Homecoming (29 page)

‘Emily mentioned that her husband had been killed.' Judy unlocked her car door.

‘By EOKA terrorists. I was there when it happened.'

‘I'm sorry.' She climbed into her car. ‘It might be best not to mention that we'd seen one another here. Emily wants to keep her condition a secret and I rather suspect Maggie does too, or she wouldn't be here.'

He nodded agreement and turned towards his bike.

‘Jack.' Judy waited until he turned back. ‘I hope you and Helen sort out your differences. If there's anything that I can do –'

‘There's nothing anyone can do, Judy. But thank you for the offer.'

‘See you around,' she called after him.

‘Yes, see you around,' he repeated, as he climbed on to his bike.

‘If you don't want pink bridesmaids' dresses, Judy, you should come right out with it and tell Sam's mother when you visit her tomorrow,' Lily advised when she joined her at a table in the upstairs restaurant of Woolworth's in the High Street. It was one o'clock and the place was packed with Saturday shoppers. Lily set the ham rolls and glasses of milk she had had bought for herself and Judy on to the table and returned the tray to the stand.

‘It's too late, she's bought the material and the dressmaker has already cut them out.'

‘Then you should have said something to her sooner.' Lily pulled out a chair and sat opposite Judy.

‘I suppose I should have.'

‘It's not like you to be backward about coming forward.' Lily picked up her knife, opened her roll and spread the mustard she had dolloped on the side of her plate over the ham.

‘It's not just the bridesmaids' dresses,' Judy qualified, ‘it's everything. I promised Sam I'd go to the travel agents and pick out a place for us to go on honeymoon over a week ago. We had the most awful row last night when I told him I hadn't had time. It wasn't even the truth. I went there on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday – and again yesterday.'

‘And you couldn't decide where to go?' Lily closed her roll and cut it into four neat segments.

‘I must have looked a right idiot standing in the middle of the shop surrounded by posters of smiling girls sitting in swimsuits in just about every resort in the country. But the more I looked, the more sure I was that I didn't want to go to any of the places they were advertising.'

‘It's not the place that's important,' Lily smiled artfully. ‘I would have been happy with a room next to the gasworks so long as Martin was with me and we were alone.' Her smile widened at the memory of the two days they had honeymooned in a wooden chalet in Oxwich, which Martin had borrowed from a friend.

‘You two only went away for a couple of days.'

‘Because we couldn't wait to start decorating the house,' Lily explained. ‘It seemed more important to get that right and begin our lives together than to have a holiday we could take at any time.'

‘I wish Sam thought so. He's not even keen on moving into my flat. He thinks he should apply for a police house so we can have people knocking on the door at all hours of the day and night.'

‘You're getting married and you haven't even decided where you're going to live?' Lily asked incredulously.

‘We're still arguing about it. He thinks my flat is all right “for a single girl”, whatever that means. I can't see what his problem is. It's plenty big enough for the two of us until we buy a house.'

‘You're looking at houses?'

‘No,' Judy laughed. ‘But I will –'

‘When you have time.'

‘Don't you start. If my friends don't understand how busy I've been –'

‘Of course you've been busy,' Lily concurred. ‘No one else could have expanded your mother's business the way you have in the last couple of years. But …'

‘What?' Judy snapped defensively.

‘You seem to have lost your sense of humour along the way.'

‘Not so much lost it as had it stolen by Sam,' Judy agreed.

Lily surveyed her friend thoughtfully. ‘Are you sure it's just Sam's mother and the honeymoon that you're worried about?'

‘What do you mean?'

‘Nothing.'

‘It's bad enough having to second guess everything Sam says to me without you starting,' Judy countered touchily.

‘All right.' Lily took a deep breath. ‘Are you absolutely sure that you want this wedding to go ahead?'

Judy paused, mid-bite.

‘Sorry, I had no right to say that. After all, you two have been engaged and planning your life together for months. If you don't know your own mind by now you never will.'

