by Ivan B
“Don’t know what you mean.”
Helen took it slowly as she instinctively knew that the one person who could get between Robert and Mary was Josie.
“Well at the moment he’s only got you to think about, when he’s married he’ll have you and Mary to think about so you won’t have all his attention.”
Josie puckered her brow in thought; she’d not even thought about it but Mrs Webb – Nan – was right. She eventually shook her head.
“Be nicer having dad and Mary, I don’t mind if I have to share him with Mary.”
Helen relaxed and Josie gave her a sly look.
“Was Mary a naughty child?”
Helen laughed.
“She was very good and didn’t cause me any trouble.”
Josie, in a mischievous manner, pushed the point.
“What, she was never naughty?”
Helen chuckled and lowered her voice.
“Well there was this one time when….”
Stephen and Robert entered the lounge and Stephen came straight up to Mary and took her hand.
“May I offer you my congratulations.”
He kissed her hand and Mary felt a mixture of embarrassment and pleasure. He stepped back and smirked.
“And I have to thank you for something else as well.”
He sat on the arm of the armchair Georgina was occupying.
“We’ve got three of these flats, this one, one in Newcastle and one in Birmingham. They are almost identical, except that I have already placed some toys and most of the books you suggested in the flat in Birmingham. Yesterday I had one a fabulously rich footballer look round the flat. The upshot is that his children walked off with two teddy bears and an armful of books and I walked off with a sale.”
Mary laughed.
“So do I get 10%.”
Stephen waved his arms.
“Not quite, but you do get this three piece suite. It’s due to be replaced this week with a newer model and I’ll have this shipped to you as soon as possible.”
Robert’s mouth dropped slightly open.
“But this suite is worth…”
Stephen cut across him.
“A very reasonable fee for advice that aided a sale.”
Georgina leant forward and tapped her watch.
“Hate to break up the party, but aren’t we meeting Lord and Lady Bennett downstairs in the Barbican centre about now?”
Stephen jumped to his feet and dragged Georgina out of the chair.
“Time to go – see you at the wedding if not before.”
A few hundred yards outside of the flat Stephen pointed a thumb over his shoulder.
“At least we know he’s not marrying her for her looks.”
Georgina poked him in the ribs with her elbow.
“Unlike me you mean.”
Stephen chuckled.
“I married you for your pleasant disposition and because I fell in love with you.”
Georgina smiled and a passing stranger smiled back.
“Perhaps Robert is saying the same thing.”
Stephen made a snorting noise.
“Well I hope he doesn’t get on the wrong side of her, she managed to extract over thirty grand from me in less than three minutes and I felt afterwards that I’d got off lightly!”
Georgina laughed.
“Maybe I should take some lessons from her! But let’s face it you did owe Robert the money anyway, so it was no real loss; still it was nice of you to give her the suite, what’s wrong with her legs?”
Stephen shrugged.
“Some sort of parachuting accident I think.”
Georgina raised an eyebrow.
“Well you never can tell; I thought she was too timid to step off a kerb, let alone out of an aeroplane. In any case I think she was nice and that Robert is a lucky man.”
Stephen looked at her in wonderment.
“Nice! I can think of many descriptions, grouchy, prickly, crotchety, but nice doesn’t spring to mind.”
Georgina squeezed his arm.
“You can’t judge a book by the cover and I think she’s nice.”
She went into sotto voce mode.
“Which is more than you can say for Lady Bennett, just where did she get that pink tent she calls a dress from?”
Stephen laughed and they went forwards to meet the Bennetts and try for another sale.
Two miles outside London Josie sighed.
“I’m bored, how long will it take?”
Mary sighed inwardly, she’d forgotten to charge up the batteries in her persona stereo and was now paying the price.
“Couple of hours.”
Helen suddenly piped up.
“Well let’s play Pub Cricket, Mary can referee as she’s not driving.”
Josie looked at her in mystification.
“What’s pub cricket?”
Helen smiled and pointed out of the window.
“We score runs by the number of legs indicated in the pub signs on our sides of the road. See, that’s the ‘Horse and Rider’, so it scores six. First one to a hundred wins.”
Josie looked out of her window.
“There’s a pub…it’s the ‘Badger and Stoat’; that’s,” she thought for a moment. “Eight – I’m winning!”
Mary smiled to herself and remembered all the Pub Cricket her mother and brother had played with her on various car journeys. Robert whispered to her.
“I’d better take a detour, the ‘Four and Twenty Blackbirds’ is just up ahead.”
Mary laughed in contentment. She knew that their time in the ultra-modern flat was over and that they had to return home and back to reality, but she still had the journey to go.
Chapter 18
Altered reality
Monday morning Mary dropped her mother at her friend Eileen's flatlet and drove round the block to pick up Robert. She stopped outside his house and immediately knew what Robert had meant. The house was very narrow, on three stories and had four steps up to the front door. Robert almost immediately came down the path and climbed in the passenger seat. Mary gave him a quick kiss.
