Authors: Jenny Telfer Chaplin
Chapter
10
February 1820
In the months that had elapsed since the night Rab had finally told her exactly why he now so hated sitting by the water’s edge, he had hardly spoken a word. Even when she spoke directly to him, his only response was a sorrowful shake of his head or a nod of his head. On the very rare occasion when he had been obliged to make a reply of some meaningful sort, even then all Sheena got was a mumbled reply when it seemed as if every single word was actually being dragged out from the very innards of his being. At her wits’ end, feeling utterly frustrated, Sheena then decided, childishly she knew, if it’s silence he wants ... well two can play at that game . Let’s see how he’ll like that, let’s see how the silent treatment appeals to him.
On the Friday morning of a week in which they had both taken a vow of silence, just as Rory was about to leave for another day’s work in the boatyard, his father said, “Rory son, the wee yins are still asleep and I’ve a mind to go and sit quietly by myself for a while in that other boatshed, the one that’s lying empty. So, would ye be good enough tae guide me there and then mibbe fetch me back hame at yer tea-break time? Eh, son, wid ye dae that for me?”
Given that it was the most words he had spoken in an entire month, the impact of his sudden outpouring hit both Sheena and Rory like a drum beat announcing some important event or other. A moment’s silence in which mother and son looked askance at each other, then Rory was the first to speak, “Aye, nae problem tae that, Faither, it’ll be a wee change for you, but ye’ll need tae be quick aboot it, for Ah daurnae be late for ma work.”
Sheena could feel a rising tide of anger and it was fully a minute before she could trust herself to speak, “Ah really must be the mug in this damned family. Yer faither can open his gub and speak fine when he’s wantin something and has you leaping tae attention tae dae his bidding. And so that’s me left with the bairns all mornin, even though the baith of ye know fine well that Mr Buchan depends on me to clean out his office every Friday . But all right, Rab, don’t you worry yersel aboot me, just ye go and enjoy yer solitude. Sure ye wouldnae like tae spend the entire day alone in yer glory? Ah could aye cook yup some mince-n-tatties and then serve it tae ye in that boatshed. How would that wee arrangement suit yer Lordship?”
Knowing her voice was deliberately dripping with sarcasm, Sheena went on, “Talk aboot the Laird of Govan, my God, it’s one helluva great life ye’ve got, Rab Bell.”
He raised his sightless eyes towards the sound of her voice.
“Uch, Sheena, hen, please, please don’t keep going on at me.”
He was saved further humiliation when Rory said:
“Right, faither, if ye’ve still a mind tae this ploy, if ye’re still determined on coming oot wi me, the time is noo, otherwise ye’re gonnae make me late for ma work and that’s all we wid need fur me tae get in Mr Buchan’s black books.”
Rory helped his father on with his jacket, then ramming his bunnet on somewhat askew on Rab’s head, the pair of them headed towards the door.
As they were going past her, Sheena so clearly seeing what a truly pathetic figure her man now cut, had a wild impulse to hold out her arms and enfold him in a comforting hug. But even as she rejected such a crazy, romantic gesture, she put out a tentative hand towards him, with the full intention of at least giving him an encouraging, comforting pat on his bowed shoulders.
Then thinking the better of such an action, she withdrew her hand, smoothed down the front of her pinny as if dusting away any such tomfool notion.
As she-watched him stumble his way out of the boatshed home, she had the weirdest notion that perhaps, yes, she should indeed forget her own angry feelings.
Sheena was finishing off the last of her cleaning jobs in Mr Buchan’s office when suddenly she was aware of a noisy disturbance echoing up from the yard below. Shouts of “Mr Buchan. Mr Buchan, come quick, please for God’s sake, come quick.”
On hearing this urgent cry for help Sheena thought, Wait a minute, that’s Rory’s voice surely. That’s no way for him tae address his boss. All right, mibbe he’s cut his hand at the sawing or something, but still ye don’t shout at any high heid yin like that. Just wait till Ah see Rory at dinner time, Ah’ll tell him a thing or two ... upset Mr Buchan and next thing we know, we’ll all be homeless again. He’s needin for tae tae be taught some manners, that Rory, gettin too big for his boots these days, supposed tae tae be the man of the hoose noo, but he’s still just a laddie and nae son of mine yells that way at his boss.
She cleared away her bucket and mop, and after a last look around to satisfy herself that all that had needed doing had been attended to, she started to make her way downstairs to the yard.
