The Dangerous Years (15 page)

‘My own ship,’ Kelly said shortly.

Verschoyle shrugged. ‘You’ll be damn lucky,’ he said bluntly. ‘These days our political overlords aren’t sure whether officers should be fighting to get a ship or ships should be fighting to get officers. It’s a rough old Navy these days, old son.’

‘Is it really as bad as I’ve heard?’

Verschoyle’s face, plumper with good living than Kelly remembered, changed.

‘Well,’ he said, ‘the quarrel as to which gets most money, the Navy or the Air Force, has quietened down now and so has the Anglo-American naval building race. But the results rouse no great enthusiasm in the Board of Admiralty, because they wanted more capital ships and they’re distinctly cool to the Frock Coats. Since then, of course, Lloyd George’s gone and we now have Stanley Baldwin, and everybody’s gone peace-minded so that it’s considered much more moral these days to kill people with small guns than big ones.’ He sat back and looked at Kelly. The old snub-nosed, urchin-face, red-haired young man he’d been in the habit of bullying was gone. In his place was a strong-featured, unhandsome yet not unattractive man who was as certain of his future as he was that the sun would rise the next morning. To Verschoyle, far from lacking in ability and self-assurance himself, it was something he could understand.

‘Since they merged the Naval Air Service with the Flying Corps to form the Air Force,’ he went on, ‘a few people turned in that direction, feeling there might be a future in it, but it militates against the efficiency of the Navy, and you can bet those buggers in the Commons will cut the air estimates if only because they haven’t the foggiest idea what air power is. Nobody these days knows whether he’s on his arse or his elbow.’

Verschoyle had lost none of his gift for seeing things clearly, or for putting them in a nutshell.

‘I bet
you
know,’ Kelly said.

Verschoyle looked as if butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. ‘James Caspar Verschoyle always knows which way up he is,’ he agreed. ‘Actually, I’m very much a man of the people these days. After all, we expect to have a Labour government any time now and the chap in the cloth cap standing next to you in a bus queue might well be your boss tomorrow. I’m a great one for humanity. It’s people I don’t like very much.’

Kelly laughed, strangely at ease with the man he’d always considered his deadliest enemy. ‘You don’t change much,’ he said.

‘That’s always been a family boast.’ Verschoyle gestured with his cigarette. ‘I often wonder how it was that nobody in my family ever managed to acquire a title. I think there must have been a great deal of carelessness somewhere.’

‘How’s Mabel?’

‘Inclined to be clinging these days.’ Verschoyle flicked a scrap of dust from his sleeve. ‘Beginning to worry she’s going to be left on the shelf. Always game for a laugh, of course, but somehow getting left behind a little. After all, she’s older than your Little ’Un and even your little ’Un’s beginning to consider herself growing a little long in the tooth.’

‘She’s only twenty-three.’

‘Twenty-four, old boy. I know because Mabel’s twenty. seven and always bemoaning the fact. Going to pop the question this time?’

Kelly didn’t answer and Verschoyle grinned.

‘I know the feeling,’ he said. ‘You’re too young to die.’

Esher didn’t look very different, though Kelly noticed new houses going up everywhere in the building burst that had started since the war. What had been a village was now rapidly growing into a township.

Rumbelo’s wife, Bridget, greeted him at the door. Her face lit up at the sight of him, and she pushed a small boy forward. ‘You’d better say hello to your godson, Master Kelly,’ she said.

‘This child needs a father who’s a petty officer,’ Kelly said as he bent to shake hands with the solemn red-haired child clinging to her legs. ‘I’m going to see that your husband gets his fore-and-aft as soon as I can, Biddy.’

‘Thanks, Master Kelly. He’ll be pleased. Will it mean him going overseas again?’

‘Bound to, Biddy. Same as me.’

‘He isn’t home much, Master Kelly. He thinks it’ll be China next time. A gunboat, he says.’ She sighed, then she managed a smile. ‘I’m glad I’m here, Master Kelly. It’s better than being in rooms in Portsmouth. The wages he gets wouldn’t provide us with much, and at least I don’t get lonely when he’s away.’

Kelly’s mother looked smaller and older and he realised how much she’d changed since he’d left England for the Mediterranean. The lines on her face were deeper but she still possessed the same doggedly cheerful air.

‘Still handling horses,’ she admitted. ‘Money’s tight these days and I’m afraid your father doesn’t help. He seems to spend all his time at his club and he always did get through money far too quickly. You goin’ to see the Upfolds?’

