Authors: Sylvia Burton
Chapter
Eleven
Ellie had been in service for two years now and had won the heart of everyone who worked in the ‘big house’, with the exception of the housekeeper Miss Maud, who hated her, and everyone knew it.
Missus Blunt loved her and tried to make life easier for her. She also made life a little better for Kate too because Ellie cared for her. Ellie was never made aware of this, as Cook didn’t want it thought that she had a
favourite amongst the staff. However, William had noticed and was grateful to Rose for her kindness to the girl, and for the first time, since they were married, William felt a new kind of love for his wife.
During the summer of 1899, as in all the time she had worked at the house, Ellie dutifully returned home to her family every month. She delivered her wages to her mother every fourth week, which had been increased by three shillings a month, and used this time to catch up with the happenings in Canal Street.
‘Ma Bagnall’s windows were broken, you know’, said Maggie, ‘young thugs they were. Looking to get their hands on anything of value, I expect’.
Ellie felt sure that they didn’t find what they were looking for at old Ma Bagnall’s house. The poor woman had very little.
‘And you friend, Mary’, she went on; ‘
she’s
got herself a young man’.
According to her mother’s account, ‘ought to watch her step, otherwise, she could end up pregnant’.
She told Ellie, in hushed tones, about the scandal of neighbour, Walter Stanton, who lived two doors away. It would seem that his wife, Floss, had run off with the coal man, only to find that he didn’t have ‘hundreds’ in the bank, as she had been led to believe. She had tried to get Walter to take her back, begging him to forgive her, but he had said she was nothing but a harlot and he wanted nothing to do with her. They had three sons and two daughters, none of them willing to speak to their mother.
Her mother, in her formidable way, passed
judgement with, a ‘who can blame them?’ She thought she was going to have a lady’s life and she didn’t give a damn about her kids, did she? Let’s see what kind of a man she gets in the workhouse, because she’ll have another man, make no mistake. She’s like that, you know, can’t do without a man’.
On her visits home, Ellie often thought how poor the street looked. Doors, badly in need of a coat of paint, litter in the gutter and rubbish left outside the houses, instead of in the area provided. Why had she not noticed it before? It all began to feel alien to her. She knew she would not be happy to return home, permanently, nor did she feel that she belonged at the Courtney Residence. She was confused as to where she fit in, or where her place in life, actually, was.
Maggie had noticed a great change in her daughter. Her little Ellie no longer existed. She had been replaced with this, quite sophisticated, young woman, well spoken and so confident that Maggie felt she didn’t belong here, and was a little relieved when her visit was over, and she had left the house. However, she loved her dearly and was proud of how she had turned out.
Ellie was now in her eighteenth year but seemed older som
ehow. She had felt strangely detached from her ‘roots’ more, and more, of late. She didn't blame her mother. She knew that her life at the big house had changed her view of how life could be. If she was honest, she had no desire to revert to the frightened girl who had stood in front of the housekeeper, unable to speak for herself.
She liked the person she had become. She was young and strong and had long ago decided that she was going to be ‘true to herself’, and no one, not even her mother, was going to change that. No, Ellie didn’t know where she was going in life, but she knew she would never underestimate her own abilities. She was determined that she would stand by her principles no matter who she came up against in life.
Her brothers looked forward to Ellie’s visits. She always managed to bring them some morsel of food, which they had not tasted before. She found pleasure in watching the expressions of delight, or disgust, on their faces as they closed their eyes and hoped the surprise would be a good one.
William gave Ellie parcels of leftovers, and fruit when in season, to share with her family. Maggie always expressed her gratitude to Ellie.
‘Be sure to thank him for his kindness’.
On her last visit, as Ellie was about to make her way back to Thornton Avenue, Maggie had sheepishly given her a folded sheet of white paper to give to ‘the kind Mister Blunt’.
Ellie had been staggered. She had waited until she was round the corner, and out of Canal Street, before she unfolded the paper. Her mother, despite her lack of education, had penned a letter of thanks. The writing looked awkward and childlike, but Ellie almost burst with pride when she read the letter.
