by Linda Huber
He did. His gaze bored into her neck as she strode to the corner, wheezing, but when she looked back, the police car had disappeared. Good. Ten miserable minutes later she was in her own hallway, hanging wet things on the stair post. Topsy and Marmaduke came running and as she’d expected, there were muddy paw marks all over and someone had coughed up a hairball in the kitchen. But she was home. A cup of tea and she’d be right as rain. Now where was Bridie? Margie heaved herself upstairs to find the child standing in the smallest bedroom, where the window overlooked the street.
‘Come and have some milk, lovey, and I’ll do your bandage for you.’
‘I think it feels better today.’ A hopeful face staring into Margie’s.
‘That’s good. Give it a couple more days and you’ll be right as rain.’
Bridie’s face brightened. Downstairs, Margie tended to the child then made tea. She sat in the armchair with Tabitha to drink it, but her shivers were making it hard for her to hold the cup. She’d forgotten to go to the chemist’s, too. But her cuppa would help, and some of Bridie’s pink medicine would be just as good as an aspirin. A rest, that was what she needed, to get rid of these shivers. Margie coughed. Ouch.
Bridie, on the sofa with Tabitha and Demelza, was staring at her with wide eyes.
Margie put her cup on the coffee table, hot tea slopping over onto her hand. Was she to have no peace today? ‘I’m all right! Leave me alone!’
The three of them fled the room, and misery almost choked Margie. She wasn’t all right, was she? But she had to be. She had her family to look after. Come on, Margie, drink that tea and pull yourself together.
Bridie was alone in the kitchen when Margie went through for a second cup. Poor maid, she was missing her brothers and sister. Where were they again? Margie shut her eyes to think, but here was Bridie, pulling at her sleeve, wanting something.
‘The kits have all gone out the window. I want to go outside too.’
Margie opened the back door. The rain had gone off, but the paving slabs by the door were wet and slimy with moss. ‘Look, everything’s soaking out there. You don’t want to be falling over and making that arm worse again, do you?’
Bridie drooped. ‘When am I going back to the other house?’
How many times? ‘Will you stop that nonsense! And you’re not going out, do you hear? Skedaddle upstairs and play in your room for a while. I have things to do.’
Bridie about-turned and thumped upstairs, and Margie closed the back door, hot misery flushing through her. Poor maid, she’d been too harsh there. She reached for the bottle of Calpol. Bridie’s dose was one spoonful, so two should be right for a grown-up. There. That would help. Now, where were the toys? Poor Bridie needed something to distract her while her arm was bad. Didn’t they have a toybox somewhere?
She stared around the kitchen, then went through to the living room. The whole place was strangely toy-free; someone must have had a tidy. It was usually bears and dollies all over the place, and those jigsaws Aiden liked. He never managed to finish them, though, did he? Margie chuckled and opened the cupboard under the stairs. Hah – here was the toybox!
It was empty, though, apart from a couple of books and Maeve’s bear. Margie lifted it – one bear was better than no bears, but where on earth had those rascals put everything?
She forced her tired legs up to Bridie’s room, where she nearly died of fright when the maid popped up from under the bed.
Margie held out the bear. ‘Look what I found.’
Bridie scrambled up and took it. ‘He can play too. We’re making a den, me and Socks!’
Margie coughed. Look at the child’s face. Grubby didn’t come into it. ‘That’s good. Tell you what, I’ll have a lie down, then afterwards we’ll give you a lovely bath. And I’ll make some bean butties for tea, would you like that?’
Bridie nodded, and Margie gave the child’s head a pat. ‘Don’t worry, Bridie, love. Your arm will be good as new before you know it.’
Bathtime at Mammy’s was peculiar. There was no shower for one thing, and the bath was all dusty. Mammy wiped it before she put the water in, but bits of grey fluff were still floating about in the water and the plughole was still green. Mammy put a kettleful of hot water in first, because the tap water wasn’t always warm enough, she said. She took Evie’s clothes away and put a blue towel on the basin ready for coming out. Evie touched it with one finger before climbing into the bath. It wasn’t a nice fluffy towel like she had at home.
