Daisychain Summer

  ‘I don’t know – I honestly don’t. Alice thinks young Carver has something up his sleeve. He was at law school with Mark Townsend and served in the same regiment. He knew Beulah Townsend, too, so let’s see what he comes up with, first?

  ‘And Nathan, I’m sorry – about the way I said no to what you asked me, I mean. It’s time I grew up. God knows, I’ll be forty-four, next birthday. I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful, though. It’s just that I can’t think straight at the moment. Say you aren’t too hurt? You’re the nicest, kindest person and if I ever – well, if ever I did …’

  ‘Yes. I know. I should have realized you are still in love with Andrew.’

  He gathered her to him and she went willingly into the strong, safe shelter of his arms. Then he kissed her cheek gently and walked to the door.

  ‘I’ll see myself out,’ he smiled. ‘And try not to worry too much? Things have a way of sorting themselves out. I’ll come back tonight, if you’d like me to?’

  ‘Come to dinner? Drew’s staying the night with a school friend and there’ll be no one. I can’t bear to be alone tonight, Nathan …’

  ‘Then I’ll be with you about seven.’

  She had held his heart and his love for as long as he could remember. And his was the love that couldn’t be turned off, just like her love for Andrew. It was the way things were. He knew where he stood with her now, and he must accept it.

  ‘There’s something going on,’ said Mary sniffily, ‘and it’s something to do with London, if you ask me. Miss Julia’s got herself into a fine old tizzy. All I said was wasn’t it lovely that her ladyship would be home in three days and just in nice time for Christmas and she said, “Christmas”, all snappy as if she hated Christmas, and we all know she doesn’t.’

  ‘I think,’ Tilda dropped her voice to a whisper, ‘she might be coming up to that age …’

  ‘The change? Not her,’ Mary snorted. ‘She’s a young woman!’

  ‘Not all that young, though she carries her age well, same as her ladyship. You wouldn’t think she was over –’

  ‘Tilda Tewk! How often must I tell you that a lady’s age is her own business,’ Cook interrupted irritably because she knew it wasn’t Miss Julia’s time of life that was the cause of all the upset. It was that letter; the one Mary had signed for off the postman. That morning had been the start of it.

  ‘Well, she’s away again and that’ll make twice in three days,’ Mary offered primly. “If the Reverend phones, Mary, tell him I’m at Carvers and that I’ll ring him back.” It’s something legal, if you ask me!’

  ‘Legal about what?’ Tilda didn’t trust lawyers. ‘Surely Rowangarth isn’t short of money?’

  ‘No. It isn’t money,’ Mary protested. ‘It’s something to do with London, though. I’m sure of it.’

  ‘Then we’d better ask Jin Dobb to tea,’ Tilda suggested hopefully. ‘Jin’ll soon get to the bottom of it for you.’ Though Jin, try as she may, had never found a man in Tilda Tewk’s tea leaves.

  ‘Us’ll do no such thing!’ Cook huffed. ‘And see to the kettle. Miss Julia’ll want coffee the minute she gets back.’

  Miss Julia always wanted coffee, lately, was drinking far too much of it. Someone should tell her that too much coffee could give her a bad back, and then where would she be?

  All the same, Cook pondered, she’d give a lot to find out what was bothering the poor lass. Not a bit like herself Miss Julia wasn’t. Oh, my word, no!

  Young Carver, Julia thought angrily as she parked her car behind the solicitors’ offices, had hemmed and hawed each time she phoned him and this morning, no matter what, they would have to come to an understanding. Either he got a move on, or she must find herself another solicitor.

  ‘It’s early days, yet,’ or stupid platitudes about how long it had taken to build Rome was all she had managed to get out of him. Didn’t he realize her mother would soon be home?

  ‘Now see here, Mr Carver,’ she flung the minute the office door was closed on them, ‘we are simply no further forward. Leave it with you, you said. A little time, you said, but time is fast running out – or hadn’t you realized?’

  ‘I have indeed.’ Carver-the-young rested his hands on the pristine sheet of blotting paper on his desktop, then entwined his fingers as if he were about to start praying. His face was inscrutable as ever; his eyes narrowed almost to slits. ‘I might even say,’ he shrugged, ‘that it has. Run out, I mean. But do have a cup of coffee – or a sherry, perhaps?’

