The Lorimer Legacy (38 page)

‘You've all been very kind,' protested Kate. Already she had forgotten her own earlier resentment of her aunt's coldness. Arthur's arm encircling her shoulders was comforting, and his voice was sympathetic: she did indeed at this moment feel herself to be one of the family.

‘I'm wondering,' he said, ‘whether you would prefer to go straight to London? You mustn't misunderstand me. We had expected you to stay with us for several weeks, and I know that my mother was looking forward to equipping you for your life in England. Beatrice, too, saw you as a new recruit to her campaign and will not be at all pleased if I whisk you away. As for myself, I had looked forward to your company even before you arrived, and now that I have met you I'm even more loath to deprive myself of it. But I'm trying to consider the situation from your point of view. There can be no doubt that the next few days are bound to impose a great strain on my mother. Whether my father's condition improves or deteriorates, she will want to be at his side. In the same way, it will be necessary for me to take control of his business affairs. I'm perfectly well able to do so, but in the past he has been reluctant to allow me too much
responsibility, so that at least to begin with it may be necessary for me to work longer hours than usual. If you stay here, I fear you will be neglected. And however much you may protest that you understand the reason, you're bound to be lonely, since you've had no time at all yet to make friends of your own. And so I'm wondering whether you'd like me to telephone Aunt Margaret and ask whether you could begin your stay in London earlier than had been arranged.'

‘Do you think it will be convenient?' asked Kate. She was anxious not to cause trouble to anyone, but it was hard to judge where she would be least in the way.

‘You probably know that she spends much of her time at the hospital. Whether you go now or later, she may not be able to give you much of her own company. But presumably she has given some thought to the question of entertaining you and introducing you to young women of your own age. And in any case –'

Kate interrupted what promised to be a never-ending list of reasons why she should leave. Her moment of weakness had been caused by guilt rather than either shock or shyness, and she saw the need to form a definite opinion about her own future. It was her aunt Margaret who was her true hostess in England, who had written spontaneously to Jamaica hoping that Kate would live with her while she studied, and had pressed the invitation with warmth and generosity until the offer was accepted. The stay at Brinsley House had been arranged only because it would have seemed rude of Kate to land at Bristol from a Lorimer ship and make no attempt to see her Bristol relatives. But from the first moment she had felt herself to be a nuisance, and circumstances now allowed this to be acknowledged by both sides.

‘If Aunt Margaret is prepared to have me, I agree that it would be best for me to move on to London at once,'
she said, and Arthur's smile confirmed that she had made the right decision.

The home of a warm-hearted woman quickly becomes crowded. Even a small army of servants had not been able to prevent Brinsley House from appearing empty, almost desolate; but as soon as Kate stepped inside her aunt Margaret's much smaller house in Queen Anne's Gate she was struck by the atmosphere of bustle and warmth created by a number of people all living full lives in an affectionate atmosphere.

Margaret herself appeared at the door to welcome her niece and nephew – for when told what had happened she had insisted that Brinsley should travel with his sister and stay until the school term began. The housekeeper, Betty, did not slip silently away as any of Sophie's servants would have done. She waited, beaming, at the back of the hall, and was introduced. Margaret's son, Robert, was there, too, well scrubbed and looking very respectable in his Sunday suit. His eyes were bright with pleasure and mischief, though, and as soon as he had shaken Kate solemnly by the hand he hurried Brinsley off to the room which the two boys were to share.

‘You'll find it rather a crush here compared with Brinsley House,' Margaret apologized, but the cheerfulness of her voice suggested that this did not greatly worry her. To prove her words, a small girl – pursued by her nursemaid – came scrambling down the stairs at that moment to see what was going on. Her blonde hair, bright blue eyes and rosy cheeks gave her the appearance of a china doll, but this impression was at once belied
by the energy with which she bounced up and down, demanding attention, until she was picked up for a quick snuggle.

