Audrey scrambled to her feet, trying to pick up the chair as she did so. Miss Thomson grabbed hold of it and pushed it back into its rightful place by the bench, but she made no attempt to help Audrey. In fact she seized hold of her and shook her hard.
‘What are you doing? Come on, girl; answer me. I can tell by the look on you face that you are up to no good.’ Audrey said the first thing that came into her head.
‘I’m…I’m sorry, Miss Thomson. I thought…I thought I heard a noise, and I came down to see what it was. And then I noticed you hadn’t bolted the door, so…so I was climbing up to do it…and I fell. I’m ever so sorry…’
‘Stop lying to me, girl! Of course I bolted the door. I always do.’ Miss Thomson glanced upwards. ‘Yes; it’s in its place just as usual.’ Her glance fell to the one at the bottom, and her eyes narrowed to slits as she grabbed hold of Audrey’s arms again, shaking her roughly.
‘What…on…earth…is…going…on…here?’ She stopped for a moment, her face as red as a turkey cock and her breath coming in short pants with the exertion of her assault on the child. She stared venemously at her. Then, as she suddenly realised what was going on, ‘Daisy!’ she exclaimed. ‘Where is Daisy? Answer me, girl!’
‘I…I don’t know, Miss Thomson,’ stammered Audrey. ‘I expect…I think she’s asleep in bed. I don’t know where she is, honest.’ She was gabbling now, not thinking what she was saying. She was more frightenend than she had ever been in her life and she could feel the tears overflowing from her eyes and running down her cheeks. Miss Thomson raised her hand and slapped her hard across the face, so hard that she went reeling across the hallway.
‘Liar! You little liar!’ she yelled. ‘You’re all alike, you evacuees. I might have known no good would come of it, having one of you brats from Leeds. You are aiding and abetting that maid of mine, aren’t you? Aren’t you?’ she thundered, as Audrey did not at first answer. Then she nodded dumbly.
‘Yes, I knew it! Where is she? Tell me now. Where is she?’
‘With…with her boyfriend, Andy, I think. I didn’t mean to do anything wrong. I was just helping her. She wanted to see him, ’cause he’s going away to join the army…’ Audrey burst into tears, then buried her face in her hands, sobbing as though her heart would break.
‘You can stop all that snivelling!’ said Miss Thomson coldly, not a shadow of pity or understanding showing on her face. ‘Go on now; get off back to bed.’ She pushed at her roughly. ‘We’ll decide what to do about you in the morning. You are not staying here with me any longer, that’s for sure. I have no time for girls who are cheats and liars. And I shall deal with Daisy too. That young woman’s days are numbered. I have never heard anything like it. Staying out till all hours with some man! I will not have such carryings-on in my household…’
Audrey guessed that Miss Thomson was now talking to herself. Still sobbing intermittently she stole back up the two flights of stairs. She was shaking all over and her face was stinging from the slap she had received. Never before had she been slapped like that and she felt shocked and humiliated. And what about poor Daisy? What would happen to her? She would blame her, Audrey, too, for it all going wrong.
She crept beneath the bedclothes and eventually, after what seemed a long while, her crying and sobbing ceased. In the midst of all her fear and unhappiness, and guilt, too, about the awful thing she had done, there was a faint glimmer of hope. Miss Thomson had said she didn’t want her to live there any more. Perhaps, now, she might be able to go and live with Maisie…
Chapter Twelve
Soon after they had finished their breakfast on Sunday morning Patience opened the door – at an extremely loud knock – to find an irate Miss Thomson and a very subdued looking Audrey standing on the step. The moment Audrey set eyes on Patience she burst into tears.
‘Oh dear, oh dear! Whatever is the matter?’ cried Patience, putting a comforting arm around the little girl. ‘Come along in, Audrey dear, and you as well, Miss Thomson, then you can tell me what is wrong.’
Miss Thomson bristled as she stepped into the hallway. ‘You don’t need to start all this snivelling again, Audrey. It cuts no ice with me, and it won’t with Mrs Fairchild either, when she knows what a naughty girl you have been. Take no notice of her, Mrs Fairchild; it’s just a plea for sympathy, and she doesn’t deserve any.’
