Through Streets Broad and Narrow (Ivy Rose Series Book 1) Read online

  “Will do!” Ivy shouted over her shoulder.

  “Ivy,” Ann Marie was breathless at the speed Ivy travelled, “who are those people?” She hadn’t been able to see much as the women were well wrapped in dark clothing.

  “Dealers,” Ivy answered. “They have to get to the market early and pick up their goods.”

  Ann Marie didn’t answer. She needed all of her breath to keep up the killing pace Ivy set. She passed through streets she didn’t know existed, following after Ivy’s dark, silent figure. She almost wept with relief when they finally came in sight of the well-lit market square.

  “Watch where yeh’re going!” Ivy pulled Ann Marie to a halt to allow a heavily laden farm cart to trundle past them. The horses’ heads were hanging but they were picking up speed. Farmers and their horses had been making this trip twice a week for centuries. These horses knew they were almost there and wanted a nosebag of oats and a drink of water.

  Ann Marie gasped as a crowd of youths suddenly appeared and began to pull hay by the handful from the wagon. The farmer shouted and cursed at them but everyone else ignored them. It was a common sight. The stolen hay was used for the tiny backyard ‘farms’ dotted through the Dublin lanes.

  “Morning, Ivy!” Hopalong gave Ivy a gummy grin. “Yer usual?”

  “Twice please, Hopalong.” Ivy scanned the gathering dealers. The stalls were up and stuff was being put out. She was late. She was aware of Ann Marie collapsing onto a nearby bale of hay. She’d be safe there for the minute.

  “Here’s trouble!” Hopalong grinned, taking Ivy’s money.

  “Big Polly!” Ivy called out to the tall full-figured woman powering her way towards the tea stall. “I want to see yeh!” Ivy began to pull the cover back from her pram.

  “Maggie Wilson is looking for yeh, Ivy.” Big Polly stood tall, spread her legs and urinated where she stood. With a relieved sigh she then stepped over the puddle she’d made and walked over to Ivy’s side. A quickly suppressed squeak was all the reaction Ann Marie allowed herself.

  Big Polly was one of Ivy’s best customers. The woman was built along the same lines as the Morgan twins. Big Polly was taller but it was all leg. Ivy had simply to use the material from one twin’s discarded skirt to lengthen the other and she had a high-class outfit to offer Big Polly.

  “Yeh said yer eldest was getting married.” Ivy held the pram cover away from the suit she was hoping to sell. “That suit will make yeh the talk of the town.” Big Polly, like the Morgan twins, loved frills and fancies. Ivy normally removed all of the ribbon, braiding and beads the Morgan twins insisted upon and made money off it. For Big Polly, however, she left everything in place.

  “Gi’s a look.” Big Polly wanted something that would show up that snobby cow her son was marrying. “Hopalong, pour us a cup of tea for feck’s sake! I feel like one of them fellas that walks across deserts. I’m bloody parched.”

  Ann Marie sat on her hay bale, drinking tea from a chipped cup and clutching a sausage sandwich. She watched Ivy’s world unfold before her. She watched Ivy and Big Polly shout and poke at each other, all the while eating and drinking the food they held. The price Ivy mentioned for the suit seemed ridiculously cheap to Ann Marie but it obviously horrified Big Polly. The two women were shouting abuse that had Ann Marie’s ears blushing.

  “Ivy Murphy!” Maggie Wilson had walked up unnoticed by the squabbling women. She had waited until the deal was struck before speaking – it didn’t do to interrupt trade. “I’ve a bone to pick with yeh.”

  “Oh yes? Hang on.” Ivy grinned at Big Polly. Ivy had made a handsome profit on the suit and Big Polly knew she’d got a bargain. “I’ll have Bill Burn wrap this in brown paper for yeh, Big Polly. Yeh won’t know yerself.”

  “Thanks, Ivy.” Big Polly returned her cup to the stall. “I’ll see yeh later over at my place.” She was referring to her own stall. “I’ll fix yeh up then.” Big Polly walked away, delighted with herself. She’d show that stuck-up young madam what’s what. That a son of hers could pick such a woman! Still, on his own head be it.

  “Ivy, what do ye mean getting Sadie Lawless to knit for yeh?” Maggie Wilson pushed her nose up to Ivy’s face. “The woman is one of me best workers.”

