The Girl with the Creel (15 page)

Relief made Lizann feel faint and she was glad there was no room for her to collapse. Peggy May gave her a little time to digest the news, then said gently, ‘So you've been worrying yourself sick over nothing. It's all going to be all right, and by the looks of things, you and George'll be wed afore me and Ned.'

Lizann was ashamed for not having asked before. ‘Oh, I'm sorry. Is Mrs Dey still …?'

‘I havena been hame yet, but in her last letter Ma said nothing had changed.'

When Lizann returned to her house, not even Hannah's accusing, ‘Where have you been? You ken I dinna like being left by myself,' dampened her spirits. George and Katie hadn't got reconciled, and there were just three months to wait now.

Having been adamant for so long that she would never give up her home, Mrs Dey surprised her son just before Christmas. ‘I can see I'll get nae peace till I shift to Lossie,' she sighed, ‘but I want one last Hogmanay in my ain hoose.'

And so, on the day after New Year's Day, Peggy May was given the key to what was to be her marital home. When Norrie Dey apologized for leaving it in a mess, she laughed, ‘Me and Ned'll easy clean it up.'

The wedding was arranged for 1 February, which did not give Jess Cordiner much time to arrange everything, but Dozy had been saving for years to give his only child a big wedding. Most of her friends were green with envy when Peggy May entered the church on her father's arm wearing a lovely creation of white tulle and lace, dotted with pearls. Her maid of honour, the daughter of her mother's sister, was dressed in pale pink taffeta with a long spray of pink roses fastened to the skirt to allow her hands free to bear the bridal train.

Lizann wasn't jealous of anything – she wouldn't have been jealous if the bridal gown had been topped by a diamond-studded tiara instead of a wired head-dress edged with looped lace caught up with pearls – but she couldn't stifle her resentment that Peggy May had got the man she loved, while she herself didn't know if the man she loved still loved her.

Then she told herself not to be pessimistic. Of course George still loved her, and the only reason he had never written to tell her so was her father. Like Mick had said, if George played by Willie Alec's rules it would be easier to win him round, but it was awful having been left up in the air, not sure of anything, for what felt like half a lifetime. Still, in another month, maybe a few days more, George would be coming to claim her. She was old enough by now not to need her parents' permission … but there could be trouble. Would George manage to hold out against any fierce opposition from her father? More to the point, would she?

In his mother's house in Cullen, George too was sitting in a brown study. When the divorce papers had come, he had thought it would be all over in a week or two, then, realizing that there was no letter telling him when the case was to be heard, he had resigned himself to wait until the solicitors or whoever gave him a date when he had to appear. And there hadn't been a letter from anybody.

Then he'd heard it took three years, and only Mick's old advice to keep away from her had stopped him from going to tell Lizann. His mother had said somebody had likely told her, but if nobody had, she could be thinking he'd made it up with Katie when he hadn't set eyes on her since he left her. Probably she could tell him what was going on, but it would be damned awkward facing her; he would remember the vile things she had done and kept secret from him. He did feel ashamed now and then for walking out on her. Those things had happened before they began going steady and he should have forgiven her, but he couldn't, though she had been a damned good wife to him apart from that. Maybe he would have forgiven her if he hadn't already met Lizann … who knows?

His mother – who always kept her eyes and ears open – had heard that Katie had boarded the south train one day three weeks ago and come back the same night, but nobody knew where she'd been. Shopping in Aberdeen, George supposed … but Katie had never been one for gallivanting, and in any case, where had she got the money?

His mother came bursting in at that moment. ‘Ach, George!' she puffed. ‘Here's you sitting like the bells that never rung, and me wi' something to tell you.'

‘Go on, then,' he sighed, knowing that she would, whatever he said.

‘Lizzie Fenton says your Katie's speaking about leaving Cullen, and she says she'll be a lot happier where she's going.'

This made him feel less guilty at leaving his wife. He'd been afraid she might go into a decline, and instead she would be making a new life for herself somewhere else. ‘I'm glad to hear that,' he smiled, ‘but I wish I knew what was happening about the divorce.'

‘Oh, that's another thing.' Ina Buchan took a long brown envelope from the top of her shopping bag. ‘I met the postie when I was going out and he gi'ed me this.'

