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"SHE DOES NOT SPEAK FOR US!" William & Catherine BAR Camilla From Reading Their Words At The Opening — Transcript

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0:03As a result, the connection I feel to
0:05Scotland will forever run deep.
0:07>> So Camilla wanted the microphone moved.
0:09And she wanted it done before William
0:11and Catherine reached the harbor. That
0:13was how the morning began.
0:15A small fishing town on the Moray Coast
0:18earlier this autumn. Bunting snapping
0:20along the quay.
0:22A cold wind coming off the firth. At the
0:24top of the slipway stood a restored
0:26stone building. It was about to open its
0:29doors for the first time in over 40
0:31years.
0:32Beside the door stood the woman who had
0:34fought for it the whole of that time.
0:36She was in her best coat. Camilla walked
0:38straight past her. She went to the trust
0:41committee instead. A handful of local
0:43volunteers. People who had organized the
0:45day around their own jobs. And she asked
0:48them a question that sounded very small.
0:51Who, she asked, was going to say the
0:53words the prince and princess had left
0:55for the town?
0:56The founder, they told her, the town had
0:59asked for it. Camilla smiled, and she
1:01said that perhaps that ought to change.
1:03By the end of that morning, this town
1:05would do something it had never done for
1:07anyone, royal or not. The fishing crews
1:10would hear something they never expected
1:12to hear.
1:13And Catherine would say one sentence on
1:15that quay side face-to-face with Camilla
1:18that people along that coast are still
1:19repeating. At that moment, though, all
1:22anybody knew was that Camilla wanted the
1:24microphone. And nobody in the town could
1:27work out why. The real reason lay
1:29hundreds of miles away with the king.
1:32The founder was never the target. This
1:34town waited half a lifetime for one
1:36morning.
1:37Subscribe to Kensington Herald before
1:39the boats come in, and you'll be
1:41standing on that quay with us when it
1:42arrives. And keep the place you come
1:44from in your mind as you watch.
1:47By the end of this morning, you may find
1:49you see it a little differently. There
1:51is one more thing on that harbor worth
1:52watching, and almost nobody noticed it
1:55at the start.
1:56At first light, before the bunting went
1:58up, the founder had walked down the
2:00water the way she did every morning of
2:02her life.
2:04The boats were coming into tie up for
2:05the opening, two and three deep against
2:08the harbor wall. Most of the crews were
2:10drinking from flasks on deck and pulling
2:12on their good jumpers. One boat was
2:15different, an old one, blue hull, white
2:18wheelhouse.
2:19Its skipper was standing on the deck
2:21with a brush in his hand and a tin at
2:23his feet.
2:24A grey tarpaulin had been lashed tight
2:26over one side of the wheelhouse so that
2:28nobody on the quay could see what was
2:30under it. The founder stopped and asked
2:32him what he was doing.
2:34He told her it was not ready yet. Then
2:36he went back under the tarpaulin. She
2:38knew that skipper, she had known his
2:40father, and she walked on up the quay
2:43with the oddest feeling that she had
2:44just been told something without being
2:46told anything at all. Hold on to that
2:49tarpaulin. It matters more than anybody
2:51on that quay understood. The building
2:53itself had a life long before anyone
2:56royal came near it. This coast was built
2:58on herring. All along it, small harbor
3:01towns sent their boats out in great
3:03fleets.
3:04One of those towns, Buckie, had the
3:06largest steam drifter fleet in Scotland
3:08by the eve of the First World War. The
3:11stone building at the top of this
3:12slipway had been a curing shed in those
3:14years.
3:15When the fleet shrank, it was left to
3:17the gulls. When the roof went, then the
3:20windows. For decades, the town walked
3:23past an empty shell. One woman never
3:25walked past it. Her name was Elspeth, a
3:28skipper's daughter and a skipper's
3:30widow.
3:31She started the campaign to save that
3:33shed as a young mother. She was still
3:35running it as a grandmother. 40 years of
3:37raffles, 40 years of knocking on doors,
3:4140 years of standing on the quay in the
3:43rain with a bucket, being told no by
3:45people who had never seen the place. Now
3:48it had a new slate roof. Inside was a
3:51long, bright room, and one whole wall
3:53was given over to the names of every
3:55boat that had ever sailed from that
3:57harbor.
