For a Father's Pride (34 page)

Daisy looked out of the doorway of Mill Race. It was wet, cold and the mist was hanging around the fells like a ghostly spectre. The weather matched her mood. She’d not
slept for nights – not a wink since Sunday evening, when she had no option but to tell Sam her news. And now she knew that his mother would be drip-feeding him poisoned thoughts about her and
Clifford and the conception of Tobias. She should have given Sam his engagement ring back there and then, for no wedding would ever take place now.

‘Close the door, Mam,’ called Tobias as he sat at the table trying to work out some sums that Daisy was trying to teach him. ‘It’s cold, and my paper keeps blowing in the
draught.’

Daisy smiled. The word ‘Mam’ sounded alien to her, and she couldn’t get used to the fact that she was a mother to this child. She was trying to teach him things to make him
brighter. After Christmas she’d enrol him at school in Hawes, but at the moment it was best if they kept away from the place; tongues were bound to be wagging.

‘Fresh air never did anybody any harm and, besides, we’ve a good fire. You’d be colder up at Grouse Hall if you were still there.’

Daisy leaned against the doorway and watched the mist banking over the fell end. It was then that she noticed the grey shape of a man climbing the path around the fellside, before disappearing
down the ridge and coming into sight again. Who’d be daft enough to come visiting them on a day like today? It wasn’t even fit for a dog to be out.

‘We’ve a visitor, Tobias, but I can’t make out who it is, apart from that it’s a man and he’s walking. He must be half-mad, coming out in this weather.’

‘I hope it isn’t Oversby. I don’t like that man,’ said Tobias.

‘It’ll not be him, my love, for he knows he’ll never be welcome here.’ Daisy peered at the man making his way towards them and waving, as if possessed, once he caught
sight of her in the doorway. No . . . it couldn’t be; surely not. He wouldn’t be so mad as to come all the way to Grisedale! But it was indeed Jim, looking like a drenched rat.

‘God, how can you live in this godforsaken place? I’m drenched, my feet are soaked, and you never told me how far away from the station you were. I’m knackered!’ Jim
stood in the doorway. ‘Aren’t you going to ask me in then?’ His face lit up with a beaming smile. ‘Or have I to turn back and catch the next train to Leeds?’

‘Oh! I’m sorry. You were the last person I expected to see, tramping over the fell in weather like this. What on earth made you come? Why didn’t you write and let me
know?’ Daisy ushered the sopping-wet Jim into her warm kitchen, where he stood next to the fire as the water dripped off him, making puddles on the floor.

‘You sounded down in your letter, and I needed an ear to talk into. And the top and bottom of it, Daisy petal, is that I’ve missed you.’ Jim looked dejected as Daisy closed the
door on the inclement weather.

‘Well, I am down – nothing’s going right. But look at you! At least take your coat off; you’re sodden. Tobias, run and get me a towel out of that drawer upstairs, and
then Jim can dry himself.’

Tobias looked at the tall man who had invaded his mother’s kitchen and stood still.

‘It’s all right, Tobias. This is Jim. I used to work for him when I lived in Leeds, and he’s a good man, so you needn’t worry. Now, go and get that towel.’ Daisy
smiled at her son, who was trying to figure out where Jim fitted into the picture.

‘Now then, Tobias, your mother told me all about you in her letter to me. In fact I’ve brought something for you.’ Jim reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box.
‘I thought you might like these.’ He smiled as he pressed the box into Tobias’s hands.

‘What are they?’ Tobias looked at the box.

‘It’s a box of tin soldiers. I thought you’d like to play with them.’ Jim smiled.

‘Tobias, could you get the towel? You can look at the soldiers when you come back down. Jim, take your coat off, before you catch your death; in fact take your trousers and jacket off, for
you are soaked to the bone.’ Daisy pulled her airing rack down from over the fire. The pulley squeaked as she tugged on the ropes while lowering it to chest height. ‘Come on, you
needn’t be shy. I’ll not look.’

Jim peeled off his soaking coat and then, bashfully, his trousers and jacket, as Daisy turned the other way. He then placed them over the airing rack, before sitting down in the chair next to
the fire, with the knitted throw from the sofa around him.

‘By, lass, tha’s a fast mover! Only just got into the house and you’ve got my breeches off me.’ Jim laughed as he dried his wet hair with the towel.

