Chapter 4 – Emmett – An Interesting Offer

"If I'd known you were being a laundry maid I'd have brought you all my smalls!"

Still holding the wooden fork I was using to fish clothes out of the boiling copper I swung around to find my friend Albie leaning against the doorframe and eyeing me with amusement. I swore as something slid off the fork and landed with a wet splat on the dirt floor. "Fuck off."

"You said a bad word!" Elizabeth, perched on a bench sorting socks frowned at me reprovingly.

"No I didn't." I picked up the previously clean pinafore from the dirt and threw it back into the copper, blowing frantically on my scalded fingertips. "Albie, if you've come here to give me grief you can just turn around and march right back home."

"Just kidding pal. I'll behave."

"Good. " I began rolling clothes through the mangle, squeezing the water out.

"I've put all the socks in pairs," Elizabeth announced. "And there are three with holes."

"Okay, take them into Ma for darning," I told her, pausing long enough to lift her down from the bench so she could run inside the house.

"How is your Ma?" Albie asked.

"Getting better. Doc says she can get up next week, although she isn't allowed to do any real work or anything for a few more weeks after that. I can't wait…I'm sick of Hannah's cooking." I laughed, and Albie grinned back.

"So the operation worked and everything?"

"Yeah. Doc was really happy with how it went and how she's recovering. It's just going to take time for her to get back on top of things." I dropped the last of the wrung out clothes into the basket and hefted it up with a sigh. "In the meantime I'm the family laundry boy."

Albie followed me out to the yard, where I began pegging the clothes onto the line strung between some trees. "You could give me a hand!"

"I could," he agreed, "Doesn't mean I'm going to. And I thought your Hannah was a good cook? The sandwiches she gave me last week were great."

I looked at him suspiciously. Albie had recently begun taking just that little bit too much interest in my sister Hannah. "She makes good bread," I conceded. "And honestly, she's pretty good with most things. I just want Ma's pies and cakes back."

Albie laughed. "Do you ever think of anything but your stomach?"

I snorted. "Sometimes I think about girls to break it up a bit." I hung up a couple of Hannah's aprons. "So what's happening with you?"

"Nothing." Albie kicked disconsolately at the ground. "Still no work, and things are getting really tight at home. I've been thinking of taking off and seeing if there's work anywhere else. I wouldn't mind some travelling."

"The newspaper says it's the same everywhere," I remarked.

"Yeah, but at least if I took off I wouldn't be Ma's responsibility anymore," Albie muttered.

I made a sympathetic noise. I knew about the hopelessness of unemployment. I hadn't had any steady work in a year, although Mr Allison hired me on whenever he needed an extra hand. But my family had Pa in regular work, and enough land to grow vegetables and keep chickens and a couple of cows. Albie's mother cleaned houses for a few coins each week, and keeping her two younger boys as well as an adult son was hard work.

"We can go fishing once I'm done with the laundry," I offered. "We might catch something for dinner."

Albie shook his head. "No thanks Emmett. I'm actually on my way over to the Silas place. I heard that old Colum might be needing someone to help him for a bit and I thought I'd head over that way and see. Maybe he'll take me on."

"Good luck," I said sincerely.

After Albie ambled away down the road I went on with the washing, sweating and swearing at the heat and the steam from the copper. Maybe I could get a job in a laundry, I thought sourly. I did what I could to help out without complaining, but being stuck with the laundry and scrubbing the floors and making pigtails weren't exactly the manliest of tasks. At least it was only Albie who'd come by and found me up to my elbows in soapsuds; he was a good guy and wouldn't give me too much grief.

When the wash was finally all hung out and fluttering in the breeze, I stripped off my soaked shirt and hung it too, and then wandered over to the pasture fence. I leaned on it and stared across the field disconsolately. I missed Star. I still saw her occasionally around the district and she was doing well with Mr Miller, but I'd started to think it was never going to hurt any less that she wasn't mine anymore.

I gnawed at a fingernail. I hoped Albie had got some work over at the Silas farm and wouldn't decide to take off to search for a job elsewhere. My older brother Harry had done that over a year ago, and we hadn't heard from him since. I thought about my other brothers, Patrick in the seminary and John married and working a farm down in Georgia, and thought glumly that none of them had hung around home being a burden as long as I had. Even my big sister Kitty had gone and got married three years ago and lived in town now and never asked Ma and Pa for anything.

