by Emma Fraser
‘Have you thought about changing sides?’
‘I do my share of cases for the prosecution,’ I flared. ‘Everyone in my set takes on a couple every year.’
He stared at me intently. ‘Only a couple?’
‘If prosecution was all I did, I could barely make enough to survive.’
‘But many barristers do, don’t they?’ He pushed up the frame of his glasses with a finger. ‘I’m not getting at you, although to be honest we policemen don’t exactly love defence barristers. We spend hours making a case as strong and as tight as possible, only to have it torn to shreds by some hot-shot lawyer who appears to be only interested in making a name for him ‘– he slanted me a look ‘– or herself.’
‘I should be going,’ I said, setting my whisky glass down. I’d had enough of being made to feel guilty. I was perfectly able to do that to myself. ‘My great-aunts are expecting me back.’
‘Your clothes won’t be dry yet.’
I told him they would be fine, retrieved them from the dryer and returned to the bathroom. My pants and bra were fine, but my jeans required a great deal of manipulation before I could drag them on. My blouse was uncomfortably damp but I would exchange it for one of my new jumpers as soon as I was back in the car. There was little I could do about my hair. As always when it dried and I had no access to a hairdryer, it curled. My cheeks were flushed, whether from the heat of the room, the whisky or the attention of a man I had to admit I found intriguing and attractive, I couldn’t be sure. Whatever the reason, my eyes were brighter than they had been for weeks and my skin had lost some of its pallor.
He was rinsing our glasses when I returned to the kitchen. Hearing me, he turned and smiled. ‘How long are you here for?’
‘I’m not sure. Another few days.’
‘Are you free tomorrow?’
Give him his due, he wasted no time.
‘We could walk up the Black Hills,’ he continued when I didn’t reply. ‘You said you wanted to thank Findlay. He lives up there. I could take you to see him, if you like, although I can’t guarantee what reception we’ll get.’
I hesitated. Didn’t I have enough on my plate without getting involved with someone – a policeman no less? The sensible thing to do would be to say goodbye and leave it at that.
Mum’s words about being more impulsive rushed back. I had days yet to spend with the aunts and for the first time I had nowhere I had to be, no strict timetable in my head. Besides, I liked him – despite the way he’d needled me – and he’d be a diversion – something to take my mind off myself and my grief and worry.
‘What time tomorrow?’
‘Ten? Would you like me to come for you?’
‘Let’s meet at the pier on the Balcreen side.’ I patted my leg. ‘Come on, Tiger, let’s go.’ At the door I turned. ‘Thanks for the drink and the use of the dryer.’
He grinned. ‘Anytime. Anytime at all.’
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I rowed back to the island, Tiger at the prow, nose to the wind. Her scare in the water hadn’t affected her at all.
I tied the boat up to the pier and, feeling lighter than I’d felt in a long time, walked towards the house. It’d been good to spend time away from Greyfriars with someone so completely normal and I was glad I’d agreed to see him again. And curious to meet Findlay.
Could it really be the same Findlay Edith had been almost engaged to? If he was, did the aunts know he lived close by? If I hadn’t seen for myself how isolated they were I would have assumed it was impossible for them not to.
The wind was picking up again and it rustled through the rhododendron leaves. As I emerged from the short tunnel, once again I had the impression of a face at one of the upstairs windows. I was uneasy at the thought my aunts might be watching me. But was it really surprising when they lived as they did? Even small events must assume an importance in an otherwise uneventful day.
As the front of the house came into view I saw a figure balanced on the roof of the side porch. At first I thought my aunts had hired someone from Balcreen to replace the missing tiles but as I drew closer, to my shock, I realised it was Georgina.
My great-aunt was wearing trousers and was straddled across the eaves, a hammer in one hand, nails between her lips. Frightened to call out in case I startled her and caused her to lose her balance, I stood stock-still and watched, heart in my mouth, as my great-aunt expertly removed a tile and replaced it with another.
Tiger barked and Georgina turned around, looked down and waved. ‘So you’re back! Did you get what you wanted?’
‘I did.’
‘Go inside, I’ll be finished here in a mo.’
‘Shouldn’t you let someone else do that?’ I called back.
My great-aunt’s laughter floated on the wind. ‘Perfectly able to do it myself.’
‘Can I help?’
‘You can pass me some more nails. Save me coming down for them. They’re on the ground. In a box.’
‘How many do you need?’
‘Half a dozen should do it.’
I located the box and counted out the number she asked. I clambered up the ladder, my damp jeans still clinging to my legs, and handed them to her. ‘Do you need me to stand by in case you need any more?’
‘No. This will be enough. You go on in.’