  ‘No!’ Julia hissed. ‘No, thank you.’ She wasn’t here to drink coffee and be told she was in a worse mess than ever. And how he dare look so pleased with himself, so smug, almost, she really didn’t know. ‘Mr Carver, I am just about at the end of my tether! Can’t you imagine what this scandal will do to my mother when she hears about it? She is totally against divorce. She’ll be devastated – and as for Drew …’

  ‘Mrs MacMalcolm – calm down, please. As I said, time has run out – but not for you. Mrs Townsend, you see, is in no position to divorce her husband for adultery. She cannot petition on those grounds because she has had lovers herself – several, in fact. She is guilty of the same misdemeanour as her husband and, in my book, two wrongs don’t make a right.’

  ‘But I thought Mark Townsend had condoned her lapse by taking her back to – to –’

  ‘To the marital bed? Yes, that was so. But it was after their reconciliation broke down and they parted by mutual consent that her affairs took place; three, that I know of, so she cannot petition on the grounds of her husband’s adultery.’

  ‘Adultery with me, Mr Carver.’

  ‘With any woman, Mrs MacMalcolm.’

  ‘Then forgive me, but isn’t it a little unlikely that any of those men are going to come forward and admit it?’

  ‘Now there you have a point. But we are lucky, because one of them will – has …’

  ‘Then God bless the man, who ever he is!’ Julia gasped.

  ‘Thank you. That man is myself.’

  ‘You? You and her – you’ve …?’ How could he admit it so – so blatantly? ‘I – I’m sorry, Mr Carver, but doesn’t it all seem a little improbable? I mean – just when we need a small miracle, you happen to have one, up your sleeve!’

  ‘Believe me, it’s true. For a time I was very attracted to Beulah Townsend. Then my legal training surfaced, so to speak, and I realized the foolishness of getting entangled with a married woman.

  ‘Anyway, she dropped me for some other fellow, so I was well out of it, I suppose. Beulah was an attractive woman, though, and very available. Are you shocked, Mrs MacMalcolm?’

  ‘No. Not really.’ She looked down to fidget with her wedding ring. ‘And it’s different for men, I suppose. But how are you, a partner in a firm of respected solicitors, going to stand up in court and admit to that? How can you, when you are acting for me? And it’s such a coincidence that I still don’t know if I believe you.’

  ‘You may please yourself. I’m not worried either way because I have already phoned both Townsend and Beulah’s solicitors and given them the facts, told them to sort it out as best they can.’

  ‘And?’ Mark would take no notice, Julia frowned. He wanted rid of his wife because truth known he wanted her, Julia, though she had been too stupid over the years to see it and too trusting ever to think he would stoop so low. And to her shame, though thumbscrews wouldn’t drag it out of her, she had sometimes wondered – just wondered – what it would be like to be made love to again. ‘Did what you told him do any good, or wasn’t he interested?’

  ‘Not at first, but he’s thought it all out and I can’t say I blame him for getting the best deal he can. Beulah is still going ahead with her petition and Townsend has agreed to let her divorce him, provided she doesn’t demand alimony, which she won’t. I hear that as soon as she is free of him, she plans to marry an elderly millionaire. She’s been looking for one for some time, it seems.’

  ‘So nothing has changed,’ Julia wh
ispered, dully. ‘I’d have thought he’d have done the decent thing by me, especially as he knows nothing happened that night.’

  ‘But of course he knows and I’m trying to tell you that you are out of it. Oh, the divorce will go ahead, but an unknown woman is to be cited, not you.’

  ‘You mean they are going to use one of those women who make a living out of spending nights in hotel bedrooms, supposedly committing adultery?’

  ‘Not even that, Mrs MacMalcolm. The fact is that I was able to persuade Beulah’s solicitors to advise her that adultery with an unknown and therefore unnamed woman at the Flowers Hotel would make more sense – especially as I could make it known that she is in no position to petition for divorce, herself being not exactly lily white, as it were …

  ‘When the case gets into court, the divorce judge will assume the woman was a prostitute. The petition will go through undefended by Townsend, so there’ll hardly be a ripple – won’t even merit a mention in the papers.’

