The Tea House on Mulberry Street

by The Tea House on Mulberry Street (epub)

  She opened the gate and went up to the bay window. The curtains were old but clean. She tried to see through them but she couldn’t. She tried the doorbell. There was no answer. The front door was firmly locked.

  The street was quiet. There were no people about, not even a stray dog. Still, there might be someone watching her through the lace curtains of the house across the road. She walked quickly through the passageway to the backyard.

  She searched about, hoping there might be a key. Failing to find one, she lifted a stone from the flower-bed and broke a pane of glass in the back door. She reached in and found that the key was in the lock. She twisted it slowly and opened the door. Then, with her heart thumping she went inside.

  She walked from room to room, looking for something significant. A clue that would tell her why her husband had bought a house in the same city where they lived, and kept it a secret from her for fifteen years. All of the furniture in the sitting-room was old and worn, and nothing special. There was a nice dresser in the kitchen, with some plates and cups on it, and some loose tea leaves in a black and red tin.

  Penny went upstairs. In the front bedroom was a brass bedstead, with an old eiderdown on it, and some bottles of Apple Blossom perfume on the dressing-table. Penny saw at once, a white envelope leaning against the mirror. She went over and lifted it. It was addressed to a woman called Mrs Teresa Stanley. She opened it.

  “My Dearest Teresa, if you ever come back to the house, and I am not here, please wait for me. I bought the house for you, so you won’t have to go away again. I own a little cafe on Mulberry Street but I come here for a short while some afternoons. I want you to know that I forgive you for leaving me all those years ago, and that I still love you with all my heart, and that I hope every day that you will come back to me. It is not too late for us to get to know each other again, and I will take care of you, and look after you always. All my love, Daniel.”

  Penny read the letter over and over. It was inconceivable that Daniel had a wife already, but there it was in black and white. He had been married to someone called Teresa. Maybe he still was. No wonder he didn’t want children. He was besotted with this Teresa creature. He didn’t love Penny at all. He had married her for the business, nothing more. I own a little cafe on Mulberry Street. Well, thought Penny, we’ll see about that. She put the letter in her pocket and left the house silently.

  When she returned to the shop that afternoon, Daniel was rushing about the kitchen in a fluster.

  “Where have you been?” he cried. “You can’t keep disappearing like this. I’ve tried to be patient with you, Penny, but I’m trying to run a business here.”

  “Get out,” said Penny, quietly.

  “What?”

  “I said, get out of my shop.”

  “Are you feeling all right, Penny?” He set down the teapot he had been holding. This was new territory for Daniel Stanley. He had come to think of Penny as part of the business, like the water-heater or the toaster, as indeed she was. “It’s those magazines,” he cried. “They’ve put your head away. You shouldn’t read them. Magazines are destroying the institution of marriage!”

  “Oh, you!” she shouted at him. “I don’t believe you’re right in the head!”

  “Penny, what is going on?”

  “I am giving you fifteen minutes to pack your bags and get out of my family business. I know about the house on Magnolia Street. Does number fourteen, Magnolia Street ring any bells? And I know about your long-lost wife, Teresa; and I am absolutely fed up with you, and your pointless penny-pinching. Now get out to hell!”

  Daniel suddenly found it hard to breathe. His eyes were wide with panic. “Please, we can talk –”

  “It’s too late for talking. Our marriage is over. It isn’t valid anyway, you fool! You’re a bigamist. A criminal! You have no right to be here. You’ll get nothing in the divorce.”

  Daniel looked as though he had been slapped across the face. He stared at Penny for what seemed like an eternity.

  “Divorce? Penny, please listen to me –”

  “No. No more lies. Just go before I call the police.” She took the letter from her pocket and placed it on the table.

  His blue eyes were pools of dread. “I can explain about all this. How did you find out?”

