by Anne Bennett
‘And what if we tell my father and he forbids me to see you as well he might and you know that.’
‘Then you must talk to him,’ Andy said. ‘He will hardly prevent you from seeing me physically.’
Celia had never seen her father raise his hand to any of them and even when he had a drink he was a happy drunk, not a violent or nasty one, and so she shook her head. ‘I think that highly unlikely.’
‘Well there you are then, and remember we’re doing nothing wrong and it would be better you tell him rather than he finds it out from someone else.’
‘Yes,’ Celia said, knowing Andy was right, and added, ‘Norah thinks it a wonder he hasn’t been told already.’
And Norah was totally amazed because people must have seen them walking around the town on Saturday and at the dances. Tom might have had his eyes dazzled by Sinead McClusky, but there were plenty of others who would have seen the way Andy McCadden monopolised Celia and that she seemed to be agreeable to this. Then there was the way she lingered after Mass for a word or sometimes, if the girls were walking together, having been sent on ahead to prepare the breakfast, Andy would join them on the road, out of view of the church. Norah could see that the presence of Andy McCadden with the two Mulligan girls caused great curiosity from the people in the cottages they passed, though they were all greeted as normal, and then in their Sunday jaunts they often passed people on the road taking the air too and she couldn’t understand why no one seemingly had had a word with their parents about it.
However, that day the girls hadn’t long reached the house when Dan arrived in a raging mood. He had been in the town himself, having wheel rims replaced on the cart, and he had gone into the pub for a pint while the job was done and what he had been told there had caused fury to rise in him so that for a few moments he saw black before his eyes. The poor carthorse, Bess, had never been driven home at such a speed and it didn’t do the new wheel trims on the cart any good either, rumbling so quickly over the rutted lane. However, Dan seemed not to care about that or anything else. Neither Tom nor Dermot had seen their father in such a tear and it was Tom, watching his father jerk the horse to a stop in front of the house, who said, ‘What’s up?’
‘You’ll know soon enough,’ Dan answered grimly. ‘See to the horse.’ And so saying he bounded up the steps and shut the door behind him with such force it juddered on its hinges.
‘Whew,’ Dermot said as he led the sweating horse towards the barn. ‘Someone’s for the high jump.’
Tom thought it was probably Norah who’d done something because even before this business with America she had been a bit wild, not like Celia who seldom put a foot wrong.
He would have been surprised then if he had seen that after ordering Celia upstairs Dan followed her up and pushed her into her bedroom. He faced her across the room. He was breathing heavily and Celia noted that his face was purple with rage and a pulse was beating in his temple as he almost spat out: ‘Now I want the truth. Is there some sort of carry-on between you and Fitzgerald’s hireling?’
Celia had never seen her father like this and she was nervous. The scathing way her father had said ‘Fitzgerald’s hireling’ caused her heart to feel heavy, as if there was a lump of lead in it, and her voice trembled as she spoke. ‘It’s not some kind of carry-on, Daddy. We just meet and talk sometimes.’
‘A lot of times from what I hear.’
‘Not that many,’ Celia said. ‘And we are not doing anything wrong. We’ve just been talking, that’s all, and most times Norah has been there.’
‘Yes and she will get the rough edge of my tongue as well,’ Dan said. ‘She should have told me what was going on for I spoke to men today who have passed you walking with the hireling on Sunday afternoon on one of the walks you suddenly took such an interest in. You say you’re doing nothing wrong, when you have wilfully deceived your parents to meet a man you knew I would heartily disapprove of.’
‘How can you disapprove of the man?’ Celia cried helplessly. ‘You don’t even know him. His family had a farm too but he was the second son like Jim and, not having a handy relative in America, he is having to make his own way in the world. It’s not fair to be so against him.’
‘I don’t care how fair you think it is,’ Dan said. ‘Anyway, he is some man to go behind my back like this.’
‘He wanted to tell you,’ Celia said. ‘He wanted to ask your permission to walk out with me, but I stopped him. I was afraid you would stop us seeing one another.’
