The Girl with the Creel

by Doris Davidson

  Then he’d heard it took three years, and only Mick’s old advice to keep away from her had stopped him from going to tell Lizann. His mother had said somebody had likely told her, but if nobody had, she could be thinking he’d made it up with Katie when he hadn’t set eyes on her since he left her. Probably she could tell him what was going on, but it would be damned awkward facing her; he would remember the vile things she had done and kept secret from him. He did feel ashamed now and then for walking out on her. Those things had happened before they began going steady and he should have forgiven her, but he couldn’t, though she had been a damned good wife to him apart from that. Maybe he would have forgiven her if he hadn’t already met Lizann … who knows?

  His mother – who always kept her eyes and ears open – had heard that Katie had boarded the south train one day three weeks ago and come back the same night, but nobody knew where she’d been. Shopping in Aberdeen, George supposed … but Katie had never been one for gallivanting, and in any case, where had she got the money?

  His mother came bursting in at that moment. ‘Ach, George!’ she puffed. ‘Here’s you sitting like the bells that never rung, and me wi’ something to tell you.’

  ‘Go on, then,’ he sighed, knowing that she would, whatever he said.

  ‘Lizzie Fenton says your Katie’s speaking about leaving Cullen, and she says she’ll be a lot happier where she’s going.’

  This made him feel less guilty at leaving his wife. He’d been afraid she might go into a decline, and instead she would be making a new life for herself somewhere else. ‘I’m glad to hear that,’ he smiled, ‘but I wish I knew what was happening about the divorce.’

  ‘Oh, that’s another thing.’ Ina Buchan took a long brown envelope from the top of her shopping bag. ‘I met the postie when I was going out and he gi’ed me this.’

  She laid it down on the table beside him and he said, ‘It’s from Edinburgh, so I suppose it’s to tell me when I’ve to go.’

  The news was even better than that. In effect, it told him that Katie Buchan, née Mair, had been granted a full and final divorce from George Buchan ‘as from the second instant’. He shook his head in a kind of stupor. ‘But I was never asked to appear.’

  ‘They surely didna need you.’ Ina thought for a moment, then an idea struck her. ‘I bet it was Edinburgh Katie went to yon day.’

  When the meaning of this sank in, he jumped up and enveloped her in a bear hug. ‘I’m free! At last! Buckie, here I come!’

  ‘You’re nae going right now?’

  ‘I’m not waiting a minute longer.’ As he put on his jacket, he said, ‘You’ll like Lizann, Ma.’

  Ina gave a disdainful sniff. ‘I dinna understand you. The minute you get clear o’ one woman, you canna wait to tie yourself to another.’

  Mick grinned when he opened the door to George’s timid knock. ‘This is it, is it?’

  ‘Aye, at last. Is your father in?’

  ‘He’s in, and I’ll just tell him somebody wants to see him. If I say it’s you, Lizann’ll build her hopes up, but he might put his foot down with a heavy hand again.’

  George’s confidence began to waver, and before he had time to think of a way to boost it Willie Alec came to the door in his slippers, his face mottled red from sitting too close to the fire. Even with his shirtsleeves rolled up and a pair of braces supporting his shapeless trousers, he was a commanding figure. ‘You want to see me?’ he barked, his brows down.

  George felt his courage draining away, but he had to face up to this man if he was to stand any chance of marrying the girl he loved. ‘Mr Jappy,’ he began, hesitantly, ‘I’ve something important to ask you, but not here on the doorstep. Could we take a wee walk?’

  ‘I’m taking no walk till you tell me who you are.’

  ‘I don’t want Lizann to hear.’

  ‘Lizann? What’s she got to do with it?’

  ‘Please, Mr Jappy, I’ll tell you when we’re clear of the house.’

  Puzzled, Willie Alec said, ‘Wait till I put my shoes on, and get my jacket and my bonnet.’

  George had primed himself for this meeting, but his nerves were in shreds as they walked along the street. In spite of his gruff manner, Lizann’s father gave the impression of being a fair man, a man with a sense of humour, yet he had imprisoned his daughter simply because she was seeing a man he disapproved of. Would he come round now?

  ‘Well?’ Willie Alec asked, coming to a sudden standstill. ‘What’s this important thing you wanted to ask me?’

