Authors: Yelena Kopylova
heavy washing when she had the wash-house pot on a Monday.
Following this, she tidied up the kitchen and the little room that had once been her own, all the while
thinking. He could keep it better than this, he’s not all that bad. But then telling herself that men didn’t
do housework, considering it demeaning, and her father had never done any in his life, and that it was
only hunger that had made him make meals for himself.
He had nothing further to say all afternoon, and it wasn’t until she was almost on the point of leaving that
he said, “What’s the news?
You’ve hardly opened your mouth. “
“Well, I’m followin’ your example. Anyway, I don’t like talking to me self As for news it’s the same as
last week:
Monday, washing and cleaning; Tuesday, ironing and cleaning; Wednesday, in the dairy,
cheese making,
butter making;
Thursday, the big baking day and cleaning;
Friday, the same; Saturday, packing for market; and the day, scrambling through
everything so I can get
off on time. That’s my news, as usual. “
He looked at her from out of the corner of his eyes, saying, “I thought you liked it there?”
“Aye, I do. I’ve always liked it there. But first and foremost, I’m there to work. Well, you asked what
me news was, and that’s me news.”
“What about Kate... and him?”
“What about them?”
“Well, you’re not stupid. Knowing you, I would have thought you would have been ready
for the jump
long afore now. He’s the only one you’ve trailed so far.”
“Da, I haven’t trailed him. We were practically brought up together, always friendly.”
“Well, all right, have it that way. But has h& spoken?”
Her body was hot, she wanted to turn and run from the house, but she had to look down
into his face
and answer his question, and she did, saying flatly, “No, he hasn’t, and never will, as far as I’m
concerned. As I said’—she was finding it difficult to go on now ‘we were brought up
together like... like
brother and sister.”
He cut her off now by saying, “Oh, be damned to that for a tale, he’s a man and you’re ready for
marryin’. You’ve got a head on your shoulders about most things, why haven’t you got
him up to the
scratch?”
She turned from him, went to the door and took her coat and bonnet off a peg and, with her back still
turned to him she put them on. When at last she looked at him her voice was steady and she said, “I’ll
marry when I think fit. Da, and who I think fit. And let me say this, it will be an unlucky day for you
when I do marry, ‘cos there’s one thing I’m tellin’ you, I’m not startin’ me life in this place. Now’—she
pointed to the hearth “ I’ve brought you enough wood and peat in to last for a couple of days, and while
the weather’s fine keep it stocked up. There’s food enough in the pantry to see you
through the week
and there’s still a half sack of taties left. If you can’t wash them, peel them and boil them, then I’m afraid
you’ll just have to go without. As the weather’s getting chilly I’ll bring you some bones over next week
for soup. Well, I’m off. Tara
She stared at him; and he returned her look for a moment before he said flatly, “Tara
Mary Ellen.”
When she had closed the door behind her she did not immediately walk away but stood
with her eyes
tight closed for a moment. If only he was different, like he used to be when she was
younger, for
although she had been a little afraid of him, she could talk to him, tell him all that had happened to her
during her rambles, or what had transpired at Kate’s Drawing in a deep breath, she now walked slowly
across the garden which had lost every vestige of its past neatness, and out onto the
narrow path that led
up to the quarry, and round it to Kate’s It was as she neared the cottage that she saw Roddy leaving it,
and they met at the gate.
He, holding it open for her, was the first to speak.
“Hello,” he said, and, she, looking up at him answered, “Hello.” His face looked drawn and tense and
she forced herself to carry on speaking in an ordinary tone as she asked, “How did you get on then?”
“Oh’—he jerked his chin upwards “ Twas a strange experience, different from what I
thought. Anyway,
I won’t know the result until a month’s time. “
“Didn’t they like your drawings?”
“That’s what I won’t know until they make their choice. As I understand it, there are
three of us.”
“Three of you!” she repeated.
“What for?”
“Well He now rubbed his hand up and down the side of his thigh as he went on, “ The
one they consider
to have the best drawings or possibilities, they are going to offer him a two year course in
. art. “ He
hesitated on the word:
it didn’t sound right, too fanciful for his drawings, he thought, and he explained by
adding, “It’s to learn
not only engineering drawing, but all kinds, landscape and portrait and things.
Although they are not in my line the winner will have to study them, I suppose, if he
wants to take
advantage of the offer. “
“And what is the offer?”
“As I said, two years learning and they’ll pay for your board and such, either in
Newcastle or’—again
his chin jerked upwards “ London. “
“London?” Her head come forward in enquiry.
“You mean the London, where the King is?”
“Yes, that London.”
“And would you go?”
He looked away from her now towards the hills before once more he turned his head in
her direction
and said, bluntly now, “Aye, yes, I’d go.”
Her voice was small as she asked, “You wouldn’t mind leaving here?”
Again his eyes roamed over the hills and again his voice was flat as he answered, “Just in a way.”
When she repeated his words, “Just in a way?” there was that recognized sting to her tone which put
him on the defensive, and he said, “Aye, that’s what I said, just in a way. I’ll miss Kate of course. But
there’s lots of other things I wouldn’t miss, the mill for one....”
“And me for another, I suppose. That’s what you were going to say, wasn’t it?”
“No, I wasn’t. Don’t be silly.”
“I’m not silly, and I’m not blind or daft either. You’ve got somebody else, haven’t you?”
She watched
the scarlet suffuse his face. But then, after a moment, when he spoke his words cut into her like a knife,
for what he said was, “I’ve never had anybody else before her.
Get that into your head, Mary Ellen. I’m fond of you, aye, I am, always have been and
always will, but.
but not like. well, let me put it bluntly, not like taking you for a lass. You understand? “
She understood, but could not voice a word, the pain in her chest seemed to be riving it apart. As she
stared up into his face she thought, He’s cruel. That’s what he is, cruel. He needn’t have put it like that.
