They were all sitting quiet now, still somewhat stunned but united, and all three were strangely at peace.
It was as he had been telling Van all the while, things would work out, but when the thought came to him how nearly they hadn’t he had to get up quickly and go down the yard.
Eight
Three weeks later Vanessa lost her baby. Doctor Carr ordered her into hospital on the Friday night and the baby was taken away on the Sunday afternoon. It was eight days later when she returned home. Angus brought her in a taxi, and as soon as she entered the house she noticed a difference, particularly in their room. There were new curtains at the window; the furniture had been polished and there was a cherry-coloured wall-to-wall carpet covering the floor. The room had been papered in a plain grey paper and the old pictures hadn’t been re-hung. The single beds were still there, but they both had new candlewick spreads. She paused in the doorway, then looked at Angus and smiled weakly as she said, ‘It’s nice, lovely. Thank you.’
He wished she didn’t always thank him, not in that polite way anyhow. He said, ‘Rosie picked the colours; I wasn’t any good at it, and me mam not much better.’ He turned and looked at Rosie where she was standing well back in the kitchen, and Vanessa turned towards her, too, and across the distance she again spoke her thanks, in that quiet, polite, courteous way, which would have befitted an elderly woman but sounded strange coming from this young girl.
Rosie nodded and smiled self-consciously. She couldn’t see herself ever liking her sister-in-law; you never really liked anybody who always seemed to put you at a disadvantage; yet she no longer detested the sight of her. She took a step forward, saying, ‘I thought the cherry and grey would go nice together.’
‘It does. It looks lovely,’ Vanessa moved into the room and to a coffee table on which was now set tea for two people. There were two cups and saucers and a milk jug and sugar, basin to match, a plate of bread and butter and another of small cakes. She looked down at it; then turned and looked at Emily, and Emily said, ‘I thought you’d like to eat in here.’
‘No, Emily, no.’ There was a firmness about the shake of her head that silenced the three people looking at her, until Angus said, ‘It’s all arranged, don’t worry; we’ll eat here.’
‘No, Angus.’ She looked straight into his face for a moment, then turned to Emily and said again, ‘No, Emily. We eat as before.’
‘Oh, then have it your own way.’ Angus was tossing his head. It was as if he was giving in reluctantly to some outrageous demand, but what the three women knew in their different ways was, he was pleased and relieved at her decision.
The pattern now was different. The atmosphere in the house was light, even gay, but whereas before Angus had felt that his marriage, for good or ill, was an established fact, he no longer had this feeling of security concerning it, for as each day passed and Vanessa returned to full health, he felt that she could walk out on him any minute; there was nothing to hold her. She wasn’t dependent on him to look after her and her child; she could go anywhere and get a job. She had the looks and figure that models were made out of; she was almost eighteen and she hadn’t begun to live; she didn’t know yet what it was all about.
Each night when he came back from work he felt sick, until he saw she was still there. He felt that there was one solution to it all; he had to put her in a position similar to the one she had just got out of, and everything would be as it was before.
‘Go gently with her,’ Doctor Carr had told him. ‘She’s of a different calibre to you. You’ve got to realise that. Modern, swingin’, or what-have-you, as brash as they are today, early environment counts.’ He hadn’t minced his words had Doctor Carr. ‘Your mother’s been an old swine to her,’ he said. Then he waved his hand and silenced him by adding, ‘I’ve got three hundred patients in your quarter and four of them are in your street, one next door. You cannot stop people talking.’ And then he had ended, ‘I’m telling you, go gently with her. It’ll pay off in the long run.’
Well he had gone gently for two months, he was burnt up inside. There was no May to go to now to relieve the pressure, and he wasn’t picking anybody up. He thought too much of his skin for that; he didn’t want to catch anything.
So, like a man who proposed to seduce the girl of his fancy, he planned in his mind how he would take her. They would go out the morrow night, it being Saturday; he would take her to some posh restaurant and they’d have a good dinner and a bottle of wine, and then later…well, that was up to him.
As he had been doing every week for the past two months, he called in at the estate agents’ office to ask if they had found anything in the way of a flat for him, and today Reg Walker, who incidentally had at one time lived in Ryder’s Row, greeted him with, ‘No, there’s nothing in the way of a flat, Angus, but I wonder you don’t go in for a house, or a bungalow.’
