Unbuttoning Miss Matilda. Lucy Ashford
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men. There was nothing he relished more than to sit by the waterside with fellow travellers on a summer night listening to their tales and he looked after The Wild Rose as well as any true bargeman, seeing to the tarring and caulking, retouching the paint and polishing the brass work all by himself. From an early age Matty would follow him around, saying, ‘Let me help, Papa!’
‘We’ll do it together,’ he used to say.
Of course, the loss of his wife was a sharp grief, but he’d found a kind of peace, Matty always believed, in travelling with his young daughter from one town to another along the waterways. And everywhere they stopped, he would explore the surrounding countryside for old battle sites or castle ruins. Sometimes, her father unearthed valuable relics—though since the last thing he wanted was to make money out of them, he often gave his finds to museums or to other scholars to assist with their research. ‘Our treasure hunter,’ the canal folk liked to call him proudly.
From time to time Matty heard strangers whisper that it was a lonely and unnatural way of life for her father to inflict on his daughter, but in those days Matty was never lonely, for she had all of the canal community as her family. The women took special care of her and did what mothers do, explaining about growing up, giving her dark warnings about men—and oh, how they yelled at their own sons if they were too familiar with her! ‘Don’t you try anything with our Matty! She’s special, d’you hear?’
It was indeed a special life with her father on The Wild Rose. In the summer months he taught her all about the birds who lived by the canals, the flowers and the water creatures; while on winter nights, when often the water on the canals would freeze over, they’d sit snug in their cabin and he told her enthralling tales of times gone by. He taught her practical things, too, like how to look after the boat and navigate the locks or how to make sure she was never cheated by the innkeepers or blacksmiths. Matty had grown up both capable and knowledgeable—and it was just as well, because two years ago her father had suddenly died.
‘A heart attack,’ the doctor had told her gravely. ‘You mustn’t blame yourself in any way, my dear. There was clearly nothing you could do.’
Her friends had gathered round after the funeral and offered their advice. ‘Maybe now’s the time to give up the boat, Matty, and consider another life.’
They were anxious about her, she knew. ‘A girl her age, on her own in a boat,’ she’d heard them whisper. ‘It’s not right. Not safe.’ More than anything, it was becoming unaffordable—but what other kind of life could she possibly consider, after living so long with the freedom of the waterways?
For the last two years, she’d earned occasional money by carrying light loads on her boat for short distances only, taking on parcels of fabric or chinaware or other delicate goods. Hercules might be old, but he was also well trained—he knew exactly how to plod calmly along the towpath without starting at a flock of ducks or shying at an oncoming barge, while Matty, manning the tiller, dreamed of travelling farther some day and finding the lost treasure her father thought he was close to discovering only days before he died.
‘You’re one of us, young Matty,’ the canal folk were always telling her. ‘You always will be, lass.’
But Matty knew that in reality she was alone, cast adrift somewhere between the world of the Oxford scholars and the community of canal people, yet belonging to neither. She also knew this way of life couldn’t carry on for much longer without a regular income and some day soon—by the autumn, most likely—she would have to sell The Wild Rose. Already the sharp tang of loss was making her cold. She’d told Bess she had a plan—if only she did.
Slowly she went to fetch a tin cash box from under the bed and unlocked it. The money won’t have magically multiplied since you last looked, you fool.
Inside were some things she’d carefully kept over the years—three bronze Celtic brooches, an Iron-Age amulet and two small silver candleholders, Tudor most likely. And, wrapped in a soft piece of cloth, there was a golden coin. A Roman coin.
Holding the coin up to the light, she thought she would never, ever forget the reverence in her father’s eyes as he’d brushed the dirt from it two years ago. ‘Where there’s one coin like this, Matty,’ he’d said, ‘there’ll be more.’
The Roman coin she would never, ever part with. But perhaps she could sell the Celtic brooches to a collector, then maybe have enough for all the extra expenses involved in journeying to find her father’s treasure, though there was yet another problem. It would take three days at least to get to the site where her father had found the coin and for that length of journey she needed someone to help with the boat. But since there were no women for hire on the canals, that someone would have to be a man—and her heart sank at the thought. Sighing a little, she carefully slipped the coin, the brooches and other treasures into a purse, then climbed back up on deck.
‘Matty, lass!’
It was Bess again on the wharfside, waving a sheet of paper. ‘Look,’ Bess was saying, ‘someone’s just handed me this letter. And bless me, I can’t make head or tail of it.’
‘A letter? Let me see.’ Matty scanned it quickly. ‘Bess, it’s from the corn merchant in Brentford. He’s offering you a new contract, for a whole year!’
‘Really?’ Her friend gave a whoop of joy. ‘Wait till I tell my Daniel! And he pays well, really well. How about coming to dine with us tonight, girl? This deserves a celebration!’
‘I’d love to.’ Matty really meant it. ‘But, Bess, I’ve an errand to make first. I’ve decided I need to sell a few of my father’s things—some old trinkets he gave me—so you see, I might have to head into town.’
‘Lass, if you’re in money trouble, maybe me and Daniel can help...’
‘No! Bess, I wouldn’t dream of it. And I might not even sell them, but I would like some idea of their value.’
‘Well, instead of tramping into town and back, why don’t you call at that place just up the lane there?’
‘Which place do you mean?’
‘There’s a sign over it that says “Mr Percival’s Antiques”. Now, it all seems a bit rundown, but we’ve seen the young fellow who runs it and my Daniel reckons he looks a clever one all right. Why not try him?’
It was indeed a long walk to the antiques dealers in the centre of London. ‘I might just do that,’ Matty said thoughtfully.
‘Just make sure, though, that Mr Percival doesn’t swindle you. And you’ll come to us later on for your supper, won’t you? Then...’ Bess hesitated ‘...maybe we can have a little chat. You see, we’ve been thinking, me and Daniel, that maybe you should stop this travelling about on your own. You’ve got an education, and this just isn’t the life for a girl like you.’
Matty faced her steadfastly. ‘But this is the only life I know. The only life I want, Bess, truly—’
It was with a sense of relief that Matty realised two of Bess’s children were running towards their mother, one of them carrying a kitten. ‘Mama! Mama! Look what Joe the coalman gave us for looking after his horse for him! The kitten’s called Sukey and she’ll be as good as gold, Joe says. Can we keep her, Mama? Please, can we?’
And so Matty was able to escape Bess’s forthcoming lecture and seek the solitude of her own cabin again.
But she didn’t really feel any better for it at all.
Bess was probably right to say this was no life for a girl like her. But how could Matty abandon it, when she’d known no life other than this, ever?
She’d not expected her father to die so suddenly. Even now a fresh wave of sadness hovered close, but there was no time for grief or any other indulgence of emotions. Her father had taught her everything she needed to know to survive on the waterways—and survive she would. She would not sell her father’s boat, she would not sell