The Girl with the Creel (46 page)

Lizann fell asleep that night still going over the pros and cons, but when she took Cheeky out in the morning and let her eyes sweep round the familiar scenery – the dry-stone dykes, the standing stones, the large oaks and horse chestnut trees, the tilted chimney at the farmhouse, the snow-capped mountains in the distance – she knew that she couldn't bear to leave them.

Dan turned up in the late forenoon and stood uncertainly in the middle of the kitchen floor when she took him in. ‘Have you decided?'

She didn't know that his heart was racing erratically as he waited for her answer, but she did see that he was relieved when she said, ‘Yes, Mr Fordyce, I'll take the job, and thank you.'

‘Pack your belongings,' he smiled, ‘and I'll get someone to take them up to my house in the evening. You can sleep there tonight and start work first thing in the morning.'

‘But I'll have to clear this place,' Lizann gasped, amazed by the speed of his arrangements, ‘and clean it ready for the new people.'

‘I'll get someone to do that, and when I go home I'll tell Meggie to make a room ready for you …'

‘I could do that myself, Mr Fordyce.'

He looked at her sadly. ‘You usually call me Dan.'

‘I can't now, not when I'm working for you.'

‘Ah, I see what you mean. Well, why don't you call me Dan when you're alone with me, and Mr Fordyce in front of Meggie?'

‘I might get muddled.'

He didn't bother to answer this. ‘I'll leave you to get organized and I'll see you at breakfast tomorrow.'

After packing her own clothes into an old box, she tried to leave at least the kitchen as clean as she could. She wasn't so sure now that she was doing the right thing, but she would have to stand by her decision.

Chapter Twenty-six

Although Lenny Fyfe had resumed his affair with her, Elsie's need was for a real man. With Peter going to be away for so long, she made up her mind to make the most of her evenings, but couldn't think who to ask to mind her children. Rosie Mac was too old to put up with two boisterous boys and an infant for hours at a time, and her other neighbours weren't friendly; she guessed they'd seen Lenny slinking in – or out – and knew what was going on. But Jenny Jappy seemed to be content to sit at home.

On her next visit to the Yardie, Elsie cautiously suggested that they could take it in turns to look after each other's bairns now and then. ‘We deserve some nights off to enjoy ourselves.'

Jenny said she didn't feel like going out to enjoy herself. ‘But I'll look after your three any time you want.'

Elsie started by parking her children on Jenny once a week and going to the seamen's bars, laughing and joking as she was plied with drinks, but taking care not to take too much. But this wasn't enough, and it soon became twice a week – much to Jenny's disapproval though she didn't like to say anything – and when she began to take a man home sometimes, she didn't tell Jenny. Most of her pick-ups were satisfied with the half-hour or so which was all she allowed before collecting her brood, but there came a time when she herself wanted more. She made her sons go out to play on the forenoons she and Lenny transported themselves on the parlour couch, but it stuck in her craw to make love with any men in her bed at nights when her bairns were asleep in the next room.

It didn't take her long to figure something out. Telling the trusting Jenny that her mother was very ill, she asked if she could leave her children overnight sometimes, so that she could go to North Pringle Street to let her father get a good night's sleep. It worked like a charm, but she didn't try it too often in case Jenny got suspicious.

As Elsie applied her rouge and mascara one evening, she congratulated herself on taking the precaution of getting a Dutch cap fitted again, so there was no risk of falling with a bairn. That would finish her carry-ons, once and for all. Lifting her lipstick now, she outlined a large cupid's bow and filled it in, grinning as she thought it wouldn't take long to be kissed off. She didn't even have to go out tonight; she had invited Paddy Flynn to the house. He was an Irish navvy who had helped with the setting up of Dallachy Aerodrome and laying the runways, and he had stayed on in Buckie, a big rough man with enough blarney to charm the birds off the trees and the kind of blue eyes that made her insides shiver. His black hair was receding at the temples, but what did that matter when he could thrill her like she'd never been thrilled before? If she could risk asking Jenny … he could be here every night and she could tell Lenny Fyfe to get lost.

She had just reached the foot of the stairs when the knock came, and she opened the door with a flourish. ‘Ta-rah!'