‘Why? Whatever has she done?’ asked Patience. The little girl was looking up at her pleadingly, tears brimming over in her lovely big blue eyes. Whatever crime she had committed Patience was sure it could not be as bad as all that. Instinctively she stroked the child’s golden hair, in spite of the older woman at her side looking daggers at them both. ‘I’m sure we can sort it out, whatever it is. Can’t we, Miss Thomson?’
‘Well, I’ve washed my hands of her, and I’ve told her so.’ Miss Thomson’s cold and pitiless glance at the child made Patience realise – as she had, in her heart, felt all along – that this woman was not a fit person to be in charge of such a sensitive little girl or, indeed, of any child. ‘She will have to be billeted elsewhere. I knew it was a mistake for me to take an evacuee in the first place.’
‘I must agree with you there, Miss Thomson,’ said Patience, grimly. How callous of the woman to use such words as billet and evacuee in front of the child. ‘I can see now that you are not at all suited to looking after children.’
‘Now wait a minute; that’s not fair,’ retorted Miss Thomson. ‘I have done my best. I have tried to do my duty, only to have it all flung back in my face – by her…’ She pointed a witch-like finger at Audrey, ‘…her and that wanton maid of mine.’
‘Daisy?’ Patience frowned. ‘Whatever…? How does Daisy come into this?’ She shook her head in bewilderment. ‘Come into the sitting room, Miss Thomson,’ she said, opening the door to that room. ‘And you, too, Audrey, love.’ She ushered them in, at the same time raising her voice and shouting up the stairs, ‘Luke…Luke, could you come here for a moment, dear? We seem to have something of a problem.’
But before Luke could answer the summons, Maisie suddenly appeared on the scene. She dashed into the room, going immediately to her friend’s side and putting an arm around her.
‘Audrey! What’s up? Has summat gone wrong? I was in the kitchen and I heard her going on – Miss Thomson I mean…’ She jerked a thumb in the woman’s direction, ‘and I guessed what had happened…’
‘Yes! I might have known you would have something to do with this!’ interrupted Miss Thomson, pointing her crooked finger now at Maisie. ‘Yes, the pair of you and that shameless maid of mine, you cooked it up between you, didn’t you?’
‘No! I never knew nowt about it, not till Audrey told me,’ yelled Maisie. ‘You’ve no business to go blaming me…you awful old woman!’
‘Maisie, be careful now…’ said Patience in a warning voice, but Maisie appeared not to hear.
‘I’ve not done nowt,’ she went on. All her endeavours to speak more correctly, more like Patience, and to be polite, flew out of the window as she tried to defend herself. ‘And it weren’t Audrey’s fault neither,’ she said, realising she must stick up for her friend as well; Audrey appeared to be in deep trouble. ‘She was only trying to help Daisy…an’ I think she was very brave,’ she added stoutly.
Audrey nodded. ‘It was nothing to do with Maisie, Miss Thomson,’ she said, more calmly now that her bosom friend was with her. ‘I only told her ’cause I was scared, an’ I couldn’t keep it all to myself.’
‘Would somebody please tell me exactly what we are talking about?’ said Patience, who was by now completely mystified.
Luke, entering the room at that moment, also had no idea what was taking place, but he sensed a crisis of some sort – quite a minor one, though, he intuited – and he gathered that Miss Thomson was at the centre of it.
‘Miss Thomson,’ he said, in his usual cheerful and welcoming voice. ‘Good morning to you. I understand there is a little problem? Now, why don’t you and I go int
o my study, then you can tell me all about it? I have a good half hour before I need to get ready for Morning Service, and the needs of my parishioners always come first.’ He smiled graciously at her. ‘We will leave my wife to sort out the girls. I sense we are all getting a little…overwrought, maybe?’
Miss Thomson pursed her lips and silently followed him out of the room.
‘Now,’ said Patience, breathing a sigh of relief and sitting down thankfully in an easy chair. ‘Perhaps we can get down to some straight talking. Sit yourselves down, you two.’ They perched on the settee opposite her, looking at one another apprehensively. ‘And, for goodness’ sake, tell me what on earth has been going on.’
