The Dressmaker’s Daughter. Nancy Carson

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СКАЧАТЬ wanted to ask her out, but with Fern always at his side it had been impossible.

      ‘Lizzie says it’s your wedding anniversary,’ Daisy was saying to May.

      May linked her arm through Joe’s and glanced up at him affectionately. ‘Twelve months tomorrow.’

      ‘And it only seems like twelve years,’ Joe chipped in and took a playful slap on the arm for his trouble. He drew on his cigarette and smiled impishly. ‘And afore anybody asks – no, there’s ne’er a babby on the way – but it ain’t for the want o’ tryin’.’

      May hit him again, while the men guffawed. ‘You’m gettin’ engaged an’ all, aren’t you, Daisy?’ she enquired, desperate to avoid more embarrassing comments.

      Daisy nodded and looked at Jimmy admiringly. ‘We’m thinking about it, eh?’

      ‘Maybe next year,’ Jimmy confirmed.

      ‘Any plans yet to get married?’

      The couple looked at each other again and grinned self-consciously. ‘Not for a couple of years at least. We want to save up and get some money round us.’

      ‘That’s good sense, Jimmy,’ Joe proclaimed. ‘You can’t argue with that. What d’you do for a living, mate?’

      ‘I’m a moulder at a foundry in Tividale – Holcrofts.’

      ‘I know of Holcrofts.’

      ‘Ben works there as well. He charges the cupola.’

      ‘The money good?’

      ‘It’s all right. We got plenty work, an’ all, eh, Ben?’

      ‘Plenty,’ Ben agreed. ‘But I want to come off charging. I’m keen to be a ladle man. It’s hard, specially in the summer when it’s hot, but the pay’s better. A lot better.’

      Ben was enquiring about Joe’s work when they heard a knock at the back door. It was Tom Dando and Sarah. Sarah came in complaining about the cold. Sylvia would be coming soon with Jesse, she said, when she’d spent half an hour with Ezme and Jack.

      ‘Help yourselves to drink,’ Joe invited.

      Five minutes later Eliza and Ned Bradley arrived, May’s mother and father. They made a fuss of Eve and asked how she was.

      ‘By Christ, it’s cold enough for a walking stick,’ Ned quipped, warming his hands in front of the fire. ‘It’s icy already. I reckon I’ll be sliding round on me arse all the way ’um.’

      ‘Like a fairy on a gob o’ lard,’ May suggested.

      While Eliza and Ned made themselves known to the folk they hadn’t met before and supped their first drinks, Beccy and Albert Crump arrived. Joe asked what they wanted to drink.

      ‘A glass o’ port for me, please, Joe,’ Beccy said, rubbing her cold hands.

      ‘Lemonade if you’ve got it,’ Albert requested defiantly.

      ‘Oh, have a beer, you miserable old sod – God forgive me for me language,’ Beccy said, casting her eyes upwards. ‘It’s New Year, Albert. Yo’ can’t not have a drink.’

      ‘Give me a shandy, then, Joe. Anything to save me being nagged to death.’

      Sylvia and Jesse arrived. They greeted everyone pleasantly and Jesse gave Lizzie a wink that she thought no more of, but which suggested lots to Ben. Lizzie smiled and introduced her friends. By now the house was crowded and buzzing with chatter and not all the guests had arrived yet. Somebody called for Joe to play his new piano – his pride and joy – and he said he would in a minute.

      ‘Jesse, fetch your mother to come and play this new piano of Joe’s,’ Albert Crump tactlessly called, his half pint of shandy barely touched. ‘We can’t wait forever for him here.’

      Ezme and Jack of course had not been invited; Joe knew how much the woman antagonised his mother. Meanwhile, Daisy and Jimmy had got their heads together and Sylvia and Jesse had moved on.

      Ben took a close look at the gold cross and chain Lizzie was wearing, fingering it gently. ‘A Christmas present?’

      ‘Off Joe and May.’

      ‘I had a pair of cufflinks – off Fern. Here, look, I’m wearing them.’ He pulled back the sleeve of his jacket.

      ‘Did she give them to you before or after you fell out?’

      ‘Before, else I wouldn’t have took them, would I? I did offer them back.’

      ‘What did you fall out about?’ She’d been dying to ask.

      ‘You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.’

      ‘Oh, go on.’ Her eyes flashed with anticipation. ‘Tell me.’

      He emptied his glass and threw the end of his cigarette into the fire. ‘It was over you.’

      ‘Me?’

      ‘She kept on as I fancied you and accused me of seeing you on our nights off. We had a blazing row and in the finish I said I might as well play the part I’d been cast in.’ He smiled at her expectantly. ‘I’ll get another drink, like Joe said. Shall I get you one, Lizzie?’

      ‘Please. I’ll come with you, if you like.’

      To get out of the smoke-filled room through the middle door into the scullery they had to push past Tom Dando, laughing at Beccy Crump’s irreverent cursing. Eve was in the scullery sitting at the table, as if guarding the beer, still wearing her white apron over her best black frock. She was talking to Sarah, with Sylvia and Jesse standing by.

      ‘’Scuse me,’ Ben said, sidling into position past him to get to the beer barrel.

      ‘Oh, Lizzie, I forgot to mention … our Stanley’s coming home in May or June,’ Sylvia said casually, looking Ben up and down with evident approval.

      Lizzie considered that Sylvia’s comment was unnecessarily mischievous in the circumstances and she felt her colour rise. ‘Well, give him my best wishes, ’cause I don’t suppose I’ll see him. I think he was avoiding me before he went away.’

      ‘Oh, I don’t think so, Lizzie. He’s got no reason to avoid you. You two were always the best of friends.’

      Lizzie was aware of Jesse’s eyes burning into her, which was unsettling. She passed her glass to Ben and he filled it from the large stone bottle of lemonade, and handed it back. ‘Thanks, Ben,’ she said with a smile, then sipped her drink.

      Sylvia said, ‘Joe and May must be doing well to get the house in such fine order … And to have so many lovely things about them. Especially the new piano … And they’ve only been married a year, Jesse.’

      ‘I know,’ Jesse replied with indifference.

      Lizzie was certain that the next thing to come from Sylvia’s lips would be her own expectations of life when she СКАЧАТЬ