The Emerald Valley (56 page)

‘In his company? In Australia?'

‘Yes.'

‘Ted,' Rosa looked at him narrowly, ‘has it occurred to you this may all be some kind of nasty joke?'

Ted drew smoke, his face suddenly hurt.

‘Oh, I don't think so. Who would do a thing like that?'

‘Plenty of people.' Suddenly she felt years older than him; how could he be so naive? ‘Some folk delight in doing wicked things.'

‘Oh, not him,' Ted said confidently. ‘He was genuine, I'd bet my life on it.'

‘Well, it sounds pretty funny to me.'

He drew on his cigarette, crestfallen. But after a moment, his optimism began to return.

‘Well, so what? What if it is all a joke? Australia's real enough. And it's true what he said – I've heard it before. It's a young country with opportunities for anyone willing to work hard and not afraid of taking a risk. And now I come to think of it, I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that they arrange assisted passages for immigrants – pay for us to go, you know? So even if this job does turn out to be a dud, what's to stop us emigrating anyway?'

‘Ted!'

‘No, listen, Rosa, I'm serious. I don't know why I never thought of it before. There are no jobs here. I doubt if I could get back down the pit even, and I don't want to do that in any case. So how the heck can I ever expect to be able to make enough to keep a wife and family? But Australia … well, we could give it a try, couldn't we? Things couldn't be worse than they are here and might be a lot better!'

Rosa sipped her tea in silence. Another girl might have pointed out that at least here, in England, they had the family to fall back on if things became really rough, whereas in a strange country they could be penniless and homeless amongst strangers. But Rosa had never been one to regard her family as a haven. Her mother had been too pathetic to lean on, her ‘father' – resenting her despite trying not to do so – had been no steady rock in time of trouble. Like Ted, Rosa was a free spirit. But she was also more cautious. She at least had a good job, with a room of her own, the like of which as a scruffy child she would never have imagined could be hers in her wildest dreams. It was a lot to lose. And yet …

This is what I've wanted and waited for, Rosa thought. Ted … offering me a future. So why am I hesitating for even one moment?

She looked up at him over the rim of her cup. ‘If we went to Australia, would we be married?' she asked directly.

A surprised expression crossed Ted's face. ‘Well, of course!'

‘You didn't say so.'

‘I took it as read.'

Happiness bubbled in her, but suddenly she couldn't resist the urge to tease him. ‘Suppose I didn't want to get married?'

‘You mean …' He looked bewildered and alarmed. ‘But I thought …'

Rosa laughed. She couldn't keep it up – it was no good.

‘Idiot! You know very well I want to get married.'

‘Oh, that's all right, then.' His face cleared. ‘I don't know how we would manage about these assisted passages if we weren't married.'

‘But don't you think you should ask me properly?' she pressed him.

‘Here?'

‘Why not?'

‘Somebody might hear.'

‘I don't care if the whole world hears.'

‘All right. Are you going to marry me, Rosa?'

‘Is that it? The best you can do?'

‘If you think I'm going down on bended knees here in the Stuffed Canary, you've got another thing coming!'

She giggled. ‘It's never called that, is it?'

‘Stuffed Canary – Singing Canary – Canary Café – what's the difference?'

‘Oh well,' she returned to the proposal, ‘if “Are you going to marry me, Rosa?” is your final offer, I suppose I shall have to settle for that.'

Across the table her eyes, sloe-dark and sparkling, were laughing into his and it seemed to him suddenly that they held all that was beautiful in life – the river dancing over the stones, the warmth of summer's sun, the crisp cold of a starlit sky above white hoar-frost, the bright darting splendour of a dragonfly, the strength, grace and patience of a hovering hawk. And not only that, his past was there too – and his future. All he had ever been … all he would ever be. And he remembered the still, calm voice which had spoken to him over the roar of the waves when he had come close to drowning along with the others in the treacherous currents – it had been Rosa's voice!

He leaned towards her, love melting him, making him forget any embarrassment.

