The Doorstep Girls Read online

  He’d touched his hat, and with long white fingers adjusted the scarf at his neck and taken his departure, not staying to barter or extol the virtues of the woman further. Edward deliberated that he might return. He had never been with a prostitute, but he was a man with strong desires and inclinations, and his courtship of May Gregory seemed doomed never to begin.

  Daniel closed the door behind him the next morning and heaved a sigh. He was glad to be out of the oppressive atmosphere within, his father nursing a sore head and his mother tight-lipped and not speaking. As he had put his father to bed the previous evening, his mother had reached into a cupboard where they stored their few dishes and plates. From a cup she had taken something and put it into her skirt pocket. She had turned around and seen Daniel watching, and had fixed him with a warning stare which said, in no uncertain terms, don’t ask questions!

  When he had gone to his bed in the corner of the room, he had turned his face to the wall away from his parents, as was his habit, and heard the chink of coins as his mother undressed. He had felt a sense of relief that she had had the foresight to hide away some of his father’s money and that there was at least some left. It was obvious that his father wouldn’t get his hands on it.

  Grace came out from her door and waved to him. ‘I’m ready,’ she called. ‘I’ll just go and fetch Ruby.’ She was dressed in a clean grey skirt and bodice, and a different shawl from the one she wore for work. Her hair was loosely tied with a thin ribbon in the nape of her neck and her cheeks had a soft glow to them, as if she had just been scrubbed.

  Ruby came out from her door. She was wearing the same clothes as previously, but she had let her dark hair fall loose to her waist and hadn’t fastened it. ‘I’ve been waiting on ’rent man,’ she said. ‘But he hasn’t been yet.’ She looked anxiously at Grace. ‘I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to miss him. You’d better go on without me.’

  ‘Oh, no,’ Grace said. ‘Leave it with my ma, she’ll look out for him and pay it for you.’

  Daniel wanted to ask why Ruby’s mother couldn’t pay the agent, but he had seen a glance pass between the girls and guessed that there must be a reason. He also realized that the money his mother had hidden in the cupboard was probably their rent money. He bit his lip. He had always felt secure when his father was working. Their rent was always paid and there was always food on the table. Now he realized that their fortunes had changed for the worse. Calculating how long it was before his apprenticeship ended and he became a journeyman, he knew with a growing despondency that it was some considerable time yet.

  ‘Daniel?’

  He blinked. Grace was speaking to him, standing before him with a smile on her lips. ‘You were gone away,’ she said softly.

  ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘I was just thinking of something.’

  ‘Bet your da has a sore head this morning,’ Ruby said gaily as she returned from giving the rent money into the care of Lizzie Sheppard. ‘I saw him come back with his pals last night.’

  ‘Yes.’ Daniel saw no point in denying it. ‘He’s sleeping it off. Ma’s none too pleased with him,’ he added with a wry grin.

  ‘My da gets the broom whacked round him if he comes home worse for drink,’ Grace confessed, and they all laughed innocently at the influence that alcohol had over their lives.

  Out of the court and in the streets, the day was hot. The girls took off their shawls and carried them and Daniel unfastened his shirt neck. Grace put her face up to the sun and basked in its warmth. ‘If we could only catch the heat and put it in a basket to take home,’ she said, and Daniel, looking at her, wanted to kiss her warm flushed cheek.

  Ruby glanced at him and caught his expression and gave a little smile, yet felt jealous too. How would it be, she thought, to have a man look at me like that? I’ve had them look at me in other ways, where their eyes have told me what they wanted, but I’ve never had such a look as that.

  They came out of the cluster of rooming houses and courts which ran into and behind Sykes Street and Mason Street, and crossed over Charlotte Street which led towards the river Hull. They skirted the eastern side of the Old Dock which was, as always, crowded with ships of all nations.

  They crossed the town and came to the Holy Trinity church where they waited whilst Grace sat on a wall and adjusted the cardboard in her boot, and then continued down the long street of the Market Place, where tramps slept at the feet of King William’s golden statue. In Queen Street, scavenging dogs sniffed around the butchers’ shambles, and both Ruby and Grace wrinkled their noses at the smell of blood in the gutter and stepped over the scraps of raw meat which littered the pathway as they passed.

