‘Nah. I’m sailing in morning. I’ll get some salt water on it. It’ll be all right,’ he said, and they all trooped out into the garden again and sat on a bench under the kitchen window, to watch Tom set the rest of the fireworks off. Graham sat drinking his beer, watching thoughtfully as Tom gently tapped Catherine wheels to one of the trees and set them alight, to the cheers of his grandchildren.
‘That was the best party ever!’ Simon cried, when the last banger had been let off, and the visitors came in to ring for a taxi.
‘Can we sleep here, with Simon, Auntie Lynn?’ one of his cousins asked.
Lynn saw something approaching horror on Graham’s face. ‘We haven’t enough beds!’ he said.
‘We can sleep on the floor, like when we sleep at Bill’s,’ said the eldest, called after his father and known as ‘young Jim’.
‘That’s in the summer holidays, when it’s warm,’ said Margaret. ‘It’s too cold now, and you’ve got to be up for school in the morning.’
‘So has Simon, and he’s in the same class as me,’ five-year-old Joe frowned.
‘Well, Simon can come and sleep at our house, if he likes,’ said Jim.
‘Save you dropping him off at our house tomorrow morning, Graham,’ Nina said.
Simon seemed all for going, but shrank back, shaking his head when the taxi came, and stood holding Graham’s hand until it disappeared down the lane. Graham laughed, and gave his son’s shoulders an approving squeeze. ‘He knows where his bread’s buttered,’ he said.
Simon looked eagerly up at him. ‘Can we play Snap, Dad?’
‘No, it’s ten o’clock already, and you’ve got to be up for school tomorrow,’ Lynn said, shooing him up the stairs. She wondered whether Graham would have anything to say about her father now that they were alone, but he seemed to have forgotten the episode, and was eager for bed, as amorous as ever she had known him.
Liar and cheat he may have been, but he was a good lover – you couldn’t take that away from him, she thought, as Graham gave her yet another proof of his proficiency between the sheets. Afterwards, she drowsily wondered how Mandy was faring. Her doting husband couldn’t have been good enough in that department to keep her happy, Lynn imagined. Then her mind turned to Alec. She was glad they had never made love. It would only have made the parting harder, and Simon was so happy and settled that in spite of her pangs of regret Lynn knew it was all for the best.
It had been worth the sacrifice. Things were better as they were. Relaxed to the core, she drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 26
Nina dropped her bombshell the following day. ‘I’ve been offered a job. I’ve got no responsibilities of my own, so I’m taking it. I don’t want to leave you in the lurch, so I’m giving you a month to work your notice.’
Lynn looked at her mother goggle-eyed for a moment. ‘Leave me in the lurch! How is it not leaving me in the lurch? How am I going to manage, without working?’
‘You’ve got a husband – let him keep you! He’s kept telling me how much he wants to be a good husband and father these past few months, so I’m giving him his chance. And think about this: if you’re not working he won’t have as much money to splash about on other women, and you’ll have more time and energy to keep tabs on him.’
‘I don’t want to keep tabs on him! If I’d thought he needed tabs keeping on him, I wouldn’t have gone back to him! I’ve only just got my midwifery certificate, and I want to use it. I want to work!’
‘Yes! So do I – I want to work,’ Nina said, and started doing the thing Lynn hated above all – wagging her finger. ‘I’ve helped you get your qualifications, and now it’s my turn. I’m going to get out among other people for a change, instead of being stuck in the house all the time. I don’t hold with mothers working anyway. I never worked when you were little, and now I’ve done my stint at looking after bairns. So clip his wings a bit. Make him face his responsibilities. Other men have to.’
Lynn was aghast. ‘We’ve just taken a massive mortgage on, Mother! How are we going to pay that, if I’m not working?’
Nina looked her determinedly in the eye. ‘Graham’s on a damned good screw, and I know that, because he told me himself. If you can’t manage on that, it’s a bad job for you.’
‘People have got more to keep up these days. We’ve got bigger outgoings. It’s not only the mortgage, the rates are higher, living round there. And we’ve got to run a car . . .’
