A Family Affair

by Nancy Carson

  ‘I’ll make that cup of tea now.’

  ‘No, wait…There’s something else…’

  ‘Oh, Lord,’ she replied with a sigh of apprehension. ‘What?’

  He felt between his shins and opened his hold-all. He withdrew the thick envelope and placed it in her lap.

  ‘What’s this?’ she asked with a puzzled frown.

  ‘Your money. Take it back.’

  ‘My money?’ She laughed as if he was perpetrating some outrageous tease. ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘The loan that was made to Ned – how long ago? – seven years? That two hundred pounds.’

  ‘So?’

  ‘Well, I have a secret as well…It was me that loaned the money.’

  ‘You? I don’t believe you.’

  ‘It’s true nevertheless. It was me.’

  ‘What ever possessed you? You must have been mad.’

  He shrugged. ‘I think I was mad. But I also felt guilty. Do you remember those photos of Ned and his Gull that I sold to the Dudley Herald? He believed that the five guineas I got for them should be his to go towards an engine. Do you remember?’

  ‘Yes. Now you mention it.’

  ‘I just felt I had to make amends.’ He shrugged and sighed. ‘In any case, I admired then what Ned was trying to do. I just wanted to help him on his way…’

  She sighed with exasperation. ‘Tom Doubleday, you’re a bigger fool than ever I thought you were. But why are you now trying to hand me more money? …I don’t deserve it. Just because I’m his widow—’

  ‘It’s your money.’

  ‘How can it be?’

  He laughed. ‘Now you’re teasing me. You evidently sent somebody to repay it earlier today.’

  ‘I did no such thing. As a matter of fact, I was going to do it tomorrow. Here…’ She got up and went to the cupboard where she kept her jar. She grabbed it and waved it at him. It was full of money. ‘I’ve been saving for it for years. Then, when Ned’s things came back there was more money in that. Enough, with what I’d saved, to pay off everything.’

  ‘So where did this money come from?’ he asked, mystified, waving the envelope in front of him.

  ‘How should I know?’

  ‘Zillah delivered it to Julian Oakley this morning. At least, the description fits her. He brought it to me straight away. I assumed you’d asked her to deliver it.’

  ‘Zillah? Oh, no,’ she cried animatedly, realising she’d discussed not yet paying the loan with her. ‘Zillah can’t afford it. Oh, I’ll have to go and pay her pack…’

  ‘Then let’s go together,’ he suggested. ‘We could announce to her that we’re getting married.’

  Chapter 32

  Clover collected Posy from the Board School while Tom went to his mother’s house to tell her he would be late collecting Daniel. Then the three of them sat down together for tea, and after six o’ clock they walked to Zillah’s house in High Street, Kates Hill, Posy between them holding the hand of each like the new family they were. It would have been pointless visiting her before then, since she would still be at the Jolly Collier working. When they arrived, they walked up the entry in single file and Clover, who headed the small procession, knocked gently on the back door.

  ‘Hang me!’ Zillah exclaimed when she saw them. ‘Come on in.’

  At once Zillah made a fuss of Posy and held her on her lap while Tom and Clover flashed affectionate glances at each other as they explained everything.

  ‘Well I’m that pleased as you’m a-going to get wed, the pair of yer,’ Zillah proclaimed. ‘It’s a pity you missed one another the fust time round though. So when’s it gunna be?’

  ‘We don’t know yet, do we, Tom? After a suitable period of mourning, though. It’s only fair.’

  ‘So ask her about the money,’ Tom prompted, anxious to get the matter clarified.

  ‘Money?’ Zillah gave Clover a sheepish look.

  ‘Yes, Zillah, what about all that money you paid to cover that loan? It was very kind of you, but we’ve brought it back. You can’t afford it and I won’t let you pay it. I’d saved up enough to pay it off myself and I was about to tomorrow.’

  Tom reached into his hold-all again and pulled out the envelope containing the two hundred pounds. He placed it on the scrubbed wooden table in front of him.

  ‘Well, there’s no sense in denying as I took it,’ Zillah said. ‘But how did you know it was me?’

  ‘Because Tom was the one who originally lent it Ned. When Julian described you—’

  ‘Tom lent it? To Ned? Christ, Tom, you must have more perishing money than sense.’

  Tom distorted his mouth in a look of resignation and nodded. ‘It seems that way.’

