Secrets to Keep (26 page)

Without waiting, he shoved past Aidy, knocking her back against the door. He dropped his bag on the kitchen floor and proceeded through to the back room.

Bertha gawped wide eyed, seeing who their visitor was. ‘Talk about bad pennies! You’ve got some brass neck, showing your face here again.’ She shot an accusing look at Aidy as she followed him in, as though to say, You seriously allowed this man to come in, after all he’s responsible for? ‘So what are you doing here?’ she snarled at her detested son-in-law.

‘Same mouthy old bag you always were, eh, Bertha?’ he said as he plonked himself down in the nearest armchair to the range, kicking off his holed hob-nailed boots to rest smelly, dirty, sockless feet on the rail. He looked hard at her. ‘You seem like yer at home, so I take it yer’ve moved in since I’ve been away?’

She curled her lip in disgust. ‘It’s nothing to do with you where I live.’

‘It’s everything to do with me. My name is on the rent book.’

Bertha scoffed, ‘Might be your name on the book, but you ain’t paid the rent for years.’

Arnold Greenwood grinned sardonically at her. ‘Don’t matter. It’s my name on the book, so my decision who lives here or not. And I’ll tell you what I told yer granddaughter … you’d better show me some respect or you’ll all be finding yerselves out on the streets.’

If he could walk out on his wife and young family, leaving them destitute, then he’d have no compunction about throwing his aged mother-in-law out, thought Bertha. Regardless, the likes of that spineless creature did not scare her. She’d sooner be out on the streets than show him respect he didn’t deserve. She said icily, ‘I take it your current floozy’s chucked you out and yer’d no one lined up to take her place? Judging by the look of yer, yer’ve no money either, so coming back here is a better alternative than living on the streets?’

‘That’s exactly it.’ He smirked at her.

Bertha scowled at him darkly. ‘And here was me, hoping you’d got some terrible disease and had come home to die.’

He shot her a murderous look back. ‘I’ll warn you
once more: show me some respect or you’re out. I won’t tell you again.’

Aidy shot over to her grandmother, leaned down and whispered in her ear, ‘Don’t push him, Gran. I’ve no doubt he’ll do what he says. If he did throw you out, you’ve only one place to go. And where you go, me and the kids go with you, ’cos we’re a family and stick together. All right?’

Bertha sighed in resignation. It was going to take her all her self-control to be civil to her son-in-law, but she’d have to or otherwise be responsible for Aidy, herself and the kids walking the streets until they found somewhere else to live. And she couldn’t walk anywhere at the moment due to her broken leg. Tight lipped, she nodded her agreement.

Aidy straightened up and said to her father, ‘I’ll see what I can find to make a bed up for you in the parlour.’

He gave a snort of disgust. ‘I’m sleeping on no makeshift bed in the parlour. I’ll be in me own bed, in me own bedroom.’

‘But that’s where me and Aidy sleep! Well … I do when I get this cast off me leg and can get back upstairs,’ Bertha told him.

‘Not any more. Better get yer stuff shifted. I’m tired, so after I’ve had summat to eat, I’ll be going up.’ He demanded of Aidy then, ‘What have yer got? I’m famished.’

Eyes black as thunder, she hissed at him, ‘Soup. Take it or leave it.’

A stony silence descended, the hostility in the air so thick it could have been cut with a knife. Aidy, still reeling from this unexpected turn of events, busied herself getting her father something to eat. She had not remembered him as the loving, nurturing sort, and her memory was serving her well. He hadn’t once asked for any information on how his family had fared since the last time he had seen them. Was not showing any grief at all to learn his wife had died during his absence. She worried how her brother and sisters were going to react to their father’s return, a man they didn’t know. And it was very apparent Arnold Greenwood meant to resume his position as head of the household, whether they liked it or not, due to the simple fact that it was his name on the rent book and he could use the threat of eviction against them all, should they not treat him in the manner he felt he was entitled to.

