The River Folk (9 page)

‘She certainly seems to have taken to your Dan.’

Bessie laughed. ‘She idolizes him. Trots after him everywhere he goes when he’s home, given half a chance. And when he’s away, she brings his name into every conversation nearly.’

‘She talks about him a lot at school, too, and when I give her an essay to do, it’s always about Dan or this family.’ Edwina paused and then asked, ‘What did you mean just now when you said, “as long as they’re here”?’

Bessie shrugged. ‘It seems the Clark family move about a lot. They’ve been here a month now and according to what Mary Ann says that’s about the longest they’ve stayed anywhere recently. I had a run in with her dad when they first came and one or two since then, too.’ Bessie’s mouth tightened. ‘You know she’s in hospital, don’t you? Her mam?’

Edwina nodded. ‘How is she?’

Wryly, Bessie said, ‘Doesn’t seem too anxious to come home. And who can blame her? But when she does, he’d better watch out ’cos I’m not putting up with ’im knocking her about any longer. These walls . . .’ she jerked her thumb towards the wall between her own home and the Clarks’ house, ‘are pretty thin. I can hear everything that goes on, so I’ll be keeping me ear out for any more bumps and thumps.’

‘Do you get a chance to talk to Mrs Clark?’

Bessie shook her head. ‘I’ve talked to her more in the hospital than I do when she’s here. Keeps hersen shut away in the house. Only comes out now and again to go to the shops and then she scuttles in and out of the yard as fast as she can. Bert has a pint now and again in The Waterman’s . . . with him.’ Bessie’s voice was scathing as if she could not bring herself to give her neighbour even the common courtesy of using his name. ‘Mind you, I don’t hold with him being pals with the feller.’ Her shoulders lifted again as she added reflectively, ‘But maybe my Bert’s right in what he says.’

Edwina hid her smile and asked, ‘And what does your Bert say?’

‘That if we’re friendly with them, then maybe we can help all the more.’

‘I think he has a point,’ Edwina said softly. ‘It certainly means we – and I do mean “we”, Bessie – can help Mary Ann more.’

‘I’d like to try and help her mam, but I can’t get close to her. I have tried. I’ve been to visit her a couple of times in the hospital without Mary Ann and tried to talk to her, but she just clams up.’

‘I’m sure you’ve done your best,’ Edwina soothed.

‘I can’t be doing with these folks who shut themselves away. There’s another one across there.’ Bessie nodded towards the house in the corner of the yard. ‘Amy Hamilton. I know she’s suffered a terrible loss. But she’s not the only one.’ Bessie’s eyes softened and briefly she reached out and touched Edwina’s hand. ‘I wish she had more of your spirit, lass.’

The sadness in Edwina’s eyes deepened and there was a catch in her voice as she said softly, ‘To lose a husband and a son must be even harder than the loss I’ve had to bear. I know my own mother and Christopher’s mother too are devastated. It – it just seems such a tragic waste of young lives.’

Bessie was frowning. ‘From the bit I did glean from Elsie Clark, it’s something to do with the war that’s made her husband act the way he does.’

‘The men suffered some horrific experiences. Perhaps Mr Clark is to be pitied rather than blamed, Bessie.’

Bessie was not prepared to be quite so understanding. ‘Mebbe you’re right, Miss Edwina. Even so, I don’t reckon it gives him the right to knock his wife and bairn about, do you?’

In that Edwina had to agree. ‘No, Bessie, I don’t.’

Mary Ann was still sitting at the table late in the afternoon when Dan flung open the back door with a flourish and called, ‘Mam, Mam, you there? I’m home and I’ve brought Susan to see you.’

Bessie straightened up from the range oven where she had just placed a steak and kidney pie to cook for her family’s tea, but she had no time to move to meet her son and his young lady or even to call out a greeting, before Mary Ann gave a delighted shriek, dropped her needle and jumped up from her chair, knocking it backwards on to the floor in her haste. As Dan appeared in the doorway, Mary Ann flung herself at him so that the big man lifted her up into his arms and swung her round.

‘Hello, little ’un. My, you’re looking bonnie. That’s a pretty dress. It suits you.’

He set the girl on the floor and stood back to admire her. Mary Ann preened and twirled around in front of him, holding out the skirt of her yellow cotton dress like a dancer pirouetting before an appreciative audience.

‘Your mam got it for me from the market and Miss Edwina shortened it for me because it was too long.’

‘It looks very nice.’ He smiled down at her. ‘Very grown up.’

Nothing he could have said could have pleased her more, but as he stepped aside and drew the girl standing behind him forward, the smile on Mary Ann’s face faded.

