When Sorry Is Not Enough (25 page)

‘About what?’

‘The ramshackle house three up from you.’

Sally, who wasn’t sitting down, advanced over to the window and she looked towards the house in question. The ‘For Sale’ notice was still in evidence.

Turning back to face Benny she remarked, ‘Can’t tell you much about it except it requires a lot of attention. Mind you, it could be changed into a beautiful home or guest house. Plenty of business around here except in November and early December. But why do you ask?’

Looking at Nancy and Benny, anyone could see that they were like two children on Christmas Eve waiting expectantly for Santa Claus.
Oh no
, thought Sally,
please don’t tell me they think they could afford that house. Yes it is broken down but property in this part of Joppa was always sought after.
She grimaced when she remembered that the price paid for the last house for sale had resembled Monopoly money.

Benny went over to the window before answering. ‘Sally, we’re going to put in an offer.’

‘Eh?’

‘Yeah.’

‘But would you get a mortgage for the amount you’ll have to pay?’

Nancy preened. ‘We don’t need to borrow money. All his life Benny has saved. Never squandered a penny he hasn’t.’

‘You really have enough to buy it?’ Sally gasped.

Nancy and Benny nodded in unison to her.

‘The only thing that’s stopping us is … Sally, you have been so good to me. If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t be marrying my Benny and getting a home of my own and a wee business. Having said that it means, and Benny and I have talked it over and he wants me to,’ she paused before murmuring, ‘give up working in the pub. Let you down.’

‘Oh, Nancy, my dear, I’m delighted for you. And just think, we will still be able to be working together. I can see it all, there will be us sending each other paying guests that we cannot put up. Doing holiday switches.’ Sally was elated. This was more than she had hoped for Nancy. And sure was it not what Nancy deserved, to be loved and cared for by Benny who would also be providing her with a grand house of her own?

Taking centre stage in the middle of the lounge, Sally, gesturing with open hands, looked directly at Nancy and stated, ‘Go for it, Nancy. They say things go in threes and they have this day. Irish is free and on his way back to Ireland. Luke is holed upstairs in his room with the love of his life, Spring. And now you and Benny are going to own a guest house. Isn’t life just so wonderful?’

Angela, who was looking out of the window, let out a whoop. ‘Aw well, Aunty Sally,’ she chuckled, ‘your run of good luck may be coming to an end, for a taxi has just dropped off my mother.’

Sally’s facial expression quickly changed from delight to concern.

It was true that Sally had made up her mind about some changes that she wished to make to her life. These changes would have a profound effect upon Josie and it had been Sally’s intention to speak to Josie in a day or two but she had the feeling that Josie had something that she wished to impart to her that may change everything.

Josie waited until she had Sally to herself in the kitchen before she haltingly said, ‘Sally, I know I gave you a promise not to get mixed up with a man again until …’

‘Not another half-baked gigolo?’

‘No. No. You remember that liquor traveller from Melrose Drover that you liked.’

‘Colin Jackson. But is he not retired now?’

‘Oh,’ blustered Josie, ‘he’s not that old. He doesn’t retire until next week.’

‘So he is sixty-five.’ Josie nodded. ‘And you’re forty five. Oh no, don’t tell me he wants to adopt you.’

‘What makes you say that?’

‘Because when his wife died five years ago he confided to me that they had both regretted not being able to have had children. He also said that he would have adopted but his wife wasn’t up for that.’

Josie, crestfallen, retorted, ‘No, he doesn’t want to adopt me. What he said was he was tired of trying to catch me between love affairs …’

‘How astute of him,’ chortled Sally.

Josie continued as if Sally had not interrupted, ‘And as time is marching on for both of us he’d like to put our relationship on a permanent footing.’

Sally would like to have commented on what Josie had just imparted to her but she was completely dumbfounded.

‘So, Sally, I’m afraid I have to break my promise. You have to accept that I’m going to allow him to court me and we will be married by Christmas. This means that I have to make changes …’

Collapsing down on a chair, Sally mumbled, ‘Are you saying that he wants you to stop working in the Four Marys?’

