Daughters of the Mersey (5 page)

From Elaine’s account, Nick had
envisaged a subservient woman in need of help, and he’d been surprised to find Leonie very different. She had an air of calm composure and gentle patience but she was quick to understand his reasoning. Her hair was thick, dark blond and cut into a fringe; she had wide-spaced greenish eyes and a short straight nose. He thought her quite beautiful. She looked younger than her years, no older than Elaine.

He was fond of Elaine, she and Tom had the sort of marriage he’d aspired to. They seemed very happy together and he envied that. Tom had grown up in a close family and had been able to establish the same happy relationship for himself when he married.

Nick felt he hadn’t been so lucky. His own father had been killed in the trenches in the Great War and he had only dim memories of him. His mother Grace had brought him up single-handed. She had been cushioned from the economic woes of the time because she’d inherited a small house from her husband and had been trained in her youth as a primary school teacher.

Grace and Tom’s mother, Bernice, had been fellow teachers and colleagues at one time, and had remained close friends throughout their lives. In those days, marriage meant they could no longer be employed as teachers, but although Bernice went to live with her solicitor husband in Mollington just outside Chester, and Grace stayed in Birkenhead, they’d remained in touch and met frequently.

They had their first babies at almost the same time; Tom was just one month older than Nick. Bernice went on to have a daughter called Olive but by that time Grace was widowed and had
returned to her career. At Christmas, she and Nick were invited to spend a week with Bernice and her family. In the summer they usually all went to the seaside for a holiday. Then Grace would take Tom and Olive home with her for another week so their parents could go away on their own. Both thought they gained from these arrangements.

Nick had been eleven years old when his mother had had to go into hospital to have her appendix removed. Bernice volunteered to take care of Nick until she recovered and a camp bed was set up in Tom’s bedroom for him.

They all had the shock of their lives when Grace died suddenly following what was considered a routine operation. Somehow, she developed a blood clot which travelled to her heart and killed her two days later. Nick had been heartbroken.

The Clifford family told him he’d have a home with them for as long as he needed it. ‘From now on,’ Bernice told him, ‘you’re one of the family, another son for us and a brother for Olive and Tom.’

Tom and Olive called their father Pops and Nick had no trouble doing the same, but he couldn’t bring himself to call Bernice Mum. Grace had been his mum and no one could take her place. The Clifford family understood and suggested he call her Aunt Bernie.

Nick was entered in the school Tom went to, and placed in the same class. For the first few months he relied heavily on Tom but eventually he found his feet and began to settle. The Cliffords talked to him about adopting him legally but as things were working out satisfactorily as they were, nothing was ever done about that.

Tom’s father decided
that Grace’s home should be sold and the money invested in Nick’s name. He looked after Nick’s investments for the rest of his life. When the time came for the boys to decide on their careers, it pleased George Clifford that Nick wanted to be a solicitor like him. He arranged for him to take up an apprenticeship with the Liverpool firm that had trained him. Tom wanted to become an accountant and they lodged together during their apprenticeships. Nick saw Tom as both his brother and his closest friend.

Tom fell in love and married Elaine soon after he qualified, and they set up home near his job in Birkenhead. Nick was invited round frequently but once again he was the outsider looking in. What he wanted more than anything else was to get married, have a family of his own and settle down. But love evaded him for almost a decade and he was afraid he’d be left a permanent bachelor.

Then at Olive’s thirtieth birthday party, she introduced him to a friend, and he fell in love with Marianne Mathews and a year later they married.

Nick longed to have a family of his own and planned to make it as much like the Clifford family as he could. Within eighteen months Marianne was pregnant and he was overjoyed. But her pregnancy did not go smoothly, at thirty weeks her ankles began to swell and her blood pressure went up. At thirty-four weeks she was admitted to hospital and told she had pre-eclampsia.

Nick had never heard of such a condition but the doctors told him it could be very serious. He spent as much time as possible at her bedside, but Marianne didn’t improve and her blood pressure continued to rise. Two weeks later, they decided
to induce labour. After that Nick wasn’t allowed in, in case it tired Marianne. The process took thirty-six hours.

He was worried sick and the outcome was even more terrible than he’d imagined in his worst nightmare. The baby was stillborn and Marianne faded into unconsciousness and died the following day.

