The September Girls (18 page)

A few minutes later, she called him. ‘Colm? Colm? Tea’s made.’

He huddled down on the bucket in an attempt to make himself invisible, but minutes later she appeared, dressed in one of her smart outfits and looking extremely pretty and highly amused.

‘Colm!’ she laughed. ‘Oh, poor Colm! You’re embarrassed, aren’t you, after what happened on Saturday?’

‘Yes,’ he admitted.

‘There’s no need to be. We didn’t do anything to be ashamed of.’

‘
I
did.’ Colm scowled. ‘I happen to be a married man.’

‘We made love, Colm, that’s all. What difference can that make to your marriage?’

‘Me wife’s found out, for one thing and, for another, it’s just not right. I’ve broken one of the Ten Commandments.’ He hadn’t exactly coveted another man’s wife because Lizzie wasn’t married, but it felt like a sin all the same.

‘Oh, dear!’ She fetched another bucket and sat beside him, not appearing the least concerned. Her legs, glistening in their fine silk stockings, were almost touching his. ‘Is your wife cross?’

‘You could say that,’ he replied sardonically, edging his legs away.

She put her head on one side and looked at him curiously. ‘I’m a believer in free love. I can never understand why people make such a fuss if their partner sleeps with someone else. What we did didn’t mean anything, it was just nice while it lasted and shouldn’t make any difference to your marriage.’

‘Well, it has,’ he growled.

‘Would you like me to see your wife and explain things?’ she offered.

He managed a grin. ‘I don’t think that’s such a good idea.’ He didn’t even try to imagine what Brenna’s reaction would be if Lizzie turned up on the doorstep.

‘Oh, well.’ She stood. ‘I’d better get back to work. There’s tea made in the kitchen if you want it. I expect you’d prefer it if I never came again.’

‘It’s
your
house. I’m not the one to say whether you should come or go.’

‘I was only coming for you. I fancied you, Colm, the minute I set eyes on you, but I don’t want you eating your sandwiches outside in the depths of winter because you’re too embarrassed to face me.’

By God, she was a forward woman! To actually tell him that she fancied him! In other words, she’d set out to seduce him right from the start. He grudgingly admired her nerve, but wished it had been some other unlucky chap she’d fancied and not him.

‘Tara, Colm.’ She tripped away, but seconds later was back. ‘You know,’ she said seriously, ‘you should do something with that brain of yours. It’s wasted working for me dad. Read more books, study, broaden your mind. It’s said that knowledge is a dangerous thing, but only by those with power and money because they don’t want people like you and me to understand what’s going on in the world in case we try to do something about it. I hope you join the Labour Party: you’ll be an asset, and you won’t find me there. I’ve decided to join the Communists instead.’ And with that, Lizzie Phelan disappeared. It would be twenty years before they met again.

 

Eleanor approached a letting agency and found a house with relative ease, although it was rather larger than she’d wanted. The smaller houses were in poor areas where she wouldn’t dream of living - she had no intention of walking down the yard to the lavatory and couldn’t survive without a bathroom. She settled on a four-bedroom semi-detached house in Tigh Street, a small cul-de-sac off Princes Drive. It had a greenhouse at the back that was full of mysterious-looking plants and had been occupied by an accountant who had recently retired to the countryside. The property company had had the place decorated from top to bottom before reletting. They weren’t the colours Eleanor would have chosen, but would do.

After signing the five-year rental agreement, she went to Frederick & Hughes for coffee and to think about the enormous thing she’d just done. Very soon - and it would have to be soon because the bump in her stomach was becoming more apparent by the day - she would be living alone for the first time in her life, a terrifying thought, but it would only be until the baby came along. It reminded her that she must see a doctor - not Dr Langdon - and make arrangements to go into a nursing home when her time came.

The coffee finished, she signalled for the bill and the waitress brought it over. To her consternation, she discovered she had just enough money in her purse to pay and she’d intended purchasing a supply of headache tablets and witch hazel and cotton wool to make pads for her eyes when the headaches were at their worst - one was thumping away behind her eyes at this very minute. She had an account with Frederick & Hughes, but they didn’t have a chemist’s department. It meant money would have to be drawn out of the bank, something she hadn’t done in ages. There was always enough left to buy odds and ends from the allowance Marcus gave her to settle the less important household bills.

