Someone Special (57 page)

We’ve agreed the past is best forgotten and we’re going to take it from here
, Hester wrote, having broken the news that she and Matthew were going to live together as man and wife once more.
Mr Geraint left years ago when he inherited property down south and Matthew is running everything and doing it very well, furthermore. He told me something I didn’t know – that he now actually owns the lodge outright, so we’ll always have a home here, no matter who inherits the castle. Do you want to work Phillips, darling? If so it would ease things in a way, but if not I’ll talk to a zoo. He’s got a bit big for a stranger to take on. And Matthew wants to see his grown-up girl very much, when you can arrange it
.

‘I think Phillips is a bit big for me,’ Nell told Jack’s brother, Fred Gulliver, when she explained that her mother would not be returning to the fair, saying only that Hester had got herself a job as housekeeper somewhere in Wales. ‘I ought to go over to Marushka’s and explain to Ted what’s happened. I’m sure he’ll understand.’

‘Don’t do nothing hasty; take a day or two off and go and see what they say at Marushka’s,’ Fred advised.

‘I think you’re right, I should see how things stand before I make a move. But what about the trailer, Fred? I
suppose you wouldn’t move into it for the days I’m away? The fact is, with so many people homeless, I dare not leave it empty.’

‘Sure,’ Fred said easily. ‘I wouldn’t mind a few days out of mam’s wagon; it’s crowded in there.’

‘And you’ll give an eye to Phillips? He won’t need feeding for a week, but then, if I’m held up and still not back, he’ll want a rabbit or two. Can you do that?’

‘Sure,’ Fred repeated. ‘Piece o’ cake. You run along, there’s a good gel. Sort things out. Look, you’ve paid your rent at the lodgings, ’aven’t you? Well, take the old gal a little something, to sweeten your return, like. I’ll get you some veg if it’ll ’elp.’

Nell accepted the offer gratefully, though she had a nasty suspicion that free vegetables provided by Fred would probably have been lifted from some unsuspecting farmer’s field. Ugly Jack had been the soul of honesty, but Fred was a different kettle of fish. She did not want to look a gift horse in the mouth though, and Fred was right: she would be welcomed back more warmly if she brought some food with her. So the following day Nell pushed the vegetables on top of the change of clothing which was all she had brought with her from Marushka’s, said goodbye to the Gullivers, and left. Despite the fact that the country had been at peace for almost seven months, the railways were still chaotic and her journey took eleven hours. At last she found herself, bag in hand, stepping off the train at Tunbridge Wells station and setting out in the sparkling frosty dusk to walk first to her lodgings and then to the spot on the common where Marushka’s were over-wintering.

Mrs Pratt smiled broadly when she opened the door and saw who was standing on the doorstep; Nell had always paid her rent promptly, but the landlady must have wondered whether she had lost her lodger for good when the days had gone by without a word.

‘It’s nice to see you, Miss Makerfield. And how is your poor, dear mother?’

‘She’s much better, thank you, Mrs Pratt. I’ve just popped in to leave my bag, then I’ll go up to Marushka’s. I’ll be back for tea, though.’ Nell rummaged in her bag and produced her ration book. ‘Here you are. Oh, and I thought you might find these useful.’

She handed her landlady the bag of potatoes, some carrots and two large onions which Fred had pressed on her just before she left.

‘Well now, it’s good of you to think of us,’ Mrs Pratt said. ‘We’ll have a nice shepherd’s pie for our tea today. See you later, Miss Makerfield.’

‘I shan’t be late,’ Nell said cheerfully. ‘It was a bad journey though; I’m very tired.’

‘Amy can’t wait to show you the tadpoles,’ Mrs Pratt called as Nell walked down the short path to the gate.

As she had walked through the streets and across the common, Nell had almost decided that she would bring the trailer up to Tunbridge Wells and throw in her lot with Marushka’s. She was fond of Phillips but she was also a bit afraid of trying to work with him. He was good with Hester, but would he be as good with her? She had seldom handled him and though he had seemed complaisant enough when she did so, she did not have Hester’s years of experience behind her. No, working with a python of that size was not for her. She would give him to a zoo or pass him to another showman, if she could find one who would treat him properly. Then she would throw herself wholeheartedly into the job of illusionist’s assistant.

Walking back across the common an hour later, however, Nell’s plans were in pieces.

She had arrived outside Giovanni’s living wagon and knocked on the door, to have it opened by Ariadne.

‘Hello, I’m back,’ Nell announced. ‘Where’s Ted?’

