As Time Goes By

by Anne Bennett

  Daniel added a gold chain to thread the ring onto. As he fastened the chain around Connie’s neck, he said in a low voice, ‘This is my promise to you, that we will marry as soon as possible, and that this ring will grace the third finger of your left hand, where it will be joined by a wedding band.’

  ‘Can’t come soon enough for me,’ Connie said, ‘and just at the moment I can’t wait to show the ring to Father John and Eileen.’

  Father John and Eileen thought the ring exquisite and both said it was sensible to hide it from view for now, as they couldn’t get married for years.

  When they got home, Connie loved showing the ring to Angela, who thought it was simply marvellous. Angela thought she would tell Connie about the jewellery now, while the conversation with Eileen was fresh in her head. ‘Granny told you about some jewellery that had been left to me, didn’t she?’

  ‘Yes,’ Connie said. ‘It was ages ago, and they opened the bank ’specially for you, so that you could see it, as you were working in shell production and your time off was almost non-existent.’

  ‘And if I had sold the jewellery, what was I going to do with the money?’

  ‘Fund my education,’ said Connie, ‘so my time in college or university would not be curtailed through lack of money. You said it was what Daddy wanted, so after he died you were even more determined.’

  ‘But,’ continued Angela nervously, ‘now your librarianship course is fully paid for, I wondered what you’d think of my using some of that money to help pay for Chrissie to train to be a teacher. It’s her deepest heart’s desire, and I think you’ll agree, she’d be very good at it.’

  Connie was silent for a while; she honestly did not know what to say. But the more she thought about it, the more she realised that any reaction other than whole-hearted agreement would seem churlish. ‘Mammy, I can’t say the idea won’t take a little bit of getting used to,’ said Connie slowly. ‘But I have had a loving childhood, I have the career I have always dreamed of, and I am in love with the man I was destined to be with. I am happy – and I think that’s what I’d want for my sister too. She deserves a real chance in life, and between us all as a family, including Eileen and Father John, we have the opportunity to give her that.’

  Angela’s heart swelled with pride. This was the kind-hearted and generous daughter she had raised. With no words left to speak, she simply reached for Connie and held her tightly in a warm embrace.

  TWELVE

  Connie hurried as she got off the tram from the hospital early one evening, for sleety rain was falling. She was looking forward to reaching home, for home was such a pleasant place to come back to, now that Stan and Daniel were part of the family. Connie’s love for Daniel got stronger every day and she felt happier than ever. Added to that, the physiotherapist had been delighted with the improvements she had seen. She had said that after two more sessions, Connie might be able to be signed off from the hospital altogether and could return to work.

  Connie had been relieved to hear that. The library and college had been remarkably patient so far, but she didn’t want to push her luck, and anyway, she felt time heavy on her hands now and wanted to be doing something useful. And so, Connie was in a buoyant mood as she returned from the hospital that night. She was surprised to see Maggie waiting in Bell Barn Road. ‘Hello,’ she said, turning her collar up with a shiver. ‘Have you been to see Mammy?’

  ‘No, no, I haven’t seen her.’

  Connie was puzzled. ‘Then are you going to see her now?’ she asked. ‘Shall I tell her you’re here?’

  Maggie shook her head. ‘No, it’s you I really came to see.’

  Connie was a little alarmed by that, especially as she noted how agitated Maggie was. ‘Why? What is it?’ she cried. ‘Come inside, for we’re both getting soaked here.’

  Maggie shook her head but, seeing the sense of what Connie said, drew her into a nearby entry. She ran her tongue over her dry lips. She would have given anything not be here, delivering such news to Connie – such a young girl, who had already been through so much. Yet she knew it was better coming from her than anyone else, and so she said, ‘I am sorry to have to tell you this, Connie, but Eddie McIntyre is back.’

  Connie gave a gasp. She felt as if she had been kicked in the stomach by a mule. Her mind flew back to the time when her mother seemed to be so in thrall to McIntyre that she had almost forgotten she was a mother. McIntyre would urge her to drink, a thing she had never done before, so she would arrive home drunk and with her clothes in total disarray. Connie had been ashamed of her for the very first time, and even Maggie had spoken to her about it. Together they had tried to make Angela see sense before her reputation was ruined altogether, for people were beginning to talk. But Connie’s words of warning to her mother fell on deaf ears.

