The rag princess, p.1
The Rag Princess, page 1
This one is for all my amazing family, friends and readers who have shown me so much support since my writing career began. You are all stars, many thanks
Contents
Prologue
Part 1
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Part 2
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Also by Rosie Goodwin
Rosie Goodwin Newsletter
Letter from Author
The Precious Stones Collection
The Days of the Week Collection
Memory Lane Club
Copyright
Prologue
October 1900
T
he sky was grey and overcast, and as two pall bearers took the tiny white coffin of Penelope Elizabeth Lilburn to the newly dug grave in Coton churchyard, the clouds opened and the rain poured down as if someone in heaven had turned on a tap. Within minutes the gathered mourners were soaked to the skin, but they continued to pick their way amongst the drunkenly leaning headstones until they reached the child’s final resting place.
Dry-eyed, Maggie Lilburn leant heavily on her husband’s arm as she watched the coffin being slowly lowered into the small grave, wishing with all her heart that she could have gone with her beloved child. The vicar was slowly intoning the last part of the burial service, but the words seemed to float over her head. For now, she was beyond hearing or feeling anything but an overpowering sense of loss. The tears would come later.
Levi, her husband, however, was unashamedly weeping as he watched the body of his darling girl being lowered into the earth. It was so wrong! Penny had been such a sweet, fun-loving little girl, always laughing and full of mischief. He was finding it hard to believe that he would never hear or see her again, apart from in his dreams.
Penny had been just four years old when the terrible accident occurred. She had been playing with her friends in Abbey Street in their home town of Nuneaton when she had run into the road and straight into the path of two large dray horses delivering barrels of ale to the nearby Kingsholme Inn. There was nothing the driver could have done to prevent what happened. By the time he had managed to halt the two frightened horses, the wheels of the wagon had already run over Penny. After examining her the doctor had informed them that she would have died instantly, for which Levi thanked God. At least he didn’t have to think of her suffering.
He glanced towards his three sons who stood solemnly with their heads bowed. Ten-year-old Barney was the oldest of his brood and took after his father, with his dark hair and blue eyes. Then there was eight-year-old Charlie, who also took after his father. Lastly came Harry, aged six, who, with his copper-coloured hair and dark eyes, looked like his mother, just as Penny had. As her face flashed through his mind, a fresh spasm of weeping overtook him and he had to take a deep breath to pull himself together. It wouldn’t do to fall apart now – Maggie was depending on him.
At last it was almost over and the vicar solemnly passed around a box of earth so that each of the mourners might throw a handful onto the coffin. When that was done, the man crossed to the family to offer his condolences once more, then with the flaps of his wet cassock slapping against his legs, he strode back to the comfort of the vicarage and a warm fire.
‘Come on, hinny,’ Levi encouraged as Maggie stared sightlessly down at the mud-spattered coffin. ‘Let’s get ourselves off to the wake now. There’s nothin’ more to be done here. We’ll go an’ get a nice hot cup o’ tea inside you.’
He nodded towards the boys, who had silently rounded the grave to stand beside their parents, then they all turned and made for the lychgate, beyond which a carriage was waiting for them. The journey to the Pig and Whistle Inn in Abbey Street, which was just a stone’s throw away from where they lived, was made in silence. When they arrived, Levi paid the driver and ushered what was left of his family inside out of the cold and wet.
Quite a few of the mourners were already there; the men with pints of ale in their hands while the women sipped tea or sherry wine and whispered amongst themselves.
‘I don’t know how Maggie will ever get over this,’ one of the women was saying to another with a sad shake of her head. Peggy Walker was the Lilburns’ neighbour from one of the courtyards spread all along one side of Abbey Street, and Maggie’s best friend, although they were total opposites. While Peggy was plump and easy-going, Maggie was more ambitious and kept her house squeaky clean. ‘I can remember the day little Penny were born as if it were yesterday,’ Peggy sighed. ‘Desperate for a little girl, Maggie were, an’ when she clapped eyes on Penny she couldn’t stop smilin’. She were a bonny little thing, mind, an’ bright as a button an’ all. The whole family doted on ’er.’
The woman she was talking to nodded in agreement. ‘Ah well, life can be cruel.’ Bridie Fellows was the local gossip and was making the most of the free bar Levi had laid on; she was already on her second glass of sherry and was greedily eyeing the plates of sandwiches and hot pies the landlady was placing on a long table to one side of the room. ‘Anyway,’ she said abruptly as her stomach rumbled in anticipation, ‘I’m just goin’ to grab a bite to eat. I’ve had nothin’ since last night an’ me stomach thinks me throat’s cut.’
