and isn’t it just my luck that everyone’s comin’ to the door an’ me wit’ a dinner party for two dozen to get ready?’
‘Thanks,’ the girl said to Colm, holding out a hand.
But Colm had delivered too many parcels to great houses to allow her so much as to touch it until he’d had his mammy’s money. ‘There’s money to be paid, Miss,’ he said politely, therefore. ‘Me mammy said there was money owin’ and I was to fetch it.’
‘Bloomin’ blood out of a stone some of ’em would ask for,’ the cook said in a goaded voice. ‘We’ll pay your mammy tomorrer, sonny, or the day after that. Tek it in, Bid, and get on wit’ beatin’ that batter.’
Biddy looked hunted and Colm hung onto his parcel harder than ever. He knew the quality, so he did! They would mean to pay, his mother had explained many times, but you could fall between two stools, with the mistress thinking the maid had paid and the maid assuming that the mistress had done so. Accordingly he stood his ground. One and ninepence was nothing to these people, but it was a great deal to the O’Neills, and a poor sort of son he’d be if he meekly handed his mammy’s work over without first getting his money!
‘There’s one and ninepence owed,’ he said in a singsong voice, hoping that the cook and this Biddy would think him a bit stupid ... anything, rather than leave here and be the one to blame because his mammy hadn’t been paid again. She herself had more than once not stood out for money owing and Colm always chided her when she told him about it. After all, he was the man of the house whilst his father was away and it was up to him to see that at least Mammy was paid for all the hard work she did.So he looked hopefully up at Biddy and repeated, ‘One and ninepence owed please, Miss,’ in a slightly stronger voice. His mother had taught him to address the older ladies, like the cook, as ‘ma’am’, and younger ones, like the maidservant, as ‘miss’.
‘Cook says ...’ Biddy began in a slightly apologetic voice, but Colm abruptly decided that he could have none of it.
He knew very well that his father, whatever his other faults, would not have handed over the parcel and walked meekly away. If I’m standin’ in for him, then I’ve got to act like him, so I have, Colm reminded himself and spoke firmly across the other’s voice. ‘Then I’d best take me parcel back home again,’ he said. ‘Me an’ the littl ’un brung it along when Mammy said, but if there’s no money until tomorrer ...’
There was a flurry inside the kitchen and cook, who had been on the opposite side of the table, suddenly appeared at the door side, her face redder than ever, oddly stifled sounds coming from her mouth whilst her eyes almost popped. Colm realised she must be very angry and quailed inside, opening his mouth to add some more conciliatory remark, but before he could do so she was upon them, vast as a mountain, hands held out towards them. Startled, he took a step back but she ploughed onward, seeming not to notice as the maid hastily squeezed herself out of the way, and suddenly he saw that she wasn’t angry but was actually laughing, that the stifled sounds were mirth and not fury. ‘Well, well, young feller, your mammy’s taught you well, so she has,’ she said, mopping at her hot red face with the back of a huge hand. ‘I like a boy wit’ spirit. . . . One and ninepence, you said?’
She was fishing around in the pocket of her apronas she spoke and produced a large and shabby purse, then looked at Colm again with enquiring eyes.
Colm nodded. ‘That’s it, ma’am. One and ninepence.’
‘Right. I’ll pay ye now and the housekeeper shall pay me back after I’ve done this dinner. You’re O’Neill’s boy?’
‘That’s right,’ Colm said, not quite liking to say that Mrs O’Neill would sound better. Besides, he knew that servants in the great houses were very often called by their surnames alone. ‘Thanks,