Cathy Sharp - The Barefoot Child

‘No, I don’t,’ Lucy said and tears trickled down her cheeks. ‘I can’t bear it, Josh! Why did it have to happen?’

He shrugged and looked miserable. ‘There’s Dad’s writing box in the tallboy,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘It may be worth more than the cupboard.’

‘We can’t sell Dad’s box whatever happens,’ Lucy said. ‘Supposing he comes back and asks for it?’

‘He’s dead,’ Josh said, and he was angry. ‘The box is mine as head of this family now he’s gone – and if I decide we’ll sell it, we will.’

Lucy supposed he was right. Men usually inherited everything and he was nearly a man, even though nearly two years younger than Lucy.

‘Where do we sell whatever we need to sell?’

‘There’s Ruskin’s stall on the market for the clothes and I’ll ask around for the furniture,’ Josh said and ignored Lucy’s reproachful look. ‘Ma isn’t goin’ to want her clothes, Lucy. We should let the things we like least go first – because we’ll need to sell a bit at a time or they’ll cheat us.’

‘What do you mean? Why should we sell more than we need for the funeral?’

‘Because they won’t let us stay here,’ Josh said. ‘We haven’t always paid the rent on time since Pa went – and now there are just us three the landlord will want us to leave.’

‘Where shall we go?’ Lucy had not thought she would have to leave their home and for the moment she was stunned, leaving her brother to make the decisions.

‘I’ll find us somewhere,’ he said, assuming the mantle he’d taken for himself. ‘But we have to sell some bits of furniture, because we shall only be able to afford a room – so the tallboy and the parlour furniture go first and then we’ll see.’

Lucy looked at the set of his face and knew he was hating this as much as her, but it had to be done. They must sell the things Ma had been so proud of and keep only small bits and pieces they could easily take with them. Besides, it looked as if they would have to sell most of what they had to cover the cost of the coffin and burial in hallowed ground …

Lucy counted the coins in her purse. She had five half-crowns, six shillings and several sixpences and pennies. It was all they had left in the world after paying their debts and the rent owed for the cottage they were leaving that day.

Lucy hadn’t seen the room Josh had found for them yet, but she guessed, from the look in her brother’s eyes, that it was not what they’d been used to. He’d loaded most of what they still owned on a barrow he’d borrowed and taken it on ahead. They’d managed to keep their mattresses, their father’s box, Ma’s sewing box, the corner cupboard and a few blankets, some crockery and their own clothes and trinkets. Their clothes were in three leather bags, which had belonged to their parents, and that was all they had left in the world.

Lucy was loath to sell her mother’s few bits of jewellery and she wore Ma’s wedding ring around her neck on a ribbon which was sewn together so it could not come untied and be lost. The little gold pin with a cabochon ruby was pinned inside Lucy’s frock, but that was all they had left. A gold cross and chain and a silver brooch had been sold, as well as a gold stock pin that belonged to their father. It had been Josh’s by right but he’d preferred to keep their father’s writing box.

Josh had taken some of their money to pay the new landlord. Because they were young, Mr Snodgrass had asked for a month’s rent in advance and Josh had paid him.

‘You can’t blame him,’ Josh said when they’d discussed it. ‘Why should he trust us?’

Lucy wondered if they could trust the landlord, but she didn’t challenge Josh, because he’d searched for the room and was proud that he’d found them somewhere to go. He was two years her junior but considered himself the man of the family. Mr Pottersby next door had hinted that they should go to the workhouse.

‘Kitty is not yet nine and should be in care of the wardens,’ he’d said to her. ‘You and young Josh can work, but what’s she to do all day? You won’t be able to afford to send her to school. Be sensible, lass, and put her in the workhouse. They’ll take care of her until she’s old enough to work – and then you can fetch her home.’

‘I’ll never let my sister go to the spike,’ Lucy told him proudly. ‘My father would want us all to be together.’

‘You’re a good lass.’ Mr Pottersby shook his head sadly. ‘The wife would take the little one in but we can’t afford to keep her …’

‘You’ve been good to us, sir,’ Lucy admitted, because his wife had sometimes brought her mother hot food in the middle of the day, when Lucy was working and could not look after her. ‘But Kitty wants to be with us.’

‘Well, I’ll wish you luck, Lucy,’ her neighbour said. ‘And if you want to sell that cupboard of yourn, I’d give yer thirty shillings fer it.’

Lucy had already been offered three pounds and refused it, so she shook her head and smiled. ‘Thank you, but we shall keep it to store our bread and cheese in. I’ll remember your offer if I need it, Mr Pottersby.’

‘Well, orf you go then – and give me your key. The landlord says I’m to keep it until the new tenant comes this afternoon.’

Lucy turned back to look at her home, tears hovering. She’d been happy there as a small girl when Pa was home from the sea, and now she was leaving it all behind to go to a place she was certain she would not like half as well …

The room was in one of a row of terraced houses in a dirty, narrow lane that didn’t even have a name, and the whole house stank of urine and stale, boiled cabbage. The windows were grimy, the dull grey lace curtains in holes, and the flooring was nothing but bare boards.

Kitty started crying as soon as she got inside and Lucy felt like joining in. Even with the peg rugs they’d brought from home and their mattresses and bits and pieces, it looked awful.

‘Oh, Josh – there isn’t even a table or a chair,’ Lucy said. ‘I thought there would be something.’

‘The room I saw and paid for was better,’ Josh said and looked as if he too wanted to weep. ‘It had a carpet on part of the floor, a bed and a table with chairs, and a chest of drawers – but when we arrived today, the landlord said someone else paid him more for it and this was all he had left for us. He said take it or leave it.’

‘Did he give you some of your money back?’ Lucy asked and saw the answer in his eyes. Josh had been cheated and made to look a fool and now he was angry and hurt, but there was nothing he could do. Having seen the landlord on her way in, Lucy would never have trusted him with their precious money, but it would only humiliate Josh to say so. He’d thought he was making a home for them and now he felt shamed.

‘I’ll look for somewhere better,’ Josh promised and Lucy forced herself to smile at him.

‘We’ll both look,’ she said. ‘I know it isn’t easy, especially when we both have to work …’ She hesitated, then, ‘What are we goin’ to do with Kitty when we’re at work?’

‘She’ll have to stay here,’ Josh said, then made a groaning sound. ‘I know it isn’t fit – but it’d cost money to send her to school, because she’ll have to pay for her dinner – and her clothes aren’t good enough.’

Lucy frowned. ‘Is there a charity school in this area?’ If she could take her sister to a school and leave her for the day she would feel much easier. Kitty was sensible most of the time – she’d attended a local school and she’d helped look after their mother in the last days of her life. Yet she was only eight years old and they could hardly leave her in this dreadful place all day, especially if their cheating landlord was around.