“Where’s Josie?”
“Round her friend Aruna’s; she’ll be there till two.”
Mary gave Robert a smile.
“You sure you want to be passenger and not driver?”
He swallowed hard.
“Quite sure, it’s only a mile.”
Mary pulled out into the traffic.
“How ever do you sleep with all this traffic passing your front door?”
“At the back with very good double glazing.”
Mary chuckled and squeezed her large car between a lorry and a parked car; Robert did his best not to flinch. They turned off the main road and proceeded down a quite side road and then turned into a cul-de-sac and stopped. She peered at the house with a pale blue door.
“Is that it?”
Robert nodded.
“That’s it. I designed the granny annex for them three years ago, I also recommended a stair-lift installer, but I don't know if they had one fitted.’
Mary grimaced.
“That blue door would have to go.”
Robert smiled to himself.
“Just wait to you see the blush-pink dinning room.”
She stared at him.
“You are joking, I hope!”
They walked up the path and Mary noted the uneven paving stones. A small thirty something woman opened the door, she was wearing a yellow nylon dress and brown fluffy slippers. She shook Robert’s hand and smiled at Mary.
“Help yourselves and have a good look round. They entered the hall from the lobby and Robert stopped dead.
“Where’s the staircase?”
The yellow woman looked surprised that he had asked.
“We took it out, as you can see we’ve turned the hall into a useful family area.”
Mary looked around.
“How do you get upstairs?”
She smiled showing a
mouthful of tobacco stained teeth.
“We had a spiral staircase put in the corner of the lounge, you should see the room we gained upstairs by extending the box-room into the landing.”
Robert sighed.
“I’m sorry Ms Husen, but we’ll have to leave it there, a spiral staircase is no good for us.”
They beat a hasty retreat to the Vaneo and Mary turned to Robert.
“Is there a plan B?”
He pulled out some estate agents leaflets.
“Two more likely prospects and two less likely, there’s one in the next street.”
Mary turned the car round and they drove to the next house on their list. Mary pulled up outside and Robert immediately gave a veto.
“Sorry no go. There's a huge willow tree right next to the house, they play havoc with the foundations.”
That set the tone for the rest of the morning; house number three was declared to have wood-worm. House number four had totally rotten window frames and a suspect roof. House number five was rejected by Mary on the size (or non-size) of the kitchen and finally house number six was rejected on the grounds of noise as it was adjacent to the headquarters of the rugby club and the public toilets. All in all it was a highly unsuccessful morning.
They picked up Helen from Eileen's residential home and drove her back to her house. When they pulled up she tapped Mary on the shoulder.
“You'd better come in, I’ve got something to tell you.”
Robert smiled at her.
“I’ll wait in the car.”
She fixed him with a stare.
“I want you too young man, I want to talk to both of you, I believe you intend to be a pair?.”
They trooped inside and Mary made a pot of tea; finally they settled in the lounge. Helen took her cup of tea and then held onto Mary's hand.
“Right, time to confess; I’ve bought the flatlet next to Eileen.”
Mary was temporarily struck dumb, then she blurted out.
“But you’re going to live with us!”
Helen shook her head.
“No I’m not. I’m sure that you both mean what you say, but it wouldn’t be right. You’d do your best and I’d do my best, but it wouldn’t be right. Eileen’s happy in her flatlet and so can I be, and before you ask there is a resident nurse who makes sure that all us oldies with addled brains take out tablets at the right time.”
Mary held onto her mother and replied gently.
“I’m not having this mum.”
Helen suddenly became stern.
“Yes you are young lady. I’m buying the flatlet and you three can live here, that is if you want this house.”
Mary instantly burst into tears.
“I feel that I’m driving you out, we never meant to drive you out.”
Robert coughed.
“Mary’s right Helen we’d rather you lived with us.”
Helen snorted.
“You’re both wonderfully kind, but I’ve made up my mind. I want a bit of independence and I want to know that you two have the best start you can.”
Mary dried her eyes on Robert’s handkerchief and tried a different tack.
“How you going to afford this mum?”
Helen gave a malevolent smile.
“By calling in a couple of loans.”
Mary blinked in disbelief.
“Loans? What loans?”
Helen sighed.
“I haven’t told you before because I didn’t want to hurt you, but when you were at University your Father re-mortgaged the house.”
Mary interrupted and said gently.
“I know that mum.”
Helen ignored her.
“The silly man decided that he needed to give Jenny and Cathy a start in life. So he re-mortgaged the house and gave them each a quarter of the money and lent them each another quarter. At least he did it all properly and through our solicitors. The loan part was leant at zero interest, but had to be paid back allowing for inflation at any time after ten years. I’ve never called in the loans because I figured that they’d have the loan cleared off when I died and it could be their bit of their inheritance. But their conduct last week has changed my mind and I’m going to call in the loans now; how dare they try and intimidate me into changing my will!”
