Flowers on the Mersey (11 page)

‘That was before I saw one of them standing at the bar in the smoking saloon. He had gone before I could get to him but I’m sure it was the younger one.’ He slid down from his bed. ‘If I find the other one, I’ll have them both clapped in irons.’

Rebekah moistened her lips. ‘You’re being
melodramatic, Papa. We’re not in England now. You can’t just arrest people!’

‘I have influence on this ship,’ he said in a manner that was very convincing.

She threw a look at her mother, who had put down her book and was twisting a long strand of her loosened hair in an agitated manner.

‘Come here, miss.’ Her father’s words were quietly spoken.

To Rebekah they seemed all the more threatening than if he had shouted, and she stayed where she was.

‘Don’t provoke me, Becky,’ he said. ‘I only want to ask you a question and get an honest answer from you.’

‘Adam, don’t you think it’s a bit late—’ began his wife.

‘Don’t interfere,’ muttered her husband, covering the couple of feet that divided him from his daughter. His expression darkened as he seized hold of her arm. He fingered her blouse, which was open at the neck, and pushed her head to one side. He prodded his thumb against her skin. ‘What’s this? And where did you get this thing you’re wearing?’

‘It’s a blouse that Aunt Esther gave me, Papa!’ She attempted to pull away.

‘I know it’s a blouse,’ he whispered. ‘D’you take me for a bloody fool. But what’s the mark on your bloody neck? You look like you’ve been bloody bit.’

‘It was an insect.’ It was the first thing that came into her head.

‘At sea? You wore the blouse for him, I suppose?’ he said in a seething voice, and caught her a blow across the side of her head. ‘Get it off and don’t let me see you wearing it again. It’s cheap and it’s nasty and makes you look common.’

‘It is not cheap,’ said Rebekah, suddenly firing up. ‘It cost Aunt Esther a lot of money!’

‘Esther!’ He seized on the word. ‘It’s her influence that’s caused you to defy me. She’s never liked me.’

‘Can’t this all wait till in the morning?’ said his wife in a trembling voice. ‘You’ll be waking people.’

He stared at her and visibly controlled himself, releasing Rebekah’s arm. ‘You get ready for bed, Sally. She can go to bed too, but she can give me that blouse first. It’s too provocative.’

Rebekah rubbed her arm. ‘What are you going to do with it?’

‘Just give it to me,’ said her father.

She eased her throat. ‘It’s mine. Aunt Esther bought it for me. You’ve no right—’

Adam’s face began to change colour. ‘Don’t tell me I have no rights! Women have got too much to say for themselves these days. Now give me that blouse,’ he thundered.

The colour ebbed from Rebekah’s face and she went behind the bunks and, turning her back on him, took off the blouse. With one hand she reached
under her pillow for her nightdress. Expecting her father to do something at any moment she quickly exchanged one garment for the other before sitting on the pillow.

‘Well, miss?’ he said, ducking his head under the top bunk and thrusting his face close to hers. She drew back hurriedly and pulled her nightgown down over her underwear. He slapped her face. ‘I said, where is it?’

She said nothing, waiting for the next blow. He thumped her on the upper arm, and she would have fallen off the bed if she had not clutched the post that held the bunks together. The patter of bare feet sounded on the floor.

‘Adam, what d’you think you’re doing?’ His wife heaved on his arm. ‘Can’t we talk about this sensibly?’

‘Let go, woman!’ He tried to shrug her off but she hung on grimly and their struggles took them further from Rebekah’s bed. She watched them until they broke apart and began to argue in fierce whispers. She could not make out what they were saying, but hated to see them arguing and slid beneath the bedcovers, pulling them over her head. Eventually, they both fell silent.

With a thumping heart, Rebekah waited for her father to make a move towards her. The bunks creaked. She held her breath for what seemed an age but he did not come. Slowly she relaxed and her fingers gingerly touched the sore part of her arm. It
could have been worse. She supposed it had been stupid not to give him the blouse and she did not really know why she had been so stubborn about hanging on to it. He would not forgive her, nor would he forget that he had seen Shaun.

She fell asleep, only to dream about Trim Castle and escaping the banshee again. She woke with a headache and a nightmare feeling still in her limbs. She tried to rationalise the dream, remembering that outing to Trim Castle again. It was huge and grey, and her father had told her that during the Middle Ages the Anglo-Normans had kept hostages there.

And damsels in distress, she supposed, when knights were bold and their menfolk locked their women in chastity belts! Oh God, she was no longer a virgin! What would her father do to her and Daniel if he knew that? Irish rebels were sometimes hung for treason against the British Empire. In the grip of her dream, her fear of her father’s power was beyond sensible thought or reason.

