The Girl with the Creel (11 page)

Chapter Six

In a well-furnished, very comfortable room in East Church Street, George Buchan was deliberating on what he should do. He had loved Katie once – he had given Lizann up because of that love – but he had been utterly disillusioned and couldn't trust her any more. It wasn't so much the discovery of what she had done – the men she'd been with – it was her not telling him before their wedding that he couldn't forgive. Worse, she wouldn't have told him at all if old chickens hadn't come home to roost and it had been forced out of her, bit by gut-twisting bit.

Remembering that last sickening revelation, and how it had come about, George felt the same disgust that had made him tell her, as he stormed out, that the next time she heard from him would be through a solicitor. It had been said in the throes of a white-hot anger, but even after two weeks spent trying to cool down in his mother's house, he still hadn't changed his mind. He had come to Buckie on an impulse, purely to satisfy himself that Lizann was happily married and never dreaming that she was still single; now all it needed was for Katie to divorce him and he could marry the girl he should have married in the first place. Only … could he be sure that Katie would agree to divorce him if he just asked politely? If Lizann had only … maybe he should look for a girl who'd be willing to go to a hotel so he could give his wife grounds?

After racking his brain half the night for another way out, he could think of nothing, and went down to breakfast still preoccupied.

‘Is something bothering you, m'loon?' his landlady asked in concern when he pushed back his chair. ‘You've hardly eaten a thing.'

He hadn't meant to confide in anybody, but, even though she'd never had any children, she was such a motherly person that he found himself telling her. He had expected her to condemn him, but she bobbed her head knowingly. ‘You've loved this other lassie for a while? Maybe before you married your wife? Maybe you were torn between them?'

Amazed at her perception, he mumbled, ‘I suppose I was.'

‘And you chose the wrong one?'

‘It turned out that way.'

He told her now how he had met Lizann and how they had fallen in love, and Mrs Clark – a small, jolly woman with white hair in a softly-styled bun at the nape of her neck – listened with an occasional nod and one slightly disapproving shake of her head. Then he told her shame-facedly what he had asked Lizann to do, adding, ‘But she wouldn't.'

‘Nor would any decent girl!' his landlady declared. ‘And you should be right pleased she wouldn't. So … what are you planning to do now?'

‘Goodness knows!' George said, morosely. ‘I was going to tell Katie I wanted to marry Lizann, then I wondered if I should find some girl that would come to a hotel with me and …'

The old woman clicked her tongue disapprovingly. ‘No, that wouldn't be very wise. You'd maybe find you've started something.'

George lifted his shoulders expressively and let them sag again. ‘I didn't really like the idea, anyway.'

Her brow wrinkling in thought, Mrs Clark poured his cold tea into a slop bowl and filled his cup again, and her own. ‘You know, George,' she observed after a quick sip, ‘maybe you'll not believe this, but I wed the wrong man, and all.'

‘You?' he gasped, taking an absent-minded mouthful himself.

She smiled a little sadly. ‘It's too long a story, but I know what it feels like to be parted from the one you love. Now, if you're sure you don't want anything to eat …?'

He shook his head and watched her piling the dirty crockery on to a tray then disappearing into her tiny scullery. His mind returned to his problem. If Lizann wasn't such a … no, he was glad she had strong morals … but if she hadn't, he could maybe have rented a furnished room and persuaded her to move in with him.

His pain-laden heart gave a tentative jump. Lizann would definitely turn down the idea, but if he told Katie they were living together, she might believe it. Surely that would make her give him up … and if he could make the correspondence official, a letter from a law firm, say, it would give even more weight to the lie.

When Mrs Clark appeared again he asked if there were any solicitors in Buckie, and she gave him the name and address of the man who had conducted her late husband's business.

George was very much taken aback when he was ushered in to see the solicitor. Mr Sandison was a thin, balding Englishman, who looked, and talked, as if he had a marble in his mouth, but he could not have been more helpful. After hearing what George had to say, he put the tips of his long thin fingers together. ‘You refuse to name the girl you are living with?' At George's stubborn nod, he continued, ‘That will make it rather more difficult, but … hmm … can you supply any proof?'

