by Lily Baxter
Susan stared at her in astonishment. ‘If you dislike her so much, why do you stay on here?’
‘What sort of question is that? I’ve got a lovely little flat, I’m well paid and I don’t have to kowtow to a snooty housekeeper or a stuck-up butler as I did when I was first in service. I know when I’m well off, dear. Now get along home. I think it’s going to rain.’
‘Goodbye, Mrs Harper.’ Susan made her way to the stable yard where she had left her bicycle. It was a pleasure to ride it and she knew she had Tony to thank for the generous birthday present. She could not help thinking about him as she pedalled through the green country lanes. The clouds might be gathering from the west but the sun was still shining and the first signs of autumn were evident in the hedgerows. Shiny red hawthorn berries vied for position with orange rosehips. She would have liked to stop and pick blackberries but she pedalled harder, hoping to get home before the rain set in.
She arrived at the pub just as Tony was helping Roz off his motorcycle. He had taken to giving her a lift home after work, which also gave him an excuse to stop for a drink before returning to the airfield. There was no avoiding him now. Susan drew to a halt and dismounted. She had not seen him face to face since their row after the party, but she realised that her anger had evaporated. She was suddenly nervous, dreading a rebuff if she spoke to him, but he greeted her with a broad smile.
‘Hello, Susan. I see you’ve mastered the new machine.’
The ice was broken. It was impossible to be cross with someone who looked so pleased to see her. ‘Yes, it’s marvellous. I love it.’
‘I’m going in for a lie-down,’ Roz said, opening the pub door. ‘I’ve been on my feet since stupid o’clock this morning. It was barely light when I left for work, and that damn bus jolts so much it’s like riding a bucking bronco. God knows what Spud thinks of it all.’ She disappeared into the bar, leaving the door wide open.
Tony grinned. ‘Spud?’
‘It’s her name for the baby,’ Susan said with a nervous giggle.
He took a step towards her. ‘It’s good to see you smile again. I’ve wanted to see you to apologise properly for what I said at the party, Susan. I was an idiot.’
‘I won’t argue with that.’
‘You were right to be angry. I should have known better.’ He held out his hand. ‘Can we start again?’
She met his earnest gaze with a doubtful smile. ‘I don’t know. I’d like to, but I’m not sure it would work.’
‘That’s a start. At least you’re speaking to me now.’ He took her hand and raised it to his lips.
The warmth of his breath on her skin and the whisper of a kiss made her tremble with pleasure, but a small voice in her head warned her to hold something back. She did not want to fall headlong into a relationship only to have her heart broken. ‘I landed the Moth today,’ she said, changing the subject. It came out in a rush, but she had to share her triumph with someone and she knew that Tony would understand.
‘Did you now? That’s fantastic. Well done, sweetheart.’
She frowned, pulling her hand away. ‘Don’t call me that. I mean, not yet. Let’s get to know each other as friends, Tony. If we’d had a chance to talk about things in the first place we wouldn’t have got ourselves into such a tangle.’
He nodded. ‘You’re right. We’ll play it any way you like, but I’m not giving up on us, Susan. I’ve missed you like hell these past few weeks and I don’t want to go through that again.’
‘Really?’ She smiled shyly. ‘I missed you too.
‘Just friends,’ he said, smiling. ‘For now, anyway.’
‘Thanks for understanding. It means a lot to me.’
He linked her hand through his arm. ‘Come on. I’ll buy you a drink. That’s if we can get any service in the bar. Bob isn’t used to opening up.’
‘That would be nice. I’ve got lots to tell you.’
As they entered the pub Susan was almost knocked over by an exuberant Charlie. He greeted her with yelps and excited barks, forgetting his training and jumping up at her until Tony grabbed him by the collar and made him sit. Charlie obeyed, but Susan was convinced that he was smiling as he gazed lovingly up at her. She stroked his head and told him he was a good boy, even though he had broken the non-jumping up rule that she had attempted to instil into his doggy brain. He followed her as she went over to the fireplace where Bob was working the bellows and cursing softly beneath his breath. He glanced over his shoulder. ‘Damn fire won’t light. The logs are damp.’
