The Face of Eve

by Betty Burton

  From below in the yard, she could hear them. Ann Carter: ‘Why don’t I give Eli a shout? He can go over and see if Bar needs a hand so she can come back here.’

  Ted said, ‘If Jim Gunner sees your Eli on estate soil, he won’t listen to no reason. No, I’ll go. Eli’s got enough on his hands. She’ll be here, May… It’s probably just a thing with one of the hunters – you know how she is with them – they’m a big responsibility.’

  ‘If she gave half as much thought to things here—’ May, sounding tight-lipped with bitterness, was stopped in her tracks by Ted raising his voice.

  ‘Shut up, May! It’s nothing to do with you. I got nothin’ else to do till it’s time to go, so I’ll go and buck her up.’

  ‘How about if I come then?’ Ann said. ‘If needs be I can stop there and Ted can bring her back straightaway.’

  ‘No, Ann, you’re one of the main family. Nobody will think twice about Eli not going to the church, but if you and your boys don’t then it’s going to look funny.’

  ‘Ha! Everything looks funny if you’re the sort that think funny. But you’re right, I should be there.’

  ‘She’s done this a’ purpose.’ May’s voice sounded as though it might break.

  Ray’s voice: ‘Don’t say something you’ll regret. Today’s not the day.’

  ‘Of course not. No day ever is the day, is it?’

  Eve wanted to shut the window, shut out what they were saying, but they were just below. If she so much as moved the curtains, they would realise that she was overhearing what they had all done their best to smooth over for the wedding. God above! she thought. What made me think coming to see them again would make them happy?

  Eve had never heard Ted with anger in his voice until now. ‘May! You waited a long time for this day, don’t go and spoil it for yourself.’

  ‘I’m not the one who will spoil it.’

  ‘You will if you don’t shut up. I’m going.’ Moments later the van was heard rattling to a start.

  May said sullenly, ‘He hasn’t got the strength of a louse these days. He don’t need to go running after her.’

  Then Ann said, ‘Give her time, Ray. She won’t always be like this.’

  ‘Tell you the truth, Ann, I don’t know if I care any more.’

  ‘Ray, you don’t mean that.’

  ‘Don’t I? It’s months now. You said give her time, I’ve give her time, we’ve all give her time. Seems to me she’s on to a good thing, got a man’s job, man’s wages – bringing up her own baby don’t seem to come nowhere in it.’

  ‘She’s my daughter and I’m sorry she’s doing this to you, Ray. But not all females as has babes takes natural to them.’

  ‘Oh yeah… and I’ve heard it all before – the calves and lambs and kids and kittens that’s rejected by their mothers.’

  May’s voice: ‘And so they do, Ray.’

  ‘May’s right, boy. I don’t think my girl wanted to turn from the poor little soul, it’s not as though she hasn’t got the mothering instinct. Look how she is with Bonnie.’

  ‘Yes, look how she is.’

  ‘It’ll pass, boy. Don’t let it break you two up, for sake of the children.’

  Eve had sat transfixed before the mirror, seeing not her own reflection, but Ray, Ann and May as they acted out their parts, said again the lines that they had so obviously said before. This wasn’t a new discussion. Unbeknown to them, James Gunner had done that monstrous deed that was killing off Eve’s family.

  She looked into her own eyes and didn’t flinch. The best she could do was to go downstairs as if nothing had happened and start the walk down to the church, and hope that when she had gone the healing would begin. Get it over with. Get back to London.

  Get learning to fly.

  Bonnie’s piano practice had stopped and soon she was stomping her new patent-leather ankle-straps upstairs.

  Eve, in black shoes whose spit-and-polish shine could only have been done by Ray, and watched by Bonnie in her flounces, put on a pancake hat with a sprightly half-veil. Bonnie breathed the hushed words, ‘Auntie Lu, you look so beautiful,’ then rushed out on to the landing and shouted, ‘Daddy, Daddy, AnnieGranny, GrannyMay, come and see the bride. She’s betterer than Princess Marina.’

  All members of the family except for Ted and Bar had now gathered in the sitting room where Dimitri was doing the honours with generous glasses of sweet port wine or whisky. At Bonnie’s announcement, all eyes turned to Eve, making her feel slightly embarrassed. Everyone appeared to be so much at their ease that she found it difficult to believe what she had overheard.

