A Well Kept Secret (18 page)

“Mrs Brent is your late great uncle’s housekeeper; she’s very efficient, and keeps the place beautifully; but you had better mind your '
p's
and '
q's
with her; she might bite your head off!.”

“I don’t much like the sound of that; I bet she’s a right old dragon!”

“She is nothing of the sort young lady, and if I hear that you have been rude to her I shall be extremely upset.”

“Don’t be silly Dad, I was only teasing!”

“Maybe so, but I believe it is only fair to warn you that I don’t think she is too accustomed to dealing with people of your age, so take it easy with her. I don’t want to lose her services with you two tearaways to look after; she would be extremely hard to replace.”

“We will be the absolute models of good behaviour; won’t we Georgie?” she said innocently, and her friend almost choked trying not to giggle.

“I suppose there has to be a first time!” he grunted dubiously, and then smiled; it was all part of the banter that constantly passed between them, and now seemed doubly important since tragedy had robbed them of Alicia.

As he sat there watching the girls eat, listening to their endless chatter about the various doings at the school, the shortcomings of some of the staff, the wonder of a select few, as well as the inexplicable behaviour of some pupils, and the angelic qualities of others, he realised perhaps for the first time how, with passing of the years, he had missed so much of his own family. In a way he was seeing Beverley with new eyes, and he saw in her features the same gentleness mixed with the underlying strength that had so characterised her mother. He had never noticed it before, yet in a way he could now see Alicia shining out of her eyes, and it stirred him deeply.

He had been so busy with furthering the business he simply hadn’t realised how little he had seen of his only child. When she had been very small she was more often than not in bed when he eventually came home from his work, and when she was older she was away at school for much of the time, and even when she was home on holiday, he was often missing on business trips. Losing Alicia had been a terrible blow, and only now was it awakening him to the fact that childhood is but a fleeting phase, and it was all too easy to miss those vital years altogether. Alicia was gone, and grieving for her endlessly meant that he risked losing the best years of his daughter’s life as well. That realisation suddenly gave him a new purpose in life, and he was determined to leave no stone unturned to be both father and mother to her for as long as she needed it.

With the meal finally complete, they were soon on their way again, and at approximately four o’clock they drove in through the gates and up to the door of Springwater House. No sooner was the car at a standstill than the girls bounded out of the door, almost falling over themselves with excitement at what to them was something of an adventure. Martin stepped out of the car and went to the boot to retrieve the luggage, and at that moment the front door opened and June appeared. The girls immediately stopped their chattering and looked up at her expectantly.

“Hello June,” Martin said as he advanced with the cases. “This is my daughter Beverley,”

“Pleased to meet you, Mrs Brent,” said Beverley politely,

“And her friend Georgina Monkton,” Martin added, pointing to his daughter’s companion.

“Hello,” said Georgie, but in a quieter manner than her friend.

“Hello to you both,” the housekeeper responded with an unexpected welcoming smile that quite lit her face up. “I have been looking forward to seeing you; it will be nice to have some young people round the place. I have your room ready; I hope you don’t mind sharing?”

“No, we share the same dorm at school,” Beverley responded.

“Then I expect you would like to get out of your school uniforms right away and do a bit of exploring before tea wouldn’t you?”

“Yes please!” they chorused.

“I thought that you might,” she said, and Martin couldn't help but notice how that smile that had come so naturally had softened and changed her whole appearance. It was a revelation.
 
“If you would like to go up the stairs and take the first door to your left you will find your room,” she added, and then stepped to one side as the girls took her at her word and crossed the hall to race up the stairs two at a time.

“I’ll take the cases,” June said as the youngsters disappeared. “I have the room all prepared, and it shouldn’t take long to unpack.”

“Very well, you take these two, and I’ll bring the rest,” Martin responded, and suiting his words, he grabbed hold of the remaining luggage as he followed her back into the house. They crossed the hall and ascended the main staircase to the first floor. Walking behind her, he noticed that she had changed out of her usual drab clothing, and now wore a simple light skirt and blouse which served to confirm his earlier suspicion that in a quiet way, she was in fact quite an attractive woman. Then he noticed that not only had she changed her clothing, she had finally withdrawn her hair from its tightly held place at the back of her neck. He noted that it was in fact quite curly, and to his way of thinking the style suited her.

“Any problems?” he asked as they reached the landing.

“No, everything has gone very smoothly,” she answered. “I have laid in a reasonable supply of what I imagine youngsters would like to eat, the room is aired and the beds prepared. I put them in one room as I thought they would prefer to be together, but I will change this if you wish?”

“No, I’m sure you are right; they share a dorm at school anyway. Quite apart from that, if they are together, nobody else can get the wrong idea about things, if you get my meaning?”

She raised an interrogative eyebrow.

“A young girl in bed in a room on her own?” he said, “and me a widower?”

“I see,” she said, suddenly comprehending his meaning. “I admit I hadn’t thought of that.”

“Anyway,” he continued, “I have to confess I don’t know very much about children, I think I am likely to be relying upon you rather heavily for the time they are here. I hope you don’t mind?”

