Rose Cottage (25 page)

‘Like you?’

‘I try. So what’s the plan?’

‘They’re going to stay tonight in Durham, and drive back to Strathbeg tomorrow. They want me to go with them.’

‘Will you?’

‘Yes. Apart from everything else, I’d like to be there when Gran’s furniture arrives, though that’s the least of it now! Larry did want me to go with them straight away, but I thought I’d like to stay here tonight. It’s
all a bit sudden, and a bit late, if you see what I mean.’

‘Yeah, I do. Sleep on it before you pull the roots up?’

I said, surprised, ‘That’s exactly it.’

‘And you’re going to? Pull them right up, I mean?’

I had been wondering if his mother had told him about my bid to buy Rose Cottage, but this answered me. As I hesitated over my reply I was saved yet again by an interruption from outside. Davey had left the door open – the fire, while providing cheer, had made the kitchen rather too warm for the June night – and outside in the dusk I heard again the creak of the gate. Someone was coming up the path.

I saw my mother, who was near the window, turn to look out.

‘Who on earth’s this? Some woman, with a shopping bag?’

‘Oh, heavens,’ I said, ‘it’s Miss Linsey!’

‘So it is! Larry, quick, look, that’s the witch who saw us in the cemetery! The one Kathy’s been telling us about. What on earth does she want here at this time of night?’

‘Goodness knows,’ I said, as I went to the door. ‘Miss Linsey! How nice! Won’t you come in?’

‘Oh, Kathy, I hope you don’t mind my coming at this hour, but I’ve been rather worried, and I did just wonder – oh!’ as her eye went past me to take in the rather crowded kitchen. ‘You’ve got company. I didn’t know. I thought you’d be on your own, and so I came down—’ A scream, as Larry rose from his chair.

‘That’s him! There you are! I knew it was true! That’s him! That’s the gipsy!’

‘And me,’ said my mother. ‘How are you, Miss Linsey?’

‘Lilias Welland!’ Another screech from Miss Linsey, as she thrust her shopping bag at me and surged forward to seize my mother’s hands. ‘I knew it was you! I told them you were coming back, and no one would believe me! They said you were dead, and I knew it wasn’t true! I’ve seen you so many times in dreams, and then I saw you in the cemetery—’

I missed the rest. As the kitchen filled with a babel of talk and exclamations the shopping bag wriggled in my hands and I screamed, too, and dropped it on the floor. Something shot out of it, and up the curtains to the rail, where it hung, fizzing. A kitten, small, tabby, and furious. It balanced there, glaring down at the scene.

‘She’s brought her familiar,’ said Davey in my ear, just as Miss Linsey, still clinging to my mother’s hands, said over her shoulder, ‘I brought it for you, dear. It’s one of Patsy’s, and quite clean. I found homes for the others, and I meant to keep it, but it can’t stand Henry, so I thought of you. Since you’ll be staying here at the cottage I thought you might like the company.’

‘Well, thank you, it’s very sweet, and I’d love to have it, but what made you think I’d be staying here? As a matter of fact—’

‘It was my dream last night.’ The light intense gaze turned on me. ‘So I knew. I saw you here, it was Rose Cottage, I knew it, but it wasn’t the same. There was—’ a vague glance round at the denuded kitchen – ‘well, there was some furniture, and it looked as if—’

I saw her catch sight of Davey and she hesitated. I
heard Davey say ‘Oh, no,’ under his breath, and, as she opened her mouth to go on I put in, quickly, ‘I’d love to keep the kitten, if someone can get it down from there! I’m going away tomorrow, as it happens, with my mother and Mr Van Holden. This is Mr Van Holden, my stepfather. Larry, do meet Miss Linsey, one of our neighbours.’

Larry shook hands, making gently courteous noises of greeting, and inquiries after her health, which, mercifully, turned her attention to him.

‘You sound like an American. I met one during the war, and of course there are the films. I didn’t know they had gipsies in America? Indians, of course, and hoboes, or do I mean bozos?’

A choking sound from Davey, and I saw hysteria in his eye. Lilias, over at the window trying to entice the kitten down from the curtain rail, stiffened, peered out at the dusk-filled garden, and clutched at my arm.

