The River Folk

by Margaret Dickinson

  ‘No,’ Mary Ann shook her head firmly. ‘No. He’s going to marry me. I know he is.’

  That evening when Dan stepped over the threshold, his mother’s tirade hit him with a force that was almost a physical blow. From the bedroom, Mary Ann heard the raised voices and crept downstairs to listen.

  ‘Whatever are you thinking of, Dan Ruddick? I’m surprised at you. Leading the poor girl on after all she’s been through. First, that rotten home life she had as a bairn and then that bastard at The Hall and his philandering ways, taking advantage of a young and vulnerable lass. But you! I’d have thought you’d have had a bit more sense.’

  ‘Hold on, Ma, hold on.’ Mary Ann heard his deep voice and could imagine him holding out his hands, palms outward, to fend off his mother’s onslaught. ‘What are you on about?’

  ‘You! That’s what I’m on about. Leading that little lass on to believe you’re going to marry her. How could you?’

  ‘Marry her?’ Dan sounded surprised, as if the thought had not even occurred to him.

  ‘That’s what she said, but how she’s got that idea into her head, I don’t know, unless you’ve put it there.’

  There was a moment’s silence whilst Mary Ann held her breath before she heard Dan say again, ‘Marry her.’

  Now the words were spoken softly, as if he was rolling the idea around in his mind, pondering, even savouring, the notion.

  ‘Well,’ Mary Ann heard him say at last. ‘Why not? Why shouldn’t I marry her, Ma?’

  Twenty-Nine

  The wrangling within the Ruddick household went on for days. Whilst, in the main, the argument occurred when she was out of the room, Mary Ann was usually somewhere in the cramped house and could scarcely fail to overhear most of what was said.

  ‘You’re not serious, our Dan,’ Bessie persisted. ‘I don’t want you hurting her. She’s had enough broken promises to last her a lifetime. Tell her the truth now, lad, before it’s gone too far. Tell her that she misunderstood you. That you were just feeling sorry for her because she was so upset. She’ll understand. But tell her now, Dan.’

  ‘I’m telling her no such thing, Mam. Besides, she needs someone like me to take care of her.’

  ‘What about Susan, lad?’ Bert asked in his quiet and thoughtful way when he was being serious.

  ‘Oh, she’ll be all right.’ There was an unusual trace of bitterness in Dan’s tone as he said, ‘She’ll always have her father to take care of her.’ Gently, now, he asked them, ‘But who’s going to take care of little Mary Ann?’ Then his voice hardened as he added, ‘The likes of Randolph Marsh?’

  To this, his family had no answer.

  Bert shook his head sadly, ‘You’ll likely lose your job with old man Price if you jilt his one and only daughter. Besides, you’ve waited months, years almost, to get her back after that bit of trouble.’

  ‘It was she who came back to me, if you remember, Dad. And to be honest, if Susan had thought that much about me, she’d have stood by me at the time it all happened, never mind what her father said.’

  ‘Oh, now you’re being unfair, Dan,’ Bessie said.

  At this moment Mary Ann stepped into the room and went straight to stand by Dan.

  Keeping his voice low and his anger in check, although Mary Ann could see that his eyes were sparkling with defiance, Dan said levelly, ‘No, I don’t think I am, Mam. Susan knew very well that her dad was being unjust, that I had nowt to do with Sid Clark being aboard our ship.’

  ‘You can’t expect a lass like her to go against her father, though.’

  Now Mary Ann, putting her hand on Dan’s arm, spoke up. ‘I would have done. I’d have run away with Dan sooner than do what me dad told me.’

  Bessie and Bert glanced at her, looked at each other and then away.

  ‘Aye well,’ Bessie murmured. ‘’Appen you would, lass. But in your case, no one would have thought any the worse of you. But . . .’ Bessie bit her lip, hesitating to hurt this young girl, whom she loved like one of her own, any more than she had been wounded already. But it had to be said and Bessie Ruddick had never been one to shirk saying what needed to be voiced. Gently, she added, ‘But you do see, don’t you, that Susan comes from – well – a loving, caring home. Her father was bound to be cautious for her, and though I could have hit him mesen for not believing in our Dan, even I could see how Jack Price must have felt. D’you see?’

  Mary Ann shook her head. ‘No. If Dan loves me and he doesn’t love Susan, then what’s the problem?’