3:58For Elspeth, one part of the day
4:00mattered more than the ribbon or the
4:02room. The fishing crews were supposed to
4:04be there. That harbor still works. It's
4:07crews had spent their lives in the
4:09shadow of that empty building. She had
4:11asked the skippers to bring their boats
4:13in and stay tied up along the wall.
4:16That way the men and women of that
4:18harbor could hear the building handed
4:19back to the town. Every part of it had
4:22been agreed weeks before. Camilla had
4:24not been part of any of it.
4:26She was in the north that week on
4:28engagements of her own. She asked to
4:30attend and a place was found for her.
4:33What nobody in the town knew was that
4:35Camilla had already heard about one line
4:38in particular.
4:39The town had invited William and
4:40Catherine as the Duke and Duchess of
4:42Rothesay, the style the heir has used in
4:45Scotland since Queen Victoria's day.
4:47They had said yes.
4:49But they had also done something the
4:51town did not expect. They did not want
4:53to be the voice of the day. The building
4:55belonged to the town and above all to
4:58the woman who had saved it.
4:59So they asked that Elspeth say a few
5:01words on their behalf. And Elspeth's
5:04first answer was no. That happened the
5:06night before on the harbor wall in the
5:09last of the light.
5:10William and Catherine had driven over
5:12quietly after their own engagements and
5:14asked to walk the harbor with her. No
5:17crowd, no bunting.
5:19Just the three of them, the wind and the
5:21sound of the boats knocking against the
5:23wall. Catherine told her what they
5:25wanted. A few lines said by Elspeth in
5:28her own voice at the opening. Elspeth
5:31stopped walking.
5:32She said it should be them. She said the
5:34town would want to hear it from the Duke
5:36and Duchess, not from an old woman it
5:39had heard every day for 40 years.
5:41She said she had never spoken into a
5:43microphone in her life. She was not
5:45about to start in front of the whole
5:47town.
5:48William told her that was exactly why it
5:50had to be her.
5:52She shook her head. She said people
5:54would think she had asked for it.
5:55Catherine did not argue with her. She
5:58asked a question instead. She asked
6:00Elspeth who had stood on that key with a
6:02bucket in the rain for 40 years.
6:05Then she asked who the town would rather
6:07hear.
6:07>> It's been wonderful to speak to so many
6:09children here about the importance of
6:11connections and the important people in
6:13it.
6:13>> looked out at the boats for a while.
6:16The light was nearly gone.
6:17Then she asked what the words were.
6:19Catherine told her that the building was
6:21the town's, not theirs.
6:24That the people who had kept faith with
6:25it for 40 years were the ones to thank.
6:28And one last line, a warm one, the kind
6:31people say when they mean it.
6:33That they would come back to this harbor
6:35and they hoped the boats would be in
6:36when they did.
6:38Elspeth said the lines back on the
6:39harbor wall until she had them by heart.
6:42Nothing was handed over.
6:44There was nothing to carry. The words
6:46lived in Elspeth's head, which was
6:48exactly where the whales is wanted them.
6:50Before they parted, she said one more
6:52thing.
6:53She said if she was going to say them at
6:55all, she would rather say them where the
6:57boats could hear. William laughed and
6:59said that sounded right.
7:01As they walked back along the wall, he
7:03slowed beside the old blue boat. There
7:06was a lamp hanging in its wheelhouse and
7:08a man moving about inside it, late as it
7:10was. William asked who was working at
7:13that hour. Elspeth told him it was a
7:15skipper whose father had fished from
7:16that quay before him. She said he kept
7:19himself to himself.
7:21She did not say anything more because at
7:23that point she did not know anything
7:24more.
7:25William wished the man a good night
7:27across the water. The man raised one
7:29hand and did not come out. Nobody wrote
7:32that down. Nobody thought about it again
7:34that night. By the next morning, it
7:36would be the most important thing anyone
7:38had said on that wall. And the warm last
7:41line, the promise to come back, was the
7:43line Camilla had heard about.
7:46Camilla was afraid of something that
7:47morning and it was not what the town
7:49assumed.
