The Fleethaven Trilogy (67 page)

He wrinkled his forehead. ‘I reckon. Would that suit the new Mrs Eland?’

He was teasing yet there was an underlying seriousness. They were deciding their future and he cared about her happiness.

She nodded. ‘Oh yes, it’d suit me. I could still do dressmaking at home if I wanted.’

‘We’d only be tenants, mind. Mebbe he’d let us have Rookery Farm. Tom Willoughby’s getting on a bit now and he’s no family to carry on after him.’

Kate was doubtful. ‘It’s more acreage than our farm. Wouldn’t you be better staying on the Squire’s estate? Maybe one day you could be bailiff.’

She leaned her head against his shoulder as they sat beside a stook, nestling against the sweet-smelling corn and hidden from the inquisitive eyes of the other workers. Danny slipped his arm around her.

‘I suppose it wouldn’t be a bad job, though I’d sooner have a place of me own. It’s not easy to be put in charge of other folk, specially people ya’ve known all ya life. Ya can soon lose friends.’

She twisted her head to look up at him. ‘No ambition, that’s your trouble,’ but she took any criticism out of her words by planting a kiss on his cheek.

He rested his cheek against her hair. ‘I’ve only one ambition,’ he said softly. ‘To marry you and live happily ever after . . .’

They sat quietly, watching the sun sink slowly behind the horizon, streaking the sky golden-red.

‘It’s ya birthday in a couple of days, in’t it? Ya eighteenth.’

‘Yes. Why?’

‘Shall we get engaged on ya birthday?’

Kate sat up and looked at him, her eyes shining. ‘Yes, oh yes!’

‘Then,’ Danny said slowly, ‘we’ll have to tell them.’

Some of the joy left Kate’s face as they regarded each other solemnly. ‘Right,’ she said firmly, for it was she who had the most difficult task and they both knew it. ‘I’ll do it tomorrow night when I get home from work.’

‘I’ll tell my folks, too, then they’ll all know at the same time. Okay?’

Kate nodded, feeling the churning of apprehension in her stomach.

‘No. No!
No!
’ Esther Godfrey’s voice rose to an hysterical scream. Kate gaped at her mother, while four-year-old Lilian ran to her father and climbed on to his knee as he sat in the wooden Windsor chair at the side of the range in the kitchen. She flung her arms around his neck and buried her face against his shoulder. Automatically, Jonathan patted the child’s back comfortingly, but his attention was not on his young daughter.

‘Esther, love, steady on.’ To Kate’s ears his concerned tone also held a kind of warning. But her mother was in no mood to listen to the voice of reason.

‘Steady on? Steady on, you say?’ Esther leaned on the kitchen table, her palms flat down on the scrubbed surface, her green eyes flashing fire, but there was a stillness about her body that was ominous. ‘You will never, never marry Danny Eland.’

‘I will. You can’t stop me.’

‘Oh yes I can, my girl.’ Her mother’s voice was quiet now, but that very quietness was more menacing than the screaming.

‘Esther . . .’ came Jonathan’s deep voice, but now the two women – mother and daughter – were locked in their private battle of wills and scarcely heard him.

Esther moved suddenly and swiftly towards the door. ‘I’ll put a stop to this once and for all.’

‘Esther – no! You can’t. You mustn’t!’

She whirled to face her husband. ‘Keep out of this, Jonathan. It’s nowt to do wi’ you.’

She could not have hurt him more if she had slapped him physically. Kate saw her stepfather wince, but his voice was calm as he rose from his chair, still cradling Lilian in his arms. ‘Esther – I’m warning you. You’ll hurt too many people and do something that can never – ever – be undone.’

Esther flung out her arm, gesturing towards Kate. ‘And what do you suggest I do? Let her get on with it, eh?’

‘No, but . . .’

‘It’s got to be stopped, Jonathan. You know it has.’ And with that she almost ran from the house.

Kate stared at her stepfather in anguish. ‘Dad – what’s going on? What
is
it?’

Jonathan sighed and sat down heavily in his chair, shaking his head. ‘It looks as if you’ll find out very soon now, love.’

‘You tell me, Dad.’

‘No. It’s not my place to do so.’

Kate left the house and ran towards the Point. She crested the Hump and stood staring at the scene below her. In the distance she could see Danny and his father, Robert Eland, walking away from the cottages up towards the headland where the river joined the sea. The older man had his arm across Danny’s shoulders and their heads were slightly inclined towards each other as if they were talking earnestly. At least, as if one were talking and the other listening.