This was what George had feared. ‘I'm afraid not.'

Mr Sandison thought for a moment, then said, ‘Would anyone else be prepared to swear to it?'

Knowing that Lizann would refuse, George remembered how sympathetic Mrs Clark had been, and, thankful that he hadn't told the solicitor where and when the ‘adultery' had taken place, he decided to jump in with both feet. ‘Would my landlady do?'

‘I would require her to sign an affidavit to the effect that the girl is sleeping in the same room as you.'

George's heart sank. He knew that Mrs Clark was a staunch member of the kirk, so it would be against her principles to perjure herself, but she was his only hope. ‘I'll ask her and see what she says.'

‘The sooner you get that done, the sooner I can set things in motion.' Mr Sandison smiled reassuringly.

George hurried back to East Church Street with little hope. ‘It's the only way I'll be able to marry Lizann,' he said, sadly, after telling Mrs Clark what he required of her.

‘You're asking me to sin my soul?' she asked, looking at him with her eyebrows raised. ‘I'm not saying I won't do it,' she continued, hastily, when his face fell, ‘but I'll need to know all the outs and ins. For a start, you didn't tell me exactly why you left your wife.'

George heaved a long sigh. ‘I found her out in something …'

‘What something?' she persisted.

He hadn't wanted to blacken Katie's character, but he owed Mrs Clark some explanation and gave her only a watered-down version of the truth.

‘She'd been taking up with … other men … she even got rid of a baby …'

‘Did she try to make you think it was yours?'

‘No, no! It all happened long before we were even keeping company.'

‘And you couldn't forgive her?' she asked in surprise. ‘You likely hadn't been lily-white yourself.'

Having made love to several girls in the years before Lizann, George blustered. ‘It's different for a man.' As soon as he said it, he was sure it would set his landlady against him, but he needn't have worried. In Mrs Clark's world, it had always been different for a man.

‘And what about Lizann?' she asked. ‘How do you know she's not keeping secrets from you? She could have had men before, and all.'

‘No!' George burst out. ‘She was a virgin when I …' He stopped, his face scarlet.

Mrs Clark's mouth lifted slightly at the corners. ‘And did you tell Katie about that?'

‘I did tell her … after a while, but she wouldn't have told me a thing if I hadn't found out she'd given all our savings to somebody that was blackmailing her. That's why I got so angry … the underhandedness …'

‘Aye, I can understand that.' She got to her feet purposefully. ‘Now, what's this thing Mr Sandison wants me to sign?'

George was astounded that she was agreeing after what he had told her. ‘You've to make a statement that I've been sleeping with Lizann in your house. That's to get proof of adultery.'

‘Just one thing, George. Wouldn't it be easier if you divorced Katie?'

‘I don't know if I could, seeing she wasn't my wife when she … anyway, I couldn't shame her like that.'

‘Well, I'll give you credit for that. I'll get my coat and hat.'

On the way to the solicitor's office, Mrs Clark said, ‘How long are you and your Lizann supposed to have been …?'

‘We'd better make it … two weeks?'

The affidavit drawn up and duly signed, Mr Sandison said, ‘I shall post this to your wife, Mr Buchan, and she can take it to her solicitor and ask him to instigate divorce proceedings against you. The Court of Session in Edinburgh will then serve you with a notice detailing your misdemeanours and giving you the date on which the case will be held and you and your witness will have to appear in court.'

Mrs Clark looked alarmed. ‘Oh my, don't tell me I'll have to stand up in a court in front of …?'

‘You may not have to. They may consider your affidavit sufficient.'

‘What if Katie won't divorce me?' George asked.

‘Then I'm afraid there is nothing more you can do … unless you can find her out in something?'

George's face tightened. He had already found her out in too much. ‘No, there's nothing like that.'

Outside, Mrs Clark said, ‘I hope I don't have to go. I don't think I could tell a barefaced lie to a judge.'

‘Mr Sandison didn't seem to think they'd need you,' George muttered, uncertain now if he had done the right thing. Maybe he should have got hold of some girl who would be willing to do the needful. Sordid it might have been, but it would have been above board.

