A Safe Harbour (38 page)
Authors: Benita Brown
Tags: #Technology & Engineering, #Sagas, #Fisheries & Aquaculture, #Fiction
‘Well, I felt bad about turning you out of the cottage, but that’s not the only reason as I’m sure your mother’s told you. Now that Charlie’s so bad I need someone to help me in the shop and I can’t think of a better person than you. You’re quick in the head and you’re honest, and your ma says you’ll work hard for your money.’
‘Are you going to pay me?’ Kate was surprised.
‘Of course I am, what did you think? You’ll get your room and board and a bit money besides. I wouldn’t expect anyone to work for nowt.’ Alice Willis turned to leave the room. ‘Now I’ve told your ma that she can come round and visit of an evening whenever she can, and you can sit up here in private. Charlie hasn’t been upstairs for months now and I’ve moved everything down so that I can be beside him. He’s real bad, you know.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ Kate’s mother said.
‘It’s the nights I dread.’ Alice responded to Nan’s compassionate look. ‘I have to go to him time after time to lift him up from the pillow so he can bring the phlegm up. And now he says he’s got a terrible pain right here.’ She placed a work-worn hand on the centre of her chest. ‘Dr Fenwick was here just yesterday and he says there’s nothing can be done. All the coughing has strained Charlie’s heart.’
‘I’m real sorry, Alice,’ Nan said. ‘You must be exhausted.’
‘Aye, I’m getting by on cat naps.’
‘Is there anything I can do to help?’
‘No, hinny. There’s nothing anyone can do except care for him and keep him happy. And I’m the best one for that. And you know it doesn’t take much to please him, bless him. He likes to sit up in bed with the newspaper and a pack of Jolly Sailors. He says smoking a cigarette helps to get the poison up but I have me doubts. If you ask me it’s the tabs that are making him worse.’
Kate felt sorry for Mrs Willis. She’d never known a married couple as close and as loving as the Willises, and now all his devoted wife could do for him was to ease his passing in any way she could.
Mrs Willis must have seen the concern on both their faces. She summoned up a smile and tried to banish her sombre mood. ‘But, bless you, I’ll manage fine now,’ she said. ‘With Kate working in the shop and Susan nearby to help look after her da, we should get by until . . . well, you know what I mean. And talking of the shop, was that the bell I just heard?’
‘Shall I go down and see to it?’ Kate asked.
‘No, pet, I’ll go. You stay and get settled in. Your ma will help you. And when you’ve done you can both come down and have a cup of tea with me. In the stockroom, if you don’t mind. I don’t want to disturb Charlie.’
When Alice had gone Nan took the box of matches from the mantelshelf and lit the fire. She watched until the flames were drawing nicely and then told Kate to sit down in the small armchair. ‘I’ll see to your things,’ she said.
On the way here from the Adamson house Nan had told Kate that Alice had sent for her to clear out Belle Vue Cottage ready for Susan and her family to move in. She’d brought Kate’s belongings here and taken Meg’s bits and pieces, including the creels and the baskets, back to her own home. ‘Of course, if there’s anything you want, you just have to ask,’ she’d said.
‘No thank you, Ma, it’s best if you keep everything. After all, I haven’t a home to put them in.’ Kate had smiled sadly.
‘Well, at least you’ve somewhere to stay,’ her mother had said, ‘until . . .’
‘Until Aunt Winifred’s letter arrives?’
‘Yes. And it will come. I’m sure of that.’
But her mother didn’t sound at all sure.
‘There now,’ Nan said when she’d done putting Kate’s things away, ‘all neat and tidy. And here’s your bit money. I found it in this jug on the dresser in the cottage. And as for that, Alice gave me a good price for it – the dresser, I mean, and the bed and the table and chairs. Susan and her man have come home with hardly anything to their name. I’ve put what Alice paid in the jug with the rest.’
‘But shouldn’t my father have the money for the furniture? Aunt Meg was his sister.’
‘He’ll never know.’
‘But what about you, Ma?’
