Sarah Love

by Geraldine O'Neill

  He raised one eyebrow. “Did you think I’d actually followed you all the way from the shop, like?” He winked. “You did – didn’t you?”

  Her cheeks reddened. “Of course not! I just wondered,” she hedged. “It’s a bit strange bumping into you in a certain café which is quite a distance from our shops.”

  “But it’s a well-known café, and the others are further away. Plus, it has a good juke-box.”

  “It’s still a bit of a coincidence. It must be a twenty-minute walk.”

  “Are you sure about that?”

  Sarah looked at him. “What do you mean?”

  “We’re only two or three streets away,” he told her. “You go back out of here onto Grey Street, cross over and Pilgrims Lane is straight across. You can do it in two minutes. This is the nearest café to the shop.” He started laughing again. “By the sounds of it, I’d say you’ve been wandering about in circles. It’s lucky I came in or you mightn’t find your way back to the shop. You could be wandering about for days.”

  She suddenly realised that he was serious, and that she had made an idiot of herself for suggesting he had followed her. “Oh, God!” she said, biting her lip. “I’m sorry . . . that was silly of me thinking we were so far from the shop. Imagine if I got lost and was late back for work on my first day!”

  “It’s all right,” he said, laughing. “It’s easy to get mixed up when everything is so new.”

  She checked her watch. She only had half an hour left, so she would have to order quickly or she would be late.

  “I’ll have fish and chips,” she told the young waitress who came over to her.

  “D’you want the fish tea?” the girl asked. “It comes with two slices of bread and a cup of tea. It’s only sixpence more.”

  “Yes, she does,” David answered. “And I’ll have the same.” When the waitress left he turned to her. “It’s all right. I’m treating you – seeing as it’s your first day.”

  “No, I won’t let you.”

  “I insist,” he told her. “You can treat me another time.” He said it so matter-of-factly – the way any one of her friends might have done at home.

  “Okay then,” she finally said. “Thanks.” But she didn’t look straight at him because she didn’t want to see the admiring look that she knew was in his eyes. She liked his banter, his good manners and his nice friendly ways – but that was it. She would waste no time in putting him straight if he crossed any lines.

  An older man came to sit on the stool beside David and struck up a conversation about the changeable Newcastle weather, which somehow then led on to a discussion about how the whole country was going to the dogs. Sarah didn’t mind. She was happy that she had company to sit with and took the time to glance around the busy café. She noticed the fancy, frilly little curtains on the windows and thought that the pelmet would work well in the shop window in a different pattern. Without making it obvious, she looked along the rows of diners, taking in the women’s fashions. Most of them were dressed fairly ordinarily, but there were a few whose outfits stood out as being more fashionable and obviously expensive. The two girls beside her were too close to examine properly, and neither of them spoke to each other or to her – something that would never have happened in Dublin.

  The fish and chips came. “Look at the size of it – I’ll never eat all this!” she laughed.

  “Don’t worry,” David told her. “I’ll polish off anything you can’t manage.” Then he leaned in closer and lowered his voice. “And if I can’t, I’m sure the fella beside me will. He’s got the biggest mouth I’ve ever seen.”

  Sarah had to put her hand to her mouth to stop herself laughing.

  They walked back to the shops together and as they crossed the busy road back to Pilgrims Lane, Sarah realised he had been telling the truth about the distance. Neither of them referred to it.

  “I met someone who knows you this morning,” Sarah said, as they walked towards the shop. “Harriet . . .” She couldn’t remember her surname. “A young nurse.”

  “Oh, aye – I know Harriet,” he said, nodding and smiling. “Lovely girl. She’s often in your place, great pals with your Miss Harrison. I can’t imagine what they have in common though.”

  Sarah thought about the conversation on medication she’d overheard, but she said nothing. She checked her watch when she reached the bookshop. “I’ve nearly ten minutes left. I might have a look for the book on crochet. I want to have a read up on it tonight.”

