by Millie Gray
“Share the secret?” Anna suggested. Rosie bit her lip. “Oh, come on, Rosie. What did she tell you?”
“Just that Ratty goes to see her every week and this week he said – well – he’s got married again!”
“He’s what?” shrieked Anna.
“Aye, he has, and in the Leith registry office at that.” Rosie crossed herself again. “And I was thinking what a shock it’s going to be for that guid soul Rye. Her feeding and doing for him.” Rosie paused. “But here – maybe she kens.”
Anna shook her head. “No,” she vehemently replied. “She was in two hours ago and all she could speak about was making him some soup.”
“And that’s no the worst of it.”
“There’s more?”
“Aye, you ken how moaning Mona always said that she’d no bairns because Ratty was a Jaffa …?”
“A what?” questioned Anna.
“Ye ken – seedless.”
Anna’s shoulders heaved up and down as she tried to suppress her laughter. “No I didn’t know that but then I’m just a gossip.”
The women looked earnestly at each other before Anna added, “So what you’re saying is someone’s been ironing his shirts and she’s now in trouble?”
Rosie nodded. “And Gladys says he’s over the moon. Even had the gall to suggest if it’s a laddie he’ll teach him to catch rats and take over from him.”
Just then the clip of Rachel’s high heels was heard in the passageway and Anna signalled to Rosie to say no more.
Before Anna could drop the Ratty bombshell on Rye she had good and bad news from her children. She was delighted that Rachel was going to try for a job in the Leith Department Store and she’d just made a celebration pot of tea when Freddie took the opportunity to disturb the peace.
“Auntie,” he began as he supped his soup and dunked a crust of bread in it, “see Violet and me … well …”
“What?”
“Well, we think since Leith’s finished we should emigrate to Canada or America.”
“And why suddenly do all you bairns think there’s something wrong with Leith?”
Playing for time, Freddie mopped up every drop of gravy from his plate with a chunk of bread. Still searching for the right words, he popped the bread into his mouth and slowly wiped his chin with the back of his hand. “Not us,” he said diffidently before dropping his eyes, “you.”
“Me?” exclaimed Anna.
“Aye,” continued Freddie, gaining confidence. “Ever since the amalgamation with Edinburgh was bulldozed through you’ve said the port’s finished. Besides, even if it isn’t, people have always been going in and out of Leith.”
“You do what you think is right for Violet and you, Freddie,” Rachel suggested, to Anna’s annoyance.
Getting up from the table Freddie looked about the shabby room. Adding to the picture of wretchedness a mouse was fearlessly jumping all over the bunker. “Look at that,” he stated and all stared towards the mouse but only Rachel shrieked and backed away.
“This hoose is a breeding place for mice, rats and bugs,” he went on. “Honestly, they’re so sure this place belongs to them and no us that they boldly send us cowering.”
Opening the window further and then with one swipe of a tea towel Anna sent the mouse hurtling down two floors onto the pavement. “Can’t understand why they come in here, I don’t,” she mused. “Surely they know we’ve hardly enough to feed ourselves, never mind them.”
Before she’d fully recovered from her fright Rachel looked directly at Freddie and stammered, “And when were you thinking of emigrating, Freddie?”
“Right now,” he replied confidently, “if we could gather thegither another thirty pounds.”
“Just the one thirty?” asked Anna, who just couldn’t understand why the children she’d reared spoke about forty and thirty pounds as if they weren’t a king’s ransom.
Rachel, who had long realised that Freddie always blamed her for their mother dying young and Robert and himself being sent away to the Industrial School, always felt that, if ever she could, she would help Freddie one day in the hope he would feel better about her. Biting her lip she said, “Look, if I get a job in the Leith Provident Store next week I’ll lend you not thirty but thirty-five pounds.”
“And where did you get that kind of money?” demanded a breathless Anna.
“Eugenie gave it to me so I could take my time to find a job that I wanted to do. And it will just be a loan. When our dear Freddie makes his millions he can pay me back with interest.”
