‘Henry was not mentally weak,’ Ellie protested immediately, ‘he was simply bullied and…and made to feel so unhappy by his father that –’
Elizabeth’s eyes narrowed. ‘I shall be magnanimous and pretend that I have not heard you speak so disrespectfully of dear Mr Charnock, Ellie. In your shoes I would have thought you would have had more care. After all, you are totally dependent on Mr Charnock’s goodwill, aren’t you? With Henry dead, he has no legal reason to continue to support you. Indeed, I confess that I am a little surprised that Mr Parkes has not offered to have you back, especially in view of the fragile health of his own wife. I believe she lives very quietly these days.’
If Elizabeth was hoping to trick her into an indiscreet outburst regarding Mr Parkes’ relationship with his mistress then she was going to be disappointed, Ellie decided grimly.
‘I must say, though, Ellie that I am a little surprised myself. I own that in your shoes I doubt that I would feel I could continue to stay here, especially in view of the embarrassment any connection to you must cause us now, having regard to the behaviour of a certain member of your family – I shall not sully my lips with her name!
‘However, Mr Charnock is the most generous of
men and none of us has any wish that you should feel that you are being pushed out of what has been your home, Ellie. Of course, you will be welcome to stay, if you wish, and I have suggested to Mr Charnock that if you do you would probably welcome the chance to repay his kindness to you by taking on the role of housekeeper. With all this talk of war and the increase in the line’s business, it is more than likely that I shall have to do a great deal more entertaining here than you have been used to doing. Of course, I have the experience for that sort of thing, which I know that you do not. When Mr Charnock complained to me that you were not running the house as he wished, I did tell him that it was perhaps because you simply did not know how to do so. You will feel much more comfortable working under my direction, Ellie. Oh, and my dear mother-in-law is likely to be moving in with us as well. She is not in the best of health, I am afraid…’
Numbly, Ellie listened to her. She had known that her father-in-law intended to appoint his nephew as his heir, but it had never occurred to her that he would invite George and Elizabeth to move into the house, nor that he would give Elizabeth the authority to tell her that she intended to move her into the attic…like a servant. A pregnant servant – and everyone knew what happened to them! They were dismissed without references or character and forced to go into the workhouse.
The shop, which she had chosen because it was on the other side of the city, was tucked away down a narrow maze of streets. Ellie had taken Maisie with her for moral support, but she left the tweeny outside whilst she went into the chemist’s trying to hold her head up high as she showed him the advertisement she had cut from the magazine.
She could feel her face burning as the shopkeeper looked at her, whilst she stammeringly told him that she had come in search of the potion on behalf of a friend.
Without a word he disappeared into the back of the shop, returning within minutes with a small dark-coloured bottle.
Ellie’s hand was shaking as she handed over the money and took the bottle from him.
Just in case the one dose should not be sufficient, Ellie gritted her teeth and set herself the task of acquiring two more.
Maisie clung nervously to her arm when she emerged from the final shop. Maisie had been increasingly attached to her and increasingly dependent on her, Ellie recognised as she gently reassured her. Her learning abilities were severely limited and, like the young child she mentally was, she tended to grow extremely fearful whenever she was parted from what was familiar to her.
As they walked home Ellie acknowledged that there was no way any employment agency would take Maisie onto its books, and she doubted that
even her soft-hearted cousin would be persuaded to find a place in her own household for her.
Ellie had no illusions about her own future. Apart from the guineas she had found amongst Henry’s things, and the jewellery she had been given by Mr Parkes, she had no assets of any value. She could earn herself a modest living with her needle, of course, provided she could find enough customers, and providing that she was allowed enough time off from her ‘housekeeping’ duties to do so.
The unpalatable truth was that she was all too likely to end up as an unpaid drudge in the household where she had been mistress.
But her first and most pressing task now was to read and then follow the instructions she had been given with her bottles of ‘health restoring’ potion, and it was to that end that she was hurrying Maisie back to the house she no longer felt she could call home.
‘Well now, if it in’t young Gideon.’
Gideon gave Will Pride a wry look as Will slapped him heartily on the back. He had just been walking past The Fleece public house when Will had come out – staggered out was perhaps a more appropriate description, Gideon recognised.