7:50It was not her own place in the day. In
7:53her own mind, she was protecting someone
7:55else. There had been talk along that
7:57coast that the king might come north to
7:59it next month. Nothing more than talk.
8:02But the town had heard it and so had
8:04Camilla. And for her, if that visit
8:07came, it was meant to be his moment on
8:09that coast. She wanted the coast to be
8:11waiting for him with nothing else in its
8:13eyes.
8:14And here was the air about to send a
8:17message to the same town through the
8:19mouth of its most loved woman, promising
8:22to come back. To Camilla, that warm line
8:25was a problem. The town would hear it
8:27and hold on to it. If the king did come,
8:30the town would already be looking past
8:31him, waiting for the younger couple who
8:33had promised to return.
8:35So she decided the line had to go.
8:38She could not ask William and Catherine
8:39to drop it. They would refuse. So she
8:42chose the one way that might work
8:44without anyone noticing.
8:46If she said the words herself, she could
8:48simply leave the line out. Nobody would
8:51know it had ever been there. It was
8:53quiet. It was careful. And as far as
8:56Camilla was concerned, it was loyal.
8:58But it meant taking the words away from
9:00the woman they had been given to.
9:02Camilla's first move was gentle.
9:05Standing with the trust committee in the
9:06new room, she pointed out that the
9:08founder already had more than enough to
9:10carry that morning. A senior member of
9:13the royal family was present. It would
9:15be quite usual, she said, for the senior
9:17royal present to say a few words for the
9:19absent couple until they arrived.
9:22It would spare the founder the strain of
9:23a microphone in front of the whole town.
9:26The committee did not know what to say.
9:28They were volunteers.
9:30And here was Camilla, kind and certain,
9:33telling them how these things were
9:34normally done. One of them said they
9:36would have to ask Elspeth. Camilla
9:38suggested they ask her now. Elspeth
9:41listened, and then she said no.
9:44The prince and princess had asked her.
9:46She had given her word. She was not
9:48about to hand it on to anybody, however
9:50kindly it was offered.
9:52The committee went back to Camilla with
9:54that answer, expecting the matter to
9:56close. It did not close. Camilla asked
9:59if she might speak to the founder
10:00herself. They spoke beneath the wall of
10:02boat names.
10:04From across the room, it looked like
10:05nothing at all. Two women with their
10:07heads close together, one of them
10:09smiling.
10:11But what Camilla asked for in that
10:12conversation was the heart of the whole
10:14morning.
10:15She asked Elspeth to tell her the words,
10:18just so she would know them, Camilla
10:20said, in case the Waleses were delayed.
10:23It would be a comfort, surely, to know
10:24somebody was ready.
10:26And Elspeth, who had nothing to hide,
10:28told her. She said the lines through
10:31exactly as Catherine had given them on
10:33the harbor wall.
10:35And when she reached the last line, the
10:37warm one about coming back to the
10:39harbor, Camilla stopped her.
10:41That one, Camilla said, might be best
10:44left out.
10:45There was talk of the king coming next
10:47month, she said gently. It would be a
10:49shame for anything to take the shine off
10:51that. Perhaps the line could simply be
10:53dropped. Elspeth looked at her and said
10:56the words were not hers to change.
10:58Camilla said nobody would know, and
11:00Elspeth said very quietly that she
11:03would.
11:04It was the moment Camilla seems to have
11:06decided that asking was not going to be
11:08enough.
11:09The third turn came from a direction
11:11nobody saw coming.
11:13The chair of the trust committee had
11:14spent months hoping that if the king did
11:17come north next month, he would include
11:19the new building. It would bring
11:21visitors.
11:22It might bring the last support they
11:23still needed for the rooms upstairs.
11:26Camilla knew that. She did not raise it
11:28in front of the committee.
11:30She raised it with the chair alone in
11:32the narrow back room behind the new
11:34hall. It was where the tea urns and the
11:36folded tressels were kept.
11:39The chair was a careful man. He had
11:41known Elspeth since he was a boy. And
11:43when Camilla began, he did not like
11:46where it was going. She told him a visit
11:48from the king, if it came, would be a
11:50wonderful day for the town. She said she
11:53would like nothing more than to see this
11:54building part of it. She said it would
11:56help if this morning were kept a little
11:58simpler. Indoors, short, a few words
12:02from her for the absent couple, nothing
12:04that might make the town's next royal
12:06day feel like an afterthought. The chair
12:08said Elspeth had been promised those
12:10words by the prince and princess
12:12themselves.
