On a Clear Day (25 page)

‘And were they?’ she burst out, unable to bear the tension any longer.

He pressed his lips together and shook his head silently.

‘The house was gone the next mornin’ when he got back. Like as if ye’d taken a knife an’ cut a piece out of the row. The neighbours next door was hurt, but not bad. Bill lost his whole family, even his aul granny that’d come to stay to be compn’y fer his wife whin he was doin’ nights up here. Bad times,’ he concluded shaking his head sadly.

‘Yes, Mr McGillvray, very bad times,’ said Andrew with feeling.

Clare was startled by the unfamiliar note in his voice. As the older man drew them over to the benches on the right of the chamber and pointed out where they should sit, she felt Andrew move towards her. A moment later, he sat down abruptly, so close she could feel the warmth of his skin through the thin fabric of his shirt.

‘Aye, they were Mr Richardson,’ he responded, with a sharp look at the young man. ‘I’ve maybe said too much about that night,’ he went on, a
note of apology in his voice. ‘I’m rememberin’ now about yer father. He wasn’t long elected so I diden know him well. It were the start of the blitz in London, weren’t it?’

‘It was. They’d only arrived that day from leaving me at school,’ he replied, no trace of emotion in his voice.

‘Your mother too, Andrew?’ Clare asked, before she even thought about it.

He nodded and turned to smile weakly at her.

‘And my grandparents, a passing uncle and my youngest aunt,’ he went on. ‘It was always open house in London. It could have been even worse. I do still have some family scattered about the place.’

‘There’s been a lot more scattering since the war,’ agreed Harry McGillvray. ‘We thought the war was the worst thing coud happen, but it’s not over yet. We’ve not seen the end o’ the changes it’ll bring. An’ not all for the better either.’

Clare followed his pointing finger and obediently studied the three painted roundels that decorated the Strangers’ Gallery. Two women with generous bosoms and flowing hair bent over a sickle and a spinning wheel, while a third sat, her skirt spread across her knees, looking uncomfortable, a ship perched across them.

‘In the 1920s when this chamber was decorated, agriculture, the linen industry and
shipbuilding were the basis of Ulster’s wealth,’ Harry McGillvray continued, moving back to his more formal tone. ‘I doubt if there’s more than a few hundred acres under flax these days,’ he added sadly. ‘There’s a desperate shortage of work for all the pullin’ strings they do up here to get new industry. We’re way behind the rest of the UK in livin’ standards, even wi’ the new Welfare State. It’ll be a brave while afore we make up to what they have across the water, I’m tellin’ ye.’

As she listened to Harry McGillvray’s sharp comments, Clare remembered Ronnie’s bitterness over the articles on asthma and bronchitis he couldn’t get published. She thought of all the items she’d read to Granda Scott in the last months about dangerous houses that hadn’t been condemned, huge numbers of school children who’d been in contact with tuberculosis, and the high figures for rural unemployment.

Even before Ronnie had talked about his reasons for leaving Ulster, she’d sensed all was not well. Now, the pieces were fitting together and making a picture she must pay attention to. She needed to understand what was going on. This was such a good opportunity to find out more but no matter how she tried, she simply couldn’t pay proper attention to what Ronnie and his uncle were saying. What Andrew had just revealed repeated itself over and over in her mind. It was
the most important discovery she had made today. An orphan just like me, she kept saying to herself. An orphan just like me.

They each thanked Harry McGillvray for his splendid tour and wished him a happy retirement. When Clare left Ronnie to say his goodbyes to his uncle and went outside, Andrew followed her. They stood together for a moment, blinking in the brilliant light. After the cool interior of the marble-floored entrance hall, the heat struck fiercely.

They moved slowly across to the edge of the terrace. The shimmer had increased over the city and some small white clouds were beginning to bubble up on the horizon, but overhead the sky was still an unmarked blue. Against its vivid backdrop, the mass of the building towered up behind them like an impregnable fortress, dominating the landscape in every direction, thrusting its ruler-straight avenues outwards with the same strong gesture as the raised hand of Sir Edward Carson’s statue.

‘It’s quite a view, isn’t it?’ said Clare abruptly.

Andrew was standing close beside her, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. He remained perfectly at ease, but she suddenly felt awkward and self-conscious.