  ‘The problem,’ Duggie, for once very serious, put in, ‘is that Dan will be without a job. And Price will see to it that he doesn’t get another round here.’ Then his impish sense of fun got the better of him, even in the midst of all the wrangling. ‘I think you’d do a lot better to marry me, Mary Ann, than this old sobersides, anyway.’ He leant across and tweaked her nose playfully. ‘What do you say?’

  Coyly, Mary Ann put her head on one side. ‘Why, thank you, kind sir. But I must decline your offer. I am already spoken for.’

  Dan, covering her hand where it lay upon his arm, smiled down at her. ‘There, it’s settled then. We’ll be married as soon as you’re sixteen.’

  And they were. There was nothing Bessie or Bert or his two brothers could do to dissuade Dan from his decision. Even Susan, visiting Waterman’s Yard, her eyes red-rimmed from weeping, could not break his resolve.

  Mary Ann, listening outside the door into the kitchen, overheard her pleading with him.

  ‘My father says he will give you your own ship. You can be a skipper, Dan.’

  ‘That’s bribery, Susan,’ Dan said harshly, his tone implying how shocked he was that Susan should resort to emotional blackmail.

  ‘It’s not,’ Susan cried. ‘If you were his son-in-law, there’s nothing my father wouldn’t do for you. He just wants me to be happy.’

  ‘It’s not so long back that he wouldn’t have had me as a son-in-law if I’d been the last man on earth.’

  ‘You can’t blame him for that. He was only trying to protect me.’

  Mary Ann heard Dan’s deep sigh. ‘I know and I don’t blame him. Not really. Not any more.’

  ‘So why? Why are you marrying this girl? Everyone knows she’s been Randolph Marsh’s latest . . .’ She hesitated before adding scathingly, ‘Piece.’

  ‘Susan . . .’

  ‘Well, it’s true. She’s no better than she should be. Why are you marrying her? Because I know you don’t love her. Is she expecting his child? Is that it?’

  ‘No, she isn’t,’ Dan said sharply.

  ‘Are you sure?’ Susan asked quietly, almost pityingly as if she believed Dan was being duped by Mary Ann’s wiles.

  Grudgingly, as if feeling disloyal in having to offer proof, Dan said, ‘I am sure because me mother told me she wasn’t. I don’t think she’s even – well, you know – been with him.’

  Susan gave a humourless laugh. ‘If you believe that, Dan Ruddick, you’re even more gullible than I thought you were.’

  ‘Susan, please, try to understand. I have to take care of her. She needs someone to love her and look after her.’

  ‘And you’re the only poor fool around to do it, are you, Dan?’ Susan’s tone was filled with sadness now as she said, ‘If there’s nothing more I can say to you, I’ll go.’ Her voice softened as she added, ‘I wish you well, Dan. I hope you will be happy. I mean that, because I love you and I always will. You might not believe that it grieves me to say it, but I think she will only bring you unhappiness, my dear.’

  Susan must have turned away from him, for the kitchen door opened so suddenly that Mary Ann was caught eavesdropping. Susan’s eyes narrowed as she looked into Mary Ann’s startled eyes. Then she leant closer and whispered so that Dan, still in the other room, would not hear. ‘Just you look after him, Mary Ann Clark, else you’ll have me to reckon with. You hear me?’

  Then before Mary Ann could think of a sharp retort, Susan was gone, running across the yard, her han
d to her face as if she could no longer hold back the tears.

  Mary Ann watched her go.

  Who would have thought that quiet little Susan Price would have had quite so much spirit? For a brief moment, even Mary Ann admired her.

  Once the news got out, of course, the other residents of Waterman’s Yard had their say too. Battle lines were drawn with Bessie, now defending her son to outsiders, and Minnie Eccleshall on one side. Opposing them were Gladys and Phyllis. But most vociferous of all was Amy Hamilton.

  Monday morning brought them all into the yard’s communal wash-house, face to face. And from Dan’s bedroom window where she was sleeping now, Mary Ann heard it all.

  ‘What’s it got to do with you anyway, I’d like to know?’ Bessie said, declaring war.

  ‘Can’t abide to see a good man go to waste on a little trollop like that,’ Amy said primly. ‘We all know what she’s been up to with him.’ She jerked her thumb in the direction of The Hall.