  As they approached the new Corporation Pier which had been built on the site of the breakwater jetty, the heat dispersed, the air became bracing and they felt the cooling breeze and breathed in the fresher, salty smell of the flowing waters of the Humber. People were leaning over the railings to watch the choppy sparkling estuary, thronging with steamers and sailing ships. Coggy boats were bobbing on the water, which men were plying for their pleasure as well as transport.

  ‘Oh, my feet!’ Ruby eased off her boots. ‘I’d forgotten how far it was to ’pier.’

  ‘Oh, but it’s lovely!’ Grace leaned on the railings and let the breeze catch her hair and whip around her skirt. ‘And look at all the ships. Where do you think they’re going?’

  Daniel leaned on the rail next to her. ‘Well, that’s a timber barge heading back towards ’river Trent.’ He pointed with his hand. ‘And that’s a shrimp boat – they’ll have brought in a catch from Paull, just up ’river, I expect. Hey, watch out!’ He and other onlookers gave a warning shout as two youths in a coggy boat, inexperienced judging by the way they were handling the oars, almost tipped over into the water. ‘My,’ he exclaimed. ‘That was nearly a tragedy.’

  They looked down into the water. It was deep. There had been many a drowning, both accidental and deliberate, along the Humber shore.

  Daniel turned his back on the river and leaning on the railing he gazed across towards Queen Street and the Vittoria Hotel. ‘If I’d enough money I’d treat you both to a glass of ale,’ he said.

  ‘It’s my birthday tomorrow!’ Ruby said. ‘I’m going to pretend that it’s today.’

  ‘Oh, so it is, Ruby,’ Grace exclaimed. ‘Yes, let’s say it’s today!’

  ‘In that case –’ Daniel felt deep into his pocket and pulled out a few coins. ‘Let’s see if I’ve enough for us to share a tankard.’

  ‘I’ve got tuppence.’ Grace put her hand in her skirt pocket, and Ruby, looking dubious, said, ‘I’ve got a bit of change, but I was going to use it to buy supper.’

  ‘Oh no, you can’t pay if it’s your birthday.’ Daniel took a penny from Grace and added it to his own coins. ‘There, we have enough for us to share.’ He smiled from one to the other and placing himself in the middle of them, put his arms around their shoulders. ‘Come on. Let’s go to ’Vittoria and celebrate.’

  The two girls sat on a bench outside the hotel and basked in the sunshine, whilst Daniel went inside and presently came out with a brimming tankard. ‘There you are, Ruby. You must take ’first drink. How old will you be tomorrow – or today?’ he asked.

  Ruby took a deep drink. ‘Sixteen.’ She laughed and wiped away a moustache of creamy froth from her lips. ‘Grown up!’

  ‘Happy birthday, Ruby.’ Grace took the tankard from her and raised it in a salute before drinking. She sighed and handed the tankard to Daniel. ‘This is ’best day of my life.’

  ‘And mine,’ Ruby added fervently.

  Daniel took a draught and then leant across and kissed Ruby on the cheek. ‘Happy birthday, Ruby! May you have lots of them and all you wish for.’ Then he turned towards Grace. ‘You too, Grace.’ His eyes met hers and she shyly looked down and blushed as he kissed her too.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The sun shone relentlessly throughout the rest of July and the whole of August. The water levels in th
e open drains and sewers went down, uncovering the stagnant and offensive filth and rotting animal matter at the bottom. The muck garths where the night soil was deposited started to steam and were in imminent danger of exploding, much to the dismay and consternation of the numerous residents who lived in close proximity.

  Daniel searched out the sanitary officer in order to complain that the privy in Middle Court hadn’t been emptied in weeks, and a harassed office worker said that he would pass the message on. But no-one came and the stench got worse.

  Mill and factory workers sweltered. Grace and Ruby worked barefoot at the mill with their skirts tied up around their knees, constantly swilling and mopping the floors to keep down the fine cotton dust.

  There was rumour that the mill was losing money, yet the workers didn’t believe it as they saw the directors and managers coming and going in their smart carriages and chaises.

