A Liverpool Song (19 page)

‘Slow down, slow down. Of course Andrew knows his father’s home. Unless the poor lad’s gone deaf and blind. Whatever’s up with you? I’m thinking words like
pheno-barbitone here, or would an aspirin do? Whisky? A double gin?’

She sat down on the sofa, which was almost clear for a change. ‘I can’t carry on any more, Geoff. It’s all right for you, no family, no ties. But you don’t really want
me, do you? You just picked someone married so that you’d be safe. You get your fun, then I go home, and that’s that. It’s so easy for you, isn’t it?’

He stood in front of the fire, one hand scratching his head. ‘What the fu— What the fun and games are you going on about, darling?’

‘You should have finished that word. You whisper it into my ear often enough when we’re . . . in bed.’

‘Or on the floor,’ he said with mock solemnity. ‘Or across the table, in the bath, on a chair . . .’ He noted her fierce expression and stopped talking.

‘Do you love me?’

‘Of course I do, you stupid girl.’

‘I am not a girl and I am not stupid.’

‘Right.’

‘Sit.’

He sat in the armchair. In view of the mood she was in, he did as he was told, but maintained a safe distance. If she burned any hotter, there’d be smoke coming out of her ears and steam
pouring from her nostrils. ‘Start again,’ he said. Stephenson had invented the railway locomotive, but he needn’t have bothered, because a human one sat here tonight. She could
shift ten goods trucks unaided with the power she was producing.

She closed her eyes. ‘God give me strength.’

‘Amen. So that’s the prayer meeting over with. Did you choose the hymns? “All Things Bright and Beautiful” springs to mind.’

Emily glared at the man she loved. ‘Andrew knows about us.’

After a few seconds, Geoff answered. ‘He won’t betray you.’

‘My neighbour knows. Well, I suspect she does. And if Thora knows, half the infirmary might be in the picture, because she works there. You can’t tell with Thora, because her
mouth’s sometimes bigger than her brain.’

‘Ah.’

‘Ah? Is that it? Is that your summary?’

‘I’ll make some tea. Just sit there, calm down, and shut up before we get a case of spontaneous human combustion. I must remember to buy a fire extinguisher.’

He didn’t care. She sat, hands clasped in her lap, knowing that he didn’t care.
Come to me in lust
, and
I need your body
– it all came rushing back to her.
What could she do? Where could she go? She needed to think. It wasn’t eight o’clock, so the park gates would still be open. Sitting here was not an option. He’d also said the
words
I love you
. Was this man a liar?

While he clattered about with kettle and cups, she left by his main door, went through the communal hall and out on to the road again. But she didn’t go home. Instead, she passed the
roller-skating rink and ran down a side street to the park. He didn’t want her, not really. She couldn’t live without him, yet she must, for Andrew’s sake. Suicide was not to be
considered, because Andrew was precious. But without Geoff, life would not be worth living.

‘Emily?’

God, he was quick. The trouble with a younger man lay in the fact that he was too agile by far. ‘Go away. You don’t want me.’

He sat next to her. ‘You’re talking rubbish. Come on, tell me what you mean. Tell me what you want.’

Emily swallowed pride and temper, as she could ill afford either luxury. ‘I want to live with you, eat and sleep with you, care for you. But I want my son, too.’

He sat back and thought for a few moments. ‘And you thought I didn’t care? Darling, don’t you see – I couldn’t ever ask for that? How could I expect you to walk out
of your life just for me? It’s always been clear that Andrew is your number one priority, and rightly so. What have I to offer? I’m not ambitious, I own no property, I’m still
supporting my parents. Come here, woman.’

She leaned into him and allowed him to hold her.

‘Emily?’

‘What?’

‘Your son’s at an excellent school. I think he’ll do better if he stays where he is for the next two years. But, if you insist, we could move to Liverpool before term starts
and stick him in Liverpool College or Merchant Taylors’. However, he needs his dad. Joseph is almost like a brother to you, and you can tolerate him, I’m sure. We should live near him
so that Andrew sees both his parents.’

Relief flooded her body. It was so powerful that it made her weep. How had she managed to doubt Geoff? ‘You’d have to find another job.’

‘I can do that. But if any of this is to happen, I have two conditions.’

‘What is this?’ Emily managed. ‘The Treaty of Versailles?’

‘Shut up.’

She shut up.

‘I need one messy room, and no one must tidy it.’

