by Val Wood
She watched him as he continued speaking and saw the familiar dimples appear in his round cheeks as he smiled. ‘But there was a young girl sitting on the pavement who heard my enquiry, and she immediately jumped up and said she knew Mrs Newmarch and would bring me to her!’
‘One of Grace’s waifs,’ she murmured. ‘The poor know them better than most.’
‘I didn’t realize that you would be here, of course. But I thought at least they would know where I could find you. Jewel?’ he asked. ‘How is she? Is she here? I’ve missed her!’
‘She is well. Much happier and brighter than she was. She’s a dear child, and it is of her I wish to hear your advice, Wilhelm. She’s out at present. She is already socializing! Though her manners are not quite what they might be! She has gone to spend the day with the children of a friend of Grace’s.
‘Is your business here concluded?’ she asked, curious about the connections he had in England. Nothing that he had ever discussed with her. Perhaps, then, I don’t know him as well as I thought.
‘No,’ he said solemnly. ‘There is still much to be discussed. Georgiana!’ he said abruptly. ‘Could we – could we perhaps take a walk? I don’t wish to intrude on the Newmarches’ hospitality.’
Grace came into the room as he was speaking. ‘Mr Dreumel, will you have supper? We have finished ours but Cook will prepare something for you.’
He stood up. ‘Thank you, Mrs Newmarch, but no. I am not at all hungry and Georgiana has kindly given me coffee.’
Which is still in the cup, Georgiana thought. He has barely touched it.
‘I was just suggesting that perhaps we—’ He looked down at Georgiana. ‘That is, Georgiana and I could take a short walk. I’m in need of some fresh air, having been cooped up on the train since early this morning. I came in a horse cab from the railway station. I was prepared to walk but my young guide insisted that it would be too far for me.’ He grinned. ‘She was most animated on the journey and waved and whistled to several of her friends!’
Grace and Martin, who had also come into the room, burst out laughing. ‘It will be the highlight of her day, Mr Dreumel,’ Grace said. ‘Her week, even. I remember very well my first ride in a carriage with a very fine lady.’ She smiled at Georgiana. ‘Do you remember, Georgiana? Though I didn’t know it then, it was the start of a new life for me.’
Georgiana nodded. She remembered very well the cold wet day when she had offered a carriage ride to the poorly clad young girl.
Martin came towards Grace and put his hand tenderly on her shoulder. ‘It’s a pleasant evening. Perhaps we might suggest a walk towards the estuary?’ he suggested. ‘People seem to gravitate towards the Humber when they have things to discuss or think about.’ He spun one of Grace’s curls around his finger as he spoke. ‘We do still, even though we are staid married people!’
He smiled down at Grace as he spoke and Georgiana felt a surge of emotion at their obvious love and contentment. ‘Yes,’ she said quickly to hide her feelings. ‘Let’s do that. I’ll get my coat and hat.’
Wilhelm took her arm as they walked. She led him, first of all, to the river Hull, which ran behind the houses and warehouses in the High Street and then flowed into the Humber. ‘This was once the main harbour,’ she told him. ‘The whaling fleet came in here and discharged their cargo. Now there are other docks in the town, but this is still in use and flows into the Queen’s Dock.’
They looked across the narrow waterway where barges and small ships were moored. Porters and seamen jumped on and off the vessels, and clerks scurried along the staith side with consignment sheets in their hands. ‘Perhaps one day, Dreumel’s Creek will be as busy as this,’ Wilhelm remarked, then, glancing up at the old buildings, added, ‘though our log houses will never last so long!’
‘This is an ancient town,’ Georgiana agreed. ‘So much antiquity.’ She smiled up at him. ‘But Dreumel’s Creek is making history and we were part of it.’
A stiff breeze was blowing by the estuary and Georgiana had to hold onto her hat. Eventually she unpinned it and let the breeze ruffle her hair.
‘That’s better,’ Wilhelm remarked. ‘That’s the Georgiana I know. I hardly recognize this elegant lady with ribbons in her hat!’
‘Oh, come!’ she replied gaily. ‘I was wearing my most fetching outfit when we first met in New York!’
‘You were playing the piano when I first set eyes on you,’ he said softly. ‘You were lost in another world and you were wearing a silver-grey gown. When we met later for supper you wore blue with a bustle.’
‘Goodness, Wilhelm. Imagine you remembering!’ She was both flattered and unnerved at him recalling such things.
‘If you had asked me in Dreumel’s Creek what you were wearing on that day, I would not have remembered.’ He turned away from her and gazed down at the choppy brown water lashing against the wooden structure of the pier. ‘It is since we have been apart that my memory has improved. So many things that I remember and few that I ever want to forget.’
‘Wilhelm!’ She touched his arm and for a second held her breath. ‘Wilhelm. I have missed you so much. And not only because you have given me support and guidance since I have known you.’
He turned back and took hold of her hand. ‘I trust you above anyone and there is something I must tell you,’ she said weakly, not able to look into his face, and wondering how far she dare go in her confession. Would he be embarrassed? Would she be humiliated? No, she considered. She knew him well enough to be sure that he would always treat her kindly. He was, after all, her very dear friend.
‘Georgiana!’ He lifted her chin with a finger so that she had to look at him. ‘Georgiana. Why do you think that I came to England?’
‘Business, you said,’ she replied in a whisper. ‘Though I didn’t know you had any business in England.’
‘I don’t!’ He pressed her hand. ‘After you sailed, I went back to the Marius. On the way I met Mrs Burrows. You remember Mrs Burrows?’ he asked gently.
‘Of course! I regret that I didn’t say goodbye to her before we sailed. She is a very special lady.’
