by Leah Fleming
‘Hush, hush, chappie, nice work. A frogman?’
‘Not exactly.’ Ewan shook his head, having no desire to pursue this conversation. His service record was not for general knowledge. He turned to walk back up the lane. ‘I’ll call back later,’ he shouted.
The man was following after him, scratching his head. ‘Look, I don’t know if I ought to be telling you this but Brodie… er Mrs Broddick’s away to buy some fancy rig out, for a special occasion so we’ve gathered. She and young Mr Lennox are very pally. Now he’s a grand chap, heir to all of this. Mr Roddy was a pilot, one of the few… quite the ace. He’s got a DFC and bar. They’re very close. Just thought I’d better warn you, old chap. The war’s over and new beginnings all round, I say. Shame to disturb her and the kiddie too, such a bonnie bairn, bright as a button. She’ll be getting a good education if the Lennoxes have anything to do with it…’ The chauffeur winked.
‘I didn’t know she had a child.’ Ewan’s heart started at this news.
Harry tapped his. nose. ‘One of those post-war-time things. Don’t ask me the details but let’s just say the master adores the tiny mite. Shall I be telling her where you’re staying?’
Ewan was too stunned to take in all the chauffeur was hinting. ‘No, perhaps not. She’s probably forgotten all about me. A lot of water under the bridge and all that… You’re sure she’s happy with him?’
‘Delirious, old chap. She’s a born lady, fits in beautifully, the family think she’s quite one of them. But I can tell her you called.’
‘No! Not if it upsets everything. She deserves some peace. Her first husband made her unhappy. I just hoped when things settled down we could get back together again. We were sort of engaged for a while, you see. Thanks for being so honest with me. Perhaps it’s better to let sleeping dogs lie. My timing doesn’t seem to be very good in these matters… Better to leave things well alone this time.’
How could he forget his arrival on the ferry boat in Phetray and the mayhem he had stirred up there? There could be no second mishap. Was it nearly three years ago?
‘I’m sure young Mr Lennox will be giving her everything she wants. Only the best in this household.’ The chauffeur smiled, looking him up and down with undisguised superiority.
‘That doesn’t always make a body happy though, does it?’ Ewan argued staring hard at the mechanic with the plush accent and silk scarf tied round his neck.
‘Oh come now, Mr Mackinnon, ladies like the good things of life and Brodie seems no different from the rest.’
‘I suppose so… Stupid of me to think she wouldn’t run with the herd. I’ll be taking my leave of you.’ Ewan reached out to shake his hand firmly.
‘Yes, of course, you do that, sir, pleased to meet you, Mr Mackinnon.’
‘And you are?’ he asked.
‘Just call me Harry. I’ll show you to the gate. No, wait. Fancy a spin in the jalopy? I’ll run you to the station. It’ll be a long journey home for you otherwise.’
‘Thanks, Harry, that’s most obliging of you.’
‘No trouble at all. Any friend of Brodie’s a friend of mine. Fine lassie, a real lady. She’ll make Lennox a very happy man.’
Ewan clung on to his seat trying to clear his head as the wind whistled and the sports car roared and spluttered round the twisty lanes towards Peebles. So that was why she had not written. Too much had happened since their last meeting. Now she was a mother and soon to be a bride. There was a baby and a new life to plan. Is that why she was desperate for him to come, so she could explain it all face to face and introduce her Mr Roddy, the air force ace?
You didn’t waste much time, did you? his heart cried out in anger. Every time I leave you, you find comfort elsewhere. ‘Frailty, thy name is woman!’ Old Shakespeare was right.
He was rattled and shaken by the chauffeur’s wild driving to the station, but a lift was better than shank’s pony. There was no point in staying or going back to London now. It would be easier to head north to Glasgow. He might even look up Johanna Macallum and catch up on old times before he went on to Inverness to see his father. He had her address somewhere in his rucksack. Somehow he didn’t want to be alone with this disappointment. He needed to talk it all out with an old friend, and Jo Macallum was a good egg.
His mind was racing. It had happened again, him hanging back sure of her loyalty and love but staying away too long, just as before. How could one compete with a Battle of Britain ace who lived in a woodland palace, offering security and a home for his bride and their love child?
