The Liverpool Rose (33 page)

‘Solly here’s a wizard at chess and I’m just a beginner,’ he explained as the older boy, with a shrug of his shoulders, began to pack the men and board away. ‘Sorry, but we’ll play another time – if you can’t find someone a bit better’n me, that is. Come on, Lizzie, or we’ll not reach the canal before dark.’

Lizzie was delighted with this response, though when they got as far as the front door and Geoff saw the rain, he looked a little less pleased to be rescued from what was obviously a humiliating game of chess. ‘It’s pouring perishin’ cats and dogs,’ he said, sounding aggrieved. ‘Are you sure you want to go visiting this feller, queen? Wouldn’t you rather see a flick? There’s a western on at the Paramount Theatre
in London Road. We could grab a lecky and be inside in the dry before the cat can lick her ear.’

Lizzie, who quite liked westerns, had to struggle with herself before replying: ‘Oh, but I did arrange to meet Clem, Geoff, and it isn’t often the boat is due to arrive when I’m not in work or doing something for my Aunt Annie. Besides, he may not be there. If he isn’t, you can come back to number nine and we’ll have cocoa and a bit of Aunt’s seed cake by the fire . . . or we could go to the flicks then if you’re really keen.’

‘Oh, all right, then. I’ll fetch me waterproof because a raincoat’s norra lorra good in rain like that,’ he said, heading for the cloakroom. ‘How come you aren’t soaked, young Lizzie? Don’t say you’re thin enough to run between the raindrops!’

Lizzie laughed. ‘No, but as I got off the lecky it stopped raining for just long enough for me to reach you,’ she assured him. ‘If you take a look at me legs, you’ll see I splashed a good deal of mud up them as I ran, though.’

Geoff laughed too. ‘Oh, all right, if you don’t mind the weather I suppose I shouldn’t,’ he remarked. ‘And I’d like to see that feller again. I wonder if he’ll remember that afternoon when he just about saved me life, all them years ago? As I recall, he landed Sid a tidy one, too. I’ll never forget it, even if Clem has.’

Outside the rain had eased off a little. Lizzie looked enquiringly up at her companion. ‘Do you want to walk, Geoff? I don’t mind if you do, ’cos we can both get under that umbrella of yours, but of course the tram would be a lot quicker.’

Geoff, who had been holding his big black umbrella over the pair of them, grinned back. ‘It had better be the lecky since there’s a number thirteen bearing down on us right this minute. It’ll take us as
far as Islington, then we can nip through and catch another the rest of the way.’ He lowered his umbrella, shook it briskly and raised it again to hail the tram, jumping aside with a muttered curse as it drew to an abrupt stop, sending a bow-wave of water from the gutter on to the pavement. ‘Come on, Lizzie, look lively! If we’re lucky with our connections, we’ll be at Houghton Bridge before you know it.’

Clem sat on the side of the butty boat, peering out from under the brim of his sou’wester, in the direction of Burlington Street. It was just his luck, he thought morosely, that the weather should have turned sour on him on the very day they reached the ‘Pool, so that now Lizzie might change her mind about meeting him. He knew her address, of course, and could have strolled up to the court despite the driving rain, but hesitated to do so since her aunt had made him feel uncomfortable on the only previous occasion that he had called for Lizzie. He had thought at the time she had no call to look down on him because he was so tanned, since she herself was a great untidy whale of a woman who looked as though she never brushed her hair or changed her clothing. But she had managed to make it plain she did not think him a suitable friend for her niece and Clem had been both upset and irritated by her attitude. Because of this, he preferred to meet Lizzie down by the canal, but if there was no alternative, and if she had not arrived in the next twenty minutes, he would have to grit his teeth and go up to the court where he meant to counter Mrs Grey’s rudeness with such civility and charm that she must surely unbend towards him.

The twenty minutes were almost up and he was just turning to tell Brutus to stay and guard the boat
when he saw a figure in a waterproof, huddled beneath a huge umbrella, coming along the towpath. Immediately, he felt a smile spread across his face. ‘Stay there, Brutus, and guard!’ he said, trying to ignore the disappointment writ clear in the dog’s dark brown eyes. ‘I’ll buy some chips, old feller, when I come back, so just you be good. I’m off to see my pal and if we go to the picture house, or even dancing, they wouldn’t want a chap like you along.’ He had never told Brutus how Lizzie felt about him, but knew the dog’s sharp intelligence to be considerable and was sorry that Lizzie could not get over her fear. However, the big dog settled down on his blanket, curling round till his nose was covered by his bushy tail, and Clem slid off the gunwhale and began to walk along the towpath.

