‘So how did you get on?’ Reuben asked eagerly when Nessie returned late that afternoon.
‘Well … nothing as yet,’ she admitted, trying her best not to sound downhearted, although she felt it. She was sure she must have approached every cabinetmaker in the town but none of them had been interested in taking on an apprentice. She hadn’t done any better in securing a job for herself either, although she had tried numerous shops and factories. Many of the Irish navvies who were working on the railways had brought their families with them and now that their wives were also seeking work, the number of jobs available to local women were severely depleted.
Seeing Reuben’s crestfallen face she emptied her purse onto the table and he gawped at the coins.
‘At least I came back with enough to catch up with the rent and buy food for the coming week.’
‘Oh aye, an’ how did you manage that?’
‘I, er, took a few things to the pawnbrokers,’ she admitted and seeing the look of horror on his face she rushed on, ‘It’s only until we get back on our feet. I’ll buy everything back then. And I only took things that we don’t really need.’
‘Oh yes, an’ where’s yer Sunday best bonnet then? I’m sure you were wearin’ it when yer left?’ Reuben asked suspiciously. ‘An’ the clock’s gone from the mantelpiece. Is that in the pawnbrokers an’ all?’
Nessie nodded guiltily as Reuben shook his head. He felt sick that things had come to this. He’d seen queues of people standing waiting for the pawnbrokers to open every week on his way to work and had always been proud that their family had never had to pawn their possessions to live before. He knew how much Nessie had loved that bonnet. He could clearly remember the day their mother had bought it from the rag stall for her and the many hours she and Nessie had spent trimming it with ribbons and flowers they had fashioned from scraps of silk. Since their mother had been so brutally killed, Nessie had treasured it even more and had kept it strictly for Sunday best and he knew what it must have cost her to part with it. But then he couldn’t be mad at his sister for long. He knew deep down that she was only doing what she had to do to help them survive and the thought made him shudder with guilt. It was all his bloody fault! If only he hadn’t hurt his ankle; he’d make sure he got that bonnet back for her, if it was the last thing he ever did.
Nessie, meanwhile, had turned her attention to Joseph who was sitting placidly on the rug in front of the fire staring at the low flames. His chubby cheeks were rosy pink and he reached out with his little hands, trying to catch the amber flecks.
‘How’s he been?’ she asked, and Reuben shrugged.
‘Same as always, no trouble at all.’ That was the problem, he thought worriedly. At his age, the child should have been toddling about getting into all sorts of mischief but half the time he seemed to be locked away in a world of his own. He wasn’t even trying to crawl as yet. He knew that Nessie was worried too but they had never openly discussed it. It was as if by pretending that Joseph was fine they could ignore that there was a problem.
Soon as I’m fit and earning again I’m going to get him to a doctor, he vowed to himself, for now that the child was growing it was becoming increasingly obvious that something was seriously amiss. He couldn’t speak a single word as yet and although he could manage a wobbly walk if someone held his hands and coaxed him, he never attempted it if left to his own devices. Sometimes he would sit for a time playing half-heartedly with the bricks that Reuben had lovingly carved for him but for most of the time he seemed content to just sit staring into space with a vacant expression on his lovely little face.
‘Right, I’ll get us some dinner then,’ Nessie said, forcing a smile. ‘And don’t get worrying. I shall be out again tomorrow and at least we can pay the rent now, so perhaps things are looking up for us, eh?’
She began to peel some potatoes, but her heart was aching. Marcie had been a pest and a selfish little madam for the most part but she was still one of their family and now Nessie felt that yet another member of it was gone. Even so she kept up a cheerful chatter until she finally retired to bed and then the tears came thick and fast as she thought back to happier times.
Oblivious to her distress, Joseph slept peacefully beside her. She missed her mother, she missed Marcie and she was desperately worried about Reuben who was clearly frustrated and anxious about what the future held for him. Everything seemed to have started to go wrong a couple of years ago when their father had discovered that Joseph was on the way. There had been such a huge gap since Marcie was born that he’d thought he’d done with babies and she could clearly remember her parents bitterly arguing about it.
‘It’s there now and there’s nothing to be done about it!’ her mother had told him, hands on hips, and eventually they had all thought that he had accepted it. Until the night he stormed off to the inn and never returned. Things seemed to go quickly downhill from then on. They could no longer afford to pay the rent on the house in Bedworth so had moved to the one they now lived in. There was further heartache ahead when Joseph was born, for from the start their mother suspected that something about him wasn’t quite right. He didn’t cry as other babies did and if someone didn’t offer to feed him he would just lie there, making no complaint. As he’d grown older it became more and more apparent that something wasn’t as it should be. Her mother had always intended to get him to see a doctor who would know about such things, but somehow they never seemed to find the money it would cost and now she was gone too. Following her tragic death, Nessie had immediately taken on her role. What else could she do? she asked herself. Marcie would certainly never step up to the mark. And now Reuben’s accident. How much more was life going to throw at them? she wondered.