  “You’re keen,” he said. “I would have thought you’d be out and about or watching the telly.”

  “We don’t have a telly at the house – it’s a rented house.”

  He looked at her. “You could come out to our house and watch it any night. Me mam and dad like visitors, and they’d love to chat to you about Ireland. Me granny and granddad were from Dublin. Did I tell you that already?”

  “No . . .” She had mixed feelings now. She would have loved to meet people from Dublin, but she knew that accepting his invitation would be a mistake. “Thanks for the offer, but I won’t.” She looked beyond him to the shops on either side of the cobble lane. “I’ve got things to do.”

  “Like what? Surely you’re not going to be working in the evenings?”

  “I need to get the local papers and start looking for a sewing machine to have back at the house.”

  “Okay, maybe another time. The craft books are down at the back of the shop on the right-hand side.” He looked over at Harrison’s shop. “Hey, she’s got a new sign in your lovely clean window.”

  Sarah turned towards it now. There was a small, neatly written sign which said, Alterations. Please See Inside. Lucy must have made the sign while she was out, using the templates she had bought. She had also finished cleaning the other window and had put the colourful lining paper in it, to match the one Sarah had finished. She hadn’t put anything else, obviously waiting for her new employee to sort it.

  “I’ll definitely have to get the sewing machine now,” she said, beaming at him.

  A few minutes later as she was walking out of the shop with her wrapped book, David caught up with her again. “If you have time any night, and you fancy going to the pictures or something like that . . .”

  Sarah could feel he wasn’t going to give up easily.

  * * *

  The afternoon went by quicker than the morning. Sarah finished off the window display, using remnants of bright material pinned up on the board behind and posters displaying sewing patterns. Lucy actually went out to stand in the lane to get a proper look at it, and came back in and told her what an improvement it made.

  Three people came in enquiring about alterations, and all said they would be back with the garments the following day.

  “I don’t suppose you could make me a pair of curtains, just small ones like, for the kitchen?” another woman asked. “I can bring in the measurements tomorrow.”

  Sarah said “yes” to everything. When she mentioned buying a sewing machine, Lucy waved away the idea. “You can use the treadle one in the back-shop when we’re quiet, and I have an electric one at home that Mary used. It’s just gathering dust. I’ll drop it out to your house tonight.”

  One part of Sarah’s mind went to work on ideas for items to fill the window, while the other part wondered how on earth someone with no interest in handicrafts came to own a sewing business.

  “If it’s okay with you,” Sarah said, later in the afternoon when they were having a cup of tea, “I thought I might take some of the odd balls of wool and knit up a few scarves and maybe some gloves and socks for the window display? It’s getting colder now and it might get people thinking about making their own. I could also do a few teddy bears and knitted clothes for dolls, the kind of thing that will catch children’s eyes with Christmas coming up.”

  “You won’t have time to catch your breath with all these plans.”

  “I know I must sound like a maniac going on about work all the time, but I
need to keep busy or I’ll end up looking at four walls every night.”

  “You’re a young girl, you’ll make friends and you’ll want to go out.”

  Sarah lifted her eyebrows. “I’ve had enough of friends . . .”

  Lucy looked at her. “Was it very bad?”

  “It was one of my oldest friends.”

  Lucy bit her lip. “If you ever want to talk . . .”

  “Thanks, but I’ve wasted enough time on it. I’m here to make a fresh start.”

  “Don’t bottle things up, Sarah.” The shop-keeper’s voice was soft and low. “I’ve done that with things in my own life, and it’s not good.”

  Sarah smiled at her. “I’m grand. I’m lucky to have got this chance, and I’m not going to waste it fretting over the past. What’s done is done.”

  Chapter 13

  When the door was locked on Harrison’s shop, the two workers went their separate ways. Sarah went down towards the grocer’s shop at the bottom of the lane with a list of things she needed for the house. She also had a brown package with three balls of red wool, knitting needles and a pattern for gloves and scarves, so she could get started on things for the shop that night.

