by Katie Fforde
Emily frowned. ‘That’s sad.’
‘What about public transport?’ said Rebecca.
‘Far too complicated and I’m too slow for buses. Now, more tea, anyone? Kate? Another of those strange drinks in a box?’
‘Better not have another one, Kate,’ said Rebecca. ‘I don’t want your dad telling me you wouldn’t go to bed because you’d had too much sugar. I’m sure you could have a glass of water if you wanted.’
‘She could indeed,’ said Maisie. ‘Emily, dear, would you care to make another pot of tea? If you just pull the kettle over on to the hot plate, it’ll boil very quickly.’
‘So you think the knitting is OK?’ said Emily.
‘It’s fine,’ said Maisie and Emily realised this was high praise. ‘You’ve done quite well.’
Emily felt very happy. She’d worked hard and done a good job.
‘Maybe I could sew it up?’ suggested Rebecca.
‘Have you done it before?’ asked Emily, curious. ‘I didn’t think you were all that handy with your needle.’
Rebecca laughed. ‘That’s a polite way of putting it.’
‘I’d like my friend Rhona to do it. She did the last one. And of course, Donald is my youngest grandson. There won’t be any more knitting from me. At least not complicated knitting.’
‘We could post it to Rhona,’ said Rebecca.
‘Or,’ said Emily, who had been thinking, ‘we could hire a bus and collect all your knitting friends and get you together.’
‘That’s a good idea!’ said Rebecca. ‘I could arrange that easily. We know a lovely man with a vintage bus for hire. He usually uses it for weddings but there’s no reason why he couldn’t drive round the place and pick you up.’
‘I love bus rides,’ said Kate, who had been sitting at the table playing with the model flowerbeds and flowers which Maisie had got out for her.
‘You could come too,’ said Maisie. ‘And now you’ve reminded me you’re there, I’ve got some clothes for your teddy. Do you remember? You knitted him a scarf. Well, I had some wool and knitted a jumper and a vest. Rebecca dear – in that knitting bag?’
Kate inspected the items. ‘I’d really like him to have a jumper like Emily has knitted for your grandson.’
Maisie laughed. ‘You’ll have to talk to Emily about that.’
Kate turned her gaze on Emily, large-eyed and obviously not expecting a positive response.
‘Oh, well,’ said Emily. ‘I suppose if I’ve done one I could do another. The needles would need to be a bit finer, I think.’
‘Look in the bag,’ said Maisie.
‘I do like the thought of a tiny Fair Isle sweater,’ said Rebecca.
‘Your baby is getting a blanket,’ said Emily. ‘At least from me.’
‘A Fair isle blanket?’ said Rebecca, head on one side, eyes bright.
Emily was quick to disillusion her. ‘Do you want this blanket for when it’s a baby? Or a cushion cover for when it’s at university?’
‘Oh, OK,’ said Rebecca, disappointed.
‘Fair Isle wool would be too scratchy for a baby anyway,’ said Emily.
‘Would you really knit my teddy a sweater like this one?’ Kate pointed to the pullover, looking unprepossessing in its unsewn-up form. ‘He won’t mind it being scratchy.’
‘I’ll give it a go. If Maisie can spare me some wool. Goodness knows when I could get to a shop to buy any.’
‘For wool you have to go over to the press,’ said Maisie.
‘A press is Scots for cupboard,’ said Rebecca.
‘Go and have a rummage and see what you can find. It’s not much use to me now,’ said Maisie.
While Emily and Kate looked in the drawer dedicated to wool, Rebecca said, ‘So, if we arranged a bus, you could get in touch with your friends?’
‘Oh yes, we telephone each other all the time. Some of them email.’ She said this with an air of pride.
‘Golly. You should try that, Maisie,’ said Emily. ‘You’d find it really useful.’
‘Do you think so, dear?’
‘Yes. If I were staying up here I’d teach you but I’m sure someone else could.’ Emily picked up another ball of wool. ‘I think these are nice colours. What do you think, Kate?’
Kate shrugged, suddenly a bit sulky.
‘Emily won’t go away until she’s done your teddy’s sweater, love,’ said Rebecca, interpreting Kate’s change of mood.
