The Fisher Lass (37 page)

She leant back against him and sighed dreamily. ‘But it’s a beautiful house. Surely you don’t want to leave it. It’s your home, Robert.’

‘It’s never been a home, Jeannie. Louise decorated and furnished it in her own ultra-modern style. And then, she hardly ever lived here.’

Jeannie turned in his arms to face him. ‘So what are you saying? That you don’t want to live here because it has unhappy memories for you?’

‘No, no,’ he said swiftly. ‘The house is right enough. I just thought that – well – you wouldn’t want to live where I’d lived with Louise.’

Jeannie wrinkled her nose. ‘Well, I dinna like some of her choice of decor.’ Then she laughed impishly. ‘Well, to be truthful, I dinna like any of it.’

‘Nor me,’ Robert put in with heartfelt fervour.

‘But,’ Jeannie was more serious now, ‘I’m not jealous of Louise so I’m not afraid of her ghostly memories in this house.’

‘My darling, you have no need to be. I have only ever loved one woman in the whole of my life and she is now here in my arms.’ He sighed as he added, ‘But I have to admit to
being jealous of your Tom.’

Jeannie blushed a little. Even now she was not quite ready to lay open her soul to Robert about the truth of her own marriage. It seemed to her that she would be dishonouring Tom’s memory
if she did so. And she would never want to do that for he was the father of her son and the closest to a father that Sammy had known.

They were married very quietly with Edwin the only family member present.

Neither Joe nor Sammy came to her wedding.

The day she had returned to the house in Baldock Street to meet the two boys, due home for a day and a half, had been very painful. She stood at the open front door and watched them walking down
the street. Her heart contracted at the sight of them. Two good-looking young men, laughing and joking and pushing each other. They were arguing already, she thought, even though they’d
stepped off different boats and hadn’t seen each other for three weeks. Then they saw her standing there, dropped their bags and ran towards her.

‘Mam! You look smart. Been into town?’ Joe gave her a bear hug, lifting her and swinging her round. Sammy, as always, kissed her cheek and asked, ‘You been all right,
Mam?’

‘I can’t stop,’ Joe went on, without giving her chance to speak. ‘I must get home to Thelma. She’ll be waiting for me.’ He gave a suggestive chuckle and
nudged Sammy. ‘I’ll see you in the Fisherman’s later – if I’ve still got the strength.’

Trying to keep her voice calm, Jeannie said, ‘There’s something I must tell you.’

Joe grinned. ‘Well, make it snappy, Mam. I ain’t seen my lovely wife for three weeks, y’know.’

No, she thought, you’re impatient to see your wife and that’s only natural, but you think nothing of condemning me to a life of loneliness. ‘Come in, just for a
moment.’

The house was cold for she had not lived there for a week now and as soon as the two men stepped into the kitchen, she saw them glance at the cheerless grate and then at the wall, empty now of a
half-braided net. Eyebrows raised, they looked at each other and then, with one accord, turned towards her.

Jeannie stood facing them, the kitchen table that had once been the hub of the crowded family home, between them.

‘Joe,’ she began, ‘you’re married and have a home of your own. Sammy, although you dump your washing here, you dinna sleep here even when you’re ashore.
You’re with Sally or Sarah or whoever the girl of the moment is—’

‘Helen, as a matter of fact.’

‘With Helen, then,’ she went on calmly, though she was aware of the fluttering just below her ribs. She clasped her hands tightly together to stop them trembling. ‘I’ve
thought things over very carefully and decided that I’m not prepared to spend the rest of my life alone.’

Joe was frowning, as if half-guessing already what she was about to say. ‘You’re not alone. We always come to see you. We come here
first
,’ he added belligerently, as if
they were bestowing a great favour upon her.

‘Yes,’ Jeannie agreed, ‘And how long do you stay? Five minutes? Ten minutes? Long enough,’ she glanced at Sammy, ‘to drop your washing off?’

There was a moment’s silence and then as she opened her mouth, Joe took the words from her lips. Pointing his finger at her, he burst out, ‘I get it. You’re going to him,
aren’t you?’

Silently, she nodded.

‘Aw Mam, no,’ Sammy said. ‘No, don’t do it. Please.’

‘She already has,’ Joe snarled. ‘Just look at her fancy clothes. She didn’t buy them hersen’.’

