Hatter's Castle

by A. J. Cronin

  The room was empty except for Nancy, who, slowly and tardily clearing the tea-table of its dishes, looked up at his sudden appearance with an expression of surprise, mingled also with an unguarded and engaging familiarity which at once indicated to him that his father was not at hand.

  ‘Where is he, Nancy?’ he exclaimed, immediately. She rattled a dish contemptuously upon the tray as she replied:

  ‘Out for the usual, I suppose. There’s only one thing takes him out at this hour, and that’s to get the black bottle filled up again.’ Then she added slyly: ‘But if you’re wantin’ to see him he’ll be back soon.’

  ‘I’m wantin’ to see him, all right,’ he blustered, looking at her significantly. ‘I’m not feared to meet him. I’ve got news for him that’ll make him sit up and take notice.’

  She glanced at him quickly, noting now his slightly hurried breathing, the glitter in his eye, the general concealed importance of his bearing.

  ‘Have ye news, then, Matt?’ she said slowly.

  ‘I should think I have!’ he declared. ‘The best that I’ve had for nine months. I’m just this minute off the train. I’ve only had word o’ the thing an hour ago, and I couldna get back quick enough to tell it – to fling it in that auld devil’s face.’

  She left the dishes entirely and advanced deliberately towards him, saying ingratiatingly:

  ‘Was it only your father ye wanted to tell, Matt? Am I not to know first? I’m gey interested to hear.’

  A broad smile spread over his features.

  ‘Of course you’re to know! Ye ought to understand that by this time.’

  ‘What is it then, Matt?’ she whispered.

  As he saw her eagerness, he swelled the more, and, determining to edge her curiosity, he suppressed his own excitement, moved to his favourite spot by the dresser, and reclining in his particular manner, surveyed her with a boasting eye.

  ‘Come, come now. Can ye not guess? Surely a clever wee body like yourself can guess? You haven’t got that trig head on your shoulders for nothing.’

  She knew positively now what the purport of his tidings must be, but, seeing that he was pleased to exhibit his air of consequence, it suited her to pretend ignorance, and with a charming assumption of simplicity, she shook her head and replied:

  ‘No, Matt! I can hardly think. I’m almost afraid to say. Would it be about your father?’

  He wagged his head from side to side portentously.

  ‘No! Not this time, Nancy, dear. Leave him out of the question. It’s about another man altogether. Somebody younger, that can take a glass without soakin’ in it, that can take a lass out to a concert and let her enjoy herself. Think on somebody that’s fond of you.’

  ‘It’s yourself, Matt! Oh!’ she gasped widening her eyes, ‘ye don’t mean to say ye’ve got that post.’

  ‘Did I say I hadn’t got it?’ he leered at her.

  ‘Have ye, though? Tell us quick, Matt. I’m that excited about I can hardly stand still!’

  ‘Yes!’ he cried, unable to restrain himself longer. ‘I have got it. The job’s signed, sealed, and delivered into my hands. It’s me for South America – passage paid – free livin’ – and plenty of money in my pocket. To hell with this rotten town, and this blasted house and the drunken, auld bully that owns it. It’ll be something for him to smoke in his pipe when he hears.’

  ‘He’ll be pleased enough, Matt,’ she replied, again advancing to him as he leaned against the dresser.

  ‘Ay, glad to be rid of me, I suppose,’ he answered sulkily. ‘But I’m glad enough to go. And I’ll be even with him yet. He’ll maybe get something he doesn’t like before long.’

  ‘Never mind about him. He’s just an auld fool. I’m as sick o’ him as you are. I canna think what I ever saw in him.’ She paused, then added ingenuously, pathetically; ‘I’m real pleased too, that ye’ve got the job, Matt, although – although –’

  ‘Although what,’ he replied largely, looking down at her soft, appealing eyes. ‘ Surely I’ve waited long enough for it.’

  ‘Ay – it was just nothing,’ she answered with a sigh, stroking his hand absently, almost unconsciously, with her soft finger tip. ‘If s a wonderful opportunity for ye. It must be grand for you to gang abroad like that. I can see the big boat drivin’ through the blue sea, wi’ the sun on it. I can just fancy the lovely place that you’re goin’ to – Rio – what was it ye called it again?’

