‘I’m sure we won’t do that, Mrs Masters.’
‘No, perhaps you’ll wait for the January snows. How kind.’ Alarmed by the implication that that outcome wasn’t excluded, she glared at the poor man. She knew the newly appointed clerk was not to blame, he was stating the facts, doing what the rules stipulated. No, the fault lay with Ivor, but that hadn’t stopped her treating the young man as though he were the cruel landlord in a Victorian melodrama.
On her way back to the shop she decided to risk an extra few minutes and call in to place an order for lino paint. Mrs Ricky Richards again. This time she was painting a linoleum floor in a back bedroom. She was tempted to ask for more money, knowing how the woman forced her payment down with a tirade of excuses, but she couldn’t. However she found the money it wouldn’t be by cheating, even on people as difficult as Mrs Richards. She didn’t want to copy any of Ivor’s tricks.
She had written to both Jack Harris, the wholesale fruiterer, and Mrs Gwennie Flint at the chip shop asking them to give the boys another chance. She wasn’t very hopeful and wondered whether the boys were actually looking for work as they had promised, or had sneaked down to the river to poach a few more fish. What a life!
She hoped the fear of losing their home might have given them more determination to find and hold down a job, but suspected that, at fourteen, as time passed they had persuaded themselves it was less serious than she had implied, that neither she nor Ivor would allow it to happen.
‘You look worried,’ Geoff said as she went to the counter. ‘Anything I can do?’
‘Tell me how to win with the football pools when I can’t even afford to play?’
‘Surely you aren’t seriously worried about money – you work all the hours of daylight and more. Is it the thought of Christmas?’
She laughed then. ‘Oh yes, it’s Christmas all right.’ Unless something amazing happened she would be homeless, but how could she tell anyone that? Admit that her husband had been so stupid? That he had risked prison for a small profit and lost the lot?
Loyalty in some circumstances was foolish, and an openness, an honesty, especially to friends, could sometimes offer a solution, but loyalty was a strongly held principle. Loyalty to a husband was not easy to forgo, even when that husband had been as disloyal as Ivor. She had told Geoff too much already. She was glad when another customer came in, and she hastily put down her list of requirements, waved goodbye and hurried back to work.
Over the next day every moment seemed filled with disasters. The farmer knocked her door and held out Royston’s donkey jacket. ‘This belongs to your son. I believe.’
‘Oh, well maybe, it looks a bit like his.’ Marie spoke warily. She didn’t want to say something that would incriminate him. ‘I wondered where it had got to.’
‘The next time it walks on to my land and settles down to do a bit of fishing, I’ll walk it to the police station. Right?’ He pushed the jacket into her arms. ‘I won’t this time. I know they’re in enough trouble at the moment, but you’d better warn them. No more. Right?’ He stormed off and if he heard her ‘thank you’, he showed no reaction.
Two policemen called a few minutes later and told her that the boys had been charged with shoplifting by three shops in the town. One ticked off on his fingers. ‘Poaching, trespass and now shoplifting. Unless you’re fortunate and have a very generous judge, Mrs Masters, your boys could be sent to a remand school for this little lot. What were they thinking of? They have a decent home, they aren’t deprived and certainly not stupid, so why do they do these things?’
‘Us losing our home. That’s what they were thinking of. And, like their father, they’ve only made things worse.’
‘You’d better explain,’ he said kindly. ‘It might help if there are extenuating circumstances, Mrs Masters.’
‘Oh,’ she said airily as though it was hardly important enough to mention, ‘there’s been a mix-up and the rent hasn’t been paid.’
Marie had no one to talk to. She had never felt more alone. Ivor would have to take their situation seriously. The twins’ behaviour could no longer be treated as a joke. She sat at the table unaware of time passing, the arrangement to whitewash a garden wall and outhouse forgotten. A remand school. The very words made her shiver. How could two boys, hardly more than children, cope with prison? There was another knock at the door and she snatched it open, expecting more trouble, prepared to shout her anger and rage to whoever stood there. Her anger subsided when she saw Geoff.