She laid it down on the table beside him and he said, ‘It's from Edinburgh, so I suppose it's to tell me when I've to go.'

The news was even better than that. In effect, it told him that Katie Buchan, née Mair, had been granted a full and final divorce from George Buchan ‘as from the second instant'. He shook his head in a kind of stupor. ‘But I was never asked to appear.'

‘They surely didna need you.' Ina thought for a moment, then an idea struck her. ‘I bet it was Edinburgh Katie went to yon day.'

When the meaning of this sank in, he jumped up and enveloped her in a bear hug. ‘I'm free! At last! Buckie, here I come!'

‘You're nae going right now?'

‘I'm not waiting a minute longer.' As he put on his jacket, he said, ‘You'll like Lizann, Ma.'

Ina gave a disdainful sniff. ‘I dinna understand you. The minute you get clear o' one woman, you canna wait to tie yourself to another.'

Mick grinned when he opened the door to George's timid knock. ‘This is it, is it?'

‘Aye, at last. Is your father in?'

‘He's in, and I'll just tell him somebody wants to see him. If I say it's you, Lizann'll build her hopes up, but he might put his foot down with a heavy hand again.'

George's confidence began to waver, and before he had time to think of a way to boost it Willie Alec came to the door in his slippers, his face mottled red from sitting too close to the fire. Even with his shirtsleeves rolled up and a pair of braces supporting his shapeless trousers, he was a commanding figure. ‘You want to see me?' he barked, his brows down.

George felt his courage draining away, but he had to face up to this man if he was to stand any chance of marrying the girl he loved. ‘Mr Jappy,' he began, hesitantly, ‘I've something important to ask you, but not here on the doorstep. Could we take a wee walk?'

‘I'm taking no walk till you tell me who you are.'

‘I don't want Lizann to hear.'

‘Lizann? What's she got to do with it?'

‘Please, Mr Jappy, I'll tell you when we're clear of the house.'

Puzzled, Willie Alec said, ‘Wait till I put my shoes on, and get my jacket and my bonnet.'

George had primed himself for this meeting, but his nerves were in shreds as they walked along the street. In spite of his gruff manner, Lizann's father gave the impression of being a fair man, a man with a sense of humour, yet he had imprisoned his daughter simply because she was seeing a man he disapproved of. Would he come round now?

‘Well?' Willie Alec asked, coming to a sudden standstill. ‘What's this important thing you wanted to ask me?'

‘Hear me out before you say anything, Mr Jappy.' George's voice gained strength as he went on, ‘I love Lizann with all my heart …'

‘You're George Buchan?'

There was accusation in the three gasped words, but George wasn't to be put off now. ‘Please let me finish. I've done nothing behind your back. I kept away from her till I was free, and now I've got my divorce I'm asking your permission to marry her.'

‘By God, you've got some nerve! Did you think I'd welcome you wi' open arms after what you and her did down in Great Yarmouth?'

‘I swear to you, Mr Jappy, I've regretted that ever since.'

Willie Alec's dark scowl eased a little. ‘I believe you there, for she said you'd have stopped if she hadna made you go on.'

‘I'm not blaming Lizann,' George said, staunchly. ‘She was seventeen and I was twenty-one. I knew what I was doing.'

‘Did you make a habit o' breaking lassies' maiden-heads?'

George's hopes were sinking fast, but he was still determined to tell the truth, however condemning. ‘I had a few lassies, but hers was the only maidenhead I ever broke. The rest had been broken before.'

‘Well, now!' Willie Alec murmured, his rough hand tugging at the lobe of his ear. ‘At least you're honest. I like that in a man. So you sowed your wild oats? I can hardly blame you for that, for I did the same … before I met Hannah. But that's between me and you, mind.'

‘Of course.'

After a moment's pause, Willie Alec said, ‘You say you love Lizann, but you wed another lassie after you'd been wi' her.'

‘I'd half asked Katie before that, but I wouldn't have married her … I came to see Lizann first, and she said she was engaged.'

‘So you married this Katie because you couldna have Lizann? You didna love your wife?'

