The Silent Lady Read online

  The second event that had aroused Bella’s interest even further happened on the day the old cobbler next door died. It was about the third week of Reenee sleeping in the cellar kitchen.

  The cellar had taken on a new face, thanks to the work both Geordie Joe and Pimple Face put in every Sunday: they had not only swept the walls but painted them. They had acquired, from where Bella did not ask, three large tins of paint. One was an off white and the other two a deep blue.

  By erecting the trestles and planks used for the fruit stall they had painted the grubby ceiling white. This part of the business had taken them over two weekends for first they had to clear the ceiling of its layers of smoke and dust gathered over the years. Their efforts in this particular line were rather messy: they endeavoured to clean it with wet mops. However, during the second weekend they painted it. If the result was a somewhat streaky white there was no one to grumble. Following this they painted the walls blue, which was quite successful because after two coats, as Bella herself said, you couldn’t recognise the place. Moreover, they scrubbed the floor, during which time Miss Reenee, as they now called her, endeavoured, as she had been doing for some time, to finish cleaning the range of rust. Also its companion fender, which had turned out to be made of brass.

  What was more, among the rubbish that had been thrown into the corner of the room the men had found a seatless basket chair, and nailed some boards across it to form a seat. To this Bella had added a large pillow to soften it, but which could also be used when the girl was sleeping on the comfortable mattress that had been left, as promised, in the yard, together with a good blanket still in its shop wrappings both, as Joe informed her the next day, gifts from Mr Weir; and he had also added that he was told the message had come from the boss personally. Undoubtedly he thought they were for Bella’s use alone.

  Another concession had been made to the visitor. She was eating her evening meal with Bella. Not that she ate much, and what she did she seemed to nibble at slowly as if she had to make it last. Likely, Bella thought, she had taken up this habit when she had first been thrust on to the road.

  She looked at her now. She was sitting to the side of the fireplace staring into the fire, and she wondered what she was thinking about, if her muddled mind allowed her to think. She looked different, and of course she would without that coat and hat on her. Oh, what a job that had been to get them off her; she had seemed determined to go around doing the housework in them. Even to doing the cooking. She had allowed an apron to be put round her waist, but she had kept the coat on, until Bella had said, ‘Now, look here, we’ve got to come to some new arrangement if you’re going to stay with me. That coat and headgear’s got to come off, at least while you’re workin’.’ She recalled the pained look the girl had given her as if she were depriving her of something she valued. She had suddenly taken her by the hand and almost run her up the stairs and through one of the four doors on the landing; and once inside the room she had flung her arm out, saying, ‘Now look at it! There’s nothing frightening up here, is there? There’s a wardrobe and a dressing-table and a wash-stand with a little chest of drawers, together with a single bed. I can tell you, I thought I had reached heaven when I first slept in this room, and I can also tell you there’s not many furnished like it in this row of houses. Now, you can come up here and you can take your hat and coat off in the morning and hang them in that wardrobe. Nobody’s going to go near them. But if I were you, when you’re so busy cleaning up all my belongings, I think you should take a brush to that coat and also sponge it down and iron it out. What’ve you got underneath? Let me see. Come on! Come on, now!’ She had unclasped the hands that were holding the buttons of the coat; she was determined to have her way in this instance, so she unbuttoned the coat, opened its flaps and exclaimed, ‘Well, now, a red velvet frock. What is there to be ashamed of in showing that? Certainly, being velvet, it’s all creased and marked – velvet gets like that when it’s roughly treated, which it’s bound to be with you sleeping in it.’

  The girl had turned from her and, pulling the coat close around her again, she sat on the edge of the bed, while Bella continued with her tirade: ‘And that frock won’t last for ever. Look, I know; I know it’s no good suggestin’ you goin’ down to Ginnie’s ’cos I know you won’t; but I could, and it isn’t all Paddy’s market down there. She has a cupboard where she keeps lots of decent things. Two or three times she’s tried to rig me out, but look at the shape of me. The clothes are either too narrow or too big for me; but she keeps me in skirts and things like that, and if I was any use with me needle I’d be able to alter things. I’m not, I know, never have been in that way, but there’s no need why I can’t bring a couple of frocks up to let you have a look at.’

