Part 1 (1/2)

THE DEVIL AND MARY ANN.

Catherine Cookson.

For Children MATTY DOOLIN JOE AND THE GLADIATOR THE NIPPER BLUE BACCY OUR JOHN WILLIE OUR KATE : AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY The Devil and Mary Ann CATHERINE COOKSON MACDONALD AND JANES * LONDON COTE SAINT-LUC PUBLIC LIBRARy f G 7? jL'iv !f-,H d/e. 'il 78' Firrf published 1358 Second impression 1363 ** Third impression 1372 *-. Fourth impression.

1974 T, Fifth impression 1976 Copyright (Q Catherine Cookson 1958 ISBN o 356 01865 2 ** Published by Macdonald and Jane's Publishers Limited Paulton House, 8 Shepherdess Walk London, N.I Printed in Great Britain by REDWOOD BURN LIMITED Trowbridge & Esher 46988 fiM } ;*. . '.:i From her bedroom window in the farmhouse Mary Ann was surveying her kingdom almost for the last time. Below her lay a part of the garden. Late wallflowers were blooming in patches of red and yellow glory; but it was to the lank and drooping leaves of the daffodils that her eyes were drawn now, for they symbolised her feelings. She too was dying . . . she knew she was dying._ Tomorrow when she left the farm and her da and her ma and their Michael she would die. How could she live without them ? Well, without her da? The separation from her ma would be a dreadful wrench, but being parted from her da would drain from her all desire to live. Her nose gave a series of rapid twitches, and she admonished herself, ”You'd better not start bubbling, your ma')! be up in a minute.” Her large, brown eyes, that seemed to take up most of her elfin face, blinked and she moved her gaze over her kingdom. The huddle of the farm buildings making three sides of the courtyard; the foundations of the big, new barn to the right; the two farm cottages, one of which her own family had so lately occupied, bordering the road that ran past the farm gates; and away up the hill, behind the cottages, Mr. Lord's new house, standing as guardian and owner over all. Even this came into the realm of her kingdom. And it was her kingdom, bought for her da with her sacrifice.

Mary Ann's thoughts may not have literally taken this shape, but her feelings told her more plainly than anything else could have done that for love of her da she had sold herself to Mr. Lord, and the price he had demanded of her was-education, and that was to begin tomorrow. In return, her da had been made manager of the farm. But her da, of course, did not know of this deal. Eeh! no; and he must never know.

The fact that her da was now manager of the farm where, a month ago, he had been just a farm-hand, still had the aura of a miracle around it. And the miracle enlarged itself a thousandfold, when she thought back to the time, just a few months previously, when they had lived in Jarrow in two attics at the top of Mulhattans' Hall, and her da had worked in the s.h.i.+pyard and was forever on the booze. Eeh! fancy thinking that. She shook, her head vigorously to throw off the memory. Her da never got drunk, not really; he got sick a bit but not drunk. Everybody knew he never got really drunk; it was Sarah Flannagan who had started that lie.

Oh, Sarah Flannagan ! A little spark of joy forced itself into the gloom in her small chest. Today, when she went to Mulhattans' Hall to say goodbye to Mrs. McBride, she hoped that the big, lying, cheeky cat would be in the street and she'd show her. She'd be all got up in her new clothes-she wouldn't fight with her; no, that was strictly out now-but she'd go up to her and say, ”So you see, Sarah Flannagan, every blessed thing I said has come true. Me da is a manager, and I'm going”to be a lady and talk sw.a.n.ky. So get that out i of your crop if you can.” Yes, that's what she'd say to her, **all sw.a.n.ky like. Then she'd walk away with her head in the air.

