Stay with Me (37 page)

Olivia frowned. What was Lena up to? Surely she wasn't going to play on a friendship that once had been deep and sincere? Best not to give her the opportunity. She shook her head as she said. ‘No, I'll only speak to you if Alistair is present as my witness.'

Lena knew it would be unwise to agree immediately or with any enthusiasm, but in fact Olivia's demand suited her admirably. Far better to have a witness! ‘I agree,' she said after a pause.

‘Let us use the drawing-room then.' Olivia rose from her chair and headed for the door. ‘Come, Alistair,' she called to him over her shoulder.

As Lena followed her from the room she realised that marriage had strengthened her former friend's character. Olivia the widowed mother was not the malleable girl of yesterday. She was now a formidable woman.

Alistair closed the door of the drawing-room. Olivia took a stance in the middle of the floor and faced Lena, halting her in her steps with, ‘I don't think there is any need for us to sit. This won't take long.' Her dismissive tone was not lost on Lena.

‘You are right, it won't.' She fixed her gaze firmly on her sister-in-law. ‘You will no doubt be in a quandary about the future of the firm my father and James built up. You have no interest in affairs mercantile and nor has Alistair. The only thing that may have crossed your mind is to sell to your father, but with no family member interested in following in his footsteps, I don't think he will want to expand his present operation. Therefore I am offering to buy the firm from you.'

Lena's mind was racing. She had spoken quickly, wanting to pre-empt any possible interruption. Now the enormity of what she had just done hit her, but she kept any visible reaction from showing. At that moment she did not even know where the purchase price would come from, but ‘Sufficient unto the day' . . . She devoutly hoped she would have an ally once she told Peter what she had done and convinced him that the combined businesses would make them unbeatable in the North East. Her motivation, of course, was altogether simpler. She believed Carnforth's should belong to its righful heir.

No one spoke for a moment. Olivia and Alistair just stared at her aghast. Lena started again: ‘I'll get my lawyers to examine your accounts, make an assessment of the firm's market worth. If you get your lawyers to work with them, we should be able to reach a speedy conclusion. ' She felt she had gained ground, but she had interpreted their silence wrongly.

Olivia and Alistair exchanged knowing glances and then Alistair started to laugh. ‘You thought you could push your way in here and buy Olivia out? So
that's
why you came to the funeral! Not out of any respect for James, you came to seize an opportunity to further your own ends.'

‘I did not!' Lena replied indignantly, annoyed that her purpose was so transparent.

‘Don't make matters worse by lying,' Olivia spat contemptuously. ‘I cannot believe the change in you, Lena - a change very much for the worse. Ambition is everything to you. Is that why you rejected Alistair and chose Peter Hustwick?'

‘Your father cut you out, James kept you out . . . so you saw Peter as your means of creating a rival firm with which to challenge James,' Alistair put in astutely.

‘What does any of that matter now?' cried Lena passionately. ‘Neither of you can run the firm, and even if you could it's not rightfully yours. A Carnforth should have it, and I'm the only true Carnforth left. I don't want it to fall into the hands of strangers, whereas I . . .'

‘I? That's all you think about . . . yourself,' Alistair blazed. ‘Let me tell you, the firm has not come to a standstill because of James's death. It will continue to thrive. With Olivia's approval, I immediately gave Ralph Bell full authority to run Carnforth's. Your father himself saw great potential in him as a boy. He became close to James, as you know, and worked closely with him. He was only too delighted to carry on managing it for Olivia, fulfilling James's plans for the future and expanding upon them. We will have a solid thriving firm for Olivia's son to inherit one day.'

Lena saw her plans crumbling around her. She had been outwitted by Olivia and Alistair, and she didn't like it.

‘You have no say in this,' put in Olivia coldly. ‘It will be my son's inheritance and you can do nothing about that.'

Seething with frustration, Lena said, ‘We shall see! James was never a true Carnforth. He only bore the name through
my
father's good grace. And if he wasn't a true Carnforth, then neither is your son who carries no Carnforth blood. But I do, and don't you forget it! One day the family firm will be mine.'

She left them then, straight-backed and resolute. She would not cry, not in front of these former friends who were now her enemies.

 

The journey back to Hull was torment for Lena. Moments of high resolve and determination were replaced by despair and dejection, but gradually she calmed herself and concentrated on the task ahead. She was angry with herself for ever thinking that obtaining the family firm would be easy and not foreseeing the change in Olivia and Alistair. But, no matter for that. They had never been her equal in business, and never would be. She would prevail.

She drove straight to Raby and was surprised to see Peter hurrying out to greet her.

‘This is unexpected,' she said as they embraced. ‘I thought you'd be at the office.'

‘I thought you would be coming home today and anticipated you would come straight here,' he said as they strolled into the house together. ‘I missed you, Lena.'

She smiled at him sweetly. ‘And I you.'

‘Did things pass off without undue hostility?'

‘I shocked them when I walked in shortly before they were to leave for church. They would have run me out there and then, but Albert Nash prevailed. The others remained antagonistic, except for Uncle Martin and Aunt Mary who managed to have a quick word with me as we left the service.' They had entered the hall by now and she added, ‘Come, I'll tell you all about it as I change.' She headed for the stairs and Peter followed.

As the door closed behind him she said in a tone full of suggestion, ‘Lock it and unbutton me.'

