The Older Man (9 page)

“We’ve been to the zoo,” Toby said. “Lots of times.”

Maybe Grant wasn’t the only one who had been getting bored with the zoo. “Is there anywhere you’d like go?” Rennie asked Ellen.

The child shook her head, and put her thumb in her mouth.

“Don’t do that, Ellen,” her brother admonished, and grabbed her hand, pulling it away.

Ellen began to sob quietly, tears pouring down her cheeks.

“Mr Bossyboots,” Mrs Beddoe said, shaking her head. “Leave your sister alone, Toby.” She knelt down by Ellen, put an arm about her and began drying her eyes with a handkerchief. “Big girls don’t cry unless they’re hurt, or suck their thumbs.”

“She’s not allowed!” Toby said, red-faced.

“Not a big girl!” Ellen announced. “I’m only a little girl!” She sniffed, gave a final sob, and stared defiantly at them all.

Mrs Beddoe laughed and patted her, getting up. “Little girls need afternoon naps. Maybe you need one now?”

Ellen looked uncertain. “No,” she announced, and reached out to Rennie, taking firm hold of a handful of butter-yellow skirt. “I want to stay with Rennie.” She pushed her head against Rennie’s hip and looked at the other woman as though she was being threatened.

“They’ll be all right with me,” Rennie said, exchanging smiles with Mrs Beddoe, “if there’s anything you want to do.”

“I wouldn’t mind slipping out to the shops for a few things,” the woman confessed. “Some of the cupboards are bit bare, and Mr Morrison said get anything I thought was needed. I wanted to go earlier but Ellen made such a fuss, and you said when you rang you’d be taking them out, so I thought I’d leave it till this afternoon.”

When Mrs Beddoe arrived back in her small car, the three of them were sitting on the front steps in the sun, and Rennie was reading to them from The Paper Bag Princess. They got up to help Mrs Beddoe carry the groceries into the kitchen, and the two children willingly unpacked the bags while she and Rennie put the goods away.

“And for being so good, you deserve a chocolate biscuit each,” Mrs Beddoe said, removing two biscuits from their packet.

Rennie waited, and sure enough, “Chocolate’s bad for you. Mummy said so,” Toby declared.

Mrs Beddoe hesitated only a moment. “I’m sure Mummy was quite right,” she said. “Too much chocolate is certainly bad for anyone. And some people are allergic, which means even a little bit is bad for them. Did Mummy say you must never have chocolate?”

Toby thought, his eyes longingly on the biscuits in her hand. “Not never,” he admitted cautiously. “When she had her birthday, her special friend gave her a box full of chocolates, and she said he shouldn’t, but she ate one straight away, and she let us have some of them. But only one at a time. She said it was all right because it was a present.”

“Well, this is a present from me,” Mrs Beddoe said. “And you can only have one,” she added firmly as she handed them over. “You mustn’t spoil your tea. Go and eat them outside, so we don’t have to sweep up the crumbs.

“Whew!” she said comically to Rennie as the children trailed out the door.

Rennie laughed. “You handled that awfully well.”

“You get used to handling them — children. It comes with practice. Are you doing teacher training?”

Rennie shook her head. “No, but I like children.”

“That’s obvious. And these two like you. One of my daughters was a teacher. She has a little boy, and wants two more children, but she intends to go back to work once the youngest starts school.”

“I must go,” Rennie said, glancing at the clock. Grant had made it so obvious that he expected her visit to take place when he wasn’t here, she didn’t want him to find her hanging about as though waiting for him when he got home.

“Where do you live?” Mrs Beddoe asked her.

“Meadowbank.”

“Whereabouts?”

Rennie explained more fully, and she said, “Oh, I pass by there on my way home. I could drop you off if you like. Mr Morrison will be home soon. I’ll just get their tea ready for him to serve up.”

It was a perfect excuse. Rennie allowed herself to be persuaded, and when Grant walked in half an hour later she was grating cheese while Mrs Beddoe put the finishing touch to a salad and the children set the table, Ellen putting out the knives and forks and Toby the plates, carefully straightening the cutlery as he did so.

Grant seemed pleased to see her, Rennie thought with relief. Then he was picking up Ellen and greeting Toby, and asking Mrs Beddoe how their day had been.

“And Rennie came to visit,” Ellen told him, interrupting the reassuring answer Mrs Beddoe was giving. “And she played in the sand with us, and read us stories and helped Mrs Beddoe put the groceries away.”

