‘What about the children?’ she asked. ‘We’ve never left them before, not overnight. It’s Mark I’m most worried about. I wouldn’t want him to fret.’
‘They’ve all been happy enough today, haven’t they?’ Simon reminded her. Their friends had rallied round to help Fiona and promised that they would continue to do so until she was able to get some more permanent help. ‘They know Norma and Joan very well, and you have a lot of friends amongst the Young Wives group. I’m sure we could arrange for someone to stay here with them for a night or two. I don’t mean that we should be away over the weekend. Maybe a few days in the middle of the week?’
‘It’s winter, though,’ said Fiona, although the idea was beginning to sound very tempting. ‘Most places will be closed down, and it’s bound to be cold.’
Simon laughed. ‘So when have we been bothered about the cold? We’re used to it, living in Yorkshire. And there will be several hotels still open in Scarborough. How do you fancy that?’
‘Scarborough,’ she repeated, her eyes lighting up at the thought of the popular seaside resort. It was a place they both loved very much. They had spent their honeymoon there, and they had so many happy memories. ‘Yes … yes, Simon,’ she answered. ‘That’s a wonderful idea! Oh, thank you, darling! You’re right. It’s just what we both need.’
Fourteen
‘Phone call for you, Debbie,’ shouted Rhoda Perkins, knocking at the door of the girls’ flat one evening in early December.
The telephone was in the house where Rhoda and Alf lived but the lodgers in the house next door were allowed to make personal calls there and receive calls as well. Rhoda didn’t seem to mind acting as messenger. The girls had guessed that she liked to know what was going on – in fact she was nosy, but in a nice sort of way – and she often recognized the voice of the person who was on the phone.
‘I think it might be that friend of yours, the one that’s married to that nice vicar up in the Dales,’ she said as Debbie opened the door.
‘Oh, thank you, Rhoda,’ said Debbie, smiling to herself. She recalled how Rhoda had taken a fancy to Simon when he had brought her to Leeds that first day. He hadn’t been wearing his clerical collar then, and Rhoda had been astounded to hear, later, that he was a clergyman. She did not know, however, about Debbie’s kinship with Fiona and Simon, as did the girls in the flat. She still thought that they were close family friends, and Debbie had decided that it was better to keep it that way.
She followed Rhoda into the hallway of the house next door and picked up the phone. ‘Hello, Fiona,’ she began. ‘So … how are things with you?’
‘Much better,’ answered Fiona. ‘It’s ages since I felt as well as I do now.’
Debbie could tell from the tone of her voice that Fiona was, indeed, much happier. ‘You sound fine,’ she said. ‘Positively bubbling over. I take it that things have improved, with regard to—’ She didn’t even get out the name Glenda, before Fiona interrupted her.
‘Yes … she’s gone! Glenda’s gone,’ she replied. ‘And jolly good riddance to bad rubbish, as we used to say when I was at school. I know that’s not the sort of thing that a clergy wife should say but … oh, Debbie! You can’t imagine how relieved I am. And Simon and I … we’re alright again. Just as we were before; well … nearly.’
‘That’s wonderful,’ said Debbie. ‘So … what happened?’ She was agog with curiosity.
‘It’s a long story,’ said Fiona. ‘I’ll tell you more when I see you. But, in a nutshell, certain folk in the church had a word with Glenda and told her they didn’t like the way she was behaving with Simon. As a matter of fact, it was my old adversary, Ethel Bayliss.’
Debbie laughed. ‘Well, fancy that! Good old Ethel! I bet she didn’t half tell her where to get off! And it did the trick, did it?’
‘There was a bit more to it than that. Gilbert and Norma spoke to her as well. And then Gilbert and Arthur – that’s Ethel’s husband – came to talk to Simon. It was quite a carry-on, I can tell you! Anyway, the long and the short of it is that Glenda realized she wasn’t getting anywhere with Simon, and she decided to leave as discreetly as she could. She didn’t say goodbye to anyone; she just went back to Sheffield.’