It was going to be a busy day. She must go and see Father Owen an' all and pay a last visit to the Holy Family. Sadness settled on her again on this thought, to be abruptly swept away on the sight of her da. He had just come out of the cowshed and was walking across the yard with Mr. Jones. Her heart swelled with pride. He looked grand did her da; even with only one hand he was better and bigger than any man in the world. The thought of his affliction brought a flame of tenderness into her body. But he was managing fine. She stressed this point to herself, for whenever she consciously thought of the accident that had taken off his hand a certain part of her mind was attacked by a fear, and this she would press away, making no effort to ask the reason for its presence. Mike Shaughnessy had done a very good job in taking the blame of his accident from her young shoulders and placing it at the door of his own carelessness; in doing so he had sealed off effectively the remorse that would have surely turned her brain.

When her da got the hook for the end, he said his hand would be worth ten of any other man's. He had said that to her only yesterday, when she had gone to his office-oh yes; it was his office now-to tell him that dinner was ready. And he had stopped what he was doing with the books and suddenly lifted her on to his knee and held her close for a long time. Then Mr. Lord had come in, and her da had put her down and his face had- gone all red. Neither of them had said anything, and this had left her with a certain uneasiness. Yet she couldn't somehow understand why she should feel uneasy. But she always did when Mr. Lord came on her when she was with her da. When she had Mr. Lord all to herself she never felt like that; she could talk to him, twenty-to-the-dozen, and make him laugh. But not when her da was there.

Her da was now making his way to the house, and Mr. Jones was going towards his cottage. Mr. Jones looked littler than ever. Mr. Jones didn't like her. He never spoke to her, not since the time she had thrown a One o'clock Gun under his bed on Guy Fawkes Day and he had run out of his house in his pants like a mad man. That was the day Mr. Lord had laughed and her da had got mad at her, madder than he had ever been, and he'd said she was to have a walloping and Mr. Lord said she wasn't. That was the first time she had felt that funny something between the two of them.

She knocked at the window now and waved to her da, and Mike waved back, a wide wave of his great arm. And he was almost at the side gate when round the outskirts of the house came Mrs. Polinski, and she called to him, ”Good morning.” And he said back to her, ”Good morning.” And he stopped at the gate as she hurried up, and Mary Ann looked down on them.

Mrs. Polinski was blonde, but her hair wasn't like her ma's in a great bun at the back of her head and of a lovely colour like looking into the sun; Mrs. Polinski's was-tousey, and she wore it cut like a lad's, all over the place. But she didn't look like a lad.

Mrs. Polinski was always very nice to her. Yet Mary Ann, as she somehow put it to herself, didn't know what was up with her; some part of the child wouldn't come to the fore and meet the'new farm-hand's wife on the terms she so liberally offered let's all be bairns together. Mary Ann sensed an unnaturalness in this att.i.tude. Mrs. Polinski was old; she was over twenty, and therefore past the age of acting the goat, and this included hop-scotch. Her da laughed at Mrs. Polinski when she played with her, but her ma said, if she was to go in and mend Mr. Polinski's coat and get a good dinner ready for him it would fit her better. And her da had said, ”She'll learn.”

Her da liked Mr. Polinski. He said that although a puff of wind would blow him over he could do double what Mr. Jones did, and he'd have a farm of his own some day and good luck to him. Mr. Polinski was from Poland but Mrs. Polinski just came from Dover.

She watched her now, laughing up at her da and her da laughing in return. Oh, her da did look grand. His red hair was rumpled and his s.h.i.+rt neck was open and she could see the curly hairs on the top of his chest. ”Haven't you got your things on yet?”

She swung round to the door, and there was Michael, his expression this morning without its usual brooding seriousness ”and his voice unusually kind. Up to yesterday his greeting would have taken the form of, ”Get a move on, you, or else you'll catch it,” to which her retort would have been of the quality, ”Aw, you! . . * nuts!” But on this last day of life her reply even touched on sweetness as she said, ”I won't be a tick, Michael.”

And she wasn't a tick, for she flung herself into her clothes--not her good ones; these wouldn't be donned until after breakfast and her usual scamper around the farm-and was downstairs in a matter of minutes.

