A Sister's Promise (8 page)

Tom shook his head. ‘I have given up trying to understand my mother, but she said you are to be left here.’

There was a flash of disappointment, but Molly knew there was no point worrying about a situation she couldn’t change. At least this way she was going to be free of her grandmother for a few hours.

‘What I was going to suggest,’ Tom said, breaking in on her thoughts, ‘was that if you wanted to write to your grandfather and all, I could post the letters for you in Buncrana.’

‘Oh, Uncle Tom that would be great,’ Molly cried. ‘Granddad packed everything that he thought I might need – paper, envelopes, he even managed to get hold of some Irish stamps – but I couldn’t imagine how I would post any letters and so I haven’t used anything yet.’

‘Well, that is one problem solved,’ Tom said. ‘You just get the letters written and I will do the rest. Now, sit you up on that milking stool and rub your arms to get the feeling back and leave the rest of the milking to me tonight.’

Molly was grateful to her uncle and sat back with a sigh of relief. For once, she didn’t mind that Biddy roared at her as soon as she was in the door, to get on the porridge for supper and not take all night over it, because her head was full of the letters that she intended writing that night.

Feeling sure that Biddy would object and make disparaging remarks, Molly left the writing of the letters until she was in her room. Normally, she was so tired when she went to bed that she fell into a deep sleep as soon as her head touched the pillow, but that night excitement drove sleep from her and she sat in her bed and wrote feverishly by the light of a candle.

Knowing that neither Hilda or her grandfather could do anything to change the situation she was in, she didn’t tell them that she didn’t attend school any more, and very little about her grandmother at all. She did tell them of Tom and how welcoming he had been, how kind and patient he was teaching her things about farming life, and how she enjoyed helping him out on the farm. She knew that they would be pleased by that and she urged them to write back soon for she was desperate for news of them all.

Molly couldn’t believe the relief she felt when she watched Biddy drive off with Tom that first Saturday – and that was despite the long list of jobs awaiting her. She had hoped that they would stay away the whole day. However, Tom had said that their business would probably be completed by dinner-time, and when she caught a glimpse of the cart turning in the head of the lane, about half-past twelve, she felt her heart sink.

Molly knew that it was too much to expect her grandmother to be pleased with anything she did and this was just as well, because that way she wasn’t either surprised or disappointed with Biddy’s reaction. In fact, she was far more interested in the fresh fish that Tom had brought home. He gutted it and had it in the pan above the fire in no time at all, and it tasted so delicious when they sat down to eat it.

The house had to be spotless and a batch of baking done for Sunday, so Molly was run off her feet all afternoon, glad after washing up the tea things to escape with Tom to the cowshed.

Molly had already got the Mass clothes ready for them all for the following morning and cleaned the shoes as her grandmother had bade. Now, as she emerged in the door after the milking that evening, Biddy said, ‘Time you had a bath, girl.’

Molly, used to an indoor bathroom, had wondered about that. Her grandfather had had no bathroom either, and had told Molly that he, Phoebe and Ted too, before he was married, would bath in front of the fire. Molly had presumed she would have to do the same here, and this was proved when Biddy ordered Tom to fetch the bath in from the barn while a large pot of water was put over the fire to heat.

The galvanised bath Tom brought in looked neither large, nor very comfortable, but Molly was less concerned about that than she was about where Tom would go, for she had no intention of taking one stitch of clothing off in front of him. Fortunately, he stayed only long enough to mix the hot water and cold water together before leaving to tramp the hills while Molly washed herself.

Despite the fairly primitive conditions, Molly would have enjoyed her bath, if it hadn’t been for the presence of her grandmother, sitting in the chair watching her. She wondered at the ability the woman had of changing the atmosphere of a room just by being in it, and so she had no intention of lingering over her wash, which was just as well because she had barely rinsed the soap off before her grandmother was urging her to hurry up.

She was, however, dressed in her pyjamas and slippers and her towelled hair in plaits before Tom put in an appearance. Then he emptied the bath into the gutter in the yard, despite Biddy telling him to leave it to Molly.

‘She is too slight for this, Mammy,’ he told her. ‘She will do herself an injury. Besides, what sort of a man would it make me to sit idly by and see a child struggle? Molly is worn out. Anyone with half an eye can see it. She needs to seek her bed.’

Molly looked at Tom gratefully, as her grandmother said, ‘I will say when she goes to bed.’

‘Is that so?’ Tom snapped, suddenly and uncharacteristically angry as he faced his mother across the room. ‘No
one is any use to me who is sluggish through lack of sleep. They are more a liability than anything.’

‘I told you, if Molly doesn’t work then—’

‘She doesn’t eat,’ Tom finished. ‘Don’t start on about that again.’

‘But I do work,’ Molly protested. ‘I do the very best I can.’