  ‘She’s not in the family way, if that’s what you’re thinking. She’s not having to get married.’ Bessie picked up her washing basket and turned to go indoors before her sharp tongue could say more.

  ‘You bitch, Bessie Ruddick,’ Amy muttered, her face fiery red.

  ‘Here, here, there’s no need for that sort of talk,’ Minnie sprang at once to Bessie’s defence. ‘She only said—’

  ‘I know what she said,’ Amy spat. ‘She’s got a long memory and an even longer knife. And she knows how to wound with it, an’ all.’ Amy turned and stormed towards her own back door.

  Inside the Ruddicks’ house, Mary Ann ran down the stairs as Bessie came in.

  ‘What was all that about?’ she asked.

  ‘Something and nothing,’ Bessie said. ‘Get the kettle on. I could do with a cuppa after that.’

  Mary Ann busied herself and they were sitting at the table pouring out the tea when Minnie poked her head round the door. ‘Any left in the pot?’

  ‘Come on in, then.’ Bessie sighed and rested her arms on the table.

  Minnie sat down. ‘You going to tell us then?’

  ‘I don’t know if I should,’ Bessie murmured. ‘Doesn’t seem fair. ’Specially now.’

  ‘Oh, go on, Bess. You know I can keep a secret. I’m not like Phyllis. And Mary Ann here, well, she’ll not say owt, will you, lass?’

  Mary Ann, having witnessed Minnie defending her alongside Bessie, smiled. ‘’Course not, Mrs Eccleshall.’

  Bessie sighed. ‘It’s a long time ago. Me and Bert had been married nearly two years and I was expecting our Dan when the Hamiltons came to live in the yard. George had got a job at Phillips’ Engineering and they’d moved here from Lincoln. Their little boy, Ron, was about eighteen months old, I think.’ Bessie paused a moment and smiled sadly, remembering the golden-haired little boy learning to walk on the uneven cobbles of Waterman’s Yard. ‘But living in the yard then was old Mrs Jaggers and she was the biggest gossip I have ever met in me life.’

  ‘What? Worse than Phyllis?’ Minnie asked incredulously.

  ‘Oh, ten times worse than her. Anyway, only a few weeks after the Hamiltons moved in, Mrs Jaggers was spreading it around that they’d had to get married. That Amy was six months gone when she walked down the aisle.’

  ‘How had she found that out?’

  Bessie shrugged. ‘How does Phyllis find things out? They know someone, who knows someone, who knows.’

  Minnie was thoughtful for a moment before she said, ‘I’d never have thought it of Amy, though, of all people. She’s always seemed so prim and proper.’

  ‘It can happen to the best of us,’ Bessie said, and then she winked at the other two like a guilty conspirator. ‘I have to admit, even I was lucky not to get caught ’afore Bert put the ring on me finger.’

  The two women laughed together and Mary Ann joined in, though her laughter was with relief, realizing now, even more than before, just how lucky she had been that she was not at this moment carrying Randolph Marsh’s bastard.

  Thirty

  ‘So what are you going to do now that you’re married?’

  Once all the legalities, because of Mary Ann’s age, had been satisfied, they were married quietly in the parish church. The only witnesses present were the Ruddick family members and Minnie and Stan Eccleshall.

  Once back in Waterman’s Yard for the ‘reception’, for which Bessie had spent the whole of the previous day baking, she asked the question and went on, ‘It’s high time you were making some decisions. All I’ve heard so far is a lot of talk. But you know you can both stay here, Dan, in your room, if that’s what you want?’

  Dan smiled at his mother. ‘I know, I know. You’d like to keep all your chicks under your roof, wouldn’t you, Ma?’

  ‘She can’t wait to be a grandma,’ Duggie teased. ‘That’s what it is. So you’d best get up them stairs, our Dan, and get cracking.’

  Everyone laughed, though Mary Ann lowered her head, pretending to be shy at the mention of their wedding night. In truth, she was rather nervous at the thought of what would happen when she and Dan climbed into bed together. Not because she was ignorant, for she knew all too well what to expect. But Mary Ann was desperate to deceive Dan into thinking that for her it was the first time. She thought back to the night Randolph had first made love to her. To her chagrin, she felt the familiar thrill run through her when she remembered his touch and his seductive words.

