A Woman Undefeated (23 page)

“Well, that is as maybe, Maggie,” Alice said, ignoring the boasting and waving a letter that she carried in her hand, “but I have more pressing problems than you having a dress made. I got this this morning and as you know me eyes aren’t good, so I brought it over for you to read. I need yer to tell me what it says. I know it’s from the landlord’s office, because it says at the top Regent Estates and that is who Mister Arlington works for, but I can’t wait fer him to come home for his dinner, so I came to you instead.”

Maggie had to smile at Alice’s words. So she was good for something, even if it was because she could read. She unlocked the front door of the cottage and ushered her mother-in-law through it, then busied herself with raking the fire embers, so that she could make her a cup of tea.

Alice sat fidgeting with the tassels on the end of her shawl, no doubt annoyed that Maggie hadn’t read those things called words immediately and was taking her time fiddling with cups and saucers while she waited for the kettle to boil.

“It says here that yer can buy Seagull Cottage off them fer one hundred and thirty pounds and you must make yer mind up about it by the end of July,” Maggie advised her at last, when she decided at last to read the missive. “You must send them a letter of intention saying if yer want to buy it, then pay them a deposit as a sign of good will. If they don’t hear from yer, or yer don’t intend to purchase, the place will go on their list fer auction and yer have to sort out a new lease with whoever eventually buys.”

“Oh no,” moaned Alice.“So it’s come to this already? We’ve only bin in for a while. Mr Arlington told us it would be up to three years before we had to do anything. By that time I thought we would have a big lump saved. What are we going to do, Maggie? I love that house. It’s become a real home to me and Michael. It means we’ll have to start again somewhere else and at our age it seems unfair!”

She started nibbling her nails and looking at Maggie expectantly, hoping for some sympathy, at the very least. But there would be no sympathy coming from Maggie. She had a long memory and it was time to even up old scores.

“I can’t see yer findin’ that kind of money. Jack hasn’t got a bottomless purse and yer were lucky that he gave yer the rent when he did. Now we’ve a babby on the way te think on, we’ll need every penny we can get and there’ll be nothing to spare fer anyone. You’ll have to go after a job cleanin’, like yer said yer would in the beginnin’ when we got here, and Michael and Seamus will have to spend more time fishin’ or find employment in other ways.”

Alice stood and drew herself up to her five foot nothing, glared at Maggie and told her where to stick the cup of tea.

“I knew I wouldn’t get any sympathy from you,” she spat. “I only came fer you to read the letter, not have yer tellin’ me what me and mine can do. I built that business up and now I’ve got a steady income and I’ll not chuck it away for the want of the purchase price. I know from Michael that Jack has money put by and this fight in the offing will bring in more than twenty guineas, I’ve heard. I’m sure Jack’ll let me have it, as he wouldn’t want his mother on the street, if the new owner isn’t prepared to lease.”

She scurried from the cottage and down the lane to the shore, without even a backward glance, leaving Maggie fuming. The woman couldn’t even ask after her health and that of her coming grandchild, it was all about Alice and nobody else! It would serve her right if they were thrown out of Seagull Cottage. Playing the grand hostess to her piddling boarders, who the hell did she think she was?

Though Maggie felt a bit of dismay later, as she busied herself in the garden, hoeing between the lines of vegetables that Jack had sown earlier in the spring. So it was definitely on then, this fight that she had heard Jack and Solly discussing, and Alice already had her eye on the proceeds of the purse.

Suddenly remembering her own hoard tucked away in the mattress, she had to rush inside and put the little muslin bags into Miss Rosemary’s reticule. If Alice was looking for money, she supposed by law Jack could hand this over to her too.

She abandoned her afternoon in the garden and walked as fast as her ungainly body would go. Her seventeen precious secrets would be having a new home to dwell in from now on.

“Why are you suddenly interested in the fight with Reg’ McKeown?” asked Jack , as he sat on the sofa later, after his meal of Irish stew. Maggie had tentatively broached the subject after serving him his favourite dish, though he had spoiled the pleasure in the making, by saying his mother’s Irish stew had a better taste.

