by Rosie James
‘Cooee – only me!’ Dora was inviting herself in for a meal.
Gloria glanced up, smiling. ‘Come in, Dora! You must have known I’ve just made the tea!’ Gloria had never turned anyone away from her table.
After they’d eaten – in between non-stop chatting about the new baby and Alice leaving Dorchester and all the wedding preparations – Dora said solemnly –
‘I know you’ll want me to do a reading in a minute – well, p’raps not you, Don – but I bet Alice will want to know what’s in her cup. Won’t you, Alice?’ she said hopefully.
‘Well,’ Alice began, and Don stood up, pushing back his chair.
‘If you ladies will excuse me,’ he said, ‘I’ll just go in the other room and have a pipe.’ He smiled down affably. ‘And don’t mind me – you take your time. Enjoy yourselves,’ he added.
Alice wished she could disappear as well, and go up to her room. She was beginning to feel quite drained…it had been a long week, a long couple of days, with all that had been going on. But Dora and Gloria were already swilling the tea dregs around in their cups, so it would have been rude not to join in. Alice sighed inwardly. This was all such silly nonsense…
‘Now then, you first, Gloria…let’s see what you’ve got in yours.’ Dora settled down to the task and peered into Gloria’s cup, a slight frown on her forehead. This took concentration. ‘Well…there doesn’t seem to be too much going on here, Gloria,’ she murmured, ‘and I’m glad to say there’s no sign of any bad luck, or anything like that – though there is a slight anxiety concerning someone close to you…perhaps a minor ailment or other…I can’t be specific, of course – well it would be silly to be specific, wouldn’t it? But just a little warning – that’s what it looks like to me,’ Dora said.
This somewhat vague conclusion didn’t seem to bother Gloria at all, and she just smiled at her neighbour. ‘Thank you for that, dear,’ she said. ‘Now then – what about Alice – our Alice? What do you see in Alice’s cup? She’s the one we’re interested in!’
‘Oh, there’s a lot going on here!’ Dora exclaimed, turning her gaze this way and that to make sure she wasn’t missing a single leaf which might be sending out signals. ‘Of course, there is a large crowd, a large gathering…and a heart-line…a definite heart-line,’ she went on slowly. But…’ she paused. Dora did not like giving out any bad news at her readings – if she did too much of that no one would ever want her to do another one. ‘What I can see here,’ she went on, ‘is a long delay of some sort…it’s a bit confusing to make out…but there is an unusual break in the leaves, which is quite strange…but yes, I would suggest a long delay,’ she repeated, ‘a hold-up, or an…an intrusion. An interruption, you might say.’ She looked at Alice. ‘Oh – Oh dear… I hope this doesn’t mean that someone might stand up during the ceremony and say they know of a “just cause or impediment” to interrupt the marriage!’ she said anxiously. ‘That would be dreadful, wouldn’t it?’
‘That’s a very silly suggestion, Dora,’ Gloria scolded, standing up to start clearing the table. ‘I’ve never heard of such a thing taking place in any church! But we’ll take what you just said as a warning, and make sure that no hold-ups occur in this house on the 23rd December! Don will double-check the taxis we’ve ordered to take us – to take the bridal party – to the church, and there’ll be room in one of the cars for you as well, by the way, Dora. The two bridesmaids and all the dresses are arriving here the day before, so there won’t be a delay there, either. I’m sure Mr. and Mrs. Miles will make sure of that!’ Gloria paused. ‘So I can’t think of anything else that could possibly be delayed – or held up, can you, Alice?’
Alice was also on her feet helping to clear the table, and she smiled across at Gloria. What Alice wanted to say was – someone stop this batty old lady from making things up – but instead, all Alice said was –
‘There won’t be any delays, Mrs. Travers. Not with Mr. Travers in charge,’ she added.
