Anna and Thomas were also full of the news of the row as Tommy had reported it almost word for word. ‘I heard she called Grace a nosy parker,’ said Anna, bursting into laughter, and even Thomas chuckled at the thought. He was pleased that this new row had stopped the arguments in his house over Lizzie’s visit.
Martha was beside herself with glee over this latest bit of news but Eliza was annoyed at her for being so cheerful about someone’s misfortune. ‘Rubbish,’ said her mum, ‘she deserves everything she gets.’
‘Grace is a lovely person so don’t go on about it.’ Eliza was busy making tea and toast and they planned to eat it outside as the morning was warm.
‘I’m not talking about Grace. It’s that Sadie who’s been trouble since she got here. I think Maryanne didn’t give her enough skelps on her backside when she was a child.’
Meanwhile Sadie awoke with a headache and a sick feeling in her stomach and she could barely walk to the sink to wash her face. She glanced at the bottle by the side of her bed and noticed it was almost empty. No wonder she was ill, she thought. She decided to go to work early and she made her way along to the other end of the lane as she wanted to dodge Grace’s house, but she gave a groan when she noticed Martha sitting at her door.
‘Good morning, Sadie, how are you after your outburst? I heard you called Grace Gow a snooty cow.’ She gave a throaty laugh but Sadie was determined to ignore her so she walked past her. ‘And you said she had a fancy house, are you jealous of it?’
Sadie turned round at this remark. ‘I also called you a malicious old dwarf, Martha, because that’s what you are.’
Martha almost choked on her toast which gave Sadie a feeling of satisfaction. She would be glad to be rid of this place when she got her own house, and then maybe Eddie would settle down instead of always fighting with her.
Albert had overheard this last remark and he shook his head sadly. He went in to see Bella who was the only person ignorant of the animosity. She was also upset when she heard. ‘I hope Sadie has the sense to go back to her husband as I fear for young Eddie’s health.’
Albert agreed. ‘She won’t go back and it’s all going to end in tears I think.’
Morag had been putting the pram out prior to taking her baby for a walk to the shops and she overheard Sadie’s remark to Martha and had been shocked at the venom behind it.
Evie and Tommy had tried to get Eddie to talk about yesterday but he remained tight lipped. He left them at their school gate and strode round to his playground without a word.
Grace decided to go to see her mother but when she got there she found she was out, presumably with Elsie. Her cold must have gotten better, she thought as she walked back home. To her dismay another airmail letter was lying on the mat.
She was in a quandary and wondered if she should keep it for Eddie when he came back from school or put it through Maryanne’s letterbox. She sat for an hour to think of the right way to go before making up her mind and walking along the lane where she pushed it through the door.
She was busy doing some baking when she spotted Sadie coming home early and she was in a panic at what would happen when she saw Grace’s address on the envelope. Fully expecting another outburst, she waited but Sadie didn’t come to the door and she breathed a sigh of relief.
At quarter past four Evie and Tommy opened the door and put their schoolbags on the floor.
‘Where’s Eddie?’ she asked, trying not to sound worried as she cut out the dough for scones.
Before Evie could answer, Tommy said, ‘He’s gone home but he says he’ll be back soon.’
Grace thought that was good news as he would get his letter but an hour later he appeared and asked her if anything had come for him. Grace was puzzled as she explained, ‘I put a letter through your letterbox, Eddie, it came this morning.’
Eddie’s face fell and he turned to go out of the door when Sadie appeared. ‘What have you done with my letter?’ he asked.
‘There wasn’t any letter, Eddie.’ Sadie’s face was all innocence and Grace couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
‘Grace said she put a letter from Dad through the letterbox, Mum, so where is it?’
‘Well we all know what a liar she is, Eddie. She would say anything to cause trouble between us and I can assure you there wasn’t anything from your dad.’
Grace was incensed at being called a liar but she didn’t want to make a fuss in front of the children, especially Tommy who was standing open-mouthed and mentally taking in every word.
‘I did put an airmail through your door, Sadie, so don’t deny it.’