“I’m askin’, because yer mother was here today, wantin’ me to read this letter she’s got from her landlord,” Maggie replied curtly.“They want one hundred and thirty pounds fer the purchase of Seagull Cottage and she seems to think you’ll be buying it for her from the proceeds of the fight. Seems to me the money is more important now than her son’s well being. That’s why she came away from Ireland wasn’t it, ‘cos she was worrying over yer getting into trouble with the authorities as well?”

“Oh, I knew it wouldn’t be because yer were concerned about me,” replied Jack, rather nastily, turning the tables on his wife’s verbal assault.

“Well, yer won’t get yer wish to become a widow fer a long time to come, Maggie. I’m going up in the world and me mother can have anything that she wants!”

“What do yer mean yer going up in the world? How can a purse of twenty guineas buy a house like Seagull Cottage, and seeing as now you’ve said it, I’m not hoping to become a widow just yet. I’ve a child to consider and every child deserves a father. I’ve had to throw me lot in with yer Jack, because yer made me do it, but that doesn’t mean I wish yer ill.”

“I know, I’m sorry fer the words I’ve just said to yer, but yer not the girl I remember from Kilalla. You’ve become a hard young besom and I’m frightened to speak to yer sometimes in case we have another row. Come and sit by me and let me feel our little babby. It looks like you’ll be having two of them, you’ve got so big in the last week or two.”

They sat together companionably then, while he caressed her stomach, gasping with delight as Michael Junior kicked his hand, neither of them thinking that the baby might be a girl. Jack waited a few minutes, enjoying the contentment, before he explained his plans for securing riches, knowing that Maggie wouldn’t be happy with what she was about to hear.

“A man was sent over to meet me in the Wheatsheaf, last weekend. He is the personal agent of Lord Charlie Belsham, who is looking to become a patron or sponsor of a pugilist willing to be
trained. This man, whose name is Richard Mannion, said he would come to the fight arranged for next Friday night, between me and McKeown, and whoever wins will be asked if they would like to work for this lord. It means training meant to get the best out of me. I would tour the North of England and take part in the circuit bouts and go to a place in Liverpool, where I would get as much sparring practice as I like. All my expenses will be paid fer by Belsham. Oh, and he could provide a house over there, so we might have to move.”

Maggie’s reaction was one of disbelief. This was Jack talking. A farm labourer, who did a bit of fighting now and again after last orders. Just to earn a bit of extra money and keep his muscles and body in trim.

She looked at him in amazement, noting his broad shoulders and the determination on his strong and healthy face. He had shaved off his beard and cut his hair short in readiness, but why should he want to stake his life against fighters who could kill him with a fatal blow? The answer came back readily, as Jack continued on.

“Mannion was telling me of others that have been backed by patrons such as Lord Belsham. I would be his first, but he has friends who have made a fortune taking on fighters such as me. It has to be organized just so, with spectators paying gate money. That’s split between the two contenders, so we each get a share. Then there’s the betting, which relies on how many spectators are there. If it is publicized properly, thousands will turn up to it, not the few hundred that’s expected at next week’s fight. Then the winner pays his sponsor from the proceeds of the wagers, or something like that, and the more fights yer win, gets yer a better reputation. Who knows, one day I could become the All English Champion, and I’ve heard he lives like a King!”

Jack paused and looked to see how his wife was taking it. He could see she was stunned with his revelations and, he probably thought, a bit in awe. But she wasn’t, she was thinking how foolish Jack had become.

“So, yer want me to uproot meself and foller yer around the country, with a babby strapped to me body and reliant on yer fancy backer fer a roof over our heads. What happens if yer have a losin’ streak? You’ve been lucky up to now, with just a few bruises and cuts. What will happen then, when yer brought back half dead on a wheelbarrow? Farmer Briggs won’t keep yer job and this place for yer. Nor will he let me stay, a woman and a babby on her own.”