‘Your father has Joshua Green in mind for you.’

Rebekah stared across the cabin at her mother. It was the next day.

‘He wants you to be comfortable,’ Sarah said earnestly.

‘Joshua Green!’ Rebekah laughed sharply and lifted her gaze from the magazine she was trying her best to read. ‘So he’s acting the Victorian papa! It’s outdated, Mama. This is the twentieth century.’

A look of resignation crossed her mother’s face. ‘You might as well say it’s what my father did, and perhaps if he hadn’t behaved in such a way, we might not have run away the way we did. Believe me, I sometimes wonder whether it was worth it.’

For a moment Rebekah was dumbfounded. She had always believed that her mother thought the world well lost for love. ‘You love Papa!’

‘Love doesn’t pay the rent.’

‘Daniel’s got a job,’ said Rebekah.

Her mother raised her eyebrows. ‘So you’re admitting that the young man you introduced me to is the O’Neill rebel your father mentioned and not Willie Smith?’

Rebekah flushed. ‘Yes!’ she said defiantly.

Her mother groaned. ‘He’s a sailor and of a different faith. You do realise that would mean bringing up children on your own. Catholic children.’

‘At the moment I don’t care about any of that.’

Her mother’s mouth firmed. ‘Well, you should!’ She got up from the bunk. ‘Think! And do the sensible thing before your father does something we’ll all regret.’ She packed up her knitting and left her daughter alone.

Rebekah did not want to think, and hoping that maybe Daniel had got off duty earlier than he had said, she hurried up to the boat deck. She walked up and down, gazing at the single funnel which was almost midship. There was little wind and smoke hung in the sky, its acrid smell tainting the chill salty air. She counted the lifeboats. Daniel had told her that since the sinking of the
Titanic
the safety regulations had changed. Once it had been the ship’s tonnage that decided the number of lifeboats, now it was how many passengers were aboard. She paced the deck several times, exchanging greetings with other people taking the
air, but did not see Daniel. She did not go back to the cabin, though but walked around despite the cold.

It grew misty and she turned up the collar of her coat, hoping that Daniel would not be much longer. He wasn’t.

Rebekah took his arm. ‘Let’s not go to the dance. I’ve got a feeling that Papa might turn up.’

He nodded. ‘We don’t want a confrontation on the dance floor.’

‘Definitely not!’ She shivered at the thought.

He glanced down at her. ‘New York doesn’t mean the end of everything for us. You might want to pretend to play it your father’s way, for safety’s sake. We could give things time. In a few months the fighting could have finished.’

She gripped his hand and said forlornly, ‘I don’t want to play it his way. Anything might happen. I’m prepared to turn round as soon as we get to New York and go back across the Atlantic. I can get a job. I have worked. I can type! We can save up.’ A flush darkened her cheeks. ‘When you dock, I’ll make a home for you. I’m not asking you to marry me. There’s the religious thing, and I’m not
twenty-one
.’

Daniel stared at her, a gleam in his eyes. ‘Just like that, you’d live with me? I can just see me going to confession and saying, “Father, I have sinned by not only falling in love with a
Protestant
girl, but living 
with her as well.” The priest would love that!’

She stared at him and smiled. ‘Would you really say that to the priest? What would he say back?’

‘Never mind. But we couldn’t do it. It’s a mortal sin and so is preventing babies.’

‘But we did it and you said I’ll be all right. We don’t have to have babies until we get married. We could still do it lots of times.’

He grinned. ‘You’re a terrible girl, Becky. We’ll have to wait and get married properly, but I don’t know when.’ He frowned. ‘Your father’s been asking questions in the crew’s quarters.’ He fell silent.

‘And?’

‘He’s offering money for information about two Irish brothers. A couple of the lads know about Shaun. Any time now they’re going to take the money.’

She was scared for him. ‘What do you want to do? Papa’s planning to take over Green’s agency in New York so you’d know where to find me if—’

‘That’s why you had the guided tour?’

‘Yes. Papa’s going to be Joshua Green’s agent. He took me to see his house in Liverpool.’

His eyes flickered over her face. ‘A huge place, is it?’

‘It’s nowhere near a mansion. It’s not as big as the houses in Merrion Square in Dublin. He has a sister living with him. Widowed. She’s a bit – queer. I felt sorry for her.’

‘Who wouldn’t.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘It doesn’t matter. Green and I were on the same ship once, that’s all. It was torpedoed.’

‘And?’