  Connie felt sick at the thought of all that carry-on starting again. But just maybe, Maggie was mistaken. After all, the man had been away years now. Why should he suddenly reappear now, after all this time? ‘How d’you know he’s back?’ she asked.

  ‘He came in the pub, large as you like,’ Maggie said. ‘I didn’t see him at first because I was in the snug with Muriel, arranging … er, making plans …’

  ‘If you are talking about arranging a party for me that’s supposed to be top secret, don’t bother,’ Connie laughed. ‘You can’t keep secrets in this place – I’m afraid to say I know all about it.’

  ‘Oh, what a shame! Sorry about that.’

  ‘I’m not,’ Connie said. ‘I’m not that keen on surprise parties, to be honest. Anyway, I still think it’s a lovely idea.’

  ‘Initially it was to welcome you home, but your mother didn’t think you were strong enough then.’

  ‘I think she was right,’ Connie said. ‘Though I was fed up with hospital and wanted to come home when I arrived, I found I was as weak as a kitten and quite tearful at times, too. I’m much stronger now and well enough to really enjoy a party.’

  ‘Good,’ Maggie said. ‘Anyway, Muriel and I were discussing this party, and I suddenly heard Eddie McIntyre’s drawl on the other side of the door. He made my blood run cold. Muriel thought I had gone mad, as I was on my feet in seconds and threw open the door. Eddie was as surprised as me, but before he had time to recover, I yelled at him, “What are you doing here? Whatever it is, you’re not welcome, so why don’t you just sling your hook!”

  ‘Course, Muriel had no idea what was going on and said, “Maggie, what’s got into you? It is up to Noel and myself to decide who’s welcome and who isn’t, and as Mr McIntyre has done no harm to me or mine, he is as welcome as the next man.”’

  ‘You can’t blame her,’ Connie said. ‘She wouldn’t know anything about what happened.’

  ‘And I couldn’t tell her – not the whole of it – without casting your mother in a bad light,’ Maggie said. ‘So, what I came up with to explain why I had acted that way sounded very tame – certainly not behaviour extreme enough to bar someone! I felt such a fool.’

  ‘What’s he doing here anyway?’

  ‘Well, I wasn’t going to put myself out to speak to him,’ Maggie said, ‘but he had been drinking with some of the regulars, who are also unaware of his reputation. Seems he’d told them his uncle’s business had been badly affected by the Wall Street Crash. You remember that some of the aftershocks were felt over here?’

  Connie gave a brief nod and Maggie continued, ‘Apparently when he was over here before he made a good impression on many factories and businesses, and his uncle wants him to regenerate the trade with those businesses, to get them out of the mire in the States.’

  ‘Did he give any indication of how long he’ll be here?’

  Maggie shrugged. ‘As long as it takes, I suppose.’

  ‘I suppose so,’ Connie agreed miserably.

  ‘And you must warn your mother,’ Maggie said. ‘It’ll come better from you than anyone else – soften the blow a bit.’

  Connie had no desire to share that news with he
r mother. After all, maybe if they kept their heads down he would do what he had to do and go away again, like he had before.

  ‘Why say anything to Mammy at all?’ she asked Maggie. ‘She’s not likely to see him.’

  ‘Connie, she could meet him in the street. I don’t know where he’s living but he could have taken lodgings in any of the boarding houses not that far from here, just like he did last time he was over here … From what the men were saying, he has been here nearly three weeks already. We’ve got to do something before Angela bumps into him in front of an audience. You remember how much talk there was about her back then. The last thing she needs, now that she’s finally found happiness with Stan, is for Eddie McIntyre to mess everything up for her once again.’

  Maggie was right – Eddie had been in England three weeks. When he had first arrived, he’d kept well away from Bell Barn Road and Angela McClusky. Mindful of his uncle’s threats, he’d concentrated on getting orders so that he would not be thrown out of his uncle’s house and business.

