A Second Chance (28 page)

‘I don’t know,’ David said in a low voice.
‘I haven’t seen her since last week.’

For a moment, Amy had the foolish thought
that perhaps David and Beth had indeed argued over an
unsatisfactory pudding. ‘Why not?’ she asked when she had recovered
herself.

David looked over his shoulder again. ‘I’ll
tell you later,’ he said, leaving Amy more puzzled than ever.

‘But… who’s been getting your meals on and
everything?’

‘I’ve been going over to Uncle John’s for
lunch and dinner. I’ve just had bread and stuff for breakfast. Aunt
Sophie’s been giving me cakes and things, too, and she did my
washing on Monday.’

‘I suppose that’s all right, then,’ Amy said
doubtfully.

She waited till they had left the town and
were on the beach, out of sight of any prying eyes. ‘There’s no one
to hear us now. What is it? What’s happened?’ When he still did not
speak, she squeezed his arm encouragingly. ‘Come on, Davie, it
can’t be as bad as all that. Whatever it is, I’ll help you sort it
out.’

David looked at his hands where they held
the reins. She heard him take a deep breath. ‘Beth and me… we want
to get married.’

‘Davie!’ Amy said, startled. She had always
known, in an abstract sort of way, that David would one day marry,
but it had seemed so far off in the distant future that it was as
if it concerned someone else, not her little boy. ‘You’re much too
young to get married! In a few years, maybe it’ll be time to start
thinking about that sort of thing, but—’

‘We can’t wait, Ma,’ David interrupted. ‘We
need to get married right now. We
have
to.’ He turned to
look at her; she saw him wince at the dawning awareness he must
have seen in her face before he quickly turned away again. ‘Beth’s
going to have a baby.’

Beth was a year older than Amy had been when
the same thing had happened to her, and David was two years older
again. It was foolish to be so astonished. More than that, it was
futile. ‘Well, it looks like you weren’t too young after all,’ she
said when she could trust her voice to sound calm. ‘I expect Uncle
Frank’s not too happy about it?’

‘No, he was really wild. He said we can’t
get married.’

Amy nodded thoughtfully. ‘Did he hit you
very hard?’

David shot her a quick glance. ‘Not really.’
There was no need to ask if David had fought back; she knew her son
too well for that.

‘He thinks I’m a real ratbag,’ David said
bleakly. ‘That’s why he doesn’t want me to marry Beth. S’pose you
think I’m awful, too.’

‘Of course I don’t! I’d never think you were
awful, Davie. We all do wrong things—goodness knows I’ve done my
share.’ David looked at her doubtfully, and she smiled at him. ‘But
you want to put things right. That’s because you’re a good boy,
really. You’re not just going to leave Beth on her own to make the
best of it.’

‘No, I don’t want to do that. I want to look
after her, Ma. I want to marry her. I would anyway, even without
the baby. But we can’t unless Uncle Frank lets us.’

Amy patted his arm. ‘Well, we’ll just have
to see about changing his mind. I expect your Aunt Lizzie’s been
doing some work on that already. I’ll go and see them tomorrow
morning.’

‘I can only take you as far as the gate.
Uncle Frank says I’m not allowed at his place any more.’

‘And we’d better do what he says. That’s all
right, I don’t mind walking that little way.’

For the remainder of the journey she coaxed
small pieces of news from him, in an attempt to lighten his mood.
He told her how things were on the farm, what the weather had been
like, and how her brothers’ families were, but it was clear that
his thoughts were elsewhere. As they passed Frank’s farm she saw
David staring intently towards the house, obviously hoping to catch
a glimpse of Beth. But no one was in sight.

When they drew up to the cottage, David
helped her from the gig and lifted down her bags. As well as the
case borrowed from Frank, she had a smart new one Sarah had
insisted on buying for her.

‘I thought you’d have a lot more bags than
this,’ David said, rousing himself to a show of interest as he
carried her baggage up the steps. ‘You talked a lot about dresses
and stuff in your letters.’

‘Oh, I left most of those fancy things at
Sarah’s—it’s not as if I’ve got anywhere to wear them in Ruatane.’
She smiled at the memory. ‘Sarah says she’s holding them hostage,
so I’ll have to go and stay with her again.’ She had only brought
one of her three new evening gowns with her: the black satin dress,
which lay at the bottom of her new suitcase carefully wrapped in
tissue. Beautiful though it was, it could pass as a mourning gown,
and now she hoped to wear it at David’s wedding.

