The Journey (27 page)

He plunged on. “I have many business contacts in the farming world, and I’m sure I can get you a place locally, if it’s what you want. Oh, I know it will never be the same because you’ve been here all these years, but you only have to say the word and I’ll find something—you know I will.”

Barney nodded. “Thank you for that,” he said quietly, “but you’re right—it’s small compensation. I’ve been here so long, it’s as if I’ve lived here all my life. My children have never known anything else.”

Leonard had one more thing to say before he left. “There is one other option …”

Pre-empting his words, Barney interrupted, “If you’re offering me first refusal of the farm, there is no way on God’s earth I could ever buy it. I’m not a man of money, I never have been. I’ve lived content year to year, raising my family and tending the land—”

Leonard stopped him. “It’s not that, Barney. I know you haven’t the means to buy this farm, otherwise it would be yours. What I’m asking of you now needs even more commitment from you, and your family.”

“What do you mean?” Barney was puzzled. “What is it you’re asking?”

Leonard glanced at Joanne; sad-faced and twining her fingers together in her lap, she was obviously deeply disturbed by events.

“I’ve managed to save my grandfather’s homestead,” he began. “It took some doing and I’ve never been in so much debt in my entire life, but I couldn’t let it go without doing my damnedest to keep it.”

“I’m pleased for you, Mr. Maitland.” Barney was magnanimous in his own disappointment. “I know how much you loved that place. You’ve talked about it that many times, I almost feel I know it myself.”

“That’s excellent!” Barney’s remarks took Leonard naturally into his proposition. “How would you like to see it, Barney—you and your family?” He looked again at Joanne, who was intent on his every word.

While Barney was momentarily taken aback, it was she who replied. “What exactly do you mean?”

In tender, persuasive tones he told her what he had in mind. “It’s my dearest wish for all of you to come with me. I would like Barney and your sons to help me run the farm, and for yourself to take charge of the house. As for young Susie, there are any number of milliners in Boston—it’s a very smart place—who will teach her the trade, if that’s what she really wants.”

With the two of them shocked into silence, he leaned forward, hands on his knees and his eyes pleading with them each in turn. “Barney … Joanne, please think about it. It would mean so much to me, if you would agree.”

When Barney spoke now, it was with a surge of emotion that trembled in his voice. “But why?” he asked. “Why would you want me and my family, when you could employ the best that money could buy?”

In Barney’s face, Leonard could see the tiniest glimmer of hope. “Oh Barney, don’t you know that
you’re
the best there is! That’s why I want you—because I know the caliber of you, and I know that the homestead would be in good hands.”

He grew tremendously excited. “Not only would I be taking the very best, but I’d be taking with me people I consider to be my friends … good people whom I’ve known for many a year.” He actually laughed out loud. “Oh, you can’t imagine what it’s like over there. In Massachusetts, there’s so much sky, you think it goes on forever! And the land … You could ride for half a day before you reach its borders. Boston itself is the capital—three hundred years old and full of history. Not everything in America is like Charlie Chaplin, you know!” He chuckled merrily.

By now he was on his feet. “Say you’ll come. Please, talk to your family. Tell them how it will be. You’ll have a house twice the size of this one, and a garden to lose yourself in. There’s an orchard—yes, it’s overgrown now, but we’ll soon prune it and get it round. Please! Say you’ll accept this challenge. I won’t let you down, and if after a while you’re not happy there, I’ll pay for you to come back,
and
I’ll find you a house and work into the bargain. What d’you say? Barney … Joanne? Will you come?”

Suddenly Barney was laughing and a moment later he was shaking Leonard by the hand. “If the family are all in agreement, then our answer is yes, oh YES!” In the space of a moment his despair was replaced by a sense of joy.

In the excitement that followed, Joanne kissed Barney and then she kissed Leonard, and he was overjoyed.

“Talk to your sons and Susie,” he said. “Tell them how wonderful a life it will be.”

Barney promised he would. “Such an opportunity!” he declared. “A new start—a new life. I can’t thank you enough,” he told Leonard. “It’s the most amazing thing!”

A short time later, Leonard hurried away to collect Patricia. Behind him he could hear the Davidsons’ old phonograph belting out some Dixieland jazz, and through the window as he drove off, he saw Barney take Joanne into his arms and wing her across the room. He smiled for them, the smile fading as he thought ahead to his meeting with his fiancée. Would it ever be like that with him and Patricia? In subdued mood, he answered his own question: no. He couldn’t see it somehow.

Screeching the car to a halt, he did a three-point turn and took the lane that would lead him home.

When he arrived at The Manse, he was surprised to find Patricia already there, emerging from a taxi. Once inside the house, she turned to him and said, “Look here, Lenny. I’ve decided I can’t come with you to America, so if you want me for your wife, you will just have to make other plans.”

“And is your mind absolutely made up?” he asked quietly.

“It is.”

“Then you don’t give me any choice, Patricia.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means our engagement is over. I know now that we can never make a future together.”

“You can’t say that! You’re not thinking straight.”