‘I’m . . . making a bit money of me own, now.’ She’d started hesitantly but now the words tumbled out. ‘Kate, pet, I hope you don’t mind but I’ve taken over your round.’
‘Oh, Ma, you haven’t!’
‘Why shouldn’t I have done?’
‘Because it’s hard work, that’s why.’
‘And do you think I’m afraid of hard work?’ Nan sounded offended.
‘No, of course I don’t. But . . . at . . . I mean . . .’
‘What were you going to say? “At my age”?’ Nan smiled and the laughter in her eyes made her look years younger. ‘I’m nowhere near as old as your Aunt Meg was, I’ll have you know. And I’ve got a strong back and a head for figures. And, Kate, the customers seem to like me. Most of them were relieved that someone had taken over.’
Kate felt a twinge of guilt. She had to admit that she hadn’t given a thought to her Aunt Meg’s old customers. What had started as a challenge had become a chore. It galled her that she might not have the stamina and determination of the other fish lasses but she acknowledged that too much had happened to sap her spirit. The loss of Jos, and then her aunt, and her thoughts and fears for the unborn child.
‘And, Kate,’ her mother continued, ‘I’m really enjoying meself.’
‘Really?’
‘No doubt about it. I get out and I meet people and I have a bit chat and gossip. It’s doing me the world of good.’
‘But what about Da? What does he think about it?’
‘He doesn’t object, if that’s what you’re afraid of. I’m bringing money into the house. More beer money for him.’
‘Oh, no.’
‘Divven’t fret. I’m not daft. There’s no way he can find out what I’ve earned in a day and as long as I hand over a reasonable amount he’s happy.’
Despite her mother’s obvious pride and pleasure in what she was doing Kate felt depressed. From the very early days of marriage Nan had been forced to conceal the exact truth from her husband in order to keep the peace. It wouldn’t have been like that between Jos and me, Kate thought sadly. We would always have been truthful with each other. And yet even as she thought it, unease stirred. Jos had been concealing something from her. Something he had been planning and which she had first learned of on the day of his funeral.
Would he have told me what he and the other lads were going to do? she wondered. Once we were married would he have taken me into his confidence or would he have proved to be like most of the men in the village in thinking that women are somehow a lesser race of beings? Surely not my Jos, she thought. But the doubt remained.
And what of Richard Adamson? she wondered. What kind of husband would he be? Would he be open and honest or would he, too, keep secrets from me like Jos did? I don’t think so. I believe Richard would regard his wife as an equal. Kate stirred uneasily when she realized where her thoughts had taken her. She berated herself for being so foolish. It was pointless to speculate about a marriage that could never be . . .
‘Cheer up, lass.’ Her mother’s voice ended her reverie. ‘You really mustn’t worry about me. Promise you won’t.’
Kate smiled. She got up and gave her mother a hug. ‘I promise.’
‘Good. Now let’s go down for that cup of tea Alice promised us.’
Alice had brought a tray into the stockroom, placing it on an upturned tea chest. She explained that if they sat here instead of the kitchen she could listen out for anyone coming into the shop. So they sat on wooden boxes amongst the clutter and the smell of paraffin oil. As well as tea she had brought a pile of sandwiches made with thickly cut bread and home-boiled ham and pease pudding. There was also a plate of rich fruit cake. It was like a picnic, Kate thought, a children’s feast in a secret den.
‘Charlie’s asleep,’ Alice said. ‘So I can relax for a moment or two.’
But even in his sleep he had no ease. Every now and then they could hear him coughing. Alice would sit still and listen to see if the coughing got worse. If it died down straight away she would relax a little, but if not she would go and hover in the doorway until she was sure her husband was all right.
‘This is real good of you, Alice,’ Kate’s mother said. ‘And your best china and all.’
‘No, it’s a treat for me to have a bit conversation. Our Susan is always too busy with her bairns to be able to sit still awhile and talk to her mother. But she’s very good,’ Alice added quickly, as though they had thought she was criticizing her daughter. ‘As soon as she gets the bairns settled at night and her man’s safely home from work, she comes in to help me with her da.’
