by Rosie Harris
Edwin, dressed in a smart pinstripe grey suit and crisp white shirt, was already at his father’s bedside when Jenny and Karen reached the hospital.
He was visibly shocked at the state his father was in. ‘Why on earth didn’t you notify me about his condition earlier?’ he asked tersely as he gently released his hold on his father’s hand and turned to face Karen.
Karen shrugged her shoulders but didn’t answer. Once again tears were spilling down her cheeks and in her short pale blue dress and white jacket she looked very young and vulnerable.
‘We did ring you to let you know that your father was in hospital and the moment we received their call to say he was sinking fast I immediately telephoned you to let you know,’ Jenny protested.
‘Yes, Mrs Langton, I’m sorry. You have done all you could. It’s just extremely distressing to find that he is so very ill.’
All three of them stayed by Lionel’s bedside for the next half hour, until a nurse came in and asked them to leave so that she could make him comfortable and change his drip.
Outside in the corridor Jenny suggested perhaps they should all go for a coffee. Edwin abruptly declined.
‘You two go and I’ll stay here with my father. When you get back then possibly I’ll take a break,’ he said curtly.
When they returned about twenty minutes later, the Sister was bending over Lionel’s inert body and Edwin greeted them with a terse, ‘He’s gone.’
Karen looked at Edwin blankly and for one awful moment Jenny was afraid she was going to ask ‘where?’ Then, as Karen stared wide-eyed towards the bed and saw that Lionel was no longer breathing, the floodgates opened and she began to sob hysterically.
Jenny put her arms round Karen and tried her best to console her. It was all so dramatic that she wasn’t sure if it was the shock of seeing a dead person for the first time or genuine grief because Lionel had died.
The Sister looked from one to the other with a slightly puzzled look on her face. ‘Mrs Bostock, if you will come to my office there are some papers I need you to sign.’
‘Do you want to do it? He was your father,’ Karen said in a muffled voice as she looked appealingly at Edwin.
Again there was an uncomfortable silence. ‘Very well,’ Edwin agreed. ‘Do you also want me to make the funeral arrangements?’
Karen sniffed and nodded.
‘I’ll telephone you with the details Mrs Langton,’ Edwin said, giving Karen a contemptuous look. ‘I’ll try and arrange the funeral for the beginning of next week and …’
‘No! No! It mustn’t be until the end of the week,’ Karen interrupted quickly.
Edwin raised his eyebrows and looked questioningly at Jenny. She was as puzzled as he was and gave an imperceptible shrug and shook her head to indicate she didn’t understand why this was important.
Karen avoided their eyes and didn’t offer any reason.
‘Would you prefer it to be the Wednesday or the Thursday?’ Edwin asked.
‘Thursday; yes, I’d rather you made it Thursday. Thursday would be more suitable,’ Karen gabbled, giving a watery smile.
‘Very well, that’s if the undertakers and the crematorium have a slot available that day. I’ll telephone and let you know.’
‘Thank you, Edwin. You are being extremely helpful and I am most grateful,’ Jenny told him.
‘Since I have no immediate family, perhaps we should hold the Wake at Merseyside Mansions,’ Edwin suggested. ‘If you agree with that then I’ll contact the concierge to see if that is acceptable.’
‘That sounds perfect, doesn’t it Karen,’ Jenny said with a grateful smile. ‘Do let us know if there is anything we can do to help. We will have to provide drinks and food of some kind, I suppose.’
‘If we are having it at Merseyside Mansions then I’ll arrange with a catering firm to provide food and wine. I will also ask them to send along a couple of waitresses,’ Edwin stated.
‘That sounds perfect,’ Jenny agreed. She felt relieved to know that it wouldn’t be her responsibility to do so.
Once they said goodbye to Edwin and went their separate ways, Karen seemed to put her grief to one side. Before they left the hospital she went into the ladies’ toilet and bathed her eyes with cold water and combed her dark blonde hair, flicking it back behind her ears and renewing her lipstick. There even seemed to be a jauntiness in her step as they made their way to the Pier Head to catch the ferry.
