The Pearly Queen (24 page)

Jimmy hopped it, and with no regrets. It was nearly ten o'clock when he reached the handsome house in Anerley. Ada opened the side door to him.

‘Oh,' she said in relief. ‘We thought – oh, you've come, then?'

‘Yes, I've arrived, Lady Ada,' said Jimmy, ‘I—'

‘Cheeky again, are we?' said Ada. ‘No wonder you make the young madam giggle. But you're late as well as cheeky. You'll cop it.'

‘Is Mr Gibbs shirty about me not bein' here on time?'

‘We thought you'd give us up,' said Ada. ‘Mr 'Odges said he was grieved that some young gents could turn out disappointin'.'

‘I wouldn't give people up without sayin', or without a good reason,' said Jimmy.

‘There, I said you wouldn't,' smiled Ada. ‘You'd better go through, Mr Gibbs is on the terrace, I don't suppose he's spittin' nuts and bolts yet.'

Jimmy went round to the terrace, where Mr Gibbs, brown-faced and husky-looking in shirt, trousers and belt, his sleeves rolled up, was listening to his precocious daughter.

Sophy was saying, ‘Let that be a lesson to you, Daddy, giving work to boys who don't turn up, what a rotter, doesn't it make you want to spit? Wait till – oh, look, he's here.'

Mr Gibbs turned. ‘Sorry I'm late, Mr Gibbs,' said Jimmy.

‘Blessed cheek, where've you been all this time?' asked Sophy.

‘Thought we'd lost your services, Jimmy,' said Mr Gibbs.

‘Well, it was like this,' said Jimmy, and explained exactly why he was late. He finished by saying, ‘I had to go after the job, Mr Gibbs, I like what I'm doin' for you, I could do work like this all me life, but—'

‘Understood, Jimmy,' said Mr Gibbs. ‘The firm called it a job, did they? I know about jobs like that. Don't fall into one of them, or you'll disappoint me. On the other hand, you might come back at me and ask what's the alternative these days. That's the big problem, lack of real jobs, isn't it? It's our government, Jimmy, they won't accept they can get the economy moving by funding a countrywide building programme – houses, new roads, improved roads and more railway systems, as well as new schools.'

‘Daddy, you boring old thing,' said Sophy. ‘Anyway, can I help Jimmy now he's here?'

‘I think you'd better ask your mother,' said Mr Gibbs.

‘But you've already said I could help as long as I wear my new dungarees and the gardening gloves. Oh, come on, Daddy, you can't expect Jimmy to do everything by himself, you don't want him to go home looking as if you've slaved him to death, do you?'

‘It's not a good idea, no,' said Mr Gibbs.

‘Then I won't be a tick, Jimmy,' said Sophy, darting away.

‘Let your mother know what's happening,' called her father.

‘Yes, I will if I see her,' called Sophy, ‘but she's ever so busy this morning, so if I don't see her I won't actually go and interrupt her.' She disappeared. Mr Gibbs smiled.

‘I'll get on, shall I, Mr Gibbs?' said Jimmy. ‘I think I can finish that clearin' today, I've only got a few big branches left to saw up. That's if I can cope with any problems that might come along.'

‘Problems?' said Mr Gibbs. He smiled again. ‘Yes, I see. Well, I must get back to the men.' Off he went, very much as if it was wiser not to hang around and not to ask about problems. He knew that his irrepressible daughter had a new interest, Jimmy. Jimmy's company was her current hobby. It might last the summer out. Then she would find something else. It was all part of the years of growing up, when girls like Sophy were butterflies. There was no point in trying to turn a thirteen-year-old girl into a steadfast woman. Sophy would acquire that quality later. It was a quality that her mother had.

Jimmy set to with a saw, a long sharp saw. The ashes of burned bonfires marked the clearing. One bonfire, only half-built, was to be completed and piled with light sawn branches, to be burned tonight. That would finish this clearing, and on Monday he would start on another. The work really exhilarated him, and he was beginning to see factory work as dull and boring.

Sophy arrived: clad in brown dungarees and wearing thick gardening gloves, she looked like a young female navvy. Her spirits high, she set to, holding each small branch firmly while Jimmy sawed them from the main branch. She carried each one to the bonfire to chuck it on. Jimmy called to her to just put them down beside the mound, he'd come and place them on later.

‘I can put them on as good as you,' she said.

‘Well, if you could I'd let you,' said Jimmy, ‘but you can't, so I won't. It's no good just chuckin' them on, you have to build a bonfire, not knock it about.'

