The Fleethaven Trilogy

by Margaret Dickinson

  ‘Mam, dun’t lift me legs. It feels funny. Dun’t lift me legs.’

  ‘Katie love, I’m not touching your legs,’ came her mother’s voice as if from a great distance, and she heard her stepfather’s gentle voice too. ‘It’s the fever, Esther. She delirious. Bathe her forehead again.’

  Then Kate felt the cool dampness on her forehead and the throbbing eased a little. ‘Me shell – she’s got me shell. She wouldn’t give it back . . .’ she murmured.

  She awoke once to see Dr Blair’s kindly face bending over her as he gently spooned liquid between her lips. ‘There, there, my dear. We’ll soon have you up and running about again . . .’

  She heard him speaking to her mother in his deep voice. ‘She’ll be fine, Esther, really. It’s clear the child hasn’t been eating properly and she’s exhausted. She obviously got very chilled trying to get home, but there’s no real harm done. All she needs is a few days in bed. She’ll feel a little weak when she first gets up, but with Fleethaven’s good fresh air and your good food . . .’

  Then her mother’s voice. ‘Thank goodness. I – I thought she’d got pneumonia.’

  ‘No – nothing like that, I assure you, but Kate’s been very distressed about something, Esther.’

  ‘Yes – and as soon as she’s better, I mean to find out exactly what’s been going on.’

  Another time Kate opened her eyes to see Rosie standing beside her bed clutching a posy of wild flowers. The child’s face was unusually solemn, and her voice was only a whisper. ‘Katie, I’ve brought you some flowers – to make you better. Do get better, Katie.’

  ‘Danny? Where’s Danny?’ Kate croaked. ‘Why hasn’t he been to see me?’

  The child hopped from one foot to the other. ‘He – he wanted to come – but he wasn’t sure . . .’

  ‘Tell him I want to see him.’

  Kate closed her eyes again. When next she opened them, Rosie had gone and her mother was once again sitting beside her bed holding her hand. Every time Kate awoke, her mother was there.

  After a couple of days sleeping most of the time, Kate, although still weak, began to feel better. It was her mother who had dark shadows beneath her eyes now.

  ‘Oh Katie,’ she said, putting her arms about her daughter and holding her close. ‘You had us all frightened. Kate, listen to me a minute. When you were rambling, you said something about me loving Lilian more than you.’

  Kate buried her face against her mother’s shoulder. ‘I dun’t remember.’

  Her mother stroked the short cropped hair and murmured, ‘They say ya speak the truth when you’re in that sort of state. But that was not the reason I wanted you to go away to school. I love you dearly. I would never love one of me children more than the other. But a baby takes up a lot of time and attention and I can see it must ’ave felt like that for you, specially because ya’d been the only one for so long.’

  When the girl did not answer, Esther said, ‘Do you understand, Katie?’

  Against her mother’s shoulder she nodded, then drew back and looked into her face. ‘Then why did you send me away?’

  Esther Godfrey sighed heavily. ‘Oh, Katie, there are things you dun’t understand . . .’

  ‘Then tell me.’

  Her mother avoided Kate’s direct gaze and unusually for her she stumbled over her words. ‘I was worried – you see you’re getting older now – and there are so many dangers for a young girl – a young woman almost . . .’

  ‘Mam, just tell me.’

  ‘I – I was afraid you were getting too close – too involved with – with the boys at the Point.’

  ‘You mean Danny, don’t you?’

  ‘Well – yes. He’s a young man now and – and young men start to – well – want things from girls.’

  Softly Kate said, ‘Danny wouldn’t hurt me, Mam,’ and then added with a little of her old spark, “Sides, if he tried anything, he’d soon get a kick right where it hurts!’

  Kate saw Esther’s mouth twitch with laughter, despite the anxiety clouding her eyes. Then her face sobered again. ‘Kate, I want you to give me your solemn promise that you will never, ever, let Danny . . . touch you.’ Knowing just what a promise meant to her mother, that they were never given lightly, Kate hesitated. ‘Why, Mam?’ she pressed.

  ‘He – he’s not for you, Kate, not in that way. Friends, yes, but there – there can’t be anything else.’