Tutting, Josie scoffed, ‘Of course not. The Four Marys is my life and I’m just too young to give up working.’ Josie preened. ‘I know people will think that I’m marrying Colin because he’s well heeled, as any sugar daddy should be. But, Sally, imagine it – after I sell my little house in Ryehill I’ll be moving into his five-roomed luxury,’ and she emphasised and lingered on the ‘l’ of luxury, ‘bungalow in Duddingston View no less.’

Thinking back to when Colin Jackson came into the Four Marys for his monthly order, Sally remembered how he always looked like a lovesick puppy when Josie was around. Wasn’t an older, mature man, a father figure, what Josie really required? She readily acknowledged that it was. At last she would have genuine love and security. Could Sally wish for anything else for her? No. It would work. It would need to work, she argued with herself, because she was getting too old to be forever sorting out Josie’s lost love affairs.

‘Sally, I’m waiting,’ Josie sharply butted in to Sally’s thoughts, ‘on what you have to say about Colin and me?’

‘Well, I’m so pleased. I’m bowled over. I’m sure I’m dreaming. And you won’t believe this but I have made up my mind about changes I wish to make to my life. The most important thing is I am going to give up the tenancies of The Royal Stuart and The Four Marys. With regard to the Four Marys I will suggest to the brewers that they transfer the tenancy to you. I was a bit wary but now with you having Colin to support you I am convinced that I am making the right decision.’

‘You’re giving up your pubs?’

‘Yes. Oh, I have loved them. They put me where I am today. I’ll miss Leith but it is just ten minutes away by car. And to be truthful, Portobello is worming its way into my heart. I love this guest house.’ Sally stopped to indicate with her outstretched hands how she felt about the house. ‘The mortgage is paid off,’ she jubilantly continued, ‘and the revenue this house brings in will more than keep me in comfort. Most importantly, Josie, it will give me time to be a good granny. You see I really objected to having to work so hard that I missed so much of my children’s growing up – I won’t make the same mistake with my grandchildren.’

Josie exhaled. ‘You know you were so lucky with Flora that the kids missed out on nothing.’ She sighed again. ‘And not only was she a good grandmother but she was the best mother-in-law you could have had.’

‘Yes, I know you’re right about that. And recently I’ve taken to wondering if I married Harry not because I was so much in love with him but that I needed a mother figure for Peter and me, and Flora … well … she was the epitome of a mother and nobody can deny that.’

‘Sally, Sally, where are you?’ Luke shouted.

‘In here with Josie,’ Sally replied.

When he came into the room Sally thought how much younger he looked since he had got engaged to Spring. She certainly was keeping him sprightly.

‘By the look of you two, you look as if you have just won the football pools,’ he remarked merrily.

‘Better than that. Our Josie has just decided to settle down and be a one-man woman.’

‘That’ll be the day,’ was Luke’s cheeky response. ‘Now, I just popped in to say Spring and I are just going up to Register House to see if we can track down Benny’s sister.’

‘You think you might be able to trace her there?’

‘Yes, Sally, they have records on us all. You can’t get born, marry or die without it being recorded there. And you never know, she just might have got hitched and it will be documented there.’

It was late in the evening before Luke and Spring returned. ‘Sorry we’re late back,’ Luke said to Sally.

‘I wondered where you’d got to. I knew for certain that the registry office closed around five at night.’

‘It does,’ exclaimed Spring, sinking down on an easy chair. ‘But you are never going to believe this. I had just said to Luke that my visit to Edinburgh would be complete if I could see a showing of the tattoo, when we bumped into your brother John.’

‘What has he to do with the tattoo? Besides, it doesn’t start until tomorrow.’

‘True he has nothing to do with putting on the tattoo but …’ Luke said, before he was interrupted by Spring.

Waggling her shoulders in delight she butted in with, ‘But he told us he is in the know with one of the officers down at Earl Haig House and hadn’t they just by chance given him some complimentary tickets for tonight’s dress rehearsal.’ Spring exhaled and simpered, ‘It was such a fabulous show. Honestly I was so taken with the march of the massed bands that I was up jigging in time to their music.’

‘Mmmm. Glad you enjoyed it, Spring.’ Turning to Luke she simpered, ‘And what about the investigation you were carrying out?’ Luke looked perplexed. ‘Surely you remember you left here to try and find Benny’s sister.’

‘Oh yeah, yeah,’ he replied, fishing in his pocket and bringing out a piece of paper. ‘Would you believe there are three Yvonne Turnbulls on this list? So I will try and follow them up tomorrow.’

