Settling the Account (22 page)

She pressed on without giving Maudie time to
answer. ‘If you’re going to set your sights that high, you’d better
have something to offer. There’s not many men in Ruatane with much
go in them, they get snapped up pretty smartly. Oh, you get the odd
one coming here from the city who’s got a bit of money, I suppose
you’d fancy one of them?’

‘I might,’ Maudie said. ‘If he was good
looking.’

‘And what sort of girl do you think men like
that are used to mixing with? Farm girls with rough manners? I
should say not! They’re used to balls and drawing rooms and
soyrees. And girls who can play the piano,’ she finished
triumphantly.’

She had the satisfaction of seeing her
daughter lost for words for several seconds. ‘But… but you can’t
play the piano, and Pa asked you,’ Maudie said at last.

‘Your father is a wonderful man,’ Lizzie
said. ‘And everything he’s got, he’s managed through his own good
sense. The farm hasn’t always made the money it does now, with the
Jersey cows and all. I don’t think I had more than one new dress
the first three years we were married—not that I minded, either. We
had each other, and we had you lot, and that was all we cared
about. If you think you can find another man like your father, then
good luck to you, because I don’t think there’s another living. And
you’d have to be prepared to put in a good few years struggling and
making do before you could have those fancy things you’re hankering
after.’

Maudie’s lack of enthusiasm for this picture
was clear from her expression.

‘But if you want it all on a plate,’ Lizzie
said, ‘then you’ve got to make a good impression right from the
start. And
that’s
why I want to make a young lady of you. Of
course, if you’re happy to take whoever’s left over after the other
girls have had their pick, then that’s your look out. Just let me
know and I’ll stop worrying about you.’

Lizzie let Maudie mull over these notions as
they plodded on down the road, contenting herself with watching
thoughts play over her daughter’s face. They were not far from the
turning to Frank’s farm before Maudie turned to her mother and
asked in what was clearly meant to be a nonchalant way,

‘Do you think it takes long to learn the
piano?’

August – September 1898

Amy glanced up from the pile of washing
waiting to be hung on the line, and saw Jack walking slowly towards
the back door of Charlie’s cottage.

Glad though she always was to see her
father, Amy could not help wishing he had chosen a more thoughtful
time to visit. The short days of late winter, especially when the
sky was as leaden as the one currently lowering over her, gave few
enough hours of sunlight to get her washing dry, without having to
surrender time unexpectedly.

But she would far sooner cope with wet
washing than risk letting her father think he might be unwelcome.
Jack’s visits had become less frequent over the last year or two,
as the walk across the paddocks became more of an effort. Even from
a distance Amy could see how much slower his steps were now,
bearing little resemblance to the vigorous stride she remembered
from her childhood.

She abandoned the tin bath of washing and
hurried down the hill to meet Jack just as he reached the doorstep.
‘I didn’t know you were coming over today, Pa,’ she said, careful
to show no sign of agitation as she let him enfold her in a
hug.

‘Well, I haven’t seen you for a bit. I
missed you at church yesterday.’

‘I thought you would. Charlie said he didn’t
feel like going—he was a bit grumpy about the sermon last Sunday.
He’ll have forgotten by next week, though.’

‘I don’t like it when I don’t see you. I get
thinking about things,’ Jack said, his face taking on a grimmer
expression.

Amy disentangled herself from his embrace
and led him into the house, noticing how he leaned against her for
support as they climbed the steps and with what relief he sank into
a chair. ‘Pa, you mustn’t worry about me. Anyway, John was over
just the other day—Friday, I think it was—so you knew I was all
right.’

‘I wanted to see for myself.’ His frown gave
way to a wry grin. ‘Anyway, I wanted some better company. The air’s
pretty frosty at home.’

Amy set out the tea things. ‘A bit grumpy,
is she?’

‘Worse than usual these last few days. And
Monday’s a bad day at the best of times—washing seems to get women
in a black mood. Even Sophie’s inclined to look a bit sour by the
end of a Monday.’

‘It’s hard work, Pa. And there’s lots to do,
with all the little ones at your place, even with three women to
share it.’ She cast a rapid glance out the window, and was relieved
to see that the sky had grown no more threatening.

Jack followed her glance and seemed to
notice for the first time the traces of fluster in her face. ‘I’m
an old fool, aren’t I? Coming over here bothering you on a washing
day. I suppose you’re flat out with it. I’ll go home, leave you in
peace.’ He made to rise from his chair.