  ‘Oh Mam, surely you don’t think I’m stupid enough to let anybody – including Danny – touch me before I’m wed. You’ve drilled that into me ever since – well, as long as I can remember.’

  Kate watched her mother’s face, saw conflicting emotions crossing it, as if there was a fight going on inside her head. ‘What is it, Mam?’

  ‘Nothing – nothing. It’ll be all right, if ya’ll promise me that.’

  Kate sensed it wasn’t ‘nothing’. There was something her mother wasn’t telling her. But there was nothing the young girl could do to prise whatever it was out of her mother. Instead she said airily, ‘Oh yes, I can promise you that much, Mam.’

  For the moment her pledge seemed to satisfy her mother.

  What Kate did not voice, and what she had only just realized herself as a result of this conversation with her mother, was a silent vow she made to herself.

  One day I’ll marry Danny Eland.

  It seemed that having gained Kate’s promise, her mother’s fears regarding Danny were allayed. The very next day Kate heard her voice calling from the bottom of the stairs, ‘Kate, Kate you’ve got a visitor. Up you go.’

  She heard footsteps on the stairs and even before the door of her bedroom was pushed wider, she knew it was Danny.

  He stood in the doorway, grinning at her, his dark hair tousled, his skin weathered brown and glowing with health. Then she saw the smile fade. ‘Oh, Kate – ya pretty hair,’ he sympathized, moving into the room and coming to perch on the end of her bed. ‘Did ya mam have to cut it off because of the fever?’

  Kate shook her head. The nightmare was back; the scissors, the strong arms and her face pressed against Miss Denham’s corseted bosom.

  ‘I – I dun’t want to talk about it . . .’

  His grin was back. Comfortingly he said, ‘Well, it’ll grow again. ‘Sides, it’s lovely and curly when it’s short, in’t it?’

  ‘You’re just saying that to cheer me up.’ But she too was grinning now. Then the smile wobbled a little. ‘Danny – when I ran away from the school, I left the whelk shell you gave me.’

  ‘Dun’t worry about that – plenty more on the beach. I’ll bring you another.’

  ‘But that was special,’ she murmured, leaning back against the pillows, ‘it was the biggest you’d ever found – and I’ve lost it.’ Because she was still weak, easy tears filled her eyes.

  ‘Dun’t bother ya’sen,’ Danny said. ‘I’ll keep looking till I find another just as big. Hurry up and get better, then we can look together, eh?’

  Suddenly, the boarding school was all a horrible nightmare. She was back home and all the days of the rest of her life stretched ahead – with Danny.

  Soon Kate was allowed downstairs and with each day she grew stronger. Then came the morning her mother appeared dressed in her best costume with a smart hat perched on the top of her hair.

  ‘I’m off to Lincoln today, Kate, to give that Miss Denham a piece of my mind.’

  ‘Oh, Mam, do – do you think you ought?’ Kate quailed at the very thought of her mother standing toe to toe with the enormous, overpowering figure of Miss Denham.

  Her mother was smiling down at her, but her green eyes were flashing defiance. She touched Kate’s cheek gently with her fingertips. ‘Dun’t you worry, my love. I’ve never been frightened of anyone in me life – I ain’t likely to start now.’

  But Kate was in a state of agitation all day. Her poor stepfather spent the whole time trying to pacify the baby and calm Kate. ‘You needn’t worry about your mother,’ he told her, his lop-sided grin cri
nkling his eyes. ‘She’s a match for anyone.’

  ‘You don’t know Miss Denham,’ Kate muttered, and her insides quivered at the mere thought of the woman.

  ‘I know what might help,’ her stepfather said suddenly. He was obviously trying to think of something he could do to take Kate’s mind off her mother’s trip. He left the kitchen and went through into the living room. Mystified, Kate followed and stood watching as he opened the front of his bureau. He searched beneath a pile of papers.

  ‘I really must get down to filling in these forms about this year’s crops for your mother. She hates anything to do with officialdom.’ He glanced back over his shoulder, winked at Kate and then continued his search. ‘Ah,’ he said triumphantly, pulling two sheets of writing paper from the heap. ‘Here it is! Right, let’s go back into the kitchen where it’s warmer. I want you to read this letter.’