Sally scanned the list. One which was listed illegitimate as the father was unknown, she dismissed immediately. That left two. Immediately she vowed to follow them up tomorrow if Luke was otherwise engaged. Looking at Spring, somehow she accepted that he would be.

It was midday when Sally found herself parked outside the small castle-like ancestral structure that stood within its own miniature estate on Duddingston Crescent, just a short five minutes drive from where she lived. In her bones she thought that this was very unlikely to be the place where she would discover Benny’s sister, Yvonne. She was tempted to drive off towards Clermiston, the other address on the list. However, she knew that if she drew a blank at Clermiston then there was no way she would ever find out what happened to Benny’s sister.

The traffic on Duddingston Crescent is always heavy, so to ensure she was not knocked down she decided to drive her car into the driveway.

She had just alighted when a young man came out of the front door. ‘Hope you’re on business here because my mum gets so pissed off when people use our driveway as a parking lot.’

Pissed off
, thought Sally.
Now is that really the kind of language that a young man sporting a prestigious Edinburgh University scarf should use?

Before she could engage the young lad in conversation he jumped on to a moped and sped off. Nothing else for it she thought and she rang the front doorbell.

When the door was opened and Sally was faced by a mature matron-like lady she swallowed hard. She did not require to be asking this woman if she was Yvonne Turnbull, the younger sister of one Benjamin Turnbull. Anyone could see that she and Benny were siblings.

‘I’m sorry, but if you’re selling anything I don’t buy on the doorstep.’

Sally shook her head. ‘No. No. I’m not selling. Look, could I come in because what I have to ask, or to be correct have to tell you, may be upsetting.’

The woman frowned but opening up the door a bit wider she indicated that Sally should enter.

Fifteen minutes later Sally had imparted to the woman most of Benny’s heart-rending story. She did not of course tell her about the sexual abuse he had suffered; only he had the right to divulge that secret.

Yvonne Turnbull or, to be correct, Marshall, as she had been known since she married Fraser Marshall, sat pensively. Her rosy cheeks had lost their pallor and she somehow looked bewildered and lost.

‘You do remember that you had a brother?’

Her lip trembled. She nodded.

‘He would have looked for you but he thought you wouldn’t wish to be reminded of … well you know … your early childhood. But I know he would like to meet up with you now.’

Yvonne breathed in deeply. ‘It’s not that easy. I was adopted and my new parents discouraged me from talking about my earlier years. In time I forgot. My husband and my children know nothing of my background. Don’t you see, I could hardly present a long-lost brother now? I just couldn’t. And you haven’t said, but I feel there is more to his story. Was he ever a convicted criminal?’

‘No. He was sinned against but that is his story to tell. He has now found happiness for the first time in his life with a woman … and I won’t lie to you here … who had a past – a past that has now been past tense for years.’ Sally could sense that instead of pacifying Yvonne her news was making her decidedly more uneasy. ‘Look, Yvonne, I may call you Yvonne?’ Yvonne nodded. ‘I just want to say that they’re getting married on Saturday. You would be very welcome to come and I do hope you can make it on his special day.’ Sally could see that Yvonne was wavering so she added, ‘You being there could make it even more than special. It’s being held at two o’clock down the road in the Rockville.’ Sally gave a nervous little laugh. ‘Would you believe it was to be a church service in St Philip’s, but Benny thought he would rather just be married in front of his guests at the restaurant. The minister, of course, will still be conducting the necessary rituals.’

An uneasy pause was broken when Yvonne said, ‘No. It’s too late.’ She stood to indicate to Sally that their meeting was definitely over.

Sally was just about to hear the outside door close behind her when Yvonne mumbled, ‘Thank you for coming. I did need to know that somehow he survived. Let’s face it, he’s in the last quarter of his life and he has managed to get there without knowing me so I just feel he will more than cope now he has … what is her name … ?’

‘Nancy.’

The door clicked shut.

The sun streaming through a gap in Sally’s bedroom curtains awakened her. A lovely sunny day, she said to herself as she stretched herself out on the bed, just what I prayed for. Oh yes, today we require brilliance all the way. She turned her head to look at the clock. Six thirty it registered.
Time I was up and about
, she told herself.