The Traveller's Daughter

by Michelle Vernal

  She filled the tin with the prettily patterned papers she’d bought, and Jonny began to spoon the mixture in. “Oops, that’s a bit too much,” Kitty said picking up a teaspoon and scraping some out. “Just fill them to about three quarters.”

  “Uh-huh so how long will they take to cook?”

  “Depending on how hot your oven is around ten to fifteen minutes. I bought vanilla flavoured icing sugar to sprinkle over the tops of them, so we don’t have to hang around waiting for them to cool before I ice them.”

  He looked disappointed at hearing she wasn’t going to ice them as such, and she felt sorry she hadn’t bought a piping bag. She would have liked to have seen his face were she to pile the little cakes high with swirls of her secret vanilla buttercream icing. She was imagining his awe were she to demonstrate the full extent of her prowess in the cake icing department. Feeling his eyes upon her she realised he was looking at her with a smile playing at the corners of his mouth again. “You were miles away, what were you thinking about?”

  She blinked feeling a flush spread up her neck. “Um oh nothing. Are they ready to go in?” She needed to stop acting like a schoolgirl with a crush.

  He nodded, and she picked up the tin sliding it into the oven before setting the timer for ten minutes. When she turned back to the bench she caught Jonny licking the spoon, and laughed. “That was always my favourite part, I bags the bowl.”

  ***

  “I think you got it all.” Jonny indicated the bowl she’d wiped clean with her index finger. The taste of the batter, when she'd popped her finger into her mouth, had conjured up the memory of those happy times spent baking with her mother the way it always did. Jonny had filled the sink with hot soapy water to begin washing up. She passed the bowl to him and had to stop herself from reaching up and brushing the smudge of flour from his cheek.

  “What are you going to do with this stuff, take it home?”

  “No, you keep it. You never know next time you’re feeling wound up about something you might decide to do a spot of baking.” She nearly added, or your girlfriend might feel like making you a cake sometimes but stopped herself, it was none of her business. She cast a sideways glance at the living area. Maybe they were only dating casually there was not so much as a hint of a feminine presence other than her own having ever stepped foot over the threshold.

  “You never know. I reckon I could just about manage to make another batch of that one day.” He said, and their eyes locked as they exchanged a smile.

  Kitty checked on the cakes and saw they were rising nicely before going to sit down on the couch while they browned off.

  “There’s something about the smell alright.” Jonny said sitting down next to her and she wished he hadn’t sat quite so close to her. “It makes a place feel like home knowing there’s something nice being cooked in the oven, and this is the first time this place has felt like that.”

  “It does have a rather temporary feel about it.” The words popped out of her mouth and, she hoped he didn’t take them the wrong way. “Not that it isn’t nice or anything.”

  He shrugged. “It’s got a roof, walls, and a bed to sleep in. I get itchy feet, and Tess and I have to keep moving on. It’s in me.”

  Tess! Kitty felt a spike of jealousy. They must be serious then she surmised, guessing she was a Traveller girl.

  “That’s why I went into the building trade; I love it, but it also means I can find work in most places we decide to pitch up at.”

  “But you obviously had to take a lease out to get this place?”

  “I did, six months fully furnished. I’ve a Georgian manor house restoration on the go not far from here. It’s a big job, too long just to park up somewhere. It’s the longest I’ve been in one place since I lived with my mam and da. I suppose part of me wanted to see what it was like to put down roots for a while.”

  Kitty wondered where this Tess of such poor homemaking skills was. “But it’s not for you, putting down roots.”

  “No, it’s not for me. I’ll be moving on once the jobs done.”

  “In my mum’s journal she mentioned that her mother once said to her that she thought it would be a lonely thing to live in a house.”

  He nodded slowly. “Did she settle then, your mother?”