‘Yes, it is. Very impressive,’ he said agreeably. ‘But it’s not my favourite view in these parts,’ he
went on cheerfully. ‘That’s a few miles down the road. Scrabo Tower. Just outside Newtownards. D’you know it?’

Clare shook her head and smiled, grateful for a simple question.

‘No, I don’t. This is my first visit to Belfast,’ she admitted. ‘I came when I was a little girl, but that was just after the war, so no one took me anywhere. Except Ronnie, of course,’ she corrected herself. ‘He used to take me to Smithfield to look for storybooks, because I’d lost all mine.’

‘How did you lose them?’

Clare felt the colour drain from her face as she looked away. He had only asked a simple question, but somehow she couldn’t bring herself to look at him. She thought of saying something ridiculous like, ‘I left them on a bus.’ Then she glanced back at him. When she found his eyes were watching her steadily, she couldn’t bring herself not to give him a proper answer.

‘All my things were burnt after my parents died. They had typhoid,’ she said hastily.

‘I thought there was something different about you,’ he said matter-of-factly.

‘What sort of something?’

‘I don’t quite know,’ he began. ‘I’ll tell you when I find out,’ he added quickly, as he heard a footstep behind them.

‘Admiring the view?’ asked Ronnie sharply.

Clare thought he looked very near to tears and was about to say that they were when Andrew got in first.

‘I was telling Clare that my favourite view is a few miles down the road. Scrabo Tower. Do you know it?’

‘Oh yes,’ replied Ronnie, ‘I had a great-aunt used to live half a mile away. D’you remember me telling you about Pretty Kitty?’ he asked, turning to Clare.

Clare nodded, grateful that the bleak look had gone from his face.

‘Wasn’t she the one that used to take you on the route marches?’

‘That’s the one. Thought it was uplifting to the spirit. It may have been, but it was hard on the legs. She was a tough old lady. Used to march me up the hill and then up to the top of the tower as well.’

‘If Clare has never been, we could go there,’ said Andrew casually. ‘Grandfather will be closeted till after four and its only a few miles.’

‘That’s very good of you,’ said Ronnie awkwardly. ‘Would you like to go, Clare? How’s your head for heights?’

‘I’d love to go and my head’s fine, but I’m terribly hungry. I think we’ve walked miles this morning.’

Ronnie laughed and looked almost easy again.

‘Well, if Andrew doesn’t mind, I think I know where we can get some lunch. Fish and chips?’

Andrew nodded cheerfully.

‘It’s an unpretentious little establishment, as they say in the guide books. It’s called Jim’s Place. Only it’s spelt P.L.A.I.C.E. and it comes in newspaper,’ he added, looking questioningly at Andrew, as if he expected the newspaper to create some difficulty.

‘Let’s go,’ said Andrew promptly. He turned on his heel and led the way across the terrace to the nearby car park.

Clare had difficulty keeping up with his long strides, but he stopped by the nearest car, a large, well-polished Rover, whipped out his keys, opened the passenger door and waved Clare into the front seat. She caught a look of irritation on Ronnie’s face as he climbed into the back, but Andrew didn’t seem to notice.

The lane up to the tower was steep, rough and deeply rutted. Clare made a mental note that next time she wanted to wear high heels she would at least try to imagine what the day might bring. Her legs and back were aching again and she was dripping with perspiration, but she knew the effort was going to be worth it. She’d promised herself she wouldn’t look back till they got to the top, but with every step she was aware that more
and more countryside was spread out around them.

As they climbed higher, a tiny breeze sprang up and the birds hiding in the heavy patches of shade began to stir. Little flocks of linnets flitted across their path from one patch of gorse bushes to another. From high above their heads, skylarks, almost imperceptible dots against the blue, suddenly began to pour a cascade of sound into the heavy, quiet air.

‘Hail to thee blythe spirit,’ said Andrew, stopping up ahead of her and shading his eyes to look upwards.

Ronnie stopped too and wiped his face with the back of his hand as he waited for Clare to catch up. For a moment, Clare saw the two of them look at each other across the deeply rutted path; Andrew, fair-skinned and freckled with a gleam of red in his fine blonde hair, his body slim and at ease; Ronnie, dark-haired and sallow, his face angular, his limbs taut with tension.

