Scandal in the Village

by Shaw, Rebecca

  ‘No, Katherine, I can’t let you do that!’

  ‘You can’t stop me. It will be all legal and properly drawn up, believe me Jimbo has got his business brain from me not his father, I’d have it all absolutely legal and I want to do it. If Bryn should come back full of remorse this way nothing would be changed, Dicky and Bel would still have their house, and you could make your decisions from then on. Only Dicky would have taken a risk with giving up his job.’

  ‘I can’t believe this. I can’t. That would be wonderful! The whole plan makes everything so right.’

  ‘Exactly!’

  ‘But what about Bel? What would she do?’

  ‘Oh, she’d carry on with her life as it is now. No one could object to that, could they? It would leave Dicky and her whiter than white wouldn’t it, her living here and doing what she usually does. She could still help Dicky With the mortgage couldn’t she?’

  ‘Oh yes. But what if Bryn comes back? He might.’

  ‘We can’t do anything legal till he makes contact anyway, so financially everything would be status quo. He can’t object to Bel living here and he can’t object to you employing someone besides Alan to give you a hand. The hours are crippling, you need both Dicky and Alan and a barmaid part-time too.’

  Georgie stood up. ‘All I can say is a big thank you. I’ve been puzzling my brain about the whole problem but I’m so busy I can’t give it my full attention and here you are, you’ve come up with it all neat and tidy.’ She bent forward and kissed Grandmama soundly. ‘There! What more can I say, but a big thank you. I’ll talk to Dicky and Bel tonight.’

  ‘Talk to them together, Bel mustn’t think we’ve all been plotting and planning her life behind her back.’

  ‘Of course. Got to go, lots to do.’

  ‘And I must be off too. We’ll keep in touch.’ Grandmama kissed Georgie and as she was leaving she turned back to say rather sadly, ‘It’ll be lonely in my cottage Without you, you know, quite lonely. Bye-bye, my dear.’

  Walking up Stocks Row to her cottage she saw Peter pulling up outside the rectory. She called to him the moment he got out of his car. ‘Rector! Have you a moment?’

  Peter nodded. ‘Good afternoon, Mrs Charter-Plackett. Lovely day!’

  ‘Can I have a word?’

  ‘Of course, come in!’

  ‘No, I won’t do that, thank you. There’s a programme I like to watch at five o’clock. You remember you asked me to solve the problem of Dicky and Bel and Georgie?’

  ‘I did indeed.’

  ‘Well I have, that’s if they all agree.’ She outlined her plan and was gratified to see the delight on Peter’s face. ‘I’m not telling anyone except Jimbo about the financial side of it, that’s private, I’m telling you because I know I can rely on you to keep a confidence. What do you think then?’

  ‘Brilliant. If they all agree it solves everything at one fell swoop and I know Dicky would be good for the business and he’d still be able to carry on with the Scouts. Wonderful! Thank you so much.’

  ‘All we have to hope is that Bryn turns up some time soon.’

  ‘Georgie hasn’t heard then?’

  Grandmama shook her head. ‘No, not a word. Still it’s early days, he might tire of Elektra quite quickly, or more likely she might tire of him! I’m glad you’re pleased. Must go. See you soon, Peter!’

  With his forearms resting on the roof of the car he watched her stride off to her cottage. She really was an outrageous mixture of a person. Domineering, belligerent, determined, bullying, wilful, imperious, kind, understanding, sympathetic, genteel, intelligent, the list was endless. But the debt he owed her if it all worked out! He rather hoped she wouldn’t call it in one day.

  Chapter 21

  ‘So you see, Jimbo, they’ve agreed to my plan. Now you won’t mind tutoring Dicky will you?’ Jimbo opened his mouth to protest but his mother continued to speak. ‘Dicky only has a month’s notice to give and they say they’ll have him back any time if it doesn’t work out, but it will, I know it will. Now about the money …’

  ‘What money?’

  ‘My money.’

  ‘Your money?’

  ‘You are in danger of repeating yourself, the money I’m lending Dicky when Bryn decides he wants to sell his half.’

  Jimbo went into shock. ‘You haven’t promised them money?’

