Poppy's Dilemma Read online

  ‘I’ll walk with yer, Poppy, if yer like,’ he mumbled.

  She gave her assent and he finished his beer. Outside, darkness had fallen.

  ‘So what’s it like, being a navvy?’ Luke asked.

  ‘How should I know? You should ask me dad. He’s the navvy.’

  ‘They say it’s hard work.’

  ‘The hardest job in the world, me dad says.’

  ‘But they get paid plenty.’

  ‘And spend plenty,’ Poppy replied, and her contempt for the fact seeped through in her tone. ‘All on beer. They got paid tonight and they was all drunk two hours later. None of ’em will be sober till it’s all spent. About Wednesday at the latest, I reckon. Then they’ll all have to live on truck till the next payday.’

  ‘What’s truck?’

  ‘Vouchers,’ Poppy explained. ‘They can buy food, boots and clothes from the contractor’s tommy shop with the vouchers, and then it gets docked off their next wages.’

  ‘Sounds fair,’ Luke commented.

  ‘No, it ain’t fair, Luke. Some of the contractors charge a pound for fifteen shillings’ worth of goods. That ain’t fair at all.’

  Poppy spied a group of navvies walking towards her and Luke. Even in the darkness you could tell they were navvies by their distinctive mode of dress. They wore white felt hats with the brims turned up, bright neckerchiefs and waistcoats, moleskin jackets and trousers, and big boots. She hoped they wouldn’t recognise her as they approached.

  ‘You’d best leave me now,’ Poppy suggested, fearing for Luke’s safety.

  ‘Not till we’ve gone past this lot.’

  ‘No, they’re navvies from the Blowers Green cutting. If they recognise me, they’ll make trouble for you.’ She looked around for some means of escape. ‘Quick, let’s hide in that alley, out of the way.’

  She shoved him into it unceremoniously. There was a gate at the top and he took the initiative and opened it, leading her quickly through. He put his forefinger to her lips, gesturing her to remain silent, and pressed himself to her while they waited. The warmth of his body against her made her heart pound with a bewildering mixture of pleasure at his closeness, and fear at the sound of footsteps, scuffs and the navvies’ muttering and swearing in the alley. But the men were too drunk to know what they were doing or who they had seen, and quickly lost interest in their search. Poppy and Luke lingered a minute longer, enraptured by this enforced intimacy, yet lacking the confidence or know-how to exploit it.

  ‘You’d best go back,’ Poppy said, when they were out in the street again. ‘I’ll be all right from here. I know the navvies. They won’t hurt me, ’cause of me dad, but they’d kill you if they saw you with me.’

  ‘Any chance o’ seein’ you again, Poppy?’ Luke asked.

  Poppy smiled appealingly and shrugged. ‘You never know. If me and Minnie come up to the town again.’ Luke seemed a decent lad; he’d shown her consideration and a heart-quickening, gentle intimacy she’d never experienced before. ‘Thanks for walking me back.’ She turned and gave him a wave as she hurried on down the road.

  The hut Poppy shared with her family and eight other navvy lodgers was a ramshackle affair. It stood amongst a muddle of shacks huddled together in bewildering confusion, as if they had fallen randomly from the sky and been allowed to remain just where they had landed. Heaps of disused planks, discarded bottles and all manner of rubbish littered the place. The huts were owned by Treadwell’s, the contractors, and had been dismantled and reconstructed several times in several parts of the country before their sojourn at Blowers Green in Dudley. Although built predominantly of wooden planking, they were a mix of other waste materials such as engineering bricks and refractories, stone, tile and tarpaulin. Over the door of the hut occupied by Poppy and her kin hung a piece of wood that bore the name ‘Rose Cottage’, nailed there by some joker who’d been blessed with the ability to read and write. At least one of the four panes of glass in each window had been broken; one was replaced with a wooden board, the other a square of cardboard. Rose Cottage had three rooms. One was the communal living room that served as kitchen, dining room, brewhouse and gambling saloon. There was the family’s bedroom, and another separate bedroom for the lodgers, crammed with eight bunk beds and such other accoutrements as the navvies deemed necessary. The kitchen area was nothing more than the space at one end of the hut that had a fireplace. Also crowded in was a stone sink that emptied into the dirt outside, a copper for boiling vast amounts of water, a rickety table and a row of lockers that were the lodgers’ personal tommy boxes. Every navvy provided his own food, which he called his ‘tommy’, and which he paid for in either cash or vouchers from the tommy shop. It often fell to Sheba, Poppy’s mother, to cook it.

