The Nickum (12 page)

He could sense her awareness of him sometimes, when he had done especially well in writing a composition, or solved a difficult mathematical problem. Her father, the dominie, was likewise appreciative of his efforts, although Willie himself didn’t know that the other two teachers had expressed, in the staff room, their astonishment at the progress William Fowlie was making, whereas they had got nowhere with him at all.

So the term wore on, Willie making the initial advance one afternoon by offering to accompany Millie home as it was on his way. This led to vicious teasing from the other boys, who started to shout, ‘Millie and Willie, they’re both really silly.’ One wag then started to repeat a jingle his mother had repeated once or twice to him, something that she’d heard when she was at school herself, strangely enough.

He couldn’t remember all of it, but it ended, ‘… the silly scent Willie sent Millicent.’ This was taken up by all the boys in the Qualifying Class, as it was called, the qualification being the entry to the Academy.

Not one whit annoyed by this, Willie would take hold of the girl’s hand and say, in his lately acquired perfect English, ‘Don’t heed them, Millie, they’re just big babies.’ Getting no response, the tormentors soon gave up, and the young pair were left to walk in peace, discussing the things that held their interest, things they hated, things they wanted to do when they grew up, but never doing what he wanted to do. He couldn’t pluck up the courage to kiss her, or even to ask if he could kiss her.

Emily could not understand why Willie had changed so suddenly. It had started just after he returned to school, so could it be that the new dominie had got through to the little demon? That was the only explanation she could think of, and it didn’t seem very likely to her. She wasn’t complaining, though. At least she didn’t have to be constantly on the boy’s top for misbehaving.

The surprise came about seven weeks before the summer holidays were due. She answered a knock on the door late one afternoon to find a tall man on the doorstep. Cleanshaven, wearing a neat navy suit with a felt hat jauntily on the side of his head, his bright blue eyes twinkled at her. ‘Mrs Fowlie?’

‘Yes?’

‘I’m Herbert Meldrum …’

‘The dominie?’ she gasped, overwhelmed by the honour.

‘That’s right. May I come in? I have something to talk over with you.’

‘Oh, sorry, I should have thought. Yes, please come in. I hope Willie hasn’t been up to his old mischief?’

‘Old mischief? Indeed no, he is a model pupil.’

Unable to believe her ears, and flustered to be talking to such a personage in her own home, she tried to smile. ‘If you’re here to tell me he doesn’t pay attention to his lessons, I know what like he is.’

‘No, it’s not that, either. Just the opposite, in fact. Please let me explain. He is top of his class at the moment, a place fought over between him and my daughter, and he should find entry to the Academy a walk-over. As far as I am concerned, I am in the fortunate position of being able to meet any expenses which may occur for my daughter, but I wanted to find out how you and your goodman are placed.’

‘Well, sir, Jake’s just a farm labourer, working hard to make a living. We’d never be able to send Willie to the Academy.’

‘Yes, that is what I expected, but I feel it would be a terrible mistake to waste such a brain …’ He held up his hand to stop her interrupting. ‘There is a way round this, Mrs Fowlie. Bursaries are available for children in this situation. There is an examination to pass, of course, but William is more than capable of that. The money involved doesn’t amount to much, but it is meant to help parents to provide whatever is needed for the Academy, uniform and books, for example. This is not a charity,’ he hastened to make it clear. ‘William will have earned it. Now, shall I leave you to discuss it with your husband?’

‘Yes, please. I’d rather Jake heard about it.’

‘Of course. I shall leave this form with you, if you will return it to me as soon as you decide what to do. If you agree, both your signatures are needed, and I can fill in the other information requested and send it off.’

He lifted his hat from the table and set it on his grizzled hair. ‘Thank you for hearing me out, Mrs Fowlie, and please stress to your husband that the boy’s talents must be recognised. Good day to you.’

Emily plumped down in her chair when she had seen him out. This was something she had never expected – never in her wildest dreams. Willie had always been such a lackadaisical scholar. In fact it would have taken an exaggeration of the mightiest form to even describe him as a scholar at all with his offhand attitude. What could have happened to change him?