‘It’s a company car, so they pay most of the upkeep on that.’
‘I don’t see how we can pay for everything!’ Lynn protested. ‘We’ll end up falling into arrears, and then we’ll lose the house.’
‘No, you won’t. His mother and father won’t let you. That shop of theirs is a little gold mine, and I’d be surprised if old Auntie Ivy hadn’t left Connie a bit in her will. They’re not going to stand by and see their spoiled boy lose anything. Anyway, I’m starting work in a month, and that’s flat.’
When Graham got home the glad tidings had the same effect on him as they’d had on Lynn a few hours earlier. He hung his coat slowly on the peg. ‘She picks a good time to tell you that – when we’ve just taken on a massive mortgage!’
‘She reckons we can afford it, on the salary you’re earning. She reckons it’s my responsibility to look after Simon, and it’s your responsibility to maintain us.’
‘She’s out of the ark. Nobody can live a decent life on one salary these days. I’d an idea, though. I’d an idea she was getting fed up of looking after him.’
‘She’s fed up of being stuck in the house, she says, especially since he started school. She’ll look after him until I’ve worked my notice, and then she’s starting work. In a hotel.’
Lynn smelled the steak beginning to burn, and fled towards the kitchen.
Graham followed. ‘Doing what?’ he demanded.
‘Chambermaid,’ Lynn said, rapidly turning the steaks.
‘Chambermaid! Making beds, and cleaning! What’s she want to go cleaning for? What’s your dad say about it?’
‘He’s not too happy. In fact, he’s not happy at all.’
‘Neither am I.’
‘Do you think I am? Just as I’m on a decent salary as well.’
‘And superannuated – and bang goes your car, as well! Giving all that up, just for her to have a bloody cleaning job – it’s crazy!’
‘I know. I offered to give her as much as the job would pay for looking after Simon, but she wouldn’t have it. She says she wants a job outside the house.’
‘Well, if she’s not looking after him any more, he’s coming out of St George’s, I can tell you that. He’s going to school in Cottingham, where he’ll have some nice children for friends instead of a set of cheeky brats.’
Lynn’s eyes narrowed and her mouth set in a tight line at the insult to the youngsters of Hessle Road. ‘Just be careful,’ she warned, grabbing a tea towel to pull hot plates out of the oven. ‘Shout Simon down and get him up to the table, if you want to do something useful.’
Graham was soon back in the kitchen, with a new idea. ‘What’s your Margaret doing? Can’t she look after him?’
‘No. She got a job at Birds Eye as soon as the youngest started school, and the bairns go to Jim’s mother’s until she gets back – unless they’re larking about the streets with all the other cheeky brats round there. I wouldn’t have thought you’d want our Simon mixing with them after school – they’ve even more opportunity for mischief once they’re let loose.’
‘Shows how desperate I am, doesn’t it? No offence to your family, Lynn.’
‘Really? Anyway, we’d better make a list of all our outgoings, and have a look at your payslips after tea, and see how we’re going to manage. At least we won’t be paying as much tax if I’m unemployed.’
‘Unemployed!’ Graham groaned.
She slid fillet steak and mushrooms onto the plates, piled on some chips and handed a plate to Graham.
‘Enjoy it,�
�� she said. ‘It might be beans on toast before long – if not bread and dripping.’
Chapter 27
The debate about which staff midwives were going to cover Christmas, who was going to work on Boxing Day, and who would have the New Year off did not concern Lynn. She would be at home for the whole holiday. That fact only really sank in after her last day at work, when she went to hand in her uniform, feeling as she’d always imagined a fish must feel when the gutting-knife is doing its work. She would have worked a dozen Christmases rather than have to leave, and make it up to Simon in the time left after her shift. After all, when her dad was at sea their Christmases had always been delayed until he got back – that was when they’d had their present opening and Christmas festivities, and it had done them no harm at all.