‘Well you were right there,’ Dan said. ‘For from now on you will have nothing more to do with this man.’
‘Oh no, Daddy,’ Celia cried, covering her face with her hands while tears trickled down her cheeks from eyes filled with sadness.
‘Oh yes, Daddy,’ Dan mocked scathingly. ‘You just think yourself lucky that I am not a violent man for I know many would horse-whip their daughters for behaviour like this, but I will lock you up if you disobey me, for until you are twenty-one you are under my jurisdiction.’
Celia had never been scared of her father before, but she was now, so scared that she felt her knees knocking together. But then Andy’s lovely face filled her mind and she remembered her sister saying that their father could make life difficult for her if she opposed him. But what harm was she doing being friendly with Andy McCadden? So she lifted her head, which she had initially hung in shame, and faced her father and in a voice she willed not to tremble she said, ‘I don’t think you are being just at all here, Daddy. The only thing I have done that is wrong was deceive you and I did that to prevent you doing this and forbidding me to talk to someone who is a neighbour to us and who has shown both myself and Norah nothing but pleasantness. And yet you resent him out of hand, all because he is a hired man.’
‘Yes and as such he is nothing to you.’
Now Celia was more angry than fearful and she said, ‘Andy McCadden is a fine man and yet you choose to look down on him because of an accident of birth, a man you know nothing of.’
‘I know enough to know he won’t be earning enough to provide for you and any family you might have.’
‘Daddy, I’m not suggesting marrying Andy McCadden,’ Celia declared, though she crossed her fingers behind her back because she was knew she was fast becoming very, very fond of him. ‘I don’t want to marry anyone just now and Norah is always with me when we meet.’
‘Then how is it,’ Dan asked, ‘that I was told that just this morning the pair of you were waltzing across the Diamond side by side with no sign of Norah?’
‘I was with Norah,’ Celia protested. ‘If you ask her she will tell you the same, but she met an old school friend as we were crossing the town and stopped to have a chat. If whoever told you had watched a bit longer he would have seen Norah join us after a few minutes.’
‘That apart, Celia,’ Dan said, ‘surely to God I don’t have to tell you how unseemly it is for two young girls to walk unchaperoned with a man we know little or nothing about. I thought at least you knew how to conduct yourself respectably.’
‘I am respectable,’ Celia said. ‘We were only talking. You said we know nothing about him and we didn’t but we are finding out.’
‘What he was or is or does is nothing to do with you,’ Dan said. ‘And as for talking to him and referring to him in that familiar way … Well here’s an end to it. You are never to see or speak to this man again.’ Celia gave a gasp, but her father hadn’t finished. ‘And I want your solemn word that you will not defy me in this.’
Tears were trickling down Celia’s cheeks, but she remembered Norah saying that often fathers decided the future of their daughters and so her voice was unusually firm as she said, ‘You can forbid all the friendships you like, Daddy, and as you said I must do as you say until I am twenty-one, but one thing I will say, and it won’t matter how old I am, I will marry for love or not at all.’
‘Do you know who you are speaking to?’
Celia gave a defiant toss of her auburn lo
cks as she said, ‘Yes, I know. And I also know neither you nor anyone else can make me marry a man I do not want to marry.’
Dan was stunned for this was not the compliant, easy-going girl not long from childhood that he had thought her, but a determined young woman that knew her own mind and that fact had been made even more apparent when she refused to give her word not to see and speak to Andy McCadden again.
‘Then,’ Dan said, ‘I must lock you in while I tell your mother what has been happening.’
Celia stared at her father in shock, not sure she had heard right, but her father meant every word and he closed the door firmly. She heard the key turn in the lock with a grating noise then his footsteps were going down the stairs and she had the urge to hammer on the door. She was proud of herself for not giving in to that, but as she gazed at the locked door a sudden sense of desolation swept over her and she threw herself on the bed and cried, broken-hearted, muffling the sound in her pillow.