‘It has nothing to do with now,’ he said softly. ‘Can you hear the music? Shall we dance here on deck?’

‘I can’t.’

‘I’ll teach you.’

She wanted to ask more about Joshua Green but was wise enough to know he did not want to talk. She wanted to go on about marrying but knew that would have to wait too. She gave herself up to the moment.

Despite the cold and the mist which had thickened she enjoyed learning to dance with him as teacher. Everything seemed unreal, including the mournful sound of a foghorn in the distance. They were so wrapped up in each other that at first the footsteps coming in their direction did not register. As they drew closer she opened her eyes and looked over Daniel’s shoulder. Instantly she recognised the shadowy figure behind. ‘It’s Papa,’ she said through lips that quivered.

Daniel looked down at her and for a moment his hands held her tightly. ‘It’s all right! Don’t look so scared. It’s happened now. There’s nothing we can do.’ He dropped his arms and they turned around.

For a moment nothing was said. Then her father addressed Rebekah. ‘Your mother’s in the cabin. You can go there.’

She shook her head. ‘No. I want to hear what you say to Daniel.’

Her father’s expression seemed to set like stone. ‘You will do as you are told,’ he said, stressing every word. ‘I told you to have nothing to do with this man.’

‘Papa, I’m nearly twenty. I’m not a child to be ordered around.’ Her voice shook with sudden anger. ‘The world has changed since the war. Women—’

‘I don’t want a lecture on emancipation.’ A tic twitched his left eye and his fists clenched. ‘This man’s a traitor and a murderer, and you’ll do as I tell you.’

‘He is not a murderer!’ she said hotly. ‘Just because his brothers – You judge him without knowing him!’

‘I don’t have to know him!’ Her father’s voice rose. ‘You’re talking to a man who belongs to an organisation that wears a mask to cover up its activities! So get away from him and go to your mother!’

She tilted her chin. ‘No.’

Daniel spoke. ‘Becky, go.’

She looked at him but before she could speak or move, her father’s hand shot out. The force of the blow knocked her head back against Daniel’s shoulder. ‘I will not have you speak to me like that!’
Her father’s whole body seemed to loom larger with uncontrollable rage.

Daniel steadied her. ‘Don’t you ever hit her again!’ His voice shook with fury.

‘Don’t you tell me what to do with my own daughter, you filthy rebel.’ Her father’s fists clenched.

‘Papa, please!’ Rebekah held a hand to her head in an attempt to stop it spinning. ‘I’ll stop seeing him. Just don’t hurt him.’

‘Hurt me!’ cried Daniel, putting her on one side. ‘It’s me that’ll bloody hurt him. Hitting you! He’s a coward!’

‘I’m no coward, you turf hopper!’ Her father swung his arm.

Daniel easily parried the blow before lunging forward and catching him a punch on the chest. ‘You’re a bully. One of Green’s yes men!’

Her father staggered slightly before making a recovery and coming forward with surprising speed. ‘I’ll have you know, boy, that I have shares in the company,’ he panted. ‘I’m one of the bosses. I’ll have you fired! I’ll see you never work again!’

Daniel was so surprised that he dropped his guard slightly and was caught a clout across the mouth. He began to bleed.

Now the two men grappled with each other, trying to throw each other off balance. Her father caught Daniel a vicious kick in the shins and he stumbled backwards. The blood from the blow on his lip was
running down his chin. He prevented himself from falling and ran at the older man with his head down. Her father doubled over but soon straightened up to ram his fist at Daniel’s mouth again. More blood!

Rebekah screamed. She had had enough. ‘Stop it! Stop it!’ She jumped on her father’s back but he flung her off. Daniel’s fist caught him on the jaw.

She drew back, her heart pounding. She would get Mama! She would stop Papa before either of them did each other a real injury.

She fled along the deck, only vaguely aware of a flurry of whistles blowing somewhere nearby. A foghorn sounded, then came what seemed to be an answering blast of sound. Her hands shook as she sought to open the cabin door but her fingers were shaking so much that it took her longer than usual.

At last it opened. ‘Mama!’ she cried. ‘Come quickly!’

Her mother’s pale face stared at her from the bunk. Rebekah took a few steps forward. ‘Mama?’ The eyes were red-ringed, as if she had been crying. Suddenly they widened as there was a noise like an explosion and then a dull, roaring sound. The whole ship seemed to shake. Next came a tearing and rending, a crunching and rippling noise. Rebekah wanted to call out but was abruptly flung to the floor. Her bunk crashed down on her. A dark object came through the side of the ship and crushed her parents’ bunk beds against the wall.