Charity (50 page)

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Toby and Prue’s mouths drop open in astonishment and she knew she must hold her ground at all costs.

‘I’m willing to go and see to my grandmother. Then I suggest I make a list of jobs which need doing and find you some new staff.’

Stephen’s thick wet lips opened and closed like a fish, but she thought she saw a flicker of admiration in those chinks of blue glass which passed for eyes.

‘Well?’ she said, moving back to the door to push home her point. ‘Do I go, or stay?’

‘Stay, goddammit.’ He turned his wheelchair round. ‘Push off and do whatever!’

Back in the drawing room, Charity turned to her brother and sister. They were clearly astounded by her nerve.

‘You were brave,’ Prue gasped. ‘I thought he was going to have a fit!’

Charity noted the way Toby slumped down on a settee, as if everything was now settled and his responsibilities were over.

‘I shall expect you two to help,’ she reminded them. ‘I can find staff and a domestic agency to give this place a spring-clean. But I don’t intend to do it alone.’

‘Us?’ Prue’s flat face held shocked surprise.

‘Yes, of course.’ Charity looked at first one then the other. ‘You live here, after all. Now you’d better take me up to Grandmother.’

‘I can’t.’ Prue wrinkled her nose in distaste. ‘It stinks in her room. I was nearly sick this morning when I took her some tea.’

‘She’s an old lady and your grandmother, Prue,’ Charity reprimanded her, shocked by her sister’s callous attitude. ‘How can you be so heartless?’

‘Don’t ask me,’ Toby said quickly. ‘I can’t stomach it either.’

In a flash of blinding clarity, Charity realised why Lou was so reticent about discussing Toby and Prue. They weren’t just spoiled, they were ruined!

‘I can’t believe what I’m hearing,’ she said, flushing with shame for them. ‘Go and clean up the kitchen, both of you. I’ll go and see Grandmother alone. We’ll discuss this later.’

A smell of urine and old age made Charity gag as she opened the door of the upstairs room. She remembered this wood-panelled room as gloomy but now it was dark with the curtains closed. At first glance she thought the half-tester bed was empty but a faint rustle indicated that her grandmother was not only there, but awake.

‘Hallo, Grandmother,’ she said, switching on the bedside light. ‘It’s Charity.’

The person lying in the big bed bore no resemblance to the pretty woman she remembered. Her face was so heavily lined she looked more like a chimpanzee than a human, wispy white hair clinging to her scalp. For a moment Charity understood Toby and Prue’s reluctance to come in here.

‘Charity?’ The old lady’s head turned to look at her, her eyes so faded there was almost no colour left. ‘But Stephen won’t allow her here.’

‘It
is
me, Grandmother,’ Charity said. ‘Prue phoned and said you weren’t well. I came to see what I could do.’

Charity thought her grandmother had become senile. She just lay there, staring.

‘Can I sit you up?’ Charity held her breath, slid her arm under the old lady’s shoulder and lifted her. To her horror, the old woman was soaked right through, the smell of ammonia overpowering, and the body beneath the nightgown was like a bag of bones.

‘I rang the bell but no one came.’ Grandmother’s wizened hands clutched at Charity’s arm. ‘I couldn’t help it.’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Charity said, pity overtaking disgust. ‘I’m here now and I’ll soon get you sorted out.’

‘I asked Prue to get me my sticks. I could get out if I had them. But she doesn’t care.’

The acute embarrassment in her grandmother’s voice proved she was in entire command of her faculties and Charity was shamed even further by her sister’s neglect and indifference.

Washing and changing an old lady wasn’t something Charity had any experience of. The only way she could handle the embarrassment of it was to pretend her grandmother was just a child. But as she sponged her almost skeletal body, rolling her on to a dry towel to wash her back and bottom, then helped her into a clean nightdress, she could see that a trained nurse was needed.

By supporting the old lady she managed to get her on to a chair; then she drew back the curtains, opened the window and stripped the bed. Fortunately a rubber sheet had been placed over the mattress, but the blankets were wet too.

‘If I can find a commode could you manage to use that?’ Charity asked.

The old lady nodded, pink with embarrassment.

Charity put a shawl round her shoulders.

‘It’s all right, Grandma,’ she said gently. ‘It isn’t your fault. Now I’ll just go and find some dry bedding. Then I’ll get you something to eat.’

‘I don’t know where my teeth or my glasses are.’ Grandmother caught hold of Charity’s hand, her faded eyes full of despair. ‘I’m so sorry to be a nuisance.’