‘This is Susan. We’re . . .’ The tall, good-looking young man seemed suddenly embarrassed. ‘We’re walking out together.’ He glanced towards his mother. ‘I talked to Susan’s father yesterday and he’s agreed we can see each other.’ He put his arm around Susan. ‘So now we’ve come to tell you.’

Bessie lumbered towards them, throwing her arms wide, trying to embrace them both at once. She let out such a bellow of laughter, it seemed to shake the walls. ‘That’s wonderful. You’re very welcome, love. Make yourself at home. You’ll stay and have tea with us, won’t you, ’cos my Bert’ll want to see you?’

As Bessie chattered on excitedly, she was uncomfortably aware that Mary Ann was standing very still and silent now, staring resentfully at the newcomer.

‘When’s the wedding, then?’ Duggie teased, as the Ruddick family sat around the table. The stranger in their midst blushed. She was not really a stranger, for she was the daughter of the owner of the ship on which Dan served as mate, but it was the first time she had visited their home as the girl Dan was courting.

‘Take no notice of him, love,’ Bessie said and lightly pinched her youngest son’s ear lobe. ‘You just behave yourself, our Duggie.’

But Dan only grinned. ‘Not for a while yet. Not until I’ve got me own ship.’

Duggie let out a guffaw. ‘Reckon you’ll be waiting a long time then, Susan.’

Ignoring him, Dan turned to her. ‘We could live aboard then. You wouldn’t mind that, would you?’

Susan’s blush deepened and she glanced up shyly. In a soft voice, she said, ‘Of course not. I was born aboard the
Nerissa
. It was only when my elder brother reached school age that we got a house on shore.’

Bessie beamed, but before she could open her mouth there came a chorus from all her family, who knew her so well that they could predict her words. ‘Eh, that’d be grand, our Dan. It’d be just like the old days.’

Bessie let out such a loud laugh that soon the whole family was convulsed. Even Susan, her shyness forgotten amidst such warmth, leant against Dan’s shoulder, laughing until the tears ran down her face.

The only person at the table not joining in the merriment was Mary Ann.

‘I hear your Dan’s courting, then?’

‘Aye, I thought you’d be first to know, Phyllis, but keep it to yasen for a day or two, will you? I haven’t even had chance to tell Min and Gladys, let alone Amy.’

Phyllis smiled. ‘My lips are sealed.’

Bessie cast her a wry glance and gave a grunt of disbelief as she thrust a peg firmly over Bert’s long johns on the washing line. Phyllis Horberry couldn’t keep a secret no matter what dire threats were made. A grapevine was nowhere in it, Bessie thought. Phyllis was more like a town crier when there was a choice bit of gossip going the rounds. Bessie sometimes wondered whether Phyllis herself didn’t sometimes start the rumours.

‘I reckon she sits up at night making it all up,’ Bessie had said to Bert on more than one occasion when Phyllis’s latest bit of tittle-tattle seemed particularly incredible.

On this occasion, however, Bessie could not, nor indeed had she any wish to, refute Phyllis’s statement.

Phyllis Horberry seemed to consider herself a little above the other inhabitants of Waterman’s Yard. She always dressed smartly and, as much as her purse would allow, tried to follow the fashion of the day. Her husband, Tom, was the local lamplighter and Phyllis worked in a draper’s shop in Pottergate. Neither of them had any connection with the river whereas both Minnie’s husband, Stan, and Gladys Merryweather’s Walter worked, like Bert Ruddick, as casual purchase-men.

‘So when’s the wedding?’

‘Give ’em half a chance, Phyllis. They’ve only been walking out officially for a couple of days. You’ll have me with grandbairns before I can turn round.’

‘You’d like that, though, wouldn’t you, Bessie?’

Bessie’s expression softened. ‘Aye, I would.’

Phyllis nodded beyond Bessie’s shoulder. ‘Looks like you’ve got a ready made one already, the time she spends at your house.’

Bessie smiled. She had no need to turn round to see Mary Ann coming towards them.

‘Hello, love,’ Phyllis smiled. ‘How are you? How’s your mam? I haven’t seen her about lately. Is she poorly?’

Bessie hid her smile. It was by no means the first time she had witnessed Phyllis swinging into action. This was how she found out all her news. A barrage of questions so that her ‘victim’ felt obliged to answer.

Not so Mary Ann. The girl merely stared up at the woman, her thumb in her mouth, and said nothing.

‘Cat got ya tongue?’ Phyllis said, though not unkindly. ‘Well, I’ll have to be off. Can’t stand here chatting all day. See ya, Bessie.’

