(16/20)Summer at Fairacre (2 page)

'Then what's it doing down the plug hole of the wash basin?' demanded Mrs Pringle, fixing me with a stem glance.

'Someone's been trying to hide evidence,' I said. 'Put it on my desk and I'll sort it out.'

Mrs Pringle deposited her burden, and a number of soapy drops, dangerously near the register, and turned to face me, arms akimbo.

'What them children need,' she announced, 'is a bit of old-fashioned discipline.'

'I've been telling her that,' said Mr Willet.

And the two departed, in rare unity, as I went to ring the bell.

By playtime, almost all the snow had vanished. There was still some whiteness under the school hedge, and the tiles on the north-facing roof were edged with shallow snow.

The children were disappointed.

It only needs a flurry of snowflakes to set them agog with anticipation. Making snowmen, complete with pipe, hat and pebbles for eyes, tobogganing down the hill near Beech Green, scoring off old enemies with well-thrown snowballs—all these delights seem within reach, but usually melt away as swiftly as the snow itself.

Joseph Coggs and his rescue party prompted my memory, and were allowed to dash down the lane to see if the cat was still languishing under the hedge. As expected, they returned somewhat crestfallen.

'Mr Roberts was up the yard,' Patrick said, 'and we told him about that poor old stray, and he said it wasn't no stray, but one of his'n—'

'His,' I corrected automatically.

'That's right, miss. His'n. So we just come back.'

'Came back.'

'Like I said,' agreed Patrick. I let the matter rest.

Village schoolmistresses, and no doubt those who teach in town schools too, recognise the utter futility of trying to correct certain phrases. Fairacre's intractable examples include:

'Miss, the nib of my pencil's bin and broke.'

'Miss, could you threadle my needle?'

And, of course, 'I never done it.'

As for the correct usage of the verbs 'to lend' and 'to borrow', I despair of ever getting this particular piece of grammar across.

'Can I have a lend of your duster, miss?' This is the usual phrase. Sometimes it is 'a borrow of'. If I had as many five-pound notes as the number of times I have carefully rephrased these requests I should have retired from teaching long ago with a comfortable income.

Now that the affair of the cat was settled, a lesson on fractions was undertaken until the dinner van arrived. Sliced cold lamb, beetroot and coleslaw, followed by bottled plums and pink blancmange is not my idea of a cheering lunch on a bleak March day, but the children tackled it with their usual gusto, and rushed out to play afterwards with their spirits as boisterous as the wind which buffeted them from the downs above.

That evening, sitting by a log fire as though it were December instead of the first day of spring, I had a surprise visit from my old friend Amy.

We were at college together many years ago. She is now married to a businessman who seems to earn a great deal of money. This busy life involves much travelling, and Amy is often left alone while he is away either here or abroad.

James is a charmer, and devoted to the opposite sex. Personally, I am sure that he adores Amy, but whether he is wholly faithful to her, I have my doubts. Although Amy is far too loyal to voice her suspicions, she is pretty shrewd, and I think she knows quite well that some of these so-called business trips include other interests.

'A fire! How marvellous!' she said, holding out her beautifully manicured hands to the blaze. 'Nothing like the first day of spring for making one appreciate a log fire.'

'Coffee or sherry?'

'What sort of sherry? You are't still offering that stuff you won at the last raffle?'

When you have known Amy as long as I have you do not take umbrage at this sort of remark.

'That was jolly nice sherry. Good and fruity. The vicar and I finished it off last week.'

'Coffee, I think after all.'

'Instant,' I said, 'and you're lucky to get that!'

Amy chuckled, and fished in her elegant Italian handbag for a cigarette. She followed me into the kitchen.

'I often wonder why you don't get matching kitchen units,' she said, surveying my equipment.

'No money to pay for them,' I told her, spooning out the coffee. 'Top of the milk, or hot milk?'

'Top, please.'

'Good. It saves messing up a saucepan. No point in making work.'

'If you organised this kitchen you could cut down the work. For one thing, all your working tops would be the same height.'

