Nell was saying, ‘And who d’you think’s going to clean this twelve-roomed house of yours, Mr Bailey?’
‘Well, what d’you think I pay you for? And there’s not only twelve rooms, I forgot to tell you there’s a granny annexe an’ all. I thought it would do for Mrs Vidler.’
There were indecipherable noises from the back, while Fiona said, ‘Yes, yes, it could, dear.’
‘Over your dead body! Anyway she’s not a granny any more is she? My God, that face! You know, it’s funny about faces: those clever bods can’t alter expressions in the eyes, and it’s the eyes that give away age, more than wrinkled skin.’
A short while later Bill got out of the car and, taking the keys from his pocket, he unlocked a pair of iron gates, pushed them wide, then took his seat again before driving through a short avenue of trees and on to a broad sweep of pink tarmac, fronting a long two-storeyed house showing three dormer windows in the roof, and a stone pillared porch covering the front door.
With another key, Bill unlocked the heavy oak door and, pushing this wide too, he said, ‘Enter Mrs Bailey and family.’ Then looking over his shoulder, he said, ‘Here are the rest.’
When Rupert and the three boys stepped into the hall there was silence among them all for a moment. Then it was Katie who said, in a very small voice, ‘You said they had moved, Dad. But look, there’s the carpets and curtains and…’
‘They go with the house, Katie; and one or two other things an’ all, bits of big furniture here and there ’cos they’re movin’ into a smaller place. There was only the two of them, their family were grown up and gone.’
Following Bill, they now walked towards one of the doors at the far end of the hall, and as he pushed it open he said, ‘What d’you think of that?’
No-one spoke till Fiona said, ‘It’s a beautiful room.’
‘And you’ve seen nothing yet, Mrs B.’
And they certainly hadn’t seen anything yet. The dining room brought gasps from them because the dining table and chairs were still there, also a sideboard and a large leather suite.
What was called the study was, to them, more like a small library, with bookshelves covering two walls as well as a huge break-front bookcase.
It was Rupert who said, ‘If I remember rightly there was a billiard room somewhere, Bill.’
‘Aye; it used to be a billiard room, but now it’s a kind of games room with exercise machines and God knows what.’
‘Where? Where?’
Both Willie and Mark made for the door, and when Bill cried at them, ‘Hold your hand a minute! Keep with the party or else you might get lost. When I’ve shown you the layout, then you may go mad.’
The games room brought oohs! and aahs! from all the children; but it was the kitchen that brought the oohs! and aahs! from both Fiona and Nell. ‘It’s something you would dream of,’ said Nell. ‘Look at the size of this fridge. My, it’ll take some filling! And the dishwasher. Oh, Fiona, look!’ She had walked through another door. ‘The utility room is nearly as big as our house. Oh, I wish Bert was here; it might give him some ideas to build on at the back of our place; you can hardly get into the kitchen.’
Another door led to two smaller rooms, and when Fiona asked Bill what they would have been used for, he, glancing at Rupert and putting on what he imagined to be his voice, said, ‘The servants, my dear. The servants,’ whereupon everyone laughed again and repeated, ‘Oh, yes; the servants, my dear. The servants,’ while Rupert, not to be outdone and assuming a tone that he imagined was Bill’s, said, ‘Well, boss, I wouldn’t mind ’avin’ ’em. I can buttle.’
‘You can what?’ Katie was now hanging on to his arm.
‘Buttle, miss. Buttle. Be a butler.’
‘Well, who knows; we could take you on at that.’ Bill was leading them along a corridor now and so into a separate apartment which consisted of a good-sized sitting room, a bedroom, a kitchen, and a bathroom. And Katie was now crying, ‘Oh, I could live in this end, and have it all to myself. And look!’ She was pointing through a glass door. ‘It’s got a covered patio and a garden.’
It was when, a few minutes later, they went into the pool room that they all became speechless for a moment. The water looked deep blue; the bath itself was tiled: the bottom blue, and the sides white. At the near end of the pool was a set of steps in half-moon Roman fashion leading down to the water. At the far end was a diving board. Except for the near end, there was a supporting rail all round at water level. And to the side, there were two dressing rooms.