Normally Nessie just got on with things, but tonight everything seemed to have caught up with her, especially as she thought of the slim gold wedding band that had belonged to her mother that she had pawned along with her best bonnet and the clock. Nessie had been wearing it on a string about her neck ever since her mother had been murdered. It had been the only piece of jewellery her mother had ever owned and she had treasured it. Wearing it about her neck had made Nessie feel close to her somehow but now she’d been forced to part with it. She knew her mother would have said she’d done the right thing but even so, when she finally slipped into an uneasy sleep it was full of nightmares.
Her mother was there pointing to something and when Nessie followed her pointing finger she found herself gazing at a coffin.
‘No, no, no more deaths,’ she sobbed in her sleep as she tossed and turned until the sheets were in a sweaty tangle about her. She began to chase her mother, imploring her to come back, but it seemed that every time she almost managed to reach her, her mother drifted away towards a light shining brightly behind her.
‘Come back … please come back, we miss you,’ Nessie choked as she held her arms out towards her. Suddenly she felt a pressure on her arm. Someone was shaking her and she sprang awake, her eyes wild.
‘It’s all right, pet. You’re just havin’ a bad dream.’
She found herself staring up into her brother’s kind face. He was standing beside the bed in his nightshirt holding a candle and, realising that it had only been a dream, she sobbed harder.
‘Oh, Reuben … our mam was here,’ she sobbed. ‘She was trying to show me something but I can’t remember what it was now!’
He tentatively sat on the side of the bed with his injured ankle sticking out straight and drew her into his arms. ‘It’s all right,’ he soothed as he stroked the damp hair from her brow and rocked her back and forwards. Joseph was awake as well by now but he merely lay placidly, his big brown eyes watching them intently. ‘Try an’ get some rest.’
Nessie shook her head. She knew that she wouldn’t sleep again that night. She was too afraid that the dream might return.
‘I … I’ll just settle Joseph back down then I think I’ll go an’ make meself a cup of tea.’
He nodded, then rising cautiously he limped his way back to his room as Nessie fumbled in the darkness for the box of vestas she kept beside the candlestick. Eventually she managed to light the candle and settled Joseph back to sleep before going downstairs, where she sat staring for some time into the flickering fire. I shall have to go out coal-picking again tomorrow, she thought, as she stared at the dwindling supply. It was strange that the dream about her mother had been so vivid yet now she couldn’t for the life of her think what it was her mother had been trying to tell her.
After a time, she filled the kettle and swung it across the fire to make a hot drink. Her mother had always believed that a good cup of tea was a cure for anything. Perhaps it was time to put it to the test? The birds were just beginning to sing in the trees when she finally nodded off in the fireside chair and it was Reuben standing at the stove stirring a dish of porridge that woke her the next morning.
‘Sorry, I was trying not to wake you.’ He looked worried as he leaned heavily on his crutch and looked across at the dark shadows beneath her eyes. ‘I thought I’d get something hot for you to wake up to. Joseph is still asleep so if you put the dishes on the table we’ll have ours now, shall we?’
Nodding wearily, she rose and fetched two dishes from the dresser and soon they were sitting side by side eating their breakfast. The porridge was quite lumpy, but Nessie didn’t complain. Their mother had always teased Reuben that he could have burned water – he would certainly never make a chef – but he’d tried and that was the main thing, as far as Nessie was concerned.
‘I thought I’d try some of the big houses on the outskirts of town today to see if any of them need any help,’ she told him.
‘But don’t the big houses usually have their staff live in like Marcie?’
‘Don’t worry, I’m not about to desert you.’ She patted his hand reassuringly and Reuben heaved a sigh of relief.
By ten o’clock that morning, Nessie was ready to leave and she set off towards town again, only to spend another fruitless day searching for work – any work.
She was deeply depressed as she headed back home in the fading light. Her stomach was grumbling ominously and she hoped Reuben had remembered to push the stew she’d prepared over the fire to cook. She’d eaten nothing since breakfast and her heels were blistered and raw from the tight boots she had worn all day. As she approached the cottages she saw the kindly doctor coming out of Mrs Hewitt’s – her husband had come down with a nasty cough – and he stopped to have a word with her.
‘Hello, my dear. I just popped in to have a look at your brother’s ankle while I was here and he told me you’d gone to look for a job. Any luck?’
Nessie shook her head miserably.
‘Ah well, there’s always tomorrow,’ he said optimistically as he patted her shoulder. ‘I’m sure something will turn up.’ He hoped so, for Mrs Hewitt had told him what dire straits the family was in, and his heart was sore for them. Nessie raised a smile and went on her way as the doctor turned and set off for home.
Reuben looked at her expectantly when she entered the cottage and when she shook her head his face fell.
All too soon it was rent day again and the dreaded knock came upon the door.
Nessie took the money she’d left ready on the table and once more went outside to face Mr Grimshaw, who was grinning from ear to ear, certain that she wouldn’t have been able to raise sufficient funds to pay him.
