Page 13 of The Irish Gypsy
Kitty crept down the two flights of stairsand quietly opened the front door for her. The look she bestowedupon Julia was one of tight-lipped disapproval. Kitty had no ideawhat she had been up to, but instinctively knew it was wrong.
Julia looked at Kitty and said, "You looklike you've been eating pickled Bibles." They both giggled and thenshushed each other. By the time they climbed the stairs and Juliareached her room in safety, they were firm allies.
Chapter 4
On Monday morning, Jonathan O'Reilly was upat dawn and on his way to the mills, determined to take the reinsback in his own hands. First at the Falcon, then at the Egyptian,and finally at the Gibraltar he had called in the men before workbegan on the new machines and made it clear that in return for thistechnical innovation, management would claim a substantialreduction in wage rates. The men were surly and instead ofproducing more work they produced considerably less. Trouble wasbrewing ominously, but it wouldn't erupt until after working hours,when they could get together and decide on a plan of action.
Patrick, blissfully unaware of his father'sintentions, decided to let him have the running of the mills tohimself and went off with a friend to a horse race.
Kitty emptied the bucket of dirty water aftershe had scrubbed the kitchen floor and Mrs. Thomson took pity onher. "It's almost ten o'clock, child. Mr. Parker will be here togive Miss Barbara her lessons. They are from ten to twelve eachmorning in the library. You be the chaperone today. Take yourduster in there and after you're finished, just sit quietly untilthe lessons are over."
Mr. Parker was a thin, ratty little mandressed in a shabby but genteel fashion. Kitty almost pitied himuntil she saw he enjoyed the way he could make Barbara cower. Heinsisted that she could not give him verbal answers, but that shemust write everything down on the slate.
Kitty moved about slowly so as not to attractattention as she went about the room dusting. When she came to thegrandfather clock, she moved the hands ahead an hour, then movedover to the bookshelves and continued to dust.
"Now, Miss O'Reilly, seeing you are hopelessin mathematics, we will put it aside and do spelling, and let metell you, young woman, every time you make a mistake you will writeit out one hundred times. That should keep you busy all evening,for from what I've seen, your spelling is as atrocious as yourmathematics."
Kitty opened a dictionary and with her voicelow and her back toward Barbara and Mr. Parker, she began spellingthe first word for Barbara. Kitty said quickly, "Just put down whatI tell you, he can't hear me, you know, he's as deaf as a doornail.That's why he makes you write everything on the slate."
They finished the list of words and shehanded him her slate to be checked for mistakes.
Kitty kept her face to the wall. "You mustn'tbe afraid of him, Barbara. He probably threatens to tell yourfather about you, eh?"
"Now take a fresh slate and make propersentences using the following words." Mr. Parker was clearlyannoyed that Barbara had made no errors for which she could bepunished.
"Employer," Mr. Parker dictated.
Kitty said, "Put down: Does your employerknow you are deaf?"
"Employee," he continued.
"Put down: Employees should not bully littlegirls." Kitty moved silently over to the desk behind Mr. Parker,picked up his pocket watch, and altered the time to match that ofthe grandfather clock.
"Employment," intoned Mr. Parker.
"You are about to lose your employment,"whispered Kitty.
The tall clock chimed twelve and Barbaraarose to hand him her slate.
"Where are you going, miss?"
She pointed to the grandfather clock and helooked thunderstruck. He took his pocket watch from the desk,checked it and looked up, thoroughly bewildered.
Barbara curtsied, handed him the slate anddisappeared as fast as her legs would carry her, but Kitty lingeredbehind to see the look on his face when he read the slate.
He looked down at the sentences and hispallor went from dirty white to dirty gray. He spluttered, "Littlebitch!"
Kitty held the feather duster to her ear likean ear trumpet and shouted, "Eh?" before following Barbara from theroom.
After the evening meal Jonathan went off tohis club and Patrick decided to visit the theater. He very seldomtold Bradshaw to bring the carriage to the front door, but usuallywent to the stables and coach house himself because he liked theatmosphere there. He had won a little on the horses and was in agood mood, blissfully unaware of how incongruous he looked infrilled shirt and tall silk hat, fondling the muzzle of one of thecarriage horses. Patrick caught sight of Terry and somewhere in therecesses of his mind he was vaguely aware that he was familiar."Who's this?" he asked Bradshaw.
"That's the new lad I was telling you aboutthis afternoon. The squire wants me to teach him how to drive thecarriage, but to my way of thinking, he's not old enough." Bradshawcouldn't hide the fact that he didn't want any competition, andPatrick hid a grin. "He can come along tonight," he said, winkingat Terry, who was delighted with the plans. Patrick knew it wouldannoy Bradshaw, but Patrick also remembered what it felt like to bedenied things because you were too young. Patrick sat in his box atthe theater considering the chorus girls very carefully. When hehad made his selection, he was just about to send a note backstage,when the bookkeeper from the Gibraltar mill lifted the curtain andentered the box.
"Mr. O'Reilly, thank God I've found you.There's trouble at the mill. I went up to the house, but yourfather was out and they told me where I would likely find you."
Patrick stiffened. "What kind oftrouble?"
"Well, your father cut the wage rates todayand there's an ugly crowd gathered outside the mill. I can'tcontrol them."
