The Girl with the Creel (12 page)

Peter spent a restless night. He had been positive that it would just be a matter of time before he got Lizann back, and the thought that she had transferred her affections so quickly from him to George Buchan and now to somebody else had cut the feet from under him, but he wasn't going to give up on her.

That morning being Sunday, when he knew Lizann would be at church, he slipped along to the Yardie at five past eleven. Hannah looked surprised to see him. ‘If it's Lizann you're wanting …' she began, but he interrupted. ‘No, it's you I want.'

She invited him in and offered him a cup of tea. ‘Now,' she smiled, when they were both seated, ‘what can I do for you?'

‘Nothing, really,' he said, wondering how to go about discovering what he wanted to know. ‘I saw Lizann last night …'

‘Ah!' Hannah sat up a little straighter. ‘You saw her wi' George?'

‘George?' he echoed, hollowly, a sickness at the pit of his stomach. ‘George who?'

‘George Buchan. He was at the school wi' her.'

‘He was not!' Peter exclaimed. ‘She met him down in Yarmouth!'

Hannah looked puzzled. ‘She never said nothing about meeting …'

‘That's why she broke our engagement. She said she loved him more than she loved me.'

‘But she …'

Driven by jealousy, and not thinking of the consequences, he blurted out, ‘She even let him … and she wouldn't let me …'

Jumping to the correct interpretation of this cryptic statement, she shook her head. ‘Oh, I canna believe that! Nae my Lizann?'

‘That's not the worst of it. He's married!'

‘Oh, my dear Lord!' Hannah's hand went to her breast. ‘You canna mean … she let a married man …? And she tell't you that?'

‘Not willingly,' he admitted, ‘but I got it out of her, though I'm near sure she'd have forgotten about him if he hadn't come to see her. He went away when she told him she was engaged to me, but he'd unsettled her, for that was the day she gave me back the ring.'

‘Oh, my dear Lord!' Hannah exclaimed again. ‘You're sure it was him she was wi' last night?'

‘If his name's George Buchan, it's him. He must have come back.'

After wringing her hands for a few moments, Hannah's tortured face changed. ‘She tell't me a parcel o' lies!' she said, angrily. ‘My own daughter! Wait till she comes in, I'll …' She halted, then muttered uncertainly, ‘Oh, I dinna ken what I'll do. I wish Willie Alec was here, he would stop her nonsense. I hope nothing's happened to him, for he was due in yesterday.'

‘Something's likely held him up.' Peter stood up, nervously pulling down his cuffs. ‘I'm sorry, Hannah. I shouldn't have said anything. I never dreamt it was him she was with.'

‘You've nothing to be sorry for, Peter, it wasna your fault.'

At the door, he said, ‘You'll not tell Lizann I've been here?'

‘You have my word on that.'

Peter returned to his own house with mixed feelings. He had been as shocked at learning it was George Buchan as Hannah had been at what he told her, but he was pleased she thought Willie Alec would stop it.

‘Where have you been?' Bella Jeannie demanded, when he went home.

‘Just out for a wee breath of air.' If his mother knew what Lizann had been up to, it would be the end of any hope he had of marrying her. And there was every hope, he assured himself, happy in his relief at how things had turned out. When she was forbidden to see George Buchan she would turn to her first love for comfort.

Agonizing over Lizann's misconduct, Hannah looked up in relief when Willie Alec came in some twenty minutes later. ‘That damned idiot!' he stormed. ‘I said we'd miss the tide yesterday, but would he listen? So now we're in and we canna land the fish till the morrow.'

‘Forget about your fish!' Hannah cried. ‘Peter Tait's not long away, and you'd best sit down and listen to what he was telling me.'

When she finished, her husband had forgotten his anger at his skipper, but he was apoplectic with fury at his daughter. ‘Good God, Hannah!' he roared. ‘Did you never tell her not to let a man touch her?'

Knowing that she had neglected her duty as a mother, Hannah let her husband's wrath envelop her without saying a word.

‘But I suppose you couldna bring yourself to speak about things like that,' he went on, sarcastically. ‘Well, it's no thanks to you she didna land in the family way, and I'm thankful it's over and done wi'.'

‘She's still seeing him,' Hannah ventured. ‘He's come to Buckie … and she was out wi' him last night … and the night before.'

