Rosa's Island

by Val Wood

  He looked at her rather anxiously as she remained silent. They were walking away from the farm and alongside a deep dyke. There had been a slight frost overnight and the grass had a silver rime upon it. ‘You do care for me, Maggie? I’ve not been mistaken?’

  She stopped and turned towards him. ‘I thought you were never going to ask!’ she said. ‘I’ve been waiting and waiting ever since that day you fixed our pump handle.’

  He put his arms around her and drew her towards him and kissed her full on the mouth. ‘Why did you wait?’ he asked. ‘Why didn’t you ask me?’

  ‘Ask you?’ She put her mouth close to his. Being kissed was so much more pleasant than she had ever imagined. ‘How could I? I’m a woman, we have to wait to be asked.’

  He kissed her again. ‘No, you don’t. If you’d asked me we could have been wed by now. I was onny waiting cos I wasn’t sure how you felt.’

  ‘Couldn’t you tell?’ she asked. She was sure that everyone in the community would have been able to tell from her demeanour and happy countenance that she was in love with Fred Lambeth.

  He shook his head and laughed at her. ‘So when do you want to be wed, Maggie?’

  She gave a deep happy sigh. ‘Next week,’ she said.

  ‘Next week! Everybody’ll think it’s a rush job!’

  She put her arms around his neck. ‘I don’t care,’ she said softly. ‘I don’t care what anybody thinks, except Ma, that is,’ she added. ‘I just want to be with you and I want to be with you now.’

  ‘I’m not sure that she can be spared,’ Mr Drew said when Fred approached him formally for Maggie’s hand in marriage. ‘Her mother is not well and—’

  ‘We’d like to be wed before Christmas,’ Fred interrupted. ‘There’s no need for us to wait. Maggie’s of age, I’m earning good money and I’ve got a house ready and waiting.’

  Mr Drew opened and closed his mouth, his objections overruled. ‘Her mother—’

  ‘Is pleased for us! Maggie’s spoken to her. They’re already planning all ’cooking and baking for ’wedding feast.’ Fred held out his hand and took Mr Drew’s and shook it. ‘Thank you very much, sir. I’m glad you’ve no objections.’

  Mrs Drew sat in her chair and rubbed fat and flour to make pastry and sliced apples from the store, she beat eggs and mixed fruit for cakes, whilst Maggie and Rosa cleaned the house from top to bottom, washed curtains and chair covers and polished the already shining brass and copper.

  ‘Is there going to be a wedding or summat?’ Matthew grinned as he came in and sat down to his supper. ‘There’s a dozen sheets on ’line outside.’

  ‘Oh!’ Rosa got up from the table. ‘I’d forgotten them and it’s starting to rain! We must have them aired before Saturday.’

  ‘I’ll give you a hand.’ Matthew rose from the table and followed her outside, whilst Jim and Henry and their father looked from one to the other.

  ‘You’re doing too much,’ Matthew said as Rosa piled the sheets into his arms. ‘There’s no need for all this fuss.’

  ‘I know,’ she said, a wooden peg clenched between her teeth. ‘But we’re doing it for your ma. She’s so bothered that the house won’t look nice for the wedding.’ She took the peg out of her mouth. ‘Fred’s sister and relations will be coming as well as all of ’neighbours, so she wants to put on a good show.’

  ‘Will you be able to manage when our Maggie’s gone?’ he asked. ‘You’ll want to stay with us?’

  She gazed at him. ‘Of course I want to stay! But there’ll be changes, Matthew. I won’t be at everybody’s beck and call ’same as your ma and Maggie are.’

  He smiled. ‘I know that. You’re a free spirit. We couldn’t tie you down – even if we wanted to.’

  She nodded. ‘I always knew that you understood me, Matthew.’ She stood on tiptoe and kissed him on his cheek and he just stood there looking at her, and thinking that there never would be any chance of capturing her, that she would be just like her mother, who, it was said, waited for someone special to come along and claim her.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  ALL THE FAMILY were coming for the wedding. Flo had been given the whole weekend off by Mrs Jennings, so she arrived on the Friday afternoon and was able to help with last-minute baking and the making up of extra beds.

  The twins, Lydia and Nellie, and the young men they were affianced to were coming just for the day. Delia was coming on the Saturday and staying until Sunday, whilst Mrs Drew’s sister and her family were due to arrive from Beverley at any time.

