The Oyster Catchers (32 page)

In the kitchen, she knelt on the square, multi-coloured rag mat and put her hands together in prayer.

‘Dear Lord, I know it’s a sin to take a life but you must understand, I can’t see Joe helpless and hopeless like this. If it is your will then make him right again and
if not …’ She shrugged eloquently knowing she would be understood by Him above.

By the time Eline came home at dinner time, Nina had prepared a meal of bread and cheese. The pie she would keep for Joe’s supper, all Eline would have to do was to put it out on to plates.

If Eline was angry, she concealed it well until she and Nina were alone in the kitchen with the doors closed.

‘Now, what do you think you are doing in
my
house, creeping in behind my back?’ Eline said with soft, controlled fury.

‘I’m keeping Joe company, looking after him properly, because he needs it.’ Nina replied defiantly. ‘Do you know he was talking about doing away with himself? Is that what you want? Because that’s what will happen if he’s left alone too long.’

Eline sank into a chair and put her hands over her face and for a moment, Nina almost felt sorry for her. Then common sense reasserted itself; Eline didn’t love Joe and didn’t really want him, she was offering him only cold charity and he knew it.

‘Let’s leave things as they are for now, is it?’ Nina suggested. ‘At least until Joe is more himself.’

Eline remained silent and she accepted the meal Nina put before her without looking up. ‘I’ll take it into the parlour and sit with Joe,’ she said stiffly and Nina could only admire the girl’s control.

Nina watched as Eline bent and kissed Joe but the kiss was not the salute of a lover, but rather the affectionate kiss of a dutiful daughter.

‘I need Nina, do you understand, girl?’ Joe asked, his eyes anxious. ‘Nina is such a comfort, she cares, see, and with all the best will in the world you can’t expect me to be alone all day, how am I going to manage … things?’ He looked away. ‘Well, things I couldn’t ask a neighbour to see to, you know.’

Eline’s eyes sought Nina’s. ‘All right,’ she said simply,
‘if you can take care of Joe then I’ve got nothing more to say on the subject.’

Nina suppressed the sudden rush of triumphant tears. ‘That’s all right then,’ she said briskly, ‘it’s settled.’

Joe laughed suddenly, a real hearty sound. ‘Who would have thought it,’ he said, ‘my wife and my mistress breaking bread together?’

‘Don’t push your luck now, Joe,’ Nina said angrily, ‘we will never see eye to eye, mind, but it’s you who comes first right now.’

Nina regarded Eline surreptitiously, the girl looked so very young and vulnerable that pity tugged briefly at her heart. Eline’s eyes were shadowed with blue and she was far too thin for her own good. But then why pity Eline? She had everything.

With a pang, Nina thought of her own daughter Fon, Fon who was fey and mystical, dipping into her Bible at odd hours of the day. She would need her faith now to endure the future ordeal for when the lady of the house passed away, Fon would be the mainstay of the family. Were her shoulders too small to bear the load?

And yet Fon, like Eline, had a built-in strength beneath that delicate exterior; it was big hefty women like Nina herself who needed love and guidance.

Nina began to clear away the dishes, leaving Joe alone with his wife. There was nothing between them, Nina realized that. Eline and Joe were ill-matched, he following an obsession that he called love and she looking for a father.

Well now the roles had reversed because Eline was the bread-winner and Joe the hapless dependent. How would he live with that kettle of fish? Badly, Nina thought dejectedly.

‘I’m going back to the shop now.’ Eline came out of the parlour, pulling her good coat on to her slim shoulders. ‘Nina, I want to talk to you.’ She stood head held high.

‘I confess I was angry at first, I saw you coming in here as I went off to work this morning and I felt sick inside. But now I see how good you are for Joe and so I will put up with things as they are. But don’t think you can walk in here and take over again because you can’t.’

Nina wanted to strike out at the girl; who did she think she was, her with such airs and graces? ‘I can do just what I want to do,’ she said defiantly.

She watched as Eline turned away and let herself out of the house. Walking quickly, Eline made her way along the Oystermouth Road towards Davies’s store and still watching her, Nina wondered if Gwyneth would be giving Eline a hard time. Nina sighed, there was a lot of herself in Gwyneth, a lot that was bad. Well, her daughter would learn life the hard way as she had done.