‘I’ve brought the white paint for you,’ he said. Then, ‘I saw two policemen leaving. Is everything all right?’ He stepped inside, put the box he carried on the table and took her hands in his. He led her to a chair and coaxed her to sit. ‘Where’s the kettle, you look as though you could do with a hot drink.’
‘It’s outside. I was washing the drains with soda,’ she murmured.
He fished around in cupboards and found tea and sugar, and when he had made a pot of tea and poured a cup he sat down and faced her. ‘Are you going to tell me what’s happened?’
‘I can’t.’
‘Marie, we’re friends. We’ve known each other all our lives. I was at your wedding, you were at mine. You can trust me to help if I can, and not interfere if I can’t.’
She looked at him and slowly began to explain. ‘Ivor has never been very good at managing money, he can’t help it, it’s the way he is,’ she said, trying to make an excuse for him. ‘I’ve always known that. He makes grand gestures we can’t afford. Although he was brought up in a children’s home he seems to have the wealth of his parents and his early years indelibly marked on him. He spends money we don’t have, a tendency I’ve always had to curb. But something happened in June, I’ve no idea what, and since then everything’s got worse. Far less money and there are weeks when I don’t have any housekeeping at all, and I’ve learned to cope, and, thanks to you finding jobs for me, work to compensate for his weaknesses. A week ago all the money put aside to pay the coalman and the rest was gone and then I had a letter.’ She opened her handbag and showed it to him. ‘He’s been taking the rent money, trying to make more cash to put things right, and of course it didn’t work. Weeks we owe. And unless I pay what’s due we’ll be out of here by Christmas.’
‘I’ll lend it to you.’
‘No, Geoff. I can’t let you do that,’ she said at once. ‘And if you repeat the offer I’ll never talk to you again and I really need someone to talk to. I really, really do. I’m telling you as a friend, not to beg for money.’
‘Very well.’
‘I can’t tell Mam and Dad. They don’t have the money to help and there’s no point in worrying them unnecessarily. Although I’ll have to tell them about moving out, make up some story I suppose. Lies create lies and more lies, don’t they?’
‘Only if you let them. Sometimes the way to deal with things is to face them honestly. The offer still stands, and I know you don’t want to talk about it,’ he added, holding up his hands as she half stood and glared at him, ‘but facing it is usually the best way, believe me.’ He picked up the cup and offered it to her. ‘Drink this, there’s plenty of sugar. Sod the rations for once, eh?’ She sipped and he waited to hear the rest.
‘The twins tried to raise the the money we need by stealing, they have to appear in court and it seems likely that they will go to a remand home.’
‘What? Stealing a few fish can’t be that serious.’
She told him the rest and he listened in silence until she had finished.
‘Where are their brains?’
‘So you see, Geoff, whatever I do it’s never enough. As soon as I get straight, Ivor and the boys do something to ruin everything again.’
‘I came to tell you about a job that’s going. Decorating four flats in a house in the main road. They’re all empty and before they’re re-let the owner wants them all painted and re-papered. I recommended you for the job. But now I don’t think it’s a good idea. You should be doing less, n
ot more. It sounds a contradiction, but money problems aren’t always helped by money. It has to be a complete change of attitude, and I can see how Ivor’s behaviour convinces the twins that it’s all right to cheat and steal. ‘They’re at the age for hero worship and the danger of being caught – even though they think it will never happen – adds to the sense of adventure. He’s the one who has to change and I don’t know how you’ll accomplish that with someone like your Ivor.’
‘Those flats, that job would put everything right, we’d have a fresh start. If Ivor would help…’ There was a gleam of hope in her eyes.
‘Let me help and if you can persuade Ivor to join us that’s great. We’d get it finished in a week or so. Plenty of time to settle the arrears and well before you have to start worrying about the court appearance.’