‘Oh, that’s in the far future for me. What I want before a house or a bungalow is a couple of lorries.’
‘It’s a pity,’ said Reg Walker; ‘a bungalow came on my books yesterday and it’s a snip. It’s on the outskirts. Bit out for most people. An old couple had it and they died within a month of each other and their only son is in Australia, and he’s given us the OK to sell it. Do you remember Arthur Ridley? You know, they had the little hardware shop at the corner of Wolf Lane.’
‘Yes,’ nodded Angus. ‘Yes, I remember them.’
‘Well, it’s him. I mean his people. He wrote me from Australia and asked me to get rid of the bungalow and furniture; they hadn’t any money except a small insurance that paid for the funeral. He’s cagey is Arthur Ridley. He once had a huge bill in from a solicitor for something and he’s never dealt with them since. That’s how I’ve come to be handling it.’
‘Aye.’ Angus jerked his head. ‘What you askin’ for it?’
‘Well, it’s in need of decoration inside and repair outside, and the garden’s overgrown. If it was all done up it would bring anybody’s four thousand, and then it would be cheap.’
‘Oh, aye.’ Again Angus jerked his head, laughing now.
‘I’m on the level, Angus.’ Reg Walker nodded at him. ‘I stated a price of two thousand five hundred and Arthur Ridley agreed, so it’ll go for that. And I’m telling you, these days it’s an absolute snip. And there’s nearly three quarters of an acre of land with it, and you know what land is the day.’
Again Angus said, ‘Oh, aye,’ but now he neither shook his head nor laughed. He hadn’t been doing too badly these last few weeks, in fact he and Fred had split seventy pounds for each of the last five weeks. Of course there was tax off that; but then there were the Saturday runs he did and the three Sunday mornings. They had been for cash and had brought in over eighty pounds. Things were looking up, but he could do nothing big until he got more lorries, and he wanted those more than a house, but he said, ‘Have you put it in the paper?’
‘Yes; it’ll be out the morrow.’
Angus bit on his lip. ‘When could I see it?’
‘Any time you like. Run you out now if you like.’
‘Well, there’s no time like the present.’
And so Angus went to see the bungalow, and he immediately agreed with Reg that it was a good buy, an excellent buy. It had six rooms, bathroom and garage, and it overlooked the river and a fine stretch of country. He stood in the road looking back over the tangled garden towards the roof of the bungalow. This was the answer, but it would mean goodbye to the lorries for some time to come because he would still have to help his mother. And taking the bungalow was only the beginning. There would be the repayments, rates, electricity…and a phone, not to mention furnishing the whole place. He said to Reg Walker, ‘Will you give me until five o’clock?’
‘Aye,’ said Reg. ‘And I won’t mention it to anybody in the meantime. But mind, you’ll have to make your mind then. I can’t hold it, and I dare say after it comes out the morrow it’ll be gone by Monday.’
‘I’ll let you know by five,�
� said Angus.
He didn’t get into the house until half-past six. Emily had the tea set waiting. ‘You’re late,’ she said; ‘I thought you must have run into Van.’
‘Run into Van?’ He looked towards the room door. ‘She’s not in?’
‘No, she went out early this afternoon; she was going to do a bit of shoppin’ or somethin’.’
As he moved slowly towards their room she said, Now don’t go in there on that carpet with your boots on. I’ve told you,’ and he stopped and looked down at the floor for a moment, then sat down by the side of the fireplace and took off his heavy boots and put on a pair of slippers that were resting on the fender.
‘Get your wash…You’re not goin’ to the baths the night?’
‘No…She’s never been out at this time.’
‘She could have gone to Newcastle.’ Emily was bending down to the oven.
‘What would she want in Newcastle? There’s plenty of shops here. What was she after, do you know?’
Emily lifted a pie from the oven. Its top was brown and there was a pattern of pastry leaves around the edges. It could have been cooked for the table at Bower Place. She said now, ‘Stop your worryin’. Surely she can go out for five minutes…’
‘It isn’t five minutes if she went out this afternoon.’
