Eve and Her Sisters (25 page)

‘No.’ Eve was still looking down into the child’s tiny face. He didn’t even have a name yet, she thought brokenly. She would call him William after their brother until Mary decided what she wanted. ‘No, he’ll be all right. I know he will.’

 

William died just before five o’clock the following morning as a pink and silver dawn bathed the sky. He was in Eve’s arms where he had been all night and she was stroking the small silky forehead with the tip of her finger as he gave a quiet little sigh and didn’t take another breath. He looked as though he was still sleeping and for a while Eve wouldn’t believe he had gone. Caleb had insisted on sitting up with her and was fast asleep in his armchair in front of the range. She looked across at him, so stricken with grief she couldn’t make a sound to alert him to what had happened.

She moved the blanket and William’s little jacket and felt the tiny chest. It was quite still. He was warm but life had gone.Tears creeping down her cheeks, she made him snug again, rocking him back and forth as she whispered sweet nothings against the downy head. She kissed the little eyelids, his mouth, his little hand that he had liked to have free of the blanket, and felt she couldn’t bear it. For long minutes she prayed God would work a miracle, that He would infuse life back into him along with her kisses, but nothing happened.

‘I’m sorry, little man. I’m so sorry.’ He had touched her life so briefly but she would always love him. She hadn’t given birth to him but she felt as though she had. It wasn’t right that he should die before he’d had a chance to live, it was so unfair, wicked. Life was horrible, a monstrous joke.

She sat for the next hour until Ada and Winnie came downstairs, just holding him close to her heart and looking at his sweet little face now and again. She wanted every tiny feature imprinted on her mind for ever. He deserved someone to remember him like that, he was a little person, a little boy. He couldn’t be forgotten.

Just before Ada and Winnie bustled into the kitchen, she looked across at Caleb. He was still fast asleep and he looked tired, even haggard. She had tried to mentally distance herself from him over the last weeks but now with her emotions so raw and tender over the child she knew she hadn’t succeeded. She would never succeed while she stayed within sight and sound of him, she loved him too much. And so she would leave here. There was nothing to hold her now. Maybe if William had lived she would have stayed to take care of him if he had needed her, even if Mary and Caleb had married. But now she was free to go where she would.

‘Oh, William, William.’ She kissed the transparent tiny forehead one last time and then as the door opened and Ada walked into the kitchen, she straightened in her chair and prepared herself to tell them the sad news.

1918 - To Everything There is a Season

Howard Ingram’s warm brown eyes twinkled as he surveyed the hot face of his housekeeper across the dinner table, although she could scarcely be termed such these days, he thought to himself. He had employed her as housekeeper eighteen months ago, but Eve had swiftly become his wife’s companion and nurse and a friend to them both. Within two months of her joining their small household, Esther had insisted Eve join them at mealtimes and he had not objected to this. On the contrary, he liked the young woman who had brought a new lease of life to his poor Esther. He liked her very much. She had a keen mind and a ready wit and he appreciated both in a woman.

‘So,’ he said quietly, ‘you think the Germans are the only ones to have concentration camps?’

It brought the response he had anticipated. ‘Of course not, I didn’t say that. Merely that they don’t treat their prisoners of war as we treat ours.’

‘And you know this how?’

‘By reading the newspapers and listening to the reports on the wireless.’

‘Ah, I see. And you trust these reports implicitly, do you? In spite of our discussion about war propaganda the other day? Or is it only the Germans who twist the truth to suit them?’

‘Howard, please,’ Esther intervened, her soft voice reproving. ‘Don’t tease Eve.’

‘I’m not teasing her, m’dear. We’re merely having a conversation. Is that not so, Eve?’

Eve stared at the man she had come to like and respect greatly. He was a good man, a good husband and a good employer, and in spite of being one of the leading lights of the town of Newcastle he had no side to him whatsoever. She’d known she had landed on her feet when she had arrived here, bruised and raw in spirit a month after William’s funeral at the parish church in Washington.

