Wrecker Page 20

  It came time to touch pipe and a group of us women flopped down in the shade of an old elm. Tegen and I sat in a slump a little apart from the others, and took our crust and slice of meat from the squire’s man. There was water and a pot of beer for each of us. I watched Tegen bite on the dry crust and pull a chunk of it away in her mouth. I looked at her in her coarse shirt and filthy apron. Her sunbonnet was low over her eyes, her face blotched and her sunburnt throat and chest a livid red above a thin line of snow-white flesh that showed below her shirt. It was because of me that she had taken on this work. Only the lowest people worked the harvest, slaving from dawn to dusk for a few shillings when the crops were finally gathered in, and the right to collect faggot wood on the five-mile walk home.

  I moved closer to Tegen so we could speak without being overheard. There were damp patches under her armpits, and she smelt of sweat. It was a minute or two before I had the heart to speak.

  ‘You’d never turn against me, would you, Teg?’

  She frowned at me. ‘What makes you ask that?’

  ‘Something’s hanging over me. I’m ashamed to speak of it.’

  ‘Well, there’ll be way round it,’ she said, ‘as long as it’s not to do with those reward notices.’ She looked at me a moment, swatting a dozy bluebottle away from her bread. Then her eyes opened wide. ‘Oh lor!’ she cried. ‘You never . . .’

  ‘I only took her boots,’ I whispered. ‘I didn’t do the rest, I swear. But Aunt Madgie saw me by the woman’s body and I’m sore afraid she’ll accuse me of it.’

  Tegen stared at me, frowning.

  ‘You believe me, don’t you, Teg? You know I’m not the cannibal?’

  She nodded her head, wearily. ‘I just thought of all those dire things Aunt Madgie said at the Lovefeast. The woman’s mazed. She might say you did it, and snitch on you.’

  ‘I can’t sleep nights for fear of it.’

  ‘Then you know what you’ve got to do. Let Loveday become school mistress. And keep away from that minister. I’ve never trusted him. There’s a darkness about the man I can’t fathom.’

  ‘It’s not the minister’s doing. Anyhow, you’re bound to say that, Teg. Always worrying what the neighbours will think.’

  ‘All a woman has in this world is her good name. Save yourself, while you still can. Listen to what ’Bias says. Hard work, decency and self-reliance will reap their own reward.’

  ‘It’s always ’Bias this and ’Bias that with you these days.’

  ‘My faith is what gives me strength. If I were you, I’d pray to God that nothing bad comes of this.’

  ‘Suppose Aunt Madgie snitches on me anyhow, even if I stand down as teacher? I’ve got to get out of this village, whatever it takes.’

  ‘But think of it, a woman like you, without a penny to her name. What would become of you?’

  I pulled a tuft of grass out of the earth. Tegen looked at me and seemed to read my mind. She shrank away from me.

  ‘Oh, Mary!’ she whispered. ‘You’re as mazed as that old woman. Even now, you’re dreaming about that minister. I beg you to wake up and come to your senses. Find a man in the village and forget this madness.’

  ‘You mean a man like Nathaniel Nancarrow?’

  She gave me a fierce look.

  ‘Don’t worry, Teg. I saw you two at the Lovefeast, and how he looked at you. You must tell him what’s in your heart. You belong to each other. Anyway, you’re welcome to Nathaniel.’

  ‘What say you? He’s not good enough for you but I’m welcome to him, is that so? Why, only a great, puffed-up foreigner with high and mighty ways is good enough for Mary Blight, I suppose. You’d better come to your senses before it’s too late.’

  I looked down at my raw, cracked hands, the filth under my nails, the ugly freckles on my arms.

  ‘I’ll pray for you,’ said Tegen.

  ‘Save your breath. I don’t want the same things you do. We’re different as different.’

  ‘Go your own way then, and end your days in gaol or the poorhouse. Or worse.’ She shifted away and supped her beer with her back turned to me. I looked away across the empty field in a fair hump.

  ‘It’s fine for you,’ I said. ‘You never hoped for much out of this life, but I do. I’m not throwing myself away on a fool from the village.’ Something sharp struck me on the back of the head, and Tegen’s crust of bread landed on the grass beside me.

  ‘How would you know what I want?’ she said. ‘You don’t know me, you don’t see what I’m like.’

