Another Man's Child

by Anne Bennett

  When they retraced their footsteps they saw the mass exodus of disembarking passengers and Celia felt excitement beginning in her feet and spreading all through her body. When the people cleared and they joined the queue of passengers waiting to board she saw the boat clearly for the first time. It was so big and imposing, standing clear out of the water with its three black funnels, that her mouth dropped open and she turned with a smile to Andy and his heart turned over, seeing her delight, and he reached for her hand and squeezed it gently. She squeezed back but knew that that really was the last time they would be able to make a gesture like that if they were to make people believe that they were brother and sister. From now on, and for the rest of this journey at least, she had ceased to be Celia Mulligan and become Celia McCadden, sister of Andy.

  Andy had wondered if she’d be upset at pretending to be his sister but inwardly she had been relieved because she had been worried that Andy might want, even expect, her to submit to things she might not want to do as a sort of payment for getting her away from her father. She didn’t really know how she should respond if he did that and the fact that he obviously wasn’t going to press her filled her with gratitude.

  There was a lot of activity on the docks and Andy had seen the police as they queued to board, but noticed they weren’t scrutinising people intently and so he imagined it was just routine. He didn’t mention it to Celia, feeling it might have unnerved her, but as they would soon be claiming they were siblings they didn’t act like a couple. The dock police in Belfast had been told it was a couple that might be boarding so they would have taken no notice of them in any case.

  The queue, hampered by heavy bags or cases, inched forward, the boat listing a little in the grey, slightly scummy water. It was secured, Celia saw, by big ropes as thick as a man’s forearm wound tightly round bollards on the dockside and the boat was accessed by a wooden board with raised bits across it every so often.

  ‘This is called the gangplank,’ Andy whispered to her.

  ‘How d’you know?’ Celia asked but he hadn’t time to answer for a man was saying questioningly to Andy: ‘Man and wife?’

  Andy shook his head. ‘Brother and sister.’

  The man gave a nod and directed Andy to the left and Celia to the right. ‘See you in a minute,’ Andy assured her, seeing the slight panic in Celia’s face.

  She nodded and fought to still the panic rising in her for it was too late for second thoughts; for her the die was cast now.

  EIGHT

  When Andy went looking for Celia later he was unable to find her. One of the other women asked who he was looking for.

  ‘My sister,’ he told her. ‘Celia McCadden.’

  ‘Is she red-haired and wearing boots and has a blue shawl around herself?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Well I didn’t catch her name or anything, but a young woman like that went to help the other one who collapsed.’

  ‘Who collapsed?’ Andy asked in alarm, thinking for a moment it was Celia the woman was talking about.

  ‘This other one, don’t know her name either,’ the woman said. ‘And she just sort of folded up in a heap on the deck. And,’ the woman added, ‘I’ll tell you something odd though … I mean I didn’t see that much of her, but the one who collapsed wasn’t one of us, if you get my meaning. She looked a bit posh, like, not the sort of person you see travelling on their own. Usually they have a lady’s maid and whatnot. You know the type?’

  Andy nodded for he knew the type well enough.

  ‘Suppose that’s why she clung on so tight to the other woman who was probably your sister.’

  ‘But where are they now?’ he asked.

  ‘Well,’ said the woman. ‘I heard her tell the ship’s doctor who came to see if she was all right after her faint that she had come up the wrong side of the boat, because she had booked first class and that she had a cabin booked too. Hardly worth it for four hours’ sailing, I wouldn’t have said. But then it takes all sorts. Don’t know where they went after that cos a steward came for them. You’ll have to ask.’

  ‘Yes and thank you.’

  Andy did ask and explained the situation. The steward left him on the deck while he checked the first-class passenger list and spoke to the ship’s doctor and then he returned to Andy.

  ‘According to what you’ve told us, the lady who collapsed is a Lady Annabel Lewisham and she appears to have your sister with her,’ he said. ‘Come this way please, sir.’ And he led the way to the other side of the boat, and opened a set of metal gates that led to first- class accommodation and then down some steps to a small corridor. Before he knocked on the door marked ‘Number Six’, he said, ‘What is your name, sir?’