Meanwhile Levi settled his wife and sons on some chairs close to the fire before hurrying away to fetch them all a drink. He returned shortly with a pint of ale for himself, a large brandy and a cup of hot tea for Maggie and three glasses of lemonade for the boys. Anyone seeing them would have thought they were a very well-to-do family, clad as they were in their smart clothes, but in actual fact Levi ran a thriving rag-and-bone yard next to their tiny two-up, two-down cottage.
Levi had travelled to Nuneaton some years before from Seaton Delavel, a small mining village seven miles outside of South Shields, following the death of his parents. He had come to work on the railways, and soon after he had met Maggie. He had been almost penniless at the time, taking work wherever he could find it once the railway navvies moved on. Eventually he had bought a barrow and walked the streets collecting rags, bones and any scraps of metal he could find, which he would sell on, until eventually he had bought the small yard he now ran very successfully. Shortly after this, he and Maggie had wed and he had thought himself the luckiest man alive. He still did, although he and his wife were as different as chalk from cheese.
Levi had been raised in an overcrowded garret, where he and his six brothers and sisters had slept top to toe on straw mattresses, and they hadn’t always known where the next meal was coming from, so he was proud of what he had achieved and thankful that his family didn’t have to suffer the hardships he had. Maggie’s parents had died when she was young, and she and her siblings had been brought up in the courts by an aunt. Although her aunt did her best, money had been tight, and they, too, had often gone hungry. Sadly, her aunt had died shortly after she and Levi were wed.
Her background had made Maggie determined to pull herself and her family out of poverty and she had worked beside Levi to make their business successful. Once it had started to turn a profit, though, she preferred to mix with the more influential people of the town and had insisted that her children should have the very best clothes Levi could provide. He was happy to oblige, although sometimes he had to gently rein in her spending. Today she was clad in a black bombazine mourning gown and a wide hat covered with a black veil, and the boys were dressed in smart little suits and white shirts with starched collars, as he himself was, although he could hardly wait to get home and get out of it. Levi was never happier than when he was getting his hands dirty and had never been one for dressing up.
‘There you go, pet,’ he said gently as he placed Maggie’s drink before her, but if she heard him, she gave no sign. Instead she sat staring sightlessly straight ahead, just as she had since the day of the terrible accident. People were approaching their table offering condolences and Levi acknowledged each of them with a nod, praying for this dreadful day to be over.
‘Can we go soon, Da?’ Barney asked. The boys were white-faced
‘Aye, we will, lad.’ Levi reached across the table and affectionately ruffled the boy’s dark hair. ‘Meantime, why don’t you take your brothers over there an’ get somethin’ to eat? I doubt yer ma will be up to cookin’ the night.’
Barney obediently ushered Charlie and Harry towards the food table as Levi turned his attention back to his wife. ‘Shall I be fetchin’ somethin’ for you, pet? You’ve had not a bite between yer lips for days, an’ I don’t want you makin’ yourself ill now. Perhaps a bit o’ pork pie or a sandwich?’
Maggie raised a hand to lift her veil back and he was shocked to see the pain and venomous look on her face. ‘A bit o’ pork pie you say? How can you even think of eatin’ on such a day? Don’t you understand our lovely girl is gone, Levi? We’ll not see her again in this life. I just pray she’ll be waitin’ for us in the next.’
Her words cut like a knife, but his voice was calm as he answered, ‘Of course I know that. But I also know we still have the boys to take care of. They need us more than ever now, so we’ve got to try an’ be strong for them.’
‘I know that well enough!’ she rasped. ‘I also know that if you’d bought us that house in Swan Lane that I wanted this might never have happened!’
Levi groaned. ‘Oh, not that again. Didn’t I explain that I couldn’t afford it yet? And don’t go tryin’ to lay the blame for the accident on me, woman. I was workin’ when it happened, but where were you? Drinkin’ tea from yer dainty china cups an’ saucers an’ entertainin’ yer fancy friends, were you?’
The minute the words had left his lips he wished he could take them back, but it was too late and he cringed as he saw the look of hurt burning in her eyes. ‘I’m sorry, hinny. I shouldn’t have said that,’ he said, running his work-worn hands through his thick mop of hair. ‘It was an accident pure an’ simple, an’ no one were to blame. It was just one o’ those terrible things that can happen from time to time. What we have to do now is find a way to come to terms wi’ it.’
The boys returned at that moment with their plates piled high with thick ham and cheese sandwiches, pickles and a variety of pies. At least the accident hadn’t affected their appetites, Levi thought ruefully.
The afternoon dragged on but when the food table was empty and the bar was almost drunk dry, the last of the mourners left and Levi let out a deep sigh of relief. He went to settle the bill with the landlord before shepherding his family out of the pub and the few yards down the road to the courtyard where they lived.
