His Brother's Wife

by Val Wood

  She smiled. ‘But he’s a boy. Daniel was onny two weeks old when Noah – when Noah drowned. He never got ’chance to know him.’

  ‘Can I hold him?’ he asked.

  ‘Onny for a minute,’ she said softly. ‘Your ma won’t like it.’

  ‘What?’ He frowned. ‘What do you mean?’ He held the baby for a moment, then kissed him on the forehead and handed him back to her. ‘He’s not like Noah, except for his eyes. Noah’s were dark. But his complexion …’

  ‘Fletcher – there are things to tell you, but not yet. It’s – not been easy.’

  He nodded. ‘It never was, Harriet, but one thing at a time. Let’s go inside. I want to know how Da and Noah came to fall into ’river. They’ve lived alongside it all of their lives.’

  ‘I think your da fell in, and Noah went in and tried to save him.’ She spoke swiftly. ‘But Ellen,’ she choked back a sob that came with the retelling of it, ‘your ma won’t have it that that’s how it happened. But I was there,’ she said defiantly. ‘I saw what happened.’

  They sat silently drinking tea in the kitchen, Fletcher eating cake. He scooped up some crumbs and popped them in his mouth. ‘Good to have some home-made grub, Ma.’

  She glanced at him. ‘That’s not mine. Harriet made it. We’re out o’ flour now. That’s where I was going when . . . when …’ She looked round the kitchen. ‘I was going to Brough,’ she added.

  ‘When you saw me coming towards you,’ Fletcher prompted. ‘But you thought I was someone else, didn’t you?’

  ‘No,’ she said sharply. ‘I thought I was seeing a ghost. You should have been— I thought you were in America.’

  ‘I wanted to leave as soon as I heard ’news from Tom,’ he told them. ‘But I was working on a farm and had to work an extra month before I could set off for New York. It’s a long story,’ he said wearily. ‘I had to wait for a berth. It took longer than I anticipated.’

  ‘It’s a long way,’ Harriet murmured.

  ‘But I’m home now and we need to talk,’ he said. ‘Not only about what happened, but what’s going to happen next. I’ll have to see ’bailiff or Master Hart about changing ’tenancy agreement to my name instead of Da’s. Has owt been mentioned about it?’

  Harriet watched Ellen to capture her expression at this question, but it didn’t alter as she said, ‘No. But don’t worry about that just now. I’ll speak to ’bailiff ’next time ’rent’s due, or I might go up to see Master Christopher myself. I know him well enough. He won’t mind.’

  Harriet wondered why Ellen didn’t tell Fletcher that the tenancy was hers and not Mr Tuke’s. Why was she avoiding telling him the truth? But she only added, ‘Master Hart was very kind and helpful. He was here on ’day it happened. He was bringing ’Christmas bird. He rode up to ’next farm to try and get help.’

  ‘Did he?’ Fletcher murmured, his expression thoughtful.

  Ellen nodded in agreement, her eyes bright. ‘It was typical of him,’ she said. ‘He’s not altered since he was just a young man. Still ’same as ever he was.’

  ‘So you’ll be staying, will you, Fletcher?’ Harriet asked. ‘America didn’t pull you up from your roots?’

  ‘I can’t leave you both on your own now, can I?’ he said, glancing at her, leaving her unsure if he meant her and Daniel or her and Ellen. ‘Besides, I was ready to come back. It’s such a huge country I felt swamped somehow. But …’ he hesitated. ‘Well, mebbe I’ll talk to ’landowner. Mebbe we should move further back from ’estuary. It’s so wet down here.’

  Ellen’s eyes were darting about as he spoke. ‘This is my home,’ she hissed. ‘Don’t be mekkin’ plans wi’out consulting me first.’

  ‘I won’t, Ma,’ he said in a conciliatory tone. ‘Don’t you worry ’bout that.’ He smiled across at Daniel and put out his hand to him and the child grabbed his fingers. ‘But we have to think of future generation, like Daniel here. We need land that’s productive so we can earn a living from it.’

  ‘We made a living wi’ three menfolk afore,’ his mother snapped. ‘We’re two men less now.’

  Fletcher winced at her sharp words and Harriet turned her head away, closing her eyes in reproach.