  ‘Rio de Janeiro,’ he replied grandly. ‘I’ll only be a couple of miles out of it. It’s a wonderful city and a beautiful climate. There’s a chance for a man out there, a hundred times better than in India.’

  ‘I’m sure ye’ll do well,’ she murmured, now holding his hand entirely in her soft clasp. ‘But I’ll be that lonely without ye. I don’t know whatever I’ll do. It’s hard for a young lass like me to be tied up here!’

  He gazed at her as though his suppressed feeling had not entirely left him, as though, escaping only in part, it had left still an effervescence behind.

  ‘You’re not wantin’ me to go,’ he remarked slyly. ‘I can see that!’

  ‘Of course I am, you wicked man! I wouldn’t for the world stop you. It’s a grand chance.’ She gave his hand an admonitory squeeze, and added: ‘And you said it was such good money too?’

  ‘Yes! it’s a handsome salary,’ he assented impressively, ‘and they’ve flung in a bungalow with it as well. I couldn’t wish for more. My experience out East has done me a good turn after all.’

  She was silent, gazing with an appealing candour at his face, but seeing instead, a strange mysterious city, shadowed by exotic trees, with cafés in its streets, a band in the square, with herself there smiling, dashing along gaily in a carriage, veiled in a lace mantilla, drinking red wine, happy, free. Her thoughts were so poignant, so touching, that without difficulty she pressed a tear from her swimming eyes and allowed it to steal slowly, entrancingly down the smooth curve of her cheek as, with a gentle movement, she leaned against him and whispered:

  ‘Oh! Matt, dear, it’ll be hard to do without ye! You’re going to leave me just when I’m beginnin’ to –’

  A strange exultation possessed him as she pressed against him and, seizing her downcast face between his palms, he made her look at him.

  ‘Don’t say you’re beginning – say you do love me.’

  She did not speak but, more potently than any words, veiled her soft eyes as though she feared to let him see the intensity of her passion for him.

  ‘Ye do!’ he cried. ‘ I can see that ye do!’ His lips twitched, his nostrils dilated as a fierce delight filled him, not from the touch of her form alone, but from the understanding that he had ousted his father, that fate had delivered into his hands a powerful weapon of revenge.

  ‘I know I’m a bad girl, Matt,’ she whispered, ‘but I mean to do well. I’m goin’ to leave him. I went to the front room myself all last night. That – that’s finished. I would never look at another man unless I married him, and then I would stick to my man through thick and thin.’

  He continued to look at her fixedly, whilst she continued, with great feeling:

  ‘I think I could make a man happy if I tried. There’s wee things about me that he might like one way and another. I would do my best to give him a’ that he wanted!’ She sighed and drooped her head against his shoulder.

  His thoughts twisted incoherently amongst the conflict of his emotions, but through the warm mists in his brain he saw that this was doubly desirous to him – not only to strike his father, but additionally, for his own gratification. Nancy was a woman in a thousand, lovely, entrancing, ardent, not with the strong and clumsy vehemence of Agnes Moir but with a subtler, a more delicate and alluring flame which pervaded her pale white body like an essence and drew him towards its clear heat. Her beauty, too, surpassed by far the merely tolerable comeliness of the unfortunate Agnes; her figure was, not sturdy, but elegant; no umber shadow menaced the exquisite curve of her soft upper lip; not only
was she beautiful, but she was, he was convinced, enamoured of him to the point of passionately abandoning his father because of her feeling for him. Filled by these thoughts he was confirmed in his resolution and, in a choked voice, he exclaimed:

  ‘Nancy! There’s something I’ve got to tell you – something else that you don’t know. Something that might interest you. Would you like to hear it?’