“Not in the least; I’m quite used to young people of all ages.”

She suddenly looked embarrassed as if she had inadvertently said more than she intended, and Martin wondered if that simple revelation meant she had a child of her own? It opened up all sorts of new possibilities concerning her background, unfortunately it was neither the time nor the place to pursue the matter further.

“Well, we can just drop their cases off and leave them to it for a few minutes to get changed,” he suggested, “then perhaps we can sort things out once they have gone exploring?”

“Very well,” she agreed.

The bedroom door was ajar, and as they entered they saw that the girls were examining everything in the room with interest.

“I hope you two are happy with this arrangement,” Martin said, dropping the cases he was carrying at the foot of one of the two single beds that occupied one wall of the room.

“This is great!” Beverley exclaimed. “It’s a lovely room, don’t you agree, Georgie?”

Georgie agreed heartily as June placed the remaining cases at the foot of the other bed.

“If you two would just like to get changed, we will put everything away for you a bit later,” she said, “and if you want the bathroom, it is just across the hallway.”

“Come on, Georgie,” Beverley cried excitedly as she kicked off her shoes, “I bet I’m ready before you are!”

“Right, we will leave you to it then,” Martin said hastily, and left the room in company with June and descended the stairs once more.

On reaching the ground floor, the housekeeper disappeared into the kitchen and Martin left by the front entrance to put the car away. As he returned to the house as few minutes later he saw the girls charging out in jeans and tee-shirts to go running off on their initial trip of exploration. He watched them vanish round the corner of the building, and then went in, closing the front door behind him. As he entered, he saw June ascending the stairs once again, and guessed that she was about to deal with the luggage. On impulse he fell in behind her.

“I will just pack their things away,” she explained, confirming what he had surmised, “and then I will get tea, I expect they will be hungry, and I’ve told them what time it will be served.”

He was pleased that she did not seem concerned that he was accompanying her on what was a purely domestic task.

“Beverley’s always hungry,” Martin commented, “and no doubt her friend Georgie will be much the same.”

They reached the landing and entered the bedroom where as anticipated the found cases open, and clothing strewn everywhere. June settled to the task of putting clothes in the dressing table and hanging coats and uniforms in the large old-fashioned wardrobe. Martin had very little idea what to do, and contented himself with just passing things over to her from time to time.

“You know, I never thought about toys or games,” he exclaimed suddenly. “I doubt there is a thing in this house that they will be able to amuse themselves’ with if the weather turns nasty. I tell you, it is now dawning on me that as a father I’m really no great shakes. I don’t seem to have the first idea about anything.”

“I think you will find that they are both a bit old for toys,” she observed. “If I’m any judge, they will be more into computers, pop music and boys.”

Martin looked at her in astonishment. “Boys?” he echoed in disbelief. “Beverley’s only a child; she’s not even thirteen yet!”

“If you don’t mind me saying, thirteen-year-olds today are a good deal more sophisticated now than they might have been when you were that age,” she responded, closing on e drawer and opening another as she continued with her task. “Maybe you still see Beverley as your little girl; I’ve seen her only once, and I can tell you the ‘little girl’ is fast slipping into history. She’s already developing quite a nice little figure, and I would be very surprised indeed if she hasn’t started to take an interest in the opposite sex.”

As if to illustrate her point she held up a small, carelessly discarded bra.

Martin was almost speechless. The thought that Beverley was growing up had simply not crossed his mind. It dawned on him that June was so right; in his mind she was still his little girl! The thought that he was suddenly being presented with a teenager, and all that that implied really rocked him back on his heels. It wasn’t until June had actually put it into words that he realised that she really was turning into a young woman, and it came as a bit of a shock.

“Good God!” he muttered, looking at the bra almost as if he expected it to bite him! “I mean, how? I mean,
good grief
, what the hell am I going to do?”

Quite suddenly June laughed. It was the first time he had actually seen her giving way to the humour of a situation, and somehow it helped to thaw a bit more of the emotional ice that surrounded her.

“Don’t worry,” she said good-humouredly. “I would be surprised if she has got far beyond the 'noticing' stage, although no doubt her head is full of schoolgirl smut; she wouldn’t be human if it wasn’t. I can assure you that's quite normal these days. I would be more than surprised if the school didn’t keep a very watchful eye on all their maturing charges, so I doubt that there is any chance of her running off the rails for some time yet.”

“Even so, this isn’t the school, and I can’t be on watch all the time whilst they are here! In any case, there are going to be all sorts of things that will need sorting out. I mean, I don’t know the first thing about such matters, particularly where young adolescent girls are concerned; it’s the sort of things that Alicia-”

He stopped suddenly. He was going to say that it was the sort of thing that Alicia would have dealt with without any reference to him, but Alicia was dead, and now the problem was unavoidably his.

“I would think,” said June as she carefully closed a drawer and turned to face him, “that you have absolutely nothing to worry about. Young girls these days are not brought up in cotton wool. She probably knows more about the ‘facts of life’ than you do if it comes down to it. In any case, you needn’t worry about them whilst they are here, I’ll keep an eye on them.”