In answer to this, Sadie turned on her heel and marched out of the door, almost colliding with Bill as he came home from work. Eddie followed his mother back to the house and saw that his granny had also arrived back. Sadie began to tell her mother all about Grace’s lies, looking indignant as she did so. Eddie went over to the fireplace and raked through some burnt ashes that looked recent. He found a scrap of blue paper that had escaped the flames and he produced it in front of Maryanne.
‘Mum’s burnt another letter, Granny, and I’m writing to tell Dad to come and take me home.’ He walked out without looking at his mother while Maryanne gave her daughter a disgusted look.
‘Don’t look at me like that. I’m only doing what’s best for my son and he has to understand that we’re here to stay and he better get used to it.’
The next morning the lane was again buzzing with the news of the latest spat. Martha couldn’t believe how pleasurable she found this gossip and she made sure Eliza spoke to everyone to get their opinions on that upstart Sadie.
Only Grace, Albert, Bella and Morag felt sorry about the entire war while Evie also felt pity for Eddie. On the other hand Tommy was agog at all the trouble, as were Anna and Thomas who got a good laugh at some of the statements being bandied about.
34
It was proving to be a great summer with sunshine most days and little rain. The occupants of the lane were no exception to loving this good weather. Martha and Eliza sat out for most of the day and Morag put her Silver Cross pram holding Catriona out at her front door but made sure the baby was lying in the shade.
Albert and Bella drew the line at taking chairs out but they both kept their windows and front doors open, and at the far end Grace liked to work away in her kitchen, content that the sun was shining through the window. She hoped this good weather would last for the seven weeks of school holiday but, knowing the Scottish weather was unreliable, she suspected it would be pouring with rain when the schools closed.
She did feel a bit sorry for the Cassidys and Maryanne and Sadie for having to go to work every day and she idly wondered when Anna’s sister was due. Tommy didn’t seem to know except to say it was sometime soon.
She had confided to Evie that morning. ‘I think my mum has stopped mentioning it as Dad gets annoyed about her visit.’
Grace wondered if this was going to be another source of friction in the lane like the argument with Sadie. Then to make matters worse the papers were saying there was a water shortage and warned people that they shouldn’t waste water, making it sound like the citizens were throwing it all over the place. She was standing at the kitchen sink, debating whether to leave the breakfast dishes until teatime and just use one basin of hot water, when there was a loud knock at the door. A small, plump woman stood there with a suitcase at her feet. She was unseasonably dressed in a thick woollen coat and a felt hat above her perspiring face.
As soon as she opened her mouth, Grace realized she was Irish. ‘I’m sorry to bother you but I’m looking for the Cassidy house. Sure it was some climb up that hill, I thought I would collapse with a heart attack.’ She stopped and went into a spasm of coughing. ‘It’s all right, I’ll be all right in a minute,’ she said, before going into another coughing fit.
Grace said she should come in and get her breath and the woman lugged the suitcase into the house. ‘I’m Lizzie, Anna’s sister, and I got
an earlier bus from the ferry but I’ve spent ages looking for this place.’
Grace made a cup of tea and put some biscuits in front of her. ‘Sure and you’re an angel, that’s what you are,’ she said, taking off her coat and hat and drinking her tea noisily while scoffing the biscuits at the same time.
Grace said Anna and Thomas were both at work but as Anna just worked in the bakery on the Hilltown it would only take a few minutes to let her know she had arrived.
Lizzie sat back with satisfaction. ‘That was grand, Mrs… I’m sorry I don’t know you name.’
‘I’m Mrs Gow but just call me Grace.’
‘Well then, Grace, I better make my way to this bakery to let my baby sister know I’m here at last. Do you mind if I leave my suitcase here till I get back?’
Grace said it was no problem and gave her directions to Burnett’s and watched her walk away. Lizzie’s arrival hadn’t gone unnoticed by Martha and she sent Eliza along to check out the stranger with strict instructions to make sure she got all the news.
Eliza hated trying to get all the gossip so she always made the pretence that she was just dropping in for a friendly visit, a subterfuge that fooled no one and in fact sometimes caused laughter. She had taken the sugar bowl along and when Grace answered the door, she asked if she could borrow some sugar.
