The River Folk Read Online Free PDF Page B

your little lass home.’
    The woman was hiding her face with her hand and her voice croaked as she said, ‘Thank you.’
    Bessie sighed. ‘Come on down here, love, and I’ll make you a cup of tea.’
    ‘There’s no need. I’m fine.’
    ‘You don’t look it,’ Bessie said with blunt kindness. ‘’Ow about I put the kettle on while you get dressed.’
    Even from the bottom of the stairs, Bessie heard the woman’s heavy sigh. Flatly, Elsie said, ‘No point. I’ve no tea or milk or sugar. I – I’ll be going shopping later. Just moving in, an’ that. Y’know . . .’
    Her voice trailed away and now, as if she could not be bothered to hide the truth any longer, her hand fell away from covering her face. Bessie, in the light from the window near which the woman was standing, could see her bruised and swollen cheek, one eye almost closed.
    ‘You get dressed, love, and let me have Mary Ann’s clothes. Then you’re both coming round to my house.’
    ‘Oh, but I—’
    ‘No “buts”,’ Bessie said firmly. ‘You’re coming.’
    Half an hour later, Mary Ann was tucking into a bowl of porridge whilst her mother sat beside Bessie’s range, holding her hands out to the warmth and gratefully sipping a cup of tea.
    Forthright as always, Bessie asked, ‘Why do you put up with it, love?’
    Elsie’s shoulders sagged. ‘What else can I do?’
    ‘Leave him.’
    ‘Where would I go?’
    ‘Haven’t you any family?’
    Elsie’s head drooped so low, her chin was almost resting on her chest. Her voice muffled, she said, ‘They don’t want to know me. You see . . .’ She bit her lip and then glanced anxiously towards Mary Ann. Her voice little more than a whisper, she went on, ‘They all tried to warn me against him. My mam and dad, even my two brothers and my sister. But I wouldn’t listen. You might not believe it . . . Bessie, is it?’
    Bessie nodded.
    ‘Well, you might not believe it, Bessie . . .’ Elsie Clark shook her own head as if she did not quite believe it herself. ‘But fifteen years ago, Sid was a good-looking feller. A real charmer, smart and, I thought, quite ambitious. He was a drayman for a brewery.’ Her eyes misted over as she remembered her youth and falling in love for the first time. ‘But he didn’t intend to stay a drayman forever, he said. Oh, he was handsome then, Bessie, sat up on the front of his dray, driving them two great horses that were dressed out with horse-brasses and bedecked with ribbons.’ Now she sighed heavily as she dragged herself back to her unhappy present.
    ‘What went wrong, Elsie?’ Bessie prompted.
    ‘The war. That’s what went wrong.’
    ‘Ah.’ Bessie’s tone was suddenly more understanding. ‘Well now, I can sympathize, but only a bit mind you, ’cos even if he has been to Hell and back – and by all accounts that’s what it was for a lot of ’em – it doesn’t give him the right to batter you about.’
    ‘He . . . he had a bad time.’
    ‘So did a lot of ’em. Them that’s lived to tell the tale.’ Briefly Bessie’s thoughts went to Amy Hamilton shut away in her house of sorrow. ‘And a lot never even had the chance to live to remember it. It’s still no reason why you should put up with the treatment he’s handing out to you now.’ She jerked her thumb towards Mary Ann, still sitting at the table. ‘And what about yon little lass? Does he hit her, an’ all?’
    Swiftly Elsie said, ‘No, no. At least . . .’ Her gaze met Bessie’s momentarily and then fell away again in embarrassment. ‘Not like he goes for me.’
    ‘But he does hit her?’ Bessie persisted, determined to get at the truth.
    Elsie nodded. ‘When she’s naughty.’
    ‘Naughty? Her?’ Bessie was scandalized. ‘I wouldn’t think the bairn’s got it in her to be naughty. Not what I’d call naughty, anyway.’
    ‘Oh, she can be quite a cheeky little madam at times. And disobedient.’
    Bessie sniffed, disbelievingly. ‘Well, personally, I like to see