‘Sounded sad, didn’t it?’ said Frances. ‘All by herself in that huge house. Well, that’s done.’ She emptied the washing-up bowl, took off her apron and rolled down her sleeves. ‘I must be on my way. Thanks for a surprising party, Helen. I do hope Beatrice is none the worse in the morning. I’ll give you a ring from the office. Don’t get up, you look knackered.’ Helen had subsided on to a kitchen stool. ‘Jan will see me out. Lovely evening. See you soon.’
Twelve
‘I slept right through,’ Beatrice boasted in the morning. ‘And dreamed of Paul. Good dreams.’ She smiled, remembering. ‘Can I have a boiled egg? I’m hungry! And, Helen, I didn’t dream that young man, did I? Benedicta’s grandson?’
‘No, indeed. Ben Norton. He’s coming for a drink at twelve, staying for a sandwich lunch. Downstairs, doctor’s orders. But you shall have him to yourself first.’
‘A sandwich? Hardly a fatted calf.’
‘Hardly a prodigal.’
‘No, I suppose not. But make them special sandwiches, Helen. He was fun, wasn’t he? I liked him, didn’t I?’
‘Very much, I thought. We all did.’ It was the least she could say. ‘I’ll see that they are the very best prodigal’s sandwiches. And you are going to get up and dress for him, aren’t you?’
‘I suppose so. I keep thinking about Benedicta, Helen. Dying all by herself in that great, glum house with no one about her but servants. I woke up this morning thinking how lucky I am. “Partying with my friends.” Nice phrase, wasn’t it?’
‘Very. He has a gift for nice phrases, your great-nephew.’
‘Like Paul. Fancy me having a great-nephew. Helen, there’s something I need to do this morning. I thought of it in the night. Now, what was it?’ She began to twist her hands in the bedspread, always a bad sign.
‘Don’t fret for it,’ Helen advised. ‘It’ll come back when you’ve had your breakfast. One egg coming up right away.’
Ben Norton arrived sharp at twelve, bearing an enormous mixed bouquet. ‘For my favourite great-aunt.’ He handed the dripping flowers to Jan, who had let him in. ‘How is she this morning? Not too zonked by last night, I hope.’
‘No, she’s fine. Looking forward to seeing you. Helen’s up with her; why don’t you go right on up while I put these in water.’
‘Thanks.’ He hung the blue windcheater on a hook, glanced in the hall mirror to check windswept curls and loped down the hall to the stairs.
‘Look at you, up and dressed.’ Helen thought for a moment that he was going to kiss Beatrice, but he must have decided against it. ‘I brought you some flowers, Aunt Beatrice; that nice Jan of yours is putting them in water for me. I hope you like them.’
‘I’m sure I shall. Now tell me all about yourself.’
‘There’s a stopper of a question.’ He pulled a comic, self-deprecating face, and Helen thought it her cue to leave them alone.
Returning with Beatrice’s tray soon after one, she found them deep in conversation.
‘Not lunch already?’ Beatrice protested. ‘We’re only getting started on Ben’s life. He ran away from school three times, Helen, and would you believe it, they sent him back each time.’
‘I’m surprised the school would have him,’ said Helen.
‘Oh, Nortons have been going to Phillips Exeter ever since the school was founded,’ Beatrice explained.
‘And remembering it in their wills,’ said Ben, rising to move a little table conveniently close to Beatrice’s chair. ‘They took me back all right, but they didn’t love me much. Lunch for one, I see, just like the doctor ordered. Eat your soup while it’s hot, Aunt Beatrice, and may I come back afterwards?’
‘I’m afraid probably not,’ said Helen, on the stairs. ‘She usually sleeps for an hour or so after lunch. We’re having ours in the kitchen, I hope you don’t mind.’
‘Super kitchen,’ he said, looking round. ‘Nicest room in the house, if it’s nice at all. What happens beyond your garden wall?’ He was peering out the window over the sink.
‘A little church and then open country,’ Helen told him, ladling soup into bowls.
‘Just the very thing I need. Come for a walk after lunch, Jan, and see I don’t get lost in your wild countryside?’
‘Good idea.’ Helen took her place at the kitchen table. ‘Peter says the blackthorn is still full out in the graveyard, Jan. Time you got out there. And bring Ben back for a cup of tea. Beatrice is bound to wake up full of questions she has forgotten to ask you.’ To Ben.