‘Let me,’ Susan said, kneeling down beside him. ‘There’s a knack to it.’
He struggled to his feet, thrusting the bellows into her outstretched hand. ‘Get it going and I’ll stand you a port and lemon.’ He held up his hand. ‘I know you’re under age, but it’s high time you started getting in practice, girl. One day you’ll go out with a young chap like him,’ he jerked his head in Tony’s direction, ‘and you’ll only have to sniff a wine cork and you’ll be paralytic.’
Susan covered her confusion by working the bellows energetically until the kindling burst into flames.
Bob retired to his usual position behind the bar and served Tony. ‘On me,’ he said when Tony attempted to pay. ‘You’ve been good to my girl, giving her a lift home every evening, but she’s not going to be able to ride pillion much longer, if you get my drift.’
‘I do, of course. Maybe she ought to share a room with one of the other girls who work in the factory.’
Bob shook his head. ‘I can’t see that happening. Roz isn’t used to slumming it.’
‘No, perhaps not.’ Tony picked up the drinks and carried them over to the ingle nook, placing them on a table. He sat down, stroking Charlie’s head as he flopped onto the floor beside him. ‘I’m sorry for Roz,’ he said in a low voice, ‘but I don’t see what anyone can do to help her, other than Patrick that is.’
Susan sat back on her haunches, watching the orange and scarlet flames licking around the logs. ‘He can’t do anything if Elspeth won’t agree to a divorce.’ Rising to her feet she went to sit beside him. ‘She’s moving to the cottage by the river.’
‘Who, Roz?’
Susan chuckled and slapped him on the knee. ‘No, silly. Elspeth. I’ve got to go there tomorrow and get it ready for her. Patrick will be left all by himself in the big house.’
Tony handed her the glass of port and lemon. ‘Here, try this. You don’t have to drink it if you don’t like it. I’m not one of those blokes who’ll get you tipsy for my own wicked ends.’
She sipped the drink and smiled. ‘It’s nice and warming.’
‘Go easy on it, or you’ll be tiddley.’ He covered her hand with his and his smile faded. ‘Seriously though, I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you again, Susan.’
‘You do believe that I did nothing to lead your dad on, don’t you?’
‘Of course I do, and I always did. I shouldn’t have told you what Colin and Maida said. I ought to have known it would upset you.’ He slipped his arm around her waist and gave her a hug. ‘Am I forgiven?’
She answered him with a kiss on the cheek, but she broke away as Bob came over to draw the blackout curtains.
‘Carry on,’ he said grinning. ‘Don’t mind me.’ He strolled back to the bar to serve the two regulars who had wandered into the pub, heading straight for their usual positions in the snug.
‘I want to know everything about you, Susan,’ Tony said softly. ‘I only gathered snippets of your past during that brief visit to London, and I simply can’t imagine what it must have been like to be brought up in a children’s home, or what you went through when you were working for that woman Kemp.’
‘It wasn’t all bad in the orphanage. The house mother tried hard to make us feel as though we were a real family, but I think all of us knew that there was something missing.’ In the flickering firelight with the scent of burning apple wood mingling with the heady fumes from the port, Susan leaned against Tony feeling warm and safe.
He listened quietly without comment until she began to describe the insults she had suffered at the hands of the Kemps, and she felt him stiffen as she recounted the humiliating experience when Dudley had attempted to force himself upon her.
‘You’re safe now, sweetheart,’ he murmured. ‘I won’t let anyone hurt you ever again. The past is over and done with. This is the beginning for us. I’m never going to mess things up again, Susan. I promise you that, on my honour.’
*
Susan went to bed that night feeling happier than she had in a long time. With the misunderstandings put firmly behind them the future looked rosy, and it was almost possible to forget the war that raged around them. She drifted off to sleep with Charlie snoring gently on the rug beside her bed.
She was up early next morning and arrived at the cottage on time. Elspeth was already there, wrapped in her mink coat, and obviously had no intention of getting her hands dirty. Her car was piled high with suitcases and bandboxes and the only thing she carried into the building was a mauve leather vanity case, which she dumped unceremoniously on the Welsh dresser. She glanced around the living room with an expressive shudder. ‘I can smell her cheap perfume, Susan. I want every inch of this place scrubbed, and all traces of their occupation removed before I move in tonight.’