She entered the dark interior of the bank and presented a withdrawal cheque for the sum of twenty pounds, having realized she would need money to buy things for the house - not every shop accepted cheques and she would need cash for the smaller items.

The man behind the counter smiled. ‘Please take a seat, Mrs Allardyce. I’ll be with you in a moment.’ It was a good five minutes before he returned and counted out the money twice before putting it in an envelope and pushing it under the grill. ‘Be careful with that, won’t you, Mrs Allardyce? It’s a lot of money for a lady to be carrying round.’

‘I’m sure I shall manage,’ she replied coolly, thinking him rather patronizing.

Home again, she saw Daniel’s coat on the hallstand and could hear Nancy in the kitchen preparing dinner. The pram was in the hall: earlier, Nurse Hutton must have taken Sybil for a walk. It would seem the house could run quite well without her in every respect. Other people looked after her children, another woman made the meals, yet more women cleaned and washed on her behalf. There was very little that Eleanor actually
did
.

She went up to her room, undressed down to her petticoat, made the pads for her eyes and lay on the bed, feeling that at least she’d done something terribly brave in renting a house and taking care of her own destiny for a change. Half asleep, she heard Daniel leave and Nancy shout from the kitchen, ‘Is Eleanor back?’

‘I think I heard her go into her room earlier,’ Nurse Hutton replied.

‘Me want milk,’ Sybil yelled.

‘Milk,
please
,’ the nurse admonished.

‘Me want milk,
pleath
.’

‘That’s a good girl. Shall we go downstairs and ask Nancy for some?’

‘Yeth,
pleath
.’

Marcus came home and shortly afterwards the gong went for dinner. Eleanor couldn’t have eaten a thing. Despite the pads on her eyes, her headache felt worse than ever. She blamed Daniel. Until the fateful conversation in his rooms, she’d been free from headaches for months. She ignored the gong, knowing that Nancy would come to investigate her non-appearance at the dinner table. A minute later, Nancy did, knocking softly on the door before she opened it.

‘What’s the matter, pet?’

‘I’ve got one of my heads. I don’t feel like eating.’

‘Do you want some tablets?’

‘I’ve already taken some, but they haven’t worked.’ She suspected she’d taken too many and it was why she felt so sleepy.

‘You poor lamb!’ Nancy clucked. ‘I’ll just close the curtains. It’s turned dead horrible outside. Can you hear that wind? It’s just started to rain and I’ve got a meeting tonight. I’ll be leaving straight after dinner. Oh, and Fergus is late. Colm’s taken him and Tyrone to see a bonfire somewhere, although it’s not exactly the weather for it. He’ll be round later.’

‘Is it Friday?’ It must be if Fergus was coming.

‘Yes, and Guy Fawkes’ Night an’ all. We should have got some sparklers for Anthony and Sybil. They’d have loved them.’

‘Maybe we could get some tomorrow?’ She’d wondered what the strange banging and whistling noises were, had thought they belonged to the dreams she seemed to be drifting in and out of.

‘Maybe. Look, pet, I’ll have to go. Himself will have finished the soup by now and be wondering what’s to follow.’

‘Bye, Nancy,’ Eleanor said lazily. Despite the pain in her head, she was faintly enjoying the sensation of being suspended between dreams and reality. More time passed, but it could have been minutes or hours, she had no idea. She was asleep again when the door of her room swung up. Before she could move, it was slammed shut and the sound almost made her skull split in two. The light went on. Marcus was standing at the foot of the bed. Eleanor had never seen him look so angry. She sat up and backed away until she was pressed against the headboard and could go no further.

‘Why did you draw twenty pounds out of the bank today?’ he demanded.

‘How on earth do you know that?’

‘A cashier rang to advise me that my wife was about to withdraw a large sum of money. There was nothing he could do to stop you, but he thought I should know.’

Her fear gave way to indignation. ‘That’s my own private account. It has nothing to do with you, or the cashier, how I make use of it.’

‘I’m your husband, Eleanor. I’m entitled to know what you’re up to. What was the money for?’ He came close, bending over her, his eyes glittering with rage. ‘What’s it for, Eleanor?’

‘It’s none of your business,’ she stammered.

‘Oh, yes it is. Is it for your paramour, for Daniel? Are you paying him to sleep with you?’

