Settling the Account (53 page)

‘Do you like it, Pa?’ Maudie asked. Her face
looked almost unfamiliar under the soft folds of fair hair that Amy
had pinned up for her. There was no denying it; his little girl was
growing up.

‘You look gorgeous, love,’ Frank told her.
‘Nearly as pretty as your ma.’

Frank saw Maudie watching Richard closely
that evening, eager to see his reaction to her new finery.

‘May I say how particularly fetching you
look this evening, Miss Kelly?’ Richard said as he held out a chair
for Maudie. Maudie blushed prettily and murmured a thank you.

But although Richard paid her his usual
polite attentions, they were no more than he gave to the other
women present. Frank saw Maudie begin to look a little downcast as
the evening wore on. She played most of her repertoire of items,
and Richard clapped each one as heartily as he did Lily’s. But no
more heartily.

‘What about giving us a song, Maudie?’
Lizzie said shortly before supper. ‘We haven’t heard you singing
tonight.’

‘All right,’ Maudie said, casting a hopeful
look at Richard as she moved to stand close to the piano. ‘What
shall I sing, Aunt Lily?’

‘This one about the little bird is rather
sweet,’ Lily suggested. ‘You sing this one beautifully, dear.’

Maudie launched into an enthusiastic
rendering of ‘Titwillow’. ‘Very nice,’ was murmured around the
room, as everyone applauded politely.

‘Oh, what about this one?’ Lily said,
pulling out a sheet of music. ‘You and I were practising it the
other day, remember?’ She played a few bars of music.

‘Yes, I like that one—but you said it should
really be a duet.’

‘Well, yes, it would sound better as a duet.
Never mind, dear, just sing the woman’s part.’

‘I don’t know if I want to,’ Maudie said,
suddenly shy. ‘It might sound a bit funny, just singing half the
words.’

‘Joey, your sister wants you to help her
with the singing,’ Lizzie said. Frank saw horror in his son’s face,
rapidly succeeded by rebellion.

Before Joey had the chance to voice his
outrage, Richard came in smoothly. ‘I think I know that one, Mrs
Leith. I seem to remember singing it at school. I’ll gladly take
one of the parts—if everyone can put up with my voice, that is?’
There were noises of encouragement from around the room, the
loudest of all coming from Joey.

‘I can play this one by ear, Doctor
Townsend,’ Lily said. ‘You and Maudie use this for the words.’ She
passed the sheet to Richard.

Richard held the sheet at a convenient
height for Maudie, though Frank wondered if his daughter needed to
stand quite as close as she did to the doctor. Richard gave a
slightly embarrassed laugh. ‘I should confess that the last time I
sang this piece was before my voice broke. I’ve only ever sung the
part of the lady. You’ll have to forgive me, Miss Kelly, if I
stumble over some of the words.’

‘Yes,’ Maudie said in a small voice, gazing
at Richard with her usual adoring expression. She looked, Frank
thought, as though she would forgive Richard things far more
serious than muddling the words of a song.

But Richard did not stumble, and Maudie’s
voice was not small when she sang. Their voices blended pleasantly,
and Frank had been listening to them for some time before he
realised they were singing a love song.

Neither of them was confident enough of the
lyrics to lift their eyes from the sheet for more than a moment at
a time, but when they did let their gaze leave it, Frank saw
Richard’s eyes slip to Maudie’s as often as they did to his
audience.

The two parts came together as the song
ended, with both voices singing in harmony. ‘Sweetheart,’ they
sang. ‘Sweetheart.’ Richard lowered the hand that held the music,
and offered his arm to help Maudie back to her chair. As Frank
watched, he saw their eyes meet. Richard’s expression was at first
thoughtful, then as he studied Maudie’s face he broke into a smile.
There was no trace of embarrassment or amusement in the smile;
there was nothing but a deep warmth.

*

Maudie only had to wait until the following
Sunday for Richard to give a more substantial sign of his
newly-aroused feelings towards her. After waiting long enough for
the generous lunch to settle, he spoke to Lizzie with an air of
diffidence that Frank found surprising. It was shyness, Frank
decided, rather than any doubt as to what Lizzie’s answer might
be.

‘Would it be in order for me to ask Miss
Kelly to accompany me on a walk, Mrs Kelly?’

Lizzie appeared to give the idea serious
consideration for a few moments. ‘Yes, I think that would be very
nice, Doctor Townsend,’ she said, while Maudie turned a beaming
face on Richard. ‘Maudie can show you some nice views. Beth can go
with you, too.’