Later, upstairs in her room, Alice stood and stared out of the window for a moment, annoyed with herself. Annoyed at how her heart had lurched uncomfortably as Dora had read her teacup. This quaint, ridiculous practice was too silly to take seriously – yet the older lady did have a way of almost convincing you that what she was “seeing” could be true. Remember how she’d correctly foretold Gloria’s accident just before her wedding to Don? Alice gritted her teeth. Dora had been so insistent that there was going be a delay connected with Alice’s wedding that it had made Alice uncomfortable…and suddenly wary. How stupid! But she could only put it down to bridal jitters – which she knew many women felt at this stage in their lives.
Still, Alice turned away and opened her case to finish unpacking. Delays do happen all the time, for all sorts of reasons…was someone, something, telling her to hold off her wedding until she was really sure that in marrying Sam, and despite her almost desperate love for him, she wasn’t making the biggest mistake of her life?
Be careful what you wish for…
Chapter Fifteen
Alice finished tidying her bedroom – the bedroom which had been hers, off and on, since 1939. She went across to the window and stared out. The little garden was still planned out exactly as it had been when she’d first arrived here. The crazy-paving path down the middle separated the patch of lawn on one side and the vegetable plot on the other. Any flowers were always grown in numerous pots in front of the dining room window and around the kitchen door at the back. Gloria’s geraniums had always been wonderful, the talk of the somewhat envious neighbourhood…well she had a little sun-trap there, didn’t she, and you couldn’t really go wrong with geraniums. Not that there was much growing out there at the moment, of course, but by springtime everything which Gloria – and now, presumably, Don – had planted out, would be starting to thrive.
Alice turned away, preparing to go downstairs. She was in rather a funny position at the moment, she thought…in a sort of no man’s land, and with not very much to do until she left here for the last time as a single woman. But she knew that Gloria loved her being here…and especially loved the fact that Alice would be leaving from her house in Totterdown…leaving to get married, and on the arm of Gloria’s husband.
‘It’s going to be the occasion I never thought I would enjoy,’ she’d told Alice, more than once, ‘seeing my daughter get married. And I shall be so proud, because you have always been like a daughter to me, Alice,’ she’d said.
The three of them were sitting around the fire on the Sunday evening when the telephone rang in the hall. The sound didn’t even register with Don, and Gloria glanced up from her knitting.
‘That’ll be for you, Alice,’ she said. ‘I’m not expecting any calls.’
The telephone rarely rang because here, as in other private homes, most people used them mostly for necessities, not as a social medium. And during the war, it was often only ARP wardens and the Home Guard who had the privilege of owning a telephone. But within a few years almost every home would be connected – though no one could have dreamed, then, that well before the end of the century, personal “mobile” phones, carried around in pockets and handbags, would be commonplace.
Alice left the room and picked up the receiver.
It was Sam.
‘Hullo, Alice. Just checking that you’re safely installed in Totterdown…how did the last day at the office go?’
Just to hear his voice made Alice smile. ‘Hullo, Sam. Oh Sam…thank you for your letter! It came at just the right moment – as you knew it would! And…I’m so excited about the cottage – of course you were right to grab it while you could!’ Alice paused for breath. ‘And my last day was fine…but we did have quite a surprise…’ She went on to tell him all the news, and she could hear Sam chuckle as he listened.
‘Mr. Pennington sounds quite a card,’ he said, ‘and it’s lovely for Rex – and for Valerie.’ Alice had often spoken of her colleagues. ‘I’m really looking forward to meeting all your guests, a
ll your friends,’ he added.
There was a pause, then – ‘You know that I can’t be home until the weekend before the wedding,’ he said, ‘so on the Sunday afternoon I’ll drive over to Totterdown and pick up all your stuff to take home to Clifton – is that OK?’
To take home to Clifton…those words made Alice catch her breath for a moment. Would it really be her home, one day, her real home and not just somewhere to stay now and then? The thought was glorious – and challenging – all at once.
‘Yes – thanks, Sam. Not that there’s a lot of stuff to take,’ she said. Well, it was hard to accumulate anything substantial when you’d never had a home of your own to put it in.
