Let it Shine Read online

  ‘And there’ll be a meal waiting for you when you get home,’ Peggy reminded her. ‘Many of those poor women in the mills have to work all day, then go home and cook the meal afore they can even sit down and take a breath.’ Peggy recalled her own mam doing the very same. ‘Besides, the shoe-factory is a good place to work. It’s clean and well ordered, and they have proper tea-breaks. I think we owe your friend Mick a vote of thanks for mentioning it.’

  Ted intervened. ‘That’s right, love! What’s more, when Ellie told us what young Mick had said, about how they were looking for trainees, I went out of my way to speak to the boss. He’s a good man. He’s promised to look after you, and I’m sure he will.’

  Ellie had thanked him before and she thanked him again. ‘Me and Betsy know that, and we’re very grateful, aren’t we, sis?’

  ‘I suppose so.’

  Ted was more concerned about Ellie. ‘Are you sure you’re doing the right thing, love?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Well, what I’m saying is, you were both given the option of working on the factory floor, or up in the office. Betsy’s gone for the office work, but you’ve chosen to work on the factory floor. It seems such a waste. You’re bright and quick – and so is Betsy, I know – but you’ll be making the shoes, while Betsy’s selling them. I don’t see the sense in that. You would have done so well in the office.’

  Ellie defended her decision. ‘I’m sorry if I’ve disappointed you,’ she said honestly, ‘but I’m not cut out to sit behind a desk all day. I’d rather be with the people downstairs, where I can breathe. Besides, I’ll be happier, I know I will.’

  He smiled, suddenly understanding. ‘You’ve always been good with people,’ he admitted, ‘and you’re clever with your hands… creating things and such. Happen you’re right,’ he conceded. ‘At least you’ll be getting the same pay as young Betsy here.’ He nodded. ‘Aye, happen you’re right.’

  ‘Well, I think she’s mad!’ Betsy had already told Ellie what she thought, and now she told the others. ‘They’re a common lot who work down there. They wear turbans and slippers and don’t care tuppence what they say. I’m glad I’ll be upstairs, out of the way.’

  Scratching his chin, Ted gave the matter some consideration. ‘You’ve a hard heart, lass. Happen the workers on the factory floor will be glad you’re not down there alongside them. What do you think to that?’

  Her head jerked up. ‘I don’t care one way or the other. Besides, I wanted to go to college. I never wanted to work in a factory.’

  ‘So you keep saying. But do you know something? I’ve a feeling you and Ellie will get on so well at the shoe-factory that the idea of college will have gone right out of your head in no time at all.’

  Betsy disagreed. ‘Even if I didn’t want to go to college, I still wouldn’t want to work in a shoe-factory!’

  ‘Is that so?’ Regarding her for what seemed an age, Ted said quietly, ‘Well now, I think I see what the trouble is here.’

  Peggy was curious. ‘What’s that then, dear?’

  Keeping his eyes on Betsy, Ted scraped back his chair and prepared to leave. ‘Why! The lass doesn’t want to work at all! And if we gave her the choice of going to college, she wouldn’t want that neither. The truth as I see it, is that Betsy doesn’t want to work and she doesn’t want to learn. She wants to be a lady who sits on her arse all day and does nothing!’

  Leaving them all in shocked silence, he slammed shut the door behind him and marched upstairs. ‘Oh my word!’ Peggy had gone white as a sheet. ‘In all the years I’ve known my Ted, I’ve never heard him use that kind of language.’ Nervously clutching her throat, she looked at Betsy with tearful eyes. ‘Oh, you’ve really upset him, dear. Go after him and apologise… for my sake. Please?’

  ‘No. It wasn’t me who did the swearing. It was him. So it should be him who apologises.’ She then got up from the chair and flounced out of the room.

  A few minutes later Ellie and Peggy heard the front door slam. ‘Oh dear! I do hate rows of any sort. I’ll have to go and humour Ted. I don’t like him being in such a mood.’ Peggy went out of the room at a trot. ‘Ted!’ she called his name timidly, but there was no answer.

  A moment later she returned to find Ellie clearing the plates away. ‘Oh no, dear!’ Rushing to help, she told Ellie, ‘I can do that. You away and follow Betsy. I’m worried about her. She’s taken the dog, and she knows very well that Sunshine’s pups are due any day now.’ Leaning against the sink she caught her breath. ‘Ted won’t speak to me.’

