Rosa's Island

by Val Wood

  ‘Carrots! Mrs Drew allus did carrots with rabbit,’ he muttered, but appeared mollified as, without a word, Mrs Jennings put in front of him a dish of carrots with a knob of melting yellow butter on top.

  ‘Tha’s allus had a good hand at pastry, Mrs Jennings,’ Harry said appreciatively as he ate. ‘I remember it well when I used to work for Mr Jennings. We allus knew where we would get good grub and where we wouldn’t, and yours was allus one of ’best places.’

  ‘Ah well,’ said Mrs Jennings. ‘Feed a man well and he won’t stray far.’

  ‘Aye,’ he cackled. ‘Or at least he’ll allus be home in time for his dinner.’

  Mr Drew glared at him. A red spot burned on each side of his face. ‘Let’s have less talk, we’ve work to do this afternoon.’

  ‘Where’s ’other young lass?’ Harry ignored the admonishment. ‘She never eats with us at dinner time. I hope she’s feeding herself up. Babby’ll tek her strength if she doesn’t.’

  There was a momentary silence and Rosa tried to catch his gaze that she might implore him to be silent, but he ate and gossiped garrulously about somebody’s pregnant daughter who didn’t eat, and the baby took her nourishment until she was as thin as a skeleton.

  ‘That’s enough,’ Matthew began, but Mrs Jennings butted in. ‘You’re talking rubbish, Harry Miller. Now, no more of this for you know nowt about it. If you must know, Delia has eaten her dinner already and is resting upstairs. More pie, Mr Drew?’

  ‘Well, now it’s out,’ Rosa said to her grandmother as they washed the dishes and dried them. ‘Now that Harry knows, everyone else on Sunk Island will hear about it before the week’s out. He’s a proper old woman for gossip.’

  ‘So we can stop pretending, can’t we?’ Mrs Jennings said. ‘It should have been told afore and it would have been over and done with. I’ll go into Patrington tomorrow and buy a few things that she’ll need – and some knitting wool for a start.’

  ‘And the day after I shall go to Hedon and visit Maggie,’ Rosa determined. ‘I haven’t had time to go and see her, I’ve always been so busy.’ She reached across and kissed her gran on the cheek. ‘I’m so glad that you’re here,’ she said. ‘I know everything will be all right now.’

  Maggie was a picture of health. Her skin was clear and her extra plumpness suited her. She was seated on a sofa with her feet up when Rosa arrived and she greeted her warmly. She showed her the baby clothes that she had knitted and the linen she had stitched for the crib, then eventually she asked about her sister.

  ‘How is Delia? Is she well?’

  ‘Not so well as you, Maggie, and your father still won’t speak to her. It’s as if he’s pretending that she isn’t there.’

  ‘Poor girl!’ Maggie commiserated. ‘I’m so sorry. I was angry with her to begin with, but she won’t have much of a life if she and her babby are to be hidden away.’

  ‘It’s much easier now that my gran has come,’ Rosa said. ‘She’s so sensible. She’s making Delia rest every day now, but,’ she added, ‘she doesn’t look as you do. Her skin is grey and sometimes she’s sick. Gran thinks that ’babby will come soon.’

  ‘She’s earlier than me then?’ Maggie pondered. ‘And I thought we were ’same time. I’ve a month to go.’ She gave a happy smile. ‘I just can’t wait and neither can Fred.’

  A few days later Delia started to be sick. She retched morning, noon and night and complained of pain in her back. ‘Ride for ’doctor, will you, Jim,’ Mrs Jennings said late on the third afternoon. ‘Summat’s not right.’

  Mr Drew heard Delia crying and wailing and pacing the floor up in her room as he was downstairs in the parlour trying to read his paper before supper. ‘Tell her to mek less noise,’ he bellowed to Mrs Jennings. ‘Tell her it’s her just punishment for ’sin she’s committed and she must bear it quietly.’

  ‘And what of ’fellow who put her in this state?’ Mrs Jennings answered sharply. ‘It teks two to mek a bairn. He’s not suffering, is he? Men tek their pleasure and don’t suffer consequences.’

  He threw down his paper, got up from his chair and marched towards the kitchen door. He turned. ‘Men have bodily needs that are stronger than women’s,’ he cried in a tight hoarse voice. ‘Women must have ’strength and courage to resist them, not indulge them in their depraved sins. They must show them ’error of their wicked desires, not pander to them.’