Kate’s gaze swivelled and came back to the cottages. She drew in a breath of surprise. Her mother stood outside the Elands’ cottage and Beth Eland was in the open doorway, standing quietly while Esther Godfrey flung her arm out in the direction of Danny’s departing figure, and then pointed at Beth, stabbing her finger towards the woman’s breast to emphasize whatever it was she was saying.

Then Kate felt her heart go out to Danny’s mother for suddenly Beth Eland covered her face with her hands and sagged against the door-frame for support. With a shock, Kate noticed that her mother made no move to help Beth, did not even put out her hand to steady her, but appeared only to bend towards her to press home her point even more forcefully.

Kate wanted to run forward, wanted to shout to Danny, wanted to stop whatever it was that was happening.

For all of a sudden, the most dreadful feeling of foreboding flooded through her.

She waited for what seemed an age and yet it could only have been minutes in reality until her mother turned away abruptly, leaving Beth still standing in the doorway, clutching at the door-jamb for support. And although she could not see the woman’s face clearly from this distance, Kate knew instinctively that Beth Eland was weeping.

Danny and his father were at the headland, standing side by side, close, yet not touching now. They stood outlined against the sky, just staring out to sea. They did not seem to be speaking now.

Esther was coming towards Kate, her stride swift and purposeful, anger in every movement. Her head was bent and it was not until she began to climb the Hump that Kate saw her glance up and notice her daughter.

They stared at each other for a long moment until Kate burst out, ‘You won’t stop us, Mam. We love each other, and . . .’

‘I warned you, Kate. For years I’ve been trying to keep you apart. I even tried to get you away from here.’

Kate gasped. ‘You mean – you mean – that was why you sent me away to that school? Because of
Danny
?’

Esther nodded. She was quieter now, and strangely there was sadness in her tone as she said, ‘I’m sorry, Kate, but you can never marry Danny Eland.’

Tears sprang to Kate’s eyes. ‘Why, Mam? Please tell me why.’

Kate saw her mother take a deep, unsteady breath. ‘Because – he’s your half-brother!’

T
he world revolved. The scene before her danced and blurred. It was like a knife being thrust in just below her ribs. Her heart seemed to stop and then begin to thud painfully. Fear prickled her scalp. She gasped for breath, clutching a hand to her chest, while with trembling fingers she reached out. ‘Mam . . .?’

But her mother was walking away, striding down the Hump back towards Brumbys’ Farm.

Kate cast a despairing glance towards Danny, still standing on the very point of the land, motionless, just staring out to sea. Matching his stillness, Robert Eland stood silently by his side.

Kate gave a sob, drew in a shuddering breath and ran down the Hump. ‘Mam – Mam . . .’ She caught up with Esther and grasped her arm roughly, pulling her mother round to face her. ‘What do you mean – he’s my half-brother? I don’t understand.’

Esther’s jaw was clenched, her eyes angry, defiant.

‘Ya father – Matthew Hilton – got Beth pregnant before he married me.’

Kate gasped and stared at her, eyes wide. ‘Didn’t – didn’t he
know
?’

Esther twisted her arm from Kate’s grasp, turned and began to walk swiftly away again. ‘No,’ she said shortly.

Kate took little running steps to keep up with her. ‘But Mam . . .’

Esther put up her hand as if to fend Kate off physically. ‘I dun’t want to talk of it. You can’t marry Danny. Not ever. I’ve tried to warn you, all these years. But you wouldn’t listen. Now you know and there’s an end to it.’

Kate stopped and stood watching the slim figure of her mother walking towards the farm, her back rigid, her face turned away from her daughter.

Kate bit down hard upon her lower lip, drawing blood. The pain she caused herself was almost a relief. Then, tears blinding her, she turned towards the dunes and began to run.

‘I want to die. I don’t want to live any more. Just let me die!’

She was standing at the end of the Spit, at the very tip of the promontory of land that jutted out into the Wash. It was the place where the land, the sea and the sky all seemed to meet. Like the end of the world . . .

The water of a high tide was swirling around her. Dropping to her knees on the shingle, she wrapped her arms around herself. She closed her eyes, screwing up her face in an agony that was a real pain in the pit of her stomach.

‘Kate – Kate, don’t.’

