by Valerie Wood
But her eyes were drawn to the third figure, who held out his hand towards her. Tom, tall and handsome in a dark blue frock coat with a velvet collar, doeskin trousers and a pale cream rose in his buttonhole; his dark hair brushed and gleaming curled on his collar, his mouth serious and tender, and with love in his eyes.
The tables in the dining-room were decorated with the first summer roses, cream and gold, to complement Sammi’s gown and flowers; they were garlanded with ropes of sweet-smelling herbs and foliage, lime blossom, golden marjoram, white daisies and buttercups, and bound together with wild grasses.
The wedding breakfast of consommé, lemon sole, asparagus, hare roasted with mustard and thyme, with an array of vegetables, was consumed before glazed salmon stuffed with dill, honey and lemon, was brought on to the table, followed by duck and roast goose; and before the desserts of syllabub and burnt cream, apple and plum tart were brought in, a sorbet to freshen the palate was served.
The guests settled back, replete after the feast, to listen to the speeches. George spoke first, bashful in his unaccustomed finery of claret-coloured tailcoat, and blushing and stumbling over his first public speech as he thanked everyone for being there, and then sat down in relief as Sammi’s father rose to give his loving praise of Sammi and her fine choice of a husband.
‘The Fosters and the Rayners,’ he began, ‘have once again joined their hands in matrimony. My mother and father – Sammi’s grandparents – who were also Tom’s great aunt and uncle, were a Foster and a Rayner who defied convention by marrying one another, in the same church in Tillington as these young people did today. Their marriage was a long and happy one. They were forever united and,’ he paused emotionally, ‘I like to think that somewhere they still are.’ He raised his glass. ‘Let us drink a toast to two more pairs of hands, as strong and steadfast as those others, who have joined together today.’
They raised their glasses and as Sammi and Tom linked arms and drank from each other’s glass, they gave the tribute. ‘To the Fosters and the Rayners. May they always be united.’
As they sat down again and waited for Tom to reply, Gilbert rose to his feet. ‘If I might intrude into the proceedings,’ he said. ‘I have a message from James which I would like to give. He tells us that he is very happy in Italy, but now that he is away from us all, he finds that he misses us and would welcome a visit if anyone could undertake the journey. The message is sent with special regard to Sammi, whom he describes as the best friend he ever had, and ends by saying that he hopes that Tom realizes what a lucky fellow he is.’
Tom smiled and kissed Sammi’s cheek, which brought a round of applause from the assembled guests.
As the laughter died down, George rose to his feet again. He fished an envelope from out of his pocket. ‘I have a letter too,’ he said, ‘it came a week or two back, and Da asked me to read it to you. It’s from Mark.’ There was a murmur from his attentive listeners and anxious eyes watched as he opened up the letter.
‘“Dear Da,”’ he began, hesitatingly. ‘“I am about to begin a new life. After being so long away from home, I have at last come to realize that all I left behind was good and true, and was all that any man could wish for. However, Da, as you have always known, and which I have only just come to know, I am an obstinate, mule-headed sort of fellow who never recognized a good thing when he saw it.”’ George blinked his eyes and continued. ‘“I do know now, as I wait here for my passage to Australia, and I can tell thee by letter what I could never tell in speech, how much I care for all of thee. For thee, Da, who will always be in my thoughts; for my brother Tom who should break down ’barriers and set out to capture ’girl we both know he loves.”’
Tom held Sammi’s hand as he listened.
‘“For my cheery brother George, who finds such merriment in life. If I could only find half of his cheerfulness I would think me a lucky fellow. And for Betsy.”’ There was a stunned silence as George paused, swallowing hard, knowing what Mark did not.
‘“For Betsy, I ask for her forgiveness for my harsh words before I left, but tell her that I only uttered those words because I cared. God bless and keep thee all. I don’t know if or when I will see any of thee again, but I will write when I am settled. Think of me sometimes and know always that I am thy everloving son. Mark Foster.”’
George turned over the page. ‘He put a postscript. He says, “I ought to tell thee that I’m not travelling alone, so don’t fret on that account. I have a companion with me. She asks that we travel in friendship only and I respect her wishes, but one day I hope for more. Mark.”’
