Perhaps it was the sound of her son’s championing of her that brought Cissie up from the couch. Groping blindly towards Pat she pulled him away from Laurie, and pushed him before her to the bedroom, and there she said, ‘It’s all right. It’s all right. Go on in. I won’t be a minute, stay there.’ She closed the bedroom door; then came slowly back across the room, crying still, and as she came near him, her head bowed now, she said, ‘I’m sorry I did that.’
‘Can I have a towel?’
Without lifting her head she went to the kitchen, and returning with a towel she handed it to him.
He put his sodden handkerchief in his pocket, and wiped his face and neck, the front of his hair, then rubbed down his coat and waistcoat.
She stood away from him now but looking towards him, the shuddering sobs shaking her body, and after a time she said, ‘Why had you to come? There’s always trouble.’
‘I…I had news for you about the boy. I thought it might ease your mind.’
He was amazed at his change of attitude. His anger had gone, seemingly washed away on the wave of whisky and soda. He said, ‘I think I can make Bolton tell the truth. I’ll know by tomorrow anyway.’
She swallowed deeply, her eyes watching as she looked at him. Then she whispered, ‘You can?’
He nodded, still amazed at himself as he said, ‘Whichever way he turns, I’ve got him. I don’t think you need to worry any more.’
‘And…and you came to tell me that?’
‘Well…’ he closed his eyes and turned his head to the side for a moment. ‘That was primarily my intention, and on the way I dropped my mother off at the hospital.’
Now she lowered her eyes from his face and said contritely, ‘I was saying goodbye to your father. It was the first time I had kissed him. The first time that there had been any endearment between us, but…but he had been talking…telling me about…about his life. About the war and what happened to him, and he told it to me for a purpose, and I loved him in that moment more than I have ever loved anyone in my life. And…and I can tell you now, quite quietly, that…that if he’d asked me to stay with him and it was for his happiness I would have done it, but he didn’t. He’s—he’s got a sense of responsibility to your mother. And I’ll also say this to you now, she’s not worth it. A woman…’ She gulped in her throat, and there was the dry harsh sobbing sound again. ‘A woman who could live with a man for years and years, twenty-six years, and make him as lonely as your father is, isn’t up to much, not in my opinion.’
He looked down towards his feet as he repeated the words his mother had said to him earlier on, ‘There’s nothing really white, and nothing really black, in any of us.’
‘Oh, it’s all very well saying that, but I think her treatment of him was a subtle form of cruelty. Not that he’s ever said a word against her, he’s hardly spoken of her till this morning, and then it was kindly, but I know women, as I know men, and he didn’t have to tell me what had put that look in his face. It had puzzled me since I first met him, but not any more.’
‘Your boy said a moment ago you were a good woman; I can say the same of my mother. She’s a good woman.’
‘It all depends on what you mean by good.’
They were talking quietly now, as if they were discussing something abstract. When they both stopped speaking and the room became filled with a silence that yelled at them, he wanted to get out, away from her, but he remained still and watched her go to the fireplace again and stand with her foot on the raised hearth, her hand on the mantelpiece. She stood like this some time before she asked quietly, ‘How did you get Mr Bolton round?’
‘I would rather you didn’t ask.’
After a moment she said, ‘Well, it doesn’t matter how you did it as long as you did it. And…and believe me…’ There was another pause before she finished, ‘I’m grateful.’ She half turned her head towards him now. ‘It mightn’t appear so…but what’s just happened is another thing, isn’t it? Nothing to do with Pat and the court business.’
Solemnly he agreed with her, saying, ‘Yes, another thing entirely. I’ll be going now.’
She turned from the fire and went towards him. Her face had a deep look of sadness on it, and her tone was laden with remorse. ‘I’m truly sorry; I’ve never done anything like that before.’
‘There’s always a first time for everything. That’s what they say, isn’t it?’ At the back of his mind he thought he couldn’t have made a more trite remark if he had tried. ‘Goodbye,’ he said.
