Chapter 3 Charlotte’s story

After finishing my work, there was still time to enjoy the late afternoon sun, I changed into leggings again and took myself off on a walk up to Middlehope Moor to where Charlotte had been, and looked back over the village towards Chapel Fell, It was a glorious view and I could have sat and breathed it all in for the rest of the day, but the sun was now dropping over Cross Fell distant in the West and I needed to get back before dusk set in.

Back at home I felt an urge to get into my studio and do some painting. Once again my artistic muse took over and images seemed to flow from my brain to my hand and onto the canvas. I must have been exhausted by all the events of the day and the trek up on the moor and dozed off. I woke later to find that it was pitch black outside, as you only find in the depths of the country, with a magnificent skyscape of thousands, if not millions, of stars on a jet black background.

I didn’t remember falling asleep or know how long for, but on waking up I felt strangely refreshed. I looked over at the easel and instead of seeing a landscape as I previously painted for my earlier work, it was just a head and shoulders image of a worried-looking young man turning to glance back over his shoulder seeing a young woman disappearing into the distance. After a cup of coffee to help me get going again I pictured the image of the view back to Chapel Fell that I had seen earlier. and added it as a backdrop to the young man.

A few hours later after a shower to freshen up and putting on a clean set of clothes, having given Julie a chance to clear breakfasts for her guests, I called her to ask her to pop over as there was something she needed to see.

“ Morning Julie , it’s me, are you free to talk or are you busy?”

“ I’m sorry, who is that, who is me?”

“ Stop playing games with me, it’s Lexie.”

“ Oh, sorry pet, I didn’t recognise your voice, I thought you were a woman, but then you are at the moment, sort of, what am I saying, I am babbling.”

“ Never mind about that can you get yourself over here?”

“ Ten minutes, ok?”

“Hi Lexie, you’re looking good this morning, I hope that’s not what you called me over to see.”

“ Of course not, I’m not that vain, but thanks for the compliment, I have been up most of the night and must look a sight.”

“ Not at all, seriously you look fresh as a daisy.”

“Have a look at the painting on the easel and tell me what you see.”

“That’s another wonderful view, is that Chapel Fell in the distance, is that Charlotte running away, and who is the young man?”

“I don’t know who it is but I was working away and just fell asleep, when these paintings come to me they just drain me. It is definitely Chapel Fell because I painted that from my conscious memory after being up on the moor yesterday. I think that is Charlotte in the distance, we need to compare her dress with the one I painted the other day. I was hoping that just as Charlotte’s image is reasonably true, that the young man may be who she was up on the moor to see, and that you might have seen someone that he resembles.”

”He vaguely rings a bell, but I can’t put my finger on it, I’ll show it to Jeanette, Jane, and Josie to see if they have any ideas. By the way, Jeanette showed your last painting to Gran and she burst into tears, saying it was a beautiful picture of her mother-in-law, you definitely captured Charlotte, let’s hope that her fella is just as accurate.”

“The other night Jan and Mark asked me if they could buy the painting of the two of them running to meet on the moor, Jane, Jeanette, and Josie want a copy, has anyone else asked about it?”

“ I have had a few people asking where they could get a copy or print, why do you ask?”

“At Mark’s suggestion I was thinking of getting a small print run done, I don’t want to spend an awful lot of money, but it might be worth giving it a try, particularly if we can turn it into a collection tracing the story of what went on between them. What do you think?”

“With the economy as it is at the moment, diversification is the in buzzword, maybe using the spare wall space in the pub as a gallery for your work could work for both of us. But when you get this story out of your system you will need to find another theme, maybe the old lead mines up the dale at Killhope and things like that, industrial heritage.”

A few days later it was time for the quiz tournament and Jane came over to make sure I was presented at my best. When she arrived I was all ready for her, I had styled and brushed out my hair, applied a very subtle make up, and for the first time, put on a dress rather than a skirt and top. As I had been told, I needed to make an extra effort to stress my femininity to make up for any manly traits that were still present.

“ I don’t know why I bothered to come to check on you, you have done a good job yourself, in fact you’re probably better presented than the other three of us. You suit that red dress, it looks a lot better on you than it ever did on me. You have taken to living as a woman like a duck to water, you are a natural, are you sure that you have not done this before?”

“ Can I be honest with you? No, I have never even considered dressing or living as a woman. However since coming here and getting involved with Charlotte’s story, I am sure that I am being influenced by some sort of spirit guide who is helping me adjust to living as a woman to give me a greater affinity with her so that I can understand what she went through so her story can be told. I’m not a great believer in spiritualism or ghosts or anything like that, I just feel that I’m being nudged along by something outside my control.”

“You might be right, but that is getting a bit deep and weird, I’m not sure that I believe in all that stuff either, just tag along for the ride at the moment and see where life leads you. Grab your bag and coat and we can pick up Julie and Josie and head off to the venue at Stanhope and see what we can do.

