The Harbour Girl Read Online Free PDF Page A

life for what you’ve done today in saving my lad.’
    One of the other men spoke up. ‘You’d have done the same for us. But there’ll be some sorrow in the town afore long. This storm isn’t finished yet. Best go home, young sailor,’ he said to Ethan, ‘and get into some dry clouts afore you catch your death. You did well today. You’re a brave lad.’
    Mary watched and listened and thought that Ethan, though trembling and trying to keep back tears, seemed to grow in stature with the fisherman’s praise, but he was looking towards his father, who nodded and in a voice thick with grief said, ‘That he did. He’ll have his own ship yet.’
    It was close on midday when Mary collected Tom and Jeannie, and they were both shivering with cold. Even Tom made no fuss when their mother said they’d go home for some warming broth. She asked Josh and Ethan if they’d like to come back with her. ‘There’s plenty of soup,’ she told them, ‘and bread.’
    Josh shook his head and Mary guessed that he would be bracing himself to break the news to Ethan about his mother and tell his daughters about Mark.
    ‘Susan’s lit a good fire,’ she said, ‘so you can get warm and dry, Ethan; and the babby’s being fed. What name have you given him, Josh?’
    Josh looked at her vaguely. It was as if he had forgotten about the child, and even his wife, for he blinked rapidly and then his face crumpled. ‘Stephen,’ he said huskily. ‘It was what Lizzie wanted.’
    Ethan glanced questioningly at his father and Mary turned away, ushering the children in front of her. Josh Wharton had a double sorrow and his wife’s burial to arrange. Whether he would ever find his son was in the lap of the gods. Mark could have been washed out to sea, never to be seen again, just as her own husband had been, but she dearly hoped that the boy would be found and they could put him to rest next to his mother.
    The storm continued to rage all the rest of the day and all night, and the following morning Mary went down to the shore once more. There were still many onlookers on the cliffs and the headland as well as those on the sands. Those down by the water were mainly fisher families, hoping against hope that their men would be saved, but there were other townsfolk too, and there was much praise for the lifeboat men who had risked their own lives. The coastguard, too, was praised for launching the rocket apparatus in their attempts to save the ships’ crews.
    Vessels had foundered all along the east coast and lay wrecked not only near Scarborough but along the sands of Burniston Bay, Cloughton, Robin Hood’s Bay and Filey, or so she gathered from the people who waited, many of whom had been there all night. But the storm was not yet done. The angry seas were to claim even more lives before it blew itself out, but there were tales of great bravery as men such as the crew of the Castle and others like them battled against the force of nature to save lives.
    When she returned home, Tom, who had been unusually quiet since they’d returned the previous day, asked her if he could go down to the sands.
    ‘I’ll be careful, Ma,’ he volunteered. ‘I’ll not get in the way.’ He’d pressed his lips together. ‘I just want to watch the rescue.’
    ‘All right, Tom,’ she agreed, thinking he seemed pensive. ‘Wrap up warm.’
    He nodded, and then said, ‘Do you think that Ethan’ll go fishing again?’
    ‘Why yes,’ she said. ‘It’s his living. What else would he do?’
    ‘Dunno,’ he muttered. ‘He must’ve been scared, mustn’t he?’ He lifted his eyes to his mother’s. ‘Being in the water! I would’ve been.’
    She sat down and pulled him towards her and tenderly tucked a muffler into the top of his raincoat. ‘Of course you would,’ she said softly. ‘Everybody is at some time, even experienced fishermen and seamen. The sea has to be treated with respect. That’s why I’m always on at you to take care when you’re