At suppertime, when Jake was told about the momentous decision they had to make, he was as flabbergasted as she was. ‘But the man must be muddling Willie up wi’ somebody else,’ he declared, shaking his balding head. ‘He was bottom o’ his class as often as no’, an’ bairns dinna …’ He stopped to think of the word he wanted, but it was Connie who supplied it.

‘Metamorphose, Dad. It means change into something better.’

‘Aye, that’s what I meant. Bairns dinna metafose like that.’

‘It must be Mr Meldrum that made Willie change for the better, Jake. He must be a better teacher than the last dominie.’

‘That’s why they made him a dominie,’ Connie laughed. ‘Just sign that form and send it back. If there’s been a mistake, Willie’ll not pass the exam and that’ll be the finish of it. Now dish up the supper, ’cos I’m meeting Gordie at half seven, and I need to wash and dress.’

‘Tell Willie to come down for his supper,’ Emily told her. She addressed her husband again. ‘So will we just sign this form? I want to know before Willie comes down.’

‘What d’you think?’ he hedged.

‘I think we should. Like the dominie said, it would be a shame to waste a good brain. But we’d better not tell him yet.’

‘Good idea.’

It was only two weeks later, however, that their son was to learn the news for himself. He and Millie were walking home, slowly so that they could talk, when she said, ‘I’m quite excited about going to the Academy after the holidays.’

Willie’s heart plunged to somewhere just above his feet. They had not long got to know each other and they were going to be separated, but he couldn’t let her know how he felt. It was his own fault for not paying attention to his schooling before. Now he thought about it, though, he wouldn’t have been going there anyway. His father wouldn’t be able to afford it. Connie had been quite clever, according to what he’d heard, and she’d never got the chance. ‘You’ll do well there, Millie,’ he murmured, trying to sound as cheery as he could.

‘So’ll you,’ she laughed.

‘But I won’t be going.’

‘Of course you’re going. Father’s got back the reply to the forms he sent in. Four of us in our class have been accepted for entry in August. I don’t have to sit the test for a grant, but the rest of you have.’

‘No, Millie, my dad can’t afford to send me.’

‘Well, the grant – no, it’s called a bursary – would help to pay for so much, and I’m telling you you’ll be going, but you can ask my dad if you don’t believe me.’ She flounced up her garden path, leaving the forlorn Willie standing alone.

When he got home, he went up to his room as usual to do his home lessons, but couldn’t concentrate for thinking over what Millie had said. She couldn’t know anything about how poor farm workers were, when her father must be making about ten times what his dad got for much harder work. She got everything she wanted, while he had to be content with what was handed to him. It would be truly wonderful if what she said was true, though. He’d be able to go with her on the bus, and they’d come back together. They would grow up together, for they’d have to stay on until they were about seventeen or eighteen.

He grinned at this prospect. Fancy him wanting to stay on at school until he was seventeen or eighteen. At one time, he’d been horrified to think he couldn’t leave until he was fourteen. It just showed you. The coming of one new girl to the area had changed his whole life. He was really too young to think of love, but he knew deep down that Millie was the only one for him.

‘Supper!’ His mother’s voice brought him out of his romantic reverie, and he jumped up to obey the summons. When they were all four seated at the table, Emily took an envelope out of her pocket. ‘Jake, I want you to read that till I dish up.’

Willie did notice that she looked brighter than usual, no sign of the scrubbing and cooking and washing and ironing she had likely been doing all day, but he put it down to the weather. It had been the first really sunny, warm day for ages.

Looking up after a few minutes – for he was a slow reader – Jake said, ‘Well, will I tell him or you?’

Willie shifted his spoon a fraction. ‘If it’s about me going to the Academy, I know I can’t go.’

‘Ah, my lad, but that’s where you’re wrong,’ his father grinned.

‘But you can’t afford … Connie couldn’t go, nor Becky.’

‘Things have changed since that time,’ Emily smiled. ‘Mr Meldrum said you would just need to pass a test and you’d be in. And that’s a letter of—’ She lifted it to make sure of the word. ‘A letter of confirmation. You’re accepted on condition that you pass this test. Mr Meldrum says there’s three of you having to try, so he’ll drive you to the Education Office in Aberdeen – that’s the County Office – and bring you back when you’re finished, in about an hour. He’s a real gentleman.’