While David went back out to see to the
horse and gig, Amy changed into a work dress and made afternoon tea
for the two of them. The room was tidier than she had expected,
given that David had had the house to himself for several days. She
found some biscuits in one of the tins, and by the time David came
back she had a pot of tea ready.

‘I’ve been so lazy all the time I’ve been
away,’ she said. ‘I haven’t done any cooking or anything. I’m quite
looking forward to baking again—I’ll make a nice lot of biscuits
tomorrow and fill up the tins.’

When they had finished their afternoon tea,
Amy used what was left of the hot water to wash their tea things
and the dishes from David’s breakfast. She was startled when he
picked up a towel and begin drying the dishes.

‘What are you doing, Dave?’

‘Eh? Just helping you.’

‘Why?’ Amy asked, bewildered.

David looked thoughtful. ‘I suppose I didn’t
use to. Well, Beth’s been helping me on the farm, especially with
the new calves. Then it was hard for her to get everything done
inside before she had to go home, so I’ve been helping her a bit,
too.’

‘Well, you’ve no need to help me, Davie.
It’s just as fast for me to do it on my own and let you get on with
your work.’ She retrieved the towel from him and finished doing the
dishes.

When David was on his way out soon
afterwards to do the milking, Amy took the opportunity to claim
another kiss. Again, there was that strange hesitation; and again,
he kissed her on the cheek rather than on the mouth. Had he not
been so clearly relieved to have her back home, Amy might almost
have wondered if she had annoyed him in some way.

She put the puzzle to the back of her mind
while she went through the cottage to see what needed doing. The
parlour only had to have its fireplace swept out and a new fire
laid in the grate; the dust she stirred up could wait another
day.

The clothes Sophie had laundered for David
were piled on a chair in his room. His bed, with its sheets twisted
and blankets flung every which way, had obviously not been made for
days. Amy began to make it, then it occurred to her that the bed
might have got into such a rumpled state while Beth was still
visiting the house every day. These two had not had to make do with
furtive couplings in sunlit clearings. She hurriedly stripped the
bed and made it up with clean sheets.

The mechanical task of folding David’s
clothes and putting them away left Amy free to mull over all that
had happened since her return. She had been fondly thinking of
David as still her little boy; had pictured Beth keeping house for
him almost as two children playing together, the way she had seen
the two of them playing since the time Beth could first walk. They
had shown themselves to have grown up all too quickly. When Amy had
set off for Auckland, she had said farewell to a boy who would
readily give his mother a child’s kiss, full on the lips. Now she
would have to make do with the careful kisses of a grown son.

Amy hung up the last shirt and closed the
wardrobe door. It was a good thing she already loved Beth, she
reflected; because from now on she was going to have to share
David. And she was the one who would be taking second place in his
life.

She had made her way back to the kitchen and
begun getting dinner ready before the wondrous realisation struck
her: she was going to have a grandchild. That would go a long way
towards making up for having to share David’s affections. And it
was another reason to do her very best to help coax Frank into
allowing this marriage.

After dinner, Amy and David sat talking in
the parlour till late. Amy had picked up the habit of keeping later
hours from Sarah, and David wanted company. She offered him what
encouragement she could, though she could tell from David’s account
that Frank had set himself firmly against the marriage. Amy took
quiet comfort in the knowledge that whenever Frank and Lizzie had
disagreed in the past, Lizzie’s will had always prevailed.

David kept returning to what was clearly his
main concern: Beth’s welfare. ‘I hope she’s all right,’ he said,
for what seemed at least the dozenth time.

‘I’m sure she is. Aunt Lizzie will be
looking after her.’

‘She was really scared about telling Aunt
Lizzie.’

‘Well, she’s got that over with now. I
expect it wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be. Aunt Lizzie’s
not one for making a fuss when it’s no use.’

‘I wish I could see her, just to see if
she’s all right.’

‘I’ll see her tomorrow, and I’ll be able to
tell you how she is.’ She studied David’s anxious expression. ‘I
expect she’s just as worried about you.’

‘Me?’ David said, startled. ‘She doesn’t
need to worry about me! She’s the one with… you know, the baby and
all.’

