Free Eve and Her Sisters by Rita Bradshaw Page B

bundles behind them. ‘That’s it?’ The smile had left his face. He didn’t comment further, saying quietly, ‘I’ve some business to attend to but I’ll be leaving at six o’clock. Meet me by the Dog and Duck.You know where that is?’
    They shook their heads. ‘We come from Stanley,’ Mary piped up, deciding she had been ignored too long. ‘We don’t know where anything is.’
    ‘I see.’ He was smiling again. He looked nice when he smiled, Eve thought. ‘And what’s your name?’
    ‘Mary Baxter.’ Mary beamed at him. He was a nice man.
    ‘And I’m Eve, sir, and this is Nell. But we’ll find the Dog and Duck easy enough.’
    He nodded. ‘My name is Travis, Caleb Travis, and I’m no sir, all right? Till six it is then, and don’t be late.’
    ‘We won’t, s—Mr Travis.’
    They watched him walk away and then Eve grabbed her sisters’ hands and held them tightly for a moment. ‘Pick up your things.’ Even to herself her voice sounded gay. ‘We’re going to have a bite to eat, would you like that? And not soup. What about pie and peas and a hot drink to go with it? We’re going to be sleeping in a bed tonight.’ And they all laughed, although Eve found she could just as easily have cried.

Chapter 5
    What the dickens had possessed him? Caleb Travis’s face was grim as he left the noise of the Michaelmas Fair and made his way out of Saltwell Park. On reaching the back yard of a fishmonger he knew, he tipped the fishmonger’s lad a couple of pence for keeping an eye on his horse and cart and climbed up into the narrow wooden seat. His mother would have a fit when he walked in with those three lassies, one nowt but a little bairn. He didn’t believe the other two were the age that thin one who was as straight as a pit prop had said either. Three of them, dear gussy. He groaned in his throat. What on earth had he been thinking of to take them on?
    Pulling his cap down low over his eyes he scowled as he clicked at the horse to walk. He had come to the hirings intending to look for a competent cook and in his mind’s eye he’d decided a woman of middle age, someone who’d perhaps fallen on hard times, would be able to take his mother’s tongue in her stride. And the devil himself needed all his gumption when his mam was in full flow. He’d often thought over the last six years since his da had died he’d done it on purpose to escape the nagging and complaining he’d had to put up with at home. Fourteen he’d been then, and ever since he’d shouldered the responsibility for keeping the inn up and running but never a word of appreciation from his mam.And he wouldn’t have minded that so much if she’d tried to be civil, but it wasn’t her way. Mind, with the customers, butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. Aye, she could be sweetness and light when it suited her.
    He drove into the town and stopped at a butcher who could be relied on for good meat at a knockdown price when bought in bulk. Then he did the rounds of the other shops and once his purchases were complete he returned the way he’d come. The whole time his mind had been preoccupied with the mess he had got himself into.
    But how could he have walked away? he asked himself for the umpteenth time. It was clear they were desperate. And complain though his mother most assuredly would, she was getting double the work for the price of one. Not that she would see it that way because it wouldn’t suit her to. If he had come back with the paragon of all domestics, she’d have found fault somewhere. Well, he’d taken his mother on more than once over the last six years and no doubt he would do so again, and probably before the day was out.
    When the horse lumbered to a halt in front of the Dog and Duck he didn’t see them at first, the night being so dark, and for a moment he felt relief. Then a voice out of the shadows called, ‘Mr Travis? Is that you?’
    ‘Aye, it’s me. Let’s be having you, we’ve a mile or two to travel