He had only gone a few yards, however, when he realised that there were two people beneath the umbrella and not one, as he had supposed. He was about to turn back to the boat when a voice hailed him. ‘Clem! It
is
me under this brolly – and Geoff’s come along as well. Do you remember him?’

By this time the couple had reached him and Clem was able to recognise Lizzie, even when swathed in a waterproof with a dark scarf hiding her golden hair. He looked at the two beneath the umbrella, and felt the short hairs on the back of his neck bristle. He had half expected that she might be accompanied by her friend Sally, but he had definitely not thought to meet her with a young man. What was more, this young man had his arm about Lizzie’s waist in a manner which made Clem want to punch him on the nose. How dared this stranger be so familiar with Lizzie? Were not Clem and she about to go out together?

‘Clem?’ Lizzie’s voice was hesitant. ‘What’s the
matter? Don’t you remember Geoff? He’s the feller you fished out of the Scaldy when Sid Ryder was trying to drown him.’

Clem looked more closely at the other boy, but could see very little resemblance to the frightened, half-drowned kid he had hauled up the bank and pumped clear of water. It would not do to say so, however, so he put as much enthusiasm – which was not much – into his voice as he could and stuck out a hand. ‘Sorry, Geoff, you’ve changed a good deal since that day. I was a bit surprised to see Lizzie with someone else, to tell you the truth, because I thought she and I were going to the flicks. Still, I suppose the three of us can go together.’

Lizzie looked uncertainly from one to the other as Geoff replied, in a stiff voice, that it had not been
his
idea to come along this evening, but Lizzie’s. ‘She knew there were a good chance you might not turn up at all,’ he said. ‘And since I don’t suppose you’d want her to go to the flicks alone, she thought she’d bring a pal along. But if you’d rather I made meself scarce . . .’

‘No, of course he wouldn’t,’ Lizzie said, sounding scandalised. ‘It isn’t as if me and Clem were courting, Geoff! I meant to ask Sally to come along so there’d be four of us, but she’s gone to tea with her cousin ’cos it’s her birthday – the cousin’s I mean – and won’t be home till nine or ten, I daresay.’

‘You can come along and welcome,’ Clem said, knowing his voice was as stiff as Geoff’s had been. ‘I’m sorry if I sounded a bit . . . well, taken aback, like. Only I don’t see Lizzie here that often and I thought – well, I thought we might talk a few things over, like how things are going at home . . . how her life’s going along, like.’ Towards the end of the sentence he thought that his voice sounded more normal, less
aggressive, but knew that he was still hoping Geoff would take the hint and make himself scarce. How could Lizzie put him in a position like this, he thought, really rather cross with her. When the two of them were alone they took the opportunity to discuss all sorts, which they could scarcely do with a third party along! He did not imagine that she confided in other people about her uncle’s unfaithfulness and her aunt’s unhappiness.

This, however, was disproved almost immediately. ‘I don’t have any secrets from Geoff,’ Lizzie said, sounding almost accusing, Clem thought miserably. ‘Him and me’s old pals, Clem – I’ve known him even longer than I’ve known you, and because he’s always around, not on the other side of the country half the time, I’ve had to rely on him a good deal. Why, the problem with my uncle’s as good as solved, thanks to Geoff. And that means my aunt’s a great deal happier, of course, and
that
means that I’m happier as well.’

‘I didn’t know. If I could have done anything to help, I would have,’ Clem stammered, feeling guilty. Not that it was his fault he wasn’t in Liverpool on any sort of permanent basis, he reminded himself. ‘Only you know I’ve got my living to make, Lizzie, and that means travelling.’

‘Oh, I’m not
blaming
you for not being around, I’m just pointing out that Geoff’s always here when I need him and you aren’t,’ Lizzie said. She still sounded as though she were criticising him for his long absences, he thought resentfully. ‘So anything you want to discuss, feel free to do so in front of Geoff. He’s been a good friend to me, honest to God he has.’

‘I’m sure he has,’ Clem said glumly. ‘I didn’t mean to – to pretend . . . it was just that I thought . . . oh,
dammit, what does it matter? What do you want to do, the two of you?’

