Rosemerryn

by Rosemerryn (retail) (epub)

  Angered, Laura took her hand away and disappointment cut through Spencer. She had picked the best, and the worst, moment to cease her ministrations.

  ‘That was really horrible of you. You haven’t got a clue about Eve and Ince. I think they’re in love but neither of them will admit it for some reason.’

  ‘If she’s in love with Ince then why doesn’t she just tell him?’ Spencer returned harshly, getting exasperated.

  ‘Because he’s made her feel a fool, with her saying that they were courting. Ada’s spread it all over the village. Eve hardly dares show her face. She must be feeling more than uncertain of Ince. If we don’t do something to help, then she’ll leave the village with a broken heart.’

  ‘You’ve thought this all through, haven’t you?’ he snapped, desperate to get the matter over with. ‘All right, if I get the right moment I’ll say something to Ince.’

  He looked away. Why couldn’t she think about him so deeply? She was good to him, he’d give her that. She was a good farmer’s wife, doing a large share of the chores as if she’d been born to it. She was a good housekeeper, the house was spotless and run to precision, he never had to look for a clean shirt. He had a willing companion, nurse, cook, washerwoman. He had no complaints about their love life; hundreds, thousands of men would be grateful, deem themselves blessed, if their women gave themselves as readily as Laura gave herself to him, and she had come to him tonight even though she was very tired. And there were times when she desired him and wasn’t too shy to start the proceedings. He was perfectly satisfied in all these respects, but there was something missing. He never had her undivided attention for long. The moment his meal was put in front of him, his crib was packed, a cut or bruise he had suffered attended to, her mind sped off to Vicki, or Ince, or Aunty Daisy, or Tressa, or Pawley, or the bloody lame dog someone had abandoned down Rosemerryn Lane!

  He knew he was jealous of all those others. He wanted a part of Laura all to himself, his for keeps. Most of all, he wanted her love, for her to love him as he had grown to love her. He was pinning his hopes on their baby, as the one intimate link between them – before she got big with the pregnancy and thought only of the baby.

  Laura knew he had switched off from her and she guessed he was fed up with her going on about Ince and Eve yet again. She sat up and put on her nightdress. ‘I wonder when Harry’s coming home. Seems ages since he went to London. Vicki’s missing him. I think I’ll phone him at his flat tomorrow evening so she can have a few words with him. Did I show you Vicki’s new dress? The colour suits her so perfectly with her deep blue eyes. She’s going to wear it for the harvest festival service. Roslyn Farrow’s trained the children to sing “All Things Bright and Beautiful”, and then she’s going to wear it to little Rodney Uren’s third birthday party. It’s the first time any of those children have had a party of any kind—’

  Thumping his fist so hard on the mattress he made the bed jump, Spencer leapt off it as though it had been torched.

  ‘Can’t you forget Harry or Vicki or the Urens and the rest of the bloody world for five minutes and give some of your attention to me!’ His words tore through the night air, colder and more damaging than an icy blast of moorland wind.

  Shocked by his sudden outburst, Laura cringed on the bed and whimpered, ‘But we just made love. How can you say I don’t give you my attention?’ She did not expect thanks or congratulations for all she did for him, for everything that she was doing for others, but she could not cope with his hostility, his childishness, selfishness. She was getting weary, she didn’t enjoy the extra work at the shop, she had no interest in it with so many family concerns.

  She crawled between the bedcovers and started to cry softly.

  Spencer was filled with remorse. ‘I’m sorry, Laura. I’ve been expecting – hoping – to receive something I’ve probably no right to.’ He put on his pyjamas and got into bed beside her. Not another word was said.

  * * *

  Laura slept badly and was quiet next morning, but Daisy had a lot to say as they washed and dried the breakfast dishes.

  ‘I’ve come to a decision, dear,’ she said in the thin lifeless voice that had been hers since Laura had brought her to Rosemerryn. ‘I can’t stay here for ever, for all your reassurances that I’m no trouble to you. On the other hand I can’t go back to the way things were before Bruce turned up. I’m not as young as I was and one day soon I’d have had to think about retiring anyway. I’m going to sell my share of the shop.’

