The Rag and Bone Girl by Maggie Ford

Author:Maggie Ford [Ford, Maggie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473573239
Publisher: Ebury Publishing

Christmas had come and gone, not too bad a Christmas, much the same as any other with all the family gathered around the table at the parents’ home in Stratford to eat as heartily as ever, lounging back in armchairs and settee to digest the meal and later enjoy a pleasant evening together with a few neighbours who had been invited in. Come Boxing Day each little family would separate to spend it with the other spouse’s family. Next year it would naturally be turn about, of course.

Frank was now in uniform, called up last month, but had been given Christmas leave. He and Mabel had spent Boxing Day with her family but came back to Stratford the next day for him to say cheerio to Mum and Dad prior to returning to his unit.

Charlie missed him – no one to grumble with any more about Dick’s full-of-himself attitude. It wasn’t the same with George, who could shrug off anything Dick said and get on happily in his slapdash way with whatever he was asked to do. Dad, being aware of his easy-going nature, tolerated him as he tolerated his eldest son’s self-centred idleness, leaving Charlie to take the brunt of the heavier work, still on the same pay as when he’d first started.

‘You know I can rely on you, Charlie,’ was his answer if ever he had a gripe about certain jobs, which he supposed might be seen as a backhanded compliment of sorts. But it would have been nicer had that compliment, if that’s what it was, been backed with a bit of extra money.

In the end he faced him with it. He was a family man now and as such should be getting a bit more. His father had looked somewhat taken aback but faced with Charlie’s determined expression, relented.

Charlie came away with an extra one pound ten shillings to his wages, a warning not to say anything to Dick or George, or even Frank when he came home on his next leave, also an unsettling remark echoing in his head:

‘There’ll come a time, son, when I’ll no longer be here, the business handed over to you and Richard. None of us live forever.’

The words, though upsetting, were overshadowed by another thought: Him and Richard. What about Frank? But he said nothing and pocketed his wage rise, knowing how delighted Ethel would be.

That thirty shillings brought his wages up to over four pounds a week. He was grateful. Would even a bank manager earn much more? With food rationing now in place – Ethel said it was just four ounces of butter, bacon, ham, for each of them, twelve ounces of sugar, meat too on ration – she was saving more than they spent. With her reluctant to go out in the blackout to places of entertainment, he could now put money away for rainy days.

He could understand her not wanting to go out of the house much this winter. It had been the hardest winter for a long time.

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