Dreams Can Come True (20 page)

“This is a happy occasion, we put away our grievances on such a special day.”

Ted could have kicked himself for letting her drink all that sherry. His wife didn’t usually drink alcohol, even though they lived over a pub’. He had come over quickly when he saw that she was having a go at Maggie, dragging one of the children with him, who he had caught picking the decorations off the top of the wedding cake.

“Well,
you
might want to keep your gob shut, but I’ve waited nearly twenty years to have my say to this hoity toity madam…”

“Then do it outside will yer Mother,” Eddie butted in. “You’re not going to spoil it for everybody. Mrs. Haines has gone to a lot of trouble laying all this on and we’re grateful for it, aren’t we Hannah?”

“Ah, that didn’t take you very long, did it son? Gone over to the nobs, have you? Well, everyone listen to what I’ve got to say. The party continues down at the tavern, if you’d like to follow me. Free drinks all round and it won’t be bloody sherry!”

With that, Madeline made unsteadily for the door. Algernon, her next to eldest, was on hand to help her through.

So many people stood there openmouthed that Johnny wanted to laugh. That had put the cat amongst the pigeons, hadn’t it? He looked around at the different faces as the guests wondered what to do. He for one had had enough of eating dainty tit bits off porcelain plates and drinking from a glass that only held one mouthful. There were plenty of guests on Eddie’s side that couldn’t agree with him more.

Eddie’s work mates were the first to go, all dressed up in their Sunday best with collars that were too tight for them. They uttered apologetic mumbles as the passed the alarmed couple, some asking Eddie if he wanted to follow too.

Within ten ghastly minutes the hall was almost empty; just the priest and the Haines’s guests stood in embarrassed silence wondering what to do next. Eddie comforted Hannah, as she had begun to cry. Alice was the first to have her say from where she stood with her husband and Sean and Matilda.

“Well, Maggie. If this is a sign of things to come, I’ll be glad to turn down any future invitations. What did you expect from people like the Dockertys? You surely didn’t think they would behave with decorum. People like that just don’t know how to behave. And you, Hannah, have brought all this on yourself for marrying one of them. When I think of the expense your father has gone to on your upbringing! Where is he by the way? Still, what do you expect when…”

Mr. Arlington suddenly gripped hold of Alice’s arm quite forcefully, so much so that she yelped and seemed to be about to shrug herself loose from him.

“Maggie, Hannah, please accept our apologies, but I think it’s time for us to go. Sean and Matilda haven’t visited since our wedding, so it would be nice for them to spend some time in our home. Thank you, Maggie, on behalf of all of us.”

Then Mr. Arlington shook hands with Eddie, kissed Hannah on the cheek, nodded to the priest, then lead his unrepentant wife away. Sean and Matilda followed after also giving their embarrassed apologies.

“Well, Maggie. In all my years as a priest, people never cease to amaze me. Still, the deed is done. Eddie, Hannah, it’s up to you to prove that the choice of marrying each other was the right one. Now, I’ll be away to get ready for the next ceremony at three o’ clock. No hurry to leave here by the way. Their celebrations will continue back at their parents’ house.”

“So, that leaves the six of us,” said Maggie, who had been desperately thinking what she could do to cheer up the rest of them, especially Hannah who looked as if she had been left in the lurch.

“Fergal, would you be willing to drive the carriage to Chester?”

Fergal nodded that he was willing, provided his little wife Ivy could go along with him.

“Of course she can, Fergal. If you don’t mind riding up top with him, Ivy. Olive, Joan, you can go home and clear up here in the morning. Emily, I’m sure you’ll be happy to come along with us. Hannah, Eddie, we’re off for supper at the Grosvenor Hotel!”

“So where do we go from here, Sis?” asked Ernie, as they sat upon two rickety chairs in Thistledown Cottage.

“Oh, I can’t think about the future yet, Ernie. Give us a break. We’ve just buried Mam and I would like to sit and do nothing. Anyway, Annie will be over soon when she’s got the kids settled. We’ll see what she’s got to say.”