  ‘Well, I got news for the pair of yer,’ Zillah said with a gleam in her eye. ‘It wasn’t me as coughed up. I mean, it ain’t my money, so you’d best have it back.’ There was a look of self-satisfaction on her big, round face.

  ‘So who did pay it then, if it wasn’t you?’

  ‘Who d’you think? It was your mother. It was Mary Ann.’

  ‘My mother?’ Clover glanced at Tom incredulous. ‘She’d never do that, Zillah. I’m not in her good books.’

  ‘Clover, as sure as I’m sitting here, your mother gi’d me that money to tek to pay off that loan. I happened to mention to her the other day about it, when I told her as Ned had got killed over France. I told her as I was worried about yer, as how I didn’t know how on earth you was a-going to manage, specially as that loan hadn’t bin paid.’

  ‘But my mother?’ Clover said again.

  ‘Yes, and she can afford it these days. But if you’ll tek my advice, the pair of you, you’ll go and see her. Go and mek your peace with her, Clover. I know Mary Ann as well as I know meself, and her’s a-mythering to see you and to meet her granddaughter. Why else do you think her did it?’

  Clover and Tom exchanged glances again, seeking consensus.

  ‘I think you should,’ he said. ‘It was a grand gesture.’

  ‘Be ruled by me, Clover – go and mek your peace. And don’t forget to tell her that you and young Tom here am gunna be wed.’

  ‘But what about Jake?’ Clover asked warily. ‘What’s he likely to say?’

  ‘Jake’s a reasonable bloke, Clover,’ Zillah said. ‘As you know well enough. Just tell him the truth. He understands the ways of the world. If there’s one bloke on God’s earth as will be pleased about you and Tom, it’s Jake Tandy. He might even get to see his grandson a bit more often when you’m wed.’

  ‘Come with me then, Tom.’

  ‘’Course I will.’ He stood up at once. ‘Let’s go now. I can pay your mother her money back.’

  ‘Zillah, you’re a treasure, and I love you.’ Clover said, as she stood up and kissed the old lady. ‘Come on, Posy. Leave Aunty Zillah alone now and we’ll take you to meet you Grandma Tandy. She’ll let you have some ginger beer, I bet.’

  During the short walk to the Jolly Collier Tom and Clover speculated on the sort of reception they were likely to encounter while Posy speculated on what her unknown grandmother might look like.

  ‘Is she big and fat, like Grandma Florrie and Auntie Zillah?’ she asked.

  ‘Not the last time I saw her,’ Clover replied. ‘She’s quite slender for her age…But then, she wears a corset,’ she added mischievously.

  ‘So does Grandma Florrie, but she’s fat,’ Posy reasoned.

  They reached the Jolly Collier in George Street. Clover held Posy’s hand as she and Tom looked at each other, summoning the courage to enter.

  ‘The taproom?’ he queried.

  She shook her head. ‘The scullery. She’ll be in there clearing up after tea. Jake will be in the taproom. I’d like to see Mother on her own first – without Jake, I mean.’

  He nodded his understanding and they walked along the passage, Clover first. The place looked eminently more spruce than last time she saw it. Everything had been repainted, was clean and bright and welcoming. But t
he familiar smell of beer and tobacco smoke remained, evoking a thousand memories and as many doubts. They walked past the closed doors of the taproom and the snug, and carried straight on down the passage, conscious of their footfalls on the newly re-laid quarry-tiled floor. The door to the scullery was ajar and Clover caught sight of Mary Ann working at the sink, her back towards her. Clover gently pushed open the door, her heart beating fast.

  ‘Mother…’

  Mary Ann looked over her shoulder, then seemed to reel, putting her hands to her breast as she realised it was her long-gone daughter. She snatched up a cloth, quickly dried her hands and seemed to leap towards Clover. She flung her arms around Clover’s shoulders and drew her close.

  ‘Clover…Oh, my babby…’ She held her daughter tight, uttering a string of impassioned words that were largely unintelligible in the sudden upsurge of emotion. ‘Oh, I’ve missed you, our Clover. God knows how I’ve missed you…Why as you never come a-nigh? Why did you leave me to myther, to grieve? I’ve worried meself sick…’

  ‘Oh, Mother…’ As she screwed up her eyes in this moving embrace there was a lump in her throat and she tried to force back tears that would not be stemmed. The two women, mother and daughter, unexpectedly but magically no longer estranged, held each other tight for some time, trying to compensate for all the empty years they had not set eyes on each other, those long, long years when scorn, defiance and a lack of compassion had conspired to keep them apart. Now all those negative forces seemed distant and irrelevant.