They chatted idly for a few moments, and just as Sam was about to ring off, he said – ‘Oh, by the way, Alice…if you think of any other guests you might want to invite, you know, at the last moment, that won’t be a problem. There’s plenty of room at The Grange – we’ve checked that point.’ He paused. ‘My father and I have been discussing the reception, and we’ve decided that there’s not going to be a “top table”…our wedding is going to be an informal occasion where guests can sit down where ever they like to enjoy the meal. There’ll be waiters to guide them, obviously.’ Sam waited before going on. ‘It was something I felt my mother would approve of,’ he said, ‘because she hated exclusivity and pretentiousness…hated the class system – in all its aspects,’ he added. ‘And we, you and I, Alice, will sit together wherever we find a couple of seats amongst our friends, and then go around afterwards chatting to everyone. Make them all feel special. Does that sound all right to you?’
Alice felt a rush of warmth to hear Sam mention his mother, to imagine what Helena might be thinking. And yes, Helena would have wanted everyone to feel special at the wedding, not just the principal players. The last shall be first and the first last… Helena Carmichael had sometimes been heard quoting bible wisdom…
But they, Sam and Edward, had been thinking of Alice. She had no family, and obviously a limited number of friends. The last thing they wanted was for her to feel outdone and overwhelmed by the Carmichael clan, by the distinguished guests who’d be there – and there would be a few – to make her feel in any way that she was walking a step behind them – a “royal” step behind them.
And Alice should not think of herself ever again as an ex-employee at the Clifton house. All that was past history.
Because soon she was going to be one of them. She was going to be a Carmichael.
In the following days Alice did her best to help around the house, but Gloria was having none of that.
‘No, my dear,’ she would insist, ‘Don and I worked out our business plan from the very first and you don’t need to do a thing. See, Don’s in charge of the dishes and the vacuuming – and cleaning the inside of the windows – I do all the laundry and the cooking – and we sort the garden out together.’ She’d smiled. ‘It all works out a treat – so don’t go interfering! We each know what we’re supposed to be doing, and if you start chipping in and do some of his stuff, he might get used to it and then never want to do any of it again!’ But Gloria was only joking. Her husband was one of the best – she had been well blessed in her choice of men – her only sorrow was that she had never had children. But…fate had sent her Alice, and she certainly didn’t want the girl to go doing housework. Not now, for goodness sake…now that she was only a couple of weeks’ off getting married. There was plenty of time ahead of her for all those flipping chores…
The following Friday evening, Fay rang.
‘Watcher, me ol’ dear,’ she said breezily. ‘Comin’ into town for a drink tomorrow night? With me and Evie? I’ve already rung her, and she’s game.’
Alice smiled. Evie, that shy, rather introverted girl she’d once been, game for a pub session!…‘Oh Fay – yes, I’d love to meet you both,’ Alice said. Well, she’d be glad to leave Gloria and Don to themselves on a Saturday night. She’d been a gooseberry once before in this house.
Fay picked up Alice in the car before driving into town. Eve was coming from Bath by bus, and as they came to the Hippodrome they could see her already standing there, waiting for them.
Fay parked by the kerb, and she and Alice got out. ‘This is fun,’ Fay said, as the three linked arms and started strolling up Park Street. ‘We haven’t done this for years, have we?’ She glanced at Eve. ‘Was Max OK about you being without him on a Saturday night, Evie?’ she said.
‘Oh, he was fine,’ Eve said at once. ‘Told me to go and enjoy myself. Anyway, he’d arranged to get together with his group of friends – well, the group of our friends – for another of those regular musical evenings. I was going too, but I said I’d rather see you two for a change.’
‘That’s all right, then,’ Fay said. ‘Make it clear from the beginning, Evie, that after you’re married he doesn’t own you…that you’re not someone he possesses for his pleasure and convenience. Make sure you’re always your own person, won’t you…and that goes for you, too, Alice.’ She glanced at Alice. ‘Both of you set out your stall from the beginning so that those men of yours don’t have any grand ideas about playing lord and master.’
Fay hadn’t been joking when she’d made those comments, and the others knew it. They also knew how Fay had always regarded her father…he’d clearly been the domineering sort and it seemed to have given her a rather one-sided view of the opposite sex. Alice and Eve had both agreed, privately, that they didn’t think Fay would ever marry. She’d never tolerate a man like her father had obviously been, but neither would she appreciate a namby-pamby with no opinions of his own. She was already thirty years old – which was on the late side for a woman to marry.