‘Of course!’ said Emily. ‘And it won’t be for ages yet, anyway. So …’ She turned to Maisie, to give Kate a chance to recover her equilibrium. ‘Where would you and your gang like to go on your bus?’
‘Well,’ said Maisie, ‘there’s the old chapel. We used to meet there in the old days. Have jumble sales, things like that.’
‘Give me the address,’ said Rebecca. ‘I’ll look it up and see if they could have you.’
‘They’d have us,’ said Maisie. ‘We’ve been making them a banner. The kirk is due for a big anniversary this year.’
‘Well, that would be fun!’ said Emily. ‘I can just imagine you all sitting round together knitting and nattering. We have clubs who do that, down south.’
Maisie’s expression was scathing. ‘We’ve been doing that for years. Only not recently.’
‘We’ll organise it,’ said Rebecca. ‘I need a project.’
‘You do!’ Emily agreed. ‘Otherwise she’ll be on to me,’ she said to Maisie. ‘She seems to think I can’t be happy without a man and a baby.’
‘Well, she’s not wrong,’ said Maisie.
‘And it’s so weird being a midwife and not wanting a baby of her own,’ said Rebecca.
‘Don’t you like babies?’ said Kate, adding her twopenn’orth.
‘Honestly! Just because I don’t want a baby of my own just now doesn’t mean I eat them! I mean! It’s not a crime, is it?’
But the three people watching her seemed to imply that it was.
Rebecca opened her mouth to speak but before she could deliver another lecture there was a knock on the door and then it opened.
‘Daddy!’ said Kate, surprised. ‘I wasn’t expecting you. Have you come to pick me up?’
Chapter Six
‘WELL DONE, ALASDAIR!’ said Rebecca. ‘You got here!’
Emily felt a bit confused. Why hadn’t Rebecca said anything about Alasdair coming?
‘How good to see you,’ said Maisie. ‘Could we have more tea?’
Emily got to her feet automatically. Maisie was one of those people who managed to get people to do things for them and feel pleased about it.
‘So what have you been doing, Daddy?’ asked Kate.
Alasdair sat back in the armchair and helped himself to the shortbread that Emily offered with the tea. ‘Well, I was at the hospital looking after a lady who’d had a baby.’ He looked up at Emily, who was still holding the plate. ‘Thank you.’
Emily felt herself blush. She wasn’t sure if Alasdair knew she was a midwife.
‘Was she all right?’ said Rebecca.
‘She was fine. Just a few stitches. First baby. Nothing to worry about. Now she can’t wait to get home.’
‘So why was she in hospital?’ asked Emily before she remembered she’d be better off staying silent. ‘Did she choose to have her baby there?’
Alasdair frowned slightly. ‘It was a first baby.’
‘Emily is a midwife,’ said Rebecca, flushing. ‘And she’s more into home births.’
Emily flushed now. ‘I just don’t think hospital is necessarily the best place to have a baby, when you think of the infections and things.’ She decided to shut up while she was ahead. A heated argument between her and Alasdair about childbirth in front of an elderly lady, a pregnant woman and his daughter was not a good idea, from anyone’s point of view.
Rebecca was less inhibited. ‘I wanted a home birth but James talked me out of it.’
‘Kate!’ said Emily. ‘Can you show me those garden things you were playing with? We oug
ht to think about putting them back.’
‘We have to go now, really, sweetheart,’ said Alasdair.
‘That’s OK,’ said Emily. ‘It won’t take me a moment to get things straight.’
‘I want to put them back, with Emily!’ protested Kate. ‘I like playing with her, she’s fun!’
Alasdair sent Emily the anguished look of a dad who didn’t want to start an argument in public. He glanced at his watch. ‘Really, darling—’
‘I can do it, Kate,’ said Emily. Kate looked as if she was going to cry. ‘Maybe Maisie would let us play with the gardens another time?’
Kate stuck out her lower lip. ‘Really? You’re not just saying that in the way that grown-ups do?’
Emily swallowed. She wasn’t in a position to commit Maisie or anyone else. ‘Maybe next time I have a day off, we could do something together? Even if we didn’t have the gardens, we’d still have fun!’