  She looked at him languishingly, throwing her head back so that the inclination of her poise invited his embrace, and was about to murmur ‘Yes,’ when suddenly the front door of the house clicked open and was heavily shut, and the sound of footsteps was heard along the hall. Like a flash Nancy recovered herself from the apparent profundity of her feeling and, pushing Matt to the fireplace she cried, in a sharp whisper:

  ‘Bide there, and don’t let on. He’ll never know,’ then in the same instant her hands had flown to her hair and, moving as lightly as quick fluttering birds, had adjusted, patted smooth such small disorder as might have existed. She was back at the table immediately, clattering the dishes, when Brodie entered the room.

  For a moment Brodie paused in the doorway, an unwrapped bottle swinging in his hand, surveying first his son, whom he so rarely saw, with a black lowering disgust, allowing his glance to travel questioningly to Nancy, then returning it restlessly to the uneasy figure by the fireplace. His dull understanding appreciated nothing of the undercurrent of the events he had disturbed, but his moody eye perceived the faint flush upon Matt’s sallow cheek, the downcast look, the nervous agitation of his attitude, and instinctively his memory rushed back to that scene in the house in the Vennel, when he had surprised his son with Nancy struggling in his arms. He knew nothing, suspected nothing, but he was none the less tormented by this vision of his memory, felt instinctively that some secret activity had been in process at his entry; his glance became black and darting, impaling Matt, who moved more uneasily, and hung his head with greater embarrassment, the longer that silent stare continued.

  Nancy, at the table, her inveterate hardihood rendering her composed, perfect mistress of her features, inwardly furious at the flustered ineptitude of the hero to whom she had so passionately avowed her devotion, attempted to rescue him by remarking, tartly, to the elder man:

  ‘What are ye standin’ there for, Brodie – like a big bear? Come in and sit down, and don’t swing that bottle as though ye wanted to brain us. Ye look downright uncanny. Come awa’ in.’ But Brodie did not seem to hear her, and, allowing her remark to pass unheeded, still continued to view his son from the vantage point of the door, still swinging the bottle like a club, until at length he spoke, saying with a snarl:

  ‘What’s the honour o’ this visit due to? We’re not usually so fortunate when we come in at this time – no! your home’s not good enough for you in the evenings now. You’re one o’ these late birds we never seem to see at all.’

  Matt opened his dry lips to speak, but before he could reply Brodie continued, fiercely:

  ‘Have ye been sayin’ anything to Nancy here that ye might like to repeat to me? – If ye have I’m listenin’ and waitin’.’

  Here Nancy broke in, flinging her hands upon her hips, squaring her neat shoulders, and tossing her head indignantly.

  ‘Are ye mad, Brodie, that ye go on like that? What are ye talkin’ about at all, at all? If you’re goin’ to rave in that fashion I’ll be muckle obliged if ye’ll kindly keep my name out o’ it.’

  He turned slowly and surveyed her. His drawn brows relaxed.

  ‘I know, woman! I know it’s all right! I would never doubt ye and I know he’s too feared of me to dare it, but somehow the sight o’ the glaikit, fushionless loon aye embitters me. He looks as if butter wouldna melt in his mouth and yet I can never forget that he tried to shoot me.’ He swung round again to Matt who had paled at these last words and exclaimed, bitterly: ‘I should have given ye over to the police for that – you that tried to shoot your father. Ye got off too easy that night. But I’m no’ so good humoured as I used to be, so don’t try any more tricks on me or by God! I’ll lay your skull open wi’ this very bottle. Now will ye tell me what you’re doin’ here.’

  ‘He was tellin’ me about some job or other,’ cried Nancy shrilly, ‘but I didna ken what it was a’ about.’ Would he never speak? she thought, the stupid fool that was standing there as white and flabby as a soft lump of putty, giving the whole affair away by his lack of gumption.

  ‘What job?’ said Brodie. ‘Speak for yourself, sir!’

  At last Matthew found his tongue, he who on the homeward journey had visualised his superior attitude during the interview and traced the manner in which he would gradually lead up to it, who had just told Nancy how he would throw his new position in this old devil’s teeth.