  ‘Hear me out before you say anything, Mr Jappy.’ George’s voice gained strength as he went on, ‘I love Lizann with all my heart …’

  ‘You’re George Buchan?’

  There was accusation in the three gasped words, but George wasn’t to be put off now. ‘Please let me finish. I’ve done nothing behind your back. I kept away from her till I was free, and now I’ve got my divorce I’m asking your permission to marry her.’

  ‘By God, you’ve got some nerve! Did you think I’d welcome you wi’ open arms after what you and her did down in Great Yarmouth?’

  ‘I swear to you, Mr Jappy, I’ve regretted that ever since.’

  Willie Alec’s dark scowl eased a little. ‘I believe you there, for she said you’d have stopped if she hadna made you go on.’

  ‘I’m not blaming Lizann,’ George said, staunchly. ‘She was seventeen and I was twenty-one. I knew what I was doing.’

  ‘Did you make a habit o’ breaking lassies’ maiden-heads?’

  George’s hopes were sinking fast, but he was still determined to tell the truth, however condemning. ‘I had a few lassies, but hers was the only maidenhead I ever broke. The rest had been broken before.’

  ‘Well, now!’ Willie Alec murmured, his rough hand tugging at the lobe of his ear. ‘At least you’re honest. I like that in a man. So you sowed your wild oats? I can hardly blame you for that, for I did the same … before I met Hannah. But that’s between me and you, mind.’

  ‘Of course.’

  After a moment’s pause, Willie Alec said, ‘You say you love Lizann, but you wed another lassie after you’d been wi’ her.’

  ‘I’d half asked Katie before that, but I wouldn’t have married her … I came to see Lizann first, and she said she was engaged.’

  ‘So you married this Katie because you couldna have Lizann? You didna love your wife?’

  ‘You’ll maybe not believe this, Mr Jappy, but I loved both of them at that time. It was a while after I married Katie till I found out she … wasn’t the girl I thought she was.’

  ‘She’d had other men?’

  Reluctantly, George told him everything, in the same way he had told Mrs Clark. ‘It was her not telling me before I married her,’ he ended, ‘that’s what I couldn’t forgive.’

  ‘Aye, there shouldna be secrets between a man and his wife. Now, you said you were free …?’

  Willie Alec was obviously thawing, and George’s spirits took an upward swing. ‘Aye, Katie divorced me. I was notified the day.’

  ‘She divorced you? Had she grounds for that?’

  Hell-bent on being scrupulously honest, George described the deception he had carried out, and was amazed when Willie Alec let out a rumbling laugh. ‘By God, lad, you took a chance there!’ His smile fading, he went on, ‘You blackened Lizann’s character, though.’

  ‘Her name wasn’t mentioned in the affidavit,’ George defended himself. ‘It was an unknown girl, that’s what Mrs Clark signed to.’

  ‘You ken this, George? I canna help admiring you for the way you’ve fought to get my lassie.’

  Hardly daring to presume he had won, George murmured, ‘You’ll let her marry me?’

  ‘I think we’d best go back and see what her mother says.’

  Hannah got little opportunity to say anything, because Lizann jumped up and flung herself at George when he went in, and Willie Alec looked at his wife and shrugged. ‘You can see how it is,’ he told her. ‘He’s free now
, and we’d best just give them our blessing.’

  ‘You’re not letting her marry a divorced man?’ she gasped, aghast at how quickly he had changed his tune.

  ‘What does that matter when you can see for yourself he’s the one she wants?’ Willie Alec was already at the dresser, bringing out a bottle.

  Mick pumped George’s hand gleefully, but Hannah remained tight-lipped throughout the short celebration that followed. Then Willie Alec turned to George again. ‘Take Lizann for a walk, I can see she’s desperate to ken what’s been going on. And tell her everything, mind. Everything.’

  When they went out, he looked at his wife. ‘You needna say what you’re thinking, Hannah. I can see you’re not pleased.’

  Never having questioned her husband’s decisions before, she felt bound to do so now. ‘I have to say what’s in my mind, Willie Alec. I thought you was as against him as I was.’

