Shoddy Prince

by Sheelagh Kelly

  ‘There’s another one there.’ Noel indicated the small brown paper parcels on the table. ‘One for each of you.’

  Oriel moaned. ‘We haven’t got you one! We didn’t know you were coming.’

  ‘I’ve got half a sock knitted,’ laughed Bright, ‘if that’s any use to you.’

  ‘Thanks, I’ll wait for the full set.’ The moustachioed face grinned and joked as it had always done, but there was a change in Noel, something that neither woman could interpret. ‘You can open them if you like.’

  Excited fingers scrabbled over the wrapping. They were just like two children, thought Noel to himself, and smiled, though the effort was great. He felt so weary.

  ‘Oh, how wonderful!’ Bright put the sachets of perfumed bath powder to her nose and inhaled. ‘Mmm! I’d love to rush upstairs and use them now, but maybe it’s a better idea to save them until the war’s over, when they allow us to put more than a teaspoon of water into the bath!’

  Oriel too went into ecstasies, then asked Noel, ‘What’s it like at the Front?’

  ‘Oriel, Noel’s just got home, he doesn’t want to talk about the war!’

  Noel gave a light reply, though there was a lump of lead in his heart that he would carry forever. ‘Did you hear I got a medal – the DCM?’

  The two listeners were enraptured by his bravery.

  ‘Yes, a Decent Covering of Muck.’ He laughed at their cries of, ‘Fraud!’ ‘I can tell you, you wouldn’t have hugged me a few days ago, Bright! I was absolutely filthy, and riddled with lice – jumped off my patients and onto me. Two days ago this uniform could have wriggled here on its own.’

  ‘Ugh!’ Oriel squirmed. ‘Don’t they ever get washed?’

  Noel was patient; how could she know? ‘There’s no time for that when you’re under constant fire in the trenches.’

  ‘Yes, we read in the papers that it was getting very bad,’ murmured Bright.

  Noel gave a weary nod. ‘You have no idea how bad.’ And I’m not about to tell you, came the private thought, or you’d never sleep again. He did, though, give them part of the picture; it wasn’t right that they should remain in total ignorance. ‘I’m one of the lucky ones, you know. I’ve only waited eighteen months for home leave; some of the others have been in the trenches for years – can you imagine what it must be like to stand, up to your knees in freezing cold water, for days on end, unable to change your boots – their feet look like lumps of dough – unable to sleep for constant bombardment and sniping? Yes, I’m lucky, I just have to deal with the German bullets second hand when they hit some poor young lad.’ That wasn’t quite true, there had been some hairy moments, but he did not want to concern his friends. ‘Oh, enough, enough!’ Adopting a manufactured grin he slapped his knee, sorry for the horror he had created on their faces, yet in one regard not sorry at all. ‘I’m here to be cheered up, not to infect you with my misery. I hope I haven’t called at an inconvenient moment. You both look as though you’re set to go out.’

  Oriel, with her glossy black bob, figure-hugging gown and high-heeled shoes, looked like she belonged on the pages of a high society magazine. ‘Oh, you don’t think I’ve overdone it, too?’ Oriel sought reassurance. ‘Mother said we wouldn’t need a Christmas tree, she’d just get me to stand in the corner.’

  ‘It was only a joke!’ Bright had not meant to inflict hurt and now tried to make amends. ‘I’m just jealous because she puts me in the shade.’

  ‘Nonsense,’ came the quick response. ‘You’re both delectable, I see you’ve let your hair grow again.’ This was for Bright.

  ‘Yes, I like Oriel’s but I couldn’t get used to wearing mine short.’ She laughed. ‘I suppose that sounds daft when I pin it up like this.’ It was just long enough to wear in a bun again.

  ‘I think it looks nice either way,’ answered Noel.

  ‘Thanks. Ye’ll have supper with us?’

  ‘Try and stop me, if you’ve no other plans of course.’ His hostess replied that they hadn’t. ‘What are you doing over Christmas – fancy going to a pantomime?’

  ‘Ooh, yes!’ Bright hoisted her shoulders, then gave a thoughtful murmur. ‘But don’t you want to spend time with your mother?’