Mammy didn’t have bubble bath, either, and the soap smelled different to Mummy’s. Mammy puffed and coughed because she had to kneel down beside the bath. Evie sat still, holding her arm so it didn’t hurt while Mammy washed her hair with the soap first, and then the rest of her. It was scary having her arm washed, but Mammy was gentle as could be and it only hurt a tiny bit.
‘You can play in the bath while I fetch your clothes.’ Mammy held onto the side of the bath and got up with her usual ‘Uff’.
Two tears welled up and ran down Evie’s face as soon as Mammy wobbled out of the bathroom. There was nothing to play with here, and she had to hold her arm anyway. When was she going home to Mummy and Daddy and the big tub with lovely bubble bath and her toys to skoosh around the water?
Bang-bang-bang! came from downstairs. Evie jerked in fright. Someone was at the front door – that had never happened before.
Mammy bustled back into the bathroom with an armful of clothes that weren’t Evie’s. ‘Keep quiet! It’s that woman next door again. Always complaining, she is. The cats this, the cats that. Nosy besom. She’ll go away.’
Evie made herself teensy-weensy and quiet. After a minute Mammy picked up the towel.
‘Out you come. Clean as a whistle, you are now.’ She helped Evie out of the bath and dried her off while Evie held her arm.
They only had the one green bandage, but Mammy rolled it up the other way, so the clean bit was on the outside, and wound it around the wooden spoon again. Evie was glad when that part was finished, but the bandage was making her arm feel much better. The clean clothes were old blue trousers and a red T-shirt. They were more like boys’ clothes, but Evie said nothing. They would be finished quicker if she was quiet. She waited while Mammy brushed her hair.
‘There! Shall we make those bean butties now?’
Evie sat in the kitchen while Mammy heated the beans. She’d never had beans in a butty before, but it was good and Mammy put a tea towel over her front so she didn’t have to worry about dripping on her clean clothes. Evie dropped three beans on the floor, but Demelza came and ate them, so that was all right. Afterwards, Mammy gave her a spoonful of medicine, then took two big spoonfuls herself.
‘Right as rain, we’ll be, Bride, with this inside us.’
She smiled at Evie, lifted up Demelza and went to sit in the living room with Tabitha. Two seconds later, Demelza was back in the kitchen and Mammy was snoring. Evie went upstairs to the window where you could see the street. Maybe Mummy would come today.
Day Eight – Friday 24th April
Chapter 14
Frith skipped along beside Liane on the way home from the supermarket. ‘I like not going to Mrs P’s every day.’
‘Don’t you miss the other children?’ Liane opened their gate. Hopefully it hadn’t been a mistake, allowing Frith to stay at home with her now she didn’t have a job to go to. School was looming for her daughter after the summer hols, and come to think of it, if they were going to move, this would be the time to do it. Starting school then changing to a different one would be really tough on poor Frith.
Frith followed her inside. ‘Sort of. Can Lucy come to play tomorrow?’
‘I’ll text her mum, but don’t hope too hard. Families often have things to do at the weekends.’
Liane put the shopping away, then pulled out her phone to message Lucy’s mum while she remembered. Oh – she’d missed a call from Steve. Was this a good time to call back? She tapped to connect.
‘Hi, Lian
e. Jon has a place that might suit you – a two-bed semi with a garden in Mansewood. Do you want to call him about it?’
She certainly did. But – a semi? ‘Is it in our price range?’
‘Yes. It’s an old place, apparently.’
Liane saved the number and called as soon as Steve hung up.
His brother had the same deep voice on the phone. ‘It’s two-up, two-down, bathroom upstairs and downstairs loo under the stairs. An elderly couple lived there for years, but they went into sheltered housing a couple of weeks ago. The garden is what you might call a challenge. Would you like to see it?’
