The Emerald Valley (57 page)

Knowing her, though, she would look good whatever she wore, Charlotte thought with another slight touch of rancour. And a few minutes later she was proved right as the organ began the strains of ‘Here Comes the Bride'and every head turned to see Rosa come through the doors on her father's arm. A costume she might be wearing, but she looked stunning none the less, the tailored suit of steel-grey serge set off by a softly flounced blouse in fuschia pink. Her shoes, too, were pink, and she carried a small spray of matching roses. Charlotte glanced from her to Ted and when she saw the look on his face as he watched Rosa coming towards him, any doubts she might have had about the wisdom of the match melted away.

I believe he has got over Becky Church at last, Charlotte thought, relieved. That look was for Rosa alone – a look of love, admiration and something which might almost have been humility. Rosa might not have been Charlotte's choice for her son, but if she could make him happy … well, that was really the only thing that mattered.

The service seemed to pass in a flash, the crowded chapel swelling the singing for the hymns yet maintaining a hush for the making of the time-honoured vows. Then almost before she knew it, Ted and Rosa had made their way back down the aisle and she was left – with the help of Jim and Jack – to get James outside and into a car that would take them on to the Miners'Welfare Hall.

‘Nice service, wasn't it, Lotty?' he wheezed as they drove through Hillsbridge, but she was a little disconcerted to realise he was taking little or no interest in his surroundings. After not having been out of the house for so long, she had thought he would be eager to look at everything and everyone, but he did not seem at all interested.

The Miners'Welfare Hall had been organised for a sit-down spread, long trestle tables covered with snowy-white cloths and set with plates of ham salad and dishes of pickles. Peggy was there to make certain everything was in order and Charlotte felt satisfaction as she saw the guests tucking in. But she had difficulty in eating a thing herself; food seemed to stick in her throat, even though she had had little breakfast. She was full of nerves and emotion, she thought. James too ate sparingly, but then he always did. The meal finished, there were the usual speeches with anecdotes to make everyone laugh, but Charlotte was sickeningly aware that the moment of departure was approaching rapidly.

‘They'll be going soon,' she murmured to James. ‘Everything was ready for them at home, wasn't it?'

‘Stop worrying, Lotty,' James replied. He was beginning to look tired and Charlotte wondered if it might be a good idea for him to go in the same car as Ted and Rosa. It had been arranged that Cliff should take them home to collect their cases and then go on to the railway station, and some of the younger guests had already set out to walk down to give them a send-off. But it was too far back into the centre of Hillsbridge for the majority of the guests to do so and Charlotte had decided she would have to stay at the reception and act as hostess. James could go home, as far as it went, but it didn't seem right for him to depart in the same car as the bride and groom and when Charlotte put it to him, he insisted that he was all right where he was for the time being.

‘Car's here!' The murmur went round the hall and Charlotte felt her throat close with nerves. This was it, then. They were going! Rosa and Ted had been making a round of the hall, having a word with every one of the guests and saying their good-byes … now they turned and came towards Charlotte and James.

‘I suppose it's so long then, Mam,' Ted said.

‘Yes, I suppose it is, Ted.' Her voice gave away nothing of the turmoil within her. ‘Now you will let us know how you are, won't you, as soon as you can?'

‘We will, Mrs Hall,' Rosa said.

‘And take care, both of you.'

‘You too. Mam, Dad, thanks for everything …' There was an awkward pause with everything and yet nothing to say.

Charlotte stood up shakily. ‘I just wish you weren't going so far away …' She checked herself. ‘Oh, come here, both of you!'

She moved towards them and they were all in each other's arms, hugging and clinging.

I can't let him go! Charlotte thought in panic. I'm going to hang on to him and make a fool of myself and he will never forgive me …

Gathering herself together, she gave them a little push.

‘Get on with you now! You don't want to miss your train …'

‘No, we'd better go.' They bent over to hug James too and kiss him on his smooth pink forehead. ‘We'll come back to see you as soon as we can save the fare. Or maybe you can come out to see us!'

