Beyond a Misty Shore Read Free

find work. Both your pa and Andrew had steady work – it didn’t pay a great deal though we managed – but . . . but . . . the good Lord decidedto take them and we have to carry on living as best we can. We both have to think of Bella’s future too.’
    Sophie nodded slowly. It was a decision she had been seriously considering. She would have to make a new life for herself and her child, away from the island. ‘Where can I go, Mam?’
    ‘Across to Liverpool, luv. That’s the logical place. I know they’ve taken a terrible battering over there these last years but things will be starting to get better now, you’ll find work and I’m sure your Uncle Jim and Aunty Lizzie will be happy to have you stay with them until you get on your feet. He is my older brother, after all.’
    Sophie nodded her agreement. ‘I’d be grateful. Will you write to them, Mam, please?’ She reached across the table and clasped Sarah’s hand tightly. ‘I don’t really want to have to go, Mam. I’ll miss you terribly, but . . . but . . .’
    Sarah smiled ruefully. ‘But there is nothing else you can do, Sophie. You are still a young woman, you have to make a new life for yourself. There are too many painful memories here, luv. Every time you go down to the harbour or walk along the quay you’ll be remembering that day. The day he didn’t come back. No, in some ways it’s the best thing you can do.’ She paused, frowing. ‘I think it might be a good idea if you take Maria with you. She’ll find it hard to get work and once that lad has gone she’ll be as miserable as sin. A fresh start would benefit her too. She’ll meet new people, make new friends, maybe even find a lad to replace Hans Bonhoeffer in her affections.’
    ‘Mam! Both of us and Bella? You’ll be here alone! I can’t leave you on your own!’ Sophie cried.
    ‘I won’t be on my own. I was born here, I grew up here, I know everyone. I have friends. Isn’t Andrew’s mam, Fenella Teare, one of my closest friends? I have my work, too. Wouldn’t I be a very selfish woman to force you to stay here just to keep me company? No, Sophie, I want you both to go to Jim and Lizzie and make a new life for yourselves, and Liverpool isn’t
that
far away – just a couple of hours by ferry. I’ve made up my mind. I’ll write in the morning.’
    Sophie reluctantly nodded her agreement. Mam did have many friends, her widowed mother-in-law amongst them, and Liverpool wasn’t that far away but to people such as her mam, Maria and herself, who had never been off the island before, it seemed like a great distance and not just in miles.
    ‘I’ll have to break the news to Bella and then try to scrape together as much money as I can for our fares and to pay my way until I get a job.’
    Sarah picked up the paring knife again. ‘I’ll try to help out too, luv. It will be for the best.’
    Sophie smiled. ‘All we have to do now is convince Maria and I don’t think that’s going to be easy. Perhaps we should wait until Hans Bonhoeffer and his family have left.’
    Sarah nodded and resumed her task. She knew in her heart that she was doing the right thing for her girls, but she could not help feeling more than a little depressed and bereft already.

Chapter One

    ‘I N THE NAME OF heaven, Sophie, what have you brought us to?’ Maria Kinnin’s dark eyes were full of shock and disbelief as she stared through the murky October morning at the sight that was gradually becoming clearer the closer the Isle of Man Steam Packet ship, the
Lady of Man
, drew to the Liverpool Landing Stage. A thin veil of mist hung over the turgid waters of the Mersey and the ships they had passed had left wakes that resembled ribbons of dull, mottled pewter. There wasn’t a breath of wind, the surface of the river was flat and the sky above was a uniform mass of gunmetal cloud.
    She had come up on deck with her elder sister when they had passed the lighthouse on Perch Rock, eager to catch her first