Authors: The Handkerchief Tree
Dimly, she was now aware of Isla, dealing with a customer yet casting glances her way, but the dark eyes of the Canadian cousin were all she wanted to concentrate on as she tried to make sense of this dream that seemed to be reality.
‘I’m sorry, this has been a shock for you,’ he murmured, letting her hand go. ‘Maybe I should have written, but as I say I didn’t have your address.’
‘No, it’s all right,’ she said quickly. ‘It is a bit of a shock, but I’m so happy to meet you. I mean, from Canada and everything. Look, we have a wee staffroom – can I get you a cup of tea?’
‘Why, that’d be very kind, thank you.’
‘Isla,’ Shona whispered, ‘could you tell Cassie and Brigid that I have a visitor in the staffroom? I’m just going to get him tea.’
‘Oh, right,’ Isla breathed, all agog, her eyes going to Brett Webster. ‘We’ll keep out, eh?’
‘Just for a wee while.’ Shona turned to her cousin. ‘Would you like to come this way, Brett?’
‘Thank you, Shona.’
‘I do hope I’m not being a nuisance,’ Brett said courteously as Shona took his jacket and asked him to sit down and lit the gas for the kettle. ‘I mean, this is your room for recess, I guess?’
‘Don’t worry, it’s no’ time for our break yet.’
She glanced back at him, noting with a smile that he was wearing what looked like a brand-new sweater in Royal Stuart tartan. ‘Only thing is, you might prefer coffee to tea and I’m afraid we haven’t got any.’
‘You forget, my Mom is Scottish and so was my Dad.’ He smiled. ‘We were brought up on tea as much as coffee.’
‘That’s a relief. But tell me, how did you find me?’
‘I called Edina Lodge. That was the only address we had. They wouldn’t give me your home address, but they said I could ask for you at this shop. And here you are.’
‘It’s a bit like a miracle, meeting you. I never thought I’d see anyone from my family.’
He lowered his eyes. ‘I’m sorry about that. Guess we’ve been at fault, eh? I mean, Mom ought to have written you more. She said so to me – that she felt bad.’
‘I understand. Don’t worry about it. I know she couldn’t afford to come to Scotland.’
‘That was it,’ he said eagerly. ‘We hadn’t a dollar to bless ourselves with. Things were really tight after Dad died. Mom wasn’t trained; she just earned enough to keep us going by doing house cleaning and so on. But she used to say about you that the more she got involved, the worse she’d feel about not seeing you, or taking you. So, she let it go.’
The kettle shrieked and Shona made the tea. ‘What happened to you boys, then? You and . . . Sorry, what’s your brother’s name?’
‘Andrew. We did pretty well, as a matter of fact. Got bursaries and both worked our way through college, Andrew becoming a chemist and me an accountant. He’s older than me and married, settled. I thought I’d like to come to the old country, fixed up a visa – I’ve got dual nationality – and ended up in Edinburgh.’
He drank the tea she’d poured for him – black with no sugar – and he said it was fine. A shortbread biscuit, too? Great. Now he really felt he was in Scotland!
‘So, what are your plans?’ Shona asked.
‘Hope to get a temporary job. Stay for a while. Know anyone who needs an accountant?’
‘No’ off hand.’ She smiled. ‘But I’m sure you’ll find something.’
He was looking at her, she noticed, with a certain softness in his dark eyes.
‘How about you, Shona? How’s life been for you? Must have been so hard on you, a young kid, left an orphan? Andrew and me, we used to wonder about you, you know. How you looked. Whether you were like Mom, which we aren’t, being the image of Dad, they say. She’d some old photos, so we knew what your parents looked like, but the only ones she had of you were some your mum sent when you were a baby.’
‘I was always said to be like my mother,’ she told him. ‘Yes, it was hard when I lost her, after my dad died in the war, but I was lucky. The orphanage was well run and I managed to find a job I liked at the end of it. Things could have been worse.’
‘Seems to me you were a very brave lassie.’ He laughed as he rose from the table. ‘See, I’m learning Scots words already. But I’ve taken enough of your time; I think I’d better depart.’
‘Where are you staying?’
‘Oh, at the YMCA for now. Might find myself lodgings when I get a job.’ He hesitated. ‘Look, is there any chance we could meet some time? Have something to eat, maybe?’
‘Of course!’ Shona was thinking furiously. What could she suggest? She had Fraser to consider – he’d be sure to want to see her that evening . . .