‘There will be none of that. I’m in enough bother, without you adding to it. But it is good to see you. I’ll put the kettle on.’ She reached for the kettle from the side
of the fire.

Jim dropped his towel and reached for her hand. ‘I’ve missed you so much, Daisy. I didn’t realize how I felt about you until you’d left. You always did have a way of
making me smile. Not like Susie, who was only after one thing.’

He looked into her eyes and held her wrist as Daisy stood there, not knowing what to say. Her heart was beating fast; the man she had always wanted was in her kitchen, in nothing more than his
underwear, telling her that he had feelings for her.

‘Don’t be daft. I’m engaged to be married. You want nothing to do with me.’ Daisy pulled her arm away and filled the kettle, before putting it on the hearth to boil.

‘But in your letter you said you’d fallen out – that your fiancé didn’t want the lad?’ Jim watched Daisy as she put three cups and saucers on the table and
sliced three pieces of sandwich cake.

‘Aye, well, he wanted some time to think about things. And you can’t blame him. It came as a shock to me to find that I was Tobias’s mother, so it must have been worse for Sam
– God knows what he thinks of me. And he’ll be listening to the whole of Hawes talking, and his mother will be adding her four penn’orth. He’ll come back if, and when,
he’s ready.’

Daisy watched Tobias lining up his soldiers at the end of the table. She loved the lad; the truth was that she’d loved him from the first time she set eyes on him under the kitchen table.
And no way was anyone going to hurt him again – not as long as she had breath in her body. She hoped Tobias hadn’t heard that he wasn’t wanted by Sam.

‘Anyway, how’s everyone in Leeds? And what happened between you and Susie?’

‘Don’t mention Susie to me. Once that witch Angelina cut me out of the new factory, her father and William bought back my shares in the firm, and then Susie wanted nothing to do with
me. She’s living with the sales manager they took on, when they moved to Roundhay Park. He’s a swanky bastard who wears a sharply cut suit and charms the birds out of the trees.’
Jim stared into the fire. ‘The bastard!’

‘You never told me you’d been cut out of the firm. What are you doing now? Are you still living above the shop?’ Daisy couldn’t believe her ears. So much had changed
since she had left Leeds; Jim had been the one with his sights set on one of the new houses in Roundhay then, not William.

‘Nope. I’ve no fixed abode, as they say. Daisy petal, I’m down on my luck: my family don’t want me; my fiancée has dumped me; and I spent my last few bob on them
tin soldiers and a train ticket to see you. How the mighty have fallen, eh! Daisy, Susie took me for every penny. Not like you – you seem to have gone from strength to strength. Is it two
properties you own now?’

Daisy passed Jim his cup of tea and a slice of cake. What a fool she’d been, thinking that Jim cared for her. He was just escaping from his worries. And in her letter to him she had said
how comfortable her new home was, and how much it was worth.

‘Well, I’m sorry to hear of your hard times – you never put any of that in your letters. How did you get the letters, if you aren’t living at the shop?’ Daisy
decided she’d be cool with Jim. He still might make her heart flutter with his winning smile, but his love of money had always got him into bother. Now that she looked back on her life at
Leeds, she could see that Jim had only ever thought about money – and Susie.

‘Freddie passed them on to me. But I shouldn’t bother you with my hard times, Daisy petal.’ Jim slurped his tea down and ate his slice of cake as if he’d never been fed
before. ‘You still make a good cake, lass.’

The afternoon went quickly as Jim told Daisy of his woes, along with his lack of money. ‘What time’s your train back?’ Daisy looked at the clock ticking on
the mantel. She knew the last train was around eight o’clock and the night was pulling in, as it was nearly four in the afternoon and darkness was soon going to fall, because of the
weather.

‘Back? I thought you’d ask me to stay a while, once you knew my plight.’ Jim nearly choked over his second slice of cake.

‘Jim, I’ve too much hanging in the balance in my life at the moment. I don’t need the hassle of you living here, and having to explain to Sam and confuse poor Tobias. You are a
dear friend – and always will be – and I’m sorry you’ve landed on hard times, but you’ll bounce back, I know you will.’ As soon as Daisy had said the words she
felt a pang of guilt. They’d been so close, or so she’d thought, but when she looked back, she’d been like a puppy in love, hanging on Jim’s every word. It had been William
who had always been the gentleman in her life. ‘As you are down on your luck, and because you were always good to me, I’ll give you your train fare home, and some more besides. I
don’t want you sleeping on the streets, but I can’t have you living here.’

