A Second Chance (27 page)

‘No, he won’t. There’s only Beth for him
now—I’m quite sure of that.’

‘How do you know?’

‘Because I can see he’s like you, of course.
You’d have been just the same.’

Outrage left Frank speechless for several
moments. ‘What do you mean by that?’ he said at last.

‘If things had turned out for us like they
have for Beth and Dave, you wouldn’t have gone off with some other
girl even if Pa had said we couldn’t get married.’

‘That’s just talking rot. I wouldn’t have
carried on like he has.’

‘Are you going to try and tell me you
wouldn’t have done just the same if I’d let you?’

‘Of course I wouldn’t!’

Even in the dark, and without saying a word,
Lizzie managed to fill the air between them with scepticism.

‘Give it up, Lizzie. I’m not changing my
mind.’

Lizzie was silent, but Frank knew that would
not last. She was simply waiting long enough to be sure of waking
him up when she next spoke.

*

Every night was the same.

‘Lizzie, how long are you going to keep this
up?’ Frank groaned.

‘As long at it takes you to see sense.’

‘Till I agree with you, you mean. Not this
time, Lizzie.’

They seemed to be covering the same ground
over and over, and he repeated the same answers over and over: No.
I want what’s best for her. He’s not having her. Not Charlie
Stewart’s son. The words came without any conscious thought, till
he almost felt as if he were talking in his sleep. He wondered how
Lizzie could keep it up, since her nights were as broken as
his.

That particular mystery was solved one
afternoon, when he found her curled up in bed with Benjy in her
arms, the two of them fast asleep. Even faced with such evidence
that Lizzie was not playing fair, he could not bring himself to
disturb her.

Every night he fell asleep to the sound of
Lizzie’s voice, and woke to the same sound. There was a respite in
the daytime, but with the knowledge that it would start again that
evening. And all the while as Lizzie repeated her arguments, he
would see in his mind’s eye the shadowy figure of Beth, who if she
was given the chance would slip out of any room he entered.

He missed her. Beth was a quiet girl,
especially compared to Lizzie and Maudie, but she had always been
the most affectionate of his children. She was the one whose face
would light up whenever she saw him; the one he would find curled
up in his lap and have no memory of how she had come to be there.
He had felt her absence while she had been spending so much time at
David’s, but even with all the tasks she had had at both houses she
had often managed to join him in the late afternoon. She would slip
her hand into his as he walked around the herd, giving her opinion
on the new calves and giving him the sweetness of her company. That
had not happened since her confession and his outburst.

He only wanted her to be happy. He wanted
the best for her. The trouble was, it was becoming increasingly
difficult to decide just what that might mean.

*

‘
Here’s the mail, Miss Sarah,’
said Nellie. She placed a silver tray with a small pile of
envelopes beside Sarah’s plate.

‘Thank you, Nellie.’ Sarah flipped through
the envelopes, and removed two. ‘These are for you, Amy,’ she said,
handing them across the table.

‘One from Lizzie, and this one’s from Dave,’
Amy said. ‘I had one just the other day, it’s nice to get another
one so soon.’

She picked up the envelope that bore David’s
writing and slit it with Sarah’s letter opener. The letter was so
short that it took only a few moments to read, and left her
frowning in thought.

‘Dave wants me to come home.’

‘Well, he’ll just have to wait,’ said Sarah.
‘We agreed you’d stay four months, and that won’t be up for weeks
yet.’

‘He sounds worried about something. I think
I might have to go back.’

‘What’s he so worried about?’

‘He doesn’t say.’ Amy studied the letter as
if it might have some hidden meaning to be teased out of its few
lines. ‘But I can tell there’s something.’

‘Oh, nonsense! If he won’t even take the
trouble to write a sensible letter, he needn’t think I’m going to
let you rush home to him. What does the letter actually say?’

Amy scanned the single sheet. ‘He says,
“Please can you come home, Ma. We need you to help sort everything
out. Aunt Lizzie says to tell you to come as soon as you
can.”
 
’

‘That’s not exactly helpful. It’s probably
nothing at all, Amy. Perhaps Beth made him a pudding he didn’t
like, and that’s put his nose out of joint. He wants you to fuss
over him.’

