The Hungry Tide (32 page)

Will shrugged. ‘Not for me, Ma, I won’t be tempted. But I can see she might lead some poor fellow a dance.’ He smiled a wide, disarming smile. ‘Somebody not used to ’wiles and tricks of women like I am.’

‘Hmph, there’s no man yet who can best a woman if she’s set her mind to it.’ She came up close to him, the top of her head reaching only halfway up his chest so that he had to bend his head down to hear her whispered words. ‘If tha has a friend who needs a word of warning, then give it, before it’s too late.’

Maria came into the kitchen with a basket of clean linen on her hip and stood watching them with an amused expression. ‘And thee my best friend, Ma Scryven, I would never have thought it of thee.’

‘Aye, well, we’re never too old, or too young,’ she answered darkly. ‘So don’t say tha wasn’t warned.’

Will remembered her words a few days later when Martin Reedbarrow sought him out. ‘I hope tha doesn’t mind, Will. But seeing as we’re of an age, I thought I’d ask thee first, for I don’t want to mek a fool of missen.’

‘Ask me what?’ Will looked up at the broad-shouldered countryman who topped him by a couple of inches, but who wouldn’t look him in the eye and kept his gaze firmly on his boots as they walked along the cliff top.

‘I’m thinking on getting wed,’ he said, a slow blush crimsoning his face.

‘There’s nowt wrong with that as far as I can see, Martin. Tha’s a free man.’

‘Oh, aye,’ said Martin. ‘That’s not a worry. My poor lass has been buried this last twelvemonth, and it’s hard, I can tell thee, trying to bring up a family without a woman. Youngest babby’s gone to Tillington to be nursed, and our Nellie does well to look after other childre’, ’though she’s only a bairn herself.’

‘Well, tha’d best be getting wed then, if tha can find somebody willing to take thee and thy brood on board.’

‘That’s just it. Lass I’m tekken with is only ’same age as our Janey and I don’t know if it’s right.’

‘If tha’s both willing, then it’s right enough. But I can’t see a young maid tying herself down with a readymade family ’size of yours.’

Martin shuffled his feet. ‘Well, she’s almost said as she will. ’Says as I’m ’sort of man she cares for.’ He shook his big head from side to side. ‘I’ll tell thee, Will, I can’t believe as how somebody like her would look at ’likes of me. I’m fair bowled over. I’m on fire wi’ thought of it.’

Will’s brows furrowed anxiously. ‘Well, that’s as may be, but it doesn’t mean she’d make thee a good wife and mother for thy bairns. Fancying looks of some lass isn’t same as sharing thy life with her.’

Martin looked defiantly at him. ‘Well, she’s shared my bed already, said she trusted me to look after her and make it right.’ A look of pure beatification lit up his open, honest face, then, as he saw Will watching him, he looked away in confusion. ‘Anyway, I’ve made my mind up. I shall ask her next time I see her.’

They stopped as they came to the boundary of Garston land and Martin cut through a gap in the hedge. ‘I shan’t care what folk say. If it’s what we want, it’s nowt to do wi’ anybody else.’

‘Nobody’s saying it’s not right, Martin. Just be sure, that’s all, don’t let her string thee along.’ Will smiled to lighten the mood. ‘I’m not saying tha’s a fine catch, but tha’s got a good piece of land and tha needs some strong lass to help thee with it, not some flibbertigibbet who doesn’t know how.’

Martin’s face flushed with anger. ‘Susan’s no flibbertigibbet. She’s a good worker. She ran her father’s inn practically singlehanded before she came here. He was nowt but a tyrant, that’s why she left.’

Will rubbed his beard in bemusement: the situation was beyond him. He could see that if he said anything more, Martin’s temper would explode, and he was obviously so blinded by the girl’s charms that his judgement was impaired.

He looked out at the grey sea, barely a ripple disturbing its flat surface, unable to look Martin in the eye. ‘I didn’t realize it was Susan that tha was talking about. Well, if tha’s made up thy mind, I’ll wish thee well. She’s a fine looking lass.’

Martin frowned at him from over the top of the newly budding hedge. ‘Aye, I meant Susan. Who else is there round here? And I’ll thank thee to treat her wi’ respect. I’ve told thee all of this in confidence, remember?’

Will swallowed hard. He had no wish to fall out with Martin. He raised a hand as he turned to walk back. ‘I’ll remember, Martin, I wish thee luck with thy plans.’