  He banged the door behind him and Mrs Jennings stared after him. ‘Well, well, well,’ she exclaimed.

  Jim was about to mount his horse to ride to Patrington when his father stormed out of the house and into the stable, bringing out his mare. ‘I’m going for ’doctor, Da. There’s no need for you to go.’

  His father mounted. ‘I’m not going for ’doctor,’ he bellowed. ‘I’m going out, away from that Hades racket.’

  ‘But where are you going? It’s late!’

  His father wheeled his mount around and headed for the gate. ‘Never you mind. I’ll be back in ’morning.’

  It was a long dark ride and when he reached the town of Hull, instead of booking a room in the inn, he rode on to Leadenhall Square and tied his horse up outside the house. He rang the doorbell and a young woman he hadn’t seen before answered it. He was very dishevelled after the ride and she half closed the door.

  ‘Tell Miss Emerald it’s Mr Brown,’ he barked at her.

  She smiled and opened the door. ‘You’d better come in, Mr Brown. You’ve had a long journey by ’look of it.’

  ‘Aye. I need a bath.’

  ‘I’ll see to it,’ she said soothingly. ‘It will help to relax you.’

  Miss Emerald appeared a few moments later. ‘How good to see you, Mr Brown. We thought you had forsaken us!’

  ‘No.’ He felt exhausted. ‘Just busy.’

  ‘And now you need to unwind?’

  ‘Aye, I do, but I have to be off early in ’morning.’

  ‘I understand.’ Her voice was soft and pleasant. ‘Just a brief visit this time?’

  He was bathed and towelled and dressed in a robe and taken to a room, dimly lit and heavily swathed with hangings which smelled of exotic perfume making him feel quite dizzy. The women who were sent in to him were in turn vivacious, tender, rampant or provocative. They whispered promises of so many delights, but they all failed to rouse him to sensual pleasure or gratification.

  Each fair face and comely body which lay beside him on the crisp perfumed sheets shifted and transposed into the sad face and swollen body of his youngest daughter. The daughter who had fallen to the desires of a man as these women had fallen.

  ‘I’m a sinner,’ he moaned, as they ran their sensuous fingers over his collapsed and drooping impotence.

  ‘Of course you are,’ they murmured. ‘We all are. That is why you are here, so we can enjoy sinning together.’

  One sat astride him and lowered herself so that her breasts were brushing his face and her nipples close to his mouth. He turned his head away. No. No, he groaned inwardly. She’s with child! But he opened his mouth and sucked and sucked until the girl cried out that he was hurting. But still his body was flaccid and useless.

  He blamed them, the women. ‘I’ll not pay in full,’ he told Miss Emerald as he prepared to leave. ‘They’re not as good as they used to be.’

  ‘Perhaps you are a little tired?’ she suggested, but her eyes were cold. ‘They are my best girls.’

  He grunted and gave her only half of what she asked for and as she closed the door behind him, she slipped the money into the folds of her dress and called to a man sitting in another room, ‘Cross Mr Country Brown off our list. He’ll not be coming back.’

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  THE DOCTOR WAS out attending an emergency. ‘But this is an emergency,’ Jim told the housekeeper. ‘My sister’s babby is coming.’

  She nodded her head. ‘Then it’ll keep on coming whether ’doctor’s there or not,’ she said calmly. ‘There’s no stopping ’em once they’ve started. I’ll tell him
,’ she assured him, ‘just as soon as he gets in.’

  There’s no sense in me rushing back then, he thought, and headed for the nearest hostelry in the marketplace. There’s nowt I can do. Though I expect it’s similar to delivering a calf or a lamb, and I’ve done plenty of them. He ordered a glass of ale from the landlord. I wonder what she’ll get and if da will let her stop? He realized that although his father had been persuaded that Delia should stay until her confinement, he hadn’t said that she could stay after the child was born.

  There’d be no harm in it, he pondered. Folks will talk, but not for long, and it’d be nice to have a little nipper around, ’specially if it’s a lad and I could teach him about farming.

  He turned to look around the room. It was an old hostelry, dark and smoky and lit by firelight and candles held in brackets on the walls. As he peered to see who else was in the room he saw a man leaning against the hearth wall watching him. It was John Byrne.

  Jim turned away, but Byrne came across to him. ‘Don’t often see you out here at night,’ he said.

  ‘No, there’s allus work to be done until late,’ Jim replied briefly. ‘Not much time for socializing when you’re a farmer.’

