Poppy's Dilemma

by Nancy Carson

  He felt her tears wet against his cheek. ‘My angel! You’re crying.’

  ‘I know,’ she whispered and hugged him. ‘Tears of happiness … Tears because too soon we shall have to part, that I shall have to go to my bed without you, that you will have to go to yours.’

  ‘More’s the pity,’ he said, with intense feeling.

  Then they lay silent, each aware of the enormous significance of what they had done, aware of the forbidden heights of ecstasy they had scaled, and not regretting it. Certainly not regretting it. It was done and there was no turning back. He rolled off her and she felt moist with perspiration where he had lain on her, a little sore where he had been, but content. Oh, utterly content. All she wanted then was to sleep in his arms, to awaken with him at dawn and smile into his soft eyes … and make love like that again.

  ‘Can you hear the rain?’ she whispered. ‘Aunt Phoebe said it would rain.’

  He opened his eyes and slowly, reluctantly sat up. They could hear the spots of rain pattering on the roof of the summer house. It came heavier, squalling as the breeze got up, beating on the windows, rasping through the leaves of the trees outside. She cuddled up to Robert.

  ‘We’d better get dressed,’ he said, giving her another hug. ‘Otherwise we’ll catch our deaths.’

  Reluctantly, she stood up while he watched her with ultimate contentment.

  ‘You’re watching me,’ she said, amused, as she stepped into her skirts.

  ‘I’m trying to. But in this light I’m rather straining my eyes.’

  She laughed. ‘I wonder what my hair looks like. I do hope Aunt Phoebe’s gone to sleep. I should hate to meet her on the stairs with my hair everywhere. She’d guess what we’d been up to.’ She put on her bonnet and tucked her hair inside it, then tied the ribbons. ‘Maybe I’d better go in by the back door and up the back stairs.’

  ‘I wonder what time it is,’ he said.

  ‘It can’t be very late. Aren’t you going to get dressed? Or do you intend to walk home naked?’

  ‘Well, at least my skin is waterproof,’ he replied.

  When he was dressed, they stood holding each other, the rain hammering on the roof of the summer house.

  ‘When shall I see you?’ she asked.

  ‘I don’t know. I have to see Virginia very soon.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘Of course, if you gave me your permission to call …’

  ‘You’re mocking me …’

  ‘Not at all … For the sake of propriety, I mean.’

  ‘How can you talk about propriety after what we’ve been doing?’

  ‘Aunt Phoebe doesn’t know what we’ve been doing.’

  ‘Then I will tell Aunt Phoebe that I have given you permission to call on me. She won’t be a bit surprised.’

  ‘Then I shall call on you … But better not expect me tomorrow.’

  ‘I know,’ she answered. ‘Virginia … Come on, let’s make a run for it …’

  Chapter 29

  Robert Crawford awoke next morning to the pearl-grey light of a high summer dawn. In the split second of waking, while the mind is sluggish and all thoughts are gathered and sorted, last night registered as vivid as an enamelled picture. He lay awhile and hungrily relived every sensuous moment in Aunt Phoebe’s summer house, how he and Poppy had committed themselves so deliciously, so whole-heartedly to each other. If he were a cad he would run a mile now, avoid her as if she had typhoid. He would ignore her if ever he saw her out or in company, or act as if nothing had ever happened … if he were a cad. But he was no cad. His commitment was equal to hers. It was serious, deadly earnest and sincere, and it promised a lifetime of contentment.

  Now, it remained for him to make the other players in this drama aware of his true feelings and his plans. First, he should have a man-to-man talk with his father about his reluctance to marry Virginia. It was only fair to let him know his intentions before visiting the home of the Lords to inform Virginia, as gently as he knew how. He could not live his life for Virginia. He could not live his life to please her parents or his own. There was also Bellamy to consider … He got up from his bed and rang for some hot water. When it was brought to his room, he shaved, cleaned his teeth, washed and dressed.

  He was first in for breakfast. It was a working day and his father and Bellamy would be travelling to the office and yard together at Burnt Tree, a mile or so distant. Soon they would be joining him at the table. Robert sat alone meanwhile, steeped in thoughts of Poppy, reliving still their erotic encounter, and yearning for more.