  When the head she was addressing drooped further down she said, ‘All right. All right. But I’m goin’ to insist on you leavin’ that coat and hat up here. I can give you a kind of old cloak to put over your head when you go out of the front door to the gates. Now, I’m goin’ to leave you here to think about it.’

  As she reached the door she turned and said, ‘You can take them downstairs at night when you go to your bed if you’re so worried about them, but during the day when you’re in the house I’m havin’ to put me foot down.’

  The girl had come down in the red dress, and Bella had gone on with her chattering as if she hadn’t noticed any change in her new companion, and that was how she had come to think of the girl, as a sort of companion.

  This particular night was a Friday night, and when her other two workers came into Bella’s kitchen, as they often did now, on this occasion they were dressed in their Sunday best.

  ‘Goin’ somewhere?’ said Bella, in surprise. At this they both looked awkward and grinned, and it was Joe who answered, ‘We thought of goin’ to the Tivoli. We hear there’s some good turns on, and on a Friday night you can get up in the gods for threepence.’

  ‘Can you now?’ said Bella. ‘And when did this idea attack you?’

  The men exchanged glances; and then it was Joe who, inclining his head towards his friend, said, ‘It was Pimple’s. He’d like to hear the music, he said. He used to go at one time, didn’t you, Pimple?’

  Pimple nodded his lowered head. ‘Well, well!’ said Bella. ‘It’s better than the bars, I’ll give you that.’

  ‘Oh . . . I don’t know if you know, Bella, but old Frankie next door died this afternoon. They said it was a heartattack.’

  Bella straightened up from where she had been going to put the kettle on the hob. ‘He died this afternoon, you say? Well, well. Young Frankie will come into his own now; he’s worked hard enough for the old niggard for years. Eeh, how Ham hated that man!’ She laughed now. ‘I wonder if they’ve met up wherever they’ve gone. Something happened between them long before I came on the scene. I only mentioned his name once in this house and never again because one night, I remember it like yesterday, he was standing where you are, Joe. I was cleaning the table there’ – she thumbed towards it – ‘and I said on a laugh, “Mr Francis next door offered me a job today. He said I could go and work for—” Well, that’s as far as 1 got because . . . because he turned on me like, well, I don’t know what, and he thrust out his arm and stabbed his finger towards me and growled at me, saying, “Don’t speak ever again . . . about that man in my house; I can’t abide . . .”’

  She didn’t finish, for she was looking at the two men who were staring over her shoulder towards where Reenee had been sitting in the chair, and she turned swiftly, and what she saw amazed her too: the girl was now as stiff as a ramrod. Her body was stretched out, supported by her bottom in a straight line across the front edge of the chair. From her head to her feet she was like a corpse and her arms were upraised as if she were pushing someone off her.

  They all rushed towards her, the two men gripping her arms and Bella patting her face, saying, ‘Come on, lass, come on.’

  Then suddenly the middle of her body from her shoulders to her thighs
began to heave up and down, up and down.

  ‘She’s havin’ a fit,’ whispered Pimple.

  ‘Shut up!’ muttered Bella.

  Of a sudden they watched the whole body collapse and fold into the chair. The girl’s head turned to the side and her hand came up and partly shaded the face, as if she were warding off a blow.

  ‘It’s all right. It’s all right, love.’ Bella’s voice was reassuring. ‘You’re among friends; there’s nothing to be afraid of. Come on; don’t shrink back like that. Wake up. Come on; wake up from wherever you are.’

  As if obeying an order Reenee’s eyes slowly opened, and if Bella had never seen a look of terror on anyone’s countenance before she saw it now. And again she was patting Reenee’s face, saying, ‘It’s all right, lass, it’s all right. You’re among friends. I told you, there’s nothing to be afraid of. Come on now.’

  Bella straightened up and, pointing to the cupboard, she said to Joe, ‘There’s a bottle in there at the back. It’s got some gin in it. Pour a drop out.’

  As might have been expected, Reenee did not choke on the drink. She swallowed a mouthful, then lay back and closed her eyes again.