Fay knew of a decent pub up at The Triangle, and she led the way inside, finding a table for them straightaway, before going to the bar for their drinks. Alice glanced around her for a moment. There was plenty of the Devil’s medicine (her mother’s description of alcohol) being consumed here, she thought, and the room was thick with cigarette smoke. But the atmosphere was good-hearted…well, it was Saturday night. Everyone loved Saturday nights.
Fay returned with their drinks and some packets of nuts. ‘This is the last time we shall ever do this,’ she said, picking up her glass of beer and taking a generous swallow. ‘With the three of us still single, I mean.’ She made a gloomy face. ‘Marriage always splits up friendships.’ She glanced at Alice. ‘D’you know where you and Sam are going to be living next year?’
‘Yes…we shall be in London for at least the next six months,’ Alice said. ‘We’ve managed to find a cottage in Chelsea – so…hey…you two can come up and visit me! I mean, I don’t expect Sam to be around at all during the day, and he’s still always expected to take his turn on the night shift.’ Alice picked up her glass. ‘I’m sure there are nice pubs in Chelsea!’
‘But before all that, we’ve got your wedding first, Alice… I’m getting so excited,’ Eve said, leaning forward. ‘My mother keeps going into the bedroom to make sure our dresses haven’t been spirited away in the night.’
‘Oh yes, and by the way,’ Fay said, tearing open a packet of the nuts, taking one, and scrunching it noisily, ‘hope you don’t mind, Alice, but my family – my mum and my gran – are determined to be at the church to see us in all our finery. They’ll be quite happy standing at the back if there’s no room for them to sit down,’ she added.
Alice shook her head quickly. ‘Of course there’ll be room for them to sit down,’ she said firmly, ‘and as a matter of fact, I have sent them both an invitation…to be there as our guests. And of course afterwards at the reception as well,’ she added.
Fay brightened up at this piece of news. ‘Really? Really, Alice? Oh, they’ll be thrilled!’ she said. ‘They don’t go far these days you see…certainly not to anything as special as a wedding. They’ve been pestering me for weeks to give them all the details.’
After a moment, Fay said – ‘I was talking to Roger on the phone a couple of da
ys ago, and he’s made me promise to bring them – Mum and Gran – to the farm in the spring. When the weather’s nice. He said he thought they’d like to see where we were during the war.’ Fay picked up her glass and finished her beer. ‘I hope that wasn’t a veiled hope that I’d hang around long enough to help pick some bloody spuds,’ she said, ‘not that I’d mind. It was one of the less messy things we were asked to do, if I remember rightly.’
Tuesday, 23rd December 1947
‘There, how’s that? Let me look at you…’
Fay lowered her head to gaze intently at Alice in the mirror. Alice was sitting at the dressing table in the bedroom she’d shared with Fay the night before – Eve had used the box room next door – and Fay had just finished styling Alice’s hair. ‘Are you happy with that, Alice?’ Fay held a hand mirror so that Alice could see the back. ‘It looks lovely to me, but if Madam is not satisfied…’
Alice turned to glance up at Fay. ‘Thank you, Fay… Madam is more than satisfied,’ she said, getting up from the stool.
Eve had done her own hair…those luxurious, auburn locks which she’d piled high on top. The green of her bridesmaid’s dress was going to suit her perfectly.
Fay’s glamorous, long, blonde hair, recently re-dyed, was floating around her shoulders as usual, and now that each hairdo had been approved of it was time for all three to put on their dresses…and those glamorous, strappy shoes…
It was funny, Alice thought, that this morning there wasn’t much chatting and laughing going on between them. Well, there’d been plenty of that last night downstairs, with Don and Gloria plying everyone with champagne. It had been nearly midnight before they’d all gone to bed.
Now, it was in almost complete silence that the three girls began to get dressed.
Fay was the first to speak, as usual. Turning, she just gazed at Alice for a moment. ‘Oh – my – heavens, Alice,’ she said softly. ‘you look…well, I don’t know what to say to you…