by Lilian Peake
‘He’s coming here again?’ she asked, dismayed. ‘Why?’
‘To phone his girlfriend. He says it’s difficult doing it from his digs as the telephone’s in the hall and he’s sure his landlady listens to every word he says. Anyway,’ he challenged, the big brother in him coming out, ‘why shouldn’t he come here? He’s my friend. He can come any time he wants. He comes to see me, not you.’ And with that crushing retort, he left her.
But whether Lester had come to see her or not, she was determined to see him. She was ready for him as soon as he stepped in the door. She confronted him like a demonstrator trying to get the better of a particularly stubborn and brawny policeman. And, she discovered to her cost, with about as much success.
‘Roland tells me,’ she assailed him, ‘that you and your grandfather are intending to build on the Dawes Hall estate, including the woods.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘Well, what of it?’
‘It’s outrageous! How can you even think of tearing down those trees and destroying all that beauty, just to put more money into your pockets? Can’t you build on the fields around the Hall and leave the woods intact?’
He said quietly, ‘It’s not practicable to leave the woods intact. They’re an integral part of the estate. If we left them, they would cut right across the area we’re going to develop. Anyway, with land values as high as they are at present, we couldn’t possibly afford to leave them as they are.’
She tackled him from another more personal angle.
‘When we went for a walk on Sunday why did you tell Roland, but not me? Were you afraid?’
He laughed incredulously. ‘Afraid of you? I didn’t tell you, my dear Elise, because I knew Roland had enough sense to see the matter in a reasonable light. But I knew damned well you’d make a fuss. And I was right, wasn’t I? Witness your performance now.’
Her voice rose sharply in a desperate attempt to make him see reason. ‘You’ll have all the local people against you. You don’t suppose they’ll sit back and watch those woods being destroyed without doing something to stop you, do you?’
‘They can’t stop us. Planning permission has been granted. My grandfather and I own the whole estate. It’s ours to develop as we like.’
“They’ll - they’ll go to law, take out an injunction to stop you.’
‘Oh, will they? It’s not as simple as you think. And anyway, I have my methods for dealing with people like that. And with people like you, who put aesthetics before bread and butter needs, so be warned.’
‘You’re nothing better than a vandal,’ she cried, sensing defeat and falling back on abuse. ‘You’re ruthless, you’re barbaric, you delight in destruction!’
He exchanged a condescending smile with Roland. ‘Now she’s reverting to childhood. She knows she’s lost, so she’s salving her pride by calling me names.’ He shrugged and turned back to her. ‘If it gives you pleasure, go ahead, insult me. It doesn’t worry me.’ He saw the violence in her eyes and the tightly clenched fists and smiled derisively. ‘You’ll be plunging right back into the past in a minute and start hitting out at me as you used to do when I annoyed you as a child.’
She paled at his mockery. ‘If I do, it won’t be my fault. It’ll be yours. You’re driving me to it. You’re so - so sure of yourself, so - so supercilious, so darned arrogant. You’re quite convinced you’re right, aren’t you?’
Roland intervened, knowing his sister’s unpredictable temper and afraid of the consequences if his friend provoked her too far. ‘Next to music, Lester, those woods are her greatest solace.’
But Roland’s intervention seemed only to have made matters worse.
‘Solace?’ Lester asked scathingly. ‘What does she need solace for at her age? Go out and live, girl. Get yourself a man - if you can. Do something to bring yourself to life.’ He studied her with contempt. ‘You know, if anyone had told me seventeen years ago that you’d grow up like this, like a dull, lifeless ice-cold doll - although that word has sensual connotations which couldn’t possibly be applied to you - I’d have laughed in their faces.’
His calculated insults stirred her to an anger she had never felt before against another human being and she knew that if he did not stop provoking her, she would be unable to control it.
