So the conductor took Young Colin’s sovereign and gave a handful of change back to him. Then without saying a word String Bean held out his coin, which was also a sovereign, and took every last coin in the conductor’s change bag. Jimmy also only had a sovereign, which he sheepishly held in the air. That was when Beatrix stepped in and said, ‘Had a good day down the mines, did we boys? Tributes paid off for once? Well, you know what, Jimmy, your friends have got plenty of change, they can pay for you. And they can pay for anyone else who hops on, seeing the poor conductor has been robbed of his change. If you don’t, I’ll be having a word to Constable George.’ All their skylarking flew out the window and they sullenly stared at the shiny new floorboards of the tram.
When the tram pulled into the next stop, two couples got on and Beatrix was true to her word. ‘It’s all right, loveys,’ she said loudly so everyone could hear, ‘Young Colin Eales has had such luck down the mines that he’s offered to pay everyone’s fares,’ and she glowered at Colin, who handed over his money because otherwise the old busybody would have a word in his mother’s ear, and his father’s ear too if he ever showed up, not to mention a word in the ear of her fella George, who could cause you trouble you didn’t want. Colin handed over his money and saw pots at the pub disappearing as each new person hopped on.
Thirteen
Pumpkin Mash
Monday, 9 July 1906, when everyone faces the dark after dinner.
When Edie woke the water was frozen in the taps and over the puddles, the trees bent under a thick layer of white frost. The weather promised snow later in the day, but in the end would only deliver nasty sleet and rain. Until the sleet and rain arrived the boys ran with sticks cracking the ice on the puddles with as much whooping and splashing as they could manage. But that was later in the day, and now it was still early. Beth had also only just woken and she got out of bed onto the cold floorboards that made her shiver and rugged herself up in a scarf, coat, boots and fingerless gloves. She rubbed her hands together and shoved them under her armpits as she walked across the grass covered in ice, brittle like glass, to the wood shed. The neatly stacked wood was damp with cold and she held it out from her chest as she took it inside. She opened the door of the cooker and took a stick to poke at the grey ash inside until she found a tiny ember. She blew on the speck of red that had survived the night and her breath brought it to life; she fed it with paper, and when the paper caught she put in the kindling, and when that had caught she added the wood, which sizzled and steamed as the moisture cooked out of it. Later, when it was warmer, she would need to let the fire burn down and empty the ash out onto the broad beans and start a new fire. Every few days the ash built up and stopped falling through into the grate pan. She left the door open so that the fire began to do its work, heating up the kitchen until it was cosy and warm and the water in the tap started to run.
By the time Nurse Drake arrived at ten-thirty the fire was singing, steam from the kettle and a pot of boiling pumpkin was filling the room, and there was hot tea in the pot. Beth topped it up as often as she could and when the tea leaves had no more flavour she made a fresh pot. Paul had escaped to his office to avoid having to talk to Beatrix, and Beth, Edie, Grace and Beatrix all felt safe and cosy inside as the weather beat against the windows.
Edie watched the pumpkin boil. It looked like lumpy orange soup. She had cut the pumpkin into pieces, making sure to remove all the hard skin.
‘Now you must boil the pumpkin for a good hour minimum to draw out the goodness,’ instructed Beatrix as she looked in the pot. She was holding Gracie, naked, plump and pink and now eight months old. The kitchen was so deliciously warm Gracie was wrapped only in a towel around her fat bottom. Edie looked at the boiling pumpkin as it turned to mush. Then she looked at Gracie as if to say This mush is meant for you.
‘Oh, I could just eat you up,’ Edie said, nuzzling Gracie’s fat thigh, and Gracie chuckled her awkward baby laugh and hoped the pumpkin wasn’t what they expected to feed her.
‘It needs longer,’ said Beatrix, moving Gracie to her other hip, and going to the enamel tub sitting on one half of the kitchen table. Edie watched as Nurse Drake tested the water in the tub with her elbow, nodded to herself and lowered the baby into it, and she laughed ungraciously when Gracie began splashing the water as soon as she could reach it, splashing it straight into Nurse Drake’s face and up her nose and all over her clothes.
‘I warned you,’ laughed Edie, smiling at Beth. Edie and Beth loved it when they were proved right about anything to do with Gracie.
‘Keep checking that pumpkin,’ snapped Nurse Drake, wiping the water from her face, ‘it needs to be liquid.’
Edie raised her eyebrows at Beth, who was at the sink washing glass jars ready for the pumpkin, and the girls shared a secret smile as Beatrix tried to brush soapy water from her cardigan. Beatrix took Gracie out of the bath and dried her off on the