Tom nodded in agreement. ‘You do, Molly, but if you are to continue to help me effectively on the farm, then you need proper rest and good food. Surely, Mammy, you can see that yourself?’

Molly was grateful and surprised at her uncle’s intervention but, she noted, not as surprised as her grandmother, whose eyes were narrowed in discontent.

Biddy was almost astounded. Tom had never gone against her before; he always had been easily cowed. She knew what had changed him, however. It was all the fault of that girl. He couldn’t see what a troublemaker she was.

In a way his mother was right, for Tom had only challenged her because of pity for Molly.

He was glad, though, that his mother didn’t know how his legs were shaking and his heart thumping almost painfully against his chest. He had always secretly been afraid of her and he was annoyed and a little ashamed of himself for feeling that way because he was a grown man.

Biddy hadn’t spoken and Tom said, ‘Well, Mammy? What about it?’

‘She hasn’t even said the rosary yet,’ Biddy said.

Tom answered, ‘I’m sure God will understand the one night.’ And then he turned to Molly and said, ‘Get yourself to bed. You look all in.’

Molly gave a sigh of relief. She knew that for her grandmother this issue was not resolved and that she might suffer for it in the morning. That was another day, however, and not one that she was going to worry her head over.

She lay in bed and realised she was ridiculously excited
to be going to Mass in the morning. For one thing, she would wear a dress, and then she would leave the farm, which was starting to feel a little like prison, and meet other people. Her toes curled in pleasurable anticipation of it.

Everyone at the church was interested in seeing Molly Maguire the next day. They had known she was coming. It was too small a place for anyone to keep anything secret for long. With the guards at the door of the cottage, and then the sending and receiving of telegrams, the whole community knew of the death of Nuala née Sullivan and her husband, and of the grandmother off to see to things.

When Tom had told Nellie McEvoy, the postmistress, his mother would be returning, first with both children and then just the girl, she had been amazed. Other women that she told felt the same way and a collection of townswomen had gathered in the post office to discuss it.

‘Didn’t think she’d be that bothered about any child of Nuala’s,’ Nellie said.

‘Well, no. I mean, she never even sent a scribe to her since her man died that time.’

‘Aye, and before that wouldn’t you have thought the sun shone out of young Nuala?’

‘You would,’ one said emphatically, and added, ‘Spoiling is good for neither man nor beast, and she had the child ruined altogether.’

‘Aye,’ another commented. ‘I own that she was a pretty enough wee thing and so kind and thoughtful, almost despite Biddy and all, but—’

‘It wasn’t the child’s fault,’ Nellie said. ‘She was a lovely wee thing, like a little doll, but you’d think there wasn’t another child in the universe to hear the mother talk.’

‘That’s right,’ agreed the first woman. ‘Blowing on about her all the time, till she would make a body sick.’

‘That’s why she took it so bad, likely, when the girl went off and married a Proddy, as Joe was after telling me before he took off for the States,’ another woman said. ‘Further to fall, see.’

The others nodded sagely and then Nellie commented, ‘Maybe that is why she taking the child in. Making it up to her, like.’

‘D’you think that she feels sorry for the way she went on – is that what you are saying?’ one woman asked, adding, ‘From what I know of Biddy, feeling sorry for something she does or says is not part of her make-up at all.’

‘Aye,’ Nellie said, ‘but this is death. Very final, is death, and that changes a lot of things.’

‘And,’ said the first woman, ‘she has taken the child in, there is no getting away from that.’

There were nods and murmurs of agreement.

‘So let’s all wait and see, and not have her tried by judge and jury beforehand,’ Nellie said.

‘Aye, you’re right,’ said another of the women. ‘Let’s all wait and see.’

And they did see, that first Sunday morning. Everyone saw, in fact. Those who could remember Nuala saw the resemblance to her in Molly, and they also were soon well aware, from the malice-ridden eyes Biddy turned on the girl and the brusque way she spoke to her, that she had not brought the child to live with her because she felt sorry for her. It was for other reasons altogether and not ones that were making the young orphaned girl happy.

Molly sensed the people felt sorry for her, and indeed many expressed this as they shook her by the hand, the priest, Father Finlay, amongst them.

‘In the midst of life there is death, Molly, and we must remember that,’ he told her predictably.

‘Yes, Father.’

‘And I am sure your parents are now reaping their reward in Heaven.’

‘Her father won’t be,’ Biddy said harshly and with satisfaction. ‘He’ll have descended to the fiery pit by now, where all sinners go.’

Ashamed at her grandmother saying that about her lovely father, Molly burst out, ‘He’s not. My father was no sinner.’

‘No sinner,’ Biddy repeated, and turned to the priest. ‘Went nowhere to worship, Father, neither church nor chapel. That’s why I took the girl. Couldn’t have left her there with the heathen of a grandfather, for he was the same as his son.’