  Noel’s face clouded. ‘Ah, no… Mother passed away last year. Didn’t I mention it in one of my letters?’

  ‘No, I don’t think so.’ Bright racked her brain, wondering if she had overlooked it and feeling awful that she had not read his letters properly. Maybe he had told her and she had forgotten – but no, Oriel had read the letters too and she seemed just as taken aback by the news. Why did you instantly assume that Noel was right and you were at fault, she asked herself? You should trust in your own sanity.

  ‘Noel, I’m so sorry.’ She reached over and touched his arm. ‘Didn’t they give you… what d’ye call it, sentimental leave.?’

  Noel gave a fond laugh. ‘Compassionate leave. I expect if I’d kicked up a fuss I could’ve come home, but I wouldn’t have been able to do anything for Mother and I’m needed more out there. A family friend very kindly saw to everything. It’s strange, though, going to visit that big empty house…’ He hadn’t expected to feel such a sense of loss; Noel and his mother had never been close.

  ‘Will you live there yourself, after the war?’ asked Bright.

  ‘Not on my own, no.’ Noel made no attempt to press his suit, though he examined Bright’s face for a sign that his absence might have changed her view on marriage.

  Obviously it had not. Her only response was to offer more commiseration for his loss. ‘Well, you’re welcome to spend your Christmas with us,’ she told him warmly. ‘And I’d love to come to the pantomime.’

  ‘Actually, I meant both of you.’ Noel looked at Oriel who nodded acceptance. His eyes tarried on her face for a moment. There was something different about her, he sensed. Yes, she was a grown woman now but it was more than that, something to do with her eyes. ‘Does the offer include Christmas lunch?’

  ‘For what it’s worth,’ chuckled his hostess.

  ‘Then I heartily accept!’

  * * *

  After Noel went home Bright and her daughter attended Midnight Mass and did not see him again until noon the following day. They provided the best dinner they could with the poor list of ingredients in their possession.

  ‘Remember how we used to give up stuff for Lent?’ Bright made this light remark as she served up the meal. ‘We don’t have to do that now, Lent comes every day with all these shortages. It’ll be a good job when they bring in rationing, like they’ve been threatening to do. All this queueing… well now, no more grumbling, tuck in, Noel, and enjoy yourself – and Merry Christmas!’

  Noel promised to return on Boxing Day, though said he would not be there until evening as he had someone to visit. In the event he turned up earlier than expected; the person he had hoped to see was out.

  ‘When are you going back?’ asked Oriel. Noel tutted. ‘I didn’t mean it like that! It’s just that I have to go to work tomorrow and wondered if you’ll still be here when I get home, but if you’re only on short leave I’ll ask for time off.’ So accustomed had she become to keeping up the pretence to her mother that it came as second nature now.

  Noel said he had a whole fortnight, and so Oriel went to work the following morning, as she had done for the past two-and-a-half years.

  During the afternoon she was busy with her ledgers when there was a knock at the door. The shock she received on answering it was nothing compared to Noel’s. When each had finished staring at the other he said, ‘I came to visit my friend.’

  ‘You’d better come in.’ Oriel showed the khaki-clad doctor into the front room where she worked and, nervously wringing her hands asked, ‘Would you like a cup of tea?’

  ‘Thank you – is Nat at home?’

  Oriel postponed her trip to the kitchen. ‘No… he’s in prison.’

  ‘Christ!’ Noel clasped his brow. ‘I do apologize, Oriel, but you’ve completely floored me
.’ She was about to leave the room. ‘Forget the tea! I need something stronger.’

  ‘Whisky?’ At his nod she went into the back room and returned with a glass. In her absence he had removed his greatcoat and hung it in the hall. ‘I owe you an apology too. You must have had a surprise finding me here.’

  ‘You can say that again!’ Noel tossed half of the liquor down his throat and looked for somewhere to sit. Oriel indicated her own chair by the desk and took a footstool by the hearth, hugging her shins and resting her chin on her knees like a little girl.

  ‘To save you asking, Noel, I do know he’s my father.’ When the other did not reply she added, ‘Let me give you the story. I got this job in 1915…’

  ‘Let’s dispense with the bits I can guess!’ Noel dragged the chair closer to the fire. ‘When did you become aware that you were working for your father?’