‘Don’t go, Pa,’ Amy said. ‘I was thinking
I’d love to take the weight off my feet for a minute, just before
you came.’ It was true enough; no need to add that she had planned
to wait until her latest load of washing was safely pegged out.
‘Stay and keep me company.’

‘I’m not getting in your way?’ Amy shook her
head emphatically, and he leaned back in the chair. ‘Keeping you
from your work, though.’

Amy brought the teapot to the table and sat
down. ‘It doesn’t matter, I’ll get it finished later. I’ve only got
the four of us to do for, anyway, not like the mob at your place.’
She smiled at him. ‘Two boys and a man—just like when I had you and
John and Harry to look after. And they get just as dirty as you lot
always did, too. No wonder Susannah gets fed up with you.’

Jack made a grimace. ‘You’d think she had
the whole town to wash for, the fuss she’s been making. Slaving
like a servant, she says. She’s been worse than ever since Lizzie
came to see her the other day.’

‘Did she, Pa? I didn’t know Lizzie ever came
to see Susannah.’

‘She came one other time a couple of years
ago. They had a bit of a set-to then, I seem to recall.’

‘I wonder what that was all about,’ Amy
said, at a loss as to why Lizzie would ever have chosen to visit
Susannah. ‘Is that why Susannah’s in a mood, then? Did Lizzie upset
her?’

‘They seemed to get on all right this
time—Susannah didn’t say anything about rowing with her, anyway.
Lizzie brought her oldest girl to see her—Maudie, is it? Some
nonsense about improving the girl’s manners.’ He gave a sigh. ‘It
seems Frank’s gone and got a servant girl for Lizzie.’

‘Yes, I know. It’s just Maisie Feenan, she
comes to help Lizzie three days a week. I don’t like Feenans, but
Maisie’s quite a nice girl now Lizzie’s cleaned her up.’

‘Well, whoever she is, I’ve heard more about
her the last few days than I needed to. “Even Frank Kelly has
enough consideration for his wife to get her a housemaid. He
doesn’t expect her to work like a slave.” I just about know it off
by heart now.’

‘Poor you.’

‘As if
that
wasn’t enough, she tells
me Frank’s going to buy a piano now.’

‘Is he?’ Amy said, astonished. ‘I hadn’t
heard about that! Are you sure, Pa?’

‘I should be—I’ve been told about it a dozen
times a day since she heard, not to mention at night.’ He shook his
head. ‘I never thought I’d be expected to come up with a
piano.’

‘You shouldn’t take any notice. Susannah
probably doesn’t even want a piano, you know. It’s just something
to talk about.’

‘I expect you’re right. If it wasn’t a piano
it’d be something else. I’m the worst husband there’s ever been, it
seems.’

‘You’re not,’ Amy said fiercely. ‘You
mustn’t listen when she says awful things to you.’

‘Oh, I’m pretty good at being deaf when it
suits me,’ Jack said, with an attempt at his old heartiness that it
pained Amy to see. He gave a rueful grin. ‘Maybe I should have
offered her to Charlie when he came sniffing around for a wife,
instead of you. She’d know all about husbands then, wouldn’t
she?’

‘Pa, you say some terrible things,’ Amy
scolded, laughing with him. ‘Susannah really
would
be wild
if she heard you say that.’

‘How do you think they’d have got on? Maybe
they’d have suited each other. They’re both pretty good at looking
down in the mouth.’

‘I think…’ Amy hesitated, unwilling to spoil
the joke.
I think he would have killed her
. ‘Well, maybe
she’d have worn him down, you never know. They might even have got
on all right.’ She could not help but laugh at the preposterousness
of the idea. ‘Or maybe he’d have thrown her out, sent her back to
you. That’s if she didn’t leave first,’ she added, giving her
father a grin. ‘Charlie’s even worse than you for getting his
clothes mucky, and that’s saying something.’

‘Where’s he got to, anyway?’ Jack asked, the
merriment draining abruptly from his voice.

Amy shrugged. ‘Off over the back of the
farm, I think. He won’t be back for a while.’ She slipped her arm
through her father’s for a moment before pouring their tea. ‘This
is nice, Pa, just the two of us. It’s like when I was at home.’

‘Wish you still were,’ Jack said
gruffly.

