She was admiring a very attractive detached house on the opposite side of the road when a tall, good-looking man and a young girl approached from the opposite direction and turned into the small driveway leading up to the front door. Christabel recognised Lewis immediately and, before she could stop herself, called out his name.
He paused and looked back over his shoulder. As she crossed over the road towards them he turned and raised his trilby staring at her in disbelief. ‘Christabel?’
‘Surprised to see me?’
‘Yes, I am rather,’ he said as he hugged and kissed her. ‘We received a Christmas card from Lilian saying you’d been to see them but she made no mention that you were coming back home so I presumed you’d returned to Buenos Aires.’
‘I’ve been here in Liverpool since November. It’s taken me a while to find my feet,’ she added with a deprecating laugh. ‘I expect you’ve completely forgotten me, haven’t you?’ she remarked turning and smiling at Kay.
‘No, I do remember you, Aunt Chrissy.’ Kay beamed. ‘You used to play with me and take me out.’
‘That’s right. You were only a little girl then; now you are almost as tall as me. You’ll be eleven next February, won’t you?’
‘Yes, fancy you remembering,’ Kay said hugging Christabel enthusiastically.
‘Well, come along, let’s all go indoors, Violet will be surprised to see you, Christabel,’ Lewis commented as he unlocked the front door and ushered her inside.
The house was warm and welcoming, beautifully furnished and Christabel could tell at a glance that Lewis was making a success of his life. Violet appeared to be as quiet and withdrawn as ever but she did show surprise when she saw who their visitor was.
‘I think this calls for a little celebration,’ Lewis said, breaking the slightly awkward silence. ‘Find some glasses, Violet, and I’ll bring out the sherry.’
‘Are you coming to stay with us, Aunt Chrissy?’ Kay asked as the three grown-ups clinked glasses.
There was an awkward silence, then Lewis and Violet both spoke together.
‘I expect your Aunt Chrissy has made other plans,’ Violet said quickly.
‘Great idea! Of course you must spend some time with us, Christabel,’ Lewis invited.
‘Thank you, Lewis, I would love to do that,’ she replied quickly before her brother could change his mind.
‘Aunt Chrissy, will you come and stay for Christmas, please?’ Kay begged. Her blue eyes were shining as she slipped her hand into Christabel’s, tugging at it eagerly.
‘It depends on whether your mummy agrees or not,’ Christabel told her. She had seen the swift exchange of looks between Violet and Lewis, and guessed that it was probably the last thing Violet wanted to happen but she was also quite confident that she wouldn’t dare go against his wishes.
‘Is that what you want to do, Christabel?’ Violet asked hesitantly. ‘If so, then you’ll have to give me a few days to organise a bedroom for you.’
‘Don’t forget it’s Christmas Day next Friday, Mummy,’ Kay piped up excitedly.
‘Surely the bed in the spare room is always made up ready, isn’t it?’ Lewis asked in surprise.
‘Well, yes, but . . .’ Violet stopped, overcome with embarrassment. ‘It might be slightly dusty in there. I’ve had so much to do that I gave it a miss this week when I was cleaning upstairs.’
‘I’ll dust the room for Aunt Chrissy,’ Kay said eagerly. ‘Please, Mummy! I want her to stay.’
‘Well, if you are all sure then that sounds wonderful; I’d love to stay for a while.’ Christabel smiled. She couldn’t believe her luck. Their invitation solved all her immediate problems. Free accommodation, in the sort of surroundings she was used to – what could be better? she thought with relief.
‘Would you mind coming back to Liverpool to help me collect my belongings either tonight or perhaps tomorrow morning?’ she asked Lewis giving him a warm smile.
Violet found that having Christabel staying with them proved to be rather traumatic. They’d only had news of her once or twice since she’d been in Buenos Aires and it had been like seeing a ghost when she appeared on the doorstep with Lewis and Kay.