“Thanks for those few well-chosen compliments, Lester Kings,’ she choked, ‘spoken as offensively as only you know how. It’s obvious you haven’t changed, even if I have. No wonder I hated your guts all those years ago. I’ve never really forgiven you for the way you used to treat me when I was a child.’ She grew conscious of a pain in the palms of her hands from the pressure of her finger nails. ‘If it’s possible, I hate you even more now than I did then.’ To her annoyance her voice became unsteady. ‘Why did you have to come back? Why didn’t you stay where you were, hundreds of miles away? Why can’t you go back again?’
He pushed his hands into his pockets and smiled at Roland. ‘She says she hates me.’ His eyes swung back to her. ‘All right, Elise, so you hate me. Go and pull another arm off that doll I gave you. It won’t hurt me, and I’m sure it will give you the greatest satisfaction!’
She was thrust into the past again and cried out in anguish at her helplessness in the face of his indifference and self-possession. She felt the fury inside her boiling over and made a wild movement with her hands towards him. He remained cool and unmoved and stood his ground.
Roland flung out his arm to restrain her and she turned and ran wildly up the stairs. As she reached the landing, she heard Lester say, with affected surprise,
‘Good God, I’ve brought her to life!’
She flung herself on the bed in the darkness, seized her pillow, pummelled it, then, sobbing, buried her face in it. By the time she had calmed down, it was late. She reached out and switched on the table lamp. Her father would be expecting his usual cup of tea. She went into the bathroom and splashed her face with cold water. In the bedroom she dusted her face with powder and peered at herself. It was no good, she could do nothing to disguise the desolation in her eyes.
She combed her hair dispiritedly and turned from the dreary image which scowled back at her in the mirror. As she went down the stairs, Lester was in the hall. He was talking on the phone to his fiancée.
‘That’s all very well, darling,’ he was saying, ‘but you could have written a few lines. A postcard would have been better than nothing. What? Yes, all right, I’ll forgive you. But don’t let it happen again.’
Elise reached the foot of the stairs when he spoke again.
‘No, not from my digs, from a friend’s house, Roland Lennan’s. I told you about him. He’s a very old friend of mine. Yes, he’s about my age.’ Elise was creeping past when his hand shot out and grasped her wrist. ‘No, darling, he doesn’t live alone; he lives with his father and sister.’ Elise tried to pull her wrist away, but Lester held on. ‘What’s his sister like?’ He grinned. ‘No, she’s not older than her brother, she’s younger, so that means she’s younger than I am - eight years, in fact.’
Elise tried to free herself again, but was forced by his hold to stand beside him. ‘What’s she like? Er - let me see, she’s standing next to me. In fact, she won’t let me alone.’ His provocative grin drove Elise to make a desperate attempt to free herself, but his hand tightened. ‘She’s - er - fairly tall. No, shorter than I am. Her hair let me see - it’s a light brown. What? Mousey? Yes, that would be a very good description - of the girl as well as her hair.’ He dealt quite easily with the sudden jerk away from him. ‘She’s got blazing eyes,’ his gaze moved down, ‘a bosom heaving with passion - -‘
‘Lester,’ she hissed, ‘let - me - go!’
He ignored her plea. ‘Good legs, and a shape that - well, I’ll leave that to your imagination. In fact, all in all, she’s stunning. Yes, I’m trying to make you jealous. Is she after me?’ He raised his eyes and smiled gloatingly. ‘I’ll say she’s after me. In fact I know for certain that as soon as I come off this phone, she’s
going to throw herself at me.’
Elise lifted up her wrist and his hand came with it. She carried it towards her mouth and opened her teeth to sink them into his flesh. He realised with a shock what she was going to do and sank his nails viciously into her instead. Then with an angry gesture he let her go. He waved her away and turned his back on her.
Provoked beyond words, she went into the kitchen, nursing her bruised wrist. She was making the tea when Lester appeared at the door. He leaned against it and watched her.
‘You nearly did it again, didn’t you?’ he said. ‘You nearly bit me - the other hand this time. You haven’t lost your nasty habits over the years.’
‘What did you expect me to do - put it to my lips and kiss it?’
‘You might have got an unexpected response if you had. More pleasant, I can assure you,’ he drawled, ‘than the one you actually got. Behave like other girls - try it some time, and see what happens.’