"Emmett, the pie is ready." Elizabeth tugged on my pants, distracting me from my thoughts. "Hannah wants you to come in."

"Okay then Trouble," I said, swinging her upside down and heading towards the house.

"I'm not trouble, YOU are!" Elizabeth's words were hardly understandable through her laughter.

I tickled her dirty bare feet and carried her upside down to the house, not turning her until I could dump her in her chair. She pushed her curly dark hair, the same as mine, back out of her face and beamed at me. I grinned back and messed her hair up a little more.

Hannah served the lunch, which disappeared within minutes. Everyone was starving and Hannah's pie was good, even if it had a lot more potato than meat to fill it out.

"Good pie," I complimented her, noticing how tired she looked. Ma's period of convalescence had been difficult for everyone, but Hannah had borne the brunt of all the extra work. "You should have a rest this afternoon," I said to her. "We don't want you getting sick too."

"But there's so much to do," Hannah protested. "There's all the ironing now that you've done the wash and…"

"Forget it," I said sternly. "I'll help you later, but you need a break kiddo."

Hannah's face relaxed as she laughed. "You don't know how to iron!"

"I can learn! Or else I can chop the veggies or knead the bread or something while you do it tomorrow." I looked at her keenly. "But I'm serious Hannie- go sit in the sun for a little while and relax."

"Okay, I will." Hannah looked pleased. "I guess the ironing will still be there tomorrow…I'll just do the dishes now. Will and Stephen, you can dry. Maggie, you can take in Mama's lunch." Hannah whisked about the kitchen, organising everyone.

I followed Maggie into Ma and Pa's room. My shirts were all out on the line, so I was going to borrow one of Pa's to wear for the afternoon.

"Hello Em love," Ma said, smiling at me from the bed.

I said hello and took a shirt from the cupboard. It barely buttoned up- I was twenty years old and still sometimes surprised to realise that I was bigger than my Pa.

Ma was eating slowly, and Maggie was sitting on the foot of the bed with her patchwork. While Hannah had been looking after the house, Maggie had been playing nurse to Ma.

Elizabeth trailed in, a book clutched in both hands. "Mama, will you read to me?" she said plaintively.

"I'm just eating my lunch sweetie…maybe Em will read to you?"

Elizabeth turned to me and held out the book. It wasn't one I knew, and I said doubtfully, "You don't want me to read your fairy tale book?" I'd memorised all the hard words in that one.

"No. I want this book that I borrowed from the library by my very own self," Elizabeth informed me proudly.

Sighing I gave in to the inevitable and Elizabeth and I joined Ma and Maggie on the bed and I began to read. Ma drowsily corrected any words I stumbled over, and I read until she was asleep and my voice was hoarse.

"Okay, that's enough," I whispered. "Let's get out of here and let Ma get some rest." The two girls tiptoed out, and I pulled the curtain across the window and followed them out.

Albie reappeared after lunch, looking gloomy. "Thirty men already there ahead of me," he told me. "Not a chance in hell."

"I'm sorry," I said sincerely.

"I just wonder where it's going to end," Albie said quietly. "What do you do in the end when there's no work? I mean, I've had to give up smoking because I can't spend money on that when Ma's going to the church for food baskets. At least you've got a bit of land to work on…I'm just so goddamn bored!"

I laughed a little, but I was troubled. Albie had always been such an optimist, it was unnerving to see him so discouraged. "Well, you can always come on over and give me a hand with the laundry," I joked.

He laughed at that. "I'm not that bored!"

"Things will pick up," I said with conviction. "They have to…it can't stay like this forever. Then we'll get jobs and be wishing for some more free time! Come on, I don't have anything to do this afternoon, let's play some football."

I was taking the washing down from the line when Pa got home from the Allison's that evening, folding it clumsily in an attempt to not create any extra ironing for Hannah. Some of the clothes were so thin and threadbare that they couldn't hold a wrinkle at all.

"You're a good lad to help the girls and your mother," Pa said to me. "We'd miss you a lot if you weren't here."

His voice sounded odd, and I looked at him closely. "Well, I'm not going anywhere."

"Mmm, maybe," Pa said noncommittally.

"What's going on?" I asked, suspicious.

"Nothing to worry about now. We'll go in and have dinner, and maybe we'll talk about it with your Ma afterwards."

