A Mother's Duty by June Francis Read Free Book Online Page B

With a wink at her cousin, Kitty went ahead of him to put on the kettle.
    She was extremely aware of his presence as he paused in the middle of the quarry-tiled floor and knew him to be watching her as she spooned tea into the pot. She felt all fingers and thumbs and dropped a spoon. ‘Do sit down, Mr McLeod,’ she said, pausing to pick it up. ‘You’re making me nervous.’
    ‘Am I?’ He looked amused but made no move to obey her. Instead he went over to the sink and placed the basket on the draining board before turning on the cold water tap.
    ‘What are you doing?’ she asked, startled.
    ‘Washing the fish.’ He lifted the cloth from the basket. ‘How will you be cooking them? They’re fine big ones. I remember my grandmother’s cook used to stuff herring with a mixture of oatmeal and herbs.’
    His grandmother’s cook! Her mind seized on that bit of information. She cleared her throat. ‘I’ll be cooking them in the Scandinavian way which my father showed my mother.’
    ‘And how’d that be?’ He began to wash the fish.
    ‘I bake them with a little melted fat and mustard.’ It was a pleasure to her to talk about cooking. Michael and Jimmy had never shown any interest in how the food on their plates got there.
    ‘And to go with them?’ He glanced over his shoulder at her.
    ‘Boiled potatoes with a vinegar sauce and parsley.’ There was a quiver in her voice as she took her apron from its hook. ‘Do you want to know what’s for pudding?’
    One of his eyebrows lifted interrogatively.
    ‘Baked jam roly-poly. Does that meet with your approval, Mr McLeod?’ Her eyes smiled up at him.
    ‘If it’s the food you’re offering me, aye.’
    ‘It was not. I was offering you lunch which is ham bone soup with lentils,’ she said with mock severity. ‘The herring are for my guests’ main course this evening. If there’s any left over you can share it with us in payment for work. That’s if you wouldn’t mind doing the odd job?’ She could not conceal her eagerness. ‘Since my brother-in-law left there’s some things that the boys just can’t do. I’d really appreciate it if you could help me.’
    ‘I might be interested as long as you don’t think I’m stopping.’ There was a warning note in his voice. ‘I’ll be hitting the road as soon as the weather improves.’
    ‘I wasn’t thinking of you stopping,’ she lied, adding in a persuasive voice. ‘There’s only a few little odd jobs. You remember Mr Potter mentioning a trunk?’
    ‘No, but go on.’
    ‘I need it moving.’ She busied herself peeling onions for the lentil soup. ‘My brother-in-law said it weighed a ton.’
    ‘Why did he leave?’ John slapped a fish down on the draining board.
    Kitty turned her head. ‘A woman. I wouldn’t mind if she was any ordinary woman but—’
    ‘Are you sure about that?’
    She remembered how Jimmy had kissed her and inexplicably blushed as if she had a guilty secret to hide. ‘Of course I’m sure,’ she snapped. ‘The woman involved is called Myrtle Drury, but you won’t have heard of her although she’s quite well known by some in Liverpool.’
    ‘But I have heard of her,’ he said softly.
    She could not believe it and as she stared at him their eyes met, but his expression was hard to read. ‘She was dunning my god-daughter’s mother, who’s hopeless with money and fell behind with her rent. Charley, that’s Miss Drury’s bully boy if you didn’t know, got nasty. I had to scare him a little. I don’t think she was pleased with him. In fact I know she wasn’t because she offered me his job. I turned it down, of course, with me not wanting regular work.’
    ‘That wasn’t your only reason, surely,’ said Kitty. ‘You must have realised she was no lady.’ The kettle began to hiss and Kitty dropped the knife on the table to make the tea.
    ‘Naturally. Ladies don’t threaten to have you thrown in the Mersey.’
    ‘Is that what she did?’
    ‘Haven’t I just said