A Child of Jarrow (38 page)

By early December, Rose had to sleep propped up in bed for fear of drowning in her sleep from the fluids flooding her lungs. She sat motionless, the breath gurgling in her throat. John moved out grudgingly, and slept on the settle. But Catherine kept watch from the desk bed, staying close to her grandmother, despite the stench in the cramped room.

‘I'll stop with Mam,' she told Kate stubbornly when her mother tried to coax her back to their feather bed.

Dr Dyer came one raw December day and gave Rose morphine to ease her pain. He took Kate aside.

‘She'll not be with us long - a week or two. Don't you have a sister in Birtley?'

Kate nodded, too overcome to speak.

‘Best to send word - give her a chance to say her farewells.'

That Saturday Sarah arrived with her ten-year-old daughter Minnie. ‘I've left the rest of the bairns with Michael's mam,' she explained, hugging Kate in greeting.

‘St Teresa!' Kate gasped at her sister's huge belly. ‘You've another on the way an' all.'

‘Aye,' she gave a sheepish grin, ‘if it's a lass that'll be four of each. But they're canny bairns and I've nowt to complain about.'

Kate felt a stab of envy for her older sister, who seemed so content with her lot. How she would have loved a large brood of lads. But she did not begrudge Sarah and was comforted to have her as an ally in the house. Catherine was soon organising her cousin Minnie into games in the frosty street while the sisters shared the cooking and tended their weakening mother.

Rose drifted in and out of consciousness, aware that her daughters were gathering at her bedside. On the Sunday morning they were roused with a startling sound.

‘What's that noise?' Catherine asked, springing out of bed. Kate had been napping in the kitchen.

‘It's church bells,' she exclaimed.

They ran to the door and threw it open. A blast of icy air greeted them and the distant clang of bells.

Sarah and Minnie rushed out of the bedroom. ‘What is it? Does it mean an air raid?' Sarah asked in alarm. Kate shook her head.

‘No, you get sirens and maroons for that.'

‘We're being invaded!' Catherine cried dramatically.

‘Don't be daft,' Kate said, though the thought had occurred to her too. ‘Gan up the street and ask Uncle Alec.'

But before she had a chance, a uniformed boy with a bugle appeared like a ghostly messenger at the top of the street, shouting the news.

‘We've captured Jerusalem! Turks have surrendered to General Allenby. God save the King!' And he blew on his bugle for good measure before racing off to the next street.

The sisters hugged each other and the girls screamed in excitement, waking John from sleep. They gabbled the news to him and Catherine rushed in to tell her grandmother. ‘Jerusalem belongs to the Christians now, Mam! Isn't that grand?'

Rose was already awake. She looked so pained and tired, Kate wondered if she had slept at all. But she nodded in agreement and replied falteringly, ‘You must gan to church -give thanks - pray for all the soldiers.'

‘Yes, Mam,' Catherine promised.

‘And Kate,' she wheezed, ‘Light a candle - for our Jack.'

Kate felt a pang at the mention of her brother.

‘Course we will,' Catherine assured.

So Kate found herself borrowing a coat of Mary's and trooping off to St Bede's with Sarah and the girls, while their younger sister sat with Rose. It was a rare outing and Kate enjoyed the banter with Sarah, realising how much she missed her sister's company. They paid for a candle for Jack, but it was her mother that Kate prayed for silently and fervently. She hated to see the way Rose suffered, but it frightened her to think of life without her mother.

There were times when Kate had resented her mother intensely. She had sent her out to beg on the streets as a young girl and had been unforgiving over the affair with Alexander. She had taken Catherine from her as punishment. But Rose had shown her a deep, loyal love throughout her life that their hardships and differences had never quite extinguished. Most of all, she had tried to shield Kate from her stepfather and taken the brunt of his excesses upon herself. Kate shuddered to think of life at Number Ten with no Rose to stand between them.

They returned to East Jarrow, to find visitors.