Freddie jumping gleefully about the room hollered, “Is this no dandy? We can now escape while we’re still young!”
Two hours later Anna at last found herself on her own. She should have felt relieved but she knew before she could lay her head on a pillow tonight she had to speak to Rye. However, Rye was down at Ratty’s feeding him and tidying up. Anna therefore asked Jamie to tell his mother that when she did eventually get back she was to come over to Anna’s house as there was urgent business to attend to.
By the time Rye put in an appearance Anna had just finished sewing up Betty Burgess’s wedding dress.
“Sorry I’m so late but I just got back and Jamie said you urgently needed me to help you,” drawled Rye, who was looking so happy and relaxed.
“Rye,” Anna began as she pushed the sewing machine into the corner, “it’s not me that’s needing help.” She hesitated. “It’s bad news that I’ve got for you!”
“Me?”
“Aye.” Anna now wished that Rosie had never told her. That way she wouldn’t have to caw the feet from Rye. But she had told her and Anna, although it was paining her, knew she must tell Rye. “Look, it might just be gossip, but it is reliable gossip.” Rye frowned. Searching for the right words, Anna shifted uneasily. “Look, Rye,” she gulped before going on, “you’ve been led up the garden path by Ratty – he’s gone and got married again!”
The peal of Rye’s laughter ricocheted off the ceiling.
“You’ve heard the same rumour and it’s no true,” chortled Anna as relief seeped in.
“Oh, but it is true. Got himself hitched last week in the Leith registry, he did.”
“You know that and yet you’re still doing for him?”
Rubbing her hand under her nose and sighing Rye looked directly at Anna. “Look, I was going to tell you but you – well – you’re always banging your tambourine and so against so many things.”
Anna was astounded. “Like what?”
“A wee bit slap and tickle if you’re no churched.”
“So you’re saying, you know he’s got some feckless young lassie into trouble and you think there’s nothing wrong with that?”
“Believe me, I’m no some feckless young lassie!”
Wishing the floor would open up and swallow her Anna remained speechless.
“Can ye no see? He was lonely. I was lonely. I’d made him a clootie dumpling to die for and well – one thing led to another. And with me believing that I was through the change and he was …”
“Seedless,” whispered Anna
Rye nodded. “But we’ve put things right.”
“So why are you still staying next door and him in his house on the bottom landing?”
“There isnae enough room next door – wouldnae be right for the bairns to hear – and he needs privacy – he’s a shy man.”
Anna knew she should now be shunning Rye. She couldn’t. Rye was one of these people that you just couldn’t help liking and putting her out of her life would be a price too high for Anna to pay, so all she said was, “And is Ratty happy with the situation?”
“No really. But now I have a man to sign the missives I can get the Edinburgh Corporation to rent us a house out o’ here.” Rye became pensive. “And ken what we’d like? One o’ they newly built nice tenement flats in Restalrig or Redbraes.”
Anna knew what Rye was saying was true but the thought that this slum, which was her sanctuary and that of the bairns she had foste
red, would be turned to dust was more than she could bear right now.
“Come on, Anna, smile or bang your tambourine,” said Rye, going over and putting her arms about Anna. “Look at the pluses. Me who thought I was passed it will need you to deliver this bairn. This precious gift.” Rye lovingly patted her stomach before going on, “And Ratty, me and the bairns will be the first to get out o’ here. Say goodbye to the rats, mice and bugs.”
Anna shook her head.
“Och, Anna, no matter what, you ken they’re coming in with the bulldozers in the next few years. We all hae to accept,” Rye looked about her, “that these hovels are no fit for human beings. We deserve better. Our men died in that blooming war so we could hae better.”
17
THE UNANSWERED QUESTION
By the spring Rachel had been employed in Leith Provident women’s fashions for three months.
When she’d left 18 Couper Street to hand in the letter asking if she could be considered for an interview Anna had put her hands behind her back and secretly crossed her fingers for luck. Of course, if Rachel was to be granted an interview then the letter would arrive at Bella’s address. No such invitation by letter would arrive.
