Free A Safe Harbour by Benita Brown Page B

moment and then she said, ‘I suppose you’re sure of it?’  
    ‘I’ve never missed before. It’s always come on to the day.’  
    Her mother sighed resignedly. ‘How are we going to tell your father?’  
    The two women stared at each other. ‘Does he have to know?’ Kate’s voice was hardly more than a whisper.  
    Her mother didn’t answer at once and Kate frowned as she saw the older woman’s expression change and suddenly become more guarded. Nan Lawson was shaking her head very slightly, her lips drawn together in a thin line and her eyes staring at a point behind Kate and above her head. Kate realized what this meant at the same moment that a hand came forward to take up the tobacco pouch from the table. Her father had returned.  
    She sensed rather than saw her father’s meticulous movements as he filled his pipe. She could hear his breathing and smell the ale on his breath. Her mother remained sitting bolt upright and staring at Henry like a trapped animal.  
    ‘Well then,’ he said eventually, and he strolled over to the fire. He took a spill from the container on the mantelpiece and leaned over to light it. Then he took his time lighting his pipe. Kate realized how much she hated the sucking noises he made. While he was occupied Kate’s mother left her seat and came to stand beside her daughter. Once the pipe was drawing to his satisfaction Henry turned to stare at them.  
    ‘Well, then,’ he continued as if there’d been no interruption. ‘What is it Kate doesn’t want to tell me?’  
    ‘It’s nothing, Henry,’ Nan said.  
    ‘Let the lass speak for herself.’  
    Kate felt her mother’s hands on her shoulders. She reached up and pressed them before rising to face her father. ‘I’m with child, Father.’  
    The words seemed to paralyse him. He removed the pipe from his mouth and clasped the bowl in his right hand. His left hand still held the spill. The end was smoking, Kate noticed. Henry stared at it as if it had offended him and then turned and hurled it into the fire. He turned back to face Kate and she blanched at the barely restrained anger of his expression.  
    ‘Jos Linton’s bairn, is it?’ He almost spat the words at her.  
    Kate felt her own fury flare. ‘Of course! Whose else would it be?’  
    Taken aback by her defiant attitude, it seemed, Henry turned his anger on his wife. ‘And you think that’s of no consequence, do you?’  
    ‘What do you mean?’ Nan asked.  
    ‘I asked you what it was Kate didn’t want to tell me and you said it was nothing. You lying bitch.’ Henry hadn’t raised his voice but that made it all the more frightening. ‘The lass is carrying Jos Linton’s bastard and you think that’s nothing, do you?’  
    Kate felt her mother begin to shiver and she risked a swift glance. Nan was terrified and clearly wished that she could be anywhere but here in her own cottage, facing her husband across the table.  
    ‘It’s not my mother’s fault,’ Kate burst out and her father jabbed the hand holding his pipe towards her. Kate saw the smoke swirl and a few small fragments of burning tobacco fly into the air.  
    ‘Hold your tongue,’ he said, still in that quiet menacing tone. ‘Your words count for nothing here.’ Kate was glad of the table that lay between them when her father moved forward. ‘And furthermore, there’s no room for you in this house.’  
    It must have taken all her mother’s courage to say, ‘But Henry, Kate is our daughter.’  
    ‘Mebbe so,’ he said, ‘but I’ll not raise a bastard in this house. Especially not when Jos Linton is responsible. The Lintons have no place in this village. James Linton is a thief—’  
    ‘No,’ Kate cried. ‘How can you say that!’  
    ‘Because it’s true. There’s no other way to describe a man who steals other folk’s livings from them. James Linton should get himself back to Burnmoor where he belongs and take that wife of his, a poacher’s