‘Well, anyway, you’re not very early yourself; you’re nearly an hour past your time. Where’ve you been?’
He got to his feet and went into the scullery and, stripping to the waist, he started to wash himself before he called out to her, ‘I’ve been after a bungalow.’
She was at the scullery door, looking at him. ‘A bungalow?’ Her voice was high.
‘Aye. Reg Walker had a snip on his books; he offered it to me. I had to make up me mind for five o’clock; it was as quick as that.’
‘How much?’
‘Two thousand five hundred.’
‘Oh my God!’
‘It’s worth four thousand, even as it stands. It wants doing up.’
‘That’ll take some payin’ for. What’ll happen to the lorries you were goin’ after?’
‘They’ll have to wait. First things first.’
As he reached for a towel he paused and looked at her and said, ‘You’ll be all right…I’ll see to you.’
‘Now look.’ Her voice was high and held the old aggressive quality. ‘Don’t you bother about me, lad; I can take care of meself. And there’s always supplementary. I don’t see why I shouldn’t get it; every other bugger in the street’s on it. You look after yourself…and her. Anyway, if Stan and Rosie marry, an’ they’re bound to, they’ll come in with me, so don’t let anythin’ at this end put you off.’
He nodded at her.
A few minutes later, back in the kitchen, he said, ‘Hold it for another ten minutes or so until I get changed; she’ll likely be in by then.’
In the room the fire was burning brightly; it looked comfortable and cheery. Inwardly he was delighted at the change in the room, but it was still small, and to her it must appear like a box.
Where was she? Had she gone? He brought his forefinger to his teeth and bit the end completely off his nail. It would be just like the thing, wouldn’t it, him getting the bungalow and her going off all in the same day. What would he do without her? How could he go on without her? How did he go on before he had her? And yet he’d never had her in that sense. He had lived in this room with her for weeks on end and he’d never had her. It was all going to happen tomorrow night. He was barmy, mad. Be nice to her, gentle, Doctor Carr had said. Gentle be damned. He should have taken his rights weeks ago; that would have settled it. She would likely have been well on the way now with another. God, it was as his mother had said, he was soft, barmy, a blasted fool. He had worked his guts out these last few weeks to get the money to put down for the lorries and now what had he done with it? Given Reg Walker fifty pounds in advance, and promised him another two hundred and fifty the morrow. That would take every penny of his capital and push him back a year, two years; in fact he might never get on his feet again. Well, it served him right…And wouldn’t there be some laughter round the doors when they knew she had left him high and dry. They had been waiting for it, betting on it…Aw, he knew them.
He went to the narrow mantelpiece and, leaning his forearms along it, he dropped his head onto them and groaned inwardly.
When he heard his mother’s voice saying, ‘Hello, we thought you had got lost,’ he almost sprang to the little table in the corner of the room, and when she opened the door he was emptying his back trouser pocket of notes and silver.
‘Hello, there.’ He smiled at her. ‘You look froze. Where’ve you been?’ He continued to smile at her as he walked towards her.
‘I went into Newcastle.’
‘Oh. Mam thought you might.’ He was nodding at her.
She was taking off her hat and coat. ‘It’s raw,’ she said, ‘bitter; it’s nice to see a fire.’ She bent forward and held her hands down to the blaze and, looking over her shoulder, said, ‘You were late, too?’
‘Yes. Yes, I’ve been doing a bit of business…What have you been up to? Shoppin’?’
She turned and hunched her shoulders up over her long neck, then smoothed down her mauve woollen dress over her flat stomach before saying, ‘I’ve been after a job.’
When he made no comment on this she said, ‘Don’t be vexed.’
‘Vexed! Me? I’m not vexed. What kind of a job?’
‘In one of the stores, Daintrees.’
‘Oh. It’s a classy shop that.’
‘Yes.’ She nodded. ‘Quite nice. You don’t mind?’
If he didn’t know what he was going to do tomorrow night, or tonight for that matter, he would have said, ‘Mind? You’re bloody well right, I do mind. If you can’t fill your time in then I’ll have to give you something to fill it in with, won’t I?’ but what he said was, ‘I’ve got a surprise for you an’ all.’