The pair of them sat quietly, each with their own thoughts about their dead mother, Ruthie. They had known that her end was near when the doctor, upon examining her, expressed disbelief that he hadn’t been called in earlier. Something to do with fluid that was slowly invading her body, starting with her legs. The doctor had shaken his head and, taking Katie aside, had told her that Ruthie’s death was only a matter of time. Katie had done her best to make her mother comfortable, calling on her sister Annie to help with her nursing. Even Ernie had learnt how to change Ruthie’s bandages, as the sores on her legs kept pussing and her open wounds wouldn’t heal. It had been a desperate time for all of them, especially Ruthie who wasn’t a good patient and screamed abuse each time one of them came near her, then cried pitifully when the pain became too much to bear. Katie had broken rule after rule at the hospital where she was staff nurse, harassing the doctors there for advice on how to help her mam, taking time off to be with her, filching bandages and ointment, bringing her woes into work with her. Matron was beginning to wonder if Staff Nurse Tibbs, her shining example to the rest of the team, had been spirited away by some devil and she had been left with a changeling instead!

Ernie’s thoughts were on how he was going to miss his mother. Compared to a lot of mothers, Ruthie hadn’t been a good one, if he thought of how his childhood friends had been treated by theirs. There didn’t seem to be enough food on the table for all of them – that’s when they had a table to eat off. It was the same with their clothing; they didn’t have a complete set of anything. Clothes were handed down or bought second-hand from the market, birthdays and Christmas sometimes didn’t happen in their family. He remembered the clouts, the fearful shouting, the horrible noises coming from his parents’ palliasse, but Ernie also remembered the times when Ruthie had stood up for him and how gentle she had been with Lenny, his poor brother who hadn’t been right in the head. Ernie had watched her when she had found Lenny dead in his bed one morning, some years ago. He had thought she would be relieved to have her burden taken away from her after all those years, but Ruthie had mourned; mourned terribly, walking around the cottage for weeks on end, without anything to say. She had stood up to his father when Solly, deprived sometimes of his alcohol, would make life hell for his children. But she never found out why Ernie often went missing; some things her son would never tell.

“Yer know why Lilac Cottage has been done up?” came Annie’s voice from the front door way. “I’ve just passed it on me way here and they’ve added on to it.” She walked in to join her siblings who had awakened from their revelry.

“Let’s have yer chair, Ernie. I’m fair knackered with all the walking about I’ve done today. And this one’s kicking me something rotten. Thank God I’ve only a week to go.”

Annie sat down with a thump onto the chair that her brother had vacated and asked Katie if she’d make her a cup of tea.

Over the years since she had married Sam Piper, Annie hadn’t changed much. She still had the brown straggly hair, the thin pointed face and an air of helplessness that made people want to protect her. After each child that she had given birth to, her figure always reverted back to being thin and bony. Although she was nearly due with her next one, under her smock it hardly showed.

“So why has Lilac Cottage been done up?” asked Katie as she waited for the kettle to boil on a struggling fire.

“It was so Hannah Haines didn’t have to live in a hovel when she married Eddie Dockerty.”

“I’d heard that her mother had bought all this land from the farmer, so she got these cottages too,” said Ernie worriedly. “Well, that’s it then Katie, we’ll be looking fer a new place to live.”

“Why so?” asked Annie. “You’ve still got a job with Briggs, haven’t yer? This is a tied cottage, so you’ve still got a place to live.”

“I was just about to talk to Katie about it before, but she said it was too soon after the funeral. It has to be faced up to Katie, now or tomorrow and with Annie here, she can be in on it as well.”

“What is there to talk about, Ernie? As Annie’s just said, it’s the job and the cottage. Mam going doesn’t alter a thing.”

“I was waiting until after Mam’s funeral to tell yer. Briggs says I have to pay rent now to the Sheldon Property Company. We can still live here if we pay rent.”

“Rent!” said Katie derisively. “Rent for this place? Pigs wouldn’t want to live here, never mind paying rent.”

