A Family Scandal (8 page)

Stan brightened up. This was going better. ‘He’d really enjoy that, wouldn’t he? I know he still misses having James next door.’

Jenny nodded. ‘He does. And Mavis wouldn’t mind.’

‘We’ll do that, then, as soon as we can. When the weather gets a bit warmer.’ Stan gave her a smile. ‘I’ll have to do a few trips first and then I’ll get to know where the best places are. We haven’t been away just the two of us since our honeymoon, have we?’

Jenny giggled. ‘How could we? First we had no money then along came Greg and our lives were never the same after that.’ She looked up at him. ‘Maybe this new job won’t be so bad after all, Stan Bonner. We could have a second honeymoon.’

He gave her a look. ‘We could. We could have a whole series of them. Fancy a bit of practice, Mrs Bonner?’ He stroked her face and noticed how her eyes lit up.

She slapped his thigh. ‘Nice try, Stan, but you’ll have to wait. Like I said, I reckon Greg’s still awake. And I know he’s growing up fast but there are some things he shouldn’t know about just yet.’ She didn’t trust the soundproofing in this house, solid though the walls were. ‘Shall we see what’s on the telly?’

‘Suppose so,’ said Stan, releasing her. He stretched out. He could wait if he had to – he knew Jenny was as keen as he was. ‘Is
Dixon of Dock Green
on?’

‘That’ll have finished.’ Jenny waited for the set to warm up. ‘Or we could just listen to some music. Pass me the
Radio Times
.’

Stan got up and put his arms around her, nuzzling her neck. ‘I don’t care. I’m only waiting till I can get you upstairs.’

‘Shhh, what if Greg hears you saying that?’ But Jenny knew he wouldn’t. She hugged her husband. A second honeymoon in Devon – wait till she told Mavis.

Chapter Eight

Rhona turned on to her side and watched the patterns change on the unfamiliar curtains as the orange streetlights threw shadows from the tree branches outside the window. The light slowly changed to the dull grey of dawn. She raised her arms over her head and stretched luxuriously, savouring the memories of the night before. Gary had been everything she’d hoped for, passionate and considerate and the most exciting man she’d ever been with. They’d spent all Sunday afternoon in bed, then managed to go to a fish and chip shop round the corner for a quick bite to eat, before falling back into bed again and staying up half the night. She’d only had a few hours’ sleep but she felt wonderful. Idly she tried to work out just how long she’d slept … oh no.

It must be Monday morning. Slowly the cogs turned in her brain and she realised she was meant to be at the factory in Peckham in half an hour and she was still in Gary’s bed, in his flat near Finsbury Park, the other side of the city. She was going to be in deep trouble. Penny might cover for her for a short while but she wouldn’t be able to do so for long. Jean would notice at once, and the loathsome foreman Mr Forsyth had been making a point of turning up at the start of their shift and making sarky comments. She still hadn’t been forgiven for dumping creepy Andy.

Rhona swore under her breath and heaved herself out of bed. The bedroom was cold. There was a one-bar electric fire in the corner but she didn’t have time to switch it on. Blindly she groped around for her clothes and struggled into them. They’d raise a few eyebrows at the factory but there was no way she could waste more time by going home to change first. She’d just have to hope she could get her overall on before everyone noticed her low-cut top.

Gary stirred. ‘Morning, doll. Make us a cup of tea, will yer?’

Rhona groaned. What a romantic way to start the day. ‘I can’t,’ she hissed. ‘I’m late for work, I’ve got to run.’

‘Nah, babe, come back to bed and I’ll make you forget all that,’ said Gary, and she could just about make out in the gloom that he was opening his arms to her. It was very tempting. But she thought of her mother’s face if she got the sack and forced herself to zip up her boots.

‘Got to go.’ She kissed the top of his head. ‘Thanks for a fab weekend. See you Wednesday?’

Gary half-sat up and kissed her back. ‘Wednesday it is, babe. See you then.’

As she opened the bedroom door a shaft of light from the landing showed her that he’d already curled up to go back to sleep. She wished she could stay with him, spend the day with him, messing around in bed, playing his guitar and making the world go away. Reality was waiting for her in the shape of a freezing cold morning and crowded buses all along the Seven Sisters Road. Grimly she reached for her purse and forced herself to walk as far as the bus stop, where she shivered in her thin mac, designed for looking good, not keeping warm.