  ‘I’ve brought somebody to see you,’ Clover said, smiling through her tears. She stood aside so Mary Ann could cast eyes on her granddaughter for the first time.

  Mary Ann sighed profoundly. ‘This is Josephine?’ She held out her arms as she swept towards her, then scooped the child up and hugged her tight.

  ‘We call her Posy,’ Clover said, wiping her tears but laughing now.

  ‘Posy?…Let me have a good look at you, my little flower.’ Mary Ann scrutinised Posy’s face. ‘I thought the day would never come when I would cast my eyes on you, you little angel…Well, you’m like your mommy and no two ways wi’ your dark hair and your big blue eyes.’ She wiped away more tears and smiled with infinite pleasure at the child. ‘I daresay you’ll break a few more hearts as well when you get older.’

  ‘Do you wear a corset?’

  ‘I do, young lady,’ she answered straight-faced and looked at Clover suspiciously. Clover cringed but saw the expression in Mary Ann’s eyes, saw that she was not offended, merely amused. This was indeed a changed Mary Ann. ‘And when you grow up you’ll wear a corset as well, if you’ve got any sense. Don’t listen to what your mother tells you about corsets.’

  ‘Tom’s here as well,’ Clover said, interrupting Mary Ann’s heartfelt advice.

  Mary Ann clung to Posy proprietorially. ‘Tom…By God, I reckon I ought to be surprised at seeing you…But after hearing about our Clover’s husband being killed praps I shouldn’t be. I know what you two meant to each other. Does this mean you’m about to sort yourselves out at last? It’s about time…’

  ‘We’re about to sort ourselves out, Mrs Tandy,’ Tom affirmed. ‘But we’d like your blessing – and Mr Tandy’s.’

  ‘Specially Mr Tandy’s, eh? Since you was married to Ramona before and you’m the father of her child? Well, you’ll be able to ask him for it soon enough and I daresay he’ll be happy enough to give it. But sit yourselves down. Let me put the kettle on…No, no, let’s have summat stronger. This is a time to celebrate. And we’ve got a lot to talk about.’

  Clover smiled and sat down. ‘So where shall we begin?’

  ‘Oh, we’ll find a beginning somewhere. We’ve already got a happy ending by the looks of it.’ She gave the child another squeeze. ‘I’m that glad to see you at last, my little flower, you’m beautiful and I’m gunna spoil you rotten…’ She turned to Clover. ‘We’ve got a woman comes to work in the taproom nights nowadays. Her husband’s away in France, fighting. Her’ll be here in a minute or two. Then, Clover, you can go and ask Jacob to come in here.’

  ‘Well before I do,’ Clover said, and glanced at Tom. ‘That money you sent to pay Ned’s loan off…’

  ‘What about it?’

  ‘It was very kind of you, Mother, but I’d already saved enough money myself. I was actually going to deliver it tomorrow. Tom’s got it in his bag to give you back. It was Tom that lent it in the first place, you see.’

  ‘It’s true, Mrs Tandy,’ Tom admitted. ‘And my conscience won’t allow me to accept your money in payment, generous as it is.’

  ‘You’m intending to get married, ain’t yer?’ Mary Ann asked, unfazed.

  ‘That’s the general idea,’ Tom replied.

  ‘Then consider it me wedding present. I won’t take it back. It’s enough to buy a decent house and no mistake. Better than renting, I can tell yer. Tek a tip from me and buy yourselves a nice house…Our Posy, I’ll have to put you down. You’m a weight on me poor arms. Here, I’ll sit down and you can sit on me lap, eh?’

  ‘That’s more than generous, Mother,’ Clover said. She bent over and gave Mary Ann a kiss on the cheek. ‘Thank you.’

  As Tom echoed the sentiment, Jake appeared at the door and there was a broad grin trying to escape from under his massive moustache. ‘Charlie Harris just told me as he’d seen you three come in. Lil’s here now so I thought I’d come and pay me respects. By God, it’s bin a long time, Clover, but it’s nice to see you again. And Tom…’ They shook hands. ‘How’s me grandson since last I saw him?’

  ‘Oh, he’s well, Jake.’

  ‘Good, I’m glad.’ He looked from one to the other and spoke to Posy, ruffling her hair gently as she sat contentedly on her new grandmother’s lap, enjoying the attention. ‘And you’m a pretty little thing? You must be Josephine, eh?’

