A Safe Harbour (51 page)

Authors: Benita Brown

Tags: #Technology & Engineering, #Sagas, #Fisheries & Aquaculture, #Fiction

BOOK: A Safe Harbour

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Then the bigger man, attempting to avoid a blow, seemed to lose his balance. He let out a despairing cry of rage and fear as he toppled over into the river. William rushed forward. Matthew, who a moment ago had been fighting for his life, was reaching down over the gunwale in an attempt to rescue his adversary. But, all too soon, he sank back and fell on to the deck, where he kneeled and moaned with despair.

‘I had him,’ he told them between sobs. ‘He reached up and I grabbed his arm. And then . . . and then I felt him trying to drag me in after him. I shook him off. I let go. What else could I do? I saw the current take him. I’ve killed him.’

William rushed to the side and looked over. There was no sign of the man. Thomas had risen to his feet. ‘Never mind that now,’ he shouted. ‘The boat’s sinking. It’s time to go.’ He grabbed Matthew by the shoulders and dragged him to his feet.

William realized that Thomas was right. The
Tyne Star
was settling in the water. They had to get ashore. Thomas and Matthew turned to go. William stayed a moment longer, leaning out over the water and straining his eyes in the pale light to see if he could catch sight of the man who’d gone overboard. His hopes rose when he saw a dark shape break surface about ten yards away, but from the wake it left as it swam by it soon became obvious it was too small to be a man. It was a water rat. He hoped that the man, whoever he was, had managed to swim to safety. But he knew the hope to be forlorn.

‘William, come on!’ Thomas turned and yelled.

With a final glance over the side William limped after the other two as they ran to the bow. By climbing on to the gunwale they were able to reach up and hook an arm round a quayside bollard then pull themselves up, one after the other. First Matthew and then Thomas. William heard them running along the quay as he reached for the bollard.

He got his arm round it but he was bigger and heavier than either Thomas or Matthew and it was not so easy for him, especially with the trawler sinking in the water.

At last he managed to swing one leg over the edge of the quay and then, pulling as hard as he could on the bollard, he eased himself up until, finally, he lay face down on the wet ground, panting with the effort.

The other two would be well away by now, he thought, but they might be waiting for him at the top of the embankment steps. He put both hands on the ground, ready to raise himself, and lifted his head.

The shock of what he saw almost stopped his heart. There, not more than three feet away, were two sturdy boots, the toecaps glistening in some sort of light from above. William rose to a crouching position.

‘What are you up to, lad?’ a voice said. The man was carrying an oil lamp and as he spoke he held it out towards William’s face.

William didn’t answer. He scrambled upright and lashed out with one arm, catching the lantern and sending it skittering across the cobbles. The light went out and, with the curses of the watchman and the smell of burnt oil filling the air, he ignored the pain in his ankle and ran as fast as he could.

Thomas and Matthew had waited at the bottom of the embankment steps. When William reached them they each hooked an arm under one of his and dragged him up. The steps were steep and slippery but panic made them sure-footed. They were exhausted by the time they reached the top and they flung themselves down. Lying on their stomachs, they peered down at the quayside. There was no sign of chase.

‘We’ve got away,’ Thomas said.

‘No we haven’t. He saw me,’ William told him.

‘He doesn’t know who you are.’

‘He’ll soon find out.’

‘How’s that?’

‘How many people have hair this colour? When he reports the incident someone will tell him that’s it’s likely he caught one of the Lawsons.’

‘But that could be me!’ Thomas lost a little of his bluster.

‘It could be but you’ve nowt to fear.’

‘Why?’

‘I told you. He got a good look at me. He saw my face.’

‘What the hell are we going to do?’That came from Matthew and he sounded scared. ‘When they come for you they’ll ask you if you acted alone. What will you tell them?’

‘William won’t tell them anything. Will you?’ his brother asked and William sensed the pleading in his voice.

‘You’re right. I won’t tell them anything because I won’t be here.’

‘What do you mean?’ Matthew asked.

‘I mean what I say. I won’t be here. I’ll have to run.’

‘No!’ Thomas gasped.

‘Use your head, man,’ William said. ‘If I don’t run for it, it won’t just be prison; they’ll hang me. There’s a man drowned, remember?’

‘Oh, God, oh God, oh God,’ Matthew began to moan.

‘Stop that,’ William said. ‘It doesn’t help.’

‘But it was my fault he went overboard,’ Matthew said.

‘He was trying to shove you over the side, remember?’

‘Aye, and me too,’ Thomas added.

William raised himself on his elbows and reached out and gripped his brother’s arm. ‘And if this fiasco is anyone’s fault it’s yours, isn’t it? It was all your crazy idea—’

‘No, it was Jos’s.’

‘Stop trying to blame a dead man. You have no idea if he would have carried out his plan to sink the trawler. If he’d lived, and if he’d gone ahead with the plan, then we could lay the blame squarely at his feet. But he didn’t and what happened tonight is entirely your responsibility.’

‘We’ll have to own up,’ Matthew said. ‘We can’t let you take the blame alone.’

‘What good would that do? We’d all hang. Do you want to break our mother’s heart, Thomas? And you, Matthew, your mother’s already mad with grief because she’s lost one son; what would it do to her if she lost another? No, I was the one the watchman saw and if I vanish there’s no way they can get to you. But you’ll both have to keep quiet about what happened for the rest of your lives – quite a burden. And you, Thomas, will have the extra burden of making sure that our da keeps his mouth shut. Your lives won’t be easy, either of you.’

