Emerald Star (Hetty Feather) Read online

  But this was Monksby. It was impossible for anything to go unobserved. When I went back to Father’s house at tea time, Katherine was red in the face with spite and fury.

  ‘There you are, you little harlot!’ she said, seizing me and shaking me.

  ‘Katherine, Katherine, stop it now!’ said Father, rushing to my side. ‘And watch that tongue. Don’t you dare call her names like that!’

  ‘Wait till you hear what she’s been up to! You’re always so quick to defend her, always taking her side against mine. Well, just you listen – and you deny it if you dare, Hetty Feather! You were seen swimming in the sea this afternoon. Look, Bobbie, she can’t deny it. You can smell the salt on her, see the damp stains on her frock!’ said Katherine, poking me.

  ‘Oh come! Can you truly swim, Hetty? How ever in the world did you learn to do that?’ said Father. ‘I’m certain sure they don’t give swimming lessons to the foundlings at the hospital.’

  ‘I learned this summer, Father, and I’m good at it too,’ I said with spirit.

  ‘Good at displaying yourself brazenly!’ said Katherine. ‘She took her dress off and cavorted almost naked!’

  ‘I was in my undergarments – and I didn’t cavort,’ I said indignantly.

  Father looked shocked all the same. ‘Oh, Hetty, you’re too old for such childish larks! Whatever possessed you?’ he said, looking shamed.

  ‘She went in the sea to rescue me!’ said Ezra, peeping round the doorway. ‘I went under and Hetty thought I was a-drowning. I wasn’t, of course, but she thought it, and threw off her dress and came dashing in after me.’

  I felt like hugging him again, though I knew he wouldn’t like that! Father did hug him – and me too.

  ‘I am so sorry, Hetty. I hadn’t realized. You’re my good brave girl and I’m proud of you,’ he said, clapping me on the shoulders.

  ‘Threw off her dress!’ Katherine repeated. ‘And what were you doing, frolicking about in the sea, Ezra? I’ve told you and told you not to go in the water. You could have drowned!’ She clasped him tight, but then gave him a good shaking. ‘Don’t you dare disobey me again. Promise me never ever ever to go in the water again!’

  ‘I promise, Mam!’ Ezra gasped, his head nid-nodding wildly.

  ‘Aren’t you going to thank Hetty for saving her little brother?’ said Father.

  Katherine stiffened. ‘He’s not her brother,’ she said. ‘She might have fooled you, Bobbie, but she’ll never pull the wool over my eyes. She’s nothing to do with this family. She can call you Father this and Father that but she’s not your true blood daughter. Are you blind? She’s a London girl with flighty fancy ways. She’s never a fisher-girl. For pity’s sake, she’s afeared of blooming fish!’

  ‘I’m not afeared of anything, fish or foe,’ I declared, lying a little. ‘And I’ll prove I’m Father’s daughter, just you wait and see.’

  I received a package the very next day! When the post boy knocked to deliver my parcel, there was a great flutter of interest from my kinfolk. Mina snatched the package and shook it curiously, while Ezra clamoured to have a hold of it too.

  ‘It’s mine, it’s mine! It’s my Christmas present come early!’ he shouted.

  ‘Give it here, Ezra. Careful – you’ll drop it between you,’ said Katherine. ‘It’ll be for me or Father, though I’m blessed if I know what it is.’

  I had caught a glimpse of the neat brown copperplate on the label. ‘It’s not for any of you. It’s for me!’ I said, trying to prise the package from Mina’s hands.

  ‘Don’t be so stupid, Hetty Feather, you don’t even live here,’ she said.

  ‘Look at the label. You’re the one who’s stupid. It’s my package, can’t you read?’

  This was a low blow of mine, because I had discovered that Mina could barely spell out the simplest sentence. Katherine herself was scarcely more literate. She set great store by being religious and certainly knew a hundred hymns off by heart – I’d heard her singing them as she toiled about the house – but when she showed me her family Bible, stabbing at the names written on the front page, she had difficulty deciphering them.

  ‘This is our family – and you’re not written down here,’ she said. ‘These are my parents and Bobbie’s parents, and these here are Mina and Ezra . . .’ But I saw she had to squint hard before she could distinguish one from another.

  Fisher-folk here had a casual attitude to schooling. Children attended the little dame school in the village when they had nothing better to do, and drifted away completely when they were old enough to make themselves useful collecting flithers or coiling ropes or mending nets.

  But to my great delight Father was a man of learning. There were several battered volumes in the cabinet in the corner and I’d seen him read a few pages of David Copperfield while puffing away on his clay pipe. He had to point along under the words to keep his place, but he was reading all the same.

  ‘I need Father to be watching when I open this package,’ I declared, and I snatched it back from Mina and nursed it to my bosom until he sailed safely in with the night’s catch.

  I was skittering from one foot to the other – with excitement and fear in equal measure. ‘Father, Father, please hurry!’ I called, the moment he jumped up the harbour steps.

  ‘Not now, Hetty. I’ve still business to attend to,’ he said wearily – but I pestered him until he stepped aside with me.

  Katherine and Mina and Ezra tagged along, lured by the promise of the parcel.

  ‘Right! Please watch, all of you,’ I said, breaking the red seal and sliding the paper open.

  My fingers were trembling. I had no idea what Miss Smith had written. The package was fat but light, as if it contained an immensely long letter. Perhaps she had simply rebuked me at great length and ignored my question altogether. Perhaps she had looked up Mama’s name in the mothers’ register and found a different name entirely. It did not necessarily mean Mama was not Evie Edenshaw of Monksby – she could have used a false name all along. But perhaps – oh, perhaps Miss Smith had sent me written confirmation. If so, it was vital that Father and his disbelieving wife see me open the letter before their eyes so they could see there was no trickery.

  I pulled not just one letter from the package – there were twenty at the very least. The first was from Miss Smith but all the others were in a clear round hand I also knew well. Letters from Jem, my dear foster brother and childhood sweetheart!

  I was so startled I nearly dropped the package. I knew if I loosened my grip for a second the strong wind would make the letters fly far out to sea like gulls. I stuffed all his letters down the neck of my dress for safety and applied myself to Miss Smith’s letter.

  The Foundling Hospital,

  Guilford Street,

  London

  My dear Hetty,

  Oh child, it was such a relief to hear from you! I have been so worried about you. I was shocked to hear you left Mr Buchanan’s establishment. I am disappointed in you, dear. I had hoped you would try hard in your position and gain from living in a house of culture and learning. I am sure you were mistaken in your assumptions. Mr Buchanan can surely not have wished to STEAL your memoirs. I think he wanted to help you develop your writing style. But it’s too late for me to intervene now. I have written to the gentleman and he has assured me in no uncertain terms that he will never take you back.

  I do not know how you have been earning a living since. You know full well you should stay in touch with the hospital and accept guidance from your guardians. However, I will not be too hard on you, because you have clearly suffered sadly, losing your dear mother. I am so very sorry, Hetty. I know just how much she meant to you and it seems cruelly sad to lose her at this stage in your young life.

  You asked me to ascertain Ida’s real name. You must know this is totally against all hospital rules and regulations. Mothers’ names must never ever be disclosed, no matter how pressing the circumstances. No governor could ever abuse his or her position in su