Finally she managed to get on a bus and wedge herself into a seat, next to a middle-aged man in a suit who looked at her with barely veiled contempt. She could feel the disapproval rising off him. Miserable old git, she thought. Then she smiled to herself. Bet I’ve had more fun this weekend than you’ve had in your entire life. Bet I’ve done things you didn’t even know were possible. She couldn’t help giggling and quickly smothered it, pretending to cough. The man edged away from her, an even more disdainful expression on his thin face. Rhona didn’t care. It gave her more room. Her thoughts drifted back to the night before and she sat daydreaming happily as the windows fogged up and the overcrowded bus made its slow way down the busy road.

‘What time do you call this?’ Jean hissed as, over an hour later, Rhona eventually made it to her shift. The only good thing was she’d got to her locker and into her overall before anyone could spot what she had on underneath – or, more like, what she didn’t have on.

‘I was delayed,’ said Rhona, trying to keep a straight face.

Jean stared at her. ‘Come on, you can do better than that.’

‘Well, it’s true, I was,’ said Rhona, unable to stop herself from smiling. ‘Oh, all right, I had further to come this morning and got the timing all wrong. I got here as fast as I could. Don’t take on.’

‘It’s not me you’ve got to worry about,’ said Jean, retying her scarf tightly. ‘And you smell of drink again. For God’s sake go to the ladies and tidy yourself up. A few more minutes won’t make any difference now, the damage has been done. Your absence has been noted. You’ll be on a warning, and it’ll be worse if Forsyth sees you in a mess like that.’

‘OK, thanks.’ Rhona dashed for the door to the ladies.

Sure enough Mr Forsyth strode over to her as the bell rang for the mid-morning tea break.

‘Miss Foster. My office, now, if you please.’ He strutted off, full of his own importance, which left Rhona little choice but to follow him. She pulled a face and smoothed down her overall.

‘Wish me luck,’ she said to Penny. Jean heard her.

‘He won’t sack you now, surely, not in the middle of a shift. I don’t know how we’ll get everything finished if we’re a person short.’

‘We’ll soon find out, won’t we,’ said Rhona nonchalantly and strode off after the foreman, a little unsteadily in her high-heeled boots.

Lily groaned as she dropped the heavy laundry basket on to the paving slabs. What with all the upheaval of moving she hadn’t managed to do the washing for ages and now she was paying the price. Her arms ached with the weight of it but at least she finally had a decent length of line on which to hang it all. Pete had put that up as a priority. It had been threatening to rain first thing this morning but now it was brightening up and there was a good breeze, even though it was cold. Still, it was too good an opportunity to miss and now she’d got it all done and had run it through the wringer, there was a decent chance it would get dry enough to iron later. She reached for her peg bag and noticed that her new neighbour was doing the same thing next door.

Lily had seen people going in and out of the houses around her but hadn’t had time to meet any of them. She’d had her ups and downs with neighbours over the years and wasn’t in a hurry to get to know the new ones. Back when Mavis was young she’d thought her next door neighbour was a good friend but she’d turned out to be a judgemental gossip who’d spread rumours about her relationship with Pete. So even though they were a legitimately married couple now, she was still wary of rushing into anything. On the other hand, here was a chance to make an acquaintance.

‘Morning,’ she said brightly, going over to the fence that divided the two back gardens. ‘Good day for it, isn’t it?’

‘Might be if it doesn’t come in to rain again,’ said the woman on the other side, her expression sour. ‘I don’t trust it to keep dry.’

‘Lily Culling.’ Lily introduced herself, wondering if the woman was always this miserable.

‘Muriel Burns.’ The woman nodded – they couldn’t exactly shake hands as the fence was in the way. ‘You just moved in, then?’

‘Yeah, that’s right,’ said Lily. ‘Got here Friday before last. Takes a while to get it all sorted out, doesn’t it?’

‘I wouldn’t know,’ said Muriel. ‘I was born in this house and never lived anywhere else. When I got married to my Reggie, he moved in with me and Mum and Dad. Now they’re dead and buried it’s just us.’

‘It’s a big place for just two of you,’ Lily said. ‘We done this place up into a couple of flats.’

‘I know,’ said Muriel. ‘I heard. I couldn’t hardly have missed it.’ She gave Lily a hostile glare.

Lily ignored it. ‘Me and Pete got the lower flat, with our little boy Bobby, and my grown-up daughter, Mavis, has the upper one with her two kids. They’re old enough for school now.’