‘Holy Mother of God!' Paddy exclaimed, his eyes popping at the sight of her provocative nightdress. ‘You'd be as well with nothing on.'

‘D'you like it?' she smirked, pushing her breasts up with her hands.

His answer was to swing her off her feet, carry her upstairs and fling her on the bed. Pausing only to tear off his clothes, he flung himself on her, and the bed was rocking when someone else knocked on the outside door. ‘Don't answer it,' Paddy muttered.

A second knock was ignored, and by the third, neither of them could have stopped even if they wanted to, so it also went unheeded.

‘She's not there, either,' Jake Berry told Jenny when he returned to the Yardie.

Cuddling a crimson-faced, screaming child, her own face white, Jenny burst out, ‘Where is she? Wee Norma's not any better, what'll I do?'

‘Will I go for the doctor?'

‘It's maybe nothing, and I know bairns are up and down, but it's not so bad when they're your own. Yes, you'd better get the doctor, Jake, it's better to be safe than sorry.'

Pacing the floor in an effort to pacify the unpacifiable baby, she felt angry with Elsie. She'd said she was going to see her mother, but her father had told Jake she hadn't been there, and she wasn't at home either. Surely she wasn't out gallivanting at this time of night? ‘Hush, my pet,' Jenny soothed the roaring bundle. ‘Hush now.'

It was only minutes until Dr Mathieson came in, though it seemed like hours to the anxious young woman, and after examining the infant, he smiled. ‘It's just colic. Have you any gripe water in the house?'

‘I think there's still some in the press.' She looked rather stunned. ‘Colic, is that all it is? Lizann had colic, and Georgie when he was a baby, and they weren't half as bad as this. Of course, Norma's not mine, and we can't find her mother, that's why I panicked.'

‘Well, there's nothing to worry about. The gripe water should settle her and she'll be asleep in no time.'

‘I'm sorry I bothered you, doctor,' Jenny murmured, tendering the half-crown he usually charged.

He waved it away. ‘It's what I'm there for, my dear.'

When Dr Mathieson went out, Jake said, ‘I bet that's a relief. Will I hold her till you get the gripe water?'

Only half an hour later, Jenny was able to go to bed. Norma was tucked up beside Lizann, both sound asleep, and everything was peaceful again. But as she waited for sleep to claim her, she decided not to let Elsie off with the lie she had told.

It was seven o'clock the following morning, and none of the children were up when Elsie walked in, a beaming smile on her face – Paddy Flynn hadn't left her until half past six. The smile annoyed Jenny more than ever. ‘I'm glad you're pleased with yourself,' she said sarcastically, ‘for I was up half the night with your Norma.'

‘Oh God, what happened? Is she all right?'

‘She is now, but where were you? You said you were going to sit with your mother, but when I sent Jake Berry to get you, your father told him you hadn't been there at all.'

Terrified that Jake had found out everything, Elsie said, ‘Did my dad say anything about my mother? How she was?'

‘I don't suppose Jake asked. I sent him to your house after that, but you weren't there either. I hate being told lies, Elsie, and I'm not putting up with it. I'm not keeping your bairns to let you stay out all night with men and you needn't think it.'

Elsie had never thought so quickly in her life. ‘I'm sorry, Jenny,' she began. ‘I was getting ready to go to my mother when I … took awful pains in my stomach, I was doubled up wi' them, and then the diarrhoea started.'

‘You've got over it awful quick.'

‘I'd some mixture I got at the chemist a while back, and that stopped it, though it was two in the morning before I got to my bed.'

Jenny was weakening, but there was still something not explained. ‘So you'd still been up when Jake was there? Why didn't you answer the door? He said he knocked three times.'

‘Oh, it was him, was it? I was in the lavvy, you see, and nobody was there by the time I got to the door. I wondered who it had been, but I never thought … Oh, Jenny, I'm sorry you've had all the worry.'

Satisfied now, Jenny smiled. ‘It wasn't your fault. I did get a scare, though, for Norma wouldn't stop screaming. That's why I made Jake go for the doctor. I'd better get the boys wakened now. It's time your Pattie was getting ready for school.'