Lewis inviting her to come and stay with them had been understandable, but she’d thought it would only be for a few days over Christmas; a week, at the most. Now Christabel had been staying with them for well over a month, and she showed no signs of leaving.
Yet how could she explain all this to Lewis without him thinking she was being unreasonable? Christabel was so helpful, sweetness itself, in fact, and always anxious to help in any way she could. She was particularly good with Kay and was always ready to play games with her or listen to her read. She knew Kay was extremely fond of her and would certainly miss her when she did leave.
To some extent this was what worried Violet so much. Christabel monopolised Kay and it was having a bad influence on her. Kay had become quite spoilt and rather precocious. Unless Christabel decided to leave soon it would be the Easter holidays and Kay would be at home for about three weeks. If Christabel was still staying there with them then she was bound to insist on taking Kay out all the time and then she really would be spoilt.
The one thing that irritated her even more than the way she spoiled Kay was the frequent comments Christabel made about how like the Montgomerys Kay was.
‘She not only has Lewis’s dark hair and blue eyes, but she even has the same slim build,’ Christabel pointed out repeatedly.
No one knows better than I do, Violet mused, that Kay doesn’t look the slightest bit like me. She had even regarded it as something of a bonus since she knew only too well that she was exceptionally plain, but it was different when someone else pointed it out.
‘What’s so odd about that?’ Violet questioned.
‘Nothing really, except that she doesn’t seem to take after you or your family in any way at all.’ Christabel smiled. ‘Most children seem to inherit likenesses from both their parents, but not Kay. You can identify everything about her as being inherited from the Montgomery family.’
Violet found these comments very upsetting but when she commented on it to Lewis, intending to ask him to tell Christabel to stop making them, he merely shrugged and told her she was becoming neurotic. After all, he pointed out, Christabel was quite right because Kay did have his colouring and since he was her father he couldn’t see anything very surprising about that.
Although Violet tried to dismiss the matter as being of no consequence, it worried her. She found it impossible to ignore what Christabel had said and was constantly studying Kay and scrutinising not only her looks but also her habits.
Christabel was right: Kay wasn’t the least bit like her, Violet thought miserably. It wasn’t simply looks – that was understandable, as Lewis had pointed out – but it was even her manner and her way of speaking. Kay had Lewis’s turn of speech, his mannerisms and his attitude to things. She even had the same flashes of temper which flared up in seconds and died down just as swiftly.
Violet was so unsettled by these revelations that she found other disturbing thoughts began to invade her mind. What if there was an underlying reason why Christabel was right? she asked herself. Could it be that the reason Kay had inherited all these traits was because, even though Lewis was her father, she wasn’t really Kay’s mother?
She knew it was a preposterous thought, but she had been so very ill when her baby had been born that she couldn’t remember very much about what had happened. She had been in so much pain and so terribly weak that it had all been so confusing. She’d been devastated when, after all the hours of agony she’d endured, she thought she’d heard the doctor say that her baby was stillborn and that she would never be able to have another.
She recalled drifting in and out of consciousness for several days wishing that she could die as well. If her baby was dead and she couldn’t have any more children, then there was nothing to live for because having a child of her own meant so much to her.
Days later, when she was well enough to be propped up in bed, she’d been in tears when she realised that her baby was in the crib alongside her bed and had been there all the time.
Lewis had consoled her, telling her not to worry. They had a beautiful little girl and that was all that mattered. He’d also explained that because she’d been too ill to look after the baby after she was born the nurse had fed her from a bottle. Nevertheless, the baby had thrived and everything was going to be all right from now on.
From then on she’d hardly given it a thought. Now she found that she couldn’t sleep at night for worrying about it. She spent hours and hours going over every minute detail relating to Kay’s birth.
The more she thought about it, the more convinced she became that Christabel’s insinuations might be justified and it was possible that Kay was Lewis’s child but not hers.
Supposing, she reasoned, he had replaced her dead baby with his love child, thinking that because she was so anxious to have a child of her own she would never know the difference?