‘This is Frisca.' Margaret introduced her, gave her one more brisk kiss, and handed her back to the nursemaid. Then she led Kate into the drawing room.

Kate assumed her to say Frisker. That's an unusual name!' she exclaimed. She could see that it was appropriate, but was bound to find it unfeminine.

‘She was christened Francisca. But from the moment she could walk she's hardly been still for a single second – she seems determined to hop, skip and dance non-stop through life. Her mother began to call her Frisky and the nickname was certainly apt enough. But I felt it to be more suitable to a puppy than a little girl. Frisca is my attempt at a compromise. She lives with me here, because her mother spends so much time travelling. Alexa is an opera singer, you know.'

‘And Frisca's father?' asked Kate.

‘Her father died before she was born. He was killed in the earthquake at San Francisco. Alexa is in London now, so you will see her this evening – that is to say, if she doesn't have to spend the night in prison.'

‘Is that likely?' Kate was startled, but remembered what Beatrice had said.

‘There's to be a demonstration in Hyde Park this afternoon. A procession of suffragists. One can never be quite sure what will happen. But now you must give me all the news of your dear parents before I allow you to go and unpack.'

How different it was from Sophie's polite enquiries. Kate knew that as well as being her father's sister, Margaret had been a friend of her mother's since they were both girls. They had shared lodgings as medical students, and even after they had qualified as doctors.
They had shared, too, all the secrets of their hearts in those long-ago days. Margaret, moreover, had been in Jamaica when Grant was born. Kate knew how much her presence then had meant to the whole family.

Only when the subject of Jamaica had been exhausted did Margaret ask after her elder brother. She had already been informed of his stroke over the telephone, and now pressed for details as soon as she realized that Kate had actually been in the room when it happened. All Kate's feelings of guilt revived for a moment, until she realized that Margaret was considering the situation as a doctor rather than as a sister. Even then, she was glad when her aunt nodded thoughtfully and suggested that she might now like' to unpack.

After luncheon, Kate felt a sudden return of her normal energy, which had been restricted first by the cramped conditions on the banana boat and then, almost as much, by the stifling etiquette of Brinsley House.

‘May I go for a walk in Hyde Park?' she asked. ‘I would very much like to see Alexa's demonstration.' She was not quite clear whether Alexa was a cousin or an aunt or connected with the family only by adoption, but she had noticed that her Bristol cousins used the Christian name alone, so presumed that it was in order for her to do so as well. A slight frown on Margaret's face made her wonder whether she had decided wrongly, but it soon appeared that there was a different cause for disapproval.

‘These occasions are very crowded. And there is always the danger that a disturbance may develop; even a riot. It depends very much on the police. Sometimes there are huge crowds – thousands of people – and yet no trouble at all, because the atmosphere is sympathetic. But on other days, if the Home Secretary has lost patience, there may be arrests, and attempts to resist arrest, and sometimes very unpleasant injuries are inflicted.' She
considered a moment longer and then smiled. ‘Well, if you are to live in London, you must be prepared to face its hazards, I suppose, though I had hoped to protect you for a little longer. You've probably realized already that I'm uncertain how I ought to look after you. I've no doubt you think of yourself as grown-up, but I may be conscious of dangers of which you can have no experience. I must behave as though I were your mother.'

‘Who has allowed me to run wild all my life,' said Kate, laughing mischieviously, and Margaret s smile showed that she was well aware of this.

‘At least you must take Robert and Brinsley to protect you,' she said. ‘And I shall ask you for a promise that you will keep well back from the procession. It's the people in the front of the crowd who are at risk from the mounted policemen. Will you agree to that?'

Kate was willing to accept any conditions, and said so, but she was a little surprised by her aunt's apparent lack of enthusiasm for the demonstration. Sophie's comments on her sister-in-law had given the impression that Margaret was a supporter of the suffrage movement.

‘Are you not in sympathy with the suffragists, Aunt Margaret?' she asked.

