A Family Christmas

by Glenice Crossland

  ‘I’ve brought a sweet cake, I baked it this morning, and if you look in the bag there are some pram sets for the twins.’ Lucy opened the bag and took out a brown paper parcel, inside were two snowy white knitted coats, two pairs of leggings and two tiny caps.

  ‘Oh Mrs Goodman, they’re beautiful, thankyou so much. I shall keep them for Sundays when we go for our afternoon walk.’

  ‘As you wish, but if I were you I would let them wear them as much as possible, after all they grow out of things so fast in the first few months.’

  ‘Yes, maybe you’re right.’

  Louisa finished ironing the last garment – a tiny dress belonging to Rosie – and folded the ironing blanket in four. ‘Now is there anything else I can do while I’m here?’

  ‘No thanks, but let’s have some tea.’ The kettle was singing on the fire and Lucy lifted it off and mashed the tea. ‘Well, how is Prudence?’ She wasn’t really interested but felt so sorry for Louisa; after all she must be missing her daughter.

  ‘I don’t really know. She doesn’t say much in her letters except that she’s taken a job in the library. I suppose the experience here helped her to get it. She’s always been a strange girl, Lucy. I can’t describe the way she is. There’s nothing I can pinpoint exactly; she’s just strange. Never made friends, always a loner until Robbie came. Then she ruined his life, her own too I suppose. Who will ever want anything to do with a divorced woman?’ It was all too much for Louisa and she began to cry.

  ‘Oh Mrs Goodman, I didn’t mean to upset you.’

  The woman brushed away her tears. ‘It wasn’t your fault, and please call me Louisa,’ she managed between the sobs. ‘Nobody ever uses my first name; it’s being the wife of a vicar I suppose. It makes it difficult to make close friends. We’ve plenty of acquaintances but not many friends.’

  ‘Well, you’re a good friend to me, Louisa. Now let’s drink our tea before the twins wake up and need feeding.’ Lucy smiled at the sight of Bernard, who had dozed off on the rug with Baby cuddled up close.

  ‘Are you feeding them yourself?’

  ‘Yes, unlike with Rosie I have plenty of milk. I expect it was the shock of Evelyn’s death at the time.’

  ‘Bernard’s fortunate to have you, Lucy.’

  ‘And we are fortunate to have him.’

  ‘Yes, you are. You’re a good girl, Lucy Grey. There are givers and takers in the world; you are one of the givers.’

  Lucy considered what Louisa had said. ‘Yes, I suppose I am. But what I give out is returned to me twofold. Look at the help I’m receiving now. From Mrs Slater, Mrs Holmes – even Mr Holmes and Mr Marshall have begun taking Rosie and Bernard off my hands, walking them up to the allotments to give me a break. Even Mrs Murphy’s been good, rocking Rosie to sleep by the fire. You’d think she’d have enough on with all her lot.’ Lucy paused. ‘Oh Louisa, I hope I don’t end up like her though, letting them all run wild. Though they’re all lovable rogues.’

  ‘Well, I don’t know the family, them being Catholics, but I’m sure you’ll never let your children run amok, and if you ever find them becoming too much for you, you know where I am.’

  Bernard was now awake and playing tug of war with Baby, pulling on the end of an old rag. Lucy saw a pool of liquid appear on the rug.

  ‘Bernard, get the floor cloth and the bucket from outside. I don’t know what our Will was thinking of, promising him a dog when he’s never here to train it. I swear it’s more trouble than the children.’ She found a bottle of Dettol and poured some into the bucket, adding the water from the kettle.

  ‘I want to clean it up.’ Bernard jumped up and down with excitement. ‘It’s my dog.’ Lucy dipped the cloth in the water and wrung it out. ‘Let me, let me. I’m a big boy now.’ Bernard rubbed at the rug until the patch had disappeared.

  ‘You’re a clever boy,’ Louisa told him and turned to Lucy. ‘And yes, you’re both fortunate to have each other.’ She looked round the kitchen. ‘Is there anything else I can help you with?’

  Lucy looked thoughtful. ‘Actually there is something you might be able to help us with.’

  ‘Just name it.’

  ‘We’re hoping to adopt Bernard and we wondered if you and Mr Goodman would be willing to speak up for us if necessary?’

  ‘Of course, we’d be delighted to.’