‘Heard how well you’ve been doing, young ’un. Inheriting all that money, aye, and getting yoursel’ a fine business going too by all accounts. Who wud ha’ thought it? By, I remember when you first come to me looking for work. Nowt to you then, there wasn’t, lad. Aye, I remember too the way our Robert’s Lyddy turned her nose up at you, and wouldn’t countenance you walking out with her Ellie. Always was stuck up, was Lyddy. Mind, she would ha’ had her comeuppance now with all this to-do with their Connie! Run off with one of the Connolly lads, she has, and set the whole town by the ears, no mistake! They’re saying that the Barclays have cut themselves right off from all of
their Lyddy’s young ‘uns on account of Connie’s disgrace.
‘As I heard it, Bill Connolly has said he’ll break every bone in young Kieron’s body when he catches up with him – aye, and that our Connie wants shutting up in t’ workhouse. A fine to-do it’s caused, and no mistake, and still no one the wiser as to where the pair of them have gone.
‘And then there’s poor Ellie, in mourning for that husband o’ hers. Topped hissel’…’ Will shook his head.
Gideon’s mouth compressed. He had heard all about Henry’s suicide, and Ellie’s ‘bravery’ in coping with her widowhood.
As he took his leave of Will Pride, he told himself sourly that Ellie had no more business being in his thoughts. He had had his revenge on her, and now he had written her out of his life.
So why did he continue to dream so vividly about her, about being with her? So his body remembered her pleasurably! Well, it didn’t know her as well as he did, and anyway, wasn’t one woman very much like another when you got down to it – and in more ways than one? He had had to make it plain to his actress friend that her none-too-subtle suggestions that he should marry her were a waste of time. She had been happy enough merely to share his bed when he had had precious little else to share with her, but now that the whole town knew just how warm a man he was, she was more interested in having access to his bank account than his body.
A woman might claim that she loved you, but in the end, money and social position were what she loved more. He had seen that proved over and over again.
Of course, there were exceptions – foolish women like his true mother and Connie, who threw their futures away for the sake of some man. Had Ellie been more like her sister, then maybe things would have been different.
From upstairs on the tram where they were sitting, since Maisie had a childlike delight in riding up there, Ellie could see the top of the Royal Liver Building, and the pierhead beyond it, thronged with people. One of the Cunarders was in, and Ellie could see the gaggles of cleaning women making their way towards the vessel.
The business of cleaning out the liners when they arrived in port was very much sought after, and said to be under the control of a handful of Liverpool families all based around the same few streets. Whilst the tram pulled into a stop Ellie glanced out to see a ship of the Elder Dempster Line tied up in Toxteth Dock. One could walk by the docks and hear the imported African grey parrots calling out all manner of pleasantries (and unpleasantries) at the command of the seamen who brought and trained them for sale.
Even Maisie had stopped staring and pointing in excitement now at the sight of so many people
from so many different cultures. The docks area, as always, was a hum of activity. From her seat Ellie could just about see the building that housed the offices of the Charnock Shipping Line. Instinctively her hand went to her thankfully still flat stomach. In different circumstances, should she have borne a son, the business would one day be his.
But the child she was carrying, were it to be born, would have no rights to any part of Henry’s ‘estate’, since it was not his child. And even if it had been…Tiredly Ellie acknowledged that she would never want her child to be subjected to the same kind of upbringing that had so destroyed poor Henry’s spirit and self-confidence.
The dreadful outbreak of strike action, which had paralysed so much of the country and brought so much hardship to its working people, was now thankfully coming to an end, although the poor miners in Wales were still being subjected to the most harsh kind of treatment by the government, and Ellie had noticed that there was an atmosphere of brooding hostility in the city between working men and their employers. And whilst Liverpool’s docks and sea lanes were filled with merchant vessels flying the Red Ensign, proving the business and wealth of the city and its shipping lines, wages were still low, and in the lines of men waiting to be taken on they still grumbled amongst themselves about their pay.