All that poring over books, all that hard work, not to mention the fact that she loved the job . . . it was enough to make you weep – and how long would it be before she could get back to it, she wondered? Probably not until Simon was old enough to bring himself home from school; unless she could find something that fitted in with school hours. If there was a job like that anywhere, she would find it. Her last couple of pay cheques would take them to mid-January and after that she would do some serious economising. If they were careful, they could just manage on Graham’s salary, and since the time off had been forced on her, she would enjoy Christmas and Boxing Day with a clear conscience, and start a job search as soon as the holiday was over.
‘We’re invited to the firm’s Christmas Eve dinner and dance,’ Graham said. ‘It’s a formal, long-frock do, and it goes on until about two o’clock. You’ll have get something decent to wear, and arrange a babysitter.’
‘I’ll ask your mother,’ Lynn said. ‘My mother’s warned me she won’t be babysitting at Christmas, and Margaret can only have him if he sleeps at her house.’
But Connie’s terms were the same. She would babysit only if Simon slept at their place. These dos go on till all hours, she said, and she was too old to sit up that late.
Lynn hesitated. She’d wanted Simon to wake up in his own home on Christmas morning, to see the stocking hanging at the foot of his own bed. She’d looked forward to being with him at the crack of dawn when he went downstairs, to discover just a few crumbs in place of Father Christmas’s mince pie, his milk drunk, and the reindeer’s carrot gone – all exchanged for the presents he would find under the tree.
Now she had a choice between disappointing Simon and disappointing Graham, and disappointing Graham would have far worse repercussions. Maybe Simon wouldn’t mind waking up at Connie’s too much – there would certainly be plenty of presents for him there. With her happy visions of Christmas morning with her young son vanishing before her eyes, she reluctantly accepted Connie’s offer, and disappointed herself.
She came home a couple of days before Christmas Eve after spending precious pounds on a stunning long red dress. Holding it against herself she gazed at her reflection in the mirror in the hallway, noting the glow it gave to her complexion, and the way it seemed to make her dark eyes brighter. She was just imagining the impact she might make at the dinner-dance when Connie rang. She was sorry, but she couldn’t babysit after all. Gordon was taking her out to some do with other grocers.
Lynn gave the dress a last, lingering look, folded it carefully and put it back in the bag, feeling suddenly gleeful. She might have cut quite a dash at that dinner dance. It would have been nice to meet some of Graham’s colleagues, and there might even have been someone there who could have offered her a job. But now Simon would be where he belonged on Christmas morning, and that was the important thing. She walked with a spring in her step to collect him and catch a bus into town. If they got a move on, they’d get to Hammonds before closing time and get a refund on that frock. There were better things to spend the money on, anyway.
*
How could he avoid going to the company’s Christmas Eve party, Graham demanded, that evening. The company had gone to a lot of trouble and laid a lot of money out for this do, and after all the effort they’d made it would look bad if he didn’t go and socialise. It would look bad as it was with his wife not going – they might think she couldn’t be bothered! He wanted to make a good impression, Graham stressed, and the way he looked at her gave Lynn the feeling that failing to get a babysitter was tantamount to sabotaging his career.
So on Christmas Eve Graham was still out, partying with everybody at Four Winds Pharmaceuticals while Lynn was sitting at home trimming the outer leaves off tomorrow’s Brussels sprouts with only the television and the crackling of the fire for company. When midnight struck she tossed the last trimmed sprout into the pan and stood up to stretch herself, then took them into the kitchen, wondering what she’d missed at the dinner and dance. It would have been nice to go and meet some of the people Graham worked with. It was pretty dreary, sitting alone on Christmas Eve, when everyone else was out enjoying themselves – except most fishermen’s wives, of course. Jim might be at home now, but Margaret had been without her husband Christmas after Christmas in the past. So had her mother, but her mother’s days of sitting in the house with her children were long gone. You could guarantee that Nina would be out with her friends. Lynn suddenly remembered Piers, and the locked door and the toothache. Funny, but they’d never heard any more about the toothache, after that night.
A car pulled up outside. Graham! Lynn dashed to the window and pulled aside the curtain, but it wasn’t Graham. Graham would probably stick the party out to the bitter finish, till dawn, if it went on that long.