The priest was embarrassed and whispered something noncommittal. Those close enough to hear what Biddy had said were looking askance at her and could clearly see how upset the poor girl was. Molly was, in fact, angry, and she wondered why her grandmother thought she had the right to judge her father. She knew not the slightest thing about him; didn’t know what a good kind man he had been. He didn’t go to church, that was true, but she knew a fair few who never missed Mass who were not half the man her father had been. And she knew that if God was the loving Father they were taught He was, then she was sure that He would treat her father fairly.

She didn’t attempt to say any of this, however, because she knew she would cry if she tried. Tom, who had stopped at the gate to talk to neighbours, had not seen any altercation and was unaware of any undercurrent until he saw the tears glistening in Molly’s eyes.

‘You all right?’ he whispered as he got closer.

Molly gave a brief nod.

‘You sure?’

Molly, seeing her grandmother was now out of earshot, said quietly, ‘I sometimes wonder if I will ever be right again, but it’s nothing that can be fixed here and now. But I’ll tell you one thing,’ she added fiercely. ‘I don’t care how sensible it is. I am not going to let my grandmother say what she likes about my parents and say nothing in their defence ever again.’

‘Molly—’ began Tom warningly.

‘No, Uncle Tom. I know what you are going to say,’ Molly said. ‘You must do as you see fit, but I will not let her or anyone else destroy the memories I have of my parents, for they were the best parents in the world to me and Kevin.’

She walked away from her uncle then and he watched her with worried eyes, knowing that if she stuck to her guns she was heading for extremely choppy waters.

When Molly entered the church and saw the painting of the Nativity scene, she could understand her uncle’s enthusiasm, because it was magnificent, especially with the sun glinting on the vibrant colours so that the whole thing looked almost lifelike. Somehow, the sheer beauty of it soothed her a little, and this was helped by the familiarity of the Mass, so that she let it all wash over her and give her a measure of peace.

After a very good dinner, Molly washed up while Tom took his ease by the fire with his pipe and the Sunday paper, but really he was watching Molly and as she put away the last plate he said, ‘I don’t suppose you would fancy a tramp amongst the hills this fine afternoon?’

Molly turned to her uncle with her eyes shining, for there was nothing, absolutely nothing, that she would like better. The baking for the Sunday tea had been done the day before and she could conceivably be free for an hour or two.

Biddy didn’t think so. ‘Don’t you offer to take the girl off out without as much as a by-your-leave.’

‘I wasn’t under the impression I had to ask permission of you to take a walk with my niece,’ Tom said mildly. ‘Come along with us if you like?’ He caught the look of distaste that flitted across Molly’s face at his words and the slight shiver to her body and hid his smile. He knew he was on safe ground.

‘You know full well my gallivanting days are over,’ Biddy snapped.

‘All right, Mammy,’ Tom said. ‘But Molly’s are just beginning, do you see? She’s young and well up for gallivanting. Isn’t that so, Molly?’

There was such a broad smile on Molly’s face as she answered in like manner, ‘I am, Uncle Tom.’

‘So, are you ready?’

‘Quite ready.’

‘Then what are we waiting for?’ Tom said, catching up her arm.

Only when she was a little way from the house did she say to her uncle, ‘Did you see the look? Crikey, by rights I should be lying dead now on the kitchen floor.’

‘I should say you’re not that easily killed, Molly,’ Tom said.

‘People are very easily killed when you think about it,’ Molly murmured quietly.

Tom felt immediately contrite. ‘Oh, my dear, I am so sorry.’

‘No, I’m sorry,’ Molly said. ‘For bringing such sadness into this lovely afternoon. It wouldn’t be something my parents would have approved of at all. They were always telling me to take joy in every day.’

‘You are a privileged girl to have such memories,’ Tom said. ‘Your home sounds as if it was once a happy one.’

‘It was, very.’

‘Well, no one can take those memories away, and they will help sustain you during the bad times.’

Molly nodded. ‘I know, but sometimes I am sad that those times will never come back.’

‘You are not alone, Molly,’ Tom said. ‘You’ll always have me.’

‘I know I am not alone, Uncle Tom,’ Molly commented grimly, but with the ghost of a smile playing around her mouth. ‘I have your blooming mother as well.’

Tom laughed as he said, ‘By God, young Molly, with that spark of humour, I’d say you’ll do all right. You are one of life’s survivors.’

Molly gave a definite nod of her head. ‘I fully intend to be,’ she said.

Tom caught up her arm. ‘Come on then, Molly. Let’s you and me stroll out with the best of them and you can tell me all about your life in Birmingham.’

‘Only if you tell me about my mother when she was a girl.’

‘It’s a deal,’ Tom said.

Afterwards, Molly was to see that walk she undertook with her uncle as a sort of turning point in her relationship with him. The tentative talks that had begun in the cowshed had opened the way for them and that day each found out more about the other’s life.