Downstairs they were all waiting for Dan in the kitchen, but he shooed Ellie and Sammy outside, for what he had to say was not for their ears, and he told the others what Celia had said, and it implicated Norah too for she had known and said nothing.
‘I am disappointed with you,’ Peggy said. ‘You were the elder and it was up to you to turn her from this foolishness.’
‘I’m really sorry,’ Norah said.
‘Is there any more light you can shed on this?’ Dan asked her.
Norah was determined to say nothing further that would get Celia into more trouble and so she shook her head as she said, ‘No, it’s just as Celia said. ‘We’d meet Mr McCadden sometimes and talk and that’s all.’
Peggy knew Norah wasn’t telling them everything and so she looked at her sadly. ‘How could you do this?’
‘I’ve said I’m sorry and I am,’ Norah said. ‘But I honestly didn’t see much harm in it.’
‘Not much harm in it,’ Peggy repeated. ‘Well we will agree to differ on that and I’m glad at least that you are sorry for your part in it, but you won’t be half as sorry as you will be when I write to Aunt Maria and tell her about your part in all this.’
‘Must you do that?’
‘Indeed I must,’ Peggy said firmly. ‘She might decide she doesn’t want a lying, deceitful girl living in her house.’
Norah saw her wonderful future slipping through her fingers. ‘But, Mammy,’ she cried. ‘I haven’t lied and I only deceived you by not telling you about Mr McCadden and I am truly sorry about that.’
‘You know more than you are telling,’ Peggy said. ‘And, unless you are honest and tell us everything about the relationship between Celia and that man, I would say you can kiss America goodbye.’
Norah bit her lip for she knew that the way her mother would write such a letter would cast her in the worst light possible and Aunt Maria might easily say that she wouldn’t take on the responsibility of such a bold and wilful girl. Suddenly she was angry with Celia, for she had told her from the beginning not to get involved with a hireling man and the fact that she had ignored that advice meant that her own future was now in jeopardy.
And yet she hated letting her sister down but her father was relentless in his interrogation of her and eventually the story was dragged out of her and they heard that it really began from the day Andy McCadden came with the bull and put it in Celia’s head to go to the dance in the town that night. Reluctantly she told him of McCadden buying Celia a drink when Norah had left her unattended and that later her sister had danced with him. When she mentioned the last waltz she heard her father’s teeth grind together.
‘And where were you when this was going on?’ Dan asked Tom, fixing him with a steely glare.
Tom looked a bit sheepish. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I noticed nothing untoward. I was with Sinead a lot.’
‘Well, I’m surprised at you, Tom,’ Peggy said. ‘I expected you to look after your sisters better than that, Celia in particular.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ Tom demanded of Norah.
Norah sighed. ‘Didn’t want to get her into trouble I suppose,’ she said and added, ‘I did try talking to her about it.’
‘But she didn’t listen?’
Norah shook her head. ‘She got worse,’ she said. ‘The next time she danced nearly every dance with Mr McCadden. The other men who might have wanted a dance with her never stood a chance. And it was at the first dance they arranged to meet on Sunday afternoon at Lough Eske.’
And then, because it hardly mattered now for she knew with dread certainty Celia’s goose was well and truly cooked, as she had expected, it all came out about meeting Andy every Sunday afternoon and meeting him in town most Saturday mornings as well as attending the dances and even about the times he met them on the road going home from Mass.
‘It’s a catalogue of deception that’s what it is,’ Dan said angrily. ‘Fine respect that is showing her parents. I bet everyone knows about this and I’ve been made a laughing stock and the only thing I am surprised about is that I wasn’t told of it sooner.’
Norah was too, though she said nothing. She thought it better to keep a low profile and anyway her father was saying, ‘The thing to decide now is what are we going to do about it and I will have to give that some thought. And meanwhile Celia will stay locked in the bedroom,’ he said and then he glared at Norah as he said, ‘And I want no one creeping up the stairs to talk to her and, Norah, you keep Ellie and Sammy away too.’
‘I will, Daddy,’ Norah promised. ‘And I’ll not go near Celia, never fear.’ She didn’t want to face Celia because she felt she had let her down, though she didn’t see what else she could have done when the news had leaked out anyway.