Nan smiled and nodded and Kate didn’t know what to say. She remembered Susan as one of the older girls at school. Like Jane Harrison, Susan Willis was always better dressed than the other girls. But, unlike Jane, she had got on with the likes of Joan Donkin and her pals. Jane’s deportment and elocution lessons had set her apart and made her the victim of name-calling until Kate had befriended her, but Susan had been happy to be one of the crowd. She had never wanted to better herself as Jane did. And why should she? But Kate had always suspected that Susan owed her popularity in part to the bags of sweets and cakes she brought to school and shared with the favoured few.
‘Do you want another cup of tea?’ Mrs Willis asked.
Nan said she would have one but Kate thanked her and told her she’d had sufficient.
‘Well then, why don’t we have a bit fun? Why don’t I read your tea leaves?’
Kate smiled. Alice Willis’s reputation as a teacup fortune teller had spread beyond the village and sometimes even well-to-do women from Shields and Newcastle would call at the shop to have their fortunes told. They were ready to believe anything Alice told them. They wanted to believe. Nan, like some of the other village women, had sometimes watched the shop while Alice sat with her visitor behind the counter to read the cup. Her mother had told Kate with a smile and a laugh what went on. Kate had no idea how Alice did it but she didn’t believe there was anything mystic about it. Alice made no charge for her readings but the sitter always spent generously in the shop. ‘Alice Willis is not so daft,’ Kate’s mother had said.
‘Shall I do it?’ Alice asked her now. ‘Shall I read your fortune?’
‘Go on, our Kate,’ her mother said. ‘Let’s have a bit laugh.’
Kate looked at the two older women’s eager faces and realized she would be doing them a favour. It would be a distraction. A bit of fun in her mother’s eyes, but she was not sure what it meant to Alice Willis. Perhaps she just wanted to forget about her own sad situation for a while.
‘Have you finished drinking, now?’ Alice asked.
Kate nodded.
‘Nan, pet, go and put the closed sign in the door. Anyone’s entitled to a bit break. And I’ll try to be quick.’ Kate’s mother did as she was bid and when she returned Alice looked at Kate and said, ‘Give me your cup.’
Alice took the cup and carefully dribbled the dregs of tea into a little bowl. Kate realized that the shopkeeper must have intended to do this all along. When she’d done she handed the cup back to Kate.
‘Put the cup upside down on the saucer,’ she said, ‘and twist it round three times.’
Kate looked at Alice keenly. Her voice had changed and she had already adopted the air of a mystic – or a gypsy at the fairground. Was she acting? Or did she really believe in her own powers?
‘Hold the cup firmly, mind,’ Alice admonished as if sensing that Kate was half-hearted about the whole enterprise.
When she had done as she’d been told she looked at Alice for instructions but the older woman simply nodded and held out her hand. Kate lifted the cup carefully and saw that the twisting had spread the tea leaves round. They looked like nothing more than the used tea leaves they were. But now she knew she was going to be asked to believe that the pattern they made actually meant something.
Alice held the cup in both hands, her arthritic fingers spread around the delicate pattern of pale blue forget-me-nots. She gazed down at the leaves, her face impassive. She turned the cup one way and then another, playing out the drama, Kate thought. She realized her mother was holding her breath. For a while nothing could be heard except an occasional cough from the back room and for once even that didn’t disturb Alice.
The silence lasted a little too long. Kate began to feel uneasy. Tension coiled inside her.
Without looking up Alice said, ‘I see happiness.’
The knot eased a little.
‘And I see sadness.’ Despite her words she looked up and smiled. ‘But bairns always bring a mixture of sorrow and joy, don’t they?’
Kate heard her mother gasp. They glanced at each other then looked at Alice aghast. The shopkeeper-fortune teller seemed only then to realize what she’d said and she frowned. Suddenly she lost her air of mystery and looked like Alice again.
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