Resolutely, though her insides had turned to jelly, Jeannie said, ‘You can apply for the tenancy of this house, Sammy, and you can have everything that’s in it, apart from any bits
and pieces that Joe might want. I’m sure,’ she added with a hint of sarcasm, ‘it won’t be long before you follow Joe’s example and get married.’ She paused and
then, mentioning his name for the first time, she said, ‘Robert and I are getting married in three weeks’ time to coincide with the next time you are both due ashore. We hope you will
come to the service. It’s at—’

‘Never! Never in a million years. In fact . . .’ Joe leant towards her, all the resentment and bitterness that had been his father’s as well as his own, clearly etched into his
twisted features, ‘I don’t want to see you again. Not ever!’

With that, her son turned and left the house slamming the door behind him so hard that the window next to it rattled.

‘Oh Mam,’ Sammy was saying sadly, shaking his head. ‘How could you? How could you do this to us? I thought you loved us.’

That, more than Joe’s anger, had been the cruellest shaft of all.

‘Where are you going, Jeannie?’

Robert came up behind her as she pinned her hat on to her head. ‘To see Thelma.’

‘Thelma?’ Robert repeated, surprised.

‘Aye, ma daughter-in-law.’ Her mouth was tight, her words clipped with disapproval. ‘If what I’ve been hearing is true, she’s about to get a piece of ma
mind.’

Robert put up his hands, palms outwards. ‘Oho, I wouldn’t be in her shoes, not for all the fish in the sea.’

Jeannie turned and gave him a wide smile, but her eyes still sparkled with the light of battle.

She and Robert had been married for three months and during all of that time she had not seen, nor heard, from her boys. Instead, she had heard gossip about Thelma.

Intrigued now, Robert leant towards her. ‘What exactly have you been hearing?’

But Jeannie only tapped him on the nose and said, ‘Never you mind. This is women’s business.’

‘Ah.’ He asked no more but offered, ‘I’ll drive you, if you like.’

‘You can take me into the town, but not to her door. I’ll walk from the end of their road.’

He smiled knowingly. Jeannie didn’t want to be seen by the neighbours drawing up in the fancy motor car. He glanced down at the grey coat and hat she was wearing. Although of good material
and fine cut, they would not attract the attention that some of the items now in her wardrobe would.

‘Shall I wait for you?’ he asked half an hour later as he opened the car door for her and helped her to alight.

‘Are you going to the office?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then I’ll walk from their house to the dockside and meet you there.’ The corners of her mouth lifted slightly. ‘It’ll be nice to see Edwin. We should ask him to
dinner soon. Do you think he’d come?’

‘Of course, he would. He likes you, you know.’ He closed the door as he added, ‘See you soon, then. Good luck!’

Jeannie’s smile broadened. ‘It’ll be her needing the good luck.’

Chuckling to himself, Robert got back into his car and drove away as Jeannie set off to walk the length of Wessex Street until she came to the terraced house where Joe and his wife lived.

Rapping smartly on the door she stood and looked about her, tapping the toe of her shoe whilst she waited. Across the street, she saw the net curtains twitch. Further along the road, two women
stood, their arms folded beneath their ample bosoms, their hair tied up, turban-style, in headscarves. They watched her, their heads bent towards each other as they gossiped.

Thelma opened the door. She was still in her dressing gown though it was gone eleven in the morning. ‘Oh, it’s you,’ was her only greeting.

‘Well, are you no’ going to ask your mother-in-law in?’

The young woman pulled the corners of her mouth down, but left the door open and led the way, scuffing along on worn-down slippers, through to the back kitchen. Jeannie wrinkled her nose in
disgust as she entered the stuffy room. There was a stale smell of cabbage water. The floor did not appear to have been swept for a fortnight, nor the windows cleaned.

Jeannie flicked the chair with her glove before sitting down. Turning to look at the girl, she asked, not unkindly, ‘Are you ill, hen?’

Thelma looked up in surprise. ‘Ill? No, course I aren’t. Why d’you ask that?’

Jeannie’s glance around the room spoke volumes and the girl reddened though more from anger than embarrassment. ‘Oh I see. Not posh enough for you, now?’ Her lips curled.

Jeannie’s own mouth was tight. ‘I’ve never lived in fancy houses, not until now,’ she admitted. ‘But I’ve always kept my home clean and tidy. There’s no
excuse for this.’ She waved her hand to encompass the whole room. ‘It’s not what Joe’s used to.’ Thelma opened her mouth again, but Jeannie forestalled her. ‘But
that’s not what I’ve come about. If you want to live in a pigsty then that’s up to the pair of you.’ She leant forward. ‘But what I don’t like, is hearing gossip
about you while my son’s away at sea.’