‘Cheeky impertinence you've got,' said Sophy, but her spirits were high and she did as he wanted. She was biding her time, of course, waiting until she could trip him up and jump on him. She liked his impertinence, his challenging way of dealing with her, and gave no thought at all to the fact that he came from a cockney family.

Jimmy was on the lookout for larks from her, but she behaved as if the activity was enough. Mind, he couldn't stop her talking. She talked all the time.

Eventually and inevitably, her mother appeared on the scene.

‘Oh, hullo, Mummy,' said Sophy, sweet with innocence.

‘I thought so,' said Mrs Gibbs.

‘Daddy said I could help as long as I wore the new dungarees he bought for me,' said Sophy, looking warm from work and the sun.

‘Those dungarees were bought because I seem unable to stop you galloping off into these jungles, to prevent you ruining your clothes and getting yourself scratched to death, not to get in Jimmy's way. Good morning, Jimmy.'

‘Hullo, Mrs Gibbs,' said Jimmy, resting the saw.

‘You managed to get here, then?' said Mrs Gibbs, smiling.

‘Yes. I was late because—'

‘He went after some rotten job,' said Sophy, ‘for seven and sixpence a week. Seven and six. Mummy, doesn't that make you want to spit?'

‘Did you take it, Jimmy?' asked Mrs Gibbs.

‘No, they'd already given it to someone else,' said Jimmy, ‘but I wouldn't have taken it, anyway, it didn't have any prospects.'

‘Very wise. Sophy, come here.'

‘Yes, Mummy?' Butter wouldn't have melted in Sophy's mouth as she came to look up at her mother.

For her daughter's ears alone, Mrs Gibbs said, ‘What are you wearing under those dungarees?'

‘Oh, just my Liberty bodice and you-knows, Mummy.' Sophy's smooth young shoulders were bare except where the wide braces of her dungarees lay over them, covering the straps of her vest.

‘You shocker,' said Mrs Gibbs.

‘But, Mummy, you can't wear a frock under dungarees, 'specially on a hot day like this.'

‘Precocious child,' said Mrs Gibbs. ‘Well, behave yourself now, do you understand?'

‘I don't know why you think I won't,' said Sophy.

‘Jimmy,' called Mrs Gibbs, ‘if Sophy gives you any trouble, tie her up and sit her in that wheelbarrow.'

‘I'll do that,' said Jimmy.

‘Good,' said Mrs Gibbs, and left them.

It was a day of high summer, and to Jimmy as good as being out in the country. Felled saplings and mown grasses offered all the heady aromas of the countryside. In her delight at being out of doors with him, Sophy curbed her penchant for monkey tricks. At eleven-thirty, Ada brought them each a glass of cool lemonade.

‘Well, thanks, Ada,' said Jimmy.

‘You haven't brought any biscuits,' said Sophy.

‘No, your mother said it would spoil your lunch, Miss Sophy.' Ada looked at the girl. What a ravishing young creature she was for her age, even in dungarees. And she had her eye on Jimmy all right, Jimmy with his young manly growing-up look, and clear grey ears that looked you straight in the face.

‘That's all, Ada, you can go now,' said Sophy.

Ada, recognizing that the girl wanted Jimmy to herself, turned and left. She heard Jimmy say, ‘You shouldn't speak like that to Ada.'

‘Blessed cheek,' said Sophy, ‘why not?'

‘Because she's nice,' said Jimmy, and Ada went smiling on her way then.

At one o'clock, Jimmy was invited to eat a lunch of cold chicken and salad at a table on the terrace with Sophy and her mother. And Mr Gibbs joined them, Mrs Gibbs insisted. She said she'd divorce him if she had to eat every lunch alone with Sophy the Dreadful, while he ate bread, cheese and pickled onions with the men. Mr Gibbs asked if it was wise to have Jimmy sit down with them. Mrs Gibbs said she liked the boy and that he was good company.

When they were at lunch, she asked her husband why he'd given Sophy permission to turn herself into a labourer.

‘Did I?' said Mr Gibbs cautiously.

‘So she said.'

‘I've been absent-minded lately,' said Mr Gibbs.

‘Oh, you bought the dungarees in an absent-minded moment, did you?' said Mrs Gibbs.

‘I get like that sometimes,' said Sophy, ‘and it makes life jolly trying. I've had a trying life altogether, falling down the stairs when I was seven, then getting the measles when I was nine, and having to put up with the war all those years, and now having my headmistress, Miss Mortimer, getting a down on me.'