  Lucy beamed at her friend. ‘Thanks. So we shall see you on Sunday at the christening. You will come back to Jane’s for refreshments, won’t you? Our Jane’s insisting on supplying them.’

  It was Louisa who was beaming now. ‘We wouldn’t miss it for the world,’ she said.

  Both women were relieved that the business of Prudence was out in the open. Louisa knew she needn’t have worried about Lucy bearing a grudge. Oh yes, Lucy Grey was a giver all right; she would tell the people that when they began making enquiries about Bernard’s adoption.

  The double christening attracted almost as much attention as the double wedding. Ben, Will and Robbie insisted on taking on the duties of godfathers and Mary, Jane and Emma were chosen as godmothers.

  After the ceremony Ben proudly announced that he was to become a father too. Everybody apart from Mary was thrilled for the parents to be; however she put on a good face and joined in the celebrations. Only Jacob and Lucy understood how difficult it must be for her, and perhaps Louisa Goodman who, having borne a child, was now suffering the desolation of having lost her again.

  * * *

  Lucy was becoming exasperated with Will. Since the dog had joined the family Will had been out every night, leaving everybody else to care for Baby. It was unusual for Will, who usually limited his nights out to the weekends. Now he would arrive home from work, gulp down his meal, a quick wash and change and he was out again. It was Robbie who bought a leash and a collar, Lucy who fed Baby, Bernard who cleaned up after her and John who usually walked the high-spirited little dog.

  ‘I don’t know what possessed him to lumber us with a pet, as if we didn’t have enough to do,’ Lucy grumbled.

  ‘I expect he was just being generous to Bernard.’ Robbie and Will were thick as thieves and neither would hear a wrong word against the other. ‘Besides, I don’t suppose he was intending to be so busy when he promised Bernard.’

  ‘Busy? Gadding off enjoying himself more like.’

  Robbie put on Baby’s leash and went out to walk her before Lucy could begin questioning him about Will’s whereabouts. He knew about Betty Hague and though he was pleased for his friend he missed the game of billiards they used to enjoy and missed Dot more than ever. He found himself heading in the direction of the farm. He didn’t know why he came this way – it only upset him to be so near Dot and yet so far apart. He wondered if he would ever be free to marry her and worried that by the time he was she might already be married to someone else. He saw the light on in the kitchen and Boadacea moving around. He slowed his walk, hoping to catch a glimpse of Dot but was disappointed.

  The flea-ridden old dog recognised Will and began to bark a welcome so Will hurried away before Little Arthur came out to investigate. He turned down the path through the fields. Baby wasn’t up to a longer walk yet and he would probably end up carrying her anyway. He wondered what was happening in Blackpool. Every day that passed without news from Paul Tomlinson made the future seem more hopeless. Perhaps he should agree to commit adultery and give Prudence grounds to divorce him. The trouble was he didn’t think she would be willing to let him go. What a hole he had dug for himself! Baby came to a standstill and refused to move. Robbie picked her up and carried her, her warm little body giving him a measure of comfort, but only a very small measure.

  By the time her first birthday came round Primrose Grey had begun to walk. After weeks of shuffling around on her knees she finally gained confidence to rise to her feet. Robbie made a little pen in which Lucy could keep her safe whilst she hung out the mounds of washing and made the beds. Rosie was a placid child and quite content to play with her toys or watch Bernard –
whom she adored – playing with his. The twins were thriving and now weighed as much as other babies of the same age. Baby had finally become house-trained, apart from the odd accident, and Betty Hague had been accepted by Will’s family.

  All was well with Lucy’s lot, apart from that she was so anxious about Robbie. Nothing had been mentioned in the letters from Nellie and no news had been forthcoming from the lawyer. Lucy hinted at Robbie’s despondency during Louisa’s weekly visits but Louisa seemed as unaware of what was happening as Lucy was. Surely Prudence should be receiving advice from her parents, but the couple seemed to be ignoring the situation. Mr Grundy was also concerned about Robbie. The lad was spending so many hours in the joiner’s shop he wondered when he found time for any other activities normally enjoyed by a young man of Robbie’s age. ‘The lad should be out there sowing a few wild oats,’ Mr Grundy told his wife.