If he’d no job, it wasn’t likely he proposed to make any contribution towards his keep. Their budget was tight as it was. How she was going to stretch it further to cover feeding another, Aidy had no idea. But overriding all this was her worry about how he and her grandmother were going to manage to stay even slightly civil to this man they both believed had played a huge part in Jessie’s early death.

A
idy was torn between feeling angry and relieved the next morning when her father did not make an appearance before the children left for school and she for work. He was obviously not in any hurry to reacquaint himself with his elder children or, in Marion’s case, meet her for the first time. Early in the morning, though, was not the best of times to break the sort of news Aidy had to impart. She would meet the others out of school and break the news to them on the way home, she decided.

Aidy herself was feeling wretched, her body stiff and sore, eyes gritty, the old lumpy armchair not having proved at all comfortable to spend the night in, though she’d had too much preying on her mind for the luxury of sleep anyway, she supposed. The thought of spending another night like her last was not a welcome one at all. She knew she’d have to do something about it. And for her grandmother too. Sleeping on the sofa, which was no more comfortable than the armchair,
was the only option open to Bertha while she was incapacitated, but it couldn’t continue after she was healed.

Doing what she’d originally proposed and taking in a lodger was one solution. Her grandmother and she could take over the girls’ room, moving them into George’s … both rooms were much smaller than they had just now and would prove a tight squeeze for all of them, but in her and her grandmother’s case, would at least be big enough to hold a bed where they’d get a far more restful sleep than the sofa and armchair offered. Then a Put-u-up for George in the recess in the back room. But that meant he would have nowhere to escape his father when it wasn’t possible to go out, and remembering her father from the past, and it being apparent that he hadn’t changed, had in fact become worse, Aidy felt there were many times ahead when her brother would need to do that.

Turning the parlour into a bedroom for herself and her grandmother was the only other answer. But just the idea was distressing to her. That room had been her mother’s pride and joy. It had taken Jessie years to furnish it with two old but quite comfortable wing-back leather chairs, given to her when an employer’s father had died and Jessie had rescued them from being thrown out; a second-hand oak table just big enough to seat six was saved up for
and lovingly dusted and polished ever since to a high shine every week. Several cheap but precious ornaments given her over the years by her family at Christmas and birthdays sat on the mantel over the black-leaded fireplace. It was Jessie’s room, the one where she had entertained her special visitors and where she’d found peace and quiet when she felt the need.

Even to be contemplating doing what she proposed seemed to Aidy like desecrating her mother’s memory. If she were alive, though, Aidy knew Jessie would be telling her there was no room for sentiment at a time like this.

She couldn’t … wouldn’t … get rid of any of the furniture her mother had so painstakingly acquired and treasured. Instead she’d carefully stack it up at one end of the room, and the space left would just have to do them. Finding the money for a bedstead and mattress, even second- or third-hand, was out of the question. She wondered how much the pawnbroker would want for a half-decent flock that didn’t appear to be riddled with bugs and need fumigating before they could use it. It would definitely be a few shillings which at the moment she hadn’t got. Would any of the neighbours have one they could borrow until she found the money? Aidy doubted it. Anything not being used by her hard-up neighbours would, she had no doubt, already have been pawned or sold.

It seemed to her that, whether she liked it or not, the armchair would stay her bed until she could come up with a way to find the money to buy a flock.

Then an idea struck her. When she had left her marital home, she had taken nothing but her clothes. She was entitled to something for all she had done towards building that home, surely? Would it be remiss of her to request the mattress off the marital bed? She didn’t care, she was going to. After all, Arch was in a better position to replace it than she was. Besides, unless circumstances had changed, it wasn’t Arch himself who was using it but his mother and father, Pat having told Aidy herself she’d commandeered the room on moving in. If anyone should be forking out for a replacement mattress, it was Pat. Aidy knew the other woman would not give it up without a fight, but she was prepared to stand her ground. She meant to have that mattress. She would go around tonight and tackle Arch about it. The fact she wasn’t mentally prepared to face him yet didn’t even enter her head. Her need for the mattress was paramount.

