There is a Season

by There is a Season (retail) (epu

  She said so to Josie, who laughed. ‘My Mam is,’ she said frankly. ‘She said she thinks Mary’s been codding your mam about the money she’s got and the cars and everything.’

  ‘You don’t think that, do you?’ Cathy exclaimed.

  ‘No, but I might as well admit, Cathy, I hope she hasn’t stayed the same, while we’ve all got the worse for wear,’ Josie said, laughing, and Cathy laughed with her.

  Later she told her mother what Josie had said, although she said nothing of Mrs Mellor’s words.

  ‘Mary won’t care anyway. She’ll only want to see how you and Dad look, and he looks better, doesn’t he?’

  ‘Yes, Peggy said that,’ Sally agreed. ‘She said his face had filled out. Of course, the summer’s always the best time for him. If only we didn’t have fog. He can stand the cold and the frost.’

  ‘Greg hates fog,’ Cathy said. ‘I don’t mean it makes him ill or he doesn’t like the inconvenience. He just hates it.’

  ‘Perhaps it reminds him of the gas attacks in France?’ Sally suggested.

  ‘Maybe. I don’t remember him being like this about it before the war.’

  It was the sunniest August for many years and Sally and Lawrie spent each Sunday at the allotment, usually joined there by Cathy and Kate and sometimes Mick or Sarah. Greg was always there when they arrived, and Lawrie’s health visibly improved as he pottered about helping Greg or sat in the sunshine with Sally.

  ‘They both look so much better, thank God,’ Cathy said to Greg. ‘Mam doesn’t look so strained and they both have a good colour with the sun.’

  ‘It will be a relief to Sam and Mary to see them looking so well,’ he said. ‘It’s certainly a relief to us, isn’t it?’

  At last the day arrived when Mary and Sam were due. The family were ready from early morning, dressed in their best clothes. Lawrie had obtained a day’s leave of absence from work, and Mick and Kate were on holiday from school, but Greg, Sarah, and John were at work during the day.

  The rest of the family were waiting when a large hired car drew up outside the house and Sam stepped from the driving seat. He wore a pale grey suit with a wide silk tie and a light grey Homburg hat, but he received only a glance from the neighbours peeping from behind their curtains.

  They watched eagerly as Sam walked round the car and handed Mary from it as though she was Royalty. She was a vision of loveliness, wearing a floral chiffon dress and bolero, with white gloves and a small white hat tipped over her right eye, and her red-gold hair curling up around it.

  In her high-heeled white shoes, she came up to Sam’s shoulder, tall though he was. She laid her hand on his arm and began to walk gracefully towards the house. The front door was flung open and Sally and Lawrie appeared. Immediately Mary dropped Sam’s arm and ran forward to fling her arms around both of them. Sam followed, smiling broadly.

  Mary released her parents briefly while Sam greeted them, but when they had all gone down the narrow lobby into the kitchen she hugged them again, all of them laughing and crying at once. Sam had kissed Cathy and lifted Kate to kiss her, then shaken hands with Mick before Mary turned from her parents to greet Cathy.

  As she had expected, all feelings of bitterness towards Mary vanished as soon as she saw her. Cathy hugged and kissed her sister with warm affection.

  ‘I’m sorry about that letter,’ Mary said. ‘I didn’t mean it. I was just so upset.’

  Cathy was aware that her mother’s sharp ear had caught the words and murmured to Mary, ‘I burnt it. Didn’t show it to Mam or anyone.’ She drew Kate forward. ‘John and Sarah are at work, and Greg of course, but this is Kate.’

  ‘Why, you’re a little beauty! Real cute,’ Mary exclaimed. ‘How old are you, Kate?’

  ‘I’m nine,’ Kate said, preening herself.

  ‘And this is Mick,’ Cathy said hastily. ‘Scarface.’

  The scars of Mick’s many mishaps had faded and Mary looked at him admiringly. ‘I wouldn’t have that label, Mick,’ she said in her husky voice, holding his hand and smiling at him. ‘I think you’re real handsome.’

  She’s flirting with Mick, Cathy thought in amazement, but he only said calmly, ‘You’re quite good-looking yourself.’

  They all exploded with laughter but Mick was unabashed. He turned to Sam and asked if he might look at his motor.

