A Woman’s Fortune

‘The King’s Head?’ gasped Jeanie. ‘Michael, you told me you went to the Lord Nelson with Brendan as usual. I thought this was something to do with the horses. How many other lies have you told me?’

‘I did go to the Nelson with Brendan,’ said Michael. He added in a small voice, ‘But I hadn’t had much luck with the horses lately so when I heard there was a card game at the King’s Head I thought I’d give it a go. I didn’t mean to get in deep. I thought if I went on a bit longer my luck would change and I’d be on to a winning streak.’

‘Pathetic!’ said Sue wrathfully. ‘Go on about this Hopkins, lad.’

‘Well, he tends to win at the cards and then he makes a point of collecting his debts.’

‘You mean by force?’ asked Michael, looking even more worried.

‘By any means he can. He’ll bring in bailiffs to take your furniture, and he’s been known to be violent if he thinks you’re withholding what you could be paying him. And I’ve heard that once he starts adding on the interest it’s difficult to clear the debt.’

‘What are we going to do?’ sobbed Jeanie. ‘We’ll be ruined …’

Billy looked down at his hands, reluctant to agree that this was exactly the situation. A miserable silence settled on the five of them as they tried to think of a solution.

‘When did you say the money is due?’ asked Billy.

‘Friday,’ said Michael, nervously.

The silence resumed. Billy was beginning to see the only possible course of action but it seemed so drastic that he was unwilling to suggest it.

‘Nothing for it but to leave,’ said Sue.

Billy was glad she had been the one to voice what he was thinking.

‘What, leave our house and the washing and everything, and go right away?’ said Jeanie, aghast.

‘It isn’t our house, it’s rented,’ said Michael. ‘And we’ll be out of here anyway if we can’t pay the rent.’

‘So whose fault would that be?’ Jeanie screamed. ‘I married you for better or for worse, Michael Carter, but I never thought the worst would be this bad. You’ll have us all homeless. I can’t believe what you’ve brought us to.’

‘C’mon on, love. No need to get hysterical.’

‘What do you expect me to be when it looks like I’m going to lose everything I’ve got and it’s all your fault?’ She had bitten her tongue for years but now everything was pouring out. ‘Where were you when Mum and I were washing and ironing half the night to make ends meet? I’ll tell you where: down the Nelson, drinking your wages and putting bets on half-dead three-legged nags that should have been at the knacker’s. Or was it down the King’s Head, playing some card game you probably didn’t understand against some crook with marked cards?’

‘It was bad luck—’ Michael began.

‘It was bad luck all right,’ screeched Jeanie. ‘It was bad luck for me that I ever set eyes on you!’

She got up and rushed out, slamming the kitchen door behind her. The others heard her stomping upstairs and then the bedroom door crashing shut.

Evie and Billy exchanged embarrassed glances.

‘I’ll go up when she’s had a chance to calm down,’ said Sue.

‘I’ll go …’ said Michael, rising from his chair.

‘You’ve done enough. Sit down and stay here until we’ve sorted this out,’ Sue barked, and Michael slumped in his chair, defeated.

Evie cleared her throat. ‘What do you think, Billy? Is Grandma right? Is running away the best thing to do?’

‘I’m afraid it is. If you can’t pay Hopkins what you owe, he’ll dog you until you do, Mr Carter. The only way to be free of him is to leave and go somewhere he doesn’t know. That means right away from here, to another part of the country.’

‘Leave not just our home but all our friends? But this is all we’ve ever known,’ said Evie, looking pleadingly at Billy.

‘It’ll be hard, love, and I wish I could say different, but I think it’s the only way. Is that what you’re thinking, Mrs Goodwin?’

‘I’m afraid so, Billy. We’ll have to keep quiet about it, too, as we don’t want Hopkins after us where we’ve gone. And we’ll have to go soon before word gets round about Michael losing his job or Hopkins’ men will be here to take what they can sooner rather than later, if they think that’s all they’ll be getting.’