  Grandmama sensed opposition. ‘It is mine.’

  ‘I know, but you can’t just go throwing it about.’

  ‘I’m not throwing it about. Not at all. It’s going to be a proper business arrangement. I’m not some foolish doddery old lady, I do know what I’m doing.’

  ‘Do you though? It seems to me you’ve had a rush of blood to the head, or the heart, I don’t know which. One doesn’t invest one’s capital on a whim. Think of the risk!’

  ‘You’re a fine one to talk about risks. What about the risk you took with this place? Couldn’t be called a blue chip investment could it when you bought it? A disgusting one-room shop with no stock to speak of, two dilapidated cottages, and tantamount to nil turnover. You wouldn’t listen to me though would you? At least the Royal Oak is an established business with prospects, and that’s what I’m investing in.’

  ‘I invested in myself and Harriet and knew I was right. You’re investing in Dicky, in truth. You’ll have no shares in the business.’

  Grandmama paused while she considered this fact. ‘Yes, I see what you mean. I need to think about that. That won’t do, will it?’

  ‘Well, not for me it wouldn’t. That is too risky by far.’

  ‘But I want to help. After the other night Dicky and Bel need all the help they can get. They deserve it. I never heard a thing. I’d taken some dratted herbal sleeping concoction Mrs Jones gave me and I went out like a light. I wish I had, I’d have shown them what for. I don’t suppose they’ve found out who it was?’ Jimbo shook his head. ‘Pity. I’m so sorry for Georgie too, there’s nothing worse than a dead marriage. And I should know.’

  Jimbo, who while she’d been speaking had been scribbling on a piece of paper hazarding a shrewd guess at the sums involved, looked up surprised. ‘What do you mean? “You should know”?’

  ‘That’s what I had. Four years of comparative happiness and then phut! it all went up in flames.’ She watched the screen-saver on Jimbo’s computer while he absorbed what she’d said.

  Eventually he asked quietly, ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I never told you before, the habit of shielding you from it is deeply ingrained, but I expect you’re old enough now to understand. It was because of your father that you went away to school so early, it broke my heart but it seemed better than you knowing.’

  ‘What exactly did he do?’

  Looking him fearlessly in the eye for a moment before making up her mind Grandmama said decisively, ‘He had a mistress and they had three boys and he juggled himself between us. When you were home from school he spent his time with us, and then when you went back he went back to her. Had some mad idea I think, that if he kept faith with you and you never knew, it absolved him from guilt. Made everything all right he imagined, with never a thought as to how I might feel about it. I could have killed him many a time, believe me. The lying, cheating toad.’

  Jimbo was appalled. Appalled that all the years of his life he’d never been aware of the misery at the heart of her. ‘Mother! I’m so sorry, so very sorry. I had no idea. I just find it so hard to believe.’

  ‘You’d better believe it! It’s true! Now you’re making me feel I shouldn’t have told you. Maybe you’re not old enough yet.’

  ‘Mother! Not old enough? For heaven’s sake. He was away working a lot, I knew that, but I didn’t realise the real truth, not once. Not even when I was at Cambridge. I must have been incredibly blind, and he, and you, incredibly careful.’

  ‘Good, I’m glad. I stuck with him you see, old-fashioned principles and all that.’

  ‘Well, I admire you for that. I really truly do. But
three half-brothers! It takes some assimilating. So that’s why I’m an only one?’

  Grandmama nodded. ‘It is. I pretended it was because I didn’t like childbirth, which truth to tell what woman does, but I would have liked more children. I couldn’t take the risk in case he left me for good, you see. What was more, I didn’t fancy him when he’d been with someone else. However, the son I’ve got more than makes up for not having more.’ She smiled at him.

  Jimbo got up from his chair and planted a kiss on his mother’s cheek. ‘Why have you never told me this before?’

  ‘Pride, I’m afraid. Too proud that’s me.’

  ‘I see, I can understand that. I’m so sorry about him. So very sorry. So when he died what happened then, you’ve never seemed short of money?’