  “How is Sadie?” Big Polly stopped halfway down the aisle separating the stalls. Everyone in the market knew what had happened to Big John Lawless.

  “She’s in a bad way,” Ivy said sadly.

  “Hey, answer me question!” Maggie Wilson wasn’t willing to be ignored. Ivy Murphy was hurting her trade.

  “Sadie isn’t knitting for me Maggie,” Ivy could say truthfully, “but I do have her and her girls doing a few little jobs for me.” Ivy’s woollens were being turned into usable wool at a great rate.

  “What’s the news about John?” Hopalong leaned over his stall to refill the cups.

  “He’s still in Kevin’s, still crippled,” Ivy informed the gathering crowd of listeners. “His family are struggling.”

  “That’s only to be expected.” Frank Jameson shook his head sadly. “Twenty years he worked, never missing a day in all that time. One little accident and a good man and his family are destroyed. It ain’t right.”

  The crowd mumbled in agreement. They all feared something of the sort happening to them.

  “Maggie Wilson,” Ivy said, “I know Sadie was a good little earner for yeh.” And she knew Maggie charged a lot for the little outfits Sadie knit. “It wouldn’t do yeh any harm to have Golly Black deliver a bag of coal to them, Maggie. The three of them are sitting in front of an empty grate.”

  “I’ll do that, Ivy,” Maggie Wilson was shamed into promising.

  “Ann Marie, come on,” Ivy said when she’d conducted all the business she could around Hopalong’s stall.

  Ivy didn’t hold a street trader’s license. She couldn’t sell to the public. She needed to make her money selling to the people who did hold a trader’s license.

  “Yeh can put yer bag in here now.” Ivy held open the cover of her pram. She’d sold everything she’d brought to the market. She’d also bought supplies for her own needs that now lined the bottom of the pram.

  “Thanks.” Ann Marie put the sack, which had grown heavier through the morning, in the pram with a sigh of relief. Her head was spinning with everything she’d seen and heard. She had a million questions she wanted to ask Ivy.

  “Ivy, don’t forget yer tomatas!” a woman standing by her pram on a street corner shouted. The pram was almost buried under a tower of big red tomatoes.

  “Thanks, Betty.” Ivy stopped. “I want two bags of yer best.” She waited while she was served, glancing around at the other prams to see if they had anything else she wanted. “Where’s Lissy parked?”

  “She’s down the block.” Betty pointed with her chin.

  “Thanks, Betty,” Ivy put the tomatoes in her pram and continued on her way down the block. She could hear Lissy shouting out her sales pitch and prices now. “Toys, Lissy?” Ivy stared at the woman’s pram in surprise. “That’s not yer usual.”

  “Me fella got them off a Russian straight off the boat and needing a few bob.” Lissy’s face was lined with sadness. “He got them cheap but they’re not moving, Ivy.”

  “They won’t down here, Lissy.” Ivy knew Lissy’s husband was unemployed like so many but he tried to bring in a few bob for his family. “Lissy, yeh know no-one down here has a spare penny. Yeh need to go somewhere like Henry Street or Earl Street.”

  “This is me spot, Ivy.” Lissy knew Ivy was right but a dealer’s spot was sacred. You couldn’t just barge in anywhere you liked.

  “I’ll settle up with yeh for the sausages.”

  While the two women were conducting business Ann Marie was examining the clever little wooden toy. Two wooden sticks held a monkey on a string. When you pressed the sticks the monkey gyrated.

  “Ivy, I’m no trader,” Ann Marie was loath to make trouble for Ivy by interfering in something she knew nothing about, “but these
little toys are wonderful.”

  “Who’s your one?” Lissy glared.

  “Ann Marie, Lissy – she’s keeping me company today.” Ivy turned to Ann Marie with raised eyebrows. Ann Marie saw things the rest of them didn’t.

  “I don’t understand why you can’t go to Henry Street, Lissy.” Ann Marie offered shyly. “But in any case you are not charging enough for these little toys.” She’d heard the price being shouted.

  “If she went onto someone else’s patch she’d be in big trouble, Ann Marie,” Ivy said simply. In fact the woman would be in actual physical danger from the other dealers. A patch was sacred and handed down through a family for generations.