When we arrived at the hotel in Stanhope hosting the quiz, I was surprised to see the list of teams that had entered. We were expecting just a handful from local pubs i Weardale, but there were over 40 entries from as far afield as Bishop Auckland, Consett and Durham, some had travelled over 20 miles on country roads to get there and were obviously serious quizzers. We weren’t sure that we wanted to continue and show ourselves up.

“Come on girls,” said Julie to Jane, Josie and me, “we are as good as any of them, let’s show them that we’re not dumb country hicks.” In a similar manner to the quizzes Kelvin organised in the Maltby Arms, there were ten rounds covering different topics, geography, history, sport, films&TV, Art, music, science, politics, fashion and mythology. Between us we had most subjects covered but we were weak on sport, I was the only one who admitted any knowledge at all.

As it turned out, even the sport section was not too bad for us, luckily most of the questions were athletics, skating and tennis which the other girls had some knowledge of, whilst I covered cricket, football and rugby.

At the end of the evening there was a buzz of excitement around the hall as it was realised that two or three sets of team scoresheets were being re-examined, obviously it was going to be a close run thing. We knew that we had done well, but also knew that we had some missing answers.

“ Ladies and gentlemen the results have been confirmed. After the prize winners are announced you are all welcome to pick up your answer sheets and check against the official answers if you so wish, but the winners we are about to announce are the final placings, there will be no appeals allowed.”

“In third place are the Dun Cow Dons who have joined us all the way from Durham, runners-up are the Moormen from Consett, but the winners by a clear result are…………..The Robson Lasses from The Maltby Arms just up the road in St John’s Chapel.” The MC was interrupted by shrieks of delight from the other girls. “Ladies Pease step up to receive your prize.”

We stood up and gave a group hug before making our way to the stage. it was not a major prize, only £250 and a celebratory magnum of champagne between us, and a plaque to go on the pub wall but we could hardly contain our excitement, the country bumpkins from Upper Weardale had beaten teams from Durham University and several major companies, as well as other local pub teams.

We were well on our way with emptying the champagne bottle when we were approached by a young casually dressed extremely striking young man.

“Excuse me Ladies, can you spare me a few minutes, if you don’t mind me interrupting your party. I’m Jim Newell and I represent Channel 5 TV, but I am just here tonight as a member of one of your rival teams. You may not be aware but Eggheads. the TV team quiz, is moving from the BBC to Channel 5 later in the year. We are currently taking applications for teams to challenge the Eggheads, and I wondered if you would be interested. Normally we wait for applications to come to us, but I would like to make a special case for you and guarantee you one of the early slots. you have proved tonight that you have what it takes to challenge the Eggheads and if you don’t mind me saying, you are a young and attractive family group, the kind of team we are looking for. We need a team of five, have you got anyone else?”

The other girls looked so excited that when they gave me a questioning look I didn’t have the heart to say no.

“ We’ve beaten this lot, the Eggheads don’t worry us, sign us up Pet, and our Jeanette will make up the team.” Julie trilled back at him showing the effects of the champagne. Before we embarrassed ourselves with him, I gave him my contact details and asked him to get in touch when they needed us and he left us to finish our celebrations.

The drive back up the dale was a big giggle, Jane as the driver was perfectly sober, but the rest of us were over-excited from too much fizz and the adrenaline rush from winning the tournament, Jane however got us all back home safely. Back in the house I just threw off my clothes and climbed into bed, and fell straight to sleep.

The next morning I woke up feeling quite fresh and happy until I saw the mess on the pillow and sheet from my makeup which I hadn’t bothered to clean off and the state of my my smeared face and totally messed up hair. I quickly threw the bedding into the washing machine and went for a long shower to clean myself up and give my hair a good wash to get rid of the tangles. I just put on the bathrobe while I had a light toast and coffee breakfast before I felt fit to get dressed and get on with my work. Today, for a change I had no urges to do another painting of Great Aunt Charlotte, the guiding spirits within me were letting me have a day of rest.

“Hi Julie, it’s Lexie, how are you feeling today, you were really knocking it back last night?”

“I’m fine, they do say that you shouldn’t get a hangover from champagne but I’ve never had the opportunity to test it before.”

“I’ve been thinking about what you said to me about painting scenes of our industrial heritage, do you fancy going up the dale to the Killhope Museum to see what is there?”

“Why not ,I haven’t been back since a school trip many years ago, the pub will be quiet today, Kelvin can hold the fort for a few hours.”

Having read on the website that Killhope was still a rugged industrial site and included a trip down one of the old mine shafts, I dressed in jeans, a loose crop top, and sensible flat shoes, put on a light moisturising foundation, mascara and lipstick and was sitting waiting for Julie when she arrived an hour later. (https://killhope.org.uk/about-us/history/)

I was surprised when we arrived at Killhope, it was a lot more extensive and interesting than I had anticipated. We walked through the restored buildings and took the trip down the mine shaft where the lead had been gouged out of the ground and having taken lots of photos to use as a guide for my paintings, we were wandering through the main exhibition area which had displays telling the history of Killhope and the lead-mining industry in the area, when Julie gave a gasping, “Lexie, over here now !’”

She was staring at an old sepia photograph labelled Stanley Graham, one of the owners of the mine at the end of the 19th century.