  ‘You could give it up.’ Byrne dropped his voice. ‘There are other ways of making money.’

  ‘Illegal ways!’ Jim muttered. ‘No thanks, I like to sleep with an easy conscience.’

  Cynicism crossed Byrne’s face. ‘And can you do that? There are few men who can say that they do.’

  ‘I’ve made a few mistakes,’ Jim admitted tersely. ‘No need to add to ’em.’

  Byrne gave a small shrug. ‘Your father is willing to take another chance.’

  ‘He’s not willing. You’ve threatened him that you’ll spread rumours about us.’ Jim’s voice was low and bitter. ‘Rumours about Carlos. Insinuations that he was murdered!’

  Byrne looked astonished, then he laughed. ‘Is that what he said? That we’d spread rumours about somebody who went missing nearly twenty years ago?’ He laughed again. ‘The old devil!’

  Jim frowned. ‘Then what did you say? You put ’wind up him over summat.’

  ‘Well, it wasn’t that! Although . . .’ he added slowly and gazed at Jim intently. ‘It’s worth considering as a possibility. Why? I wonder—’ He tapped his mouth with his fingers. ‘Why would he say such a thing to you if it wasn’t true?’

  Jim shuffled his feet. He didn’t like the way the conversation was going. Byrne was too tricky for him, always had been. ‘There’s no reason why he should say it,’ he hedged.

  ‘Except that he didn’t want you to know the real reason.’ Byrne gave a sly smile. ‘Your precious da! So holier-than-thou! He wouldn’t want his sons and daughters to find out why he’d agreed to go along with us in our little schemes.’

  Jim stared at him. ‘And we don’t want to know,’ he vowed. ‘There’s no reason to sully ’waters when they seem clear enough.’

  ‘Even though there’s foul sediment lying beneath?’ Byrne sneered.

  ‘Even then!’ Jim put his glass down on the counter and turned towards the door, but was almost knocked over by a gang of local youths coming in.

  ‘There’s one of ’em,’ one in the crowd shouted. ‘Here! Irish!’

  Byrne turned lazily towards them. ‘Would you be speaking to me?’

  ‘Surr and that I would!’ another mimicked, then changed his tone to one of menace. ‘Some of you Irish have been making up to our lasses. And we’ll not have it!’

  Byrne looked him up and down. ‘Maybe you’ll not, but the lasses are willing enough to have it. I speak from experience, I assure you of that.’

  The fellow lunged towards him but was restrained by several hands. ‘Leave it, Greg,’ someone else said. ‘That’s one of Byrne brothers. They’re nowt but trouble.’

  The man pointed a finger. ‘Just let me catch you messing with any of our women and you’ll be sorry.’ He looked around the room for moral support and caught sight of Jim. ‘I’m surprised to see you in such company, Jim Drew,’ he said. ‘Thought you’d have had more sense!’

  ‘I’m not in anybody’s company but my own,’ Jim maintained. ‘I came in for a quiet drink of ale. Nothing more. Now if you’ll let me pass I’ll be on my way home.’

  As he unloosed the horse’s reins from the ring on the outside wall, he heard shouts and the sound of breaking glass coming from within the inn. He gave a grimace. He hoped it was John Byrne getting the worst of a fight but in spite of the numbers against him, he didn’t think that it would be.

  His thoughts were confirmed a few minutes later as Byrne sauntered out with his hands in his pockets and a smile on his face. ‘By the way, Jim,’ he called. ‘How is your sister? Delia, isn’t it? Give her my regards and say I hope all goes well with her.’

  Jim glared down at him from the saddle. ‘Don’t come bothering her,’ he warned. ‘She’s got enough trouble without you mekking more.’

  ‘I wouldn’t make trouble,’ he replied easily. ‘I’m not so careless. At least – not usually!’

  How does he know Delia? Jim deliberated as he rode across the bridge and on to Sunk Island. When has he met her? She hardly ever goes out. He gave a deep sigh. There’s no let-up, allus summat to worry about. As he rode along the embankment, he looked about him as he always did. The sky was light although it was late, and his sight was keen. He glanced towards one of the old drainage channels and saw that the water was high, almost to the top of the bank. He looked along it and saw, further down, that part of the bank had crumbled, so blocking the water from running along it.

  That one’s allus been a problem. He stood looking down the channel. We’ll have to dig it out or we’ll have trouble there at high tide.