‘’Tain’t true, is it?’
They all glanced at Sammy. He was looking up at Bill; and Bill, returning his glance, said, ‘’Tis true, Sammy. It was a dream, a dream of a lifetime, but it’s come true. If you dream hard enough for something it’ll come true in the end.’
‘Are there other people after it, Dad?’ Mark’s question was quiet yet showing a little apprehension. Bill pursed his lips and said, ‘Aye; yes, there’s other people after it; but there’s one obstacle, it’s the price. Now come on, come on, you’ve seen nothing yet.’
And how true, Fiona thought as they ‘toured’ the bedrooms: with three of them having a bathroom en suite, as it was called. There were two other bathrooms. These they found along another corridor where the other three bedrooms were. All the bedrooms were carpeted and curtained, and in two of the main ones the beds remained, both with padded headboards. But in the third one there was a four-poster draped in blue satin.
‘They must have been millionaires what lived here,’ was Willie’s passing comment.
‘How many rooms are there really, Dad?’ Katie had a vivid mental picture of relating the wonder of this house to her friend Sue when she went to her party next week, and not only to Sue, but to that swanky piece Maureen Cuthbert and her cronies.
‘Well, there’s twelve main ones; that’s not counting halls and the utility room, nor the attics. Oh, you must see the attics. There’s one full of old bits of furniture…And something could be resurrected from them, I can tell you.’
They oohed and aahed through the attics and over the odd bits of broken furniture. And when Bill pointed out there was a small stream running into the mere but told them that they weren’t getting him down there today, Rupert offered to go with them. And Nell, being ever tactful, said to Fiona as she held out the child, ‘Here, take her. I want to go and look at that kitchen, and especially that utility room, so I can describe it to Bert.’
‘Come and sit down.’ Bill led the way back into the dining room; and when Fiona was seated with the child in her arms, he stood looking down at her, saying, ‘Well, what d’you think?’
‘It’s a wonderful place, Bill, but it’s really out of our line, isn’t it?’
‘What d’you mean, out of our line?’
‘Well, what I mean is, the cost. Even if you could get it, it would be a burden on our shoulders, on your shoulders.’
‘Well let me tell you, Mrs B, that it’s already a burden on me shoulders because it is ours. It was signed and sealed on Tuesday.’
‘Bill!’
‘Sit yourself down again, woman.’
‘But…but how on earth? And it needs more furnishing and…’
‘I know all the “buts” and “ands”, I’ve been through them. And my name’s very good at the bank. They would advance me twice as much.’
‘Twice as much as what, Bill?’ There was an anxious note in her voice.
‘Well, now, Mrs B’—he pulled up a chair and sat opposite to her, his knees touching hers—‘it’s been on the market for over a year. Houses are not selling, not like this, not at this price, not around here. Under the hundred thousand, they are, but when you get up to two hundred thousand plus…All right! All right! Sit down, woman. Look, you’ll drop her if you’re not careful.’ He put his hand out and laid it on the child. And she said, ‘Over two hundred thousand?’
‘Yes, it was going for two hundred and twenty-five thousand, a year ago. And it was worth it.
I looked at it then and laughed. It was just before I got the contract and it seemed as far away then as the contract did. But then I was too busy to think much about it until three months ago when I saw it was still on the market and down to two hundred and ten thousand. And then last month, I understood with a bit of manoeuvring one could get it for two hundred or a bit less, ’cos the old couple wanted to get away and join their daughter down in the West country; and they didn’t want to leave their house empty because of the vandals, and believe me they would have been in in two shakes of a lamb’s tail. Anyway, I got them down to a hundred and ninety thousand.’
When Fiona closed her eyes, he said, ‘Look dear. That’s nothin’ the day. You should see what property’s going for in Newcastle.’
‘This is not Newcastle, Bill. But a hundred and ninety thousand. And the interest!’
‘Oh, I didn’t have to have a mortgage for all that. You know as well as I do, there’s quite a bit in the kitty now.’