‘D'you mean to tell me you ken't she was …?'

‘I didna ken a thing, till Peter tell't me.'

‘That's it, then! She'll not go out wi' him again … supposing I've to tie her to her bed.' Taking deep rasping breaths, Willie Alec sat down heavily on his chair, gripping the arms as if clutching at a lifeline.

‘Are you all right?' Hannah asked, anxiously.

It was some time before he could answer. ‘To think she's carrying on wi' a married man. I've a good mind to leather her backside till it's black and blue.'

Practically sure he wouldn't, Hannah murmured, ‘And a lot of good that would do.'

‘Aye, you're right. Keeping her from seeing him again'll be the best punishment for her.' His chin sinking and coming to rest on his chest, he lapsed into a stony silence.

As the minutes passed, Hannah grew increasingly agitated. She hated rows, but there was no way out of this one. Willie Alec was building up for it, and it would explode the minute Lizann came through the door. If only his son was here to support him. ‘Where's Mick?' she asked.

‘He's away wi' Bluey Barclay,' Willie Alec mumbled. ‘I think he said they were going to Strathlene.'

The swimming pool was a favourite meeting place for all the young blood round about, and Hannah knew they would be lucky if they saw Mick before suppertime. Hearing Lizann's step outside, she cautioned, ‘Take it easy, Willie Alec.'

‘Easy?' he grunted. ‘How the devil can I take it easy?'

Looking very smart in her grey Sunday costume with its matching floppy beret, their daughter came in smiling. ‘D'you know what the minister's sermon was the day?'

‘Never mind the damned sermon!' Willie Alec barked. ‘Sit down.'

‘Let me take off my tammy and my jacket,' she said, apprehensive at his tone of voice, and wondering why he looked so angry.

He began with no preamble. ‘Who's this man you've been seeing?'

An icy tremor ran through her. ‘George? He's a boy I knew at school.'

‘That's enough o' your lies!' Willie Alec thundered. ‘We ken all about him. We ken you met him in Yarmouth. We ken he's married …'

‘Who told you that?' she quavered.

‘Never mind who told us. Is it true?'

‘Aye,' she whispered, giving up all pretence. ‘He wasn't married when I met him though he is now, but he's getting divorced …'

His rage making him forget that he was amongst women, he shouted, ‘And you think it was all right to let him fuck you …?'

‘Willie Alec!' Hannah exclaimed, horrified at the word she had never heard him utter before.

‘What's that mean?' Lizann asked, screwing up her face.

He had the grace to look ashamed. ‘You let him have his way with you.'

‘Oh!' Deep crimson, she wondered how he had found that out.

‘You did, didn't you?'

‘Yes, but we couldn't help it, Father, we loved each other. I still love him, and he's going to marry me when his wife divorces him.'

Hannah, who had been watching her husband closely, was alarmed at the purplish tinge creeping up his cheeks. ‘Willie Alec,' she warned, ‘let it go till you calm down.'

It was as if he hadn't heard her. ‘You'll not see him again! Do you hear me, Lizann?'

Shaking from head to toe, she said defiantly, ‘I'm seeing him the night.'

‘You're nothing of the kind! You'll go to your room after your supper and you'll bide there till I say you can come down!'

Hot tears stung her eyelids. ‘But George'll wonder why I …'

‘Let him wonder. I'm not giving him a chance to take you agian.'

This was a side of her father, a hard unforgiving side, she had never seen before, and the tears edged down her cheeks. ‘I can't let him stand and wait …'

‘It'll cool him down,' Willie Alec said, callously.

‘It's for your own good,' Hannah put in. ‘You were lucky in Yarmouth – he could have bairned you – and he could yet, if you dinna steer clear o' him. Just think on the disgrace there would be if …'

‘He's promised we won't do … it again till we're man and wife,' Lizann gulped.

‘Promised?' her father growled, his voice rising again. ‘A man that carries on wi' somebody else when his wife's waiting at hame for him? A decent man wouldna do that! D'you think a man like him would keep his promise when he's fired up wi' lust? Nothing would stop him!'

