A Safe Harbour by Benita Brown

daughter—’  
    ‘You don’t know that!’  
    ‘Kate!’ her mother hissed. ‘Be quiet. Let him speak.’  
    ‘As I said, a poacher’s daughter who can’t bait a hook to save her life.’   
     
    ‘And Matthew?’ Kate asked, ignoring her mother who was tugging on her sleeve. ‘Matthew and Jos were born here.’  
    ‘Makes no difference. Interlopers all. No real fisherman would hev behaved the way Jos did. Risking his life for a few green apples. And what’s more he took Barty with him. You can’t tell me the lad would hev acted so daft it he hadn’t been egged on by Jos Linton.’  
    Kate would have liked to say that Barty was old enough to make his own decisions but she knew that what her father said was probably true. Often when they’d been bairns Jos had led them into pranks that even high-spirited Kate had balked at. The remembrance made her feel even more wretched.  
    ‘I see you’ve got nothing to say for yourself,’ Henry Lawson continued. ‘You know that what I say is true.’  
    Kate shook her head. Not all of it was true but she knew her father would never change his mind about the Linton family.  
    ‘Henry,’ Nan said. ‘Go easy on her. Kate’s our bairn and she’s in trouble. We hev to decide what to do.’  
    ‘ We hev to decide?’ her husband said. ‘There’s no we about it. I’ve already made me mind up. I’ve told you I’m not raising one of Linton’s brats under my roof. She’s got to go.’  
    ‘Where would she go?’  
    ‘Where? To the workhouse in Shields. That’s where the likes of her go with their brats, isn’t it? In any case, I divven’t want to set eyes on her again.’  
    ‘For God’s sake, Henry, you can’t mean that.’  
    ‘Oh yes I can. And as for you, hold your tongue, woman, or you’ll go out the door along with the slut. Now I’ll give her until tomorrow morning but when me and the lads come back into harbour, I want her gone. And I forbid you to let her in this house ever again, as long as I live. Do you understand?’  
    Kate’s father turned his back on them and spat into the fire. The phlegm sizzled and congealed on the bars of the grate. As far as he was concerned the matter was closed.  
     
    Sleep was impossible. Her mother had sobbed into her pillow and the old lady had muttered and tutted as if she knew what was going on – and maybe she did. But eventually they had both drifted off into an uneasy sleep marked by their tossing and turning, leaving Kate on her truckle bed near the fire to lie and listen to the constant sound of the sea breaking on the shore.  
    Kate was ready to leave well before her father would return from the fishing. She sat with her mother and drank hot, sweet tea while they talked, trying to comfort each other and discussing what Kate would do in the months that lay ahead.  
    ‘I’ll come and see you, Kate. He hasn’t forbidden that.’  
    ‘That’s because he hasn’t thought about it. What will you do if he does forbid you to see me?’  
    ‘Divven’t fret. I can keep me own counsel.’  
    Kate knew what her mother meant. To keep the peace Nan Lawson had learned over the years that sometimes it was better to lie to her husband; or at least not to tell the complete truth. There was a difference. Most of the time it was to protect her children when they were young – hiding from Henry things they’d broken, perhaps. Replacing a dish or a jug and hoping he wouldn’t notice. And, as they’d grown, the boys had learned to hold their tongues and keep out of their father’s way. It was only hot-headed Kate who ever openly defied her father. Her brothers despaired of her.  
    Kate rose and went over to the bed where the old lady was still sleeping. She was dreaming again. Her brow was pulled into an anxious frown and there were traces of tears on her wrinkled cheeks. Kate bent down and kissed Sarah’s brow. She cared deeply for her great-grandmother and she wondered if she would ever