The
Liverpool Review
was constantly running
articles about the shameful nature of certain parts of the city to which, unknowingly, seamen were lured and taken advantage of, often left drunk and destitute in the street, an abhorrence that persevered and prospered, despite all the attempts of those worthies who ran the Sailors’ Homes, which were supposed to provide them with a decent, respectable place to sleep.
Out in the sea lane a liner was waiting for its pilot boat. What would it be like to board her and sail away to a new country and a new life? Ellie shivered as the tram lurched into life and moved on. A new life? And what exactly was she to live on, pray?
Twenty minutes later, the tram reached their stop and Ellie chivied Maisie downstairs. The maid never wanted the ride to be over and always resisted getting off. Though outwardly patient, inwardly Ellie was in turmoil. She was praying that tonight would be one of the nights when her father-in-law remained away from home so that she could spend the evening completing the task she had set herself.
She wished desperately that Iris was not away. She could not have told her what she planned, of course – it was both illegal and a mortal sin – but she could at least perhaps have asked a few pertinent questions of her so that she might know what to expect.
Women often miscarried children in the early months of their pregnancies, she knew, but what
exactly was going to happen? As she hurried Maisie, Ellie felt a sharp resurgence of her long-buried fear of childbirth. She had no alternative than to do what she was going to do. She did not want this child, Gideon’s child. How could she, after what he had done; after what he had said to her? And if Mr Charnock should think that she had conceived Henry’s child, from what Elizabeth had said to her he was probably likely to render her homeless straight away!
And if that were to happen, where could she go? Not to her Aunt and Uncle Parkes, nor to any other of her late mother’s relations. Cecily, always soft-hearted, would be bound to want to help her, but Ellie knew that Cecily’s mother would not allow her to do so.
Iris might have helped had she been here, but it was going to be the New Year before she returned from her holiday.
There was a stitch in Ellie’s side well before she and Maisie had reached the Charnock house. Partially because of the long walk from the tram stop, and partially because of the sharply cold November wind, Ellie was forced to stop to catch her breath. Several yards away she could see a newspaper vendor. Absently she glanced at the headline written on the board, and then froze as she read ‘Murderer to Hang Before the Month is Out!’
Her stomach churned. Quickly she turned away, urging Maisie to walk faster.
Never ever would she forget discovering Henry’s body. Never, ever would she forget the mixture of anguish, guilt and grief that had filled her. How could she endure to bear a child conceived in such a way. And at such a time!
Gripped by her own unhappy thoughts, at first Ellie didn’t see the hackney carriage pulled up on their carriageway, but she could see the open front door and she could hear too the loud furious voice of her father-in-law.
Quickly dispatching Maisie to the kitchen entrance, Ellie hurried inside the house and then came to an abrupt stop.
There, in the middle of the hall, was the most extraordinary and unexpected sight: a tiny dark-haired lady, who was obviously Japanese from her costume, her hands folded and her head bowed as she listened to Jarvis Charnock’s furious raging, and a small girl, no more than three years old at best, Ellie guessed, standing equally still at her side, and dressed in a matching costume.
Elizabeth stood next to Ellie’s father-in-law, her mouth compressed with distaste.
‘You dare to come here and claim some acquaintance with my son, telling me that this child you have brought with you was fathered by him?’
‘Do not listen to her, Mr Charnock,’ Elizabeth was demanding. ‘Look how well she speaks English. She has never come all the way from Japan, no matter what she says. You may depend on it she is out of some dreadful unspeakable place down by
the docks and is trying to lay claim to poor Henry as a father for her wretched child because she knows he is dead.’
‘Dead? My Henry-san is dead? No! That cannot be.’
The soft voice was filled with a pain of such intensity that Ellie’s eyes immediately filled with sympathetic tears.
The young woman had lifted her head as she spoke, and now that Ellie could see her face properly she recognised her immediately as the figure in the photograph she had found with Henry’s things.
Immediately, she stepped forward and said firmly,
‘Father-in-law…Elizabeth…I think you may be misjudging this young woman. At all events, let us at least show her hospitality and good manners by offering her something to eat and drink.’
The small white face turned towards Ellie, the dark eyes burning with an intensity that made her ache with sympathy.