  ‘Andrew, Andy McCadden.’

  ‘And your sister’s?’

  ‘Celia.’

  And so when the steward knocked on the door and Annabel called out, ‘Who is it?’ he was able to answer, ‘The steward, Miss and I have a chap with me the name of Andy McCadden looking for his sister, Celia.’

  Annabel looked across the room to Celia. She knew her first name but nothing else about her at all and she said now, ‘D’you know this man?’

  ‘Yes, Miss,’ Celia said. ‘He’s my brother.’

  ‘Best see what he wants.’

  So it was Celia who opened the door and she smiled at Andy as she said to the steward, ‘Yes, this is my brother.’

  The steward continued to stand there and Celia hoped he didn’t want money for she had none to give him as she said, ‘Is there anything else?’

  ‘Yes, miss,’ the steward said, obviously embarrassed. ‘Your brother can’t stay here. If you wish to talk to him you must move to second-class accommodation on the other side of the gate.’

  ‘But I’m second-class and I’m here.’

  ‘Yes but Lady Annabel Lewisham wanted you to attend to her and she’s first-class and that’s the difference.’

  ‘Come on,’ Andy said, seeing the steward’s discomfort. ‘The man’s only doing his job. See if she can spare you for a while because the second call has gone out for passengers not travelling on the boat to leave and we will be setting off in a minute or so. Thought you might want to come on deck and watch the shores of Ireland disappear.’

  ‘Doubt she’ll mind,’ Celia said. ‘It isn’t as if I’m officially employed or anything.’

  Annabel didn’t mind for, as she said, she had virtually kidnapped Celia and hadn’t even realised she had a brother travelling with her. ‘You will come back though, won’t you?’ she asked. ‘I realised when I took the boat over to Ireland that I am a very bad sailor.’

  ‘Well I don’t know how I am going to be myself yet,’ Celia said. ‘It’s my first time on a boat of any description, but I will come back afterwards, I promise.’

  As she joined Andy in the corridor she just stopped herself reaching for his hand as she realised that wasn’t a sisterly action and they walked side by side to join the others on deck to find the evening air had turned misty. The engines began to throb and leaning over the side she saw the gangplank lifted and then the thick ropes that more seasoned travellers told her were called hawsers unwound from the bollards. Black smoke billowed from the funnels above them and the drone of the engines became a roar, causing vibrations all across the deck so the very rails were shaking as the boat eased itself away from the dockside and a little cheer rose from the crowd.

  Celia understood that cheer, for only now could she let out the sigh of relief she hadn’t even been aware she was holding, and the smile she cast on Andy was warm and open. He had the urge to pick her up in his arms and spin her round, but fought the urge and stood with her at the rails as the shores of Ireland were swallowed up by the misty dusk. Celia felt a pang of homesickness for the land she never intended to leave but she didn’t say any of this to Andy for she knew there had been no alternative.

  Andy had been in the corridor and had overheard Celia agreeing to go back to the cabin to at least see how the lad
y was and she was glad when he reminded her of this now, for caring for someone else would probably stop her feeling sorry for herself. ‘You’ll not mind if she wants me to stay?’ she asked Andy.

  Andy did mind in a way because he had looked forward to sailing away together, but he realised it would be very easy to betray themselves as lovers and not siblings if they were together too much and that was what he whispered in Celia’s ear and his words of endearment sent delicious trembles down her spine. Andy felt her body responding to him and he smiled ruefully and beat down any lingering resentment and said, ‘I can’t understand though why a lady like that is travelling without a maid.’

  ‘I couldn’t either,’ Celia said. ‘Because she is a true lady, Annabel Lewisham, and I asked her why she was travelling alone.’

  ‘And what did she say?’

  ‘She said she has to go to her brother’s place in Birmingham urgently and her lady’s maid was taken ill at the last minute.’