At the foot of the stairway her progress was halted when Angus Dempster, one of the gaffers, with arms extended to bar her way, said, “Ah’ll have tae stop ye right here, Mistress Bell. Seems there’s something happened, something terrible happened in the empty boatshed and ....”
Sheena gasped. “The empty boatshed ye say, but my husband, Rab he went along there this morning, what’s happened, has he had a fall, he’s blind ye ken, oh, get oota my way, let me go tae help him, Ah should never have let him go there this morning, Ah had a bad feeling.”
Yet again Angus stretched out a detaining hand. “Sorry, Mistress Bell, but Ah’m under strict instructions ... tae keep ye here until we find oot the extent of this … accident or whatever ...”
Sheena put a hand to her mouth. “Then he is injured, he has fallen, tripped over a pile of ropes, something, but he’s …”
She got no further, as looking beyond the gaffer, she could just make out Mr Buchan, amazingly with an arm across Rory’s shoulder, leading her son into the yard.
That did it. With every ounce of energy she had Sheena pushed a temporarily off-guard Angus aside, hiked up her long skirts and raced pell-mell into the yard.
Rab had indeed fallen, but no pathetic stumbling over a pile of ropes … Rab had fallen from a much greater height and he was already dead when they cut him down from the beam on which his body had been hanging.
Chapter 10
The rest of that memorable day passed in a haze for Sheena. At one point she was dimly aware of a noisy argument between Rory and one of his workmates, which ended when she heard Rory say, “Aye, Dunkie it’s real good of ye tae offer tae break the news to his brother, but ...” Here the young lad’s voice broke. “If anybody’s gonnae tell my Uncle Fergus aboot this tragedy it’s me. See that Fergus Bell ... he’s the bastard that caused all this misery in the first place.”
Sheena, sat with her head in her hands, alone with the turmoil of her own thoughts.
Rory, son, she thought. There’s more, much more involved here than you could ever possibly imagine.
As the day of the funeral approached, Mr Buchan took Sheena aside.
“Now then, Mistress Bell, you have worries enough to deal with, so let me give you assurance on one point ... even though I don’t hold with the sin of suicide, there is absolutely no way that I’ll be evicting you and your family from your home here. Rory is a fine lad, a real credit to you, a good worker and, as long as he is in my employ, your home in the boatshed is secure.”
Sheena feeling that not only had one massive worry been lifted from her shoulders, but also that there were still some good people in the troubled world, at the first opportunity she related the good news to Rory.
He listened in silence, then to her amazement he frowned and said, “Very generous of Mr Buchan, I’m sure, but if he thinks that I for one could go on working within sight and sound of the very place where I found my poor father hanging from the rafters, then yer saintly Mr Buchan has another think coming. So, thanks for nothing, Mr Buchan, sir.”
Sheena, aghast at his reaction grabbed hold of his hand.
“Rory, we’ll be homeless again. Is that what ye want?”
He looked at her and there was a decidedly scornful tone in his voice as he said: “Mother, young I may be, but already I know one great truth ... what we want in this life and what we eventually get, are often two entirely different things. Anyway, my mind is made up and, homeless or not, I’ll not stay here a minute longer than is strictly necessary, and that’s an end of the matter.”
And no matter how Sheena pleaded with her son, it was to no avail.
Finally, when it was clear they were getting nowhere in their endless discussions Rory said, “Mother, let’s get the funeral over and done with. I promise you I won’t say or do anything drastic until then, so let’s just go along with what happens each day and see what turns up.”
Like it or not, Sheena had to be content with that as she thought, Stubborn as a mule, he is. Takes that after his father … aye, but Fergus or Rab? That’s really the last thing I need to be worrying about right now.
Chapter 11
In the weeks that followed Rab’s funeral, Sheena and Maggie found that if anything of value was to be achieved in the way of any kind of forward planning, then they would have to bury their differences and their, too public, animosity towards each other.
Thus with an undeclared but nevertheless very real truce between the two women, it now meant at least they could meet in some sort of outward semblance of a vague, insipid friendship. Today’s meeting over a pot of tea in the Harmony Row cottage was just such an occasion. Even so and despite her own best efforts to get Maggie to stick to hard and fast details of the proposed plan, nevertheless, Sheena was finding it well-nigh impossible to pin her sister-in-law down.
So far, they had discussed the weather, old Auntie Netta’s kind offer of hospitality and accommodation for Sheena and her bairns.