  The three of them were standing apart now, and Pimple said, ‘I wonder what brought that on, because just a minute before she was lookin’ at you, at least at your back and the way you were pointing to Joe here and telling him about old Ham goin’ for you.’ Pimple nodded. ‘It’s funny, but it was as soon as you spoke that she suddenly stiffened out like that. It was so sudden. I couldn’t say anything to you.’

  ‘Well,’ said Bella tersely, ‘what could I have said that would’ve caused that spasm? I only said, “Don’t speak that man’s name in this . . .” well, in fact I didn’t finish, did I?’

  It was Joe who repeated softly now, ‘“Don’t speak.” Perhaps that’s why.’

  ‘That’s why what?’ Bella demanded. ‘Come on, tell me what you think that’s why.’

  ‘Well’ – Joe moved from one foot to the other – ‘I can’t explain, really, but you sounded like somebody givin’ an order, like old Ham used to do ’cos he had been in the Army once, I understand, in his young days, and what you said was, “Don’t speak!” And, you see . . . well, she doesn’t speak, does she? I mean it’s an effort for her to say one word. D’you see what I mean?’

  Yes; Bella saw what he meant, and now she groped for the back of a chair, turned it about and sat down where she could look at the almost crumpled body of this poor girl or woman or whatever she was, and she repeated softly, ‘Don’t speak.’ Then, looking at Joe, she said, ‘D’you think somebody must’ve told her that once?’

  ‘Shouldn’t be surprised, Bella, ’cos look at what she did with her hand, she put it up as if to save her face like.’

  There was silence for a moment until Pimple said, ‘Well, whatever happened she must have ended up with her head bein’ bashed. That’s probably what turned her brain a bit. What d’you say, Bella?’

  ‘I don’t know what to say, Pimple. That’s the God’s honest truth. I don’t know what to say. But I’m more puzzled now than I was before about who she is and where she’s come from.’

  ‘I think she should lie down, Bella,’ said Joe. ‘We’ve got to help her downstairs; the state she’s in, you’d never be able to hold her up.’

  ‘No; you’re right there, Joe.’ She got up from the chair now and, bending over Reenee, she said, ‘Come on, lass. We’re goin’ to get you down on to your bed.’

  Reenee opened her eyes. The dreadful look had gone from them, but in them was such sadness that it affected all three of them, and when she tried to speak Bella checked her, saying, ‘Don’t try to get anything out, lass. Have a good night’s rest and you’ll feel better in the mornin’.’

  The lads helped her to the top of the stairs, but there they knew they couldn’t help her down, one on each side of her, and without any further words Joe picked her up in his arms and walked tentatively down the flight of stone steps and into the transformed cellar, where the new mattress lay to the side of the fireplace and on it a neatly folded blanket. To the other side of the fireplace there stood a half-full sack, and in front of this a lidless box in which there were some large pieces of coal. To the side of the bag was a pail covered over with a fruit box.

  After Joe had laid her on the mattress, Bella grabbed the pillow from the old basket chair and put it under Reenee’s head, and before she went to cover her with the blanket she pulled off the worn shoes, saying under her breath as she did so, ‘I’ll get these in to young Frankie tomorrow; he’ll fix them within an hour. The uppers are still good, but look at the soles, they’re through, and there’s hardly any heels left. Anyway’ – she straightened up – ‘she’ll be all right now. I’ll see to her; thanks very much for your help. Get yourselves off to the show.’

  It was Pimple Face who said, ‘I’m not bothered any more, Bella, and you never know .. .’ He turned and, looking at Joe, said, ‘Do you . . .? What I mean is, there might be need of somebody goin’ for a doctor or something.’

  ‘Aye; you’re right,’ said Joe. ‘Yes, you’re right, Pimple.’

  The figure on the bed moved uneasily, and Bella pushed at them, saying, ‘You see? She can hear all right again. She doesn’t want to see any men at all, of any kind. Oh, I wish I knew the bottom of this. Anyway, get yourselves away.’

  ‘We’ll see,’ said Joe. ‘But before we go I’d better bank that fire up.’ And so saying, he took a pair of old tongs from the hearth and put the roundie coals from the box one by one on to the smouldering fire until the grate was heaped up. Then he filled up the box from the sack before dusting his hands one against the other and repeating, ‘We’ll see, Bella.’

