The Fleethaven Trilogy (121 page)

‘Oh, ta very much,’ Ella teased.

Janice gave her a swift grin. ‘Well, you know what I
mean.’ Still holding on to the magazine, she came to Ella.
‘Have you got him summat, then?’ And as Ella showed her
the book on motorcycles, Janice grimaced. ‘He’ll like that. Trust you to get there first.’ But she said it good-naturedly
and together they pondered what Janice could buy Rob for
Christmas.

‘How about aftershave?’

‘Eh? Does he shave yet?’

Ella laughed. ‘I think so. Haven’t you seen how dark his
chin looks some days and then quite pale another. And I
saw a little nick on his chin once as if he’d cut himself.’

‘Can’t say I’ve noticed,’ Janice said airily.

‘Thought he was your boyfriend?’ Ella said slyly and
Janice smiled coyly. ‘One of many, young Ella,’ she said
patting her long hair. ‘Keep ’em guessing, that’s what I say.
Come on, isn’t it time we was meeting yar aunty for
dinner?’

They walked though the arches of the Stonebow to
where the old sixteenth-century half-timbered black and
white building straddled the bridge. The smell of real
coffee met them even before they stepped into the small
shop. They climbed the narrow wooden stairs to the upper
floors and found a seat near the window overlooking the
High Street and beyond it the river where swans glided up
and down. Ella sighed as she sat down and settled her
packages at the side of her. The last time she had been in
this café, she’d been about nine and her mother had been
at her side. But in Janice’s company, there was no time for
maudlin thoughts. ‘Just look down there at all that traffic,’
the girl exclaimed, pressing her nose to the small leaded
window panes. ‘Can them double deckers get through that
arch, then?’

Ella nodded.

‘There you are,’ came Peggy’s cheerful voice as she
slipped in beside Ella. ‘Have you had a good morning?’

‘It’s wonderful, Miss Godfrey. You’re so lucky to live
here,’ Janice said, and Ella felt a thrill of pride for the city of her birth. She had always loved the place, but to hear
Janice in excited raptures added to her pleasure.

They ordered hot soup and steak and kidney pie.

‘Now, tell me how they are at home?’ Peggy said.

Ella almost said, ‘Fleethaven’s not my home – Lincoln
is,’ but for once she bit back the remark. She didn’t want
Peggy to think she had been unhappy at Brumbys’ Farm
for the last six years, because she realized with a slight
shock, it would not have been true, at least not all of the
time. There had been some good times.

‘Gran’s all right . . .’ A mischievous smile quirked her
mouth. ‘Same as always.’ Then a slight frown creased her
forehead. ‘Grandpa’s – all right, I suppose, but, well, he
seems to get tired a lot quicker now.’

A look of concern for her brother crossed Peggy’s face.
‘Well, he is sixty-eight, you know.’

Ella gasped and stared at her. ‘Is he really?’

Peggy smiled. ‘Trouble with all of us, we’re still about
twenty inside our heads and still think we can act that age.’

‘How old’s my gran, then?’

‘I’m not absolutely sure. She’s certainly two or three
years younger than Jonathan.’ Peggy paused and then
added, ‘I should have retired a couple of years ago but,
well, my life would be so empty without work that they let
me stay on.’

‘I don’t blame you,’ Janice put in. ‘I wouldn’t want to
give up if I worked in such a lovely shop.’

Peggy gave a small smile and sighed. ‘I suppose it will
have to come to it soon. I’ll have to make way for a
younger person.’ Peggy seemed to shake herself and say,
with deliberate cheerfulness, ‘What about you two? When
do you leave school and what are you going to do?’

‘I’ve already left,’ Janice said promptly. ‘I’m a bit older
than Ella. I work in a café at the moment. It’s okay in the summer, but this time of the year, it’s dead!’ She cast her
eyes upwards in a gesture of hopelessness. ‘I’d like to get
something better some day.’

‘I’m sure you will, Janice.’ Peggy smiled and then added,
‘What about you, Ella?’

She pulled a face. ‘Gran wants me to leave school and
work on the farm, but I want something more than that.’

‘What sort of thing?’

‘I don’t know, really.’ Her voice dropped. ‘I still miss
the city.’

‘What about dressmaking and tailoring like – like your
mother?’

‘I’m not that good. Oh, I can sew neatly and make
things on Mum’s sewing machine, Gran’s seen to that. But
I haven’t got Mum’s flair for it. I want to get my O levels
and then see.’