Some of the guests who had a long way to travel departed after the wedding breakfast, and others rested or walked around the garden while the servants prepared for the jollifications which were to be held in one of the meadows. A marquee had been erected and a fire lit in a brick oven to cook sausages and pies, and two spits had been fixed over open fires to roast a pig and a side of beef, which were already crackling and spitting and sending mouthwatering smells floating across the fields, urging the villagers who were tramping along the lane between Tillington and Monkston to make haste.
Lamps were placed in readiness in strategic places; at the gate to the meadow, around the square of mown grass where dancing would begin, and a low wooden staging was pronounced safe for the musicians; an accordionist, a fiddler, a drummer and a penny whistler.
‘This will be the best of all,’ Sammi said, as she and Tom walked arm in arm to see if all was in place.
‘No, the best of all will be when we are alone, Mrs Foster,’ Tom murmured in her ear. ‘When I can tell you, and show you, how much I love you.’
‘I know it already, Tom,’ she whispered. ‘And I love you too, so very much.’
He shook his head and smiled. ‘No, you don’t know, Sammi, and it will take a lifetime to tell.’
The meadow started to fill with crowds of laughing, merry people. Sammi and Tom stood by the gate and greeted everyone, inviting them to partake of the food and wine and the ale, which was stacked in barrels beside the trestle tables, which were groaning with meat and pastries, sweet cakes and trembling jellies.
‘Who’s this?’ Tom looked across the meadow to the house, where a hired chaise was rolling into the drive.
They watched and then saw Doctor Sheppard descend and look about him.
‘Stephen!’ Billy hurried across the grass. ‘You came after all!’ Stephen Sheppard was greeted warmly by Billy who shook him by the hand. ‘I’m so glad you could come. Your patients could be left after all?’
‘My uncle took over for me.’ The doctor beamed at Billy. ‘He felt that it was most important that I come.’
‘Important?’ Billy said, puzzled. ‘We wanted you to come, yes, after your kindness to Betsy; Sammi would have been disappointed if you hadn’t come.’
Stephen nodded sombrely, then unable to conceal his information any longer gleefully said, ‘I’ve seen Pearson! He’s looking for you. He has news!’
‘Yes? Tell me!’
‘He wouldn’t say. But he’s setting up a meeting with the two benefactors, and he needs you there to finalize everything! That’s what he told me to say. Billy, it means that everything is in place! Your children’s home is about to become a reality!’
Billy gaped, unable to comprehend, that at last what he had set out to achieve was about to come to fruition. ‘I’ll travel back with you tonight! There’s not a minute to lose. We must find a site. Find builders – and tell the children.’
‘Oh, Billy!’ Sammi and Tom had come up to welcome Stephen Sheppard and overheard. ‘What wonderful news, and today of all days!’
He was filled with enthusiasm. ‘I will be faithful to these children, Sammi. They will have food and clean water without begging for it, a warm bed at night. They will have training for a trade. I will see that they do! On my life, I will promise them!’
She put her arms around her brother and hugged him. ‘How good you are, Billy. But you will give t
hem more than those things. You will give them hope. You Knight of the Poor!’
He flushed at her praise. ‘If this succeeds, Sammi, just think how much more can be achieved.’ He glanced at Tom, not wanting to darken his wedding day. ‘Perhaps a home for young women who are in trouble? A place for abandoned children.’ He clenched his fists. ‘So much to be done!’
Billy took Stephen to meet his parents and tell them the news, and to say that he would be leaving for Hull that evening in order to attend the meeting.
They chatted for a while and then Billy excused himself to go and tell Gilbert who had first arranged the introduction with Zachariah Pearson.
‘Don’t tire yourself, Victoria!’ Ellen called to Victoria, who was running across the grass.
‘Mrs Rayner. Forgive me for saying this.’ Stephen Sheppard hesitated, and then continued, ‘You may think me impertinent, but Billy has told me how anxious you are over Victoria’s health.’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I worry constantly.’
‘Then if I might make so bold, I suggest that you don’t. Your anxieties, no matter how you try to hide them, will affect her.’
