LITMIR.BIZ

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acquired during countless off-duty hours playing poker. Nowadays, Jake often referred to him as the Nabob. Since his soldiering, he had done little other than gamble successfully. Jake considered that the time had come for Elijah to make himself useful and be a more responsible citizen.

      He found him in his room, fastening a collar to his shirt in front of the mirror.

      ‘Off out, our Elijah?’

      ‘A spot of courting.’

      ‘Can you spare me half an hour before you go? I doubt if Dorcas will mind.’

      ‘Why, what’s up?’

      ‘The brewery, Elijah. I was counting on having sold the house by now and the money from that subsidising the expansion of the business a bit further. Well, it ain’t sold, as you know and we need money for more fermentation squares. Otherwise we can’t get no further forward. I wondered if you’d got a few hundred I could borrow meanwhile.’

      Elijah struggled with his collar stud but managed to attach the collar at the back. ‘This brewing business, Jake…Is it sound? I mean, is there money to be made?’

      ‘Sound? I should say it’s bloody sound. Already I’ve got off-licences and free houses clamouring to buy our stuff. You know what Mary Ann’s beer’s like – it’s beautiful. The blokes love it. Then there’s the ironworks we could supply. Have no fear, Elijah, your money would be safe enough.’

      Elijah pondered while he tied his necktie. ‘I ain’t so sure as I want to lend you money, Jake,’ he said at last and noted the disappointment that registered on his brother’s face. ‘But I’ll come into the business as a partner, if you’ll have me. And I’ll put money in.’

      Jake’s face lit up. ‘And you’re welcome, our Elijah. Do you fancy getting stuck in with the graft like the rest of us then?’

      ‘I don’t mind getting me hands dirty, our Jake. Anyroad, it’s time I did something worthwhile instead of farting about in card schools.’

      ‘Then it makes sense to come and live at the Jolly Collier, eh? After all, you couldn’t live here still when the place belongs to a rival brewery. And we’ve got a spare bedroom. We could soon get it ready for you.’

      Elijah adjusted his necktie in the mirror, but looked thoughtful. ‘There’s just one small consideration, Jake…’

      ‘Which is?’

      ‘Dorcas.’

      ‘Oh. Are you getting wed at last then?’

      ‘Me wed? You’re kidding, mate. I ain’t about to get wed. But I do like to claim me conjugal rights from time to time.’

      ‘Oh, I see…’ Jake looked pensive.

      ‘There is one way we could solve it, Jake…’

      Jake looked up at him hopefully. ‘How?’

      ‘By you allowing me to use your house a couple of nights a week for me courting. They turn a blind eye here when Dorcas comes back to me room at night, but I can’t see Mary Ann turning a blind eye at the Jolly Collier, can you?’

      Jake shook his head. ‘Not likely. Besides, there’s the two girls…’

      ‘As you say, there’s the two girls,’ Elijah agreed.

      ‘Well, I’ve got no objection to you using my old bed to get your wicked away a couple of nights a week, our Elijah. Far be it from me to get in the way of that. In fact, I’ll call in meself and get it all made up for you.’

      Elijah smiled. ‘Let’s go down to the bar and have a drink on it then, eh?’

      ‘It’s all settled then?’

      ‘It’s all settled. How much money do you want off me, our Jake?’

      ‘Let’s say a thousand for now if you can spare it. We’ll have a deed of partnership drawn up, legal like, and agree later the final figure. Wait till I tell Mary Ann. She’ll be beside herself.’

      ‘With joy or despair?’

      Jake laughed. ‘You can never tell just by looking. But she’s all right. I wouldn’t swap her for crock of gold.’

       Chapter 4

      On 10th June, a Monday, Clover and Ned walked back to Kates Hill together from the Coneygree. Whichever route they took they had a steep uphill climb at some point. Today, they decided to take the Bunns Lane route.

      ‘Did you read about that attempt in France yesterday to fly?’ Ned asked as they ambled past the Bunns Lane brick works on their left.

      ‘No, tell me about it.’

      ‘Some chap called Alberto Santos-Dumont. Yesterday, on its first test flight he wrecked some weird concoction of aeroplane and airship he’d put together.’

      ‘That’s a shame,’ Clover commented. ‘Just think of all the work he must’ve put into it, if what you do is anything to go by.’

      ‘Well I don’t feel sorry for him, Clover,’ Ned said trenchantly and slung his knapsack onto his other shoulder to underline his point. ‘Serves him right for not sticking to one configuration. He tried his luck first with a biplane he’d built in March and that didn’t work. So he cobbles together this latest daft combination and that don’t work either. Well, I ain’t surprised. Now he’s said he’s going to try and fly with a monoplane arrangement. Why don’t he make his mind up?’

      ‘You mean he should try and master one thing at a time?’

      ‘It’s obvious. We know biplanes’ll fly ’cause the Wright Brothers have flown ’em. Why didn’t he just stick with his biplane and try to master that shape? That’s the trouble with the Continentals. They keep hiving off in different directions. I bet any money I’ll fly sooner than they do – and further.’

      The exertion of brisk uphill walking in the warm muggy evening air made them both hot and they were at the point in Watson’s Green Road, by the wooden cowsheds of Roseland Farm that reeked of farm animals, where the climb started to get steep.

      ‘If the weather stays fine this weekend I want to try and fly the Gull.’ The Gull was the name he had given to this, his new biplane. ‘It’s as good as ready, Clover, and Amos can borrow the horse and cart again so we can transport it.’

      ‘Are you going over Rough Hill again?’ she asked.

      ‘It’s the best hill facing south-west. And not much in the way of trees if I come down a bit sudden. Shall you come?’

      ‘’Course I’ll come. You don’t think I’m going to miss it after all the hours I’ve put in, do you?’ She laughed and pushed her hair away from her forehead that was bearing a sheen of perspiration.

      ‘I’m ever so confident it’ll fly, Clover, I’m thinking of inviting the Dudley Herald to send a reporter. I want local factory owners to take an interest. I want the world to know about my efforts.’

      ‘Good idea,’ she said enthusiastically. ‘You deserve some recognition for all the work you’ve put in.’

      ‘That’s what I thought. Even the French get loads of publicity and they generally fall on their arses. What are you doing tonight, Clover?’

      ‘I’m going to stay in tonight. I’ve got some ironing to do.’

      ‘I just wondered if you fancied going out with me…If you’re going to be busy though, it don’t matter.’

      They reached the Junction Inn with its rounded façade, said cheerio and parted. Holding her coat by the loop with which she hung it up, she flung it over her shoulder and walked briskly down Cromwell Street.

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