‘Inside. Nell, there’s been a bit of …’

A figure appeared behind Ariadne and peered mournfully around her, trying to see Nell in the gathering dusk.

‘Who is it, Arry? Who’s there?’

‘Oh, it’s Nell; you’d best come in, love,’ Ariadne said.

As she followed the other girl inside, Nell noticed that she was wearing ancient carpet slippers. Odd. Sammy Scarface was a jealous lover and had not encouraged Ariadne to speak to Ted, let alone to visit his trailer.

‘Sit down, love. Have a cuppa,’ Ariadne urged. ‘How’s your Mum?’

‘She’s all right, thanks.’ Nell accepted the cup, round-eyed, but did not drink. ‘What’s going on? Have I missed something?’

Ariadne chuckled and held out a slender hand, upon the third finger of which sparkled a gold wedding ring.

‘You sure have! Sam didn’t like me working wi’ Ted again, not one bit, and one night after the show he lay in wait for us, didn’t he, love?’

Ted nodded vigorously. ‘Aye, that he did. There was a nasty moment when I thought ‘e was going to kill me. I was down on the ground wi’ me arm bent up behind me and me face rubbed in the mud, I couldn’t so much as draw breath … then Arry grabbed a plank an’ brought it down on the back o’ Sammy’s ‘ead …’

‘And Sam sort of folded up, breathin’ very heavy,’ Ariadne finished triumphantly. ‘I saw the error of me ways and me and Ted bought the ring. We got hitched two days ago so this time there’s no mistake. This is for good.’

‘Congratulations, I’m happy for you both,’ Nell said sincerely, hastily revising her plans. ‘Oddly enough, I came to tell you I’d have to quit, but you were going to tell me the same, anyway. So all’s well that ends well, eh?’

Ted’s face cleared. ‘That’s wonderful news,’ he said
enthusiastically. ‘We’ve been wonderin’ what we’d say to you … by ’eck, that’s good news!’

So, in an atmosphere of great goodfellowship, Nell was told all about the fight, their future, their plans and prospects, and when she had to leave Ariadne insisted on walking back to her lodgings with her.

‘You’ll mebbe wonder what got into me,’ she said shyly, as they walked. ‘After I’d took up so – so strong with Sammy Scarface an’ all. Well, the truth is, Hes, that it only took a couple o’ weeks wi’ Sam to mek me see I’d been a fool treatin’ Ted the way I did. But then you come along, and Ted obviously took to you, said you were a natural, and I didn’t feel I could back down, admit I’d made a mistake. Only then you left to go to your ma, and I started workin’ wi’ Ted again, and then there was the attack …’ Ariadne heaved a blissful sigh, hugging herself reminiscently as the two girls walked across the common in the increasing dusk. ‘I more or less proposed to him –
me
, Nell, what didn’t want to marry anyone who wasn’t six foot tall and a bit of a swaggerer! Only I guess Ted’s special to me an’ always will be.’

‘Good for you, I’m glad,’ Nell said. ‘As for me, I’m going back to my old gaff because my mother’s moved back in with my father and says I can have her trailer and her show and everything, so I’m going to be all right too.’

‘And you’ll find a man of your own,’ Ariadne said eagerly. She plainly felt that marriage was the only true happiness for a female of the species. ‘There’s someone for you, Nell, just see if there ain’t!’

Nell explained to Mrs Pratt what had happened, spent a night in her old room and said goodbye to her landlady and Amy the next morning. After another long and boring journey she set out once more to cross a dusky town, tired and irritable, but knowing that she would
soon be sitting at her own fireside with a cup of tea made in her own pot.

Or that was what she thought, until she arrived at her mother’s trailer. The first thing she noticed was a child, sitting on the steps of her trailer, eating an apple.

‘Hello,’ Nell said cheerfully, stooping to the child. ‘Can you move, please? You’re sitting on my step and I want to get past.’

The child stood up. She was a fat little creature of four or five with shaggy hair and an extremely dirty face. She wore a filthy cotton dress, a man’s old cardigan and some large wellington boots. Nell had seen her and a couple like her playing around the gaff but could not immediately place her. The child, however, recognised Nell. ‘Hello,’ she said, giving Nell a hard stare before turning to the door behind her. ‘Pa, she’s back!’

The trailer door opened. Nell went to pass the child but stopped short. Fred’s face was poked round the door in an odd fashion, as though he didn’t want her to enter.

‘Oh, it’s you,’ he said shortly. ‘What ’appened? You said you’d be gone a few days, mebbe more.’

