A Man of his Time

‘Mind your own business. You’re in charge.’

Wherever it was, Oliver was glad to see the back of him, and went to striking in the nail holes of the shoe he was making. Oswald came from seeing to a horse, dropped the money in a tin. ‘There ain’t much trade today. If it doesn’t get better we’ll be in Queer Street.’

‘It goes up and down. It always did.’ Oliver dipped the shoe, set it aside, and walked with his brother to the door. ‘Which direction did he go in?’

‘The pub way.’

‘It’s not like him, to go at midday, though when I saw him in the Crown last week he was very thick with that Florence. She was too busy talking to serve anybody else, and Burton didn’t even greet me.’

‘Not that he would.’

‘No, but something’s going on with them.’

‘He met Mam when she was serving behind a bar,’ Oswald said.

‘Yes, and I think she’s regretted it more than once.’ Back in the forge he picked up the horsehoe, held it to the light, and considered it done. ‘In those days barmaids were different. Mother was, anyway. But Florence is married, and if Mam finds out there’ll be ructions. I hope she never does.’

He rolled two cigarettes from Burton’s tobacco tin, and they went outside as if he might pick up the lingering fumes when he came back. ‘He’ll notice some’s missing,’ Oswald said. ‘There’ll be hell to pay.’

‘If he went off in such a hurry as to forget his tobacco he can’t be up to much good. Anyway, he treats me like a dog so I might as well behave like one.’ A mouthful of delicious smoke drifted towards his brother. ‘We’ll enjoy it while we can.’

Emily and Sabina stood in the doorway with the men’s dinners. Oliver set the cans on the bench. ‘Did you see any lions and tigers on the way here?’

Sabina came forward. ‘We saw two, our Oliver, when we crossed the wide road.’

‘And did one of them have blood on its teeth?’

Emily glanced sideways at the ground, as if finding her brother too handsome to look at. ‘It had lovely fur. It was ever so tame, and I stroked it.’

Alma Waterall, watching from across the lane, saw Oliver take a coin from his pocket and close a hand over it, then hold both hands towards Sabina. ‘Which one is the penny in?’

She glanced, and pointed decisively. ‘That one.’

He opened his fist. ‘You little devil! Lucky first time. It’s got His Majesty’s head on it! Now it’s cheeky Emily’s turn. See if you win a prize as well.’

Her face a mockery of adult consideration, she tapped a knuckle and, on her lips going down to weep at the empty palm, Oliver put a hand to his left ear, rubbed at a simulated itch, and brought a penny away that had been hidden in the other hand. ‘It was stuck in my tab-hole, but I pulled it out by the tail.’

She smiled like a daisy in spring. ‘I’ve won! I’ve won! Now I can buy some toffees on my way to school,’ and ran off hand-in-hand with Sabina.

Alma, a full-busted young woman with fair skin and a fringe of dark hair across her forehead, a retroussé nose but a well-shaped purposeful mouth, came from across the lane. ‘I saw you, but couldn’t believe it was true. You said you were a blacksmith, but didn’t tell me this was where you worked. I happened to be passing.’

He led her into a place she hadn’t been in before, and wiped the bench with a piece of rag for her to sit, though she preferred not to. He intended to kiss her, but she stood aside. ‘I’ve seen your sisters at Sunday School. They’re always well-behaved.’

‘Unlike me, I suppose. But that’s because I told them to be. We all went there because Mother and Father insisted on it.’

‘We need whoever we can get. I wish every child would come.’ Oswald called that a horse and cart was on its way. ‘I’ll be going, then,’ she said.

‘Don’t you want to see us at our work?’

‘I’d like to, but my Aunt Lydia’s not well, and she lives on her own, so I call now and again. She’s my father’s sister, but they don’t get on, and I try to make up for it.’

The carter pointed with his lit pipe to the horse. ‘Can you put a shoe on this awkward bogger?’

‘I’ll have none of your swearing.’ Oliver caught Burton’s sharp tone behind his, but considered it justified. ‘You can go somewhere else if there’s to be any of that.’

The man laughed. ‘I don’t know if the horse would get that far, it’s such a wayward nag. But I’m sorry I cursed, miss.’ He turned to Oliver. ‘He’s gone fair lame.’

Alma coughed from the dust and fumes of the forge. ‘Shall we meet soon?’

‘What about Sunday? I’m not free till then.’

She nodded. ‘I’d like that,’ and went on her way, Oliver watching for a moment before turning to the carter. ‘Now let’s see what can be done for your old crock.’

SEVEN (#ulink_939a7862-3cfa-5950-9504-1fa149569610)

Burton was glad to see so few in the Crown, not more than a couple of men who had left their wagons by the kerb. Florence was distracted. Well, she would be. She always was. There was only one thing that could bring her back into herself, but by the look of her he could tell she was wondering whether or not she’d had enough of him.

He was halfway through the pint he allowed himself at midday. ‘Is it your husband you’re frightened of?’

‘It’s not that so much. He might murder me, but apart from that I don’t think he’d care one way or the other. The thing is, he’s leaving his job, and we’ll have to live in Chesterfield.’

‘What does he want to go to a place like that for?’

She might be daft enough to think her husband didn’t care, but he surmised otherwise. Yet you could never be sure of anything. She might be using the assumption that he did know what they were up to because she was fed up and wanted to pack the business in with him, though if her husband did know then maybe he wanted to get out of it because he couldn’t stand and fight like a man for a woman worth fighting for. Let him try, though he wouldn’t like Mary Ann to hear of it.

‘His brother’s in business at Chesterfield,’ she went on.

‘Get him to stay here.’

‘I don’t know as I can,’ her tone implying she might not want to. ‘He’s set on it, anyway.’

He leaned closer, a hand on hers. ‘I’m sure you can if you want to. He sounds the sort who will listen.’

The glitter of desire came into her brown eyes. ‘Is that what you’d like?’

He was irritated by her emotional scheming. It wasn’t up to him to make up his mind. She must come to him, and if she didn’t she wasn’t worth having. ‘It only matters if you want it to.’

She was looking beyond him, and he saw Mary Ann’s reflection in the mirror, between liquor bottles on the shelf. Uneasy at the apparition he turned back to Florence, as if to go on talking would prove innocence. ‘Don’t let her bother you.’

‘Who is she?’

‘Some woman or other. I’d be sorry to lose you. I think a lot of you.’

‘You ought to show it a bit more.’

‘I don’t often see you, in that way. But I always want to. Life is hard for everybody. We’ll have to see what can be done.’

Mary Ann had witnessed all she needed. Pale, blood pulsing in every vein, she pulled at his arm. ‘I was told you weren’t at work, but I knew where to find you.’