  He was pleasantly surprised by the reaction in many of the places he had revisited. He wasn’t remembered personally but order books showed how lucrative the trade had been for both sides of the Atlantic, and a fair few were more than willing to re-establish trade links between Britain and America, and keen to discuss further negotiations. So he was in a buoyant mood when he sent a telegram to his uncle telling him this. His uncle’s reply gave him cautious hope that he might be taken back into the firm again on his return to New York:

  WELL DONE STOP KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK STOP EARLY DAYS YET STOP

  However, Eddie had no intention of keeping up all his good work. After a promising start in the UK, he decided to award himself a little treat. A working man needs some distraction now and again, he told himself, and Angela McClusky, when she was in the mood, was the best distraction he knew. Eddie knew better than to go at it like a bull at a gate, though, so first he loitered about the area for a few days, seeing if he remembered anyone who might also recognise him, but he could see very few familiar faces.

  He approached the pub with greater caution. Before entering, he first made certain, by listening to overheard conversations in other pubs, that the previous publicans – the Larkins, who knew and despised him – had retired. The new landlord and landlady who had taken over from the Larkins made him welcome, and a surreptitious glimpse across the bar reassured him that there was no one in the pub that he knew well. He thought it a nuisance that he eventually ran into Maggie, but on the other hand, it was interesting to learn that she clearly hadn’t shared their past dealings with the new landlords. He was able to glean from Muriel that there had been an accident involving Angela’s daughter, and that they were having a party for her on Saturday in thanks for her recovery – all welcome! He couldn’t believe his luck. He could legitimately see Angela and find out if she was as crazy about him as ever.

  That evening when Maggie told Connie about the unexpected and unwanted arrival of Eddie McIntyre, she said to Connie, ‘If he has arrived here now in these streets, there is only one reason, as far as I can see.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I think he still has a hankering after your mother.’

  Maggie wasn’t far off the mark, but Connie didn’t want to believe it. ‘Surely not. Not after all this time.’

  ‘Are you prepared to risk it?’ Maggie asked. ‘What if he was to knock at the door?’

  ‘He wouldn’t dare.’

  ‘I wouldn’t like to say what that man is capable of, would you?’

  Connie thought for a moment and then said resignedly, ‘No. Not really.’

  ‘Tell your mother.’

  ‘What about Stan?’

  ‘Stan isn’t your concern,’ Maggie said. ‘It’s up to your mother to tell Stan.’

  ‘Just when everything was going right for them at last,’ Connie said. ‘What if whatever Mammy tells Stan puts a barrier between them?’

  ‘If they allow that to happen,’ Maggie said grimly, ‘neither of them deserves happiness, for they will have learnt nothing.’

  Connie enticed her mother up to her bedroom as soon as she got in that evening, for she was afraid of McIntyre coming directly to the door, as Maggie had intimated he might. She pretended she wanted Angela’s opinion on something she’d bought. ‘What is it you want me to look at?’ Angela asked, rubbing her hands together. ‘We can’t linger long, for these bedrooms are like iceboxes.’

  ‘Mammy, I don’t want your opinion on anything,’ Connie confessed. ‘I needed to get you away to tell you something.’

  ‘What was it that you couldn’t say in front of everyone?’

  Connie didn’t answer. Instead, she said, ‘Maggie was waiting for me on the road when I came home from the hospital earlier today.’

  ‘Maggie was?’ Angela said. ‘Why didn’t she come to the house?’

  ‘She said she wanted to see me, tell me something, so that I could break it to you gently,’ Connie said. ‘The only thing is, I don’t know that there is a way to say this gently.’

  ‘Tell me, Connie!’ Angela cried frantically, worried by the look on Connie’s face. ‘For Christ’s sake tell me.’

  Connie sighed and said, ‘Eddie McIntyre is back here.’

  Angela felt as if all the breath had been sucked out of her body, and she felt for Connie’s bed and sat on it, because she didn’t think her legs could support her any longer. In her mind she saw the glorious future she was hoping to have with Stan crumble away like dust.

  Connie held her shaking hand, but it didn’t help Angela, for the advent of Eddie McIntyre brought back a shameful period she would have liked to draw a veil over. She wanted to pretend it never happened.