12:13Camilla said Elspeth would still cut the
12:15ribbon.
12:16Elspeth would still be thanked by name.
12:18Nobody was taking her day away.
12:21The chair said that was not how Elspeth
12:23would see it.
12:24Camilla asked him quite kindly whether
12:26he thought the town would forgive him if
12:28the king's day on that coast went
12:30somewhere else. She did not threaten
12:32anything.
12:33She did not have to. She never said the
12:36visit would be lost. She only let him
12:38picture it.
12:39The chair stood in that back room among
12:41the tea urns for what felt to him like a
12:43very long time. Then he said all right.
12:47He went back into the hall without
12:48looking at the wall of boat names.
12:50People who knew him say he did not look
12:52at Elspeth either.
12:54And for about an hour that morning,
12:56Camilla's side was the one that looked
12:57certain to carry the day. The plan was
13:00changed. The opening would be held
13:02entirely inside the new room with the
13:04doors closed against the wind. The
13:06microphone would stay at the top of the
13:08room. Camilla would say the words of the
13:10prince and princess.
13:12Elspeth would cut the ribbon and be
13:14thanked by name. It was presented to her
13:16as an honor, not a loss. The chair told
13:19her himself. He owed her that much.
13:22He found her by the door and said it
13:24quickly. The way people say things they
13:26have practiced indoors. Camilla to say
13:29the words. Elspeth to cut the ribbon. A
13:32lovely moment for her, he said. Her name
13:35said out loud in front of everyone.
13:37Elspeth heard him out. Then she asked
13:39him one question. She asked whether
13:41Camilla had asked him or whether he had
13:44offered. He opened his mouth. Then he
13:47closed it again.
13:48He had known her since he was a boy and
13:50he had never once managed to tell her
13:52anything but the truth. So he said
13:54nothing at all.
13:56Elspeth nodded as if that was an answer.
13:59She told him she would not make a scene
14:00in her own building and she turned back
14:03to the door. The chair went to check the
14:05microphone. It was already working.
14:08He checked it twice anyway. Out on the
14:10harbor, the crews were told the opening
14:12would be indoors after all. There was no
14:15need for to stay tied up, some skippers
14:17grumbled. A few began making ready to go
14:19back out. Two boats cast off and nosed
14:22out through the harbor mouth towards
14:23open water. The whole reason Elspeth had
14:26asked them in was quietly falling away.
14:29Only one boat did not move, the blue
14:31one.
14:32Its skipper was still under that
14:34tarpaulin and he told the man on the
14:36next boat he was not going anywhere
14:38until he was done. Camilla noticed. She
14:41had stepped out onto the quay for a
14:42moment to watch the boats go.
14:44The blue boat was sitting right below
14:46the new building, its wheelhouse wrapped
14:48in gray cloth like a parcel nobody had
14:50finished.
14:52To her eye it looked untidy. It was the
14:54first thing anyone would see from the
14:56top of the slipway.
14:57She walked to the edge of the quay and
14:59spoke to the skipper herself,
15:01pleasantly.
15:02She asked whether he might take that
15:04cover off before the opening or perhaps
15:06move along a little now that the crews
15:08were not needed. The skipper put down
15:10his brush. He was not a man who talked
15:13much and he did not talk much now. He
15:16told her the cover came off when he went
15:18and not before. Camilla said it would
15:20only take a moment. He said that was
15:22true and he picked up his brush again.
15:25Camilla was not used to a man going back
15:27to his brush while she was still
15:28standing there. She looked at the
15:30tarpaulin a moment more.
15:32Then she went back inside where the room
15:35was hers. Inside the room was filling
15:38and Elspeth stood by the door in her
15:40best coat, saying nothing, while the
15:43morning she had waited 40 years for was
15:45turned into somebody else's.
15:47That coat had been bought for one day
15:49only.
15:50She had told her daughter so in the
15:51shop. It was not for weddings or for
15:53funerals. It was for the morning the
15:55shed came back.