Lizzie shrugged and glanced at Geoff. They were still huddled under the umbrella, making Clem feel very much an outsider as he stood out in the downpour with the rain hammering on his waterproof. Because of the weather, he knew that Priddy and Jake would stay on board
The Liverpool Rose
this evening which meant he could scarcely invite Lizzie and Geoff to join them in their living quarters. The butty boat had a nice little cabin though the tiny stove was rarely lit, but he had no intention of turning Brutus out into the cold in order to entertain a young man he hardly knew – and did not want to know, furthermore. The more Clem thought about the cinema or a dance hall, the less he fancied visiting either, particularly in a threesome. No matter how you looked at it, they would have to dispose of their wet clothing somewhere and he guessed that the cinema would be full of damp and steamy people and their raincoats and jackets and did not wish to add to their number. As for dance halls, he could just guess what would happen if the three of them went to one together, he thought resentfully. Lizzie would dance with her old friend Geoff while he either stood and glowered at them from the sidelines or danced with some strange girl in whom he had no interest in the hope of making Lizzie jealous.

‘I don’t care what we do,’ Lizzie said. Clem thought she sounded bored and cross. ‘We’re in the city all the time, me and Geoff, so you can choose, Clem.’

He shrugged, making the rain channel off his waterproof in great streams. ‘It’s not the sort of evening for doing much,’ he observed. ‘I can’t ask you aboard
The Liverpool Rose
because there wouldn’t be
room for all of us in the cabin. Jake and Priddy are staying at home because of the weather and, of course, Brutus is in the butty boat.’

‘I suppose we could go back to number nine,’ Lizzie said doubtfully. ‘Only it’ll be pretty dull, sitting round and chatting to Aunt Annie. On the other hand, it’ll be awful steamy and hot in the flicks because everyone in there will be as wet as us.’ She turned to her companion. ‘If Clem doesn’t want to choose, Geoff, why don’t you say where we’ll go?’

‘I think I’d better go back to the YMCA,’ he said gruffly. He was staring down at his boots, not meeting Lizzie’s eye even though she was staring into his face. ‘After all, I only came along with you in case the barge still hadn’t arrived, and I don’t know I much fancy going dancing anyway. As for spending the evening at your place, what about Aunt Annie? What’ll she say to having her kitchen invaded by boots and waterproofs and brollies?’

‘She won’t mind . . .’ Lizzie was beginning, when Clem was struck by a brain-wave. ‘Tell you what, while we were coming through Wigan, I bought a bag of really big spuds off of an old market woman selling them at the canal side. She’d growed them in her garden and was selling them for a ha’penny a piece. What say I fetch four of them out? Your Aunt Annie always keeps a fire going in the kitchen, doesn’t she? We can put them in the embers and have a game of cards or something while they’re cooking. And if we pick up a couple of bottles of beer on our way back, then we’ll be paying our way, so to speak.’

Lizzie agreed to this at once and Geoff also nodded, albeit grudgingly, so Clem got back aboard the butty boat, selected four enormous potatoes and a chunk of Cheshire cheese, dropped them into a brown paper
bag and rejoined the other two on the towpath. ‘There we are, a meal in a moment,’ he said cheerily, indicating the paper bag. ‘Aunt Annie, here we come!’

At ten o’clock that night, Lizzie waved the two lads off at the front door then returned to the kitchen where Aunt Annie was sitting at the table, thoughtfully eating one of the plums which had been her contribution to the feast. She looked up and gave her niece a gap-toothed grin as Lizzie approached the table. ‘Well? And what were all that about?’ she asked. ‘I bet you felt like a worm being pulled in two different directions by a couple o’ greedy hens, didn’t you?’

Lizzie took a deep breath then blew out her cheeks in a long, whistling sigh. ‘Phew! Oh, Aunt Annie, wasn’t that the most uncomfortable evening you ever spent? I’m so sorry I brought it down on your head, but I had no idea how dreadful things would be. What on earth was the matter with them? They’ve not met for ages but I thought they’d be real pals – after all, Clem did save Geoff’s life a few years ago. But instead of liking each other, it was just the opposite. I’m not saying they were enemies exactly, but . . . oh, I don’t know, you would have thought they hated one another!’ She pulled out a chair and joined her aunt at the table, reaching over and selecting one of the few remaining plums. ‘I feel as tired as though I’ve run ten miles, just from trying to stop them actually coming to blows. Aunt Annie, do
you
know what was the matter?’

Aunt Annie chuckled. ‘’Course I does,’ she said robustly. ‘They was both jealous as a couple o’ cats, that’s what. What did you expect, our Lizzie? You know Geoff’s got his eye on you and now you know
Clem has an’ all. Each sees the other as competition, and they always will. Them two boys will never be friends – leastways not until you chooses between ’em. And there’s no guarantee they won’t carry on being jealous even then.’