‘No, it's all right.' Judy returned her roll to her plate. ‘We've been friends long enough for you to say whatever you like to me.'

‘It's just that for a bride you don't seem very bridelike.'

‘Which is?'

‘Happy, bubbling with excitement, full of talk about flowers, veils, lace, wedding cake and prawn cocktails,' Lily suggested tentatively.

‘You're spot on. If that's how a bride is supposed to behave, I feel more like a ranting fishwife.' Judy picked up her milk and sat back in her chair. ‘Ever since Sam pushed me into setting the date for the wedding, all we've done is argue. About the bridesmaids' dresses, my dress, the number of guests, his mother's plans for the big day that she seems to be organising more for her benefit than Sam's or mine, and now this blessed honeymoon. I just know we're going to quarrel about it as soon as he comes round tomorrow and I tell him I still haven't decided where we should go. And you're absolutely right, where you honeymoon isn't important. Neither is whether the bridesmaids wear blue, pink or God forbid, luminous green figured nylon. All that should be important is our life together afterwards.'

‘Please don't tell Sam's mother that I suggested you elope?'

‘Elope?' Judy frowned.

‘That was what you were thinking of doing?'

‘It's an idea,' Judy smiled.

‘Go to Gretna Green and you'll have your mother to contend with after all the plans she's made and deposits she's paid, as well as Sam's.'

‘I was actually thinking about the other arguments I've had with Sam. Over the salons and me working after we're married.'

‘Sam doesn't want you to?' Lily was surprised.

‘He thinks I should be home cooking meals at all hours when he's on shift work. Then there's …'

‘There's?' Lily looked questioningly at her.

Judy looked around. A crowded restaurant during a Saturday lunch hour was hardly the place to discuss the intimate details of her and Sam's private life. ‘It's going to be strange living with Sam, seeing him every day whether I want to, or not,' she finished lamely.

‘I think that's the best part of marriage,' Lily enthused.

‘Don't you ever wish you could have five minutes to yourself?'

‘I can have that any time I want.'

‘Except at night,' Judy qualified.

‘I love going to bed with Martin.' Lily lowered her voice, as a woman in a large hat glowered in the direction of their table. ‘Seeing him last thing at night and first thing in the morning. But you've lived with other people. Helen, Emily …'

‘I didn't share a bed with them.'

‘Have you told Sam how you feel?' Lily asked earnestly.

‘Not yet.'

‘You should,' Lily counselled strongly.

‘Do you actually like Martin touching you?' Judy whispered.

‘Yes,' Lily replied thoughtlessly.

‘Oh God, then there is something wrong with me!'

‘Of course there isn't. It takes time to get to know someone that way.'

‘Then you didn't always like Martin touching you?' Judy asked, desperately seeking reassurance.

‘Without going into details, can I just say it gets better and better,' Lily hedged, eying the woman in the hat. ‘You must talk to Sam, and the sooner the better,' she added quietly.

‘I know.' Judy stared at the uneaten roll on her plate.

‘And don't make any rash decisions, at least not without consulting your mother and Sam's.'

Judy glanced at her watch as she lifted her glass of milk. ‘I must get a move on. I'm picking my mother up in half an hour. We're going over to the Brynhyfryd salon.'

‘All work and no play.'

‘I know, makes Judy a dull girl. You doing anything this afternoon?'

‘I need to pick up a couple of things for Martin in the warehouse, so I thought I'd see if Helen was there.'

‘You seen her lately?' Judy mumbled through a full mouth.

‘Not since the night she threw Jack out.'

‘Me neither. Although I've rung her a couple of times in the warehouse, she's always come up with an excuse as to why she couldn't meet me for lunch. Tell her I'm thinking of her.'

‘I will.'

‘And if there's anything I can do …' Judy picked up her coat and handbag from the back of her chair.

‘I'll let you know,' Lily called after her, as Judy sidestepped past the queue in front of the food counter and ran out of the restaurant.

‘Lily, how lovely to see you. I trust you've come to spend a fortune.' John greeted her warmly, as his secretary showed her into his office in the warehouse.