‘Very wise.’ Peggy nodded and, getting up, said, ‘Well,
I’ll have to go.’

Downstairs she silenced their protests and insisted on
paying for all three meals. ‘It’s my treat. Come and get the
house key from me if you want to go home before I can
leave tonight. It’ll be after six by the time I get away.’

Ella nodded.

Outside on the pavement, Peggy asked, ‘How’s the
shopping going?’

Ella told her and added, ‘I can’t think what to buy
Grandma Eland and Aunty Rosie, or Gran, though Grandpa’s
given me some money to buy her something pretty.’
She laughed. ‘He told me to get her something really
frivolous.’

‘Why not come back with me? You can wander through
all the departments. You might see something that catches
your eye.’

‘What do you want to do, Janice?’

‘What ya like.’ Her eyes gleamed. ‘I can have another
look at that dress.’

As they passed the huge window again, Janice paused and
said, ‘Do you think they’ll let me try it on, Miss Godfrey?’

‘Of course, Janice. I’ll take you to the dress department
and ask Miss Keenes to look after you.’

The warmth enveloped them as they entered the store
and as Peggy left them with the rather stern-looking head
of the dress department, she said, ‘Come up later and I’ll
help you pick something for your gran.’

The dress fitted Janice perfectly and as she twisted and
twirled in front of the full-length mirror, Ella could not
help feeling a twmge of envy at her shapely figure, shown
off to perfection by the snug lines of the dress.

Janice, her eyes shining, took a deep breath and said,
‘I’ll take it.’

An hour later, Ella having bought lavender soap for
Grandma Eland and hand cream for Rosie, they found
their way back to the lingerie department.

‘There was a bit of a lull earlier,’ Peggy greeted them,
‘and I’ve looked out one or two things.’ She glanced around
to see that no other customers were waiting to be served
before she said, ‘Come and have a look.’

Two nightdress and négligé sets were laid out for Ella’s
inspection, one in peach silk, the other in black satin.

‘Can you really see your gran in something like that?’
Janice said.

Ella giggled. ‘Well, Grandpa said something frivolous
and I guess the black one fits that description the best.’

Peggy laughed. ‘Men are supposed to like black.’

‘Do you think I really dare take her that?’

‘She’ll clip yar ear, El,’ Janice warned, laughing.

Peggy looked worried and said, ‘You can blame me if—’

‘Oh, I wouldn’t do that,’ Ella said swiftly. ‘I’ll take what’s coming.’ Silently she added, I always have. Aloud,
she said, ‘I don’t think I’ve enough money left.’

‘Don’t worry,’ Peggy whispered, so that Janice could
not hear. ‘I can get it for you on staff discount as you’re a
relative. Leave it to me.’

When the store closed and the three of them walked
back towards home, the two girls were clutching large
boxes wrapped in Christmas paper; Janice with her dress
and Ella with the frilly black nightdress and négligé for her
grandmother. Just what, she wondered, would Esther
Godfrey say to it?

As they turned into the long road which led them to the
side-street where Peggy lived, a group of students emerged
from some buildings on the left.

‘Is that a school, Aunty Peg? I’d have thought they’d
have broken up by now.’

‘Mmm? Oh no. It’s the technical college. You can go
there after you leave school to do all sorts of courses.
Secretarial – that sort of thing.’

‘I say, El,’ Janice said, glancing back over her shoulder.
‘See that good-looking blond lad? He winked at me.’

‘Really?’ Ella answered absent-mindedly. As they
walked on she glanced back to see the students laughing
and talking as they walked towards town.

A college, eh? Where you could learn useful skills. And
in Lincoln! Now that was worth thinking about.

Their stay in the city seemed to be over far too quickly. On
the first evening they sat and talked with Peggy, and then
climbed the stairs to share the big double bed in the spare
room, giggling and whispering until the early hours.

The following evening Peggy took them to the theatre
and they had a fish-and-chip supper afterwards.

‘What are you doing for Christmas, Aunty Peg?’ Ella
asked her as they walked home through the wet streets,
hurrying between the circles of light cast by the street
lights.

‘How – how do you mean?’

‘Well, do you go to friends – or what?’

‘Er, no. I shall be on my own.’