‘Aunt Lizzie!' Kate cried, and dashed forward to hug her aunt.

‘Maggie sent word.' She smiled fondly at her niece. ‘I'm sorry it's come to this.' They looked at each other wordlessly for a long moment, as memories flooded back of happier times when Kate had lived at Ravensworth. They had seen each other seldom over the past twelve years, only at the christenings of Sarah and Mary's children. ‘You're still bonny, for all your troubles,' her aunt said kindly.

‘How's Mam?' Kate asked.

‘Been sleeping mostly since we got here.'

‘Aye,' Maggie confirmed. ‘Don't think she recognised our Lizzie.'

The aunts and nieces set about making Sunday lunch, eking out the winter vegetables Lizzie had brought from Ravensworth and catching up on family news. George, whose eyesight was too poor for military service, was courting and soon to be wed. Boisterous Alfred was impatient for his next birthday so he could sign up with the Durhams and join Cousin Jack in Flanders.

‘Let's gan in and see if Mam's awake,' Kate suggested. ‘Maybes she'll manage a bit broth.'

Catherine bounded into the parlour ahead of them. Rose opened her eyes at the noise. To Kate's astonishment, she saw Rose smile for the first time in weeks. Her eyes were fixed on Catherine as she beckoned the girl with a trembling hand.

‘Come here, me bonny bairn,' she rasped.

‘We lit a candle for Jack, Mam,' Catherine smiled, approaching the bed and letting her grandmother touch her face.

Rose did not seem to register the words.

‘Where've you been?' Rose whispered, her eyes filling with tears.

The child gave her a quizzical look. ‘Been to church, like you said, Mam.'

Rose frowned in worry. ‘Don't run off again, Margaret hinny. You gave me and your da such a fright.'

Catherine glanced round at the others, baffled. Kate came forward.

‘It's Kitty, Mam,' she said gently, ‘your grandbairn.'

Rose gazed at Catherine, tears oozing down her cheeks. ‘You've come back,' she whispered, clinging on to the girl, ‘my bonny, bonny lass! Angel child. Just like she said.'

‘Like who said, Mam?' Kate asked.

‘The gypsy lass, of course,' Rose said with a hint of her old spark. ‘Promised me the angel child.' She sank back on her pillows, her eyes still fixed on Catherine. ‘And all the time it was you, Margaret, come back to me ... Don't go away again, hinny, don't go ...'

Her breathing grew ragged and she closed her eyes in exhaustion. Quietly Kate steered Catherine away.

‘Leave her be,' she murmured.

‘Who's Margaret?'

‘She's gettin' mixed up - it's the medicine,' She glanced at her aunts in the doorway.

‘Poor Rose! She's going backwards - thinking of her first bairn,' Lizzie said quietly. ‘She died of consumption years ago.'

‘Aye,' Maggie agreed sadly. ‘Margaret was her favourite. Took it that bad when she died.'

Kate felt her eyes sting with tears. ‘I remember that,' she murmured. ‘Mam crying and shutting herself away in the room where me sister died.'

‘Do I look like her?' Catherine asked.

‘Aye, there's a look,' Maggie agreed. The girl seemed pleased with this.

Sarah added, ‘And you've got Margaret's bossy streak an' all. Like a mother hen with the rest of us, wasn't she, Kate?'

Kate smiled wistfully and touched her daughter's cheek. ‘Aye, from what I remember. Always carryin' us about and being the leader in our games.'

‘What did she mean about the gypsy?' Sarah puzzled.

Maggie and Lizzie exchanged looks and glanced towards the kitchen to make sure John was out of earshot.

Maggie lowered her voice. ‘Don't you remember going to The Hoppings in Newcastle - before Jack was born?'

Sarah struggled with her memory. ‘Aye, I do! Kate, remember the Irish woman who read Mam's palm?'

Kate had a vague recollection of a red-haired woman with mesmerising eyes, touching her hair. There had been a huge row in front of a makeshift tent. It could have been at the fair.

