Going Home (12 page)

Rose and Edward Scott. He tried the names several times in his head, then his own name, Ralph Scott. Ralph Hawkins. Which would it be?

‘Hey! Are you going to sit there all day?’ Jack called to him from across the street.

Ralph got to his feet and crossed over to join him. ‘Let’s go to Holderness,’ he said. ‘I need to talk to Aunt Emily.’

‘Do you think the children are ill, Elizabeth?’ Amelia asked. ‘This is the third day that they haven’t come to school. They were rather quiet at the beginning of the week, not themselves at all.’

‘Possibly,’ Elizabeth answered vaguely. She didn’t seem to be really listening.

There was a knock on the door and Amelia said, ‘I’ll go. It’s maybe the postman.’

But it wasn’t. It was a small barefoot girl wearing a man’s jacket over a tattered dress and sacking apron, who handed her a scrap of paper and said in a broad Irish accent, ‘Will you be giving this to Miss Linton? It’s from Moira.’

Amelia took the paper. ‘Is she ill? And what about Eamon? He hasn’t been at school.’

‘They’ve gone, miss. All of ’em. They’ll not be coming back.’

‘Gone! Gone where?’ She unfolded the scrap of paper and saw Moira’s careful hand.

‘To look for work, miss.’ The little girl turned away and then came back. She clutched at the checked shawl which was draped around her head. ‘Would you be throwing away any scraps o’ bread, miss?’

Amelia looked down at her and then said, ‘Yes. Wait a moment.’ She hurried into the kitchen and picked up a loaf, barely begun, from the bread crock, then reaching for her purse she took sixpence from it and handed bread and money to the little girl.

‘God bless you, miss.’ The little girl put the sixpence in her pocket and took a huge bite from the loaf.

Amelia slowly closed the door and read the note as she walked into the parlour. ‘It’s from Moira,’ she said. ‘She says that they are moving to Hull. Her father is going to look for work on the docks.’

Elizabeth’s face crumpled and tears rushed to her eyes. ‘That’s the final straw,’ she choked. ‘I can’t go on.’

Amelia looked quickly at her. ‘Whatever do you mean, Elizabeth? What is it?’

‘I heard the other day that the two private pupils are leaving. Their parents are moving from the district, and now with the Irish children gone – !’

‘But we’ll get other pupils,’ Amelia began.

‘No.’ Elizabeth shook her head. ‘It will be too late. The fees for Moira and Eamon will be withdrawn. I can’t expect the benefactors to pay
when the children are not here. We are working on a shoestring Amelia,’ she said. ‘This is a new term, there will be no more pupils.’

Amelia sank down on a chair. ‘So what shall we do?’

Elizabeth took a deep breath. ‘Harriet and I will manage as best as we can with the pupils who are left, but I’m very much afraid, my dear, that we can no longer afford to pay your salary, small though it is.’

‘But I don’t need—’

‘I know that the salary isn’t of paramount importance to you, Amelia. But I cannot justify you working for nothing, especially when there are no extra pupils to teach. I am so sorry,’ she added. ‘We have enjoyed having your company here. You have been such an asset.’

‘You would let me know if things improve?’ Amelia coaxed. ‘I could come at very short notice.’ They are so proud and independent, she thought. They would be offended if I suggested a loan.

‘Of course.’ Elizabeth gave a sad smile. ‘What we need is a small miracle, Amelia. Not too big. Just enough pupils to make a living so that we don’t have to scrimp and save constantly. We are willing to work, but there are many private schools opening now and free schools too for the poor children. It is going to get even harder.’

Amelia packed her bag and prepared to depart for home the next day. She would leave some of her belongings on the chance
that she might return. Then she went to shop in the market. She bought fresh fish and beef, vegetables and fruit, and chose delicacies and confectionery that she knew the Fielding sisters never bought. She arranged to have them delivered and walked back towards the little house tucked away in a corner.

As she crossed Sampson’s Square she caught sight of a man. A broad-set man, whose skin colour was dark, with hair that was black and thick and curly and who walked with a regal step. As he approached her he tipped his hat with his gloved hand and she smiled in return. By his manner of dress, a grey double-breasted frock coat and slightly flared checked trousers, he looked every inch a gentleman, and yet there was a natural simplicity beneath his elegant and expensive apparel. She couldn’t begin to guess at his origins. Not African or Arab. He stopped. ‘I beg your pardon, ma’am. I am looking for the County Court. Could you direct me?’

She explained the directions and once more he tipped his hat as he moved away. She pondered that no English gentleman would have had the temerity to stop a lone gentlewoman in the street. She permitted herself to look over her shoulder. He was, she decided, the most beautiful man she had ever seen.