  ‘And she couldn’t postpone it until she was better?’

  ‘Obviously not,’ Celia said. ‘And I can’t really understand it and she’s so young. I mean, she’s very beautiful, but little more than a child I wouldn’t have said. She’s got jet-black hair and she has put it up, but not very well, and I thought she probably did it herself to make herself look older, I suppose, but she can’t disguise her face. She has nearly white skin and big violet eyes and a nose so straight and long she could look haughty without really trying but her soft mouth saves her from that.

  ‘Tell you something else, she had on a lovely wool coat with a hood and everything and when I helped her off with it … Well, there’s nothing to her. She has a wonderful dress on, like cream silk with flowers and lace and ribbons decorating it and a wrap sort of thing over that. Underneath there will probably be petticoats and camisoles and the like but you can still see just how thin she is and to my mind she needs looking after. I don’t know what all this is about but I feel sorry for Lady Annabel, for all her privilege.’

  ‘Then you best go back to her,’ Andy said.

  And Celia was to find that Lady Annabel was a terrible sailor. She had begun feeling sick almost as soon as the boat set off and by the time Celia returned and the boat was heading for the open sea she had begun heaving. Celia noted even her face had a greenish tinge and she handed her a bowl. And Celia saw the need for the cabin even for just a four-hour crossing because Annabel was violently sick over and over.

  Celia, who was suffering no ill effects herself, felt immense sympathy for Annabel. During her bouts of sickness her hair had shaken itself free of the kirby grips and it cascaded around her face and tumbled down her back, making her look younger than ever, and still the vomiting continued. Celia held her hair away and bathed her face with cool cloths and always had water ready for her to drink. An hour passed and then another and eventually, though Annabel’s stomach still churned and she still felt nauseous, the intense sickness had stopped and Annabel lay back on the bunk with a sigh. ‘I am very grateful to you. You’re very kind.’

  ‘It’s all right, Miss,’ Celia said. ‘I would do the same for anyone. You certainly do suffer.’

  ‘Yes,’ Annabel agreed. ‘And I’ll ensure it will be a long time before I go on a boat again.’

  Celia laughed softly. ‘Can’t say I would blame you for that, my lady.’

  Watching her, Annabel thought what a pleasant person she was and a pretty one too, especially when she smiled, and she made a decision. But first she had to find out a little bit about her and she said, ‘Do you and your brother intend stopping in Liverpool?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Celia said and she didn’t. She and Andy had really thought no further than arriving in England and she’d assumed they might talk about what to do next as they were crossing the Irish Sea.

  ‘So you have no employment awaiting you?’

  ‘No, Miss,’ Celia said. ‘It was just that there was nothing for either of us after our parents died and we decided to try our hand in England.’

  ‘We have a big enough depression in England too by all accounts,’ Annabel said. ‘But if you were prepared to travel to Birmingham with me I could find you employment as my lady’s maid.’

  Celia stared at her as if she couldn’t believe her ears. ‘But what of the lady’s maid you left behind in Ireland?’ she asked. ‘Won’t she want to return to you when she recovers from whatever it is that ails her?’

  Annabel flushed a little and said, ‘No, I can assure you she won’t.’

  Celia was still a little uncertain. ‘Are you sure of that Miss, for I don’t want to take employment for just a few weeks and then have to start searching again for something else?’

  Annabel sighed. ‘I see I have to be honest with you,’ she said. ‘The fact is there is no lady’s maid left behind in Ireland. I have never actually had a lady’s maid of my own as I have only just left the school room. My governess gave notice when I was sixteen as she said she could teach me no more, but until then I wasn’t allowed to put up my hair and my governess used to deal with it. If I was required to dress for some formal occasion my mother would loan me her own lady’s maid to assist me.’

  ‘Had you lots of servants?’

  ‘I suppose, but it’s a big house,’ Annabel said. ‘You see, my father is really Baron Lewisham, but he thinks the title a clumsy one as his father did before him and my mother hated being called Baroness, so he calls himself and my mother Lord and Lady Lewisham and Henry is always referred to as Lord Henry, while I am Lady Annabel. That’s how these things are worked out apparently.’