  “Yeh really think I should charge more for these things?” Lissy played with one of the toys. They were wonderful but she’d be putting them on the back of the fire if she couldn’t sell them.

  “Yeh could take yer fella with yeh to Henry Street, Lissy.” Ivy shrugged. Lissy needed to make a living like the rest of them. “See how it goes.”

  “You should double the price at least.” Ann Marie was still playing with the monkey on a string.

  “Yeh’re nuts, Missus.” Lissy stared at Ivy’s friend in astonishment. The woman wanted her bumps feelin’ – she was obviously a brick short of a load.

  “In fact,” Ann Marie hoped she wasn’t stepping out of line, “I’ll take a dozen at double the price.”

  The two dealers turned to stare at her. You never offered someone twice the price they were asking.

  Lissy looked like her Christmas was coming early. She didn’t question the madwoman but quickly started counting the toys into a bag.

  “Who are ye buying these things for, Ann Marie?” Ivy didn’t think Ann Marie knew a dozen childer.

  “Davy would love one of these, Ivy.” Ann Marie was delighted at the opportunity to use her hidden purse. Ivy had insisted Ann Marie bring coins and ten-shilling notes. The notes had to be pinned to her skirt for safe keeping. She’d been warned not to pull out notes. “I thought Emmy and perhaps Sadie’s two girls would enjoy a toy.”

  “On yer own head be it.” Ivy wouldn’t deny a child a toy and Ann Marie could afford the gesture.

  “Thanks, Missus.” Lissy took the money with a glad heart. Her kids would eat tonight. “Here,” she passed an extra monkey over, “have one on me! I’m going home to get me fella and then by God I’m going to Henry Street.” Lissy started packing up.

  “Good luck!” Ivy shouted, “Come on, Ann Marie, before yeh offer to go with her!”

  “Dear Lord, Ivy,” Ann Marie couldn’t keep her mouth shut any longer. “Does the water wagon never come down these streets?” The dark streets smelled of human waste and disease. The barefoot, half-clothed children broke Ann Marie’s heart. She’d never seen such poverty.

  “It’s a long way from Merrion Square, Ann Marie,” Ivy said simply. “We’re almost at Sadie’s. Yeh need to wipe the shock off yer face or yeh’ll insult the woman.”

  “Ivy, I’ve been keeping watch for yeh!” Sadie shouted from her steps. “I’ll give yeh a hand with yer pram.” Sadie ran down the steps leading up to the tenement house.

  “Put the kettle on, will yeh, Sadie?” Ivy said, accepting the help.

  The three women climbed the steps together, Ann Marie trying to take everything in at once.

  “I’m that hungry, Sadie, I could eat the north end of a southbound mule.” They were hardly in the door when Ivy began to pull foodstuffs out of her pram. “I hope yeh don’t mind if me and Ann Marie grab something to eat while we talk.” She lied to spare Sadie’s feelings.

  Ann Marie opened her mouth to object – it was obvious from the cold hungry look of the children that this woman had nothing to spare. Ivy kicked her.

  “I bought a load of Donnelly’s sausages, Sadie, and Ann Marie has a packed lunch she didn’t get a chance to eat.” Ivy put the paper-wrapped parcel of sausages and the packed lunch onto the table. “Will ye join us in a sandwich?”

  Sadie wanted to object but the hungry look on her daughters’ faces kept her mouth firmly shut.

  The two girls watched food appear from the pram and onto their bare table as if by magic.

  “Girls, will yeez get the wool we have ready, please.” Sadie felt almost faint just at the mention of the sausages. She watched her daughters run into the other room to collect the work that was the only thing keeping the roof over their heads.

  “Ann Marie didn’t want to come empty-handed, Sadie,” Ivy continued to pull items from her pram. “She brought some of her morning bake with her. I hope yeh don’t mind.” Ivy put Mrs Jones’ bread and cake on the table.

  “I’m sure we’ll enjoy your baking,” Sadie said over her shoulder. She had the sausages already in a pan she held over the little primus stove. She wouldn’t be able to afford gas for it when the cylinder was finished. “Thank you.”