‘Very well.’

‘And we talk to your husband. Together. If we’re moving on in this relationship, we have to come clean.’

‘Now? Do you mean right now?’

‘Of course not. Tomorrow. You look like a boiled shrimp. Come with me, and I’ll damp you down with cold water.’

They stood up.

She allowed herself to be led from the park like a child clinging to her father’s hand. Sometimes, one did as one was told.

Andrew had always known that his Katie had made a good choice in Richard Rutherford. Outwardly, the man looked every inch the barrister, stern of face, square of jaw, tall,
dark and brooding. But Richard was a wicked man. He was in charge of crackers, and Andrew found himself wondering whether his ultra-clever son-in-law might have introduced dynamite to the mix,
since Richard seldom delivered what was expected.

‘We should pull these now,’ Richard announced almost too casually while the dinner was still cooking. ‘I have another lot for later.’

There were just eight crackers in the box. He distributed them to Helen, Kate, Andrew, Ian, Eliza, Sofia and Anya. ‘You must have two,’ he explained to Anya. ‘Because I am in
charge.’

‘God help us,’ Kate whispered.

While his seven adult victims pulled their crackers, Richard donned wig and gown. ‘This is a serious business,’ he warned. ‘Anyone who fails to obey the rules goes to jail.
Kate knows how I treat prisoners.’

‘He’s harsh,’ she admitted. ‘I’ve been on bathrooms, kitchen and utility for three months, no time off for good behaviour. I have the marks of this man’s whip
on my back. Dressed up in that stupid lot, he does some terrible things.’

Richard glared at his wife. ‘Any further disturbance in court from you, madam, and you’ll be thrown out with the turkey bones.’

‘Promises, always promises, Rich.’

‘You above all should know I deliver.’

Andrew felt wetness in his eyes. They were so in love, so unafraid of letting it show.
Oh, Mary, Mary. I’ll come out and talk to you later.

‘Excusing me,’ Anya said. ‘What is this to be? And why I have two?’

‘You’re musical, aren’t you?’

‘Well, yes—’

‘Then shut up and do as you’re told.’

It was bedlam. Children sat and laughed; even Ian’s twin boys began to giggle. Everyone but Anya had one plastic whistle. Richard owned the baton and would act as conductor of the Rosewood
Symphony Orchestra. ‘Arrange yourself in order of the tonic sol-fa,’ he ordered.

Anya bridled. ‘But I am being two times, and there is me only one person.’

‘Oh, sort yourselves out.’ When they were in order, he pinned to each victim the name of his or her note. ‘When I point, you blow. Anya, when I point to your left, that is low
doh. Your right is high doh.’

Anya muttered under her breath and in Polish. High doh, low doh? All she knew about dough was that it made bread and pies. Polish people did not use dough for music. The English, she declared
inwardly yet again, were very strange.

They ruined ‘Jingle Bells’, ‘The First Noel’, ‘Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer’ and ‘Silent Night’. Richard fired Eliza and Ian, as they were
laughing too much and saved no breath for blowing. ‘Give me your children,’ he ordered, winking at Andrew. Laughter from those two? It was a Christmas miracle. Robert and Oliver tried
their best, but Storm took the gold medal.

Something lupine in his ancestry came to the fore. A primeval howl emerged from deep in his throat, following which impressive event he began to yodel. His music was far superior to the din
currently being delivered by his humans. But when the whistles stopped sounding, so did Storm. He looked at the sad specimens before him. They were rubbish, so he scratched an ear, mostly for want
of a more interesting occupation.

‘The dog you should train for opera,’ Anya said.

‘That animal is the best judge ever,’ declared Richard while wiping his eyes with a handkerchief. ‘And he says you should all go down for life. But there will be no parole,
especially for you, Mrs Rutherford.’

Andrew stepped out of the room. Ian laughing? From a long way back in time, he heard Geoff Shaw saying, ‘Andrew needs you, Joseph. A boy needs his father.’ Oh yes. ‘What goes
around comes around,’ he whispered. Ian had needed his dad—

‘Woof.’

‘Glad you agree, boy. So very glad.’

Emily was terrified. She walked with her lover for the world to see from the bottom of the main road all the way to the family house. Joseph, who had been working at the Bolton
factory today, had agreed to come home early.

‘He won’t kill us,’ Geoff reminded her. ‘And in view of his own past behaviour, he must admit that we are being honest, at least.’