  It was the custom in the Crawford household not to have servants lingering in the breakfast room, because the nature of the family’s conversation, often orientated towards business, warranted confidentiality. So Robert went over and helped himself from the silver dishes deposited on the sideboard. He chose bacon, eggs, black pudding, mushrooms and fried bread, and took it back to the table, ravenously hungry.

  Bellamy entered, wished him a brotherly good morning and poured himself a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice.

  ‘Have you seen anything of that girl Poppy Silk since the party?’ Robert asked experimentally.

  ‘’Fraid not.’

  ‘Oh?’ This was encouraging news. ‘Doesn’t she appeal any more then, Bellamy?’

  ‘Oh, she appeals all right, Robert. She’s a looker if ever I saw one. But she blows hot and cold and you never quite know where you are with her.’

  ‘She doesn’t suit then?’ he suggested hopefully, and shook pepper over his plate.

  ‘Oh, on the contrary, she’d suit admirably. I’m very taken with the girl. She’s so eminently beddable.’

  That remark irritated Robert. ‘But you’re not going to bed her, by the sound of it.’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know … She puts palings around herself, as if she’s some exotic species of tree in a park, and won’t allow me near her. But, at your party, she’d taken them down. She seemed a little more inclined. She seemed to be warming up encouragingly.’

  ‘Oh? Did she?’

  ‘Till you came along and interrupted us with Virginia’s request that I dance with her. She seemed positively keen then …’ Bellamy sipped his orange juice as he pondered those moments. ‘She hinted once, you know, that there was some other chap she was waiting for … Well, you know women. It’s not the thought of their man’s fine looks or prowess that gets ’em, though, is it? Especially when he’s absent. It’s not the heroic soldier far from home that carries the day, but the chap who happens to be on the spot.’

  Robert picked up his knife and fork and cut a piece of bacon which he pressed onto his fork. ‘I take it, then, that your intentions are not entirely honourable.’

  ‘Honourable enough, I would’ve thought. I could quite happily spend the rest of my days and nights bedding Poppy Silk. If it takes a proposal of marriage, then so be it.’

  ‘I suggest to you, Bellamy, that there’s more to marriage than merely bedding the bride regularly.’

  ‘Yes, I imagine there is. But I am serious about the girl. Maybe it’s time I made the move. Strike while the iron’s hot and all that … Tell me, Robert, have you made your mind up yet to join Crawford and Sons?’

  ‘It’s something I intend to discuss with father,’ Robert answered sharply, annoyed and relieved at the same time that Bellamy had diverted himself from the sacrosanct subject of Poppy Silk.

  ‘Excellent. We urgently need somebody of your expertise and qualification.’ He twirled his glass between his fingers as he sat opposite. ‘By the way, did you hear the rain last night?’

  ‘Hear it? I was caught in it. Got soaked. Didn’t make it home early enough to avoid it. I should have taken a cape.’

  ‘Cleared the air a treat, though, eh? So, where did you get to? Who did you see?’

  ‘Oh …’ He loaded more egg and bacon onto his fork. ‘Somebody from the OWWR works I wanted to see.’

  ‘There’s a chance they’ll be restarting soon. Did you know?’<
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  Robert put the loaded fork to his mouth and ate. ‘It’ll be a pity if they don’t,’ he said eventually. ‘All the work that’s been put in so painstakingly already. Actually, I wouldn’t mind seeing it through …’ His face brightened as he looked up to gauge Bellamy’s reaction. ‘If Treadwell’s will have me back, of course.’

  ‘I thought you said you were going to join us.’

  Robert shook his head. ‘I didn’t say that, Bellamy. I said I intend to discuss it with Father.’

  ‘I’m sure money would not be an obstacle.’

  ‘Money is not the obstacle.’

  ‘So what is?’

  ‘The same as ever, Bellamy. My independence.’

  ‘I’m afraid I don’t understand your obsession with independence.’ Bellamy stood up and went to the sideboard.