15:57She had kept it in its bag in the
15:58wardrobe for three years, waiting. Now
16:01she stood in it at the door of the room
16:03she had saved.
16:04She was being thanked in advance for a
16:06part she had not been allowed to play.
16:09Nobody in that room yet knew that
16:11William and Catherine were five minutes
16:12away. A town nearly lost its morning
16:15right there and not one person objected
16:17out loud.
16:18Press like if you think Elspeth should
16:20never have been moved off those words.
16:23And think of one person who grew up
16:25somewhere with a harbor wall. Send them
16:27this before the boats leave. The prince
16:30and Princess of Wales arrived a little
16:32ahead of time.
16:33Their car stopped at the top of the key.
16:36Out on the water the light was low and
16:37bright, the way it is on that coast in
16:40autumn. The sun never climbs far above
16:42the firth, even at midday.
16:45William got out first, then Catherine.
16:48They waved to the people along the
16:49railings and began to walk down the key.
16:52The first thing they noticed was the
16:53boats.
16:55They had been told the crews would be
16:56tied up along the wall.
16:58Instead, two boats were already out
17:01beyond the harbor mouth. On several
17:03others, crews were coiling lines and
17:05taking in fenders.
17:07William slowed down.
17:09He asked one of the skippers on the key
17:11side where everyone was going. The
17:13skipper told him the opening had been
17:14moved indoors and the boats were no
17:16longer needed. William looked at
17:18Catherine, then they kept walking.
17:21At the door of the building they found
17:23Elspeth. She did not complain to them.
17:26When Catherine asked her if all was
17:27well, she said only one thing.
17:30Camilla will be saying your words this
17:32morning.
17:33Catherine looked past her into the room,
17:36the microphone at the top.
17:37The doors pulled closed against the
17:39wind.
17:40And out on the water, the boats that
17:42should have been listening, heading for
17:44the harbor mouth.
17:46She remembered the warm last line, the
17:48one about coming back to this harbor.
17:51She remembered the talk of the king
17:52coming next month. She worked out the
17:55rest for herself.
17:56Nobody had told her. Nobody had to point
17:59a finger. A microphone indoors, a
18:01founder by the door, and the crew sent
18:04off before anyone could hear.
18:06That was all it took to see the shape of
18:07it.
18:08Catherine did not reply straight away.
18:11And then Camilla came out of the door.
18:13She came onto the key side to greet
18:14them, warm and composed, and explained
18:17the new arrangement as though it had
18:19always been the plan. Indoors, out of
18:21the wind, she would say their few words
18:24for them. It was all in hand. William
18:27was the first to speak. He thanked
18:29Camilla for coming.
18:30Then he said, calmly, that the words
18:33were not something they had left to be
18:34said by just anyone. They had been given
18:37to the founder for a reason the night
18:40before on that harbor wall.
18:43Camilla answered him with the same
18:44reasons she had given the committee. The
18:46founder already had enough to carry. It
18:49would be quite usual for the senior
18:50royal present to speak.
18:52And with talk of the king coming along
18:55that coast next month, it might be wise
18:57to keep the morning simple.
18:59There it was, out loud, in front of a
19:02skipper and the committee chair.
19:05William understood at once what she
19:06meant. He knew which line she had wanted
19:09to lose. He did not argue about it. He
19:11did not raise the talk of a visit at
19:13all. He simply said that if his father
19:16did come to this coast, he would have a
19:17wonderful day. Nothing he and Catherine
19:20had asked to be said would take a moment
19:22of it away. Camilla did not give way.
19:25She said she had the town's day at
19:27heart, she said, more firmly now, that
19:30the arrangement had been agreed with the
19:32committee. It would be awkward, she
19:34said, to undo it in front of the whole
19:36town.
19:37The committee chair, standing a little
19:39way back, looked at the ground, and then
19:41Catherine spoke. She looked at Camilla,
19:44then she looked past her through the
19:46open door into the room full of
19:48townspeople,
19:50then out along the key at the boats with
19:52their lines half in. She does not speak
19:55for us, Catherine said. The town does.
19:57Nobody on that key side spoke for
19:59several seconds. It was not said
20:02angrily. People standing close say it
20:04was said almost gently, but it closed
20:07the question. The words were the towns.