He nodded. ‘And very wise. She asked me why I was so glum and downcast, and when I told her, she said I must stop being so foolish and book a ticket at once on the very next ship to England.’
She gazed at him. What was he saying? ‘What did you tell her?’ Her voice was uncertain. ‘For her to give you that advice?’
‘Aunt Gianna! Aunt Gianna!’ A childish voice hailed her which was followed by a chorus of others. ‘Aunt Gianna!’
They both turned. Jewel, with her coat undone and bare-headed, her black hair streaming behind her, was waving to her. With her were Elizabeth, Clara, Ruby and two young boys. ‘Aunt Gianna!’ She came rushing towards her, then stopped as she saw Wilhelm smiling at her. ‘Oh!’ she cried. ‘Oh! Wilhelm!’ Wilhelm put out his arms and she jumped into them, then smothered him with kisses. ‘Oh, Wilhelm, I’m so glad that you have come. I’ve missed you. Have you brought Kitty and Caitlin?’
He squeezed her tight. ‘No. Only myself. I wanted to see you and Georgiana, so I got on the next ship to England.’
She pressed her cheek close to his. ‘I’m so glad,’ she whispered. ‘I wanted to see you, Wilhelm, and so did Aunt Gianna. I love you and I cried cos I thought you had gone away, just like Papa did.’
Georgiana saw Wilhelm swallow hard and his eyes were bright as he kissed the little girl upon her cheek.
‘I haven’t gone away, and I love you too,’ he said softly. ‘Both of you.’ He looked at Georgiana. ‘Very much. That is what I came to tell you.’
Georgiana couldn’t speak. For all her bravado as an independent woman, she hadn’t found the courage to say what she felt, what she really wanted. It didn’t matter, she thought, where they lived, she and Jewel, as long as they were with those whom they loved. When love beckons you must follow. That was what was important.
From the corner of her vision she saw Ruby gather up her
other charges and melt away.
‘Wilhelm,’ Georgiana said shakily. ‘What was it that you told Mrs Burrows, for her to say what she did?’
He eased himself from Jewel’s embrace. ‘I said that I had let the woman I love go away, without telling her first that I love her.’ His voice was soft and low and his eyes held hers. ‘That I had loved her for a long time, but feared that she was tied eternally to someone else, as I once had been to Liesel.’
‘And you are no longer?’ Her voice trembled as she asked the question.
‘No.’ With one free hand, he took hers. ‘I won’t ever forget her, as you won’t forget Lake. They have been part of our lives. But you and I are still here, Georgiana. We must go on with our lives and I want – I want more than anything in the world, for us to do that together.’
‘I want that too,’ she whispered. ‘I hadn’t realized it before, but I love you, Wilhelm, and I want to be with you, wherever that might be.’
‘Me too!’ Jewel reached out and patted Georgiana’s cheek. ‘I want to come too!’
They both smiled and put their arms around each other, holding Jewel in their midst and oblivious of the glances of passers-by. ‘How could we possibly go anywhere without you, Jewel?’ Georgiana laughed and cried at the same time.
‘Look.’ Wilhelm pointed down the river. A steamboat was heading towards the tip of Spurn with a pilot boat guiding it. ‘Down there is the mouth of the Humber. I looked at a map when I was on my way here, and I saw that at the end of this estuary is the sea. And on the other side of the sea is the country where my father and grandfather were born. The Netherlands.’
His eyes were bright and eager and he gazed at Georgiana. ‘I would like to visit that country where my family came from, but I don’t want to go alone.’
She shook her head. ‘You don’t have to,’ she said softly and breathed a kiss on his cheek. ‘We will come with you. The world is ours, Wilhelm. We just have to reach out together and grasp it.’
AFTERWORD
The air was sharp, the night sky full of stars and the snowflakes softly falling as the man on horseback rode across the bridge at Dreumel’s Creek towards the mountain track. There were no prints on the white ground, no creak of leather or thud of hoof beat.
A small red-haired girl, hearing the bark of a wolf, lifted the heavy curtain at her bedroom window and looked out. She saw the rider and waved her hand to him as she always did, though her mother, whenever she had told her of his presence, would hush her and shake her head, even though she smiled wistfully as she followed her gaze up the mountain.
He reached the high ridge and looked back. Moonlight glinted on the rushing creek so that it sparkled like crystal. Smoke spiralled from the chimneys of the log houses, which seemed to sigh and settle their roots down into the ground. Chinks of lamplight were showing beneath doors and most of the windows, except for one cabin which was in darkness.
He nodded and, giving his rare crooked smile, lifted his hand and raised his battered leather hat in farewell before turning into the forest. He felt the remembrance of the woman’s arms tighten around his waist and her warm breath against his neck. He smiled again. He was home. He was happy.
THE END
About the Author
Valerie Wood was born in Yorkshire, where she still lives. Her first novel, The Hungry Tide, was the first winner of the Catherine Cookson Prize for Fiction.
For more information on Val Wood and her books, see her website at www.valeriewood.co.uk
Also by Val Wood
The Hungry Tide
Annie
Children of the Tide
The Romany Girl
Emily
Going Home
Rosa’s Island
The Doorstep Girls
Far From Home
The Kitchen Maid
The Songbird
Nobody’s Child
Fallen Angels
The Long Walk Home
Rich Girl, Poor Girl
Homecoming Girls
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A CORGI BOOK: 9780552150323
Version 1.0 Epub ISBN: 9781446436448
Originally published in Great Britain by Bantam Press, a division of Transworld Publishers
Printing history
Bantam Press edition published 2003
Corgi edition published 2004
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