All he had brought north in his knapsack was a battered sketch pad and the promise of foreign travel. Not much to satisfy the obvious ambitions of Minnie Macfee, he sighed with bitterness. Perhaps it was time to find someone else, who would be impressed by his world and show his faithless lover two could play at that game.
‘Let me see you on to the train, Mr Mackinnon.’ Harry the chauffeur lifted out the kit bag with a smile.
‘There’s no need. I can manage,’ said Ewan surprised at such willing service.
‘Anything to oblige the SBS!’ Harry made a mock salute to his passenger as Ewan made for the platform. The driver waved and smiled, emptying his pockets, throwing an undelivered telegram into the waste bin with relief.
*
It was a glorious evening as the bus cornered the lanes tightly, brushing against the leaves of overhanging trees. Minn looked up at the flashes of spring greens and the blossom dripping from the boughs like welcoming garlands. She would never tire of this journey from the bustling city out into the winding, rolling lanes along the river Tweed, which flashed and danced in the late-afternoon sunlight. She had sat down wearily after a successful shopping trip to Edinburgh, with a box containing a ball gown of midnight blue velvet studded with silver sequins.
It had been fun trying on all the gowns in the wholesale warehouses that Harry Lennox had managed to get her passes to view, but to watch the beautiful panorama unfolding before her with her daughter sleeping on her knee was a luxury no money could buy. It had been a lovely excursion.
Harry was waiting for her at the halt looking especially pleased with himself. ‘Come and see my new sports car!’ he said, ushering her into the passenger seat to view his Lagonda, carrying her sleeping child into the car.
‘Do you like it?’
‘Not another change of car! You never keep them five minutes… but it’s very swish.’ She smiled indulgently. Harry and his sports cars were a family joke.
Anna was ready for her cot. Harry followed them both into the cottage, eyeing her box. ‘So you made a purchase, good show. Can I come in? You will try it for me? I want to see you in all your finery.’
‘When I’ve put Anna to bed,’ she replied wearily, for it had been a tiring day spending his money.
‘Why don’t you call her Nancy?’ he said.
‘She’s my child. I like Anna,’ she replied.
‘But Nancy suits her better, Nancy Lennox… How does that sound?’
Minn looked up at him shocked by his presumption. ‘Don’t be silly, Harry, she’s a Broddick.’
‘Is she? If you married me she could be a Lennox,’ he whispered, staring at her.
‘Are you drunk? Why should I marry you?’ she said, shaking her head.
‘No, I’m not drunk. Never more sober. Marry me and I’ll give little Nancy the whole world as her plaything. She’ll have only the best, and her mother too: fine clothes, horses and a respectable name,’ he said, grabbing her hand and kneeling on the floor.
‘You are drunk… Get up! I told you, I’m not free to marry anyone. My husband may be dead but in the eyes of the law he’s still missing. I’m not free to marry anyone yet, and if I were… There’s someone else…’ What had brought this on?
‘You can forget about him! I know he never bothers to answer your letters or contact you. What sort of relationship is that?’ Harry knew how to press home a valid but painful point.
‘He must be abroad still,’
she argued. ‘I don’t know… My private life is none of your business.’ How dare he question why Ewan had stopped writing to her when anyone could see she was still rankled by the long silence between them.
‘Oh but it is, young lady. Ever since I saw you hanging out of that window with those golden pigtails I knew I was never going to let you out of my life… ever… even if it does take years! You’re the one I want and what I want I usually get.’ Harry was smiling wickedly, raising his brows in a challenge.
‘I was taught want never gets.’ I’m not one of your black market, fallen-off-the-lorry bits up for sale to the highest bidder,’ she snapped.
‘You’ll never get a better offer than this. I can give you comfort and luxuries. Think about it for Anna’s sake. I’ll be patient, I’ll stay on my bended knee all night if I have to, but I’ll not be thwarted by you or anyone. Go and change into your glad rags and let me see what wondrous goods I’m buying.’ Harry wafted her into the bedroom.