‘Goodbye.’ She inclined her head towards him but didn’t move. He went out of the room and let himself out of the flat and drove back to the hospital.
When he went into the room he saw his father talking in his slow, laboured fashion to his mother. He had hold of her hand and seemed to be trying to impress something on her.
He felt awkward as he said, ‘How are you?’
‘Oh, I’m feeling well today, quite well,’ said John. He smiled at Laurie. ‘I was telling your mother I’ll be home in a week or two.’
Ann exchanged a glance with Laurie as she said, ‘The doctor advises a sea voyage; we were just talking about it.’
‘Oh, that would be fine,’ said Laurie. ‘The very thing to put you on your feet.’ They talked a little more; then Laurie said his goodbyes and went towards the door. He did not wait to see if they kissed or not.
In the car they said little, but once they were alone in the lounge he said to her, ‘It’s all right, you’ve got no need to worry.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I’ve seen her. It—it was…Well, she was saying goodbye to him and—and that was the first time it had ever happened—I mean anything like that between them.’
‘Laurie! You haven’t been to that woman again? But why?’ There was a note of fear in her voice.
‘Her boy’s in trouble. Father was taking the case. Arnold took it over and was going about it in a legal way, naturally, but you can’t deal legally with men like Bolton…Oh.’ He raised his hand. ‘Forget all about that, that’s got nothing to do with you; only I can assure you,’ he took her hands in his now, ‘you’ve got nothing to worry about. Do you know what she said? She said Father loved you…There.’ It was easy to stretch ‘responsibility’ to ‘love’ and it did no harm. What was vital at the moment was she needed reassurance and comfort.
‘How did she know?’ The note of fear was now replaced by one of indignation.
‘I don’t know, but that’s what she said.’ As he looked at her walking away from him, pulling at her handkerchief, he thought she was an entirely different creature from the mother he had known a week ago. The lady with the cool façade and slight hauteur of manner was gone, and the woman in her place was more human, more, he would say, of a woman.
‘Now everything’s going to be all right. Don’t you worry any more, just take things as they come, eh?’ He was speaking to her back, and at that moment the front door bell rang, and he knew that particular ring. When she turned towards him he said, ‘Out of the mouth of babes. Take things as they come, I said.’
She came to him and caught at his hand. ‘Go gently with her. It’s an awful thing for a girl.’ She shook her head slowly from side to side. ‘I didn’t tell you but she was over last night, Mrs Stringer left a message.’
‘I’ll be in the study,’ he said, then went quickly out and across the hall and into the room where the battle was to take place.
Awful thing for a girl. Valerie was no girl. His mother was still living in this century; Valerie was a twenty-sixty-four female if ever there was one. She was an Amazon, a five-foot-three Amazon, and his maleness resented being dominated by an Amazon of any size. He heard his mother say, ‘He’s in the study, Valerie,’ and her voice was gentle.
Then Valerie came in. He was sitting at his desk as if he had been there for some time; he had a pen in his hand and he looked up at her as she stopped with her back to the closed door. She returned his scrutiny and, to his surprise
, she smiled at him before saying, ‘I’m going to make no reference to Mohammed and the mountain.’ She moved towards him now. ‘Been busy?’
‘Yes. Yes.’
‘Girls!’ she began abruptly. ‘Oh, how I get sick of the sight of girls. Beseeching eyes, moist lips, groping minds.’ She flung herself into the leather chair and stretched out her shapely legs. Then looking at him out of the corner of her eyes, she said, ‘You’d never believe it but one’s got a pash on me; she brought me a box of chocolates today. It’s half mother-instinct I think. She’s sixteen and already five foot seven.’ She laughed.
At this point he knew he was expected to make some witty quip, and when he didn’t and she made no comment on his blank reception of this biological tid-bit, he knew she was working to a set plan. She had likely talked it over with her mother and been advised to play it cool so to speak. Not that Aunt May would have used that term, and not that Valerie needed any advice, tactical or otherwise. She was the kind that walked the road she had mapped out, and stepped over the corpses in her way. She didn’t believe in by-roads.