20:10The town had chosen who would say them.
20:13And that was not going to change because
20:15a senior royal had arrived and wanted it
20:17otherwise. Camilla did not reply.
20:20>> I think it's every family has its own
20:22difficulties and its own challenges.
20:24And I think it's very individual and
20:26sort of moment dependent as to how you
20:28deal with
20:29>> But the morning was not over. What
20:31happened next was decided by the oldest
20:33woman on the quay.
20:35Elspeth walked into the building.
20:37She went to the top of the room where
20:39the microphone stood, and the room went
20:41still.
20:42Half of them had put coins in her bucket
20:44at one time or another.
20:46She did not take the microphone. She
20:48spoke in her own voice, loud enough to
20:51carry to the back of the room.
20:53She said she had been asked to say a few
20:55words today, and she would.
20:57But she would not say them indoors at a
20:59microphone with the doors closed against
21:02the weather. This building, she said,
21:04was saved for the harbor. The words were
21:06meant for the harbor, and she would say
21:09them on the harbor wall where the boats
21:11could hear. It was what she had told
21:13William and Catherine the night before.
21:15Only now she was telling the whole town.
21:18Then she walked out of the door. For a
21:20moment the room did not move. Then the
21:22first of them followed her. Then a whole
21:24row. Then the committee. The chair among
21:27them. Then everyone. They came out of
21:30that bright new room in their good
21:32coats, children on their shoulders. They
21:35went down the quay in the wind behind a
21:37woman in her seventies out towards the
21:39end of the harbor wall.
21:41William and Catherine walked with them.
21:44So did Camilla. She did not stay behind
21:46in the empty room. She came out with
21:48everyone else and walked down the quay
21:50with the town.
21:52She kept to the side, a little apart.
21:54Her coat pulled close against the wind
21:56off the water.
21:58Word went along the boats faster than
21:59anybody could have run.
22:01The skippers who had begun to leave
22:03idled where they were. Lines that had
22:05been half taken in were made fast again.
22:08But two boats were already out, and the
22:10harbor had no way to reach them except
22:12the oldest way there is.
22:14A lad of about 14 ran to the very end of
22:16the wall and waved both arms over his
22:19head.
22:20It was the signal every child in that
22:22town learns before they can swim. Come
22:25back in. On the nearer of the two boats,
22:27the skipper saw it.
22:29He was the youngest skipper in the
22:30harbor, and he had a choice to make. His
22:33crew wanted to get on. They had already
22:35lost half a morning.
22:37The tide would not wait for them, and
22:39the sea would not pay them for standing
22:41about. One of them shouted across the
22:43deck that it was only a ribbon. Another
22:45said the town had sent them away once
22:47already that morning, and he was not
22:49about to be whistled back like a dog.
22:52The skipper did not answer either of
22:53them straight away.
22:55His own mother had stood on that quay
22:57with Elspeth's bucket more winters than
22:59he could count. His grandfather's boat
23:01was on that wall of names inside. The
23:03skipper looked back at the wall.
23:05He could see the whole town coming down
23:07it. He could see a small figure in a
23:09good coat climbing up towards the top.
23:12He knew who it was. Nobody else in that
23:14town would climb that wall today.
23:17He brought the wheel round. His crew
23:19went quiet. Then the second boat, seeing
23:21him turn, turned too. The two of them
23:24came back towards the harbor mouth and
23:26held there, rolling in the swell,
23:28engines low. Every face on deck was
23:31turned towards the wall.
23:33Elspeth climbed the three stone steps
23:35onto the top of the harbor wall, and she
23:37said the words. They took less than half
23:39a minute.
23:40That the building was the town's.
23:42That the people who had kept faith with
23:44it for 40 years were the ones to thank.
23:47And that the Duke and Duchess of
23:48Rothesay would come back to this harbor
23:50and hoped the boats would be in when
23:52they did. That was all.
23:54Nobody cheered at the last line. Nobody
23:57turned to look at Camilla.
23:59The words went out over the water to the
24:01crews on the decks, and the crews took
24:03them in the way fishing people take most
24:05things quietly, with a nod.