Susan waited another two weeks before confronting Mrs Masterson. She drew a faint smudge of soot beneath her eyes to darken them, and on her rosy cheeks she brushed some flour.

‘I am visiting the Smallwoods for dinner, Susan. Tell Walters to have the carriage at the door in an hour, and I think I shall wear my grey—’ She stopped as Susan leant on a chair and put a hand to her head. ‘What is the matter with you? If you are feeling ill, leave the room at once and send Mrs Foster to attend to me.’

‘No, no, ma-am, I’m not ill. Leastways – not exactly.’ She clasped her hands together imploringly and took a deep, sighing breath. ‘Oh, ma-am, I don’t know how to tell you.’ She hung her head and gave a shuddering moan. ‘But I must.’

Isobel surveyed her in horror. She was going to tell her something perfectly appalling, she could tell. She sat down and reached for her smelling salts. ‘Do I really need to know?’ she said faintly, ‘If you’ve been falling out with the other servants, then you must settle it between you.’

‘No, ma-am, it’s not as simple as that. Oh, how I wish that it was.’ A tear slipped down Susan’s cheek and she carefully wiped it away with a piece of clean white linen.

Isobel leant back in her chair, closed her eyes and waited. She might have known that things were going too smoothly. The household was running well, her social life improving now that she was getting to know people. There was bound to be something to spoil it.

‘Well, come along then, if I have to know, then you’d better tell me.’

‘You’re not going to like it, ma-am, and I would hate for you to turn against me.’ The girl gave a little sob and turned a tear-stained innocent face to her mistress.

Isobel sighed and silently waited.

‘’Fact is, ma-am, I’m in trouble. In ’family way.’ She put her hands to her face and her shoulders shook with silent, shuddering sobs.

Isobel rose to her feet, a look of disgust on her face. ‘You wicked, wicked girl. How dare you – and in my employ.’ She turned away so that she didn’t have to look at her. ‘You will have to leave immediately. I can’t possibly keep you here now.’

‘Yes, ma-am, I realize how wicked it was – but, but, it wasn’t all my fault, ma-am.’

Isobel turned towards her and regarded her contemptuously. ‘Don’t pretend to me, young woman,’ she said icily. ‘No woman should put herself in a situation where a man can take advantage of her.’

‘But I trusted him, ma-am. On account of who he was. I never thought that he would force me.’ She broke into loud sobbing.

‘For goodness sake control yourself, Susan.’ She glared at the girl. ‘Are you telling me that someone forced his attentions on you?’

‘Yes, ma-am.’

‘And you were not a willing, er, participant?’

She shook her head, her hands covering her face in shame.

‘Then he should be horsewhipped. Is it a local man? Someone you were seeing regularly?’

Susan raised her head and stared at her mistress with open eyes. ‘No, ma-am. I said as how you wasn’t going to like it, ma-am.’

Isobel felt a cold fear clutch at her heart. Not Isaac. He wouldn’t, would he? No, not even though he no longer shared her bed. Not with a child such as this, not under his own roof.

Coldly she stared back at the girl. ‘What is it you are trying to say? Is it one of the men here?’

That was it, of course. It had to be one of the staff. A sudden wave of anger swept over her. Will Foster, it was probably him. Well, it would serve Isaac right for employing him, giving him too much authority, now he’d have to get rid of him as well as the girl. But then Maria would go as well and she couldn’t do without her. Oh, what a mess.

She was sure that Isaac would be sympathetic, probably even want to keep the girl on in their employ. He would say it was their duty and dismiss her own views on servants’ morals as being petty and narrow-minded.

‘Not one of ’servants, ma-am.’ Susan paused to let her words sink in, then with her head hung down, she wrung her hands together and whispered. ‘A gentleman, ma-am.’

Isobel lowered herself carefully into a chair. ‘A gentleman? No gentleman would do such a thing.’ As she spoke she knew it wasn’t true. It would be considered no more than sport for some young buck to take advantage of a servant girl, willing or not. She racked her mind to think of who had visited the house who would be capable of such unprincipled behaviour.

Susan lifted her head and looked her mistress straight in the eyes. ‘Mr John, ma-am.’

She sat dumbfounded, her tongue and brain frozen, unable to speak. Susan reached for the smelling salts and silently handed them to her, but she waved them away.

‘How dare you say such a thing,’ she croaked as her voice returned. ‘My nephew is the last man to—’ Words failed her.

Susan nodded her head. ‘Mr John it was, ma-am. That day when I was late back. When I said that I’d hurt my foot. I was afraid to tell you, ma-am. I thought as you wouldn’t believe me – and I didn’t want you to dismiss me. It was in ’barn, ma-am, he made me go in with him.’