  “It doesn’t matter how I found out. It’s true, isn’t it? You’ve lined your pockets for seventeen years out of my dear father’s cafe. And you’ve used the money to buy your other wife a house. You’ve used me as an unpaid skivvy and wasted my youth. I hate you!”

  “Penny, please, don’t do this to me!”

  “I hate you. You’ve made me into a pathetic excuse for a woman. I blame myself for most of this. Millie Mortimer told me not to get married so soon after we met. I should have known that there was something wrong with you – in your thirties and still single. Only, you weren’t single, were you? You were married to Teresa!”

  He had his hands up to his face. His voice came out in a whisper. “Teresa is my mother.”

  Penny laughed in his face. She wanted to kill him. “You liar! Do you never stop? Your mother was called Kathleen.”

  “No. Kathleen was my aunt. I swear it.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “Look, there are customers waiting. Let me get rid of them and we’ll close the shop and I’ll tell you everything.”

  “No, it’s far too late for that. I don’t care what you say any more. I’ve nearly gone out of my mind, wondering what was wrong with you, all these years. Wondering why you didn’t want me more, why you wouldn’t give me children. I want you to leave this minute and take all your secrets with you.”

  “Please, Penny!”

  “It’s over between us, Daniel. I’ve been having an affair. I want a divorce. I’m going to a lawyer to get a divorce.”

  “An affair! How could you?”

  “Because I’m a normal person. Didn’t you even suspect? All the late nights I’ve had? The new clothes? I’ve been with another man. And he doesn’t find me so unattractive he prefers to read cookery-books than make love to me! Now, get out.”

  “You can’t just end it without listening to me! And, Penny, we have the business to think of.”

  “You can keep whatever money you’ve managed to wring out of this place. Think of it as a settlement. A final settlement. And if you think for one second I am going to let you take this shop away from me, you can forget it. I’ll burn it to the ground, rather than let you darken the door, ever again.”

  She went into the cafe and asked everyone to leave. They did not have to pay for their meals, she said. Could they just eat up and go? There was a family crisis. Grumbling, astonished, curious, the customers left the premises. Penny locked the door. When she went back into the kitchen, Daniel was gone. She locked the back door, and sat down on a chair, shaking all over. Then, she made three calls. She called Millie to tell her that Daniel was a bigamist. She called a local builder and told him to come round, first thing in the morning for an estimate. And finally, she made an appointment to talk to a solicitor.

  Chapter 38

  DANIEL TRIES TO MAKE AMENDS

  Daniel walked all the way to Teresa’s old home, with tears streaming down his face. All his life he’d been living in two tenses: the present, where he went to work in the tea house, and the past, where he waited for his mother to come back. Now, those two worlds had collided, and everything was ruined. He let himself into the house and sat on the sofa until it grew dark. Then, he heated some milk and made a hot drink. He drank his cocoa in a trance.

  Penny was leaving him. She had left him. It was all over. He thought and thought of how she could have found out about the house, but he could not work it out. He wept again.

  She had a lover. He was angry about that. Why did women set so much store by romantic love? And why did it take her so long to have an affair, anyway? She could have left him any day she wanted, in the last seventeen years. She could have divorced him years ago. But
she did not. So, she must have loved him.

  Still, his mother loved him, and she had gone away. Women were unpredictable creatures, he knew. They were strange, and impossible to understand. And yet, when they were not around, life seemed bleak and empty. The years ahead stretched out before him. There would be no-one to talk to at the end of the day. He must not let Penny leave him.

  He would go back to the tea house and tell Penny the truth and make her understand. He would take her away to a hotel so that they could talk it all through. Penny would like that. She liked pretty things. What was the name of the hotel that Penny talked about? The one in the magazine? The Lawson Lodge?

  The hotel that Penny admired so much confronted him like a guilty secret. It was the very opposite of his meanness, and all the years of thrift that Penny had endured with him. He began to weep. He took from his wallet the shilling that Father Mulcahy had given him for his missing mother, when he was four years old. He turned it over and over in his hand.

