Lovers Meeting (33 page)

Kitty Duggan chuckled. ‘Dougie Bickerstaffe will be a happy lad.’

Tom agreed, grinning. ‘Aye. And the rest of the lads. I just hope they don’t booze it away.’

Josie said, ‘I don’t think Dougie will.’

He had come to her a few days before and said gloomily, ‘I told Iris about the money I’ll be gettin’ but she still won’t have me.’

Josie had replied, ‘I’ll have a word with her and see if I can help.’

Dougie had brightened. ‘That’s good o’ you, Mrs Miller.’

And Josie had warned, ‘I only
might
be able to help. I can’t change her feelings for you.’ But Dougie had gone away more hopeful.

Now Tom continued more seriously, ‘But what I’ve said about opening the yard and building a successor to the
Macbeth
, that’s what I propose, but it occurs to me that either or both of you ladies might prefer to take your share and leave the partnership.’

Now they saw the reason for his uncertainty. ‘For my part,’ said Josie, ‘I prefer to open the yard and build the ship.’

Kitty agreed. ‘Hear! Hear! There’s ower many men standing idle. You can see them at their doors in this square.’ That was a fact and Josie nodded. Kitty summed up, ‘So we can give them some work and make the yard a going concern for Charlotte.’

Tom laughed, relieved, the uncertainty gone. ‘Then I declare the meeting closed.’

Kitty rose and made for the door but Josie paused to say, ‘It seems to have been some time since a photograph was taken of Charlotte.’ She explained about the albums she had found. ‘If you have no objection, I propose to take her to a photographer.’

‘Not at all,’ Tom agreed. Josie turned to the door then, but he called, ‘Mrs Miller, I have some letters to write but then I need to go down to the yard and get some idea of what needs to be done. I believe you’ve been there several times. Would you like to go with me?’

Josie would, but she said, ‘No, thank you, Captain Collingwood. I’m afraid I have a great deal to do today. If you will excuse me?’

‘Of course.’ Tom watched her leave, his smile fading.

Out in the hall, Kitty challenged, ‘What have you got to do today?’

‘I have to go and see how Iris is getting on and then take Charlotte to the photographer.’ This was true, though both errands could have waited, but Josie had decided she had made enough trouble for herself and would not become more deeply involved with Tom Collingwood. She bustled about, brushing Charlotte’s hair and dressing her in her best, then pulling on her own coat, putting on her wide-brimmed hat. As she passed through the hall with Charlotte, she turned aside into the house next door and put her head in at the door of the men’s common and dining room. Dougie Bickerstaffe sat by the fire in a new blue suit, a high stiff collar and a silk tie – ready, as Josie had asked him to be. Now she called, ‘Give me ten minutes’ start.’

Dougie jumped to his feet. ‘Oh! Aye, righto, ma’am!’

Josie walked round to the shop in Dame Dorothy Street, holding Charlotte by the hand and answering her unending stream of questions. The shop had the name above it: Langley and Co. There was a window either side of the door and in one was fruit and vegetables, in the other bacon, butter, cheese and eggs. Two or three women were in there, long skirts sweeping the sawdust on the floor and baskets over their arms, gossiping as they waited to be served by Iris Taylor.

Iris called cheerfully, ‘Hello, Mrs Miller. I’ll be with you in a minute.’

And, quick to serve, she was as good as her word. As the shop emptied, she turned to Josie. ‘We’ve got a minute or two, now.’

Josie released Charlotte’s hand. ‘Why don’t you pile up the potatoes for Iris like she showed you once before?’ Charlotte went willingly. It was a familiar game: stacking the potatoes into pyramids.

Josie turned to Iris: ‘You’re doing well.’ She had been looking at the books for the shop only the night before. ‘Captain Collingwood has contracted for a ship to take the place of the
Macbeth
for the next few months and she’ll be bringing your stuff down as before. There’ll be a delay of a day or two before the next delivery but you’ll just have to buy locally to bridge that gap. It will mean less profit but that can’t be helped. Is that all right?’

‘That’s fine.’ Iris nodded with the confidence of competence.

Josie asked, ‘What about Dougie?’

‘What about him?’ But Iris was blushing.

‘Has he been around to see you since we got back?’

‘He has. He says he’ll be coming into some money from bringing that ship in. He wants me to marry him.’

‘And you can’t make up your mind?’

Iris laughed ruefully. ‘I made up my mind long ago. I’d marry him tomorrow but like I said before, a sailorman, he’d be here today and gone tomorrow for weeks or months. That hasn’t changed. Money and sailors are soon parted. When he gets this cash it’ll run through his fingers and he’ll be as broke as ever.’