  “She did yes when she married my dad. We had a lovely home too it was called Rose Cottage, and it always smelt warm and welcoming like this does now.” Kitty gesticulated to the aroma wafting from the kitchen. “It was my mum who instilled my love of baking in me because I associate the smell of something wonderful cooking in the oven with the happy times I spent with her growing up.” Her eyes welled up, and she felt Jonny touch her arm fleetingly and she blinked the tears back wanting to finish what she was trying to say. “Having read her story I understand her better now and I can see that when my dad died she hankered to return to the travelling life but she didn’t know how to. That was when we grew apart because I didn’t get what she was she feeling and how it was driving her actions. I mean how could I? When I never had a clue about where she’d come from.”

  “She never breathed a word of it?”

  “Not a word and I know from reading her journal that she had her regrets, but that she wouldn’t change anything either. She never saw her family again, and it hurt her leaving Kitty, Paddy, her mum, and even her dad. He was different before they lost Paddy’s twin, Joe. He didn’t cope with losing his son and turned to the drink. She loved who he was before. I think that cutting herself off from the people she loved was her way of trying to atone for Michael’s death and the way she handled things afterwards.”

  “Jaysus.” He ran his fingers through his hair in that now familiar gesture of his.

  “I feel closer to her now than I have done in years with all that’s happened since Christian asked me to come to France. How sad is that?”

  He didn’t reply, and they sat in silence for a moment until Kitty broke it. “You know she thought it was in me too, this need to keep moving, and that’s why I haven’t been able to stay put in any one place too long.” She gave a sardonic little laugh. “Mind you, if my fiancé hadn’t cheated on me when we were living together in Manchester I’d probably still be happily playing house there now.”

  “Was that your man who came to Uzés?”

  “Yes, he’d seen the error of his ways or so he said. My friend Yasmin says once a cheater always a cheater. She’s probably right, but I realised seeing him again in Uzés that no matter how many times he said he was sorry, and that it wouldn’t happen again, I couldn’t go back.”

  “Sounds to me like you made the right choice besides you are soon to be a woman of independent means with your own business. You’ll have to settle down for a bit then.”

  Kitty frowned picking a bit of what looked like dried pasta off her jeans. She didn’t know why but the idea of her long-held dream becoming a reality wasn’t filling her with the same sense of excitement it had done when it was out of her grasp. It wasn’t the baking and selling of her cakes; she loved that part of it. There was nothing better than the look of anticipatory pleasure on a customer’s face when she boxed up their treat. It was what Jonny had just said she realised.

  “You don’t look too enthusiastic.”

  “It’s the settling down side of it that’s been bothering me about the whole thing. I don’t know if I want to commit to a lease that will tie me to one place for any length of time at the moment. I thought I was ready to do that. Now I don’t know because with everything that’s happened since I got that first text from Christian I just feel unsettled as to what’s next.”

  She was saved from having to ponder this any longer by the pinger announcing that the cakes should be ready.

  “Do you want to do the honours or should I?”

  “I will.” Jonny said, getting to his feet.

  Kitty smiled watching his face light up as he opened the oven door and spied the plump golden cakes inside. Grabbing a tea towel he pulled the tin out holdin
g it up to his nose and breathing in deeply before putting it down on top of the stove. He blew on his fingers. “Feck that was hot.” It didn’t deter him from taking a cake and juggling it from hand to hand for a moment though, before taking a big bite out of the top of it.

  “Ten out of ten. I’d say,” he mumbled sending a mouthful of crumbs flying.

  “See I told you baking is good for your soul,” Kitty said smiling at him as she got up and wandered over to help herself to one.

  Chapter 27

  Every tide has an ebb save the tide of graces – Irish Proverb

  Jonny jangled his keys in the hallway while Kitty wrapped the baking tin in a clean tea towel. “Right I’m ready,” she said. As she picked up her handbag a thought occurred to her, she should bring Rosa’s dress with her. Not the journal that was meant for her eyes only, but her aunt might like to see the dress that had been so special to her older sister again. She picked it up out of her case, and retracing her steps placed it carefully in one of the empty shopping bags, before following Jonny out the door. They rode the lift down to the basement and crossing the parking lot, she saw it was virtually empty apart from one of those cute vans that she always associated with hippies. It was not at all what she would have picked as Jonny’s choice of wheels. What were they called again? That was it Kombi’s, and at least this one wasn’t painted in psychedelic colours.