She put milk into the cups and poured the tea. ‘Even if I did, it wouldn’t be your hand I’d choose. After the way you were insulting me to your fiancée - -‘
‘Insulting you? You should have been flattered. The way I was promoting your image would have done credit to the country’s top publicity man.’
‘They were all lies, nothing but lies.’ She turned away. ‘You were only saying those things to make her jealous. I suppose you’re afraid that with her up there in Newcastle and you down here in the south, it’s a case of “out of sight, out of mind”.’
He straightened himself slowly and walked across to stand behind her. He put his hands on her waist. ‘Take some advice from an old friend, Elise. One, keep your nose out of what is definitely not your business. Two, don’t let your inadequacy and ineffectiveness with the opposite sex turn you sour. And three,’ he turned her round, ‘take a long hard look at yourself. Believe me, from a man’s point of view, you’ve got what it takes. It’s just your mental attitude that’s all wrong. Do something about that and you could have any man you want.’
She twisted away because she could not bear the touch of his hands. ‘If I wanted a man - which I don’t - I could have one, just like that.’ She snapped her fingers.
‘Ah yes, your boss. Let me see, he’s - how many years older than you - twenty-five? You’d have to be pretty hard up to—’
‘Will you leave me alone?’
He shrugged and went into the sitting-room to join Roland and his father. Elise composed herself with difficulty and followed him with the tray.
‘So it’s true, Lester,’ Mr. Lennan was saying, ‘that rumour about chopping down Dawes Hall woods.’
Roland glanced apprehensively at his sister as she handed him his cup of tea, but Lester did not even raise his eyes. He merely took the cup she offered him and said,
‘Yes, it’s true. It’s a pity, I agree, but - ‘
‘Don’t tell my daughter. She’ll never let you live it down.’
‘Elise will have to learn to accept the idea, like the rest of the community.’ He flicked a glance at her stony face. ‘It’s the price of progress.’
‘Does Phil Pollard know?’ Roland asked Elise.
‘Yes. He told me he’d heard the rumour too.’ Her hostile stare challenged Lester. ‘He said if it was true he was going to think of a way of stopping you.’
‘Let him try. He won’t succeed.’
‘What makes you so sure? When Phil Pollard makes up his mind to do something, he usually succeeds.’
Lester looked amused. ‘Really? In that case, there’s hope for him yet where you’re concerned, isn’t there?’
She managed to contain her annoyance because if she had retaliated as she wanted to do it would have upset her father. Lester seemed to be aware of the struggle she was having with her temper because his look of amusement broadened into a mocking grin.
Roland looked from one to the other and in an attempt to prevent a breach of the peace, he asked, ‘Couldn’t he go to law - take out an injunction to stop you?’
‘Let him try,’ Lester said again. ‘In any case, I’ve got a suspicion that some of those trees are diseased. I’ve inspected the elms closely - you know that in some parts of the country there’s an epidemic of Dutch Elm disease?’ Roland nodded. ‘Well, I suspect the elms in those woods have got it. If they have, then they’ll have to come down in any case, and the sooner the better, before the disease spreads.’ He turned to Elise. ‘Tell that to your wonderful Phil Pollard. He can protest as much as he likes, but if those elms have got the disease, as I suspect, down they’ll come, and fast.’
Harold Lennan looked placatingly at his daughter. ‘So there it is, Elise. Building or no building, your precious woods are doomed. You’ll just have to find somewhere else to walk, won’t you?’ He sighed. ‘I suppose people have to have houses to live in, and we must all make some sacrifices so that they can have them.’
‘I don’t agree,’ Elise answered, ‘there are fields belonging to the estate.’ She looked at Lester. ‘Why can’t you limit your building to them?’
‘I’ve already explained why. The woods cut right across them.’
She collected the empty cups and clattered them together on the tray. ‘I still don’t see why you can’t leave the woods there to - to act as a windbreak or something.’
Lester did not reply. He seemed to be holding on to his patience with difficulty.
She went into the kitchen to wash the crockery and a few minutes later Lester put his head round the door.