‘So what you were imagining – between Simon and Glenda – it wasn’t so, was it? I never really thought it could be.’
‘No … I’d let my imagination run away with me. I told Simon what I’d feared, and he reassured me that there was never anything like that. I know now that it was silly of me. But he did admit that he enjoyed talking to her at first – and of course I was being a bit of a misery, wasn’t I? Not that Simon said so, but I know it’s true. Anyway, he realized that she was trying to get too friendly. And Simon being as he is – not wanting to give offence – he didn’t know what to do about it. But it’s all over now, thank God! Simon and I are going away for a few days next week, just the two of us. We’re going to Scarborough.’
‘Oh, that’s nice! A second honeymoon, eh?’ said Debbie, laughing.
‘Well, I’m hoping so,’ said Fiona coyly. Debbie could imagine her cheeks turning pink. ‘We’re going to the same hotel – just a small one – on the north bay, where we went the last time; just Monday to Friday, so that Simon doesn’t miss any services.’
‘What about the children?’ asked Debbie. ‘Have you found a replacement for Glenda?’
‘No, not yet. But my friends at the Young Wives group have been very good. They’ve been taking turns to come and help. And Joan Tweedale has offered to come and stay at the rectory while we’re away. She has the shop to look after, of course, but there’s no shortage of volunteers to help out here. The three little ones seem very happy with the arrangement: all these nice ladies making a fuss of them. And Stella is in her element. As you can imagine, organizing the triplets, and showing the ladies where to find everything. She’s a little treasure, really she is … I’m very blessed, you know, Debbie,’ Fiona added. ‘I’m realizing that all over again.’
Debbie could hear the emotion, a sort of sob in her voice. She felt almost moved to tears herself, knowing that things were working out so well for Fiona after all her anxiety and depression.
‘So you are feeling better in health as well, are you?’ she asked.
‘Tons better! I still get tired, of course – the children are hard work – but I’m not depressed or worried now. And there’s a lady in the congregation who’s granddaughter has done a course in child care, and she’s looking for a job. If she’s suitable she might be able to start with us after Christmas. Till then we’ll manage with all the extra helpers … anyway, that’s quite enough about me. How are things with you, Debbie? You’re still enjoying your course and everything? I’m sure you’ll be glad to go home for Christmas though, won’t you?’
Debbie agreed that she would. It was ages since she had seen her mum and dad. three months … maybe not so long really, but sometimes when she thought about her home in Whitesands Bay – remembering it all with a feeling of nostalgia – it seemed much longer. At other times, though, it seemed that the days flew by: she was enjoying college life so much.
Fiona asked if she had seen anything of Graham. She told her that she had gone round to his flat, not long ago, and he had cooked a meal for her. ‘And he played his French horn for me,’ she told her with a chuckle.
Fiona laughed too. ‘Goodness me! Serenading you, was he? Well, that’s one way of doing your courting, I suppose!’
Debbie hastened to tell her that they were just good friends, and that she was quite content for it to stay that way.
‘Maybe it’s good to start off by being friends,’ said Fiona, ‘rather than falling in love with the wrong person. Graham’s a nice lad, steady and reliable … But you’re young, Debbie. Better to leave your options open; make sure before you commit yourself.’
‘I intend to,’ said Debbie. ‘I’m enjoying myself, as well as concentrating on my course. We have lots of fun together, the four of us in the flat
. It’s amazing how well we get along together. We’re all different, but we just seem to gel, if you know what I mean.’
‘That’s good,’ said Fiona. ‘It takes all sorts to make a world, as they say, and we’ve all got our good points as well as a few bad ones. I’ve learnt that myself, living in such a close community. It’s great when you can learn to live together peaceably.’ She laughed. ‘Listen to me, sermonizing! That’s what comes of being married to a rector.’
They passed on their respective love and good wishes to Simon and the children, and to Debbie’s parents. Debbie promised that she would pay a visit to Aberthwaite after the Christmas break, possibly in January or February if it could be arranged.
