Water Gypsies (49 page)
Back to work,
she thought, with a sense of deflation. These times of rest and celebration were always over so quickly, and then it was back to the grind. Dot wouldn’t be wearing a silk dress today or any day from now on. She knew that her yellow frock and the girls’ daisy ones would soon be pressed into everyday service and become as worn and grubby as the rest, and it seemed sad how quickly their day of finery had passed.
But she smiled at the thought of Dot and Bobby. At how they used to squabble. But they did go well together, she could see now, like bread and cheese. And the Jenks family, though at first bewildered by their son’s choice of wife, had seen Dot’s good nature and enormous capacity for hard work, and had taken to her in a shy sort of way.
‘Least she’s got a proper name now,’ Bobby joked, when they came out of the church into hot sunshine and the children showering them with their collection of flower petals. Dorothy Higgs-Deveraux had become plain Dot Jenks and she seemed quite content with the transaction.
Maryann ran over the day in her mind: her children looking so clean and smart for once, the solemnity of the service, and after – eating and drinking together at the boats, having gathered all the food and drink they could muster, the enjoyment of being able to sit and relax, merry with ale, celebrating outside. She ran her eyes over the faces in her memory. Dot full of happiness and laughter, Bobby grinning as if he still could not believe his luck, Sylvia … She ground to a halt on Sylvia. Something had caught her attention, but she hadn’t identified it at the time. The expression in Sylvia’s eyes when she sat out on the grass, talking to Darius. It was something familiar … With a jolt she matched up what she had seen. Nancy, the first time she had met Darius. That irresistible drawing of the eyes to Darius, in fascination, attraction … Was that really what she’d seen, or was she mistaken?
And last night, when it was all over and they were dropping with fatigue, she bedded down the older children in the
Jonquil,
as was her habit now, keeping only Ada and Esther with them on the
Esther Jane,
end to end on the side bed.
Joel turned to her in the cosy light of the cabin as they prepared for bed, his eyes solemn, appealing to her. Maryann tensed immediately.
Is this what he expects now?
she thought.
For everything suddenly to be all right again?
‘I don’t know.’ To her frustration she began to tremble. ‘I don’t know if I can yet. I’m trying, but…’
‘I know you are.’ He stroked her cheek with his thumb. ‘Never mind that. Just come here.’
She felt herself enfolded in his arms, held close to that warm, fleshy, comforting body, which she knew like her own, and felt him stroke her back, his lips brushing the top of her head.
‘It’s all right,’ he murmured. ‘There’s time aplenty.’
They lay down together and once more he drew her into his arms, demanding nothing more than to hold her. She lay with her cheek pressed to his shoulder as he stroked her hair, both of them growing drowsy.
‘It’s all right, my lovely,’ was the last thing she heard him say. ‘It’ll be all right.’
And sheltering in his warmth she felt herself drift into sleep, safe, comforted. Home.
Glossary
bow-hauling
– pulling a boat, usually a butty, into a lock by hand
breast-up
– tie boats side by side, at night, or in some cases when going into locks empty
butty, butty boat
– a narrowboat which is not powered, but towed as one of a pair
cratch
– a small timber and tarpaulin covering at the fore end of the hold
the cut
– any canal
dipper
– large metal vessel with a handle, used for washing, cooking and laundry
joey
– unmotorized narrowboat without living accommodation or covering for cargo. Pulled by horse or tug and usually used for short trips around Birmingham
joshers
– slang name for boats belonging to the company of Fellows, Moreton & Clayton, after Mr Joshua Fellows
lengthsman
– employee of the Waterways, whose job is to maintain the ‘length’ of the canals, e.g. keeping clear of trees etc
lock-wheeling
– to go ahead on foot or bicycle and prepare the locks for passage by boats
monkey, monkey boat
– a power-driven narrowboat which can tow a butty
monkey hole
– storage space inside the boat
pinner
– apron
to shaft
– to manipulate the position of a boat by using the shaft (boathook), a long pole
snubber
– towing rope made of coconut fibre and used between the fore end of the butty and the stern of the motor – at full stretch, usually seventy feet long
spare-wheeling
– filling in for a crew member when a boat was short-handed
to stove
– to fumigate with sulphur to rid the boat of bugs
strap
– ropes used for tying up or short-length towing
stroving
– working hard
Turk’s head
– decorative rope fender found in numerous places on all narrowboats
winding hole
– wider spot in canal, where boats can turn round
windlass
– L-shaped cranking handle used for winding the lock paddles up and down
to work fly
– work on one of the fly boats with larger crews, which did the London to Birmingham round trip non-stop in something under sixty hours
Water Gypsies
Annie Murray was born in 1961 in Wallingford, Berkshire. She went to school in the area and went on to study English at St John’s College, Oxford. Her first job took her to Birmingham, where she met and married her husband, John. They have four children.
In 1991 she won a SHE-Granada TV Short Story competition in association with
This Morning,
and was taken on by an agent. In 1992 she began writing her first Birmingham novel,
Birmingham Rose,
which made
The Times
bestseller list when it was published in 1995. This has been followed by
Kate and Olivia
– retitled
Birmingham Friends
(1996),
Birmingham Blitz
(1998),
Orphan of Angel Street
(1999),
Poppy Day
(2000)
The Narrow-boat Girl
(2001) and
Chocolate Girls
(2003).
Also by Annie Murray
Birmingham Rose
Birmingham Friends
Birmingham Blitz
Orphan of Angel Street
Poppy Day
The Narrowboat Girl
Chocolate Girls
First published 2004 by Macmillan
This edition published simultaneously 2004 by Pan Books
This electronic edition published 2010 by Pan Books an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR Basingstoke and Oxford Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-0-330-53821-3 PDF
ISBN 978-0-330-53820-6 EPUB
Copyright © Annie Murray 2004
The right of Annie Murray to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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Table of Contents
Part One
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Part Two
Eighteen
Ninteen
Twenty
Twenty One
Twenty Two
Twenty Three
Twenty Four