The Narrowboat Girl by Annie Murray Page B

across the cabin and was very soon just as fast asleep as Ada.
    ‘You awright, little ’un?’ Joel asked. She caught a whiff of beer on his breath.
    ‘Yes – ta,’ she whispered.
    ‘Oh – you won’t wake them two – not once they’ve gone off.’ But he still spoke in a soft voice. She watched as his huge shadow moved round the walls of the cabin.
    ‘Joel?’
    ‘What’s that then?’ He came and sat beside her, his feet up on the step.
    ‘’Ve yer always lived on ’ere?’
    ‘’Cept for the two year – nigh on – I were in France.’
    ‘Our dad was in France. ’E was a soldier. Were you a soldier an’ all?’
    Joel nodded. There was silence before he spoke. His talk came in brief bursts, as though he had to get himself ready for it.
    ‘Was ’e killed in the war?’
    ‘No, by a motor car.’
    Joel watched her face. ‘You got to go back in the morning, little ’un. You shouldn’t be ’ere, should you?’
    ‘I know. I will. I just wanted . . . I just like it ’ere.’
    For a second she felt his huge hand laid on her head. ‘Sleep, that’s a girl.’
    ‘’Night, Joel.’
    He put the lamp out and the cabin was in complete darkness while she heard him move carefully across and settle himself on the bed beside his father.
    She did not sleep well that night. The bench was very uncomfortable and she kept feeling she was going to fall off it. It was quite stuffy, and she could smell Jep’s doggy smell and it was all strange being there, with no Sal beside her and no Tony across the room. She lay listening to the silence, thinking of the water under them, wondering if she was sleeping above any fish or frogs. After a time she realized it had started to rain, the drops drumming steadily on the roof, which made the cabin feel even more of a cosy refuge when the sky was only a thin shell away. Lulled by its rhythm she dozed, but later was woken by Darius Bartholomew snoring. Some time after that Joel was moving about, coughing, and once he got up and left the cabin. She listened to him straining for breath outside. The sound made her feel sorry for him; a big man’s cough so loud, such a wrenching, painful noise.
    When she heard him come back in, she said, ‘Don’t your cough ever get any better?’
    He felt his way across, hands moving over her feet, and sat down on the edge of the bench. She heard him say ‘Lie down!’ to Jep.
    ‘So you’re still on the go, are you? Was it me woke you?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Have yer heard of gas?’
    ‘’Course.’
    ‘The sort they used in the war?’
    ‘Did you get gassed?’
    ‘Could’ve been a lot worse. But my chest’s always bad. Worse in the winter.’
    ‘Don’t you ’ave a missis?’ Maryann asked.
    She heard another small seizure of laughter from Joel. ‘No.’
    ‘Don’t yer want one?’
    ‘Me?’ There was a pause. ‘Well – yes, course. But it ent happened yet. You don’t meet up with people for long, working the cut. Here today, gone tomorrow. Don’t s’pose I’m very easy to live with, neither.’
    ‘I wouldn’t mind living with yer,’ Maryann said.
    She heard Joel’s laugh again. She liked the way he laughed when she said things, as if he found her surprising and funny.
    ‘Don’t know what yer mom’d say about that. She won’t be very pleased with you in the morning, will she?’
    ‘No. I s’pose not. But can I come and see yer again?’
    ‘I told you you could. We work up and down this route. We can send word when the Esther Jane ’s coming through.’
    ‘Oh, will yer?’
    Joel stood up. Once more she felt him pat her, this time her shoulder. ‘You don’t give up, do yer? Go on – off to sleep.’
    They were up at dawn, the sky grey and rain still falling, the men with many hours of work ahead of them. Maryann said her goodbyes and thanked them.
    ‘Look out for us!’ Ada called to her.
    ‘Oh – I’ll be back!’ She was shivering in her thin frock in the wet, but so happy she didn’t care.
    She watched as the