  ‘I was, but not now. He’s a decent man, Hannah. He told me things I’d never have found out myself, and for all he ken’t they could have set me more against him than ever. But I like a man wi’ spirit, a man that’s not afraid to fight for what he wants, and he wants our Lizann. He loves her and he’ll make her happy. Besides, he’s one o’ us … a fisherman.’

  ‘Hmmm!’ Hannah grunted, knowing that his mind was made up.

  ‘Are you not happy for Lizann, Mother?’ Mick asked.

  ‘I’ll not be happy till I see for myself he takes care o’ her right.’

  Mick looked at his father with his face screwed up, but Willie Alec only smiled. ‘We’ll drink to that, then. Eh, son?’

  * * *

  Lizann was rapturously happy when she went to bed. After all the months of worry, George had come for her, had even persuaded her father to let them marry. He had promised to see the minister with her in the morning, to arrange for the ceremony to be held in the manse, although they would have to wait at least three weeks for the banns to be cried. He had done wrong in making his landlady put her name to a false statement, but only to make Katie divorce him … and it had worked. She turned when Mick came into her room, smiling because he was slightly unsteady on his feet.

  ‘Well, that’s it, little sister,’ he said. ‘I knew George could talk Father round.’

  ‘It’s all thanks to you,’ she admitted.

  ‘I’m pleased he took my advice, but he pulled it off himself. Mother’s not pleased, though.’

  ‘I don’t care. Father’s given us his blessing, that’s all we need.’ Her own future settled, Lizann wondered about her brother’s. ‘What about you and Jenny Cowie, Mick?’

  ‘I can’t get past the kissing stage,’ he sighed. ‘I doubt I’ll have to marry her first.’

  ‘Would that be so bad?’

  ‘I’d not say no to it, but the thing is … her folk need her.’

  ‘You should ask her. Maybe she’d say yes.’

  ‘Maybe she would, but I’ll wait a while. One wedding in the family’s enough at a time. Now I’d better let you get to sleep, so you can dream about your George.’ Dropping a quick kiss on her head – which surprised them both, for they were not in the habit of showing the affection they had for each other – he went to his own room.

  Lizann snuggled down to think of being George’s wife, of having his children, of scrimping and saving so that he could have a boat of his own again, though she wouldn’t tell him that’s what she had in mind till she could put the money into his hand.

  While Lizann – and George, in Mrs Clark’s front bedroom again – slept peacefully, Mick was wondering if he should ask Jenny to marry him. What she earned from the sewing she took in was all that went into the house; if she left, Mr and Mrs Cowie would be destitute. He couldn’t even suggest moving in as her husband because, from what he had gathered, she slept in what was little more than a boxroom. Besides, living in the same house as two invalids wasn’t his idea of marriage. If he ever did manage to get her away he would be expected to pay for the wedding, the furniture, the bedding and dishes, as well as the rent of wherever they found, and to provide for her mother and father. He had started to save, but it was a slow business and it would take him years to get enough to let them set up house. He just hoped that Jenny wouldn’t meet a man who could afford to buy a house big enough for her parents, too.

  In Main Street, Peter Tait was still trying to get over the shock of seeing Lizann, his Lizann, strolling past his house with George Buchan again. It had been just by chance that he’d looked out of his bedroom window before closing the curtains, and there they’d been, gazing into each other’s eyes as if they were the only two people in the world. His heart aching, he had watched them kissing, long kisses with their bodies rubbing together, which had driven him mad with jealousy.

  He wondered if her parents knew and contemplated going to tell them in the morning, but Mick would punch him in the face again if he did. And it looked like Lizann didn’t care who saw them. George Buchan must have got his divorce, after three whole years, and, though it was hard to believe, her father must have given permission for them to marry.

  His head pounding and his insides whirling, Peter paced the floor. His chest-expanding exercises had gained him nothing. He was going to lose the only girl he would ever love … but wait! He had a sort of ally in Hannah, hadn’t he? She wouldn’t be happy about Lizann marrying George. She would make them wait – give him enough time to do something.

  Sitting down on his bed, Peter tried to think what he could do.

  ‘Did you tell Mr Lawrie you’d been divorced?’ Hannah asked, when George and Lizann returned from arranging a date for their wedding.

