Emily Read Online Free Page B

roof over my head, and even after Mr Edwards died he kept his promise. He let me have this house for onny a peppercorn.’ She sighed. ‘I don’t know what’ll happen to our Sam, though, when owt happens to me.’ She glanced up from her knitting. ‘And let’s trust in God that afore I go tha’ll be in service or wed.’
    As soon as the road was clear, Emily was prepared for school. She was wrapped in new flannel bodices which Granny had made and in thick wool vests, which she had helped to knit and which itched and tickled as she got warm. Two new pinafores were made from cotton sheeting and new boots ordered from the cobbler in the market town of Hedon were delivered by the carrier.
    ‘I’ll tek thee this once and meet thee half-way home this afternoon,’ Granny said as they set out on the long trek. ‘So tek notice of which way to go.’
    Emily clutched her bag, which contained her dinner of bread, a hunk of cheese and an apple, a piece of chalk and a clean handkerchief, which she had hemmed and painstakingly embroidered with the initial E.
    She was eager and quick to learn and soon she could write her name, Emily Hawkins, and was mastering her numbers. The mistress was strict and made them sit up straight and speak clearly and properly, for, she said, she couldn’t understand their rough country speech. Dick jeered at Emily’s cleverness because he stumbled over his reading and writing, though he could add up quickly enough, but like the other boys he longedfor spring, summer or autumn when they could help on the farms and had ready excuses for not going to school.
    By the time she was eleven Emily was head and shoulders over the other pupils both in ability and height. Her hair was long and blond and was kept firmly under control in two plaits. Her shape was changing and she started to stoop to hide her swelling breasts. One morning she arrived at school in time to see Jane hand their teacher a note, and at dinnertime when Emily and Dora went outside to eat their dinner and go to the privy, Jane stayed behind and sat with her head on the desk and the teacher said not a word in admonishment.
    ‘What’s up with Jane?’ Emily asked. ‘Is she poorly?’
    Dora shook her head and whispered in her ear. ‘She’s started her flux!’
    ‘Started her flux?’ Emily asked. ‘What does that mean?’
    ‘You know!’ Dora blushed and would say no more until they were well away from the flapping ears of the boys.
    Emily that day learned the facts of life from Dora, or at least as much as Dora knew, which wasn’t much for she hadn’t been told either, except by an older girl, and Emily walked home in a daze, pondering on whether to impart her new-found knowledge to Granny Edwards, for as she was so fond of saying, she hadn’t had much learning and Sam was no scholar and that was why she had sent Emily to school.
    Every spring they renewed their weekend visits tothe river, but as they got older sometimes Jane and Dora couldn’t come. They now had more tasks to do at home, smaller children to look after, bread to make or kitchen floors to wash, and Emily found that she was increasingly irritable with the boys’ behaviour as they clowned around in their last days of childhood before leaving school.
    ‘You’re always showing off,’ she grumbled as they fought with one another, or tried to stuff a dead rat down someone’s shirt, or dared each other to jump from one boat to another without capsizing it. They were noisy and boisterous, they chased rabbits down holes and pelted birds with homemade catapults. They generally went home wet and muddy and sometimes they manhandled Emily too when she complained of their stupidity, pushing her to the ground and holding her down with their sweating, panting bodies until abruptly they would let go of her and run off, their faces red and unable to look at her.
    ‘Can I look down tha frock, Em?’ an older boy said one day. ‘I’ll give thee a bite of my apple if tha’ll