‘Oh! That's very likely, I must say!' Charlotte laughed shakily, tears very close. ‘Go on, I'm coming to see you off, but your Dad will have to stay here.'

They kissed him again and the faraway look in James'blue eyes was very intense. Ted's eyes, too, were suspiciously bright, but Rosa's only sparkled. She was excited, happy to be Ted's wife at last and looking forward to her great adventure. She was leaving behind nothing that she cared about, she was taking it all with her.

As they went towards the door, all the remaining guests clustered after them. Charlotte stayed very close to them, moving in a dream. Outside the car was waiting. Cliff Button standing ready to open the door.

‘Goodbye – good luck – write, won't you?'

‘Ted? Write? He doesn't know how!'

‘Good luck, both of you. Make your fortune and come back filthy rich!'

‘Give our love to the kangaroos …'

‘Goodbye!'

More hugs, more kisses, then they were in the car. The engine purred into life and through the open window Ted caught his mother's hand.

‘Take care, Mam. Look after Dad.'

‘Haven't I always?' She was choking on the words now. Oh, to be able to pull him out of the car, to hold him in her arms and never let him go! Ted, Ted, what will I do without your nonsense to worry about? What will I do, knowing you're too far away to come if I need you? I still have the others, but it doesn't make up for you going. Nothing could make up for that …

The car had begun to move and his fingers slipped over her hand. She stood immobile, her hand still outstretched but holding only air. Through the mist of tears she saw them waving out of the back window, but their faces were indistinct. And then the car had swept away around the corner and they were gone.

Around her she heard the buzz of excitement and emotion, but she seemed separate from it, isolated suddenly in a lonely world of her own. The emptiness inside her was a physical pain. They had gone! She had known for weeks now that they were going, yet somehow she had not believed it. Now it was a reality, inescapable, no longer an unwelcome phantom which she could push to the back of her mind. They had gone and she might never see them again. Australia was on the other side of the world.

‘Mam!' She was aware of an arm around her waist and turned to see Jack. ‘Mam – I'm taking a car load down to the station to see them off. Do you want to come?'

She thought for a moment. He hadn't left Hillsbridge yet … she could still see him again …

‘What about it, Mam? Dad will be all right here, won't he?'

‘No,' Charlotte said, making up her mind. She had said goodbye and she couldn't face them again. Watching the car go had been bad enough – seeing them off on the train would be unbearable. She took a handkerchief out of her bag – one of James's big white ones – and blew her nose. ‘No – you go, Jack, and take Amy and Dolly. I'm going back to sit down with your Dad.'

‘Sure, Mam?'

‘Sure.'

‘Come on, then.' His arm was still around her, urging her back inside. James was sitting where she had left him, still looking far away.

‘That's it then, Mother.'

‘Yes, that's it,' she said, amazed to hear her own matter-of-fact tone.

‘Who would have thought it?' James mused. ‘Our Ted – going to Australia?'

And she thought: Yes, who would have thought it? When we began, just the two of us, I never guessed what life would hold. It's nothing but a series of farewells.

The band had begun to play, guests were dancing. And the emptiness inside her was echoed by the jaunty yet haunting tune which somehow seemed to sum up everything about Ted:

Heart of my heart, I love that melody.
Heart of my heart brings back a memory,
When we were kids on the corner of the street.
We were rough and ready guys,
But oh, how we could harmonise.

Heart of my heart meant friends were dearer then.
Too bad we had to part.
I know a tear would glisten if once more I could listen
To that gang that sang Heart of my Heart.

It was October and Hillsbridge was buzzing with the news. Old Dr Vezey had retired, leaving a vacancy in the practice which Oliver Scott was returning to the town to fill. As a young doctor he had been extremely popular and had married Grace O'Halloran, daughter of ‘Big Hal', general manager of the Hillsbridge Collieries, and sister of Jack's wife, Stella. Now, it seemed, they were anxious to return to the area.