Billy nodded. Evie’s grandma had grasped the situation exactly.

‘But where will we go?’ Evie asked. ‘We don’t know anywhere but here. We don’t even have any relatives we can go to.’ She looked as if she were about to cry again and Billy passed her his clean handkerchief.

‘Don’t fret yourself, Evie. At least you’ll all be together.’

‘But I won’t be together with all my friends, and if it has to be a secret I won’t be able to tell them where we’ve gone either,’ Evie sniffed. ‘I won’t be together with you,’ she added.

‘I know, love, but I won’t lose sight of you, I promise. I’ll know where you are and I can keep a secret. Your gran’s right: it would be better to tell as few folk as possible and to go as quickly as you can before Hopkins gets to hear.’

‘Then it had better be straight away,’ Michael said, getting up and prowling around the kitchen worriedly. ‘By Monday all the folk at the brewery will know I’ve been sacked.’

‘Right, well, I’ve been thinking,’ Sue declared, ‘and I think we should decide where we’re going this evening. We can’t just set off empty-handed and with no idea where we’re heading.’ She took a lined writing pad and a chewed pencil of Robert’s from a drawer behind her. ‘Let’s make a list of what we know.’

Evie looked blank. ‘I don’t know anything, Grandma.’ Michael was shaking his head, too.

‘Nonsense,’ said Sue. ‘Buck up, the pair of you. And you, Billy. Let’s put our heads together and see what we can manage.’

‘Right,’ said Billy, determined to rise to Evie’s grandma’s expectations. ‘As I say, it’ll have to be somewhere far enough away that Hopkins doesn’t know it. You’ll have to sort of … disappear. North is what Hopkins knows. So that means going south.’

‘Good thinking,’ Sue muttered, writing it down. ‘And we’ll need to find somewhere to live and then some work.’ She looked up and gave Michael a meaningful stare.

‘We don’t know about those things, but I’ve an idea who might be able to help,’ said Evie. ‘Mr Sullivan.’

‘Aye, Brendan can be trusted to keep quiet and he has family all over the place,’ Michael said. ‘I’ll go over and get him, shall I?’

‘You do that,’ said Sue, ‘but remember not to say anything while you’re there. The Sullivans are good folk but you don’t want to let slip our business to the entire houseful in case it accidentally gets passed on.’

Michael collected his boots from where he’d thrown them out of the back door, put them on and went to fetch Brendan.

It was late that night that Evie let Billy out through the back door and the Carters went wearily to bed. To Evie it felt as if years had passed since she’d gone to Mrs Russell’s that morning with Grandma Sue.

There wouldn’t be another wash for Mrs Russell, though. When Annie came with the bundle on Wednesday she’d find the house empty and the family gone. Evie felt sorry to be letting down the kindly widow and the other loyal customers.

Brendan had shown himself to be a true friend that evening. He’d listened to Michael’s account of how he’d been kicked out so unfairly from his job and commiserated wholeheartedly. He’d been less sympathetic about the card game and the debt to Mr Hopkins – ‘I told you not to go near the King’s Head, Michael. You may as well be playing cards with the devil himself as that Hopkins fella’ – and then he got down to practicalities in a way that made Evie think how lucky Mary was to have such a clear-thinking and sensible father.

Not only had Brendan got a cousin with a big van, who could transport them and as many of their belongings as could fit in it, but he also had a friend who lived well over a hundred miles south. Brendan’s friend Jack knew of an empty property that he thought the Carters would be able to rent, at least until they found something better. Jack had his ear to the ground and he said he’d look out for any jobs going for Michael, too.

Brendan fixed all this up from the public telephone box outside Mr Amsell’s shop, waiting for incoming calls to learn the facts and confirm the details, and writing them all down. The arrangements for renting the empty place were hazy, to say the least, but the Carters had the address and Brendan’s word on the reliability of his friend. In the circumstances, even such vague progress felt like something to be positive about.