Eve and Her Sisters by Rita Bradshaw Page B

give you that. One can be done by morons but the other takes some intelligence.’
    Perhaps it was the earlier thoughts of William, William who had loved books and poetry and who had been thirsty for knowledge that made her lose restraint. Approaching the bed, Eve glared at the woman now looking at her with faint disquiet. ‘You don’t know what you’re on about.’
    ‘ What? What did you say to me?’ Mildred spluttered.
    ‘I said you don’t know what you’re on about and it’s true. My da and brothers had more intelligence in their little fingers than you have in the whole of your body.’
    ‘How dare you!’
    ‘You can’t compare the work in an inn to what my da and brothers had to do every day of their lives and you know it at heart.You’re just being nasty. You woke up this morning and wanted to hurt someone, that’s the truth of it.’
    To say that Mildred was surprised by this milksop - as she had privately termed both Nell and Eve - confronting her was an understatement. For a moment she was lost for words and then her voice came like a bark. ‘That’s it, you’re out on your ear, girl.You can pack your bags this minute and be off.’ ‘What the hell is going on?’
    Neither woman had heard Caleb. Mildred didn’t waste a second. ‘This . . . this kitchen scut has had the effrontery to insult me. Telling me I don’t know what I’m talking about and that I’m stupid.’
    ‘I didn’t say that, not the stupid bit.’ Eve’s face was now as white as lint but she wasn’t going to be dismissed without telling Caleb the truth. ‘Your mother was on about the miners’ strike and she called them morons. I said’ - she took a deep breath as she recalled exactly what her temper had prompted her to say - ‘that my da and brothers had more intelligence in their little fingers than she has in the whole of her body.’
    Caleb stared at her in amazement.
    ‘There, by her own mouth she’s hung herself.’ Mildred was triumphant. ‘To be spoken to like that by the likes of her in me own house. I want her out within the hour. Do you hear me, boy? And without a reference an’ all.’
    It was with some effort Caleb dragged his eyes away from Eve. He would have bet good money she didn’t have it in her to stand up to his mother like that, but perhaps he should have known. Beneath that quiet, gentle exterior she had guts, did Eve. Look how she’d stopped him in his tracks that day at the Michaelmas hirings. He had had no intention of taking her and her sisters on but somehow she’d accomplished making him do just that. They said still waters ran deep and it was the case with this lass for sure.
    Bringing his gaze to his mother, he said, ‘We will discuss this later.’
    ‘Will we, by blighty! We’ll discuss it now, not that there’s anything to discuss. I’ve said my piece. She’s out where she belongs, in the gutter. That’ll give her something to think about.’
    ‘Eve, go and help Nell in the kitchen.’ He didn’t look at her as he spoke but kept his eyes on the furious woman in the bed. It was only when he heard the door click shut that he moved, coming to stand close to his mother. ‘You have to open your mouth to wound, don’t you? Always to wound. That little lass has worked her socks off since the day she stepped foot in this place and all for a measly half-crown a week. Well, I tell you something, Mam. If she agrees to stay after what you’ve said the day, she’ll be getting more than that.’
    ‘You’d do that? You’d take the part of a kitchen scut against your own mother?’
    ‘Can’t you see beyond the end of your own nose? She does the work of two women. Oh, Nell is willing enough but she needs to be told, directed. It’s Eve who runs the kitchen.And you might not like to hear it, Mam, but things are running smoother than they have for a good few years.We both know you should have got someone in there a long time ago.You weren’t up to it and the result is this.’ He