  And suddenly, it all made sense. His mother had not left him because she did not love him. She went away because her heart was broken; because her husband let her down and left her with a stack of bills she could not pay. She went away because the neighbours whispered about her behind her back, and said bad things about her, that were not true. She went away because she had no friends. The other women who lived on the street did not like her because she was beautiful and slim and unattached. It was not Daniel’s fault that she had gone away. She must have re-married and not told her new husband that she had a son already. Why had no-one explained all this to him before?

  He was no better than his father. The truth winded him like a boxer’s punch. Penny was leaving him. He would be alone again, and this time, it was all his fault. There was no-one else to blame. What time was it? Ten-thirty in the evening. He went out and walked until he came to a payphone. He asked the operator for the telephone number of the hotel. He dialled the number.

  “I’m sorry for calling so late,” he began. “I just wanted to ask you, is it too late to book a room for Christmas? I mean, do you have any rooms free over the holiday period at all? I want to surprise my wife with a last-minute holiday.”

  The lady on the other end of the line was businesslike. She registered no surprise at the late hour. “Let me see,” she said. There was a pause. “We do have a room available, as it happens. Just the one, remaining. But it’s very expensive. It’s the bridal suite, comprising en suite luxury bathroom, and sitting-room with real log fire. It’s three hundred pounds per night.”

  “I’ll take it,” he said, his voice a husky whisper.

  “Certainly, sir,” she said. “What night were you thinking of? We’re open right through the holiday period.”

  “Could I possibly have it for three weeks? From December eighteenth, through to January seventh?”

  The receptionist in The Lawson Lodge sat up in her chair and set down her coffee-cup on the mahogany counter. She seldom managed to get so much business, so easily.

  “That will be fine, certainly. Thank you, sir. I hope you will have a pleasant stay with us, and take full advantage of our packed programme of seasonal events. Can I have your credit-card details, please?”

  “I don’t have a credit card, I’m afraid. But I’ll send a letter of confirmation, and a cheque for the full amount, first thing in the morning. Could you tell me the address?”

  She told him. “That will be fine, sir. Thank you very much. Is there anything else we can do for you?”

  “Yes,” he said. “Can you put a Christmas tree in the suite, and decorations, and some chocolates, and champagne?”

  “Certainly, sir. All those things come as standard in the bridal suite.”

  “And some perfume. Something expensive,” he said. “That’s everything. Oh, my name is Daniel Stanley.”

  “Thank you, Mr Stanley. I’ll phone to confirm, when I receive your letter.”

  “Ah, I’ll phone you. I’m very busy at the moment. Always out and about…”

  “Very well. Thank you. Goodnight.”

  He replaced the receiver gently. He felt good. Spending money was not that difficult after all. It wasn’t so hard, once you put your mind to it. He did some quick calculations in his mind. He had a couple of hundred thousand pounds in the bank. His life savings. But half of it belonged to Penny. More than half, if he was honest. Penny had worked hard to earn that money. He would pay for the holiday, and give all the rest to Penny. He would beg her to stay, and tell her he would do anything she wanted. He could not bear to be alone again. The money would not keep him company when she was gone. He loved Penny. He was frightened to think how much he had loved her all this time, and not realised it. He hurried back to the little house.

  He would give Penny tonight to cool off and he would go round in the morning. He would tell her everything. It was a lifetime too late, but she might still have some feelings for him. She might still forgive him, and give him one more chance.

  Chapter 39

  MILLIE MORTIMER IS IN A RAGE

  Millie Mortimer came tearing up Mulberry Street as if the hounds of hell were after her. Hurrying along in her wake was her bewildered husband, Jack. He carried his heavy toolbox with him, and he called out to Millie to slow down. He hated Millie meddling like this in other people’s affairs, but it was useless trying to tell her what to do. She was like a whirlwind when she got going. He was grateful, at least, that it wasn’t himself on the receiving end of Millie’s vicious temper. Jack Mortimer would never be stupid enough to have an affair behind Millie’s back.

