Josephine Cox - A Woman’s Fortune

‘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.

Not long after Brendan came over, Jeanie had been persuaded to come downstairs and she’d brought the boys down with her to join in the discussion.

‘They’re in this with us. It affects all of us, and Peter and Robert need to know what’s going to happen … and why,’ she said, looking at Michael with her eyes narrowed.

‘You’re right, lass,’ said Michael. ‘It’s all going to be an exciting adventure, eh, fellas?’

Robert nodded dumbly, not really understanding. Peter, his mouth a tight line, looked away, ignoring his father.

Brendan had brought a couple of bottles of Guinness across with him ‘to help things along’, which pleased Michael, who emptied and refilled his own glass with remarkable speed.

By the end of the evening Sue’s bold handwriting covered several pages of the writing pad and the plan for the Carters to move had a timetable. Fergus Sullivan, Brendan’s cousin, was bringing the van at dawn on Sunday morning and the family were to have everything they wanted to take packed ready and piled by the front door, to be loaded quickly and discreetly.

‘I’ll come over and give you a hand,’ Billy said. ‘It’s my day off and I’m used to getting up early.’

‘Thank you,’ Jeanie said. ‘What will we do without you?’

‘Oh, Mum …’ Evie’s heart was heavy with her grief. ‘We’re going to have to find out, that’s for sure.’

Now, as she climbed into bed in the stuffy attic room and wished Grandma Sue a goodnight, she felt hot tears running down her face. One more day in this house, the only home she had ever known. Even now she could hardly believe it. And in about … she totted it up quickly … thirty hours she would be parted from Billy.

Please, let it not be for ever, she whispered.

‘It’s here,’ said Peter, who had been looking out of the front window for Fergus Sullivan’s van.

It was four o’clock on Sunday morning, the summer daylight pale. To the Carters, the air felt unusually clear. All the previous day they had packed their belongings, choosing carefully what was essential and what could be left behind. Even some of the furniture was to remain here because, as Sue reminded her family, the van would need to be loaded as fast and as quietly as they could do it so they could make their escape.