Читать книгу Matrons and Madams - Sharon Johnston - Страница 9

Glace Bay, 1914

Beth didn’t abort, but spent the following few days tended by Signora Bumbacco. Unable to face the procedure again, she decided to travel back to Sydney with Lily. Upon their return, Lily left it to her parents to sort out what to do with Beth and the future baby and moved to Glace Bay, resigned to Barnaby’s ambition and hoping Ed Parsons had grown up.

She scouted out the possible boarding houses, and, after checking out several landladies, she settled on Mrs. O’Dea, whose house was on the side of town closest to the school where she would teach. Mrs. O’Dea was a childless widow who had always rented out a room in her house. She was pleased to show Lily a large room overlooking the street — the only problem being light from the streetlamp.

Lily moved in with her belongings, and, as was her custom, set out to discover her surroundings on foot. She settled into a local restaurant for a cup of coffee and to get her bearings. The waitress, a chatty girl, mentioned that on Saturday evenings young people go to the Dew Drop Inn. “I wonder if an old classmate of mine is still in Glace Bay,” Lily said. “We were both at Sydney Academy.”

The waitress screwed up her face as if to say “aren’t you grand?” She volunteered that Ed, who was no schooler, now worked in the Caledonia mine.

Lily thought back on the conversation when he had said, “Us Parsons are miners through and through.” Still blushing from the “look,” Lily thanked the waitress for sharing local news.

Lily tentatively set out for the Dew Drop Inn the following Saturday evening and was pleased when Ed turned up at the dance. Cleaned up and smelling of cologne, he stood out from the other miners. Tall and heavily muscled from the mine work, he looked incredibly handsome. He seemed livelier and more confident than at high school. He wore the top two buttons of his shirt open to expose thick tufts of chest hair. “Is my tutor going to dance with me?” He smiled down at her.

Lily, remembering the chalk down her dress, retorted, “I see you’re still irritating, Ed Parsons.” He ignored the remark, pulled her onto the dance floor, and drew her close. His firm hand on her back made it easy for her to follow him. Lily smirked, recalling how Barnaby had apologized to her during a college dance. He had drawn her into the waltz position, then turned scarlet as he uttered, “Oops, I’m sorry.” There was no apology from Ed.

“Nice rhythm,” Ed whispered. Goosebumps erupted on her arms as his breath brushed her face. After the dance, he threw his jacket over her shoulders and led her outside. Avoiding the bootlegger pocketing cash, they made a quick about face and walked off. Ed spread his jacket on the ground so Lily could sit down. She pulled up her knees and leaned against a tree.

“I like coming to Dewdrop,” Ed said. Lily compared his happy face to the worried look he always had at school.

“I see you like dancing,” Lily said. “I took lessons when I was at teachers’ college.”

Ed frowned. “Who’d you dance with?”

“The teacher designated our partners.” Lily giggled. “Sometimes it was a girl. I always wanted to dance like my parents. They would push back the living-room furniture and roll up the rug, creating a makeshift dance floor, thinking my sister and I were asleep. They didn’t have a gramophone, so my dad would whistle a tune as though he were whirling my mother in front of a live orchestra. I would sit unnoticed on the stairs peeking through the bannister. It was in that darkened room with nothing but moonlight where I realized how much my parents were in love. It was beautiful watching them dance.”

Ed raised Lily’s chin and kissed her. Tears were trickling down her cheeks.

“What’s wrong?” Ed asked, pulling away.

“I get emotional when I talk about my dad.”

Ed stood up brusquely, walking away impatiently. “I hate emotions,” he said. He brushed aside the bootleggers pressing him to buy alcohol. Lily followed him back into the inn and squeezed into the booth where his friends were sitting. They were debating whether a square dance should be the next request. A man with pockmarked skin slid out and crossed the floor to ask the caller if he would oblige. He reported the caller would start once he’d downed his drink. “Don’t imagine he’s drinking water,” he said, snickering.