  Grace had her sixteenth birthday and, although it would normally have passed without incident, Daniel had insisted on taking her and Ruby to the Zoological Gardens which were to be opened free to the public without the usual admittance charge on the following Sunday.

  This was the Sunday nearest to her birthday and her mother said that she would come too, but then decided at the last minute that the long walk out of the town and along the Spring Bank would be too much for her as it was so hot. But also, Sunday was her only day of rest, and when she had finished the chores of cleaning their room, drawing water from the pump and doing the washing, she would treat herself to a glass of ale then lie down on the bed and sleep for an hour.

  But Grace’s father had said he would like to go with them, for there was to be a balloon ascent which he was keen to see. There were seven acres of gardens and lakes to walk around. Deer were kept in a special enclosed area and ostrich ran with their peculiar stiff-necked gait. Gaily coloured parrots flew from the trees above them and shrieked raucously in protest at the crowds below.

  Ladies in domed white dresses and beribboned poke bonnets shielded their faces from the sun with lacy parasols as they strolled on the grass, and Ruby and Grace looked at them in awe and envy. Debonair young men in dark frock coats and narrow trousers, and brightly coloured waistcoats, lifted their top hats as they passed ladies of their acquaintance, whilst others clip-clopped around the broad pathways in their gigs, broughams or landaus.

  They heard a sudden shout and an explosion, and looked up to see the balloon and basket rising into the sky and figures inside the basket waving to those below. ‘Imagine that!’ Grace’s father exclaimed. ‘Imagine that! Fancy being up in ’sky like that, flying like a bird,’ and he put his hand up in the air and waved as so many others were doing.

  ‘This is ’next best day of my life,’ Grace said as they walked home in the evening. ‘Thank you so much for taking us, Daniel.’

  That evening a storm broke. The air had become heavier and hotter throughout the day, then the skies darkened and those who were out hurried home, even whilst praying for rain to ease the oppressive sultry atmosphere. Thunder rumbled threateningly and lightning flashes illuminated the sky.

  The rain came as most people were in their beds and those who were not ran for cover. The deluge found every loose roof tile, every broken window. It cascaded off gutters and spouts, and Ruby and her mother sat with a blanket over their heads as the rain poured in through the ceiling, and listened to the shrieks of the Blake family who were taking the brunt of it in the loft above them.

  Grace and her parents were dry in their ground-floor room, though the rain ran hissing down the chimney and put out the fire. Her father got out of bed and peered through the window to see the torrent running off the roofs of the houses opposite, where there were no gutters, and swilling down the walls and into the undrained court, filling it with muddy water.

  ‘We’re on ground level,’ he muttered. ‘If it gets any worse it’ll come under ’door, there’s nowhere else for it to go.’

  Grace and her mother got up from the bed and together the three of them moved as much as they could from the floor and put it on the table: their boots, the rag rug from the hearth, and the small sacks of potatoes, onions and barley which were kept in a corner of the room.

  That night as the population did their best to sleep in spite of the racket overhead, the drains and gulleys filled up and overflowed into the streets, the flood bringing with it all manner of debris. Some of the poorer housing didn’t have any drains, and those who lived below street level got out of bed and found they were paddling in dirty water up to their knees.

  A report was given in the local paper of the dire neglect of the poor and the bad housing conditions in which they had to live, emphasizing that something must be done before the filth which abounded in these mean streets caused a major epidemic.

  Nothing was done, though promises were made by councillors, doctors, and those eminent residents who professed to be concerned. The poor didn’t know of the promises, for few of them could read, and those who could didn’t believe what they had read, for they had seen and heard it all before. What was the use of complaining, they complained to one another, for who would listen to such as them?

  In September, the mill foreman called the first of the workers to be put on short time. Ruby was amongst them; she was older than Grace by a month.

  ‘Please!’ she begged him. ‘I really need this work. I’m ’only wage earner at home, my ma can’t work—’

  ‘Sorry, Ruby,’ he said. ‘If it was up to me – but I’ve got my orders. I’ve to put single lasses on short time. Married women and bairns get priority.’

  ‘Cos they earn less!’ she said bitterly.