William had been pleased to receive it and very touched. He and his wife had never had children and although it had distressed Rose, greatly, he had not minded at all. He had not wanted the responsibility of loving, or being loved, and until Ellie had come to the house, he had lived his life quietly with little concern for anyone or anything, other than, being a good
Butler.
Now there was Ellie. Ellie was the daughter he had never had. He was acutely aware of this but Ellie, although grateful for his goodness to her, was oblivious to anything of a more personal nature that the
Butler may have felt.
Towards the end of that summer, Miss Maud gathered the staff together and told them that the family was to spend a week at the country house.
‘As the whole family is going for a vacation, and none of them will be staying here at the house, you will all be required to go along with them. The county house is not fully staffed so this is not to be considered a holiday, not by any means’.
She turned to Missus Blunt and went on, ‘the town house must not be left unoccupied; therefore, William will stay here to look after things.
I am sure you can manage without him for a little while’.
‘Well, I don’t know about that, Miss Maud’, said Missus Blunt, ‘we have stayed
behind only
together
in the past, when the family went away and William has to be taken care of, you know’.
Cook was most indignant and quite upset by the idea. She and William had never had a night apart in all their married life, and she didn’t like the thought of it at all.
The housekeeper broke in, ‘everything is arranged, Missus Blunt. Your husband’s needs will be seen to, rest assured. The Mistress insists that you accompany the party, as she wants the family to eat as well in the country, as they do here, in town. You know how difficult it is to find a good cook? So you see, my dear Missus Blunt, you are considered to be quite indispensable’.
Cook felt better already, ‘well, if they really can’t manage without me? I suppose William could get by, it’s only seven days, after all. I’ll have to have a word with him. I’m sure he’ll understand’.
Ellie and Kate exchanged glances, both excited by the prospect of travelling to York.
Later, in their bedroom, the two girls discussed the trip, each asking questions and neither knowing the answers.
Ellie wondered how they would travel and Kate thought they might be expected to walk there.
‘How far is York Ellie?’ asked Kate.
‘I really don’t know Kate, it must be a long way though’, Ellie replied, ‘it must be at least thirty miles, so I don’t think we will be made to go there on foot. It will be the longest journey I have ever taken’.
‘Me too. Well, since I was a baby. I hope we get to sleep in the same room when we get there’.
Ellie smiled and said, ‘if we do, or not, it will be exciting being in the country and it will certainly make a change from smokey old
Leeds’.
Kate was excited at the thought of seeing all the members of the family, all in one place at the same time, and wondered if they would get to speak to any of them.
‘In a friendly manner, if you know what I mean?’ she said, sitting on her bed, her arms wrapped around her knees. ‘Do you think Master Richard will be going? He’s ever so handsome, don’t you think Ellie?’
‘They’re all going, according to Miss Maud, so I expect he will be there. I only hope we never have occasion to meet’.
Kate asked, ‘why do you dislike him so much, Ellie? You’re not like that with anyone else’.
She went on, despite the serious look on her friend’s face, ‘I know you had to serve him once, but it was only the once, wasn’t it? What ever did he do to you?’
‘Nothing, I just don’t want to see him again, that's all. I think he is arrogant and ill mannered’.
‘Well, there’s something you’re not telling me’, insisted Kate, wondering why Ellie wouldn’t confide in her.
‘Oh, stop it Kate. You’re being childish’.
She regretted her words as soon as they were said. The truth was that she didn’t know why she felt the way did about Richard. She thought of him as Richard, not Master Richard, nor Sir. Since their first meeting so long ago she had, on numerous occasions, come into contact with him, as she entered or left the house.
A number of times she had been required to take messages upstairs, to the housekeeper, and had seen him in one of the rooms, leading off the main hall. Sometimes he would walk towards her, as if to speak, but never did. And she was grateful about that. If she had the good fortune to see him first, she went out of her way in order to avoid him.
What Ellie said now, was, ‘Kate, let’s not mention him again because I really don’t want to talk about him. Just accept that he is someone I am not likely to speak to at the country house. Anyway, we will be too busy working our fingers to the bone. We won’t have time for
socialising, and who would want to talk to the likes of us? Two scullery maids.’
Kate finally gave up the subject and they talked well into the night, finally drifting into sleep to dream, perhaps, of knights in shining
armour.