Audrey started the story – she had stopped crying by this time – then Maisie joined in, and together they managed to explain about Daisy and the plan with the door and the bolts, and how it had all gone wrong. A storm in a teacup, was Patience’s verdict. She felt very angry with Amelia Thomson for overreacting as she had done and frightening Audrey so badly. For it all came out; how the woman had shaken her – ‘till my head was nearly coming off,’ said Audrey – and had slapped her face, such treatment as the well-brought-up and cherished little girl had never before suffered in her life. Patience could not entirely overlook the fact, however, that Audrey had been mite deceitful, although undoubtedly led on by Daisy and unable to resist the young woman’s pleas.
‘Oh dear! What a tale of woe,’ said Patience, shaking her head and smiling at Audrey, but not without a faint air of reproach. ‘You know it was wrong, though, don’t you, Audrey, to try and deceive Miss Thomson like that?’ The little girl nodded. ‘But I do realise that Daisy is the one most to blame,’ she continued, ‘and she certainly should not have involved you in her devious plans.’
‘But she couldn’t’ve done it without me,’ said Audrey, ‘and Andy’s joining the army. She’s real upset.’
‘That’s understandable,’ said Patience, her heart going out to the foolhardy young woman, whose desire to be with her boyfriend Amelia Thomson would not countenance at all. One would have thought the woman would have stretched a point for once and let her maid stay out till…half-past eleven, maybe? But probably Daisy had thought it wasn’t even worth asking. ‘But it was still very wrong of Daisy to deceive her employer. What happened? Do you know? Did Miss Thomson wait up till she came in?’
‘I don’t think so,’ replied Audrey. ‘I think she must have pulled the bolts back so that Daisy could get in.’ At least the woman had some heart, thought Patience. ‘I didn’t sleep very well, y’see, and I heard Daisy come upstairs and go into her room, but Miss Thomson wasn’t shouting or anything. Not till this morning, and then she really went mad at Daisy. I would have warned her it had all gone wrong, but she woke up before me and I never got the chance. And Daisy wouldn’t say nothing when I had me breakfast with her except, ‘It’s not your fault, kid.’ She kept on saying that. She looked as though she’d been crying, and then Miss Thomson told me to hurry up and put my coat on, and we came over here.’
‘I see,’ said Patience, nodding gravely. ‘What did you say just then, Audrey? That you had your breakfast with Daisy? Is that what you usually do?’
‘Oh yes, I have all my meals with Daisy,’ said Audrey. ‘I hardly ever see Miss Thomson. It’s Daisy what looks after me. Although I can look after meself really,’ she added. ‘Getting washed and bathed and everything. I wash me own hair now,’ she added proudly. ‘Me mum used to do it, but now I do it meself. Daisy lets me use her Amami shampoo.’
‘Daisy is very kind to you then?’ said Patience smiling.
‘Oh yes; she’s lovely,’ said the little girl. ‘Just like a big sister.’
‘But she helps her with the work, don’t you, Audrey?’ said Maisie. ‘Washing up and peeling spuds – I mean potatoes – and cleaning the silver an’ all that.’
‘Do you, Audrey?’ asked Patience. ‘And does Miss Thomson know about it?’
‘I ’spect so,’ said Audrey. ‘I don’t really know.’
‘I told you before, Aunty Patience,’ said Maisie. ‘Don’t you remember? About Daisy looking after Audrey an’ Miss Thomson doing nowt…I mean nothing.’
‘Yes, I know you did, dear,’ replied Patience thoughtfully. ‘I know you mentioned it, but I didn’t realise you meant all the time…’ This was far worse than she had anticipated. The child was being used as an extra servant in that household, no matter how kind Daisy was to her, and the sooner that situation came to an end the better.
‘But Miss Thomson says I’ve got to go and live somewhere else,’ said Audrey. ‘You heard her, didn’t you? She doesn’t want me there now, and I don’t suppose she’ll want Daisy neither.’
But Patience could not imagine the woman letting her ‘maid of all work’ go, no matter how displeased she was with her. Genteel ladies like Amelia Thomson did not take kindly to such lowly tasks as cooking and washing and cleaning. And it would, more than likely, be Daisy who would decide she had had enough.