Having brooded about it all day, it was the first thing Lizann asked George when she met him that evening. ‘Did you write to Katie?'

Positive that she would be annoyed if he admitted what he had really done, he nodded. ‘I posted it this afternoon.'

‘Did you say … what you said you were going to say?'

‘I just said I wanted to marry you and asked her to divorce me.'

‘Will that be enough?'

‘We'll have to wait and see.'

Wanting to avoid the temptation that could arise if they went out along the Arradoul road again, Lizann took him back past the Yardie and through one of the lanes which led down to the old Buckpool harbour and the shore. They would be in full view of the rear windows of all the houses on that side of Main Street, but it couldn't be helped. She grew uneasy when George stopped to kiss her and hurried him past the back of the Taits' house, praying that Peter wouldn't be looking out of his bedroom.

‘Have you told your mother about me?' George asked, after a while.

‘I said I was going out with a boy I knew at school.'

‘You'll have to tell her the truth some time.'

‘We'll tell her together, when Katie divorces you.'

‘What if she doesn't?'

‘Would you go back to her?' This was Lizann's main fear.

‘Never! You're the only one I love now.'

After a thoughtful silence, Lizann murmured, ‘I couldn't let you go again. If she doesn't let you free, would you … would you take me away somewhere with you?'

Pulling her closely against him, he said, ‘You'd leave your mother and father … for me?'

‘If I have to, but … I hope it doesn't come to that.'

‘No, it'll never come to that,' he declared. ‘Katie knows I'm through with her, and she'll not be difficult.'

‘I wish I'd met you before I was going with Peter.'

‘Aye,' he said, ruefully. ‘I'd never have got married if you hadn't been promised to him … though I did love Katie. I can't deny that.'

‘I loved Peter and all. Oh, George, what a mess we're in.'

‘It'll sort itself out, and when we're married we can look back and laugh about all this.'

‘I don't feel like laughing right now.'

‘Neither do I. I'd like to let everybody know how much I love you, and I can't even kiss you the way I want to.'

‘How long will it be till Katie tells you, one way or the other?'

‘Not long, I shouldn't think.'

They stopped again to kiss, then Lizann whispered, ‘You said you'd taken lodgings for a week. Will you go back to Cullen after that?'

‘I can't hang about here. I need to earn some money, so I'll have to find a berth, and I've more chance of that where they all know me.'

‘Peggy May said you'd a boat of your own?'

‘It was needing repairs I couldn't afford, so I sold it for scrap.' He didn't tell her, as he had told Mrs Clark, that his wife had cleared out their bank account. Katie had been too scared to let him know she was being blackmailed, though if she had confessed her past to him before, that evil devil wouldn't have had anything to hold over her.

Watching the expressions on George's face, Lizann guessed that there was something he wasn't telling her but, presuming he had bought a boat that wasn't sea-worthy and was ashamed to admit how gullible he'd been, she didn't ask. Instead, she turned her questions again to the chances of their getting married.

Approaching the Yardie, George said, ‘We've only four nights left, so we should stop worrying about things we can do nothing about.'

‘You'll tell me when you hear from Katie, though?'

‘The minute I get a letter.'

‘What if it's not good news?'

‘It has to be good!' He squeezed her arm, thinking she wouldn't want him to kiss her so near to her house. ‘Tomorrow, same time?'

‘Same time.' She waited until he was out of sight before she went in, and when her mother asked if she'd been out with George Buchan again she tried to sound happier than she felt. ‘Aye, we walked along the shore.'

Her spirits lifted when she was in bed. George had sounded so sure that Katie would let him go, and though she would miss him when he went home, it wouldn't be long till he came back … to marry her!

Peter lay back against his pillow, the muscles of his stomach taut with jealousy. Lizann had been with another man! He hadn't been sure it was her at first, hadn't wanted to believe it was her, and it wasn't until they were level with his bedroom window that his gut had twisted with recognition. Despite this, he had watched them stopping as lovers do to kiss occasionally and walk on, craning his neck until he could see them no longer and then waiting until they came past again on their way back. But who had she been with? The Cullen man was safely married now, so it couldn't be him. It must be somebody local … but who?