‘Here we are then, me boys,’ he said, forcing a note of cheer into his voice as they passed through the yard. Opening the door to their cottage, he ushered them in out of the damp October afternoon. ‘How about you go up an’ get changed out o’ your best suits, eh? An’ hang ’em up tidy, mind, else you’ll have yer ma skelpin’ yer backsides. Then when you come down, we’ll all have us a nice hot cup o’ tea.’
The cottage was a complete contrast to the rag-and-bone yard outside. Everything was neat and tidy and so clean that Levi often joked he could eat his dinner off the floor. There were two comfortable mohair sofas with gaily coloured cushions scattered over them to either side of the fire, and a good quality mahogany table with six chairs stood in the centre of the room with a matching sideboard against one wall. Thick velvet curtains, which he had collected from a big house on the outskirts of town, framed the windows, and good quality fringed rugs were scattered about the highly polished floorboards. Outside was his domain but Maggie insisted on only the best of what he collected for the inside.
Now she crossed to the side of the dying fire and dropped heavily onto one of the sofas while Levi threw some coals onto the glowing embers before hurrying away to put the kettle on.
‘I’ll just pop up an’ get outta this suit then I’ll make us all a nice cuppa, pet.’ His words met with no response so with a heavy heart he made his way up the steep narrow staircase to the two small bedrooms. In one he could hear the boys talking as they got out of their best clothes, and as he stepped into his and Maggie’s room, the first thing he saw was the small truckle bed that Penny had slept on to the side of theirs. It was neatly made with her favourite teddy bear propped up against the pillows, for all the world as if it was waiting for her to come for bedtime. A lump swelled in his throat as he dropped down onto the side of the bed and buried his face in his hands. It felt as if the whole family had fallen apart and Levi had no idea how he was ever going to put it back together. But one thing was for sure, he was going to have to try to for the sake of the boys.
That evening, after the boys were in bed, the torrent of tears that Maggie had held back suddenly burst from her like a breached dam and all Levi could do was squeeze her hand and speak soothingly to her. He supposed they were better out than in, but as the days and weeks passed with no sign of them ceasing, he wondered if they were ever going to stop.
PART 1
Chapter One
September 1904
I
t was late afternoon and the light was fading fast as the two boys Levi employed to collect bones for him entered the yard, pushing their small handcart ahead of them.
‘We done well today, mister,’ the smaller of the two told Levi happily as he swiped his sleeve along the bottom of his runny nose, leaving a shiny trail of snot. ‘We went to the slaughter yard an’ picked through the bones an’ some of ’em will be good enough to make handles.’
Levi crossed to look into the cart and nodded. ‘Well done, lads. Yer right. Some o’ these will make right good handles fer cutlery for the toffs. The grease from ’em will make some good soap an’ all.’ The rest of the bones he would sell to a merchant who would grind them down to make glue and fertiliser, so none of them would be wasted.
Fishing in his pocket he took out some coins and paid the boys, who went merrily on their way to buy bread that would ensure their families ate that evening. Levi pushed the barrow to a corner of the yard and threw a tarpaulin over it before crossing to the horse and cart he had just come home in. He too had had a good day, and the cart was loaded with rags and scrap metal, all of which would be sold for a profit. A woman would come in the next morning to sort through the rags to see if any of the clothes were worth salvaging. Those that were would be sold to the rag stall in the marketplace, and those that were beyond reusing would be sorted into whites and coloureds. White rags would fetch tuppence to threepence a pound, depending on their condition and would be sold to paper merchants. Coloureds and wool would fetch tuppence a pound and would be sold on to shoddy factories where they would be ground down to a fibrous mass and mixed with fresh wool before being made into new garments. But as Levi had discovered, it was the scrap metal that would fetch the most, so he spent the majority of his days scouring the streets for what he could find. Old brass, copper and pewter could fetch as much as five pence a pound so were highly valued.
Before unloading the cart, he unharnessed the horse and led him to the stable. Levi had bought old Dobbin some years before, shortly before the birth of his first son, and was more than a little fond of him. He gave him a brisk rub down and a nose bag before leaving him to rest and going back out into the yard where he began the unenviable task of sorting out his day’s finds. It was a dirty, smelly job but Levi was used to it, and anything was better than being down the mines – as he had been back in his home town. He had almost finished when the cottage door opened and Maggie appeared. ‘Your meal is almost ready. Ten minutes. And make sure you wash before you come in.’
‘Right y’are, pet.’ Levi hefted the rest of the rags into a shed he had ready for them. They had to be completely dry before they could be sold so he couldn’t risk them getting wet. Finally, after swilling his hands and face in the trough of water to one side of the yard, he went into the kitchen.
Maggie was at the stove stirring a large pot from which delicious smells were issuing and the three boys were seated at one end of the table doing their homework.
‘Best get that put away for now,’ Maggie instructed them. ‘And then get the table laid. This is ready.’