‘Don’t worry about Daisy,’ said Patience. ‘She’s quite a sensible young woman – although she’s behaved very foolishly over this – and she’ll soon sort herself out. I’ve know Daisy a long time and she’ll take it in her stride, whatever happens. But it’s you that we are concerned about, isn’t it, my dear?’ Patience did not even have to stop to consider, though, the solution to the problem; it was obvious, and was what she had really wanted all along.
‘Would you like to come and live here?’ she asked the child, ‘with Luke and me, and with Maisie, of course? There is another bedroom you could have, unless you and Maisie would like to share. That might be fun. And we would love to have you…wouldn’t we, Maisie?’ She looked across at the other little girl. But to her surprise Maisie’s face did not immediately break into a beaming smile.
‘Yes…’ she said quietly, just smiling a little bit. ‘That would be lovely.’
‘Oh, Mrs Fairchild, can I really?’ exclaimed Audrey. ‘Oh, thank you. It’s…it’s just wonderful. It’s just what I wanted, but I never thought it would happen. Oh, I can’t believe it!’
She burst into tears again, but Patience knew that this time they were tears of excitement and happiness rather than sadness and worry. She also knew that it might appear to Miss Thomson – although she did not really care, if she were honest, about that woman’s feelings – as though Audrey was being rewarded for her wrong doing. She knew that the bitter old woman must be seen to be mollified to some extent.
‘Now, stop crying,’ said Patience. ‘Just settle down and we’ll think about what we are going to do. I intended taking both of you – you and Maisie – when you first arrived, seeing that you were such good friends. But I had to give way to Miss Thomson because she was so determined that it was you that she wanted. I’m sorry, for her sake, that it hasn’t worked out. I suppose she has done her best…’ She crossed her fingers tightly, something she had done every since she was a child when she knew she was telling a lie; well, a white lie at any rate.
‘But she is not used to children, so maybe she thought it was for the best, letting Daisy look after you some of the time.’ Although, from what the girls had said, it sounded as though the maid had had complete charge of Daisy. ‘However, Audrey…’ Her face took on a more solemn aspect. ‘What you and Daisy did was wrong. I know Daisy was mostly to blame, but I think you should apologise to Miss Thomson; tell her you are sorry for being so deceitful.’
Audrey nodded slowly. ‘Yes, of course I will. My mum always told me to say I was sorry to people if I had done something naughty. But supposing… supposing she changes her mind and says that it’s all right, and that I can go on living there? I don’t really want to, Mrs Fairchild.’
Patience smiled. ‘Don’t worry about it.’ She did not think it was very likely. She guessed that Amelia Thomson was using this misdemeanour as an excuse to get out of something she had never really wanted to do. ‘Leave it to my husband and me. We’ll sort it out… Oh, I thi
nk they’re coming back now.’
Luke entered the sitting room, all smiles, followed by a serious, but no longer angry looking Miss Thomson. ‘All sorted,’ he said, sitting down on the settee next to the girls. ‘Do sit down, Miss Thomson.’ He motioned towards the easy chair and the lady sat down, appearing, Patience thought, a trifle reconciled.
‘We have had a good chat,’ he went on, ‘and Miss Thomson has agreed that she might have been a little…hasty; and that, possibly, she overreacted. But it was a great shock to her, being woken up suddenly and thinking that her house was being burgled. Anyway…she has something she wants to say to Audrey.’
Patience caught sight of the look of apprehension on the child’s face. Oh dear! She hoped that Miss Thomson was not going to ask her to stay with her; the woman could be most persistent.
However, ‘I am sorry that I hit you,’ the woman said, a little guardedly. She cast a quick glance at the girl, then looked down at her gloves and handbag, held precisely on her lap. ‘It was wrong of me…and I know I shouted at you, perhaps more than I ought to have done. It was Daisy’s fault, in the main, and she has had the decency to admit to it.’
‘It’s all right, Miss Thomson,’ murmured Audrey. ‘I want to say I’m sorry as well. It was wrong an’…an’ I shouldn’t have listened to Daisy. I should’ve said no. I’m sorry…if I’ve been a nuisance to you.’
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