  I turned to look at her. I’d never known her so vexed. ‘What are you saying of? ’Course I know you. Don’t be upsetting yourself. This rotten work has us both in a temper, that’s all.’

  ‘I’m sick of you, and the troubles you bring,’ she said, getting to her feet. Some of the women looked up at her, but for once she took no notice. ‘You’re on your own from now on,’ she said, wiping her hands on her apron. ‘I’ve got my loom and a bit put by from all the cloth I’ve sold. You can look after yourself, and good riddance to you.’ And with that, she hoisted up her skirts and made off across the field.

  That night I was awakened from troubling dreams by a soft voice. ‘Is that you, my lamb?’ It was pitch dark and I had no inkling where I was at first. It came back to me. I was in the chair downstairs, alongside Mamm. Dying embers shifted and dropped softly in the hearth. The kitchen came to life in the pink glow, the table and dresser, the settle. Dr Vyvyan had been to call on his rounds earlier in the week. He’d said Mamm had rheumatic fever and wasn’t long for this world. Her last hours were being measured out in long, even breaths. I reached for her hand and felt her blood pulse slowly under her skin. It was hard to believe her blood would ever stop moving through her veins. I didn’t know how long I’d been asleep, or how late the hour. It was my turn to wait upon Mamm, and Tegen was snoozing upstairs. Not in the bed we usually shared, but in Mamm and Dad’s old room. It was the first time we’d ever slept apart. We hadn’t spoken a word to each other since the row in the barley field.

  ‘Mary?’ A rattling death rasp. ‘Is that you, my lamb?’

  ‘I’m here, Mamm.’ I whispered. Dim and pink, she faded before my eyes, a spirit sinking into the other world. ‘My three sweet boys, all lost, one after the other,’ she said. I put my ear close to her face and felt her breath cool on my cheek. ‘No more’n babes, they was. Do you hear they calling me?’ She took one more deep breath like a long, shuddering snore, and then she was suddenly quiet, as if surprised at herself. The room turned strangely cold. I sat there in the gathering daylight, and heard the deepest silence I had ever known.

  17

  I was on the top floor of the derelict old salt house in the harbour, mending a net. Slow and irksome work, but what choice had I? At least keeping my hands busy took my mind off the empty feeling I’d had in the fortnight since Mamm had passed away. It didn’t help that I’d fallen out with Tegen and we hardly spoke, not even as Mamm was laid in the earth. I wanted nothing more than to take my sister in my arms, but when I saw the sour pout on her face I couldn’t bring myself to.

  Outside in the lane, I heard women’s voices. Realising it was Grace Skewes gossiping with Millie Hicks, I let the needle fall and felt about for the wretched thing down where the mesh was spread on the floor, listening to the voices below in the lane.

  ‘A fine day for doing your laundry,’ said Grace. ‘Surprised you wasn’t blown away up there, in this wind. There be a storm coming, I seem.’

  ‘I believe so. That’s why I went and got the job out of the way. I has a terror of the house being struck by lightning at night and people finding me with dirty pillowslips on my bed. I want all to be decent even if my end do come upon me sudden.’

  Grace laughed. ‘You is a fine example to us all, Millie.’

  They were quiet a moment.

  ‘Well, the very sight of a neighbour who might have a bit of news to share is most cheering,’ said Millie. ‘It ain’t that I be eager for a slander. It
do give me qualms to hear measly tales about my neighbours. Only there be some matters that people has a right to know of.’

  ‘I will hold my tongue and let others keep theirs,’ said Grace.

  ‘The same goes for me.’

  I knew they were set on blackening me, so I left the net hanging on a hook and crept over to the window. So eager was I to get a peek at them, I almost put my foot through a hole in the floorboards. The window pane had been blown out long since so I could see them down there clear as day, standing just a few yards away. I leant over as much as I dared, but tried to keep out of sight. It was then I saw Grace’s daughter Loveday was with them. Millie’s baskets of laundry were set down beside her on the cobbles. What fine linen she had!

  ‘Well, at least Johnenry has seen the light where that one’s concerned, and not before time,’ said Grace, smiling at Loveday.

  ‘And has you set a day for the nuptials yet, my girl?’ said Millie.

  Loveday nodded and simpered, while Grace spoke on her behalf. ‘First Sunday after Martinmas. And we hope you’ll be in the pew alongside us on the day.’