Nick stayed in his bed feeling bereft and raw. He didn’t want to see anybody, not even Tom. He blamed himself. If he hadn’t wanted children, if he hadn’t got her pregnant, she’d be well and with him still. If he’d had the faintest inkling that Marianne might die, he wouldn’t have risked it, but now it was too late.

W
HEN LEONIE TOLD STEVE
she’d taken a lease on shop premises, he told her
she was foolhardy to do so in the present dire financial climate. He predicted she’d increase the cost of her business and get no more customers. But Elaine was full of enthusiasm and came to help redecorate the shop inside and out before Leonie moved in. As Milo was on his half-term holiday, she roped him in too.

They spent a morning painting all the ceilings on the ground floor in readiness for the paper hanger who was due to start work the next morning. Elaine rushed off to get lunch for Tom because they were going to Chester, and Milo had had enough, so Leonie sent him home. She was tidying round and wiping away the few spots of white paint they’d dropped on the shop window when she looked up and saw a smiling Nick Bailey outside on the pavement watching her. Her heart jolted but she laughed and ran to door.

‘Hello,’ she said. ‘I’m so glad you’ve come to see my new premises, I’m delighted with them. Do come in, you’re my first visitor though I’m not straight yet. In fact, the place is a tip.’ She laughed and he laughed with her as he came in to look round.

‘You’ve moved some furniture in already.’

‘No, I’m miles off that. These
things were here.’

‘Of course – they’re the shop fittings mentioned in the agreement.’

‘I shall keep most of them. It’s a substantial counter and I can use it as a cutting-out table. I’ll put my sewing machine over in that corner and these glass-fronted cupboards are just right for my threads and patterns.’ She led him through to the room behind. ‘I’ve ordered plenty of mirrors and some artificial flowers to decorate this room and I’ll make a big brocade curtain to hang across that part to provide privacy for my clients to undress and try on the clothes I make for them.’

He bumped into two dummies Leonie had bought from a clothes shop that was closing down, making them rock. She smiled. ‘Those two models will decorate the shop window. Elaine is going to help me dress them in fashionable outfits and we can change them as the seasons change.’

He seemed a little embarrassed. ‘I’m not stopping you working, am I?’

‘No, I’m too tired now to do any more here. I shall go home and sew this afternoon. I could do with a cup of tea. Will you have one with me?’ Leonie had brought a sandwich with her for her lunch but she’d eat that when he’d gone. She was grateful for the help he’d given her and the gaze of his blue eyes kept meeting hers. She liked him more and more.

She shot into the lobby that partitioned off the stairs leading up to the flat. There was a row of pegs for outdoor clothes and a small table supporting a kettle and a tray of cups. Beyond this was a cramped cloakroom. Leonie filled the kettle from the wash bowl and put it to boil.

‘This won’t do, of course. I’m going
to move the tea-making upstairs. Come and see what’s up there.’ It was a two-bedroom flat with bathroom, living room and kitchen.

‘You could sublet this if you don’t want to use these rooms,’ Nicholas said.

‘I couldn’t really because the only way in and out is through the shop. I couldn’t lock my things away. Anyway, it’s a noisy place on this busy road. Let’s go down and have that tea.’

‘It’s lunchtime, Leonie. Elaine told me she was coming here this morning. I thought I’d take you both out for a bite to eat, to celebrate getting your shop. Would you come on your own?’

That took Leonie’s breath away. She was excited just having him here with her, but to be taken out to lunch would be marvellous except . . .

‘I’m a total mess, I’ve been painting all morning in my oldest clothes.’ She’d taken off her overall and the scarf that had covered her hair.

‘You look very nice.’ His eyes assessed her face and then her clothes and she could see he approved of what he saw. ‘We needn’t go anywhere fancy. I passed a little café only a hundred yards down the road.’

Leonie was tempted. She could see he was as much drawn to her as she was to him, the tension, the attraction sparked between them, but she was afraid he didn’t understand her circumstances. She didn’t want him to think this could lead anywhere.

‘I’m married,’ she choked awkwardly. ‘Have been for years and I have two growing children.’ She couldn’t look at him.