  However, it had happened. She had been shameless, and a terrible mother to her precious child, Connie, whom she had pushed from her mind. All she had cared about then was Eddie and pleasing him. She had been even more willing to do that when she had drunk plenty, as Eddie encouraged her to do. She was like a different person then, and one that Connie didn’t like very much. And now Connie looked her full in the face and said, ‘You must tell Stan.’

  ‘No, I can’t do that!’ Angela cried, her whole mind recoiling from it. Not in any way did she want Stan involved in that smutty period in her life. She said, ‘Stan doesn’t need to know any of that. Anyway, how does Maggie know McIntyre’s here?’

  ‘She saw him in the pub.’

  ‘Maggie doesn’t go into pubs.’

  ‘She was seeing Muriel about something, and McIntyre came in.’ Connie remembered Maggie’s words and said determinedly, ‘Maggie said he has been here nearly three weeks already, and she thinks he has come to seek you out.’

  ‘Surely not? Maggie must be wrong.’

  ‘If she’s wrong, there’s no harm done, but if she’s right … I mean, what if he came to the house?’

  Angela shook her head. ‘He wouldn’t do that.’

  ‘How can you be so sure?’ Connie demanded. ‘He meant you harm before, and don’t deny it, because I saw his handiwork. Why would he make it easier for you now? What if he saw Stan in the pub and told him about the nights you both indulged in?’

  ‘Connie, Stan is the man I love. I can’t confess all that to him.’

  ‘You can’t not tell him,’ Connie said emphatically. ‘Not telling him, not confessing all, is the very worst thing you can do.’

  ‘This could be my last crack at happiness,’ Angela cried. ‘How can I risk losing Stan by telling him about a period in my life that I wish had never happened?’

  ‘You know Stan better than me,’ Connie said. ‘You’ll know how to handle him, but I’d say you have a far greater chance of losing Stan if you allow Eddie McIntyre to get to him first. Immediately you’ll be on the defensive then. Once before you didn’t trust Stan. You must have trust in the man you intend to marry. Please Mammy, tell him.’

  Angela saw her daughter’s pleading eyes and knew every word she had spoken was correct. She
inclined her head. ‘I will tell Stan straight after the meal, never fear.’

  ‘Promise?’

  ‘I promise.’

  In a sigh of relief Connie let out the breath she hadn’t been aware she’d been holding. She knew now her mother would tell Stan, for Angela had never broken a promise. Connie felt strongly that honesty was the only way to cope with a slimy, lying creep like McIntyre.

  However, for all the robust words she’d said to her mother, she too was nervous of Stan’s reaction, for her future was linked with her mother’s. Connie herself had no idea if she should tell Daniel, or how he would react either. But she felt she could hardly marry him without saying anything, because he might not wish to join such a disreputable family. Connie had no doubt that McIntyre would lose no time in spreading rumours about them all, and unfortunately there was absolutely nothing she could do about that.

  THIRTEEN

  Talk around the table once Stan had arrived home didn’t touch on anything that Connie and her mother had spoken about earlier, but instead focused on the good news Connie had had earlier that day from the hospital. ‘Soon have your nose to the grindstone, like every other body,’ Daniel said with a grin. ‘Not a lady of leisure much longer.’

  ‘Yes, thank goodness,’ Connie said. ‘I am bored rigid at home, and anyway, I can’t expect the library and college to wait for ever.’

  ‘No,’ Stan agreed. ‘They have been very good, but remember, there’s no point going back before the hospital’s say-so, or you might end up having to take time off again.’

  ‘Heaven forbid!’ Connie said vehemently.

  ‘I heard of a house just today,’ Daniel said. ‘It’s in Edgbaston, not far from King Edward’s High. It would be great for us, if we weren’t delaying our wedding.’

  ‘Shame, that is,’ Stan said. ‘I believe good houses aren’t that easy to find.’

  ‘I know,’ Daniel said. ‘In fact, rather than lose it completely, providing Connie is agreeable, I’m going to see if the owner would be willing for me to rent it, for now.’