  Ellie felt sorry for her. ‘He will,’ she replied. ‘Give him time, eh?’

  Peggy looked at her foster-daughter, at her kind face and those wonderful dark-blue eyes, and she felt ashamed. ‘You’re a good girl, Ellie,’ she said, ‘not like Betsy. I’m sorry to say it, but she does seem to enjoy upsetting people.’

  ‘I’ll have a word with her.’ And she would, in no uncertain terms!

  ‘Tell her I’m not angry – except that she must bring that poor dog home.’

  Feeling the need to be on her own, Ellie jumped at the chance to get out into the fresh air. ‘I’ll not be long,’ she promised. ‘I’ll just go along the front a little way. I shouldn’t be gone more than an hour or two.’ The trouble was, once she got down by the sea, it was so wonderful, she never wanted to come away.

  ‘All right, dear. Mind how you go now,’ Peggy instructed. ‘And take your coat. It looks as if it might shower.’ Giving Ellie no choice, she took the coat from the peg and handed it to her. ‘And don’t go down to the water’s edge. The tides can be unpredictable at this time of year.’

  Assuring her that she would be all right, Ellie departed.

  * * *

  She walked for a while then, when the smell of the sea filled her nostrils, she began to run. The cool, salty air on her face was exhilarating. There was a kind of excitement in living by the sea, when you could hear the waves at night, crashing into each other, and the soulful cry of seagulls with first light. Ellie loved it. Now that she had lived so close to the sea, she never wanted to live anywhere else.

  Rounding the corner, she saw Betsy straight away. Hunched and miserable, she was sitting on the sand, the dog beside her. ‘Betsy!’ Running across the road, Ellie made for her.

  Her sister was in no mood for company. ‘Why do you always have to follow me?’

  ‘I’ll go if you like.’ When Betsy was in this kind of mood, she was impossible.

  ‘I expect she sent you, didn’t she?’

  ‘She’s worried about you. And so am I.’ Now, when the dog nuzzled up to her, Ellie tenderly stroked it. ‘Hello, girl.’ The feel of the Labrador’s soft, cool coat was oddly comforting.

  ‘What do you want?’

  Ellie was honest. ‘I want you to stop being ungrateful to Peggy and Ted. They took us in and they’ve cared for us every step of the way. They’re good, kind people and they don’t deserve to have you moaning at them all the time.’

  ‘Hark at Miss Goody Two Shoes!’

  Ellie had suspected it wouldn’t be too long before the insults came round to her. ‘You can call me what you like, it doesn’t bother me. But you should have more respect for them, that’s all I’m saying.’

  ‘Mind your own business.’

  ‘No, Betsy. When I see you behaving like that, I shall speak my mind. I’ve told you what I think, and now it’s up to you.’

  ‘You’re right! It is up to me. Ted doesn’t like me, and well you know it.’

  ‘And why do you think that is, eh? You always seem to be goading him into some sort of an argument. If you ask me, it’s you who’s made up your mind not to like him. Not the other way round.’

  Leaping to her feet, Betsy kicked off her shoes. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about. Like I said before, mind your own business and get off home. I don’t want you here.’ Calling the dog, she ran across the sand towards the sea. Reluctantly, Sunshine ambled behind, her soft, swollen belly dragg
ing in the sand.

  For a time Ellie watched them. She saw how the foolish Betsy ran in and out of the water, her skirts held high, and time and again she called for her to come back. But she wouldn’t, and Ellie knew she could not persuade her.

  So she sat there, watching those two, and enjoying the scenery, and life felt good. The skies were big and blue, the sea endless, and the sand was like a carpet of gold before her.

  Now, in the early afternoon, people were beginning to arrive; young couples arm in arm and families, settling down on the sand with their colourful rugs and picnic hampers. The sound of laughing children rang in her ears. It was wonderful, Ellie thought, just wonderful!

  Her mind was taken back to one Sunday afternoon when her mam and dad had brought them all further down the coast to Blackpool. They had arrived by train, and afterwards taken a ride on an open-topped tram. She and Betsy had ridden the donkeys, and all in all, it had been a day to remember. Tears filled her eyes. But amidst the tears was a great joy, to have known her mam and dad, even if only for such a cruelly short time. She would always miss them; always love them. Yet she gave thanks to the good Lord for sparing her and Betsy. Larry too, and her lovely grandad.