Rachel had walked into the store with her usual air of confidence and the manager, who was on the shop floor, sidled up to her, “Can I help you?” he asked as he appraised her.
Hesitating, Rachel reached in her handbag and pulled out the letter. “I’m just here to hand in this letter.”
Taking the communication that was addressed to himself, the manager opened the letter. Rachel smiled and turned to leave, stopping suddenly when he said, “Wait. Please come into my office and take a seat.”
Half an hour later Rachel had been offered a position. She was, of course, to be the junior, who each morning and afternoon had to make the tea and tidy up the staff room. Rachel, although reluctant to clean up after anyone, readily agreed to these conditions and as the manager was escorting her to the door he hesitated.
“Look. I have an idea.” The manager purposely strode over to a model, which was dressed in an ocean blue wool coat with an astrakhan collar, and he removed it. “Now, Miss Forbes, take off your coat and put this one on.” Rachel was bewildered. Why was this man giving her a new coat? “And what I would like you to do,” he continued, strutting over the floor, “is go with me to millenary and we’ll get a matching hat and then all you require to do, for just half an hour, is walk about the store, with the same superior air you came in with. Every so often you must go out the main door into Great Junction Street and come back in the side entrance round in Taylor Gardens.”
Rachel thought the man was quite mad. Not so. Every time she paraded about either a coat or two hats were sold.
Naturally part of her daily duties was to select some of the expensive clothes and model them. One day Rachel even had to wear a musquash fur coat. Very slowly she allowed her hands to stroke the luxurious pelts. Sauntering about the store she felt every inch a lady; however, when emerging into Great Junction Street three rugged returning whalers wolf-whistled at her before one had the audacity to suggest, “You might be pricy, hen, but after three years away in the frozen Antarctic I’ll let you thaw me out and I dinnae care how much it costs!”
It was true that a ship carrying wealthy whalers – or they thought they were when they were paid off – had docked but so had a few other merchant ships that day.
So when Gus opened the door and walked in, Anna wasn’t surprised. Looking at his kitbag that he’d just dumped down, she smirked. “You’ll just need to pick that up again because Bella bides up in Lochend Road now.”
“How come? We were a good few quid short,” Gus pointed out, giving his bulging wallet a few good slaps.
Anna explained about the loan from Sandy. “I best be off then. I’m just dying to see Nat again.”
“Afore you rush off …” Anna was about to say “And what about Bluebell”, but then she realised that Bella had warned her she wanted it to be a great surprise for him. Hard to believe but she’d never told him about his daughter. Swallowing hard Anna quickly changed tack and blurted, “And I hope now you’ve a braw family you’ll be going up north to show them off to your kith and kin.”
Gus snorted and seemed unnerved by Anna’s remark. He was looking at her but somehow he seemed lost for an answer but eventually he managed to drawl, “Naw. I’m dead as far as they’re concerned.”
Anxious for an explanation Anna deliberately waited for him to continue. The pause gave her time to study him and she could see his thoughts were far, far away. After first running his fingers through his hair and then drumming them on his chin he looked directly into Anna’s eyes before menacingly stating, “And best for all concerned if it stays that way. Is that clear?”
Gus had just departed when Anna sat down to think. What was it that Gus had done that was so heinous it was still to be kept secret? The problem of finding the answer to this riddle was still causing her a few sleepless nights. She was so obsessed with it that every opportunity she was afforded she tried to get an answer. A sly smile played on her lips when she thought back to three months ago when her brother Andy had returned from a long voyage.
After he’d spent time greeting Rosie and his children he, accompanied by young Davy, had come to visit her, his beloved sister. “Guess what?” he said, putting down a parcel. “This’ll surprise you. Knew you wanted one. So I spent quite a lot of time doing this for you.”
“Oh, so you’ve written up the story about why you were able to blackmail Gus Cochrane.”
Andy stopped untying the parcel. “Why would I do that, woman?”