‘How about tomorrow? We could go for a fish supper,’ she said at last and his face lit up.
‘A fish supper? That sounds wonderful! Where shall I see you?’
‘Here. I finish work at half past five. Say, a quarter to six?’
‘I’m looking forward to it already.’
‘Now to run the gauntlet of the shop,’ she warned, opening the door. ‘You’ll have guessed that everyone’s dying to meet my mystery visitor?’
‘Oh, no!’
But of course he passed through the ordeal of meeting three stunned girls with complete confidence, while a couple of customers in the background stood looking on with interest. When Brigid called him Shona’s long-lost cousin, he smiled, and when Cassie breathed that it was like something from a story, he said he felt that too.
After Shona finally showed him out there was a definite sense of anticlimax, with the girls reluctantly turning back to their customers, until Brigid declared it was time for a tea break.
‘No’ for me, I’ve had mine,’ Shona said cheerfully, knowing what Brigid was thinking. No gloom for her now, eh? No feeling of depression? It was some time, she herself realized, since she’d thought of Fraser Kyle. Back came the guilt.
That same afternoon Shona told Fraser about her new cousin. He would have to know, for something told her that Brett Webster was going to be a part of her life for a while.
‘Something strange has happened!’ she cried when Fraser answered her knock on his door. ‘I thought you’d like to know.’
‘Tell me, then.’ Waving her to a seat near his desk, he lit a cigarette.
‘Well, it’s amazing, really. You know I have this aunt in Canada I never hear from? Today, out of the blue, a young man walked into the front shop and said he was Aunt Mona’s son, my cousin!’
Fraser raised his eyebrows and drew deeply on his cigarette. ‘Amazing, as you say. Or, maybe not. A lot of folk come over from the dominions, want to see the old country.’
‘But don’t you think it’s wonderful? That he wanted to look me up?’
‘It’s the first thing these people do. They always search out relatives who’ll give ’em hospitality and show ’em round. How did he find you, anyway?’
She sat back, feeling rather nettled by his attitude. ‘He rang the orphanage – it was where his mother last wrote to me. They told him where I worked, but no’ my address.’
‘Very wise. Can’t be sure about strangers who just ring up.’
‘Well, there’s nothing to worry about where Brett Webster’s concerned!’ Shona declared. ‘He knew all about my family and the orphanage and everything, and he told me about Aunt Mona and how upset she was that she couldn’t have given me a home.’
Fraser shrugged. ‘What’s he like, then? This cousin?’
She hesitated. ‘Well, I suppose you’d call him handsome.’
‘Would I? More to the point, would you?’
‘Yes. He’s nice looking.’
‘And your age?’
‘No, a bit older. Late twenties, maybe. He’s an accountant.’
‘Good for him. He plans to work here?’
‘If he can find something.’ Shona’s look was hopeful. ‘You don’t know of anything?’
‘I’ve got an accountant.’
‘Yes, but you might know some firm or other, where he might find a temporary job?’
Fraser shook his head. ‘Sorry. Tell him to look in the evening paper small ads.’ He stubbed out his cigarette. ‘Well, thanks for giving me your interesting news, Shona. Now, I’ve things to do.’
‘I’m just going.’ Her tone was frosty and as she moved to the door he followed and held it for her, suddenly softening his own manner.
‘Look, I’m sorry if I was a bit tetchy just then. I’m not too keen about handsome young men suddenly appearing in your life. You can understand that, eh?’
‘He’s only my cousin, Fraser.’
‘A cousin you don’t know. He can be attractive to you in two ways: as someone from your family, and as a new admirer. I don’t stand a chance.’
She managed to laugh, easily and naturally. ‘I am interested in him as someone from my family, because I’ve never had any family since my Ma died, but he’s no’ my admirer. We’ve only just met!’
‘I expect you’re going to see him, though, aren’t you? What have you fixed up?’
‘I could hardly refuse to see him some time, Fraser. A cousin arrived from Canada!’
‘OK. When are you seeing him?’
She looked at him with stormy eyes. ‘Tomorrow evening for a fish supper.’
‘And when are you fitting me in?’
‘Tonight. If that’s what you want.’
Instantly his coldness melted. He drew her into his arms and held her tightly.
‘Oh, Shona, and I thought you’d forgotten me!’
‘That would be very difficult,’ she murmured, her face close to his.
‘Because I’m too big?’
‘Because you’re you. Look, I can’t stay here . . .’
‘Just one kiss.’
