The Most Precious Thing (31 page)
By the time he reached Dock Street he was almost running. He burst into the front room only to find it empty. And then he heard his name called from upstairs. He walked back out into the narrow hall as Carrie descended from the bedrooms. For a moment as he saw her bright face he thought, she knows. Somehow she knows about me da and she’s pleased for him. And he said, ‘You’ve heard?’
‘Heard?’
‘About me da?’ Her wrinkled brow told him he was on the wrong tack. ‘If it’s not me da, what are you looking so pleased about?’
‘Tell me about your da first.’
So there was something. ‘No.’ He tapped her nose. ‘You tell me.’
‘It’s the shop. Mr Horwood sent a message for me to go back with the driver when they came to pick up the order. I’ve just got back.’
‘And?’
‘And he’s offered me a rise, a big rise. He wants me to just do specific orders for his best clients. Apparently quite a few of them are asking especially for me now, Mr Horwood says. There’s a grand wedding in the spring and they’ve asked for me to do all the dresses. It’s such an opportunity, David . . .’ Her voice trailed away. ‘Don’t look like that.’
David made a huge effort. Carrie’s words had caused a feeling of panic that was constricting his breath. She was beautiful, so beautiful, and she was going up in the world. He knew it as sure as eggs were eggs. And him? He was just an ordinary working man, and not even a white-collar one at that. There was nothing to hold her to him. Bitterness was like lemon juice in his mouth. He couldn’t hold her, he knew that. He’d come to accept it slowly as he had watched her change from the young bonny lass he’d married, who had been little more than a bairn, into a strong-minded woman whose beauty took his breath away. ‘I’m glad for you.’ Even to himself the words sounded stilted. And then, because the light in her face was dying, he forced himself to say with more warmth, ‘I am, lass. I’m really glad for you. It’s just that I’ve had a shock the day. It’s me da . . .’
David had left for the funeral twenty minutes earlier when Olive Sutton walked into Carrie’s kitchen through the back door. In all the time Carrie had been married, her mother-in-law had never once paid an unexpected visit. Indeed, Carrie could count the number of times Olive had been to the house and they wouldn’t have reached a dozen, being in the main for Matthew’s birthdays, with the occasional Christmas or New Year thrown in. The move to Dock Street had been a thorn in Olive’s flesh from the start; Carrie was well aware of this, and the fact that what really rankled with Olive was that the move had been funded by her own work.
Carrie’s expression was guarded as she said, ‘Hello, Mam. What are you doing here?’
Olive eyed her angrily. ‘I’ve come to find out what you know about this idea Ned’s got about moving down to London. And don’t tell me you and David aren’t in on it. Ned’s forever in this house, along with others I could name.’
Carrie ignored this. ‘I know as much as you, I expect,’ she said quietly, carrying on with the task of lining a dish with pastry for the apple pie she was making.
‘I doubt that, m’girl. And don’t come out with the same story Ned did about this being something that’s happened all of a sudden. This has been planned for weeks, hasn’t it? Months, most likely. You’ve all been laughing at me behind my back. Do Renee and Walter know? And Lillian?’ Olive didn’t include Alec in the accusation of betrayal, Carrie noticed. She stared at the enraged woman; it was obvious Olive was holding on to her temper by no more than a thread.
‘You’ll have to ask Ned about that,’ she said, her tone cool. ‘As I understand it, he met Mr Proudfoot because of the funeral and--’
‘I said I know the story that’s been concocted, but Ned would never have the guts to do something like this without thinking about it for months. He’s a spineless so-an’-so, always has been. No one knows what I’ve had to endure. We’d be like pigs in muck if it’d been left to him.’
Carrie was beginning to shake with anger inside but she kept her voice level. ‘I think Ned is a lovely man.’
‘I think Ned’s a lovely man,’ Olive mocked nastily. ‘And in your book lovely men up and skedaddle and leave their family with nowt, do they? Nearly thirty-five years I’ve worked my fingers to the bone for that ungrateful scum, and what do I get?’
‘Exactly what you deserve.’ She hadn’t meant to say it but her temper was up and for once she didn’t care what her mother-in-law thought.
‘So that’s the way of it? I might have known.’ Olive nodded, her head jerking on her thin neck.
‘From the first day I came into this family I’ve never heard you say one kind word to him,’ Carrie said hotly, ‘not one, so what makes you think he would want to stay here when he’s had an offer like the one from Mr Proudfoot?’
‘I’m his wife, he’s married to me--’
‘No one knows that better than Ned, I should expect.’
Olive drew her body up as tight as a bow. ‘You dare to speak to me like that! Scum from the bottom end, you are, and no amount of getting on will alter that. Little Miss Butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-her-mouth. You set your cap at David, trapping him with the oldest trick in the world, but not content with him you make sure your own sister’s husband is never off the doorstep, along with mine. No man’s safe round you, Carrie McDarmount. You even encourage Alec through the bairn, playing on the fact that Margaret’s worse than useless.’
The hot colour that had surged into Carrie’s face drained away. Matthew? What did she mean by that remark? Surely Alec hadn’t told his mother he thought the boy was his? ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she said shakily. ‘Alec is Matthew’s uncle. It’s natural he’d want to see him.’
‘Aye, and you’re the mistress of natural feelings, sure enough.’
Olive didn’t know, or she would have screamed the accusation at her right now, the mood she was in, instead of that last gibe. She had read too much into what had been just another nasty taunt. Gathering her scattered wits, Carrie said forcefully, ‘I think you had better leave.’
‘You’re ordering me out of my own son’s house?’