Anna shrugged. She knew when her brother called her ‘woman’ she’d overstepped the mark. Davy, sensing the growing tension in the room, looked from his father to his aunt, “Something wrang?” he anxiously asked.
“Naw,” his father replied, staring at Anna. “It’s just your auntie sticking her nose in where she shouldn’t.”
The parcel was then completely untied and Andy brought out a ship in a bottle. The voyage before he’d made one for Rosie and Anna had so admired it that he had silently vowed next trip he would make one for her. Anna now glanced at the ship that had pride of place on her mantelshelf and wondered if she would ever know the answer to the Gus enigma.
She rose and, going over to the calendar nailed to the wall, she ticked off nine months, thinking, Oh, aye. As the New Year’s heralded in so will Bella’s third.
18
THE JEANIE WILSON
Gus surprised not only himself but everybody else when he decided to give up going on long voyages – or, as Rye guessed correctly – two- or three-year whaling trips.
The two excursions to the Leith Whaling Station in Antarctica’s South Georgia, where he had even done the punishing over-wintering, had given him a degree of financial security. This meant he was now in the happy position of being able to house himself and his family outwith the slums of Leith.
The security, however, had been bought at a heavy cost. It was not just the long hours of back-breaking work in intolerable conditions, nor the stench of boiling whale oil which would forever live in his nostrils – it was the self-imposed separation from his infant son that had cost him dearly. Deeply he regretted that no matter what, he could never buy back those years when he wasn’t at home to see Nat take his first steps or hear him say his first words. It was a loss he could never right but it had taught him not to make the same mistakes with Bluebell.
Another reason for giving up the lucrative whaling trips was that by the end of the second trip Gus, for the first time in his life, began to feel his age, reminding him he was mortal. Nonetheless he was still driven by insatiable hunger for security. Still he had to earn money at any price, just so long as it provided a better life for his son and of course, his beautiful dainty daughter. He could still remember the joyful exhilaration he’d felt when he first held her in his arms.
Before his children arrived he
hadn’t really cared if he lived or died. Continually he had consoled himself by thinking death had advantages in that all outstanding debts would be cancelled. Now, however, all he wished to do was live to spend more time with what he thought he’d never have or value – his family. He also looked at Bella in a different light. Hadn’t she put her shoulder to the wheel and helped to pay off any debt attached to their home in Lochend Road?
The change in Gus left Anna dumbfounded. His obsession with his children and Bella was quite revealing and, she thought, quite out of character. Vividly she remembered how he had to be blackmailed into marrying Bella and now they appeared to be a true love story with him cosseting and nurturing her at every opportunity.
He’d been home three weeks when he’d told Bella he was going to search for a job. There was no doubt Gus had insight and he knew it would have been asking too much of himself to give up the sea completely. So on a blustery Friday afternoon he found himself patiently awaiting the return of the local fishing fleet to its home in Newhaven.
As each boat tied up he surreptitiously studied the crew. He knew Newhaven was a close-knit village community and each trawler was a family business. Marriage to anyone outside the village, especially to anyone from the neighbouring port of Leith, was not to be encouraged. “So,” pondered Gus, “just how am I, a foreigner married to a Leith woman, going to get a foot on board one of these vessels?”
The Carnie family boat had just anchored when he became aware of two distinctively dressed women walking purposefully along the quay. The several-layered skirts of the women were of mid-calf length and hitched up on either side, exposing the distinctive Newhaven fisher-wives’ striped working dress. In contrast, their heads were adorned in unique Flemish-looking frilly caps. Gus also noted that to keep out the cold and rain – and also, he suspected, any admiring glances – they wore thick hand-knitted stockings and stout, neat shoes, which further emphasised their strong, healthy figures.
It was obvious that the industrious, thrifty women were mother and daughter. The older woman was the first to take up a dominant stance. With arms akimbo and right foot forward she stared towards the open sea. The second woman, although younger (Gus judged her to be early middle-age), pointed to an inward coming trawler. The advance of the boat made both women relax and nod to each other.