‘Feel like going out?’
‘Not tonight.’
‘Well, I don’t much either. I could have brought my work up but I’ve had a bellyful today.’
He rubbed his hand across his brow, then leant his elbow on the desk and supported his head with his finger tips. This was going to be harder than he thought, damnable in fact.
‘Oh, I forgot to tell you. We’ve got another wedding present. My cousin from Bromwich; you know, in the electric business. A toaster. I bet it was a throw-out. I’d also like to bet we’ll get half-a-dozen before we finish.’
He did not raise his head.
‘Did you hear what I said, Laurie?’
He knew by her tone that her control was slipping. It was going to be as difficult for her to follow the path of mediation as it was for himself to do what he had to do.
‘Yes, I heard what you said.’
‘Well, why the hell don’t you answer?’ She was on her feet looking down at him now. ‘I came round here fully prepared to forget the last few days because I knew you were worried about your father and all this rotten business, but what meets me? A blank wall, and I don’t take to blank walls, Laurie. Now, look…whatever’s on your mind, spit it out and let’s get it over with.’
He placed his forearms on the desk and joined his hands together and looked at her for a long moment before saying, ‘I can’t go through with this, Val.’ He moved his head in small jerks. ‘I just can’t go through with it.’
He felt an overwhelming sense of pity for her as he watched her rear up with the shock, stretching herself to the limit of her height. And he felt himself to be something so low it could have crawled out of a sewer when, placing her two hands flat on the table, she leant towards him, opened her mouth twice, then said, below her breath, ‘Are you telling me, really sitting there telling me you can’t go through with it? You mean, our marrying?’
He bit hard on his lip, then gave her a small nod.
Slowly she straightened up and from the top of her brow to where the curve of her small full breasts disappeared behind the square neck of her dress her flesh looked stiff and cold. ‘You’re telling me quite calmly that it’s off?’
‘I don’t feel calm about it, Val, I feel damned awful.’
‘Really! Well, it’s nice to know you are a little troubled. And now would you mind explaining why, at this stage of our acquaintance, you have decided that you are going to drop me?’
‘Look, Val,’ he moved his head desperately. ‘I…I just don’t think we’re suited, we wouldn’t make a go of it.’
She stepped back from the table and pressing her forearm into her waist she cupped her elbow in her hand and surveyed him for some time before she said, ‘and you’ve just found that out?’
‘No, no. I’ve got to be honest with you…’
‘Oh, yes, let’s be honest, let’s be honest. Go on …’
‘Please, Val, please. It’s just that I should have told you sooner but I didn’t want to hurt you.’
‘You didn’t want to hurt me! You leave it until now and you say you didn’t want to hurt me. Six weeks’ time, the date’s fixed for the 12th July, remember? We’re in the process of buying a house, we’ve got most of the furniture, and you can sit there calmly and tell me…’ She gulped as if overcome with the enormity of his nerve. Then in a slow ominous tone she went on, ‘Oh, no, you don’t, Laurie. You don’t do this to me. You’re not going to show me up before everyone in this town. Remember, I work in a girls’ school. Seven hundred girls, a good proportion of them sixteen, seventeen and eighteen; you don’t know girls in the horde, Laurie. But apart from that you’re not doing this to me. I’ll make you go through with this even if we get a divorce within three months. But you’re not standing me up…You’re not standing me up.’ Her body now snapped forward. Her hands again on the desk, she brought her face within an inch of his. ‘We’re getting married on the 12th of July.’
‘You can’t force me to marry you, Val.’ He gave a short laugh, but there was no mirth in it, it was merely a gesture to hide his nervousness.
‘Can’t I? You don’t know your Valerie. Our community wouldn’t hold a man who jilted his girl on the eve of their marriage and her going to have his baby.’
She drew back from him and surveyed his gaping face with one long, long look; then she marched from the room.