  ‘The only oats Robbie wants to sow are with the Greenwood girl. And we all know ’ow the vicar put paid to that. It’s scandalous if you ask me, the way that lad was cheated out of ’is ’appiness. That man should be ashamed of ’imself; well that’s what I think.’ Robbie had confided in his boss and of course Mr Grundy had told his wife.

  ‘All’t same, churchgoers are.’ Mr Grundy was a nonbeliever, but a good and honest man for all that.

  ‘Nay, yer can’t paint ’em all with the same brush.’

  ‘I for one would never ’ave forced the lad to marry somebody he didn’t love.’ Mr Grundy looked at the wife he had worshipped from the day he had first clapped eyes on her. ‘Supposed to preach about love, they are, and then to trick somebody into marriage like that. It doesn’t seem right to me.’

  ‘Trying to get rid of that lass of theirs, stands to reason. I mean who else would ’ave ’er? You answer me that.’

  ‘Nobody wi’ any sense.’ The couple drank their evening cocoa and nibbled their digestives, both lost in their own thoughts. Then Mr Grundy said, ‘I’ve a mind to offer ’im some money.’

  ‘Money? How will that ’elp?’

  ‘Buy a divorce, I shouldn’t wonder.’

  ‘Will it? Can yer do that? What if she doesn’t want one?’

  ‘I don’t know, to tell the truth. But you remember what me father told us when we wed. “Always keep summat put by. Money’ll buy owt lad, just you remember that.”’

  ‘Won’t buy love.’

  ‘Not as a rule, but it will in Robbie’s case. If it’ll buy a divorce he’ll be free to marry the lass he loves.’

  Mrs Grundy nodded. ‘Aye, I see what yer mean. Aye, go on then, tell ’im in’t morning. Tell ’im we shall pay for one of them theer divorces. After all, ee’s like a son to us and what good’s money at our age? We can’t take it wi’ us when we go.’

  ‘No, but I’m not planning to go anywhere just yet. I want to see young Robbie and Dot Greenwood wed first. Aye, it’ll be money well spent.’

  Mrs Grundy smiled and nodded. ‘Only one thing though: once he gets Dot Greenwood ee’ll not be wanting to put all them hours in at work.’

  ‘I know, that’s what I was thinking. Costing me a fortune, young Robbie is wi’ all that blooming overtime.’

  Young Lily thought she had landed in heaven. A sitting room and a bedroom all to herself. And if she stood on a chair by the window she could see the sea. She had become accustomed to the work and had actually managed to control her emotions and avoid crying every time anybody complimented her, or on very rare occasions found fault with her work.

  ‘You were right to send for Lily,’ Margaret Johnson told Nellie. ‘She’s a treasure is that girl. And she adds a touch of glamour to the dining room. You’ll have to watch her with the male guests.’

  Margaret was right. In her new black skirt and white blouse, with her hair tied up in a black bow, Lily was beautiful. Sometimes she missed her family and Mrs Cooper, but there were lots of interesting things to take her mind off them. Nellie had introduced her to a flower-arranging class where Lily had learned about different types of containers and spiky flower-holders. She had been so proud of the spring flower arrangement she had been allowed to bring home, and even more important, she had made a friend. Phoebe was a chambermaid in the large hotel that stood on the sea side of the promenade.

  Nellie had allowed Lily to take her day off to coincide with her new friend’s so that the two girls could spend their free time together. They would stroll round the shops, wistfully planning what they would buy if they ever came into money, take walks along the promenade, sometimes to North Shore and other days to the Pleasure Beach. Once they took a bus to Lytham St Annes and ate fish and chips in the gardens, and even though it was a dull day they giggled the whole way as teenagers are apt to do.

  Now Phoebe was talking about going in the tower. ‘You should see the ballroom; it’s so magnificent it’s like a royal palace.’

  Lily wondered how much it would cost. She had promised to send home some of her wages to help her mother, but decided to treat herself all the same. After all, it couldn’t be right for someone to live in Blackpool and not know what it was like in the tower, which dominated the whole town. ‘All right. But don’t think you’re getting me up in that lift thingy; it doesn’t look safe to me.’

  Phoebe laughed, knowing that once they were inside Lily would be easily persuaded to take the lift up to the viewing platform. ‘Shall we go next Wednesday then?’ she asked.