On the way home Jenny asked why she was so adamant about Lionel’s funeral not taking place until the following Thursday.
‘It’s not Quarter Day until then,’ Karen told her.
‘Quarter Day? What has that to do with anything,’ Jenny asked in a puzzled voice.
‘It’s settlement day for legal affairs. Lionel was old-fashioned about such things and he asked the solicitor to arrange for completion on Quarter Day and that’s next Thursday twenty-fifth September.’
Jenny frowned. ‘Completion? On what?’
‘On the bungalow he’s bought for us.’
‘You mean he actually bought a bungalow before putting his flat at Merseyside Mansions on the market?’ Jenny gasped.
‘That’s right. He said he could afford it and by doing it that way then we could take our time over moving from one place to the other. There are quite a few alterations I want to make and he agreed we should have all new furniture and furnishing and so on.’
‘Well, surely none of that matters now does it? You won’t want to move in there now will you?’ Jenny cut in sharply.
‘No, I don’t suppose I will ever move in there, not on my own.’
There was a long silence and Jenny wondered if Karen was going to ask her to move there with her and suggest that they should live together again. When Karen next spoke her hopes were dashed.
‘I don’t suppose I’ll be able to stay on at Merseyside Mansions for very long because they’ll all say I’m too young to be there even if I do own the flat. I don’t really fancy the bungalow, I never did. Still, now I’ll be able to sell both of them and choose a place I really like.’
‘Hold on Karen,’ Jenny warned. ‘You don’t know that. It depends how Lionel’s estate is divided up.’
‘Lionel made a new will after we were married; he’s left everything he possesses to me,’ Karen told her smugly.
‘You mean he’s cut Edwin, his own son, out of his will completely!’ Jenny exclaimed in a shocked voice.
‘That’s right. He said that now Edwin was a fully qualified surgeon, and would soon be a consultant, he was earning a good salary and didn’t really need anything from him.’
‘I’m not at all sure that Edwin will agree to that. He may very well contest his father’s will,’ Jenny warned.
Karen shrugged. ‘He can try, but after the twenty-fifth of September everything, even the bungalow, will be legally mine. That’s how Lionel wanted things to be so I hope Edwin will accept that and not make a fuss.’
Privately Jenny felt taken aback that not only had Karen inveigled Lionel into changing his will so completely in her favour but that she had no qualms at all about how Edwin might feel about the matter.
She was well aware that this would cause a lot of malicious gossip among the residents at Merseyside Mansions. The majority of them had disapproved of Lionel marrying Karen and this would set tongues wagging even more.
Jenny sighed. They would certainly regard Karen as a scheming little minx once the news leaked out that she had inherited all of Lionel’s estate.
Jenny wasn’t at all sure, however, that because of the brief space between Lionel changing his will and his death, there was a sufficient time span for it to be considered legal.
She remembered Tom Fieldman telling her that he had been a solicitor before he retired so she wondered if he would know the legal situation.
She decided she would definitely have a word with Tom and ask his opinion as soon as she reached home. She needed to do it before the news became general knowledge and recrimin
ations and gossip began to circulate.
Whatever happened or whatever was said, she would have to defend Karen even though in her heart of hearts she deplored the situation.
Eddy would have been horrified had he lived but then, he would have been heartbroken by so many of the things that Karen had done since he had died, she thought sadly.
Not for the first time she wondered if it was her fault; if she was in some way to blame. She had tried so hard to guide Karen but she was wilful and headstrong and determined to do whatever it was she wanted to do.
She seemed to have inherited the worst attributes from both her parents, Jenny thought sadly. She was headstrong and independent like Eddy had been and she yearned for the bright lights and glamorous lifestyle her mother, Fiona, had craved.
Twenty-Three
Jenny tried to reason with Karen about her appearance as the sleek black limousine that Edwin Bostock had hired to take them to the crematorium at Moreton carried them down Leasowe Road.