  No, no, she must not think of him. She must think only of Dan now.

  Thoughtful as ever, Dan was drawing the conversation away from such delicate matters, though Mary Ann hoped fervently that he did not even begin to guess at the real cause of her blushes. That night, she knew, she would have to be a very good actress.

  ‘I shall have to start looking for a job tomorrow.’ He glanced apologetically at his new wife. ‘I’m afraid a honeymoon is out for us at the moment, love.’

  Mary Ann slipped her hand into his and squeezed it. ‘I don’t mind. As long as we’re together.’

  Duggie made a sound as if he was going to be sick, which earned him a gentle clout from his mother. ‘Don’t you mock it, son,’ she laughed. ‘You’d do better to find yasen a nice girl.’

  Duggie put his hands over his heart and threw back his head dramatically. ‘But my heart is broken, Mam. Dan has stolen the only girl I’ve ever loved.’

  The whole family laughed and Duggie’s grin was the widest of all. ‘There’s one good thing about it, though,’ he said. ‘She’s really our sister now, isn’t she?’

  Mary Ann felt a warm glow run through her, and inside her head she repeated the vows she had so recently spoken in the church. She would be a good wife to Dan. Lovingly, she smiled up at him and he reached out and touched her face gently with the tips of his fingers.

  ‘Aye,’ Bessie was saying. ‘And we’ve got a daughter, ’aven’t we, Bert?’

  ‘Yes, light of my life, we have.’ He beamed across at the couple, but then his smile faded a little as he added, ‘But you’re right, Dan. You should start looking straight away for a job. I’ve asked around for you already, but everyone is so frightened of Price’s hold on this stretch of the river, you might have to go further afield.’

  The interview with Mr Price a week earlier, Dan had told them all, had been short but nasty. ‘He’s a vindictive old devil, but I have to hand it to Susan that she hadn’t told him before now.’

  That had surprised Bessie. ‘That day she came here, I thought she’d run straight home and tell him. I thought you were for the sack then, lad.’ Bessie had glanced at her son and then away again. She had said no more, but her look had said, ‘Susan must still care for you if she has kept it hidden from her father all this time.’

  Understanding, Dan had nodded. ‘I feel guilty enough about it, without her old man having a go at me.’

  ‘You’ve no reason to feel guilty,’ Mary Ann had said. ‘It’s no good marrying her if you don’t love her. You love me now, don’t you?’

&nbs
p; ‘Yes, yes. Of course I do.’

  ‘And it’s not as if you were engaged to her or anything, is it?’

  That had prompted a wry grimace from Dan. ‘Good job I wasn’t. Do you know what he said to me? If we’d been officially engaged, he’d have had me up in court for breach of promise. Can you imagine that?’

  Bessie had nodded. ‘Aye, with Jack Price I can believe anything.’ She had looked, then, at her husband. ‘What about you, Bert? Is your job safe?’

  Bert had wrinkled his brow. ‘I reckon. We go back a long way, Jack and me.’ Bert tapped the side of his nose and winked at his wife. ‘There’s things I know about Jack Price that perhaps he wouldn’t like aired in public. I reckon he’ll let me alone.’

  ‘Couldn’t you make him give Dan his job back, then?’ Mary Ann asked. ‘Couldn’t you sort of threaten him?’

  Bessie had answered swiftly for her husband. ‘It’s not in Bert’s nature to do things like that.’

  ‘I think it’d be best,’ Bert said quietly, ‘for you to make a clean break, Dan. It’d only make things very awkward for you if you were to stay on with him, now wouldn’t it?’

  ‘Yes,’ Dan was forced to agree. ‘Yes, you’re right, Dad.’

  Mary Ann continued to help Miss Edwina at the school, both in teaching embroidery and helping out generally. They had been married for two months and Dan had still not been able to find work.

  ‘I know how difficult things must be for you, Mary Ann,’ Edwina said, ‘so there’ll be a little extra in your pay packet each week until Dan has found another job.’

  ‘Oh thank you, miss. You are kind.’ Mary Ann paused and then added, ‘You heard then?’

  Edwina smiled. ‘Not much remains a secret in this town, not even from the so-called gentry.’ She pulled a wry face against herself. ‘But seriously, how is Dan’s search for work progressing?’