‘But it’s got to be furnished.’
‘We can take that in our stride. And we’ve certainly got lots of bits and pieces back home, haven’t we?’
Her face brightened as she said now, ‘What would that bring?’
‘Oh.’ He put his head back, and then, looking at her again, he said, ‘I needn’t start to reckon up; I’ve been into all that an’ all. You’d get eighty thousand for it the morrow.’
‘Never, Bill. And look at the town, most people out of work.’
‘It won’t attract the people out of work, dear. But there’s all these little factories going up and there’s what you call the executive group looking for good houses. Now it’s a corner house and it’s got a good garden back and front. And apart from the one at the top end it’s in the best situation in the avenue. And it’s in good repair. Oh yes, you’ll get eighty.’
‘Well, that’s something.’
‘Aye, that’s something. But there’s something I want to put to you. It’s your house. It’s your money. Listen. Listen. Listen.’ He was wagging his finger at her now. ‘I’m lookin’ ahead. This contract is like pennies from heaven but it’s not going to last forever, another year or so, or fifteen months, that’s if they decide to alter the plans and make that extra row of shops, ’cos as we know there’s no more sites like this in these parts. It’ll just be smaller jobs, at least here; but I’ve got a feelin’ I can go further afield now. Yet, nothing’s ever sure. So you’re going into business, Mrs B, in case I go flat.’
‘What! What are you talking about?’
‘Listen to me, woman. You know Kingsley’s garage? Yes, of course you do. Well, you know, it’s a scruffy little place, but it wasn’t always like that. When Arthur Jones had it, it was a smart affair. He lived above it, and everything was spruce. Then he had to be knocked down by one of his own cars. But since Kingsley took it over…well, he’s as thick as two planks and he’s never engaged a decent mechanic, and so they’ve lost trade and he’s selling, or he’s tryin’ to, and has been for some time. So he’s another who won’t quibble about bargainin’. So, I suggest, Mrs B, that you take your eighty thousand and you invest it in the garage business, because, looking ahead, I think we should have our fingers in more than one pie. And people will always be wantin’ cars. Many would rather have their own car than their house, or eat. Bloody fools. But there it is, that’s life. We could do the place up, put a good man in, a real mechanic, in the flat above. Get some plants and greenery around that front court, and it’s a big forecourt. He’s got it covered with old run-down bangers now. Well, we won’t deal in rundown bangers, not at Bailey’s garage…Mrs Bailey’s garage.’
‘Oh, Bill!’
‘Don’t say Oh, Bill like that. What d’you think really?’
‘Well’—she hesitated—‘I think it’s a good thing to have…’
‘Two strings to your bow.’
‘Yes. Yes, two strings to your bow.’
‘And perhaps a third, who knows? Anyway, that’s settled. Now there’s nothin’ for you to worry about; all you’ve got to do is to get this place to your likin’, furnished that is, and don’t skimp; at the same time don’t go mad. Come on.’ He drew her up from the chair. ‘Let’s go and face the mob and find out if Nell has stripped the utility room yet.’
He was making for the door when he turned and said, ‘We’re lucky, you know, to have her…Nell.’
‘Oh, I’ve always felt we’re lucky to have Nell, Bill.’
‘Aye. Well, I’ll take some of that back; she’s all right in her place. When, I think it’s just on two years ago, before you went into hospital and thought you were goin’ to peg out, that you had it all planned for me to marry her. Well, she told me plainly that she wouldn’t marry me if the rest of the world were dead. And I told her that if she wasn’t on earth and was an angel, I still wouldn’t look the side she was on, or words to that effect.’
They went out laughing, to meet the avalanche coming in at the front door.
‘It’s wonderful, Dad.’
‘Oh, Mam, there’s like a little waterfall at the bottom; it’s made up of stones and the water’s rippling over it, tumbling and twisting into a little pool!’
‘Oh, the poet’s on his feet.’
It was noticeable that Willie didn’t turn and snarl at Katie, but said, ‘Well, clever chops, you said yourself it was bonny.’
