The Girl from the Tanner's Yard

day at play, while he had been busy in work with his father. Lucy smiled as she remembered Adam and her brother and sister chasing the hard-boiled pace eggs as they rolled down the steep hillside of Black Moss’s fields, then eating them once they had cracked open wide – all done in remembrance of the breaking open of the Lord’s tomb in the garden of Gethsemane. None of them were religious, but they enjoyed the fun that the Easter festivities brought. But most of all, Lucy had enjoyed being next to Adam and not being in his employment for that one day. ‘Adam Brooksbank,’ she whispered to herself and visualized his face and his smell, as she clutched her pillow close to herself. She was trying not to think or dream of him, but she could not keep the man out of her thoughts, no matter how hard she tried. He was the first man she had ever felt this way about, and her heart fluttered like a trapped butterfly as she lay in bed trying to sleep.

12

Thomas Farrington hid in the shadows of the hedge that ran on either side of the path from Black Moss Farm to the road that led to Providence Row and the flay-pits, waiting for Lucy to return home from work. He paced back and forth, thinking over the plan that he had hatched in his head since the discovery of Bill Bancroft’s secret. He’d lusted over Lucy Bancroft for so long and knew she was the key to inheriting the flay-pits after her father’s day, if he was to marry her. He spat out a mouthful of saliva as he thought about her disdain for him and how little respect she had shown him, even though he was her father’s right-hand man. Well, that was going to change as from today. She would do as he wished, else it would be the worse for her family.

He stood still as he heard Lucy coming down the road and then stepped out in front of her, his plan clear in his head. Today was the day he would become top dog and she would respect him.

‘For Lord’s sake, you frightened me to death!’ Lucy exclaimed and then walked on past him. She wasn’t going to stop and be alone with a man she always thought not quite right in the head, and of whom she was frightened. She wondered whether to break into a run, but knew that in her long skirts he would easily catch her.

Thomas followed her every step and caught hold of her arm tightly and made Lucy stop in her tracks, pulling her round to look at him. ‘That’ll be the last time you look down your nose at me, if you’ve any sense. Or it will be the worse for you and yours,’ he snarled as he held her tight.

‘Let me go, you idiot! I’ll tell my father, and then it’ll be the worse for you!’ Lucy pulled on her arm and tried to free herself, while Thomas caught her other arm and pulled her tightly to him.

‘No you don’t. You listen to me, Miss Flighty, you’ll do as I say.’ Thomas held her closely, his foul breath making Lucy feel nauseous as he held his face just inches from hers. ‘I know your father and mother’s little secret, and I’m not about to hold my tongue unless you do as I demand.’

‘I don’t know what you are on about. Now let me go – you are mad in the head and need locking up,’ Lucy yelled and struggled.

‘Mad in the head, am I? It’s not me that’s buried all those babies in the lime pit in the yard. That could be classed as murder or, if not murder, then your father could be jailed by the authorities for not notifying them of their deaths. Even that would give your father at least two years in jail for each baby buried there. Time enough for your own family to be put out on the street, and for the slander that would follow to ruin you all. So what are you going to say now, Miss High-and-Mighty?’ Thomas held her even more tightly. ‘Now that I know your dirty family secret.’

‘Let me go! I don’t know what you are on about. What babies?’ Lucy struggled, her heart pounding as Thomas put his face next to hers. The stench of the flay-pits was on his clothes, for unlike her father, Thomas never bathed and he stank.

‘You know – you can’t help but know. And now I’ll tell you what you can do to stop me from opening my gob to the peelers in Denholme. You wouldn’t want to see your mother and father took away and both your brothers and your sister left parentless. That would be a terrible shame.’

Thomas kissed her cheek and Lucy squealed and tried to kick him and free herself.

‘Now that’s no way to treat your husband-to-be – because that’s what I am, unless you want the world to know about your father and mother’s secret. You’ll marry me to keep your family’s shame hidden.’ Thomas sneered and tried to kiss Lucy as she protested, shaking her head.

‘Never! You can do your worst,’ Lucy screamed.

‘Then I will and you’ll lose everything, and that will include your nice clean job with your high-and-mighty Mr Brooksbank, I’ll see to that.’ He pushed Lucy back into the thorn bush at the side of the road and attempted to kiss her again, before loosening one of her hands from his grip in order to feel her breasts.

‘Never! I’ll never marry you.’ Lucy slapped his face with her free hand and managed to push him off her body, as the thorn bush pierced her clothes. She kicked Thomas hard and tried to shake him off her, as he kept his grip of her arm.

‘You will, and you will start by walking out with me. You’ll meet me here on Saturday