‘But where will you go?’ Thomas asked.

‘Right now we’re going home and you’re going to get a few things for me from the cottage.’

‘What shall I tell Ma?’

‘Nothing.’

‘She’ll ask.’

‘Tell her I’ll make sure she finds out all she needs to know.’

‘How will you do that?’

‘For God’s sake stop blethering and let’s get home. I’ll wait in the lane until you get my things and then I’ll be off.’

‘You haven’t told me where you’re going to go,’ his brother said.

‘That’s the way it’ll have to be. If you don’t know you can’t tell anyone.’

‘As if I would!’

‘You might not mean to but you’re just like our da when you’ve had a drink or two. I won’t change my mind, so let’s go.’

Alice had insisted on sitting up all night to watch over Charlie. Mrs Hewitson had been to lay him out and the undertaker would be coming today. And Kate knew that Alice would keep her vigil when Charlie was in his coffin until the hearse came to carry him to his last resting place in the graveyard on the headland. Kate made Alice a cup of tea and sat with her while she drank it.

When Alice dropped her head and began to doze Kate eased the cup and saucer from her hands and took them through to the scullery. Then she slipped quietly out of the living quarters. She wanted to open the shop well before Susan arrived. She would give the young woman no cause for complaint. It would only upset Alice, who would be torn between her love for her daughter and her growing affection for Kate.

No sooner had she opened the shop door than the muffled figure of a man pushed his way in, took hold of the door and closed it quickly. Kate looked at him in surprise. His cap was pulled low on his forehead and the collar of his jacket was turned up. But despite this there was still a glint of red hair showing. He was carrying a bundle wrapped in sacking and tied with string. And she thought that when he entered he had been limping.

‘Lock up again,’ her brother William said. ‘I won’t stay long.’

Sensing his urgency, Kate did as she was told. ‘What is it?’ she asked.

‘Is there somewhere we can sit where no one can see us?’

‘Yes, for the moment. We could go to the stockroom. But . . .’

‘But what?

‘Susan Armstrong will be arriving.’

‘How soon?’

‘We’ve probably got about half an hour. Maybe just a little less.’

‘That’ll have to do.’

‘Come through then, but I’ll unlock the door. If an early bird arrives they’ll expect me to be open.’

William followed Kate through, and once they were seated in the stockroom she urged him to talk softly. ‘I don’t want Alice disturbed,’ she said. ‘Now, what is it? There’s something very wrong, isn’t there?’

‘I don’t know where to start.’

‘At the beginning.’

As concisely as he could William told Kate what had happened just a few hours ago and what he intended to do. ‘I’ve been skulking in the shadows until you opened up,’ he told her. ‘I thought it best not to go home. I can trust our ma but I don’t want Da to know too much.’

Kate was appalled.

‘You’re leaving Cullercoats?’ she said.

‘What choice do I have? I don’t want to hang. And I don’t want to lead the law to Thomas and Matthew, either.’

‘I’d find it hard to be sorry for them if you did!’

‘No, Kate, you wouldn’t want them to hang either, would you?’

‘Between them they killed a man.’

‘It was an accident.’

‘An accident that wouldn’t have happened if they hadn’t been there!’

‘You’re right. And you’re right to be angry. But . . .’

‘What is it?’

‘You mustn’t put all the blame on Thomas.’

‘Don’t tell me it was Matthew Linton’s idea. I wouldn’t believe you.’

‘No, it wasn’t Matthew.’

William looked as though he’d rather be anywhere than sitting opposite her in the close confines of the stockroom. Kate stared at him, trying to make out what it was that he was finding so difficult to tell her.

‘Jos,’
she breathed.

‘Yes. I’m sorry, Kate, but it was Jos who first put the idea into Thomas’s head. We’ll never know whether he would have carried out his plan if he’d lived.’

‘Not if I’d had anything to do with it!’

Her temper flared and she didn’t know whom exactly she was angry with: her twin brother for sinking the trawler or her dead sweetheart for dreaming up the idea in the first place. She knew William was telling the truth because this was just the sort of thing Jos would suggest. He had been hardworking and clever but there had been a wild streak in him that had eventually led to his death. It was that wildness that brought us together in the first place, Kate thought. We were both wayward bairns and no one else was a match for us. But now, months after Jos had drowned, his words had caused another tragedy. She wondered, not for the first time over the past few months, whether she had really known the man she had loved so much.

‘Kate,’ William said. ‘You know I have to go? You know there’s nothing else I can do – not if I want to stay alive.’

They stared at each other and suddenly Kate reached out and took William’s hand. ‘Does this mean I’ll never see you again?’

He nodded, too full to trust himself to speak.

‘Is there anything I can do to help?’ Kate asked.

‘That’s why I’ve come. I’ve told you the truth, the full story of what happened last night. I want you to tell Ma. I’ve told Thomas to say nowt. You’re the best one to do it.’

‘Where are you going to go? What are you going to do?’

‘I’m going to leave the country. I’ll sign on to some ship heading far away. That is if any master will take me with this limp.’

‘I can help you there.’

‘How’s that?’

‘Wait here.’

Kate left him and went upstairs to her room. When she returned she handed him an old purse. He looked inside.

‘I can’t take this,’ he said.

‘Why not?’

‘It’s too much. It looks as though you were saving up for something.’