‘You really can’t go to your husband’s funeral dressed like that Karen. What on earth do you think people will say?
‘I’m wearing a dress Lionel bought for me and he loved to see me in it,’ Karen pouted.
‘I agree it’s a lovely dress, my dear, but it is not suitable for a funeral, least of all your husband’s,’ Jenny said firmly.
Karen’s fingers lingered over the low neckline of the crimson bodice and tugged the red and black patterned skirt over her knees.
‘Well, I like it.’
‘I understand your reasons for wearing it, my dear, but while we are at the crematorium please cover it up,’ Jenny persisted in a more gentle voice.
‘Gran, don’t talk nonsense, how can I do that?’ Her green eyes blazed angrily and she tossed back her dark blonde hair defiantly.
‘I’ve brought my black raincoat. Will you put it on please,’ Jenny said quietly.
Karen looked out of the car window at the dull, overcast September sky. ‘You may need it yourself, it looks as though it’s going to rain.’
‘I won’t need it. I brought it especially for you to wear, Karen. You simply can’t go in to the chapel looking like that,’ Jenny asserted firmly.
Karen was still protesting about wearing Jenny’s black raincoat when the car drew up at the crematorium. As the liveried chauffeur opened the door on Jenny’s side she handed him the raincoat. ‘Please help Mrs Bostock into this when you open the car door for her,’ she said firmly.
The chauffeur made a slight bow in acknowledgement of her instructions before walking round to the other side of the car.
Jenny held her breath, expecting Karen to refuse to put it on, but to her relief Karen gave the chauffeur a sweet smile and allowed him to help her into it. As Jenny reached her side, Karen gave her an amused look.
‘Fasten it up; for goodness’ sake don’t leave it open,’ Jenny said in a low voice. ‘The idea is to hide your red dress. Stand still and I’ll do it for you.’ She sighed when Karen made no attempt to obey.
The organ was playing and they were not the first to arrive. Several of the residents from Merseyside Mansions were already there. Jenny smiled and nodded at them as she and Karen made their way to the front pew. Karen walked as though in a dream.
Edwin was already there, sitting in the front row, but he moved out in to the aisle to allow them to pass.
‘I’d better sit on the outside because I will be saying a few words about Dad during the service,’ he said in a low voice.
The service was extremely brief. Edwin spoke about his father’s career as a surgeon and how proud both his parents had been when he had followed in his father’s footsteps.
He made no reference to the fact that his mother had died a few years earlier nor that his father had recently remarried. He did say how happy his father had been at Merseyside Mansions.
Edwin rode with Jenny and Karen in the leading limousine as the long line of cars snaked back up Leasowe Road on the way back to Merseyside Mansions. As soon as they were in the car, Karen removed the raincoat and Jenny was aware of Edwin’s sharp intake of breath when he saw what she was wearing.
Karen seemed to be oblivious to his frown of disapproval. Throughout the journey she stared out of the window, humming softly to herself, and left Jenny to talk to Edwin.
When they arrived back at Merseyside Mansions they found that the caterers were already there ahead of them and that they had set out an excellent spread of sandwiches, a variety of cheeses, several bowls of black and green grapes and bite-size savouries as well as a wide selection of small cakes.
Edwin immediately took over. He gave instructions to one of the waitresses to fill a dozen or more glasses with white or red wine and stand by the door and hand a glass to each person as they came into the room.
Within half an hour the large communal lounge was packed. As well as those who had attended at the crematorium there were many other people who had known and liked Lionel. Most of the men wore dark suits, white shirts and either black or dark ties. The women were discreetly dressed; some in black dresses or black skirts and white blouses, others in brown, beige or navy blue outfits. Karen, in her vivid red and black, stood out and was the focus of all eyes. Jenny felt humiliated but there was nothing she could do, and Karen seemed to be unaware that people were exchanging glances with each other and raising their eyebrows.
Most of the residents made a point of conveying to Edwin their deep regrets that Lionel had died and extolled what a wonderful man he had been. Most of them ignored Karen as if by doing so they expressed their disapproval of her.
