THE BONDAGE OF LOVE (19 page)

It was the younger man who was bristling when he said, "Well, now, when she's in this dreadful condition, what do you expect us to do?"

"I expect you to do nothing, sir, but I expect her grandfather to act as a grandfather. And, let me tell you, she wants to go back to him."

He was nodding towards the older man now.

"Yes, she wants to go back to you. She says she will never come back here.

Nor would we have her.

Anyway, you are her legal guardian; and you saw to it when you took charge of her money. "

"Well," the younger man was putting in now, 'why should my uncle be expected to?

"Will you please keep out of this? You didn't

want anything to do with her ten years ago, did ;

you? Oh no. So, I am dealing with your uncle. " ;$ " He's an old man. " |

Bill looked at the older man and said, " Old? But| not too old to carry on business, are you, sir? l| don't see you as old- But still, if you think you ar&| too old to take her, the magistrates will decider where she is to go?

and her money with her. " :| When he saw them both moving in their seats,|

and the younger man glance quickly at the old man,| Bill said, " Anyway? the money was put into trust,| and that can be gone into and easily dealt with.

As| yet, her money should hardly have been touched. | And then there is (he accrued interest. " ^ " There have been expenses," the old man said. | "

What expenses? " | " Well, she's had sums from time to time, aad^ there has been correspondence . " | " Sums? There's been five pounds, ten pounds, and not very oft eli- I go through the post before . anybody gets letters in this house. And last year'll should say she h

As ] for expenses; what d'you mean, expenses?

There's ;

no expenses in running a trust like this unless you 1 . Did you have a

secretary, such as your nephew here? Whom I thought, when I last met you, was 1 your cousin or your son-in-law, or some such. "

"There had to be things signed at the bank, and correspondence and ' " Shut up! Don't you try to cover up to me. D'you know who you're talking to? I'm a businessman: I, have secretaries, I have accountants; I know how things are run; I am now working on a contract from a trust left by Si r Charles Kingdom. I am also on a committee that deals with a trust for cancer relief.

"

"Those ... those ate different trusts."

"They all come under the same laws; and we'll look into the laws, won't we?

And that's one of the first things I'm going; to do when she's sent into a home."

"I don't want to se e her going into one of those places."

"You don't?" Bill poked his head towards the old man.

"Then what is the alternative, if you're not going to take her?"

"I haven't said I'm not going to take her. Well, what I mean is, you haven't given us a chance to speak."

"Uncle, what about room?"

The old man almost barked at his companion now, saying, "Will you leave this to me, Owen. Please!"

Again Bill was looking from one to the other, and now he repeated, "Room?

What d'you mean, room?"

To this the old m-an said, "Don't worry. If we have to make room, we'll make room."

"All right, you'll make room. But what is all this about? You had, I understand, a very nice house. What are you talking about," he had turned to the young man, 'not having enough room? Is that what you're saying? "

The old man drew in a long breath, and said, "My i95

. Owen and his wife are living with us temporarily. "

The younger man, who was glaring down towards the end of the desk, now had all Bill's attention.

"But you and your wife were going up in the world, weren't you?" Bill said.

"You were moving from some village in Wales to The Hill, or the equivalent, into a fine house; and you had made up your mind you didn't want any

children. Apparently it was children or the house, and the house won. You were in big business of some sort, weren't you?"

The man still kept his gaze on the end of the desk as the older man attempted to explain, "It's ... it's only temporary. There was a bit of a slump and

..."

"Oh! Oh! He's gone bankrupt, has he?"

The younger man's head came up quickly and he snapped, "It's a temporary thing, just temporary. It'll be all over in no time."

"Not bankruptcy, lad, not bankruptcy. I don't know how long ago it is, but you know it's three years before you can start up again. And then it's

difficult. Well! Well!" His tone now changing, he went on, "Well!