‘Or forgotten the answers,’ he said.
‘You’ve noticed?’
‘Sure I have. Sticks out a mile, doesn’t it, poor old duck. Bothers her. There’s something really bugging her right now; something she wants to do. Can’t think what it is.’
‘I know,’ said Helen. ‘It does happen, I’m afraid. I find the best thing is to try not to let her fret about it, and then it usually comes back.’
‘Or she forgets all about it and starts worrying about something else? Granma was like that towards the end, but she was a hell of a lot vaguer than Aunt Beatrice, I can tell you. Trouble was, most of the time she only had servants to talk to, and she didn’t reckon much to them, so she let herself go, kind of; slid away, worse every time I visited. Vaguer, you know, not really on the ball. Sad to see. I don’t suppose for a minute Aunt Beatrice realizes how lucky she is to have all of you. Talking to her. Caring about her. Keeping her going.’
‘We’re lucky too,’ Jan told him. ‘She’s our asylum.’
‘Odd word to pick, surely?’
‘No, it’s the right one. We were homeless, Helen and I, when she took us in.’
‘Yes.’ Helen had wanted the chance to say this. ‘I feel a bit bad about that. It seems awful not to ask you to stay, Ben, but the upstairs spare room is chock-a-block with all our stuff.’
‘The turret room? I’d love to see that. It was where he worked, wasn’t it? The lost poet?’
‘Why do you call him that?’
‘Granma always did. Hey, the sun’s out. How about it, Jan?’ He had been eating with ferocious speed, now pushed his chair back. ‘Promise to leave the dishes for when we get back, Helen. I’m a dab hand at a sink.’
‘I’ll put some boots on.’ Jan finished a last bite of prawn sandwich. ‘Will you be all right in trainers, Ben? It’s pretty muddy out there.’
‘Sure; they wash. No problem. I can’t wait to see what’s on the other side of that wall.’
‘We felt just the same,’ Helen told him. ‘Only it took us longer.’
‘I hate to waste time.’ He was stacking his and Jan’s dishes expertly in the sink.
‘I can see you do,’ she told him wryly. A slow eater, she was still only halfway through her sandwich and had meant to eat an apple afterwards.
When she went up to fetch Beatrice’s tray she found her back in bed and fast asleep, as she had expected. She was just finishing the dishes when the telephone rang and she hurried to answer it before it woke Beatrice.
‘Frances? I thought it would be you.’
‘I’ve been waiting for a good moment to call.’ Helen knew this meant that the three Finches had gone out for one of their leisurely working lunches. ‘How’s Beatrice? None the worse, I hope?’
‘No. Had a wonderful night, been hearing the story of Ben’s life this morning and snug asleep now.’
‘That’s good news. I was worried a bit, back there.’
‘Oh, so was I; glad when Hugh broke it up.’
‘You’re free to talk? Where’s the handsome stranger now?’
‘Gone out for a walk with Jan. Frances, am I a pig for not inviting him to stay?’
‘Not a bit of it, and the more he hints the less you should do it. You’ve got quite enough on your hands as it is, without a hungry young male to feed. And besides, if he’d wanted to be welcomed like a long-lost kinsman he should have behaved like one and let you know in advance. Or Beatrice rather.’
‘Yes, that’s rat
her the way I feel. Honestly, Frances, I didn’t much fancy the way he took it for granted he could charm his way in.’
‘I couldn’t agree with you more. But it worked all right on Beatrice.’
‘And on Jan, but then she’s his age.’
‘Younger,’ said Frances. ‘I bet that young Adonis is nearer thirty than twenty, and what’s he been doing all his life, that’s what I’d like to know. And what’s he doing now, come to that, so he can come roaring across the Atlantic to visit an unknown great-aunt?’
‘Oh,’ said Helen. ‘I hadn’t thought of that. But I suppose he’s so rich that he doesn’t have to work.’
‘Everyone ought to work,’ said Frances.
‘You’re so fierce. But of course I agree with you. Mind you, we don’t in the least know that he doesn’t.’
‘He doesn’t seem like one of the world’s toilers.’
‘No. So what are we going to do about him?’