  Millie hammered on the door and when Penny turned the key, she burst into the shop like an explosion. The door nearly fell off its hinges.

  “Where is the evil wretch?” she cried, standing in the middle of the floor. “I’ll kill him. Daniel Stanley, get down here and take what’s coming to you. Jack! Bate him up!”

  “He’s gone,” said Penny. “I put him out and I told him not to come back. Not ever. He’s gone for good.”

  Jack was giddy with relief. He had arm muscles as big as grapefruits. It wouldn’t have been a fair fight.

  “You’re right about that,” said Millie. “Jack, get yourself in here.”

  Jack was hovering by the door, not wanting to get involved in Penny’s marital problems. Why couldn’t women be less emotional about things, he wondered.

  “Get out there to the kitchen and change the locks,” said Millie, “and put two bolts on the back door. And put shutters on all the windows.”

  “That’ll cost a lot of money,” he said.

  “Oh, men! Never mind about the money. Do you want that waster to break in here tonight and strangle poor Penny in her bed? There’s nothing he wouldn’t do to hang on to this place, I tell you! Get what you need from the hardware shop and tell Mr Cook that Penny will settle up with him in a couple of days.”

  Jack took some measurements, and left the building without speaking to Penny. He simply nodded his sympathy to her as he was going out the door. She noticed that he seemed to have lost a fair bit of weight. Millie’s bathroom makeover must have been a success.

  Millie made tea and paced up and down the kitchen, smoking furiously.

  “I knew it. I knew it all along. I just knew there was something wrong with Mr Daniel-I’m-So-Perfect-Stanley. A bigamist! Well! The nerve of him! You, Penny, on your hands and knees all these years, working your poor fingers to the bone so that he could buy his other wife a house! And she’s not even in it, you say? She’s missing? Well, if that doesn’t prove he’s a headcase, I don’t know what will. I’ll reach for him the next time I see him, as God is my judge. I’ll turn him inside out and feed him to the dogs.”

  Penny was too numb to stop Millie ranting.

  “You tell all this to a lawyer, Penny. Do you hear me? I’ll be a witness to the fact that you gave that man only love and devotion. Have you got the letter he wrote to his other wife? Keep it safe, now. And don’t even think of letting him k
eep that money. You, that never had a decent stitch on your back since the day you got married. That penny-pinching slug! You’ll get that money back in court. And if they can’t get it back for you, I will. We have our own way of doing things in this part of the world. Oh, the weasel!”

  Jack returned, laden down with locks and bolts and shutters, and got on with the business of turning the tea house into a fortress. It took him two hours.

  When Jack and Millie left the shop that night, with a box of cakes and thirty pounds for their trouble, Penny sat in the tea house for a long time. She did not feel alone. It was her shop, and she had taken it back. She would divorce Daniel with as little delay as possible. She didn’t care about the money. She would borrow some money to redecorate the tea house and she would start all over again. Mary Soap, the cleaning lady, would help her, and she could employ some new staff. She would tell Richard all about it the next time she saw him. But tonight, she felt very tired.

  There was a bottle of brandy in the cabinet upstairs, a gift from Millie the Christmas before. Penny went upstairs and opened it. She poured a generous amount into a glass, and she sat gazing through the window, at the strings of fairy-lights in the street outside. She was hungry but the very thought of having to prepare a meal for herself was just too much. She telephoned for an Indian takeaway.

  Sometime after four o’clock in the morning, full of brandy and curry and tears that would not fall, Penny fell asleep on the sofa.

  Chapter 40

  THE END OF AN ERA

  The room was deserted but the lights were still on. There were several wooden crates beside the door. There were jam-jars full of linseed oil and turpentine on the mantelpiece. There was a torn copy of the Yellow Pages on the floor and an empty bottle of gin on the coffee-table.