  ‘We’ve got cousins we haven’t seen in years,’ Flo said cheerfully as she and Rosa made up an extra bed in Rosa’s room.

  ‘Will you sleep in here with me, Flo?’ Rosa asked, ‘and we’ll put your aunt and uncle in Henry’s room, and Becky and Susan in the box-room.’

  ‘What about Delia? Where shall we put her?’

  ‘Well, as Matthew and Henry are going to Marsh Farm with Jim, Delia can have Matthew’s room if she wants. Or I can,’ she said. ‘Yes, perhaps Delia would prefer to be with you rather than on her own. She won’t want to be with me anyway.’

  ‘Still not friends?’ Flo asked. ‘Still at daggers drawn after all these years?’

  Rosa nodded. ‘I don’t know why. She doesn’t like me. Never did.’

  ‘But you don’t mind?’ Flo said curiously. ‘It doesn’t bother you?’

  ‘No,’ Rosa answered matter-of-factly. ‘I don’t even think about it. I know who I care for and who cares for me.’

  ‘You’re a strange lass, Rosa.’ Flo scrutinized her intently. ‘I’d have thought being half Spanish you’d have been allus laughing and singing, but instead you’re as deep as a well. We don’t really know you. We never know what you’re thinking.’

  Rosa gave a slight smile. ‘That’s because my other half is Sunk Island. I’ve been influenced more by that and by ’river that runs by it.’ She looked thoughtful. ‘It’s a sort of magnetism that’s constantly pulling at me.’ Then she laughed. ‘But sometimes I want to dance and sing, but I can’t, can I? At least not here. Your da says it’s a sin.’

  Flo nodded. ‘Aye, he does. But it doesn’t mean that he’s right. Maggie says that Fred plays a penny whistle and he’s going to show her how to dance, and then they can go to Assemblies in Hedon.’ She gave a satisfied smirk. ‘That’ll be one in ’eye for Da.’

  The Saturday morning dawned bright and sharp and they were all up early, except for Maggie who was allowed to have an extra half-hour in bed as it was her wedding day. But she came downstairs, flushed and looking pretty and saying that she might as well be up for she couldn’t sleep anyway.

  ‘I can’t wait to meet Fred,’ said Flo. ‘Is he handsome? Is he jolly?’

  ‘He’s both of those things.’ Rosa spoke up as Maggie suddenly went shy. ‘And he really deserves Maggie.’

  Maggie started to cry. ‘I shall feel so strange being on my own without everybody. I’ve allus been used to having ’family about.’

  ‘I felt ’same when I first went to Patrington to work,’ Flo admitted. ‘I missed everybody, but now I like being independent and having my own money, although – ’ she stopped and looked at Maggie and Rosa. ‘Well, I wasn’t going to tell anybody just yet, but I’ve met somebody as well.’ She laughed. ‘Tom. He’s a hind over at a big farm in Welwick. He’s a widower with a five-year-old son; Tom’s ma looks after ’little lad just now, but Tom wants him to live with him, he’s fond of ’lad.’

  ‘Well I never!’ Maggie said. ‘Does Ma know?’

  ‘Not yet,’ Flo said. ‘I’ll tell her later. But we shan’t want a fuss and it won’t be yet. Tom’ll look for another place next year mebbe, somewhere that we both like, and I don’t want to leave Mrs Jennings just yet, she’d have a hard job finding somebody to put up with Miss Dingley. Poor old soul,’ she said. ‘She doesn’t know if she’s coming or going.’

  ‘Not Gran, you don’t mean?’ Rosa said anxiously.

  ‘No, not Mrs Jennings, she’s hale a
nd hearty. No, Miss Dingley, she’s gone soft in ’head, bless her. Doesn’t know if it’s night or day. I couldn’t go off and leave your gran with her on her own. No, I’ll stop for now and see how things are.’

  Rosa thought how kind Flo was to be so considerate about the old lady, as indeed Maggie was too. She would have given up her own chance of happiness to stay with her mother if she hadn’t met Fred.

  Henry had hitched up one of the farm waggons and Matthew had decorated it with holly and evergreen. Rosa and Flo had draped the waggon with red ribbon and put yellow ribbon on the harnesses of the two shire horses, and Maggie drove off in style with Henry at the reins and her mother and father sitting beside her whilst the rest of the family walked behind to meet everyone else at the old church.