  Alice Gunner, glass of sherry in hand, stood up. ‘Maurice made something for you. Go on, Maurice, give it to the lady.’

  ‘Horseshoes is lucky. Paint’s dry all right.’

  ‘I think it was young Miss Megsie that told him about giving horseshoes at weddings. She give him the ribbon and that.’

  ‘It’s lovely. You’re very kind, Maurice, and artistic.’

  Eli Barney, from whom both Duke and Bar had got their handsome, well-boned features and black hair, came in, pardoned himself for appearing in working clothes, wished her and Dimitri luck and gave Eve a flat cardboard package about a foot square and wrapped in a piece of hessian. ‘You used to go off a-field-walking with Gabr’el. Our Duke took you there. You found a bit of old crock you was so proud of. Well, what about this? We thought this’d be a good thing to give you. But don’t go tellin’ nobody or they’ll want to come and dig the place up.’

  ‘Good Lord. It’s a bit of Roman floor, isn’t it?’

  ‘Proof that Roman’s Fields holds that secret. So far only Eli and me knows its whereabouts,’ May said.

  The piece was startlingly beautiful, a section of tesserae broken away from what must surely be a highly decorated floor.

  ‘I don’t know what to say… Look, Dimitri.’

  ‘I think I get it mounted for you in London.’

  May said, ‘That’s all right just so long as nobody gets to know where it was dug up. I reckon it’s a palace, from the quality of the work. If it gets out we shan’t none of us be able to live out our lives here in peace. Just keep it, Lu, and when the time ever comes, hand it on to some museum, but for now, just have it as a piece of Roman’s Fields.’

  ‘It’s a wonderful wedding present.’

  ‘Ray and Bar’s got the same. It seemed to Eli and me that it was… well, the thing is… I might as well tell you now. When Ted and me are gone, there’s nobody as will want Roman’s Fields. When the war’s over, Ray will want to set up in Portsmouth again. Union bosses don’t live in country villages. That right, Ray?’

  Ray nodded. ‘Nine Elms, Charing Cross, London Bridge, if they don’t get the guts bombed out of them.’ He turned back to the window again, drinking deeply on the strong, dark, homemade beer.

  Eve couldn’t ever remember Ray having given voice to personal ambition.

  May went on, ‘I’ve willed this place to the nation. I know that sounds a bit grand, but I’ve left a letter with my solicitor saying about the artefacts that keep turning up. He don’t know what’s in it, nor the box of finds he’s holding on to. Me and Ted’s got a little money put by, and that will go to the grandchildren. There, now you all know how it stands. Let’s have a toast to a good day, and a happy one.’

  The women perched on chair arms so as not to crease pleats. Ray continued to stand by the low window, his shoulders rigid, his fingers drumming. Eve went and stood beside him, looking towards the wide gate. ‘You did my shoes, Ray. Thanks.’

  ‘Glad you noticed.’

  Eve accepted a drink from Dimitri, who gave her a sly wink. Ken came in, looking at his wristwatch. ‘We all right for time?’

  ‘Ted’s gone to fetch Bar,’ May said.

  ‘She’s running it a bit fine.’

  ‘All right, Ken, we’re well aware of that,’ Ray said, still in his tetchy voice.

  Ken raised his eyebrows and shrugged his shoulders. ‘I’m
going out to have one last fag. You want one, Lu?’

  ‘OK.’ She followed him outside and lit up the cigarette he offered. ‘I’ve only just realised how bad it is here.’

  ‘People change, sis.’

  ‘Or maybe we don’t know them as well as we kidded ourselves we did.’

  ‘Could be.’

  ‘I just want to get out.’

  ‘Ditto,’ Ken said. ‘When I put your bags in the van, I put my own in too. Goodbyes aren’t my style. Just don’t lose touch again, Lu.’

  These two, who were old for their years, who had seen too much in their young lives, stood in pleasant quietness, allowing the smoke from their cigarettes to drift away into the still, warm air.

  ‘Want to go in and fetch my flowers, Ken?’

  He nodded and scrunched out his cigarette.