  ‘We scratched a living, Ma,’ Fletcher said. ‘That’s all. We’d nowt left for luxuries like buying a new cart or waggon.’

  ‘Anyway,’ Ellen continued as if he hadn’t spoken. ‘Harriet might not want to stop. What’s to keep her and her child here now that she’s no husband to look out for her?’

  So here it is, Harriet thought. I knew that sooner or later she would say something to Fletcher about Noah, but I didn’t think it would be so soon after he arrived home. She held Daniel close to her to protect him and for comfort.

  Fletcher’s gaze on his mother was one of astonishment and outrage. ‘Ma,’ he croaked. ‘What ’you on about? This is Noah’s wife, Noah’s child. Of course she’ll stay.’

  Harriet’s voice trembled as she spoke. ‘I think you’ll find that your ma has summat to say about that. Haven’t you, Mrs Tuke?’

  Ellen stared at her. Confronted now, she had to tell Fletcher the truth about Noah or for ever live the lie, but she was confused, it seemed, as to whether this was the right time. She swallowed hard. ‘It won’t look right,’ she muttered at last. ‘Folk will talk. A young widow here wi’ a single man.’

  Fletcher gave a short harsh exclamation. ‘But you’re here,’ he exclaimed. He glanced at Harriet. ‘Folk might talk, an’ talk they can if it suits ’em.’

  ‘That isn’t what your ma meant, Fletcher,’ Harriet disclosed, determined now to have everything in the open. ‘She has summat to tell you about Noah and your da.’

  Ellen Tuke gazed at her with something like loathing and then spat out. ‘It won’t mek any difference, you know. I know what you’re up to.’

  Fletcher stood up. ‘Enough! What’s going on?’

  ‘Noah wasn’t my son,’ Ellen said bitterly. ‘He was Mr Tuke’s, not mine. Mr Tuke brought him to me when he was a babby an’ told me to bring him up as if he was my own.’

  Fletcher was struck into silence and sat down again, silently contemplating. Then he frowned and said slowly, ‘Is that why – is that why you never took his side? You never had a kind word to say to him. I noticed. I knew there was a difference between us, and …’ Again he was silent. He shook his head. ‘Summat’s allus bothered me. I remember – I think I remember – my first memory of Noah was when I was lifted off your knee and he was put there in my place.’

  He gazed at Daniel, who had his head on one side and was regarding him with interest. ‘I can remember crying,’ he murmured, ‘and Da shouting.’ He turned to Ellen. ‘So who was Noah’s mother? Was it someone you knew?’

  Ellen’s lip curled. ‘Nobody I knew,’ she scoffed. ‘Just some whore from a brothel.’

  Harriet went upstairs to feed Daniel and consider their future. Fletcher would have to contemplate his own future, too, and for the moment it couldn’t include her. She was still in mourning, for one thing, and for another . . . She sighed dejectedly. They could never marry even if they wanted to. She was his brother’s widow, and although according to Ellen Noah was only his half-brother, it was still illegal in the eyes of the law and the scriptures, and, in the eyes of the world, morally wrong.

  But I care for him, she thought. And I think he cares for me; but is he strong enough to resist his mother? I know she wants me gone. She wants her precious son to herself now that her wayward husband and poor unwelcome Noah have departed.

  She stroked Daniel’s cheek and he gurgled up at her with his milk-washed lips. ‘I think,’ she murmured to him, ‘that we must set out and try to find out about your other grandmother.’ Daniel chortled and kicked his chubby legs. ‘I can tell you about one,’ she told him, ‘and she would have loved you to bits if she’d been here, but she isn’t.’ She felt sad again when she thought of her mother. ‘And maybe this other one won’t want to know you, if by chance I can find her, but on ’o
ther hand, she might be curious to know about ’son she gave away.’

  But what Harriet also considered was whether Noah’s mother had known anything about him over the years. Had Mr Tuke spoken of him on his visits to the ill-famed house of disrepute? And had she heard that her son had died in the estuary, along with his father?