“Did she, indeed. And did you go out with Rennie?”

“No.” Ellen wriggled, her face closing, and he put her down.

“Ellen didn’t want to,” Toby said.

“I see.” Grant’s glance went from her to the two women.

Rennie said, “Perhaps Ellen and Toby would like to visit me again sometime soon?” Looking at Ellen, she said, “You could play in the tree hut again.”

Toby said, “Yes, please. The tree hut, Ellen!”

Ellen was silent.

“Would you like that, Ellen?” her father asked.

Ellen’s thumb went into her mouth.

Grant crouched down to her level. “Wouldn’t you like to go and see Rennie?”

Without removing her thumb, Ellen shook her head.

Grant looked up at the two women. “It seems we’ve got a problem,” he said softly.

Mrs Beddoe nodded. “Don’t push it,” she advised. “It’s probably best to take things slowly. I have to be off, Mr Morrison. I’m giving Rennie a lift. There’s shepherd’s pie for your tea. Just put it in the microwave when you’re ready. You can brown the cheese under the grill if you like, but keep an eye on it or it’ll burn.”

On the way home Rennie said, “Grant probably won’t ask, but — Mrs Beddoe, without going behind his back exactly, will you let me know if there’s anything I can do?”

“Inviting the children to visit you was a good idea. They’ve obviously had a good time at your place before, and Toby wants to go. He might even bully Ellen into it. A nice lad, but he’s a little manager, isn’t he, and seems to feel responsible for his sister.”

“More so since they lost their mother, I think.”

“Quite likely. Everyone reacts differently to grief, even children. And Mr Morrison — “

“What about him?”

“I don’t know him well, of course. But it seems to me he’s a man who would push his own feelings aside instead of dealing with them, while he takes care of everyone else’s problems. He seems to be coping almost too well with his wife’s death. In my experience that’s sometimes not a good sign.”

“They were divorced,” Rennie said.

“Yes, he told me. He was frank about the family’s circumstances, because of the children. Said I needed to know. Still, she was their mother. And when two people have been married — divorce can’t change what they’ve already shared. Some people, of course, end up hating each other. That’s tragic.”

“He didn’t hate her,” Rennie said. He had spoken with respect and regret of his ex-wife.

“No,” Mrs Beddoe agreed thoughtfully. “He doesn’t seem to be a vindictive man. When he talks about her he sounds quite dispassionate. ‘Their mother,’ he calls her to me. Shows no emotion about her at all. But he must feel something for her.”

Grant phoned again one Sunday and asked Marian if he could bring the children over.

“Of course,” she told him. “Rennie told me about the problem with Ellen. I’m glad she’s decided to come.”

When they arrived, Toby barely asked for permission before making straight for the tree hut, calling over his shoulder, “Come on, Ellen.”

But Ellen wouldn’t leave her father until he offered to take her into the garden. Once persuaded to climb into the hut and join her brother, she kept peeking out to make sure that Grant was still within calling distance.

Rennie joined him where he sat on a garden seat built around the trunk of an old tree.

He smiled at her. “It’s progress of a sort,” he said. “This is the first time I’ve been able to get Ellen to leave the house. Even at home she’s constantly checking where I am. And Toby. I guess she isn’t sure any more that anyone’s going to be around forever.”

“Mrs Beddoe said she’ll get over it.”

“I was lucky to find that woman. I’d hoped to get someone to live in, but the only applicants who were willing had children of their own. I felt that at this stage my two needed somebody’s undivided attention.”

“Daddy?” Ellen’s anxious face looked out of the tree hut doorway, and Grant gave her a reassuring wave.

“Looks like I’m stuck here for a while,” he said to Rennie. “I hope your parents don’t think me terribly rude.”

“Of course not. They understand.”

“If you want to go in…”

“No, I’m fine here.” It was a pleasantly warm day, and there was a bee buzzing among the daisies on the lawn, and a few tiny blue-grey moths teetered on blades of grass. Time Shane did some mowing. “I could bring you a drink if you’d like one.”

Grant shook his head. “I’m all right.”

Hesitantly she asked, “Do you remember what I told you, about the time they were playing with my doll’s house?”

He looked up tiredly. “Yes. I mentioned it to Jean. I thought maybe she might have inadvertently let some of her resentment against me show — “

“What did she say?”

