Road to Berry Edge, The by Elizabeth Gill Read Free Book Online Page B

Berry Edge was against him. He had come to the house - they had remained friends for years after they were children even though they didn’t work together. Michael had been in the pub with Rob when John drowned so he knew for certain that Rob had had nothing directly to do with it, though he also knew how fiercely the brothers had quarrelled. He was tired by then of saying to people that Rob had not pushed his brother over the bridge. It was what they wanted to believe, so they believed it.
    He knew that life had become intolerable for Rob during those weeks, that his parents had blamed him, that his friends at work had talked about him, that many people had stopped speaking to him, that Faith Norman had been left as good as widowed four weeks away from her wedding. She had almost collapsed. John Berkeley’s death hung over Berry Edge like a pall.
    He remembered standing outside the house in the bitter cold wind.
    â€˜I’m going away, Mickey.’
    â€˜Away? Away where?’
    â€˜Anywhere that isn’t here.’
    â€˜But you can’t.’
    â€˜What else can I do? My parents are heartbroken, people hold me responsible, I hold myself responsible—’
    â€˜You shouldn’t. I fight as bad as that with our Sean twice a week at least.’
    â€˜Your Sean’s used to drink.’
    â€˜It was an accident, Rob.’
    â€˜That’s not how it seems. I have to get out of here. Come with me.’
    For a moment it seemed to Michael a possibility, a light. Getting away. And then reality clutched him. His father was dead, he had four sisters and his mother to support.
    â€˜There’s your Sean, you don’t have to stay.’
    â€˜Our Sean drinks his pay, you know that. I have my mam to keep and the girls to look after. I can’t go anywhere.’
    He remembered Rob’s despair. He remembered Rob walking away, remembered how he had felt watching Rob leave the rows, wondering how long it would be before he came back. He remembered missing him and how from the beginning things had gone downhill, like the guts had been taken from Josiah Berkeley. He no longer treated the people of Berry Edge as his extended family, he no longer provided seaside trips in the summer for the children or parties in the winter for his men and their families. Margaret Berkeley had sat on councils and committees, helped those who needed her. Even the lowest, most feckless families in Berry Edge had known that the Berkeley family was there for them, Josiah to keep the work coming in and the money going out: Margaret to smooth the problems, Rob in the works alongside the men and John, his father’sbest helpmate, backing him always, clearsighted with new ideas and new ways.
    The structure had collapsed, the support was gone. Margaret went daily to her son’s grave, Josiah often took to his bed with small ailments that he would once have shrugged off. The works suffered, the people saw that the heart had gone from Berry Edge. Houses were not maintained, work was no longer well done. Berry Edge lost its reputation for turning out fine steel. It was as though the self-respect and motivation had left when John died.
    Michael had heard that Rob was coming back. He had expected the same cowed young man who had left, but Rob had walked into that pub and there was everything about him that exuded success and prosperity. His hands had seen no work for many a long day, Michael thought, he was nothing to do with Berry Edge, his neat shiny hair and his perfect suit. It was as though Rob hadn’t aged at all, but the men in the pub were ill dressed, ill housed, older and tired. They had lost their self-respect. They were living in this dirty, worn, down at heel place on short time without comfort of any kind while Rob was tall, slender and sleek, good looking and rich. All Michael had wanted to do was push a big fist into his face. Rob had done well, Michael could see by his clear grey eyes. He did