When Charity returned to the kitchen she found Prue standing at the sink, but aside from a few washed plates, no real inroads had been made on the mess. Toby was making a show of stacking up some saucepans but it was clear he’d only got up from his chair when he heard Charity coming.

Charity forgot all the sentimental daydreams she’d lapsed into on the train journey, all the sweet thoughts of being reunited with her brother and sister. They were two selfish, idle teenagers and at that moment she felt like striking them.

‘I’m ashamed of you two,’ she said angrily. ‘How could you let
anyone
, let alone your grandmother, get in such a state? She was soaked, and she looks half starved.’

‘You don’t know what she’s been like,’ Prue whined. ‘She doesn’t eat the food I’ve given her. She rings her bell all day. Then she started peeing the bed.’

‘She hasn’t got her sticks, her glasses or even her teeth,’ Charity snapped back. ‘What can you expect? She’s not senile, she’s just frail. Haven’t you two got any compassion?’

They both had the grace to look crestfallen. Toby shuffled from foot to foot. Prue began to cry.

Charity sighed.

‘This isn’t the way I planned our reunion,’ she said. ‘I want to sit and talk to both of you, to catch up on all I’ve missed. But we have an emergency here and you are both old enough to see that. Right now we have to pull together and get things done. Do you understand?’

They nodded.

Charity opened the cupboards and found a lone tin of tomato soup.

‘I’ll give Grandmother this,’ she said. ‘Now get the washing up done, then Toby can go to the village shop and get some groceries. What have you been living on?’

‘Toast mostly.’ Toby grinned. ‘And fried eggs, that’s all Prue can do. By the way, what are
we
having for lunch?’

‘Toby!’ Charity felt as if she might explode. ‘For your information men also have the ability to cook, and clean. You won’t even get dinner tonight unless you pull your weight. Now, is there any bread?’

Grandmother dunked the bread into the soup and sucked it down greedily as if she hadn’t eaten in days. Charity had found her sticks in the drawing room, her teeth and glasses in the bathroom, and already the old lady looked a little better. Sunshine showed up the dust in the room, great balls of fluff lying on the polished bare boards, and a stickily unpleasant tray of old medicine bottles and spoons. But her first fear that the woman was seriously ill had faded: a few good meals and a little tender care was all she needed.

‘I’m going to insist that Uncle Stephen hires a nurse for you both,’ Charity said. She sat on the side of the bed, making a list of jobs that needed doing. ‘Will you write a note for him and say you agree it’s necessary?’

For a moment Charity thought her grandmother hadn’t heard her. She swallowed down her soup, wiping the last piece of bread round the bowl, then leaned back on the pillows.

‘Of course I will.’ Her lined face broke into the first smile since Charity had arrived. ‘I’ll tell him what a fool he’s been, too. You always were the best of the bunch!’

By seven that evening Charity was exhausted. She’d been up and down the stairs to her grandmother umpteen times. She’d made ham sandwiches for Stephen for lunch, for which all she got for her pains was the barked demand: ‘Where’s the mustard?’

Between organising Toby to do the shopping, cleaning the kitchen, preparing a shepherd’s pie for dinner and contacting cleaning and nursing agencies on the telephone, she’d had more than enough for one day.

But when Toby wheeled Uncle Stephen into the dining room for the meal she braced herself for further confrontation.

Stephen sat at the end of the table, Toby to his right, Charity and Prue on his left. Charity dished up the shepherd’s pie silently, then passed round the vegetables.

Stephen was clearly very hungry, shovelling the food down with gusto. Toby and Prue were somewhat subdued. Charity had kept them busy all day, but she felt their silence had more to do with resentment than tiredness.

‘This is good,’ Stephen said, when his plate was nearly empty. ‘Has my mother had any?’

‘Yes I took hers up a while ago,’ Charity said. ‘I’ve bathed her, changed her and she’s feeling a bit better. But she needs a nurse.’

‘She doesn’t need a nurse,’ he said scornfully. ‘She’s as strong as an ox.’

‘She isn’t,’ Charity said. ‘She’s very frail and she needs more attention than I can give her. Besides, a nurse could look after you too, Uncle. It isn’t right to expect Toby and Prue to help you.’

During the afternoon Prue had admitted she would rather run away than face helping the district nurse with her uncle’s weekly enema and bath. Toby was less disturbed by this and in fact did help Stephen dress and get him in and out of bed, but when he returned to school in September someone would have to take his place.