‘Exactly.’ Carrie held the livid green gaze and it was Olive who dropped her eyes first. ‘He won’t get away with it,’ she muttered bitterly. ‘Tell him that from me. I’ll have him brought back, I’ll get the police involved if I have to.’
It was an idle threat and Carrie didn’t bother to contradict it.
‘And I shan’t forget the part you’ve played today, madam, or that son of mine. Taking Ned’s side when any decent folk would have been horrified.’
‘I asked you to leave.’
‘I’m going, don’t worry. There’s nothing would make me want to stay here with you. It just amazes me Matthew has turned out as well as he has, having you for a mother.’
So saying, Olive exited the house the way she had come, banging the back door behind her with some force.
Horrible, horrible woman. Carrie drew in a shuddering breath, her legs suddenly weak. And the nerve of her, to come round here shouting and carrying on. To think she had even felt sorry for Olive when David had first told her what his da was going to do. Not that she didn’t think Ned should go, not a bit of it, but to be left like that and everyone knowing . . . But she didn’t feel sorry for the woman now. She looked at her hands which were still trembling and burst into tears.
By the time David returned to the house and Matthew came home from school, Carrie was in perfect control of herself. She had made up her mind that when she told David what had occurred with his mother, she would be calm and collected. It wouldn’t help anyone if David knew exactly what his mother had said to her because he wouldn’t stand for it and the row would just escalate.
When the evening meal was over and Matthew had been despatched to bed early, much to his disgust, she sat David down with a cup of tea in front of the fire and pulled one of the kitchen chairs close to his armchair. ‘I need to talk to you,’ she said carefully, ‘about your mam.’
‘Not tonight, Carrie.’ David lay back with a deep sigh, stretching his long legs out in front of him. ‘It’s been a strange sort of day one way and another, and we can’t do anything about Da going anyway. We’ll talk tomorrow, all right?’
‘She came here today.’
‘What?’ He sat upright. ‘Me mam came
here
?’
here
?’
‘She was upset about your da going and she seems to think we knew about it beforehand, weeks ago.’
‘That’s daft.’
‘I know that and you know it but she’s made up her mind it was some sort of conspiracy.’
‘What did she say?’
‘Oh, she accused us of encouraging him, things like that. She . . . she was in a rage.’
‘And she came here when she knew you’d be by yourself, with me and Da at the funeral.’ He was staring intently at her wary face now, taking her by surprise when he said, ‘Tell me exactly what she said, Carrie. Word for word.’
‘I can’t remember,’ she prevaricated weakly. ‘But we argued and it finished with me telling her to get out.’
‘And you’re saying you can’t remember what provoked you to say that? Look, lass, I know me mam and she’s a nasty piece of work. What did she say?’
It would be the end of any contact between them if she told him, and Matthew was fond of his grandma, as she was of him. ‘I told you, I can’t remember. She said things and I said things and it’s all a blur now, mixed up.’
‘Then I’ll have to see about unmixing it, won’t I?’ He rose from the armchair as he spoke.
‘Where are you going? Oh no, don’t, don’t, David. Let her cool down for a while, she’s had a shock. Drink your tea.’
‘Damn my tea.’ He reached for his cap and muffler on the back of the kitchen door. ‘And if you think my mother is going to cool down, you don’t know her very well.’
It was a full two hours before the door opened again and he walked in, his cap and coat soaked with the icy rain that was falling. She stared at him and he smiled; his first words were about the weather. ‘It’s raining cats and dogs.’
‘You saw her?’
‘Oh aye, I saw her. Alec had left no more than five minutes before and she was in a stew because he hadn’t offered to take her in, nor will he, if you ask me. He’ll blame it on Margaret’s nerves or some such thing, but the crux is he doesn’t like her any more than the rest of us do. It just suited him not to get on the wrong side of her before, and with him being golden boy that wasn’t difficult. Line of least resistance, that’s Alec.’
‘How was she?’
‘Still spitting coals. I spat a few myself when she gave me the gist of what she’d said to you. Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘I didn’t want you to go round there and fall out with her.’
‘You have to be friendly with someone in the first place to fall out with them.’ He was taking off his coat and cap as he spoke, and his mouth was hard and tight and not at all like her David’s. ‘Anyway, I haven’t fallen out with her. I merely told her that when she’s ready to come here and apologise to you she will be welcome in this house again, and able to see Matthew. That’s all.’
‘But she’ll never do that.’ She stared at him, her eyes deeply troubled. ‘You know what she’s like with me, she’ll never eat humble pie.’
‘Then that’s that. The decision is hers, lass. She’s brought all this on herself, not just this with us but Da leaving like he has. Why should any bloke have to put up with what he’s had to put up with all these years?’
‘I know, but--’
‘No buts.’
‘It’ll cause so many problems, David.’
He had taken off his sodden shirt and was hanging it over the wooden clothes horse which he had moved close to the glowing range. The tone of her voice made him turn. He held out his muscled arms which were as strong and hard as the coal he hewed.
‘Come here, lass,’ he said quietly. When Carrie was folded into his embrace and his chin was resting on top of her head, he continued, ‘If there are problems we’ll face them together, all right?’
‘But Matthew will want to see his grandma, you know how she spoils him and--’
David lifted her face with the tip of one finger and smiled at her. ‘Together, all right? And that includes Matthew.’ He kissed her thoroughly, and as she relaxed against the broad expanse of his chest she realised there was no other place she would rather be. David had become her rock and her fortress as well as her friend and comforter and lover. She loved him. Carrie’s eyes opened wide. She wasn’t sure when this love had crept up on her but it was there all right and it was real. He was part of her now, her other half.
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