  Inevitably, her thoughts turned to the man who had been in the house that night. She hadn’t forgotten him; she never would. So far, no one had been able to find out who he was. But one day in the future, Ellie would find out. She was sure of it.

  Lazing there, with the September sun on her face, she closed her eyes and thought about Mick, and how very soon she would be working in the same building. The other week, at Grandad’s house, she had not been fully aware of her feelings towards Mick. Now though, after giving it much thought, she knew only one thing; she needed to see him again and again. She needed to find out what was going on inside her; she needed to know how he felt towards her.

  But it was early days yet, and she was too young to be thinking of love and suchlike. All the same, the thought of seeing him tomorrow made her smile, made her happy.

  Suddenly aware of a dog barking, people shouting and others running across the sand, Ellie’s attention was drawn to where she had last seen Betsy. At once she realised something was wrong. Going at a run she fled the short distance to the water’s edge, and there, being cradled in a towel, wet and shivering and in floods of tears, was her twin. ‘She must have fallen in and got out of her depth,’ the man who had rescued her said. ‘Fortunately, I’m a strong swimmer. She was lucky I was close by, or the tide would have swept her out.’

  When Betsy had calmed down, the man’s wife told Ellie, ‘She’ll be fine, but she needs to get home and into some dry clothes.’ And, while her husband called a cab and paid for it too, Ellie walked Betsy back to shore, the pregnant dog trailing wearily behind.

  * * *

  Peggy got into a right state when she heard what had happened. Within minutes she had Betsy in a hot bath with a pile of clean clothes waiting beside her. ‘You bad girl!’ she scolded Betsy. ‘How many times have I told you! The waters there are unpredictable. You could have been drowned!’

  ‘It wouldn’t have mattered if I was!’ Bolting the bathroom door, Betsy lazed in the bath, a smile creeping over her sullen features. That’ll teach them not to keep going on at me, she thought.

  By the time Betsy returned downstairs, everybody was in the scullery, and they completely ignored her. She was no longer the centre of attention.

  ‘The puppies are coming!’ Ellie’s blue eyes gleamed with excitement. ‘She started soon after you went upstairs, and Ted says it’s only a matter of minutes before they start arriving.’

  ‘You should have called me!’ Pushing her way through, Betsy saw how they had made Sunshine comfortable, laying her on a rug, with the window wide open to let in the fresh air.

  Betsy made no attempt to comfort the dog. Instead she kept her distance. ‘I hope she has six at least,’ she said, rubbing her hands. ‘That will start my savings off a treat.’

  While Ellie soothed the animal with gentle talk, Peggy made sure there was plenty of water on hand. ‘I expect she’ll need lots to drink,’ she remarked, seeing how the poor thing was panting and gasping. ‘It must be a hard thing, bringing new life into the world.’ Though she had no experience of it herself, more’s the pity, she thought.

  ‘I’d best get the bed ready,’ Ted announced. ‘I’ve finished the box so they’ll not be able to get out and run all over. And there’s plenty of room for Mammy and puppies both.’ Proud as punch, he went to fetch it from the front room, where he’d been working on it for a fortnight.

  ‘Look!’ In a hushed voice, Ellie told them how she could see a little head peeping out. ‘There… see?’ And sure enough, the first baby was arriving.

  Suddenly, without warning, the mother stood up and the puppy fell out, with Ellie catching it in the palms of her hands in case it should hurt itself dropping to the ground. ‘Oh, Betsy!’ Holding it up for her sister to see, she gasped in amazement. ‘Isn’t it wonderful?’

  Betsy didn’t think so. She saw the tiny thing, squirming in its own mess and secretions, and felt physically sick. ‘I have to go back upstairs,’ she muttered. ‘I forgot something.’ And was gone before they could turn round.

  Peggy laughed. ‘Some folk can’t stand the sight of blood and such,’ she said, ‘but it’s never bothered me.’

  Nor Ellie, it seemed, because in rapid succession there arrived four more puppies; each one tended by Ellie, and laid carefully beside its mammy.