I was curious, but I never got anywhere badgering Pa about anything, and an afternoon of football had made me pretty hungry. So I went and sat down at the crowded table and ate Hannah's biscuits and gravy and vegetables, and then the rice pudding that Maggie had made for dessert.

I left the girls doing the dishes and the younger boys feeding and watering the animals and took the shotgun out. Twilight was usually a good hunting time, but luck wasn't on my side and I took some lousy shots, coming home empty handed in the dark.

The house was quiet. Will and Stephen were asleep on pallets on the floor of our bedroom. Maggie and Hannah were in their nightgowns, playing checkers at the kitchen table. I could hear the low murmur of conversation from Ma and Pa's room, and then I heard my Pa calling me in.

"How'd the hunting go?"

I shook my head. "I got nothing." I was careful to keep my voice low. Elizabeth was asleep in the room, crammed into the crib in the corner. At five she was far too big for it, and had to sleep scrunched in a little ball, but she preferred it to moving into the big bed in the other room with Hannah and Maggie.

Ma smiled at me. "Come sit down. We want to talk to you."

"I haven't done anything, honest," I said immediately. "Really…I haven't been out for ages and…"

"You're not in trouble, lad," Pa said gruffly.

"Oh. Well then." I sat on the edge of the bed and looked up expectantly.

"I had a letter," Pa started. "From my brother Lachlan. You know which one he is?"

"He's the one who went north?" I said uncertainly. "Something about the war?"

Pa nodded. "Right. During his time in the war, your uncle Lachlan became close to his CO. He was with him when he died and wrote to his mother. When the war ended she offered to find him a job, and so Lachlan went north to work for her other son. Some place in New York called Rochester."

I shrugged, a little puzzled. What did this have to do with me?

Ma reached up and ran a hand through my hair, pulling the curls straight and then letting them bounce back, the only person I would ever allow to do such a thing. "Lachlan wrote to us that the son of the family is soon going to be married, and is setting up his own household. It won't be as large as the family home that Lachlan works in, but he'll still need staff. One thing he needs is a man to be a general handyman, chauffer and gardener. Lachlan was asked if he knew anyone, and he thought that one of you boys might suit."

I gaped at her, completely shocked. "Like…a real job? Me?"

"Of course you!" Ma said with a laugh. "I think Will and Stephen might be just a wee bit young, don't you?"

"But I don't…" I stopped, not sure what I was trying to say.

"You've wanted work for a long time," Ma said gently. "Think how good it will be to be earning your own money Em."

"It's so far away." I didn't even know how far away it was, all I knew was the New York seemed like the most glamorous place on earth and a long way from our shabby little farm in Tennessee.

Ma and Pa didn't disagree with me, and I hunched my shoulders, feeling ashamed of being so reluctant to be away from my family. "I would miss everyone," I said in a low voice. "And who'll do all my jobs?"

"We'll manage," Ma said cheerfully. "You've taught the little boys about the snares, and my operation was a success- once I've recovered I'm not going to be sick anymore so I can take back the laundry and do the cooking like I've always done."

"I'll do more hunting," Pa promised. "And Mr Allison said we can put the heifers in with his bull so we'll have calves and milk come spring."

"And I'll send you money!" I said eagerly. "If I'm working then I can help out."

"That would be wonderful," Ma said, pulling my head down she could kiss my forehead. "But you need to take care of yourself too."

"But would they really want me?" I said, coming back to earth. "I haven't done anything like that…you think posh people really want me working for them?"

"You're as good as anyone else," Ma said sharply. "You just remember your manners and do what you know is right and they'll have no cause for complaint."

"You'll do fine," Pa said brusquely. "You're handy enough and you've done well with the vegetable gardens here. Lachlan writes that he can help you out with the gardening too, telling you what to plant and when. You're a hard worker Emmett, and you learn quick. This could be a real good chance for you. We've got the car out there that I can get going again so you can drive yourself up there."

"But Pa!" I said in desperation. "I don't know how to drive!"

"Well," Pa scratched his head. "You've got from here to Rochester to learn."

A/N – And that's how we get Emmett in Rosalie's orbit! When I thought about the elements keeping them apart, geography was kind of the biggest one. Moving Emmett to Rochester for work seemed the easiest (and most likely) scenario, but for him to just up and move states away on a whim wasn't realistic. He needed to have a real reason to move away, and a real reason to choose Rochester of all places, so that's why I introduced the uncle, to give him those reasons.