Far From Home. Anne Bennett

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СКАЧАТЬ money and she guarded it jealously. Though they all knew the cupboard she kept it in, no one would dream of touching it – till now.

      ‘That was stealing, Sally.’

      ‘Well, I wouldn’t have had to steal if I had been given a wage.’

      Kate shook her head angrily. ‘No, you can’t get away with it like that, Sally. I bet you never even discussed getting any sort of wage for yourself, did you?’

      ‘She wouldn’t have agreed,’ Sally said mulishly. ‘You know what she’s like.’

      ‘You didn’t even try,’ Kate said. ‘So, you can’t be sure what Mammy would have done and Daddy might have supported you.’

      ‘He always sides with Mammy.’

      ‘No, he doesn’t,’ Kate said. ‘He did when we were small because he thought bringing up children was women’s work, as it is, but he was better with me when I had grown a bit, so I’m sure he would be the same with you. He’s very fair. Surely you should have tried to get them to see your point of view before you stole from your own parents?’

      Sally was crying in earnest now but Kate had little sympathy for her. ‘And just how did you manage to walk out anyway, especially carrying a thumping great suitcase. I mean,’ she added sarcastically, ‘weren’t they the slightest bit curious?’

      ‘They weren’t there,’ Sally said. ‘Daddy and Uncle Padraic had been gone from early morning to Killybegs where they heard some farm equipment and animals were being sold after the death of the farmer.’

      ‘And where was Mammy?’

      ‘Helping at a birth. And James has been at school since September.’

      ‘And when you got here, Sally, what did you expect to happen?’ Kate asked.

      ‘I thought I might stay with you,’ Sally said.

      ‘And so you could if this had been planned properly and Mammy and Daddy had agreed and I had known in advance,’ Kate said. ‘Then I would have welcomed you for a week or two, because I would have some holidays due to me from work and I could have taken you out and about a bit. But I can’t do that at the drop of a hat. Like I said before, I’m a working girl.’

      ‘But they wouldn’t have let me come.’

      ‘Don’t talk nonsense.’

      ‘They wouldn’t,’ Sally maintained. ‘I heard Mammy say so last Sunday after Mass.’

      ‘What are you talking about?’

      ‘She was talking to old Biddy Morrisey after Mass and she asked how you were and Mammy said you were well as far as she knew. Then Biddy sort of nodded over to me and said that I would be the next one on the boat to England and Mammy said I would not. She said I wouldn’t be let go, not even for a holiday, in case I didn’t come back.’ She looked up into her sister’s eyes and said, ‘And it wasn’t just something to say, you know. She meant every word.

      ‘And then yesterday she was yelling at me about something or other the whole time. I breathed a sigh of relief when she was sent for this morning, though she gave me a list of jobs to do before she left. All I could see was a lifetime of the same – living with Mammy and Daddy for ever, or if I should get married to one of those at home, all I would have to look forward to would be a lifetime of drudgery and a child every year. That has happened to lots of girls, as you well know, and I didn’t want it happening to me. I want to see and do other things. I felt quite stifled at home.’

      For the first time, Kate felt immense sympathy for her sister – she could understand how frantic she must have been. ‘Stifled’ described very well the way Kate had felt before she had left Donegal; it had only been the intense but forbidden love she’d had for Tim that had made life bearable.

      ‘And whenever you write you always seem to be having such a fine time of it,’ Sally went on. ‘I just decided on the spur of the moment to come over and see for myself. It wasn’t something I planned or anything, it was just that I knew I would never get such a chance again. It’s seldom I have the farmhouse to myself.’ Then she glanced up at Kate and said, ‘I left them a note, tried to explain …’

      ‘I doubt that will help much,’ Kate said. ‘And I do feel sorry for you, but I can’t have you here, not like this. Really, this isn’t the way to get more freedom. Your best bet is to write to Mammy and Daddy and say how sorry you are and make your way home again sharpish. Later, when the time is right, I will plead your case for you.’

      ‘Oh, will you, Kate?’ Sally cried. ‘That will be grand. Mammy listens to you. But I can’t write to her. She will be so cross with me.’

      ‘Yes, and with reason, I’d say,’ Kate snapped. ‘Don’t be so feeble. Go home and face the music.’

      ‘I can’t,’ Sally cried in anguish. ‘And anyway, I haven’t any money left, or not enough for the whole fare anyway.’

      ‘Oh, Sally,’ Kate cried in exasperation. Keeping her temper with difficulty, she took a deep breath and said, ‘I cannot have you here and that’s final, so I suppose I shall have to loan you the money, but for now you write a letter to Mammy saying how sorry you are and promise that you will make it up to her. You know the kind of thing to say. And I would just like you to know that you have wrecked my evening good and proper, because I was going dancing with Susie Mason tonight, like we do every Friday, and now I will have to pop along to see her and cancel our plans. I shouldn’t think she’ll be best pleased either.’

      ‘Sorry, Kate.’

      Kate sighed. Sally was an irritating and quite selfish girl, but she couldn’t keep telling her off. In a few days she imagined she’d be on her way home and not her concern any more and, though her parents had always doted on her, or until James’s birth anyway, she knew that her mother at any rate would roast her alive for this little adventure. So she looked at her sister’s woebegone face and said, ‘On the way home, for all you don’t deserve it, I will buy us both a fish and chip supper.’

      ‘Oh, will you, Kate?’ Sally cried. ‘I would be so grateful. I haven’t eaten for hours.’

      ‘That’s why you’re so tearful,’ Kate said. ‘A full stomach always makes a person feel more positive. I’ll get going now and I’ll not linger because I’m hungry myself. Write that letter and make sure you have the table laid and the kettle boiling by the time I get back.’

      Susie was disappointed, but she could see Kate was too. ‘And she just turned up like that?’ she repeated, when Kate told her what Sally had done.

      ‘That’s right,’ Kate said. ‘She was waiting for me when I got in from work and admitted she’d sneaked out when both our parents were out of the house and James at school. Claimed she left a note explaining it.’

      ‘Explaining what?’ Susie said. ‘Why did she do it?’

      ‘Oh, that’s the best yet,’ Kate said. ‘She said she was fed up. Like I said, we all get fed up. The trouble is she overheard Mammy telling someone after Mass that she would never let her come here, even for a little holiday. I suppose it was like the last straw for her – and then she got the opportunity with everyone out of the way, so here she is. She can be very headstrong,’

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