‘I suppose so, Mother.’

‘Aren’t you as keen as you were?’

Kelly shrugged. ‘It’s a bit of a problem, ain’t it? Marriage’s not something to rush into if you’re not certain.’

‘One’s married a long time, Kelly. And sometimes it can be very lonely. Especially married to a sailor.’

‘I always thought Charley had that sorted out,’ Kelly admitted. ‘She always said she’d wait.’

‘She was a bit younger then.’ His mother sighed. ‘She’s probably afraid now that she ought to be getting on with it, because they’re not as well off as they were.’

Borrowing the old car his mother used, Kelly drove the mile or two from Thakeham to the Upfolds. The house seemed to contribute to the general air of shabbiness and despair he’d noticed about the country. The drive was unweeded and the paint was fading.

Charley was thinner and, he noticed, much more attractive with the sort of beauty that didn’t come simply from youth. She stared at him for a fraction of a second then her eyes filled with tears and she flung herself at him, clutching him tightly, her face in the curve of his neck. Her voice came to him muffled from the region of his ear. ‘I thought you’d gone for ever.’

He was so pleased at her reaction he couldn’t stop grinning.

‘Not me,’ he said. ‘Verschoyle says I’m like the proverbial bad penny.’

‘Have you seen him?’

‘Yes. At the Admiralty. I went to see what was in store for me.’

Her arms slackened at once and she released him to stand back and stare at him.

‘Already? Before you’ve been home?’

He was aware of an immediate chilliness. ‘You have to look ahead,’ he said.

‘To the next trip abroad?’

He found himself on the defensive. ‘To the next step in promotion,’ he said. ‘Promotionitis, like piles, seems to be an occupational hazard in the Navy.’

Her voice seemed suddenly cold. ‘What
is
the next step?’

He realised he might be wise to tread warily but he was in no mood to be cautious. ‘Well, it’s not due for some time,’ he pointed out. ‘I’ve only just had one. But you can get another within four years if you’re lucky with your appointment. Then it means six years’ hard labour as a commander, followed by promotion to captain, which is twelve years’ solitary confinement.’

She looked at him uncertainly, not sure that she knew him any more. There was a grim look about him these days and he was thin and taut, as if his temper weren’t far below the surface. A bleak expression behind his eyes suggested that he’d seen things she couldn’t even imagine, and he seemed more laconic, too, and unwilling to explain. Even as she doubted him, her heart went out to him.

She paused, her face serious. ‘And where do I fit into the scheme of things, Kelly?’

He found himself stuck for words. Thanks to the diehard admirals who believed there were already too many married officers in the Navy, there was always a chronic shortage of cash among those who’d had the nerve to take themselves a wife. More than one he’d known had resigned his commission because he couldn’t make ends meet and was now in a job in the City he detested. He didn’t fancy doing that. He was a naval officer, had known no other life and didn’t think with his qualifications that he even stood much chance as a civilian.

He was just going to answer when she spoke again. ‘Albert says…’

‘Albert?’

‘Albert Kimister. He says you have a Russian wife.’

Kelly smiled, glad to change the subject. ‘Just shows what a fathead he is.’

‘There
was
a girl?’

‘Nothing to write home about,’ Kelly said, praying silently that he wouldn’t be struck by lightning for the lie. ‘And why not? You could hardly say I was being encouraged from this end, could you? I notice Albert Kimister didn’t feel so neglected.’

There was a long silence that grew uncomfortable, then she drew a deep breath.

‘You haven’t answered my question yet, Kelly,’ she said. ‘Where do I fit into the scheme of things?’

He stiffened, feeling goaded. ‘Charley,’ he said, more bluntly than he’d intended, ‘I can’t afford to get married yet. I haven’t a bean beyond my pay.’

‘I see. When
would
you be able to marry?’

He was about to say ‘Captain’s rank’ but he bit it back. ‘When I’m a commander,’ he said.

‘In another four years? At the very least?’

He nodded.

For a long time she said nothing, sitting on the settee playing with the fringe of her sleeve.

‘I’m nearly twenty-four, Kelly. I went back to the solicitors’ office in Esher when I stopped nursing. It’s stale and dusty and he tries to paw me when he gets the chance.’

She spoke matter-of-factly in a way that left him without an answer. He could only try to beg for understanding.

‘Charley, I can only ask you to wait. I have no money of my own.’

‘Albert Kimister has.’