‘I heard they've been edging for the chance for some time,' Peggy told Charlotte.

Charlotte had good cause to remember Oliver Scott with gratitude. He had been marvellous when Amy had had her terrible accident and fallen into the tub of scalding water; at first she had had her doubts as to whether he was old enough and experienced enough to cope, but when she had seen the way he gave Amy the will to survive she had formed a deep-founded respect for him. ‘If it hadn't been for him, I don't know if our Amy would have pulled through,' she had often said, and there was more than a little truth in it. Quite apart from the treatment any doctor would have meted out, Oliver Scott had somehow given Amy the will to survive and for that Charlotte never ceased to be thankful.

She told Amy the news when she came to collect the girls, adding all the embellishments which Peggy had imparted.

‘They're buying one of the big houses up by Captain Fish's,' she said, ‘I wondered wherever they got the money from – they say doctors don't earn that much, though of course it's a darned sight more than you or I will ever have in our pockets. But I suppose Hal must have left them all right.'

Big Hal had died the previous year, just six months after his wife, and Hillsbridge had commented on how sad it was that they had enjoyed so few years of retirement – but then, how many people did enjoy many?

‘I shall be very glad to see him back anyway, Charlotte said now. ‘If anybody can get to the bottom of what's wrong with our Noël, Dr Scott can.'

She was still very worried about Noël, who seemed to be so far behind other babies of his age.

But Amy had something other than the return of Dr Scott on her mind, welcome though that would be.

‘I've been thinking, Mam, about our Barbara and Maureen,' she said, setting down her empty teacup. ‘I've been worrying for some time that they're getting too much for you and I thought perhaps I ought to try to make other arrangements.'

‘What do you mean – other arrangements?' Charlotte asked sharply.

‘Someone to look after them – well, someone to look after Maureen, anyway. Babs will be starting school after Christmas.'

‘Yes, and if she comes here to the Board School she can come down after and have her tea with Maureen while she's waiting for you to collect her, just the same as she does now,' Charlotte pointed out.

‘I'd rather like her to go to the school just up the road from our house,' Amy said. ‘And I think I could afford now to pay someone to mind Maureen. Things have been looking up just lately.'

It was true – Roberts Haulage was at last beginning to acquire a reputation as a fast, reliable operation and both lorries were now fully occupied most of the time. On occasions there was more work than Amy could handle. Only the previous week the quarry company had asked if it would be possible to take on extra deliveries and Amy had been very grieved to have to refuse. She had spent a sleepless night wondering if she could afford the payments on another lorry, pored for hours over schedules and considered sounding out Herbie with regard to the possibility of taking Cliff back on the payroll permanently. But from Herbie's progress reports it sounded as though Cliff was doing quite nicely with his taxi service in Bath, and in any case to take on another driver just now would be like putting the cart before the horse. It was best at the moment to squeeze the best possible use out of what she had, one way or another.

But the more complicated the rotas became, the longer the hours Amy had to work in the office. Feeling it would be well worth the expense, she had a telephone installed and that saved her quite a lot of time, but nevertheless her concern that she was taking her mother's help for granted had grown day by day. Enquiries had revealed that Ruby Clarke would be willing to look after the girls for a reasonable consideration and the scheme had the added attraction that, after a hard day's work, Amy would be able to return straight home instead of making the long walk to Greenslade Terrace and back again. She had thought Charlotte would be pleased at the prospect of having her days to herself again, but now, seeing the hurt expression on her mother's face, Amy realised she had been wrong.

‘Leave them with someone else?' Charlotte said, sounding shocked. ‘I don't like the idea of that; they're settled into their routine here.'

‘I know that, Mam, but I also know what a handful they can be,' Amy argued. ‘You and Dad aren't getting any younger and I don't want you making yourself ill on my account.'

‘We're all right, we enjoy having them,' Charlotte said stoutly. ‘It's the children you've got to think about, and they're better off with their own family.'

Amy sighed. Charlotte was not making this easy for her.