Josie smiled and suggested, ‘You’d better look for some young chap that’s careful with his money, then.’

‘No!’ Iris was definite about this, angry at the suggestion. ‘There’s never been anybody like Dougie, and there won’t be anybody else.’

Josie shook her head. ‘You’re in a fix, then.’

Iris smiled lopsidedly. ‘I might marry him anyway. Not for the money, ’cause I won’t see it. Just because I won’t be able to say no to him no longer.’

‘You could have a contract.’

Iris blinked, taken aback. ‘A contract? What d’you mean?’

‘An agreement. You’d be equal partners in a business and Dougie would put in his money as his share. You’d agree to take so much each out of the business. That way he wouldn’t be able to throw the money away and when he was ready to give up the sea he could work in the business.’

Charlotte said, ‘Can we go and see the ducks?’

Josie answered, ‘Later. We want some things from the shops first.’

Iris said, ‘You mean, go to a solicitor?’

‘No.’ Josie shook her head. ‘Just write it out on a sheet of paper and you both sign it.’

Iris said doubtfully, ‘Would that be legal?’

‘Dougie would think so.’ They smiled at each other, conspirators.

Then Iris asked, ‘But what business? And you said equal partners. I couldn’t put up nothing ’cept what I’ve saved since I came up North.’

‘I’m talking of my one-third share of this business. As a going concern, free of debt, with the rent paid for this quarter. I’m giving it to you.’

Charlotte asked, peering up at Josie, ‘What sort of things do you want at the shops?’

Josie countered, ‘What sort of things would you like?’

Iris had her hands to her cheeks, framing her face, her mouth a round O. Then she whispered, ‘
Give it to me
? You’re pulling my leg.’ And as Josie shook her head: ‘Why?’

‘Never mind why. Let’s just say I don’t want the bother of it any longer. There are two conditions, mind.’ Josie looked at her watch.

Iris said wryly, ‘There’s always a catch. What conditions?’

‘That you keep this to yourself. This is just between you and me.’ Then she continued quickly, her eyes on the door and before Iris could ask further questions: ‘And when Dougie walks in through that door you’ve got to kiss him.’

‘
What
?’

‘Agreed?’ And as Iris still stared, blushing again, Josie pressed, ‘Agreed?’

‘Yes,’ Iris nodded. ‘But—’

Charlotte asked, ‘I want some sweets. Can we go now?’

‘Yes.’ Josie took her hand as Dougie Bickerstaffe took off his cap and entered the shop. Iris looked from him to Josie, who nodded and said, ‘Contract, remember.’

As she led Charlotte from the shop, Iris put her arms around Dougie’s neck and kissed him.

Josie thought she had taken a step towards the end of her journey and it gave her no pleasure.

‘No, I don’t want to!’ Charlotte proved difficult at the photographer’s studio. She was wary of the equipment and suspicious of the photographer’s smirking attempts to placate her. ‘I want to go to see the ducks.’

Josie said patiently, ‘I said we’d go later and we will, but not if you don’t behave.’

Charlotte pouted sulkily. ‘I don’t like that thing.’ She pointed at the camera.

‘It won’t hurt you.’ Josie crouched on her heels to come eye to eye. ‘I’ll tell you what: I’ll ask the gentleman to take a photograph of the two of us together, then one of you on your own.’ She met Charlotte’s gaze, full of distrust, and was hard put to it not to laugh. To hide it she urged, ‘Now, come on.’

So Josie sat very straight on her chair as her mother had done in the photographs in the album, with Charlotte standing solemnly by her knee. The photograph was taken and then, while Josie chattered brightly, another of Charlotte alone. Josie gave a sigh of mixed relief and triumph.

The Langley household was now on a normal footing and Tom, Josie and Charlotte ate their meals together in the dining room.

‘Somebody’s writing to you from France.’ Kitty laid the bundle of post beside Tom’s plate as they sat at breakfast, two days after Josie’s talk with Iris.

Tom ripped open the top envelope that Kitty had indicated and Josie thought, From Felicity? Kitty asked, ‘From your feeansee?’

Josie said, ‘Kitty!’

Tom snapped, ‘Yes, it is!’ He scanned it, frowning, then said stiffly, ‘The weather is glorious out there.’ That was the only information of note in two scrawled sheets of gossip. He concentrated on opening the other letters. But he was in good humour those days, though often abstracted because he was deeply involved in negotiations with the bank and in starting up the Langley yard again. Minutes later he looked up with a smile, ‘I wrote to Harry Varley – he’s working in a yard on the Clyde – and he’s willing to come back to us as manager. That’s good news.’