Once on the dance floor, the group arranged themselves into four couples with Ed claiming Lily as his partner. The fiddle started playing, and they joined other foursomes as they began stomping their feet and clapping to the music. People on the side whooped at their friends. The girls wove in and out under the arms of the boys, skipped forward and back to “do-si-do,” and then linked arms for the promenade. Lily slipped her arm through Ed’s and they began skipping forward in a circle. As they passed the sidelined hooters, a young man made a suggestive comment about Lily’s ample breasts. Ed swirled around so quickly that Lily didn’t see what happened. But the man had blood on his lips.

“She’s sweet on a boxer named Barnaby!” the bloody-mouthed man goaded. Lily recalled now he was the “creep” at teachers’ college who hadn’t made it. She had been relieved to think he would never be in a classroom. Dancing stopped as the partiers egged the men on from the sidelines.

“You’re asking for it,” Ed said as he delivered another punch.

Lily and the other girls scurried out of the inn and along the path as quickly as possible in order to stand at a safe distance. They could hear taunts, insults, and blows as they rushed away.

“Now they’ve all joined in,” a girl said, giggling nervously. “Last year there was a ruckus that ended with a fiddle being slammed over the caller’s head, I don’t think my parents are going to let me come here anymore.”

“I wonder if we could forbid alcohol for the first part of the evening so the gals can dance before a fight gets started?” Lily said.

The girls, traipsing behind her let out a skeptical laugh. “Why do you think the boys go to Dew Drop?” the girl who had recounted the fiddle bashing piped up. “Moonshine!”

When Ed caught up with Lily later, he grabbed her arm to stop her.

“You should have told me you had a boyfriend,” he said. “I don’t like being made a fool in front of my friends.”

“Are you jealous, Ed?” Lily regretted her teasing as soon as she saw the hurt in Ed’s eyes. “Look, if you promise not to fight, I’ll come with you next Saturday. But one punch and I’ll find other amusements in Glace Bay.” Lily felt she was back at school lecturing Ed. Her heart was filled with tender and frustrated emotions.

Ed gave her a prolonged kiss while the other girls stood gawking. Lily looked at the audience and blushed. She had been slow to resist Ed’s advances.

Sunday family dinner seemed the right occasion to introduce Lily to the Parsons family. She and Ed had been dating now for almost four months. His invitation to meet his parents came with a rider: “Don’t be surprised if my mother treats me like a five-year-old.” Ed’s older brothers, Tim and Andrew, had left home to train at Val Cartier before being shipped overseas, but three married brothers with their families came for the noontime meal to meet Lily.

“How would you keep boys who want to be miners in school?” Mr. Parsons asked, lamenting his grade-eight education. They were all gathered in the living room, the children playing with a train set that was brought out whenever they visited.

“We can’t force them to stay in school, but we can lay the foundation,” Lily said. “I just concentrate on the three R’s; reading, writing, and arithmetic. Girls already love to read. It’s the boys who hate books. Except to throw them.” The family joined Lily in laughter. “I do try to give the boys books that will interest them, but it’s not easy.”

Mr. Parsons brought up Ed’s misdemeanor in the washroom, but Ed protested. Lily adroitly turned the conversation to the Christmas play.

Before the meal, Lily stood up and offered to help Mrs. Parsons serve the food, following her into the kitchen.

“No need to help,” Mrs. Parsons said as Lily stepped out of her way.

Despite her plump figure, Mrs. Parsons spun around the kitchen like a top. Lily wondered what Mrs. Parsons would have done with a daughter. The bustling about her kitchen, however, resulted in a delicious pot roast in a rich tomato-and-onion sauce. Mr. Parsons said grace, and the family members crossed themselves, a reminder to Lily that Ed had been raised Catholic. Mrs. Parsons ladled the meat onto the plates along with a large scoop of buttered mashed potatoes.

“My mother isn’t a good cook,” Lily confessed, relishing the tender beef and gravy. “Dinner in our house consists of high-level conversation and low-level food.”