She had seen the advertisement for the post of housekeeper to a Mr and Mrs Howard Ingram three weeks before this in the
Sunderland Echo
.At her interview she had felt it was the place for her, should she be offered the post. She had been offered it and had accepted with alacrity, immediately informing Caleb of her intention to leave so he had time to find her replacement.

Ada and Winnie had promised to take care of Jack for her, but the big dog was devoted to Caleb and so she hadn’t felt so bad about leaving him behind. Only Nell knew her new address. She’d divulged it to no one else, wanting a complete break from her old life. Nell was the only person she corresponded with.

She knew she’d mortally offended Caleb. First by leaving his employ, then by refusing to give him her address. This could not be helped. And when, three months later, Nell had written to say Mary and Caleb had become betrothed, it had been all the confirmation she needed that she had done the right thing. Even when Mary ran true to form and disappeared again a few weeks later, it did not change her mind about returning to Washington. She was done with that life. Nor had she weakened when Mildred had passed away with a massive heart attack. There had been no love lost between Caleb and his mother, he would not need comfort for his loss and she was sure the last person Caleb would wish to see was herself anyway.

And she was content in Newcastle. Not happy exactly, but content. And that was enough for the present.

She was brought back to herself by Howard saying, ‘Well, Eve? What say you on the matter of propaganda? ’

‘I know it happens, of course.’

‘It certainly does. Take the South African war with the Boers. A tiny nation of farmers, in effect, but unfortunately for them the Afrikaner republic of Transvaal just happened to be situated on the richest goldfield in the world. Britain waging war against them showed us as bullies in the eyes of the world but you would never have thought that from the newspaper reports here. And it was Horatio Kitchener, m’dear, the great British commander, who conceived a new tactic to bring the Boer people to their knees, the concentration camp.’

‘Is that true? That we thought of it first?’

‘I’m afraid so. Not Britain’s finest hour.’

‘But you—’ She stopped abruptly. She knew Howard had fought in that war, that was where he had lost his left arm.

‘I was part of that army which devastated the countryside and rounded up thousands upon thousands of Boer women and children for the camps, yes. As I said, not our finest hour and certainly not mine.’

‘But you were just a young man out of officers’ school,’ Esther protested. ‘And you were only over there the last six months.’

Howard nodded. ‘Yes, I was, but is that excuse enough? I think not. The trouble was I didn’t think for myself in those days and thinking is vitally important for both men and women. Never forget that, Eve. For men and women.’

She nodded. Education was a bee in Howard’s bonnet and she had gained much because of it. Shortly after she had come here a chance remark of hers one day had started a discussion about the reasons for the war, and by the end of it she had been mortified to realise how ignorant she was. But her employer had not belittled her, foolish though some of her statements had been in retrospect. The next morning he had taken her aside and inquired if she had any desire to learn. Not ladylike accomplishments such as painting on glass or doing fine tapestry, he’d added impatiently, but
real
learning. History, politics, social reform - things that mattered. And Eve had answered yes, she would like to gain a knowledge of such subjects.And so her education in this house had begun.

Most afternoons after lunch when Esther took her nap and the cook and maid Howard also employed were busy about their duties, he delayed returning to his engineering business in the middle of town to give her an hour’s instruction. As time had passed Eve had begun to appreciate that in the class and society to which he belonged Howard Ingram was one of those rare creatures who truly had the working class’s best interests at heart. He had been a great advocate of the school leaving age being raised to fourteen which had come into effect three days ago on 13 March, and he was known far and wide as the best employer in Newcastle.

With this in mind, Eve said quietly, ‘I can’t believe that even as a very young man you would have done anything cruel.’

They were having Sunday lunch and Daisy, the maid, bustled in at that point with their pudding. Howard waited until it was just the three of them again before answering. ‘I wish I could say your faith in me is justified but it is not.’