‘Goodnight, Elise, my little friend,’ he said. She didn’t answer.
He shrugged, made a wry face at Roland and went home.
Elise told Phil Pollard next morning, ‘It’s true about the woods. Kings are going to cut them down. I had it straight from the “horse’s mouth” - Lester Kings himself.’
‘So they’ve made up their minds, have they?’ Elise had the impression that he was mentally pulling up his sleeves ready for action.
‘Right. We’ll call a public meeting and get some posters put up in strategic positions in the town advertising it. The printer down the road will run a dozen or so off quickly, if I ask him nicely.’
So, while Clare dealt with the customers - trade was never very brisk in the mornings - Elise helped Phil to design a poster.
‘We must hold it soon,’ Phil said. ‘I don’t trust that old rascal Kings not to do something behind our backs. We’ve got to give ourselves time to take whatever action we decide on at the meeting.’
‘It’s not only the old man we’re dealing with,’ Elise pointed out. ‘His grandson’s just as ruthless. He said last night he’s determined to go through with it. He tried to justify his decision by telling us some tale about the trees having a disease and having to come down anyway.’
‘All bluff,’ Phil snorted. ‘Don’t you believe a word of it. But it means we’ve got even less time than I thought. Now,’ he counted on his fingers, ‘let’s say a day to get the posters printed, another day to distribute them - it won’t take long for the grapevine to work…’
‘Let’s say five days from now,’ Elise suggested. ‘That brings us to Saturday afternoon.’ Phil nodded. ‘Where shall we hold it - in the woods?’
‘A good idea. Right on the spot. Then people will get the feel of the place and realise just what it is they’re protesting about.’
Next morning the posters were ready. Phil put one up in the shop and another in the window. Then he drove round the town handing them out to his fellow shopkeepers, keeping one back to display in his window at home and giving one to Elise who promised to do the same.
Roland protested when he saw the poster in the sitting room window. ‘You can’t leave that up, Lester’s a friend of ours.’
‘Yours not mine,’ she corrected.
‘When he comes to the house he’ll see it. What am I to say to him?’
‘Deny all responsibility. Blame it on me. If he tackles me about it, I’ll have my answers ready.’
But Lester did not tackle her about it. In fact they didn’t even meet. Whenever he came to see Roland she raced upstairs and locked herself in her room. She persuaded herself that she was not running away from him - she was doing it for the sake of peace and quiet.
The day of the protest meeting was grey and chill. The skies were heavy and held no promise of clearing before the meeting was due to start. A reasonable amount of interest had been aroused by the notices and whenever a customer asked about the meeting, Phil would spend a lot of time persuading them to add their voices or at least their names to the protest.
‘The bigger the demonstration,’ he said to them, ‘the more Alfred Kings and his grandson will take notice.’
Soon after lunch the rain began, a fine soaking rain that seemed determined to continue until nightfall and beyond. Elise put on her raincoat and tied her plastic hood over her hair. She pulled on her boots and raked around in the cupboard for the family umbrella. Roland met her in the hall.
‘Coming?’ she asked hopefully.
He laughed disparagingly. ‘You’re playing a losing game. Do you think Lester doesn’t know how to deal with this sort of thing? He’s experienced it before. He told me last night he has his methods.’
‘He’d be surprised at the strength of local feeling,’ Elise retorted, irritated by her brother’s casual attitude. ‘If he’s got any sense, he’ll change his mind about cutting down those woods. Alfred Kings’ reputation in these parts isn’t very good as it is, so what it will be like if he goes through with it, I hate to think.’
Roland shrugged. ‘Enjoy yourself. At least it’s roused you from your customary apathy. It’s got you out of your bedroom and away from your precious hi-fi and brought you down to earth.’ He looked at her boots. ‘Literally.’
She snorted. ‘Thanks for your support, brother.’ She opened the front door. ‘If your wonderful friend Lester wasn’t involved, you’d be out there with the rest of us.’
He merely shrugged again and said, ‘Shut that door. The wind’s freezing cold.’