She ate most of the mince pie Simon had carefully left for Father Christmas, broke most of the carrot off and put a bite mark on the stub and went to bed. Simon would probably be up at five o’clock wanting to open his presents, and Lynn didn’t intend to miss an instant of that. They were going to have the best Christmas ever.
Chapter 28
True to form, it was still pitch black when Simon padded into the bedroom. Graham was snoring loudly, dead to the world.
She elbowed him in the ribs. ‘Merry Christmas, Graham!’
An excited Simon jumped onto the bed and sat astride him. ‘Wakey, wakey, Dad! He’s been!’ he shouted, pushing one of Graham’s eyelids open with his thumb.
‘Ho ho ho!’ Graham groaned.
‘Come and see the presents!’
With eyes still closed, Graham gave him a half-drunken smile. ‘Bring ’em up here, and open ’em on the bed!’
Simon ran downstairs and brought up as many parcels as he could carry, putting an end to any further rest for either of his parents.
The day passed off as well as Lynn had hoped. Connie and Gordon arrived for Christmas dinner, which was cooked to perfection. In spite of his late night Graham was the spirit of Christmas personified, the incarnation of goodwill, the ideal family man. He dozed off in an armchair after dinner while Lynn and Connie washed up and Gordon kept Simon amused – and quiet – and didn’t wake until after dark, when a car door slammed outside. A minute later the doorbell rang. Nina had arrived, dressed in a new and very trendy trouser suit, the first they’d seen of her in almost two weeks. She radiated happiness, which Lynn couldn’t help feeling was rather bad form after she’d left them in the lurch.
Simon gave her an enthusiastic welcome. ‘Have you got some presents for me, Nanna?’
‘Don’t be so rude, Simon,’ Lynn said.
Nina produced a large bag and held it in the air. ‘Da Daah!’ she exclaimed, and walked into the sitting room, followed eagerly by Simon, who proceeded to tear off the wrapping paper.
Graham gave Nina an impassive stare. ‘How’s the job going?’
‘Great. Tom’s not very happy, though. He’d rather have me sitting at home twiddling my thumbs, but he can’t do anything about it.’
‘He’s back at sea, I suppose,’ Graham said, and Lynn gave him full marks for his forbearance in saying no more about Nina’s job, or what it was costing them.
Nina nod
ded. ‘Jim’s at home, though, for a wonder!’ she said. ‘First time I’ve known it, I think.’
‘Nice for Margaret and the bairns,’ Lynn said.
‘Not to mention Jim,’ Nina laughed.
Lynn’s hopes of a babysitter on New Year’s Eve were soon dashed. Nina was going to some friends to play Canasta directly after her visit to them, and she was going out with them on Boxing Day. They were all going out on New Year’s Eve, as well. In fact they might have a couple of days away and go to a hotel somewhere. She talked at length about the various places under consideration and the merits and demerits of the hotels. Now her children had all flown the nest, she had to make a bit of a life for herself, she said.
The rest of them sat listening – having no option, since it was impossible to get a word in edgeways. At eight o’clock the taxi man drove up and tooted on his horn, seeming impatient to whisk her away to her card party. Nina gave Simon a smacking kiss, said her hurried goodbyes to everybody else and then almost ran out of the house. There was a deathly quiet after she’d gone, until they heard a fire engine scorching along the road, siren blaring.
‘Nina’s tongue’s on fire,’ Graham commented, dryly.
They all burst into laughter. Connie and Gordon had another mince pie and a cup of coffee and left after Simon’s bedtime.
*
At two minutes to midnight on New Year’s Eve, Lynn sat alone downstairs in her living room watching the television, hoping that nobody would ring before Graham did. The second hand crept slowly round until Big Ben struck twelve. She immediately turned the sound off, and listened hard, until the tugs and trawlers in St Andrew’s Fish Dock began blasting their hooters to greet the New Year. The New Year erupted noiselessly on the television with people dancing, laughing, and silently cheering. The phone rang just as a tartan-clad Andy Stewart and his White Heather Club started a soundless ‘Auld Lang Syne’.
Graham! Lynn eagerly lifted the receiver.
The Would-Be Wife Page 15
