The Collier’s Wife by Chrissie Walsh

Author:Chrissie Walsh [Walsh, Chrissie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Head of Zeus

19

Amy smiled as she handed the neatly wrapped parcel bearing Jude’s regimental address to the clerk behind the Post Office counter. Still smiling, she stepped outside thinking of the pleasure Jude would derive from the long, newsy letter, Kezia’s homemade Christmas card and her own Christmas gift to him: Saki’s short stories and H.G. Well’s Around the World in Eighty Days.

In Jude’s last letter he’d written, ‘Most of the lads read only magazines or nothing at all, so when 2nd/Lieut. Milford saw the books I’d taken with me he suggested we keep one another supplied; it’s a good deal. Him being an upper-class toff, he receives some smashing books.’ When Amy read this, she hoped 2nd/Lieut. Milford had not read the ones she had just posted – to where, she didn’t know, Jude not allowed to divulge his whereabouts for security reasons. He’d also told her he now had a rifle and was a good shot, unlike Bert. She had laughed when she read, ‘Bert fired five rounds at the target; only one hit it. When the instructor bawled “where are the others, you useless bugger?” Bert told him they had all gone through the same hole. Bert’s a crafty bugger but he’s not cut out for soldiering.’

Pleased that her package was winging its way to Jude, Amy stopped off at Beattie’s. ‘Mam’s invited me and you and the children to have Christmas dinner at the farm,’ she said cautiously, unsure of Beattie’s reaction.

Beattie’s jaw dropped, surprise then contempt masking her features. ‘Bit bloody late in the day,’ she said. ‘Our Maggie’s nine an’ she hardly knows her. She’s seen our Henry just once.’

Although Amy understood Beattie’s annoyance, she desperately wanted to heal the rift between Beattie and Bessie so she said, ‘Mam regrets the way she treated you but she had her reasons.’

Beattie sniggered. ‘Reasons be buggered. She’s a lying, vindictive cow who couldn’t admit she’d had it off wi’ a gypsy. An’ look at her now, all cosied up to him an’ pretending it never mattered.’

‘That’s because it did matter, Beattie; it mattered very much. She loved Raffy – still does – but he left her pregnant and she panicked. Think what you’d have done if Bert hadn’t married you.’ Beattie’s lips wobbled and Amy, seeing she had struck a nerve, said ‘sit down and let me tell you how it was.’

Amy made a pot of tea then told Beattie all that Raffy and Bessie had told her.

When she had finished, Beattie said, ‘Poor bugger, living wi’ all that guilt. She never looked as though she were suffering.’ Her lip curled and she growled, ‘But by bloody hell, she made up for it by making me suffer.’

‘She was wrong; she knows that now. If you can find it in your heart to forgive her, I think you’ll feel better about yourself, Beattie. You were never to blame, you’ve nothing to be sorry for, so don’t let it ruin your life.’

Beattie shrugged. ‘I suppose I can try.’ She grinned wryly.

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