The next few days were spent preparing everything for the journey.
The upstairs staff was busy packing, ever increasing, items of clothing. Victoria and her children, alone, would be taking four large trunks.
Goodness knows how much more the rest of the family will take
. Ellie thought,
it just as well they are not going away for a month.
Normally, every few days, Miss Maud would bring in ‘laundry maids’ who lived nearby; to do the family’s washing.
There was a large room to the back of the kitchen which was fully equipped for the purpose, with set pots, mangles and rubbing boards. Here too, the floor was flagged but had several gullies running around the sides and down the centre of it, so that the water quickly drained out of the door.
This week, the laundry maids were in every day washing, not only, clothes but bed linen, as even this was to be taken to
York. Ellie wondered if it was all worth it,
but I expect they know what they are going to need
, she thought and her mind went back to her home, in Canal Street, where the boys would still be sleeping under old coats in order to keep warm.
Chapter
Twelve
About two thirty, on Wednesday afternoon, Cook called Ellie over. She asked Ellie to deliver a basket to a young family who lived some two miles away.
Missus Blunt whispered, confidentially. ‘They are such a nice couple but, oh they are so poor. The little boy is only a year old and
she
is almost ready to give birth again. Poor Jenny needs a little help so I’d be grateful if you would take them a little something. It’s only a drop of milk for the little one and bits of leftover food. You understand, don’t you Ellie?’
She spoke, almost as if she was asking Ellie’s permission, though of course, she needn’t have troubled. Ellie knew, only too well, the hardships of this life.
Cook added, ‘it’s only food which would be thrown out. It’s not like stealing’.
Thanks to William Ellie and her family had been on the ‘receiving end’ of this kind of charity, for the past two years, and very grateful she was too.
She smiled, reassuringly at Missus Blunt, and answered, ‘I understand, Cook, and I don’t mind going. Just write down the address and I’ll get it to them right away’.
Cook handed her the piece of paper and she read, twenty-one,
Back Parson Street, The Hunslet Road. It was just on three o’clock as she set off down the Avenue, and once she had found the Hunslet Road, it did not take her long to locate the street she was looking for.
The house was situated in a poorer area than
Canal Street, if that were possible. Dirty children played on the cobbled road, most without shoes, and all with torn or worn clothes. Unkempt women stood in groups, outside houses with dirty windows and un-scrubbed steps.
As Ellie approached number twenty-one she thought,
my mother would have a fit if she saw this squalor.
She noticed how the women eyed her up and down, whilst she waited for an answer to her knock. She was wearing a new cloth cape, which was now part of her ‘walking out’ uniform, which the Mistress had provided, and she had on her good shoes. In the eyes of the women, standing there, she must have looked quite ‘well to do’.
Ellie was relieved when a young man, whom she presumed was Jenny’s husband, let her into the house.
He said his name was Mark and he was, indeed, the man of the house, although, he hardly looked old enough. His bright red hair was badly in need of a trim and his shirt had odd buttons and was frayed at the collar. Nevertheless, he had a nice manner, although at the moment, his eyes had a worried expression.
‘Do come in Miss. I expect the basket is from Rose’
Seeing Ellie’s puzzled look, he elaborated, ‘oh, I beg pardon, you’ll know her as Missus Blunt, I expect. She’s a good soul, is Missus Blunt’.
‘Yes, she’s very kind to the staff in the kitchen’, she said, trying not to look around the bare room. It was very clean, the flags on the floor shone as if they had been polished and although there were no ‘net curtains’, the windows positively sparkled. Ellie smiled at Mark and was concerned by his obvious discomfort.
Mark smiled for the first time, as he introduced Ellie to the ‘very pregnant’ Jenny. It was a weak smile but in an instant, his face was transformed.
‘This is my wife, Jenny. I’m afraid she’s not very well’, he said, picking up a small boy and holding him to his chest.
Ellie looked over at Jenny and knew at once the reason she was ill. Jenny stood up to meet her guest, holding her back as she
heaved herself up from the chair. Ellie could see she was very near her time. She had seen many women in the same situation. She had helped at her mother’s confinement, when Harry was born, fetching water and clean towels for the Midwife.