‘Come in, Eliza,’ said Grace, trying to hide a smile. ‘I’ll just fill up your bowl. How is your mother today?’
‘She’s enjoying the sunshine, it’s been a super summer so far, hasn’t it?’ Eliza was trying hard to bring up the mention of the stranger.
Grace decided to put her out of her misery. ‘You’ve just missed Anna’s sister from Ireland. She’s gone down to the bakery to see her.’
Eliza tried to look surprised. ‘We didn’t see anyone, Grace, no one passed us.’
‘No, she came from the Hilltown end and maybe you were both in the house when she arrived.’
‘Yes,’ said Eliza, ‘that’s what I thought.’
Eliza was hurrying out, anxious to let her mother know all the news, when Lizzie appeared.
‘Anna’s given me her key.’ She bent down and picked up her suitcase. ‘I’ll get away and wash my hands and face. It’s this heat that’s making me all hot and sticky.’ She gathered up her coat and hat and went next door.
Eliza rushed back and Martha listened open- mouthed as she passed on all the gossip. ‘I’d love to see Thomas Cassidy’s face when he gets back from work to see his sister-in-law sitting in his chair,’ said Martha with a chuckle.
As it turned out, when Thomas arrived home in the early afternoon, Lizzie had emptied one of the cupboards and she was scrubbing the shelves, her arms almost up to her elbows in a bucket of hot soapy water. She stopped when he came into the room. ‘I’m just cleaning out this press as it was all dusty.’ She rose to her feet and wiped her sweaty face with a soapy hand before drying it on a towel lying on the back of a chair. ‘I’ll put all this stuff back when the shelves are dry.’ She held up a chipped dish. ‘I’ll throw this out as it looks ancient.’
Thomas was so angry he could barely speak but he managed to blurt out a few words. ‘I think you should let Anna do any throwing out, Lizzie.’
She looked at him as if he was an idiot. ‘But it’s got this huge chip in it and it’s not safe to use.’
He marched over to the kitchen table that was littered with various dishes and began to put everything away.
Lizzie said angrily, ‘The shelves are still wet.’
Thomas ignored her and went to put on the kettle before sitting down with the paper he had bought on his way home. Lizzie stomped around the house with a tin of polish and a duster.
‘I’m just trying to help my sister as she works hard all day and doesn’t have much time to do housework. Do you and Thomasina ever help her?’
He decided to lie. ‘Yes we do.’
She sat down opposite him and helped herself to a cup of tea. ‘How’s your gammy leg?’
Thomas couldn’t believe his ears. ‘My gammy leg is perfectly fine, thanks for asking.’ Lizzie had the type of personality that didn’t register sarcasm so she nodded as if satisfied with this answer.
After his tea, Thomas headed off to see Anna at the shop which was having a quiet spell. He wasted no time in tackling her. ‘Your sister is scrubbing out cupboards and going around with dusters and God knows what else.’
Anna thought this was an excellent idea and her face lit up. ‘That will be a big help as I meant to spring clean sometime.’
The other assistant, Mrs Bell, was listening intently and Anna turned to her. ‘My sister Lizzie is very houseproud but she’s the only one amongst us who is. I’m like my other sisters, we only clean when we have to.’
Thomas turned on his heel and when he reached the lane he went in to see Albert as he couldn’t bear to be in the same room as his sister-in-law. He groaned out loud when he realised he had another ten days of her.
Albert was polishing his brasses when Thomas knocked at the door and on entering he wondered if he had walked into a spring cleaning parallel universe. However Albert put the metal polish away and opened a couple of bottles of beer.
‘I’m dying for a drink, Thomas, it’s this hot weather to blame.’
They made themselves comfortable and Thomas moaned about Lizzie. ‘I wouldn’t mind but Anna’s family has never liked me. It all boils down to my grandad being in the Irish constabulary years ago. It’s all past history but to listen to them you would think it was only yesterday.’