Debbie felt happy and relieved at Fiona’s news. She had been worried about her and Simon, but now it seemed that all was well again. She thought about Fiona’s remark that Graham was steady and reliable. So he was; but that was not what she wanted at the moment. She liked him well enough, but he was not … exciting.
She had agreed to go out with him again the following week. There was a new film, a remake of David Copperfield, showing at a cinema in Leeds, and Graham was eager to see it. Debbie was not really into Dickens in a big way – she would have preferred something more light-hearted – but she had said she would go.
Her flatmates would all be out that same evening. Fran would be going out for an evening meal – again – with Alistair. That friendship seemed to be blossoming, although Fran remained tight-lipped about it. Debbie thought about it now a trifle ruefully; she had thought at one time that Alistair was interested in her, not Francesca. Now, Alistair was an exciting young man! She could still see his appeal, although she guessed he might not be entirely trustworthy. But she had lost her chance there …
Lisa and Neil were still inseparable despite the continuing opposition from her parents. Her mother still wrote to her, although she was not happy about the situation; but Lisa’s father was proving intransigent. Neil, most certainly, was steady and reliable. To Debbie’s mind he was rather dull and humourless, but he seemed to be just what Lisa wanted and needed. She was able to awaken in him a spark of animation that made such a difference to his personality. They were so obviously in tune with one another. And from the hints that Lisa had dropped to Debbie, blushing and smiling coyly, it was clear that it was by no means solely a platonic friendship. They were both very young, but Debbie had the feeling that they would make a go of it and stay together, come what may. She only hoped that, in the end, they would have the blessing of both of Lisa’s parents.
And as for Karen, despite her vow that she was finished with men, there was now a new one on the scene.
Ben Robson, the flatmate of Alistair and Neil, with whom Karen had tried, to her embarrassment, to strike up a friendship, had now left the flat in Blenheim Street. He had gone to lodge with a young man he had met when he was out for the evening with a group of friends. The young man in question, whose name was Lionel, was also at the pub with a group of second-year students from the university. It turned out that one of the uni students was acquainted with one of the men at the agricultural college – they had been in the same year at school – and so the two groups had joined forces and ended up having a good time together.
Ben and Lionel soon discovered that they had a great deal in common … So, after a couple of meetings, Lionel asked Ben if he would like to share his flat. His former flatmate had decided his university course was not to his liking and had gone back home to rethink.
Alistair and Neil did not have to search long for a replacement lodger. There was always someone who wanted a change or wanted to make a break from living with parents. Such a one was Adam Fletcher, a student at Stanborough College who had not mixed a great deal with his peer group as he was still living with his parents. He had soon realized that he was missing out on the social side of things. When the other lads – and girls – were going back to their lodgings to cook a meal and to make plans for the evening, Adam was returning to his parental home in York.
It had seemed a good idea at first; it was far cheaper than living in digs, and there was a bus that ran from near his home to the college and back. Most of the students, though, were living with the new friends they had made. Adam, too, had made friends with a few of the men, in particular with Neil O’Brien. They sat together for lectures and found that they liked one another’s company. He envied the freedom that Neil had, sharing a flat and fending for himself. He had a very nice girlfriend, too. (Adam had recently split up with his girlfriend from schooldays.) And so it seemed to be the answer to his problem when Neil told him of the vacancy at the flat and asked if he might be interested. He had agreed at once, and after persuading his parents that it was the best idea, and that he would still come and visit them, he moved in with Neil and Alistair.
Very soon he met the girls from the upstairs flat; Lisa, Debbie, Fran and Karen. He had met Lisa already and he knew the others by sight, in the way that all the students recognized one another. On knowing more about them he decided that Fran was a trifle snooty; Lisa, he knew, was shy, but apparently not so with Neil; Debbie seemed a nice friendly girl; and Karen, he guessed, was the devil-may-care one. She appealed to him at once, though he wasn’t sure why, when they all met together for a welcoming drink in the girls’ flat. He thought she was like a little leprechaun, dressed as she was in an emerald green sweater and tight-fitting black trousers. She had a mop of bright ginger hair, a prettily freckled face and dancing green eyes.