  Practically everyone from Sunk Island was there to see the first of the Drew girls married and there was much smiling and glances between other young women when they saw Fred Lambeth drive up in his trap, with his beard neatly trimmed and wearing a dark suit with a grey cravat at his neck, and carrying a pair of grey gloves. He looked very handsome indeed.

  ‘My word!’ Nellie turned to her twin. ‘Yes,’ Lydia nodded. ‘He was worth waiting for, wasn’t he?’

  After the ceremony all those who had been invited to the wedding breakfast ambled about and chatted to each other, and made their way to the big barn where the food had been laid out and covered with cloths and sheets. As they walked in there was the sound of music as two fiddlers struck up a merry tune.

  Rosa stood still and looked round for Matthew. She saw him and he was smiling and tapping his feet. She went up to him. ‘What will your da say? Did you know about this?’

  ‘I did. Fred asked me what I thought. He said it was no wedding without music and I agreed with him.’ He looked around. ‘Da isn’t here yet and by ’time he gets here it’ll be in full swing.’ He took hold of her hand. ‘Do you remember when we danced behind ’old barn when it was ’coronation?’

  She nodded. ‘Yes. Shall we do it again?’

  He put his hand on her waist. ‘I’ve not danced since and I don’t know how, but—’

  ‘Let’s just skip to ’music,’ she laughed. ‘It sounds like skipping music,’ and as the fiddlers played a jolly jig they skipped and hopped around the tables, only stopping as the crowd came in, who clapped and cheered.

  ‘Now my turn, Rosa.’ Henry stepped towards her.

  ‘I have to help with ’food,’ she said, but laughingly took his hand and whirled around and came to a stop in front of Mr Drew.

  His face was like thunder as he saw the dancing and heard the music, but everyone else was laughing and clapping their hands, or stamping their feet in time to the tune, so he turned on his heel and went towards the house.

  After the wedding breakfast Fred made a speech in which he said he was pleased to have joined the Drew family and welcomed all of them to his. ‘Though there’s fewer of us,’ he said, amid laughter. ‘Just me and my sister and her husband and their bairns, and an uncle and aunt and a cousin or three. But you’re welcome to call on my wife – ’ he glanced down at Maggie, who was by his side and lowered her head shyly, though a smile played on her lips. ‘On my wife and me at any time. Isn’t that right, Mrs Lambeth?’ he added to cheers and the raising of glasses.

  At the end of the afternoon, the newly married couple left to go back to Fred’s house in Hedon. ‘We’d best get off before dark,’ Fred said humorously and everyone cheered. Lanterns had been lit around the barn and a fire made in a tin trunk so that people might warm themselves. Two of the farm dogs stretched out in front of it and a cat curled up on one of the beams catching the rising heat.

  Matthew looked round for Rosa. There were still a few groups of people gathered around talking. Lydia, Nellie and Delia were chatting to those they had known at school but most of the older Sunk Island residents had gone, leaving the younger ones to make their own way home.

  ‘Cheerio, Matthew.’ John Gore, a farmer from one of the neighbouring farms, was ready to leave. ‘It’s been a right good do. Your Maggie looked real bonny. I don’t know why I hadn’t noticed afore.’

  His wife plucked at his arm and urged him homewards. ‘That’s because you notice nowt but colour o’ ’corn. But she did look grand, and so did Rosa,’ she added. ‘Somebody’ll snap her up afore long, I shouldn’t wonder.’

  Matthew nodded in agreement and wished them goodnight as they set off across the track towards their home, John Gore walking rather unsteadily, for he had drunk a fair amount of ale from the barrel which Henry had brought in the day before in the back of his waggon, knowing that his father wouldn’t supply any.

  ‘Can’t have a wedding without ale,’ he’d said to Matthew. ‘Give us a hand,’ and they’d hidden it under a bale of straw so that their father wouldn’t see it.

  He found Rosa in the back kitchen up to her elbows in soapy water. Flo was drying the dishes and putting them in the cupboard. ‘Come on, both of you. Come outside, everybody is ready for going home and just having a last natter.’

  ‘You go, Rosa,’ Flo said. ‘Go get a breath of air. You’ve been busy all day. I’ll finish off here and help Ma to bed when she’s ready.’

  Mrs Drew had been very animated all day, enjoying the chat with her relatives who rarely came to Sunk Island. ‘Such an outlandish isolated place, Ellen,’ her sister had said on arrival. ‘I don’t know how you can bear to live here. I thought we were going to drown on them marshes at Keyingham. Wheels on ’trap kept getting bogged down.’