She knew it was an absolutely outrageous idea and highly improbable, but try as hard as she could she found it was impossible to put it out of her mind.
Christabel had been staying in Rolleston Drive for well over six weeks before Lewis suggested that perhaps she’d like to go over to Liverpool to visit their parents’ grave, and he would accompany her the following Sunday afternoon.
Violet was very much in favour of it and couldn’t wait to have both the house and Kay all to herself.
The moment Kay heard what they were arranging she threw a tantrum because she wanted to go with them.
‘No, Kay, it’s impossible for you to come because it would mean you would probably be late getting back and you have to be up for school on Monday morning,’ Violet explained.
‘We could go over on Saturday, then it wouldn’t interfere with Kay’s schooling at all,’ Christabel suggested.
Violet demurred and remained adamant that she didn’t want Kay to go with them.
‘OK, OK, you win!’ Christabel held up her hands in mock surrender. ‘I’m sorry, Kay, I got it all wrong. Never mind, we’ll have some days out when you are home from school over Easter.’
Lewis cut short the argument. ‘We’ll all go on Saturday,’ he said decisively. ‘We’ll have lunch at the Adelphi Hotel and afterwards go and visit the graves and then we can be home again in good time for Kay’s bedtime.’
Violet was on the point of saying that wasn’t what she wanted to do, but a warning look from Lewis silenced her. She knew it was no good arguing with Lewis once his mind was made up so she accepted the inevitable.
Kay was not so easily mollified. Life had been so different – quite wonderful, in fact – since Aunt Chrissy had been staying with them. Aunt Chrissy took her part whenever her mum and dad scolded her, or wanted her to do something she didn’t want to do, whether it was tidying her room or going to bed.
Aunt Chrissy was so much more fun to be with than her mum. They had such good times together. She bought her sweets and ice creams, took her to the pictures on Saturday afternoons when it was too wet to do anything else, and, whenever they went shopping, Aunt Chrissy always bought her a present. Sometimes it was a puzzle, or a book; at other times it was something pretty to wear.
Best of all was when she went out with her aunt on her own and she liked the idea of just the two of them visiting Liverpool; it was far more appealing than all of them going as a family.
Later that morning, after Lewis had gone to work and Kay to school, Violet brought up the subject of the forthcoming trip.
‘Are you saying that I seem to have undermined your plans, Violet?’ Christabel questioned.
Violet’s face reddened, but she said nothing.
‘Is it because Kay is so fond of me?’ Christabel persisted, ‘or is it because you are tired of having me living here?’
‘Well, naturally, I have been wondering what you have decided to do about your future,’ Violet prevaricated. ‘Surely you need to get a job and earn some money? You can’t sponge off Lewis for ever,’ she added spiritedly.
‘I don’t intend to,’ Christabel promised. ‘It’s only a temporary arrangement.’
Ever since she’d been staying in Rolleston Drive she’d been borrowing money from Lewis and she’d kept concocting stories about her money being tied up in America, and that she was waiting for it to come through. Lewis knew the truth and she’d promised to pay back every penny once she found a job, but she was surprised that Violet was shrewd enough to see through her story.
‘The trouble is, I’m not able to find the sort of job I want. There’s not much call for writing publicity copy for films here in Liverpool, so I’ll probably have to go to London.’
Violet looked relieved but she said nothing and Christabel could tell from the way her lips tightened that she was waiting to hear something more definite than that.
‘I’ll leave right after Easter,’ she promised. ‘I would like to go before then, but I’ve promised Kay that I will have some days out with her during her holidays and I don’t want to upset her by letting her down. Is that all right?’
‘I suppose it will have to be. Have you told Lewis?’
‘Not yet, but I will do. Perhaps we could leave it for the moment, until the end of the school holidays, otherwise Kay might get upset and I’m sure you don’t want that to happen.’