Maudie and Beth both turned faces full of
unspoken protest on their mother, but Lizzie met their eyes with a
set expression that told them how useless arguing would be.

‘Of course,’ Richard said, turning a smile
on Beth that gave away nothing of how he might feel about the
arrangement. ‘I’d be delighted to have Miss Beth’s company as
well.’

‘And me,’ Rosie announced. ‘I’ll come
too.’

‘No, you won’t,’ Lizzie said. The somewhat
hunted expression that had appeared on Richard’s face as more and
more of the family seemed about to be added to the party was
replaced by one of relief. ‘You can go another time, if you’re
good.’

‘But he’s
my
doctor,’ Rosie said
indignantly. ‘Why can’t—’

‘That’s enough, Rosie,’ Lizzie interrupted.
‘Not another word, my girl. And don’t you pull faces at me, Rosie
Kelly, or there’ll be trouble.’

It was not, Frank reflected, the time to
point out that he and Richard usually went for a walk themselves
after Sunday lunch. It rather looked as though he was going to have
to accept playing second fiddle to his daughter from now on.

Richard helped Maudie on with her cloak,
though Frank had never before known her to have any difficulty
putting it on by herself. He was holding Beth’s cloak out to her
when Lizzie spoke suddenly, as if an idea had just struck her.

‘Wait a minute, Beth, I’ve got something I
want you to do. Oh, you and Maudie go on ahead, Doctor Townsend,’
she added. ‘Beth can catch you up later.’

Maudie was not one to miss an opportunity.
She slipped her arm through the one Richard held out to her, and
led the way from the house at a brisk pace.

As soon as they were safely out of earshot,
Lizzie turned to Beth. ‘Now, there’s no need for you to be treading
on their heels. Give them a bit of a chance to talk. You stay
within sight of them, mind, and make sure they can see you—him
especially. But you don’t need to go listening to what they say, or
he’ll be too shy to say anything.’

‘Do I have to go with them, Ma?’ Beth asked
plaintively.

‘Yes, you do, and I’ll have no arguments.
I’m not letting them go off by themselves Lord knows where.’

‘But what say he wants to kiss her or
something?’ Beth persisted. ‘I’ll feel stupid watching them.’

Lizzie’s eyes narrowed. ‘If he tries
something like that, you’re to tell me. Your father will have
something to say to Doctor Townsend if anything like that happens,
I might say.’

‘I can’t tell on Maudie,’ Beth protested.
‘She’ll go really crook at me if I do.’

‘Don’t you worry about Maudie, I’ll see to
her. Now, you get a move on before they get too far ahead. Just
remember, close enough but not too close.’

Frank made do with the company of Joey and
the younger boys when he made his round of the cows that afternoon,
but he was curious enough about the outcome of Richard and Maudie’s
first outing to make sure that he was close to the house when they
returned, Richard with a girl on each arm. Beth looked
uncomfortably self-conscious at such an attention, though Maudie
was leaning so heavily against Richard that he must have had little
enough awareness to spare for her younger sister.

As soon as Richard had made his farewells
and they had waved him out of sight, Beth spoke in a rush. ‘He only
took my arm like that just when we were coming back, Ma. I didn’t
get close to them the rest of the time, honest I didn’t. I couldn’t
hear anything they said.’

‘No, Beth was all right,’ Maudie said, the
rather foolish smile on her face making her look unusually silly.
‘I just about forgot she was there. Richard made her come and walk
with us just now, though—I think he felt sorry for Beth, having to
tag along with us. He’s so thoughtful,’ she said, her smile more
foolish than ever.

‘That’s a good girl, Beth,’ Lizzie said. ‘I
knew you’d have the sense to make a good job of it. Now, come on.’
She ushered the two girls into the house while Frank followed in
her wake. He sat down at the table, wondering idly if Lizzie might
offer to make him a fresh pot of tea, but all her attention was on
Maudie. ‘Tell me all about it,’ she said. ‘What happened?’

‘It was lovely,’ Maudie said dreamily. ‘We
went for such a lovely walk up the hill and… oh, I don’t remember
where we went. It was just lovely.’

‘That’s all very well,’ Lizzie said. ‘What
did you talk about? What did he do? Did he hold your hand?’

‘I’m not going to tell you all that! It’s
private!’

Lizzie’s expression changed from eager
curiosity to a grimness that startled Frank. ‘Now, you listen to
me, Maudie,’ she said, leaning close to the girl. ‘I don’t want to
hear any talk about things being “private” or “secret”. I’m your
mother, you’ve no business having secrets from me.’

