Eliza's Child by Maggie Hope

Author:Maggie Hope
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781448177844
Publisher: Ebury Publishing

Chapter Eighteen

TOT WALKED SLOWLY around the side of the cottage to the kitchen door for he wasn’t allowed to go in the front. Granny said there was enough dirt in the place without him bringing it in. At the thought of dirt he looked down anxiously at his boots but they carried no mud, they were just dusty from the road. He rubbed the toes on the back of his stockings. The stockings were a thick grey wool and the dust wouldn’t show. He knew that from experience. He didn’t want the belt; he could still feel the welt on his legs from the last time he had upset Granny.

He sat down on the step to unlace his boots and pulled them off with the help of a boot scraper embedded into the stone beside the back door. Then he put them neatly side by side just inside the door and went in to face Granny.

‘How many times have I told you not to talk to Barney?’ Annie demanded from her place at the stove where she was dishing up the dinner. It was scrag end of mutton and cabbage and boiled potatoes and she put a plateful on the table. ‘Now then, eat up,’ she said.

Tot looked down at the greasy mutton and felt faintly sick but he knew better than to say anything about it. He picked up his knife and fork and began to eat, going solidly at it and trying not to think of the taste. The last time he had said he didn’t like it and refused to eat it the plate had been brought out at every mealtime until at last he managed to push the food down his throat.

Tot had developed a strategy, though he wouldn’t have known what was meant by the word. He imagined himself in another world where there was a shadowy figure that cuddled him and kissed him good night. He couldn’t see her face but he knew it was his mammy. And she made him nice things to eat and sometimes lemonade to drink just like Alfie’s mammy. Alfie’s mammy lived a few doors along the street and once when it was hot and he was walking home from school with Alfie she had given them both a drink of dandelion and burdock pop.

‘I got it from the shop today,’ she had said, ‘and saved some especially for you two.’ Alfie’s mam was lovely and so was his own mam if only he could find her. But he couldn’t. When he had asked Granny where she was Granny said his mam had gone off and left him. Once again he wondered what he had done that was so wrong for his mam to go off and leave him. Sometimes he thought he could remember his mammy. She hovered on the edge of his mind and memory but he couldn’t see her face. She wouldn’t go off and leave him, oh no, she would have protected him from Granny and from Uncle Henry as well.

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