‘But I don’t tell her,’ she began.
‘There will be no need. She may well be sensitive and if so, she will know when you are anxious and that anxiety will be transferred to her. She has been ill, I know,’ he said sympathetically, ‘but I suggest that she tries to lead a normal life, meet other young people, so that she forgets about her illness. She is almost a young woman.’ He turned to watch her. ‘Could I offer the suggestion that you take her away somewhere warm for a few months? Perhaps to Italy. Take her in the autumn – give her a good start before winter.’
‘Why, Doctor Sheppard, what a wise young man you are.’ Ellen looked at him and, with a gleam in her eye, said, ‘You wouldn’t care to come and live in Holderness, would you?’
He laughed at her implication and said, ‘I fear not. From what I gather, Holdernessians rarely need the services of a physician, but I am sorely needed in town.’
‘You are right,’ she agreed. ‘On the whole, they are a hardy breed.’
Doctor Sheppard left her and she looked across to where Thomas was being made comfortable by Jenny amongst a crowd of other men, and who was then shooed away by him, followed closely like a gambolling puppy, by George. I think perhaps I might bring Jenny to us, she mused discerningly, if Thomas will part with her; and I’ll find an older housekeeper for Sammi.
She lifted the hem of her figured blue silk gown from the ground, and walked across to where Mildred was sitting on a blanket- covered bench, with another blanket tucked around her. ‘Whatever is wrong with Anne?’ she asked. ‘Are you not enjoying yourself, dear?’
Anne was kneeling on the grass with her head buried in her mother’s lap. ‘She says that everyone is getting married but her,’ Mildred said resignedly.
‘Oh?’ Ellen waved to her husband who appeared to be looking for her. ‘But I thought she had an understanding with a young man?’
‘She had, unofficially, but he seems to have faded away since the business with the bank.’
‘Then he’s not worth crying over, my dear,’ Ellen said cheerfully. ‘Mildred! I’ve had an idea. How would you and Anne like to accompany Victoria and me to Italy in the autumn? We could visit Florence and you could see James.’
Anne sat up and wiped her eyes; Mildred gazed at Ellen in astonishment. ‘Would you, would you like me to come?’
‘Why not?’ Ellen asked quietly. ‘We used to be friends.’
‘Planning without me?’ William caught the conversation as he approached. ‘Ellen! How could you?’
‘Would you come?’ she asked eagerly. ‘After harvest?’
‘To Italy!’ Mildred breathed, and her face flushed with animation. ‘I never thought – never ever thought!’
‘Shall we then, Mildred?’ Ellen sparkled with enthusiasm. ‘It is a beautiful country, I believe. It would suit us very well!’
‘Yes.’ Mildred looked up and her warm smile encompassed them all. ‘I think it would.’
George, Richard and Luke had carried Thomas in his chair across the meadow towards a group of other men who were in earnest conversation. ‘Leave me now,’ he said to Jenny who was hovering over him. ‘Go off and enjoy thaself. George!’ he commanded, ‘Look after that wench. Make sure none of these ne’er-do-wells bother her.’ He nodded towards a group of village lads who were eyeing the retreating Jenny.
George grinned as he caught up with her. ‘Da says I’ve got to look after thee. I’d better do as he says. He’s scared tha’ll go off back to Hull and leave him.’
‘I’ll not do that, Master George,’ she declared. ‘I like it out here.’ She put her head up. ‘What’s that lovely smell?’
George put his nose in the air and sniffed. ‘Roast pork and beef, and woodsmoke.’
‘No. Behind that. Can’t tha smell something sweet?’ she asked fervently.
‘Onny May blossom. Is that what tha means, Jenny?’ He looked down at her eager young face, a rosy glow cast upon it by the fires.
‘That’s it!’ she laughed. ‘I’d forgotten ’name.’
‘How old ist tha now, Jenny?’ he asked in his slow manner.
‘Fourteen,’ she said. ‘I’ve just had a birthday.’
‘Tha’s had a bothday and tha didn’t tell us?’
She grinned cheekily. ‘Why? Would tha have given me a present?’