When the Taits left, Jenny got her own two washed and dressed then started on the housework, her mind still on what had happened. She'd often had doubts about Elsie's nights with her sick mother, had even wondered if the woman really was sick, but now she had doubts about her doubts. Peter's wife might not be perfect, but she loved her bairns; she wouldn't palm them off on anybody else so she could be with a man.

She had misjudged Elsie, Jenny concluded, and she'd have to be extra nice to her in future to make up for it.

Elsie deemed it best not to push her luck with Jenny, who had hit home with her suspicions on the morning after Norma's colic. Although she had been fobbed off that time, trying it again would just be asking for trouble. But, Elsie told herself, she couldn't stop seeing Paddy Flynn. He was the best thing that had ever happened to her.

Burning her boats altogether, she told him that he could sleep with her twice a week until she saw how things went, as long as he was gone before her sons woke up. If Pattie saw him, he would think nothing of telling Rosie Mac or Jenny or whoever he happened to be speaking to that there had been a strange man in his mam's bed.

‘Of course,' she reminded the Irishman, ‘you'll have to stay away when Peter's on leave, but that shouldn't be for a long time yet.'

The arrangement worked very well, Elsie discovered, because her three children slept like logs and never heard a thing, not even when she and her lover got carried away in their passion. Only one thing niggled at her – she had no qualms about deceiving Peter, but it didn't feel right to deceive Paddy by keeping Lenny as a stand-by.

The next time the young man arrived, therefore, she waited until he was leaving. ‘We'd better stop this, Lenny. We've been at it for years now, and somebody might …'

He looked at her in disbelief. ‘You're not finishing with me, Elsie?'

‘It's the best way, lover-boy,' she murmured, finding it easier as he swallowed each lie. ‘There's nothing in it for you. You should find yourself a nice girl and get married.'

‘I don't want anybody else. I love you.'

‘And I love you, but …' She stopped and stroked his cheek. Was she being stupid? She did think a lot of him – loved him, in a way – but Paddy was the strong man she had always been looking for, and if he found out about Lenny he'd never come back. ‘It's better this way, Len. It would be awful if we carried on till you got tired of me.'

‘I'll never get tired of you,' he vowed. ‘Oh, Elsie, please …?'

Realizing, with an inward shudder, that it was more likely to be Paddy who would tire of her, she decided to hedge her bets. ‘Give it a try, eh? Just for a while? It'll do us both good, put some new life into us.'

Still not convinced, he sighed. ‘Okay. But just for a wee while.'

Her fervent kiss sent him home sure that it would all work out.

*   *   *

Elsie could have screamed when she read Peter's letter. He'd said he would be away for about a year, and it wasn't much more than two months. With a heavy heart, she waited for Paddy to appear that night. ‘Peter'll be home at the end of this week,' she told him, ‘so I won't be able to see you till he goes back.'

The big man didn't look at all pleased, and to sweeten him she added, ‘Once he's away, you could be here more than twice a week.'

‘Would you let me sleep with you every night, mavourneen?'

‘Aye, why not?' she said, recklessly. ‘You can bide here if you want.'

‘I'll hold you to that,' he grinned. ‘How long will he be at home?'

‘He didn't say, but I tell you what. I'll leave my front room curtains open to let you know he's gone. You'll just have to keep coming past and watching for my signal.'

Exhausted after the long journey from Portsmouth – which he wouldn't have made if it hadn't been for his children – Peter slept like a log on his first night home, but after a week of being cramped on the parlour couch he longed for the freedom to stretch his long legs, the comfort of a proper bed. On board the corvette he had to be ready to jump any minute in the short spells in his bunk, but he didn't need to make a martyr of himself at home. Why shouldn't he sleep with Elsie? She seemed to be indifferent to him now, hadn't tried any of her old tricks on him.

When he told her in the morning that he had decided to share her bed again, he made it quite clear that he would stand no nonsense from her and that she needn't expect anything of him. Late that night, however, after she had gone upstairs, he sat by the dying fire wondering if he could trust himself. He knew how the heat of her soft body would affect him, the appealing curve of her back.