‘Yes, I know, but when I got there I found they didn’t need me at all. Ariadne, the girl I replaced, was back,’ Nell explained. ‘So if you don’t mind, Fred, I’ll come in now and take the weight off my feet. I’m worn out with all that travelling.’

‘Ah,’ Fred said heavily. ‘Wait ’ere a mo.’

He shut the door. With a sigh, Nell sat down on the lowest step and prepared to wait, with what patience she could muster, until Fred let her into her home.

Two hours later she was sitting in Dr and Mrs Burroughes’s kitchen in King’s Lynn, telling her tale of woe.

‘I asked Fred to stay in the wagon while I was away so that squatters didn’t move in,’ she said heavily.
‘And now he tells me quite blandly that he would have agreed Hester had rights to Ugly Jack’s trailer, but these didn’t apply to me, and would I please scarper as soon as I liked. I tried to reason with him, I talked to Mr and Mrs Gulliver, but there was no shifting them. The trailer was the property of their dead son and since their dead son’s woman moved out, it becomes theirs by right. I have no legal claim whatsoever.’

‘I suppose they do have a point, my dear. After all, your mother and Jack were never married, were they, and that counts for something among fair folk. But it seems strange that they wouldn’t offer you accommodation of any sort, really unfriendly. What about the snake?’

That was Dr Burroughes, having his tea at the kitchen table, eating his tiny piece of liver with considerable enjoyment, mashing his potatoes with his fork, spinning the meal out with sips of tea.

‘They want the snake, too. They say I owe them Phillips, because my mother took from Jack and lived in his van and now the snake’s theirs if they want him, which they do. I must admit he’d be an embarrassment to me, without a show-tent or a trailer or anything. And Mr Gulliver did remind me that he’d bought Phillips and all the paraphernalia off the Allinghams, years ago, when Mum wanted to move. As for not offering me accommodation, I do understand that; they have nothing to spare, and this isn’t the time of year for a tent. What’s more, what could I do? I don’t want to work Phillips, to be honest. He’s awfully big and tremendously strong.’

‘Who
will
work Phillips, though?’ Dr Burroughes asked mildly. ‘It isn’t something just anyone can do, I’d have thought.’

‘No, I know that, but Fed’s wife, Ivy, has been practising, I understand. She says Phillips likes her, which is probably true. I don’t think snakes are very fussy who they like or don’t like. She’s a strapping girl,
Ivy. Probably much more capable than me of controlling the old fellow. Even Mum had a job at times.’

‘Well, I think it’s downright disgraceful,’ Mrs Burroughes said roundly. ‘Have some more bread and jam, Nell. I’m sorry about the liver, but you know what rationing’s like, if you don’t know you’re going to have a guest …’

‘I’m just so grateful for you taking me in,’ Nell said, taking another slice of bread and spreading it thinly with blackberry jam. ‘Honestly, I shan’t be here long. I’ll make up my mind what to do first thing in the morning. Only when I realised it was dark and I had very little money and no chance of a bed, I panicked a bit.’

‘Not at all, you acted just as you ought. Friends, my dear girl, are always happy to see one another. Now if you’ve finished eating you can go off to bed and we’ll talk again in the morning.’

It took some deciding, but at last Nell made up her mind. She had no home of her own; so what? Neither did thousands of others. She had no job either and no particular prospects. But she had longed for years to see Pengarth again, and this looked like being a good opportunity, while Daniel was still in Aden and not about to return suddenly. He had said it would be a twelve-month tour and he hadn’t gone until August, so he wouldn’t be back for another five months.

She did not expect Daniel to return to Pengarth when he did come back, of course, but he might search for her. It was odd, how she longed to see him yet dreaded it. They could not marry, she dared not tell him the reason, so it was wiser that they stayed apart, but she knew that if the opportunity arose she would want to see him, if only from a distance.

She had discussed the problem with Mrs Burroughes, who had been both helpful and sympathetic. Their home
was hers for as long as she wanted to stay, Mrs Burroughes said, but they understood that she might want to visit her parents. Nell had told them the whole story and they appreciated her invidious position with regard to Matthew but, as Dr Burroughes said, it wasn’t so much the physical act of fathering a baby which mattered, it was love, and the upbringing of that baby.

‘Matthew may or may not be your natural father, but for the first seven years of your life he treated you with deep and abiding love and gentleness,’ he told her. ‘A child’s real father is the man who acts like one, not the rogue who enjoys a moment’s physical intimacy with the mother and then goes off to live his own life. Matthew, my dear child, deserves you. Don’t think beyond that.’