When silence fell between the two women, it was left to Maggie to try again in the family’s joint effort to solve the problem. Having cleared her throat, Maggie launched into the fray. “So, this offer of a roof over your head from your Auntie Annie, you’re still dead set against accepting it? It seems very generous to me, I must say.”
Sheena thought for a moment, nodded, then said, “Well, you can say and think, any damned thing ye like, Maggie, but for heaven’s sake, the poor old soul, she’s aboot in her dotage noo. Don’t forget she was nae lassie when she took it upon hersel tae bring us up. The same for Auntie Netta that brung up Fergus and Rab. They’re auld women noo and Auntie Netta’s cottage is crowded enough with hunners of stray cats she adopts; the stench of the place would make ye throw yer heart up, fair reekin of cat pee, so it is. Anyway, me move intae that stinkin hell-hole? Fine weel Ah ken what would happen next Ah’d be the one, the bloody eejit that’d end up lookin after ma ain weans and playing nursemaid tae a crabbit, dementit, aff-her-heid auld woman intae the bargain. Generous offer did ye say? Humph, damn-all help tae me that would be.”
Unwilling to let matters rest there, Maggie chewed at her lower lip. “I think you’re rather losing sight of the fact, the important truth is, that at least it would get you all out of that boatshed in Buchan’s Yard and away from the scene of your dear husband’s suicide.”
Sheena’s face suffused with angry colour.
“Don’t you mention my so-called ‘dear husband’ tae me ... he wasnae thinkin of me or the bairns when he tied that bloody noose roonaboot his neck, selfish or what? And as for getting me oota Buchan’s Yard and intae an overcrowded hovel stinkin with cat pee, well, thanks but no thanks. But if ye think it’s all that generous an offer, ye see how ye’d like it.”
Before Maggie could answer, Sheena got to her feet and said, in a voice thick with barely controlled anger, “Listen Maggie, if this is your way, your sneaky way, of trying to get me to forget the promise Fergus made ... in front of everybody on the day of Rab’s funeral, well, ye can just forget trying tae fob me off tae Auntie Annie. Fergus made a promise and he’ll have to see it through, like it or lump it.”
Maggie frowned in puzzlement “I’m sorry, Sheena, I can see you’re angry, but I’m afraid I still don’t get your drift …”
“Oh ye’ll get more than my drift, don’t you worry aboot that. Just you get this straight, me and ma weans will hang on at Buchman’s yard for as long as it takes till your man comes up trumps with the promised boat tickets. So ye can just get that into your stupid heid.”
Sheena plodded over towards the door of the cottage.
Fergus muttered, “Haud on a minute, Sheena, Ah’ve just had a great idea, it would be tae the benefit of us all and ...”
Sheena turned her head and yelled, “Thanks all the same, Fergus, but Ah think Ah’ve had aboot as much discussion as Ah can stand for one day. If yer wonderful idea, whatever the hell it might be, still seems as great tomorrow, time enough then for you tae come round tae Buchan’s Yard and tell Rory and me. Happen by then we’ll all be in a better frame of mind.”
Just as Sheena had hoped, Fergus arrived at the Yard early on the Sunday morning to outline his plan.
He would travel to Canada with Sheena and her family posing as her husband thus hopefully escaping the long arm of the long Arm of the Law. He would then be on hand to help Sheena and her family get the free land offers for willing emigrants. At a later date, as a free man, an escaped Radical, then he could send for Maggie and his own bairns.
Sheena stared at him in open-mouthed amazement. “Such a daring ploy would help you escape the authorities in this country?”
He nodded. “It’s a least worth a try, kill two birds with one stone, as it were.”
Sheena laughed. “Dae ye think ye’ll escape Maggie’s wrath quite so easily, for no matter which way we look at this, Ah cannae think that Maggie will be best pleased.”
He frowned. “Ah’m not about to pretend that she’s exactly overjoyed at the prospect, even though she can see the advantages in my escape plan. but ...” he paused, “in fact, and in all honesty Ah must tell you, she tried everything in her power tae get me to change my mind and take her instead of ye.”
Sheena cocked her head on one side. “Oh indeed, and just exactly how did she go about that?”
He fiddled with the cuff of his jacket, looking decidedly uncomfortable, abashed and downright embarrassed. Finally he said, “All you need to know about that particular event is this ... Ah dumped you once before Sheena and Ah’m not about to let history repeat itself. Now can we leave it there and get down to plans for the big day?”