Christmas for the Halfpenny Orphans

‘I expect that’s why they gave us such a lot,’ Nan said.

The comment made Angela smile. As head carer, Nan had no idea how much badgering went on behind the scenes to keep St Saviour’s kitchens supplied. Angela thought the stallholders at Spitalfields’ wholesale fruit market must be sick of the sight of her, but she’d asked them not to throw their surplus out if it was still useable.

‘It might be too ripe for you to sell on, Bert,’ she’d told her favourite wholesaler the previous morning. ‘But we can always use it for jams and puddings.’

‘Anythin’ for you, me darlin’,’ Bert had said, making her an extravagant bow and kissing her hand. He was in his sixties if he was a day, but handsome, with strong grey hair and harsh features that belied his soft heart. ‘I’ll scrounge some boxes of fruit for your orphans, love, don’t you worry.’

In the months since she’d come to the East End of London as the Administrator for St Saviour’s, she’d learned to love the warm-hearted men who worked the fruit and vegetable wholesale market. They’d made several generous donations of fruit and vegetables, and she wasn’t going to allow their generosity to go to waste, despite a girl being late for work.

‘I’m sure Nancy will give you a hand with the fruit, Muriel, and you know how the children love your jam.’ Angela smiled at her. ‘I’ll have a word with Kelly when she comes in, if you like – perhaps I can find out why she is late so often.’

‘We’re so short-handed these days. I really miss that Alice Cobb; she was always ready to help out in an emergency,’ Muriel sighed as she chopped and peeled.

‘Alice stayed on as long as she could after she married that nice young soldier, but she’s a mother now and it’s too soon for her to come back to work,’ Angela reminded her.

‘She had her baby in June, and a lovely little thing she is too. Alice has been talking about coming in for a few hours when she’s ready.’ Nan saw Alice often, now that she’d taken the girl under her wing, and kept them up to date with her news.

‘If you need any help with washing up, I could give you a hand,’ Angela offered. ‘And I’ll take the trays up to the nurses if you like.’

‘Nurse Wendy usually comes down for hers at about ten …’ Muriel glanced at the clock. ‘I’ve got the washing up from breakfast, and then I’ll need a hand if I’m going to get my baking done and that wretched jam – so if you could possibly ask Nancy to come down, please, Angela.’

‘I’ll give you a hand with the washing up,’ Nan said. ‘I’ve got linen to change today, but Jean will manage without me for a while. I shall miss Sally though.’

‘Yes, we’ll all miss her, but you have Tilly Tegg to take her place, and she seems very willing,’ Angela said. ‘Yes, you do need to get your preserves done, Muriel; it will soon be time to think about Christmas again …’

‘Don’t talk about that yet,’ Muriel begged. ‘I’ll soon have to start thinking about making cakes and puddings for Christmas. Thank goodness we’ve got some dried fruit on the shelves this year. Three years ago I had to make them with carrots and prunes to bulk the mixture out and they didn’t taste the same.’

‘Well it’s still only September,’ Angela said. ‘So there’s time yet. I’ll make a tray of tea and take it up for myself, if you don’t mind.’

‘No, certainly not, you get on and do what you want,’ Muriel said, making Angela smile as she remembered how fussy Muriel had been when she first arrived at St Saviour’s.

Angela left the kitchen with her tray and met Nancy in the hall. Terry’s sister had settled well into her new role at St Saviour’s, even though Angela knew she worried about her young brother in the special clinic Mark Adderbury had found for him. Terry was better than he had been, but still not mentally stable enough to be allowed out yet.

Nancy willingly agreed to help with the jam making, and went into the kitchen. Angela pressed for the lift to come down from the next floor. She was lost in thought as it whirred up to her office floor. As she got out and walked past the sick and isolation wards, she saw Mark come out. He stopped, smiled hesitantly as he saw her, and then took the tray from her. Angela went on ahead and opened her office door. Mark brought the tray in and deposited it on her desk. She offered him some tea, but he shook his head.

‘Mustn’t stop long,’ he said. ‘I was thinking I should telephone or come and see you, soon. How are you, Angela?’

‘Very well, Mark – but how are you? I haven’t seen you to talk properly since … oh, after the concert we had at Easter. I understand you were away at a conference over the summer?’

‘Yes, amongst other things. I always seem to be in a hurry these days.’

‘Well, it’s nice to see you …’

‘Actually, the concert was one of the things I wanted to talk to you about, Angela. Everyone was so pleased with that, and it raised much more than the price of the tickets in donations. I was thinking perhaps we might have a Christmas concert this year …’

‘How funny, so was I!’ Angela said, a laugh escaping her. ‘I know it’s too early to be thinking of it yet. Muriel was quite alarmed when I mentioned Christmas – she’s having staff problems.’

‘I expect you have plenty of them here.’

‘It isn’t easy to find reliable staff. And now we’ve lost one of our best girls – Sally Rush is leaving to take up nursing.’