Susan stared at her aghast. ‘I’m not sure I can get everything done by then.’
‘You’ll have to manage, because I’m not spending another night under the same roof as that rat. I’ve told him he’s to find accommodation elsewhere, but I’m not an unreasonable woman. I’ve given him a month, which I think is more than fair. You’re to go there twice a week only from now on. I need you here first thing each morning, weekends included.’
‘But I have work to do at the pub.’
Elspeth shrugged her shoulders. ‘Not any more, darling. Now you’re working permanently for me. I have no idea how to light that black monstrosity in the kitchen, the thing that one is supposed to cook on. Anyway, I can’t cook. I’ve never needed to and I don’t intend to start now. A little bird tells me that you’re a dab hand in the kitchen, so you can start today. I want a hot meal for two at about seven thirty.’ She raised her hand as if expecting Susan to argue. ‘And you can make yourself scarce as soon as you’ve served the food. I’m not a hard taskmaster. You’ll be paid for your trouble. Have I made myself clear?’
Susan nodded. She was too stunned to think of a plausible reason for refusing. She knew that Bob would not raise any objections as long as she did her work at the pub, but she was far from happy with the new arrangements.
Elspeth picked up her handbag and gloves. ‘Now, unload my car, Susan, and I’ll be off. I’m meeting some of my flying chums at the aerodrome, and then we’re going out to lunch. I can’t wait to start work at the ferry pool. It will be terrific fun.’ She stood in the doorway, watching as Susan hefted the luggage out of the car and carried it into the cottage. When the last suitcase was deposited on the pile, Elspeth climbed into her car and drove off in a cloud of dust, leaving Susan with a task that would have made Sisyphus blench.
It was dark by the time Elspeth returned, and her supper for two had turned into a party that included three other young women, all frighteningly glamorous, good-looking and patently used to the good things in life. They erupted into the sitting room like a flock of colourful parakeets, laughing and chattering, and exclaiming in delight at the doll’s house proportions of the cottage. Susan retired to the kitchen and made up a batch of dumplings seasoned with some rather withered thyme that she had found in the garden. She dropped them one by one into the onion soup she had made earlier, and hastily grated the rest of Elspeth’s cheese ration to sprinkle on top of each serving when the ladies had finished their drinks. Elspeth might not have thought to buy food but it seemed as though she had brought almost the entire contents of her cocktail cabinet with her.
It was almost nine o’clock when Susan arrived back at the pub. She put her bike away and entered through the kitchen where she found Roz seated at the table in floods of tears. Charlie was sympathetically nuzzling her hand, but she was too distressed to take any notice. He abandoned her to give Susan his customary enthusiastic greeting. She patted him absently on the head. ‘What’s the matter, Roz?’ she asked anxiously. ‘Are you ill? It’s not the baby, is it?’
Chapter Sixteen
Roz shook her head. ‘No. It’s Patrick.’
Pushing Charlie gently out of the way, Susan pulled up a chair and sat down beside her. ‘What’s happened? Has he had an accident or something?’
‘No. It’s worse. He’s volunteered. He’s joined the Royal Army Veterinary Corps.’
Susan stared at her in dismay. ‘Being a vet is a reserved occupation, isn’t it?’
‘It is, and the stupid blighter didn’t have to join up. It’s all her fault.’ A fresh bout of sobbing rendered Roz speechless. She buried her head in her hands and her shoulders heaved.
‘But it may not be too bad. Surely the army doesn’t need vets abroad. I mean they don’t use horses any more, do they?’
‘Apparently they do. The cavalry are still in Palestine, so he told me, although they’re being mechanised, but he could be sent to Italy or even worse India or Burma. She did that to him, Susan. She told her father about us, and he’s got his solicitor to look into the lease of the surgery. It’s due to be renewed, and old man Colby isn’t going to pay any more. Patrick doesn’t earn enough to cover the rent, let alone the renewal of the lease. He’s lost his job and she wants him out of the house within a month. He’s going away and he might be killed. My baby will be an orphan.’