Would she just. Liane organised a time that afternoon and tossed her phone back into her bag. Please, please let this house be suitable. Tony lived in Mansewood, which was a dubious kind of recommendation, but it was a nice enough area and a garden of their own would be brilliant. They could grow veggies. Wow – Frithy could have a trampoline. They’d need to win the lottery for that first, but you never knew. If the job worked out too – but that reminded her, she should be looking for more jobs. It wouldn’t do to bank too hard on this one, no matter what Steve said.
The house was in a quiet street with a park at one end. Liane and Frith arrived first, and Liane took stock of the place while Frith walked along the garden wall at the front. Big windows, shabby paintwork, a patch of scrubby grass in the tiny front garden. She wandered along the pavement to see up the side of the house. An elongated patch of grass at the back led to a jungle of trees and bushes at the far end – you couldn’t see the far end.
Liane stepped back onto the road to see the roof properly. All those home improvement programmes she’d watched over the years were going to come in useful today. No obviously missing tiles, good.
A black van pulled up and an older version of Steve got out, grinning. ‘Roof’s fine!’ he called across. Liane went to shake hands.
Jon jabbed a key into the front door. ‘Okay. This place has what estate agents call “potential”. I bought it for my portfolio last year with the tenants in place already, and they didn’t want the disruption of having it done up while they were in situ. In other words, it needs a makeover, but I’ll get that done soon.’
He led the way inside. The hallway and stairs had a worn green carpet and faded flowery wallpaper while the wooden banisters and doors were painted white. Everything was shabby and old, but the house had a homey feel about it. You could sense that people had been happy here. Liane took Frith’s hand before the little girl ran upstairs. A house with an upstairs was an exciting prospect for her daughter – for Liane too, actually.
Jon handed her a floor plan and opened the first of two doors on their left. ‘Living room. Nice bay window. Central heating.’
Liane walked across the room. It was smaller than the living room they had now, but considering she’d decided they didn’t need a living room at all if the kitchen was large enough, she couldn’t complain.
‘And kitchen.’
Jon opened the second door, and Liane and Frith followed him in. The kitchen was the same size as the living room, which was fine, but oh, dear, talk about dated. Those fittings might have been from the 1950s. Liane squinted at Jon. He’d gone a bit pink.
‘Okay, it’s straight out of a museum, but you can ignore that because the entire place will be renovated before anyone moves in. I’m going to knock through to the living room and make it open-plan, too.’
‘Sounds good.’ The window overlooked the back garden, which consisted of a small patio, a patch of grass and the jungle at the back. He’d been right, it was a challenge. A vegetable plot was conspicuous by its absence, and the grass was patchy and dandelion-infested.
Upstairs, the front bedroom was large and the back one small, and the bathroom was a similar vintage to the kitchen. Frith went straight to the window of the back room. ‘Can this be my room? You can see for miles over the garden, can’t you, Mummy!’
‘It’s a room with a view,’ agreed Liane. She inched closer to Jon and lowered her voice. ‘It would make a lovely home and the size is right for us, but I’d need more details about price and when it would be available.’
He glanced at Frith. ‘The price is the one you gave Steve as your maximum and it’ll be ready by the end of October.’
Damn. Liane heaved a sigh. ‘I’d prefer somewhere I can move in a lot sooner than that. Frith starts school after summer.’ Why was a new kitchen and bathroom, a wall coming down and a lick of paint going to take so long? On those home improvement programmes, they practically rebuilt places in four weeks or less.
‘Ah. The problem is, I’m renovating another place I own on this street, but the tenants there don’t move out until the end of August. I want to do them both at the same time.’
‘Wouldn’t it be possible to do this place up with us already living in it?’
Jon hesitated, scratching his chin.
‘Mummy! There’s a little girl at the window of that house and she’s waving to me!’ Frith jumped up and down at the window, waving madly. ‘We could be friends if we lived here!’ She twisted round to beam at Liane, then spun back to face the window. ‘Oh! She’s gone! Can I go outside?’
Jon rustled the papers he was holding. ‘Why don’t we go downstairs, and Frith can explore the garden while we talk business?’
‘Ooh, yes!’ Frith was off like a shot, and Liane hurried after her.
