Free Sea Mistress by Iris Gower Page A

business, you don’t know how to make two and two add up to four.’
    â€˜Well teach me then,’ Ellie said reasonably, ‘perhaps I can learn.’
    Jubilee shook his head. ‘No, some women are not cut out for it and you are one of them. A brood of babbas you should have round your skirts, a natural mother that’s the sort you are.’
    â€˜Well, it wasn’t to be, was it?’ Ellie tried to smile even as she acknowledged her weakness. She might as well face it, she was one of life’s failures.
    â€˜You’re a good wife to me,’ Jubilee said softly. Sometimes, Ellie thought, it was almost as if he could read her mind.
    â€˜It’s easy to be a good wife to you, Jubie,’ she kissed his brow, leaning a little on his shoulder. ‘You’re a fine handsome man, a good man.’
    â€˜I don’t know about good.’ Jubilee said dryly. ‘I would like to be good but I’m too fond of the ale and the smoke of my pipe and the lewd talk of the men in the yard when you’re not there to be good.’
    â€˜Perhaps we should go to listen to the preacher again.’ Ellie was only half serious. ‘It seems he’s having a great effect on those who go to his meetings.’
    â€˜Perhaps you’re right,’ Jubilee said, ‘the nearer I get to the grave, the more I think I should look for an afterlife while there’s still time.’
    Ellie hugged her husband impulsively. ‘I wish you wouldn’t talk like that, I need you, Jubie, I can’t manage without you.’
    â€˜Of course you’d manage.’ Jubilee spoke firmly, ‘Matthew could run the tannery perfectly well, he’s got the way of a leader, the men would listen to him. To show my confidence in him I’ve sent him down to the docks to see the accountant in Marchant’s office about that dratted bill.’
    â€˜See, I failed even in that simple task.’ Ellie pressed her cheek against Jubilee’s and felt the dryness of his skin with a sense of alarm. ‘You’re sure you are feeling well, love?’
    â€˜As well as a man my age has the right to feel. Now go on, do some sewing, anything, but leave me in peace. I must get these figures in order for Caradoc Jones, you know how I take a pride in my books.’
    Obediently, Ellie left the study and made her way into the small sitting room. Everywhere, even here in the house, the tang of the tannery yard permeated the air. It was in her clothes, on her skin, however much she bathed, she couldn’t rid herself of the smell of leather.
    She sat down before the ancient organ and began to pump with her feet. She knew only a few tunes, hymns most of them, melodies she had learned from her mother. Those were the days when her mother cared about her, before Ellie had disgraced the family by becoming a cast-off mistress who was bearing the fruits of her sin for all to see.
    She should not be bitter, it did no good and yet Ellie found it difficult to be anything else. Her hands fell idle as she tried to envisage her future without Jubilee. Matthew in charge, Matthew free to make advances to her, it didn’t bear thinking about.
    Of course Jubilee would know nothing of Matthew’s overtures to her in private, he trusted the man, probably believing him happy with the girl he was walking out with. What Jubilee didn’t realize, Matthew had a different girl for every month of the year, or so it seemed to Ellie who had to listen to his boasting.
    She shook the thoughts from her mind, Jubilee was all right, he would live to a ripe old age. And yet, her eyes were misted with tears that fell onto the worn ivory keys beneath her hands that suddenly trembled.
    When Matthew came to the door of Jubilee’s house, he was smiling with such an air of confidence about him that Ellie knew instinctively he’d succeeded in his task. ‘Good news, boss,’ he stood in the hallway, his cap twisted