  ‘Posy,’ Mary Ann enlightened him.

  ‘Posy, eh? Well, God bless you, Posy…It’s good to see all three of you. So is anybody gunna to tell me what this is all about, or can I guess?’

  Tom felt it his duty to explain and did so, fully. ‘But what I want you to understand, Jake, is that Posy is actually my own flesh and blood. She’s my daughter, Jake, not Ned’s at all, contrary to what you’ve believed all this time. I didn’t know myself till today. I did right by Ramona, Jake, as you know. But Ramona’s gone – and so has Ned. Now I want to do right by Clover. So, as soon as we can, we want to get wed…Jake, it’d mean a lot to both of us if we could have your blessing.’

  ‘Have me blessing?’ Jake queried. ‘’Course you can have me blessing. I ain’t daft. I could always see how it was with you two. Good lad! I’m pleased for yer. There’s no fun being a widower, and I should know.’ They shook hands again. ‘I’m pleased for all three of you – all four, ’cause you can’t not count Daniel, can you? Hey, the sadness and the heartache is in the past, Tom. Get wed, the pair of yer, and enjoy the rest of your lives together.’

  ‘We should celebrate this, Jacob, with summat decent to drink,’ Mary Ann chipped in with an enthusiasm the like of which Clover had never witnessed. ‘Have we got summat special in the cellar as we can open?’

  ‘I do believe we have,’ Jake said brightly. ‘There’s a crate of champagne left over from Coronation Day. I’ll fetch two or three bottles, eh? And don’t forget as Elijah and Dorcas am a-coming tonight as well.’ He took the fob watch out of his waistcoat pocket and checked the time. ‘Why, they’ll be here any minute, I bet. Looks like we’m in for a proper family get together tonight, eh? And about time.’

  As Jake left them to fetch the bottles from the cellar, Clover said: ‘Elijah and Dorcas…I haven’t seen them for years. How are they?’

  ‘Oh, they seem all right,’ Mary Ann replied. ‘Elijah’s working hard in the business. The brewery’s thriving and he keeps trying special brews.’

  ‘And Dorcas?’

  ‘Helping her father run his firm. He’s bin ever so poorly and Dorcas started to help him out. Now I th
ink she runs the show.’

  ‘No children then yet?’

  ‘I reckon they’ve bin too busy to think about kids, Clover.’

  ‘Fancy,’ Clover said, pondering. ‘I take it their marriage is a success?’

  ‘They seem happy enough,’ Mary Ann responded. ‘I take it yours wasn’t?’

  Clover glanced at Tom, then at Posy sitting with her head resting on Mary Ann’s shoulder as she quietly watched her grandmother talking. ‘Hardly. It was doomed from the start. I think it was only Ned who never realised it.’

  ‘Well, the truth’s out now, that’s all that matters. Posy’ll soon get used to Tom, I daresay.’ She turned to her granddaughter. ‘Tom’s going to be your new daddy. You’ll like that won’t you?’

  Posy nodded and smiled coyly. ‘Does that mean Daniel will be my brother?’

  ‘Stepbrother. You’ll be his stepsister.’

  Posy smiled cheerfully. ‘Can I have some ginger beer, please?’

  ‘’Course you can, my flower, when Granddad Jacob comes back from the cellar.

  ‘What d’you think is a decent gap after Ned’s death for us to get married, Mother?’ Clover asked.

  ‘That’s up to you, our Clover. Normally folk would reckon on two years—’

  ‘Two years?’ she said incredulously.

  ‘Maybe in view of the truth of the circumstances, one year.’

  ‘No, we’re not waiting a whole year, Mother. Three months at the outside.’

  ‘Oh? Am yer pregnant again then?’

  ‘No…’ She laughed self-consciously. ‘’Course I’m not pregnant. It’s just that we don’t want to wait more than three months.’

  ‘Well, suit yourselves. It’s nobody’s business but your own.’

  Jake returned carrying three bottles of champagne. He set them on the table and set about opening the first. ‘I tek it as you’ll have a bit of a do here on your wedding day?’

  ‘Oh, I should think so, if that’s all right with you,’ Clover said, and Tom nodded his agreement.

  They heard footsteps in the passage and everybody fell quiet waiting for the door to open. Elijah walked in, followed by Dorcas. Dorcas had put on weight though her face was just as lovely, while Elijah simply looked older and leaner.