‘So do I, sometimes,’ Amy admitted. ‘But I
wouldn’t have my boys then, would I?’

‘You’d be safe, though.’ He took a gulp of
the hot tea and put his cup down heavily on its saucer. ‘I never
should have let him have you. I should have—’

‘Don’t, Pa,’ Amy interrupted. ‘Don’t go
upsetting yourself over me. I’m all right, really I am. We get on
all right now, Charlie and me.’

‘When I think of what he did to you, I’d
like to—’

‘Stop it, Pa. He never lays a hand on
me.’

‘I know I’m getting old, girl, but my mind
hasn’t gone yet. Never lays a hand on you! I’ll never forget the
marks of his fists that day. If I’d been a younger man… if I’d told
the boys what he’d done they’d have killed him, you know.’

‘Yes, I know,’ Amy said.

‘By the time they found out about it you’d
healed up all right, they never knew the state I saw you in. Maybe
I should have told them,’ he said grimly.

‘And left me with two fatherless boys to
bring up, and my brothers in jail, maybe getting hung for it? You
did the right thing to keep quiet. He doesn’t hurt me, honestly he
doesn’t—oh, yes, he did back then, we’re neither of us likely to
forget that. But that was a long time ago. He hasn’t laid a hand on
me since that day. It’s true, Pa, cross my heart and hope to
die.’

She turned away from his gaze and put
several cakes on a plate for him. ‘Let’s talk about something
happy, not all that awful old stuff. I haven’t been over for a
while, how’s everyone getting on? Vicky must be getting big.’

‘Now, which one’s Vicky?’ Jack asked,
frowning in thought. ‘Is that Harry’s youngest girl?’

‘That’s right. It’s easy to remember, she
was named after the Queen because she was born around Jubilee
time.’

‘I get them a bit muddled up,’ Jack
admitted. ‘I lost track of them a while back, especially those two
smallest ones of Harry’s.’

‘There’s too many children at your place,’
Amy said, laughing. ‘You just about need them all to wear signs
around their necks with their names on.’

‘They don’t come up to the house much. You
know what Harry’s like with Susannah. I go down there a bit, to see
the children. Jane always makes a fuss of me, says she likes the
little ones to see their Grandpa.’

He smiled at the thought. ‘Harry and John
both did all right for themselves. Sophie never has much to say,
but she’s good-natured. They’re nice girls both of them, Jane and
Sophie.’ He took hold of Amy’s hand. ‘I like my own girl best,
though.’

Amy squeezed the hand holding hers. ‘I wish
I could come and see you more, Pa. I seem to be so busy all the
time, even though I’ve only got the four of us to keep house for.’
She did not add that she could never be sure if Charlie would allow
her to go out.

‘You were always such an affectionate little
thing,’ Jack mused. ‘You were a great one for sitting on my lap.’
He gave her a look that was almost shy. ‘I suppose you’re too
grown-up for that now.’

‘Would you like me to?’ Without waiting for
his answering nod, Amy slipped from her chair and settled herself
on his ample lap. ‘Mmm, that’s nice.’ She wound her arms around his
neck and pressed her face against his chest, feeling the tickle of
his beard. ‘I’m not too heavy for you, am I?’

‘Of course you’re not, a little scrap like
you. You never did grow very big, did you? I suppose you’ve
finished growing now.’

‘I should hope so,’ Amy said with a laugh.
‘I’m a bit old for growing!’

‘You must be over twenty now.’

‘Twenty? Pa, I’m nearly thirty!’

‘You’re not,’ Jack said in astonishment.
‘You can’t be!’

‘I am, you know. I’ll be thirty in October.
Doesn’t it sound old?’

‘Thirty,’ he echoed. ‘I don’t know where the
years have gone. Seems just the other day you were crawling around
on the floor like that youngest one of Jane’s—Vicky, is it? No
wonder I’m feeling old, with my little girl nearly thirty.’

‘Well, at least I’m going to stay little.
How do you think I feel, with those great big boys of mine? Every
time I turn around they seem to grow another inch. They make
me
feel old. Tom and George are shooting up too, aren’t
they?’

‘Like weeds,’ Jack said. ‘They throw off
when I call them the little fellows, now they’re taller than I am.
They take after their ma for being tall.’

Amy reflected silently that it was the only
thing her young brothers did seem to take after their mother in;
that was something to be grateful for.