‘Oh, that’s awful,’ said Janice, whose own home at
Christmas was open house to family, friends, anyone who
fancied dropping in. ‘Rough and ready,’ her mother always
laughed. ‘But ya allus welcome.’ Janice couldn’t imagine
anyone being entirely alone at Christmas.

Horrified too, Ella stood still, and because her arm was
firmly linked through Peggy’s, the older woman was
obliged to stop too. Ella peered at her through the gloom.
‘On your own!’ Her tone was scandalized.

‘Well, yes. I – I have been for the last six years, ever
since . . .’ She left the words unspoken, but Ella knew
exactly what she meant.

‘Well, you’re not going to be on your own this year.
You’re to come to us at Fleethaven Point.’

‘But will your gran mind? Shouldn’t you ask her
first?’

‘Course she won’t mind,’ Ella said, quashing any niggling
doubts of her own. Besides, she thought, Grandpa
would love to see his sister and her grandmother would
agree to anything he wanted.

Arriving home she ran at once to find her grandfather.
‘Will Gran mind?’

‘Of course not. It was a lovely idea of yours. Fancy poor
old Peg being on her own every year since . . . I never
thought. We should have asked her over long ago.’

Ella doubted, however, that in the early days her
grandmother would have agreed; she might have thought Ella would stow away in Peggy’s suitcase to get back to
the city.

After her initial surprise, Esther was as enthusiastic as
the other two. ‘If only we’d known, Jonathan, she could
have come every year. I’ve always liked ya sister, even
when . . .’ She glanced at him and seemed to bite back the
words, adding instead, ‘Well – always.’

It was the happiest Christmas Ella could remember
since before her mother died. On Christmas morning, she
could hardly wait for her grandmother to open her present.
Esther’s cheeks were pink with pleasure. ‘Is this what they
wear in the city? It’s a mite cold for winter nights in a
draughty old farmhouse.’ She laughed as she held up the
black shimmering nightdress, holding it against herself and
swaying to and fro, provocatively.

‘It’s for special occasions,’ Ella heard her grandfather
say softly and touched Esther’s hand. Ella saw the look
which passed between the couple and yet again she felt as
if she were outside in the cold, her nose pressed to the
window, looking in on a scene of love and warmth and
being needed, of belonging.

Once – how long ago it seemed now – she had been
loved like that, by her mother.

Was there anyone in the world now who would one day
love and need her again?

‘Why can’t I go? It’s only to the pictures, for heaven’s
sakes.’

‘Watch your tongue, Missy!’ Her grandmother wagged
her finger in Ella’s rebellious face. ‘You haven’t done your
homework.’

‘Gran, it’s Friday night. I’ve got all weekend to do my
homework.’

‘Ya grandpa needs some help with the spring sowing at
Top End tomorrow. He’ll need you to walk behind the drill.’

‘I’d sooner drive the tractor,’ the girl muttered. ‘Besides,
I can help him in the daytime and do my homework at
night or on Sunday.’

Her grandmother sniffed. ‘’Tis the Lord’s day. We dun’t
work on a Sunday.’

Slyly, Ella said, ‘Grandpa does. He mended the tractor
last Sunday.’

‘That’s different.’

‘Why is it?’

‘Dun’t argue with me, Missy. And don’t go getting
round ya grandpa to let you go. He’s not well.’

If there was anything calculated to make Ella give up
her planned evening out, it was a reference to her grandfather’s
lack of strength over the past few weeks. He
seemed to be suddenly much older. His hair, now almost
completely white, was thin and wispy, and his skin
seemed to hang loosely on his frame, which stooped more
noticeably. But his eyes twinkled as merrily as ever and his
smile still crinkled the lines around his eyes.

Ella eyed her grandmother sharply. She knew the older
woman was not above playing on her sympathies, yet
loving her grandfather as she did, Ella dare not take the
risk of gambling with his well-being.

‘All right, Gran,’ she said firmly, out-staring Esther.
‘You win, but only ’cos of Grandpa.’

‘And what’s because of Grandpa, might I ask?’

Deep in their argument, neither Esther nor Ella had
heard Jonathan step through the back door and come to
stand behind them in the kitchen doorway.

They turned to look at him, and Ella noticed, at once,
the sweat standing in beads on his forehead, the dark stains
under his arms and down the front of his shirt, and yet the
early spring day was not that warm. His face looked grey
with tiredness.

‘I’ll make you some tea, Grandpa,’ Ella smiled at him
and lifted the kettle from the hob and took it out into the
scullery to fill it.