As if she hadn't seen him for weeks she leapt from the doorway into Mike's arms. Mike had just turned from Lizzie, who was at the stove, and as Mary Ann pulled his face round to hers he finished saying to his wife, ”You could teach her a lot ... Polinski has a thin time of it on the whole. Why don't you take her under your wing, Liz?”

”You know my views. Anyway, we'll talk of that later.”

This hesitation on her mother's part to talk of Mrs. Polinski was, Mary Ann knew without any undue hurt to her feelings, because she was there. But from the little she had overheard, Mary Ann's opinion of her own judgment took on a heightened glow. Her mother didn't cotton on to Mrs. Polinski either.

”Sit up ... come on.” Lizzie turned from the stove and brought her hand in an affectionate slap on Mary Ann's bottom, and Mary Ann, grabbing at Mike's neck, yelled, ”She's braying me, da, she's braying me.”

This causing them all to laugh, even Michael, Mary Ann ascended into her seventh heaven, while tomorrow sprang into the far future, leaving her all the day. Her ma and da were happy and laughing, joined by a band of love that she could almost feel. Their Michael was nice, and there, with an egg on top of it, was a thick slice of Irish roll for her breakfast, not half a slice, as was usual, and that, too, only after she had pushed down a great bowl of porridge.

After they were all seated and the grace said, in which Mike did not join, and had started to eat, the chatter suddenly ceased, and Mary Ann, in the middle of chewing on and relis.h.i.+ng the superb flavour of a mouthful of bacon, felt her mouth drop open as she watched her mother rise quickly from the table and go into the scullery. Was her ma crying? . . . And then her da, his eyes fixed on his plate, stopped eating. And then their Michael, his cheek full of fried bread, gulped down some tea, and her ma had told him, time without number, not to drink while he was eating. Then almost as quickly as she had gone, Lizzie came back into the room bringing bread with her, and there, before Mary Ann's eyes, was a plateful not touched already on the table.

The silence shrieked in Mary Ann's ears, becoming almost unbearable, and her innate sense of requirement told her that a diversion was needed, and a strong one. And without further thought she heard herself saying, ”When I see Sarah Flannagan again I won't half tell her something. I'll say, 'Your da can't buy you clothes like this.' ”

”And your da hasn't.” Mike's tone was flat and held just a thread of bitterness.

Mary Ann looked across the table into Mike's eyes, then turned her gaze to her mother. Lizzie was busily eating and did not raise her head. She had said the wrong thing-her da hadn't bought her clothes, Mr. Lord had, boxes of them. Well, two big cases full, right from vests to one black felt school hat and one grey one for Sundays. And her name was on everythingMary Ann Shaughnessy. Her ma had sewed and sewed at them for days. Everything she had had been given to her by Mr. Lord, and her da didn't like it. She was daft for saying such a thing . . . she was daft, she was. The lump, coming swiftly from nowhere, blocked her throat, but past it struggled the words : ”I don't want to ... I don't want t... to. Oh, Da ! ”

”There! See what you've started.” Lizzie was on her feet, pulling Mary Ann to her and pressing her head into her waist.

Mike, rising from the table, went to the mantelpiece and, grabbing at his pipe, growled, ”I'm sorry.” And Michael, making the greatest effort of his life in an attempt at small talk, put out his hand and stabbed gently at his sister's shoulders, and in a not at all steady voice said, ”Now I'll be able to get my own back on yo,u, you were always chipping me about the Grammar School. But a Convent's worse. You'll be so sw.a.n.ky when you come back we won't know a word you're saying. You'll be all South Country.”

Mary Ann's crying ceased, and with a shuddering sob she turned from her mother and answered Michael: ”I won't then ... so! n.o.body'11 make me sw.a.n.ky . . . will they? Will they, Da?”

Her voice brought Mike round to her, and over the distance of the long s.h.i.+ning kitchen he smiled gently at her and moved his head slowly.

”No,” he said. ”No. Make up your mind finally on that, at any rate. Let n.o.body make you sw.a.n.ky. . . . You still want to go?” He asked this quietly, yet his voice filled the kitchen.