He discussed the work with her for a while and Marie decided that decorating the flats was something she had to do. But how? She could hardly work through the night and there wasn’t time to finish them in the time she had before the arrears were due. Ivor would have to help.
‘I’d be able to work later into the evening if Jennie would sit with Vi,’ she was saying, when there was another knock at the door and she felt her heart leap.
What further problems would this visitor herald? The door burst open and her sister walked in carrying a small gaily wrapped parcel. ‘Happy birthday, sis,’ Jennie said, pushing the gift towards a surprised Marie.
‘My birthday? I’d forgotten.’
‘It’s for tomorrow, you daft thing. But I thought you’d better have it now as I’m busy tomorrow.’
‘Thank you. Where are you going tomorrow then? Aren’t you working?’
‘Oh yes, but in the evening Lucy and I will be looking at places to rent. We’re going to share a flat, or at least a couple of rooms. Exciting, eh? Honestly, Marie, we can’t wait. But don’t tell our Mam. Not yet. Not till we’ve found somewhere and it’s definite.’
Marie was so bemused at the reminder about her birthday that she didn’t remember to ask Jennie about sitting with Violet. Although as she was planning to move she would have an excuse not to help. Good at finding excuses, Jennie was, but surely when she knew the trouble Marie was in she’d spare her some time? Hope didn’t burn with a bright flame: she knew her sister too well.
When Geoff and Jennie had gone, Marie sat thinking about what lay ahead. She was stunned by Jennie’s news about moving out of their parents’ home. Besides meaning that she would have to spend more of her fractured time checking on their parents, gone was her hope of asking Jennie to look after Vi. Her only hope was Ivor.
When Ivor came in later he laughed at the idea of helping. ‘Me hang wallpaper? Get on with you! I’d be useless. Damn me, you know that. Besides, I hate working for other people, having them look down on me as though I were their servant.’
‘You don’t mind if I do?’
‘Of course I mind. I hate it, seeing you going around dressed in shabby working clothes. I wish you’d stop.’
Ignoring his useless protests she said, ‘Then you’ll have to stay in with Vi. This time I insist. It’s your mess I’m trying to sort out and you’ll have to help.’
‘Have to, will I? You insist, do you? You’re getting stroppy aren’t you?’
‘Help or get out!’
‘Come on, Marie. You’re overwrought.’
‘We’re losing our home! The boys are facing prison, I’m exhausted and you’re useless!’
Instead of adding to his guilt, her reaction increased his anger. The impossibility of explaining made him want to run away, put miles between them. He calmed himself, then turned the complaint on her, saying quietly, ‘You’re worried about the boys, I understand that, love.’ His voice was soothing but the tautness of his jaw belied the comforting words. Ignoring her further outburst, pretending to put it down to anxiety, he touched the teapot to see if the contents were drinkable. ‘Uh! Stone cold. What about a fresh cup of tea for your old man, then, eh? They’ll be all right, Marie, they won’t go to prison – that was said to frighten you.’
‘What frightens me is the conviction that we’d all be better off without you. I’d cope with everything better on my own. You only drag us all down.’
‘Don’t be stupid.’
‘I can’t help being stupid. I promised to love, honour and obey, for better or for worse and all that stuff. Well, I’ve had the worse for long enough. I have to decorate those flats if were to keep our home. Help me, or get out.’
‘I don’t give in to threats, so you can stop talking like that. I’ll help, but only this time. I’m not going to make a habit of working for other people. And I think you should stop too. You don’t seem to mind what people think of us but I find it degrading. Leaving us to fend for ourselves while you grovel to inferior people for a few measly shillings, it isn’t right.’
‘But it’s to pay off your debts!’ Exasperation made her shout.
‘Don’t raise your voice to me, woman. And ask yourself why I go out to meet friends and have a laugh. It might be because you’re never here and there are no laughs when you are.’
She calmed down, put the kettle to boil and set a tray for tea. ‘Then you’ll help, if I take on the flats? To pay the arrears? I can’t do it on my own, Ivor. I really can’t.’