  ‘Well, it’s easily explained. I have no wish to be beholden to anybody. I want to do what I want to do. I see various ways forward …’

  Ridley Crawford entered the breakfast room like a stiff breeze.

  ‘Good God, Robert, you’re up early. Dare I hope it is your intention to visit the works with Bellamy and me?’

  ‘Not today, Father. I have too many other things to do. Reports and things for the Brazilian venture. They have to be completed.’

  ‘Of course. So when do you intend to pay us a visit?’

  ‘He’s not sure he wants to, Father,’ Bellamy answered for him.

  Robert glanced coldly at Bellamy, then looked at his father. ‘I do need to discuss things with you, Father. If you are not too tired or too busy this evening … After dinner, perhaps …’

  ‘Very well,’ Ridley said agreeably. ‘After dinner.’

  After dinner, Robert was able to steer his father into the study for the promised tête-à-tête. Ridley sat at his big oak desk, assuming the business persona he’d shed earlier when he left his office.

  ‘So, Robert … You wanted to talk.’ He sat back in his leather chair with his elbows resting on the armrests, his fingers steepled. ‘I trust it is about your future.’

  ‘Yes, Father,’ Robert said deferentially, taking the chair at the other side of the desk. It reminded him of when he was being interviewed for the situation of engineer at Treadwell’s. ‘As Bellamy rather blurted out this morning, I don’t quite see my future in Crawford and Sons.’

  ‘It’s a pity,’ Ridley replied with obvious disappointment. ‘I would have thought your sojourn in Brazil might have made you see sense.’

  ‘It’s rather less to do with Brazil and more to do with Ginnie, Father.’

  ‘Oh?’ Ridley looked surprised.

  ‘The fact is … even though I am technically engaged to Ginnie … and even though she has already decided when we are to marry, I intend to ask her to release me from the betrothal.’

  Ridley’s expression manifested both his disapproval and horror. ‘I believe that would be a very grave mistake, Robert. I really do. There is a vast amount at stake here. Whatever your reason, I urge you to reconsider.’

  ‘While I was in Brazil, I thought about it till I was blue in the face. I thought of little else.’

  ‘So what are your reasons for wishing to jilt Virginia? Let us see if we can find some way around this … Your mother will be devastated. Come on, lad. Out with it. You can talk to your father.’

  Robert coughed nervously. ‘Before I went to Brazil … some months before, actually … I met a girl. I found her totally enchanting. She was everything that Virginia was not, and nothing like what Virginia was. Well, to cut a long story short, we fell in love. Head over heels in love.’

  ‘And she knew that you were engaged?’

  Robert nodded. ‘She knew I was engaged. I knew it too, so you cannot blame her,’ he added defensively. ‘Anyway, I believed that my year in Brazil would erase this girl from my mind and from my heart …’

  ‘But it has not,’ his father prompted.

  ‘Indeed it has not. I have seen her a couple of times since my return and I am even more certain of my feelings for her now than when I went away. I truly see no point in agreeing to marry one girl when I am so utterly in love with another.’

  ‘I do see your dilemma,’ Ridley said, not without some sympathy.

  ‘You do?’ Robert exclaimed, not without some astonishment.

  ‘Of course. I am not totally unworldly in matters of the heart.’ He smiled expansively. ‘You youngsters tend to think us older generation were never young. You seem inclined to believe we have never been capable of love, of emotion. You see us all as old fogeys, never touched by love or desire. I swear the younger generation is content to believe it was created by immaculate conception.’

  Robert laughed at his father’s little joke, cheered by his benign attitude. ‘I fear Ginnie and I have tended to veer in different directions in any case,’ he went on. ‘She has some notion, I understand, about dragging me into Quakerism. I believe she would convert now, but for the fact that she would be disowned when she married me. Well, now she can … Convert, I mean.’

  ‘So who is this girl who has stolen your heart so consummately, Robert?’

  Robert smiled. ‘Poppy Silk.’

  ‘Poppy Silk,’ Ridley mused. ‘The name is familiar …’

  ‘You have met her. More than once, I believe. She is Aunt Phoebe’s companion.’