“Well, if that’s the case, Lily,” Mr. Parsons said, “why don’t ya stay with us for Christmas and enjoy a right big meal with all the trimmings made by Mrs. Parsons? Then ya’d meet Tim and Andrew.” Mrs. Parsons’s eyes welled up with tears, and she crossed herself again.

“I would like to meet Tim and Andrew, but I would miss spending Christmas with my aunt Marjorie. She’s my father’s sister and always comes to our house for Christmas.”

“Help me clear the plates, dear, and you can tell me more about your aunt,” Mrs. Parsons said kindly as she bustled about clearing dishes.

“I don’t know how much longer she’ll be with us,” Lily said, her voice quivering as she brought the first load of dirty dishes to the kitchen sink. “She would be appalled that I’m so emotional with strangers.”

“We’re not strangers, Lily. Ed talks about you constantly. Especially how you helped him at school.”

“Well, until he peeked into that washroom.” Lily laughed. “It was a unique way of getting expelled.”

“Are the two of you going to the Christmas dance at the Dew Drop?”

“I’m not,” Lily said. “The man who runs the place is serving free punch. It will be mayhem.”

Mrs. Parsons turned from the sink and looked at Lily. “I’ve spent my life sticking up for Ed. According to him, every antic was someone else’s fault.”

“I think moms always have a favourite,” Lily said thoughtfully. She recalled Beth’s hard fall from grace as the special daughter. Lily wanted to tell Mrs. Parsons about her sister’s baby, but realized she couldn’t discuss this with such a devout Catholic. Beth was adamant that she would not keep it, so Amelia had gone hat-in-hand to the Anglican Parish to see who might adopt the child once it arrived. Beatrice, a cousin of the vicar whose husband had a fishing boat, offered. Lily joined her mother and Beth when they’d gone to Peggy’s Cove to make the arrangements. They were greeted with homemade bread and deep-fried cod. Beatrice’s four children, ranging from eight to fifteen years of age, were excited about having a baby in the house. “We all have to share a room,” the fifteen-year-old said. She looked at Beatrice. “Could I share the room with the baby?” she asked. Beatrice nodded, eliciting a broad grin.

When everything was settled regarding Beth’s confinement, Amelia turned to Beatrice and asked if she would like to visit Sydney. “We own a pharmacy,” Amelia said.

“Do you sell candy?” the youngest child asked.

“For a penny, but perhaps you can have some for free,” Amelia said, ruffling the boy’s hair. “There’re lots of things to do in Sydney.”

Beatrice laughed, and her children let out a whoop of enthusiasm.

“It’s settled, then. You’ll come with the whole gang.” Lily and Beth had grinned. They had never heard their mother use slang words.

Mrs. Parsons brought Lily back to their conversation in the kitchen. “I’ll have to help Ed decide what to buy you for Christmas.”

Lily chuckled. Mrs. Parsons did indeed treat her son like a five-year-old.

A few days after the Sunday dinner with the Parsonses, Lily went out to purchase gifts for her family before heading home for the Christmas holiday. The first winter storm had just hit, but she struggled through the blowing snow from shop to shop to buy Beth a box of face powders in varying shades of beige and a silk wrap for Aunt Marjorie. Heavy flakes of wet snow dampened her wool hat. She blinked away the ice crystals that were forming on her eyelashes. Commercial Street was almost empty as shoppers headed away home. She looked at her watch. “My goodness,” she muttered, “an hour of shopping and I only have two gifts.”

As Lily hurried back to Mrs. O’Dea’s, she realized it would be appropriate to buy her a Christmas gift as well. Lily appreciated that her landlady allowed her some privacy. When she had been looking for a place to live, she was surprised at the nosiness of ladies renting parts of their house.