  There was a queue in the shop, and when it was her turn she went forward with her list. She read the first few items out quickly, and when the young girl behind the counter looked blankly at her, she remembered what Lucy Harrison had said. Before the girl had the chance to say anything, she repeated the items slowly and clearly.

  She came out laden with more shopping than she had planned, and regretted getting carried away with the greater range of items than she was used to.

  Lucy had loaned her a big shopping bag that was in the kitchen cupboard, and the lady in the shop had given her two brown-paper bags, one inside the other to reinforce it. She had bought potatoes, lamb chops, bacon and sausages, eggs and bread, butter and milk, plus basic toiletries like toothpaste, soap and shampoo. The shop surprisingly sold household items such as towels, so she bought two – a large and a small – to swap over with the two she had brought from home.

  She stood for a few minute outside the shop, juggling items from one bag to another as she didn’t want the paper bags to break, and she squeezed two of the balls of wool and the pattern into her handbag.

  As she walked past the cathedral, she put the heavy bag in her right hand down on the ground to bless herself. After she did so, she found herself turning in towards the open door. The cathedral was silent, with only two people kneeling in pews up near the front. Sarah put her bags on the wooden bench and knelt down on the padded kneeler. She blessed herself and then she took a few minutes to look around the Gothic building. The unusual stencilling work around the arches and windows caught her eye, then she studied the beautiful stained-glass windows and the decorative tiles around the walls and the window sills. Sarah thought the window above the altar depicting the Blessed Sacrament was particularly beautiful and it reminded her of one of the windows in the church in Tullamore.

  She prayed for her mother and father and her family and friends back home, and then, as she went to bless herself to go, she added another prayer that she would start to feel at home in Newcastle.

  When she turned the key in the door of the house, she was pleased when she heard Jane’s voice calling, “How was the first day?”

  A surge of relief rose inside her at the friendly welcome, and she called back, “Grand,” then kicked the door closed behind her and went along the hallway.

  The kitchen windows were steamed up from boiling water and hot fat. Jane and Elizabeth introduced her to Anna – one of the medical students.

  Anna was a large, well-made girl with a cheery face and a London accent. Like the other girls, she was dressed casually in jeans and a jumper. “I heard we had a nice, smart new lodger – pleased to meet you.” She held her hand out.

  Sarah dropped her shopping and shook the girl’s hand. “Are you sure it was me they were talking about?”

  “Well, just look at you – your nice smart suit and perfect hair. We’re always flapping around in the mornings, trying to find something clean to wear.”

  “Give her time,” Elizabeth laughed. “It’s her first week and she needs to make a good impression.”

  “I’m doing chips and eggs and beans,” Jane told her, “and I’ve enough for everyone. It’ll save you cooking. You’re probably tired going straight into work after all your travelling yesterday.”

  “That’s very good of you. But I’ll have it on one condition: if I can cook tomorrow’s meal. I bought a few lamb chops and I was going to do them with potatoes.”

  “Lovely,” Anna said. “Can you make that Wednesday.”

  “Fine.” Sarah looked at the other two girls. “I can get another couple of chops, if you’re brave enough to try my cooking.”

  “Thanks, but I’m on a late,” Jane said.

  Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “And so, unfortunately, am I.”

  “Vivienne is going home for a few days straight after work tomorrow,” Anna said, “but I’ll be more than happy to try your cooking,” She pointed behind her. “The girl that previously had your room used the end cupboard, so it’s empty if you want to put your shopping in it.”

  “Grand,” Sarah said, lifting the bags across to unpack them.

  “I love your Irish accent,” Anna said. “It’s different – it’s really nice.”

  Sarah turned back. “Do you think so? I’ve been worrying all day that people might not understand me.”

