The Girl from the Tanner's Yard

yourself and don’t wash it off quickly.’ Archie stood in the doorway as Lucy stood behind him, composing herself for the man her father had told her to respect. Archie turned and decided he’d better introduce Lucy. ‘This is Miss Bancroft.’ He nearly shoved Lucy in front of Adam and stepped back.
‘Thank you, lad. I appreciate you delivering the lime so fast.’ Adam looked at the pretty blonde girl, who could hardly keep her face straight as the lad she’d been flirting with announced her presence. ‘Now, Lucy, you’d better come with me and let him get back to work. We wouldn’t want him to get in any bother with your father, now would we?’
‘No, sir. My father will be timing him. He knows how long it takes to come here and back. He’s walked here and back plenty of times in the past – here and The Fleece down the road. My mother says he might as well live here.’ Lucy smiled and looked back at her muse as Archie made good his escape.
‘Now, Lucy, let me tell you what I want done, and you tell me if you are up to it.’ Adam held back a smile, before setting out his stall concerning what he expected from the flirtatious young woman. ‘I’ll expect you to clean and cook, and make sure my house is tidy at all times, and do what there is to do when I ask it of you. In return, you’ll find that I’m not an unreasonable soul. I won’t ask too much, I will keep you fed, and I will praise you when I think praise is deserved. On the other hand, step out of line and you’ll soon find out that I can be scathing with my words and actions. Do you think you could cope with that?’
‘I’m a hard worker, sir, I’ll not let you down.’ Lucy looked straight at her new master. ‘My mother says I should feel lucky that I’ve been given this chance so near home. And besides, we need the money because my mother’s carrying another baby. Not that my father knows yet, let alone me knowing it for sure. I’ve just seen her being sick in a morning and she’s been crying of late – a sure sign another baby is on the way. My father will go mad when she tells him, as he doesn’t want another baby in the house.’
‘Well, perhaps we should keep that to ourselves for the moment, Lucy. At least until your mother tells your father. I’m sure we are going to get along fine. Now, how about I pay you two shillings a week? You can start straight away by making me a sandwich, and then while I start to whitewash these walls with the lime your father’s so kindly sent me, you can go and scrub the kitchen floor. All you need is in the back kitchen, and there’s some water heating in the copper boiler in the outhouse.’ Adam watched as Lucy’s eyes widened at the thought of two shillings to call her own. He’d make sure she earned it; she seemed an empty-headed girl, who was rather open with her views, but at least she wasn’t a sullen bit of a thing; and she’d be company for him, without any commitment on his behalf.
‘Yes, sir, that would be wonderful. Thank you very much, sir.’ Lucy found her way to the kitchen and then came back quickly, her face aglow with embarrassment. ‘I’d like to make you a sandwich, sir, but there’s only a loaf of bread in the kitchen. So I’ve nothing to put in it.’
‘My fault, as I’ve not unpacked properly yet. Here, there’s a crate of basic food, which I should have put away this morning when I made my breakfast. It needs placing into the larder, and then later this week I’ll make my way down into Keighley to stock us up.’ Adam walked over to his unplaced pile of items and pulled out a wooden crate filled with flour, sugar, butter, cheese and other essential items, which he had bought before his journey from Keighley. ‘You’ll find some cheese in there, Lucy – that will do just grand.’
Adam carried the crate into the low-set kitchen that was at the back of the house, with the larder leading off from the main room. ‘The range in the front room is best for cooking on at present. This kitchen is going to have to be made my priority. There’s no water in the whole of the place; it is outside the back door in a trough and runs straight down from the moor, but I aim to pipe it into the house. It should have been done years ago. You’ll have to make do and mend until I get things in order, but the main thing to do first is get the old place clean and habitable for now.’ Adam smiled and looked at Lucy as she stared up at the kitchen ceiling, which was near collapse. ‘I’ll soon get the place straight, don’t you worry. It’ll be a different place in six months’ time, if I have my way.’
He left her to open the crate and make him a sandwich as he gazed out of the window and questioned the foolishness of his decision to take on the old homestead. In the distance he could hear the Flappit Quarry men at work, hewing out the York stone that was in demand for all the buildings being erected by busy industrialists in West Yorkshire. The ring of hammers echoed around the hills and moors. At least he wasn’t going to be beholden to someone telling him what to do, all day every day, and so he would just have to be content with his lot in his life. He’d nowhere else to go and, apart from Ivy Thwaite in Kendal, nobody cared whether he lived or died; but Adam had not even heard from Ivy in