  He continued on home, to be met at the gate by Matthew. ‘Did you see ’doctor? Is he coming?’ Matthew looked anxious. ‘She’s having a terrible time. I can’t bear to stay in the house.’

  ‘He was out,’ Jim confessed. ‘His housekeeper said she’d tell him as soon as he got back. I doubt he’ll come tonight, it’s nearly eleven.’

  ‘So where’ve you been? And where’s Da? I’ve not seen him for hours.’

  ‘I had a tankard of ale in Patrington, and Da’s gone off somewhere.’

  ‘Where?’ Matthew persisted.

  ‘I don’t know! He said he’d be back in ’morning.’

  ‘In ’morning!’ Matthew was incredulous. ‘And he didn’t say where he was going? Do you think he’s gone to stay at our Maggie’s? Mrs Jennings said he was grumbling about ’row Delia was making.’

  ‘I said, I don’t know.’ Jim was sharp. ‘I’m not his keeper!’

  ‘No, but he’s yours, isn’t he?’ Matthew answered back. Both were short-tempered and irritable.

  ‘I don’t know what you’re on about.’

  ‘I think you do. You can’t step out of place but he’s on to you. You shouldn’t stand for it.’ Matthew faced his brother. It was the nearest they had ever come to a quarrel. ‘You’re just like Henry. He never defied him, even though he argued with him.’

  Jim took a deep breath. ‘I don’t want to fight wi’ you, Matthew, but there’s a reason for most things. Just keep out of it wi’ Da and me. We’ll sort things out sooner or later.’

  He turned away, then as if in afterthought turned back and said, ‘Have you seen that Irishman hanging around here? Younger one wi’ red hair. John Byrne?’

  Matthew pursed his lips. ‘I saw him walking along one of ’dykes not long ago.’

  ‘Let me know if you see him again, and don’t let him near Delia – or Rosa.’

  Rosa sat down on a kitchen chair, ‘I wish ’doctor would come. Is it always so bad, Gran?’ She was exhausted after walking up and down with a weeping Delia, who had at last dropped off to sleep on her bed.

  ‘He’ll not come tonight. Not now. He won’t risk riding over here in ’dark.’ Her grandmother poured them both a cup of tea. They’d been taking it in turns to be with Delia. ‘She’
s frightened. That’s why she’s so tense and in pain. If she would relax she wouldn’t feel it so much.’

  ‘Maggie says she’s got another month to go yet. I hope Delia doesn’t tell her how bad it is.’

  ‘It might not be so bad for her. She’s looking forward to having her babby, she knows there’s joy to come at ’end of her pain. Young woman upstairs hasn’t got that joy.’ She raised her eyes to the ceiling as they heard again Delia’s plaintive voice calling for someone to come.

  ‘But she will have when it’s born, won’t she?’

  Mrs Jennings got up from her chair and turned towards the stairs. ‘Mebbe.’ There was doubt in her voice. ‘If all goes well.’

  The doctor came early the next morning, arriving shortly before James Drew. He greeted him after attending Delia, and accepted the offer of a cup of tea from Rosa. ‘Your daughter is in considerable pain, Mr Drew, and I fear for the child. It’s lying very awkwardly and—’

  ‘Don’t tell me for I don’t want to know,’ Drew replied brusquely. ‘I want nowt to do with her or ’bastard she’s carrying.’ His lips tightened. ‘If she’s suffering then it’s punishment for her sins. We’ll all have to suffer on ’Day of Judgement.’ His expression became blank and he stared into space. The doctor looked at him keenly as he continued, ‘And some folks will go through fires of hell even afore then.’

  ‘Come, come, Mr Drew.’ The doctor drank his tea. ‘I didn’t see you as a zealot!’

  Then you don’t know him, Rosa thought as she listened to their conversation through the open kitchen door. It doesn’t bode well for Delia. She felt sorry for her. She was going through physical and mental pain as she walked the floor, crying out querulously what was to become of her.

  The doctor finished his tea and, giving Drew a cursory nod, went outside, signalling Rosa to follow him. ‘I’ll come back tonight,’ he said. ‘I’ve left a potion with Mrs Jennings to give to Delia which will calm her, but tell Mrs Jennings, out of Delia’s hearing, that the child may not survive.’

  Rosa gazed at him. He’s coming back tonight! Does that mean that Delia has to suffer all the rest of the day?