‘Stop. Stop this minute,’ Isobel screeched. ‘Spare me the sordid details. Get out of here. I will speak to you later, and do not discuss this with the other servants.’

‘No, ma-am,’ said Susan meekly, dropping a curtsey as she went, ‘of course I won’t.’

Isobel calmed herself and then rang the bell loud and long. Maria, hurrying up the stairs, passed Susan coming down.

‘What’s wrong?’ Maria was anxious. Susan usually answered the mistress’s bell.

Susan shrugged her shoulders. ‘Got a fit of ’vapours if tha asks me. I can’t do owt right for her.’

Maria waited for her mistress to speak. She was obviously upset about something, her cheeks were flushed and she had run her fingers through her immaculate curls, disarranging strands of hair which hung around her forehead.

‘Maria, help me dress, that girl Susan is useless. I’m going to be late for my dinner, and I don’t suppose she has told Walters to bring the carriage.’

‘I’m sorry, ma-am, I’ll do it, I can’t think what’s got into her. I’ll give her a good talking to.’ She helped her mistress into a padded, whaleboned frame and slipped her grey silk gown over the top.

‘I may decide to get someone else to dress me, she really is most unsatisfactory.’

Maria couldn’t hide her astonishment. She had thought that Susan could do no wrong. Mrs Masterson always sent for her rather than anyone else. ‘Has she misbehaved, ma-am, for if so?’ Maria knew that instant dismissal was normal in that case.

‘In a manner of speaking, but I don’t wish to discuss it. Not until I have spoken to Mr Masterson.’ She had already said more than she intended.

‘Would you like Janey to attend you, ma-am? She’s very well behaved and quiet.’

‘Very well, she can attend me when I return. She’s a village girl, isn’t she? At least that should please the locals,’ she added waspishly.

As the carriage trundled along the potholed road towards her neighbours in the next village, she pondered on the dilemma. If the story was true then they would have to pay the girl to keep her quiet, for although it was not unusual for sons of gentry to father bastards, to Isobel the thought was repugnant. She felt that the family would be the laughing stock of the area if word got out, and that she could never again face society. John shall answer for this, she thought angrily. It seems he sailed just in time, but I shall be waiting for him on his return.

The following evening when Isaac returned from his business she told him, and let him know in no uncertain terms of her feelings on the matter.

‘Wild oats, my dear, wild oats. I agree that it is most unfortunate that it should happen right here on our doorstep, hmm, so to speak, but it is a fact of life that these things happen.’ He chuckled, then changed it to a cough as Isobel glared at him. ‘She’s a beauty all right, he probably just got carried away. And she might well have been willing, no matter what she says to the contrary.’

‘I dare say that you think it is of no consequence,’ his wife said coldly, ‘but I have now to find another maid, for I can’t possibly keep her under the circumstances.’

‘Plenty of young girls in the village who will be more than willing to come, my love, don’t you worry about that. I should imagine that once they hear that Susan is going they will be lining up at the door.’ He stopped as his wife gazed icily at him. ‘Not that we will want to shout it from the roof tops, of course. Give the girl another shilling if you think it will keep her quiet, and then when John comes home and admits that the child is his, he must contribute towards it. That’ll teach him to be more careful in future.’

Isobel sent for Susan the next day. The girl looked well and the roses were back in her cheeks, and though she hung her head, suitably chagrined, as Isobel lectured her, she wasn’t as subdued as she might have been.

‘So we have decided that you are to be given your wages and a sum of money to help you, although of course that does not imply that we accept that our nephew is responsible. That will be decided when he returns, for as you know he is at present at sea and will not be back for some considerable time.’

‘Could I speak, ma-am?’ Susan raised her head and looked at Isobel, her violet eyes deep and fathomless. ‘It’s just that I wanted to tell you that I’m courting a young man, and that I had to tell him what happened.’

Isobel drew herself up straight and was about to speak.

‘I had to tell him, ma-am,’ Susan hurried on. ‘I was that upset, and he wanted to know why I kept on crying, and even though I know you said I hadn’t to tell a soul, well, I had to in the end, and he said that even though I was spoiled – well, he would wed me and bring ’bairn up like it was his own.’

She watched unblinking as Isobel heaved a silent sigh of relief. Then she smiled and for some reason Isobel was reminded of a little cat she had once had which used to chase the mice in the garden, patting and pawing, chasing and releasing.