  ‘From the first day.’ Oriel returned his direct gaze.

  ‘And you’ve obviously kept it from your mother – never even mentioned it to me.’

  ‘If I had you might have let the cat out of the bag.’

  Noel looked slightly hurt that she had felt unable to take him into her confidence. ‘You know I wouldn’t have told your mother if you’d asked me not to. I appreciate how difficult the situation must be for you; you must have been curious, yet didn’t want to hurt her…’

  ‘I don’t simply mean that you’d tell Mother, but him too.’

  Noel frowned. His lips snatched at the remainder of the whisky. ‘I can’t take all this in. If your father told you who he was then—’

  ‘He didn’t tell me.’ Oriel sighed and changed position on the stool. ‘I saw him talking to you once and put two and two together – I already knew his name so it wasn’t that difficult. It didn’t hit me immediately, but once I was sure – well, it seemed the perfect opportunity to get back at him.’ She held Noel’s eye. ‘A shameful admittance, isn’t it? I tricked my own father so I could get revenge on him for the damage he did to us.’

  Noel had seen too much on the Western Front for anything much to shock him. ‘What I don’t understand is how the two of you could be under the same roof for, what, two-and-a-half years and not mention the fact that you were father and daughter! It seems preposterous. Nat didn’t even mention your working here to me – even lied about it.’ But you lied to him about Bright, didn’t you? ‘I mean, I know he doesn’t like to talk about personal matters but he could have told me in one of his letters.’ That reminded the doctor of the probable reason he had not heard from Nat in so long. ‘I wrote to him in October and he never replied. Was that when he went to prison?’

  Oriel nodded and donned a mixture of guilt and regret. ‘Your letter’s on the mantelpiece. I’m afraid I opened it – I thought it might concern something important.’

  ‘And if it had would you have posted it on to your father?’ The brown eyes were accusing.

  She hung her head and stared at the boots that peeped out from under her heliotrope skirt. It had been a pathetic excuse. She had just wanted to read Noel’s letter herself. ‘Sorry, I don’t know which prison he’s in.’ Embarrassed at being caught out she rushed on, ‘It was awful, Noel! I’d better start at the beginning. My father was called in for re-examination and was passed as fit…’

  Noel made the wrong assumption. ‘He tried to avoid conscription and they put him in gaol?’

  ‘I wish that were the only reason.’ Oriel sighed. This made painful telling. ‘We were having an argument about it. I said some awful things, I thought he was going to kill me – anyway, Talbot was in the street and these boys, these cruel little – they lathered foam round his mouth to make it appear he had rabies, then someone brought the police, and they shot him.’

  ‘Oh, dear God.’ Noel clutched his brow in frustration at not being able to emit a stronger oath.

  ‘My father was in the act of chasing me from the house – oh, he was so angry, Noel – and we opened the door and saw poor Talbot. My father went crazy, literally crazy. He picked up a boy in either hand,’ she clenched her fists to illustrate, ‘then he bashed their – oh, I can’t, it’s too dreadful!’ She would never forget the sickening thuds of those skulls hitting the wall. ‘The policeman had to hit him with a truncheon to make him release them. It’s lucky he wasn’t charged with attempted murder.’ She had no idea why Nat hadn’t been; it certainly wasn’t because she had helped him. Oriel suffered guilt at that.

  ‘Were you in court?’

  She shook her head. The manner in which Noel was looking at her made her feel ashamed and she cried out in defence, ‘How could I possibly testify on his behalf? All right, it was a monstrous trick I played on him, I’ve admitted that, but I would’ve expected a little understanding from you, I mean he is a rival for Mother’s affections, you can’t be all that happy about the hold he seems to have over her.’

  An odd expression crossed Noel’s face. He finished the whisky and put the glass aside. ‘She must have had a tremendous shock when all this came out.’

  Oriel’s eyes were downcast. ‘She still doesn’t know anything – except what she read in the paper and of course neither of us mentioned that. She thinks I go out to work every day for a Mr Price.’

  ‘She must know! I have an excuse for being ignorant but you two live in the same house for heaven’s sake.’

  ‘She doesn’t, honestly. I could tell if she did.’