‘Well, Rose said this gypsy had spoilt the day by cursing you all with bad fortune. John was that angry and told her never to talk of it again. She wouldn't tell all that the gypsy had said.'

‘But she predicted Jack's birth,' Lizzie continued, ‘she told us that. And sommat about an angel child.'

‘To sweeten her old age,' Maggie recited. ‘She always held on to the belief there'd be this bairn like an angel, no matter how bad things got with him in there.' She nodded towards the kitchen.

‘Kitty, an angel?' Mary was sceptical. ‘Didn't think Mam believed in such nonsense anyway.'

Lizzie shrugged. ‘Maybes it helped her keep her spirits up. God knows, she's needed it over the years.'

They all glanced back at the figure in the bed, sleeping fitfully.

‘What harm does it do if she thinks Kitty's her special lass come back,' Sarah said, ‘if it eases her going?'

The aunts nodded and turned away. Kate looked at her daughter's perplexed face and felt a strange tingle down the back of her neck. Could it be possible that some tinker woman had predicted the birth of her child so long ago? If so, then her daughter must be destined for something special. Briefly Kate rested a hand on Catherine's head and took comfort from the thought.

‘Haway, hinny,' she said, ‘we'll leave her be.'

The next day, sudden blizzards swirled in from the east and brought trains and trams to a standstill. Lizzie and Sarah had no option but to stay on, but Rose never regained consciousness after the strange incident with Catherine. It was as if, at the sight of the child she mistook for her beloved, long-dead Margaret, she no longer needed to struggle. Their battle-weary, stoical, protective mother had found peace at last.

No one was surprised when, in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Kate was shaken awake by Catherine.

‘Mam's stopped making that rattlin' noise. Is that a good sign, Kate?'

Kate rushed to her mother's bedside and held a candle aloft. The eyes were staring and lifeless, her skin already cooling to the touch. Kate closed her eyes for a long moment, squeezing back hot tears.

‘Aye, it's a good sign,' she trembled. ‘Gan back to bed, hinny.'

Kate sat in the dark, holding her mother's hand. It felt suddenly slim, as if all the knotted veins had unravelled and the thick knuckles dissolved. Rose had a young woman's hands again, she marvelled. Slow painful tears of loss spilt down her cheeks.

‘You're with me da now,' Kate whispered hoarsely, ‘and me sisters. A happy day for you, Mam.' She leant forward and kissed her gently on the forehead, wishing she could have done so when she was alive.

The next three days were a blur of funeral arranging, with neighbours calling to pay their respects at the open coffin and help contribute towards holly wreaths and sprays of winter jasmine. John sat morosely in his chair, accepting consoling drinks and platitudes about the wife he had once adored but come to despise after years of wrangling and hardship for which they had each blamed the other.

The day of the funeral, Kate bade Catherine say goodbye to her grandmother before the coffin was nailed down. But the child was awkward and ran off. She had been playing up for days, refusing her food and being sick, and this was the final straw.

Kate was too desolate to try to coax round her difficult daughter and left Mary to fuss over the child. She balked at the thought of going to the burial, until Sarah chivvied her with a cup of tea fortified strongly with whisky.

‘Get that down you,' her sister ordered.

With false courage in her belly, Kate set out with the family down the hill to Jarrow cemetery. Amid flurries of snow, frozen to the marrow, a grief-stricken Kate clutched her sisters. As the coffin was lowered into the metal-hard ground and the priest hurried over the brief committal, Kate crumpled like a small child, sobbing for her mother.

Soon her sisters and aunts would be gone to their own homes and separate lives. Only she would be left to soldier on at Number Ten with her bullying stepfather and resentful daughter. God give her strength to carry on!

Numbly she looked around for Catherine. Maybe it was just possible that, left alone together, the child might come to love her more and Kate might find more patience. Through her tears Kate saw the girl standing impassively next to her grandfather. She was holding on to his frayed jacket as if it gave her a shred of comfort.