‘You have?’ She waited.
‘How would you like a bungalow?’
‘Bungalow!’ She brought her head forward, her smile widening her large mouth.
‘Aye, I’ve bought one.’
She moved a step towards him. ‘You’ve bought a bungalow? What…what kind?’ She didn’t say, ‘You bought a bungalow without me seeing it? I mightn’t even like it.’
‘Big one. Six rooms. The lot. There was no time to let you know. I had to make up me mind by five o’clock. It’s a snip. I’ll run you out first thing in the mornin’ to see it.’
‘Where is it?’ Her face was bright and eager.
‘Oh, it’s a bit outside. Collier Road way, on a rise. You can see the river from the windows.’
The river. Her throat constricted just the slightest; the smile was fading from her face when she brought it back again and said, ‘Oh, that sounds lovely. Is it going to cost a lot?’
‘No. As I said, it’s a snip. Two thousand five hundred. It’s worth four, even as it stands. Get it put into shape and you can add another two on to that.’
She glanced towards the door, then said under her breath, ‘But, Emily.’
‘She knows; she’s glad.’
‘Are you goin’ to let this get spoilt?’ Emily’s voice, coming from the other room, made them both grimace, then laugh gently, and he pushed her towards the door, saying, ‘I’ll be there in a tick.’
As Vanessa entered the kitchen Rosie came down the stairs, and she asked immediately, under her breath, ‘Did you get it?’ and Vanessa nodded and said, ‘Yes.’
‘What they payin’ you?’
‘Six pounds ten.’
Rosie shrugged her shoulders. ‘That isn’t very much; in fact it’s nowt. And then you’ve got your fares to pay.’
‘That’s only to start with, sort of training period. I’ll get commission on sales after two months.’
‘What did he say?’ Rosie jerked her head backwards.
‘Oh, he doesn’t mind.’
‘Coo!�
�� Rosie again jerked her head; ‘that’s a surprise.’
‘What’s a surprise?’ Angus came into the room, buttoning his shirt up, and Rosie said, ‘It’s none of your business.’
‘Have you told her?’ He looked from his mother to Vanessa, and when Vanessa shook her head and his mother said, ‘No, I’ve not had time, she’s just come down,’ he turned to Rosie and said, ‘I’ve got a bungalow.’
‘A bungalow? You come into some money or summat? A bungalow? When did this all happen?’
When they sat down to their meal he explained briefly how it had all happened, and then Rosie voiced what was in the back of his mind all the time. ‘Well, that’s put paid to your gettin’ any more lorries, at least for some time,’ she said, ‘’cos you’ll need furniture and things. Good job you started work.’ She nodded at Vanessa, and Vanessa, after a moment, said, ‘Yes. Yes, it is.’ She herself had forgotten about the lorries for the moment, and yet they hadn’t been out of her mind for weeks past; the job she had got today was in a way connected with the lorries.
It was as they finished the meal that Angus, suddenly determining in his mind to push personal matters forward a little, said, ‘What about us all goin’ to the club to celebrate? Friday night’s a good night.’
Neither Emily nor Rosie made any rejoinder, but after a moment’s pause Vanessa said, ‘Yes. Yes, that’s a good idea.’
‘Oh, I don’t feel like it,’ said Emily sitting back in the chair. ‘Me feet’s killin’ me.’
It wouldn’t have taxed Emily’s feet very much in visiting the club. She would have loved to have gone along tonight and had a bit of a sing-song. It was what she needed, to be in a crowd and yell her head off, but the last time they had gone to the club all together it hadn’t been a success. It was Vanessa’s initiation, so to speak, into their kind of entertainment and she had smiled all the while, even laughed at some of the turns, but Emily hadn’t seen her almost since she was a bairn not to know that it was a façade covering her real feelings. She knew that even if Vanessa had been challenged she wouldn’t have admitted to her opinion of the company, of the drinking, singing, rocketing company, where, although the men were well put on and the women wore dresses that were a good imitation of the Bower Place lot, they acted as they had always done. It would have taken somebody like Miss Susan to say outright, ‘Common individuals!’
The Round Tower Page 23