When he continued to stand his ground, even when she nuzzled him and tried her usual wiles, she took a step back and eyed him with suspicion. “There’s another woman, isn’t there?” Her eyeballs stood out like two glittering marbles. “You’ve been cheating on me. American, is she? Met her over there, did you?” With every accusation her voice rose until now it was at screaming pitch.

“There is no other woman,” he answered steadily. “Like I said, I can no longer see us in a future together. We want different things, Pat. That’s the truth of it.”

In a swift and spiteful move that caught him unawares, she brought her hand across his face, leaving her fingernail marks down the side of his cheek. “YOU BASTARD!” Still spitting obscenities, she stormed down the steps and marched off at neckbreak speed toward the village.

Breathing a deep sigh of relief, Leonard felt as though a great burden was lifted from his shoulders. “I’m truly sorry it turned out this way,” he muttered after her; and he really was.

Softly, he repeated her angry words. “There’s another woman, isn’t there?” He smiled. “Yes, Patricia, there is another woman. But she isn’t American. In fact, she’s only an arm’s reach from here.”

He knew now, without any doubt, that he was head over heels in love with Joanne. However, just as the relationship between himself and Patricia could never evolve, nor could the one between himself and Joanne—but for very different reasons.

A
fter their parents’ euphoria, the Davidsons’ children reacted to Leonard’s offer in different ways.

“I’d rather stay here,” Susie said, in confrontational mood.

“Look, love, I’ve already told you. We
can’t
stay here,” Barney explained for the third time. “Mr. Maitland has been forced to sell this farm to help pay off his grandfather’s debts.”

“Listen to your father, sweetheart.” Joanne despaired. “Whether we like it or not, this farm is being sold. It isn’t Mr. Maitland’s fault, and it isn’t our fault. It’s the circumstances we all find ourselves in. We would all love to stay here, but we can’t, and so we have to accept things the way they are.”

Unlike Susie, Thomas was thrilled at the news. “You’re being right selfish,” he told his younger sister now. “The fact is, we’re left with three choices. Either we take work in the Liverpool area, or we move away and hope something turns up that will suit everybody. Or we accept Mr. Maitland’s generous offer and be thankful. Think about it, Susie! AMERICA! There are many girls your age who would give their right arm for the chance we’ve been offered!”

“They can have it then!” Kicking the rug at her feet, Susie folded her arms and slumped into a chair. “Because I don’t want to go.”

Gesturing for the others to leave the room, Barney went and sat on the arm of her chair. “What is it that worries you?” he asked gently. “Is it because you’ll be leaving your friends behind? If it is, you can always keep in touch. You can write to each other and later, maybe, they can even come and visit.”

“How can they?” Now the tears were falling. “America is the other side of the world!”

“Naw … you’ve got that wrong, pet.” Sliding his arm round her shoulders, he drew her close. “I won’t deny it is a long way,” he coaxed, “but it’s not the end of the world. Look at Mr. Maitland—he’s gone over and come back twice this year, hasn’t he?”

Susie looked up, her eyes swimming with tears. “I’m frightened, Daddy.”

It cut him to the quick to see his daughter upset like this. “There’s nothing to be frightened of.” Barney put his hand under her chin and raised her face to his. “Do you think me and your mammy would want to take you, if we thought you’d come to any harm?” He smiled his reassurance. “Trust me, we’ll take good care of you, my darling.”

Kissing the top of her head, he drew her closer. “When you’ve seen the ships going away, how many times have you said to me that you’d love to be on one of them? Well, now you can!”

Looking up, she gave a shaky smile. “I didn’t think it could ever really happen.”

“Well, now it has. Look, we can sail off to America and try to make a new life, and if it doesn’t work out, Mr. Maitland has promised to pay our fare back. But we have to give it a chance, because everybody is so excited to be going, and like Thomas said, it’s a wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And later, when we’ve saved enough money, we can come back for a visit. Would you like that?” With the tip of his finger he wiped away the tears that quivered on the end of her lashes.

“I think so.” At last a brighter smile. “Yes, Daddy, I’d like that.”

Barney nodded. “Then that’s what we’ll aim for—saving enough money between us to come back for a visit.”

“Do you promise?”

He hesitated, that small grain of dark instinct holding him back. “I promise I’ll do my very best.”

“So will I,” she said eagerly. “You said Mr. Maitland told you I could get work with one of the hat-shops, and they would teach me the trade?”

“Yes. That’s when the man said all right.” Barney was relieved to see a glimmer of enthusiasm. It would break his heart to force her into something that made her desperately unhappy.

“Maybe one day, I might have my own shop in Boston?”

Barney laughed. “You might at that,” he said. “Work hard and save, and who knows what the future holds?” For
all
of us, he added silently. He only hoped his health would hold up through the trials and thrills that lay ahead.

Having placed herself where they could not see her, Joanne watched from the doorway. Several times she had wiped away a tear, but now that she could see how Barney had somehow managed to dispel her daughter’s fears, she crept quietly away.