  ‘I did that, Mrs Jappy,’ George answered, knowing she had thought the minister would refuse to marry them – he had thought that himself. ‘He said the Church of Scotland left it up to individual ministers, and he didn’t mind, seeing we were happy for it to be in the manse.’

  ‘Old Mr Crawford wouldna have agreed,’ Hannah muttered, ‘but this new man’s … ach! It’s nae right that a man can throw off his wife when he wants somebody else.’ Her voice turned sepulchral as she misquoted, ‘Them that the good Lord hath joined together, let nobody pull asunder.’

  ‘Nobody’s going to pull George and me asunder.’ Lizann looked at her husband-to-be adoringly.

  Hannah tutted impatiently. ‘I meant him and his real wife.’

  ‘Katie’s not my wife now,’ George pointed out quietly.

  Hannah couldn’t resist one last hit. ‘You must have promised to love, honour and keep her … but I’d better hold my tongue seeing I’m odd man out. I’ll be ashamed to walk down the street after this, though.’

  George shook his head at Lizann to prevent her arguing any more. It was clear that his future mother-in-law resented him, but he would show her. This marriage would endure till long after Hannah herself was dead and buried.

  When Willie Alec returned from visiting an old friend who, in his opinion, ‘wouldn’t see the winter out’, and Lizann told him that the ceremony would take place in four weeks, he looked more down-hearted than ever. ‘I’d have liked to give my only daughter a big do,’ he said, sadly, then shrugged off his melancholia to avoid spoiling things for the radiant girl. ‘Ach well, there’s other things to consider and it canna be helped.’

  Lizann didn’t care. A big wedding was a waste of money, and marrying George was all that mattered to her.

  Her father looked at his soon-to-be son-in-law. ‘Will you be biding here after you’ve tied the knot?’

  George coloured. ‘If it’s all right with you … just till I can afford to furnish a rented house.’

  ‘There’s no hurry.’ Willie Alec smiled expansively. ‘You’re welcome here for as long as you want.’

  ‘The first thing I’ll have to do is find a berth in Buckie.’

  Willie Alec looked smug. ‘I was speaking to Heck Lindsay of the Dawn Rose when I was out, and he says old Johnnie Ledingham retired this trip, so that would be a deckie’s job for you, if
you want it.’

  ‘But George has his skipper’s ticket,’ Lizann protested.

  Her father nodded. ‘Aye, he tell’t me he’d had his own boat. It’ll be a come-down for you, lad, but it’ll do till something else turns up, will it nae?’

  George had worked as mate on a Cullen boat since he sold his own for scrap, so a deckhand’s job was not what he was after, but, as Willie Alec said, it would do till he found something better. ‘Thanks for letting me know, Mr Jappy,’ he smiled. ‘Where do I go to see about it?’

  Willie Alec grinned mischievously. ‘Heck’s expecting you to turn up on Monday. He aye leaves the same time as the Silver Star. Have you got your gear wi’ you?’

  ‘It’s at my mother’s, but I’ll go and get it the morrow. I’ll have to tell her about the wedding, any road.’

  George took Lizann with him on the bus the following morning, though she was dreading meeting his mother. He was another only son, and Mrs Buchan might be another Bella Jeannie Tait. George himself wasn’t relishing the thought of making the introduction. His mother hadn’t been pleased about his first marriage, but that was because there had been a mystery about Katie’s birth and there was no mystery about Lizann’s. Surely it would be different this time?

  They didn’t talk much on the short journey, but when they came off the bus and were walking towards the house, Lizann whispered, ‘I’m scared.’

  George squeezed her arm. ‘Ma’ll not bite you.’

  She discovered that George’s mother was the exact opposite of Bella Jeannie in appearance – very thin, pure white hair drawn neatly back, black dress spotless. ‘So you’re Lizann?’ she smiled. ‘I’ve heard plenty about you.’

  Unaware of how two-faced she was, Lizann warmed to her. ‘I’m pleased to meet you, Mrs Buchan.’

  ‘We’ve set the wedding,’ George grinned. ‘Four weeks from yesterday. There’ll just be the four of us at the manse – Lizann’s brother’s going to be best man, and his girl’s going to be bridesmaid – but you’ll come to the Jappys’ house for the wee do after, eh, Ma?’