Homecoming Girls (5 page)

‘Yes. I am.’ Elizabeth wiped her eyes. ‘Patrick is a darling. So very generous.’

‘Come along.’ Clara’s father beckoned them. ‘Don’t let’s miss the train. It’s in already.’

You see! Clara’s and Jewel’s glances said as they watched their fathers scurry about organizing the trunks and suitcases for the porters to carry, but obediently they followed them into the station, where the train was waiting at the platform.

‘Wait! Clara! Jewel!’

The two girls turned as their names were called. ‘It’s Thomas!’ Clara said delightedly. ‘Oh, Thomas, I’m so pleased that you came!’

‘I just had to,’ he said. ‘It’s so important.’ He took hold of Clara’s hand. ‘I’ll really miss you, Clara. You too, Jewel,’ he said, turning to include her.

Jewel nodded agreeably. Thomas had come to see Clara, of course. She was his special friend. She hoped he would realize just how special she was whilst she was away. ‘I’ll be walking on,’ she told them. ‘Papa is getting in a state, though he should know full well that the train won’t go without us.’

She left Clara and Thomas to come on behind her, noticing that Thomas still held Clara’s hand. She stepped on board behind her mother and Aunt Grace and took a seat by the window. With her gloved hand she gently rubbed the steamed glass. Clara and Thomas were standing near the door and Jewel tilted her head to look down the platform. There were still a few people milling about and porters loading luggage on to the train, but her eye was caught by a tall man standing behind the barrier. It was Dan.

Jewel and Clara went on board the
Swift
the following day. They were private first-class passengers travelling for pleasure and not emigrants, some of whom were in lodging houses waiting for the ship’s agents to collect them later in the evening ready for the next day’s sailing.

Their parents left once they had seen them safely on board, giving them a loving farewell and much advice on what to do in an emergency. They unpacked the personal items they would need on board and arranged the cabin for their comfort during the voyage, which they had been advised would take between seven and ten days, depending on the weather. Then, putting on warm shawls, they went off to explore the ship. A steward had been assigned to look after their needs and he showed them the state rooms and dining room. After that, at Clara’s request, he showed them the emigrants’ dormitories on the lower deck.

‘We’re very fortunate, are we not, Jewel, that we can travel first class?’ she murmured. ‘I wouldn’t want to sleep in a high bunk if the weather was rough.’

‘It was rough when I first came to England,’Jewel said reflectively. ‘I wasn’t very old but I remember it clearly.’ She turned her thoughts inward and recalled the journey with Gianna, who, she now knew, had been asked to take care of her by her dying father. She felt a sudden tightness in her chest. Though she barely remembered how Edward looked, she could still
recall his warmth and love for her, and it still hurt that he was gone.
Papa
, she had cried when Gianna had told her that he had died, and Gianna had wept with her.

‘Jewel?’ Clara said anxiously. ‘Are you all right?’

Jewel nodded. ‘Yes,’ she said softly. ‘Perfectly. I was reminiscing, that’s all.’

‘Sorry.’ Clara took her arm and they followed the steward up the steps. ‘I don’t want to intrude,’ she said, when they came on to the upper deck. ‘I realize this is going to be an emotional journey for you, even though you have been back to America before.’

‘As a child,’ Jewel agreed and thought how intuitive Clara was. ‘But we didn’t travel to California as we are doing this time. And of course I was so excited then at seeing Caitlin and everyone else we knew at Dreumel’s Creek.’ She gave a sigh. ‘It wasn’t until we were travelling home on the ship that I realized I’d really wanted to visit San Francisco too, to see Larkin and Dolly, and Lorenzo,’ she added.

‘Lorenzo?’ Clara leaned on the ship’s rail and looked down at the crowds of people on the dockside. ‘Italian?’

‘Yes.’ Jewel laughed, her mood lightening. ‘He was my very best friend! His mother kept a grocery store and made the most wonderful bread, and – and’ – a sudden memory came back to her – ‘I used to eat with them, and she brought food to my father when he was ill. I’d forgotten that until now,’ she whispered. ‘He was in bed, and she brought him bowls of pasta.’