  A short time later, Ted returned to tell them the dogs’ bed was ready. While the women carried the puppies in a shawl, he gently lifted Sunshine, talking with her all the while, until he set her down inside the bed. One by one the puppies were laid alongside, and soon she was licking and fussing, and everything was fine.

  ‘There you are.’ Peggy was bursting with satisfaction. ‘All’s well that ends well.’

  Ellie thought the bed was perfect. Set on plastic sheeting, the open wooden box and the long netted run was arranged beneath the window. ‘So’s you can open the window and freshen the room when it all gets too much,’ Ted told his wife, who promptly protested that she would not allow it to ‘get too much’.

  ‘It’s lovely,’ Ellie told Ted, who grinned from ear to ear. ‘And they’re so happy and content.’

  Long after the others had gone, Ellie stayed to watch and enjoy the new arrivals. After their fill of milk, the tiny brown puppies had snuggled up to their mammy and were sound and fast asleep.

  Ellie stroked each one in turn. When she came to stroke Sunshine, she told her, ‘You should be so proud. You’ve got five lovely babies.’ And for the briefest moment the long, furry tail wagged excitedly, almost as if she understood what Ellie was saying.

  That night, when Ellie lay in her bed, she thought about the events of the day. Then she thought about tomorrow, and all the new people she was about to meet. It was an exciting thing to start out in the big wide world.

  When her thoughts turned to Mick, her excitement was tenfold.

  * * *

  Up bright and early, Ellie bathed and dressed. ‘What’s the rush?’ Groaning, Betsy turned over in her bed. ‘It’s only seven o’clock!’

  Throwing her towel on the bed, Ellie gave her a sisterly dig in the ribs. ‘It’s ten past,’ she said, holding the clock in front of Betsy’s face. ‘We have to be at the factory by nine, so that means catching the eight-thirty train.’

  ‘It’s too early!’

  Replacing the clock, Ellie reminded her, ‘We’re starting at nine o’clock today, because it’s our first day. Tomorrow we’ll have to be up and ready even earlier, so you might as well get used to it.’

  ‘Go away!’ Drawing the covers over her head, Betsy refused to listen.

  ‘I thought you were all for earning your own money?’

  ‘I never said that!’

  ‘So, you’re not getting out of bed?’

  ‘I might, I might not.’ Peering above the bedclothes sh
e hissed, ‘Just leave me alone!’

  ‘Please yourself.’ Leaving her to it, Ellie hurried downstairs.

  ‘You look smart, dear.’ Peggy was waiting in the kitchen.

  ‘Thank you.’ In her clean blue blouse and her dark, calf-length skirt, Ellie looked every inch the new girl. Her long hair was shining and her eyes bright as the morning. ‘I’m really excited,’ she told Peggy, who had already seen that for herself.

  ‘Breakfast is on the table. The toast is hot and the tea freshly brewed, and there’s egg and bacon if you fancy it.’ The warm, comforting smell permeated the air.

  ‘I’m too excited to eat,’ Ellie replied, ‘but I could drink the sea dry.’ Seating herself at the table, she poured a steaming hot cup of tea.

  ‘You can’t work on an empty stomach.’ Peggy wagged a finger. ‘At least try and eat some toast.’

  With the brown, crispy toast staring her in the face, right next to a dish of rich, red strawberry jam, Ellie’s appetite was beginning to rise. ‘No egg or bacon though,’ she said, and was already spreading her toast liberally with the succulent jam.

  ‘Where’s Betsy?’ Peggy’s anxious gaze went to the door.

  ‘I’ve told her, but she won’t get up.’

  ‘And did you tell her what time it was?’

  ‘Yes, but it made no difference.’

  ‘Little devil!’ Like a soldier on the march, Peggy went out of the room.

  As Peggy went out, Ted came in. Dressed and ready for off, he had already had his breakfast. ‘You look bright and cheerful,’ he told Ellie. ‘Aren’t you nervous – first day an’ all?’ Shrugging on his jacket he stood at the door, ready to leave.

  Ellie shook her head. ‘No,’ she told him. ‘I’m really looking forward to it.’

  He roved his eyes round the room. ‘Other lass still abed, is she?’

  ‘Peggy’s gone to get her up,’ Ellie said. ‘I hope she has more luck than I did,’ she remarked with a sigh, ‘because Betsy wouldn’t get up for me.’