  ‘Are you sure about that, Aunty Daisy? You’ve lived there for so long. Where are you thinking about going? Hopefully not out of Kilgarthen.’

  ‘I couldn’t do that, Laura. I don’t know anyone anywhere else and I’d be terribly lonely. You say talk about Bruce and the Millers has died down, and in any case gossip only follows you. People round here know it wasn’t my fault what Bruce did, and with Bert Miller buried next to his parents in St Enodoc’s churchyard, it isn’t as if he’s been laid to rest in Kilgarthen to serve as a constant reminder.’

  Daisy put the last dish away and spread the tea towel over the line above the range to dry. A little spirit emanated from her. ‘I thought I might buy the Angrove cottage. It’s been up for sale for ages so I should be able to get it at a reasonable price. Shouldn’t take too much work to have it done up fit enough to live in. Until it’s ready, now that I’m feeling so much better, I could do a few jobs here, take the workload off you. I can see how tired you’ve been getting.’

  ‘I can’t say I wouldn’t be grateful for that, Aunty. I think you’ve made the right decision. The Angrove cottage should suit you very nicely. Harry’s away but I’ll get in touch with his office and tell them you’re interested in it.’

  ‘What will you do about the shop, Laura? Take on a new partner?’

  ‘I don’t have to think about it. I’ll sell too. It will be easier to attract a buyer as a whole concern. It won’t mean Ince being out of work again, they want him at Tregorlan, but even if they didn’t I can’t solve all the problems of the world.’

  ‘Oh, I am sorry, Laura.’ Daisy looked guiltily at Laura’s pale, slack face. ‘You’ve got enough to do and all these weeks I’ve been an added burden to you.’

  ‘No, you haven’t, Aunty.’ Laura went to her and pressed firm hands on her shoulders. ‘I haven’t had the worry of who to leave Vicki with while you’ve been here. Life will be so much easier without the shop to worry about. Let’s hope we get a buyer soon. Now, it’s half-day closing today so I think I’ll put my feet up when I get back from the shop. There’s some beef in the cold cupboard. Do you think you could manage to make some pasties for lunch? I’d really have something to look forward to.’

  Daisy beamed happily. ‘I’ll need something to do when I’ve properly retired. Think of yourself as having a willing head cook and bottle-washer from now on.’

  Laura felt like going straight to the shop without bidding Spencer goodbye, but his outburst last night had been preying on her mind. Perhaps she did neglect him a bit.

  With Vicki and Barney trotting along beside her, she went up to Spencer in the yard. He put down the buckets of water he was carrying to the animal pens. She told him about her and Daisy’s decision.

  ‘It might be for the best, Laura,’ he said noncommittally.

  ‘Well, I wanted you to be the first to know.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  Vicki tugged on her hand. ‘It’s my day for sweets, don’t forget, Mummy.’

  Laura didn’t turn at once to hug her stepdaughter as she usually did. She kept her eyes on Spencer’s stern face. ‘Is there anything you’d like me to bring you back from the shop, Spencer?’

  In an instant his face relaxed. He kissed her lips. ‘Just yourself.’

  Not having the energy to ride her bicycle all the way to the village, Laura got off and pushed it along slowly most of the way, deliberately taking her time. The shop felt like a millstone round her neck and she wished she could get it off her han
ds today. She had given Ince a key so she knew the shop would be open in time for even the earliest customer.

  Not unexpectedly he was a little worried about her because she was late and noticing her drawn face he slipped out of the shop to make her a cup of tea. During a quiet moment, as they sipped from their mugs, she told him the shop was to be sold.

  ‘I didn’t think you could go on the way you have been much longer,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘You look exhausted. Not a good thing for a woman in your condition,’ he ended, lowering his voice demurely.

  ‘So Eve told you?’ she asked, somewhat surprised. ‘How does she know? No, I guessed. You’ve been careful not to lift anything heavy.’

  ‘You haven’t mentioned it to anyone else?’

  ‘No, of course not. Congratulations. Spencer must be cock-a-hoop with happiness.’

  Laura didn’t want to talk about Spencer. She realised she must make a bigger effort to include him in things, but she was still irked that he couldn’t have talked it over sensibly instead of snarling at her. ‘I’ve still got to get it confirmed with the doctor.’