‘Will you be my wife, Rosa?' he asked in a low voice.

Her throat thickened and her eyes turned misty.

‘Yes, Ted. There's nothing I should like better,' she replied huskily.

Across the table-top their fingers met and touched, then twined.

And the moment of shared happiness obliterated past hurts and built a shining bridge towards an unknown but promising future.

Rosa had been wrong to doubt the integrity of Mr Stuart Wells. The decision made, Ted contacted him at the address he had given and was not disappointed. After a long talk details were finalised, and Ted left bearing a letter formally offering him employment with the Queensland Copper Company, together with a sheaf of printed advice on how to apply for an assisted passage for himself and Rosa, plus the papers which would authorise their emigration to Australia.

When she heard the news, Charlotte was shocked beyond belief.

‘Australia!' she repeated over and over again. ‘And I thought our Jack was far enough away, down in Minehead. But Australia!'

‘P'raps they won't go. There's time enough for them to change their minds,' James said.

But once the wheels had been set in motion, it seemed nothing would stop them. The passage came through, arranged for the end of August, and before she knew it Charlotte found herself having to help organise the wedding.

‘I don't know why they had to leave it until the last minute,' she grumbled, but all the same she was flattered that her house and not that of the Clements had been chosen as the base for keeping up the celebrations.

‘I know things are better next door since Walter married Molly, but she's not had our practice with “putting on a do”,' she confided to Peggy, who had helped her with organising everything from christenings and funerals to big street parties in celebration of coronations and jubilees.

‘Don't you worry, Lotty, we'll put on a spread that will be remembered for a long time,' Peggy assured her. ‘How many did you say are coming?'

‘Getting on for forty, all told,' Charlotte said. ‘How shall I ever manage to get them all in?'

‘Well, at least it's summer. Pray for a fine day and then they can all spill outside. Unless you were to hire the Miners'Welfare Hall of course.'

‘I'd rather have them at home,' Charlotte declared. However, thinking about it afterwards, she decided it might be best to enquire about hiring the hall. If it was a wet day things would be very cramped indeed in the small house.

Eventually the hall was decided upon. ‘I do want to give them a proper send-off,' Charlotte said. ‘If we had the hall, perhaps we could have a band and a bit of a dance round afterwards.'

The arrangements had all been made when Ted dropped his bombshell.

He had come home for the presentation of his Carnegie Hero Fund Trust certificate and the £10 cheque. There had been a grand ‘do' in the Victoria Hall attended by the press, and so many Hillsbridge people that they could not all get inside but had to spill out on to the landing and down the stairs, and Charlotte had been riding high on a wave of pride. But at home once more, her delight was soon forgotten when Ted told her his news – the sailing date had been brought forward and he and Rosa would have to leave almost immediately after they were married, on their wedding day in fact.

‘Oh my Lord, whatever shall we do?' Charlotte asked in panic.

‘We shall all be there to see them off, that's one thing,' James consoled.

‘I know that, but I don't like it!' Charlotte was close to tears. ‘Just imagine – they're going all that way and we shall have to say goodbye to them in front of everybody else!'

She didn't add what was on her mind – that it might be the last time they ever saw Ted. But knowing her as he did, James read her thoughts.

‘Don't look at it like that, Lotty,' he said gently. ‘He went off once before, didn't he, to France? And he came back then.'

Charlotte turned away, busying herself with packing the breakfast dishes together.
We were younger then
, she wanted to say.
We had our health and strength. Now, at our time of life, you can never be sure. Ted might come back, but it could be too late for us.
But she didn't say it. There was no point in dwelling on it. And of the present there was so much to do that she was able to forget herself in preparations.

The wedding day dawned grey and overcast, with a slight drizzle falling.

‘I just hope it clears,' Charlotte said. ‘I don't know what Ted will do if it's raining when it's time for him to go. We can't have him and Harry turning up looking like drowned rats!'

Though cars had been ordered for the rest of the family, Ted had insisted that to save money he and Harry – who was to be his best man – could walk down the hill to chapel.