‘If you met him, Father,' Lizann sobbed, ‘you'd know he wouldn't …'

The dark patches on Willie Alec's face faded slightly. ‘Lassie,' he groaned, ‘you've no idea what men'll do when a lassie's body's driving them wild. They can be like beasts …'

‘No, no! George isn't like that. He'd have stopped the first time if I hadn't made him do it.'

‘You what?' her father roared, his whole face a deep magenta as he jumped up and grabbed her by the shoulders. ‘You
made
him? You
made
him?' Every stressed word was accompanied by a shake that rocked her head and made her teeth rattle.

Aghast, Hannah rose and took a step forward, but discretion kept her from interfering.

‘Let me go, Father,' Lizann beseeched, tears dripping off her chin. ‘You're hurting me.'

‘I havena started yet,' he shouted, his face only an inch from hers. ‘It's a good hiding you need, you little … you little whore!'

Hannah was rendered speechless by his coarseness, though she would not have dared to say anything anyway, with him in such a temper. Her legs trembling, she rammed her knuckles in her mouth when her husband took his open hand across the girl's cheek.

‘Aye, a whore!' he repeated, letting her go. ‘That's what you are!'

‘No … Father … I … loved … George.' Her words were punctuated by harsh sobs. ‘I … still … love … him!'

‘Love?' he sneered. ‘What do you know about love? I thought you loved Peter, and now I hear you've let … no,
made
another man take you.'

‘I … couldn't … help … it.'

‘Well, I can help it!' he roared. ‘You'll not see him again!'

Free of his hold and still weeping hysterically, Lizann spun round and ran out, her feet hardly touching the stairs as she went up to her own room.

Collapsing in her chair, Hannah tried desperately to stop her husband from following the girl. ‘That's enough, Willie Alec,' she pleaded. ‘Let her be. She kens you mean it, and she'll nae go against you.'

He sat down with his head in his hands. ‘I canna get ower what she's done,' he said, sorrowfully, ‘and standing there defying me. Where did she learn that?'

She could have told him that Lizann got her headstrong nature from him, but she had never been able to say anything against him – not to him nor to anyone else. ‘She likely thinks the world's come to an end the now, but she'll get ower him.'

‘But I canna understand how she let him …' Willie Alec stopped and raised his head, pain spreading across his lined face. ‘She didna let him, though, she made him. Our Lizann, Hannah! My wee lassie! I thought it was Mick we'd have trouble wi', he's aye been after the lassies. I thought she was different, and she tells me she's nae better than the harlots that walk the streets o' Aberdeen.'

‘She said she loved the man,' his wife reminded him.

‘That doesna excuse her. Oh God, I can hardly bear to think on it.'

Hannah knew that he would keep thinking about it, just as she would, and there was no point in trying to sweep it under the rug. ‘We canna keep her in for ever,' she murmured.

‘You said he's from Cullen? He'll surely be going back there some time? If we could find out how long he'll be here …'

‘I'll ask her.' Hannah went upstairs and poked her head round their daughter's door. ‘You'd best come down for your dinner, Lizann, for the broth must be stuck to the bottom o' the pot by this time.'

The girl didn't even look round. ‘I'm not hungry!'

‘Please yourself, then, but your father wants to know how long that George'll be in Buckie.'

Turning her swollen face hopefully, Lizann said, ‘He'll be going back to Cullen on Wednesday. Is Father going to let me go to …'

‘No, he'll not let you out till the lad's away.'

Lizann's tears began to flow again, and Hannah went back downstairs. ‘She's not coming down,' she told Willie Alec, ‘and she says he'll only be here till Wednesday, that's just three days after the day.'

‘Thank the Lord for that. Now, we'd best take our dinner, though it'll stick in my gullet.'

It was lucky that neither of them felt like eating, because the whole pot of broth was singed and Hannah poured it down the outside drain then made a pot of tea to steady their nerves. Not another word was said, and after tidying the kitchen she sat down opposite her brooding husband. The afternoon passed in silence, both upstairs and downstairs.

Lizann was so exhausted after her bouts of weeping that she fell into an uneasy sleep, and it was only when she woke that she began to wonder how her father had found out about George. Peter was the only person she had told and even if he'd seen them together last night he wouldn't have known who she was with. In any case, surely he wouldn't have shamed her – and hurt his own pride – by telling her father she'd made love with another man.