  When Poppy returned to the hut, Sheba, a mere thirty-one years old, was sitting on a chair in the communal living room nursing her youngest child; her fifth that had survived. Another woman, a neighbour from a similar hut, was with her, smoking a clay pipe they called a ‘gum-bucket’. While they gossiped, they shared a jug of beer tapped from the barrel that stood cradled in a stillage against one wall. Neither woman was drunk but the beer had loosened their tongues, and they were talking over each other in their eagerness to chatter. Poppy undressed herself in the adjacent family bedroom and put on her nightgown. She could hear the women’s conversation clearly, but took little notice as she clambered over the rough, bare floorboards to the two dishevelled beds that were shoved together through lack of space. She slid into the one she shared with her two younger sisters and her younger brother Jenkin, better known as Little Lightning.

  Poppy had consumed two half pints of beer and the effect of the alcohol was making her drowsy. The drone of the women’s voices became indistinct and in no time she was dreaming of Luke and his unexpected chivalry. She did not know how long she had been sleeping when she was awakened by the urgent shouts of agitated men and the sudden, alarmed crying of one of the children. Poppy raised her head off her pillow and tried to understand what was happening in the darkness. A lamp flared into life. Men were gathered in the open doorway, and her mother looked anxious as she stood at the bedroom door.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ Poppy asked as she rubbed her eyes.

  ‘They’ve got your father.’

  ‘Who’s got me father?’

  ‘The night watch. He’s in the lock-up in Dudley.’

  ‘Why, what’s he done?’

  One of the navvies answered. ‘Nothing, as far as we can tell. A packman come in the public house selling baubles. Your father asked to see one and the packman handed one to him. When he asked for it back, Lightning Jack said somebody else had took it to have a look. But he accused Lightning of pinching it.’

  Poppy looked with bewilderment at her mother, then at the navvy. ‘And had he pinched it?’

  ‘Nay,’ he answered. ‘Oh, somebody did, but I don’t reckon it was yer dad. He just passed it to somebody who asked to see it. Any road, the packman went out and the next thing we knowed, the police was there. The men am up in arms, and in the right mood. There’s gunna be trouble aplenty.’

  Poppy quickly got dressed. Already she could hear the shouts from an army of angry men outside. Because they were navvies, they were regarded by those who didn’t know and understand their isolated way of life as the absolute dregs of society. Well, the navvies knew and understood their own way of life well enough and they stood together nobly, especially when one of their number was locked up for supposedly committing some felony of which he was innocent. The news had quickly spread. Those navvies who lodged in houses close by had been knocked up from their beds. They answered the call as well and joined those from the encampment, grabbing whatever they could that would serve as a weapon. It was time to set the record straight.

  Poppy ran outside. Every man from the encampment still capable of standing must have been there. The ringleader was a ganger she knew only as ‘Billygoat Bob’. In the darkness, she could see that he was standing on a bo
x as he incited the men with his ranting about injustice and bigotry. For the benefit of men who had been drinking elsewhere, he was explaining what had happened at The Wheatsheaf.

  ‘Nobody thought anythin’ on it, till the packman come back to the Grin and Bear It half an hour later with three bobbies. They came in like three devils, clouting everybody wi’ their blasted copper-sticks. The damned packman pointed out Lightning Jack and Dover Joe, so they dragged ’em out and chucked ’em in the Black Maria. Afore we knew what had hit us, they was away.’

  The men were sufficiently inebriated to accept with fiery enthusiasm his tirades on the police and on the packman, which fed their lust for revenge.