Kate smiled. ‘Cool! Will you ask her over, Daddy?’
Another anguished look from Alasdair.
‘Of course I’m not sure when – or if – I’ll get another day off,’ said Emily.
‘Of course you’ll have another day off!’ said Rebecca.
‘And if we – Kate and I – asked you to …’ Alasdair hesitated, searching for the word.
‘Play,’ Kate supplied.
‘You’d come?’ He glanced at his daughter, indicating it would be for Kate she’d be invited.
‘Of course!’ said Emily, also making it clear.
‘That’s OK then,’ said Kate. ‘Are we going then, Dad?’
‘Well,’ said Rebecca, when Kate and Alasdair had left and she and Emily had put the ‘floral gardens’ back in the cabinet. ‘We must be off too. I’ve got to get my cook back to the puffer.’
‘Well, it has been delightful to see you,’ said Maisie. ‘I do have visitors, plenty of them, but none as compatible. There’s nothing like a wee girl to make you feel cheery.’
‘Yes, indeed,’ said Emily. ‘I see so many tiny babies I sometimes forget how much fun they are when they grow up.’
‘You see!’ said Rebecca, pouncing on this admission. ‘You do want children after all.’
‘I don’t!’
‘Don’t leave it too late,’ said Maisie. ‘All this choice about whether or not to have babies isn’t necessarily a good thing in my opinion.’
‘I quite agree,’ said Rebecca.
‘Well, I agree too, so we can part as friends,’ said Emily. ‘Now come along, boss. We need to go.’
Of course the parting took a while and was a little poignant, Emily felt. There was nothing wrong with Maisie – she was in good health now and in fair spirits – but she was fairly elderly and nothing was certain in life. She was very glad she’d finished the sweater so quickly and that it was all right.
She and Rebecca drove along in a friendly silence. Emily was looking out of the window, drinking in the scenery, when Rebecca said, ‘So, would you deliver my baby for me? Ms Midwife?’
Emily shot her a look. ‘No, I can’t. Apart from everything else it would be against protocol for me to, and I’m on a sabbatical.’ She looked at her friend more closely. ‘Don’t you like your midwife?’
‘I do! She’s fine but she’s not you and she is very keen for me to go to hospital to have this baby. As is James.’
‘Any medical reason?’
‘Not that I know of. Of course I am a bit elderly – in their eyes – but basically they just think it’s safer.’
‘Recent studies have said that’s not actually the case. Have you questioned them about it? No reason why you couldn’t have a home birth in my opinion.’
‘I think it’s the distance from the hospital if anything goes wrong,’ said Rebecca.
‘Ah well, there you go then. And Alasdair would obviously be most upset with you if you had a home birth.’
Rebecca didn’t answer for a few moments. ‘I think he would,’ she said, possibly wishing she could say otherwise.
They’d gone a few more miles before Emily said, ‘So no point in any more matchmaking then.’
‘I wasn’t!’ said Rebecca. ‘At least, not really. Well, only a bit,’ she finished. ‘But I do think you should give him another chance.’
Emily exhaled. ‘Listen: I’m sure he’s a perfectly nice guy, but even if we fancied each other like mad we’d never get over our philosophical differences. And we don’t fancy each other like mad.’
Rebecca looked straight ahead. ‘You don’t know that.’
‘Yes I do,’ said Emily. ‘At least I know I don’t fancy him!’ Actually, she had decided this wasn’t completely true but if she gave Rebecca even a sniff of an idea that she might think he had a certain something about him she’d never hear the end of it.
‘He may fancy you,’ said Rebecca, still not even glancing at Emily.
‘Even if we both did, Kate wouldn’t hear of it. Correct me if I’m wrong but I imagine she’s seen off several potential partners for her dad.’
Rebecca sighed. ‘You’re not wrong.’
‘There you go. Now, are you going to have supper on the puffer?’
‘I’d better get back to my boys. I’ve got to start thinking about everything they need for the new term.’
‘So why does Scotland have different school holidays from England?’
‘It’s the potato picking. Traditionally they all had a potato holiday in October so they could work gathering in the potatoes. James’s dad remembers doing it.’
