The Harbour Girl Read Online Free PDF Page B

a bairn, Jeannie. You must be polite to her and not answer back. She doesn’t mean half of what she says in any case, so don’t mind her too much.’
    And, Mary thought, the old tyrant would be lost without me, which is why she’s careful not to cross me. She sighed. I never thought that she’d become so reliant on me. And she remembered Aggie’s comment when they spoke of Josh Wharton’s losing his wife and eldest son on the same day.
    ‘He’ll be looking for a wife to look after his bairns,’ Aggie had said. ‘His eldest girl is hardly old enough to take on the household, not when there’s another mouth to feed.’
    ‘The babby’s being looked after until he’s able to take a bottle,’ Mary told her, ‘and Susan is doing a grand job with the other bairns. He’ll not want a wife yet a while.’
    ‘Aye, well you watch out,’ Aggie had warned her. ‘Don’t get yoursen drawn in there. You’ve enough on wi’ your own bairns to clothe and feed.’
    Mary had said nothing, but she knew what the old woman was thinking. If Mary should marry again into another family, she was afraid that there’d be no one to look after her. But she needn’t have worried. The fisher families always looked out for each other.
    ‘Can I play out for a bit, Ma?’ Jeannie asked. She’d spotted Ethan sitting on a bollard by the harbour.
    ‘Aye, for a wee while,’ Mary said. She turned towards the quay on the West Pier to collect some fish for supper and called back, ‘If you see Tom tell him to come home with you.’ Tom had once again played truant from school.
    Jeannie walked up to Ethan, who was gazing out into the harbour. He looked up but didn’t speak.
    ‘You all right, Ethan?’ she asked softly.
    ‘Yeh. Why wouldn’t I be?’
    Jeannie shrugged. ‘Just asking, that’s all.’
    Ethan gave a big sigh. ‘Folks keep on asking me all the time.’
    He didn’t seem cross, Jeannie thought. Just fed up, and rather miserable. ‘It’ll be because of your ma and Mark, I expect,’ she said. ‘And because you nearly drowned.’
    He turned to look at her. ‘But I didn’t, did I? It was our Mark that did.’
    She nodded silently, and then murmured, ‘I’m glad you didn’t. I think I would’ve cried if you had.’
    ‘Would you?’ He gazed at her. ‘I know my ma would have cried. She’d have cried for Mark as well, but she didn’t know cos she’d died already.’
    She let a moment elapse before asking, ‘Were you scared? On the ship, I mean? I would have been.’
    He let his gaze drift seawards again. ‘When I was on my own I was,’ he answered softly. ‘It was exciting until Jed and Sammy went over and then it was just me and Mark. I was scared then. Mark helped me tie myself to the mast. It was that what saved me. If it hadn’t been for him—’ He broke off.
    ‘He was a hero then, wasn’t he?’ she said. ‘He saved your life.’
    Ethan pressed his lips together, and then spoke in a choking voice and she knew that he was close to crying. ‘Aye, he was. My brother a hero.’
    Jeannie tentatively put her arm round his shoulder. It was what her mother did if she knew that Jeannie was upset about something and it always helped; it somehow made her feel comforted, but she wasn’t sure it had the same effect on Ethan for he suddenly stood up, gave a loud sniff and wiped his nose on his sleeve.
    ‘It’s my ma’s funeral on Monday,’ he said. ‘And Da says I have to go. He says I’ve to go and repor— erm, represent Mark, cos he was the eldest son and now I am. My da wasn’t Mark’s da,’ he added. ‘Mark’s da used to work on the railway. He was run over by a train.’ He turned to walk away. ‘Be seeing you then, Jeannie.’
    And for some reason those few words made her feel warm inside and she smiled and nodded and went in search of Tom.
    The Scottish herring girls were due to arrive the following week and Jeannie was hopping with excitement. She was fond of her Scottish grandmother, who