Her voice had begun to rise with sheer panic. She had started her nesting period in the pregnancy and the cottage was now the place she had to call her home.

“I suppose all this has been discussed with yer mother? She seemed to think you’d be helping her out with another loan. It is a loan? You’ll get the money back for the good of our son one day, won’t yer..........?”

“Me mother only knows what me dad will have told her. Me dad is going to be me manager now. I can’t trust Solly, he’s in his cups most of the time and he’s not a man that I care to have as a go-between. Dad will make sure I’m getting’ a fair deal from Mannion and Belsham and we’ll keep a room for him at the new place in Liverpool. Of course I’ll get the money back from me mother. When she dies the house will come to the eldest son, with Seamus inheriting anything else she has. Anyway, who’s worrying about the money I’ve given to me mother? We’ll have the life of Riley once I get known in the fightin’ world.”

“I still haven’t said I’m coming with yer.”

“Will yer listen to yerself,”“I still haven’t said I’m coming with ye,” Jack mimicked.

“Yer me wife and don’t forget it. You’ll live in a grand villa on the outskirts of Liverpool, you’ll see. Lord Belsham will come a visiting and he’s not going to call at a hovel, now is he? You’ll probably have a maid to help and to answer the front door for you. Twenty guineas will be chicken feed. It’ll be two hundred guineas each time, or more!”

He hugged Maggie exuberantly. She supposed he was hoping to be given a smile, but she felt a shiver rushing through her body
and folded her arms around her stomach protectively. This wasn’t the right time in their lives to think of uprooting. Anything could happen. At least here at Lilac Cottage, they had a roof over their heads. They ate good food and Jack was a hard and willing worker at the farm. To throw his lot in with a patron, who perhaps would tire of his new venture, or want to put his money into a more profitable scheme, was sheer folly. There was no sense in even trying to change Jack’s mind though. He was self-willed and stubborn, just like her.

Maggie felt as if they had started on the slippery slope next day, when the mistress asked if she could have a word. It seemed that Florrie, the second to eldest girl, had finished school now that she was fourteen and was looking for employment locally.

“I don’t want her to go into service,” the mistress explained. “She did quite well at school, knows her letters and her numbers, so we would like her to find something in the village. Or failing that become a pupil teacher, if a position was to come up at the Infant school. Meantime, Maggie, without wanting to sound rude, you are getting a bit clumsy now your time is nearly due. Florrie can help me, while you take some time off for resting and we can talk again after your lying in. That is.......if you are still with us.” The mistress broke off and looked at her servant meaningfully.

“What are yer saying Mrs Briggs? Do yer think something will happen to me and the baby?”

Maggie looked at her employer fearfully, wondering at her words.

“No, no, Maggie,” she replied reassuringly. “Everything will be fine with you and the baby, don’t you worry. It’s not you that I’m thinking of. It’s Jack. I hear there is a fight on Friday night at the quarry and Briggs has said if Jack doesn’t turn up for work on Saturday morning, it’s his last warning and he’s out on his ear. Oh, didn’t you know that some mornings, he’s not been able to even lift a spade?”

She broke off, when she saw that Maggie hadn’t a clue what she was talking about.

“Surely you’ve noticed the state of him, when he’s come home to you at night?”

This was said with some disbelief.

“I’m usually in bed when he comes in from the tavern, and fast asleep when he gets up for work,” Maggie explained. “And if I’m honest, I don’t care what he does when he gets with his cronies. It’s his body and he won’t listen to me.”

“Well, you will be caring, my girl, when the farmer tells him to remove all his possessions and quit that little cottage,” she warned. “Then you’ll be at the mercy of your mother-in-law and let’s hope she’ll help you out!”

With her mistress’s words ringing in her ears, her final wages and a layette of knitted baby clothes under her cloak, courtesy of Peggy, Maggie trundled up the muddy track to the village. She was on her way to see Miss Rosemary, to collect the new dress that the dressmaker had been finishing off, with Maggie not being very proficient in the smocking part of it.