“She was angry at the suggestion. And angry that someone else had picked up that the children were bothered. Just as I was,” he admitted, giving her a faint, apologetic smile. “But when we’d settled our own emotions, we talked to the children, together. I hope it got through. I don’t really know.”

“I wouldn’t have brought it up again, but — “

“I know. Jean’s death could make it all worse. They have their father back, at the cost of losing their mother.”

“How are you coping?” she dared to ask him. “Emotionally?”

He looked down at her with a hint of amusement. “You’re not studying psychology, are you?”

She met his eyes defiantly. “I’m expressing a friendly interest, not writing a thesis. You do have emotions, don’t you?”

His eyebrows lifted. A faint spark lit his eyes, then was deliberately doused. “I don’t have any room to indulge them. The children and my job are my concern right now. That’s all I have time for.”

“Do you have any close friends you can talk to?”

Grant moved restlessly. “Look, I’m not into baring my soul to anyone, Rennie. I know you mean well, but I’m accustomed to shouldering my own burdens, thanks. I don’t need to share them out among my long-suffering friends, who have troubles of their own.”

“Well, if you need an extra shoulder — “

He touched hers lightly with one hand. “This one? Thanks, but it would be grossly unfair. And unnecessary. How’s the jobhunting?”

“No good. Too many students after too few temporary jobs.”

“Your father doesn’t have a space in his office?”

“He’s already given me some of the field experience I need for my course credits. But I don’t want to rely on him. I’d like to be able to find a place myself, maybe even do something a bit different for a change, rather than law. Widen my experience. Meantime Mum says it’s nice to come home every night to a meal cooked by someone else, anyway.”

“I can appreciate that. I like having Mrs Beddoe do the cooking and cleaning. That’s one burden I don’t mind offloading.”

After the children were persuaded to come inside for drinks, and Toby was engrossed in a book of aeroplanes which Rennie’s father had found among the books in the lounge, Rennie asked Ellen casually if she would like to see the doll’s house again. When Grant made to rise, she gave him a covert warning with her eyes, and he stayed where he was as she held out her hand to Ellen.

The little girl took it, gave Grant an uncertain glance, and then went with Rennie.

“You can play with it if you like,” Rennie told her, but Ellen shook her head, clinging to Rennie’s hand, and just gazed at the doll’s house, her thumb in her mouth.

“That’s okay,” Rennie said after a minute or so. “Would you like me to read you a story?”

Ellen nodded, and Rennie showed her the small collection of specially loved childhood books she could not bring herself to part with. Ellen chose a thick illustrated volume of fairy tales, and snuggled comfortably up to Rennie on the bed through two stories before she became restless and Rennie said, “Shall we go and find your Daddy?”

Ellen nodded, wriggling off the bed and trotting to the door. When they appeared again in the other room, Grant looked up enquiringly and Rennie gave him a reassuring smile as Ellen clambered onto his knee.

“I want to go home now,” she announced.

Grant gave Marian an apologetic smile and said, “Okay, Moppet. Say thank you to Mrs Langwell. You ready, Toby?”

He added his own thanks, and as Rennie walked to the car with him, the two children going on ahead, he said, “It went better than I expected. You did wonderfully well with Ellen.”

“I’m sure she’ll come right if she’s not forced. It must have helped that they’d been here before, so it wasn’t totally unfamiliar territory. And she knew you were nearby.”

“It’s a big step forward. Thanks.” He brushed his lips against her cheek before stepping forward to unlock the car.

On Wednesday evening Rennie went to a film with a group of friends. She came home to find a note on the telephone pad in Shane’s scrawled hand. ‘Call Grant Morrison.’

She had stayed in town for a late supper, and it was after eleven. Shane’s room was in darkness, and when she peeked in he was a humped, still shape in the bed. If she shook him awake he wouldn’t be pleased, and probably couldn’t tell her any more. She would have to wait until morning.

She phoned Grant’s number at eight o’clock.

“Thank heaven!” he exclaimed. “Rennie, are you still looking for a job?”

“Yes. You’ve heard of something?”

“You might say that. Mrs Beddoe’s daughter in Christchurch has had an accident — she’s in hospital with broken bones and some internal injuries. It isn’t clear yet how bad. Naturally Mrs Beddoe wants to get down there as soon as possible, but she’s anxious about Toby and Ellen. We both think it could be disastrous for Ellen to bring in another stranger when she’s hardly had time to get used to Mrs Beddoe. She suggested you might step in. I wonder — “