Read Online The Visitor by Katherine Stansfield - Free Book Online Page B

rich. And the sight of them coming into the bay was like nothing else. All that colour beneath the water, rippling and racing towards us. There was always the worry they’d get away. Nicholas used to…’
    Eileen was waiting for her to finish but Pearl couldn’t. That was the first time she’d said his name aloud in such a long time that it was like one of Aunt Lilly’s charms: Pearl’s lips were stitched together by it.
    â€˜It wasn’t all good though, was it, when the fish were here?’ Eileen said. She straightened some boxes on the shelf nearest the counter. ‘I heard from my Simon how little food there was, that last summer. And it’s harder now than it was then. Your George is out in all weathers fishing and barely gets by.’
    Pearl bristled. ‘He does all right.’
    â€˜Now don’t pretend,’ Eileen said. ‘I know you worry about him. If he’d just take visitors out in his boat like my David does he’d make far more, and he wouldn’t be going out to lay his lines at night and in weather he shouldn’t risk.’
    â€˜He won’t stop fishing,’ Pearl said. And part of her was glad, even though she knew Eileen meant well, and that she was right, Pearl did worry about George when the weather was bad. But he was a fisherman. That was what he did. There had always been fishermen in Morlanow.
    Eileen made a show of straightening a box that was already straight. ‘That man you mentioned, Nicholas. I’ve heard his name before, but not from you.’ There was a sly look in her eye, a devilishness that reminded Pearl of Mrs Tiddy.
    â€˜Have you?’ Pearl said. ‘I thought everyone wanted to forget it.’ Her breath was thickening and she knew she had to stop it or she’d never get back up the hill. ‘Do you believe in keygrims, Eileen?’
    Eileen snorted. ‘That nonsense? No I don’t. You’re just trying to stop me asking about things you don’t want me to. I know you.’ She waggled a finger at Pearl, pretending to tell her off. ‘You like your secrets, Pearl, and I’ll let you keep them. None of my business and all so long ago it hardly matters now.’
    â€˜No,’ Pearl said, ‘it doesn’t matter.’
    Eileen opened her till and poked the coins around, checking the change. Each little compartment was so full of coins that Eileen could barely close the till again. ‘It’s all the railway company anyway, isn’t it?’ she said.
    â€˜What is?’
    â€˜Keygrims,’ Eileen said, ‘and mermaids and all that talk. Though why anyone would want to come on holiday to find a keygrim is beyond me. Isn’t the beach enough? And it frightens the children. My Simon was just as bad as the railway company. He’d tell my David and Margaret all sorts of things and they had terrible dreams. Margaret used to wake up screaming there was something in the room with her.’
    â€˜That’s how they come for you,’ Pearl said. ‘And then they call you by your name.’ But Eileen wasn’t listening. A family had come into the shop and she was nodding and smiling as they asked about ice creams.
    There were people on the beach below the drying field today, sunning themselves on bright towels, so Pearl went right to the end. Cliff falls had left huge rocks on the beach which offered some privacy. The water came in close. She could take off her dress and get into the sea in an instant.
    As she hunkered down behind a rock she saw another cairn. At first it looked like one of the rough heaps of pebbles the sea sometimes left, but then she saw it was a careful pile, just as the last had been. There were flowers poked through this one too. It was in a different place than before, much closer to the cliff, but it was the same.
    The cold was such that she gasped but kept on ploughing through the waves. It both soothed and shocked her skin and