‘I don’t see why I can’t have my own private
business,’ Maudie protested. ‘Why do you have to go poking your
nose into everything?’

‘Maudie, don’t speak to your ma like that,’
Frank put in, but he might as well not have spoken for all the
notice Maudie and Lizzie took of him. Lizzie held Maudie’s eyes,
her expression so serious that Maudie’s self-righteous air changed
to one of uncertainty.

‘I knew a girl once who said things were
private,’ Lizzie said solemnly. ‘She had a young man she used to go
for walks with, too. She wouldn’t talk to anyone about it—it was
all private and secret, you see. A terrible, terrible thing
happened to that girl.’

‘What happened to her?’ Maudie
whispered.

‘Never you mind,’ Lizzie said. ‘I’ll just
tell you this—some people would say it would have been better if
that poor girl had died. I’m not going to have anything like that
happen to you. So let’s hear no more about secrets, thank you very
much. And now,’ she dropped her solemnity as quickly as she had
assumed it, ‘how did you get on with him? What did you talk
about?’

Maudie had clearly been too shaken by her
mother’s doom-filled tone to maintain her haughty air. ‘He seemed
to want to ask me a lot of things,’ she volunteered. ‘He asked me
what sort of books I like reading.’

‘That was a funny sort of thing to ask,’
Lizzie said.

‘I didn’t really know what to say. I told
him I always read the ladies’ page in the
Weekly News
, but I
think he meant proper books.’

‘Hmm,’ Lizzie said. ‘You’d better go and see
Aunt Amy and borrow her books. You’ve got to be able to talk about
the things he wants to. What else did you talk about?’

‘Um… he asked me what I like doing in my
free time. Not that I ever get much free time, what with looking
after babies and things,’ Maudie added sourly, but without getting
a reaction from her mother. ‘I told him I quite like playing the
piano, but he knew that already. We talked about music for a bit,
but I think he likes the things Aunt Lily plays better than my
stuff. I didn’t really know what he was talking about when he
started saying the sort of music he likes best—you know, all those
foreign names. I just sort of nodded and smiled.’

‘I hope you didn’t just stand there like a
dummy,’ Lizzie said, her brow furrowed. ‘I don’t know why you have
to decide to be shy just now, you’ve certainly never shown any sign
of it before. He must be used to girls with something to say for
themselves—I don’t want him thinking you’re a bit simple.’

‘He wouldn’t think that!’ Maudie said. ‘He’s
much too nice for that.’ Her face softened into a smile. ‘He really
wanted to talk to me. We got talking about what I do in an ordinary
day—boring things like cooking and washing and looking after the
little ones. He seemed like he was interested, but he can’t have
been, really. And then he asked me things about the farm and
stuff—he said I must think he’s a bit strange, not knowing about
milking and everything. Of course I said he’s not strange. I think
he’s lovely. I didn’t say that to him, though,’ she added
hastily.

‘I should think not,’ Lizzie said.

‘Beth would’ve been better at telling him
stuff about the farm. I didn’t like to say that, though, not when I
was trying to seem like I knew things.’

‘I wish I could have,’ Beth said. ‘It was
awful, just walking along by myself. I felt really stupid.’

‘Your turn will come,’ Lizzie said.

Beth said nothing. Frank saw her studying
Maudie’s radiant face, her lower lip trembling slightly, and his
heart went out to her.

‘Hey, you’re not in a hurry to get married,
are you?’ he asked. ‘I can’t go losing all my girls at once, you
know.’ He reached out an arm, and Beth snuggled into it and let
herself be drawn close. ‘Who’d help me look after the calves if
they’re a bit sickly? I don’t know how I’d get on without you
telling me what to do with them.’ He planted a kiss on Beth’s
nose.

He was rewarded with a smile. Beth slid her
arms around his neck and buried her face against his chest. ‘I
don’t ever want to go away and leave you, Pa,’ she told him in a
muffled voice.

‘Oh, don’t talk silly, Beth,’ Lizzie said.
‘Goodness me, you won’t even be fourteen till November! Don’t you
worry, I’ll see you don’t miss out when the time comes. So,’ she
said, turning her attention back to Maudie, ‘it sounds like you got
along quite nicely, even if you didn’t have enough to say for
yourself. You’ll get over that, it’s just a bit of silliness.
Anyway, did he hold your hand or not?’