the maltese angel (62 page)

"I'm not crying." She blinked her eyes rapidly.

"And anyway, there's no time for that."

"No, of course not, dear. But ... but will you go along today and see him?"

"Perhaps; after I've had a talk with Arthur. He broached a very good idea yesterday. It's about the bottom field: if a few huts could be put up there, he says, we could keep up to a hundred hens. And there's the pond at the bottom of the field. It's fed from the ditch and, as he pointed out, it only wants some of the silt clearing and there you have a place for ducks. Eggs are always a good market sale."

"Oh, my dear, my dear. I wonder what next?"

"I wonder, too, and among my wonderings I thought about your friend that you phone, the one who's asked you up to London. Now there's

enough money in the coffers to give you a holiday anywhere you like, and you said you loved London and the theatres, and so ..."

"Oh, my dear, I'm too old to explore London and do the rounds of the theatres."

"You're not at all. Anyway, I've settled in my mind that you're going to London. And I haven't time to waste talking which left her ladyship gasping as usual and telling herself that the child was right: she wasn't too old to go to London and see a play. No, of course she

wasn't. In fact, she was feeling better now than she had done for a long time. And that was because her dear boy was so much better ...

proof of which was to show itself that day.

It was four o'clock in the afternoon before Janie made her way to the cottage. And there he was, washing his hands and arms in a sawn-off tub of rain-water supplied by a spout at the end of the cottage. When he saw her he pulled a coarse towel from a hook in the wall and rubbed himself briskly before approaching her.

"Hello," he said.

"Hello."

"Feeling better?"

"I've never felt bad."

"No. No, of course not. The ... the kettle's on. Would you like some tea?"

"I don't mind," she said and he made to go into the cottage, but as he stood aside to allow her to enter, he said, "Wait a minute. The tea will taste better if there's some sugar in it. Come here." He did not put his hand out towards her, but motioned her to follow him, then led the way to the back of the cottage to the small stone-walled yard. The gate leading from this had been overgrown with weeds and here and there low shrubs had embedded their roots in the wall. But now, to her

amazed gaze, the yard stood out clear amid a largish piece of ground which had not only been cleared but also tilled.

As she stood surveying it, he pointed silently to the spade leaning against the wall, and he was smiling as he said, "You provide good medicine."

"Oh." She bowed her head now and muttered something like, "I'm sorry.

I shouldn't. " But he came back at her quickly, saying, " Oh you should.

You should. The time was ripe. The pen gets rid of some things but there's nothing like tired limbs to give you dreamless sleep .. now and again. Thank you, Janie. "

She flung round from him now, saying, "You're making me feel awful, you know. Lady Lydia said I was ..." She hesitated.

"Was what?"

"It doesn't matter."

"I know what she would say, and that would be that you have been such a great help to her; she doesn't know how she would have got through without you, but," he added now, 'at the same time you are inclined to be bossy and expect to get your own way. "

"I'm not and I don't!" They were standing beside the cottage door now.

"I am not bossy. I ... I just know how things should be done, and I always ask and politely. I am not bossy."

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"Well, that surprises me." He shook his head, at the same time directing his arm as if ushering her into a drawing-room. And like any annoyed young miss, she now flounced in before him only, immediately she was in the room, to point to the fire and declare, "It's nearly out! How do you expect the kettle to boil on that?"

"Oh, undoubtedly it will take a little longer. But in the meantime, madam, would you mind sitting down and stop acting ..."

Her arm was already thrust out towards him and she was saying, "Don't you say that to me again. You know what happened the last time."

"You don't know what I was going to say."

"Oh, I do, I do. Acting like a woman."

"I wasn't."

"Well, what were you going to say?"

"Oh He gave a little shrug now, saying, " I've for gotten. " Then he took a seat at the opposite side of the table and looked across at her, and as she looked directly at him for the first time since he had

returned home, she saw the semblance of the 'nice man': he had smiled more during the last few minutes than he had done during all the past months she had seen him.

He stared at her intently for some minutes until she said, "What ...

what's the matter? " She put her hand up to her hair.

"I'm ... I'm a mess? Well, I've been at it all day."

"You're not a mess. You're a beautiful young girl. Always remember that. Now I'm going to ask you something."

"Yes?" She waited.

"Can we, from this time on, become friends, as we were, I mean, before I went away?"

She swallowed deep in her throat, then said, "I'd like that."

For the first time his hand came out to her and she placed hers in it.

She watched him bend his head for a moment; then he said, "Let us take it from here."