His voice softening now, and his head moving from side to side, he said, “You always
put people in the
wrong, make folks say what they never intended. It’s that tongue of yours. Ah.” He
stopped and
bowed his head deeply onto his chest for a moment, then muttered, “Don’t look like that, Mary Ellen,
please. Look, I’m tellin’ you now, there’s nobody I like better or think more of in a
brotherly kind of
way than I do you, but... but it isn’t the way one feels when one thinks of marryin’.”
Yes, she understood him. They were looking at each other, their eyes on a level, and
when slowly she
turned from him and walked towards the house, he took his doubled fist and beat it
against his brow
before continuing on his way.
When she entered the cottage Kate said, “I saw you talkin’ to him.
From the looks on your face, it wasn’t pleasant. What did he say? “
Before answering Kate, she put the basket down on the floor and sat down with a plop on a backless
wooden stool and her voice was quiet as she said, “He gave it to me straight.”
“Gave you what straight?”
“What he thought about me.”
“Oh. And he didn’t tell you about her?”
“No.” She turned and looked at the old woman.
“Who is she?”
“Well, seeing who she is, lass, it’s a pity you made him give it to you straight, because I can see no
furtherance in that link up. Do you know who she is?”
Mary Ellen shook her head.
“Clan Bannaman’s daughter, his only daughter, and she’s older than him by three or four years if not
more from what I remember. Now Clan Bannaman is as likely to let his lass link up with Roddy
Greenbank there’—she nodded towards the window ‘as you would with the devil,
because I know this
much an’ I’ve worked it out over the years, that whatever happened to Roddy’s father
when he fell,
supposedly accidentally, down the quarry and brought on a landslide, that man had some doin’ in it,
because he came here shortly afterwards and his face was clean-shaven and for years
before he had
sported a beard. And I can see his face now when he saw that the lad lying on that bed there’ she
thumbed towards her bed ‘didn’t recognize him.
Then there was the day that you came in and told me that his henchman was up there
looking for
something. Well, whatever it was, they didn’t find it, because every now and again
they’ve come back,
up till these recent years. So perhaps they did find it. I don’t know. But as I said, Roddy has as much
chance to link up with Bannaman’s girl as would the devil in hell, in fact he’d have a better chance I
would imagine. So, ‘tis a pity you brought whatever you did into the open, for this would have died its
natural death, and then you could have brought your wiles to work on him, usin’ it
instead of being so
careless of your tongue. “
“It wouldn’t have been any good, Kate. He doesn’t love me and never will. I could see it in his face.”
“Nonsense, nonsense. Men change. From one season to another, men change, even the
best of them.
By the way, have you seen Hal?”
She hesitated.
“Not the day,” she answered.
“When did you see him last?”
“Well, last evening.”
“Well, he hasn’t been here, and it must be the first Sunday he hasn’t shown up. And it’s troublin’ his
nibs, because he’s gone out to look for him. Although he grumbles about him tackin’ on to him so much,
he’s worried now because he’s missed a day.”
She went towards the fire and, taking up a poker, she stirred the centre of the fire into a dull blaze as she
said, “I wonder how he’ll take to Roddy leavin’ for good, ‘cos that’s what he’s gona do, you know.”
She turned her head and looked towards Mary Ellen.
“One way or another, he’s leavin’ us, lass, and we’ve got to face it. To me, it’ll be like losin’a dear son,
me second. To you, it’s the man you’ve loved all your life. And for that I’m sorry, lass.
And for Hal,
what’s it gona be like for him? One never knows how that lad feels and I doubt if one
ever will, because
he’s got a strength there that outweighs the three of us. Tis a pity he can’t put it to some use, because
there’s good in him. Aye, there’s good in him.” She nodded her head and turned again to the fire and
began moving the peat gently around the flame as she added softly, “Tis a pity you’ll
never be able to see
it.”
He was late getting into Hexham. He had missed the carrier, but Bob Alien, the
blacksmith, had given
him and Hal a lift. It was now just on four o’clock. He hadn’t found Hal last Sunday, and so it wasn’t
until the first shift on the Monday morning that he met with him. And when Hal offered no excuse for his
absence on the Sunday, he had made up his mind not to ask him, telling himself that it was probably for
the best: perhaps he would have a little time to himself in future and not have one or the other trailing after
him. Yet some part of his mind was piqued that his mate hadn’t offered a reason for his non-appearance:
over the years, it had become an understood thing that they spend their Sundays together.
But today as they came off the shift, he could not help but ask, “Coming into town the day?” And Hal’s
unenthusiastic answer, “May as well,” put things on a level footing again.
Bob Alien’s last words to them were, “Mind, I’ll be leaving for back around half-past six.
If you’re not
in the market place here, I go.
Mind, I’m tellin’ you. “ And he had smiled broadly at them.
It was Roddy who answered, “I’ll be here ... we’ll be here; I’m not up to trekking across the hills the
night. So long.”
“So long then,” said Bob, and drove his cart away across the market and down the main
street to the
fields beyond where the pony could munch in the care of a ha’ penny lad until he
returned.
In the market place, Roddy, looking at Hal, said in a somewhat shamefaced way, “I’ll see you in about
half an hour then, or perhaps a little later. I’ll meet you back here.” He pointed to the fruit stall and was
somewhat taken aback when Hal answered, “But I mayn’t be ready to be back in half an
hour or so, as
you say,” “Well then, if you’re not here I’ll wait for you. How’s that?”
“Fair enough.”
They stared at each other for a moment longer before Roddy turned away. Crossing the
market place he
made for the archway that was set in the high wall opposite the Abbey. Once through the archway, he