Clara turned to her. ‘It’s good to have memories, isn’t it?’ she said quietly. ‘And when we get to San Francisco you’ll no doubt recall other events; things that you and your father shared when you were a child.’ She smiled. ‘I remember the first day I met you. You came to our house and Mama brought you to the nursery to meet us. She said, “Girls, this is your cousin, Jewel.” We were amazed because we didn’t know we had a cousin; and you were so tiny and beautiful, just like a china doll, that we immediately wanted to play with you. Oh!’ she gasped. ‘I didn’t mean a Chinese doll. I meant one
of those pretty ones with porcelain faces like the kind Aunt Ruby sells.’

Jewel gave her a little push. ‘I know what you mean, Clara,’ she said. ‘You should know by now that I don’t take offence. But when we get to America there will be others who look like me; there are a lot of Chinese in America. I won’t stand out as being so different as I do in Hull.’

‘But you’re only half Chinese,’ Clara said. ‘Your other half is very English. Or American.’ She laughed.

‘Yes,’Jewel said ruefully. ‘What a hotchpotch I am!’

There was a sudden blast from the ship’s funnel and they both jumped. ‘Goodness!’ Clara exclaimed. ‘We can’t be going today!’

Jewel laughed. ‘You’ve heard of blowing off steam? They’re getting ready for sailing. Oh, I can’t wait. When we wake up tomorrow morning we’ll be on our way.’

The sea was calm until the fourth day, when a heavy groundswell thundered and rolled beneath them and the low grey sky erupted with lightning flashes, making them nauseous and headachy and keeping them to their cabin. The following morning the waves crashed and broke over the deck in white frothy spumes, the sky cleared to blue with white racing clouds, the air became fresher and they ventured on deck once again.

The voyage gave them the chance to get to know each other better even though they had spent so much time together in the past. Clara realized that in spite of Jewel’s apparent worldliness she was quite vulnerable. Is it because she’s unsure of her background, she wondered? She has no idea who her mother was and can barely remember her father. People were attracted to her and some of the other first-class passengers, mainly gentlemen, singled her out to introduce themselves. But there were others of a more bigoted nature who pointedly ignored her.

Jewel, on the other hand, found that Clara, away from her more forceful twin, had a hidden strength which was not
apparent to everyone; she had a calm demeanour and tended to blend quietly into the background when with a group of people.

There was one day when from across the dining saloon came a cutting derogatory whisper of ‘mongrel brew’ and silence fell like a stone. Clara put her hand on Jewel’s knee, for she felt that her cousin was about to rise from the table, and pressed down to stay her.

‘My soup is cold,’ Clara announced in a clear voice, and a steward came hurrying across, deflecting the confusion. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she said apologetically. ‘I don’t mean to be a nuisance.’

‘Beg pardon, Miss Newmarch,’ he said. ‘I’ll bring another bowl.’

The conversation at their table continued and the moment passed. ‘Some people are so unfeeling,’Jewel murmured. ‘Do they not realize that we are all what we are? What our parents made us?’

Clara shook her head. ‘They are locked into their own small world,’ she said quietly. ‘They don’t look outside it. You should pity them, Jewel, for their ignorance.’

But I didn’t know, she thought as they continued with their meal. I didn’t know that this is what happens. It must have happened before, but Jewel has never said. Clara instinctively felt protective of her cousin, who in spite of her beauty had been exposed to such malevolent prejudice.

Later Jewel spoke of it. ‘It never happened when I was young, but then my parents were always there. Wilhelm was an American and therefore different and Gianna was very well travelled, so when we visited other countries in Europe we were accepted for what we were. I never thought of myself as being different from anyone else until I grew up. I was about thirteen and out shopping in Hull with Mama. I’d moved a little further down the street to look in a shop window when I heard someone refer to me as a
Chink.’

She put her small white hands to her mouth. ‘I turned to him, this boy, and asked him in a friendly manner, what
do you mean?’ She gave a wry smile. ‘For I honestly didn’t know. He was with a group of other boys and although he seemed embarrassed that I had confronted him, one of the others jeered and said, your da’s a Chinaman. I said no, you’re mistaken, he was English and lived in America.’

She swallowed. ‘Then the first one said, must have been your ma then. Maybe she was a Chinese whore.’

‘Boys!’ Clara said. ‘I hope you walked away from them?’