  ‘How come Eve knows?’ Ince said, pretending to be absorbed in packing a shelf with washing soda. ‘Did she guess too?’

  ‘No,’ Laura replied. ‘I told her I might be pregnant on the day Les died. I thought some good news might cheer her up.’

  ‘Even Charlie Chaplin and half of ENSA couldn’t cheer her up,’ Ince remarked. Laura had noticed that a number of his comments about Eve lately had been sarcastic or sneering.

  ‘Get into the back of the shop,’ she stormed.

  ‘Eh?’

  ‘You heard. Into the damned storeroom this minute.’

  Ince glanced out of the window, hoping to see an approaching customer but the road and doorstep were empty. Laura looked as though she was about to blow a gasket and he hastily complied with her order. He didn’t get the chance to ask her what was wrong; she breathed it all over him like a fiery dragon.

  ‘I thought I had married the most stubborn and difficult man in the world in Spencer, but you, Ince Polkinghorne, beat him by a full Grand National! There is no reason for you to be acting like this with Eve, coy, cool, offhand. It’s obvious you love her and she loves you, but now that she really needs you, all you do is behave like a damned stupid fool. I don’t know why you’re shunning her but I bet the reason isn’t a good one. Well, is it?’

  He felt silly, like a schoolboy offering a lame excuse to a headteacher. ‘I thought I was getting somewhere with her but the moment Les died she proved she didn’t need me.’

  ‘Oh, did she now? And how was that, pray tell me?’

  He described the way she had given over Carrick Cross’s goats and pigs to Arthur Waller. ‘Now can you see what I mean?’

  Laura picked up a ball of string and threw it at him. In her agitation her aim was poor but it cuffed his upper arm.

  He looked at his arm, thunderstruck. ‘Steady on, Laura, you’ll make yourself ill.’

  ‘I see it all right. Stupid male pride again! That’s what this is all about. While the little woman is clinging to you and crying her eyes out all over your manly chest, all is well. The moment she makes an adult, commonsense decision all on her little own, the likes of you can’t cope with it. Eve is used to having to look after herself, remember? She’s a thoroughly reliable, capable young woman. But she’s got feelings, you know, and you must have hurt hers terribly. It’ll serve you right if she never forgives you and leaves Kilgarthen for good and wipes away the memory of you with the dust from her feet!’

  There was a chair in the storeroom and although Laura, shaking and red-faced in her rage, needed it more than he did, Ince sank down on it. ‘I never thought of it like that.’

  ‘Since when does a man think?’ Laura snapped.

  ‘What you said, about Eve being in love with me. Did she tell you that?’

  ‘She told me and Ada that you were going out together.’

  ‘She did?’

  ‘That’s right,’ Ada’s voice suddenly boomed through the stacked shelves. ‘You made her look a right fool. I came through to see what all the raised voices were about. ’Tis about time someone put you right, young man. Get off that chair at once. Can’t you see Laura’s looking faint?’

  Ince jumped up and apologised. Ada took Laura by the arm and sat her down. ‘There now, dear. What you need is a good lie down.’

  Ince wasn’t oblivious of Laura’s needs but he had something more pressing on his mind. ‘I must go and speak to Eve immediately. Is it all right if I pop down the road for a few minutes, Laura?’

  ‘It wouldn’t be a few minutes,’ Ada said, her hawk-like features contracting. ‘You won’t find Eve in my house.’ Ince knew the worst moment of panic in his life. ‘Has she caught a train? Where’s she gone? Give me her new address and I’ll follow her.’

  ‘Hold your wild horses. She’s gone over to Carrick Cross to sort through the last of Les’s things,’ Ada said. ‘I’ll take your place in the shop. Laura looks as if she’s had enough of you for one day, and if you haven’t promised to put a ring on that maid’s finger when you get back, we’ll both have something to say to you.’

  Ince ripped off the apron he wore and flew out of the storeroom.

  Laura felt weak for a few more moments. She was grateful to Ada for taking over. But with Ince seeing sense at last, her energies soon rallied. ‘I was beginning to think we’d never see that happen,’ she said, shaking her head at the foolishness and blindness of the male of the species.