Kitty had bustled in with more toast, just in time to hear this remark, and she put in, ‘Aye, that’s good news. I don’t know if mine is.’ When they looked at her she went on, ‘Iris is in the kitchen and she’s got an engagement ring on her finger. It came from that Dougie Bickerstaffe. I hope she knows what she’s doing. I know what these sailors are like.’

‘Thank you.’ Tom addressed her back, grinning, as Kitty marched out. Then he laid down the letter. ‘I’ve got to find a lot more of the staff. I’ve taken on twenty of the old hands, with a foreman, to start cleaning up the yard ready for work.’ Josie knew this. She had been to the yard when he was not there and had seen the men at work. He went on, ‘But it won’t be so easy finding the old staff. There was Dobson, the chief draughtsman, and Williams, his second. I wrote to both of them but they’ve moved and left no address.’

Josie asked Charlotte, ‘How do you get so sticky?’ And wiped the child’s face clean of marmalade as she told Tom, ‘Dobson is working for Gray’s yard at Hartlepool and Williams is with Ropner’s at Stockton.’ She turned back from Charlotte and found Tom staring at her. She explained, ‘Sammy Allnutt, the watchman at the yard, can tell you where they’ve all gone.’

Tom laughed. ‘Well, I’m damned. You continue to surprise me, Mrs Miller. I’ll go down and see him. Would you care to come along?’

‘Thank you, but no, Captain Collingwood.’ She searched for an excuse. ‘It’s time Charlotte caught up with her lessons.’

Charlotte protested, ‘I don’t want to do lessons. Yesterday you said we could go to the yard and see Sammy today. I like Sammy.’

Josie automatically corrected her, ‘Mr Allnutt.’ She kept her head in the face of this betrayal. ‘I’m sorry, but I wasn’t thinking at the time. You must keep up with your lessons. That is most important.’ And to Tom, in an aside and not meeting his eye, ‘She has fallen behind in recent weeks because of my absence.’

Tom said curtly, ‘As you wish.’ He left the table and stalked out. He strode down to the Langley yard in a black mood. He was sure Josie was avoiding him and could guess why: he was engaged to be married to Felicity Blakemore. This morning’s letter had been a sharp reminder of that. He swore.

Back in the Langley house, Charlotte asked, ‘Is Uncle Tom cross?’

Josie lied miserably, ‘No, not at all. Now finish your breakfast.’

Afterwards they went to the kitchen and admired Iris’s engagement ring. Annie asked, ‘What changed your mind at the end? ’Cause you’d turned him down half a dozen times.’

Iris laughed shyly and glanced at Josie. ‘We came to an agreement. I can’t tell you no more than that.’

Kitty asked, ‘Is he giving up the sea?’

Iris shook her head. ‘He says he could afford to but he doesn’t want to. He says Captain Collingwood is hoping to get a ship soon and has promised him a berth. He’s keen to go ’cause he thinks the world o’ the captain.’ Now she was staring at Josie, who looked away. She had not known Tom was about to get a ship. But did it matter?

Afterwards, when they were alone in the kitchen save for Charlotte playing with her dolls in one corner, Kitty said, ‘Now there’s only the other lovebirds to worry about.’

‘What? I’m sorry,’ Josie apologised, ‘I wasn’t listening.’

‘I said,’ repeated Kitty, ‘that there’s still the other courting couple: Annie and Dan. He’s mooning around here every minute he can spare from that chandler’s, and she’s watching out o’ the window for him when he isn’t here.’

‘Yes, I know.’ And Josie had given the affair some thought.

‘I wish they’d make their bloody minds up,’ Kitty grumbled.

‘Kitty!’ And with a glance at the door leading to the house, ‘How can I ask the men to control their language in here if you—’

‘Well …’ Kitty’s complaint subsided into muttering. Then she said: ‘But we sorted ourselves out quicker in my time. We knew what we wanted. Seems to me some young women today can’t see opportunity when it’s under their noses every day.’ The door slammed behind her.

Josie smiled ruefully, knowing the target of the last remark and thinking that Kitty meant well.

Then she shook herself out of her abstraction and told herself, No time like the present. She called to Charlotte, ‘Time we went for a walk. Upsadaisy!’ And she lifted her to her feet. She found Annie in the back yard, pegging out some washing. Annie’s baby was in his perambulator in a corner. Josie said, ‘Put your coat on, Annie, and we’ll get some fresh air.’