‘Mama came along. She’d seen I was being targeted, I think, and she sent them on their way.’ She took a breath. ‘Mama explained then how some people are very prejudiced about others who look slightly different.’ Jewel smiled. ‘And she said that also they were possibly jealous because they were so very ordinary and inadequate!’

‘Aunt Gianna is such a sensible person,’ Clara declared. ‘And I’m sure she’s quite right. But you won’t have those problems in America,’ she added. ‘As you said, there will be many Chinese there as well as many other cultures.’

Jewel nodded doubtfully. ‘Perhaps,’ she murmured. ‘We’ll see. Come on. Let’s take a stroll about the deck before bedtime.’

It was a glorious sunny morning as they steamed from the Atlantic Ocean towards New York at the mouth of the Hudson. The ship had first dropped anchor at Castle Garden Island to allow immigrants, looking for a better life in America, to disembark on to a steam tug. Clara was transfixed at the sight of the tall buildings on the New York skyline, and by late afternoon they too were disembarking on to the quay alongside the brownstone counting houses where porters loaded their trunks on to a waiting hansom sent from the Marius, where they were to stay for the next few days. The hotel was owned by Wilhelm, as was another in Philadelphia, where he was also the proprietor of a newspaper business, and one more in Dreumel’s Creek, which he still regarded as home.

‘Good afternoon, ladies. We’re delighted to welcome you.’ The manager of the hotel came from behind his desk to greet them when he heard Jewel give their names to the desk clerk.
He gave a bow. ‘Is it Miss Dreumel?’ he asked, and when Jewel agreed that it was, he remarked that he had been a counter clerk when she had been brought to the hotel for the first time and the under manager when she came again a few years later.

‘I was very young the first time,’ she said, ‘so I barely remember. This is my cousin, Miss Clara Newmarch.’ She turned to Clara. ‘Clara, this is Mr Brady who oversees the hotel. My name is also Newmarch,’ she told him. ‘I am Newmarch-Dreumel, but Dreumel is quite all right.’

When pleasantries had been exchanged, Mr Brady asked about the health of her mother. ‘Mr Dreumel was here last year during the crisis, but we haven’t seen Mrs Dreumel for a while.’

‘She’s very well, thank you,’ Jewel told him. ‘She asked me to send her regards to you and hopes you are keeping well. Is business picking up?’ She knew that Wilhelm had contacts in New York who constantly visited the hotel to assess how the business was run and if the visitors were well looked after.

‘Better than it was,’ Mr Brady said, ‘although the depression is here to stay a little longer, I fear. Many companies have gone down. But not the Marius, I’m happy to say,’ he added.

‘This is lovely,’ Clara exclaimed a little later, looking round the suite they were to share. There were two beds with satin coverlets and matching pillows, a plush sofa and chair and an escritoire between two windows which looked out over a small square. Two mahogany wardrobes stood against a wall with a dressing table and mirror between them. Another door led to a bathroom with a plumbed lavatory and washbasin, both of which were adorned with a lavish floral design.

‘The first time I came here,’ Jewel said, ‘Aunt Gianna and I came from San Francisco and it was a long sea journey and very rough and I missed Papa very much.’ There was a catch in her voice. ‘And then . . .’ she frowned as she sought to remember, ‘Wilhelm was here to meet us, but Gianna was very sad. I think he’d brought her news about somebody. Anyway, we left and set off for Dreumel’s Creek.’ She paused and thought back.
Then she smiled. ‘And we went to see the Iroquois Indians in their settlement; the men were dressed in colourful blankets and wore feathered headdresses. I was taken to play with the children whilst Wilhelm and Gianna went to some kind of ceremony. It’s strange,’ she added thoughtfully. ‘I haven’t thought of that in years; oh, I recall Horse and Dekan, they were Iroquois, but I didn’t think about why we were there, and Wilhelm and Aunt Gianna –
Mama –
never mentioned it again.’

‘What an exciting life you’ve had, Jewel,’ Clara said wistfully. ‘No wonder you wanted to come back. But I wonder if you will ever be satisfied with life in Hull after we return.’

Jewel shook her head and answered as she had answered Thomas when he had voiced something similar. ‘I don’t know. Will I ever be the same person again after this journey? Will either of us be the same, or will we change irrevocably?’