Read The River Folk for Free Online

a child with a bit of spirit.’
    There was silence in the kitchen for a moment until Mary Ann pushed back her chair and came to stand beside Bessie. Her thumb in her mouth, she leant against her and rested her head on the comforting shoulder. Bessie put her arm about the child. ‘Now then. Feel better?’
    Mary Ann nodded.
    ‘And now we’d better get you to school, hadn’t we? You’ll just make it in time, if we hurry.’
    Mary Ann’s brown eyes regarded Bessie solemnly. She removed her thumb from her mouth and declared, ‘I don’t go to school.’
    ‘’Course you do. Everybody’s got to go to school.’ Bessie turned towards Elsie. ‘Does she think she’s old enough to leave? She isn’t, you know, because they’ve just put the leaving age up to fourteen, haven’t they? Won’t she have to stay on?’
    ‘I – she can’t go to school. I haven’t had the chance to get her into one. What with the move and everything . . .’ Elsie’s voice trailed away yet again.
    Mary Ann’s voice piped up. ‘I haven’t been to school for a year.’
    ‘Mary Ann – please . . .’ her mother began and then, defeated, glanced at Bessie. ‘We – we’ve been moving about a lot. I had to go where I could find work and since he’s been home . . .’
    She said no more but the unspoken words hung in the air. ‘Since he’s been home, it’s been worse still.’
    ‘Right then,’ Bessie said decidedly. ‘If you like, Elsie, I’ll take her to see a friend of mine who runs a little private school.’
    Elsie’s eyes widened in fear. ‘We can’t afford . . .’ she began, but Bessie held up her hand.
    ‘Don’t worry about that. Miss Marsh is a lovely lady and she’ll tell us what we ought to do. You won’t have to pay a penny, love, so don’t worry. Now, come along,’ Bessie said, at her happiest when she was taking charge of a situation. ‘Let’s get that grubby little face washed and that hair combed and I’ll take you along to see my friend, Miss Edwina Marsh.’

Five
    ‘Bessie. What a lovely surprise. What brings you here?’
    Edwina Marsh herself opened the heavy oak door set between white pillars. The large, three-storey house was situated near the town’s bridge over the River Trent.
    ‘This little lass, Miss Edwina.’
    Edwina looked down at the girl clutching Bessie’s hand and smiled at her. She pulled the door wider open and said, ‘Come in, please. Come into my study and I’ll get some tea sent up.’
    ‘Well, if it’s no trouble, Miss Edwina, I’m fair parched. We’ve had quite a long walk, ’aven’t we, Mary Ann, all along River Road? And, of course, we had to stop and look at the ships, didn’t we?’
    Edwina smiled. She knew how Bessie loved the river and how she would use any excuse to walk along its banks, smell the dampness and relive her memories of her young life aboard her father’s vessel.
    ‘Did you see Dan aboard Mr Price’s ship?’
    Bessie shook her head. ‘No, they should be away downriver by now. They’ve gone to Hull.’
    ‘Sit down, Bessie.’ Edwina indicated a chair whilst she pulled on a tasselled rope to summon her maid.
    ‘What would you like to drink, my dear?’ she asked Mary Ann, but the girl only sucked hard on her thumb and regarded the stranger with large, solemn eyes.
    ‘A glass o’ milk, Miss Edwina, if you please.’ Bessie nodded wisely. ‘She could do with a bit of building up, if you ask me.’
    ‘So?’ Edwina sat down behind her leather-topped desk. ‘How can I help you?’
    Bessie hesitated and glanced at the girl beside her, unwilling to speak in front of her. At that moment a knock sounded on the door and a maid, dressed in a lacy cap and a white apron over a black dress, entered. Bessie looked at her and then towards Edwina. ‘Could Mary Ann go with your lass to the kitchen? I – er – I’d like to talk to you in private, if you know what I mean.’
    Edwina glanced at the young girl and then met Bessie’s gaze. ‘Ah, yes, I