  ‘If yer like. Come on, let’s go for a paddle. These shoes are making me feet all hot.’ It only took a second to cool down Lily’s burning feet. The water was freezing. ‘Ooh I can’t stand that.’ Lily laughed and ran, splashing out of the sea and back to the steps where they had left their shoes and stockings. ‘We think it’s cold here,’ Lily said, ‘but Nellie had a letter from Mrs Cooper and it was snowing like mad. Who would believe it? Deep snow in the middle of May.’

  ‘I don’t suppose it’s all that civilised where you come from with all them moors and crags and things.’

  ‘It’s not uncivilised at all, it’s lovely.’ Lily stuck her nose in the air at the thought of her home town being criticised. ‘Still, I suppose it is a bit wild, especially wi’ snow in’t middle of May.’

  ‘Wait a few months and it’ll be warm enough to go right in. I’ll learn yer to swim if yer like.’

  ‘What, in a bathing costume?’ Lily wouldn’t dare. ‘With everybody watching?’

  ‘Well if you’d rather swim wi’ out one, that’s up to you.’ Phoebe always made Lily laugh. She was lucky to have found a friend like her. In fact Lily considered herself the most fortunate girl in the world, and it was all due to Nellie Johnson.

  ‘Come on,’ she said, running up the steps to the promenade. ‘Let’s go on the pier.’ Lily had liked Ernest, but he hadn’t seemed bothered about keeping in touch. Now Lily had taken a fancy to the son of the man who ran the tea room, and because the lad quite fancied Lily in return he was usually good for a free pot of tea and a toasted tea cake, which the girls shared between them.

  The wind almost tugged their hair out by the roots and their skirts up round their waists as they clung together, laughing their way to the tea room, their faces rosy from the cold. Mrs Cooper had been right; Blackpool did have the healthiest air in Britain, but she hadn’t mentioned it was also the coldest. Lily didn’t mind. She loved Blackpool and had never been happier. Especially when Jim winked one of his gorgeous brown eyes at her from behind the counter.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  LUCY COULDN’T BELIEVE it. John had been so careful since the twins were born, insisting on withdrawing each time they made love. Now she was suffering all the symptoms again, indicating another pregnancy. She blushed as she wondered what people would say, what with the twins only just over a year old. Most importantly, what would John say? She watched Peter tottering round the kitchen on sturdy but unsteady legs, and Violet following at a crawl. Rosie picked up the building bricks and threw them into the toy cupboard in the corner, ever the little helper, forever ti
dying after the brother and sister she adored. Lucy frowned as she wondered how she would cope with the twins, Rosie and a new baby. She had managed quite well up to now with a few hours’ respite when either Mrs Slater or Mary came to take over. With Bernard settled in at school she didn’t have to be watching him all the time.

  She smiled as Rosie attempted to wipe Violet’s nose and Violet crawled away and hid under the table. They were all beautiful, and if the new baby was half as bonny she would be content. What did it matter what anyone else thought? It would be her and John who were responsible for them. Her only real worry was what John would say, and how they would manage to control themselves in the future. She seemed to catch on if he as much as came near her, but they couldn’t continue to breed like rabbits for years on end. Neither could she bear to be deprived of the lovemaking she and John were used to. Life was so unfair. There were Mary and Jacob longing for the child they couldn’t conceive and here was she wondering how to prevent it. Well, she needn’t concern herself with that for another several months at least. She would keep the news to herself for a while; no point in worrying John just yet, or in upsetting her sister. She reached for a couple of nappies from the rack over the fire. The twins would need changing and Rosie placed on her potty. Then it would be time for their afternoon nap.

  Time to catch up on the ironing and peel the vegetables ready for when the men came home. It was all go in the Gabbitas household. Funny how she never thought of it as the Greys’, even though Will was the only Gabbitas left here. By the looks of things it wouldn’t be long before he was leaving, then it would really belong to the Greys and no matter how many of them there eventually turned out to be, Lucy vowed it would always be a happy home filled with love.

  It was the next afternoon when the adoption inspectors paid Lucy a visit. She was just scrubbing the flags outside with the yard brush. Lucy thanked God it was Friday and the fireplace had been blackleaded and the lino washed. The twins were sleeping after a morning’s play and Rosie was looking at a picture book in front of the fire. Lucy’s pulse was racing and she wished John were here to deal with such important people. ‘Would you like some tea?’ Lucy asked as she invited the man and woman inside.