Lily stepped into the small vestibule to find Ed’s boots standing in a puddle of melted snow. She smelled coffee and felt a wave of panic. If Ed had used her landlady’s kitchen, Mrs. O’Dea would know he was in her room. There were no other boarders. Lily had never brought up the subject of entertaining visitors. Her body felt tingly as she mounted the stairs. She was excited yet angry that Ed had let himself into her room.

When she opened her door at the top of the stairs, she was momentarily speechless. Ed was stretched out in his underclothes, sipping a mug of coffee. His clothes lay in a pile beside him. She bolted across the room and closed the curtains, then grabbed her blue wool dressing gown from the back of the door and threw it at him.

“Put this on!” she said as she hastily adjusted a crack in the curtains. “What if someone saw you?” She had visions of a pupil or parent leaning against the lamppost looking up at her room. Everyone knew where she lived.

Ed tried to pull her onto the bed. “Come on, Lily. You know you want it.”

“It!” Lily said hoarsely. “What’s it to you, Ed? Something to boast about?” Lily realized her words sounded harsh and she softened her voice. “What I want is love, like my parents had.”

Lily’s body was awash in mixed emotions as she watched Ed go from excitement to shame. She turned her back as Ed dressed. “What went through your head?” she asked, angrily. Ed turned and picked up a chair, setting it down so hard again that the front leg broke off. Tears spilled from his dark eyes as he stomped down the stairs.

Lily knelt on her bed, parted the curtains, and watched him disappear into the falling snow. She smoothed the mark Ed’s body had made on the bedcovers. A shudder coursed through her. What would have happened if he had stayed? She turned off the light and leaned on the windowsill looking out at the falling snow reflected by the street lamp. “It’s time you stopped acting like your mother’s five-year-old,” she whispered. “I’ll never have a serious relationship with someone so unpredictable.” She lay down on her bed and rolled onto her side, tucking her childhood blanket under her head. It smelled of hair pomade.

In spite of these thoughts, Lily continued to see Ed, although her feelings for him often went from tenderness to anger. Ed presented Lily with a heart-shaped locket at Easter and asked her to be his girl. As summer approached he suggested taking a picnic to the swimming hole where he had learned to swim as a boy. It was a salty inlet, warmer than the ocean. When Lily said she couldn’t swim, he offered to teach her. But she refused, saying she was terrified of water.

“I’m happy just enjoying the sun,” she said, as she spread out a blanket and unpacked the pastries, fresh bread, and sliced ham his mother had prepared. She felt a wave of irritation that Mrs. Parsons had added a flask of liquor. Ed didn’t need any encouragement.

The dessert had melted all over the picnic basket. “What a mess!” Lily said, laughing. They scooped at the puddle of chocolate and licked each other’s fingers. Then Lily waded into the inlet to rinse out the picnic hamper. Dark water marked a sudden drop-off. She hurried back to the sandy beach and was raising the liquor flask to pour what was left on the ground just as Ed emerged from the bushes in his bathing costume.

“Don’t waste it,” Ed said, grabbing the flask and screwing on the lid.

He rushed toward the water. “I’m going to swim out to Baldy Rock.” Lily watched in amazement at the powerful stroke of his arms and rhythmical kicking. Every few strokes he brought his arms forward simultaneously, arching his body like a dolphin.

“I’ve got a cramp,” Ed shouted as he swam back. Forcing herself to overcome her fear, Lily high-stepped into deeper water to help him. At the edge of the drop-off, he put his hands on her waist and hoisted her toward him. She shrieked with terror as her skirt billowed up over her face.

“Hold your breath,” he shouted. He dunked her under, and she came up coughing sputtering and gagging.

“Ed, you know I can’t swim!”

Ed held her waist, treading water with his powerful legs. Lily pummelled his head when he dunked her under a second time. This time she screamed as she came up for air.

“We live by water. You need to be able to swim,” Ed said forcefully.

“What the hell are you doing with that girl?” a man shouted from the shore. He was rushing toward them, his daughter and wife watching on the beach. Ed lifted Lily up and set her down in the shallow water. She was sobbing between deep breaths. The man put his arm around her and led her back to shore.

