Road to Berry Edge, The (18 page)

Rob pulled her down on to the bed, into his arms and kissed her again. Susannah pushed at him.

‘Go away,' she said again.

Rob looked at her and then he let go of her, got out of bed and dressed. Susannah put his tie on for him and knotted it, gave him his shoes and then she kissed him.

‘Come back when you're sober,' she advised him, and pushed him out of the front door.

When the funeral was over, Rob's mother went to stay with her sister in Ashington. The atmosphere in the house lightened considerably. She hadn't spoken to him since the Sunday before. Rob had made all the arrangements. His mother had gone to John's and his father's graves every day.

After she left they treated the house rather like an office. The ashtrays were always full of cigar stubs. There were papers piled in the downstairs rooms and Nancy complained about the glasses everywhere which had contained whisky or brandy. Other men came to the house for meetings, and there was more cigar smoke and more whisky fumes, and a great deal of food was consumed. Jackets were left over chair backs and shoes under sofas. It seemed as though part of the works had taken over the house.

To Rob's horror Vincent had written and announced that he and Ida were coming. He had not waited to be invited though, Rob reasoned, it would have been a long wait. Rob only hoped they weren't staying long. Nancy had been horrified.

‘Mr Shaw's parents? His mam and dad? Aren't they very rich with a big house? They'll expect everything to be right.'

‘Nancy, this is our house. If Vincent doesn't like it, he needn't stay.'

‘That's not the point, sir.'

‘It is the point, Nancy. All you have to do is buy and cook more food and make up a bed. What could be simpler?'

‘It might be simple to you, sir,' Nancy said and strode out of the sitting room.

*

It was the following afternoon when Vincent and Ida arrived. Vincent greeted both Rob and Harry civilly enough, but he looked around at the front of the house and said softly, ‘My dear boys, I didn't realise you were living in a garden shed.'

‘There's only the two of us here,' Harry said.

‘Couldn't you have rented something larger?'

‘Vincent, if you don't like it you know what you can do,' Rob said.

Vincent eyed him.

‘Northern manners, Robert?' he said.

Vincent went inside and there he found Nancy in the hall. She gave him a sort of bob. Vincent beamed at her.

‘I'm Vincent Shaw.'

‘Nancy, sir. I do the cooking.'

‘I'm delighted to hear it.'

‘You haven't tasted it yet,' Harry said from behind him.

‘He's very rude. He gets it from his mother,' Vincent said.

Ida came in with Rob and beamed as he introduced Nancy.

‘I shouldn't say this, my dear,' Ida said, ‘but I've never seen such beautiful hair on anybody in my whole life. How lucky you are.'

Nancy smiled.

‘Would you like some tea, Mrs Shaw?'

‘I would love some. And you must show me the house.'

Harry took Vincent into the sitting room.

‘What is this, another cupboard?'

‘Vincent—'

‘I know, I know. If I don't like it I can go back to Nottingham. You do have something to drink besides tea, I take it?'

‘We have some whisky, Father. Would that do?'

‘It would be adequate. I feel as if I've travelled to the ends of the earth. I don't understand what anyone is saying, and the state of the damned train made me wonder whether I shouldn't have gone into some other kind of business. What a grubby little town this is.'

‘Did you see Durham?' Harry asked.

‘I have to admit it did have its good points, though as we only paused to change trains I didn't see many of them. You'll have to show me around.'

‘We haven't time to show people around, Vincent,' Rob said. ‘We're too busy working.'

‘I meant the works. I've come here to help.'

‘We don't need any help,' Harry said.

‘Looking at the place I would say you need all the help you can get. Isn't that so, Rob?'

Rob glanced at Harry, before saying, ‘Don't you have enough to do in Nottingham?'

‘Oh, don't worry about that. After you left I found some very competent men. They can manage perfectly well without me for a while.'

The following Saturday Nancy stayed because Vincent had insisted on some company and Faith and her parents had been invited to dinner.