  ‘Is it still bad?’ Mrs Drew had asked. ‘I haven’t been over that way in a long time.’

  ‘And you haven’t got a shop or a butcher’s!’ her sister had sniffed. ‘I don’t know how you manage.’

  Mrs Drew had given a weak smile. ‘But we do.’

  Rosa took a deep breath as she came out into the yard to join Matthew, and wrapped her shawl around her shoulders. The air was crisp and sharp to her nostrils. ‘We’ll have snow tomorrow,’ she murmured. ‘A white Christmas maybe.’

  Matthew nodded but didn’t speak, thinking of what Mrs Gore had said about Rosa.

  ‘It’ll be strange without Maggie,’ she added. ‘I’ll miss her, and so will your ma.’

  ‘Mrs Gore said that somebody’ll snap you up next.’ They’d moved away from the barn and towards the farm gate, which they leaned on. There was a full moon, shining clear and bright in a cloudless sky which glistened with stars.

  ‘Did she?’ She turned towards him. ‘Did she say who?’

  ‘No,’ he laughed. ‘But you know how women are!’

  ‘I know how some women are,’ she said. ‘Always wanting to marry somebody off to somebody. But Aunt Ellen’s not been like that with her daughters. She’s never pressed them to marry and they’ve found their own husbands. Nellie and Lydia, they seem happy with their young men. And as for Maggie, well she couldn’t have found anybody better than Fred.’

  ‘But what about Delia? She seems very spirited and full of herself since she went to Hornsea.’

  ‘She does, doesn’t she?’ Rosa said thoughtfully. ‘I hope she’s all right. You know that she’s moved positions and is working at an inn?’

  ‘I didn’t know.’ Matthew seemed disturbed at the news. ‘I don’t like ’idea of that.’

  Rosa felt the cold wind on her face and she shivered. ‘Let’s walk a little, it’s chilly standing still. Then I must go in and help.’

  ‘No,’ he insisted. ‘You’ve done enough for today. There’s always tomorrow.’

  They walked down the track away from the farm and along the wide dyke which glistened in the moonlight. There were rustlings and splashing in the water as they approached. ‘Water rats,’ he murmured. ‘Or water hens,’ then added, ‘tide must be high, see how it flows.’

  They heard the sound of singing. ‘Henry!’ they both said. ‘He’s drunk!’ Matthew muttered. ‘He can’t hold his ale.’

  Henry came towards them, swaying on his feet. ‘Hello,
Matthew. Hello, Rosa. What you doing out here then?’

  He shook a finger at Matthew. ‘Jus’ – jus’ remember that Rosa isn’t yours, so don’t go thinking it jus’ cos you’re out in ’moonlight with her.’

  ‘Don’t be silly, Henry,’ Rosa protested.

  ‘I’m not being silly,’ he blathered. ‘But if I can’t have you then Matthew can’t either, nor Jim, old misery Jim. Do you know what he said today after our Maggie’s wedding!’ He put his face next to hers. ‘He said – he said, that Da says he has to marry you.’ He put his fists up to his face. ‘And I said that I’d flatten him if he even thought it.’

  He hiccuped and turned towards Matthew. ‘And that goes for you as well. I’m going to marry Rosa. I gave her her first kiss when she was jus’ a little lass. You remember, don’t you, Rosa? And nobody else can have her. If I have to stay on this blasted land for ever, I will, as long as Rosa’s here.’

  ‘Get off to bed, Henry!’ Matthew was angry but trying to contain his temper. ‘Where’s Jim? Has he gone on?’

  Henry nodded. ‘He’s gone.’ He belched. ‘Whoops, manners! He’s gone on to light a fire across at Marsh Farm. I said I’d catch him up after I’d had another little drink.’

  ‘A few little drinks, I should think.’ Matthew grimaced. ‘You’ve had plenty anyway.’

  ‘Finished off ’barrel.’ Henry grinned, then patted his nose. ‘And a few more besides, that I had hidden. And a drop o’ brandy that I found.’

  ‘Brandy!’ Matthew said. ‘Where did you find brandy?’

  ‘Ah ha! That would be telling, wouldn’t it? But somebody had hidden it away where it couldn’t be found. Onny I found it,’ he said gleefully. ‘Long time ago. Lots of it.’

  ‘Medicinal brandy!’ Rosa said. ‘It’s not that bottle we keep for if anybody’s ill? Henry! How could you?’