by Joanna Larum
There was a knock on the side door downstairs and Victoria heard her mother opening it. She quickly crossed the room and bent and kissed Nana on her soft sweet cheek before she went back to her own room. She waited while the doctor did whatever it was that he had to do. She could hear his deep voice and the higher voice of her mother as he asked questions about finding Nana dead, about her health over the last few weeks and lots of other questions. Her mother answered at the required times and it was obvious to Victoria that Bia was incredibly calm and self-possessed at the situation. Perhaps she had practised this scene in her mind many times over the last few years or perhaps she genuinely didn’t feel any emotion at her mother’s passing and could therefore be completely serene and unruffled during a possibly stressful event. Anything was possible with Bia!
Victoria realised with a slightly guilty start that she was hungry, so she went downstairs into the kitchen and began making breakfast for all three of them, hoping that her parents would be hungry as well as she. Dad came through from the shop where he had been setting out the cooked meats and cheeses he had taken out of the shop fridge, ready for a day’s work. Bia could be heard letting the doctor out of the side door, then she entered the kitchen and nodded with relief when she realised that Victoria had breakfast under control.
“What are we going to do about the shop today?” her Father asked, once they were all seated and eating. “Should we not open as a mark of respect for your mother or should we carry on as normal, apart from the day of the funeral? I don’t want to upset you, Bia, but I also don’t want to lose customers who would go elsewhere if we aren’t open.”
Victoria surprised both her parents by butting in with her own thoughts.
“Nana told me about a time when she had a death in the family, but they opened the shop, not just for the convenience of the customers but also because being busy served to take their minds off the person they had lost.”
“I think that’s a very sensible way of looking at the situation.” Dad said. “I also believe that Nana Lymer wouldn’t have wanted to waste any time that could be spent making money, by being sentimental and slushy about anyone.”
“But what will the neighbours think?” Bia wanted to know. “They could be appalled at the hard-nosed disregard of my mother’s death.”
“Well, we tell everyone that she didn’t want us to close the shop, because she didn’t do it when she was in the same situation. I’m sure plenty of people remember what she was like and won’t be surprised at it.”
“I wonder who it was who had died but Mam opened the shop.” Bia mused. “I can’t remember when it happened.”
Victoria knew exactly when it had happened but she chose to keep that little bit of information to herself. If Nana hadn’t told her daughter about Simon’s death, then Victoria wasn’t going to enlighten her. That was her and Nana’s secret. It did cross her mind that her mother didn’t know that she’d had an older brother, but would the knowing of him make any difference to her mother now? She knew very little about her sister Annie who had died when Abia was a baby so it was understandable that she would know nothing about an older half-brother. It would seem that Victoria’s mother had never heard of any of her family’s history from before she was born. Her mother spoke at this point in Victoria’s musings.
“Very well, we’ll open the shop today and let everyone know that it was what my mother would have wanted. We will only close on the day of her funeral. Somebody is bound to complain that I only care for profit, but you can’t please everybody all the time. I wonder if Joan would come and do a turn in the shop today. It would give me chance to go and get Mam’s death certificate and see the vicar and the undertaker as to when we can expect to have the funeral.”
“You go and sort out what you need to do and I’ll ring Joan to come in.” Victoria’s Dad said. “Word will soon get round as to what’s happened and people will understand that we may be having difficulties.”
Victoria remained quiet during this exchange, not wanting to be lumbered with a session working in the shop, or having to accompany her mother to see the vicar or undertaker, but, luckily, her mother seemed to have forgotten what Victoria was capable of doing and left her out of her arrangements. Victoria knew that she had to fulfil her promise to Nana that she would contact Mr Vine to let him know that Nana Lymer had died, before anyone else could tell him. She cleared the kitchen table and washed the breakfast pots, which earned her a brief ‘good girl’ from her mother as she passed through the kitchen on her way to the Registrar’s office, then trotted upstairs to change her wrinkled clothes.
The shop was busy when she peeped through the door from the kitchen, but she still left the house through the side door, so that her Dad wouldn’t see her leave and ask where she was going. Nana had been very firm about not letting anyone know about this visit. Within minutes, she was opening the front door of Mr Vine’s office on Station Road and marching up to Miss Talbot’s desk with a totally different attitude from the last time she had visited the solicitor’s workplace.
Chapter Seventeen
Miss Talbot didn’t raise her head from the sheet of paper she was perusing, merely asking “Yes?” as she made a note with a pencil on the page. Victoria didn’t answer, but continued to stand in front of the desk, taking as much interest in the naked white sheet as Miss Talbot. The battle of wills was almost won when Miss Talbot looked up at Victoria and repeated her question.
“Yes, can I help you?”
That was much better.
“I’m sure you can.” Victoria replied. “I would like to see Mr Vine as soon as is convenient, please.” She wasn’t going to leave room for Miss Talbot to accuse her of being rude.
“Mr Vine is with a client at the moment. Perhaps you would like to leave your name and address and Mr Vine can contact you when he is free.”