  “Just put the wool on the floor, girls, thanks,” Ivy said when the two girls returned with bags of the high-quality refashioned wool. The jumpers Ivy was paying them to take apart were of the finest wool available. “Clare, if you’ll cut the bread, and Dora, you cut the tomatoes, we’ll soon be ready to eat.”

  In no time at all Sadie was bringing the sizzling sausages to the table and they all sat down.

  “Ivy, are yeh really sure about what yeh’re doing with all that wool?” Sadie was fighting to keep the tears from her eyes. Her daughters were doing her proud. The girls had cut one loaf into neat thin slices. The tomatoes gleamed red and moist. She knew the girls wanted to fall on the food but they were politely waiting.

  “I’m taking a gamble, Sadie, the first in me life.” Ivy was slowly chewing the food, watching as Sadie and her girls dug in. Ann Marie was nibbling politely on the thinnest slice of bread she could find.

  “Well, the girls and me are about ready to get stuck into your latest bright idea. You can’t blame us if it doesn’t work. We’ll do the work and gladly.” Sadie savoured her tea with the milk Ivy had brought. She tried to slowly chew and swallow every delicious mouthful of her sausage-and-tomato sandwich. As she did, she watched her girls enjoy the food. She didn’t take a second sandwich herself, wanting to leave the food for the girls but she kept the tea coming. Ivy was a terror for her tea.

  “By the way, Pa Landers told me he has a couple of coats in.” Sadie looked at the food still remaining on her table. She’d be able to fry the bread in the grease in the sausage pan for later. Her girls would go to bed with a full stomach tonight. “He doesn’t know if they’ll suit but he wanted me to tell yeh.”

  “I want something that will give a good impression, Sadie. I know that thing,” Ivy pointed to her old coat hanging half off her pram, “is ugly but it keeps me warm.”

  “I’ll come with yeh to see Pa Landers,” said Sadie. The other two women seemed to be finished with their food. She stood away from the table. If she got the other two out of here, her girls could stuff their faces without minding their manners.

  Ivy and Ann Marie pushed their teacups away from them and stood.

  “Can I leave me pram here?” said Ivy

  “Grand. I’ll get me shawl.” Sadie smiled at her two girls. “Lock the door behind me, girls. We don’t want yer Auntie Patsy sticking her nose into Ivy’s business.” Sadie didn’t want the other woman helping herself to whatever was on offer.

  The three women walked to Pa Landers with the usual escort of ragged children. Ann Marie felt her stomach heave at the blue tinge to the skin on the little boys’ and girls’ arms and legs. Most of the children were barefoot.

  “Sadie, you’ve brought me customers.” Pa Landers recognised the suit Ann Marie was wearing.

  “I told Ivy you got some coats in.”

  Sadie watched Ivy examine the coats Pa Landers offered. Her posh friend just stood inside the door staring around. She was a queer one all right.

  “There’s nothing here I want.” Ivy turned away.

  “There is another coat but I doubt it would suit,�
�� Pa Landers said. “I know someone wishing to sell a very expensive coat.” Pa wished he could sell the coat. His commission would keep him going through the winter. “I don’t know anyone who could afford a coat the like of which this woman wishes to sell.”

  “The dancer from the Gaiety!” Sadie gasped. “The one renting yer upstairs room? Her that’s out to here?” Sadie pushed her arms away from herself, making the understood sign for a pregnant woman.

  “The very one,” Pa Landers said.

  “You two know someone who works in the theatre?” Ivy couldn’t believe her ears.

  “We don’t really know her.” Sadie said honestly. “She’s been staying here but she doesn’t exactly talk to people.”

  “Could I speak to her, please?” Ivy said, thinking of Liam. The woman might have information she could use. It didn’t do any harm to ask.

  “I suppose I could ask.” Pa Landers didn’t give much for their chances. “She calls herself Desiree. It would be good for the young woman to talk to someone, I think.” Pa Landers wasn’t a hardhearted man. The young woman renting his upstairs room was in trouble.

  “I’ll take them up,” Sadie offered and Pa Landers opened the door separating his home from his business.

  Upstairs, Sadie knocked on the door Pa usually rented.

  “What do you want?”

  The young woman standing in the partly open doorway was not the picture Ivy had formed of a glamorous dancer. She was tall and, except for the swollen stomach, was painfully thin. Her hair hung in knotted tangles around her sallow face.