  He nodded. ‘That’s about ’strength of it,’ he said in a low voice. ‘Directors call it compassionate grounds, but we know better, don’t we?’

  ‘I don’t know what I can do,’ she wailed to Grace as they walked home that night. ‘I can’t manage as it is. We’ve spent Freddie’s money and I’m still behind with ’rent. Four days’ work! I want to weep.’

  Grace was silent for a moment. If Ruby had been put on short time, then she would be next. But her circumstances were not so precarious as Ruby’s. Both her mother and father worked and although their wages were not high, they earned enough between the three of them to feed and clothe themselves and pay the rent.

  ‘Best try ’Kingston Mill,’ she said eventually, speaking of the other cotton mill. ‘Perhaps they’d take you on full-time.’

  Ruby sighed and shook her head. ‘I heard they’ve plenty of labour. They onny want trained operatives. Why didn’t we learn spinning or weaving, Grace?’ There were tears in her eyes. ‘We’d have a proper trade by now.’

  ‘I know!’ Grace tucked her arm into Ruby’s. ‘But nobody said. Nobody told us when we were bairns that that’s what we should do.’

  Ruby swallowed away her tears and sniffed. ‘Well, at least our Freddie is learning a trade. He’ll be a master sweep by ’time he’s finished.’

  Grace looked dubious, but patted Ruby’s hand and said, ‘Yes, of course he will, and won’t we all be proud of him?’

  The foreman at the Kingston Cotton Mill refused Ruby when she applied. ‘But you’re in work already,’ he frowned. ‘You’re lucky to have four days. Times are hard, you know. If you’d been trained, that would have been a different matter. We’re having to bring experienced people from other towns, Manchester and places like that.’

  She turned away. Times are hard! He was telling her that, as if she didn’t know!

  ‘What’s up, Ruby?’ Jamie called to her from the other side of the street as she came back into the town. He ran over to her. ‘Why aren’t you at work?’

  ‘Oh, I just thought I’d tek a bit of a holiday!’ she said with sarcasm. ‘Such a nice day it’s a shame to be indoors.’

  ‘You’ve been put on short time?’ He wrinkled his forehead. ‘You should have learned a trade!’

  ‘Don’t you start,’ she said sharply. ‘I know what I should have d
one, but I didn’t and it’s too late now!’

  ‘Too late for some things, yes, but not too late for others.’ He looked at her quizzically and gave a little smile.

  ‘Like what?’ she said abruptly. ‘Not what I think you’re suggesting! Come off it, Jamie, I’m not that desperate.’

  ‘Not yet you’re not. But what if you were?’

  ‘It’s a job I can do without, thanks very much. I don’t fancy standing on street corners in ’middle of winter!’

  ‘You wouldn’t have to,’ he said, looking straight at her. ‘I’ve got an idea.’

  ‘Then keep it and stuff it in your boots to keep your feet dry,’ she muttered angrily and turned away, intending to cross over the road away from him.

  He grabbed her arm. ‘Just let me tell you,’ he urged.

  She shook him off. ‘Go away!’ she shouted. ‘I’ve told you, I’m not that desperate. When I am, I’ll come back and then you can tell me!’

  She hurried off, tears streaming down her face. ‘Damn your eyes, Jamie,’ she muttered. ‘Just who do you think I am?’

  ‘Cheerio then, Ruby,’ she heard him calling after her. ‘Be seeing you!’

  Grace and another batch of workers were put onto short hours the following week. Four days of work, twelve hours each day. ‘What else can we do?’ she asked Ruby. ‘There must be something.’

  ‘Fish dock,’ Ruby said. ‘I heard they were wanting women to fillet and gut.’

  Grace blenched. ‘I don’t think I could do that.’ She looked at her hands, which were small and white. ‘I’d never be able to handle those big fishes.’

  But they tried and were turned away by the forewoman, who laughed at them. ‘Sorry, me dears, but you’d never last a week. You’ve not got enough brawn on you.’

  Ruby tried for a job in one of the inns serving ale, but she only lasted one night and was sacked for throwing a jug of ale over a customer who had put his hand up her skirt.

  A month later, as November approached and the weather turned colder, they were put onto three days work and Grace’s father was also put onto short time at the docks.