Having seen the children off to school and made Bertha promise to be on her best behaviour so far as her son-in-law was concerned, Aidy set off for work.

When she arrived she found a queue forming outside the waiting room. It looked like the morning surgery was going to be a busy one, which she was
glad of as it would help keep her awake and her thoughts on other matters than what was happening in her personal life.

She’d let herself in when her eardrums were immediately assailed by the loud hammering and banging coming from the dining room. It seemed the doctor had wasted no time in instigating improvements. Her immediate concern was where she was going to continue with the task of sorting the record cards. Popping her head around the dining-room door, she saw the cards still spread out over the table as she had left them. It seemed she was being expected to carry on sorting them while work went on around her.

Aidy would be so glad when the improvements had been completed. Once the new shelving and cupboards to hold medical supplies and drugs was finished, and the doctor moved out of his previous tiny room into the more spacious one, the wall between the waiting room and the old surgery was to be knocked through, allowing her more room to put in a bigger desk, plus a table at the back to hold the record boxes and other items Aidy needed to do her job. There would also be a larger seating area for the patients to occupy during their wait. Formerly, when the surgery was heavily attended it had proved extremely difficult for Aidy to hear the doctor
summoning her to send in the next patient over the din of their chatter, crowded around her as they were. That wouldn’t be the case in the new waiting room.

Ty had intimated that he proposed to hand over more work to her when her time was freed up after she had completed reorganising the record cards. Aidy was looking forward to having a more varied workload and to feeling she was helping to ease the doctor’s workload. He always looked to her as if he could do with a good night’s sleep. She might not be fond of him as a person but that didn’t mean she didn’t feel sympathy for him, strained as he was by his unrelenting labours.

The last patient had just left and Aidy was about to lock the surgery door, then make Ty a cup of tea before he went out on his morning rounds, when the door opened and to her surprise a nun walked in. There were no convents around here that Aidy was aware of so she was surprised Doc had a nun for a patient.

Aidy studied the woman. She was of medium height. It was hard to tell what her figure was like under her habit, but her face was very pleasant with kindly eyes and she was in her late thirties or early forties. Aidy told her, ‘Morning surgery’s actually finished, Sister, but I’ll go and tell Doc you’re here. If he can fit you in before he has to go out on his round I’m sure he will, you being who you are.
Would you like to rest your legs while I go and see him?’

Just then, armed with a pile of record cards from the patients he had seen during morning surgery, Ty came in. He stopped short, taken aback for a moment to find a nun in his waiting room. Composing himself, he said to her in his usual stiff manner, ‘What can I do for you, Sister?’

She smiled at him. ‘It’s what I can do for you, Doctor. My name is Sister Teresa. I’ve come from St Catherine’s, Glenfield Road. Mother Superior has assigned me to your surgery. I’m ready to start as soon as you wish me to.’

Aidy stared at Ty in shock. This was the first time she had ever seen him show any emotion. Although the rest of his face was displaying his normal impassive expression, from the light kindled in his eyes it was apparent he was delighted to be gaining the services of a nun to help ease his workload.

He said to her in his usual monotone, ‘Surgery generally finishes around ten in the morning, so if you arrive by ten-thirty I will have a list of patients ready for you to visit that day along with a bag of supplies. I will leave it with my receptionist, Mrs Nelson. Please express my appreciation to your Mother Superior for assigning you to my surgery. And now, do excuse me. I must get on with my rounds.’

He placed the pile of records on Aidy’s reception desk and returned to his surgery.

Sister Teresa smiled at her and said, ‘I’ll look forward to seeing you in the morning, Mrs Nelson.’

Aidy was very pleased by this turn of events. She had been dreading the doctor asking her to undertake a dressing change on his behalf, something she had told him she was adept at during her interview when in fact she wasn’t, so having the nun on board to do such things was going to save her possible embarrassment.