Well! You wouldn't have him down as the secretary to Mamie's trust, would you? " A flush crept over the honey face, and the old man spat out, " You .

you should be careful what you're saying, what you're suggesting. "

"Oh, I am careful. I'm very careful." He said no more until, after a silence, he asked the old man quietly, "You are going to take her, then?"

The old man's head came up, but he kept his eyes lowered as he replied,

"Yes. Yes, I suppose you could say we are going to take her." Then he added sharply, "At least for a time. At least for a time."

"Well, I don't know how long you mean by a time, but she comes into her money when she's sixteen. And if there's nothing accounted for before, it will be then. And she's very money- conscious, you know.

She's a spender. "

"She ... she will have to conform if she's under my care. And this I will see to. Oh yes." His head was bobbing now.

"Yes, I will definitely see to it."

He rose now, and the younger man with him;

and when he said, "We will go back to the hospital and get her." Bill held up his hand and said, "Oh, no. It can't be done as quickly as that. We'll have to see the police, because there's bound to be a case later on. They've got two of the scoundrels already. They're looking for the woman and Mamie's friend. Nancy."

It seemed that the two men were unable to speak a word, and so Bill said,

"You could go to the hospital and see her, and you'd better take some of her things with you, I'll have the rest sent on."

As he passed them to go out of the room, it seemed for a moment that they weren't going to follow him. Then they were in the hall and he was calling,

"Nell!"

When she appeared from the drawing-room, he said, "Will you please take these gentlemen upstairs to Mamie's room, and pack a couple of cases with her dresses, or what clothes she'll need. Then would you mind driving them to the hospital?"

Nell, falling in with Bill's tone, said, "Yes, Mr. Bailey," then led the men upstairs.

Fifteen minutes later, when the three of them came downstairs again, the younger man was carrying one small case, and on Bill's look of enquiry, Nell said, "The gentlemen didn't think her clothes are suitable for her. I have packed some of her ... plainer underwear, and a dress and coat, also some stockings and walking shoes." She was looking straight into Bill's face, but he said nothing to her. To the old man, he said, "She won't like that; I mean, not having her own clothes. "

For the first time the old man spoke to Bill through the Bible, saying,

"Vanity is the breeder of sin; and in this way alone you may have a lot to answer for." And on this he marched out, to Nell's voice saying, "Hang on a minute. If I'm to take you in I must get my coat," and, on the run, she called to Bill, "Tell Fiona, will you? She's up in the nursery."

Bill stood at the top of the steps and watched the two men standing on the gravel drive, their backs towards him. They didn't move until Nell

approached them, when they turned and followed her towards the garage.

Bill then closed the door and went back to his study. And once again he put his elbows on the desk and held his face in his hands.

"Vanity is the breeder of sin. And in this way alone you may have a lot to answer for." Does any good deed one ever does turn out right? He had taken Mamie as a child of three and it had taken only ten years of soft living to turn her into what she was today. He had taken Sammy, not only into his house, but into his heart, and although there was nothing legal about it, he knew he had adopted him as a son, and look what had happened to him and what the doctor had said this morning. Even when he got back on to his feet, it would take him a long time to get back to what he had been, for through the kicking he had received, there might be some damage to his kidneys. His ribs were broken, but they would heal in time.

Time. Time. Oh, he was tired. They were all tired. But this business was only really starting. Wait until the papers got their teeth into it.

As Bill slowly mounted the stairs, he repeated to himself, vanity is the breeder of sin . you do a good turn, and this is the outcome of it, drugs, shoplifting, and sin.

Expectancy is more trying than the event itself.

Who said that? Somebody had; he had heard it somewhere. And it was right, because the headlines hadn't come down on him regarding the girl in the way he had expected; in fact, in a way, some of them had been kind. And after praising Sammy, the schoolboy, as some of them called him, who had tried to get the young girl in question away from the house of Mrs. Polgar, at least that was the name the known drug runner had been living under for some two years in a respectable quarter of the town, what had happened to him in trying to get the girl away? He had come across a drug setup and immediately recognised one of the men as having worked in a garage. Being a member of a karate club, the young fellow had used all his expertise, only to be felled by a blow on the back of the head, then pounced on. He had then been tied up and put in a plastic bag and left under a jetty to the mercy of the tide.