‘Bird thou never wert. Wert thou?’ demanded Ronnie, as he peered up into the sky.

Clare smiled to herself and wondered why they were so wary of each other.

‘How much further?’ she asked, just to keep them occupied.

‘Not far,’ they replied, speaking at the same time.

She was glad they both laughed simultaneously. It broke the tension.

They threw themselves down in the shadow of the tower to cool off and were still sitting there exhausted when an elderly lady appeared with three glasses of water on a tray.

Andrew jumped to his feet immediately.

‘Miss Millin, how are you?’

‘My goodness, it’s Andrew. Goodness, how you’ve grown. How is your Aunt Charlotte? Still gardening?’

‘Yes, she manages to do a bit. Still carries her secateurs in her knitting bag wherever she goes! Do you think we could possibly go up the Tower? It’s not one of your tea room days, but Clare has never been before and she’s going back to Armagh tomorrow.’

‘And I’m leaving the country tomorrow, so it’s my last chance,’ said Ronnie, as he got to his feet more slowly.

The old woman looked at him sharply.

‘I’m sure I know you, but I can’t remember your Christian name,’ she said quietly. ‘You used to come, years ago, with old Miss McGillvray from the back of the hill. I remember she could never understand why you always wanted to look at Belfast when you went up.’

Ronnie blushed. In that single moment, Clare grasped one of the biggest differences between
Ronnie and Andrew. While Ronnie had begun to expect the worst, Andrew still hoped for the best. It seemed to make a difference to everything they said and did.

‘Of course, ye can, an’ welcome,’ she said, waving her hands at them. ‘We may open the tea room later if there’s many about. We’re our own boss, as they say. But if we’re not open, come round to the kitchen for a drink. You’ll be needing it, I think, by the time you do the steps.’

‘All one hundred and twenty-two of them,’ laughed Andrew, as he put their glasses back on the tray and carried it back to the kitchen for her.

‘Well then, was it worth the climb?’

Clare leant against the rough stone of the parapet and gazed away to the south. Beyond the gorse-covered rock outcrops below the tower, all the way to the furthest point of the horizon, the gentle, undulating countryside was ribbed and seamed with hedgerows. Bathed in sunlight, the little fields thus divided lay like a patterned counterpane over the bumpy surface of the drumlin swarm, moulded by the flow of an ice sheet, aeons ago.

The waters of Strangford lough lay shimmering at the edge of the fields, its calm surface dotted with the same humpy little hills, now islands lapped by blue water, the green of
their summer grass yet more vivid by contrast with the encircling lough.

‘What did you say?’ she said vaguely.

Her eyes were held by the varied patchwork, the contrast of new grown pasture with the pale colours of cut meadow, the rich brown of recently ploughed stubble set against the heavy bluey-green foliage of potato fields. Farms and cottages were scattered among clusters of trees and along narrow winding lanes. All was still but for the clacking movement of an old reaping machine, a strange insect-like creature moving steadily up and down a nearby field of wheat.

Ronnie smiled to himself and moved on, his respects paid to the three sides of the tower on which his aunt had lavished her enthusiasm. Miss Millin was right. He wanted to look back at the city, as he always had.

‘Can that be the Mountains of Mourne?’ Clare asked herself, as her eyes focused on the furthest point of the horizon.

‘Yes, that’s them all right.’

She turned round, startled to find she’d actually spoken out loud. Andrew was standing behind her, gazing at the same misty outline.

‘That’s Donard, I know,’ he said, without looking at her. ‘And I think that’s Commendagh, but the others to the west I’m not sure of. I climbed Donard once hoping I could look north and see
Scrabo, but it wasn’t a clear day. Not like today.’

‘My grandmother always says you should make up your mind about things on a clear day,’ she began, surprising herself. ‘I’ve never been sure whether she means it literally or not.’

‘What do you need to make your mind up about, Clare?’

‘Nothing very much at the moment, I don’t think. I don’t lead a very exciting life. Visits to Belfast apart,’ she said smiling, as she moved a little further along the battlements and looked out over the lough to the Ards Penninsula on the other side.

‘Perhaps you could make up your mind to write to me when I go back to Cambridge,’ he suggested. ‘I get homesick for Drumsollen and for Ulster and I seem to spend less and less time here,’ he said matter-of-factly.

‘Why’s that?