It was a few hours later in the byre as they were milking the cows that Dan said to Tom, ‘That hireling man has got to be dealt with for I had sort of semi-promised Celia to Johnnie Cassidy.’
And although it was Tom he had spoken to, it was the appalled voice of Dermot that answered, ‘You can’t have promised Celia to him. Christ, Daddy, he’s an old man.’
‘When I want advice from you I’ll ask for it,’ Dan snapped. ‘Till then hold your tongue. And what have I said to you about taking the Lord’s name in vain? You’re not too old for a good hiding and don’t you forget it.’
Dermot was silent and though his face was red with embarrassment at being reprimanded his eyes still smouldered defiantly and Tom, hoping to deflect his father’s anger, because he could understand how astounded his young brother had been, said, ‘Dermot’s right though, Daddy. Johnnie’s a nice enough fellow but a bit long in the tooth. He must be over twenty years older than Celia.’
Dan nodded. ‘Twenty-three,’ he admitted. ‘But it’s a young wife he’s after, one young enough to bear him plenty of sons that will help him when the farm work gets too much for him and one of his blood to take over after his day, otherwise he says it goes to some nephew in New York that he has never met that hasn’t been once to see the place he might well inherit.’
‘Even so,’ Tom said. ‘That young wife needn’t be Celia.’
‘I doubt it will be now,’ Dan said glumly. ‘Before this business Celia was easy-going and eager to please, little more than a child, and I’m sure I could have convinced her it was for the best. We’d not lose by it once she agreed to marry him for he was giving us two fields almost adjoining ours and a gift of two pregnant cows when they married. He had a great fancy for our Celia.’
I bet he had, Tom thought but kept that to himself and instead said, ‘You think she might still be persuaded if McCadden was off the scene?’
Dan shook his head. ‘She says not. Says she’ll only marry for love. Did you ever hear such foolishness?’
Tom lowered his head as he smiled for he was well aware of his father’s views on ‘love’ and yet he was pretty sure he loved Sinead and she certainly loved him, but he’d hate to be forced or coerced into marrying someone he couldn’t stand. No wonder Celia had said what she did. And
yet it would never do for her to marry a hireling boy.
‘What do you intend to do?’ Tom asked his father.
‘Get rid of McCadden for starters.’
‘And how do you intend to do that?’
‘Bribe him.’
‘Bribe him?’ Tom repeated and Dermot’s mouth dropped open.
‘Every man has his price,’ Dan said. ‘Tonight I intend to waylay McCadden as he makes his way to the dance and ask him what is his price to go far away from here for good and make no effort to contact my daughter.’
‘D’you think he will agree?’
‘We’ll see,’ Dan said. ‘But it will be the worse for him if he refuses because if he won’t go by peaceful means, then he might have to be persuaded in other ways.’
The alarmed eyes of Dermot met those of his older brother, who had heard of the wild man his father had been in his youth, though that had been years ago. Now his father was known as an easy-going, even-tempered man and, though he was quite a strict disciplinarian, before this business Tom would have said that he was seldom unjust, never mind violent. And yet maybe any father might be moved to violence when his daughter’s future was at stake. But it might never come to that, Tom told himself, for surely the man would take the money and run and that would be the last they would hear of him.
‘And you,’ Dan said to Dermot as he prepared to take the cows back to the field. ‘You heard none of this, you hear?’
Dermot nodded. ‘I won’t say a word.’
‘See that you don’t,’ Dan growled.
Dan began leading the cows across the yard. Tom smiled reassuringly at Dermot and heard him give an almost imperceptible sigh of relief as they started to clean out the byre.
That evening Dan allowed Celia to come out of her room to eat the meal with them and an extremely uncomfortable meal it was, for she was well aware that her father and mother were still greatly displeased and disappointed with her. That did upset her because they had never even been cross with her before and the little conversation they had was stilted and unnatural and even the younger children picked up on the atmosphere and were quieter than usual.