Opposite the Cross Keys by S. T. Haymon

Author:S. T. Haymon [Haymon, S]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Next day, working Nellie Smith’s system at the White House, we made eighteen shillings – nine shillings for Mrs Fenner, four and sixpence each to Nellie and me: an unheard-of sum. When it came to counting Mrs Fenner’s tags at the end of the day, the teller at the gate looked at us suspiciously and counted them three times over before shelling out the money. You could see he thought he’d been made a fool of, in some way he couldn’t fathom.

I wanted to give Nellie Smith my share right away, before I weakened, but I didn’t know how to – not, that is, without letting on that I knew about her ma and the reason for the stain on the cement outside the Post Office. In the end I held it out gracelessly and mumbled that she could have it if she wanted, towards the fare to Yorkshire. Somewhat to my disappointment, she merely said, ‘Ta’, and took it without demur.

All day long, side by side, scrabbling in the warm tilth, she had been pleasant, but aloof. I was glad at least that she had another dress on, though it was still one made for a grown-up, printed with ugly flowers and hitched up, like its predecessor, with a length of twine. She did not say whether the old un had passed on my message, and I was too mulish to ask.

It was only when Mrs Fenner and I were about to drop off at Opposite the Cross Keys, Nellie Smith courteously declining an invitation to come in for a cuppa, that the gypsy girl whispered eagerly in my ear, ‘What you say, then? Can we go this evening?’

All in after the day’s labour and the long walk home, I had already armed myself to return a curt negative should she put forward just such a proposition. As it was, my heart pierced with joy, my fatigue forgotten, I whispered back, ‘I’ll be by for you soon as I’ve had a drink of water.’

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.