A Moment to Remember Read online




  A Moment to Remember

  Dee Williams

  Headline Publishing Group Ltd (2010)

  Tags: Historical Saga

  * * *

  Synopsis

  Born into terrible poverty, Millie Ash's hopes for a better life are threatened by a fatal accident in Dee Williams' heartrending new saga.

  Nine-year-old Millie Ash and her family live a tough and frugal life in Rotherhithe. Millie is determined from a young age to better herself and when her aunt gets her a job as a scullery maid for the Green family in London, she believes her luck is changing. She soon becomes friends with the Green children, Lewis and Joan. Joan is paralysed and confined to the house, and the girls become very close. But years later a tragic accident changes everything and Millie loses her job and is disowned by her family. Lewis stands by her, but when he leaves for the battlefields of France, Millie realises she must make her own luck if she is to have any chance of happiness...

  A Moment to Remember

  DEE WILLIAMS

  headline

  www.headline.co.uk

  Copyright © 2010 Dee Williams

  The right of Dee Williams to be identified as the Author of

  the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the

  Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law,

  this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted,

  in any form, or by any means, with prior permission in writing

  of the publishers or, in the case of reprographic production,

  in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the

  Copyright Licensing Agency.

  First published as an Ebook by Headline Publishing Group in 2010

  All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance

  to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library

  eISBN : 978 0 7553 5892 2

  This Ebook produced by Jouve Digitalisation des Informations

  HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP

  An Hachette UK Company

  338 Euston Road

  London NW1 3BH

  www.headline.co.uk

  www.hachette.co.uk

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  THIS IS FOR ALL MY FAMILY.

  For my lovely daughter Carol and my clever son-in-law Gez. I am so lucky to have them as they are always there for me when I need them.

  Also my two lovely, clever granddaughters, Emma and Samantha. Both have university degrees and I am very, very proud of them.

  For my sister Christine who is on the other side of the world and who I miss a lot.

  For my brother Roy; although we don’t see a lot of each other, he is in my thoughts.

  And all my nieces, nephews and cousins too numerous to mention by name.

  Acknowledgements

  The Red Cross and St Dunstan’s for the help and information I needed and received.

  Thank you.

  Chapter 1

  October 1908

  ‘AND WHERE YOU bin?’

  Milly stood and looked down at her well-worn black button-up boots.

  ‘Well answer me, gel.’

  Her father was sitting in the room they used for everything. It had a table and three mismatched chairs; one had the back broken off. That was what her father did when he was in one of his frequent rages. They only possessed one armchair, which stood next to the fire. Nobody dared to sit in his chair. He moved his bulk and, picking up the brass poker, pushed it into the few paltry coals sitting in the grate, causing them to burst into flame.

  ‘Yer mother’s bin trying ter feed the kids while you’ve bin out gallivanting.’

  Arthur Ash stood up. He was a tall, well-built man with a shock of black hair. His dark eyes were penetrating, and as he was still holding the poker, Milly cringed as she stepped back. She had felt the force of her father’s hand many times and stood waiting for the blow that would send her reeling across the room.

  ‘Lorst yer bleeding tongue, ’ave yer?’ He leaned towards her.

  ‘Milly, please answer your father.’ Ivy Ash was a pale, thin woman who, after having ten children in twelve years and trying to feed her family on the pittance her husband gave her, looked worn out.

  ‘I got caught up with all those women with banners and policemen; they was marching along the road and I couldn’t get through.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘There was lots of people and policemen and I couldn’t get past.’

  ‘Leave her be, Arthur. She couldn’t help it.’

  ‘I’ve seen those silly cows outside the docks carrying on about votes fer women. I ask yer, what the bloody ’ell d’ they want ter vote for? Wot der women know about fings like that? They should be ’ome looking after the old man. Don’t you let me find out yer wiv ’em, otherwise yer get another pasting. I can soon knock that rubbish out o’yer.’

  Milly looked at her mother. ‘Honest, Mum. There was such a lot of people and I just got caught up in ’em.’

  Her father grabbed her arm.

  ‘Please, Arthur, leave it.’

  ‘I bet she was flinging herself at ’em, hoping ter join ’em. She’s nothing but a dirty tramp.’

  Milly began to cry, and four pairs of eyes looked anxiously up at her from where her younger siblings were sitting on the floor. She was the eldest of the eight surviving Ash children.

  What was the point of trying to talk to her father when he was in one of his moods? Not that she could ever talk to him. She didn’t like him or the way he treated her dear mum. Milly, who was thirteen, knew what a bully he was and wondered why her mum kept having babies, babies that she couldn’t look after.