‘Right then Joe, boy,’ she said stepping briskly into the parlour, ‘let’s have a look at them bad legs, see what can be done.’

Eline was happy while she was working in the shop. The hours slipped by so quickly that she had no time to brood on Joe’s sickness or the fact that she alone was responsible for keeping the roof over his head and the bread in his mouth.

With Will she kept up an air of formality which at first he had tried to break down but then, defeated, Will accepted that Eline could only work with certain barriers between them.

As the weeks went by Gwyneth was a constant source of irritation to Eline, and she made no secret of the fact that she found William attractive. Indeed her adoration of him must have been a balm to his feelings of hurt and rejection because his attitude to her had become distinctly warmer of late.

Eline deliberately turned her thoughts away from the jealousy that beat at her like dark wings whenever she
saw Gwyneth and Will in close conversation; sternly, she told herself it was none of her business.

Eline was pleased and surprised when one morning Mrs Hari Grenfell paid a visit to the shop and asked Will’s permission to ‘borrow’ Eline’s services for a day or two.

‘I have some designs that I would like you to work on for me.’ Hari smiled warmly at Eline. ‘I have made children’s and men’s corrective footwear but haven’t ever attempted built-up shoes for ladies. I can’t solve the problem of how to conceal the platform and incorporate a decent heel so that the footwear at least looks fashionable.’

Eline looked up at Will who was smiling benevolently at Hari Grenfell. He shrugged and draped a casual arm around Hari’s shoulder.

‘Who am I to stand in the way of genius?’ he asked leaning his head for a moment against hers.

Eline envied the close friendship the two so obviously enjoyed. She could never be like that, not with William, but then their senses were so heightened when they were near each other, awareness crackled between them like dry tinder beneath a match.

‘Right then,’ Hari Grenfell said confidently, ‘if you don’t mind, Eline, we’ll go back to Summer Lodge and I’ll show you what I’ve done so far.’

Eline had time to glance quickly at Will and then she found herself climbing into Hari’s coach. She sank back into the leather seat and rubbed her hand over her eyes.

‘I’ll have to be home by supper time,’ Eline said apologetically and Hari, leaning back against the leather seat, adjusted her full skirts and sighed heavily.

‘I know your predicament and I’m sorry about your husband, Eline, but you have even more need to think about your future now.’

Eline bit her lip. ‘I
must
make a success of things for Joe’s sake,’ she said. ‘I don’t mind hard work, I’ll work
from morning till night if need be, anything so that I can take care of him.’

‘That’s the spirit,’ Hari replied. She put her hand over Eline’s. ‘I know I look very rich and successful now, but I had to fight tooth and nail for it.’ She paused and looked directly at Eline.

‘I was poorer than you can imagine,’ she continued, ‘in debt and fighting all the odds but I was determined to do it and I can see the same quality in you, Eline. But you shall start off with more than I had because I mean to give you all the help I can and fortunately I have a lot of influence.’

Eline was silent not knowing what to say. She felt humble and grateful but couldn’t put her feelings into words.

‘You have your talent,’ Hari said, ‘a great talent and I’m selfish enough to want to nurture that talent so that I can say I had a hand in the career of Eline Harries.’

Eline smiled; she didn’t need words, Hari could read her thoughts in her expression.

The design for ladies’ shoes was in the throes of construction, drawings lay on the table, discarded designs of all sorts of shoes.

‘You see?’ Hari sat down on a chair and gestured towards the untidy papers spread over the table. ‘I just can’t get it right.’

Eline sat down and studied the drawings, then picked up a pencil and a fresh piece of paper. She worked in silence, her brow furrowed while Hari watched her, a contented smile on her face.

Later, Eline sat up straight and stretched her arms above her head. ‘I think I’ve got it.’ There was a subdued excitement in her voice that was not lost on Hari.

‘Look, you’ve been working on a high-heeled slipper where it is impossible to hide a built-up sole, but what if you make a ladies’ boot with what would almost be a gentleman’s heel, large and curved? Add to it a great
fold-back cuff from the top of the boot, sweeping round the back to the instep which will effectively conceal the built-up sole.’

‘That’s fine!’ Hari seemed delighted. ‘I could make the cuff out of soft pigskin so that it appears almost like a skirt.’

‘And if you fringed the edges it would be a ladies’ boot with a sort of cloak around it.’