Albert said it couldn’t be easy and opened another two bottles of beer. When the clock struck four, Thomas rose to his feet. ‘Well I better get back and face the enemy. Thank God I work in the evenings.’
Evie, Tommy and Eddie were coming home and his daughter hurried into the house to see her auntie. Lizzie was on her knees scrubbing the kitchen floor and she had laid pages of newspaper on the wet patches.
‘Wait till the floor dries before you come in, Thomasina,’ she called out. Thomas ignored this request and he almost exploded when he saw she had used his paper which he hadn’t read.
Lizzie was unrepentant. ‘For heaven’s sake it’s only a newspaper, Thomas, you make it sound like it’s pound notes.’
Thomas muttered he wished they were and he would use the money to give her a return ticket to Belfast.
The atmosphere was tense when Anna got home but as she was so pleased with all the cleaning, he felt guilty. ‘Doesn’t the house look so much better?’ she enthused.
Lizzie gave him a look and he said, ‘Yes, it’s wonderful.’
Tommy giggled but her auntie gave her another look so she decided to go next door and look at the television with Evie.
By the following morning, news of Lizzie’s cleaning spree had spread to everyone in the lane and in the surrounding houses due to Mrs Bell who was a notorious gossip. Some of the younger working mothers were jealous, saying they could also do with her cleaning skills but the older generation were aghast that a visitor had to work like a Trojan while the family sat back and let her.
When Thomas passed a few of the women on the Hilltown they glared at him and after he was out of earshot they turned to one another and muttered how lazy he must be. One of the women stood up for him. ‘I’ve heard he keeps a very good pub. The glasses are always clean and he keeps the beer pipes clean.’
When Mrs Bell heard this she retorted, ‘How does she know so much about his pub?’ and gave a knowing look.
It was three days into her visit that Lizzie told Anna her main reason for coming. ‘Katie has to have a hysterectomy operation and she would like to see you all and so would Roseanne, Sean and Willie.’ These were Anna’s sisters and brothers. Anna said she didn’t think they would manage a holiday this year but Lizzie said they could visit when the school broke up. ‘We would all like you to come back to live in Belfast, Anna, but we know you don’t want to, so just come for a holiday.’
Anna was persuaded
but she knew Thomas’ strong feelings against Ireland and her family. ‘I’ll have to talk it over with Thomas and we’ll let you know.’ She knew she sounded weak but that couldn’t be helped.
Anna mentioned it to her husband that night as they lay in bed. Thomas was in two minds. He loved his wife and he wanted her to be happy and she would be worried about Katie, but on the other hand he dreaded meeting up with his wife’s strident and mouthy family.
‘The school breaks up in two weeks’ time so we could maybe go then. You will be due a break during the Dundee holiday fortnight.’
Thomas said they could maybe leave it till then and Anna went off to sleep quite happy about this while he lay awake for ages. He decided to get up and have a smoke and he sat at the window in pleasurable silence.
Because he was up late he almost slept in the next morning and he wandered through to the kitchen to the sight of Lizzie swinging a wet tea towel around her head. ‘The smell of cigarette smoke in here is awful,’ she said. ‘I don’t know why Anna lets you smoke inside.’
‘That’s because she smokes as well, Lizzie.’
Lizzie was indignant. ‘Anna doesn’t smoke, she said she was glad she never started, not like her sisters and brothers who are all like you with their disgusting habits.’
He was left speechless by this blatant lie from his wife but when he tackled her before she went to work, she went bright red and said Lizzie never knew about her smoking. ‘It’s just for a few days. I’ve been getting my cigarette when I have my break at work as I don’t want her to know. She was more like a mother to me because she was twenty when I was born and she looked after me when Ma became ill.’
Lizzie was outside washing the windows when Sadie walked by on her way to work. She wasn’t looking forward to going as the job was getting her down. Hal’s wife was seemingly getting better and he had hinted that she would be back helping in the pub and Sadie didn’t relish that fact. She was behind in putting money in the till to cover all her sneaky drinks and she suspected that Hal’s wife would find this out long before he did. A woman’s voice broke into her thoughts and she turned.
Meadow Lane Page 18