Muriel looked interested for the first time. ‘Oh, is that little boy yours? I’ve seen him out here playing, from the kitchen window. I just assumed he was the little brother of the other two.’ She peered at Lily more closely. ‘Surprise, was he?’

Lily bristled. ‘He was someone we waited a long time for,’ she replied, although the truth was nobody had been more surprised than her to find she was pregnant again in her mid-forties. ‘He’s our little angel.’ She shot a direct look at her neighbour.

‘I’m sure he is.’ Muriel didn’t seem convinced. ‘Come far, have yer? Where was you before?’

‘Oh not far. Just a bit north of here, still in Peckham, but once we were blessed with Bobby the place was too small. Then Mavis needed a larger place too what with her kids getting bigger, so it made sense for us all to come in together and yet have our own space. It was the ideal solution,’ preened Lily, sure that Muriel couldn’t possibly find fault with it.

She had a good try, though. ‘Bit odd your daughter having kids older than your son, isn’t it?’ she asked. ‘Don’t they find it funny? I bet they get teased for it at school.’

‘Not at all.’ Lily shook her head. ‘Mavis’s two love Bobby, and help to look after him. He looks up to them and plays with them. It’s good for him to have older kids around him, it makes him more grown-up for his age.’

‘Hasn’t Mavis got a husband, then?’ asked Muriel.

Blimey, thought Lily, the blasted woman had been paying close attention. She’d probably been taking notes. ‘No, Alec isn’t with us anymore,’ she said, injecting a note of sadness into her voice and daring the woman to question exactly what that meant. ‘Still, they’ve got Pete and they love him, so they won’t miss out.’

‘Very fortunate, I’m sure,’ said Muriel. ‘Well I can’t say I’m sorry that your building work is finished. It drove me round the bend, all the banging and drilling. There should be a law against it.’

‘All finished now,’ said Lily brightly, thinking that she’d have to start hammering in nails for pictures to annoy the woman in payment for her unkind comments.

‘Glad to hear it,’ said Muriel. ‘Right, I’m done here. I’m gonna get back indoors. Pleased to meet you I’m sure.’

She turned and hurried back through her kitchen door before Lily could say anything else. The grumpy woman looked anything but pleased.

Chapter Nine

‘Oh, it’s nice here.’ Rhona looked around Mavis’s living room with approval. ‘You’ve got it looking lovely already. It’s nice to see the picture you sketched of James and Grace on display.’

Mavis glanced at the little sketch which Tommy had insisted she framed. She’d done it quickly, she remembered, but there was something about it that captured the characters of the children and she was quietly proud of it.

‘Now that you’ve got all this space, it must be easier for you to work from home. Are you still getting plenty of orders?’

‘Yes, quite a few, and though I’ve insisted that I pay rent for this flat, Mum and Pete won’t take much, just a couple of pounds,’ Mavis said, finding that she had a little more money to spare nowadays. She earned money by doing sketches of children, and had started with just those at Grace’s playschool. Then, thanks to word of mouth and a bit of local advertising, the orders grew. She now offered a framing service too, which gave her a decent profit, and though it didn’t happen very often, she occasionally got a commission to do an adult portrait which paid well.

‘You could do a sketch of me. I’ve got someone who might like to have it.’ Rhona grinned, throwing herself down on her friend’s new sofa and resting her head on one of the crocheted cushions that had been a moving-in present from Jenny Bonner.

Mavis sat down beside her. ‘Is that the young man you were talking about before we left? Andy, wasn’t it?’

‘God, no. He’s off the scene.’ Rhona pulled a face. ‘He was a waste of time.’

‘Wasn’t he your boss’s son or something?’ asked Mavis, concerned.

‘His nephew. I should have known they’d be alike once I got to know him. Old Forsyth has put me on a final warning, just because I’ve been late a few times. His nephew was useless and had wandering hands, and not in a good way so I gave him the push.’

‘Won’t that cause trouble at work?’

‘No more than I’m in already. Anyway that seems like ages ago and I’ve met a real dreamboat now.’ Rhona’s expression changed. ‘He’s not like all the others, Mavis. You’d like him. It’s why I haven’t been round before, ’cos I see him most of the weekends and in the week if we can manage it, only he lives up in North London so it’s not so easy. But he’s gorgeous, I mean, just like Brian Jones, and he wears dead trendy clothes, and he’s teaching me the guitar. All right, a chord or two anyway. He’s a musician, well, he has to work in an office at the moment, but that’s only till he gets his big break. That’s bound to be soon, he’s so talented. He’s really special.’ Her eyes shone.