‘You know what they say – rain before seven, shine by eleven,' James protested calmly.

‘You'd better be right or we shall have to get Cliff Button to come up for him after all!' Charlotte said.

But there was no need for that. By 10 o'clock the sky had begun to clear and by the time Ted and Harry had to leave there was ‘enough blue to make a pair of sailor's trousers'as Charlotte put it.

She gave them both ‘the once over', approving their smart suits and the carnations tucked neatly into their buttonholes, trying not to think about the suitcases packed ready for departure and stacked in the bedroom upstairs. But as she watched the boys walk away along the Rank, her throat thickened.

Ted was not at home a great deal, but in the past she had always known he would be back again, cheering any occasion with his banter and his nonsense. Now she found herself wondering whether she would ever stand at the door and watch him walk along the Rank again, and briefly she seemed to see all the milestones of his life condensed in to one moving kaleidoscope: Ted, four years old and going to school for the first time, looking smart in spite of the hand-me-down trousers and the no-nonsense boots; Ted coming in from play, socks falling down, shirt hanging out, covered more often than not in mud and dust; Ted, leaving for his first day's work at the pit, proudly carrying his bait in a spotted handkerchief and later, when he went underground, the tallow candle to put in his helmet too. She pictured him more grown-up, leaving to take part in a concert party, looking dashing in his Sunday suit and later, in his soldier's uniform, going off to France. All leave takings, all steps further and further away from her and the home where he had been born and raised – culminating in today, his wedding day when she felt he was finally cutting all ties. She stood for a moment with her heart in her mouth, then from the house she heard James call to her and she thrust the memories aside and went to help him get ready, worrying a little as to how he was going to cope with the physical strain of getting to chapel and on to the Miners'Welfare Hall and back again.

It would be the first time since her husband's illness that he had left the house and although they had the car booked, she knew the effort was sure to ‘do him up'. But James had insisted that he could not miss his own son's wedding and she had known that to say too much about her own misgivings would be both pointless and cruel.

In the event, when the car arrived she and Cliff between them were able to get James outside and into the back seat without too much trouble. James had really nerved himself up for the occasion, it seemed, and though she could hear his chest rattling noisily as he sank back against the dark red leather, and his eyes looked a little far away, he was managing to smile. As the car drew away Charlotte looked back at the Clements'house. The door was open and there were obviously a host of comings and goings, but of Rosa there was no sign.

And that was as it should be, thought Charlotte. It was not right for the bridegroom or his family to see the bride before the wedding.

Outside the chapel quite a crowd had congregated, jockeying for vantage positions along the pavement. Charlotte recognised most of those waiting and wondered briefly what they were thinking. As yet, she had not completely reconciled herself to the match. Then, as she and Cliff helped James slowly into chapel, she was amazed to see how full it was. Ted had always been popular, of course, and his recent act of heroism had brought him to fresh prominence. Charlotte saw a great many people whom she would not have expected sitting in the back pews, and exchanged nods and smiles with them.

At the front Ted was sitting with Harry; he turned and grinned at his mother and father. Not in the least self-conscious, Charlotte thought, contrasting him with the nervous bridegrooms both Jim and Jack had made. Behind him the rest of the family were gathered, all dressed in their best – Jim, Sarah and the children; Victor attempting to keep the boys quiet and making far more noise than both of them put together, and Dolly nursing the baby who, as usual, was not making a sound. Behind them sat Jack and Stella, effortlessly smart, and Amy with Huw and the girls. Looking at them, Charlotte felt a thrill of pride. There were so few girls in the family, but Barbara and Maureen more than made up for that. Amy had them both dressed alike in pretty powder blue, and not for the first time Charlotte thought what a pity it was that they couldn't have been bridesmaids. But it was not to be that kind of wedding; there had been neither the time nor the money for frills and furbelows and Rosa, setting aside her childhood dreams of white silk and orange blossom, had decided the most sensible thing was to be married in a costume in which she could also travel.