‘Aye.’ He shuffled, embarrassed. ‘I reckon I would have.’ He stood for a moment, gently nodding his head, looking away from her and at the fires burning and the crowd milling around, as if they were of the utmost interest. ‘Fourteen, eh?’
‘Yes,’ she said softly. ‘So can tha wait for me, Master George?’
A flush touched his cheeks and he lowered his eyes, then he turned towards her and diffidently fingered the shawl around her shoulder. ‘Aye,’ he murmured. ‘I’m in no hurry. I reckon I can.’
Victoria dashed across to where Richard was talking to Luke. ‘I’m going to Italy,’ she declared and then flew off again.
‘As I was saying,’ Richard thrust his hands into his trouser pockets, ‘why don’t you come and work for us? Our foreman is ready for retiring; he could ease off a bit if we had an extra pair of hands, and if things work out between us you could take over when he goes. It can’t be easy for you working at the mill – not now.’
‘No, it’s not,’ Luke said bluntly. ‘It’s not easy having my babby’s granfer and uncle as employers. They don’t know how to treat me and I don’t know how to treat them.’
‘Well then, if you worked for us, you could visit them as family, or almost,’ Richard persuaded. ‘You’d maybe have married Betsy if things hadn’t gone so wrong?’
‘Aye.’ Luke warmed to this member of the Rayner clan. Richard Rayner was like Miss Sammi, or Mrs Foster as she now was, without frills or affectations. ‘I would have stood by her. I was right fond on Betsy.’
‘So you’ll come then?’ Richard was glad that he’d had the conversation with Tom earlier, when he’d confided his embarrassment over Luke; it would work out well for all of them. ‘Shall I tell Tom? Or will you?’
‘No, I’ll tell him, and his da. It’s onny right and fair. I like to do things right, and I’ll work my notice out, they’ll be short-handed otherwise, seeing as Master Tom, seeing as Tom will be away on honeymoon with his wife.’
Dusk was just starting to fall, and the musicians started to tune up into a merry jig, when the clop of hooves was heard and carriage lamps were seen swinging up the drive.
‘More late arrivals!’ William said cheerfully to Gilbert as they stood chatting. ‘We shall have to open up another meadow to accommodate them all.’
‘It’s Hardwick!’ Gilbert stiffened. ‘Oh, God! Something must have happened.’ William followed more slowly as Gilbert ran towards the carriage, where Hardwick, his features lit by the lamp, peered with his hand to his forehead as he tried to make out wh
o was who in the gathering darkness.
‘What’s happened, Hardwick? Something’s wrong?’
‘No, sir. Nothing’s wrong.’ Hardwick’s normally serious features were wreathed in a trembling smile. ‘But I had to come and tell you myself. I knew that you’d want to know!’
‘What? In God’s name, man! Spit it out. What’s happened?’ Gilbert wanted to shake him.
Hardwick put his hand to his face to control himself. ‘It’s Polar Star Two, Gilbert – and Arctic Star. They’re safe! Damaged, but safe! They’re heading towards ’Humber and home.’
Gilbert sat down on the nearest bench, put his head in his hands and wept. I don’t deserve this, he repeated again and again. I don’t deserve this reprieve. Then he thought of the women who would be scurrying down to the Old Harbour to wait through the night hours to greet the ship and their menfolk, who, God willing, would be on board; and he gathered himself together to tell Harriet the news and tell her that he would return at once with Hardwick to Hull.
‘I must be there,’ he said. ‘I must be there this time. I can’t let them down again.’
‘I shall come with you.’ She grasped his hand. ‘We’ll both be there, and Adam too,’ she added valiantly. ‘We’ll all three be there to greet the ships and the men as they come in to harbour.’
A rousing cheer went up as the news circulated, and the health of the returning Hull seamen was drunk by the countryfolk as the carriage pulled away in the darkness towards Hull.
‘What a perfect ending to a wonderful day.’ Sammi held Tom’s hand. Soon they, too, would be changing into travelling clothes and leaving for their destination. They were to stay overnight in Bridlington and then the next day were going to drive wherever their fancy took them. They both wanted to go to Whitby, and to the North Yorkshire moors, where they would walk or ride in the landau which Tom’s father had bought for them.