She and Jon stood at the back door, watching as Frithy galloped around the garden, disappearing into the bushes at the far end. Liane shoved her hands into her jacket pockets and crossed her fingers hard. Frith would love living here – it was a real paradise for children. An almost impenetrable jungle at the bottom of the garden was every child’s dream, surely.
Jon sat down on an old iron bench below the kitchen window. ‘Living in the place while it’s being renovated wouldn’t work, I’m sorry. There would be days of having no water, no electricity, no kitchen, bathroom, no windows – and that’s before you get the painters in stinking the place out.’
Liane was silent as dismay welled up. Oh, for a local grandparent for Frithy. This house would be perfect, but it wasn’t looking hopeful, was it?
Jon was scratching his chin again. ‘You like the place, don’t you?’
‘I’d take it straightaway if we could move in for Frith starting school. Problem is, we have no handy relatives to put us up for the time it’s being fixed up.’
‘Okay. How about you take it, move in whenever you like, and I’ll find you another place locally to lodge in while the renovation’s ongoing? But remember, you’d have a lot more hassle than if you waited to move in when it was finished.’
Frith ran down from the far end of the garden, joy written all over her face. ‘I looked over the fence to see if the other little girl was there, and she wasn’t, but I saw three cats in her bushes. They have a lovely jungle too. Mummy, are we going to come and live here?’
Liane held out a hand to Jon. ‘I’ll take the hassle. Done.’
‘When are we moving to the new house?’ Frith attacked her raspberry ripple ice cream with gusto.
Liane was savouring her forkful of coffee and walnut cake. They were in a South Side café, celebrating their new home. Jon was going to drop by with the contract tomorrow. The agreement was a nominal rent for the months when the property was unrenovated, the same amount in their lodgings during the renovation, and full rent afterwards. All fair enough, though they had four weeks’ notice to pay on their old place, so she’d have double rent for a while. On the upside, there was nothing to stop them moving in as soon as the contract was signed.
‘We’ll need to organise lots of things first. People to help move furniture, and things like new curtains, and of course there’s the garden. We can’t cut the grass with the kitchen scissors, can we?’
‘I’ll push the lawnmower!’
Liane smiled. They had lots of work in front of them and lots of additional expense, too, though that would go back to normal after
the removal. Fingers tightly crossed that finding a new job would be as uncomplicated.
Day Ten – Sunday 26th April
Chapter 15
Mammy must really like beans on toast, because they had them nearly every day. Evie quite liked them too, but it would be nice to have something different now and again. She liked things like puddings and carrot sticks and chocolate fingers, and Mammy never had anything like that.
She stabbed her last bean and ate it up, then sat back to drink her milk. She didn’t like this milk much. Strawberry milk was much nicer. Mummy didn’t have it all the time, but some days she’d say, ‘How about some pink milk?’ and Evie would run into the kitchen and climb up on her special stool so she was high enough at the breakfast bar. When was she going home?
The kitchen window swung open as Topsy came in along with the sound of a plane. Evie stared up, but she couldn’t see it from her seat at the table. Had Mummy gone to Spain to see Grandma and left her here? She must have, it was such a long time since they’d packed to go there. It was nice in Spain. They’d gone at Christmas too and Mummy was so sad to leave Grandma and Grandad again when they came home. Daddy sometimes went to Spain, too. He was never at home much, but it was fun when he was. Evie stuck out her bottom lip. Every time she asked, Mammy got cross, so it was better not to. Two tears tracked down her face. When she rubbed them away there was a smear of dirt and bean sauce on her hand.
‘Glory be, maid, what are you pulling faces for? And what a mucky pup you are – upstairs with you, and we’ll get that face washed.’
Mammy was banging her chest again. She did that a lot. Evie slid off her chair and ran up to the bathroom quick as quick while Mammy panted along behind her.
‘Wheezing like an old steam train, I am.’
Mammy sat down on the edge of the bath and made a flannel wet and soapy at the basin. Evie stood still until the dirt was washed off, then Mammy gave her hair a pat with a brush. She frowned.