  Back in the kitchen, he told Kate to sit in his chair by the fire and handed her the letter. ‘It’s from my mother,’ Jonathan told her. ‘We received it whilst you were so poorly, but I always intended you should read it when you were stronger.’

  Kate unfolded the pages and began to read. The letter was written in a bold flourishing hand and was dated the day of her visit to their home.

  My dear Jonathan, Kate came to see us today and the poor child is in a dreadful state! She looks thin and pale – nothing like the healthy child we first met at little Lilian’s christening. She is obviously very unhappy at that school and if what she told us is true – and I can hardly believe a young girl of her age could make up such tales – then you and Esther should remove her from there at once.

  We felt we should not interfere directly, but your father did hear some very disquieting news only last week, funnily enough. We didn’t say anything in front of young Kate, but we certainly think you and Esther should think things over very carefully. It seems this Miss Denham has only been there for a term. Miss Peterson, the previous Principal – a lovely woman – was taken ill very suddenly and sadly died. The appointment of Miss Denham seems to have been made with unseemly haste and – to my mind – with disastrous results! Already three parents have removed their girls from the school.

  Kate raised her head and met her stepfather’s eyes. He nodded as if in answer to her unspoken question. ‘Of course, you were already home by the time we got this letter. In fact, you were home before the telegram arrived.’

  ‘Telegram?’ This was the first Kate had heard about a telegram.

  Jonathan sat down in front of her and took her hands in his. Leaning forward he said, gently, ‘You were very wrong to run away, you know, Katie. You worried my mother and father – and Peg – very much.’

  ‘How – how did they know?’

  ‘Miss Ogden went to see them that Sunday evening, just after my mother must have written and posted this letter to us. Miss Ogden thought you might have gone there. The school knew their name and address because you’d been allowed to visit their home. They had the police looking for you all over Lincoln throughout the night.’

  ‘The – the police?’ Kate felt herself growing red with shame. ‘Oh, Dad, I’m sorry. I – I didn’t think they’d bother to look for me.’

  ‘Why didn’t you write to us, Katie, and tell us what was going on?’

  She hung her head, but now there was no long hair to hide behind. ‘I didn’t think me mam would believe me.’

  ‘We’d have come to see you,’ he said softly. ‘We both know you would never tell lies. We’d have seen for ourselves,’ his glance flickered towards her shorn hair, ‘how you were being treated. As for whatever else happened, well, if you ever want to tell us . . .’

  Kate shook her head. ‘I dun’t want to talk about it. Mebbe some time, but not now.’

  ‘I understand,’ he said gently.

  ‘I am sorry, Dad.’ She looked up at him again, tears brimming her eyes.

  He smiled at her and ruffled her short hair. ‘We’ll say no more about it. You’re safely home now and that’s all that matters.’

  At that moment the baby began to whimper and the whimpers became louder until she was squealing. Jonathan cast a comical look at Kate and went to the cradle to pick Lilian up. Putting her against his shoulder, he patted her back. The baby gave a loud burp and the squealing subsided, but only to a continuous grizzle.

  Jonathan nuzzled Lilian’s downy head, ‘Who’s Daddy’s pretty little girl, then?’ he murmured, but Kate’s sharp hearing caught his words and she felt the familiar shaft of jealousy. Jonathan glanced at her and Kate dropped her gaze, afraid that he might read in her eyes the feelings she tried hard, yet failed, to quell.

  Jonathan’s deep voice came softly. ‘I hope she grows up to be like you, Kate. You were a lovely little girl when I first met you. Not that you’re not now, of course!’

  Kate felt a warm glow spread through her and she raised her face again, the fleeting resentment banished by his affectionate words. ‘How old was I?’

  ‘Let me see, you’d be about four. A bright little thing you were, always laughing and chattering. Much the same as you are now – at least, as you were before you went to that wretched school,’ he admitted regretfully.

  Kate frowned, puzzled. ‘But me dad, me—’ She stopped, changing the words carefully, conscious of the hurt she might inflict upon her beloved stepfather. ‘Me other dad – was here then, wasn’t he?’

  ‘He was away at the war. I came to Fleethaven Point to see Grannie Harris when I was on sick leave. Let’s think, nineteen-sixteen, it would be. I’d been with her eldest son, Ernie, when he was killed in France and he’d told me all about his home and his family. And about “the Missus at Brumbys’ Farm”. That’s what he called your mother.’

