Читать книгу The Remnants - W. P. Osborn - Страница 17

“Dearest Rosie,” she began. The candlelight was so dim she could barely make out the words. She held the pages higher up toward the flame, careful not to touch its edge.

“I’m sorry I haven’t written earlier but the time has gone by in such a blur that I don’t know where to start. You should know that I made it all the way to Liverpool. It was quite an adventure on my own but I made it! I am now well settled and about to begin a position in service with Canard Steamship Lines. I’ve been in training for two weeks now learning all about working on board a ship and later next week I’ll set out on my first voyage to America on the second class lounge of the SS Glorious.”

Rose twisted the page again toward the candle while Lily stretched her neck forward in anticipation, “They tell me that if I can continue to do well I can hope for promotion someday to the first class decks, imagine me, Maggie Dixon, serving in first class.”

“Good girl!” Lucy chimed with a wide grin, “good for you Maggie.”

Rose smiled and went back to the page, “and there are so many huge ships heading to so many places from here, mostly in the Empire. I’m hoping someday to get to Australia or New Zealand where I’m going to get off and start over.”

Rose flipped to the second page and continued on still straining under the light.

“Did you hear anything from Phil? I’d like him to know where I am. He told me that day that he’d hope to catch up to his brother in the merchant navy. I suspect he may be here in Liverpool but I’ve no way of reaching him. I’ll keep searching when I can but the odds are long and he’s probably already gone to sea.”

“Mrs. Quayle, is that you in the barn?” It was Mrs. Beechly’s voice calling out from beyond the paddock.

“Yes, Mrs. Beechly, it’s me, I’m on my way,” Lily called back. She turned back to Rose and whispered, “Nosy old bag! I’ll leave you to finish it, Luv. You can tell me all later. Make sure you burn that before you come in, we can have no evidence!”

Lily shut the door firmly as she stepped out of the barn.

“Just checkin’ to see if that old sow was gettin’ ready to deliver. By the looks of it she should be ready any day now.”

“Oh, that seems a bit strange, couldn’t you have checked with Mr. Alton or one of the hands?”

Lily chose not to respond and simply glared angrily at Beechly who paused, stared back at Lily for a moment and then got on with her business.

“Oh well. I want to discuss the menu for tomorrow’s dinner. Since it’s a tribute to Her Ladyship’s great victory at the flower show, Lord Knowles expects it all to be very special.”

“Great victory indeed. There wasn’t a single judge who would have dared to vote against her two years runnin’,” Lily clucked as they started back toward the house.

“That’ll be enough of that nonsense,” Mrs. Beechly chided. “She won her prized cup again and she’s restored the honour to Meaford House. Now it’s up to us to make the whole evening as great a celebration as we possibly can.”

Rose could hear the voices trail off in the distance. She retrieved the pages from her apron and held them back up into the light.

“Whatever happens I could never have made it this far without your mother’s help. She probably told you that she persuaded Mr. Jameson to wire his brother at Cunard and asked dear Mrs. Peters to write a letter recommending me. Without them, I wouldn’t have stood a chance. So please give her my love and tell her I won’t let her down.

Write to me care of Employee Post,

Cunard Steamship Lines, Liverpool.

All my love,

Maggie

PS. I hope your Danny is OK in the army. Poor lad - he took an awful beating from that judge.”

Rose lowered the pages down again and inhaled slowly. She thought for a moment about how easy it would be for her to run off and join her friend – the two of them together again, sailing off aboard a great ship to freedom of Australia. Then Danny crawled back into her mind and she shook those thoughts away. She’d made her commitment and she knew that she would stick by it. Rose lifted the pages into the flame, watched them burn, dropped the last fading ashes to the floor and blew the candle out.

* * *