Amelia by Siobhan Parkinson Read Free Book Online Page A

chattering subsided.
    Mary Ann smiled to herself as she smoothed the linen down. Young Amelia had a few things to learn. Life wasn’t all tram-rides to Clery’s and appointments with the dressmaker. But no doubt she would find that out soon enough.
    Â 
    The dressmaker congratulated Amelia on her choice of fabric and she took approving notes about the style Amelia wanted and added a few suggestions of her own. Amelia and the dressmaker agreed that Amelia’s birthday frock was going to be perfectly beautiful.
    â€˜Don’t you think it’s going to be lovely, Mama?’ asked Amelia, standing on a little stool with her arms stretched out so that the dressmaker could measure her.
    â€˜Quite,’ said Mama vaguely, peering out of the dressmaker’s front window into the street. ‘Dear, dear,’ she went on, though Amelia couldn’t be sure whether she was talking to herself or not, ‘I do hate to see those children looking so ragged and hungry.’
    â€˜Are those Kelly children playing outside my house again?’ said the dressmaker impatiently. ‘I’ve told Mrs Kelly over and over again to keep her brats – I beg your pardon, her young’uns – out of the way of my ladies. “Ladies don’t like to be troubled by your br… your childer, Mrs Kelly,” I tell her. “It puts them off. It’s bad for trade.” Honest to God, they’re no better than tinkers, those Kellys.’
    â€˜It looks to me,’ said Amelia’s mother, ‘as if they don’t get enough to eat. Is their father working?’
    â€˜No, Ma’am. Not since the lock-out. A lot of the men from these cottages worked on the trams. Most of them went back to work, of course, but not Kelly. He was too proud to sign Mr Martin Murphy’s anti-union papers, so he never got taken on again. I blame that Mr Larkin and his communist ideas! Coming over here from England and stirring up trouble, it’s a holy disgrace, so it is. Himself and that Countess Markievicz should be tied together and thrown off a cliff, if you ask me. We don’t need their foreign ideas here, so we don’t.’
    Amelia looked at Mama. She didn’t really understand all about the lock-out, but she knew that men had wanted to join the unions under James Larkin, and that their employers had locked them out of their work because of it. And that a lot of poor families went hungry as a result. But what Amelia was most concerned about was Mama’s reaction to what the dressmaker had said about Countess Markievicz. Everyone knew about the Countess and her political activities. She was always making speeches about women’s rights and about Nationalism. The Countess and Mama were not exactly friends, but they did serve on some of the same committees.
    â€˜And what about the mother?’ asked Amelia’s mother, not mentioning her connections with the Countess.
    â€˜A brazen hussy!’
    â€˜No, I mean, has she work?’
    â€˜She used to be in service, before she was married. Now she helps out sometimes in the house where she was employed, when they have guests in and need someone extra in the kitchen.’
    â€˜And otherwise?’
    â€˜That’s all.’
    â€˜So, how do they live?’
    The dressmaker had finished measuring Amelia and now she was making little marks with a piece of french chalk on the material. She shrugged in answer to Mama’s question.
    Mama shook her head sadly.
    â€˜How many children has Mrs Kelly?’ asked Amelia, remembering what Lucinda had said about poor people.
    â€˜Five, and one on the way. Her last baby died. Just as well, otherwise there’d be seven of them soon, not counting the parents.’
    â€˜Six children!’ said Amelia. ‘That’s too many!’
    â€˜What ever do you mean, Amelia?’ asked Mama, her cheeks pink with sudden anger. ‘There’s no such thing as too many children.