“According to Moira,” Jenkins began, “she and Bernie come from a poor family in the Highlands of Scotland. Their parents died early and the two children were sent to the Highland Orphanage in Inverness.
Another orphaned child arrived there around the same time. Her name was Rose Henderson and she came from the village of Scalloway in the Shetlands. Moira and Rose were almost the same age and grew up side by side. Over the years they got to know one another as well as any two children can.
At the age of fifteen Rose was discharged from the orphanage. She disappeared from Inverness and no one knew where she had gone. Not long after that, a man arrived at the children’s home—he was dressed like a gentleman but he had the weather-bitten face and calloused hands of an old seaman. The inquisitive children soon discovered that this man was Rose Henderson’s father. His name was Jack Shaw and he’d come all 493the way from Australia to meet his daughter. He had brought a priceless pearl necklace with him, which he was intending to give her as a birthday present.
Jack was disappointed and worried, of course, to find that his Rose was no longer at the Highland Orphanage. He questioned everyone at the children’s home about where she might have gone. And once he realized that no one knew, he set off in search of her.
All the orphaned children at the Highland Orphanage were jealous of Rose. She had a father! And not any old father, but a wealthy and generous adventurer.
Moira was the most jealous of them all. What had Rose ever done to deserve such luck? she asked bitterly. Why was there no one who wanted to give her, Moira, a precious piece of jewellery? It was all so unfair!
The following year Moira and Bernie were also discharged from the home. Moira found a job as a kitchen maid and Bernie as an errand boy. Moira took charge of any money they earned and eventually she had saved enough to buy two train tickets to Glasgow. That was where the future lay, she thought.
In the beginning life in the great city was not what Moira had hoped for. The two of them scraped along on a variety of casual jobs until Moira got the idea that Bernie should be a boxer. They spread the reputation of Bernie the Butcher and 494Moira found she could earn more in one night than she had earned for a month’s hard work.
It was around this time that Moira heard of a crazy skipper who was going round the city enquiring after his absent daughter. Rumour had it that he owned a priceless pearl necklace that he wanted to give the girl. The skipper’s name was Jack Shaw, but everyone knew him as Shetland Jack.
In spite of all the years that had passed, Moira immediately understood the situation. She was happy and profoundly grateful that Rose had never received the valuable necklace. Maybe there was some justice in the world after all!
That is when Moira got an idea: What if she could trick Shetland Jack into giving her the necklace by pretending to be Rose?
It shouldn’t be that difficult, Moira thought. She knew everything there was to know about Rose’s childhood. And she knew a skilful forger who could produce an identity certificate in Rose’s name.
Moira’s plan was a simple one. She was going to find Jack Shaw and pretend to be his daughter. She would act the part for as long as it took for him to give her the necklace and as soon as it was in her hands, she would leave him and disappear without trace.”
495Every now and again during Jenkins’s story I looked over at Bernie. He was sitting very still and listening with his head bowed.
At this point Jenkins said, “You will speak up if anything I say is wrong, won’t you, Bernie?”
Bernie nodded without looking up, so Jenkins continued.
“During the time we’re talking about, Jack and I had taken SS Rose on a number of voyages round the coast of Ireland. By the spring of 1913 we were back in Glasgow, which is when Moira put her plan into action. At the start she hadn’t intended Shetland Jack to meet Bernie—that would be both stupid and unnecessary. But when Moira actually met Jack, she was frightened by him. That’s hardly surprising since everyone was frightened by Shetland Jack when they first met him. So she determined to make sure that Bernie, who was big and strong, was with her on the voyage to Liverpool. Even though he didn’t like fighting, she counted on him to defend her if Shetland Jack became suspicious and turned violent.”
The temperature had dropped and a veil of cold mist was rising off the river. Jenkins flapped his arms a few times to warm up and, after lighting a cigar the Chief gave him, he continued.
“Of course, neither Jack nor I had any idea about all this when we set out from Kingston Dock that day. Bernie stayed with me down in the engine room for the first hours. Jack 496wanted to have his Rose all to himself up in the wheelhouse. At one point I went up to tell him about problems with a valve and he was looking calmer and happier than I’d ever seen him. I really wanted to share Jack’s joy but, instead, I was feeling more and more ill at ease. There was something about Rose that didn’t feel right. Her eyes, maybe? They were so hard… so guarded.”
Jenkins began to drift off into memories, but then he continued.
“When we got out into the Irish Sea a gale blew up. The motion of the waves got rougher and Bernie, down in the engine room, began to feel ill. So I sent him up on deck to get some fresh air.
‘Ask Captain Jack to let you take the wheel for a while,’ I said. ‘That can sometimes help against seasickness.’
I don’t know how long it was before I noticed that something was wrong. The vessel suddenly began to move differently, lurching and thudding into the waves. For some reason we seemed to have lost steering. I ran up the engine-room ladder and out on to the deck, where I could immediately see what had gone wrong. The wheelhouse was empty and there was no one at the wheel.
When I turned round I saw Rose and Bernie running along the narrow section of deck between the cargo hatch and the 497port rail. Jack was charging along after them, an iron belaying pin raised and ready to strike. He was screaming at them in rage, but his words were swallowed by the noise of the wind and the waves crashing against the sides of the vessel. I ran after them and managed to catch hold of Jack. His eyes were bloodshot and fixed in a crazy stare.
‘She’s tricked me!’ he roared. ‘That’s her brother she’s brought with her. And he calls her Moira! She isn’t my daughter, the bloody!…’
Jack was immensely strong and his rage made it impossible to hold him. He struck me with the belaying pin and I fell to the deck with a great gash in my head.”
Jenkins suddenly paused his account. Tears had begun to run down Bernie’s cheeks and his great body was rocking to and fro.
“I won’t say any more unless you want me to, Bernie,” Jenkins said.
Bernie didn’t answer. He just continued rocking back and forth.
“But I think it would help if you heard it, anyway,” Jenkins went on. “I was there and I know that what happened wasn’t your fault, whatever Moira has tried to make you believe.”
Bernie looked up at Jenkins.
“Trust me, Bernie,” Jenkins said, and he continued telling his story. But now it was Bernie he was speaking to, directly. 498“You and Moira had nowhere to hide, and when Moira stumbled on the slippery deck, Jack was on her before she managed to regain her footing. He grabbed her by the hair and started dragging her to the ship’s rail. There could be no doubt about his intentions: he was going to throw your sister into the sea. And that is what he would have done if you hadn’t shoved him away. At that moment the ship lurched in the rough seas, Jack lost his balance and fell against the rail. I remember him flailing wildly for something to catch hold of, but there was nothing there. Then he tumbled backwards down into the waves and disappeared.”
Bernie’s eyes were tight shut and his face was twisted in a grimace of horror. His heart was pounding so hard that it made the whole of his great body shudder.