  ‘Oh, Poppy Silk. Indeed … Yes, I have met her. A delightful little bundle, I do concede. I can quite see the attraction …’ He looked at Robert squarely. ‘Does she have money?’

  ‘I think not, Father. She is not of a moneyed family.’

  ‘Her father doesn’t own a bank, therefore?’

  ‘No, sir.’

  ‘Mmm … Then we have a problem …’

  ‘A problem?’

  ‘Yes. A not insignificant one at that.’

  ‘It’s not a problem to me. I want to marry Poppy for herself, not for money.’

  ‘That’s very romantic, Robert, but not entirely practical. You see, Crawford and Sons, as I believe you already know, have tendered for the construction of a new sewer and drainage system in the Borough of Birmingham and we have heard – unofficially – that our tender has been accepted. You are obviously not aware, however, how massive an undertaking it is. We, Crawford and Sons, are scheduled to make a considerable amount of money from it by the time it’s finished. It’ll be highly profitable work, barring any huge unforeseen hazards … and we have reckoned on some, to be sure. It will benefit us all greatly. Work is to begin within the next two to three months. In order to commence the project, we have to employ literally hundreds of men – excavators, navvies, bricklayers and masons, carpenters, labourers, blacksmiths, miners. You know the business, Robert, so you know exactly what is involved. You can therefore imagine the wages bill, before we have even turned a sod. There will be the hire of perhaps two hundred horses, a similar number of carts, the purchase of thousands of pounds worth of materials and equipment. Although Birmingham council will be contracted to pay us in stages, we shall not see any of it till the first agreed section has been completed and finished to the satisfaction of their inspectors. We cannot fund what has to be funded for that length of time by ourselves. It is a financial impossibility. For us to be able to finance such a vast amount we need the support of a sympathetic and flexible banker. As it happens, Robert, we already have one, don’t we? Tyler’s and Lord’s Bank, owned, as you are well aware, by Ishmael Lord, the father of the girl to whom you are engaged.’

  ‘Yes, I am aware of that, Father,’ Robert said softly, dreading where this was leading.

  ‘Then understand this … I am not in the business of alienating those who are my lifeblood, which is my money supply – people who would inevitably be alienated if you fail to fulfil your promise to Virginia. I cannot be party to such an arrangement, nor can I allow my son to be, on whose head now rests the success or failure of our well-established firm.’

  ‘Then you would have to use another bank.’

  �
��These days, I am afraid there are too many shaky banks,’ Ridley replied patiently. ‘What if we were to court the wrong one and it went down? We would go down with it. It is not a risk I am prepared to take, Robert.’

  ‘I see,’ Robert said tartly. ‘So you wish me to sacrifice my future, the rest of my life and my future happiness, for the sake of Crawford and Sons’ bank account?’

  ‘It cannot be such an arduous imposition. You obviously don’t dislike Virginia, else you wouldn’t have asked her to marry you in the first place. There must have been some attraction, some spark of devotion …’

  ‘And so there was, Father. But already our aims and desires are different. We are going in different directions, Ginnie and me. In any case, mating the woman of my parents’ choice with the plans of two families on me, and my clear duty before me, is not my idea of an ideal marriage.’

  ‘Nevertheless, I expect it of you.’

  ‘Then I am sorry, Father. You are about to be disappointed. I am a grown man—’

  ‘You have obligations, Robert. Obligations to your fam—’

  ‘I have obligations to myself and to Poppy only,’ Robert said, raising his voice. ‘I shall of course defy you.’

  ‘You also have an obligation to Virginia … Unless she will discharge it …’

  Robert sighed and stood up. ‘I see no point in discussing this further. My mind is made up. I shall seek Virginia’s release from our engagement and I shall marry Poppy Silk.’

  It suddenly became clear to Ridley that he no longer had the command over his wilful middle son that he once had. It was one thing to allow him to go and work for another contractor – he would gain valuable experience, which would be useful when he eventually entered the family firm – but it was another to allow him to put the family into a position where financial ruin was a distinct possibility.