Now Lizzie's eyes darted between the two of them, and she brought Mary Ann's to hers. What Mary Ann saw there stilled the truth hovering on her lips and reminded her forcibly of the bargain with Mr. Lord, and she said, ”Yes, Da.”

”You sure?” said Mike.

”Yes, Da.” ' .- They looked at each other until Lizzie could bear it no longer, and grabbing up the dishes with a clatter and saying as she did so, ”Well, this is a breakfast spoilt, I must say,” she went into the scullery, and after depositing the crockery in the sink she leant against the table for a moment, one hand gripping the front of her blouse. What if the child had said no! He would, and like a shot, have put his foot down. And then, as like as not, the whole situation would have exploded.

Lizzie knew that Mr. Lord, thwarted of his ambition to educate Mary Ann, was not likely to treat Mike as he was doing now, even though Mike was carrying out the difficult task of managing the farm much better than she had imagined he could do. Both Mr. Lord and Mary Ann, she knew, were under the impression that they, and they alone, knew of the bargain between them, the bargain being that, if Mary Ann agreed to going away to school, her father would be given the chance to run the farm. How it had all come about she didn't know, but certain circ.u.mstances that led up to Mike's appointment showed only too plainly Mary Ann's finger guiding Mike's destiny. Any faint suspicion Mike might have felt had been lulled by Mary Ann herself. Mike did not know Mary Ann as she did. Somehow his very love for her blinded his vision, and should it ever come out that he owed all his present success not alone to his ability but to his child selling herself-and that is how he would put it-away would go the farm and their life of security. She could even see him making use of the six months' trial which he was now working to bring their life here to an end in order to keep his self-respect.

Tomorrow night, when she left the child all those miles away in the south, near St. Leonards, she would, she knew, leave part of her own life behind her. But even so, she was longing now for the moment to arrive when Mary Ann would be safely installed, when the worst part of this business would be over and the future of them all secure . . . well, as secure as anybody's future could be allowing for fate, in the form of the bottle which had dogged their married life. But, strangely enough, at this moment Mike's weakness was troubling her least. It was Mary Ann's strength that was worrying her. Would it carry the child through these final stages? After all, she was but a child, she was not yet nine. She had only recently, Lizzie thought fondly, been a baby. Wasn't it too much to expect of her that she should be parted from Mike, who was the very breath of her life, when she had only to make a sign and he would say, ”To h.e.l.l with education! She doesn't want to go and she's not going.”

Lizzie let out a long painful breath. If only it was tomorrow morning and they were on their way. The thing to do was to keep her occupied today, and away from Mike as much as possible without arousing any comment from him. And so, going into the kitchen now, she said briskly, ”Well, what are you going to do?”

”Who, me, Ma?”

”Yes, you. Who else? I generally know what the rest of my family are up to.”

Lizzie laughed, and Mary Ann said, with just a touch of importance, ”Eeh, well, I've got a lot of people to see. I must go and see Mrs. McBride, and say 'Tara' to Agnes and Mary. And, oh, I must go and see Father Owen and . . . and who else?” As she pondered with her head on one side, Mike and Michael looked from her to each other, and nodding they both said together, mimicking her voice and manner, ”And, oh, that Sarah Flannagan.”

Laughter filled the kitchen again, and Mary Ann dashed from her father to Michael, crying, ”Oh, you ! you ! Go on, you cheeky things, you.” And into Lizzie's worry came a thin thread of happiness. That little action of Michael in joining his father in this bit of teasing warmed her heart. Perhaps with Mary Ann gone Mike would turn more to the boy, and Michael's brooding nature would expand towards him, and he would forget the past and look up to this man whom he so closely resembled.

”Well, that's settled, at least.” Lizzie bustled about, while Michael took up his bag and after making brief goodbyes went off to school-his term had already started. And Mike, after kissing Lizzie, lifted Mary Ann up and looked at her hard for a moment, then held her close for another brief moment before going quickly out, leaving behind him a strained silence, into which Lizzie poured her words with

an attempt at lightness.