  Daniel crowed up at her and then buried his face in her breast. So that’s what I’ll do, she thought. I’ll try to find out who Noah’s mother is, or was, if anyone’s willing to tell me. Then at least I’ll know a little more about my own son’s heritage.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  Harriet and Ellen had had a working arrangement in place before Fletcher arrived. Each had her own jobs to do, Harriet doing the first milking and letting out the hens and ducks. Ellen prepared breakfast for the two of them, which they ate mostly in silence, and later did the second milking. They looked after the goat and pigs in turn and generally worked in unison. Harriet still contributed to the household accounts with her ironing at the manor. It was the only money she ever held in her hand, and she kept some of it back before giving the majority to Ellen, who put it in a purse in a drawer to which she held the only key.

  However, now that Fletcher was home, Ellen gave Harriet jobs to do which she was sure were meant to keep her away from Fletcher. He had gone back to his customary routine of keeping the ditches clear and mending fences and gates that had fallen into disrepair since Noah drowned.

  On the first ironing morning after his return, Harriet was dressing Daniel before they left when Fletcher asked why she was wrapping him in a shawl. ‘Surely you’re not tekkin’ him with you?’

  She nodded. ‘I allus do. They don’t mind. He sits in a little chair or he sleeps whilst I’m ironing.’

  ‘But why don’t you leave him here? Or – oh, I suppose you have to feed him while you’re out?’

  ‘I do, when I get there. Then I know that he’ll be good. He watches me’ – she smiled at the thought – ‘or he falls asleep.’

  Ellen had gone outside, and Fletcher dropped his voice. ‘Does my mother never offer to look after him?’

  Harriet didn’t look at him but concentrated on wrapping Daniel up. ‘Never,’ she said. ‘Never has, nor do I want her to.’

  ‘I see.’

  ‘No, you don’t, Fletcher. Your mother doesn’t want us.’ Harriet took a deep breath. ‘I was useful to her before you came back and admittedly she wouldn’t have turned me out during ’winter. Also, I don’t think she wanted to be alone.’ She looked straight at him. ‘But now that you’re back, I think she sees me as a threat.’

  ‘I think her mind has turned since my da and Noah drowned,’ he murmured.

  Harriet didn’t comment, but she didn’t agree. She was convinced that Ellen had some plan up her sleeve and that she and Daniel were not included in it.

  As she walked towards the manor, she toyed with the idea of asking Mary if she’d ever thought of taking in a lodger. She mused over the idea that if she and Daniel could live with her, Mary might look after Daniel whilst Harriet did all the washing and ironing for the Harts. I could even ask for a job in ’kitchen, she considered, but sleep out.

  She didn’t see Mrs Hart that day, but a parcel had been left for her in the ironing room, containing a blouse and skirt and a heavy woollen shawl. Mary popped her head in to see her after she’d finished the washing and told her that the sheets were almost dry enough for ironing.

  ‘I’ll come over to see you one day, Mary.’ Harriet raised her voice. ‘We haven’t had a chat for a while.’

  Mary smiled and said that she mustn’t forget to bring Daniel too, and Harriet felt a warm glow and wished once again that Mary were Daniel’s grandmother.

  It was nearly five o’clock, and as Harriet walked back she felt a despondency settling more heavily on her the nearer she came to Marsh Farm. And then she saw Fletcher waiting for her at the top of the track. It seemed at that moment as if he had never been away. Nevertheless, she thought, neither of them was free; the constraints of Noah and Mr Tuke and Fletcher’s mother held them as fast as any rope.

  He led her into the cover of the trees, where they were sheltered by the fresh new growth produced by his harsh pruning before he left on his travels. In the safety of her arms, Daniel cooed and babbled at the rustling of leaves and lifted a plump hand to catch them. Fletcher kissed her cheek and then her lips and then caught Daniel’s hand and blew his lips on it, making a purring sound. The child laughed delightedly.

  ‘I love him,’ he whispered to her. ‘I want him to be mine, as I want you to be too. What can we do?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ she whispered back. ‘Nothing. It’s not possible. You and Noah have ’same father; it’s against ’law and ’church.’

  He kissed her again. ‘There must be something – or else we must live in sin.’

  Two days later she suggested that she might travel to Brough to buy some items they needed: flour, sewing thread and soap. Ellen eagerly agreed and Harriet knew that she didn’t want to go herself and leave her alone with Fletcher. Ellen made her a long shopping list and gave her some money, and also packed up some bread and cheese in case she became hungry.