‘No,’ Amy said, shaking her head. ‘Dave
wouldn’t have asked if it wasn’t important.’ She braced herself for
the argument she knew was looming. ‘I’ll have to go home.’

‘No! You’re not going to be at his beck and
call. I won’t allow it.’

‘Davie needs me, Sarah. I have to go.’

‘I
need you.’

Amy gave a startled laugh. ‘No, you don’t!
You don’t need anyone.’ Seeing Sarah’s hurt expression, Amy reached
across the corner of the table to take her hand. ‘I’m sorry, I
didn’t mean it to sound like that. But you’re so strong, and you’re
so sure about things. You never have to ask anyone what you should
do, and you never seem to be frightened that you’ll do the wrong
thing.’

‘That doesn’t mean I don’t need you,’ Sarah
said, a hint of reproach in her expression.

‘I think it does, Sarah,’ Amy said gently.
She squeezed Sarah’s hand. ‘I’m so very grateful that you want me
to be with you. These last few months have been like a dream for
me. And I do want to come up here and stay with you again. But just
now I have to go back to the farm. I have to see Davie.’

Sarah continued to look obstinate. ‘I won’t
allow it till he gives a proper account of himself. I’m not buying
your ticket before then.’ She cast a triumphant look at Amy.

‘Then I’ll buy it myself. I’ve got my own
money.’

‘What?’ Sarah said, clearly startled.
‘Enough for a passage?’

Amy nodded. ‘It’s in the bank, but I’ve got
my bank book, and Tom gave me a letter I can show them at the bank
up here and get some money out.’

‘You have your own bank account?’ Sarah
looked more astonished than ever.

‘Yes. Pa left me an annuity, so I’d always
have some money of my own.’

‘That was remarkably enlightened of him.
More so than I would have expected. Well, since you’re so set on
it, we’ll go into town this afternoon and book a passage for you.
I’ll pay for it, of course—it was my idea to bring you up here,
after all. And just what
do
you think he’s supposedly so
anxious about?’

‘It’s something he doesn’t want to put in a
letter. I’ll see if Lizzie says anything about it.’

‘Hmm. I’d be a little more inclined to take
all this seriously if Mrs Kelly thinks it’s important.’ Sarah
drummed her fingers on the table while Amy opened Lizzie’s envelope
and quickly read the letter it contained.

Lizzie’s letter was almost as short as
David’s. ‘She says more or less the same as Dave,’ said Amy. ‘Apart
from a bit about Benjy getting a new tooth, she just says, “We need
you to come back home. Things are in a bit of a muddle.” I wonder
if it’s to do with money,’ she said thoughtfully.

‘What do you mean, Amy?’

‘Well, it’s something Dave’s embarrassed
about, I think. That’s why he doesn’t want to put it in a letter.
And Lizzie always leaves things to do with money up to Frank, so
she wouldn’t know the ins and outs of it. If Dave’s got into a
muddle to do with the farm owing money, or something like that,
he’d need me to come and look at things.’

‘But couldn’t someone down there help him,
if he’s in difficulties of that sort?’

‘Yes, Frank would always help him out, he’d
be only too glad to. But if there’s anything that needs signing,
I’d need to be there, because Dave’s under age. Charlie left the
farm to him, but he made me Davie’s guardian, and I’m the…’ she
struggled to remember the word, ‘the trustee of the farm. So I’m
the only one who can sign things.’

Sarah raised her eyebrows. ‘In the space of
an hour, I learn that my grandfather was enlightened enough to
leave you an income of your own, and that husband of yours showed
more sense than I’d have thought he was capable of. Next you’ll
tell me something decent Mr Taylor’s done, and my view of the world
will be turned completely on its head.’

Amy sometimes found Sarah’s sense of humour
disconcerting, but she smiled and shook her head. ‘I can’t think of
anything just now.’

*

They booked a passage for later in the week,
which gave Amy two days for her packing, a visit to a studio to
have her photograph taken with Sarah, and some last-minute
shopping.

‘I want to buy something for Alice and
Nellie,’ she told Sarah. ‘They’ve been so nice, running around
after me.’

‘Well, it is what I pay them for,’ said
Sarah.

‘I know. I still want to give them
something, to say thank you.’