  When the two men had gone up the steps, Bella, kneeling by the mattress, put her hand inside the blanket and took hold of Reenee’s arm, and she stroked it gently before she asked, ‘How’re you feelin’ now, lass?’

  The woman turned from her and when, after a moment, Bella put out her hand and gently turned her face towards her, it was only to see it was running with silent tears. She murmured, ‘Oh, my lass! Don’t.’ She felt in her pocket to see if she had a handkerchief, and not finding one she took the end of her apron and wiped Reenee’s face with it; and then she said softly, ‘Don’t be feared of anything, me dear. Nobody’s goin’ to hurt you here. Those two lads that’s just gone away, they’ll see to that. And if you don’t want to go beyond the door, except to the yard next, well, that’s good enough for me. I won’t press you in any way, lass. There now. Don’t distress yourself.’

  But Reenee was gasping in her throat and her mouth opened wide before she brought out a single word, a broken ‘Sorry.’

  ‘Oh, girl, you’ve got nothin’ to be sorry for. You had a kind of . . .’ She paused. What was she going to call it? Not a nightmare . . . nor was it like a fit. ‘ . . . a bit of a turn.’

  Reenee was now gripping the chubby hand, and Bella placed her other hand on top of it, patting it all the while, saying, ‘I used to have turns when I was a lass. I’ve never told you how I got here, have I? We all have our troubles, you know, in this life. Very few of us get off without troubles, but mine started young. By God, they did!’ Again she paused, while she told herself not to go on. Then she remembered a saying of old Ham’s, ‘If you want people to stop talkin’ about their troubles, you tell them yours. That’ll soon shut them up.’ Well, her troubles couldn’t shut this poor creature up more than she was, but nevertheless they might distract her from any painful thoughts, so she said, ‘I came from Liverpool, you know. I was thirteen and I couldn’t get away quick enough, ’cos I’d had a hell of a life. I didn’t have to come to this part of London to know men. Oh, no. I knew them in me own home, such as it was called. She, me mother, she never saw daylight and me dad, unfortunately, he had to work before he could start drinking in the bars. There were three rooms and you couldn’t swing a cat in any of them, and from when I can remember I was crushed between lads in the bed.
Top or bottom, it was the same. I slept under it for God knows how long to get out of their way. They were all older than me, and they went off one after the other, until there was me left with a pair of them. I tried to go to school as often as I could. I got there enough to learn to read, when she didn’t send me to the pawn shop or make me scour the place, which was like a pigsty. She was me mother, but she was a dirty bitch if ever there was one. A dirty, lazy bitch.

  ‘“Love thy father and thy mother,” so the big book says. If ever I hated two people in me life it was those two, especially him, for now the lads had gone he was gettin’ at me. And she let him. I had the bed to meself now, and he came in one night paralytic and went straight for me. He was a big fellow, but I had means of protectin’ meself. I’d used it on the lads, and by God, didn’t I use it on him that night! It was a bodkin needle, you know, that you use for mats and helpin’ to cut leather. It’s curved at the end like. And I left a mark on him that would take some healin’ for months, if ever it did, and I flew, just as I was, out of that house. Slept in me clothes. I had managed to grab me coat, me old coat, and that’s all I had when I left Liverpool around one o’clock in the morning. It was early March and cold.’

  She stopped and looked down into the pale eyes that were looking into hers and she said, ‘Am I talkin’ too much, lass?’ and when there was a slight movement from the head she went on, ‘Well, that’s all right, then. But I won’t go on about how I got to London. I only remember that I slept in a couple of barns and scared the feathers off a number of hens. Believe me, I couldn’t look a raw egg in the face now. I got two lifts on my journey; and on each one I had to show my little carved knife and—’ She laughed again. ‘When one of them threatened to put me off on the road in the black dark somewhere from nowhere I told him what I would do to him before he got me there and to keep on driving.’ She was giggling now, like a girl, as she said, ‘And you know, Reenee, he did. He just did. Although I was small made and only thirteen I knew I looked a lot older. Well, I’d had a lot of experience to make me look like that, I can tell you, girl.