‘I have, two new shirts for Martin.' Lily held up a bag. ‘I was wondering if Helen was about.' She sat in the visitor's chair he pulled close to his desk. ‘I haven't seen her in two weeks and every time I've telephoned here offering to call on her or meet her for lunch, she said she was up to her eyes in work and too busy to see anyone.'

‘Did she?' John sat behind his desk.

‘So, as I had to call in here anyway and Martin's working late, I thought I'd see if she fancied doing something with me this evening.' After looking round to check Helen was nowhere in sight, she asked, ‘How is she?'

‘Dreadful,' John disclosed. ‘She won't talk to me about anything other than work and she's here all hours. Not that there's any more for her to do than she has been doing for the past couple of years. She's just using this place as an excuse to stay away from her house. How is Jack?'

‘I don't know because he hardly says a word in the house,' Lily admitted. ‘According to Brian, he's the same in the garage. He won't say anything beyond what he absolutely has to, and then only to the customers.'

‘He hasn't tried to see Helen.'

‘I don't think so, in fact I'm sure of it, because he travels to the garage with Brian and Martin, and he's stayed in every evening since he moved in with us. Martin and I have tried persuading him to go over to see Helen, but he insists that she won't want to talk to him.'

John moved his chair closer to his desk. ‘I can't sit back and allow Helen to carry on the way she has been these last two weeks. I suspect she's not sleeping and you only have to look at her to know that she hasn't been eating. Katie's invited her round each night this week for a meal and she's refused every time.'

‘Perhaps she's afraid of seeing Jack going in or coming out of our house?'

‘Do you know what happened between them?'

‘Yes,' Lily murmured, ‘but as it's Jack and Helen's business …'

‘I wouldn't want you to tell me. I've tried talking to Helen about it, but she won't, not to me.' He gave Lily a small smile. ‘I'm glad she has you for a friend.'

‘I'm not sure Helen is. It's awkward with Jack living in our house … Helen.' The smile on Lily's lips froze as Helen walked into her father's office. She would never have believed that someone could lose so much weight in two weeks and it wasn't just the weight. There were dark circles beneath her friend's eyes that she had tried and failed to conceal with make-up. She looked ill, exhausted and, from the way her hand trembled as she lifted a cigarette to her mouth, on the verge of a breakdown.

‘Lily, what are you doing here?'

‘I came to see if you fancied doing something like going to the pictures or having a meal.'

‘I have to –'

‘There's nothing that needs seeing to here that I can't sort out, Helen,' John interposed. ‘You haven't stopped all week. Lily was just telling me that she was starving. I'll ring the Mackworth, book the two of you a table and get them to put your meals on the warehouse account.'

‘I'm not hungry,' Helen demurred.

‘You didn't eat lunch,' John reminded.

‘The Mackworth's always full. I can't face people.'

Lily left her seat. ‘We could pick up something on the way over to your house. If you stop at an off licence, I'll get us a bottle of sherry. Martin's working late. It's a rush repair on a car that's wanted for a wedding tomorrow, so he's not expecting me home.'

‘Why don't you telephone and tell him you're going over to Helen's?' John pushed the telephone across the desk towards Lily. ‘Make arrangements for him to pick you up from there later.'

Helen looked from Lily to her father. When she didn't say anything, Lily lifted the receiver and dialled the number of the garage.

‘I could have made my own plans for tonight,' Helen said tersely.

‘You could have but don't try telling me you did.' John left the office and took Helen's coat from the stand. ‘How's the garage going, Lily?' he asked when Lily hung up.

‘Better than Martin and Brian expected it to, considering it's only just opened. Brian just told me that they've already sold four cars and Martin's had a few repairs and a couple of servicing jobs.'

‘I must take a run over there and talk to Martin about servicing our fleet of vans. I'm not too happy with our current provider.'

‘That would be wonderful, and a tremendous boost to Martin's confidence. He's still unsure he did the right thing in setting up with Brian.'