  ‘So you came to see them?’ Kate watched the expression on her stepfather’s face sober. His eyes took on a faraway look and there was pain in their depths.

  ‘I came to try to bring the Harrises what comfort I could. And then – I stayed for a while. But of course I had to go back eventually. After the war, your father came back. He was very . . . ill, at first.’

  ‘I can just remember him,’ Kate said softly. So that was what Danny had meant when he had said Jonathan Godfrey had ‘come back’ after her father had drowned. But it was all still a little hazy. She didn’t quite understand what had happened.

  ‘Did you and me mam . . .?’

  At that moment the back door was flung open and her mother called, ‘I’m back.’ Then she was in the kitchen and the moment for Kate to share further confidences with her stepfather was lost.

  He had been quite right; Kate need not have worried. Her mother returned triumphant.

  ‘Ya didn’t say that to her, Mam, did ya?’ Kate hugged her knees to her chest in delight, imagining the scene as her mother recounted the interview between herself and Miss Denham. Esther Godfrey’s eyes still sparkled with the light of battle as she stood, hands on hips, smiling at her daughter. ‘Indeed I did, Katie. I told her she was an old beezum!’

  ‘What did she say?’ Kate’s question was high-pitched with excitement, while Jonathan smiled indulgently at his wife, ferocious in the defence of her young.

  Esther’s grin widened and her eyes twinkled merrily. ‘She said she could see where you got your rebellious streak from, and I said, “Well if there’s many folk like you in the world, she’s going to need it!”’ Her expression softened and she ruffled Kate’s short hair. ‘I’m glad you’ve got a bit of my spirit, lass, even if it does mean we clash now and then.’

  ‘Did ya get all me things back? All me clothes I left?’

  Esther nodded. ‘I left the trunk at the station, though.’

  ‘I’ll pick it up tomorrow,’ Jonathan promised.

  ‘Oh.’ Kate knew there was disappointment showing on her face.

  ‘What is it, love?’ her mother prompted.

  Kate glanced from one to the other. ‘Well, just before I left, three of the girls, they’d got summat of mine and – and they woul
dn’t give it back . . .’

  ‘Do you mean this?’ From her coat pocket, Esther drew out the huge whelk shell.

  Kate drew in her breath sharply and, tears glistening in her eyes, she reached out with trembling fingers to take the shell once more into her hands. ‘Oh, Mam, thank you. Thank you. Yes, yes, that’s it. The whelk shell Danny gave me. Oh, thank goodness you found it. Was it amongst me things?’

  ‘You were rambling about a shell when you were ill and when Danny—’ Kate saw her mother glance swiftly at Jonathan and then away again. ‘When Danny came to visit you, he told me all about it. I realized it was . . . important to you.’ Her mother’s voice dropped and she gave the faintest of sighs.

  There was a pause and Kate prompted, ‘And?’

  Esther was smiling again, ‘When I was taken up to the dormitory to pack your things up, I searched especially for the shell. It wasn’t there. So,’ Esther continued, enjoying the retelling of her tale, ‘I demanded that it be found.’

  ‘Oh Mam, you didn’t!’ Kate squeaked, but she was laughing with joy at the scene her mother was painting.

  ‘I did,’ Esther said firmly, and once more her eyes were sparkling. ‘I waited until every girl in your dormitory was fetched from class and made to go through her belongings. And,’ she finished triumphantly, ‘it was found in the chest of drawers belonging to Isobel Cartwright.’

  Kate was not surprised and said so. ‘She was one of the three girls who were so horrid.’

  ‘You can forget all about that dreadful place, Katie love, and all the people in it. You won’t ever have to see any of them again,’ her mother said. ‘You’re safe home with us now. And I – I won’t send you away again.’

  Kate bounced up from the chair and hugged her mother. Esther’s arms came tightly around her. Everything was all right – her mother really did love her.

  And yes, she was safely home; with her mother, her stepfather – and Danny.

  Twelve

  ‘Mam – I must go and look at the sea, I Just must!’

  ‘Well – all right then. But no paddling, mind. I know you, Kate Hilton. Get a bit of winter sunshine and ya reckon ya can act like it’s midsummer!’