'But I don't want them all the same height,' I protested. 'If I'm mincing I use the table. If I'm washing lettuce, I need the sink which is deeper. The draining board's just the right height for chopping cabbage—'

'Very well, very well! You needn't go on! Obviously, you've become quite accustomed to these primitive surroundings and don't intend to change now.'

'That's right,' I said amicably. 'Would you like a ginger nut?'

'I should love one. I haven't had a ginger nut for years, but I warn you, I'll have to dunk it. I've got a filling that's cracked across.'

'I think we've both got to the stage where it's permissible to dunk ginger nuts. Won't be long before we're mumbling our gruel with our gums.'

'Speak for yourself,' said Amy.

We settled ourselves by the fire.

'I've brought the Caxley Festival programme with me. I thought we might go to a few of the events.'

'What's on offer?'

'A concert in the Parish Church. Modern music mainly. Lots of Bartok.'

'Count me out, Amy dear. Those pews nearly crippled me at the carol service, and at least we stood up now and again. Besides, I can't take Bartok.'

'The trouble with you,' said Amy severely, 'is that you close your mind to progress. Well, what about this exhibition of modern sculpture?'

'Where's that?'

'It's all hefty outdoor stuff, I gather. They've roped off part of the common.'

'It sounds nice and peaceful. But what happens if it rains?'

'As the Duke of Norfolk said, with admirable brevity, when asked the same question about the Coronation: "
We get wet!
"'

'Carry on.'

'Your Henry Mawne appears to be giving a couple of lectures on British birds.'

'He's not my Henry Mawne, I'm thankful to say, but I expect I've heard those lectures several times in our village hall.'

'Eighteenth-century silver in the museum? Demonstration of hand-weaving? Three mid-European plays about the rise of the peasant classes?'

'The silver sounds agreeable,' I said cautiously.

'You do live dangerously, don't you?' said Amy. 'Tell you what, I'll leave the programme here and you can look it through and let me know. Frankly, I'm game for anything. James will be away for most of that time.'

'Where is he going?'

'Holland first, I believe. Something to do with diamond merchants. Not that James will see much of the diamonds, but the money gets put into other things.'

'The Dutch are very clever at trading, I believe.'

'So I gather. Didn't they own the East Indies at one time? All those spices and jewels?'

'My knowledge is pretty hazy. I only know they were jolly good sailors and had the cheek to sail up the Thames, or perhaps it was the Medway, and had to be chased off by someone who had a broom on the mast.'

'I don't believe it! Why on the
mast
anyway?'

'Amy, I really know nothing about the Dutch except that Holland gets flooded very easily, and the housewives are exceptionally clean. I should ask James about them when he gets back. After all, he will have first-hand knowledge.'

'Not of the housewives, I hope,' said Amy, with unusual tartness. She stubbed out her cigarette viciously. 'If that's the time, I'd better be off. James makes an early start for Edinburgh tomorrow.'

'He certainly keeps busy,' I said accompanying her to the door.

'Too busy at times,' replied Amy, getting into her glossy car. 'I've told him not to be surprised if I take a leaf out of his book and have a break myself one day.'

It was said lightly, but there was an underlying grimness which disconcerted me.

She blew me a kiss and drove off, and I returned to the fireside with food for thought.

The chilly weather continued for the rest of March. A few hardy primroses had braved the elements in the garden, and knotted bluebell flowers crouched in their glossy leaves, obviously unwilling to do more until the weather grew warmer.

The leaves were still tightly furled on the trees. The winter silhouettes of the beeches and limes still showed up starkly black against the grey sky.

At night, I was glad of my comforting fire, and still put a hot water bottle in my bed halfway through the evening. The frosts were severe, and it would be many weary weeks before the geranium cuttings on my window sill could be put out in the garden.

I remembered Mr Willet's words about the Marchs of old, and I knew that he was right. Somehow, nowadays we seemed to get no real spring, none of those balmy tender days when one could walk in the woods admiring the rosettes of primroses, noting the glutinous stalk of a trampled bluebell, with the whole vista lit by a spangle of young leaves.