Chapter Twenty
Christabel made the most of her time with Kay during the Easter holiday. Easter Sunday 1926 fell on 4 April and although there was still a chill in the air, most of the days were bright and sunny.
They went out almost every day and even though she promised both Violet and Lewis that she wouldn’t spoil her with too many treats, Christabel spent every penny she had on making sure Kay enjoyed every minute they were together.
Christabel took her somewhere different most days, setting out shortly after breakfast and not coming home again until very late in the afternoon or early evening.
Violet was far from pleased, especially when Christabel said she’d thought that it was the best way of helping her.
‘It means we are both out from under your feet all day and since you don’t like anyone in the kitchen when you are cooking, I thought you would be pleased.’
‘There are plenty of other ways that you could help,’ Violet grumbled. ‘Kay needs to learn how to keep her room tidy, for a start. There are books and pencils everywhere.’
‘I’ll make sure Kay makes her bed and leaves her room in order each morning before we go out,’ Christabel promised. ‘If there is anything else I can do to help, you have only to ask me.’
Violet didn’t take Christabel up on her offer; instead, she continuously grumbled about all the extra work having a visitor made until in the end even Lewis grew tired of listening to her complaining and pointed out that Christabel wasn’t a visitor, she was family.
It also made both Christabel and Kay all the more eager to get out of the house and stay out as long as possible.
They never planned in advance but waited to see what the weather was like before deciding where to go.
If it was bright and sunny, they were quite adventurous; if it was raining or very overcast, they often went to look round the shops in Liscard and then to a Milk Bar for their lunch before strolling home again around tea-time.
Kay loved the sunny days when they went to New Brighton and Christabel let her mess around on the shore. They would buy fish and chips and sit in one of the shelters on the promenade and eat it out of the newspaper. Afterwards, they would walk around the fairground and even go on one or two of the rides.
‘Will you come on the ride with me, Aunt Chrissy?’ Kay always asked. Laughing and holding each other tight they’d spin round in one of the chair rides, or sit side by side on the galloping horses on the roundabout, both of them giggling as they soared into the air and then bumped back down again.
‘Mum hates anything like thi
s and she certainly wouldn’t come on one,’ Kay told her.
‘Does your dad ever take you on one?’ Christabel asked.
‘Only when we come here on our own because Mum says it’s very common to go on the rides and she won’t let me do it.’
One day they went all the way to Southport because Kay had never been there and very much wanted to go.
‘You mightn’t be able to see the sea, you know,’ Christabel warned her. ‘It goes out so far that you can’t even see it.’
On the way there she told Kay all about when she was nursing at the military hospital that was between Liverpool and Southport.
‘Can we go and see it?’ Kay asked eagerly.
‘It won’t be there now,’ Christabel told her. ‘After the war it was closed down and I expect they’ve built either factories or a housing estate there by now.’
Once, when it was too cloudy to go to New Brighton, they went over to Liverpool to look at all the shops. They’d had lunch at the Kardomah Café and afterwards Kay wanted to go and see the house where her father had grown up.
‘You grew up here as well, didn’t you, Aunt Chrissy?’ Kay asked as they stared at the old family home. ‘You and Aunt Lilian.’
‘Yes, we did, but that was a long time ago.’
‘Have you ever lived anywhere else in Liverpool?’ Kay asked.
‘Yes, in Wilcock Court.’
‘Where’s that? Can we go there?’
For one impulsive moment Christabel thought of taking Kay there; then common sense prevailed and she knew that it would be a silly thing to do.
For a start, she reminded herself, it had been ten years ago when she’d lived there, and there’d been a war on. So much had happened since then. It was quite possible that Maggie Nelson was no longer living there or even that she might be dead. If she was alive, then Maggie was bright enough to work out that Kay was about the same age as the baby Christabel was expecting while she’d lived there.
‘One day, perhaps,’ Christabel prevaricated, aware that Kay was waiting for an answer.
Whispers of Love Page 16