‘I know. That won’t stop her worrying about
you, though.’

David yawned, and Amy felt the weariness of
her long journey beginning to catch up with her. ‘Time we both went
to bed,’ she said, careful to sound cheerful. ‘I’ve got an
important job to do tomorrow.’

She leaned over to kiss him goodnight, and
let her hand rest on his arm. ‘It’ll be all right, Davie. We’ll
work it out somehow.’

There was a chilly wind the next morning. It
blew stinging rain into Amy’s face as she made her way up the track
to Frank’s house. It was a relief to find herself being ushered
into the warm kitchen, where she was given the seat nearest the
range and a pot of tea was soon set brewing. Beth was nowhere to be
seen.

‘Did you walk over here in this rain?’
Lizzie demanded.

‘No, only from your gate. Dave brought me
that far.’ She saw Lizzie cast a meaning look in Frank’s direction;
he refused to meet her gaze.

Lizzie looked rather tired, but Frank looked
exhausted. He managed to rouse himself to give Amy a brief, tired
smile before his mouth drooped again. She could see that he could
barely keep his eyes open. ‘Sorry you had to walk, Amy,’ he
said.

‘That’s all right, Frank. The exercise will
do me good, with all the sitting around I’ve done lately.’

They managed a stilted conversation over
their cups of tea, with Lizzie asking questions about Auckland that
Amy knew she was not particularly interested in the answers to. As
soon as they had finished, Frank sent the boys outside, telling
them to tidy out some of the sheds while the rain lasted.

‘Can I see Beth?’ Amy asked.

‘Of course you can,’ said Lizzie. ‘Maisie,
go and get her.’

‘She won’t want to come out here,’ Maisie
said, glancing at Frank as she spoke.

‘Never mind that—you tell her I said she’s
to come. Hurry up, girl.’

Frank watched as Maisie left the room. ‘I
don’t blame you for this, Amy,’ he said.

Amy knew he meant well, but she found it
difficult not to jump to her boy’s defence. ‘Perhaps you should,
Frank,’ she said carefully. ‘I brought him up, after all. So I
suppose it’s partly my fault.’

‘That’s just what I’ve been saying about
Beth,’ Lizzie said with more than a hint of satisfaction. ‘I think
I’m as much to blame as anyone. I’m the one who let my daughter
spend all day with a boy, with no one to keep an eye on them.’

‘All right,’ Frank said testily. ‘There’s no
need to go on about blaming.’

‘Well, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell
you,’ said Lizzie. Frank scowled at her; she stared back,
unabashed.

Amy looked up at a slight noise, and saw
Beth in the doorway, with Maisie standing close behind. Beth looked
as if she had just splashed water on her face, but it was still
blotched with red, and her eyes were swollen. She came a few steps
into the room, then stood as if afraid to come any closer. Amy’s
heart went out to her. She got up from the table, crossed to Beth,
and took the girl in her arms.

Beth clung to her, sobbing. Through the
incoherent gulps, Amy could make out ‘I’m sorry,’ but little else.
‘Shh, shh,’ she soothed. ‘It’s all right, Beth. It’ll be all
right.’ It was all she could do to keep from weeping in
sympathy.

Beth calmed herself enough to murmur, ‘Is
Davie all right?’

‘Yes, except for being so worried about
you,’ Amy answered softly. ‘We sat up late last night talking about
it all. I’ll be able to tell him I’ve seen you, so that’s
good.’

‘Tell him I miss him,’ Beth whispered.

‘I will.’ Amy disengaged herself, took Beth
by the hand and led her to the table. ‘Come and see what I’ve got
for you,’ she said, as if promising a tearful child a treat. ‘I
brought you something from Auckland.’

She took the small box from her drawstring
pouch and handed it to Beth. ‘It’s to say thank you for…’ Amy
stopped herself just in time; “Looking after Dave” would be
tactless in front of Frank. ‘For looking after the house and
everything. It’s from Sarah as well—she helped me get it.’

Beth sniffed, wiped a hand across her eyes,
and took the box. She opened it, saw the brooch, and gasped. ‘Oh,
Aunt Amy, it’s lovely! Thank you.’ For a moment she seemed on the
verge of smiling, but instead she dissolved into fresh tears.