‘I am – was Henry’s wife,’ Ellie explained gently to her.
‘You are my Henry-san’s wife?’ The girl, for she was little more than that, Ellie recognised, looked searchingly at her. ‘You were fortunate to have such a brave husband as my Henry-san,’ she told Ellie gravely.
‘Brave?’ Jarvis Charnock repeated scornfully.
‘Yes, he was very brave,’ she insisted fiercely. ‘For did he not rescue me with his own hands
and take me from that dreadful ship I was to be sent away on!’
Ellie frowned as she listened to her, remembering the passion with which Henry had denounced to her the fate of innocent young girls sent by their parents to work abroad, but in reality destined to end up in brothels.
‘You must know how kind a man he was,’ she appealed to Ellie, ‘for did you not have the good fortune to be his wife?’
She was trembling as she spoke, huge tears filling the slanting dark eyes, the small rosebud mouth stiff with distress. At her side the little girl, whom Ellie saw was definitely of mixed blood, having much rounder European eyes and softer hair of a different texture from her mother’s, as well as paler skin, clung despairingly to her. The combination of East and West was an exotic one, Ellie recognised, and when the child grew up she would be very beautiful. For now, though, she was clinging in mute exhaustion to her mother’s robe, her little face tight with fear.
‘Oh, I do not think I can endure any more of this,’ Elizabeth suddenly exclaimed, expressing her hand to her forehead in a theatrical fashion. ‘The shame of such a thing happening – the brazenness of it!’ She gave a deep shudder, closing her eyes, and then opening them again to turn to Henry’s father and demand, ‘You must send this woman away, Mr Charnock. I cannot bring my innocent children under the same roof as this kind of woman. To
brazenly seek out Henry, and to bring her…the results of her sinful relationship with her…’
‘Henry-san told me he would come back for me, and when he did not I knew he would want me to come to him!’ the Japanese woman burst out frantically. ‘Oh, my beloved Henry, I cannot believe that he is dead!’
‘Let me take you and the child down to the kitchen where you can have something to eat,’ Ellie suggested gently.
‘No! I forbid it,’ Elizabeth announced dramatically. ‘That woman shall not be allowed to stay a single minute longer beneath this roof. You must send her away immediately, Mr Charnock,’ she repeated.
‘Elizabeth, you cannot mean that,’ Ellie protested, genuinely shocked at the other woman’s lack of compassion. ‘Whatever the rights and wrongs of the situation, we should at least offer Henry’s…friend a bed for the night, and then –’
‘Well, of course, you would say that, wouldn’t you?’ Elizabeth sneered. ‘After all, what difference is there really between this…this creature and your own sister? The woman must go.’ As she spoke, Elizabeth was sweeping towards the front door.
Outraged, Ellie picked up her skirts and followed her, reaching the door and barring it.
‘Step out of my way this instant,’ Elizabeth demanded furiously. ‘I am the mistress of this house now, Ellie.’ As she spoke she turned to Jarvis
Charnock for support and immediately he gave it, inclining his head in a nod of agreement.
Triumph glittered malevolently in Elizabeth’s blue eyes.
‘The woman must leave – and now. I will not have my home, the home to which I shall be bringing my children, sullied by the presence of such as her, and the…the fruits of her illicit union. Of course, if you wish to do so, Ellie, you could always leave with her.’
Ellie stared at her, but there was no mistaking the intention in Elizabeth’s challenge. She wanted her to leave, Ellie recognised, and she would go on wanting her to, until she finally did so. A shiver of fear went through her. And if she felt fear then how on earth must this poor woman in front of her be feeling, Ellie wondered.
‘Very well then, I shall leave. I would far rather be rendered homeless than live amongst people who are so lacking in human Christian charity,’ Ellie declared bravely, whilst inwardly she wondered just what she was doing. It was too late to call back the words, though. She could see the smugness of victory on Elizabeth’s face.
‘We shall all leave,’ she continued coolly, lifting her chin as she added challengingly, ‘But not until tomorrow morning, since it will take me some time to collect my belongings together and to make alternative arrangements for – to make alternative arrangements.’