‘All that lot's the reason why you're a monkey, is it?' said Mr Gibbs.

‘I expect it was the fall down the stairs that did it,' said Jimmy. ‘I expect she landed on her head. It turns girls a bit funny when they land on their heads. Well, that's what I've 'eard. You just have to be patient and hope for the best, Mrs Gibbs.'

‘And what happens when patience goes through the roof?' asked Mrs Gibbs.

‘I suppose you just have to grin and bear it,' said Jimmy. ‘And get the roof repaired,' he added.

Mrs Gibbs smiled. Jimmy was very good company. He went back to his work after lunch, and Sophy was again allowed to join him. She was frisky in the afternoon sun, helping Jimmy to pile dry leaves into a wheelbarrow. Jimmy was using them to rim the foot of the huge bonfire. Nothing untoward happened until Sophy chose to enjoy a diversion. The young hoyden came out in her, she showered Jimmy with leaves, then darted away in escape. She leapt on to a pile of stripped tree trunks on the edge of the clearing. The top trunk rolled, Sophy leapt off and ran forward. Her feet tangled themselves in a bed of chopped undergrowth. Jimmy rushed the wheelbarrow towards the rolling trunk. The trunk struck it, the wheelbarrow jumped and turned over, spilling a river of leaves. Jimmy was thrown over with it. Sophy was on her hands and knees. The fallen wheelbarrow stopped the progress of the trunk, a foot in diameter, only inches from her. She pulled herself free and ran over to Jimmy, who lay on his back.

‘Blessed earthquakes,' she said, ‘would you think that rotten log would have chased me like that?'

‘Well, it was behavin' itself until you jumped on it,' said Jimmy. ‘Who tripped me up?'

‘The wheelbarrow did it. Jimmy, you're not hurt, are you?'

‘Don't know yet,' said Jimmy, and climbed to his feet. ‘Well, I think I'm still alive.'

‘Gosh, I'd have caught it if you weren't,' said Sophy. ‘You won't tell Mummy, will you? She'll fuss like anything.'

‘I'll just tell her I've had a bit of a tryin' day,' said Jimmy, ‘but I think your dad'll want to know how that log got there. It's too heavy to roll back to the pile.'

‘Oh, I'll tell Daddy it just rolled off, which it did, didn't it?'

‘Best thing, I suppose,' said Jimmy. ‘He'll get the men to move it. D'you want to go an' do some quiet readin' now?'

‘I should say not,' said Sophy. ‘Jimmy, you just saved my life again.'

‘All right, send me a postal order.'

Sophy bubbled into laughter.

Mr Gibbs paid Jimmy at the end of the day and told him that if a job didn't come along, he at least had months of work here, which Jimmy thought cracking.

Ada saw him out. ‘You're gettin' ever so brown,' she said.

‘Give me best wishes to Percy,' said Jimmy.

‘Who? Oh, you dotty thing,' said Ada. ‘See you Monday?'

‘I don't know I'll live that long,' said Jimmy, ‘not now you've broken me heart.'

‘You're a joker, you are, Jimmy.'

‘I'm kind to old ladies as well.'

‘I bet. What d'you think of the young madam?'

‘Well, I'm thankful I'm still able to walk,' said Jimmy. ‘Still, she's pretty, and lively too, and game for anything that's a laugh.'

‘Oh, you're fallin' for her, are you?' said Ada.

‘What's the use? So long, Ada.'

‘'Bye, Jimmy.'

By evening, Aunt Edie had done the week's washing and cooked the supper. The family marvelled at her, she did everything so cheerfully. Over supper, Jimmy said it didn't matter about that job being taken, he wanted one that had prospects, anyway. And he was all right for the time being, working up at Anerley for Mr Gibbs. He'd give Dad something out of the wages Mr Gibbs was paying him, something towards family expenses. Dad said just put it aside as savings for the moment.

‘Yes, that's sensible,' said Aunt Edie.

‘Betsy,' said Jimmy, ‘I'll take you and Patsy for a walk after supper, and we'll see if the toffee-apple shop's open in King and Queen Street.'

‘I like toffee-apples,' said Aunt Edie.

‘Bring you one back, then,' said Jimmy.

Out he went with his sisters after the washing-up had been done, leaving Dad to his daily paper, while Aunt Edie went into the yard to lift the washing off the line. Dad went out to help her.

‘I can manage,' she said.

‘So can I,' said Dad.

‘It doesn't need two of us.'

‘Halves the work, though,' said Dad cheerfully. ‘'Ello, what's this pretty thing?'