  ‘She got some money and the house she lived in, but the bulk of his money and our house were mine. He did at least have the good manners to reward my tolerance of all those years, and was old-fashioned enough to acknowledge I was his legal wife. I’ll give him that. Also I expect he was thinking about his son and heir.’ Jimbo grimaced at that. ‘A few flirtations with the stock market have increased it way beyond my wildest dreams … and his!’

  ‘Where are they now? The other woman and the children? Well, they’re not children now, of course.’

  ‘I haven’t any idea and I care still less. Somewhere you have three half-brothers all around your age, let’s hope they never turn up by chance. I wouldn’t know what the odds are on that, but I don’t care.’

  Jimbo went to stand at the window. There was no view, and the window was barred which limited his vision, but he wasn’t looking out at anything, he was absorbed in his thoughts. ‘He was always good fun my father. That’s one of the things I remember best from childhood.’ He turned away from the window to look at his mother. ‘It must have coloured your outlook, all this going on.’

  ‘It felt like a smack in the face with a giant, stinkingly dead cod every time he came home: smiling and laughing with his presents and his kisses. He must have felt something for me though, after all, he came home to me to die. The worst of it was I cried when he died. I wept. Grieved. I looked, and was, the genuine distraught widow at his funeral.’ Jimbo nodded sadly in agreement. ‘But he’d made me tough over the years and I soon got over it. I’d learned not to cry for long.’

  They were both silent for a while and then Jimbo said, ‘About Dicky, of course I’ll teach him. It’s all quite simple. And if the need to lend the money does arise then I’ll help out with advice about that, too. Like you said, all legal and above board. You can’t afford not to be.’

  ‘Oh, I shall be. Now come and give your mother a kiss and I’ll be off. You must get on. I see Linda’s back.’

  ‘She is indeed and not without a climb-down on my part, believe me. I have to confess I was extremely rude to her, but she caught me on a bad day. I grovelled, positively grovelled, to entice her back. However, the rustle of money finally won the day, well, my charm too, I suppose. God, did I apologise! But, we quite simply could not manage without her. She may be a poor time-keeper but she knows post office procedures through and through and she’s never a penny wrong. She’s got a different child-minder and she’s promised to improve her time-keeping so we’ll wait and see. Let’s hope she learned a valuable lesson, I know I have. Harriet can’t do it, she needs to be with the children.’

  Grandmama stood up and collected her handbag and gloves from Jimbo’s desk. ‘What a lucky man you are. She’s a perfectly splendid mother and a wonderful wife to you and I hope you know that and demonstrate it, daily.’

  ‘Oh I do.’

  ‘Good. I don’t say much, Jimbo, but I am proud of you. So proud. No one but you could have made such a success of this business. Right, that’s enough of sentimentality for one day. I’ll be off.’

  Jimbo kissed her on both cheeks and opened the door for her to leave. As she passed him she patted his cheek and said, ‘At your age you won’t let it affect you will you? He was just that kind of a man and in some ways you’ve inherited his love of the human race, except he didn’t know when to call a halt.’

  Harriet, who’d been in the kitchens supervising the staff preparing for a dinner that night, went in search of Jimbo and found him standing in his office looking lost.

  ‘Jimbo? What’s the matter? Are you all right?’

  He didn’t answer her immediately.

  ‘Well?’

  ‘Close the door, Harriet.’ He paced back and forth for a moment and then looked at her. ‘Do you know, I’ve just found out the most amazing news. Incredible really. I’ve got three half-brothers I never knew I had.’

  Harriet was flabbergasted. ‘What on earth are you talking about? Have you been at the whisky?’

  ‘No, it’s Mother, she’s … well … she’s …’

  There was a split second of silence and then Harriet, eyes wide with shock, shouted ‘Your mother? My God!’

  ‘Honestly Harriet! Of course not. For heaven’s sake. No, it’s she who’s just told me. It was my father, he was playing away nearly all the time they were married, and I never knew. What am I, forty-seven, forty-eight? And she’s only just felt able to let on.’

  ‘For one dreadful minute I thought … that would have been a laugh. Oh dear! Sorry, darling, it must hurt. I must be serious. Tell me then, if you will, or want to or can.’