  ‘I know,’ Ada replied as if she had trouble believing it even now, raising her eyes to the ceiling. ‘Waiting for those two to get together is as tedious as watching paint dry.’

  Chapter 31

  Standing in front of the black painted gate at Carrick Cross, Eve felt small and insignificant. Since she had signed the papers Andrew Macarthur had brought to Ada Prisk’s house yesterday evening, the little ramshackle place no longer belonged to her. She had not wanted to retain ownership of her grandparents’ smallholding. It had no childhood memories or ties for her to cling to. It was too far off the beaten track for her to want to live here alone. She had nothing. She had no one. She had nowhere in particular to go to either, but very soon she would leave Kilgarthen behind her.

  The sun was high and bright today, only playful little breezes stirred the heath and open spaces, but there was no attraction for her here. The place seemed as if it had been deserted for years; the livestock was gone, the flowers she had tended had nearly all died off, the beds looked cold and cheerless. She would go through the contents of the house and take away the personal things, leaving the rest for Arthur Waller’s son and his bride. Just for a little while, she had allowed herself the dream of living here as a bride herself.

  Steeling her emotions, she opened the gate and headed for the battered low door. It wasn’t locked. She had never seen a key about the place and Ada had assured her she wouldn’t need one, saying no one would dream of taking a thing out of the house. Eve thought the ghostly rumours would provide enough security anyway. Something about the vegetable patch made her go and take a look at it.

  Ince had dug up or cut everything ready for the market trader during the first week after Les’s death, then Eve had agreed to let Arthur Waller help himself. He seemed to have made a terrible mess. Where vegetables had been pulled up, earth lay heaped about and over the paths. Rather than cutting the cabbages, they had been yanked out by their roots and the stumps and outer leaves strewn about. Eve shrugged her shoulders. It was no concern of hers what the Wallers did. A pity, though, to treat Ince’s hard work in this way. She told herself, as she did a hundred times a day, that she would not think of Ince.

  She went inside and was puzzled to see the door to the food cupboard open. A prickle of apprehension lifted her scalp. When she was last here, a week ago with Ada, they had made sure that everything was closed firmly. They had taken away most of the food, stale bread and crackers, some cake and bis
cuits, butter, ham, cheese and a pheasant that had been hanging, but the non-perishable goods they had left were now gone. Not a jar of jam, marmalade, pickles or chutney was left; even the salt and pepper pot were gone. Eve felt the fine hairs on the back of her neck stand up and she shivered. The Wallers had promised not to set foot inside the house until after she had informed them that she had cleared the house. She trusted them. Someone else had been here.

  Putting the box and two bags she had brought with her on the table, she edged warily towards the foot of the stairs. She listened hard, but heard nothing. Feeling a little afraid, she went up the steps, taking each one gingerly, straining to hear sudden noises. Her nerves were jarred with every creak she made. She peeped into her bedroom first, glad that she had left the curtains open so the room wasn’t dark. Something else chilled her to the bone. She and Ada had taken away the bed linen to launder it, but now the blankets and bedspread were missing, as were the pillows. Grasping her throat so she wouldn’t cry out in alarm, she turned and fled down the stairs.

  As she reached the bottom step, a man suddenly loomed up in front of her. He gripped her arms and she screamed, beating him off with her fists.

  ‘Eve! Eve! For goodness sake, it’s only me.’

  Her hands fell to her sides. ‘Ince! You terrified me,’ she gasped accusingly.

  ‘So I can see,’ he returned, his big hands hovering about her, wanting to gather her in to him, not just to comfort her, but to feel her soft body against his. ‘Who did you think I was?’

  ‘An intruder. Someone’s been here, taking things. Did you notice the garden?’

  ‘No, I was looking for you.’

  Eve eyed him warily, then brushing past him pointed to the food cupboard. ‘Jars of food have been taken. I don’t know about valuables. I haven’t had time to look. Who do you think it was?’

  ‘A tramp probably. If you’d been living here he would have knocked and asked you for something, but as the place is obviously empty he no doubt thought it would be all right to help himself. Don’t worry. I’ve never known them to hurt anyone, they’re not called gentlemen of the road for nothing.’