‘You do know that they're Methodists,' Harry told Vincent.

‘I have no objection to people not drinking and trust they have none when I do.'

If Faith's parents were offended at the wine on the table or the brandy after the meal they had enough sense not to say so and everyone seemed to get on very well, though later in the evening, Vincent came to Rob in the little back room (which they had turned into an office once Mrs Berkeley had left) and said, ‘So, is Harry panting after the little teetotaller?'

Rob looked icily at him. ‘I beg your pardon.'

‘You can beg my pardon all you like, though I must remind you that amongst grammarians a mere “what” will suffice. Are my eyes getting too old for the rest of me, or is my son in love with the plainest female on the planet?'

‘Is he?' Rob said in surprise. ‘I don't think he is, Vincent. She's hardly his style. I think he's flirting, and because she doesn't flirt it interests him, that's all.'

‘Men have married for less. When I think of all the young, beautiful, accomplished women in Nottingham …'

‘Faith's very nice.'

‘You've been in Durham too long. She has no wit, no conversation, no fashion, and why is she not married? The girl is past her prayers. If Harry goes near her, I shall be sorely disappointed. This is the woman your brother was going to marry?'

‘If you think I'm going to apologise for her, Vincent, you're wrong.'

‘Her parents are desperate to marry her off and you and Harry are keeping company with them. Is this the extent of your social life, having dinner with people who are beneath you?'

‘They're beneath you, Vincent, not me.'

‘It's time you came back to Nottingham and remembered who you are.'

‘Don't tell me what to do, Vince,' Rob said softly.

‘I'm very angry with you. This shoddy little town has stolen my son, and it's your doing. He likes this place.'

Rob smiled. ‘Yes, I think he does. I think he actually does.'

‘If he stays in this godforsaken place, what am I meant to do with my business ventures? And as for Miss Norman - she's hardly the kind of woman that Harry could take into Nottinghamshire society.'

Rob didn't answer.

‘I wish you were younger, the pair of you, and I could
beat you both and drag you back to Nottingham. You defeat me, Rob, indeed you do. You'll rot here, your mind will give up. You'll end up learning to make conversation that revolves around church teas and shop fronts. You're doing us all a great disservice here and there is nothing I can do about it.'

‘Nothing,' Rob said simply.

‘It's a pity about your father. I did hope that perhaps he would get better and you would quarrel very fiercely with him, and that he would make your position here unbearable and you would come home. I held on to that idea, but when I got here and saw how truly awful it is, and understand from Harry that you have brooked no opposition from anyone … There is no way forward for you here and I think that you know it. That knowledge will cost you everything. I hope it isn't a complete waste, for your sake,' Vincent said.

*

‘Your father thinks you've developed a passion for Faith,' Rob said to Harry, later that evening when everyone had gone to bed and they were drinking brandy in the little back room.

Harry grinned. ‘She's like that woman in Dickens' novel, the one who sat among her wedding feast because some bastard had let her down. She sat there for the rest of her life—'

‘Miss Havisham.'

‘That's her. That's what Faith's going to do. She might as well be buried with your brother.'

‘But you like her?'

‘I've just never met anyone like her. She's strange. And I feel sorry because I think she bothers you. I wanted us all to be comfortable.'

‘That was a lot to want.'

‘My father's worried, eh?' Harry said, laughing. ‘My God, he would be, after all the efforts he and Mother have made to marry me off to somebody suitable. Could you see Faith
at a ball, not dancing and not drinking and being scandalised or lost off with the conversation, and wearing one of those awful dresses? I must admit though, I do sometimes have very warm feelings about her.'

‘You have very warm feelings about every woman you meet, and more especially when you know you can't have her,' Rob said.

*

Vincent and Ida stayed while the better weather arrived. Rob came to be glad of Vincent's presence at the works. He helped a lot and, although he criticised and shouted and bullied, Rob was used to his working methods and had not realised until then how much he missed Vincent's good mind and bright ideas.