Ellie smiled at Jenny, who was a plain girl and not much older than herself. She said with concern, ‘you’re very near to your time, aren’t you? Are you feeling
very
unwell?’
Jenny grimaced, ‘I’m afraid I am nearer than I thought. I’ve been in discomfort since
ten o’clock this morning and there’s no sign of the Midwife yet. We sent for her two hours ago’.
Mark, still agitated, broke in, ‘I’m just waiting for her to get here so I can take young Peter to his Grandmother’s. She’s going to keep him until tomorrow; it’ll be better for him to be out of the way. I really don’t know what could have happened to the Midwife’. Mark looked so worried and moving to his wife’s side, he put his hand on her shoulder as if to comfort her.
Ellie looked thoughtful for a moment and then suggested that she stay with Jenny. ‘If it will be of any help and just until the nurse gets here’.
‘Oh that’s good of you miss’, gasped Jenny, now holding onto the back of the chair, then gasped once more, ‘go on.... then Mark. The quicker ... you ... get off the quicker you ... will be back’. When he hesitated, she cried, urgently, ‘
go, go
’.
Ellie closed the door
behind him, then went quickly over to the sink, filled up the kettle from the pitcher and placed it on the hob of the fire. At least they had some coal, so water could be heated.
‘I’ll make you a cup of tea whilst we wait, shall I?’ said Ellie.
Jenny nodded as she let out a groan of pain. When the pain finally subsided, she relaxed a little and glanced at Ellie. She took note of her visitor's dress and her whole confident attitude, and asked, ‘you work at the house in Thornton Avenue, do you?’
‘Yes’, she said, ‘I’ve worked there for two years now’, she answered, relieved to see that Jenny was now well enough to make conversation.
‘What do you do there? You’re not in the kitchen with Rose, are you?’
‘Yes I am. I’m a scullery maid and Missus Blunt keeps everyone in line, including myself. But she’s always fair’.
Jenny had a look on her face, of disbelief, ‘well, I am surprised. At first I was quite sure that you were
not
a working girl. But ‘a scullery maid?’ I would never have thought it. You seem so...’ She hesitated, not wanting to offend, ‘so ... gentile’.
Ellie laughed, ‘don’t let appearances fool you!’
Jenny started to laugh also, but stopped and let out another cry of pain.
The kettle had boiled and Ellie made two cups of tea and passed one to Jenny, ‘don't worry if you don’t want it but it
may
just help’, she said.
In the corner of the large room was a double bed with brass knobs, made up with a clean, but faded cover. It was as if all they possessed was in this
one
room. Ellie thought this was just as well, as the room was only
just
warm enough so the upstairs room would probably have been quite cold.
‘Are those for your confinement?’ she asked, pointing to a pile of sheets on a stool by the side of the fireplace. They were old and ragged, but perfectly clean. Along side of the sheets, were several large squares of brown paper.
‘Yes. I do hope there’s enough. They were all my Mother could get. ‘Aaaaaagh! My God!’ she cried, ‘oh, the pain’s awful’.
Ellie went over to the bed and stripped it down to the straw mattress. She placed the paper on the bed then folded a sheet in two and placed it, crossways, on top of the paper.
‘The bed will be all right like this, if you want to lie down’. She glanced at Jenny’s weary face, and added, ‘please don’t worry, it’ll be all right, I promise’.
But within half an hour, the pains were coming every few minutes and Ellie, whilst seeming calm, was beginning to panic. What would she do if the baby started to arrive before anyone got here? Although she had been present at a birth before, she had never done anything, other than, fetch and carry. Why was the Midwife taking so long?
She saw that Jenny was becoming very distressed, not able to sit still, nor stand in one position.
Someone ought to be here
, she thought, and felt she should do something.
‘Jenny, should I send for a Doctor?’ You need attending to’.
Jenny shook her head, ‘no, it would because a guinea and we have no money left. We spent what we had to move into the house’. She said the words through clenched teeth, and then slumped down in agony, onto the bed. She let out a sigh as the pain, once more, subsided.
‘It’s getting near Ellie, what am I to do?’ She began to weep.