‘Bye, Phyllis. Now, love . . .’ she turned to Mary Ann. ‘You off to school then?’

Mary Ann said nothing but continued to stare, now at Bessie.

‘Off you go, then. Your mam’s coming home today but you can still come and see me when you get home tonight. I’ll be doing me ironing if this lot manages to get dry today.’ She pulled a comical face. ‘And I’ll be very pleased to be interrupted.’ Still there was no response from the girl. ‘You can stay to your tea with us if your mam doesn’t mind, although I ’spect she’d like to see you herself, wouldn’t she?’

Her brown gaze still steadily upon Bessie, Mary Ann asked, ‘Will
she
be there again? With Dan?’

‘Amy.’ Bessie banged on her neighbour’s door. ‘Amy, love, are you there?’

The door flew open. ‘There’s no rest for the wicked when you’re around, is there, Bessie?’

Bessie grinned and stepped across Amy’s threshold. ‘I’ve brought you a steak and kidney pie, love. It’s nice and hot so pop it in your oven to keep warm while you do yourself a few taties.’ Bessie looked at her neighbour. Amy was looking much better, so she risked a gentle jibe. ‘You ain’t forgotten how to peel a few taties and boil ’em, ’ave ya?’

The smile, so long unused, began tentatively at the corner of Amy’s mouth and then, quivering, spread across her face. Then she reached up and put her arms about Bessie and laid her head against her shoulder. ‘Oh Bessie, what would I do without you? What would any of us do without you?’

Embarrassed by the unaccustomed display of affection, Bessie patted Amy’s back. ‘There, there, you’ll be all right, Amy love. You’ll be all right.’

Her voice muffled against Bessie’s shoulder, Amy said, ‘It’ll only be thanks to you if I am.’

‘Come on, now, before I drop this pie.’

Amy stood back and wiped the tears from her eyes. ‘You’re right, Bessie. I know you are. My George wouldn’t have wanted me to carry on this way. I will try, really I will.’

Bessie beamed with delight and relief. ‘I’m pleased to hear it,’ she said, as she bent to put the pie in the oven of Amy’s range. She closed the door and straightened up again. ‘And your Ron wouldn’t want to see his mam grieving like this either, Amy. He were a lovely lad – bright as a button and never without a smile for you, even if he was a bit on the shy side. He’d not have liked to see you this unhappy for the rest of your days, now would he?’

Amy’s lower lip trembled and she caught it between her teeth. Tears welled in her eyes again and Bessie thought for a moment that she had pushed things too far too soon. But then, Amy nodded and said, ‘You’re right, Bessie. I know you are. But it’s just . . . so hard.’

Bessie patted her friend’s arm but for once could find no words. She couldn’t say, ‘I know,’ because she didn’t. She didn’t know what it would be like to lose her Bert and one of her lads. At the mere thought of it happening, Bessie could feel her throat constrict and tears prickle at the back of her eyelids, but she could only guess at the devastation this poor woman must be feeling at the loss of both her husband and her only child. That was the reason that Bessie’s patience for Amy’s grief was unlimited.

‘You know, Min,’ Bessie said a short while later to her friend, ‘I reckon Amy’s really on the mend. Oh, she’ll never get over it. I ’spect you never do get over something like that, do you? But I reckon she’s starting to pull herself together a bit.’

‘Not before time,’ Minnie replied tartly.

‘Don’t be too hard on her, Min.’

Minnie smiled across the kitchen table as the two women, their week’s washing hanging together on the lines outside in the yard, took a well-earned break over a cup of tea and a biscuit. ‘You’re a funny woman, Bessie Ruddick, and no mistake. Ranting and raving one minute and soft as a brush the next.’

Bessie shook with laughter. ‘That’s me, Min. That’s me to a tee.’

Min laughed with her. ‘But I wouldn’t change you, Bessie. Not one hair of your head. Life’s certainly never dull when you’re around.’ She took a sip of her tea and then asked, ‘So, what’s your next project? The woman next door, I take it, ’cos you seem to have taken charge of the little lass already.’

Bessie sighed heavily. ‘D’you know, Min, for once in me life I don’t know what to do. I have to admit I’ve never come across a feller before who knocks his missis about. I know we’ve got a few ruffians living in the yards, I can’t deny that. One or two drunks, the odd gambler here and there and one or two not quite as honest as they might be, but in the main, the river folk are a hardworking lot and I’ve always been proud to be one of ’em, but him, well . . .’

‘He’s not one of us, though, is he? I mean, he’s nowt to do with the river, is he?’