‘How is she these days?’ Mark said frowning. ‘It was a terrible shock losing Andrew Markham that way … he was a brilliant man, both as a surgeon and with those marvellous books of his.’

‘Yes, the children still love them. Nancy told me that some of them ask her why there are no new books.’

‘Nancy seems to be doing well here.’

‘She’s learning a lot, assisting Muriel and helping with the younger children, but naturally she can’t forget poor Terry and what happened. She visits her brother occasionally, but …’

‘Terry’s breakdown was traumatic for everyone.’ Mark seemed intent as he looked at her. ‘And you, Angela? I never seem to find you around these days. You work terribly long hours. You should make time for some fun.’

‘Well, I do, when I can,’ Angela said, ‘but I have other charity work nowadays – meetings I go to in the evenings. I’m only working here this evening because I have to finish a report on—’

‘Not too busy to go for a drink later, I hope?’ He looked at her and Angela was unsure what she could see in his eyes. ‘We really ought to talk …’

‘Oh …’ Angela hesitated and then inclined her head. ‘I should be finished by eight – if you want to meet somewhere?’

‘I’ll pick you up then and we’ll have supper at that pub by the river – we went there once before, if you remember?’

‘Yes, thank you,’ she agreed. ‘I shall be ready by eight and I’ll come down to the hall. It will be nice spending time with you again, Mark.’

‘Yes, I’ve missed our time together,’ he said. ‘I’ll look forward to this evening.’

‘Yes, me too,’ she said, giving him a smile as she watched him leave. It was time she started work on that report, yet she lingered for a moment, thinking about Mark and the way he’d always been there for her until Carole came between them.

As she put a sheet of paper into her typewriter, Angela’s thoughts turned to Kelly, the girl Muriel had complained about so bitterly. She was a pretty dark-haired girl and bright, always friendly when Angela saw her – so why was she proving so very unreliable?

‘Oh, Mammy,’ Kelly Mason said, looking at her mother as she sat slumped in her wooden rocking chair by the kitchen fire. The kitchen looked as if a bomb had hit it, and needed a really good clean. ‘Why didn’t you tell me if you were feeling ill again? I would have done all this last night. I can’t stop now or I’ll be late again and Nan … I mean Mrs Burrows, told me that she will have to let me go if I keep having time off.’

‘You get off then, my love,’ her mother sighed. ‘Make me a cup of tea first and then I’ll get up and see to the bairns.’

Kelly saw the weariness in her mother’s face and sighed inwardly, knowing that she couldn’t desert her mother when she was like this; getting the younger children ready for school would be too much for her. When Mammy started to tremble and took her tea with unsteady hands, Kelly knew there was nothing she could do but stay for another hour or so to see to the children before she left for her work at St Saviour’s.

Running upstairs to pull her siblings from their beds, Kelly was thinking about her job at the children’s home. She loved working there, even though she was only employed in the kitchens as a skivvy, washing up, scrubbing and helping Cook by peeling mounds of potatoes and chopping cabbage or scraping carrots. Sometimes, Kelly thought she would throw up if she saw another carrot covered in mud, because they had to be scrubbed under the tap in the scullery before she could peel them; she hated the ones with wormholes, especially if there was still something inside, and Cook was so fussy about her food. If she found one speck of dirt in the cabbage she made Kelly’s life a misery.

Her sister and brothers squealed as she yanked the covers off them and then physically ejected them from bed; they were lazy devils and did little or nothing to help Mammy, even though Cate was old enough at nine to help with the simple chores.

‘Get up and wash now,’ Kelly said crossly, ‘or you’ll get no breakfast. I’ve got to get to work and I can’t wait about for you. Mammy isn’t well this morning so you can do the washing up before you go to school.’

‘There’s no school today ’cos there’s a hole in the roof and we wus told not to go in,’ her brother Michael complained bitterly. ‘I ain’t goin’ ter get up yet, our Kelly. You’re mean to get on at us like you do.’

‘Well, you may have a day off but I don’t,’ Kelly said. ‘I’m not telling you again. There’ll be toast and dripping and a cup of milk for you downstairs. I’m leaving as soon as I’ve washed up the supper things – and if I find Mammy worse tonight because you didn’t help her, Cate, you’ll feel the back of my hand.’

‘I’ll help Mammy,’ Robbie said. He was only five but more serious than the others and she knew he tried but he couldn’t do much other than set the table or fetch things from the shop.

‘Thank you, Robbie love,’ Kelly said. ‘Make the others help her too and make sure she doesn’t do too much. I’ve got to hurry or I might lose my job.’ She didn’t earn much but even a few shillings extra helped to pay the rent and make sure there was coal for the fire.

She took Bethy from her cot and into the bathroom, washing her face and changing her nappy. Bethy was nearly three and still in nappies; it seemed she wouldn’t learn to use the potty or perhaps Mammy was too tired to train her into it as she had the others. She’d never really been well since the birth of her youngest child.