‘There’s this week’s rent and here’s the back money we owe you. I think you’ll find we’re all straight again now.’ She carefully counted the coins into his hand and he stared down at them incredulously, wondering how the hell she’d managed it with her brother off work. ‘And now if you’ll excuse me, I have things to do!’ And without another word she turned and walked back into the cottage with her nose in the air. He could have no idea that the only way she had managed to raise the money was by parting with some of her most treasured possessions. But already she was worrying about how she was going to pay him the next time. Anything of any value had already been pawned.
‘Stuck-up little mare,’ Grimshaw grunted to no one in particular. ‘But my time will come. She’ll be glad to pay me the rent any way she can afore much longer if what I’m hearin’ is true!’ Turning about, he flounced down the lane, muttering to himself.
It was mid-morning the following day when there came a knock to the cottage door and Nessie, who was in the process of rolling pastry for a pie, hurried to open it.
‘Doctor!’ Her voice expressed her surprise and embarrassment at seeing him standing there again. He’d been so kind to them already and there was no way they could pay him. ‘Reuben is fine, really. I mean … it’s very kind of you to—’
‘May I come in?’ The doctor removed his hat and, feeling that she had no choice, she held the door wider so he could step into the room. ‘Actually,’ he began, ‘I’m here because I’ve heard something that just might be to the advantage of both of you.’ He nodded to Reuben, who was sitting beside the fire.
When Nessie raised her eyebrow, he rushed on, ‘Mrs Hewitt was saying that Reuben here is very good at woodwork and that you’ve been trying to get him an apprenticeship with a cabinetmaker.’
‘Yes, I have but I haven’t had any luck,’ she admitted, wondering where this was leading.
‘I see. Well, as it happens, I know someone who just might be glad of his help. Yours as well, if it comes to that.’
‘Really?’ Nessie’s eyes lit up with hope as her heart began to race faster.
‘Mmm.’ Dr Peek smiled at her kindly then nodding towards a chair, he asked, ‘May I?’
‘Oh yes, yes of course, I’m so sorry, I was forgetting my manners.’ She hastily pulled a chair out for him and waited impatiently for him to continue.
‘Now, I must warn you that I haven’t spoken to the person about either of you as yet. Indeed, the idea only occurred to me this morning and you might not like the sound of the job anyway.’
‘But we would,’ Nessie assured him. ‘We’re prepared to work anywhere doing anything, aren’t we, Reuben?’
‘Aye, we are,’ he answered solemnly, never once taking his eyes off the doctor.
‘The person I have in mind is …’ He coughed. ‘Is Mr Chevalier, the undertaker in town.’
‘Undertaker!’ Nessie’s hand flew to her chin leaving a floury beard there.
‘Yes, you see I’ve heard that Ted Miller, who works with him and makes the coffins, is moving away with his wife. They’ve been left a house in Bath by an elderly aunt so they’re going to go and live there, by all accounts.’
‘But I … I don’t understand.’ Nessie frowned in confusion. ‘Even if Reuben could take over the making of the coffins why would he want me?’
‘Because,’ the doctor explained patiently, ‘he has no one to keep house for him or work in the funeral parlour. Ted and his wife lived in with Mr Chevalier and Ted’s wife spent most of the day in the funeral parlour dealing with the bereaved and the rest of her time keeping house for him. Now I’ve heard that he’s having to do everything and is running himself into the ground. So, would you like me to have a word with him on your behalf?’
Reuben and Nessie glanced at each other, each having the same thoughts. The prospect of working at an undertaker’s was not very appealing at all, but then a job was a job at the end of the day, they supposed.
‘Please do, doctor, we’d be very grateful.’ It was Reuben who answered.
The doctor nodded and rose, placing his hat back on his head. ‘Very well. Leave it with me and rest assured I shall get back to you just as soon as I possibly can. Good day to you both.’
‘So, what did you make of that then?’ Reuben whistled through his teeth when the doctor had gone and Nessie giggled for the first time in days.
‘It’s not exactly what I’d have chosen,’ she admitted. ‘Working with the dead, I mean. But then I suppose we’re in no position to be choosy, are we?’
‘No, we’re not, so fingers crossed Mr Chevalier is prepared to give us a chance. From the bit I’ve heard of him he’s quite a reclusive sort of bloke and the business hasn’t done that well since he bought it from old Mr Barrow when he came over from France some years ago.’
‘He does speak English, doesn’t he?’ Nessie suddenly asked. She couldn’t imagine working for a Frenchman. Having never set foot out of her home town, France sounded like the other side of the world to her.
‘Of course he does, you daft goose.’ Reuben grinned, making him look more like his old self. ‘How would he deal with the families of the deceased if he couldn’t speak the language?’
‘I hadn’t thought of that.’ Nessie blushed, then with a shrug she went on with what she had been doing. It was in the lap of the gods now and all they could do was keep their fingers crossed, but if only the French gentleman would give them a chance it would be the answer to all their prayers; for the food cupboard was empty now and there was no way she would be able to pay the rent the following week.