Mary held onto her mother’s hands and said quietly.
“I’m not upset at that mum. He probably made the right decision they both still own the shops and have made a good living out of them.”
She turned to Robert.
“Jenny started off with a classical music and Jazz record shop, it’s evolved into a classical music and Jazz shop with a large second-hand vinyl section. Cathy started a pop music record shop and that has evolved into pop music and imported American Rock.”
Helen face changed slightly, as if she had bad indigestion.
“That’s not the problem Mary, he had the names changed on the deeds of this house, from single ownership by him to joint ownership by your father and Daniel. It was his intention that the house ended up in Daniel’s hands and not yours.”
She looked out of the window, but her eyes were unfocussed.
“I hated him for that. He said that as you were at university you didn’t need any support and you’d make your own fortune. I argued with him for hours over that, it’s probably the only thing we ever really argued over, but he was adamant.”
A single tear trickled down her left cheek.
“So when he died the deeds were changed to me and Daniel. So if I died without a will Daniel would automatically get over half of the house.”
She suddenly became firm.
“But I decided three years ago that that was wrong. I couldn’t see you frozen out, especially as you were paying the mortgage, in any case I still think your father was wrong. Do you know I even asked him to change his mind three months before he died, but he said that you had your trust fund.”
Helen gazed into Mary’s eyes.
“He did love you you know; he worked his socks off to get you that trust fund, but the obstinate old sod wouldn’t change his mind about the house.”
Helen paused to regain her train of thought.
“Anyway I made a will that leaves you my half of the house.”
Mary swallowed.
“Does Daniel know?”
Helen nodded.
“Of course he knows, he had to sign the changed deeds when father died.”
Mary let out a long sigh and muttered.
“So that’s why he paid for the re-felting of the garage.”
Helen smiled.
“So I’m calling in the loans and using the money to buy a flatlet. That means you and Robert and Josie can live here, if you want. Though you may want to buy out Daniel’s share if you want peace of mind that he won’t want to move back with his commune when he finally realises that living in London is a mug’s game.”
Robert suddenly appeared to wake up.
“How many bedrooms here?”
Helen smiled.
“Three. One real double, one very large single and a box-room, but there is also an attic. It goes over almost the entire house and it used to be Jenny and Cathy’s bedroom, it would make a beautiful office for you as it has huge dormer windows.”
Mary laughed.
“Missed your vocation mum, should have been an estate agent.”
Robert frowned.
“How do you get to it?”
Helen nodded.
“That’s the problem, we used to have two double rooms, but we had to shorten one to put in the staircase. It’s the door next to the airing cupboard, beware it’s very steep, I haven’t been up there for years.”
Robert looked at Mary, who shrugged and said quietly.
“Not been up there since I was seven. They wouldn’t let me go up there and after they’d left I didn’t want to tackle the staircase, there isn’t a banister rail as it’s so narrow.”
She touched him.
“You go and
have a look.”
He stood up.
“You show me, I’ll help you up the stairs.”
Mary swallowed.
“I think I’d rather….”
Robert shook his head and said gently.
“You need to go up there sometime.”
Mary led the way upstairs using the stair lift and they stood on the landing facing the second staircase. Mary suddenly threw her arms around him.
“We don’t have to live here. I know it’s sensible and a cheap option and I’m used to the house, but I don’t want you to feel that you’re moving in with me in my house. If we live here I want it to be our house.”
Robert gave her a hug.
“Message understood, but after this morning’s little lot living here is not only a sensible option, it will be the right option, providing I can work in the attic.”
They turned and faced the staircase and Robert whispered.
“It’s not the steps is it?”
Mary shook her head.
“I was seven, they invited me up and then they hung me out of a window. I’ve never been up since.”
Robert kissed her on the cheek.
“Time then to face some old demons.”
Mary shuddered and held his hand before starting the climb.
When they finally arrived in the attic Robert gasped He walked around the space while Mary stood stock still. Somehow the room seemed smaller to her and, much to her relief, benign. Robert brought over an old chair for Mary and she sat down. Robert squatted at her feet. I could work up here, but I’d want to change a few things.”
Mary looked around.
“What?”
“For a start I’d want to increase the width of the staircase and install a stair-lift. I’m not going to work up here if you can’t come and join me. Secondly I’d want us to fit an intercom, I want to be able to know that you can contact me if you need to and vice versa.”
Mary bristled.
“You make me sound like an invalid.”
He rubbed the back of her left leg.
“You know I don’t think of you like that, I’m just being sensible, what’s the point of you flogging up two stair-lifts to tell me that dinner is ready.”
She swiftly retorted.
“What makes you think I’ll be cooking dinner in the first place.”