  It quite unnerved Celia and she said, ‘What about Henry’s house? Are there lots of servants there too?’

  Annabel gave a tinkling laugh. ‘No, Henry just has an ordinary house in an ordinary road. He will inherit the Hall where we both grew up after my father is dead and become Lord Lewisham, if he chooses to use the title, or even live at the Hall at all.’

  ‘Why wouldn’t he?’

  ‘At his work they know who he is, of course, but no one uses the title and they just call him Henry on his insistence,’ Annabel said. ‘He’s always been that way inclined but has definitely been worse lately. He says the house is a mausoleum and it’s almost indecent for all those servants to look after two people. They do so little for themselves he often says he doubts they’d have a clue how to look after themselves and he doesn’t want the same thing happening to him. He didn’t have to get a proper job, but he insisted on it as soon as he finished his university education.’

  ‘So what’s his house like?’

  ‘It’s big; red brick with gardens all around it. He says it’s Edwardian, my governess agreed, and it has three floors with a couple of servants’ quarters in the basements with room for just two or three people.’

  ‘And that’s where I will sleep?’

  ‘No, I shall want you in the room adjoining mine where the governess used to sleep. It’s a proper room of its own but near to me, similar to the accommodation at the Adelphi I always insisted on when I travelled with my governess. I would have hated relegating her to substandard servants’ quarters probably located in some damp basement.’

  Celia was glad of that, not because she had ideas above her station, but because she would be nervous of meeting more experienced staff who would soon discover that she wasn’t a proper servant at all and so when Annabel said, ‘Is becoming a lady’s maid the line of work you were looking for?’ Celia answered, ‘Oh Miss, I am looking for any line of work. I wouldn’t be too fussed what it was, but I don’t know the least thing about being a lady’s maid.’

  ‘Remember I have never had a lady’s maid of my own either?’ Annabel said. ‘Though I know some of what their duties are because of watching my mother, so I’m sure we’ll manage. We’ll learn together.’

  ‘I don’t even know what to call you.’

  ‘That’s easy,’ Annabel said, ‘I’m My Lady if you’re speaking to me directly and if you are referring to me,
I am Lady Annabel. Really Celia, you will be fine, I’m sure.’

  Annabel’s confidence in Celia’s ability to do this alien thing of looking after a very young, titled lady had begun to rub off on Celia and she began to think that she really wanted to do this. She was quite drawn to Annabel who apart from her sea sickness appeared to be troubled in some way, but she had Andy to consider, so she said, ‘Of course the decision isn’t mine alone.’

  ‘No,’ Annabel said. ‘And your brother will want to know that what I am offering you is legitimate and above board and quite right too. My brother Henry is a banker and he has recently been working abroad, setting up new banks and ensuring the staff were trained adequately when the team of British workers left. His work is at an end now though and he is on his way home. His house is in Erdington, just outside Birming-ham, and he has never married, so I am going to stay with him for a while and I will be in dire need of a lady’s maid.’

  Celia wanted to say a very decided ‘Yes,’ because as the boat travelled closer and closer to England she had begun to wonder what they were going to do when they left it. ‘I must talk to Andy, my lady, but are you all right for me to leave?’

  ‘I don’t think I’ll be sick any more if I stay absolutely still,’ Annabel said. ‘My head is still pounding though and the sooner I am off this boat the better I will like it. But this has to be decided, so see if you can find your brother and put it to him.’

  Celia found her brother soon enough, but she had only just begun to tell him about Annabel’s proposal when she felt suddenly light-headed and she stumbled on the deck.

  ‘Are you sea sick too?’ Andy asked.

  ‘No, hungry,’ Celia said, for it had been hours since she’d eaten anything.

  ‘Well,’ Andy said. ‘If you are hungry then you will eat. There is a canteen here that does delicious porridge because I had a bowl myself a little while ago. How does that sound?’