Daisy stood up from her chair and looked at the crestfallen Jim, who stared into the fire, not saying a word. She walked through to the kitchen and climbed the stairs. Reaching under her bed,
she stretched out for her cash tin and took twenty pounds out of it. It had taken her a long time to earn it, but she could do without it, for the sake of a friend. A pang of guilt overcame her:
should she let him stay? She closed the tin and held the twenty pounds tightly as she walked down the stairs and into the kitchen.

Jim was already climbing back into his damp clothes.

‘I’m sorry, Daisy, I shouldn’t have presumed you would let me stay here. I was desperate – I’ll go now.’ For once he was reserved and quiet. He pulled his
sodden coat back on him and tussled Tobias’s hair. ‘You look after your mother, she’s a good woman.’

‘Jim, take this.’ Daisy held the three months’ savings out to him. ‘I want you to have it. Go back to Leeds, rent yourself a room and make a new start. I can’t send
you out into this night with nothing.’ She forced the notes into his hand and smiled. ‘Call it an investment; you owe me, just for a change.’ She bit her lip and fought back the
tears.

‘Daisy petal, I can’t take all this. I didn’t come for your money.’ Jim’s eyes belied his lips, and he knew it.

‘I know, but you look after yourself. You’ll bounce back; you can’t keep a good man down.’ Daisy opened the door on the gathering dusk outside. ‘Now get back over
the fellside and onto the road while it’s light, or else you’ll lose your way.’

Jim stopped and wrapped his arms tightly round Daisy. His wet coat rubbed against her warm clothes and he kissed her on the cheek. ‘Thank you, Daisy. I’m sorry I disappointed you. I
disappoint everyone.’ He looked into her eyes and, in that moment, she realized just how much she loved him.

‘You take care. And you are no disappointment.’ She squeezed his hand and wiped a tear away from her eye as she saw Jim walking away from her. She watched him for as long as she
could, before the mist and the darkness enfolded him. ‘God bless you, Jim Mattinson. Perhaps next time around things will be different.’

‘Well, are you satisfied now?’ Luke Allen stood in front of Mary and Sam Allen. ‘We had to know, so I thought I’d get it from the horse’s
mouth.’

Henry Winterskill stood in the front room of Luke’s family house. He’d broken every rule in the book, but Luke had convinced him that it was in Daisy’s best interests that his
family knew the truth, and that the situation needed clearing up.

‘She really had a hard life with her family. Her father regretted treating her like he did and, what with her rape by her brother-in-law, can you blame Daisy for papering over the
truth?’ Henry stood his ground for Daisy. She had always been true to her word with him, and she was always polite.

‘Aye, but she’s got a lad! Our Sam will have to raise him,’ cried Mary.

‘Your Sam will be the owner of Mill Race, if he marries Daisy. And while young Tobias is growing up, he will be able to put aside the rent from Grouse Hall. I think Daisy will come off
worse financially than Sam. After all, on her marriage everything automatically becomes her husband’s, and I presume you’ll want her to work for your business without pay?’

Henry watched Mary’s hard face. She’d listened too much to the gossip of Hawes, instead of taking as she found.

‘She’s a grand lass, Mary, give her a chance.’ Luke looked at his son. ‘And you – you big lummox – get yourself up Grisedale and get a date set. She’s
waited long enough. I’m sick of seeing your sulking face around the shop. The lad’s young enough to know only you as his father. He’ll soon forget Clifford Middleton; he
can’t call him his father anyway.’ Luke liked the lass, and that was all that mattered.

‘I don’t know, Father. Folk will talk.’ Sam thought of all the sniggers and whispers he’d put up with over the last few weeks – he hadn’t liked it.

‘So what? Your mother was six months pregnant with you when we got married, and folk talked about us then, but they soon get over it. Something else comes along, and they forget.’
Luke looked at his son.

‘Father, you didn’t have to tell him that!’ Mary blushed in front of Henry Winterskill.

‘If he loves her, he’ll put up with the gossip and enjoy his life with her. It’s no good if he’s ashamed of her. He thought nowt of having his way with her on Moorcock
Show day. Aye, you didn’t think I knew. I wasn’t born yesterday, lad. I know that twinkle in a young man’s eye. It’s what got me into bother.’

‘If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go now. This is for your family to sort out.’ Henry Winterskill had heard enough of the Allen family secrets. It was time to leave.