This wasn’t good enough for Victoria. Nana Lymer had told her to insist on seeing Mr Vine that day and Miss Talbot was no longer the insurmountable barrier that she had been before, the last time that Victoria had visited the office.
“That’s fine.” Victoria said. “I’ll wait until he is free.” And she crossed the room and sat down on a wooden chair which was beside the open fire. Miss Talbot followed her across the office and stood in front of Victoria with her arms folded across her chest and a rather superior smile on her face.
“You won’t be able to see Mr Vine today, because he has clients booked in all day. I told you, leave your name and address with me and he will let you know when it is convenient for you to see him. A solicitor is a busy man, with no time to be messed about by a schoolgirl.”
This last was said with a distinct smirk as Miss Talbot looked down her nose at Victoria.
“You don’t need me to tell you who I am.” Victoria said, very calmly, meeting Miss Talbot’s smirk with a clear open face. “I have no intentions of leaving until I have spoken to Mr Vine and, as I only need a few minutes of his time, I won’t be holding up any of his other clients. And if you are intending to phone my mother again to tell her that I am here, I would suggest you wait until about five o’clock. She has got numerous appointments this afternoon and will be unavailable, probably until tea time.”
Victoria was rather pleased with herself at managing to remain calm and unruffled despite Miss Talbot’s open hostility towards her and once again surprised herself by being so composed and adult. She wasn’t sure how much longer she would be able to sustain this attitude however and was relieved to hear Mr Vine’s office door open and see Mr Vine emerge, shaking hands with an elderly gentleman as he left.
Mr Vine hadn’t missed Victoria’s presence in the waiting room and crossed the office quickly to speak to her.
“Do I take it that the inevitable has unfortunately occurred and you have come to appraise me of your grandmother’s passing?” he asked, his face creased in concern.
“I’m afraid so.” Victoria answered. “Nana Lymer died in the early hours of this morning.”
She couldn’t help but wonder if all solicitors spoke in this rather stilted fashion or if Mr Vine thought it gave him a certain gravitas which his age didn’t bestow on him.
“Peacefully, I hope?” Mr Vine asked, taking hold of one of Victoria’s hands and absentmindedly patting it as he spoke. “It will have come as a great shock to you, I know, even though it has been expected for quite some time. We are never truly prepared for any death and I know how close you were to your grandmother.”
Victoria could feel the salt tears beginning to gather in her eyes again, but she shook them away, determined that she wasn’t going to cry like a child in front of Miss Talbot. Mr Vine realised that she needed some time and space to get herself under control again, so he turned her round and began encouraging her to pass inside his office and sit down at his desk.
“I don’t need to stay.” Victoria spluttered. “Nana only told me to come and let you know when she died. I don’t need to take up any more of your time. I know that you have other clients to see today.”
“Nonsense.” Mr Vine boomed. “My next appointment isn’t until 3 o’clock so I’ve got time for a cup of tea and a chat with one of my favourite Lymer ladies. But your name won’t be Lymer, will it? Lymer is your mother’s side of the family. Don’t tell me, I’ll have it in my brain any second. Wilson! That’s it. Miss Victoria Wilson. I’ve actually got some information for you, Miss Wilson, now that your grandmother has died, information which only you and I need to know. We will not be discussing it when I report the terms of your grandmother’s will to your parents and your aunts and uncle after the funeral. That is why Mrs Lymer wanted you to come and see me immediately after she died. She wished you to be in possession of this information so that it wouldn’t come as a surprise to you at the Will Reading.”
Victoria glanced across at Mr Vine where he was in the process of closing his office door. In the split second’s chance that she had to see into the reception area before he closed the door, she saw Miss Talbot, with her mouth hanging open and her eyes fixed on Mr Vine. Despite what had happened that day, Victoria felt an almost over – whelming urge to laugh at the shock and desire for knowledge written across Miss Talbot’s face. It seemed that Mr Vine was enjoying seeing her reaction as well, because he closed the door so slowly that quite a few really nosy expressions passed across Miss Talbot’s face before she managed to bring her greed for gossip under control and resumed her usual, slightly superior, facial appearance.
Mr Vine re-opened his office door immediately and neither he nor Victoria were astonished at the close proximity to the door Miss Talbot had managed to reach in those few seconds. Victoria wondered how often Mr Vine had caught his secretary blatantly listening at his office door and was surprised that he tolerated such behaviour, unless he also enjoyed thwarting Miss Talbot’s attempts to glean gossip. If she had overheard any sensitive information surely it would make a reduction in his professional rating?
“Can we have two cups of tea in here, Miss Talbot please? Miss Wilson and I have a number of important matters to discuss and I always think that tea lubricates the brain cells.” Mr Vine closed the door again and sat behind his desk, putting his hands together and steepling his fingers and resting his chin on them.
“When I came to see your grandmother a couple of weeks ago, she led me to understand that she was the second wife of your grandfather, Mr Samuel Lymer, and that there had been some children of the first marriage, although a number of those children had died in childhood as well as one son who died during the First World War and one son who had died as a result of the wounds he had received during that War, a number of years after it ended. This leaves your mother, your aunt in Australia and your uncle from your grandfather’s second marriage and your three aunts from his first marriage still alive. Is that right?”
