A Brighter Tomorrow by Maggie Ford (read with me .txt) 📕

know I was ’ere?’ she asked stupidly. It helped give her time to recover from the shock of his having no idea what had happened.

‘I went next door to ask. No one was in, but that silly old dear livin’ the other side said you was working at the doctor’s ’ouse in Old Ford Road and I could ask you what’s gone on. She wouldn’t say no more. So ’ere I am.’

Ellie was shivering. The late-March air was cold on her bare arms, still wet from scrubbing the kitchen floor, and she wasn’t prepared to stand out here to tell him the news that their mother was dead, their father gone, and she and Dora homeless.

‘Look, come inside,’ she said.

As he followed her into the kitchen she said to a flabbergasted Mrs Jenkins that she needed to speak to her brother whom she’d not seen for ages, inside in the warm, and that what she had to tell him was an important and private matter.

Stunned by the look on Ellie’s face, the woman gave a curt nod and retired to the hall, leaving them in the kitchen.

Once alone, Ellie turned to him. ‘Mum died,’ she said bluntly. There was no gentle way to say it. ‘She caught pneumonia and died, three weeks ago. You wasn’t here.’

She wanted to go on but couldn’t for the moment. She let her voice die away as he stood looking at her in stunned silence. At his shocked stare she had to tell him everything, if only to combat the rage simmering away in her heart against her father, who had walked out on his family.

She began to relate that while their mother lay ill their father had calmly forsaken her for one of the floozies he’d often knocked about with.

‘I don’t know where he is now so I can’t get in touch to tell ’im about Mum. As far as I know, he still don’t know she’s dead and, to tell you the truth, Charlie, I’ve got nothing but contempt for the likes of ’im.’

As she spoke she felt her blood boil. ‘How could he be so vile knowing how ill she was? He even told her she’d been a drag on ’im for ages – Mum, who’d worked her fingers to the bone for him. He said he was glad to be rid of her and he wanted a life of his own, or something like that. Though I know one thing: if I ever see him again I will kill him!’ She spat out those last words. ‘I really will.’

Charlie had said nothing during all this. Finally he said in a low voice, ‘Where’s Mum buried?’ It was as if he hadn’t taken in a thing she had said, and there came a desire to hurt, to wound, her fondness for her brother flying out of the window.

‘It could’ve been in a pauper’s grave for all you care!’ she burst out. But that wasn’t fair. Ellie tried to curb her anger. ‘I didn’t have any money to bury her, but Doctor Lowe who I’m working for now gave me enough to have her buried properly.’

‘Why should ’e do that?’ came the suspicious query. ‘What’s ’e got ter do with you?’

‘He wrote out the death certificate. I expect he was sorry for us girls.’

It sounded a lame excuse. She understood her brother’s concern. Why would a man she didn’t know, even a doctor, give her money for the burial of her mother? It would look odd to Charlie.

‘I’m working for him to pay it back,’ she lied hurriedly. She too had thought at first that he’d taken pity on her, but now of course she knew there had been more to it. But she couldn’t tell that to Charlie. Already he’d begun to look belligerent.

‘What’ve you been up to, to let some man give you money?’

‘Nothing!’ she shot back. ‘I suppose he felt sorry for us all on our own with no money. You and Dad was nowhere to be found. We could have ended up in an orphanage. I didn’t know where either of you was, did I?’

It was a bald accusation and he blinked, but she didn’t care. She was fuming now. ‘So you see, there was nothing in it, like what you think!’

She knew what he was thinking all right. ‘And that’s why I’m here, working to pay off the debt of Mum’s burial in a half-decent grave.’

‘Well it ain’t right.’ Again he hadn’t really been listening to what she was saying. ‘And I ain’t ’aving you and your sister working in the ’ouse of some bloke what gives you money right out of the blue, debt or no debt.’

‘So you’d be ’appier seeing us in an orphanage or out on the street?’ she challenged.

‘I’ll look after yer. I’ve got money – won it boxing. I’ll pay your debts and take you and Dora away from ’ere.’ Suddenly she realized she didn’t want to be taken away from here. She might be a skivvy but she saw further into the future than Charlie could. What did he have to offer her? He made his living gambling, boxing, earning a bit here, a bit there; they could be on the poverty line for ever, moving from place to place. And when he finally met a girl and wanted to get married, what of her and Dora? At least here she could play on Doctor Lowe’s obsession with her likeness to his dead daughter. It might take time but who knew what it might lead to?

‘Look,’ Charlie cut through her thoughts. ‘I ain’t standing ’ere in this bloody kitchen talking about it. I want ter see this employer of yours.’

‘I don’t think you’re allowed,’ she said in sudden panic.

‘Sod what I’m allowed!’

Shoving her bodily to the door he opened it and pushed her ahead of him into the dim hallway with its wide stairs. Mrs Jenkins was standing there, a sturdy, rounded body, already prepared to bar his way. ‘Oi, young man,’