Ellie went to the door and looked out. The women were still standing there, gossiping.
Ellie called to them, ‘is there one amongst you who cold help here, in a confinement?’
When she got no response, she pleaded, ‘for the love of God! Surely one of you could help?’
A large, fat woman, hands resting on huge hips, shouted, ‘nay lass, we don’t know her. They only moved in last week and we like to mind our own business around these parts’.
There were murmurs of agreement, of ‘aye’, and ‘true’, from her ‘cronies’, who gathered around her.
Ellie was frantic with worry and nobody here was willing to lend a hand. She turned on them with the venom of a ‘fish wife’.
‘You call yourself women? No real woman would stand by when a poor young mother needed help. If anything should happen to her, or the baby, I hope you can live with the guilt’.
Frustrated, she spat out, ‘you’re ... you’re all...! You’re all ... unfeeling ... wretches’, then went indoors once more to Jenny.
She had no sooner entered the house, than the door opened and the fat woman came in.
‘Have
you got plenty a hot water there?’ she said.
Ellie looked gratefully at the woman, ‘thank you. Oh, thank you. I’m so sorry for what I said out there’.
‘Nay lass, what’s been said, can’t be unsaid, but don’t bother yourself. Pass me them towels, there’s a good lass and let’s see what’s to be done here. By the way, my name’s bet’.
Ellie did as she was told and Bet fastened one towel to each brass knob at the bottom of the bed. It was then that Ellie noticed how dirty the woman’s hands were. She did not want to upset the woman by telling her that dirty hands could cause infection but, neither could she allow her to touch Jenny, or a new baby, with hands in such a state.
What if the woman walked out? Where would she be then? However objectionable, the woman was all she had and was, desperately, needed here.
Having thought of the consequences, she said, ‘I have some hot water ready for you, I’m sure you want to wash your hands?’
Bet looked down at her plump fingers and noted the black nails and grimy palms, and thought,
snotty little Sod
.
Still, I don't suppose it would hurt any, to wash them
So with a look which said, ‘stupid girl’, Bet said, ‘well course I need to wash my hands,
you didn’t think I’d touch a new born baby with mucky hands, did you?’
‘Of course not Bet, I just wanted you to know that the water was ready for you. I don’t know much about this business, so I will take all my orders from you. Just tell me what you want me to do’.
Ellie wasn't fooled for a moment, but she was learning that if you wanted people to do things for you, you had to be diplomatic.
The woman dried her hands as she watched Jenny, who was in the throes of great pain, and moaning loudly.
Bet took her hands and guided them to the towels, ‘hang onto them lass. It won’t take the pain away, but it’ll give you something to do’.
Jenny groaned as she pulled with all her might on the towels. Bet turned to Ellie, ‘what’s
you name lass?’ Ellie told her.
‘Well Ellie, get me a damp cloth for her head. It’ll make her feel a bit better and with a bit of luck she’ll old on till the Midwife gets here. That’s if the old bugger comes’.
‘Oh, I
do
hope so’, Ellie said.
Suddenly, the sounds that Jenny was making took on a different tone.
A more urgent, grunting sound, much like an animal would make. Ellie gave Bet a look, alarm evident in her eyes and Bet nodded her head.
‘Aye,
you right lass. It’s time’.
She stripped off the blanket, which was covering Jenny, peered under her shift, and rolling up the sleeves of her ragged jumper, repeated, ‘aye, it’s time’.
Ellie was a little frightened, by the turn of events, but tried not to show it.
‘What do you want me to do Bet?’
‘Nothing yet, just be here, right?’
Jenny screamed out loud, and hung on to the towel, as if her life depended on it, ‘Aah! ... My ... God. I can’t ... stand it’, she cried, tears now rolling down her face.
‘Well love, there’s nothing you can do about it, but go through with it. It’s what we all have to do. There’s no backing out now, that’s for sure’, she said.
Bet’s voice had a cynic
ally ring to it as she added, ‘eh! I’d like to see the men go through this, and no mistake. There’d never be a second born’.
Ellie tried to comfort Jenny by stroking her hair, now lank with perspiration and she vowed that, no matter what, she would never go through this kind of pain.