“Perhaps she’ll do it up fer you like she has Lilac Cottage,” broke in Annie eagerly. “And there’s Ashlea going begging too, ‘cos no one’s lived at Ashlea fer years. Me and Sam could do with a place of our own, now the kids are bigger. I think I’ll go to the office tomorrow and ask what’s happening. She’s all right, is Maggie. We go back a long way.”

“But, Annie, even if she did this place up for us, we couldn’t afford the rent she’ll be asking for it. Let’s face it, we only managed to find the money for the funeral because we all chipped a bit in.”

“My wage will be going up a bit according to old Briggs. Compensation he said for losing the cottage.”

“Well, there you are then, Ernie, even the farmer thinks you’ll be looking for somewhere else to live,” retorted Katie, thinking with a sinking heart that she would probably have to live in the Nurses Home.

“You must be getting quite a bit, Katie, now that you’ve been made up to a staff nurse,” commented Annie. “At least you don’t have to take in work like I have to do.”

“Oh, come off it, Sis’. If I had your skill I would have opened up a shop years ago, not settled for a ruck of kids like you have. At least you’re sitting on your arse all day, not running around the wards like I have to do.”

“Hark to her, Ernie. Her life’s work devoting herself to the sick and needy. Let’s face it, it’s the thought of giving birth that makes yer dedicated. That and the fact that no man has ever looked at you.”

“That’s enough!” roared Ernie, taking the girls by surprise and making them jump. “Isn’t it bad enough that we’ve just buried our mother without you both sniping and snarling? Pack it in or I’ll be giving you the length of my tongue.”

Both his sisters had the grace to look ashamed of themselves and Annie, being the elder, apologised.

“Sorry, Katie. I shouldn’t have said that. What say I go up to the village tomorrow and find out how the land lies?”

“Customer, Mr. Arlington,” the young girl on the reception desk shouted up the stairs, when Annie presented herself next morning at the Sheldon Property Company. She came back to sit on her chair, rudely declining to offer Annie a seat on one of the couches. Annie decided to sit down anyway, even though she knew she would have difficulty getting up again. She looked around as she waited, thinking how much the place had changed since she was an alteration hand on these same premises. It had been a crying shame when Miss Rosemary, her employer, had decided to close down her dressmaking business. Annie had been happy here and had reason to be grateful, for it was here that she had honed her skills. She smoothed the skirt down on her very drab, rubbed-up winter coat, feeling very conscious suddenly that she was expecting another child. Why hadn’t she put on her Sunday best? The colour blue suited her and there was more material in it, so it would have hidden her condition to the world. Then she tutted with annoyance, it was only Mr. Arlington she had come to see. Anyone would think she was seeing God Himself!

“Ah, Annie Tibbs,” said Mr. Arlington, as he spotted the young woman from the top of the stairs. “What can we do for you this fine day? Come to buy one of our new properties up on Claypool Road?”

“Annie Tibbs as was, Mr. Arlington. I’ve been married to Sam Piper fer a few years now. Is it possible that we can speak in your office?” she asked, trying to summon up a bit of dignity. The thought of discussing her business in front of the office girl annoyed her greatly. This was a private matter and that was how it would stay.

“Of course, come up.” Seeing her efforts, he kindly came down the stairs and extended a hand.

Annie was overwhelmed by the opulence she found herself in when she finally made it to the manager’s room. When she had worked there, the floor had no covering upon it. Now there was a plush green carpet, plain peach wallpaper and drawings by a local artist dotted around the walls. She glanced nervously at the elderly man, who had motioned her to sit on a comfortable chair.

“Annie,” Mr. Arlington said gently. “How are you? How is your family? It must be what, nearly twenty years since I last saw you?”

“No, not quite. It was when Miss Rosemary closed the business down that you last saw me, but you’ve passed me in the street a few times since.”

“Well, never mind that. I take it you’re not here to buy one of the new houses from the Sheldon Property Company. Is it to rent your mother’s cottage, now that Farmer Briggs has sold it on?”