Edward stood up to his father, just as hot-tempered, but cocky and self-assured. He gathered his schoolbooks up and hurled them across the room. ‘Right, I’ll go out now and join the dole queue, just like you and every other sucker round ‘ere. You call that work, do yer?”
Freedom struck him so hard that he sprawled on the floor. Alex sprang between them, trying to protect Edward. ‘Dad, no, don’t, don’t hit ‘im no more.’
Freedom lashed out at Alex in fury, trying to grab Edward, and now Evelyne pushed between her sons and Freedom. With her arms out she faced her husband.
‘You’ll have to hit me first, Freedom, I mean it. Just stop this nonsense right now or so help me God I’ll take the rolling pin to you, I will.’
Freedom backed away. The three of them were against him, and he knew then that Evelyne would choose her sons before him. She was like a lioness with her cubs, glaring at him so fiercely … He turned and beat his fist against the fireplace.
Evelyne shooed the boys from the room, but Edward held on to her. She shook her hand free. ‘Get out, the pair of you, leave us alone. Go on, nothing’s going to happen.’
They slunk out and closed the door behind them. Freedom gave her such a helpless look, filled with guilt and remorse. It was the first time he had ever struck his sons, and his voice sounded choked in his throat. ‘I’d never have struck thee, Evie, God help me, never.’
She held him in her arms and comforted him, whispering over and over that she knew, she knew it. She felt remorseful herself, it was becoming obvious that she put the boys before Freedom. ‘I’m sorry too, Freedom. I should never have gone against you. Sometimes Eddie needs a firm hand. Will you forgive me?’
They kissed,1 it had been a long time since they kissed as lovers, and she sat on his knee by the fire. ‘What is it, my love, what’s hurting you so?’
He buried his face in her chest, and she stroked his hair.
‘It’s the debt-collecting, Evie. It’s hard for me to face them that owes you, going to them with me hand out for their shillin’s. Some of ‘em have nothin’, and to stand there frightening the life out of them, wantin’ money paid over, knowing they’ve not got it to give — it’s no job for a mun, I can’t do it no more.’
Evelyne forced herself to keep her mouth shut, although she could have asked how he thought she felt. How did he think they could have lived so well for so long without her moneylending business?
‘Just don’t do anything against the law, the boys are doing so well and I don’t want people talking.’
That did it. He pushed her away from him and grabbed his coat.
‘Always the boys, always them, when do you ever think of me? When it’s too late!’
He slammed out of the kitchen.
Eddie came downstairs and slipped his arms around his mother, kissed her and patted her head. ‘Maybe he’s right, Ma, I’m fourteen, I could get work.’
She grabbed him and held him, shook him roughly. He was shocked by her tone, her expression. ‘You think I like collecting money I lend out? Do you? Why do you think I’m doing it, working myself into an early grave, why?’
Edward backed away from her, and Alex came to stand at his side, as their mother marched around the kitchen, rolling up her sleeves as if she was ready for a fight.
‘Both of you are going places, getting out of this slum, and you won’t do it like your father, with your fists. You’ll do it with your brains. So help me God I’ll go out on the streets if need be, to make sure you both stay at school, now is that clear, clear to both of you?’
They nodded solemnly.
‘Right now, get your work and I’ll fix us tea.’
Alex ran into the hallway, but as Edward turned to follow him he felt his hair tugged, and Evelyne kicked the door closed. She hit him so hard on his right ear that his head spun.
‘If I ever hear you talk to your Dad in that tone of voice again I’ll beat the living daylights out of you. Now hop it.’
Freedom was gone for more than two weeks, longer than he had ever stayed away from home before. At the weekend the brothers went around collecting the debts, and a couple of times they had to get tough in order to be paid. When they returned, they got out the books and began to tally up as Evelyne was out shopping. Edward fiddled the figures and pocketed sixpence, and Alex saw him do it. He wouldn’t eat the toffee bar Edward offered him later.
Evelyne went to Ed’s brother’s house. There was a showdown on the cards as they owed her two pounds fifteen shillings, which was long overdue. There was no way around it — she couldn’t run her home and support the Meadows family. But the rent-collector had got there before her, and two bailiffs waited outside with a cart. The Meadows owed six months’ back rent at eighteen shillings a week.
‘We’re on the street, nothing we can do.’
Evelyne didn’t like the way the rent-collector shouldered her aside. The bailiffs hammered on the door and shouted that the Meadows had better pay up or get out, otherwise they would break the door down. They couldn’t wait all day, they had another call to make.
Again Evelyne was thrust aside and the two bailiff’s men forced their way into the house. She barred their entrance. ‘Out, the pair of you, there’s no one moving a stick of furniture from here. Bugger off, or I’ll get my boys …’,
They hesitated, looking for guidance from the rent-collector. Evelyne siezed her chance. ‘Now, it’s Mr Simms, isn’t it?’
Mr Simms, the most hated man in the district, pursed his chalk-white lips and adjusted his bowler. ‘Yes it is, and I know who you are — Mrs Stubbs from number twelve. Now I’ve never had any trouble from you, so let’s not start now. I am within the law, so I suggest you just leave well alone. The only way round this situation is for the back rent to be paid.’
Half an hour later in the kitchen of number twelve, the situation was more than resolved, and the bailiffs left with the cart to call on their next poor victim.
Evelyne Stubbs bought the Meadows’ house, and they now had to pay their rent to her. She calculated that the rent would cover the cost of the house by the time Edward was in his final year at school. Knowing Ed’s brother’s financial state better than anyone, she offered him a job. He would collect the debts, and she would deduct the rent from his wages.
Edward looked up from his homework, threw down his pencil and picked up his mother’s accounts book. ‘You know, Ma, if you could, it might be a good thing to get hold of Auntie Freda and Uncle Ed’s place. It’d be about the’same price.’
Evelyne smiled and told him she’d already looked into it, and liked the fact that he was taking an interest. ‘You just do your homework, lovey, and I’ll think about it.”
Alex came in with a box, saying the rabbit looked poorly. He sat the box down in front of the fire. The rabbit was panting, its eyes glazed. ‘He misses Dad. When do you think he’ll be coming home, Ma?’
Alex really meant that he himself was missing Freedom, but he didn’t like to admit it. He was closer to Freedom than Edward was, and night after night he stood by the front window watching for his father. Evelyne sighed, put down her sewing and brought some water for the rabbit. She had no idea where Freedom was — she had had no word. She was worried, of course, but at the same time the house was running like clockwork without him. ‘He’s working with Jesse, he’ll be home when the time is right. Don’t fret yourself, Alex. Done your homework, have you?’
The next day, at school assembly, the headmaster announced that the King was dead. Rows of small faces looked up in awe, and some of the juniors whispered ‘what king?’, but the whole school cheered when they were told they were being given the day off. This was not the effect the headmaster had desired, but shouts for quiet went unheard as the boys streamed out gleefully.