‘Wait and see. Nothing rash. Let Beatrice enjoy him. So long as she is?’
‘Oh, enormously. He’s doing her good. She’s dressed today.’
‘Well, there you are. Just don’t let him wear her out.’
‘No indeed, though mind you, Frances, we know that given the choice she’d rather wear out than rust out.’
‘Of course she would. Oh damn, I must go.’
‘Goodbye.’ Helen put down the receiver with a vision of Finches on the prowl.
Jan and Ben returned from their walk quite late, very muddy and extremely cheerful.
‘It’s super, your English countryside,’ Ben told Helen. ‘May I take these off right here and go sock foot? They’re filthy.’
‘Not the socks, I’m glad to see!’ They were a remarkable psychedelic blue.
‘No, ma’am. I’m a seasoned traveller from all those times with Ma and the aunts. I wash them every night, clean on in the morning.’
‘Not the same ones?’
‘Sure. Saves luggage. A bit damp this morning, but never mind.’
‘I thought your mother and aunts always left you behind with your grandmother.’ Jan had taken off her boots and changed into slippers.
‘Not when I got older they didn’t. I turned into an asset overnight when my voice broke. Is the old darling awake yet?’ To Helen.
‘Yes, and asking for you. She’s had her tea, would you like a cup?’
‘No, thanks, never touch the stuff.’
‘Fruit juice then?’
‘No, thanks. A glass of water maybe?’ He reached one down from the cupboard and turned on the tap.
‘He hoped for something stronger,’ said Jan when he had gone upstairs.
‘He should be so lucky!’
‘You’re so tough. I’m sorry we were late, Helen. I couldn’t get him to turn back, he was enjoying himself so. Did Beatrice mind?’
‘A bit. Partly because she’s tired; I’m not going to let him stay long tonight. Has he said anything about how long he’s here for, by the way? It makes a difference, doesn’t it?’
‘I suppose so. No, not a word. He’s never been to Europe before; talked about France and Spain a bit, as if he thought of going there, but nothing about dates. Do you think we ought to clear out the turret room and ask him to stay, Helen?’
‘I’d wondered, but Frances says no, and I think I agree with her.’
‘Frances has a lot of sense. She telephoned, did she?’
‘Yes, I told her Beatrice is fine this morning. Oh, there’s her bell. No, I’ll go, thanks.’
‘I’ve thought of it!’ Beatrice was sitting upright in her chair looking pleased with herself. ‘I need to see Frances. Could you ring her for me, Helen? Ask her if she could drop in on her way home from work.’
‘Of course. I’ll do it right away.’ She thought for a moment of going to the downstairs telephone, but changed her mind and picked up the receiver by the bed to dial the familiar office number. Through to Frances, she got an instant assent.
‘Of course. I’m about done here. I’ll be along as soon after six as I can make it. Give her my love.’
‘All fixed.’ Helen put down the receiver and smiled at Beatrice. ‘Soon after six.’
‘Then I’d better be getting along.’ Ben pleased Helen by rising to his feet. ‘Let you have a bit of a rest before the lawyer lady comes, Aunt Beatrice. I’ve persuaded Jan to show me the town tonight, and she tells me they have some kind of a local farmers’ shindig by the river tomorrow, so we’re planning to go to that. OK if I drop in afterwards? Twelvish?’ To Helen.
‘Do, if you can face soup and a sandwich again.’ What else could she say?
Frances arrived, briefcase in hand, soon after Ben had left. ‘Do I take it that this is a business meeting?’ she asked Helen at the front door.
‘I think so. It will be her will, won’t it, now Ben has turned up.’
‘That’s what I thought. Shall I go right up?’
‘Do. And shout when you are ready for a glass of something. Jan’s showing Ben the town tonight.’
‘Yes. I saw them striding off across the river. He’s going to find it pretty small-time, I’d think.’
‘Me too. Stay to supper, Frances, it’s lazy woman’s food, no problem.’
‘Thanks, I’d like to.’ She vanished up the stairs.
‘Well, that’s done.’ Frances joined Helen in the kitchen twenty minutes later. ‘And being Beatrice she wants it signed and sealed as soon as possible, if not sooner. Tell me, Helen, what sort of terms are you on with the Fanshaw ladies these days?’