  So Loveday had wormed her way back into Johnenry’s heart! I was almost tempted to win him back just to spite her.

  ‘Well, that one have lost Johnenry, for sure, but she’s still got her hooks in the minister, playing the modest maiden,’ said Millie.

  ‘For my part, I were never taken with the minister,’ said Grace. ‘I only offered him hospitality out of respect for his calling, and gave money for the chapel in hopes it might improve the conduct of the baser sort in this village.’

  ‘The same with me,’ said Millie, her long, pointed nose in the air as if some smell offended her. Seemingly, they’d forgotten how they’d been all over Gideon like a plague of lice when first he came.

  ‘Have you heard anything about the two of them?’ asked Grace.

  ‘Nobody I know of have seen them together. This morning I was in Downlong Row, minding my own business as usual, and who should I bump into but Dolly Stoddern. She’s neighbours with the woman. She said she was pruning her beans last night and happened to go up her Jack’s ladder and peek into you-know-who’s courtyard.’

  ‘Yes, and then?’ urged Grace.

  ‘She saw naught awry,’ said Millie.

  ‘Perhaps the minister saw through her charms in the end,’ said Grace. ‘He’s barely set foot in the cove this last month and when he’s here he spends all his time working on the new chapel. The building’s all but finished. Perhaps there’s nothing in the tale.’

  ‘Maybe, and I would never spoil a neighbour’s good name for a pastime,’ said Millie. ‘But a lone maiden is always a danger, I seem.’

  ‘Quite so. It would be better for all if she found herself a man of her own, instead of stealing other women’s,’ said Loveday.

  ‘She’d rather lead the fools on,’ said Millie. ‘And if you ask my opinion, none would have her anyhow, not if it really came to it. She’s never been ready with soft answers and men don’t take to a scold.’ She lowered her voice. ‘Some say she do have the look of a sea pellar about her.’

  ‘Or a merrymaid. Webbed feet, I shouldn’t wonder,’ said Loveday, giggling.

  ‘Well, I am not one to judge, but if any wrong have been done in this village, then the truth has a way of coming to light,’ said Grace.

  ‘Providence will always punish false pride,’ said Millie.

  My blood turned to cabbage water listening to them. A few yards away, Aunty Merrryn’s old devil of a cat was crouching on a harbour post, watching a little wagtail pecking around on the slipway. The cat kept so still you’d think he was made of the same granite as the post he sat upon. What I heard next, gave me a fright.

  ‘Now, all we need is for that minister to come to his senses and make Loveday Sunday school teacher,’ said Millie.

  ‘As soon as the chapel’s built and the minister gone, people in this village will make her stand down,’ Grace said. ‘There be ways of bringing people down a peg or two hereabouts, if needs be. And if that ain’t enough, we know there is someone highly placed in this village who has a secret, and she’s biding her time until she has cause to let the secret out.’

  The three sneaks nodded at each other, sharing knowing looks. Just then, the cat leapt off the post and pounced on the bird. A little wing flapped in his jaw.

  Something made Loveday turn her head up towards the window where I was watching, and just in time, I ducked out of sight and took a step back. The next I knew, my foot had stepped into thin air and I was tumbling backwards, reaching for the window frame to no avail. I landed on my back with a loud thud and a creaking of floorboards. My skirts cushioned the blow, but I jarred my tailbone. I sat up, pulled my leg out of the hole and got to my feet. By the time I reached the window again, the women had fled.

  I went back to my stool. My backside throbbed where I’d landed on it, and my head reeled as I fretted over all I’d heard. Aunt Madgie was looking to spread lies about what she’d seen on the beach that morning. I wondered how much part those reward bills had played in all this. Aunt Madgie wasn’t long for this world, but Grace Skewes and Loveday would be keen to get their hands on all that lucre. Aunt Madgie had already made the threat all those months ago when they summoned me to her house in Back Street. And after her vile words at the Lovefeast, she seemed capable of anything. It was as if she truly believed she’d seen me take the earrings. Perhaps, she’d grown feeble minded and her memory was failing her. Or maybe in her hatred for me, she’d come to believe me guilty, and remembered what happened that morning not as it truly was, but as she wished it to be.