Susan placed her arm around Roz’s shoulders. ‘I don’t suppose he’ll be in the front line. He probably won’t see any fighting at all.’
Roz fumbled in her pocket and produced a rather soggy hanky. She mopped her streaming eyes and blew her nose. ‘But he’ll be thousands of miles away when the baby is born. He won’t see his own child.’
‘But that’s happening all over the country, and you’re not alone, Roz. You’ve got your dad and me.’ Susan smiled as Charlie licked her hand. ‘And Charlie, of course. We all love you and we’ll adore the baby. It will be something for Patrick to look forward to when he gets home.’
‘If he doesn’t get himself killed.’
‘You mustn’t think like that.’ Susan rose to her feet and went to the stove where the kettle was simmering on the hob. ‘A nice hot cuppa will make you feel better, and then you can go for a lie-down. You’ve got to think of the baby, Roz. It’s not good for you to get in such a state.’
Roz wiped her eyes and sniffed. ‘I know. I realise that I must seem pathetic to you, but what really upset me was the fact that he didn’t talk it over with me first.’
Susan warmed the teapot, tipping the water into the sink. ‘It can’t have been easy for him since your dad barred him from the pub. I haven’t seen him at the house either.’
‘No. He’s been up in London making arrangements. He’s going tomorrow, Susan. He’ll be leaving first thing in the morning.’
Susan paused with the heaped caddy spoon held mid-air. ‘So this will be his last night of freedom.’
‘Don’t say things like that.’ Roz glared at her with reddened eyes.
‘I’ve got an idea. Sit tight. Don’t move a muscle until I get back.’ Susan went out into the hallway, closing the door behind her. She picked up the telephone receiver and dialled the Petersons’ number, hoping that it would be Patrick who answered it and not Mrs Harper. She breathed a sigh of relief at the sound of his voice. ‘Hello, Patrick. It’s Susan.’
‘If it’s a message from Elspeth I—’
She cut him off short. ‘No. It’s nothing to do with her. It’s Roz.’
‘Oh, God. What’s happened?’
‘Don’t panic. She’s fine, just very upset.’
‘I know, and I feel terrible, but there’s nothing I can do about it, Susan. I want you to understand that.’
S
he bit back a sharp retort. ‘You’re alone in the house tonight, aren’t you?’
‘Yes, well there’s Mrs Harper, of course. Why do you ask?’
‘Mrs H doesn’t count. Look, if you’re really serious about Roz, get in your car and come to the pub. I’ll make sure she’s ready and waiting by the garage. You can pull in there and no one will see you.’
‘What are you suggesting? I’m leaving first thing in the morning.’
‘That’s just it. Don’t you think you both deserve one night when you can be alone together? You need to talk to her, Patrick.’
‘You’re right. Of course, you’re absolutely right. Tell her I’ll be there in twenty minutes. You’re a genius, Susan. A bloody genius.’
The line went dead and Susan replaced the receiver, smiling grimly. It had taken a swift metaphorical kick to get him moving, but at least they would be able to sort things out between them. She hurried back to the kitchen. ‘Patrick is picking you up in twenty minutes. You’ve got one night together to sort things out, so don’t waste time, go and make yourself beautiful.’ Despite her protests, Susan sent Roz upstairs to wash her tear-stained face. Following more slowly, Susan went to the bedroom and threw a few necessities into a large handbag.
Shiny-faced and red-eyed, Roz burst into the room and flung herself down on the stool in front of her dressing table. She began brushing her hair with long frantic strokes. ‘I look awful,’ she said miserably.
‘You’re fine. Powder your nose and put on a dab of lipstick if you must, but he’ll be here soon, so hurry up.’
Minutes later they were waiting by the garage. It had started to rain but Roz was now in high spirits. ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this,’ she whispered excitedly. ‘It feels so – naughty.’
Susan smothered a giggle. ‘Well, be naughty then. Enjoy yourself and forget about the war and Elspeth and everything.’ She cocked her head on one side. ‘I can hear a car coming.’