Road to Berry Edge, The Read Online Free PDF Page A

a lad wouldn’t have come back well before now considering how things have been all this while, Mr Berkeley so poorly and the works in such a state?’
    â€˜He likely wouldn’t want to, would he, after killing his brother and they wouldn’t want him to, would they?’
    â€˜You could go and ask, Nancy, there’s nowt lost. Just make sure she pays you, that’s all.’
    Nancy unwillingly left the children with Sean’s mother two rows away at the bottom of Berry Edge bank. Vera said that she would be glad to take them when she wasn’t at work, but she was that day. The Berkeleys lived halfway up the bank, it wasn’t far.
    â€˜I’m going to go out and look for work,’ she told Alice.
    â€˜I can’t take the bairns every day, Nancy, I’ve got a lot to do.’
    Alice turned out her house every day. It wouldn’t have surprised Nancy to discover that their Michael had to live in the yard. He was the only one at home now, the four daughters had married and gone.
    â€˜I hear our Michael came to see you the other night?’ her mother-in-law said.
    â€˜He popped in to see how the bairns were.’
    â€˜He’s all the wage I’ve got, Nancy.’
    â€˜I have to be going,’ Nancy said.
    She hated leaving the bairns there. How was she to work? If she didn’t leave them with his mother or Vera she would have to pay, and if she had to pay she would be working for very little. Nancy trudged up the hill towards the Berkeley house. If Mrs Berkeley didn’t take her on she didn’t know what she would do.
    *
    When Faith got back from a chapel meeting one day soon after her talk with Nancy in the churchyard, she found her mother engaged on a strange task. She was looking in Faith’s wardrobe. As Faith came on to the upstairs landing she could see her mother through the open door, pondering.
    â€˜Mother, what are you doing?’ she said.
    â€˜I’m looking for jumble, dear.’
    â€˜You won’t find any there.’
    â€˜You’re like your father, Faith, you never throw anything away.’
    â€˜Not when there’s use left in them.’
    â€˜Somebody else could use this, I think,’ her mother said, extracting an old blue dress from the far reaches of the wardrobe. ‘How many times has this been mended?’
    â€˜I wear it all the time.’
    â€˜I know you do.’ Her mother eyed her. ‘I think a trip to Durham might be a good idea, something new perhaps.’
    And then Faith understood. She took the dress from her mother and put it back into the wardrobe.
    â€˜I don’t need new dresses, Mother, I’m not going anywhere,’ she said.
    Her mother said nothing more as though she had accepted the decision, but Faith knew that it was not so. Her mother left the room, went downstairs and when Faith followed her was busy pouring tea by the sitting room fire.
    â€˜I know that I’ve disappointed you and I’m sorry,’ Faith said, ‘but nothing will change because Robert Berkeley is coming home, and I’m certainly not going to buy a new dress for the occasion.’
    â€˜I hope you’re wrong,’ her mother said. ‘I went to see them this morning and Margaret says he’s bringing another man with him. I don’t think they’re very pleased about it.’
    â€˜That’s just what Berry Edge needs, another workman,’ Faith said.
    â€˜We don’t know what kind of a man he might be,’ her mother said, sipping tea.
    â€˜And is this the reason for clearing out my wardrobe? Really, Mother.’
    Her mother picked up half a buttered scone but didn’t eat it.
    â€˜It’s difficult not to think of how things might have been,’ she said. ‘We could have had three or four grandchildren by now.’
    â€˜I know that.’
    â€˜Do you? You never talk about it. After you were born and they told me I couldn’t have any