Read Online Down Weaver's Lane by Anna Jacobs - Free Book Online

leave?’
    ‘You must go and see old Mr Rishmore. He’s a magistrate. Tell him to have her arrested and put in the house of correction. She’s a woman of low morals, isn’t she? She’d feel at home there.’
    Isaac looked at her in horror. ‘I hope Mr Rishmore will never find out about my sister and he certainly won’t hear about her from me. It would seriously lower me in his esteem.’
    Lena laughed as harshly as a cawing crow. ‘Of course he’ll find out. Everyone will find out in a tiny place like Northby - if they don’t know already. Beg him to help you. Show him you don’t care about her.’
    Isaac shook his head. He knew he couldn’t have Madge put into a house of correction. It would kill her. She’d once been the pretty little sister he loved very much indeed and he’d been dreadfully upset when she ran away. ‘I shall do no such thing. It’ll be best if we simply ignore her existence.’
    ‘What about the daughter? Shall you ignore her too?’ his wife demanded. ‘How old is she now?’
    ‘She must be about the same age as Lal, if I remember rightly.’
    ‘She’s old enough to work with her mother, then,’ Lena said bitterly. ‘They start young in that business.’
    He hated to think of that, for he was fond of children and shuddered when he saw so many of them selling their bodies in the streets of Manchester. ‘Martin said the daughter looked to be only a child still, slight and not very tall, unlike our dear Lal who is so well-grown for her age.’
    ‘That’s worse, then.’ Lena clutched her bosom dramatically. ‘She’ll be knocking on our door and asking to play with her cousins next.’
    ‘If that girl comes anywhere near me, I’ll throw stones at her or scratch her eyes out,’ Lal said viciously, for she was old enough to understand the problems of having disreputable relatives and was already dreading what other children might call out after her in the streets.
    ‘No, no, my dear! We shall not even speak to them and I’m sure they won’t bother us,’ Isaac said soothingly, casting a pleading glance towards Lena. ‘My sister was never a vindictive woman and I’m quite sure she won’t try to harm us. Madge was just a - a bit careless in her ways. Now, let us talk of pleasanter things, if you please.’
    But when the girls went to bed that night Lal lay awake for some time thinking about the situation. She was determined to get a look at her cousin. Perhaps if she made the girl’s life miserable, her aunt would leave Northby. If her father wouldn’t do anything about these unsavoury relatives, then Lal would.
    But first she had to find out who her enemy was.
     
    Early on Saturday morning Jack Staley was walking back to the mill after delivering a message to a supplier for Mr Butterfield. It had rained overnight but was sunny now and that had tempted him to linger for a moment or two outside the town to enjoy the birdsong and spring flowers. He ached sometimes to get out into the fresh air, especially up there on the tops where the wind blew clean.
    After a while he sighed and continued on his way. There was work waiting for him at the mill, though at least Saturday was a shorter day and they finished at four o’clock. But his mother wanted some things doing about the house, then they would be going to the market to see if they could pick up any bargains in left-over food. Since his father’s death it sometimes seemed as if he never had a minute to himself, and when his brother’s trial came up, he was sure it would bring them more misery at home as well as the stigma of having a convicted felon in the family.
    His mother was now talking of finding ways to go and visit Tom in Lancaster County Gaol. Jack would also have liked to visit his brother, whom he was still missing dreadfully, but could see no way of finding the money, let alone getting time off work. They’d sold the two looms his father and Tom had used but got very little for them, and what was left after