‘Jumping Jesus,’ she whispered, but with complete reverence, ‘look there! Isn’t that the other two from Witches’ Corner? I’d know Miss Mildred anywhere, and Miss Agatha is surely wearing the same old hat.’ She turned to Larry, who, I could see, was making a great hit with Miss Linsey. ‘Larry, love, we seem to be holding a convention. More neighbours. The calling hours have changed some since I lived in Todhall, and will you for God’s sake see if you can get that kitten down?’

Larry, reaching up from his six-feet-plus, detached the kitten gently, hook by hook, from its hold on the curtains, and lifted it down to a perch on his shoulder
as I hurried to the door again. ‘Miss Agatha! Miss Mildred! How nice to see you. Do come in.’

‘It’s not too late, is it?’ began Miss Agatha, and Miss Mildred, pushing past her sister, leaned forward to say in a whisper, ‘Is she here? Is Bella here?’

‘Yes. She came just a few minutes ago.’

‘Oh, you’ve got company.’ That was Miss Agatha, looking past me, as Miss Linsey had done, at the thronged kitchen. ‘There, you see, Millie, I told you it would be all right. There really was no need to fuss.’

I must have looked puzzled, because Miss Mildred hurried to explain. ‘The thing is, my dear, Bella’s been rather tiresome today, going on and on about things, you know how she does, and then she said she was coming down to see you again. Well, I thought you were on your own, and I was afraid she would upset you, even though you said it didn’t bother you, all her talk, so I thought I’d come and see.’

‘I told her you had too much sense to let Bella’s nonsense upset you,’ said Miss Agatha, ‘but she insisted, so in the end I came with her—’

‘But with all these people here—’ added Miss Mildred.

‘It was quite unnecessary after all,’ finished Miss Agatha.’

I said warmly, ‘It was sweet of you, Miss Mildred. Both of you. But everything’s fine. More than fine. Won’t you come in? There’s somebody here who’d love to see you again.’

It was Mrs Pascoe who saved the situation from getting completely out of hand. Pushing Davey and me in front of her, she herded us into the back kitchen.

‘Now, Kathy, I know what’s bothering you, and you needn’t worry, nobody’s going to say anything they shouldn’t in front of Mr Van Holden. Whatever you may think of those ladies, they
are
ladies, and it’s not likely they’ll say anything that might give Lil a red face. So that’s that. Now, where’s the wine, Davey? I knew you wouldn’t have any here, Kathy, so I brought a bottle along, to celebrate. It’s my own elderflower champagne, and this was a real good batch. If Davey’ll get it open, we can give them a glass each, and then we’ll drive them home. That’ll get rid of them with no hard feelings. I think you and Lil have about had enough.’

‘Good idea,’ said Davey, producing the bottle. ‘Okay, Mum, this should fettle them. Get the glasses, Kathy.’

‘No glasses,’ I said, rather shakily.

‘There’s some jam jars out in the toolshed. I saw them when I stole the tools.’

‘Behave yourself, Davey,’ said his mother. ‘Take no notice of him, Kathy. Come on, I’ll help you rinse the cups out.’

‘Hold up, love,’ said Davey, to me. ‘No, don’t tell me, you haven’t got a corkscrew?’

‘You wrong me, every way you wrong me, Brutus. That’s one thing I have got.’ I had kept one back for Prissy. That pleasantly civilised lunch seemed a very long time ago. I routed it out, and while Davey wrestled with the cork Mrs Pascoe and I hurriedly rinsed out the tea cups. We did not quite have to descend to jam jars, as Larry, still clutching the kitten to him, quietly materialised beside us with a couple of elegant tumblers from the picnic basket in his car. These, with my tooth glass, almost made up the quota, and Davey made do with a small, and it was to be hoped clean, jar that had once held fish paste.

I saw that my mother, abandoning hope, had gone down under a wave of delighted chatter from Witches’ Corner. If she had been afraid of some drawing aside of skirts among the Todhall neighbours she need not have worried. All parties seemed to have plenty to say, and said it at length, and all at the same time. Davey determinedly broke it up, wading in with the wine, which was received with pleasure, and then Larry, tea cup in hand and kitten on shoulder, somehow got silence, and, standing there in front of the dying fire, prepared to make a speech.