Karen ignored their attitude but Jenny felt most uncomfortable and very much aware that so many of the people present were ignoring them.
Karen appeared to be thoroughly enjoying herself. She had refilled her plate with food and twice had her glass refilled with red wine. Jenny was grateful to Tom Fieldman, who remained by their side throughout the afternoon. He was very attentive and insisted that Jenny should have a second glass of wine even if she couldn’t bring herself to eat anything from the sumptuous spread.
As the event drew to a close, the residents left one by one, most of them again expressing their sympathy to Edwin but ignoring Karen.
As the room emptied, Edwin came over to where Karen, Jenny and Tom Fieldman were standing near the window, looking out into the garden. Jenny was silently counting the minutes until they could go. She felt humiliated and longed for the seclusion of her own apartment.
‘Karen, we can’t deal with the matter of my father’s will now so can you meet me at the solicitors’ tomorrow morning at eleven o’clock?’
Karen gave him an amused look. ‘There’s no need. I know what is in it. I was with Lionel at his solicitors when he made out his new will and I can tell you now that he has left everything to me.’
Edwin looked very taken aback and for one moment there was a stunned silence. Jenny looked from one to the other of them in bewilderment.
‘I think you should do as Edwin asks, Karen,’ she murmured. ‘It is the normal procedure.’
‘I’ve already told you, I know what is in the will. Lionel changed it when we got married and he has left me everything, including the bungalow he recently bought. There is really no need for you to see the solicitor at all, Edwin, because it is all mine; you’re not even mentioned in it. It all became legal on Quarter Day, which was on Tuesday,’ she told him in a lofty tone of voice.
‘You mean that was why you asked me to put the funeral off until today?’ Edwin asked in an angry tone.
‘That’s right. I wanted to make sure that you wouldn’t argue about the will and now you can’t because it would be pointless to do so. Everything Lionel owned in his bank account as well as the flat and the bungalow are all mine,’ Karen said triumphantly.
‘If you want the furniture from the flat then you are very welcome to it,’ she added. ‘I certainly don’t want it. I think it must have come out of the ark! Lionel insisted on keeping it
but that was probably because he’d had it when he set up home for the first time.’
Edwin’s face darkened with fury but his voice when he spoke was controlled. ‘You are quite a little gold-digger aren’t you,’ he said, his voice full of contempt. ‘Even so, I still think you should attend the solicitor’s office for the reading of my father’s will tomorrow morning. You may find that everything is not quite as cut and dried as you seem to think it is.’ With that, he turned on his heel and strode away.
‘Karen, how could you behave so rudely and so childishly,’ Jenny remonstrated. ‘Edwin is very upset by his father’s death even if you don’t appear to be. He must have deplored your attitude over Lionel’s will.’
‘Rubbish!’ Colour stained Karen’s cheeks but she tossed her hair back defiantly. ‘He’s annoyed at being cut out of the will, that’s all, but there’s absolutely nothing that he can do about it.’
‘I’m not at all sure about that. I have a feeling that he can contest a will,’ Jenny warned, ‘What do you think Tom, you were a solicitor before you retired?’
‘No, he can’t. I made sure that it was all drawn up properly, and it was witnessed and signed,’ Karen stated angrily before Tom Fieldman could speak. ‘It was what Lionel wanted and there’s absolutely nothing Edwin can do about it.’
‘I’m not sure you are right about that,’ Tom Fieldman warned. ‘Edwin might claim that his father was very old and not fully aware of what he was doing. If the doctors say that he was suffering from dementia then …’
‘Are you saying that Lionel had gone mad?’ Karen protested hotly.
‘I’m not saying that at all but Edwin may claim that it was so because his father was in his dotage. He might claim that Lionel didn’t know what he was doing and was coerced by you into changing his will. Lionel was in his mid-eighties and if the case goes to court then there is every possibility that the judge may agree with Edwin.’
‘I don’t care what anyone says, everything is mine,’ Karen muttered, her green eyes bright with tears.