  In the dim light it looked to be a light bluish colour with white trim, and on closer inspection she saw that it was in really good condition despite its obvious age. There were curtains drawn on the windows so she couldn’t see in the back, but she guessed it was probably choc-a-bloc with builder’s gear.

  “Kitty meet Tess; Tess meet Kitty,” Jonny said before unlocking the driver’s door and reaching over he unlocked the passenger side for Kitty. A stupid grin spread itself across her face as she climbed in – this was Tess? Ha! That would teach her for being a nosy rosy and jumping to conclusions. Her mood had lifted instantly at this news. She didn’t have Jonny down as a man who would name his van but then she hadn’t had him down as a man who would bake cupcakes with her either.

  Glancing back over her shoulder she gasped twisting around in her seat so she could get a better view. “Oh wow I didn’t expect that!” Her eyes swept over the cleverly fitted timber overhead cupboards and down to the back of the van where a blue and white surfboard was attached to the wall next to a bench seat.

  Jonny followed her gaze “That folds out to act as a table.”

  “What a great idea.” The walls Kitty saw were decorated with driftwood and shells in keeping with the obvious nautical theme. A brightly coloured towel hung from a hook with another surfboard strapped to the wall next to it, should he decide to go for an impromptu ride on the waves. The only sign that Jonny used the van for work purposes too was in the fisherman’s basket under the bench seat in which she could see various tools of the trade. She looked around for a bed. “Where do you sleep?”

  He pointed up. “It has a pop top. If you lift the lid on that chest just behind your seat there, you’ll find a two ring gas hob tucked away inside it.” She could hear the pride in his voice and could tell Tess had been a labor of love. She handed him the tray of cakes and turning around got on her knees so she could lean over the seat. She did what he’d suggested, and saw there was indeed a two ring hob housed inside the chest.

  “It’s amazing, did you do her up yourself?”

  “I did yeah she was a bit of a project, and she’s not exactly a Piebald, but she does me proud.”

  His tongue in cheek mention of her romanticism of the Travellers choice of transport did not escape her, and she gave him a gentle thump on the arm.

  “She’s not always all that reliable either but we get there in the end. We’ve spent many a happy night together me and Tess.”

  “Well she’s gorgeous, I’m impressed.”

  “You won’t be if she doesn’t start here -” He handed back the tray before turning the key in the ignition, grinning when the engine roared into life. “Good girl.” Patting the steering wheel he put the gearstick into reverse pulling out of the park and driving toward the exit, he pressed a button on his sun visor. As the basement door slid open, Kitty blinked at the sudden shards of daylight.

  “How long do you think it will take us to get there?”

  “This time of morning most of the commuters are long gone so it shouldn’t take us long, about half an hour or so.” He indicated left out onto the road, and Kitty saw that it had quietened down since she had last ventured along it, there was not a single boy racer in sight. Jonny navigated the streets with ease obviously familiar with the route he was taking, telling her how he often took off in Tess when the need to just get away grabbed him.

  “You surf then?”

  “Oh yeah I love it, when I am out there on the water. It’s the best feeling you know?”

  “Not really I don’t even like putting my head under water, what’s it like?”

  “Oh I don’t know I guess it’s like being alone with something so much bigger than yourself that it puts all the trivial shite into perspective. I read a quote somewhere that said the Gods seem to be around in the best waves of your life, and that stuck with me.”

  “Well, I just hope you’ve got a good wetsuit because I imagine the waters around these parts can be a tad fresh.”

  “Fecking freezing.” He grinned.

  They garnered lots of looks as they putted along with the gears grinding to remind them of the van’s age, but Jonny was oblivious concentrating on what was in front of him. It didn’t take long before the urban scenery gave way to the green belt. Kitty was leaning back in her seat admiring the view of the passing golds and browns of the countryside when he jerked the steering wheel right. “Feck nearly missed the turn-off.” Her shoulder smacked into his. “Sorry about that, are you alright?”