The one kiss turned into several, after which the now genial Fraser held Shona close again, only releasing her when they’d decided that he would pick her up from Mrs Gow’s at seven and they would go to the cinema.
As she returned to the workroom she felt a little better, even though she knew that all she’d done was postpone the storm. Never mind, she’d gained a little time. She must make the true break with Fraser soon; it was only fair, but not yet. Not while there was so much excitement over the new cousin carrying her forward, as though on the crest of a wave.
Cassie was at the work table, hammering the stems of white chrysanthemums for an order.
‘Good job that’s what these folk want,’ she murmured. ‘There’s no’ much choice at this time of year, eh?’
‘Oh, come on, there’s lots of choice!’ Shona retorted. ‘All the early spring flowers, viburnum, almond blossom, forsythia!’
‘Well, this guy only wants chrysanthemums, so I just need to find some foliage.’ Cassie’s blue eyes were suddenly sparkling as she turned to Shona.
‘Listen, just want to say: isn’t that cousin of yours gorgeous? I never knew you had such a handsome bloke in the family.’
‘Neither did I. Hardly knew I’d any cousins at all. They were so far away they might have been on the moon.’
‘But now this one’s here and come to seek you out. You must be thrilled. Are you going to show him the sights?’
‘Haven’t much time for that, but we’re having a fish supper tomorrow evening.’ Shona paused, then on some impulse, added recklessly, ‘And tonight I’m going to the pictures with Mr Kyle. How about that?’
Cassie, open-mouthed, stared.
‘Oh, Shona, what’s happening? Tea with Doctor Mark, a fish supper with your cousin, the pictures with Mr Kyle – you’re so lucky, eh?
But Shona was already regretting her impulse. ‘Don’t say that,’ she said quickly. ‘Don’t say I’m lucky. None of these things mean anything.’
Everything about Edinburgh seemed to charm Brett, even though he was seeing the city at its most dreary, with chill air, snow turned to slush, and the people in the streets looking glum because Hogmanay was over, so was Christmas and spring was a long way away.
‘I’ve given myself a little tour,’ he told Shona on Friday evening when she took him up the Mound by tram. ‘Saw the Castle and the New Town, and two museums and your Princes Street. So, now I’m going up the Mound, and that was made when they dug out the old loch, eh?’
‘Yes, and began to lay out the New Town you saw today. All fine straight streets and lovely crescents. Bit different from the Old Town, where there’s no sort of pattern, but plenty of history. If you like history.’
‘Oh, I do. I want to see it all. Holyrood and Arthur’s Seat and the High Street – the lot. I’ve got a stack of postcards I’m going to send back home.’
‘Aunt Mona will be pleased. When did she last see Edinburgh?’
‘1896, I guess. That was when she was married and she told me once that she and Dad emigrated that same year. She was only eighteen.’
‘Here’s our stop,’ said Shona, as they reached the end of George IV Bridge, and as they left the tram and faced the wind she wondered what it would have been like to be Mona, marrying so young and leaving behind all she knew for a life in a strange country. Emmie, her sister, Shona’s mother, had been only a child then, for there was a gap of ten years and three dead siblings between them. Perhaps it wasn’t so surprising that Mona had never made much effort to take on Shona. She’d never really known her mother, never mind Shona herself.
‘Not far to the café,’ she said cheerfully. ‘Just along Forrest Road here. I’m sorry it’s so cold for you at the moment. This is our worst time of year.’
‘Cold?’ Brett laughed, showing splendid white teeth. ‘This is summer compared with Canada. You have to be born there to stand the winters.’
‘I want to hear all about it,’ Shona cried, ‘but here’s our café. Oh, and it’s lovely and warm! Quick, let’s find a table and order our fish suppers. I’m starving, don’t know about you.’
‘I’m always starving,’ Brett said, laughing again.
He was wearing a dark jacket that evening, with shirt and tie, and as he studied the menu it soon became obvious to Shona that everyone in the café was watching him, not her, though she knew she was looking pretty in a green woollen dress that Cassie had helped her make on Mrs Gow’s sewing machine. No, just him. She supposed he must be used to attracting attention. Did his brother look the same?
‘Have you any photos of your family?’ she asked when they’d ordered.
‘Why, yes. I brought a couple to show you. Want to see them?’
‘Yes, please, before the fish comes and we get them all greasy.’
He took an envelope from his breast pocket and removed two or three small snapshots, which he passed to Shona.