  So he did and Harriet was horrified. ‘No wonder she’s like she is. How could she have put up with that all those years? Thirty years? Right? Now at least we know the reason why she’s so tough and uncompromising. Well, from now on I shall try very hard to be more understanding, she doesn’t deserve to have had a husband like that.’

  ‘No one does.’ Jimbo opened wide his arms and Harriet went to him and put her arms around his neck and Jimbo hugged her tightly. ‘Not even Mother!’ They laughed. ‘Must press on. We’ll talk about it again tonight, right. The children musn’t know, for her sake, and also for mine. OK? By the way, she says you’re a wonderful wife to me.’

  ‘Does she indeed? Well, well, well. It’s certainly been a morning for revelations! I shall definitely have to be more understanding then.’

  ‘We both shall. Kiss?’

  Chapter 22

  ‘Peter? Oh there you are. I’ll be off then. My appointment’s at eleven so I’ve no time to spare.’ Caroline pulled on her gloves and smiled at him.

  He got up from his desk and looking gravely down at her, he smoothed her cheek gently with the back of his hand. ‘I’m coming.’ He raised his hand to silence her as soon as he saw protest coming into her face. ‘I won’t brook any argument. I am coming. I will not have you face this alone. That is what being married is all about. Support. Just need to wash my hands, the print’s come off all over my fingers. Won’t be a minute.’

  ‘I’m better facing things on my own.’

  ‘This time I’m not listening. I’ve put an end to that, like I said.’

  While he washed his hands and got his cloak Caroline stood looking out of his study window at the village. It was a bitterly cold day, with a cruel breeze blowing. She could just see Grandmama battling her way along, with her fur hat on and boots, and a huge scarf around her shoulders on top of her fur coat. Grandmama was blessed annoying with her interfering ways, but at least she’d solved the problem of Dicky and Bel. The Royal Oak was going from strength to strength with Georgie at the helm and Dicky enlivening everyone. Bel living there seemed to be working out too. She recollected hearing Bel crying in their spare bedroom the night their house had been attacked, and going to sit on the end of her bed and talking to her for what seemed hours. Poor Bel! Such a quandary for her. A variation on the eternal triangle in a way. The three of them just needed Bryn to make contact and then perhaps they could finally sort things out.

  Caroline heard Peter coming racing down the stairs. ‘I’m ready. Come on. We’ll go in my car. Sylvia’s cleaning upstairs, I’ve told her we’re both going.’

  ‘I ex
pect she’s pleased.’

  Peter looked at her as he fastened the clasp on his cloak. ‘Is she?’

  ‘She will be. Don’t pretend you don’t know what I mean. It’s a conspiracy between the two of you.’

  Peter had the grace to look embarrassed. ‘Well, yes, you’re right. She does approve of me putting my foot down.’

  ‘We’ll go in the Volvo shall we? Mine’s too small for comfort for you.’

  ‘That’s what I thought. In any case you haven’t got the all-clear for driving yet. Right.’

  Just as they were taking the sharp left turn at the signpost for Culworth Caroline put her hand on Peter’s thigh and said quietly, ‘Thank you for coming with me. I appreciate it. Suddenly I’ve gone dreadfully afraid.’

  ‘That’s understandable, but whatever the outcome, whatever the specialist says, you’ve always got me. I’m right up there with you, I just hope it helps.’

  ‘It does, more than you know. I can’t bear being told there’s only a small chance that I shall see the children growing up. I do want to be able to live long enough to see how they turn out.’ The hand resting on his thigh clenched and thumped him lightly. ‘There’s still so much left to do, and I want to see you when you’re sixty, and seventy and eighty. What a lovely dignified old gentleman you will be.’

  ‘That was one of the questions I tested myself with when I first met you. I realised you were the first woman I had ever known whom I wanted to know in old age.’ He paused for a moment and followed on with ‘And we shall, grow old together.’ Taking a hand off the steering wheel he took hold of hers and squeezed it tightly. ‘That’s a promise.’

  ‘I wish I had your confidence. All mine has ebbed away this morning. Every last drop has gone.’

  They were silent for the next few miles and then Peter said. ‘Faith that’s what you have to have, faith that you’ll get the all-clear and having got the all-clear, you and I will go away on our own for a few days.’