  ‘He’s a case,’ Lawrie said as Mick dashed off down the lobby. ‘Life’s never dull with him around.’

  Kate was pouting at being ignored but when they were all settled down, with Mary and Sam sitting on the sofa, Mary drew the little girl down beside her.

  ‘You were just a tiny baby when I last saw you,’ she said. ‘You looked very like your mam then, with your dark hair.’

  ‘Her hair came out after the scarlet fever, and it grew again that colour,’ Cathy said. ‘Not as blonde as Mick but quite fair. I thought I told you in a letter.’

  ‘You probably did, but it doesn’t seem real until you see these things,’ Mary said. She smiled at Kate. ‘It’s certainly very attractive now, the fair curls and the brown eyes.’ She ran her hand over the curls which clustered over Kate’s head. ‘You look just like Shirley Temple.’

  Kate snuggled closer to her, smiling up at her with delight. ‘Mrs Briggs said I’m going to be a beauty like you,’ she announced.

  Cathy and Sally exchanged a wry glance but Mary looked pleased. ‘Who’s Mrs Briggs?’

  ‘A new neighbour. I don’t think she’s ever seen you,’ Sally said.

  ‘She saw Auntie Mary the year I was born, Gran,’ Kate piped up, but Sally turned to Cathy.

  ‘Put the kettle on, please, love.’

  ‘We’ve just had—’ Mary began, but Sam nudged her and she hastily amended it to, ‘We’ve just had a meal but I’m dying for a cup of your tea, Mam. Tea never tastes the same anywhere else.’ Sally looked pleased and followed Cathy into the back kitchen where the best china had been laid out.

  Mary took a wooden stool beside Lawrie’s Windsor armchair so that she could sit beside him and put her arms round his neck and her head on his shoulder.

  ‘I’ve missed you terribly, Dada,’ she whispered. ‘It’s lovely to see you again.’

  Kate moved up beside Sam and he put his arm round her and talked to her, so for a while Mary and Lawrie were in a world apart.

  In the back kitchen Sally said quietly to Cathy, ‘What was Mary saying about a letter and being upset?’

  ‘You know Mary,’ Cathy said. ‘She spouts first and thinks afterwards.’ She tried to speak lightly but her mother glanced at her and laid her hand on her arm.

  ‘It was when you sent the snaps, wasn’t it? The letter you told me you’d burned?’ Cathy nodded, and her mother said gently, ‘You have to understand, love, to see your family growing up around you, and her and Sam with no sign of a child – it must have upset her.’

  Cathy was silent with amazement. Her mother went on, ‘Make allowances, Cath. You’re very lucky to have such a lovely family, so don’t bear a grudge, love.’

  ‘I don’t, Mam, honestly,’ she said. ‘If I had I’d have to forget it when I saw her, anyway. They both look marvellous, don’t they?’

  Sally smiled proudly and carried a plate of fruit cake into the kitchen, followed by Cathy with the tray of teacups.

  Sam drank his tea quickly and went out to check on the car. A crowd of children stood at a respectful distance around it, and Mick had opened the bonnet and was examining the engine. He questioned his uncle eagerly about the car’s performance but Sam told him he had only hired it a few hours earlier.

  ‘What about your own cars – the ones you have in America?’ Mick asked, and Sam tried to answer his questions. Mick had brought out a sheet of plywood from their house and now he asked if he could go beneath the car to examine it.

  ‘Sure, son, sure,’ Sam agreed thankfully. Mick lay down on the plywood and propelled himself beneath the car while Sam went back into the house, wiping his brow.

  ‘Any more t
ea, please, Cathy?’ he asked. ‘I need reviving.’

  She started forward in alarm. ‘What’s he done?’ she exclaimed.

  ‘Nothing,’ Sam said hastily. ‘He’s kept the kids away from the car, but he’s made a monkey out of me with his questions. Where did he learn about engines?’

  ‘I didn’t know he knew anything about them,’ she said.

  ‘He had the hood up when I went out and he asked me dozens of questions. I could hardly answer one! I told him the car was only hired a few hours ago, so then he asked me about the cars back home. Gee, Cathy, all I knew was the make and the horsepower, but you’d think the kid had been around them for years.’

  ‘He likes messing with machinery,’ Cathy said. Mindful of her mother’s words about her good fortune in having a family, she said nothing about Mick’s strange gift but only asked if he was coming in for tea.