Inside, the house seemed empty. I went through to the kitchen to put away the fish in the larder. Just as it had been in Mum’s day it was stacked from floor to ceiling with tins of every sort. Baked beans, tuna, Fray Bentos steak and kidney pies, tins of peas, tins of fruit, tins of evaporated milk, canned soup of all varieties. Apart from those there were bags of rice and flour, so old they didn’t even have sell-by dates on them. If ever there was a nuclear war or some other kind of apocalypse I knew where I would want to be.
Trout put away, I popped back outside. Georgina was still on the roof and not wanting to distract her, I ran up to my room and put my new jumpers in the chest of drawers. I changed out of my damp clothes and hurried back downstairs, expecting at any moment to hear a cry and a thump as my great-aunt fell from the roof. Instead, to my relief, I found Georgina at the bottom of the stairs, looking decidedly pleased with herself.
‘There. That should hold that particular leak for a month or two.’
‘Couldn’t someone from the village do it for you?’ I asked.
‘No need. I can manage perfectly well. It’s not the first time I’ve fixed a roof.’ A shadow crossed her face, then she smiled. ‘How did you like Oban?’
‘I thought it was very pretty. I bought us some fresh trout for dinner. I put it in the larder. I’m happy to cook. I assume you and Edith eat fish.’ There was no point telling her about the escapade in the water, or that I’d thought the man who rescued Tiger and me was the same Findlay Edith had been engaged to. I wanted to know for certain that it was him before I mentioned meeting him. What would I have said anyway? I think I was pulled out of the water by the man you loved – the man your sister was hoping to marry.
‘You’ll discover there is very little Edith and I won’t eat.’ Her face clouded again. ‘There was a time that we considered insects a gastronomic delight.’
‘Was this during the war? I gather you and Edith were prisoners of the Japanese.’
She gave a small shake of her head. ‘That’s part of my story. And for later. But we couldn’t live surrounded by the sea and not eat fish. It’s a shame we don’t have a stocked loch here otherwise we would catch our own. Most of what the local fishermen catch gets sent off to Spain. Ian sends us whatever they don’t want.’
‘So that’s settled,’ I said. ‘I’m making dinner. You and Edith can relax – keep me company in the kitchen if you prefer – you can continue your story then.’
She frowned. ‘No, as I said, not while Edith is present. She doesn’t like to be reminded of the past.’
In which case it was just as well I hadn’t mentioned Findlay.
‘How is she?’
<
br /> Georgina frowned.
‘Edith. Is she feeling better?’
‘Oh Edith!’ She gave an odd little laugh. ‘Yes. I think so.’
‘Then why don’t we chat now? There’s an hour or so before I have to start preparing supper. If Edith comes in you can stop.’
‘Very well then. Shall we go into the library? The fire’s lit.’
I had a sense that the room had only been recently vacated. There was a book open on one side table and some simple needlework on the other and when I sat down, the sofa cushion was still warm as if someone had been sitting there only moments before. If it had been Edith she’d clearly just scuttled away. In an attempt to avoid me, or so that she wouldn’t have to listen to what Georgina wanted to tell me?
Georgina settled back in her chair. ‘Where had I got to?’
‘You’d just heard about my grandparents – Harriet and Peter?’
‘Oh, yes. Dear Harriet. She was so young. I still miss her. It was a terrible shock.’ She looked at me through her thick lashes. ‘An even worse shock for Olivia, no doubt. As it turned out it was a good decision not to send for her.’
‘Mum was only eleven,’ I reminded her, not quite ready to let her off the hook. ‘And you and Edith the only family she had left.’
‘She was settled at boarding school. Even if I’d gone to her, I would have hardly seen her. I’d written to Agatha asking her if she could have Olivia on weekends out and holidays until alternative arrangements could be made. And she wrote back saying she was happy to act as guardian until Edith or I could take over. In those days it was different. Many of our sort spent years at boarding school, and if their parents were abroad, didn’t see them for years. You can’t judge the past by the standards of today.’
‘But later – after the war was over?’
She gave an exasperated click of her tongue. ‘I did say I would explain and you promised you would hear me out.’
I had. Hiding my impatience, I sat back in my chair. ‘I’m sorry. Please, carry on.’
Georgina took a cigarette from a lacquered box on the side table next to her and lit it. ‘I rarely smoke, these days. You don’t mind, do you?
‘Not at all.’
She took a couple of quick puffs before stubbing it out. ‘With Harriet gone, I missed Edith even more. She hadn’t written to me, not even after Harriet’s death and without an address I couldn’t write to her. The best I could do was send the letters I wrote to Agatha, asking her to forward them. But I never received a reply from Edith. Then, out of the blue, I bumped into her.’