  Anna wrinkled her nose. “Why on earth would you worry? You speak perfectly clearly. I had more trouble understanding the Geordie accent when I came here than I have understanding you.”

  Sarah opened the cupboard and started putting her things away, thinking that things didn’t seem too strange here now. In ways they were a whole lot better. She could never remember Martina calling out to her in a friendly, welcoming manner when she returned from work. Not once. And even though her sister-in-law had been the stranger coming into Love’s home-place Sarah could not remember a meal being made for her with good heart. And when she had cooked for her brother and his wife, the food had been eaten in silence and no remarks passed on it.

  The only time Martina had been nice to her was when the news had come out about Con and Patricia Quinn. And James hadn’t been much better. He had driven her up for the boat to England with hardly a word of affection or care as to how she would get on in her new life. She would keep all that to the front of her mind. When things were hard, she would remind herself that total strangers had been kinder to her than her own family.

  * * *

  By the time Lucy Harrison arrived with the sewing machine, Sarah had knitted a child’s scarf with fringes and one glove. She was casting on the stitches for the second glove when the doorbell went. As she came down the staircase she could see her employer’s blue Austin car through the stained-glass panel above the door.

  “Here we are,” Lucy said, lifting the sewing-machine case into the hallway.

  Sarah thought she looked younger than before. She had her hair out loose and was wearing grey slacks with a grey cardigan and fine blue polo-neck sweater underneath. She looked less tense and worried too.

  “That’s very good of you,” Sarah told her, taking the heavy cream case from her. “I really appreciate you bringing it out to me.”

  “Are you getting settled in okay?”

  “Yes, the girls have all been very friendly, and my room is comfortable and warm.” She didn’t say how much warmer it was than her little room back in Tullamore. She paused. “Would you like to come up and see it?”

  “Yes. Why not?”

  They climbed the stairs and Sarah showed her into the room.

  “It’s not bad at all,” Lucy commented as she glanced around.

  “I’m going to make new curtains and a matching bedspread.”

  “Have you a table for the sewing machine?”

  Sarah raised her eyebrows. �
�I never thought. I suppose I’ll have to get one. It wouldn’t be fair on the others to use the table downstairs. I need one I can leave the machine on all the time.”

  “I have a spare small table,” Lucy said. She looked at her watch. “I can be back with it in ten minutes.”

  “There’s no rush,” Sarah said. “You’ve done enough tonight.”

  “Would you like to come on a run out to the house with me? It would give you a chance to see more of the city.”

  “Yes, I would,” Sarah said.

  She went over to the hook on the back of the door and lifted her suit jacket. As they walked downstairs and out to the car, Sarah looked down at herself and thought that she looked formal, and maybe a bit old-fashioned, compared to the other girls – and even Lucy. She decided that she would buy some slacks or jean to wear at home, and a pair of boots. It was bound to get colder over the next few weeks and a blouse and skirt wouldn’t be warm enough.

  They drove down onto the main street, then a short while later passed Clayton Street which was the turn for the shop, and then down past the station. Lucy then turned up Grainger Street and then they came up to Haymarket where the bus station was. They passed the Royal Infirmary – where Elizabeth and Jane were nursing – and finally Lucy pulled up outside a row of tall redbrick houses.

  “This is it,” she said.

  “Do you walk to work from here every morning?” Sarah asked.

  “Occasionally I go by car, but most of the time it’s not worth it. It only takes me about ten minutes walking. It’s about the same distance as your place, but on the opposite side of the city centre.”

  “Have you always lived here?” Sarah asked, looking up at the building.

  “It was my parents’ house, and I’ve lived in it on and off in the last twenty years, but when I was young I used to spend a lot of time in London. My mother was from London and she chose a school down there for me. I boarded during the week and went to my grandparents’ house in Richmond at the weekends.” She opened the car door and got out. “My mother used to travel down regularly to see both me and my grandparents. It’s my father’s side of the family who are related to Miss Reynolds – they are cousins.”