  ‘He’s lying under the car,’ Sam said. ‘On a piece of plywood,’ he added hastily. ‘I guess he’s not worried about tea.’

  While Sam talked to Sally and Lawrie about America and his new business, Mary and Cathy had the chance of a few quiet words.

  ‘I think Mam and Dad look real well,’ Mary said. ‘Older, but Sam said I should expect that. Not a bit like those snapshots.’

  ‘Dad’s always better in the summer,’ Cathy said. ‘So of course Mam’s not so worried. Then Dad’s always laughing and talking and cracking jokes so you don’t notice that he looks ill. He only lost his spirits once after he had shingles, but that was unusual. The snaps looked worse because he was still, for once.’

  ‘Sam said they say the camera cannot lie but we know different! Some of those glamorous film stars in real life… you’d never believe,’ said Mary.

  ‘You know that Jimmie Burns from next door died?’ Cathy said. ‘That upset them because they’d been friends for a long time.’ But Mary was not interested.

  ‘I was so upset when those snaps came,’ she said. ‘I just cried and cried. Sam was distraught. He didn’t know what to do to comfort me, and then he thought of coming home for a visit. It wasn’t easy for him to get away, but he’d do just anything to make me happy.’

  She patted her hair complacently, and Cathy said shortly, ‘You’ve come at the right time to see them both looking well after the good weather we’ve had.’

  ‘I suppose the thought of my visit has been good for them,’ Mary said. ‘Given them something to look forward to.’

  ‘I suppose so,’ Cathy said, trying to hide her irritation, and resisting the temptation to tell Mary that her parents’ interest in their grandchildren gave them plenty to fill their lives.

  ‘I wish we could take them back with us,’ Mary said. ‘We take good weather for granted, and I’d like to show them a bit of luxury.’ She glanced disparagingly about the kitchen of which Sally was so proud. ‘I’m going to hate to go home and leave them in this place.’

  Cathy’s face grew red with anger. ‘Mam and Dad are very happy in this place,’ she said furiously, ‘and so are we, Greg and I and our family.’

  Mary put her arm round her and kissed her. ‘Of course, Cath,’ she said. ‘And so would I have been if I’d never seen anything different. But just think, if I could take them there to lie in the garden beside a swimming pool all day, with a long cool drink and nothing at all to do…’

  ‘It’d drive Mam crackers, having nothing to do,’ Cathy said bluntly.

  ‘You haven’t changed,’ Mary laughed. ‘Still the same little firebrand and straight talker.’

  Sam appeared beside them. ‘We’ll have to be going, honey,’ he said to Mary. Then as she moved away to her parents, he kissed Cathy’s cheek. ‘You’ve got two great kids here, Cath,’ he said. ‘Mick’s a real character and Kate’s certainly a pretty little girl.’

  ‘Yes, and doesn’t she know it?’ Cathy said ruefully, smiling at him.

  ‘Still, she hasn’t inherited your dimples,’ he said. ‘Has Sarah?’

  ‘No. She hasn’t got a round face like me, luckily.’

  Mary was telling her parents that Sam had ordered an early dinner in their suite so that they would be able to come back for the evening, and Cathy said to him, ‘Will you come to our house when you come back? There’s a bit more room for all of us in our parlour.’

  ‘Of course. How’s the old man who lives here?’

  ‘Josh Adamson. He’s fine. He eats proper food now, and he’s fat again, but he’s happy.’

  ‘I’ll bet he is,’ Sam said with a grin. ‘I remember the Sunday teas here when I was trying to court Mary. I didn’t get many, mind you. She always seemed to cast me off before the weekend.’ They both laughed at the memory, then Mary and Sam left. Sam opened the door of the car, but Mary stood looking about her for a moment, giving everyone a chance to admire her, before she slipped into her seat.

  ‘It seems terrible,’ Sally sighed as they drove away. ‘My own daughter and I can’t do a meal for her. This is where I miss having the parlour to myself, Cath.’

  ‘It wouldn’t make any difference, Mam,’ she said. ‘They’re just used to a different way of life now. I don’t suppose they ask people round for spareribs and cabbage when they’re at home.’ Sally smiled and agreed.

  ‘You’ve got a nice parlour now to entertain,’ she said.