  ‘If any one of you was in trouble, would ye not look to we, your own kind, to help yer in yer travail?’ Billygoat yelled over the hubbub, and there was a thunderous response of accord. ‘Well, Lightnin’ Jack and Dover Joe am innocent, but they’m in that stinkin’ gaol. It’s up to we to fetch ’em out afore they come before the beak and get sentenced. If we fail, they’ll end up doing penal servitude in Australia – that wilderness on the other side o’ the world … And they’ve both got women and families … It could have been you dragged out of that public house, mates. It could have been any one of you …’

  A raucous jeer rang ominously through the night and a forest of arms shot up, most wielding pickaxe handles, shovels or hedge-bills. Billygoat stepped off his wooden box and led the incensed army away from the compound and up the hill towards Dudley. One or two stumbled and fell in their drunkenness, but they got up or were helped to their feet by mates bent on avenging this savage oppression.

  Poppy followed behind. She had a vested interest. The other women, however, keen to witness some action, were caught up in the fervour of the moment as they hurried to keep up with the men, forming a separate, more passive group. The ragtag army fell more or less into step as they slogged on. Poppy had no idea of the time, but the streets were deserted except for the horde. They strode through the sleeping town, led by Billygoat Bob and those who knew the way, having deliberately followed the Black Maria which carried their comrades to the lock-up.

  The two-hundred-strong mob reached the police station in Priory Street, a castellated, red-brick building with a mock portcullis through which they teemed. Hearing the commotion, the two policemen that were on duty presented themselves at the door on the other side of the yard that had rapidly filled up with the ranting crowd. One of the constables asked what the trouble was.

  ‘We want our two mates, Lightning Jack and Dover Joe,’ Billygoat Bob replied, with all the aplomb of a victorious army general negotiating a surrender. ‘They’ve been locked up for pinchin’ trinkets, but they took nothing. They’m innocent.’

  ‘Not according to what I’ve been told,’ the policeman said defiantly.

  ‘Then what you’ve bin told is a pack o’ lies. Some of these men here was in that public house, and they’d swear on their lives that them two men you’m holding had sod-all to do with any theft. Have you found the evidence on ’em?’

  ‘No, but they could’ve jettisoned that when they saw the arresting officers arrive.’

  ‘No evidence, eh?’ Billygoat called, loud enough for the throng to hear. ‘No evidence!’ He turned back to the policeman. ‘It strikes me as you should let ’em go, if you got no evidence.’

  ‘That ain’t up to me,’ the policeman said. ‘There’s nothing I can do. They’ll appear afore the magistrate tomorrow and he’ll decide what should happen to ’em. I’m just doing me duty.’

  Billygoat turned to his men. ‘You heard what the constable said,’ he shouted. ‘He’s got no evidence, but there’s nothing he can do about it. There’s nothing he can do for us or our mates inside. He’s just doing his duty. Well, men … we have a duty as well …’

  A roar of assent went up and the men surged forward in a mass. The policemen, realising that it was impossible to stand in the way of the mob and live, stood aside while the navvies poured into the police station. Inside, huge muscle-bound men wrenched open doors, pulling some off hinges, until one group came across the cells. Another policeman was on duty there. One of the mob asked him to unlock the padlock and set the prisoners free or be killed. Bravely, he refused. Acknowledging his courage and application to duty, Billygoat gave the order to leave him be. They would wrench the cell door down with physical force.

  It took no more than five minutes. The two prisoners were helped out, to broad grins and triumphal cheers.

  As the triumphant navvies and their women lurched back to the encampment, they dispersed into smaller groups. Poppy had gone up to her father as soon as she could get close to him and asked him if he really was innocent of the accusations levelled against him.

  ‘I’m innocent, my wench,’ he answered, ‘but I doubt the law will ever regard me as innocent. I had a necklace in me hand, I admit it – I was gunna buy it for you, my flower – but somebody snatched it from me and I don’t know who … Where’s your mother?’

  ‘She stayed with the kids.’

  ‘Good … I’m glad.’

  ‘You look worried, Dad …’

  ‘If I do, it’s ’cause we ain’t heard the last o’ this.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘What I say. The line will be crawling wi’ police tomorrer. They’ll never be able to let us navvies get off scot-free. They’ll never let us get away with this.’

  They walked on together, silently considering the implications, and Poppy was touched that her father had been about to buy her a necklace. A few of the men were singing lewd songs as they trudged drunkenly homewards. Then, as the various clusters of navvies and women lumbered down Vicar Street towards Blowers Green, Poppy was aware of somebody else at her side and turned to see who it was.

  ‘What’s goin’ on, Poppy?’

