie was referring to! Gathering together her small flock she shepherded them out into Friargate. She had no idea what on earth she was going to do or how she was going to put a roof over all their heads, but somehow she would, she promised herself grimly.
They were halfway down Friargate when Ellie heard her father calling her name. Turning round, she saw him hurrying towards her.
‘Don’t take what Maggie said too much to heart, lass,’ he told her awkwardly. ‘She doesn’t mean any harm. Here…take this…’ Even more uncomfortably he thrust five guineas into Ellie’s hand. ‘’T isn’t much, I know, but it’s all I can spare right now, lass. And look, I’ve written down our John’s address for you. Happen them as he lodges with might be able to recommend somewhere for you to rent until you get yourself sorted out. Ellie love, I wish I could do summat to help you, but you can see how things are,’ he continued miserably. ‘Business hasn’t been so good just recently: there’s men out of work and everyone is tightening their belts. If I was you I’d go back to Liverpool. It’s the best place for you, lass. Maggie doesn’t mean any harm. I know she’s got a sharp tongue, but if things were different…’
Ellie couldn’t bear the look of defeated misery in her father’s eyes. Throwing her arms around him she whispered emotionally, ‘It’s all right. I understand.’
Ellie looked at the money her father had given her. Five guineas! She felt guilty about taking it, but what choice did she have? She needed it to buy them all a roof over their heads tonight. At least tomorrow she could ring the carter and once her things had been delivered – Henry’s precious cache of guineas, her sewing machine and the pieces of fabric she had stocked up, as well as the medicine she had been at such pains to buy – then somehow she would have to find a way of making a new life for them all.
Soberly she looked at the other three.
Maisie was red-nosed and sniffling, round-eyed with misery and fear; Minaco’s eyes held their own anxiety and also a heart-aching depth of pain; whilst her little girl stood stoically at her side, too young perhaps to understand what was happening to them all, or perhaps too accustomed already to dramatic changes in her life.
‘Oh, miss, what’s going to happen to us?’ Maisie wailed. ‘I’m hungry. Me belly’s that empty it’s fair growling.’ As though to underline her point she pressed her hands to her stomach.
‘We’ll soon all have something to eat, Maisie,’ Ellie promised with more conviction than she was feeling, ‘but first we need to find somewhere to stay.’
Preston had a good number of inns and hotels, but Ellie had no intention of wasting money on them. No, what they needed was a cheap, clean boarding house where they could all stay until she
could find somewhere more permanent for them to rent.
She would need a property in a decent part of town, of course, especially since the only way she could support them all was with her needle. The kind of clients she had sewed for in Liverpool were never going to employ someone who lived in one of the poorer parts of the town!
Wearily Ellie acknowledged that she had been hoping to gain clients by word of mouth – the wives of her father’s friends; her late mother’s friends. Well, she had best accustom herself to the fact that that was not going to happen, she told herself briskly. Instead she would have to advertise for business – perhaps in the very paper that John’s patron sometimes worked for. Every cloud has its silver lining, she reminded herself sternly, and she must just look for hers!
‘Miss, why can’t we go home?’
It was three hours since they had left Friargate. Maisie’s face was smudged with dirt where she had rubbed a grubby hand through her tears. Ellie’s own legs ached from all the walking they had done, from street to street, and up and down them, whilst she knocked at every door that displayed a ‘Rooms to let’ sign.
But on each doorstep she had received the same response. After one look at Minaco and then another at Maisie, their prospective landlady had
given a grim shake of her head and told them that she had no spare rooms.
‘Miss, I’m hungry,’ Maisie wailed as they walked through the market. Many of the stallholders were closing up for the day, and out of the corner of her eye Ellie saw a shabbily dressed young urchin dodging a cuff from one of them as he snatched a piece of cheese from the stall.
As a girl – a lifetime ago now, or so it seemed – Ellie could remember watching round-eyed as the poor people of the town clustered round the closing stalls, begging for spoiled pies, some of them even retrieving food that had fallen from them onto the floor.
Her own stomach was growling emptily. Automatically she covered it with her hand. It was still flat. Her heart started to beat faster. The sooner her trunk arrived and she could follow the instructions on those bottles she had purchased, the better. For a moment, as she contemplated the situation she was in, tears burned her eyes. Fiercely she blinked them away. She was the leader of their small group; the others were dependent on her. She had to be strong for their sakes.
‘Quick, Maisie,’ she instructed the serving girl. ‘Over here…’ Hurrying them over to a bread stall, she dug into her pocket for some farthings, offering them to the harassed woman packing everything up.
‘Those rolls over there – I’ll give you a halfpenny for them,’ she offered. There were six rolls left in a basket.
The woman scowled at her. ‘Oh, you will, will you? Well, I’ll have you know them is a farthing each.’
Ellie stood her ground. ‘A halfpenny for four of them,’ she persisted.
At her side Maisie began to sob noisily. And Ellie’s heart sank as she saw from the woman’s expression that she wasn’t going to give way, but then suddenly half a dozen young boys came rushing past, bumping into the stall and sending the basket flying.
Before Ellie could stop her, Maisie had pounced on one of the rolls and was stuffing it into her mouth. Quickly snatching up another three, Ellie dropped her halfpenny down on the stall, and hurried them all away.
What she had done was as good as stealing, she told herself, as she handed Minaco and Henrietta a roll each, waiting until her own heart had stopped pounding before beginning to eat her own.
It was almost evening and they still hadn’t found anywhere to stay. She had tried John’s address, but the family were away and the house closed up. The sky had clouded over and it was beginning to rain. Wearily, Ellie hurried towards yet another door.
The woman who opened it to her knock was wearing clogs and her hair was tied up in rag curlers. A smell of grease and cabbage wafted down the hallway and Ellie’s stomach heaved.
‘What is it you want? If you’re after selling summat you’re wasting your time.’
‘We’re looking for a room,’ Ellie explained.
Immediately, the woman’s expression hardened. ‘Oh, ye are, are ye? Well, you won’t find one here! This is a respectable house, not one where we take in heathen savages,’ she announced, looking at Minaco. ‘It’s down by the docks for the likes of you, where they don’t mind what they take in.’
Ellie could feel her face burning with resentment and shame.
The street was busy with workers from the mills and Dick Kerr’s, the tram factory, making their way home. Ellie envied them for having homes to go to; for having lives in which they felt safe and secure.