  Cathy was proud of her parlour. Over the years she and Greg had managed to furnish it with a green moquette suite and two fireside chairs in matching material, and a black rug before the fire. The cabinet gramophone had a record cabinet beside it, made by Greg, and they had recently acquired an upright piano. Most of the furniture had been paid for by hire purchase, but with Cathy’s extra money and John and Sarah’s wages the debt had been quickly paid.

  It was a lively gathering there when Mary and Sam returned. Mary had changed into a deceptively simple dress of pale green marocain, calf-length and showing her figure to perfection. With it she wore only a plain gold locket and gold earrings. Only Cathy and Sarah realized how the skilful use of cosmetics had heightened Mary’s beauty, and how expensive was her perfume, but Sarah was not overawed.

  She had a new dress for the occasion, made by her mother, of cream linen with a square neckline and box pleats. It fitted her perfectly, and her mother had given her a dab of the Evening in Paris perfume that had been a present from Greg.

  She stood waiting with her father and John to welcome Mary and Sam, who had gone first to kiss Sally and Lawrie.

  ‘This is Sarah,’ Cathy said, but Mary only smiled at her briefly, then her eyes went to John who stood beside his sister.

  Mary was wearing Louis-heeled shoes and John, tall and broadshouldered, seemed to tower over her. She took his outstretched hand and smiled up into his face. John, seeming dazzled by her beauty, stood tongue-tied and motionless until she said huskily, ‘Don’t I get a kiss, John?’

  He woke from his trance, and smiled and kissed her. She patted his cheek before turning to where Greg, as tall but thinner than John, stood obscured by him. Sam was shaking hands with John and Cathy had gone to put a cushion at her mother’s back when Mary stood before Greg and held out both her hands.

  ‘Hello, Mary,’ he said quietly, smiling at her. She drew in her breath at that remembered smile. Her hands gripped his as he bent, intending a light brotherly kiss, but Mary pressed her lips hungrily on his and her body close to him.

  Surprised, and unwilling to hurt her by rejection, Greg prolonged the kiss for a moment then drew gently away and said with an effort, ‘You look very well, Mary.’ She was trembling and her breathing was quick and shallow, but Greg turned so that she was shielded from sight as he shook hands with Sam.

  Anger was replacing shock in Greg’s mind as he looked at Sam’s honest face, and thought of Mary’s behaviour. So she’s still at that game, he thought, and having the damn cheek to do it in my own house, with my wife and her husband here.

  Greg would have been surprised to know that Mary’s behaviour had been as much a shock to herself as to him. Sh
e was a faithful wife to Sam in spite of many temptations to be otherwise in the circles in which they moved, and she was horrified that her love for Greg could be so quickly revived.

  I thought I was over all that, she thought in distress, but he only has to smile at me. Oh God, how am I going to get through these weeks? And he doesn’t even realize!

  She quickly recovered her bright smile and teasing manner, and no one suspected the turmoil within her as she joked with her father and talked about the other passengers on the liner they had sailed in.

  She and Greg were both confident that they had been unobserved. Sam had been engrossed in his conversation with John and Cathy had been busy making her parents comfortable, placing a stool for Sally’s feet and a small table beside her father for his tobacco.

  They had both overlooked Sarah who had moved away from the group and was the unwilling observer of the passionate kiss. She saw the shock on her father’s face and decided that Mary was to blame. But why hadn’t he pushed her away immediately? she wondered. For a moment her faith in her beloved father wavered, then she decided that he was unwilling to cause a fuss and upset her mother.

  She watched Mary with dislike and contempt, noting her successful efforts to charm everyone and deciding that she would never be charmed by her. She would ignore her aunt as far as possible during the rest of her stay.

  Cathy and Greg were handing round drinks from a tray which stood on the record cabinet, and contained whisky, rum, port, a bottle of John Collins cocktail and one of crème de menthe. There was also a dish of cheese straws and Cathy felt proudly that Mary and Sam would see that she and Greg knew what was right for an evening party.

  The crème de menthe and the cocktails had arrived in Cathy’s case after a job, via the poacher’s pocket beneath Cissie’s apron.

  ‘Ee are, girl, for your next “do”,’ she had said. ‘Don’t feel nothing about taking them from this lot. It’s been a bloody pig of a job and they owe us this and more.’