‘Well, now, ladies – and you, Dave – I am not going to make a speech. I am only going to say – Dear God!’

A fascinated pause as the kitten launched itself from his shoulder to the mantelpiece, by way of the top of the Unseen Guest. Larry, to the intense admiration of everyone present, simply reached a long arm, retrieved it, and held it to him while he went calmly on not making a speech.

‘I would like to say,’ he said, ‘how very much my wife and I appreciate the welcome we have gotten here in Todhall. We have had the most warm and loving welcome from our lovely daughter, and now from all of you here tonight. It has been a great pleasure for me to meet you all, a very great pleasure. It’s getting late, and Lilias and I will have to be going soon, but we’ll be back here, never fear, and we’ll hope to see you all when we visit again, as we certainly have plans to do. This darned cat has about sixteen claws to each foot. What are you going to do with it, Kathy?’

‘Keep it, of course.’

‘But if you’re coming with us tomorrow—’ began my mother.

‘We’ll look after it for Kathy till she comes home,’ said Mrs Pascoe. I saw Lilias glance quickly at her, then at me, but she said nothing.

‘You’ll really keep him, then?’ said Miss Linsey. ‘I’m so pleased. I do love them to get a good home. What will you call him, Kathy?’

I smiled at them all. My mother and her dear respectable gentleman; Miss Linsey, the true prophetess who had seen what I knew to be the future; the
other witches, beaming kindly at me over Larry’s picnic tumblers; Mrs Pascoe, who shared my secret. And Davey. With a sudden lift of the heart, I raised my tooth glass in the toast.

‘I’ll call him George. Here’s to George!’

‘To George!’ echoed everyone, and drank their wine down. My mother was smiling mistily, looking very happy and, though I could see she was exhausted, as pretty as a picture.

Then one saw how she managed it. After one long, assessing look at her, Larry took charge. He handed the kitten over to me, then somehow, without seeming to hurry them at all, he had the three witches, taking cheerful farewells of me and the Pascoes, shepherded out of the kitchen and down the path towards the big car. My mother hung back, with a whispered word to Mrs Pascoe, then turned to say goodnight to me.

‘Till tomorrow, then, sweetie. Isn’t that wonderful? Till tomorrow.’

A few more words and a kiss, and then she went, but slowly, to stop half way down the path and look back, as if to commit the scene to memory, the dim garden, the ghost of the white lilac, the shadowy bulk of the cottage with me standing in the lighted doorway. Then she went, and the gate creaked shut behind her.

As Larry settled her in the car Mrs Pascoe said, ‘We’ll have to go too. The van’s in their way. You’ll have to back it up, Davey.’ Then to me, ‘You know that letter you gave me to post?’

‘Yes.’

‘I brought it back. It’s in my bag here. I thought, if
you’re going up to Strathbeg yourself, maybe you’d rather talk to Lady Brandon when you get there? She was on the phone just before we came down, and it was to tell me that they’d had an offer for Rose Cottage.’

‘Did she?’ That was Davey. ‘Were they planning to accept it?’

‘What’s it to do with you?’ His mother was dismissive. ‘Go and shift the van, Davey. He’s got the car turned already.’

‘An offer for Rose Cottage?’ I was surprised at the force of my dismay. So short a time it seemed since my own hopeful net had been cast into the void. ‘But surely she’d never sell without telling us? Did she say if Gran knew?’

‘Yes. She approved.’

‘But who on earth would Gran approve?’

‘Me,’ said Davey.

We both turned to stare at him. His mother’s hand went to her mouth, and she said nothing. He smiled at me.

‘So you see it’s got quite a lot to do with me. I was going to ask you about it, Kathy, but I didn’t reckon on being rushed into it like this with half the village looking on and Mum rabbiting on about moving the van.’ He put out a hand and touched, not me, but the kitten, so that it purred and clung and butted its head into my neck. ‘I’ll have to go. But I’ll be down here early, before they come for you, and – maybe I can ask you then?’

‘I’ll be here,’ I said.

They had gone. Silence came back, broken only by the sound of the stream and the purring of the kitten in my arms as I walked down to the gate. The scent of Granddad’s roses filled the air. An owl called from among the trees in the Hall grounds. Another answered, breathily, from somewhere in Gipsy Lonnen.