The information overwhelmed the boy, tears welling up in his eyes at the thought of such generosity, and his sister gave him a dig in the ribs. ‘I don’t suppose it’s anything unusual. Mr Meldrum’ll likely get judged on how many passes he gets.’

‘No,’ Jake said, trying to be fair and not wanting his son’s good fortune to be belittled. ‘That man’s got all his pupils’ welfare at heart, and he has to make sure the brighter ones get a good chance in life.’

On the day of the test, a Saturday so as not to take them off school, the three boys were taken to Aberdeen, sat their test and given a good lunch before their headmaster drove them home again. The boys thoroughly enjoyed their meal, having been too apprehensive to eat any breakfast, something which their headmaster had foreseen.

The holidays started at the end of June, the results of the test were not made known until the end of July, so the three hopefuls had four weeks to wait. If Willie had had Millie to speak to, he would have felt much better, but the Meldrum family had gone to France for the whole seven weeks, and would not be home until a few days before schools started again. His appetite suffered and Emily could not understand why he wasn’t excited about the adventure that lay ahead for him. Thankfully, the test result was favourable and the other three weeks dragged past, although several postcards for Willie came from France, so he knew he wasn’t forgotten.

Willie had stopped being the focus of attention in his own house on the day Connie announced that she and Gordon Brodie were going to be wed. Jake was pleased for her, but worried about the expense. Emily was less than enthusiastic, guessing at first that it was desperation not love that had made her accept this man, but the hastening on of the wedding made her suspect that it was even worse than that.

Gordie put up no pretence. He made it widely known that it was only the expected but unwanted child that was making him take this step and, although Jake would willingly have thrashed him within an inch of his life and then thrown him out, Emily held him back.

‘We can’t have him going around telling folk you’ve attacked him. No, Jake, we’ll just have to put up with it and pray he doesn’t treat our Connie badly. At least he’s doing the right thing and giving the child his name.’

She didn’t altogether convince her husband that violence would do no good; a dozen times a day she could hear him muttering, ‘I shoulda kicked the bugger’s erse, that’s what I shoulda done.’

Sometimes wondering if they should have forbidden the wedding, she had to remind herself that Connie was well into her twenties and could, by law, do as she pleased, though what pleasure she would get from being wed on that lump of – she hated even to think the word, but ‘shite’ was the only way to describe him. It wouldn’t be love that her daughter would get from him, it would be endless heartache, for it was well known that he had other girls.

Willie was too wrapped up in his own blossoming ‘friendship’ with Millie to notice what was going on. He did wonder why Connie wasn’t having a nice wedding like Becky’s, but she had always been different, and if a registry wedding was what she wanted, it was really nobody’s business. His own life was very comfortable, thank you. It couldn’t be much better, really, for Mr Meldrum only drove them to the Academy and they had to take the bus back, which meant, of course, quite a walk from the turnpike. They had progressed from going hand in hand to arms round waists, which was very satisfying, yet sometimes just lately he had felt the need of something more than that – what exactly, he didn’t know. A few kisses, maybe? But they were too young to be kissing.

The lessons they were getting at school were much harder than in the school at Burnton, but so far he was coping. He and Millie weren’t in the same class, worse luck, as boys and girls were kept separate, and he missed the excitement of competing with her in a friendly way, but they had got into the habit of discussing the homework they had been given.

As the months passed, Willie had a spurt of growing, and before she knew it, Emily saw that he was taller than his father. Taller and fitter. He had a healthy tan from walking so much, his cheeks were rosy. He still had a little tuft of hair at the back that refused to lie down, but that didn’t detract from his appearance. She surprised Jake, one evening, by saying, ‘I can’t get over how grown-up Willie is now. He’s quite the young man.’

Watching the steam rise from his socks as he held his feet out to the fire, Jake nodded. ‘Aye, he’s big enough now to dae the diggin’ for me here, an’ some o’ the other hard jobs, as weel.’

‘I was thinking he could chop sticks for me and do some other little jobs.’

‘It’s time he was workin’ for his keep. I’d to work for my Da fae when I was aul’ enough to lift a spade.’