  ‘No need to rush back,’ she told her. ‘You enjoy your day out.’ She sighed then, and added, ‘I must go and see Mrs Marshall when I have time. She’ll be wondering what’s happened to me.’

  When Harriet had left in the cart, with Daniel strapped into a chair that Fletcher had fashioned out of a wooden potato box and packed with a blanket, Ellen rushed into the house, set the table for two and put the kettle on the fire again. Then she called Fletcher inside.

  ‘I want to talk to you now that we’re on our own,’ she said eagerly.

  Fletcher frowned. ‘You can say owt you want in front of Harriet,’ he told her. ‘I’ve no secrets from her. She’s family.’

  ‘Not mine, she’s not,’ his mother said smugly. Sitting down at the table, she folded her arms across her thin chest. ‘I need to talk to you and it’s nowt to do wi’ her. It’s onny to do wi’ you and me.’

  He sat opposite her. ‘Before you say owt, Ma, I want to tell you that I’m very fond of Harriet, and she is of me.’

  His mother leaned towards him and her eyes glistened. ‘You’ll not want owt to do wi’ her when I tell you what I’ve kept secret. I’ve got plans for you, Fletcher. Had plans for years and years and could never see how they’d come to pass.’ She gave a chuckle, and again Fletcher frowned. She was behaving very oddly. ‘But my prayers have been answered. When ’waters took Mr Tuke and his son—’

  ‘Don’t call him Mr Tuke,’ Fletcher exploded. ‘He was your husband and my father and even if he wasn’t a very good one he should be treated wi’ respect now that he’s not here to answer back! And Noah was my brother and I’ll have nowt said against him either. Besides,’ he added, ‘I’ve got plans too. I’m a grown man; I can mek my own!’

  She seemed startled by his response, but the kettle started to steam and she got up to pour water into the teapot whilst Fletcher sighed impatiently, tapping his fingers on the table.

  ‘There’re jobs waiting to be done, Ma,’ he said. ‘Won’t this keep until later?’

  ‘No, it won’t.’ She sat down again and warmed her hands on the teapot. ‘You’ll see. Your whole life’ll begin to change when I say what I’m going to say. Your prospects will increase one hundredfold, you mark my words.’

  And what she said gave him cause to think that her mind really might be wandering, although if she was telling the truth then she was giving him the freedom to do what he wanted, but also presenting him with a huge dilemma.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  Harriet heaved a deep sigh as she drove away from the farm. It was such a relief to be away from the strained tension between her and Ellen. She seemed to be softening towards me at one time, but now she’s just as she was when I first arrived as Noah’s wife.

  The day was glorious, sunny and warm with a sweet smell of newl
y mown hay; the hedgerows were abundant with dog roses, honey-scented meadowsweet, wild garlic and red campion and swarming with bees and butterflies fluttering from flower to flower. She wanted to weep, for she knew that under other circumstances she could be happy here – she was happy here, but this happiness couldn’t last. She would have to move on; she couldn’t live under the same roof as Fletcher.

  Brough, Alice in the manor kitchen had told her, had once been an important Roman town, but now, although still designated as a town, it was really little more than a village, certainly not as large as Hull, Harriet thought as she drove the cart through the streets. But it still had a working ferry across the Humber to Winteringham on the southern shore, and from there a good straight road ran to Lincoln and eventually to London. Not that I will ever go there, she mused. That journey is not for me.

  She finished her shopping for the items on her list and asked the elderly shopkeeper if she knew the whereabouts of Mrs Miriam Stone. The woman looked startled at her question.

  ‘Why, m’dear, why ever would you wish to visit her?’ She looked Harriet up and down. ‘You’d do well to keep away from such a person.’

  ‘Oh?’ Harriet pretended astonishment. ‘I’ve been asked to leave her a message. Is she not a worthy woman?’

  ‘I believe she leads a quiet life nowadays, but she has a – well, I’ll say a poor reputation, for I wouldn’t wish to heap any further denigration on her name, no matter that it might be deserved.’

  ‘I see,’ Harriet said thoughtfully. ‘I wonder what I should do? Perhaps post it? But then I don’t have an address.’ She stood with her hand to her face as if thinking.

  ‘Is ’message important? Would it be known if you didn’t deliver it?’

  ‘I don’t know. If I should be asked then I couldn’t lie.’