Whispers of the Past

Chapter One

1836 - 1837

Family

My mother was a delightful woman. My father is stern, but fair. They both worked- my father making his living in a factory making matches, and my mother as a maid of all work. They lived in a small house in a small town, with three rooms and an outside privy.

The first room was the living room, with a sofa and a small wooden table, along with a fireplace where we cooked toast on cold winter nights, the coals merrily crackling in the grate.

The second room was a kitchen and dining room. This room had another fireplace — we needed it in winter! — and a small table. One unusual feature of the house, was that there was a wall in the middle of the room. On the other side of this wall was my bedroom, which was a very small room with just a single bed and a bedside table. The third room was mother and father's room.

This room had a double bed, two bedside tables (one on each side of the bed) and a cot at the end of the room for my little brother, William (though everyone calls him Will).

Mother had this house because of her and fathers' wages. Her wages were raised by her boss, Lord Wycombe. Now though, she had to look for a new house, which had bigger rooms, as she was expecting another child.

Mother's boss, (Lord Wycombe) was not happy. This is because a big rule of working in service is that you are not allowed to court anyone- least have a child with them!

Lord Wycombe had been lenient the first two times, and he had even raised mother's wages more to help her cope. Now though, he wasn't pleased. He had changed from a charitable man, who had now merged into the rest of society. So, he dismissed mother as soon as people began to notice she was with child.

After 12 years of being in service, Lord Wycombe claimed she had to be dismissed. It was not fair, and yet it was what had to be done.

She searched for a job in all weather, to no avail. Father did not earn enough at the factory for us to survive on. If mother could not get a job soon, we would have to sell our house. The only other option was to go to the Workhouse.

It wasn't until the 18th of September 1836 that mother found a new job- at the Butchers shop on the High Street. When she bought home her first paycheck a week later, it was a joyous occasion. We bought a candle for 1 penny, some ale from the pub for Father, and the Butcher had kindly given mother some of the meat that was going old, and so no one else wanted to buy.

Although I was only 2 years old, I remember it clear as day. Will was a month shy of turning 2 (he had only just started to walk three months ago, a fact which, when it happened, left mother happy and crying for days afterwards).

Mother spent all evening cooking the food and washing all our dirty clothes and sheets on our mangle, to impress Father when he got home from work that night.

When Father came home, we all sat down to eat. The meal mother had spent hours making was very good. It consisted of cheese, bread with butter, the leftover meat which mother had roasted by the kitchen fire on a spit, so it was very nice, and some potatoes that mother had found at the market earlier that day for a penny.

Once we had finished the food, me and Will went to bed, while mother cleared up the plates.

The next morning, mother and Will were already awake when I got up. I smiled at them, and Will walked into the living room. I stayed with mother. She was making our breakfast, and she smiled as she was doing it.

Father got up a few minutes later and came into the kitchen. He looked at mother and me, then his eyes darted about nervously.

"Where's Will?"