‘Oh, OK. So when am I going to see these big boys of yours then?’
‘There’s a bit of a gap in the schedule coming up. I’ll see what I can arrange. We might manage a sleepover or something.’
‘I must say, although I am used to it now, and – what with working so hard and all the fresh air – I do go to sleep immediately, a night in a bigger bed would be a bit of a treat.’
‘I’ll arrange that. You deserve it. I’d have been so stuck if you hadn’t come up.’
‘Well, it works both ways. I really needed a complete change from everything and this certainly has been that. I’ve learnt so many new skills!’
‘What, cooking you mean?’
‘No! I knew how to do that before otherwise you wouldn’t have hired me. No, I meant ashing out and Fair Isle knitting.’
Rebecca laughed. She knew perfectly well that no one would have asked Emily to carry buckets of red-hot ash so if she’d done it, it had been voluntary. ‘Well, Fair Isle knitting is a skill that will come in very useful, I’m sure.’ She was serious for a minute. ‘It was really sweet of you to offer to knit Kate a sweater for her Ted. She’s very fond of him.’
‘He’s a sweet teddy. And Kate is a sweet girl. Happy to do that thing for both of them.’ She paused. ‘You know I told you how useful I find knitting during a long labour? How it helps me listen to the mother? Well, weirdly, it’s sort of the same on the puffer. When I’m knitting on the puffer, I’m usually with the passengers. Having something to do makes me feel I’m not just chatting and yet it is important to chat to them because it’s part of their holiday, having someone different to talk to.’
‘I knew you were the right person for this job!’ declared Rebecca. ‘You get things like that.’
Emily saw that there was a space in the schedule coming up in the middle of August, when the school holidays ended. But by the time the date arrived, Rebecca hadn’t mentioned any sleepovers or trips to see her boys, so when James left to go home soon after breakfast, she concluded that the family were busy and she would just spend her free time catching up on her washing, and possibly giving her roughened hands some emergency treatment.
Billie wasn’t going anywhere and neither were the engineers. Emily felt churlish for being disappointed. She’d set her heart on getting away.
Emily and Billie were both in the galley just before eleven. Emily was halfway through handwashing her jumpers (Billie had told her it was the only way to get your hands clean
) when there was a call down the hatch and Kate appeared. She ran across the saloon to the galley.
‘Hello! We’re taking you out for the day, Emily. Auntie Becca said we must and you said you would if you had free time. Have you finished the sweater?’
Her father came down the steps into the saloon. ‘Kate’s told you? You’re to come out with us for the day? We’re going to see the otters – although you don’t always see them – then we’ll have a picnic and then we’ll have a sleepover. I’ve promised Kate. And you did say …’
Emily was suddenly desperate to get off the puffer and go and look for otters. ‘I don’t know if I can …’ She looked at Billie. ‘Would you feel abandoned if I went out for the day and stayed out all night?’
‘Well, obviously, I would call you a dirty stop-out,’ said Billie, who had no regard for Kate’s young ears. ‘But no, you go. And if you’re having a picnic you might as well take the last of the crew cake. I’ll make another one when you’re off enjoying yourself.’
‘Are you sure you don’t mind?’
‘Course not! If you wring them out, I’ll even hang your sweaters up for you, and take them in if it looks like rain.’
‘You really do want me to go out, don’t you?’
‘Yup.’
Emily felt a rush of excitement at the thought of getting off the boat and seeing a bit more of Scotland. ‘Then come and help me get ready, Kate.’
‘Daddy said I wasn’t to ask,’ said Kate, looking at her father, who’d picked up a discarded newspaper and was reading it, ‘but did you finish the jumper?’
‘There are a lot of words for sweater, aren’t there?’ said Emily, wringing out one of hers.
‘Is that a yes or a no?’ Kate was so serious Emily felt she couldn’t keep her in suspense any longer.
‘It’s a yes,’ said Emily. ‘Why don’t you go and say hello to Drew while I do this and then you can come and help me get my things together? We can try the jumper on Ted.’
Kate was delighted by the little pullover, which Emily had to admit was extremely sweet, and she gave Emily a hug. ‘Now he needs a tammy to match.’