The words were spoken quietly but defiantly. He sighed.

‘I can’t compete with Kimister, Charley.’

She was silent again for a moment. ‘I think the Navy expects too much of its officers.’

‘It always did. But so does tram conducting if you’re going to be a good tram conductor.’

‘Tram conductors get home to their wives at night,’ she retorted. ‘Have you ever thought of resigning?’

‘No,’ he snapped. ‘I haven’t.’

‘Other people have.’

‘I’m not going to, Charley,’ he said firmly. ‘Being poor’s the price we pay for holding the King’s Commission. I don’t agree with it but I can’t change it. Not until I become an admiral, anyway. And I’ll never become an admiral if I resign my commission now.’

She said nothing for a while. She seemed to be weighing up the pros and cons, and he found himself watching her closely. Longing to take her in his arms again, he fought off the wish because he knew he had no right to, and he came to the conclusion that he was growing old and cynical. A man who could weigh his career against marriage must be.

‘It’s hard to stay at home all the time, Kelly,’ she whispered eventually.

‘I can’t expect you to, Charley. In fact, I suspect I’ve kept you chained to me for far too long. Perhaps you ought to consider yourself a free agent.’

‘Albert Kimister asked me to marry him again.’

‘What did you say?’

‘I didn’t even consider it. But that was a long time ago, too, now.’ She drew a deep breath. Kelly looked so clean-cut and so responsible, she thought, with none of Kimister’s doubts and uncertainties. But she
was
nearly twenty-four now, and it seemed he was asking her to wait another four years without any guarantee, even then. Though her heart ached for him to put his arms round her, common sense warned her to walk warily.

‘I’ve been waiting a long time, Kelly,’ she said. ‘There was a time when I never had any doubts about it at all. I even believed you and I were intended for each other. I felt that from the day I first met you. But now–’ she sighed ‘–well–’

She left the sentence unfinished, blinked the tears back and sat up straight, struggling to force a smile. ‘Now you’re home, Kelly, what shall we do?’

‘We can enjoy ourselves, Charley. We used to.’

She stared at him, her eyes huge and full of unhappiness, then her face crumpled and she flung herself into his arms. ‘Oh, Kelly,’ she wailed.

He was just gently kissing the top of her head, when the door opened and Mabel appeared. She was wearing a shapeless dress that seemed to be made of fringes. Its hem was high above her knees, and a string of amber beads hung to her waist. Her mouth was a slash of red and her hair, which had been cut short with two large kiss curls on her cheeks, was waved until it looked as if it had been fried.

‘Ooops, dears!’ she said. ‘Didn’t know we had guests.’ Then she stared and smiled. ‘Well, well,’ she said, ‘if it isn’t Kelly Maguire! God bless you, children. I now pronounce you man and wife.’

There was a harder look about her, Kelly noticed as he stood up, and a calculating expression round her eyes.

‘Do we name the date this time?’ she asked.

‘No,’ Charley snapped.

‘Sorry!’ Mabel swung her beads. ‘Trust me to put my big foot in it. Off again, Kelly? The way you get around, it’s a wonder anybody ever manages to keep track of you. James Verschoyle doesn’t seem to wander far, I notice. Come to that, neither does Willie Kimister.’

Charley’s head came up. ‘His name’s not Willie,’ she snapped and it dawned on Kelly that she had to put up with a certain amount of derision from Mabel.

Mabel smiled, crossed to Kelly and kissed him on the cheek. ‘At least you look like a naval officer,’ she said. ‘Pity you haven’t more money. I might have made eyes at you myself. And now if you’ll excuse me–’

She picked up a cigarette case and lighter and turned to the door. In the entrance she turned. ‘Toodleoo. I know just how you feel, Charley dear. I’ve been trying to get James Verschoyle to the post for years.’

They tried to enjoy themselves but something was missing, and it occurred to Kelly that perhaps it was trust. For the first time in their lives, neither of them quite believed the other, and neither of them was being entirely honest.

He didn’t want to get married yet. His career was in the balance and he felt he daren’t take a chance. He knew he still loved Charley but he couldn’t ask her to marry him and live in the sort of genteel poverty the Board of Admiralty seemed to feel ought to be the lot of officers who had the courage to defy them. And, while Charley couldn’t bring herself to admit outright that she was dissatisfied with the arrangement, circumstances had forced her into considering Kimister, whose family was far from short of money. Because of other people, they were both having to hedge their bets.