  Milly herself had helped to deliver the last one. That day she had been terrified her mum was going to die. Old Mrs Grant, the woman who was with her mum, called for Milly to help. She had held her mother’s hand and mopped her brow, and all the while her mum had tightened her grip on Milly’s hand and cried out in pain. Milly had stood wide-eyed and speechless when the baby came into the world. Mrs Grant handed her the silent scrap covered with blood and instructed her: ‘Wrap her up in that old towel, hold her close and keep her warm and make sure she don’t stop breathing.’ Terrified, Milly did as she was told and held the baby close. Baby Helen was a tiny, fragile little thing who had fought for her life; now, seven months later, she was a frail, sad little girl with big blue eyes and a lovely smile.

  ‘Milly love, did you get th
e milk for Helen’s bottle?’ asked her mother, who was sitting on the hard wooden chair nursing her baby.

  Milly knew she was trying to ease the tense situation and she just nodded. ‘I’ll go and warm it up.’

  She hurried to the outhouse that was attached like a carbuncle to the back of the terraced house. The Ash family occupied the ground floor, which comprised a kitchen plus two rooms; the children all slept in one and Milly’s mother and father and baby Helen slept in the other. Her parents had a bed, but the children slept on the floor on a lumpy mattress that at times had the odd bug or two crawling in it. They shared the outhouse with a Mr and Mrs Booker and their four children, who lived upstairs. The Bookers had the same layout, two rooms and a kitchen. Even with four children under four, they were very quiet. Mr Booker was an accountant, and he often said he wanted to move from Rotherhithe to a better place, but he never did. Milly worried that her father wouldn’t be able to find the rent for the whole house if the Bookers moved. Mrs Booker was a quiet, thin lady who hardly ever spoke, and her children were very well behaved. They kept themselves to themselves and the only time the two families met was in the outhouse. As there wasn’t any water upstairs it had to be taken up in buckets and the slops brought down to the outside lav, which they also shared. The water came from the tap over a large white sink where they all had to do their washing. Cooking for both families was done on a black stove that stood in the corner and had to be fed with wood and coal. It had an oven and two holes on top that would be uncovered when a kettle or a pan needed to be heated. The outhouse was a cold place and at times the inside of the brick walls ran with water, especially when the women were doing their washing and boiling it on the stove. When it was icy outside, they had to scrape the ice off the inside of the window to be able to look out on the very small back yard.

  Milly sat on an upturned wooden box and thought about the morning. She had been so excited when she heard the band playing and the women came marching along. Everybody was shouting and women were throwing flowers. When she was able to find a newspaper, she would take it home and with the help of her mother they would read all about everything that was happening in the world. She knew that these women were called suffragettes and they wanted women to have a vote. Not that she knew why they wanted to vote, but her mother tried to explain that they hoped to make things better for women. Milly knew that her mother, along with her Auntie Doris, her mother’s elder sister, had been very well brought up and properly educated; she also spoke differently to her dad and people who lived round here. Milly loved her mother dearly and often asked her why she’d married her father and didn’t work in a big house like she had told them their Auntie Doris did. Her mother always gave a soft smile and said that she loved him. Milly couldn’t see how anyone could love and marry a bully, but her mother said that he wasn’t always like that; he used to be kind and gentle but then he had an accident and injured his leg and couldn’t get regular work, so they had fallen on hard times. Milly could never remember her father being kind and gentle. Their mother had told them about how Doris worked in a big house, but they had never seen her, and she had never been here. Was Mum so ashamed at how she had finished up?

  The milk boiling over brought Milly quickly to her feet. She silently prayed that her father wouldn’t come through to go out to the outside lav, as that would mean another smack round the head if he thought she’d been daydreaming.

  The back door slammed back hard against the wall and two scruffy-looking boys came in laughing and pushing each other.

  ‘’ Allo, Mil. All right then?’ asked Billy, who was eleven.

  ‘He in?’ asked Daniel, cocking his head towards the kitchen door.

  Milly nodded. She loved all her brothers and sisters, but somehow she could talk to Dan and he always seemed to be able to confide in her. Even at ten years old he had a very sensible head on his shoulders, while Billy was more of a bruiser, his fists ready for anything and anyone. She knew her father would have to watch his step in years to come when Billy was a man. ‘Did you manage to get some wood?’ she asked.

  ‘I should say so,’ said Billy proudly. ‘Bin down the railway sidings and got hold of some logs and a bit of coal.’

  ‘We think someone hid ’em and put ’em away till later,’ said Dan.

  ‘And we pinched ’em,’ said Billy gleefully.

  ‘Let’s hope whoever it was don’t find out it was you two,’ said Milly, testing baby Helen’s bottle on the back of her hand.

  ‘Na, they’re in the yard and the cart’s covered over.’ Billy cuffed the dewdrop that was hanging from his nose. ‘Fink somebody’s bin using our bog again, it don’t half stink.’

