Father Unknown (11 page)

‘Hello, Mum,’ Josie said nervously. ‘How’s grandma?’

‘Very sick,’ Mum said tersely. ‘And this is your Uncle Brian. I had to ask him to drive me over and get you, because it was clear to me you need supervision.’

‘Violet, they’ve both been fine,’ Dad said, his voice tight with anger. ‘They broke up from school today and it’s hot. Why shouldn’t they go swimming?’

‘Upstairs now.’ Violet pointed to the stairs and kept her hand up as if intending to clout them both as they passed her. ‘Get your clothes together, Josie, we’ll be leaving in a few minutes. I’ve kept Brian waiting for long enough.’

Upstairs the girls wriggled out of their wet swimming costumes and into their clothes. ‘I can’t go with her, I’ll just die there,’ Josie whispered. ‘What shall I do?’

Ellen was horrified too. They had their new job to start on Monday, and there were all the other plans they’d made. She couldn’t bear the thought of being separated, but it would be much worse for Josie.

‘I’ll try and get Dad to stop her,’ Ellen said hurriedly.

But as they went back downstairs again, Ellen realized that Mum and her brother had already been here for some time, and that their dad had already told Mum about the job, because she began ranting about it.

‘No daughter of mine is going to work in a beach kiosk,’ she shouted. ‘Whatever are you thinking of, Albert? Her place is with her mother and grandmother.’

‘Don’t make her go.’ Ellen was so anxious she forgot Violet hated the sound of her voice. ‘She’ll be miserable in Helston and there’s nothing wrong with working at the beach. Most of the other people working there are students.’

‘Miserable with her mother?’ Violet screeched, her usually pallid face flushed with anger. ‘I’m giving her a chance to meet her real relatives, her aunts, uncles and cousins. You might be happy to spend the rest of your life mucking out cow sheds like your father, but I have much bigger plans for
my
daughter.’

‘Josie’s my daughter too and I say she stays here where she belongs,’ Albert snapped at her. ‘Your bloody relatives in Helston have never given a damn about you, why should they suddenly care about Josie?’ He caught hold of both the girls’ arms and bundled them outside, telling them to make themselves scarce.

‘Look here, woman,’ he shouted as he went back in, ‘I know what this is all about. You want to parade Josie round like a prize trophy, I expect she’s the first real beauty ever to enter your bloody family. Well, you aren’t going to make her miserable doing that. Or turn her head with all that praise. Get on back to your bloody mother, get whatever kicks you can out of being her nurse, but I’ll be buggered if Josie’s got to watch it.’

The two girls clung to each other outside, both scared now, for when their father was angry enough to string more than a few words together, he could do anything.

‘Violet has a right to have her daughter with her,’ Brian chimed in, his tone measured as if trying to calm down his sister and brother-in-law.

‘You stay out of this,’ Albert warned him. ‘I say Josie stays here, so get in that car and go.’

‘I don’t trust you with Josie,’ Violet suddenly yelled out. ‘I wouldn’t put it past you to interfere with her.’

‘What did you say?’ Albert roared out, and the girls clung even tighter to each other, looking at the door of the house expecting to see a body come flying out of it. ‘I always knew you were a dirty-minded cow, but that’s sickening. Get out now!’

The girls ran for the woods behind the house, but from behind them they heard the sharp crack of a slap. Violet screamed, then they heard what sounded like the two men fighting for there were crashing noises as if furniture was being overturned.

‘What am I going to do?’ Josie asked. Her face drained of all colour.

‘I don’t know,’ Ellen replied. Her father was so strong she was afraid he would seriously hurt Violet’s brother, and that might lead to criminal charges. Yet what had really thrown her was her stepmother saying she wouldn’t put it past Dad to interfere with Josie. She knew exactly what that meant – only a few months ago a man from Padstow had been sent to prison for raping his daughter, and everyone in the neighbourhood had talked about it for weeks.

‘Would Dad really do that to me?’ Josie asked pitifully, beginning to cry.

‘Of course he wouldn’t,’ Ellen retorted. ‘She just wants to get her brother on her side. She deserves a good thumping for being so evil.’

Josie didn’t reply, but began to walk back towards the farmhouse, leaving Ellen all too aware that she’d lost all the new ground she’d made with her sister in the past few weeks, and once again her wretched stepmother had triumphed by pushing a wedge between them.