24:09Then William and Catherine handed
24:10Elspeth the scissors, and she cut the
24:12ribbon across the door herself. The
24:14building was open. The rest of the
24:16morning belonged to the town.
24:18Children ran along the wall of boat
24:20names, looking for their grandfather's
24:22boats. William spent a long time with
24:25the skippers, asking about the season
24:27and the price of fuel.
24:29He went out of his way to find the young
24:31skipper who had turned back and shook
24:33his hand on the quay.
24:35Katherine sat with Elspeth on the bench
24:37by the door and did not leave her side
24:39for nearly half an hour.
24:42stayed too.
24:43did not leave early. She talked to the
24:45volunteers and admired the roof.
24:48Before she left, she found Elspeth and
24:51those standing nearby say she told her
24:53the building was a credit to her and to
24:55the town.
24:57What she did not do was apologize
24:59and she did not say anything at all
25:01about the line.
25:02On the way back to her car, she stopped
25:04beside William for a moment. A volunteer
25:07folding the bunting caught the last of
25:09what Camilla said and it was not a
25:11retreat. She told him that his father
25:13might well be on this coast next month.
25:16She said she hoped the town would
25:17remember who had come first.
25:19William told her he was sure they would
25:21remember everybody. Then she left. The
25:24chair was the last to come to the bench
25:26by the door. He stood in front of
25:28Elspeth with his cap in his hands and
25:30Katherine got up and moved away to give
25:32them the space. What he said was short.
25:35Elspeth listened then patted the bench
25:37beside her and he sat down. A town that
25:40small cannot afford to stay angry for
25:42long.
25:44Everybody on that quay knew he would be
25:45on the committee again next year and
25:48that she would be the one to ask him.
25:50Along that coast, people talked about it
25:52for days.
25:53Mostly they talked about Elspeth walking
25:56out of that door and the whole town
25:58getting up and following her.
26:00One old skipper said afterwards that in
26:0240 years at sea, he had heard only two
26:04kinds of words spoken to the boats from
26:06that wall, a prayer or a warning. That
26:10morning, it was a welcome home. A small
26:12harbor town walked out into the wind so
26:15its own fishing crews could hear what
26:16belonged to them. That is worth
26:18something. Has a place near you ever
26:20been saved by the people who loved it?
26:23We would love to hear about it
26:24underneath this video. The ones who save
26:27places like that rarely hear a word of
26:29thanks. Give their stories somewhere to
26:31land and subscribe to Kensington Herald
26:34tonight.
26:35In the early afternoon when the water
26:37was high enough, the boats began to go
26:39back out. The town stayed on the harbor
26:41wall to watch them go.
26:43It is an old habit on that coast, as old
26:46as the herring years. William and
26:48Catherine stood near the end of the wall
26:50with Elspeth. The crowd lined the quay
26:52behind them, waving as each boat cleared
26:54the harbor mouth. The last boat out was
26:57the blue one. Its skipper had not come
26:59ashore for any of it. He had stayed on
27:02his deck through the ribbon and the
27:03words. The tarpaulin had stayed lashed
27:06over the side of his wheelhouse the
27:07whole time. As he cast off, he cut the
27:10lashings. The gray cloth dropped onto
27:12the deck. It was the crowd that saw it
27:15first, not the royals. As the boat swung
27:17round past the end of the wall, the
27:19wheelhouse turned towards the town.
27:22And on the side of it, in fresh white
27:24paint, there was something that had not
27:26been there the day before. It had
27:28plainly gone on that very morning under
27:30that tarpaulin. A woman at the front put
27:33her hand to her mouth. The man beside
27:35her turned to look, not at the boat, but
27:38at William. Then the whole quay went
27:40quiet. Catherine saw it next.
27:43She reached for William's arm, and
27:45Elspeth, standing between them on the
27:47harbor wall, began to laugh and then to
27:50cry.
27:51At first light that skipper had told her
27:53it was not ready yet. Now she understood
27:55exactly what he had been waiting for.
27:58She knew why he had waited for this
27:59morning of all mornings to let the town
28:01see what was painted on that white
28:03wheelhouse and why was it meant for the
28:06air at the end of the wall. That blue
28:08boat comes back in on the next tide.
28:10When it does, we go aboard for the
28:12answer.

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