  ‘Y-yes …’ The truth was only now beginning to manifest itself. ‘But Mr Carver – hadn’t you thought? Mark Townsend could have used what you told him and counter-petitioned, naming you! Where would your good name have been then – not to mention your practice?’

  ‘Believe me, I’d thought. But it was a calculated risk and the bluff paid off. In the end, it was worth the gamble.’

  ‘Then I’m grateful for what you have done – and it is all right?’ Julia grasped the chair arms tightly because all at once she felt very dizzy. ‘I’m finding it all just a little hard to believe – I really am.’

  ‘Then believe this.’ He handed her a sheet of thick, expensively-headed notepaper. ‘Confirmation from Beulah Townsend’s solicitors. All in black and white, just as I told you.

  ‘And a word to the wise? I think Townsend will try to get in touch with you. I have the feeling he still has designs on you – might even try to persuade you he agreed to let his wife divorce him without fuss in order to save your reputation.

  ‘Now to my way of thinking, that just isn’t so. I believe he was willing to let that divorce go to court, naming you, so he could do the honourable thing afterwards and marry you – which would have been expected of him as a gentleman. I may be wrong, of course …’

  ‘No.’ Julia shook her head vehemently. ‘You are right. I think he did want to marry me. I didn’t think he’d go to such lengths, though. And Mr Carver,’ she forced her eyes to meet his. ‘You really didn’t have to do it – put your reputation on the line, I mean.’

  ‘You’re right. I didn’t,’ he said flatly. ‘But there is a tide in the affairs of men, as they say …’

  ‘Well, no one will ever hear about it from me,’ she whispered. ‘And if there is ever anything I can do in return, please ask?’

  ‘Thank you. I will. Indeed, I think that some time within the next few days you should sign an authorization for one of my clerks to go to Townsend’s offices and collect all documents relating to any dealings you or your aunt may have had with him. Best you shouldn’t have any more contact with the man.’

  ‘So what does it all mean?’ Not for a long time had she felt so drained, so near to tears.

  ‘It means that as soon as maybe, you will sever all connections with Townsend and that Carver, Carver and Carver will be your sole legal advisers. Is that acceptable, Mrs MacMalcolm?’

  Weak with relief, unable to trust herself to speak, Julia nodded.

  ‘Good. And I am pleased to say again that you are no longer implicated in the divorce petition Townsend versus Townsend. Let them get on with their shabby little fight, though why they are each so eager to untie the knot is beyond me. They deserve each other so well it’s a crying shame to break up such an alliance.

  ‘Now, do have a coffee, Mrs MacMalcolm; better still, why not a small sherry?’ He walked to a table to return with a circular silver tray on which stood glasses and two decanters. ‘Medium, or dry?’

  ‘It’s over?’ Julia whispered.

  ‘It’s over. Forget it. And if I may say so, it was most unprofessional of Townsend to place you in such a position in the first place.’

  ‘Ah, yes. But in all fairness, Mr Carver, how was he to know there’d be a little man in a raincoat and trilby watching us, because there must have been.’

  ‘Now there, I’m afraid, it was the fault – the unwitting fault – of your housekeeper.’

  ‘Sparrow? Oh, surely not! She was devoted to Andrew. I’m very fond of her.’

  ‘Unwittingly, I said. Mark Townsend lives not far away in Montpelier Gardens – but you’d know that?’

  ‘Y-yes …’

  ‘Your Sparrow, I’m afraid, is friendly with Townsend’s cook, so it wouldn’t be unusual for them to talk about the comings and goings of their respective employers. Below-stairs do it all the time, I believe. But I discovered that the cook’s son-in-law works as a clerk for Beulah Townsend’s solicitors.’

  ‘So as far as I was concerned, the man in the raincoat almost always knew when to be on the alert – even in a pea-souper fog,’ Julia gasped.

  ‘Especially in a pea-souper. No blame attached to your housekeeper, of course, though you might ask her in future not to talk about your comings and goings.’