“I wouldn’t have anything to do with that young man, Miss. Scaring a poor girl like that. If I were you, I’d get swimming lessons real quick and never go near that bully again.”

“He was my boyfriend,” Lily said.

“No kidding?” The man looked at his wife and child. “You wouldn’t find me doing that.”

Ed rushed past the glaring family to sit down on their picnic blanket. Lily joined him, dripping and still breathless.

“I didn’t believe anyone could be so afraid of water,” he said.

“Well, I didn’t believe anyone could be so mean. We’re both surprised, Ed Parsons.”

“Lily, I’m sorry. That’s how I learned to swim. My brothers tossed me off a wharf.”

“Ed, I have a mean sister and I don’t intend to have a mean beau. I need a break from you. Aunt Marjorie has asked me to spend the summer with her in Sydney, to help out. I’ve decided to say yes.” Lily’s eyes filled with tears. “Ed, I can’t take this push and pull. One minute you act as though I’m your girlfriend, and the next you act as if you don’t care. I don’t know what you’re afraid of, but it shouldn’t be me.”

When she saw Ed’s defensive expression, Lily fought to keep her resolve.

“You’re right,” he said. “You deserve better than a coal miner.”

“You’re missing the point. This has nothing to do with you being a miner.” Lily ran her fingers through her wet hair in exasperation. “I can’t stand these moods.”

Ed’s eyes glistened, but Lily couldn’t interpret his silence. He dressed, and they walked silently back to town, Lily in her sopping dress.

As soon as Lily got back, she used Mrs. O’Dea’s phone to call her aunt in Sydney. She broke into a broad grin when she heard Marjorie’s voice at the other end. “Aunt Marjorie, I’d like to accept your invitation. I can’t cook, but I’d be helpful in everything else.” Marjorie chuckled. Lily was surprised at how strong her aunt sounded, despite the fact that the breast cancer had spread to her lungs.

“Lily, it would be wonderful to have your help. When can you come?”

“In two weeks, when school ends. I need some practical advice.”

“Well, you know your aunt has an opinion on everything.”

Marjorie understood the delicate interaction between Lily and her mother. She had met Amelia in her compromised circumstances when Amelia was the housekeeper to the elderly Mr. White. Marjorie was working at the time as a full-time nurse and was unable to care for her grandfather. She understood that Lily reminded her mother of something she wanted to forget. Marjorie had intentionally filled the emotional gap when Beth was born by making Lily her special niece.

When Lily hung up the phone, she began to cry. Marjorie had called her beautiful even when she was at her most ungainly. Beth, so sure of herself, didn’t need compliments. The proof of her self-confidence and resilience was found in the fact that even a botched abortion and the birth of an illegitimate child had not daunted her. Beth had returned to New York after the birth of the baby.

After her first full year of teaching, and her tumultuous relationship with Ed Parsons, what Lily wanted most now was to rekindle her family relationships and forget her former beau.

“What was I like when I was young?” Lily asked one evening, curled up on the sofa. The weather had turned cool and her aunt had stoked up the coal stove.

“My goodness, you make yourself sound so old,” Aunt Marjorie said, laughing. She held the glass door open for a moment, staring at the orange embers. “You would stretch out by this stove reading your page-worn books and eating my cookies.”

“I remember the cookies,” Lily said. “Two cookies bound together by homemade jam. Sometimes you used a date mixture, but I preferred the jam.”

“Your uncle Ned paid a full month’s wages for this New Silver Moon stove on our first anniversary,” Aunt Marjorie said, looking fondly at the stove. “You were always intrigued by the name. That’s why I want you, the daughter we never had, to inherit it. I’ve set aside money to transport this stove wherever you are, so long as it’s not Timbuktu.”

Lily laughed. “I don’t want to inherit the stove anytime soon, Aunt Marjorie.”

“Just remember, there were never more than six hundred New Silver Moons manufactured.”