  I stewed over my plight all that day. It came to me that the only way to save myself was to go to Aunt Madgie and tell her I’d stand down as Sunday school mistress. After all, she and her cronies had already poisoned the minds of the children against me. But if I took that step I’d be cutting my only tie with Gideon, and any dim hopes I had of a better life. Fear won out over desire in the end, and I resolved to go to Back Street and tell the old woman that I was quitting as teacher. Loveday was welcome to it.

  The next day I left the cottage with leaden heart and limbs, and turned onto Downlong Row on my way to Back Street and Aunt Madgie’s house. I was lost to all around me as if smothered by a dense and numbing fog, so at first I didn’t see the short, stout fellow climbing the hill towards me with a waddling gait. The stranger was red in the face from the climb, with white whiskers. I was about to walk right past when he raised his hat.

  ‘Good day to you, Miss Blight,’ he said, huffing and puffing. I remembered that queer foreign accent and gruff voice. It was Mr Dabb, the Justice, who I’d last seen at a dinner in that fine house in Newlyn. ‘I didn’t give you a start, I hope?’ He peered at me from under his bushy eyebrows.

  ‘No, it’s only that I hadn’t thought to see you hereabouts.’

  ‘Well, I must go wherever duty calls me.’

  ‘Your business is with the mines, I suppose?’ I said.

  ‘Not on this occasion. I’ve come in my capacity as Magistrate.’

  ‘Nobody is in trouble, I hope,’

  ‘Well, we shall have to wait and see about that. My visit relates to our old friend, the Porthmorvoren Cannibal. You’ll have seen the notices I had pinned up.’

  I nodded.

  ‘You’ve heard nothing, Miss Blight? No rumours?’

  My throat was so dry it hurt to swallow, and my heart was beating fit to bust. ‘I’m afraid I’ve heard nothing,’ I managed to say. ‘I wish you luck with it. By the way, how is Mrs Stone? Have you seen her of late?’

  ‘I have indeed, only this week. We’re fast friends now. Wonderful woman, Mrs Stone. She’s taking a great interest in this enquiry, you know? Now, would you be so kind as to tell me which of these lanes is Back Street? I think I might have missed my turn.’

  ‘You’re going to Back Street?’

  ‘I’m visiting Mrs Maddern. You’ll know her, no doubt.’

&nbs
p; So he’d come to see Aunt Madgie! I put a hand out to support myself on a neighbour’s wall.

  ‘Are you unwell, Miss Blight?’ He looked at me closely. ‘You look quite drawn. You’re taking care of yourself?’

  ‘I lost my Mamm lately, and haven’t been myself.’

  ‘I’m very sorry to hear that. Please accept my condolences. Well, as we’re heading in the same direction, why don’t we walk together?’

  When we’d walked a little way down the lane, I plucked up courage and asked, ‘You’ll be talking to Aunt Madgie about the cannibal, I suppose?’

  He leant towards me and lowered his voice. ‘Let’s just say, something has come to light that may be of significance. Mrs Maddern may be able to shed some light on it, I’m reliably informed.’

  ‘Well, here we are,’ I said. ‘That house along there with the posts outside is the one you want.’

  ‘Do take care of yourself, Miss Blight,’ he said, shaking my hand.

  I waited on the quay for a little while, before rushing home. Once I was safely inside, I stood with my back against the door for a long moment, trying to catch my breath. After I’d calmed down, I dropped into a chair at the table, turning out of habit to look at Mamm in her old armchair, but the chair, with its frayed arms and crumpled cushion, lay empty. I burst into tears at the sight. I longed to tell my troubles to Tegen, but she was at Nathaniel’s, helping his Tamsin look after the little ones while he was out fishing, not that she’d had much time for me since the row we’d had during the harvest.

  The slow hours passed, and my thoughts could find no place to rest. As the day wore on, I fancied that voices were plotting against me out there. Who was this person, I wondered, this Mary Blight that they spied upon and slandered? I felt a prisoner in my own home, fearful of the groans and clicks inside and rustling without. Darkness fell, so I lit a taper and put it on the table. It hissed and the smoke made my eyes itch, eyes already sore from weeping.

  I must have dropped off, for I was roused by three soft thumps on the front door. I leapt to my feet, thinking it must be Gideon. I drew my shawl about me and ran to the door. Outside there was a smell of alcohol and sweat and a dark-haired man staggered out of the night.