‘You'll maybe not believe this, Mr Jappy, but I loved both of them at that time. It was a while after I married Katie till I found out she … wasn't the girl I thought she was.'

‘She'd had other men?'

Reluctantly, George told him everything, in the same way he had told Mrs Clark. ‘It was her not telling me before I married her,' he ended, ‘that's what I couldn't forgive.'

‘Aye, there shouldna be secrets between a man and his wife. Now, you said you were free …?'

Willie Alec was obviously thawing, and George's spirits took an upward swing. ‘Aye, Katie divorced me. I was notified the day.'

‘She divorced you? Had she grounds for that?'

Hell-bent on being scrupulously honest, George described the deception he had carried out, and was amazed when Willie Alec let out a rumbling laugh. ‘By God, lad, you took a chance there!' His smile fading, he went on, ‘You blackened Lizann's character, though.'

‘Her name wasn't mentioned in the affidavit,' George defended himself. ‘It was an unknown girl, that's what Mrs Clark signed to.'

‘You ken this, George? I canna help admiring you for the way you've fought to get my lassie.'

Hardly daring to presume he had won, George murmured, ‘You'll let her marry me?'

‘I think we'd best go back and see what her mother says.'

Hannah got little opportunity to say anything, because Lizann jumped up and flung herself at George when he went in, and Willie Alec looked at his wife and shrugged. ‘You can see how it is,' he told her. ‘He's free now, and we'd best just give them our blessing.'

‘You're not letting her marry a divorced man?' she gasped, aghast at how quickly he had changed his tune.

‘What does that matter when you can see for yourself he's the one she wants?' Willie Alec was already at the dresser, bringing out a bottle.

Mick pumped George's hand gleefully, but Hannah remained tight-lipped throughout the short celebration that followed. Then Willie Alec turned to George again. ‘Take Lizann for a walk, I can see she's desperate to ken what's been going on. And tell her everything, mind. Everything.'

When they went out, he looked at his wife. ‘You needna say what you're thinking, Hannah. I can see you're not pleased.'

Never having questioned her husband's decisions before, she felt bound to do so now. ‘I have to say what's in my mind, Willie Alec. I thought you was as against him as I was.'

‘I was, but not now. He's a decent man, Hannah. He told me things I'd never have found out myself, and for all he ken't they could have set me more against him than ever. But I like a man wi' spirit, a man that's not afraid to fight for what he wants, and he wants our Lizann. He loves her and he'll make her happy. Besides, he's one o' us … a fisherman.'

‘Hmmm!' Hannah grunted, knowing that his mind was made up.

‘Are you not happy for Lizann, Mother?' Mick asked.

‘I'll not be happy till I see for myself he takes care o' her right.'

Mick looked at his father with his face screwed up, but Willie Alec only smiled. ‘We'll drink to that, then. Eh, son?'

*    *    *

Lizann was rapturously happy when she went to bed. After all the months of worry, George had come for her, had even persuaded her father to let them marry. He had promised to see the minister with her in the morning, to arrange for the ceremony to be held in the manse, although they would have to wait at least three weeks for the banns to be cried. He had done wrong in making his landlady put her name to a false statement, but only to make Katie divorce him … and it had worked. She turned when Mick came into her room, smiling because he was slightly unsteady on his feet.

‘Well, that's it, little sister,' he said. ‘I knew George could talk Father round.'

‘It's all thanks to you,' she admitted.

‘I'm pleased he took my advice, but he pulled it off himself. Mother's not pleased, though.'

‘I don't care. Father's given us his blessing, that's all we need.' Her own future settled, Lizann wondered about her brother's. ‘What about you and Jenny Cowie, Mick?'

‘I can't get past the kissing stage,' he sighed. ‘I doubt I'll have to marry her first.'

‘Would that be so bad?'

‘I'd not say no to it, but the thing is … her folk need her.'

‘You should ask her. Maybe she'd say yes.'

‘Maybe she would, but I'll wait a while. One wedding in the family's enough at a time. Now I'd better let you get to sleep, so you can dream about your George.' Dropping a quick kiss on her head – which surprised them both, for they were not in the habit of showing the affection they had for each other – he went to his own room.