Sarah smiled indulgently. She waited while
Amy bought two pairs of gloves for the maids, then took her to a
tearoom for afternoon tea.

‘I’ve still got some money left from what I
brought up,’ Amy said, counting her few shillings carefully. ‘I’d
like to get something for Beth. I couldn’t really have stayed so
long if she hadn’t been looking after Dave for me all this time. I
wonder if I’ve got enough for a bracelet, or something like
that.’

‘I expect you have,’ said Sarah. ‘I know
just the place.’

When they had finished their tea, she took
Amy to a brightly-lit jeweller’s store, with displays of rings,
bracelets and watches that dazzled her. Amy looked at a tray of
gold bangles, then reluctantly turned away from them when she saw
that the cheapest cost several shillings more than her purse
held.

‘What about this?’ Sarah asked, pointing to
a brooch on display under glass. She nodded to an assistant, who
got it out and passed it to her for inspection.

Amy studied the brooch as it lay on Sarah’s
palm. It was a lovely thing; filigree gold twisted into the shapes
of leaves and flowers, the petals of the flowers made of tiny gems.
And it was clearly well beyond her means. ‘It’s beautiful,
but—’

‘But it’s not going to be from you alone.
I’m as grateful to Beth as you are for making this visit possible,
Amy. So you must allow me to contribute to her gift.’ Sarah handed
the brooch across the counter to the assistant. ‘We’ll take this,’
she told the young man. ‘You may put it on my account.’

While they waited for the brooch to be put
back into its box and wrapped, Amy held out the contents of her
purse. Sarah took two shillings, and contrived to finish the
transaction without allowing Amy to see what the brooch had
actually cost.

On the night before her departure, long
after Sarah thought she had gone to bed, Amy sat in her room
stitching at the dressing table set she had been embroidering for
Sarah over the last few months, giving thanks as she worked for the
electric light that was so much better for the task than
candlelight. It was almost midnight before she put in the last few
stitches, then slipped gratefully into the wondrously soft bed.

She gave Sarah the set over breakfast the
next morning, and was gratified by her delighted response. Sarah
insisted on taking the cloths upstairs then and there, and placing
them on her table.

‘Though you’re not to think of it as a
farewell gift,’ Sarah told her. ‘Because you’re coming back, you
see. But I’ll treasure these in the meantime, and think of you
every time I see them.’

They both managed to fight back tears when
they said goodbye just before the
Waitangi
sailed, though
Amy could see that Sarah’s eyes were suspiciously bright. ‘It won’t
be for long,’ Sarah insisted. ‘I fully expect you back here in a
few months. I’ll come and fetch you myself if necessary.’

*

Amy stood on the deck, straining her eyes
for the first glimpse of a familiar figure on Ruatane’s wharf. As
soon as the boat was close enough it was easy to pick out David,
towering above everyone around him. When he came onto the boat she
rushed to him, put her arms around his waist and hugged him. Then
she took a step back to study his face and assure herself that he
was well.

He looked healthy enough, but she could see
the signs of strain in his face, and guessed that he had not been
sleeping soundly. Whatever had made him ask her to come home was
clearly preying on his mind.

She tilted her face up for a kiss; after a
moment’s hesitation, he lowered his head and gave her a peck on the
cheek. His uncharacteristic reserve surprised her, but she put it
down to shyness with so many people about.

There was no chance of any real conversation
while they were busy retrieving Amy’s baggage and getting it slowed
in the gig. When Amy had made a quick visit to the Post and
Telegraph Office to send a cable assuring Sarah of her safe
arrival, she settled in beside David and leaned her head against
his arm as he coaxed the horse into a trot.

‘It’s lovely to see you again, Davie.’ She
sat upright and slipped her arm through his. ‘Now, tell me what’s
worrying you.’

David looked around nervously. ‘I don’t want
to talk about it here.’

After the bustle of Auckland, the streets of
Ruatane seemed almost deserted to Amy. But she did not press David;
there was no need to embarrass him. ‘Is everyone well? Uncle John
and Uncle Harry and everyone next door?’

‘Mmm, they’re all good.’

‘I’m looking forward to seeing Beth again,
so I can thank her for everything. How is she?’