He said nothing but his fingers deftly released the buttons down the back of her dress before returning to slip it from her shoulders. Lena let it slip to the floor and stepped out of it before turning to him and saying with a longing that was reflected in her eyes, ‘Love me.'

Later, as she lay in his arms, she felt all the frustration and disappointment she had experienced in Whitby had been purged, and the determination forged on the ride home had been tempered by what she had just shared with Peter.

He ran his fingers gently across her stomach. ‘You ought to go away more often,' he said with clear implication.

Lena chuckled. ‘I don't think that will be necessary, do you?' She slid her arms around him and kissed him passionately.

‘Who's running Carnforth's now?' he asked casually as they both dressed.

‘Olivia has appointed Ralph Bell as manager, with discretion to run the firm as he sees fit. It was all done very quickly after James died, on Alistair's advice. I think they hoped to discourage speculative offers.'

He sensed the annoyance beneath her words. ‘And you don't like that?'

Lena was annoyed that she had allowed her feelings to show. ‘No, I don't. The firm should be in the hands of a true Carnforth and . . .'

‘. . . you are the only one?' he finished for her.

‘Exactly!'

‘Well, you are going to have to get used to it, my love. There's nothing we can do about it.'

Lena said nothing. Her mind was made up about her best course of action. But better to wait for now, tread carefully until Peter could be made to see the wisdom of her plan.

 

The day before the MacBrides were due to leave Whitby for Dundee, Olivia asked Avril to walk a while with her.

‘I wanted to have a word with you alone,' she explained as they headed for the top of the West Cliff.

‘This sounds serious,' said Avril when Olivia paused as if searching for the right words to go on.

She gave a half smile. ‘It is, and I have deliberated long and hard on how best to ask you.'

‘Come straight out with it then,' Avril suggested.

‘It requires my asking a great favour of you.'

‘Ask away. I'll do my best to oblige.'

‘It will involve your mother and father.'

Avril eyed her with curiosity. ‘Ask,' she prompted.

Olivia left a slight pause and then the words poured out of her. ‘I have so appreciated your coming here to look after James. I don't know how I would have managed without you. I have got used again to having a close female friend - like Lena used to be. I am dreading your departure Avril. You'll leave an immense gap in my life with no special friend to fill it.'

‘Olivia, don't think like that. I realise the void that must have been left in your life when you lost Lena's friendship after all those years. But rest assured, I now regard you as a special friend.'

‘You do?'

‘Probably more than you know.'

Olivia brightened. ‘That makes it much easier for me to ask . . . could you possibly consider coming to live with me and helping with John? Not as a nurse or governess but purely as a friend - a dear, dear friend?'

‘That requires no deliberation. The answer, as far as I am concerned, is yes.'

‘Oh, Avril, are you sure?'

‘Yes. But I will have to see what Mother and Father have to say.'

‘Of course. I live in hope.'

Avril felt the same, though she did not voice it. This would present her with every possibility of seeing more of Alistair, and who knew what that might lead to?

When the women returned home they sought out Dr and Mrs MacBride and put the suggestion to them. After considering it carefully they gave their permission, with the doctor adding, ‘I am sure Dr Jollif and Alistair can make use of your nursing talents from time to time, Avril. Don't neglect them.'

‘I won't, Father,' she reassured him. And, as eager as she was to inform Alistair that she was staying, she fought to curb the desire. After all, as yet he appeared to be offering her no more than friendship.

 

She did not see Alistair until the following morning when her family were about to get in the carriage for the journey to York. He came rushing up to make his farewells and received a surprise when he saw Avril was not attired for travelling.

‘What about you?' he asked.

‘Avril is staying,' put in Olivia, laughing at the expression on her brother's face, and went on to explain.

‘That's wonderful,' he said, turning back to Avril. Her heart soared. But then her reaction was tempered when he went on, ‘It will be comforting to know Olivia has such a good friend with her.'

‘I'm only too glad to be of help,' Avril replied demurely.

‘You'll be more than that.'

She certainly hoped so. It was her entire object in staying.

A week after Lena's return to Hull, when Captain Washbrook came down the gangway on to the quay to deliver her copy of the
Whitby Gazette
as usual, she said, ‘Captain, can you spare a few minutes to stroll along the quay with me?'

‘Very well, ma'am. My First Mate is able to see to the unloading. Your wish is my command,' he said with a slight inclination of his head.

‘I hope that will always be so.'

A strange comment, he thought. What did she mean by it? He knew Mrs Hustwick worked alongside her husband in a local firm. They had recently added another ship to the one they already owned. Maybe there would be more; maybe a captaincy for him in a firm bigger than the one he worked for out of Whitby. He wouldn't mind moving to Hull if it meant promotion; a bigger ship and more distant horizons.

‘The
Whitby Gazette
is most useful to me, Captain. I wonder, would you be willing to extend other services also?'

This was not quite what he had hoped for, but who knew what it might lead to in the future? ‘If I can, ma'am.'

‘I'm sure you can.'

‘I await what you have to say with interest, ma'am.'

‘Before I explain, let me stipulate that, no one, and I mean
no one
, must know of your connection to me. You're a young man, Captain. To have reached the position you already have shows aptitude and determination. No doubt your ambition extends further than your present position. Who knows what prospects may arise in the future?'

‘True, ma'am, true. Particularly if my service to you proves valuable.'