Esther, her voice low but penetrating, said, ‘I hate it when you talk like this, Howard. Whatever you did, you did under orders. Why must you torture yourself with such thoughts?’ She turned to Eve, her once pretty face, which was now marked by the years of suffering she had endured with a chronic and progressive disease of the nervous system, reflecting her distress. ‘He is the kindest and best of men.You know this, Eve.’

Howard leant forward, taking his wife’s hand and pressing the frail white fingers. ‘Don’t upset yourself, m’dear. We will talk of this no more except to say I learnt things at that time I could not have learnt in any other way so it was not all loss.’

What trite things he said on occasion to ease her mind. As his wife’s face relaxed and she smiled at him, his answering smile hid the contempt he felt, not for his wife but for himself. From a small child his father, a military man, had instilled in him a desire to follow in his footsteps and those of several generations of Ingrams before him. The army had been held up as representing everything that was good and fine about England, and he had not questioned this in his youth. After a good education followed by officers’ school, he had been thrust into this fine and noble world. It had nearly been his ruin, and the loss of his arm had been the least of it. He had been sickened by what he had seen and done, a hundred lifetimes would not be long enough to assuage the shock of first-hand experience of man’s inhumanity to man. Esther had been his lifesaver, he knew that.They had become betrothed just before he had left for South Africa and on his return, when he had been sick in mind and body and his parents had become irritated and then angry with what they perceived as his weakness, Esther had stood by him. Theirs had been a happy marriage, in spite of the onslaught of this vicious illness of hers which now saw her confined to a wheelchair.

Pressing Esther’s fingers once again before releasing her hand, he looked down at his treacle pudding. ‘That looks tasty enough in spite of the butter rationing,’ he said in an effort to lift the sombre mood. His tongue ran away with him on occasion, the more so since Eve had joined the household. He had got into the habit of speaking his mind freely and sometimes he forgot Esther’s delicate constitution.

‘That comes from having a cook whose sister happens to be married to a local farmer.’ Eve wrinkled her nose and smiled.

‘Don’t tell me.’ Howard held up his hand in mock protest. ‘I don’t want to know. That way when I’m taken to account by the authorities I can say in all honesty I wasn’t party to such carryings-on.’

Eve raised her eyebrows. ‘But I thought you told me the other day I should examine my conscience in all matters.’

‘Absolutely. And you must do as I say, not as I do.’

Esther was laughing as she gazed at the faces of the two people she loved best in the world. She often had to remind herself it had been only eighteen months since she had met the woman who was now such a necessary part of her life. It was hard to recall a time when the days hadn’t been brightened by Eve’s presence. When Eve had replaced the elderly housekeeper who had been with them since their marriage, she hadn’t expected to find a friend. No, more than a friend. Much more. Her sisters and the friends of her youth had gone on to have children and grandchildren, and although they were always kind when they visited, it was with a faintly patronising air. From the first she had sensed a wealth of understanding in the young woman whom society would deem was beneath her. But as Howard always said, the British class system needed to evolve and this wouldn’t come about so much by laws being passed as by men and women in all stratas of society accepting that no human being should be considered better than another by the mere accident of birth.

It had been this school of thought, along with Howard’s strong views on decent education for the masses and the right of women to have the vote, among other things, which had finally alienated them from his family. She had shed no tears about this. His parents were very much lord and lady of the manor, with a large country estate in Durham and a town house in London, and she had never cared for them or Howard’s three older brothers and sister.

Her parents had held Howard in high esteem. As their only child, she and Howard had inherited her father’s engineering business and a great deal of money on their untimely demise in a yachting accident whilst holidaying abroad shortly after she and Howard had got married.Within a matter of months she’d begun to show symptoms of the disease which now racked her body. But she had much to be thankful for. She hugged the thought to her as she smiled at Howard and Eve’s banter. Not least a husband who loved her and for the first time in her life a friend she could talk to about anything. She hadn’t realised what had been missing from her life until Eve had come to live with them, but she knew now she couldn’t do without her.