  * * *

  Soon the wedding party came out of the house and, without mentioning Bar’s absence, started off down the lane towards the village: Eve and Ray with Bonnie following, May with Dimitri, Ken with Ann, Mrs Gunner with Maurice.

  ‘We’re a bit straggly,’ May said, ‘but we’ll form ourselves up when Ted and Bar comes, and we get nearer to the village. There’s quite a few who know you will be there. We want to put on a proper show.’

  This was the first Eve had heard about it, but now that May’s plans had swung into action, there was only one thing to do and that was to go with them. There was a good forty minutes to the village. Port wine, whisky, Bonnie and Dimitri put gaiety into the conversation.

  ‘That’s Grandpa Ted’s van… you hear? So Ma will be on time.’ As the party reached the long incline into the village, Ted drew up and Bar jumped out.

  Ted left the van on the roadside and stepped in line beside May. ‘Where d’you think I found her?’ he whispered in a voice that carried. ‘At home. Said she’d just got back from Swallit Pool, said she’d been having a spiritual cleaning.’

  ‘Don’t tell me any more, Ted, or I shall say something I shall regret.’

  ‘Lord love us, Lu,’ Bar said, ‘I should have never forgive myself if I didn’t see you wed.’ She took her daughter’s hand. ‘Now, Bonnie, where has GrannyMay made my given place in the procession? I wish I could walk with your pa, but he’s special today, he’s with the bride.’ She put her hand on his shoulder and gave him a loud kiss. ‘GrannyMay goes with Grandpa Ted, AnnieGranny’s got Uncle Ken, so what say I walk with you and we give your Auntie Lu two flower girls?’

  The change in her was amazing. Although her legs were bare, she wore shoes with heels, the full black frock that had been hanging in the hall when the party had left the house, and the Ivy and rose-hip wreath on her black hair, still glistening with water. Her hands were very clean and her fingernails white, her face fresh and glowing.

  This might well be the last traditional procession the village would see. It was already considered old-fashioned. When it reached Wickham Village, a gathering of twenty or thirty people waited, ten or so wearing flowers in their buttonholes.

  With churning stomach, Eve turned to May. ‘My God, May! It’s the Wilmotts. How did they know? Oh, May, how could you?’

  ‘Don’t be silly, Lu. They’re your family. It’d be hurtful not to let them come. It’s a family occasion, and your aunties and uncles and cousins have come all the way from Portsmouth on the early train to be here. And they’ve bought you wedding presents.’

  Eve felt angry and miserable. Why had she thought that she would be able to pop in and then pop out of family life and not make a ripple? She had thought that she was only going to open a small door on her memories of Roman’s Fields, and she had opened a lid on a great big Pandora’s box.

  The Wilmott aunts would pick at her like a flock of crows.

  Her cousins would be full of resentment that she had ‘done well for herself’.

  None of them had had the guts to get out; instead, they perpetuated the working-class girl’s cycle of life of work – marriage – children – and more work. It’s the way it was for women born into their level of society – the level that had been her own. Her cousins weren’t dunces, yet none of them had even tried to get a grammar school place. They had called her a snob for trying. Getting above herself. Thought she was better than themselves.

  And so I am!

  One thing she did know about them was that they were intimidated by their ‘betters’. If she had learned anything since she left, it was how to be ‘a better’.

  Three hours and it will all be over.

  Three hours, and Dimitri and I will be on our way to London.

  Three hours and I will be free.

  In this way she had coped with the production-line work when she was a factory girl.

  When the new wedding guests seemed about to surge forward, she said, ‘For God’s sake, Ray, keep going and keep them away from me.’

  ‘Honest, Lu, I didn’t know a thing about them being here.’

  ‘Did May think I’d want a turnout of Wilmotts? They’ve never done us any favours.’

  ‘Nothing to do with what anybody wants, Lu. It’s the way things are done in families and villages, you know that; if families don’t turn up at weddings, people think there’s a scandal, something to hide.’

  If only they knew.

  The ceremony didn’t last long. Ray ‘gave this woman’. Louisa Vera took Dimitri Constantin Rudolph – not Lec Podsadowski, as at Caxton Hall.

  Dimitri Constantin Rudolph took Louisa Vera to have and to hold.