“ That’s Charlotte’s love interest if I am not mistaken, he is so like the portrait you did. If it is not him, at least it must be a family member. I think that we are beginning to piece it all together. It’s a typical Victorian story of a wealthy land owner, or in this case a mine owner, having an affair with a local peasant girl and then spurning her to follow his family’s wishes to marry for money and influence, just like in all those Catherine Cookson books I have read.”

“You are getting ahead of yourself, we need to do a bit more research on this, let’s take a few more photos of the family history in here and then go back home to do a few checks on the ancestry website.”

We soon dissevered that it could not have been Stanley Graham, he was the wrong age to match with the man in Charlotte’s paintings, but he had several sons who would fit the bill. Two of them had already married and had families, but the third, James, was the right age and we found that he had got married three months later to the daughter of a landowning family over the moor at Allenheads. We also found that his descendants still lived in the area, and were still important local dignitaries.

We dug a bit more into Charlotte’s life and found that about the same time as she gave birth to Arthur, Julie’s Grandfather, the family seemed to come into money and were able to buy Manor Lodge which they had previously occupied as tenants. Obviously it was a pay-off to Charlotte and her parents to keep the Graham family reputation intact. As Arthur was growing up Charlotte met a new love, George, but no more children followed. Unfortunately WW1 and WW2 took its toll of the extended family and “The Robson Girls’, including me, were the last of the family line, waiting for the next generation, but it would be left to me and Jason to carry on the Robson name, unless cousin Josie kept her maiden name if she married and had children.

“ I think we can call that a successful day Julie, let’s get together with the others, show them the new portrait and the photos I took and get them up to date with the family history.”

“ I’ll ring around and get them to meet us down at the pub, go and get yourself changed and do your makeup, I can sort myself out later back at home.”

“I thought that would be best if I went reasonably casual, so just changed into my denim skirt and a cotton blouse with Broderie Anglaise trimming, smart but not too dressy.” I was just sorting all these things out automatically now, it was no longer deciding on suitable women’s clothes, but selecting from my clothes, the guiding spirit was still in control of my thoughts leaving me totally comfortable with the life I was now living.

I collected the portrait and my camera, grabbed my bag, and Julie drove us down to the pub, where we found the girls all waiting for us.

“You are still with us then Lexie, I thought you were just being a woman for the quiz tournament?”asked a rather surprised Jeanette.

“ To be honest, I never really thought about what to wear it just seemed to be the natural thing to do, my guiding spirit still seems to be keeping me under control. Besides, you have all seen me dressed before so why worry about it. You’ve all known me as Lexie for a few weeks now, a lot longer that you knew Leckie, I’m quite comfortable like this, so let’s just forget it and talk about why we asked you to come here.”

“ Sorry Lexie, I didn’t mean to offend you, in fact it was a compliment, you just seem to fit in with us, as you are.”

“ I had another one of my dreams about Charlotte and did a painting from my minds-eye just like the other two, here, have a look.”

“ Oh, he is a bit of alright” said Josie, “it’s a pity he must be over a hundred yours old now.”

“ He might be a looker Josie but we have pieced together what we think is the real story and you may not like him so much when we are finished.”

“ Lexie and I were up at Killhope today and found this photo of Stanley Graham the mine owner who was very similar to the man in her painting. We then did a bit of research and found that one of his sons, James, was about the same age as Charlotte. We think that they were lovers and that he was forced to break it off to have an arranged marriage with the daughter of another wealthy family, leaving Charlotte with a child, your Grandfather Arthur. We reckon that his family bought off the Robsons by giving them the money to buy Manor Lodge, which Lexie now owns. We are planning on going over to Allenheads, where James Graham lived and seeing what we can find out about his descendants. Does that all sound plausible to you?”

“I’m not to sure, I think that you should let sleeping dogs lie. I know that Lexie feels she is being driven from the spirit world to get to the bottom of all this, but I don’t believe in all that stuff.”Jeanette threw a bucket of cold water on our enthusiasm.

“I’m with Jeanette.” added Jane.

“I’m in with you and Lexie.” Josie quickly jumped in, “it all sounds so romantic and just like all the Victorian and Edwardian tales you see on TV.”

“Still searching for your ideal man then Josie?” Jane quipped with a giggle.

“It’s alright for you three all settled down and married, but Im still at home with Mam and Dad.”

“Are you free on Monday Josie, Lexie and I will be going over to Allenheads to see what we can find out about the Graham Family, you’re welcome to come with us.”

Once again, as I was leaving Kelvin walked out with me. “I hope you know what you are doing, the girls are taking over your life, you are dressing like them, walking and talking like them, and looking just like one of their sisters.”

“Don’t worry Kelvin, this is just until we get a few things sorted out with the family history and have our appearance on the Eggheads. I am enjoying belonging to a family again, and if it is easier to join in with the girls as one of them, I can put up with it for a while.”

“ In that case, I’ll say the same to you as I say to them ‘Be careful walking home in the dark late at night, an attractive woman on her own is putting herself in danger .”

To be continued.