The Girl from Simon's Bay by Barbara Mutch

Author:Barbara Mutch [Barbara Mutch]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780749021252
Publisher: Allison & Busby
Published: 2016-05-20T16:00:00+00:00

I told myself I owed Ma no explanation.

I was doing nothing wrong, correspondence was not a sin. But I’m not a natural dissembler like Piet. Or Vera, who can lie without a qualm if it suits her, or choose to tell the truth in the most unvarnished way. Vera, though, was being kind and discreet, inviting me out to the cinema or to tea in the cafe near Sartorial House, as if keeping me close by her side would reduce the opportunity for me to stray in the direction of my white admirer. She hated the colour bar as much as I did, but whereas I’d discovered it was bendable to an extent, she saw it as implacable at best, destructive at worst. Vera worried I’d be broken and never recover.

‘Will you please slow down, Louise?’

‘Sorry, Ma!’ I waited for her to catch up. ‘The only new men I meet are my patients.’

‘Exactly! And they’re no good for anything,’ Ma snorted, ‘except writing nice thank you notes! It’s a shame you don’t have any of our Cape Corps servicemen at the RNH.’

A pair of sugarbirds alighted on a protea. I pointed them out to David the first time we walked here.

‘Nothing will happen till after the war, Ma.’

‘That’s what everyone says, especially your pa.’ She mimicked his gravelly voice. ‘Wait for the war to be over, Sheila, then this will happen, or that might happen.’ A strand of wiry hair escaped from beneath her battered straw hat.

‘He’s right,’ I said gently, putting my arm around her and trying to lighten the moment. ‘And I’m too tired for a romance right now.’

‘Nonsense,’ Ma retorted, giving me a brisk nudge. ‘It’s only marriage that needs stamina.’

I laughed and looked about for a level rock and the distraction of a view. ‘Let’s stop here for a bit.’

Ma gathered her skirt and sat down gingerly. I perched beside her.

‘I’m serious, Louise. You must get out more. You won’t meet anyone new until you go out and try.’ A tugboat curved out of the harbour and slowed in the approaches, pitching in its creamy wash. ‘Is there something bothering you, child? Something you want to talk about?’

As I said, I’m not a good liar. Like Vera, Ma knew me too well not to suspect something was amiss. But the questions I’d like to have asked were too revealing.

Had Ma ever done anything she knew was wrong?

Does God reserve a special punishment for those who contemplate their sin with the kind of longing that gripped me every time I reread David’s letters?

‘Ma, when you fell in love, did you know it straightaway?’

‘Of course!’ She chuckled. ‘I took one look at your pa and knew he was the one. And so will you, when the time comes.’ She paused and shot me a quick glance. ‘Or perhaps it has and you’re not telling.’

My heart lurched. I stared at the sea.

‘I’m heart sore about Piet, though,’ Ma went on, motioning vaguely toward the Philander place, ‘all the times we fed him and trusted him, when he was just a common thief.

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