  Ray handed Dimitri the ring, and for the second time, Dimitri put it on her finger.

  They were pronounced man and wife and he was told he could kiss the bride.

  May was radiantly the ‘bride’s mother’ and the provider of the Roman’s Fields wedding feast that would be talked about for a lifetime.

  It was a short walk to the station. At some point, Ken had taken his own and their bags and left them in the charge of a porter and bought his ticket to Portsmouth. Their goodbyes said, the bridal couple were ready to depart.

  Bar clung to Eve, their cheeks wet with tears. ‘You’re the most courageous woman in the world, Eve. And you’re the most unselfish.’

  ‘I wish that were true, Bar, but I know different.’

  Close to Eve’s ear, Bar said, ‘After you left me, I saw you being sick. Are you expecting?’

  Eve froze. It was true she had forced herself to bring up the breakfast that May had cooked. She couldn’t think how Bar had seen her. She couldn’t explain to herself why she felt it necessary to do this, any more than she could explain why she ate food she really didn’t want. ‘Nerves, Bar. Every bride gets them.’

  Bar laughed. ‘I never. I was that happy I got your Ray to get married to me. Now, please, Lu, you go and be happy. Go on and have something for yourself, be blowed to ideals and duty and all that.’

  The Portsmouth train arrived, to take them to Harbour station, where they’d pick up the London train. They boarded, waved and it was over.

  Something good had come out of Eve’s visit. Bar had returned to her old self. It had taken very little to put her life to rights.

  23

  It was still bright and sunny when the local train drew into the Harbour station. Not many local travellers were disembarking at this terminus – just the three plus a couple of workmen and a servicewoman wearing ATS uniform.

  Dimitri, who was politely guiding Eve by the elbow, suddenly gripped it tightly.

  She flinched. ‘What’s the matter?’

  ‘Guards. Nyet! Not guards – police.’

  ‘What are you so jumpy for? It’s not us they want.’

  But it was.

  ‘Are you the people who have come from Wickham?’

  Before Eve could answer, Ken jumped in. ‘Who wants to know?’

  ‘Hampshire Constabulary, sir. Detective Inspector Wright. Constables Weir and James.’

  Sensibly, Dimitri said nothing. Eve said, ‘What’s wrong? Has there been an accident?’


  ‘It would be better, ma’am, sirs, if we could talk at the police station.’

  Training and experience led them to politeness and cooperation as the best policy at this stage. At the station they were asked to wait in a room that reeked of dust and old tobacco smoke. ‘What d’you reckon’s up?’ Ken asked.

  ‘I have no idea,’ Eve said, ‘but whatever it is, we just say that we can say nothing until the police have informed Faludi or David Hatton.’

  ‘What good will that do?’

  ‘We must not answer questions to civilian police.’

  ‘Dimitri’s right.’

  When the detective inspector returned, Dimitri stood up and announced that they were with the War Office and the Official Secrets Act forbade them to make any statement without a government official present, and if the inspector would please ring any of these telephone numbers, then a suitable official would soon arrive.

  This rather took the wind out of the inspector’s sails. ‘Right, sir. Let’s hope it won’t take long. I’ll get somebody to rustle up a cup of tea.’

  Two hours later, nothing had happened.

  ‘I’m fed up with this,’ Eve said. ‘I’m going to tell them to ring Griffon House.’

  In less than fifteen minutes the door opened and the inspector announced, ‘A Commander Kiefor to see you.’

  Then, looking amazing in army officer uniform, Keef was shown into the dingy room. Having looked at each of the three in turn, he said, ‘Yes, Inspector, I can vouch for these people and…’ He looked enquiringly from Eve to Dimitri.

  Eve said, ‘This is my brother who is on his way to see Lieutenant Hatton.’

  ‘Of course. Mr Wilmott, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘Right, Mr Wilmott, I didn’t expect to find you here, but who knows what to expect these days?’

  Eve couldn’t help but smile to herself. Keef, with not a single ‘darling’ or artistic gesture. He had done a good job of transforming himself into a man wearing a Sam Browne. The thing was, which was the real Keef?

  Keef, driving a civilian car, had them inside the gates of Griffon House within minutes of completing the official paperwork.