The Dead Men Stood Together Read Online Free PDF Page B

was.
    I walked downstairs in darkness and was startled to realise my mother was sitting at the table.
    ‘You had better hurry,’ she said in a low voice with no trace of emotion. ‘Dawn will be breaking soon. Your uncle has already gone.’
    ‘What do you mean?’ I asked.
    ‘I know you will leave one day,’ she said. ‘I always have. It might as well be today as any other. My heart will break whenever it is.’
    ‘Mother,’ I said, tears filling my eyes. ‘Please. I won’t go. I’ll stay with you. I’ll stay for ever.’
    ‘No,’ she said quietly. ‘No, you won’t. Go.’
    Her words stabbed my heart, but they were true. I said nothing and did not move. My eyes were getting used to the dark and I saw her looking at me, her eyes shimmering darkly.
    ‘Go,’ she said again. ‘Your uncle will watch out for you. And maybe you can watch out for him.’
    She stood up and walked towards me and we hugged in the darkness. I felt a tear drip on to my neck and I wasn’t sure whether it was hers or mine.
    ‘Travel,’ she said. ‘Have your adventures. And then come home to me and meet a girl and settle down and give me grandchildren to play with.’
    I got dressed. I packed my father’s old kitbag, which he had gifted me the first day I sailed with him. I had no idea what we might face and so I packed everything I could.
    ‘Be prepared for everything and you will stand some chance,’ my father had told me once. ‘And that’s the best you can hope for as a seafaring man.’
    My mother had been crying before we embraced in the doorway and she cried again as I held her, and I’m not ashamed to say I shed tears as well. Had the pull of the sea not been so strong, I’d have thrown down my kitbag there and then.
    Several times on the way to the harbour, I almost went back. I never turned round once, because I knew that if I caught sight of my mother that would be it, and I would lose all my courage and run home.
    I felt as though I shrank as I walked, becoming smaller and smaller as I got nearer and nearer to the ships moored in the bay.
    My uncle was standing on the harbour wall with a group of men. He saw me walking towards him and took his leave of them.
    ‘You’ve come to see me off?’ he said.
    Then he saw my bag.
    ‘I’ve come to join you,’ I said. ‘If I can?’
    ‘Aye!’ he said with a grin. ‘The captain was saying he was a little short-handed. He’ll be glad to have you.’
    He looked past me in the direction of my home.
    ‘Does your mother know?’ he asked. ‘Only –’
    ‘She knows,’ I said.
    My uncle looked at me steadily, searching my face for signs of a lie. When he saw none, he patted me on the shoulder and ushered me towards the group of men he had been talking to.
    ‘This is my young nephew,’ he said. ‘He wants to serve with you, Captain.’
    A short, thick-set man with a leathery face and wild beard stepped forward.
    ‘Have you sailed before?’ he said.
    ‘Aye, sir,’ I answered. ‘Many times. My father had his own –’
    ‘Do as I say and we’ll get along,’ he said.
    With that he turned and walked away and my interview was over. My uncle laughed and clapped me on the back.
    ‘It’s just his way,’ he said. ‘He’s the best, they say.’
    ‘You haven’t sailed with him before?’
    ‘No,’ said my uncle. ‘But I rarely sail with the same captain twice. It’s just the way of things. You get to be a good judge of a man, though – and I think we’re in safe hands. I have . . .’
    He was looking distractedly over my shoulder and, following his gaze, I saw that he was staring at the pilot’s son, who was standing on the tideline some way off, his eyes fixed on my uncle.
    ‘Who is that boy?’ asked my uncle.
    I told him.
    ‘Don’t mind him,’ I said. ‘He is . . .’
    I struggled to find the right words.
    ‘He is different.’
    ‘Different?’ said my uncle with a snort. ‘Well different or not, I’ll not be stared at.’
    With that, he set off