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Georgina
November 1941
Georgina leaned back in her chair making the most of the cool, air-conditioned interior of the tea room in Robinson’s department store. As always the place was packed. She was due to join Lawrence and a group of friends at Raffles later for dinner, but before that she had a few hours to kill and she planned to go to the Chinese market and then to the Indian tailor to get a new evening dress made up. She said as much to Eleanor who had joined her for tea. Grace had left and Georgina still missed her. Eleanor wasn’t nearly as much fun.
‘It’s far too hot for Chinatown, don’t you think?’ Eleanor said, when Georgina asked whether she wanted to come too. ‘And don’t you have enough evening dresses to last you a lifetime? Besides, I’d much prefer to have a lie-down before the dance tonight. Are you going?’
‘Naturally,’ Georgina said. ‘I don’t think there’s much else on.’
A group of army nurses in their crisp white tropical uniforms arrived at that moment causing a flurry of activity as the waiting staff rushed to find enough empty seats to allow them to sit together. As always, whenever she saw army nurses she thought of Edith, wishing she knew for certain that she was safe.
And then it was as if she’d conjured her up. Taking a seat at one of the tables and smiling at the Chinese waiter was her sister. Georgina’s heart lurched.
‘What is it?’ Eleanor asked. ‘You’ve gone as white as a sheet.’ She followed Georgina’s gaze to the laughing and chatting nurses. ‘Do you know them?’
But Georgina had already got to her feet and was pushing through the throng of customers.
‘Edith!’ she cried, placing a hand on her sister’s shoulder. ‘Is it really you?’
Edith’s shoulders stiffened under Georgina’s fingertips. She turned around and regarded Georgina with her cool, light-blue eyes. ‘Georgina, I wondered if we would meet.’
‘I can’t believe it! You’re in Singapore! When did you arrive?’
‘Wednesday.’
‘You’ve been here two days already! Why didn’t you let me know?’ It was one thing Edith not replying to Georgina’s letters, quite another being in the same city and not getting in touch.
‘I was planning to.’ Edith shrugged. ‘But we’ve been rather busy since we got here. People have insisted on showing us the sights.’
Georgina had no doubt. The army sisters held officer rank and the moment their ships docked in Singapore they were whisked away in their white dresses and red capes to join the throng in Raffles.
‘Too busy to send a note?’
The nurses with Edith had fallen silent and were regarding the two women with a mixture of puzzlement and curiosity, bewildered smiles frozen on their faces.
Edith appeared to recover. ‘Everyone, this is my sister Georgina.’ She gave a brittle smile. ‘We haven’t seen each other for a while. Would you excuse us for a moment?’
She stood and she and Georgina moved out of earshot.
‘So you haven’t forgiven me yet?’ Georgina said. ‘It’s been over two years.’
‘Really? That long?’
‘You never wrote – not even after Harriet died.’
Edith’s expression softened. ‘Poor, darling Harry. I couldn’t believe it when I heard. Still can’t.’
‘Look, we can’t talk here. Why don’t you come home with me?’
Edith glanced at her watch. ‘I have plans.’
‘Later then? We could have dinner.’
‘I’m having dinner with friends. At Chez Wein. I understand they make the most divine cocktails. Then I have to pack. Our unit is being sent to a hospital up north tomorrow.’
Georgina’s heart dropped. She’d found her sister only to lose her again.
‘After dinner then? You can spare half an hour surely?’
‘Georgina, I’m already dead on my feet. I’ll be no use to man nor beast unless I get a good night’s sleep.’
‘What about tomorrow? Before you leave? We could meet anywhere and anytime you like.’ She glanced behind her to find Eleanor making her way towards them. ‘We have to talk…’
Edith looked as if she were about to find another excuse but then she sighed. ‘Come to the hospital. About ten. I should have some time then. I’ll find somewhere we won’t be disturbed. Now if you’ll excuse me, I should return to my friends.’ Georgina winced. There was a time Edith would have considered her a friend as well as her sister and would have been only too delighted to have her join them. Edith kissed Georgina on the cheek, the merest brush of her lips, and then, in the seconds before Eleanor was upon them, she turned away and rejoined her fellow nurses at the table.
‘Someone you know?’ Eleanor said, nodding in Edith’s direction.
‘My sister, Edith.’
Eleanor’s eyes widened before swivelling to Edith and the other nurses. ‘She didn’t seem very pleased to see you.’
‘Edith has always hated public shows of affection.’
‘There’s public shows and downright coldness,’ Eleanor said.
‘For Heaven’s sake, Eleanor, just shut up! You know nothing about it.’ The look of hurt dismay on Eleanor’s face brought Georgina to her senses.
‘Forgive me. I didn’t mean to snap at you. It was a shock seeing her, that’s all. To be honest the last time we parted it wasn’t on the best of terms.’
A look of
malicious, greedy curiosity passed over Eleanor’s face. ‘Why don’t we have a drink at the Swimming Club and you can tell me all?’