‘I don’t know if I can, but I’ll try. Right? I’ll try!’ Anger fizzed in the air around him, and Marie felt her spirits drop lower. Reluctant help would be worse than no help at all.
‘I have worries too,’ he said.
‘Then tell me, help me to understand.’
‘I can’t.’
His handsome face was moving as he sifted through ideas to escape from his promise. He was so upset by what had happened and his inability to explain. Scenes filled his mind and he saw deals that had gone wrong, the stupidity of the boys, the nagging face of his wife, and at that moment saw himself as the victim, the misunderstood husband. Everything was hanging on by a thread that might snap at any moment. While it held there was still hope of coming through this with his marriage intact and the love of his family weak but surviving.
Marie could almost see the way his mind was working, and to emphasize their need for money she told him again about the farmer bringing back the jacket.
‘What jacket?’ he demanded. As she explained, she wondered whether he was thinking of that other jacket, the one he had burned and which she had thrown away with someone else’s rubbish.
‘Poaching?’ he said with a laugh. ‘The miserable old miser. Kids is all they are. It isn’t as though they caught anything, is it?’
Irritated by his determination to make light of it, she said. ‘The least we can hope for when the boys appear in court are heavy fines. Without the money for decorating these flats we face years of you—’ She was about to say, ‘your debts’, but changed her mind. ‘Years of debt. If we are penniless and then made homeless, there’s even more likelihood of the twins being sent to prison. We need to show the court they have a secure home and to do that we need money. We need it desperately, now and not next year, Ivor. I can’t do this without your help.’
‘And it’s my debt, eh?’ He stared at her then and, knowing that this was one battle she simply had to win, she stared him out until his expression softened and he said, quietly. ‘All right. Just this once, mind. For the boys. Just this once.’
*
Geoff was driving past as Ivor came out of his office the following day, and he called to offer him a lift. In the lane a short distance from his house he stopped the van and turned to face him.
Ivor reached for the door handle. ‘Don’t tell me you’re going to have a go at me as well, it’s none of your business.’
‘You’re right, it isn’t. At least it wasn’t, until I found out about your father.’
Ivor’s face paled and Geoff began to think he would faint. ‘You haven’t told Marie?’
‘Of course I haven’t. I don’t know much, only that an ex-schoolfri
end was talking in the pub and mentioned something that I picked up on. No one else knew who he was talking about. Is that where the money’s been going?’
It wasn’t the whole truth. By sheer chance Geoff had seen Ivor on the night he had found his father, and, made curious by his furtive manner, he followed him as he left the road and walked through the woods. Some distance from the village he had watched as Ivor met an elderly man gathering firewood. He couldn’t hear what was said but it was clear that the old man was pleased initially then upset as they began to argue. They walked off together along a path between the trees, anger increasing Ivor’s speed and forcing him to stop and allow the old man to catch up with him.
The path twisted and turned, which made it easy for Geoff to follow unseen. The two men talked spasmodically, the younger angry and the older pleading for something that went unheard. They left the trees and jumped down on to a quiet lane and into the overgrown front garden of a rather large cottage tucked into the edge of the wood.
Geoff dared not go any closer but he saw them both inside, Ivor gesturing with his arms and the old man standing with bowed head as though being verbally chastised. Geoff was puzzled about who the old man was and by a coincidence found out the following day.
He had gone to the pub for a pint at lunchtime and had met Jinks Jenkins, who had regaled him with stories about how Ivor had been teased as a boy. Geoff had only half listened: he was thinking that the chance meeting would enable him to tell Ivor he knew about his father without mentioning that he had followed him.
‘Don’t tell Marie or the children. I couldn’t bear it, Geoff, I really couldn’t.’
‘I found out, so there’s always the possibility someone else might. I know Marie and she’ll cope with anything as long as she knows the truth.’
‘I can’t tell her now. The boys’ problems are enough for her to cope with.’
The House by the Brook Page 8