Ellen stayed in the woods for a few more minutes, wishing she hadn’t spoken out. Then, realizing her father might need someone on his side, she went back too.

Uncle Brian was slumped in one of the chairs outside the house, holding a bloody handkerchief to his mouth. There was no sign of Dad, but she could hear Josie and Mum opening and closing drawers upstairs.

Horrified, Ellen ran over to the barn and found her father sitting on a box, nursing bruised knuckles. ‘Is she leaving you for good?’ Ellen asked. While she was only too glad to see the back of her stepmother, she didn’t feel the same way about Josie.

‘I couldn’t be that lucky,’ he said dourly. ‘She’ll be back, but she’ll have ruined Josie by then.’

‘Don’t let her take her,’ Ellen implored him.

He looked up at her with troubled dark eyes. ‘I can’t stop her,’ he said, his voice cracking. ‘I tried to, but by bringing her brother here and making me mad enough to hit both of them, I’ve hung myself.’

Ellen realized he meant that if her stepmother did take legal proceedings, the law would be on her side. ‘Please go and speak to Josie before Mum takes her away,’ she pleaded. ‘Don’t let her go thinking you don’t care.’

When he didn’t move or speak, Ellen took that as a refusal and she turned and left the barn. Her stepmother was putting some bags into the boot of the car, her brother was already in the driving seat and Josie was just coming out of the house, her face streaked with tears.

‘Dad and I don’t want you to go,’ Ellen said, catching hold of both her sister’s arms. ‘We want you here.’

Josie pulled away from her. ‘Don’t make it any worse,’ she said, sniffing and rubbing her eyes.

‘Get in the car, Josie,’ her mother called out.

‘Don’t hate Dad and me for this,’ Ellen said in a whisper, not wanting her stepmother to hear. ‘Remember what we promised each other today, that we wouldn’t let her come between us any more.’

Josie just shrugged. Ellen couldn’t tell if that was agreement or her way of saying she didn’t care any more. She got in the back of the grey car and it roared off up the track. She didn’t even turn to wave.

Chapter Five

As Albert came into the kitchen for his breakfast, Ellen put the bacon and eggs she’d cooked for him on the table.

‘Where’s yours? he asked.

‘I’m not hungry,’ she said. ‘I’ll just have a cup of tea.’

It was early August. Josie had been gone for two weeks now, and as it promised to be another hot, sunny day Ellen knew it would be very busy down at the beach kiosk.

‘What’s up?’ Albert asked. He thought his daughter looked a bit peaky and she usually ate a hearty breakfast. ‘Don’t like the job?’

‘The job’s fine,’ she said, but her voice held the weariness she felt. ‘I’m just missing Josie, that’s all.’

She half expected him to snap at her, but he didn’t. ‘Me too, the place isn’t the same without her,’ he said, glancing at the empty chair. ‘I’d feel better if I knew she was enjoying herself, but Helston’s not much of a place, and her mother will keep on at her.’

Albert got on with his breakfast and Ellen poured them both a cup of tea. It was in the evenings that she missed Josie the most, they seemed so long and lonely. She did chores to fill the time, but when she saw Josie’s empty bed before she went to sleep she often felt like crying.

‘Will Mum bring her back when school starts again?’ she asked.

Albert mopped up the egg yolk with a slice of bread. ‘I reckon that will depend on which place gives her the better deal.’

‘What do you mean by a better deal?’

Albert sniffed. ‘Vi’s one of those people who don’t go much on loyalty, duty or even love. She looks out for herself. Always has.’

‘But you must have loved each other when you got married,’ Ellen said.

He didn’t answer for a moment or two, and Ellen could see he was mulling over the question in his mind. Eventually he looked at her. ‘I guess you’re old enough to know the truth. She just turned up here when your mother died, looking for the main chance,’ he said bitterly. ‘I scarcely knew her; she was just a barmaid in the pub in Falmouth. She said she’d got to worrying about how I was going to cope with you and the farm.’ He paused for a moment and took a gulp of tea. ‘I weren’t coping, I hardly knew what time of day it was, so I let her feed and change you, clean the house and that. She stayed, gave up her job, just moved in on me.’

This was a surprise to Ellen. Despite her father’s coldness to Violet, the closeness in her age and Josie’s made her suppose it must have been a love match at the beginning. ‘But why did you let her stay?’ she asked.