‘Don’t be silly, Marcus.’ She shivered - he’d brought a waft of cold air in with him - and got off the bed the other side. She pushed her feet into slippers and went to fetch a dressing gown from behind the door. She was halfway there when Marcus hissed, ‘You slut! You’re expecting his child,’ and she realized her thin petticoat emphasized the swell of her stomach where Daniel’s baby lay.

‘Yes, I am,’ she said. It was all she could think of.

With two bounds, he was across the room and had slapped her face, hard. She screamed and he slapped her again. ‘You slut!’ he repeated. He shook his head and looked at her, perplexed, as if she’d been an exceptionally naughty child. ‘What am I to do with you?’

Her head was ringing from the blows. She forgot about the dressing gown and made her way towards a chair and gingerly sat down. She’d been there for no more than a second, when Marcus dragged her to her feet, his hand an iron band around her arm, hurting badly. ‘Is the money to get rid of it?’ he rasped, his face only inches from hers.

‘
No
.’ It hadn’t crossed her mind to get rid of her baby. She plucked up every bit of courage she possessed. ‘I’m going to leave you, Marcus,’ she said unsteadily. ‘I already have a house and the money is to buy things for it.’

‘You’re going to live with
him
?’ His face went livid and the hand on her arm tightened. ‘What will people think? You’ll be exposing me to the world as a cuckold.’

‘I shan’t be living with Daniel,’ she said weakly. ‘I intend to live alone.’

His eyes popped. ‘Alone?’

‘I think I will be happier alone than with you.’

‘You’re not taking the children.’ He was blustering now and seemed to have lost some of his composure.

‘I hadn’t planned on taking the children. They’ll be better off with Nurse Hutton and Nancy - and you.’

He released her arm and began to walk around the room, lips working, as if he was about to speak, yet nothing came. He was rattled. She was wondering why when the awareness came that he didn’t want her to leave. She’d come with the house, one of the contents that he prized so much, like the gold watch that had belonged to her father, its thick chain draped across his chest, and the signet ring with a single diamond that had once gleamed on her father’s finger but now gleamed on his. All these things, Eleanor included, went towards the image he liked to present to the world. Five minutes ago, he had come storming in, prompted by the cashier in the bank, to have a flaming row, forbid her to see Daniel again and reduce her to a pathetic wreck as he had done so many times in the past, not for a moment expecting her to say she was leaving him.

‘Look, Eleanor,’ he ran his fingers through his hair, suddenly reasonable, ‘look, I’ll accept the baby as my own, but Daniel will have to go, naturally, and I’ll engage another tutor. Then I shall forget this ever happened and we’ll return to the way we were before.’

‘I never cared for the way things were before, Marcus,’ she said coolly, although she felt anything but cool. Earlier that day, when she’d signed the rental agreement, she had tasted freedom and the taste was still in her mouth. What’s more, she knew his reasonable manner would be gone within a week, it was inevitable, and then she’d have to be punished for the sin of sleeping with another man and carrying his child. Knowing Marcus as she did, the punishment could continue for the rest of her life and her child might be punished most of all.

‘What do you want from me, Eleanor?’ he demanded. She could tell that his anger was mounting again.

‘Nothing.’ She shrugged. ‘Absolutely nothing.’ She was leaving and he couldn’t do anything to stop her.

It might have been the ‘nothing’, or it might have been the shrug that made him completely lose control. Unexpectedly, he grabbed her and propelled her towards the door, ‘In that case, if you’re going to leave, you can do it now!’

‘But Marcus . . .’ She was still in her petticoat and tried to grab the door as he pushed her through, but her hands just slipped away. ‘Nancy! Nancy!’ she screamed, as he dragged her downstairs.

‘You won’t get any help from that quarter,’ Marcus laughed. ‘She’s out.’

‘What’s going on?’ Nurse Hutton had come out of Sybil’s room.

‘Mind your own business, Nurse. It has nothing to do with you.’

‘But Mr Allardyce!’

Marcus ignored her. By then, they were at the foot of the stairs, Eleanor struggling all the way, but her strength was barely half his. He opened the front door and flung her outside. Fireworks lit up the sky, and the rain was pouring down. She stumbled down the steps, sat at the bottom and began to cry.