The whole report had ended by saying that the young girl was now in the care of her grandfather . There was no upbraiding of either him or Fiona. Only one paper mentioned that the girl had been before a magistrate and was told that she had the choice of going into a rehabilitation home, or being placed in the care of her grandfather, for apparently she had stressed she didn't want to go back home and live with her adoptive parents.

Although she had been brought up almost in the lap of luxury for the past ten years, the girl herself wasn't without means: when she was sixteen she would come into a large sum of money which was held in trust by her grandfather.

So they had got over that. The next headlines, he supposed, would be dealing with the further charges of drug running. But there were still the Polgars to be traced.

But tomorrow was Christmas Eve, and it was hoped they would have Sammy home.

He had been in hospital for almost three weeks, and although he had been on his feet for the past week, he had found difficulty in walking. But he had been assured that this was simply because he had been, and was still, badly bruised all down the left side. And no matter what he thought, he must, for the time being, make use of a wheelchair.

He had said to Bill, "Wheelchair! I'd rather go on my hands and knees."

And to this Bill had retorted, "You'll do as you're told; you'll use a wheelchair. We've got one at home all ready for you."

"Well, you'll not get me into it. Bill."

"D'you know something, Sammy Love?"

"What?"

"You're not treating me with respect."

"Oh, I know what you're going to say ... I've forgotten the Mr."

"Yes, you forgot my title."

"D'you mind that much?"

"No lad," - he punched Sammy on the shoulder 'of course I don't; I like it.

There's another title I'd like better. But you only had one da and I

wouldn't want to replace him. What am I saying? Who but an idiot would want you for a son any way? If you had been bred of me, you certainly wouldn't have walked into a den of thieves and drug addicts, pushers, murderers, the lot; no, you would have had more sense. Anyway," - he had stood up, embarrassed now " I'm going to see the doctor now about getting you home tomorrow. "

"I am coming home tomorrow; I'm sick to death of this hole. And the nurses, they're as brazen as brass: the things they say would make your hair stand up on end." He grinned as he added, "One's proposed to me, and I'm thinking about accepting her. She's classy an' all. She's not from these parts,

she's from Somerset, and she talks well off. I'm definitely thinking about it. I mean, if you can get a car when you're seventeen, you can get married when you're seventeen, can't you?"

By now. Bill was at the door and he turned about and, trying to suppress a wide grin, he said, "I've only got to tell two females about that, their names being Minnehaha and Katie Bailey, and your Somerset lady would find herself scalped."

"Who's Minnehaha?"

"Well, I ask you, who of your acquaintance would look like a Minnehaha?"

"Daisy?"

"Yes, Daisy."

"Oh, my Lord! You're barking up a wrong tree. I'd better not step in that direction; I don't want another bout with Willie."

Bill had pushed open the door a little when he stopped again, saying, "Willie and Daisy?"

"Who else?"

"Don't be daft!" And he closed the door, if not with a bang, then none too quietly.

As he walked out of the hospital, he said to himself, there it was again, Willie sweet on Daisy. Dear! Dear! But wait a minute. He almost stopped in his stride. She had never been away from the hospital. She had been here some part of every day since Sammy had been brought in.

Was he thick headed Didn't he know he was in the running? And who was this Jimmy fella that Daisy had said was her minder? Oh, what a tangle. Well, he supposed, it would sort itself out. It would have to.

Before going back to the site he would have to phone Fiona . That you, love?

"

"Well, who else do you expect, Mr. Bailey?"

"It could be my mistress ... Nell."

"Shut up! And tell me what you want; I'm very busy. We're up to the eyes here."

"Have you got everything arranged for the Gallaghers?"

"Yes, dear, right to the last member, from Mr. Len and Mrs. Annie, down to Jeannie with the light- brown hair."