‘I know,’ he said with equal awkwardness. ‘Elaine has explained
all about your family. Are you going home to make lunch for them?’

‘No, it’s half-term so the children are off school at the moment and I’ve made arrangements for them to be looked after.’ In order to give herself more time to sew, Leonie employed Mrs Killen to clean three mornings a week and she had agreed to work more hours in the school holidays to keep an eye on the children.

‘Then please come. A one-off to mark your new venture.’ His blue eyes smiled down into hers. ‘No strings attached.’

How could she refuse such an invitation? In any case, she was thrilled to accept. Nicholas made her feel young again, a girl instead of a humdrum married woman of almost thirty-seven. He made her feel alive and on top of the world.

Leonie continued to spruce up her shop. She had the outside painted bright red and organised a sign-writer to paint her name above it, describing her as a high-class dressmaker. He also painted a board she could display in the shop to advertise Elaine’s services as a designer who could arrange for clients to have clothes individually styled for them.

She found herself thinking about Nick all the time. He was free to search for a soul mate, but for her it was forbidden. The lunch they’d shared had been a great success, they’d both enjoyed it, but they’d made no plans to do it again.

It had been Elaine who had unintentionally moved the relationship on. One afternoon, she brought her husband Tom and Nicholas to the shop to see the improvements they were making. Leonie had been daydreaming about Nick and to have him unexpectedly in her shop made her tingle all over and
feel as though her cheeks were on fire.

She told herself she must concentrate on Tom and Elaine.

Inside, the shop was beginning to look smart. Tom praised their work until in the back room he paused at the window which looked out over the yard. ‘What are you going to do here?’ he asked.

‘I haven’t given the yard much thought,’ Leonie said. ‘What do you suggest?’

He took another look. It was raining hard outside. ‘Keep the curtains drawn. It looks pretty dismal out there.’

They all laughed. ‘I’d have to keep the lights on if I did that,’ she said.

Nick was holding himself back, he wouldn’t look at her but he took a long look through the window and said, ‘There’s some rubbish there that could be cleared away. Then I’d whitewash the walls and have a few tubs of flowers. That would make all the difference.’

Leonie took them to see the flat upstairs, where Elaine said excitedly, ‘I’ve just had a marvellous idea. Leonie, I hope you agree. I’d like to take over one of these bedrooms and turn it into a workroom. I could make my patterns here instead of trying to find space to do it at home. I’d be here with you and more part of the business.’

‘Of course,’ Leonie said, ‘an excellent idea. Any client who can’t make up her mind from the set patterns I have I can send upstairs to you.’

‘You could sublet and charge her rent,’ Nick suggested.

‘No need for anything like that,’ Leonie assured Elaine. ‘We have an understanding, don’t we?’

‘We do, or we
did have, but if I’m to use one of the bedrooms then I want to pay part of the rent.’

‘That’s only fair,’ Nicholas agreed. ‘We must work out how much. Do you want a formal agreement?’

‘No,’ Leone said.

But Elaine said yes. ‘It’s a business, after all. We must be businesslike.’

Tom arranged for all the rubbish to be taken away and Nick knew of a boy called Roy who would come and hose down the yard and whitewash the walls. When Roy had finished that, he painted the back gate scarlet and as they’d need to keep the bin, he painted that too.

She knew Nick intended to buy the tubs and plant them up for her. He brought them in one afternoon while she and Elaine were working on one of her patterns.

‘I’ve put in mostly shrubs,’ he said, carrying them through to the yard, ‘because you’ll need some greenery out there through the winter.’

‘The yard looks so much better.’ Elaine was enthusiastic. ‘But there’s one more thing needed and that’s a garden seat. Then we can have our tea out here in good weather.’

As Leonie had several benches in the garden at home, she asked Steve if she might take one. She had to get a carrier to move it but she was able to have her treadle sewing machine, pattern books and samples of material taken to the shop at the same time.

Several of the firms she dealt with sent her a greater selection of materials when she told them she was taking on new premises and she sent postcards to all her current customers giving them her new address and phone number. Elaine brought two of her own outfits to
dress the models for the shop window and laid out the materials and pattern books tastefully throughout the shop. Leonie declared the shop ready to open two days before the target date.