‘I suppose you’d call it armed neutrality. They don’t quite cut me in the street but they look as if they’d like to. Oh dear, does she want them as witnesses again?’
‘Sensible really, if we can fix it.’
‘I suppose so.’ She pulled a face. ‘And you can bet your boots they’ll come if asked. They are bound to have noticed Ben coming and going, must be dying to know all about him. So, who’s going to bell the cats, you or me?’
‘Best from you, don’t you think? I’ve promised Beatrice I’ll go in and get it typed up first thing in the morning. Nice peaceful Saturday. So if you could ask them to come in later on?’
‘Ben is coming to see Beatrice about twelve.’
‘Before that then. Get it done with?’
‘Right.’ She picked up the receiver and dialled.
As usual, it was Ellen who answered. ‘Tomorrow?’ She sounded appalled. ‘Saturday? But it’s the farmers’ market. We never miss that, Susan and I. Such bargains, you know, we can’t afford to miss them with the cost of living going up every day under this dreadful government.’ She was talking, Helen thought, to give herself time to fight the battle between umbrage and curiosity.
‘You couldn’t go early?’ she coaxed. ‘Come here at about eleven? Thing is, Mrs Tresikker has a young relative from the States in town at the moment, he’s coming to see her at twelve. Frances Murray wants to get it all done before then.’
‘Oh, I see. A young relative, you say? How lovely for her …’
‘Yes, a great-nephew she didn’t even know existed. It has cheered her up in the most remarkable way.’
‘No need for Dr Braddock, you mean? Tomorrow?’
‘Do you know, I actually hadn’t thought of that. Thank you for reminding me. I’d better give him a ring, hadn’t I?’
‘I’m surprised Frances Murray didn’t.’ Delighted with herself, Ellen yielded almost gracefully. ‘Very well, Susan and I will just set the alarm early and get to the market when it opens. That should get us over to you comfortably by eleven.’
‘That’s wonderful, thank you.’ Helen hung up and smiled at Frances. ‘Triumph of curiosity over huffiness,’ she told her. ‘Coming at eleven. And should we ask Hugh Braddock? She suggested it, actually.’
‘I thought that must be it. Just ring and tell him, Helen. I don’t really think we need him for this little bit of work, and he is such a busy man.’
‘I know. He’s looki
ng exhausted. I could kill that housekeeper of his.’ She looked at her watch. ‘I’ll ring him right away, bit of luck he’ll be home for his supper, such as it is.’ She dialled, got Hugh at once and put the question, then turned to Frances. ‘He’s got a committee meeting,’ she said. ‘Asks if you think he ought to cut it.’
‘No,’ said Frances at once. ‘Tell him it’s no big deal.’
‘We can always get him on his mobile,’ said Helen after she had passed on the message and rung off.
‘If the Fanshaws rile her too dreadfully,’ Frances agreed.
* * *
This time everything went smoothly. Frances and the Miss Fanshaws all arrived together soon after eleven o’clock and it was all done before half past. Back downstairs, Miss Ellen looked hopefully about the hall where Helen was waiting with their coats.
‘But where is the beautiful great-nephew?’ she asked. ‘Mrs Tresikker looks a different creature. You must be delighted he is doing her so much good.’ There was something in her tone that Helen did not altogether like.
‘Yes, it’s wonderful, she’s thriving on him. You didn’t see them at the farmers’ market?’ she asked. ‘He’s there with my niece, Jan. She’s been showing him the town a bit.’
‘Kind of her.’ Once again there was something in Ellen Fanshaw’s tone that Helen neither liked nor understood. She looked at her watch; she really ought to offer the sisters a neighbourly cup of coffee, but Frances was already helping them into their coats, and Beatrice’s bell was ringing upstairs. She was finding it more and more difficult to get herself to the loo, and Helen hurried upstairs to help her.
Safe back in bed, Beatrice grinned at Helen. ‘Such a surprise for him,’ she said. ‘Just what he needs. But not a word, Helen, it is to be a surprise. And no, I’m not going to get dressed today. I do find those Fanshaws quite tiring. But that was funny too,’ she said with another wicked grin. ‘I think I’ll have just a little nap before Ben gets here.’ She snuggled comfortably down under the duvet. ‘Bless you and thank you, Helen dear, for being so good to me.’ And she closed her eyes for instant sleep.
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