After a moment he sat back in his chair and put his hands across his eyes.
Six: Mr Bolton Remembers
It was eleven o’clock the next morning when Mr Bolton phoned Laurie. ‘Is that Emmerson?’ said the voice on the other end of the phone.
‘Yes, this is Mr Emmerson.’
‘It’s Bolton, here.’
There was a pause, during which Laurie remained silent.
‘You can have it your way.’
Another pause.
‘Well, I’ve said it, haven’t I?’
‘Have you been to the police?’
‘No, not yet.’
‘Well you can phone me again when you have; I’ll be here till six o’clock.’
‘Blast you!’
‘The same to you, Mr Bolton…’
It was just on half-past five when the phone rang, and picking it up, he expected to hear Bolton’s voice, but it was a woman who said, ‘I would like to speak to Mr Emmerson.’
‘Mr Emmerson here,’ he said.
‘This, this is Mrs Thorpe…I don’t know how to begin but…but the police have been round, and Mr Bolton’s been to the station and said he’s made a mistake and that Pat was with him until one o’clock on that Saturday…Are you there?’
‘Yes, yes, I’m here. I’m very glad.’
‘They say this is a big factor in clearing him and…and if the other boys would own up he’d be cleared altogether. There’s no hope of Tim Brooks doing that but Barrie Rice could. I’m going round to see his mother now.’
‘I doubt if you’ll make any headway with her.’
‘Oh. Why?’
‘I called on her the other evening, she strikes me as another Mr Bolton. I’d leave her to Mr Ransome.’
There was such a long silence now that he was about to ask, ‘Are you there?’ when her voice came to him softly, saying, ‘It was very kind of you. You’ve been so kind and…and after what happened last night, it makes me feel awful.’
‘Think no more about it. I’m…I’m sure everything will be all right now. Mr Ransome will be getting in touch with you. I’ve had a word with him. He thinks even as things stand your boy’ll be cleared.’
‘Oh, thank you. Thank you. I…I would like to express my thanks more fully but I can’t; I—I don’t know what to say.’
‘There’s no need to say anything.’
‘Goodbye, Mr Emmerson.’
‘Goodbye, Mrs Thorpe.’
So that was that …
When he reached home Mrs Stringer met him in the hall.
‘Missis told me to tell you that she wouldn’t be back till ‘bout seven, Mr Laurie, but Miss Valerie’s in the lounge.’
‘Thank you, Stringy.’ His voice was level. He took off his hat and coat, dropped his case onto a chair, went into the cloakroom, washed his hands, took a long drink of cold water, then went into the lounge.
Valerie was sitting on the couch. Her face looked a little paler than usual, but that was the only change visible in her. There was no nervousness showing, no sign of hysteria. He closed the door firmly behind him and took a seat near the empty fireplace; then looking towards her, he said, ‘Well?’
‘I thought I’d pop in to tell you that the mistresses are wondering what to buy us for a wedding present. Miss Becker came and asked me today. I said I would consult you.’
He got up from the chair and walked the length of the room and into the dining section, and he stood with his stomach pressed against the back of a dining chair as he said, ‘You’re not going to have any baby, Val.’
‘How can you prove that at this stage? Only I know if I’m going to have a baby or not. And if I wasn’t going to have one you couldn’t be blamed for not trying, could you?’
His back still to her, his face screwed up with distaste.
‘I’ve said nothing about this to anyone, as you will have already gathered, because had I mentioned it to father you would have been eaten alive by now.’
He turned towards her, and over the distance he said, ‘You can mention it to him as soon as you like, Val, the sooner the better, because more than ever now I know that I can’t marry you.’
‘What if I sue you for breach of promise? I could skin you alive, and I would you know, because if there’s got to be publicity I would make it pay. I would rub your nose in the mud, and not only your nose.’
He moved swiftly towards her and, standing over her, said thickly, ‘Do whatever you like, Val, whatever you like. But just get it into your head I’m not going to marry you.’
The Unbaited Trap Page 17