  ‘Minnie! Where did you spring from?’

  ‘From that alleyway.’ She pointed over her shoulder. ‘I was with that Tom. So what’s up?’

  Poppy told her, then asked what she was doing out so late.

  ‘That Tom,’ Minnie whispered behind her hand, rolling her eyes self-consciously. ‘He’s a bit of a buck. We was having it against the wall in that alley when we heard this commotion and saw all the navvies marching towards the town. I knew Dog Meat would be among ’em, so I thought it was a good time to leave Tom and get back in bed afore Dog Meat got back. Anyway, at that, Tom says, “Hey, I ain’t finished yet,” so we settled back to doin’ it again. It took longer than I thought …’ Minnie giggled unashamedly. ‘So if Dog Meat ever asks, I was with you on the way up to the gaol, as well as on the way back. I’ve bin with you all night. All right?’

  Poppy chuckled. ‘You’re a crafty one, Min, and no two ways. Are you seein’ him again, this Tom?’

  ‘Who knows? I might. He’s worthy.’

  Sheba, who had waited up anxiously for news of Lightning Jack, was overjoyed when he returned to Rose Cottage. She took his arm with concern and drew him to her proprietorially as he entered the hut.

  ‘Are you hurt, Jack?’ she asked, with sympathy in her eyes. ‘Did the police hurt you?’

  ‘I copped a clout across the shoulder, but I daresay it’s only bruised. Nothing to fret about.’

  ‘Oh, Jack, I was that worried. Thank God you’m all right.’

  ‘Aye, I’m all right, my wench. But I’m famished. Get me summat t’ate.’

  ‘There’s some bread and cheese.’

  ‘That’ll do.’

  Two loaves of bread stood on the table in the communal living room. Sheba cut a hunk off one and handed it to Lightning with an ample lump of cheese. She poured him a glass of beer from the barrel, and treated herself to a smaller one.

  While her father ate his supper, Poppy returned to the bed she shared. As she slid between the sheets, her sisters and brother roused but did not wake. Before long, her father and mother came in, carrying an oil lamp. Lightning Jack had sobered up following his experience in the gaol and was c
onducting a whispered conversation with Sheba. Then he blew out the flame and clambered into the adjacent bed, followed by Sheba. Poppy heard their stifled grunts and the squeaks of the iron bedstead as they performed their inevitable horizontal exercise. In the adjoining dormitory, the navvies who lodged with them clumped about as they stumbled over each other and swore profusely before they settled down. Poppy pulled the pillow over her head to shut out the various violations of her peace and tried to drift off to sleep, to the accompaniment of her own imaginings. It had been an eventful night.

  Chapter 2

  Morning came. Sheba and Lightning were up and dressed by the time Poppy awoke. Lightning was tying his clothes up in a bundle and Sheba was regarding him fretfully.

  ‘I’ll be back as soon as it’s safe,’ Poppy heard him say.

  Alarmed, she sat up in bed and called, ‘Where you goin’, Dad?’

  ‘I’m goin’ on tramp, my wench. The police’ll be swarmin’ round this place like flies round shit, afore you can catch your breath. If they find me they’ll arrest me again. I’m gunna mek meself scarce. In the meantime, I’ll find work on another railway. The bobbies won’t know where I’ve gone and they won’t send men everywhere just to look for me. I’ll either send for yer all or, if the job’s no good, I’ll come back when the dust has settled.’

  ‘Will Dover Joe go with you, Dad?’

  ‘He’ll leave here if he’s got any sense, I reckon. But it’ll be best if we don’t go together.’

  ‘Oh, Dad, I shall miss you,’ Poppy declared with a flush of tenderness for this man, who protected her from the perils and coarseness of living among so many uncultured men. ‘Come back as soon as you can.’

  He smiled, but sadness showed in his eyes as he ruffled her wayward fair hair. ‘I’ll be back for you, my flower. I’ll be back for you all. Have no doubt.’

  ‘You’d best be back soon an’ all, Jack,’ Sheba said. ‘Else we shall be turned out o’ this shant as sure as night follows day. Don’t forget as it’s owned by the contractors. Don’t forget we’re only tenant landlords, and that if you ain’t workin’ for the contractor we’ve got no rights being here.’