Road to Berry Edge, The (35 page)

After the wedding there was a meal at the church hall which Rob had organised. Faith was glad. She kissed him and thanked him.

People were coming into the hall now. Vincent and Ida were first.

‘I'm so glad you could come,' Faith said stiffly.

‘You look lovely,' Ida told her.

Harry hugged his mother but only nodded at his father. Vincent kissed Faith and then took his son into his arms.

‘You're in the north, Father,' Harry objected.

‘I don't care. I behaved appallingly.'

‘You did, but since you always do and we expect it, we'll forgive you.'

Vincent went to Rob. ‘Are you really leaving?' he said.

‘I was going to come and say goodbye to you, I'm not going for a few weeks yet. I have to stay here for the next few days because Faith and Harry are going to the Lake District. After that I have quite a lot to sort out both in Nottingham and in London.'

‘If you want to leave here, I'll stay for the week and look after the place.'

‘Thank you, Vincent, I would appreciate that.'

Susannah Seaton was coming into the hall with Claire, Nancy and Michael. She had her small daughter with her, holding her tightly by the hand. Ida left Vincent with the bride and groom and went across.

‘I'm Ida Shaw, Miss Seaton. How do you do?'

Ida, Faith thought, enjoyed herself immensely. She sat beside Susannah and held Victoria for a while, and then she went to Nancy and Michael and borrowed the baby. It occurred to Faith that the moment she produced a child her mother-in-law's doubts would disappear. Ida came back to her later and gave her a wedding present, an emerald ring set with tiny diamonds.

‘It was my mother's and I want you to have it,' she said. ‘We shall expect you in Nottingham for Easter.'

Rob stayed well away from Susannah and the child, just as though they didn't know each other. Faith wished there was something she could do.

*

Faith and Harry went away to the Lake District and everyone left. Rob went back to Harry's house alone. The quietness was strange after all the people. What Rob wanted now more than anything was to be gone. Mrs Portsmouth, Harry's maid who was only there part time, packed his bags for him. When she left, Rob tried to persuade himself that he could
spend his last evening in Berry Edge drinking whisky and reading a book by Arnold Bennett. He very much wanted to do that. He looked regretfully at the sitting room fire burning away as he left the house.

He walked slowly down the bank to Michael and Nancy's house. When Rob banged on the door Michael answered it. He came straight outside and closed the door behind him.

‘Is Susannah here?'

‘She doesn't want to see you,' Michael said.

‘I have to sort this out, Michael, I'm leaving first thing in the morning.'

‘She said no.'

‘Just five minutes.'

‘No.'

‘Are you going to keep her forever?'

‘We'll think of something.'

‘Will you? She'll go back to whoring again because it's all she knows. Five minutes. Please?'

Behind Michael, Susannah opened the door.

‘It's all right, Michael,' she said and Michael went in.

She stood back against the wall. It was not ideal, Rob thought, it was a cold night and there were neighbours on every side. She folded her arms across her front and put her head down.

‘I want you to know that I'm sorry,' Rob said. ‘Men are evil creatures, it's true. If there had been some way that we could have met as equals it might have been different, but I barged into your life paying for what people were never meant to pay for. I didn't deserve your love. I'm well punished, I can't even hold my child. I meant to tell you yesterday that I've made some financial arrangements for you. I meant to tell you before, but my temper got in the way. You'll get a letter from my solicitor in a day or two. You can take any problems to him, he's very good—'

‘Would you like to see her?' Susannah's head came up. She looked at him.

He followed her. The stairs led straight up from the front door so they didn't even have to disturb the others in the sitting room. In a small bedroom at the back of the house, where the other children also obviously slept, judging by the beds, Victoria was alone, asleep. Rob had sneaked looks at her that day but he had not been close when she was awake. He wished that she would wake up now just so that they could look one another in the eyes. He lingered for as long as he felt he could, and then made himself say, ‘I have to go.' He left. He walked up the hill even more slowly than he had walked down it, back to Harry and Faith's house. The fire wasn't burning as brightly, but that was easily remedied. There was no whisky, he had finished it the night before, so he poured brandy generously. It smelled wonderful.

Some years ago he and Sarah, Harry, Vincent and Ida had gone to Venice. Every time he smelled brandy now he could remember sitting outside in the late evening with cups of coffee, and brandy in tall, thin glasses. It had been the happiest time of his life. That holiday had been the very highest enjoyment that God had provided for man.

It was early June. They had stayed at a friend's house, a sumptuous palazzo, five minutes' walk from the Grand Canal. It had a garden with trees which gave complete shade, and roses gone wild, in cream and red. There were statues in the garden, figures with peacocks under their arms. He and Sarah would sit out there and eat lunch.

At the far end of the house were great doors with diamond-shaped stained glass above them in blue and red and yellow where, in older times, people had arrived by water and stepped up into the hall, so high and wide. In the hall were huge chandeliers. The bedrooms had eight foot square beds and wonderful painted ceilings, and halfway up the stairs were glass doors and a balcony so that you could step out and watch the boats passing by.

Always in Venice there was music, the sound of violins from open windows. Doves gathered in the courtyard. There was a bakery in the narrow alleyway beyond the house, and from it came the sweet smell of biscuit-baking. In the evenings there was seafood to eat and salad and white wine. He had thought that his life would always be like that. He had thought it was for good.

Then a voice behind him said, ‘You drink too much.'

He turned away from the fire and there was Susannah.

‘Yes, I know,' he said ruefully.

‘I knocked hard on the door.'

‘I didn't hear you.'

Rob looked at her, thinking that he might have to remember for the rest of his life how she looked in the neat, modest dress that she had worn for the wedding. It was brown with touches of cream and made her eyes the same colour as the liquid in his glass. He hesitated for a moment and then said, ‘I love you, Susannah.'

Susannah didn't look at him but at her fingers.

‘I want you to take me with you,' she said.

Rob put down his brandy. ‘Are you quite sure?'

‘Quite sure, yes.'

‘There'll be enough money for you. You could have back the house in Durham and never have a man in your bed again if that's what you want, and I won't bother you even when I do come back.'

‘I don't think you'll come back,' she said. ‘I do love you and I want you and I'll marry you.'

Rob couldn't move. He still didn't believe her, he didn't dare. She went to him and kissed him, and for the first time since John had died the turmoil in Rob's head ceased. It was peace, safety, warmth, all those things which had for so many years evaded him. Nothing could hurt him now. His child was asleep a little way across Berry Edge and the woman he had wanted was close. She would stay with him, and their child would grow up in a new country
away from Berry Edge, where they could be free to live as they chose.

*

The hotel room looked out over Lake Windermere. The maid had been in, drawn the curtains, turned down the bed and built up the fire. Faith peeped through the curtains.

‘What are you looking at?' Harry said patiently.

‘The lake.'

‘It's dark.' He was opening champagne. The cork eased its way out of the bottle with a discreet little sound. He could tell that it was good, he could smell that wonderful honey background to the bubbles as he poured it.

‘I'm imagining the fell from our house.'

‘We could have stayed at home for that. Of course my father and mother would probably have insisted on being at the house, and Rob's there, and probably Susannah if I know him at all.'

‘Do you think so?'

‘With the house to himself, after the way he looked at her today?'

‘I didn't notice,' Faith said.

She let the curtain fall and went back to the fire, where Harry gave her a glass.

‘Let's have a toast,' he said. ‘To the people of Berry Edge who are kind, courageous and bonny, and to us who belong there and are lucky.'

‘To them and to us,' Faith said. They clinked their glasses together and smiled into each other's eyes.

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