There was such a glint of lust and ambition in his foxy eye as he appraised her body, her posture and the flush of her cheeks. Her fingers trembled as she unfastened her plain clothes and fingered the exquisite fabric of the dress, looking at herself in the mirror.
Why was he being so attentive? She could hear him singing a nursery rhyme to Anna. Perhaps she owed her daughter a secure future. What if Ewan never came to call? What if he didn’t acknowledge the girl as his? What if she wasn’t his baby?
She made a grand entrance out of her little bedroom, shaking with the chill and a frisson of fear. Harry’s eyes lit up.
‘You pay for dressing, Brodie. I know that we have a business partnership but it’ll work even better if you do me the honour of marrying me. You always make me so proud when I take you to meet clients, but I want more from you. I want to see passion in those icy blue eyes. I want everyone in the room to see what a beautiful woman is on my arm. You’ve tantalized me long enough. I don’t care a jot if your hubby’s alive or dead. Marriage lines are only bits of paper. Who cares if we jump the gun? We can go abroad. No one will know. You and I are going places, my darling. Pitlandry House will soon have served its purposes and I’ll take us south to England, the Continent, wherever. What do you say?’ he whispered, his eyes sparking in the firelight.
‘This is only the beginning, Brodie… only the beginning of a wonderful life. Come here and let me kiss away your fears. I’m going to make you so happy.’ Harry was drawing her ever closer into his perfumed net, reeling her like a fish on a hook into his arms with promises, promises.
She looked around her shabby little room with its pitiful furniture and homespun furnishings.
Do you want this for the rest of your life? Do you want Anna to miss out on everything a gentleman’s daughter might expect from an indulgent father? Across the yard in the big house there were acres of space to furnish and all that her heart desired.
She looked up at the little figurine shining on the mantelpiece. It stood so forlorn, showing up all the rest of the room with its delicacy. If you say yes to Harry who knows how many pieces of china you can add to your collection, she thought.
As Harry crushed her in his arms she cried not with joy, but with anger for Ewan. Where are you? Why have you not returned for me? There was no warmth in her lips as she kissed Harry slowly, but he opened her mouth gently at first, pressing expertly enough to arouse a flicker of a response.
His eyes glinted brightly and she knew he was buying her compliance with promises of comfort and security. The part of her that still yearned for Ewan wanted to draw back from this contract but there was a needier part of her that snatched at this unexpected offer, knowing she was getting a bargain.
Harry Lennox was taking her to his bed just as she was, flawed, with a child, from an unpromising background, and asking no questions. He wanted her youthful body, her passion and commitment in return for his protection. Was it wrong to want calmer waters after all the storms of the past few years? Here she could be safe among strangers, here Anna was already happy. Only a fool would turn this offer down, but what if Ewan ever came to collect her?
There was no use depending on other people’s promises, she sighed. You have to ride the wave, a daughter of the tide must take the tide when it comes and the tide was turning in her favour for once.
You don’t love him, cried her heart, but this time she must let common sense be her guide. Harry was offering respectability at long last, a good name, a chance to do good in the district and to give Anna the best chances. He was offering her the Crannog and all those childhood dreams on a china plate. Only a fool would refuse him. This time she was deciding for herself.
So what if some of the friends and acquaintances he encouraged her to entertain were a bit shady, shallow, glittery: constantly on the search for the latest distraction money could buy. Would they ignore her obvious humble background once they were married? Did they even care?
Are you marrying Harry for his money, selling yourself down the river for a cabinet of porcelain, a wardrobe of furs and satins, or to protect Anna? How will I know? she thought, and does it matter?
Three
Phetray, 1948
In the summer of 1948 Eilidh Macfee made her summer progress from Phetray via Glasgow to visit Niall and his wife, Mima, in Rutherglen, then on to Pitlandry House, where she sat bemused in the kitchen gardens, admiring the rows of vegetables as Gil Chisholm hoed the weeds down neat rows. The annual holiday visit was always strained, this time not least because Minn was in early pregnancy with her second child and felt wretched and tired, and Eilidh was full of news from the island.