While he had the extra help, Rob wanted some free time to see Susannah. He thought they could go out together. In the city people picnicked on the riverbanks, shopped and walked and went dancing, but Susannah wouldn't meet him.

‘You can't be seen with me,' she said.

‘Why ever not?'

‘Because of who you are.'

‘Susannah, I'm nobody here. I'm the local lad who caused his brother's death and ran away. Nobody likes or respects me. I don't have a reputation to lose, it's gone.'

‘That's not true. The people of Berry Edge respect you for what you've done since you came back.'

‘They hate me.'

‘You couldn't be seen with me here.'

Rob looked at her. ‘Does that mean you would consider somewhere else?'

‘Go away with you?'

‘For a holiday, just a few days. Would you?'

‘I'd like that,' Susannah said.

*

Susannah had gone places with men before, glamorous
places with fancy hotels. She had been to London and Paris. She had never gone to the seaside with a man, and would have laughed at the idea of a tiny fishing village on the Northumbrian coast, but that was where they went. She had never been in love before. It did occur to her that anywhere would have been as magical as it was.

They went as a married couple, which was the only respectable way they could go on holiday together. The pub was the most comfortable place Susannah had ever stayed. The bed was huge and soft, the room had a view over the bay, the food was excellent, and the weather in August was perfect.

They stayed in bed late in the mornings, walked during the day, and did silly things like running up and down beaches and buying things in the local shop. They drank beer and sat outside at night watching the sun set over the horizon, and when it grew late a man in the bar played a mouth organ and the locals gathered to drink and tell tales. Susannah was entranced by Rob's company. They had never before had enough time together to do normal things like eating meals, talking to other people, walking outside, just being together without the knowledge that he would be leaving in a few hours and she would not see him again for a whole week. Susannah never wanted to go back to Durham for as long as she lived.

He told her that he loved her several times a day. Men had done that before, in quiet dining rooms and sumptuous bedrooms; but no one had ever asked her to marry him and this time she could not blame it on shock or drunkenness.

She wished that anybody but Rob had asked her, because then it would not have mattered. But he did matter to her so much now that she had become frightened. She felt crowded, panicked, as though if she was not careful she would do or say the wrong thing and feel again as she had felt when Sam had left her, as though the world was about to end.

It was late morning on the third day of their holiday, and they were lying on an almost deserted beach. True, another couple were walking on the sands in the distance, and a boy was throwing a stick for his dog, but there was nobody anywhere near. It was a perfect summer day. The waves could barely manage a splash as they broke, and the sky was cloudless.

In the sunlight Susannah, lying on her back on a rug, looked up at him as he leaned over.

‘I want you to marry me,' he said.

‘Don't be silly,' Susannah said briskly. ‘We're on holiday. It's not really like this.'

‘It could be.'

‘No, it couldn't.'

‘I know. I've been married.'

She sat up, and as she did so he moved back.

‘Rob, most people's marriages aren't like that. You were lucky. It couldn't happen twice.'

‘Why not?'

‘Because it doesn't. Be grateful and leave it.'

‘Be grateful for something that's gone?'

‘Things are never entirely gone, there's a part of them that lingers.'

‘Well, it isn't enough. I want you.'

‘You have me.'

‘I want you to marry me.'

‘We've been through this.'

‘Please, Susannah, say you will.'

‘No!'

‘Why not?'

He got hold of her so Susannah was obliged to look at him and say something.

‘Men like you don't marry whores,' she said. ‘It would ruin you. Can you imagine going to a party and meeting a business acquaintance and him remembering going to bed with me?'

‘I don't care.'

‘You would. You would resent him and me and my past life. You know very well by now that you cannot break the rules of the society which allows you to live in it. You did it once and look what happened. You can't marry me, Rob, you know very well that you can't. I think the sun has got to you.'