‘He’ll be angry,’ she said. ‘Angry and upset. He isn’t here yet, or the small van would be parked outside.’

For the first time, Geoff Shaw entered his lover’s house. When he reached the kitchen, he let out a low whistle. ‘He knows what he’s doing in one area of his life, then. I
suppose a gift like his has to be paid for, and he’s paid by being unable to keep you happy. Lack of staying power ruined everything for the poor chap, yet he got to concentrate on this area
of genius. Magnificent.’ He turned to look at her. ‘You’re blushing.’

‘Well, I didn’t need to tell you that. It’s his business, his secret, and I should have kept it to myself.’

‘Perhaps. But I got to wake Sleeping Beauty, didn’t I? So by my calculations, I owe the man a great deal.’

‘Yes. Stop now. I hear the van.’

Joe entered the dining room from the hall, while the other two came in from the kitchen. His pace slowed. What the hell was going on now?

Emily sat at the table. The two men joined her.

‘Well? What’s all this, then? Is the bloke in need of a kitchen?’

Andrew, knowing that eavesdroppers seldom heard anything beneficial, nevertheless maintained his position on the landing.

‘This is Geoff. Geoff, this is Joseph, my husband.’

‘And?’ There was an edge to Joe’s tone.

‘I love her,’ Geoff declared, ‘and she’s daft enough to love me.’

Emily bit her lower lip.

A silence followed. ‘Sorry to be so slow, but where’s this leading?’ Joe asked eventually. He ached. He loved her, too, but he wasn’t man enough, was he? And she was
leaving him. Life without her would be like an ugly vase with no flowers in it.

Emily cleared her throat nervously. ‘We wanted everything out in the open, Joseph. Honesty’s important. We need to be together, but there’s Andrew to consider. So, if we all
move to Liverpool, Andrew will have both parents. Geoff ’s from Liverpool. His family’s still there.’

‘How cosy. What do the French call it? Ménage à trois?’

Geoff answered that one. ‘Two houses within walking distance of each other. That way, Andrew can choose where he eats and where he sleeps.’

‘So, you’ve had it all worked out behind my back?’

Geoff remained patient. ‘No, we’ve had it all worked out since last night, then we came to you today, because neither of us likes subterfuge.’

Joe nodded. ‘So how long have you been carrying on, Emily?’

There was yet another pause before she delivered her answer. ‘Not quite a year. Since last summer, but it was months before we . . . before anything happened.’

Joe scraped back his chair and went to fetch a glass of water. In the kitchen he had created, he took a tumbler from a cupboard and held it in a hand that shook as water hit the glass. The man
in the dining room had satisfied her. She’d bucked up no end in the area of fashion, was a great deal more confident than she had been, and he now knew why. He’d already suspected
anyway, so why the pain? Because he bloody well adored her. Because he would always worship her.

He returned to the table. ‘Right. What happens now?’ he asked.

‘That’s up to Andrew. If he wants to stay at his school, we just continue as we are until he goes to university. He’s expressed a preference for Liverpool, and even if he gets
his own flat, he’ll know where we are. Or we could go now if he doesn’t mind, and he could do his A levels at another school. Though Geoff thinks he’d be better staying here with
people he knows.’

Geoff watched while the man’s face darkened.

Joe’s lip curled. ‘Oh, Geoff thinks, does he? Geoff knows all about what’s best for my son, then? How nice. How bloody sweet.’ A thought struck home. ‘Does Andrew
know what’s going on?’

‘I’m afraid he does,’ Geoff replied.

‘I was speaking to my wife, thank you.’

‘Yes,’ Emily whispered. ‘He’s always known about everything, Joseph. Since he was thirteen.’

‘What?’

‘He saw you. With her. He never said much, but he knew when the man caught up with you that there was trouble. And the day she disappeared, the day you took her to St Helens – yes, I
read the newspaper and guessed the rest – her husband came here, probably to do you further damage. You were in the infirmary. Andrew and Thora sent him away with a flea in his ear, and he
hanged himself. The house was burnt, as you know. So don’t get nasty, Joseph. You were never truthful with me. At least I’m trying to be decent.’

Joe inhaled very deeply. ‘Andrew knew?’

‘He didn’t say much at first, yet I could tell he knew the score. But remember, we’re just human beings. Not everything is your fault. And I love Geoff with all my heart. This
isn’t easy for any of us.’