‘I’m going to prepare us a special supper,’ she told the sisters. ‘Now you are not to laugh at my attempts, but I thought as I am going home, that we should make this an occasion.’

‘But it is not a celebration,’ Elizabeth began. ‘We don’t want you to go.’

‘I know,’ Amelia smiled, ‘but you have been so kind to me that I wanted to do something in return.’ She also knew that she had bought far too much food, and that it would last the sisters for at least another week.

‘I think I shall try to find the Mahoney children when I next visit Hull,’ she said as they sat to eat their supper. ‘I don’t like to think that they might be destitute like the child who came to the door. Poor little girl,’ she said softly. ‘Her clothes were in rags.’ She paused, then said, ‘Such a contrast: when I went out earlier I saw an elegantly dressed man in the square, a foreign gentleman, dark-skinned. The cost of his gloves alone would have kept the child in food for a month. He was,’ she added, ‘the most beautiful man I have ever seen.’

Harriet laughed. ‘You mean handsome, surely, Amelia?’ Not beautiful!’

‘No,’ Amelia said slowly and described him. ‘Not just handsome, although he was that too, but he had a gentle beauty radiating from him. It was as if there was no anger, no aggression in him and yet there was a surety, a firmness about him that wouldn’t stand any nonsense.’

‘My goodness, Amelia.’ Elizabeth smiled. ‘Don’t say that you have fallen in love with a total stranger?’

‘Oh, she has. She has!’ Harriet, who was
inclined to a romantic disposition, clapped her hands enthusiastically. ‘I wonder who he is?’

Amelia laughed with them. ‘How silly we are! There, I knew we would have fun tonight!’

‘
MAMA. MAMA. QUICKLY
. Come and look! Ginny! There’s someone coming.’ Hannah and Joseph almost fell into the hall in their excitement. ‘There’s a man – two men,’ said Joseph. ‘And one of them has a black face,’ said Hannah, ‘and they’re riding beautiful horses.’

Ginny ushered them into the drawing room. ‘Now where are your manners?’ she said severely. ‘Why are you behaving in such a way? It’s not the first time we have had visitors!’

‘No! But Ginny, one of them might be Cousin Ralph, but the other—’

‘Might also be a guest,’ said their mother as she came into the room. ‘So remember your manners, please, or you go upstairs instantly. In fact,’ she looked down at them, ‘I think perhaps you had better do that, you both have very dirty faces.’

‘Oh, Mama, no. There isn’t time,’ they chorused. ‘They’re here.’

Ginny raised a finger and they became silent.
‘We’ll be good,’ Hannah whispered. ‘Really we will, we won’t say a word if we can stay.’

Their mother smiled. Hearing the doorbell and the sound of voices, she went into the hallway to greet the guests.

‘Is it really you, Ralph?’ Emily put out both her hands to him. ‘I can’t believe it after all these years.’ Her eyes became wet with emotion. ‘It’s so good to see you.’

Ralph bowed, then leaning forward kissed her on both cheeks. ‘Aunt Emily. I don’t think I remember you, yet my mother and father have spoken of you so often it is as if I know you so well. And I have had a picture of you in my head.’

She is as beautiful as they said, he thought. So serene. He turned to his companion standing behind him. ‘Aunt Emily, may I please present my good friend Jack Mungo, he’s—’

‘Benne’s son!’ Emily smiled and put out her hand. ‘How very pleased I am to meet you. I remember your father so well. He was instrumental in our good fortune, as was your great-grandfather, but you won’t remember him?’

Jack also bowed and bent over her hand. ‘I don’t, Mrs Linton. He went walkabout before I was born and never came back, but my father often talks about him.’

‘Come in, come in. Oh it’s so good to see you. This is Ginny, my good friend and housekeeper, and these two rascals are Joseph and Hannah.
Joseph is called after your father, Ralph, and he’s just as much trouble as Joe ever was when he was young.’

His aunt put her hand to her mouth and her lips quivered when she spoke of her brother Joe. ‘Are they well, Joe and Meg? I do so miss them.’

‘They are very well. At least they were when we left Sydney. There are so many messages and things to tell you that I had to write everything down so that I wouldn’t forget!’

They sat down and presently Ginny brought in tea and cakes. Hannah tugged at her mother’s skirt. ‘What is it, Hannah?’ her mother said. ‘You are not to whisper, you know it’s rude.’

Hannah cleared her throat. ‘I only wanted to ask if Mr Mungo was a prince?’ she said. ‘And also to ask why it is that Cousin Ralph hasn’t got a black skin too if he lives in a hot country?’