The children coughed and sniffed as they had done all the winter, yet would still attempt to go out into the bleak playground without their coats until bullied into them by their elders. Winter ills were rife in the village at large, and the March meeting of the Women's Institute, a hardy collection of souls, was cancelled as the village hall stove had gone on strike, and no one could brave the arctic conditions there with the windows glazed, both inside and out, with thin ice.

One frosty evening when I was settled by the fire marking essays, and getting rather tired of correcting 'brids' and 'grils', someone rang the front door bell.

As I crossed the little hall I remembered all the warnings about opening doors to strangers, particularly if one was alone in the house. I am always advising people to go upstairs and find out who the caller is from an upstairs window, but naturally I never do this myself, as I don't remember such things until the door is wide open.

Luckily, tonight's visitor was only Henry Mawne with some draw tickets to sell, and he seemed glad to come in.

'I shouldn't really,' he said, wiping his perfectly clean shoes vigorously on the mat, 'but to tell the truth, it's a good deal colder than I bargained for when I set out, and I shan't call anywhere else.'

I nobly stumped up fifty pence for a book of tickets to support some wild bird project dear to Henry's ornithological heart, and offered him a drink which he refused.

He stretched his legs out to the blaze, and looked settled for the evening.

I stacked the exercise books away and fetched a block of mint sweet.

'Well, indulge yourself with this,' I said, breaking it with some difficulty. 'It says it is as supplied to
uccessful
polar expeditions. I suppose the
unsuccessful
ones were foolish enough to forget to pack the stuff.'

'Ah! My favourite sweet,' said he, taking the largest fragment. 'Where do you get it?'

'Mr Lamb at the Post Office keeps it.'

'I never knew that!' He crunched happily, and I wondered if he proposed to stay for some time. I had two telephone calls to make, and had planned to wash my hair, but obviously a host's duties came before these things.

Why is it, I wondered, surveying my guest's relaxed attitude, that people generally imagine that a single woman is dying for company? After all, a woman living alone hasjust as many chores to do as her married counterpart. In fact, she is probably busier, as she has to do them all herself.

When I return from the school I still face my household tasks, correspondence - far too much of it - and the ever-present washing, ironing and mending. Gardening, shopping and modest entertaining have also to be fitted in, and I do what I can to help in various village activities, even if it only involves minding the Hat and Shoe stall at the W.I. jumble sale while the chief stall-holder slips off for a tea break. I am also fair game for anyone collecting contributions to various bazaars, and keep a supply of home-made jam and marmalade for instant largesse to these worthy causes.

It is not that I am an unsocial person, but having spent the best part of the day with a host of demanding children, my fellow-teacher, not to mention Mrs Pringle, Mr Willet and various callers of educational complexion, I am really very content to gain the blissful solitude of the school house, and a few hours of peace.

'How's Elizabeth?' I asked politely. Mrs Mawne is an energetic member of the Fairacre community, and keeps her husband up to his duties as the vicar's right hand, as well as his numerous commitments as an authority on birds.

'Oh, she's in Ireland,' said Henry. 'Gone to see an old aunt of hers. The poor thing has always been difficult, and has gone through companion after companion since her husband Roderick died.'

'You make her sound somewhat cannibalistic,' I replied.

'She is, my dear, she is!' Henry sat up, scattering a few fragments of mint sweet on the hearth rug. I was amused to watch him collecting them carefully on a licked finger and transferring them to his mouth.

'Elizabeth's gone over to see if she can persuade her into a nursing home. Fat chance of that, as far as I can see. Nothing short of dynamite will get her out of that barn of a place she lives in.'

'Has she always lived there?'

'Ever since she married some sixty years ago. It's one of those mouldering old Victorian castles, all pepper-pot turrets and cross-draughts, and the most peculiar fungi growing in the attic bedrooms. Still, it does give shelter to some rare owls and bats, and for that reason I should be sorry to see the place pulled down.'

'Is that likely to happen?'

'Very likely, I should think, if she can be persuaded to sell. My chief concern is that Elizabeth doesn't bring her back to stay with us. The position would be quite impossible. We really have enough to do looking after ourselves these days, and I can't think how we'd manage with dear old aunt Thora in our midst.'