  ‘That’s one good thing I suppose.’ Noel unbuttoned the top pocket of his khaki tunic, withdrew his silver case and lit a cigarette. ‘So, you’re only coming here to keep up the pretence?’

  ‘Not just that. You’ll laugh at this.’ A glance at Noel’s face told her he wouldn’t. ‘I felt so sorry for him that I decided I’d keep his business in order whilst he’s in there.’ The doctor asked for how long this would be. ‘He received twelve months.’ She studied his haggard features. ‘Are you going to tell Mother?’

  Noel was censorious. ‘Why would I want to hurt her like that? You’ve managed to cover it up for this long, I don’t think another twelve months will make any difference.’

  ‘Don’t think too badly of me, Noel,’ begged the young woman. ‘You’ve no idea what it’s like to be in my position, to be told that you can’t be a nurse because you have no father – that you do have a father somewhere, but he was too much of a coward to stay and do the right thing. That’s another reason we were arguing that day: I caught him trying to cut off his finger so that he wouldn’t be sent to war! I told him it was unfair of him to dodge his duty when you were out there patching up all those wounded soldiers. I told him what a coward he was.’

  Noel was immensely sad. ‘Oriel, if only you knew what it’s like out there, you wouldn’t send your worst enemy. I don’t just patch up our boys, you know, but the odd German too.’

  ‘I thought he was my worst enemy,’ murmured Oriel, ‘but I think perhaps that I’m my own.’ The fire was getting low. She stared into its red embers, which suddenly shifted, making her jump back as a coal fell onto the hearth. Using brass tongs she replaced the cinder in the grate. ‘I wish I’d never started this. I’ve felt so wretched since it happened, I can’t sleep, I lie awake at night frightened to turn over for fear of waking Mother – we began sleeping in the same bed to keep warm,’ she explained to Noel. ‘If there was anything I could do to turn back the clock… we were just becoming friends, you know. He bought me a locket for my twenty-first.’

  Looking distant, the doctor murmured apology for not remembering, his pity more for Nat at this moment.

  ‘Oh, you’ve enough on your plate out there, I’m sure. Yes, he bought me that locket but I can’t wear it. I’ve hidden it in the cellar. My life has become one long round of subterfuge – I should enlist in the Secret Service, I’d make a good spy.’

  ‘I must go and see him,’ decided Noel, nervously flicking ash at the hearth.

  Oriel looked anxious. ‘Will you tell him I’m sorry?’

  ‘That’s something you
should tell him yourself.’ Noel took one last long drag at the half inch that was left of his cigarette and threw it onto the fire. ‘I’ll go now and make enquiries as to which prison he’s in.’ He went to collect his greatcoat.

  ‘Maybe I could write him a letter.’

  Noel stood in the doorway, buttoning his coat. ‘It wouldn’t hurt. I’ll see you later.’ He was about to walk down the passage, then glanced back at her lonely figure, offering a small kindness. ‘Don’t feel too bad. He’s probably a lot safer in there.’

  Noel discovered that his friend was in Armley Gaol and managed to wangle a visit before he had to return to foreign shores – a favour granted more for his sake than for the prisoner’s, even though the latter was in the sick bay. Nat was extremely unwell, both physically and mentally. Exhausted from coughing he provided little in the way of conversation, but that was not unusual even when he was in good health and Noel did not mind being the one to entertain.

  The first few minutes were given to jocular comment about Noel’s exploits in the Medical Corps. There was a point, though, when the talk must come around to the serious business of Nat’s being in here. ‘Oriel told me what happened. I’m really sorry – so is she.’ Grey blanket up to his chin, the prisoner responded with a snort of derision that blew mucus from his nose, compelling him to wipe it. ‘She is, Nat! I think she feels rather guilty too.’

  ‘So she bloody should!’ Nat was unforgiving. His face drawn by illness.

  ‘Well, maybe, but she’s trying to make amends by keeping your books in order and—’

  ‘No!’ The objection resounded off the stark forbidding walls of the prison. Nat raised himself on an elbow and removed an arm from under the blanket to wag a vicious finger. ‘You tell her to leave my books alone. I don’t want her prying through my business affairs seeing if there’s any dirt she can get on me!’ He started to cough, eyes bulging.