He grimaced. ‘I hope’s you never get in a position that you understand that one,’ he said. ‘I was mad with grief; your mother meant everything in the world to me, you see. I didn’t care much whether I lived or died, or if the farm failed. But you were here, fourteen months old, just starting to walk. However bad I felt, I knew you’d got to be taken care of.’

‘So she stayed for me?’

He half smiled at that question. ‘I liked to think she did back then, heaven knows I gave her no reason to think I wanted her. But it was the farm and security she was after. You see, it was spring when she came here first, I guess she looked around, saw how pretty it was, and thought she’d fallen on her feet. I was a fool letting her into my bed, can’t think now what got into me, next thing I know she’s expecting Josie.’

Ellen was embarrassed to think of her father having sex, and also shocked because he was usually a very moral man. ‘So you had to marry her then?’

‘Had to, it was the proper thing to do,’ he said gloomily. ‘I couldn’t kick her out carrying my babby, and I was beholden to her for taking care of you.’

‘Oh Dad,’ Ellen sighed, feeling a little responsible herself. ‘But what kind of “deal” might she find in Helston? I don’t know what you mean.’

‘I reckon she thinks her family will see her right,’ he said with a tight little laugh. ‘All her brothers and sisters have done all right for theyselves. That Brian, he’s got his own business, he owns property; one of her sisters is married to a doctor. But none of them wants to look after their mother, and Vi was the answer to their prayers, I reckon. You can bet when she got there she laid it on thick about missing Josie, and that’s why Brian drove her over here to get her. He saw me at my worst.’

To Ellen’s knowledge, Brian had never met her father until that day, so he must have been shocked at the violent scene that ensued. ‘So you think she might play on her brothers’ and sisters’ sympathy about that?’

‘I expect she’s already told ‘em I was a bad ‘un.’ He grinned sheepishly. ‘Now they’s going to believe it, and maybe they think Josie’s in danger from me an’ all. So one of ‘em’s bound to take her in.’

All at once Ellen could see what he was getting at, and it made her see red. It was despicable that a mother should imply that her husband had interfered with her daughter or that Josie was unloved, just so she could get what she wanted.

Ellen didn’t much care about adults gossiping about her father, but she did care about the effect it would have on Josie. If those relatives of hers started fussing around her, buying her nice clothes, giving her treats, maybe she’d even start to believe her mother’s claims.

‘Surely you can’t just let her get away with it?’ she asked.

Albert made a hopeless gesture with his hands. ‘I can’t do nought. Vi won’t give Josie any letters from you or me. If I went there they wouldn’t let me get near her. If I tried to get her back through the courts, I’d lose. Everything’s stacked against me.’

‘I can’t really believe Josie will forget us that easily,’ Ellen said hopefully.

‘Don’t bank on that, me handsome,’ he said getting up from the table. ‘She’s her ma’s daughter in many ways. She don’t love the farm like you do, and she’s been taught from a babby that I’ve got no time for her. But you’d better hurry along now or you’ll be late for your job. I’ll clear up here.’

Ellen got up from the table and went over to her father, putting her arms around him and leaning into his chest. She knew now he did love Josie, because she could see he was every bit as sad as she was and blaming himself for how things had turned out. She wished she could tell him she loved him, but she knew he was always embarrassed by what he called ‘slop’.

He hugged her tightly, then nudged her away from him. ‘Off to work now, it’s payday, isn’t it?’

Ellen nodded.

‘Well, spend it all on yerself,’ he suggested. ‘It’s about time you had a few treats. Don’t rush home to get my dinner either. Get yerself out with yer friends, maybe go to the pictures.’

When Ellen went into her bedroom to get a cardigan, she stopped for a moment and picked up the picture of her and Josie which she kept by her bed. It was a very old one, she was eight, Josie six, but it was a special one, for a real photographer had taken it for the local newspaper. He had called with a journalist in the summer of 1955 because they were doing an article about local farmers. The photographer had said how pretty she and Josie were and asked to take their picture. He sent them each a copy of it later.

To Ellen it was a happy memory of the time before she knew about her real mother, when her world was just the farm and her family. But looking at it now, alone without Josie, she felt an unbearable pang of sorrow. She sensed that this separation was going to change them both, and nothing would ever be the same again.

It was very busy in the kiosk that day. The other girl who usually worked with Ellen hadn’t shown up, and Swanpool beach was more crowded than she’d ever seen it. As Ellen served a continual stream of customers with ice-creams and trays of tea, she was glad to have something to take her mind off Josie and her mother.