‘Eh?’ The girl looked startled.

‘Aye.’ Jeannie nodded slowly. ‘From what I hear, you’re fast taking over from where Aggie Turnbull left off.’

Thelma sprang up out of her chair so suddenly that Jeannie jumped, her spine coming up hard against the back of the wooden chair. Thelma leant over her, raining spittle on Jeannie’s face.
‘How dare you? How dare you come into my house and say such things?’

Jeannie rose slowly and stood facing the younger woman. ‘I dare because I care about my son.’

‘Well, he dun’t care about you. Not since you married
him
. He dun’t want anything more to do with you. So, you can get out of this house and stay out.’

‘Very well. But I shall be on the dockside the next time his ship comes home.’

A look of sudden fear passed over Thelma’s face. ‘He won’t believe you,’ she said, though now there was a tiny sliver of doubt in her tone. ‘He’ll not believe
anything
you
tell him.’

Jeannie made to turn away towards the door, but glanced back to say calmly, ‘He’ll believe me, because he’s the jealous type. Just like his dad. He believed the gossip about Mr
Robert calling at the house when he was away. Never mind that Sammy was his nephew and he was trying to help him. Never mind that he was the one who kept Tom at sea when other ships’ runners
would have passed him over for the times he missed a trip. Oh no, Joe’s just like his dad in that. He believes what he wants to believe.’ She shrugged. ‘And even if I don’t
tell him, you can bet someone from around here will. I’ve heard the gossip about you as far away as my posh house.’ She raised her eyebrows and put her head on one side.
‘Haven’t I?’

Before her eyes the girl’s bravado crumpled. ‘Oh please, don’t tell him. Please. He’ll kill me.’

As she burst into noisy tears, Jeannie stepped forward and put her arms about the girl. ‘There, there, hen. What-ever’s been going on, must stop. I’ll say nothing, but I canna
promise he won’t hear from others.’

The sobbing only increased as, muffled against Jeannie’s shoulder, Thelma said, ‘It has stopped already. It was – it was only the one time. There was this sailor. Swedish, he
was. He kept coming into the Fisherman’s. I know it was stupid of me, wrong of me, but he was so handsome and charming and Joe’d been away at sea so long, longer than usual.’

She drew back and looked up into Jeannie’s face now. ‘I swear it was only him used to come to the house, but there was one time when some of his mates called round here for him. I
suppose that was when the neighbours . . .’

‘Och aye, the neighbours,’ Jeannie said with a sudden, heart-felt sympathy. ‘What they don’t know they’ll make up, hen. That’s why you’ve got to be so
careful. But if it’s over, then we’ll say no more about it. And, as I say, Joe will hear nothing from me. Forget all about it. Put it behind you and get yourself prettied up for when he
comes home.’

The tears were still flowing down Thelma’s face. ‘I – can’t forget all about it. I’m – I’m pregnant. And – and I don’t know whose it is.
Joe’s or – or Olaf’s.’

‘Och no,’ Jeannie whispered. ‘No, hen.’

‘I canna be pregnant. I’m forty-one. It’s no’ decent at my age.’ Jeannie, wide eyed, faced the doctor. She was appalled at the very thought of
becoming a mother again and a grandmother almost within the same month.

‘Well you are, Mrs Gorton. A good three months gone, I’d say. Had you really not thought that could be the case?’

Jeannie shook her head. ‘After my son was born I thought there might be another bairn or two, but it just never happened. I only came to see you because I thought – I thought maybe
it was the change starting early.’

The doctor smiled. ‘No. A late baby, my dear, not the menopause.’

Jeannie was silent, just staring at him.

‘I’d have thought you would be pleased. An heir for the Gortons, eh? If it’s a boy, of course.’

A legitimate heir she was thinking. Would he oust Sammy? She didn’t know the law well enough to know. But he would be a threat to Sammy. Maybe when he was old enough, he would fight Sammy
in court and win. Maybe Sammy would just hand everything over to him without a fight. He had never shown any sign of even wanting the share of the company that he already had, let alone one day
playing an active part in the running of it. He had climbed down far enough to work on a Gorton trawler, but, Robert had told her, Sammy left the money that came from his shares just sitting in the
bank account into which it was paid twice a year.

‘He’s never even touched it,’ Robert had said. ‘Not even when there’s been a bad trip and he must be short of cash. It’s as if he denies, even to himself,
that it’s even there.’