Saturday 3 January 1880
Ann Craig slammed the window in the morning room shut. At last that vile smell had gone – she never wanted to be reminded of it again. Her mood was no better; it was already ten o’clock and the governess was not yet here. She would have to arrange activities in the nursery for the children, for she could not impose again on the Donaldsons.
She set them a task of drawing pictures in the nursery. As she left the room she noticed that James was drawing a long bridge with a train on it; she only hoped the governess would return the focus of his attention to other things, he was obsessed with the bridge.
There was a clank as the gate opened. Finally, there she was. Ann watched Miss Graham struggle along the path carrying her heavy bag. Her other hand was on her head, trying to keep her hat on over her frizzy grey hair. The magnolia branches were swaying in the strong breeze.
She waited. It was not up to her to let a servant in, so she took a seat on the chair by the door, ready to listen to Miss Graham’s explanation.
The doorbell rang and Jessie scuttled along the corridor. She heard a thump as a bag was dropped on the floor.
‘Jessie, please let Mrs Craig know I have arrived.’
Ann saw a blur as a figure swept past the door and headed for the stairs. Ann went to the door and called to her.
‘Mrs Craig, I can only apologise for the hour of my arrival. Are the children being attended to?’
‘They are in the nursery awaiting your return. Indeed they have been waiting for nearly two hours.’
The governess sighed and swept off her hat.
‘Mrs Craig, I must offer my sincere condolences. My parents asked me also to convey their deepest sympathy. We heard about Mr Craig, I am so…’
‘There is nothing more to say, Miss Graham. Until we have definite proof, we don’t know if my husband was indeed on that train. I have an appointment this afternoon to meet the Leuchars stationmaster who might have some information for me.’
Ann glanced down at Miss Graham’s crinkly hair and bulbous nose and, as so often happened, felt herself blessed to have not only height but beauty. Ann pulled out a handkerchief and lifted it to her own nose, pert and perfectly turned; celestial, Robert had once called it, a long time ago. ‘Is there a valid reason for such a late arrival?’
‘I am not sure if you have heard that a body of a woman was found on Monday night. She was a servant from Fife, I believe.’
‘Janet Clark, housemaid to Lady Cruickshank, my husband’s aunt. I believe you met her ladyship one day last summer?’
‘Good Lord, was that who the girl was? I had no idea.’
Ann looked at the governess, expectant. Would she ever furnish her with an explanation?
‘Mrs Craig, I left my house at the normal time. As you know it takes me about an hour and a half to walk, a perambulation I enjoy very much as it is a time when I can plan the lessons I shall take with the children. Two things prevented my usual precise timekeeping this morning, however.’
Was this going to take long? Perhaps she should ring for tea. She was still feeling weak after Johnston’s visit.
‘First of all, you may have heard the tragic news that debris and flotsam have been washed up onto the shore. As I have told you, the beach at Broughty Ferry is opposite my parents’ house. There have been many crowds, foraging, as if searching for cockles and winkles.’ She sighed and continued. ‘Today, there were children there, very early. Bare-legged, these urchins were wading into the icy waters of the Tay and dragging out great planks of wood which were thickly clogged with pitch.’
Miss Graham shook her head. ‘Those poor little waifs, they must have been freezing, they were shivering, but their mothers do not have the means to clothe them properly at the best of times.’
Ann pursed her lips. ‘Pray continue, Miss Graham.’
‘Oh, yes, so then one child, dirty, in ragged clothes, ran up to me and thrust something at me.’ She looked down at her hands as if the thing were still there. ‘It was a book with gold-edged pages and of course the child could not read. I saw at once it was a bible and I told them they must give it to the policemen. But that little boy asked me to read what was written inside. It read, “For David, On your twelfth birthday.”’
She took out her handkerchief and dabbed her eyes. ‘I found it so moving. That child, presumably now dead, was but a little older than James.’ She shook her head and looked over at Ann. ‘So then I continued on along the beach, noting that the children continued to drag planks of wood up the beach – I even saw two with a wooden door. These were, one must presume, all parts of the train. So I continued on and soon met a commotion.’
Ann sighed. Was she ever going to get to the point?
‘I arrived at Dock Street and came across vast crowds of people. It was as if everyone in the city was out. No one could move.’
‘What was the occasion?’
‘That was why I mentioned earlier that poor woman, Jane?’
‘Janet Clark’.
‘Indeed. It was her funeral and it seems she was mourned by the whole of Dundee. A great crowd, perhaps a thousand people or more, followed the hearse. They were heading south, direct to the docks and so I was unable to pass. One simply could not, for fear of being trampled by the crowd, and besides, one would not, as a matter of respect. The hearse and horses were swathed in black crêpe and there were several ministers, perhaps six or seven, following behind. There was a band playing beside the cortège as it moved slowly over the cobbles to the docks and, according to the woman beside me, to the ferry and over to Fife.’
Ann rang the bell at her side. She was parched.
‘And so that is why I am so late.’
‘I see, well that was quite a morning, Miss Graham. But perhaps it is time to go up to the nursery? James and Lizzie are eager to see you again.’
Miss Graham lifted her hat from the table beside her. ‘I shall go at once. Thank you for your understanding, Mrs Craig.’ She swept out of the door, almost knocking into Jessie the maid.
‘Bring tea, Jessie. As soon as possible,’ Ann said. The maid bobbed then left, shutting the door behind her.
Ann went over to the window, pausing at the table. She lifted the stopper from the decanter and poured herself a glass. She downed it then tilted her head back. How long must all this last, she thought, gazing out over the swaying magnolia tree towards the dark rain clouds scudding over the river.