Victoria crossed them off on her fingers as she thought about her mother’s brother and sisters. The three aunts from her granddad Sam’s first marriage seemed more real to her than her aunt and uncle from his second marriage, because she had learnt from Nana Lymer exactly what they were like when they became part of Nana’s life. Her true aunt in Australia and her true uncle who lived down south somewhere were shadows compared to the other three.
“Aunt Hannah, who lives in York and Aunt Jenny, who lives in Birmingham both have children and grandchildren. Do you want a list of them, Mr Vine?” Victoria asked, not sure why she needed to know about a section of her grandmother’s will before anyone else in the family, and eager to help unravel the slightly complicated family tree.
“No, thank you,” he replied. “Mrs Lymer’s last Will and Testament contains bequests to the six children still living of Mr Lymer’s two marriages. I expect she intended any children and grandchildren to be provided for by their parents and grandparents. Do you know where the third sister of the first marriage lives?”
“Oh yes,” Victoria hastened to answer. “Aunt Lizzie is a companion to an old lady who lives in Bishop Auckland and lives with her there. She has never married and has no children and I would suppose that both she and the lady she looks after will be getting on in years now. Nana has her address in her address book at home. I’ll find it for you and bring it round tomorrow.”
“There’s no need to put yourself out, Victoria. I can get it when I come to read the Will in a couple of days’ time. I just wanted a rough idea so that I would recognise the correct address when I see it. Now we’ve cleared that up, I just want to discuss a couple of points from the Will with you without anyone else knowing what they contain. Your grandmother was determined that no-one else should know the exact amount of possessions that she has left you.”
“Left me?!?” Victoria could hardly speak; she was so taken aback by that one small sentence. “But she didn’t have to leave me anything. I’m going to be a teacher; I don’t need to have anything left for me!”
They paused at that point as Miss Talbot knocked on the door and then entered, carrying a tray with two cups and saucers on it and a small plate of half-coated biscuits. Mr Vine removed them all from the tray and then asked Miss Talbot if she could find the files for the next two clients who would be coming later in the day. She agreed and left, closing the office door behind her as she went, effectively stopping her own chances at information gathering.
“It will take her a good while to find those files because I removed them from the filing cabinet this morning and have them here, so she won’t be able to listen at the door.” Mr Vine wrapped his knuckle on the two cardboard bundles sitting in his in-tray.
“ To carry on from where we left off - I’m sure you will make a wonderful teacher,” Mr Vine agreed, “But Mrs Lymer was determined that you would be the greatest beneficiary of her Will, so that you would have more choices in your life than you would otherwise be able to have on just a teacher’s salary. She told me that you were the only member of the family who knew that she and your grandfather had made rather a good living from owning and renting out property; from two other shops apart from the one in Queen Street and from a collection of gold, silver and jewellery built up by your grandmother from before she met your grandfather and over the years after that marriage. She also said you were the only member of the family who had shown any interest in her life before the birth of her three children. These bequests can be taken as a reward for your selfless interest in her and what she had done during her life, without expecting some sort of monetary remuneration. She also told me you had made her last few weeks on this earth a happy time for her, mainly because of the love you had shown her, so she wanted you to have the following:”
Ownership of the property known as Number 45 Eston Square, Eston – a general dealers store, although she recommends that you sell it as a going concern before the large supermarket chains move into the area and destroy its customer base.
Ownership of the property known as Number 11 Ladgate Lane, Acklam – a tea and coffee shop, serving the local area as it has done for many years. She recommended that you
keep this particular business going as it is becoming more profitable with every year that passes.
Ownership of the portfolio of rental properties spread throughout Middlesbrough, Ormesby, Normanby and Eston. This is another part of the business that your grandmother recommends that you continue to run as it is also a profitable concern.
Lastly, her collection of gold and silver jewellery and her collection of cut and uncut gemstones collected over many years and kept in her security box at the bank. She has only ever worn one of these items, a gold chain and locket which contains photographs of Mr Lymer and a little boy called Simon Drinkwater, although I have no idea as to the identity of the child.”
Mr Vine paused here, presumably to give Victoria time to inform him of the child’s identity, but Victoria decided she wouldn’t feed his desire for knowledge. If Nana Lymer had wanted him to know then she would have told him. The fact that she hadn’t told him informed Victoria that she had no wish for Simon to be discussed with Mr Vine so Victoria kept Nana’s council and refused to be drawn on the subject of his identity. It would make no difference to the carrying out of the Will, given that he had died in childhood and had obviously never married or produced any children of his own. Working at the ‘need to know’ level, Mr Vine had no need to know who Simon Drinkwater had been and therefore, Victoria wasn’t holding back any potentially useful information.
If she thought about it, there was only Aunt Hannah and Aunt Jenny left alive who, apart from Victoria, would know that Nana Lymer had ever had a little boy called Simon, or even that she had been married before she married Sam Lymer. Aunt Lizzie had been too young at the time to have any memory of the events that had happened so long ago.