‘What about Flo?’ Veronica managed to interject. ‘She’s her daughter.’
Clarence broke in smartly. ‘She’s far from well, almost prostrate after the row she had with Alicia the other day. I fear for her mental stability if she had more responsibility laid upon her.’
Charles raised an eyebrow. ‘She seemed all right when we saw her.’
Clarence gave him a look reserved for those who failed to pay their tithes to the Church, and Charles quailed.
‘How can we move?’ Veronica wailed. ‘The children would have to change schools and that house needs renovating from top to bottom, I’ve no doubt.’
‘Good schools in Liverpool,’ Uncle Harold replied inflexibly. ‘Renovate the house when you’re in it.’ After two Madeiras, he was beginning to feel that nothing could stop him. ‘You’d move quickly enough if poor Elizabeth were dead.’
‘Uncle!’
‘Well you would, and you know it. Move now.’
‘Could we put mother in a nursing home?’
‘Find me one not full of wounded.’
‘Your dear mother, alas, may be called to her Eternal Rest in the not too distant future,’ suggested Clarence. ‘In my experience, such cases, once bedridden like your mother is, do not last very long.’
Charles longed to choke the man, and the argument continued until a very young maid knocked at the door and, on being told to enter, announced that the first dinner guests had arrived and that she had put them in the upstairs drawing-room.
Veronica looked at her in despair. ‘Tell them I’ll be with them in a few minutes. Serve them sherry.’
The maid withdrew and Charles said to Harold Woodman, ‘Veronica and I will have to discuss this. Our entire life will be upset, if we move.’
‘You’ll enjoy it,’ his uncle assured him. ‘It’s a fine house – only needs painting and some new rugs. Might do Elizabeth good to see you and get to know her grandsons – seems to me they’ve never been near her.’
Regardless of the fact that his own children had not visited Elizabeth for years, the Reverend Clarence turned a shocked face upon Veronica. ‘Really?’ he inquired in a tone which suggested that immediate damnation awaited her.
The accusation was true. If it were known to their acquaintances, she would be shamed. She bit her lips and bent her head in the face of clerical disapproval. Then she rose and said flatly, ‘We have dinner guests. I must go to them.’ She did not ask the visitors to eat with them.
Charles was standing uneasily with his back to the fire. His uncle again reminded him flintily of his legal obligations. ‘You haven’t much time,’ he warned him. ‘And Veronica should see Fanny Barnett – I’m sure she’ll find her very capable.’
Foreseeing a long and bitter fight with his wife, which he knew he must win, Charles nodded, and then saw both gentlemen to the door.
Uncle Harold took the Reverend Browning to the Adelphi for dinner.
IV
Despite her uncle’s assurances that all would be well, Alicia doubted it and wept when she went with Billy to arrange to have their Banns read in All Saints Church. She was surprised to hear that Billy also ranked as being of the Church’s parish, since he had stayed so long in Humphrey’s old house.
She cheered up considerably, however, when a stony-faced Veronica and Charles arrived a couple of days later. They looked over the house and decided which furniture should be discarded and where they would put their own belongings. Then they went in to see the invalid.
Charles hardly recognized the shrunken, restless figure in the bed and Veronica, who was not totally unkind, felt some pity for the mother-in-law she had never seen before. Alicia agreed stiffly to arrange for Fanny to go to Seacombe for an interview. Uncle Harold had already arranged a suitable salary with her, Alicia told Veronica. She should get into touch with him in Manchester about any more help she required.
Billy kept out of the way and concerned himself with hunting down a passage to Canada. Polly began to sort and pack her belongings and encouraged Alicia to do likewise.
Mr and Mrs Hunter, next door, heard from their servants that Alicia was engaged, and they offered the use of their carriage to the bride and groom on their wedding day. The good lady, when she found there was no one else to do it, also insisted that she and her daughters would have a little reception for them after the ceremony. Then she took Alicia shopping to buy a suitable dress. ‘We have to bear in mind that almost everyone is in mourning, dear,’ she said sadly, as they window-shopped. Alicia agreed and they settled on a pretty grey material and a matching hat. Miss Bloom’s successor made the dress.
Alicia and Billy would have sworn that they had few friends in Liverpool, but it was surprising how many people Mrs Hunter suggested should be invited. There was Mary and Mike and Billy’s nephews and nieces, Uncle Harold and his wife, his sons and their wives, and, of course, Florence and Charles and their spouses and children. Alicia rather dreaded the attendance of her nephews and nieces, particularly Frank, but since Mrs Hunter was the hostess she trusted that the party would go off well, despite them.
Fanny simply did not turn up for the shift at the munitions factory which followed her interview with Veronica. She moved into the house and began to take over the care of Elizabeth. Veronica had been agreeably surprised to be faced with an obviously well-trained servant at a time when they were at a premium; Fanny had looked her new mistress over shrewdly and decided she was manageable. A deal was struck.
Alicia was happy to have her friend back and the whole tenor of the household began to be more cheerful. With Fanny helping, Billy and Alicia took long walks in the park together like the lovers whom Alicia had so envied years before.
Billy received his formal discharge from the army and bought himself a civilian suit. Seeing him so neatly dressed seemed to Alicia to symbolise a break from the past for him as well as for herself. She thought, ‘I don’t care who comes or who does not come to the wedding. I’ve got Billy and Polly and a new start – and I’ll have children in a new country, legitimate ones. I couldn’t ask for anything better.’
She smiled at Billy, shy in his new apparel, and said, ‘You can walk me down to the dressmaker. I’m going to try on my wedding dress.’
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About the Author
HELEN FORRESTER was born in Hoylake, Cheshire, the eldest of seven children, and Liverpool was her home for many years until she married. For the past thirty years she has made her home in Edmonton, Alberta. She has travelled widely in Europe, India, the United States and Mexico. Helen Forrester is particularly well known for her books about Liverpool, which include the four volumes of her autobiography: Twopence to Cross the Mersey, Liverpool Miss, By the Waters of Liverpool and Lime Street at Two, and four novels: Three Women of Liverpool, Liverpool Daisy, Thursday’s Child, and The Moneylenders of Shahpur.
Also by the Author
FICTION
THREE WOMEN OF LIVERPOOL
LIVERPOOL DAISY
THURSDAY’S CHILD
THE MONEYLENDERS OF SHAHPUR
THE LATCHKEY KID
NON-FICTION
TWOPENCE TO CROSS THE MERSEY
LIVERPOOL MISS
BY THE WATERS OF LIVERPOOL
LIME STREET AT TWO
Copyright
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First published in Great Britain by
William Collins Sons & Co Ltd 1988
First published in Fontana Paperbacks 1988
Copyright © Helen Forrester 1988
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Source ISBN: 9780006174707
Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2012 ISBN: 9780007508235
Version 2014-02-18
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