  There was a narrow alley that ran along the back of the houses in Winter Street, and like most of the tenants the boys had made a hole in the wall to save coming through the house, and blocked it with wood to try and stop people coming in. Not that it did.

  Milly smiled. These two were very enterprising. They had made a cart out of an orange box they’d got from the greengrocer for running errands, and found a couple of pram wheels. Getting the wood and chopping it up into sticks meant they could sell the small bundles. That and finding coal was Billy and Dan’s job. Everybody had to help in this family if they wanted to survive.

  ‘I’ll just take Helen’s bottle in and then I’ll tell you about the women I saw today.’

  When Milly returned to the outhouse, the boys were sitting on the cold flagstone floor in front of the fire.

  ‘Come on, then, tell us about the women, Mil,’ said Dan eagerly.

  ‘They was marching along the street and they looked lovely in their white frocks and big white hats. Ever so many people was there. Some of the ladies was carrying big banners that had Votes for Women painted on ’em and others threw flowers. It was ever so exciting.’

  ‘I’d love to march along the street,’ said Dan.

  Billy laughed. ‘You’d look silly in a white frock and big ’at.’

  Dan pushed his brother. ‘No, daft. I’m gonna be a soldier when I grow up.’

  ‘There won’t be a war so they won’t want soldiers,’ said Billy. ‘Now me, I’m gonna go in the navy. Gonna go on a big ship and visit all those far-off lands and make me fortune.’

  ‘Mil, you still wanna find Auntie Doris and see if you can go and work with her in the big house?’ asked Dan.

  Milly nodded. ‘I’d really like that. If we knew where it was and how to get there, I’d go and ask her.’

  ‘Yeah, but Mum won’t tell yer, will she?’ Billy jumped up and rubbed his bum, then kicked his shoes along the flagstones, making the studs spark. ‘It’s bloody cold sitting there.’

  ‘That’s cos you ain’t got no seat in your trousers,’ said Dan.

  Milly laughed.

  ‘Why won’t she tell us, Mil?’ asked Dan.

  Milly shrugged. ‘I think she’s ashamed of us.’

  ‘We can’t help it if our old man can’t get proper work,’ said Dan.

  ‘He could do more for Mum than he does,’ said Billy. ‘He’s only interested in getting enough money for a pint, and bugger us.’

  ‘Billy, don’t you let Mum hear you swear,’ said Milly.

  ‘Or Dad, or you’ll end up getting another pasting,’ said Dan.

  Both boys had felt their father’s belt more than once.

  ‘One of these days I will go and try to find Auntie Doris,’ said Milly wistfully.

  ‘I dunno why she don’t come and see us,’ said Dan.

  ‘When I ask Mum about that, she says they fell out years ago, and I don’t think she wants Doris to see how she’s finished up.’

  ‘She must be a bit of a stuck-up cow,’ said Billy. ‘Cos it ain’t like Mum to fall out with someone.’

  ‘Mum don’t go out to talk to anybody,’ said Dan.

  ‘She talks to Mrs Booker,’ said Milly.

  ‘I know, but she don’t go out now, does she?’

  ‘No. Not since Helen was born.’ />
  ‘Why’s that then, Mil?’ asked Billy.

  ‘Dunno.’

  After that they fell into a comfortable silence. They often talked about what they were going to do when they grew up, but they knew that whatever dreams they had, they were just dreams. For as much as their mother tried to help them, they knew that without a proper education they would only get poorly paid labouring jobs like their dad, if they were lucky. Going to school cost time and money, and their father would never allow that. Everybody in this house had to work in one way or another for their survival.

  Chapter 2

  ‘NOW COME ON, put this paper away before your father comes home,’ said Ivy Ash the following day. She was sitting nursing Helen. ‘He was hoping to get some work in the docks today. I’ll help you finish sewing those buttons on while there’s still a bit of light and we don’t have to waste pennies on lighting the gas mantle. Go and wash your hands, we don’t want to get the shirts dirty.’ She put Helen into the drawer that served as a cot and looked at her eldest daughter. Milly was growing into a beautiful girl, with pale skin and straight dark hair tucked behind her ears. Her dark eyes reflected her feelings and could change so quickly with anger or with love. But what was her future? There were times when Ivy wished that she was still in touch with her sister, then perhaps Doris could find Milly an interesting post, but she knew her sister would never come to see her. They’d fallen out many years ago and there were times when she wondered if Doris was even still alive. Ivy was proud of all her children. Billy and Dan were always looking for ways to make a few pence, and now Milly had been along to the shirt factory and managed to get some outwork sewing buttons on shirts. It wasn’t well paid, but it helped.