‘It was such a swish wedding… Factor Macallum’s daughter and Ewan dubh, the minister’s son. They went to France on their honeymoon and now he’s back painting pictures at the Crannog, a gey funny way to earn a living.’ Mother paused, seeing the look of surprise flit across Minn’s face. ‘Ewan’s mother would turn in her grave to see him dressed like a tramp and no some minister of the kirk with a dog collar around his neck.
‘Still, you’ve done better for yourself with Harry. A rising tide lifts all boats, they say. I always hoped you’d make a go of it with the minister’s son, but who knows what the Lord has in store for us!’
Minn watched her own mother treating Harry and Anna as if they were minor royalty. Her English was halting and hesitant and the little girl hung back from her stern face, steel-grey hair and plain clothes. When Harry’s friends called by they assumed she was Minn’s old nanny and no one told them otherwise, but Minn was not proud of this deception. It was when Mother sat in the sunlight sucking peppermints that Minn noticed how translucent and yellowish was the skin on her face, and her plump legs were now like candlesticks, so thin she had become. ‘Go and see Doctor Murray,’ she suggested.
Mother shook her head firmly saying, ‘I’m fine enough. It can wait. This inland air is too dry for my taste. I miss the tang of salted ling in the wind. My stomach is not used to such fancy foods. The richness of it sticks in my craw. It’s time to be away home, mo ghaoil.’ There was a far away gaze in her dull eyes like a dog pining for its own kennel.
When the telegram arrived later in the autumn addressed to Mrs Lennox at Pitlandry House, asking Minn to ring Doctor Murray on Phetray urgently, it was not entirely unexpected. ‘I think you’d better be paying her a call, Mairi,’ said the doctor. ‘She’s no long for this world. This sickness can no longer be contained. She’s asking for you to come back home one last time.’
Should I take Anna from nursery school? Minn wondered, but the prospect of them squashed into the stone cottage facing a dying old lady was unthinkable. She must face this journey alone. Harry would see to her with Edie Lawrie’s help. They were settled at Pitlandry now and the house was being gradually renovated to fit their growing family. Her child needed familiar surroundings when there was sadness in the house.
Minn was four months pregnant by now, still feeling sick and queasy at the thought of a sea voyage, but once su
mmoned she made every effort to catch the next flight from Abbotsinch Airport near Glasgow, and Harry drove her to the airport in his latest Bentley.
She looked down at her wedding ring of white gold studded with diamonds. They had ‘married’ abroad discreetly in the autumn of 1947 and Edie Lawrie, who’d married Gil Chisholm, came to live in the cottage in Minn’s place. Her life was now running a large household. Mother’s death would be the last chapter of her old life on Phetray.
‘I can come with you,’ offered Harry, anxious for the health of his coming child. ‘We can transfer her to a private hospital in Peebles, if you wish.’
‘No, she would hate being among strangers. Better to go alone, I think. I don’t know how long this will all take. I want you to be around for Anna and see to all the alterations in the kitchen,’ she said looking round proudly at her new modern kitchen, with tiled walls and the latest kitchen range. ‘I want everything shipshape for Christmas when Daisy comes. Make sure that the decorators finish on time. It sounds as if this is going to be my very last visit to Phetray.’
As the plane bumped in the clouds on this sad journey north, she could feel the old pull of the isles returning. She had not regretted her decision to live with Harry. Anna must have a father, someone to provide for and cushion her from the harshness of life. No one had ever provided for Minn, only a grumpy parent and an absent uncle. Her own children would have a better life.
She smiled thinking of Harry’s persistence in wooing her. He made her laugh, distracted her from her bouts of doubt and gloom. There was none of the old fear in making love with Harry either. He was experienced with women and it showed.
He knew how to climb the ladder of success. In uniform and a kilt he was passable. Most of all he belonged to the world she had always aspired to. All her life she had been preparing for this role, even at the Crannog, she mused.
Dressing well came easily for she had an innate sense of style and an eye for colour. She looked elegant in the new Dior fashions with their full skirts and nipped-in waists. Speaking with her careful cut-glass accent gave her a cachet among the Border county set, who were intrigued about her mysterious background but assumed she was one of them from her accent and elegant clothes.