‘Nonsense,’ Stephen blustered, looking to both Prue and Toby. ‘They don’t mind helping me!’

‘It isn’t that they mind exactly.’ Charity tried to be diplomatic. ‘It just isn’t right. I’ve got a nurse coming for an interview tomorrow.’

‘Without consulting me?’ Stephen roared, banging his cutlery down on the table.

‘Yes, Uncle.’ Charity put her knife and fork down. ‘Furthermore I’ve also got a team of cleaners coming in. And I’ve put an advert in the local paper for permanent staff.’

‘You’ve
what
?’

The only sound in the room was his rasping breath and for a moment Charity thought he was going to have a fit. He was swelling up, his face almost black with anger.

‘You heard,’ she said firmly, taking her grandmother’s note from her pocket and sliding it across the table to him. ‘Your mother is in agreement. Now it’s up to you. But if you refuse, I shall just go back to London.’

As he added nothing more, Charity continued.

‘Incidentally, the bill at the local shop hasn’t been paid and I’ve ordered meat and vegetables to be delivered tomorrow, so I’ll need the money for that. I’ll stay and get everything organised if you wish. I leave it entirely up to you.’

Toby smirked, and glanced at his uncle. Prue looked scared.

Stephen inhaled noisily.

‘You’ve got a cheek coming here and giving me orders.’

‘Someone’s got to.’ Charity shrugged her shoulders and continued to eat her meal. ‘I do run my own business these days, Uncle Stephen. I’ve become used to giving orders, not taking them.’

It felt sweet to get the better of him, especially knowing she could walk out if he put one foot wrong.

‘What sort of permanent staff?’ His tone was churlish now rather than hostile.

‘You need a cook-cum-housekeeper,’ she said calmly. ‘And at least one daily woman for the cleaning.’

‘And what will you be doing while all this is going on?’ he spat at her.

‘Making sure it’s done properly,’ she said calmly. ‘And by the way, I think you should insist that Prue and Toby do more. I’m ashamed how lazy they are.’

‘We aren’t,’ Toby and Prue said in unison.

Charity had thought long and hard before antagonising her brother and sister, but all day she’d become more and more aware of their shortcomings. They weren’t small children any longer and she knew from experience with girls in her employ that gentleness was often taken as weakness.

‘You are,’ she insisted, noting their sullen expressions. Then, to Stephen: ‘You’ve lied to Prue and Toby about me and overindulged them. I hope you’re satisfied with what you’ve made them. Prue was happy to leave your mother lying in a wet bed and Toby is as arrogant and chauvinistic as you. I think you three deserve one another.’

She got up from the table and collected their plates, leaving them speechless. ‘I shall leave the moment things are sorted here,’ she said in a low voice. ‘Meanwhile I’d be grateful for your co-operation.’

‘I’m sorry, Charity.’

Charity turned in surprise at her sister’s voice. She was standing in the doorway, her shoulders slumped miserably. ‘I’ve made things worse for you, haven’t I?’

‘I’m not concerned about whether Stephen likes or dislikes me,’ Charity said. ‘I came here for one reason only: the chance to be reunited with you and Toby. But as much as I care for you both, I can’t ignore things that are terribly wrong.’

Prudence moved closer to Charity, dropping her head on to her shoulder. ‘Are we such a disappointment to you?’ she asked.

Charity put her arms round her sister and held her tight.

‘No of course not,’ she said. ‘But for six years I’ve carried the picture in my head of two small, sweet children. It takes some getting used to finding you’ve grown up, that’s all. I don’t like this feeling that we are strangers. We were once so close.’

‘We can be like that again,’ Prue murmured.

Charity tilted Prue’s face up to hers.

‘Yes, we can, if we work at it,’ she said, kissing her sister’s nose. ‘It’s been a long, tiring day, and tomorrow will probably be even worse. But if we talk and work together, we’ll find the way back to where we left off.’

‘I’m still glad I phoned you,’ Prue said, tears glistening in her eyes.

‘Not as glad as I was.’ Charity hugged her tightly. ‘Now help me with the washing up and you can tell me all about school and your friends.’

The next day the house was buzzing with noise, two vacuum cleaners going at once and voices calling to one another above them. Six women and one man had arrived to do the spring-cleaning and they were systematically working their way through the rooms. Curtains had been taken down and collected by a dry-cleaning company, rugs had been carried outside for a beating in the garden. The whole house smelt of cleaning fluids: bleach, disinfectant, polish and carpet shampoo.