  ‘I’ve got a position in America, father,’ he stammered. Brodie’s face did not change but after a pause he sneered:

  ‘So you’re goin’ to do some work at last. Weel! weel! Wonders will never cease. The heir to the house o’ Brodie is goin’ to work? It’s a good thing too, for though ye’ve kept out of my way right well, now that I’ve seen ye again I feel I would soon have flung ye out.’ He paused. ‘What is this grand position? Tell us all about the marvels of it.’

  ‘It’s just my own work,’ stammered Matt, ‘storekeeping. I’ve had my name down for months with two or three firms, but it’s not often a chance like this crops up.’

  ‘And how did a thing like you get hold o’ the chance? Was it a blind man that engaged ye?’

  ‘It was an emergency,’ replied Matt apologetically. ‘The man that had the job died suddenly. He was flung off his horse and they wanted somebody in a hurry. I’ll have to leave at once – within a week – to fill the place as soon as ever I can. Maybe ye’ve heard o’ the firm. They’re –’ Here a cup fell clattering from the tray, and smashed with a sudden, ringing cadence upon the floor.

  ‘Guidsakes,’ cried Nancy in a great commotion, ‘that’s what comes o’ standin’ haverin’ like auld wives. It’s always the way if ye take your mind off what you’re doin’ – you’re sure to go and break something or other.’ She bent down to pick up the fragments and as she stooped she flashed a glance at Matthew, quick, covert, but full of suppressed and significant warning. ‘I’m sorry if I interrupted you,’ she murmured:

  ‘They’re – they’re in the wool business. It’s to do with sheep.’

  ‘By God! they’ve got the right man,’ cried his father, ‘for a bigger sheep than yoursel’ never went bleatin’ about this earth. Take care they don’t crop ye, by mistake, at the shearin’ time. Look up, ye saft sheep! Can ye not hold your head up like a man and look at me? A’ this flash and dash that’s come on ye since ye went to India doesna deceive me. I thought it might make a man o’ ye to go out there, but I see through the rotten gloss that it’s gie’n ye, and you’re but the same great, blubberin’ sapsy that used to greet and run to your mother whenever I put my een on ye.’

  He stood looking at his son, filled by a profound and final repugnance which sickened him even of the thought of baiting Matt, who, he considered disgustedly, was not worth even the lash of his tongue. Thank God he was going away, to quit his home, to abandon this sneaking, sponging existence, to be irrevocably out of his sight, out of the country, forgotten.

  Suddenly he felt tired, realised dimly that he was not the man he had been and, with a quick rushing desire for the nepenthe of forgetfulness, he wanted to be alone with Nancy, wanted to drink. To his son he said, slowly:

  ‘You and me are finished, Matt. When ye’ve gone ye’ll never come back into this house. I never want to see ye again,’ then, turning to Nancy, and regarding her with a fond and altered glance he added:

  ‘Bring me a glass, Nancy. He doesna deserve it, but I’m goin’ to give him a toast.’ As she silently departed to obey he followed her with the same glance, feeling that she was warming to him again, that with his son out of the house, they would be more private, more unrestrainedly toge
ther than before. ‘Thank ye, Nancy,’ he said mildly, as she returned and handed him the glass. ‘Ye’re an obleegin’ lass. I don’t know how I ever got on without ye.’ Then he continued, reassuringly: ‘I’m not goin’ to take ower much to-night. No! no! This bottle will do me for a week. I know fine ye don’t like me to take too much and I’m not goin’ to do it. But we must pledge this big maunderin’ sheep before he goes out to join the flock. Will ye have just a wee taste yer’sel’, Nancy? It’ll do ye no harm. Come along now,’ he added with a clumsy ingratiating manner, waving his arm at her, ‘away and get yourself a glass – and I’ll give ye just enough to warm ye.’

  She shook her head, still without speaking, her eyes half-veiled, her lips smoothly parted, her expression neither hostile nor friendly but shaded by a vague reticence which gave to her an air of enigmatic subtlety that encouraged him, drew him towards her by its very mystery. Actually, behind the mask of her face lay a bitter contempt of him, activated the more fiercely as she saw that in choosing thus to humiliate Matt before her he was intimidating his son, making it more difficult for her to achieve the purpose she had set herself.