This first encounter had soon led to an evening out for all of them at their usual venue, the Red Lion pub. Lisa and Neil, and Fran and Alistair were couples, but they didn’t isolate themselves. There were times, though, when Adam found himself between Debbie and Karen. He learnt, as he had guessed on first hearing her speak, that Debbie came from ‘way up north’, and when he found out that she had a boyfriend – of sorts, as she put it – who lived and worked in Leeds, he didn’t feel so bad about trying to get to know Karen a little better. Karen had noticed Adam around the college, sometimes with Neil, but she hadn’t spoken to him until he came to join the other lads in the flat. He was a pleasant-looking young man with dark hair that he wore long, but not excessively so, and candid blue eyes that looked straight into your own when he spoke, and lit up with a merry glint when he laughed. That was the first thing she had noticed about him – his eyes. She was determined, though, not to fall beneath their spell, though she had had an idea, right from the start, that he would like to get to know her better.
But Karen was still holding fast to her vow that she was finished with men; well, for the time being at any rate. Her promise to herself was to last less than a month. Her determination to avoid Adam when they all went for an evening out, and to leave the talking to Debbie, did not work out as planned. Debbie moved away to chat to someone she knew at the other side of the room – Karen felt sure she had done it on purpose – leaving the field wide open for Adam.
‘You’re a Yorkshire lass, same as me, aren’t you?’ Adam said to her. ‘Well, I’m not a lass, but you know what I mean. Yorkshire born and bred, eh?’
‘Aye, thass reight, lad!’ she replied, broadening her already distinctive accent. Recently, though, she had been trying to temper the more unrefined sound of her speech. It sounded, even to her own ears, incongruous when compared with Fran’s posh tones, or the more homely and gentle accent of Lisa. Not that she was ashamed of her Yorkshire roots, far from it, but there were times when she thought it was expedient to give a good impression of herself. Likewise, she was trying to curb her tendency to swear. She knew that Lisa found it rather disturbing, and she was very fond and protective of little Lisa, as they all were.
She told Adam that she was from the south of Yorkshire, near Doncaster, and had worked in a garden centre before starting the college course. Adam, like many of the students, had worked in his father’s market garden near York, but wanted to gain more experience before rejoining the family firm, or, alternatively,
starting out on his own.
By the end of the evening she had decided that, yes, she did like him. When he asked if he could see her later in the week she agreed, not too eagerly, but not unwillingly either. She was playing it down with the other girls, who were smiling knowingly. She didn’t like to admit that her pledge to avoid men had been of such short duration. In fact she was hoping, now, that he would ask her out again. And so he did, for the following Saturday; they would choose a film that they would both like to see.
Karen was glad for another reason. The other three girls would be out that night, and she was tired of evenings in on her own with only the telly for company. Fran and Alistair would be going for another sumptuous meal; Lisa and Neil would enjoy their usual bag of chips and one another’s company, no matter what they were doing, and Debbie and Graham were off to the cinema to see David Copperfield.
On the Thursday, however, Lisa started to suffer with a debilitating cold. Her throat was sore, her nose was running continually, and her eyes were red and streaming. She did not go to college, and when she was no better on the Friday the other girls suggested that they should call a doctor in case it was something more serious. Lisa refused, insisting that it was only a cold, though a particularly virulent one. If she rested and dosed herself with Beecham’s powders and hot drinks she would get better.
The girls did not like leaving her on her own in the flat on Saturday night. She was unable to go out with Neil, of course, and she had told him, regretfully, to keep away from her. She did not want him succumbing to the same germ, whatever it was.
She felt miserable and sorry for herself when the others had gone out. She was missing Neil and was tempted to go down and see him – he, too was home alone – but common sense prevailed. It wouldn’t be long before she was well again. What was it they said about a cold? Two days coming, two days there, and two days going; well, something like that. She decided to get undressed early and watch the TV.
Old Friends, New Friends Page 17