‘I believe that women should have the same right to the vote as men. To that extent I am in sympathy with them – and indeed, I expect more than some of them do. But I think it unfortunate that so much attention is concentrated on this one reform, which by its very nature won't have much practical effect for some time, even after it's adopted, when there are so many other ways in which women need to be protected. You'll find, Kate, that in England there are a great many women whose time and energy are under-employed. They have fewer children than their mothers did, but they still have servants to run their houses. If they were to take any kind of
paid employment, it would be a reflection on their husbands, who are expected to support them; and in most cases they're not qualified for any useful work. So the greatest element in their lives is that of boredom. I've never been in that situation myself, and you will never be either; but even in a short visit you were probably able to observe the symptoms in your aunt Sophie.'

Kate smiled her agreement, although it came as a new idea that she ought to feel sympathetic rather than contemptuous.

‘None of what I've been saying applies to the rich, nor to the poor,' said Margaret. ‘But the class in between is larger than you might suppose. And it's from this class, very largely, that the agitation for the vote has sprung. But what seems sometimes to be forgotten is the huge section of society whose women have no time to trouble about the vote, because all their energies are devoted to keeping alive and to keeping their children alive. In the course of your career, Kate, once you're qualified, you'll be able to contribute more to the happiness of women than all Alexa's friends put together. There are thousands of women who are unhappy not because they are disfranchised, but because they are poor; and by far the most usual cause of poverty is ill-health – the ill-health either of the breadwinner in the family, or of his wife.'

Margaret checked herself and laughed, as though embarrassed to find herself making a speech. But Kate was stimulated by the conversation, for the words reinforced all her own ideals and ambitions.

‘In Hope Valley everyone is poor,' she said. ‘And yet nobody is unhappy.'

‘It may be easier to be poor in a hot climate than in one which is often cold and damp,' suggested Margaret. ‘The people of your father's congregation wear only whatever clothes are needed for modesty. In England,
warm clothes and strong boots are a necessity for health, and those who can't afford to buy them suffer for it. In Jamaica, a house hardly needs to be more than a roof to keep off the rain. Here, wails and windows are needed as well, to protect a family against cold winds, and they can't be obtained without payment of rent. There should be a fire for heat as well as for cooking; but coals must be paid for. Few people in the towns have the opportunity to grow their own fruit and vegetables as your villagers do, or to milk their own goats. They eat only what they can afford to buy, and very often it isn't enough. When the father of a family in England is in work, his wife can usually manage to keep the household warm and fed, although it may be a struggle. But once he loses his job, the cycle of deprivation and sickness begins; and very often indeed the loss is caused by the ill-health of the father. It's a problem which can be tackled from many different directions – by improving working conditions, or housing conditions, or educational opportunities, or health facilities. This year for the first time, as an example, old people with few resources of their own have been allowed a pension of five shillings a week, and this will prevent many cases of malnutrition and despair.'

‘I suppose that if women are allowed to vote, they may use their power to press for more measures of this kind,' suggested Kate tentatively.

‘They may indeed. But their campaign is taking a long time and is monopolizing the attention of the most intelligent and forceful women in the country, so that reforms which might arouse less opposition are neglected for lack of pressure. We must all work in our own fields, and certainly I'm not criticizing Alexa. It would be very easy for a woman who is well paid and beautiful and famous to ignore the hopes of those less fortunate than
herself. But if
I
had time to march in processions, my battle cry would be Happiness Through Health.'

‘When I'm qualified I shall work only amongst poor people,' declared Kate.

‘Rich men sometimes need medical attention too,' said her aunt, although her smile was sympathetic.

‘And have very little trouble in obtaining it,' said Kate.

‘I see you are your mother's daughter.'

‘My mother is like you, Aunt, in many ways,' said Kate thoughtfully. ‘She tries to keep people healthy and helps them to be happy in the way of life in which they find themselves. But sometimes I feel a kind of anger which goes beyond that. Brinsley and I have a friend.' She paused. ‘I believe you met him once.'