  ‘I’ll do that.’ Julia gazed into the eyes of the hitherto disliked solicitor. ‘And I’d like medium, please – and could you possibly make it a large one?’

  Alice would never believe this, she really wouldn’t, and how could she, Julia reasoned hazily, when she didn’t quite believe it herself?

  All at once she felt light-headed and lighthearted. She gazed through the window to find that in the cold, bleak, December street outside, the sun was shining brilliantly.

  Or so it seemed.

  37

  ‘This will be the most marvellous Hogmanay,’ Helen enthused. ‘To have Albert and Amelia will give me the chance to pay back a little of their hospitality. Such kindness, in Kentucky – I’m glad I made the trip. America is so vast!’

  ‘And Nathan?’ Julia asked.

  ‘He’ll be along after the Watch-night service. And Edward is looking forward to being at Rowangarth. But so he would – he was born here. It will be quite like old times, he said, if he manages to remember that far back! This will be Drew’s last birthday party, until he’s twenty-one, of course. Clever of Alice to have him on new year’s eve – well, give or take a day. Eighteen, now. Had you realized it, Julia? The years have slipped by so quickly.’

  ‘I’m not likely to forget, mother. Andrew was killed just before Drew was born …’

  ‘I’m sorry, dear – truly I am. And it’s so tragic that for you it doesn’t seem to get any easier. Can’t you try to accept?’

  ‘That was what Nathan said, not so long ago. He wants me to go to Étaples, to the grave.’

  She thought a lot about the afternoon Nathan asked her to marry him; shuddered to remember how she had thrown his love back without thought in his face. And he did love her. The pity of it was that she could not love him as he deserved.

  Oh, she wanted to be loved again; she’d be inhuman if she didn’t, but Andrew prevented it and what made it so awful was that even eighteen years after, she could not bring the sound of his voice into her mind, her heart, nor remember his face without a photograph to remind her.

  All a part of her grief, she had been told. Alice had been the same way, too, when she thought Tom dead. But her own torment, Julia sighed, had lasted and, desperately as she longed to recall things they had said – husky, intimate whisperings or shared laughter – they eluded her. That April afternoon at the Gare du Nord and the old lady, selling violets. More than two years since they met and touched and she had flown to his arms. ‘My darling love,’ he whispered, ‘it is you, really you …?’ She knew the words – they were safely stored in her heart – but she could not hear him saying them.

  ‘And so you should.’ Her mother, interrupting her thoughts. ‘Andrew would want it. You owe it to him – a last good
bye.’

  ‘Yes, we-e-ell …’ Not to talk about it today; not just yet when everyone was trying to be happy. ‘By the way, I told Catchpole the apprentices were to have new year’s eve and new year’s day off. They’re all going home, so Polly and Keth will see the new year in at Keeper’s – Reuben, too. Now that it’s all settled about Keth going to Kentucky it might be the last time they are all together for three years. Keth won’t be able to afford to come home, Alice says. He’ll need all the money he can earn just to help him through college. Amelia is taking care of the bulk of the expenses, of course, and Keth will stay with her and Albert during vacations, but I’m afraid Daisy and Keth will be quite a long time apart.’

  You mean …?’ Helen frowned.

  ‘That they’re in love? Of course they are! You’ve only to look at them when they’re together to know it.’

  ‘But Daisy is so young.’

  ‘The same age as Alice was, when she met Tom. And you, dearest, if I remember were –’

  ‘Seventeen and a bit the night I met your Pa.’ Helen’s smile was gentle.

  ‘And I wasn’t all that much older when I met Andrew. The Garth Suttons fall in love early.’

  ‘And for ever, it would seem,’ Helen finished. ‘But about new year – I think it will be good for Edward to be with us – Clemmy, I mean …’

  ‘Mother! Aunt Clemmy gave him a dog’s life, and you know it!’

  ‘All the same, he’s bound to miss having her there. But oh, there won’t have been such a family gathering at Rowangarth since – since –’

  ‘Since Pa left us; since my wedding, you mean?’

  ‘Something like that. But I am – well, I’m nearer eighty than seventy, you know, and I intend to make the most of what is left to me, starting at once!’