And it was noticeable too that Katie didn’t threaten to slap his face, but said, ‘Yes, it is. It would be lovely in the summer, Mam; you could sit on the rocks and paddle your feet.’
‘Why would you want to do that when you’ve got a pool to swim in?’
They looked at Bill in silence for a moment, until Mark said, ‘You mean that, Dad?’
‘Aye, that’s what I mean, Mark. I mean that this is your home from now on.’
Mark, Willie, Katie and Mamie were all clinging round him now, hopping and crying out their excitement, while Fiona and Nell stood at one side looking at them; and standing apart were Rupert and Sammy. And Rupert, looking down at Sammy, said in a false whisper, ‘We’ll have to keep our noses clean, Sammy, and try to get an invite to this place.’
For answer Sammy said, ‘Don’t matter.’
And this caused a bark from Bill that drowned the others’ voices: ‘What d’you mean, it don’t matter?’ he demanded.
‘Well, too far out; not like your other house.’
‘There’s a bus, isn’t there? And you can get a bike.’
‘Don’t want a bike. Me da’s gona get a car, a new one.’
‘Good for him. Then you can come in your da’s car, can’t you?’
‘Might.’
‘No might about it, Sammy Love. Anyway, you’ll be here more than you’ll be at home, if I know anything.’
‘If me da goes along the line I’ll have to go to me granny’s. Jinny’ll not stay.’
Bill pushed the children aside, then went and stood over the minute figure, bawling at him now, ‘Trust you to put a spanner in the works! Everybody laughin’ and happy ’cos they’ve got this grand house an’ you puttin’ the damper on things. What’s up with you? And you.’ He looked at Rupert, ‘What’s up with you an’ all?’
‘Well, I’m out in the cold too, Mr Bailey. This house is out of my way; I don’t see how I’m going to visit so often.’
There was a cry from Katie and she was clinging on to Rupert’s arm now, shouting, ‘You can come and live here. You can have the granny flat. I’ll cook for you.’
‘Oh my God! Then we can expect a funeral!’
Of a sudden all their attention was turned towards Nell, who added, ‘Does anybody realise that the gas, water and electricity have been cut off in this house? Not that it matters because we haven’t any tea, sugar, milk or crockery. And what I’m needing at this moment is a strong cup of tea. Now do you think, Mr Bailey, that you can get us home as quickly as you got us here?’
‘You know what I’d like to do with you,’ said Bill, now pushing the tribe out of t
he door, ‘I’d like to slap your face for you, both sides.’
‘Bigger men than you have had that desire, Mr Bailey, bigger men than you.’
So amid laughter, they piled into the cars and drove away from the house that was to be their new home.
Seven
The magistrate was addressing the man in the dock. ‘You, Mr Love,’ he was saying slowly, ‘have acquired the habit over the years of acting first and thinking later. Were we all to hit out when we heard someone speak derisively of us then I for one would have been behind bars years ago.’
A titter went round the court at this. Mr Arthur Fellmore was known for his witty quips. The clerks and solicitors waited for them, and in this case they hadn’t as yet been disappointed. It was whether he or the Irishman would come out on top, but of course he had the upper hand, and the Irishman was well aware of it. Yet that didn’t stop him from saying, ‘Then you’ve had a taste of it, yer Worship, but bein’ more sensible than meself you kept yer hands down an’…’
‘Mister Love!’ The magistrate’s voice expressed patience. ‘I do not wish to know your opinion of my mental restraint; but I want you to understand that your actions are not to be tolerated. You were, I am told, in charge of a gang of workers and when the plaintiff was about to carry out an order that you had given him but had the effrontery to express his opinion of you, what did you do?’
‘I did what any man in me place would have done, yer Worship, I closed his mouth for him.’
The hammer hitting the desk subdued the laughter.
‘I’ll thank you, Mr Love, to listen to what I am saying and not interrupt. Do you understand me?’
‘I do yer Worship, and I’m sorry. It’s me tongue.’
It was observed that the magistrate lowered his head and closed his eyes for a moment before going on: ‘You did not only close the defendant’s mouth but you broke his nose and put him in hospital for a week.’
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