‘That’s what we’ll call it,’ Hari said quickly, ‘the Eline Cloak Boot. Excellent!’

Eline laughed in joyous amazement, the ideas had bounced off from Hari to herself and back again with great success. ‘The Eline Cloak Boot,’ she repeated, ‘it sounds wonderful.’

‘Right, we shall make it all legal, so that you have the financial rewards as well as the credit,’ Hari said decisively. ‘And we shall go into production immediately.

‘You deserve a rest and some refreshment and then, Eline, you must take your rough drawing home and work the design out properly, add a few embellishments, decorate the cuff if you like, but leave a space for my own hand-tooled daffodil which I use as my trade mark on all prototypes.’

Eline was almost too excited to drink the hot sweet tea and as for the tiny cakes, she knew she would never force one down, her throat was dry, constricted with the feverish wish to get on with the drawing as soon as possible.

‘I’ll see if I can think of variations on the design,’ Eline said, ‘something suitable for the men as well as the ladies.’

‘What a good idea!’ Hari agreed. ‘I don’t see why we shouldn’t make as much out of this pattern as we can.’

Later, as Eline sat in the carriage that was taking her home to Oystermouth, she pondered on her good fortune in finding people like Hari Grenfell to take an interest in her work. But she must broaden her horizons;
Eline knew she must not depend entirely on help from Hari, she must begin to make her own way, perhaps design shoes for other businesses and make use of her gift for window dressing into the bargain.

Perhaps the time had come to go it alone, leave the safety and the temptation of working with Will in his shop and be entirely independent. And yet, could she bear to lose touch with him altogether?

When she climbed out of the coach outside her home, Nina Parks was just leaving. ‘The supper is ready,’ she said, shortly, nodding her head. ‘Joe is resting comfortably, I’ve seen that he’s got everything he wants.’ Eline went indoors and closed the door on the world but now, there seemed to be a glimmer of hope ahead.

After a few weeks, Joe began to look brighter. He was able to sit up, his back injuries seemed to be less drastic than they had first appeareed. He was still unable to walk but Nina had got someone to make a chair with wheels so that Joe could leave his bed whenever he chose and at least Joe himself seemed more content, less bitter with his lot.

‘Good day, love?’ he said as Eline came in from work and shrugged off her coat. ‘I’m just putting out the plates for our supper. Nina’s made us a chicken pie and some baked potatoes to go with it. Have you had a good day?’

‘I’ve had a very good day,’ Eline said softly and as she took a cloth and lifted the pie, brown-crusted and succulent, out of the oven on to the table, she smiled to herself. Today she had seen the first of the Eline Cloak Boots go into production and it looked as though the line was going to be a great success.

Fon was up all night; between Patrick’s frantic cries as he cut his teeth and Katherine’s soft moans of pain, she was constantly leaving her bed. And so morning found her heavy-eyed and weary, feeling ill-equipped to face another day.

Fon wondered if she could plead a headache and find the rest she craved but that would leave Jamie in charge and she didn’t honestly believe he could cope.

‘You’re looking pale this morning,’ he said as later, Fon handed him his breakfast. Patrick mercifully was still asleep, giving Fon enough time to drink a cup of tea before getting him up and boiling the water for his bath.

‘I’m tired,’ She didn’t see any point in prevaricating. ‘I was up most of the night. Poor little Patrick was cutting another tooth and Katherine needed so much attention I hardly had any sleep.’

‘You should have called me,’ Jamie said guilty at having slept like a log through it all. ‘I could have helped a bit.’

‘I did think of it,’ Fon confessed, ‘but you’ve so much work to do on the farm, what with the early milking and bringing in the last of the hay, I knew you’d have your hands full.’

‘Well, you must have a rest this afternoon.’ Jamie said earnestly, ‘I can’t have you falling sick. I would be lost without you.’ There was an element of panic in Jamie’s voice that Fon recognized, she had felt it herself very often over these last few days. She smiled reassuringly. ‘I’m all right, I’m young and strong, remember?’

Jamie looked at her doubtfully, wanting to believe her. ‘Well, if I can get back in from the fields, I’ll take over and you can go to bed for an hour, right?’

‘Right,’ Fon said, more to please Jamie than because she had any confidence that he would remember to come in and give her a rest.