  She nodded rubbing her shoulder with one hand and grasping hold of her seat with the other. They bumped their way up a gravel road until he veered off down another side road, and they reached a clearing. A cluster of not so much caravans as mobile homes like the kind found in holiday parks were all parked up. It looked quite civilised she mused, and there was obviously power to each of the sites.

  “We’re here.” He said pulling the handbrake.

  Kitty looked over, and as she wondered which one of those caravans belonged to her aunt, she felt her stomach lurch.

  “Okay?”

  “Actually no I’m not I feel sick, I don’t think I can do this.” She sat there looking fearfully at the mobile homes hoping they could turn around and go back before anyone looked outside to see who the interlopers were.

  “Yes, you can,” Jonny said firmly unbuckling his seat belt. “Come on I didn’t take the day off work just to take you for a nice country drive in the Wicklow Mountains.”

  That did it, she hadn’t thought about him losing a day’s pay to bring her here. She did owe it to him to follow through, and she knew she would be so angry at herself later on if she let this opportunity go by just because she was scared. She was made of stronger stuff than that. “Okay just give me a sec.” Kitty peered into the mirror on the inside of her visor and was relieved to see her face wasn’t reflecting the sudden terror she had been filled with. That was so long as you didn’t look too closely and see the tell-tale beads of sweat that had popped out on her upper lip she thought wiping them off.

  “You can do this Kitty Sorenson for yourself and mum.” She muttered not caring that she was talking to herself as she unbuckled and opened the door. Stepping down she felt her foot squelch into something warm and moist. Glancing at her shoe saw that it was also brown, and she didn’t have to inhale to know it would be smelly. “Shit-Shit-Shit!” She yelped putting the tray down on her seat before pulling her foot out of the muck.

  Jonny came round to see what she was making a fuss about and seeing her predicament laughed. “Yeah literally.”

  She scowled at him. “Ha bloo
dy ha!” Scraping the heel of her shoe against a dry mound of grass she began wiping the worst of it off.

  “That’ll teach you for choosing inappropriate footwear for a day in the country.”

  “I wasn’t exactly spoiled for choice.” Having cleaned her shoe up the best she could, she picked up her tea towel wrapped offering from the van seat and set forth across the rough paddock. It was hard to muster much dignity considering she was wearing stilettos and had just trod in a cow pat.

  “We’ll try that one first.” Jonny pointed at a large mobile home up on blocks that reminded Kitty of the luxury caravan she’d once rented for a week’s holiday down in Cornwall with Damien. It had been able to sleep six comfortably and completely beyond their needs but still she recalled Damien complaining, and saying they’d have been better off in a hotel. She wondered what he would make of this place here and realised she didn’t care what he thought anymore. It was quite satisfying.

  The whole place was quiet, eerily so Kitty thought, spying a few shirts flapping on the line strung up alongside the caravan. Its curtains were open but still maybe nobody would be in, and she could take that as a sign that this meeting wasn’t meant to be and head back to London pretending none of this had ever happened. She crossed her fingers behind her back.

  Jonny reached the door first and knocked. Kitty stood behind him shifting anxiously from foot to foot. “I don’t think there’s anyone home,” she said after a moment, tugging on his sleeve for him to go just as the door opened.

  Kitty peered round Jonny to see a petite woman clad in jeans and a tight, sparkly singlet top from which her bust threatened to burst forth. On her feet she wore high heel sling backs decorated with diamantes. She must be frozen Kitty thought knowing her arms had goose bumps from the dewy, freshness of the morning air. Her dark hair showed not one streak of grey, and her face was made up conspicuously so with an orange tinged powder cake. Her hand, Kitty noticed holding the door open had chunky gemstones on each finger, and her nails were painted a bright pink with little jewels in them. This woman couldn’t be Rosa’s sister surely? She was the polar opposite of her demure mother, who thought she was pushing the boat out when she’d applied both lipstick and mascara? Kitty shifted nervously from foot to foot. The woman stared at Jonny for a moment frowning as she tried to place him.