He was there, picking her up, turning her unresisting body towards him and enveloping her in a fierce embrace. Danny was stroking her hair and murmuring words which made no sense to her, for she was crying hysterically, sobs shaking her body.

‘I – don’t want – to live – any more.’

‘Shush, shush. You must live – for me. What would I do if you were no longer in the same world as me?’

Her arms slipped around his waist and she buried her face against his chest. Beneath his shirt she could feel the rapid beating of his heart. It matched her own.

Her sobs lessened and, muffled against him, she said, ‘It isn’t true, is it? Tell me it isn’t true.’

His hand stroked her hair gently. ‘I – can’t, Katie. But – oh, how I wish I could!’

She raised her head then and looked up into his troubled face. Tears glistened in his eyes too and he pressed his lips together as if to prevent their trembling. For a long moment they gazed at each other whilst the water lapped at their feet and seagulls screeched mournfully overhead.

Haltingly, she began, ‘Me mam won’t tell me much, but she said my dad – me real dad – and your mam . . .’

Danny nodded. ‘This is going to kill her!’ he murmured and then added bitterly, ‘Your mam has got a lot to answer for.’

Kate pulled back a little. ‘My mam? Why, what has my mam got to do with it?’ Her voice became harsher in her frustration at still not being able to understand fully. ‘Danny, what do you mean?’

‘Me dad ses . . . ‘ he began and then hesitated, as if suddenly realizing the enormity of the revelation. Robert Eland, the man who had loved him, reared him, been everything to him that anyone could wish for in a father, was not his natural father; was not, in fact, even a blood relative.

In his agitation, Danny ran his strong fingers into his hair and grasped a handful, as if he would pull it out by the roots. He took a deep breath to steady himself and yet, when he spoke, his voice still shook. ‘It seems,’ he said slowly, as if he still couldn’t – or wouldn’t – believe what he was telling Kate, ‘Your dad – Matthew – and my mam were walking out together when your mother arrived here to work for old Sam Brumby on the farm. Matthew was after anything in skirts, me dad ses.’ Still Danny could not break the habit of a lifetime. Robert Eland was, to him, his father. He cleared his throat and went on. ‘Matthew chased after Esther and when Sam Brumby died, they got married and he moved into the farm with her – and left me mam pregnant with me.’

Kate gasped. ‘Oh, how could he?’

‘Evidently – very easily,’ Danny said bitterly.

‘But yar mam wouldn’t . . . I mean . . .’ Kate began, then stopped.

They stared at each other. ‘I suppose,’ he said slowly, ‘she was young and – and in love.’ His voice dropped to a hoarse whisper. ‘Just like us, Katie.’

Kate’s eyes widened and she gasped. ‘We almost did, didn’t we?’

He nodded. ‘Thank goodness we stopped in time.’

Kate shivered suddenly as a chill wind blew in from the sea. Her voice broke on a sob. ‘I – wish we
had
done it!’

He held her close again, resting his cheek against her ruffled hair. ‘Now – we can’t – ever.’ His arms tightened around her as if he would never let her go.

‘I still don’t understand it all,’ she murmured.

‘Nor me. All I know is,’ he added grimly, ‘what they did has wrecked
our
lives even all this time after.’

‘You’re only a few months older than me. It can’t be true. I won’t let it be!’

His tone was flat with misery. ‘I – think it is, Katie. If you think about it – looking back – it explains a lot of things.’

‘What?’

‘Why your mam and mine never speak to each other; why she sent you away to school and why, when that went wrong and you came home, she still tried to keep us apart.’

Kate was silent now. He was right. About everything. And there was something else that even Danny didn’t know. The solemn promise which her mother had extracted from her that she would never – ever – let Danny touch her. Behind that promise had been the awful truth her mother had known.

‘God, how I hate her!’ she muttered through her teeth. ‘It’s all my mother’s fault. If she hadn’t come here – if she hadn’t married Matthew, then – then . . .’

‘Then,’ Danny said softly, ‘you wouldn’t have been born.’

Gently, he cupped her face in his hands. ‘Oh, Kate,’ he said, his voice deep with emotion, ‘we can’t ever marry, or be lovers . . .’

‘Why? Why not? We could go away where no one knows us. We have different names. We’re not related in the eyes of the law.’ She was clutching at straws.

‘You
know
we can’t!’

She drew back from him suddenly, pushing him away. ‘You don’t care. You don’t love me. Not as I love you. You can’t, or you wouldn’t be giving in so – so easily.’