‘I am not a prince,’ Jack answered solemnly. ‘My people don’t have kings or princes; and your cousin Ralph is trying very hard to get a skin colour like mine, but no matter how long he stays in the sun, he only turns red and blotchy!’

‘We get freckles,’ the twins cried in unison, ‘and so does Amelia if she doesn’t wear a hat.’

‘Run along now,’ their mother laughed, ‘and don’t get into mischief. You can ask questions later.’ She turned to her guests. ‘Amelia is in York at present. May is staying with friends for a few days and Roger is out on the estate with his father. Lily is studying in the library and will be in for tea. But you will meet them all eventually.’

They chatted for a while, exchanging news and catching up on over two decades of events, for it was that length of time since Emily Linton had come home from her exile.

‘You should come out on a visit, Aunt Emily,’ Ralph said. ‘Ma and Da would love that. Da does miss England, although he says he doesn’t.’

Emily nodded. ‘I have been so busy all these years,’ she said. ‘Rearing children, running the estate, then I have Aunt Mary and Deborah and Sam to look after, and I’m not sure how I would feel about going back. That journey!’ She shook her head. ‘It was so very hard.’

‘I know,’ Ralph said. ‘Da says it was, especially for the women. But my mother hardly ever talks about it. Do you know why I came over, Aunt Emily?’ he said abruptly. ‘Did Ma tell you?’

‘She did,’ she answered quietly. ‘Meg wrote to me and explained that you wanted to find your roots, to find out about your natural mother. She was sad, I think.’

‘It doesn’t alter my feelings for Ma,’ he said quickly. ‘I just need to know about my past.’

‘Meg needs the reassurance that you care. She is vulnerable, your mother, although you might not think so.’

Ralph laughed. ‘No. Not Ma! She’s so resilient, so steadfast.’

‘And brave,’ Emily added. ‘Without Meg I wouldn’t have survived.’

‘Aunt Emily, I hope you don’t mind, but I took the liberty of inviting a friend and her mother to
visit whilst we were here. They came over on the ship with us. A Mrs Boyle and her daughter, Miss Phoebe Boyle.’

‘Meg wrote to tell me,’ Emily replied in a puzzled manner. ‘But this cannot be the wife of Lieutenant Boyle? It is surely a coincidence of name?’

‘Captain Boyle,’ he corrected. ‘The same. He apparently was an officer on the
Flying Swan.
Mrs Boyle is a friend of Ma’s.’

‘I can’t believe it,’ she said softly. ‘Not the wife of that man.’

‘Mrs Boyle is a very gentle lady,’ Ralph replied. ‘But her husband is—’

‘Not a gentleman, Mrs Linton,’ Jack broke in. ‘He is not liked. He is arrogant and he is a bully.’

She nodded. ‘He always was. Yet his daughter is a friend of yours? A good friend?’ She raised her eyebrows questioningly.

‘I would like to think she might be more than that one day,’ Ralph admitted.

‘Oh,’ she demurred. ‘I don’t think Meg or Joe would approve of that match.’ She looked at Jack for confirmation, but his face was non-committal.

They heard an excited cry of voices and a scraping of feet on the gravel outside the window and Emily shook her head in amused exasperation. ‘The children’s governess is not well,’ she explained, ‘and has given them the day off, which is why they are in such high
spirits. They would normally be working at their lessons.’ She got up from her chair and moved to the window. ‘Oh,’ she exclaimed. ‘Here’s Amelia come home!’

The two young men also rose and followed her gaze down the drive. Amelia, flanked by her brother and sister, was standing with her bag by her feet as she listened to them. Then she glanced towards the window and pushed a stray lock of hair beneath her hat. Joseph grabbed the handle of her bag to help her and Hannah raced inside.

‘Mama,’ she gasped. ‘You’ll never guess. Amelia is here and she walked all the way from Thorngumbald! She took the carrier from Hull. Wasn’t that an exciting thing to do?’

‘Indeed,’ her mother murmured. ‘I wonder why she didn’t tell us she was coming?’

She turned to her visitors. ‘I’m afraid you will think this is a mad household, gentlemen. We are not at all conventional, Amelia least of all. She does cherish her independence,’ and she wondered at the half smile on the face of Jack as he gazed out of the window at the rather dishevelled figure of her eldest daughter.

‘Oh, I’m so sorry,’ Amelia said breathlessly as she came in. ‘If I had known – please forgive my appearance.’ She smoothed down her travelling clothes and fiddled with her hair. ‘But I am so pleased to meet you at last.’ She gave her hand to Ralph and made a slight curtsey. She
turned to Jack and her face, already pink, flushed a little more.