"Yes."

It was he who now let go of her hand and, rising from the chair, he said briskly, "If I don't put the bellows under that kettle it'll never boil tonight." And as she watched him she thought, I don't care if it never boils. Never, never, never.

It was her birthday, and she was seventeen. Lady Lydia had given her her own gold fob-watch and a ring that she had worn when she was a young girl. Nancy had given her half a dozen handkerchiefs with

drawn-thread hems and her initials hand-worked on them. And the men together had presented her with a bunch of roses and a pound box of chocolates.

Now she was in the sitting-room at the farm and there, facing her, were her Auntie Jessie and Carl. And she had just opened their present, at least one of two presents, and was exclaiming aloud as she held up in front of her the lovely pale blue taffeta dress, saying, "It's beautiful. It looks too good to wear."

"It could be a party frock." Carl was smiling widely at her. And she looked at him for a moment with a look that didn't exactly hold

disdain, but something they both understood, for it said: what party?

"And the pearls will go with it." Jessie held up a double strap of neck let pearls.

"Yes. Yes. Oh, thank you both." And impulsively she kissed Jessie, then Carl.

And now Jessie said, "But these aren't all. You should see the lovely cake that Mrs. McNabb has made for you. She thought she would keep it till tea-time and we'd have a little party on our own."

"Oh, Auntie Jessie. Oh, I'm sorry. I ... I won't be able to come, I don't think, not today."

"What! Why not?" It was Carl asking the question now.

"Surely they can get on without you for one afternoon?"

"Yes. Yes, I know, but ... well, I must tell you

something and .. well, it's this. " Before she went on she turned and picked up the dress from where she had dropped it on a chair before she had embraced them, and she laid it carefully over the back.

Then turning to them again, she said, "I'm ... I'm becoming engaged to be married today."

They stared at her blankly, then glanced at each other. It was Jessie who said, "What! Engaged ... who to? Who are you engaged to be married to? What are you talking about?"

"Just what I said. Auntie Jessie. I could have told you before, weeks ago, but I promised myself I would wait until my seventeenth birthday and then you couldn't say, Don't be silly, you're still a child or some such, as you always do. I'm seventeen today, Auntie Jessie, and I feel I've been seventeen, eighteen or nineteen for a long time. And as you know, I've been doing the work of someone older for a long time.

And I know my own mind, I always have, always, for years and years. "

"Who are you becoming engaged to, dear?" Carl's voice was quiet.

"Well, need you ask? To Mr. Gerald."

"No! No!" It was almost a scream from Jessie.

"No! I won't allow it.

You're mad, girl, as mad as he is. "

"He's not mad. Never has been mad. " Janie's voice was quiet but each word was emphatic.

"He went through so much in the war that his mind closed up against it and all those people who perpetrated it. He is no more mad than you or I. But speaking of me, there's more chance of my going mad with my background than of his."

"He's old enough to be your father." Jessie closed her eyes tightly at this. What had she said? But Janie picked it up, saying, "But he didn't happen to be one of the three, did he. Auntie Jessie? He was, though, the one who found my mother, so I understand, and carried her back here. And he was the only one, let me tell you, who showed me any kindness, apart from you, Carl; because you didn't, Auntie Jessie, you were my gaoler, and I was just something to fill up the gap in your life. You see, the way I'm talking is not as a young girl would.

Auntie Jessie;

someone who doesn't know her own mind. Now, no matter what you say or what you do, you'll not stop me in my purpose. "

"Has he asked you to marry him, dear?" The question coming from Carl was again quiet.

Janie looked away from him for a moment before answering, "No, he hasn't, and I know he never will. But what I do know is that he loves me. And I'm going to tell him today that I love him and we are going to marry. Not straightaway, but we are going to marry."

"Oh my God!" Neither Carl nor Janie went to Jessie's side as she slumped into a chair; but Janie looked at her, saying now, "You never liked him, did you, Auntie Jessie? For the simple reason that he told you your treatment of me was wrong. Well, there it is. I'm sorry I won't be over today, but if you still want me to, I will come tomorrow.

And very soon' she now turned to Carl 'if you'll allow it, Carl, we'll walk over together to see you ... because, in a way, I've known he's always looked upon you as my guardian."

Carl said nothing.

But when she turned to look at her Auntie Jessie again she saw her actually shudder. Slowly she picked up the dress and the string of pearls, saying, "Thank you so much for the pearls." And then she added, "I suppose I may keep them?" which brought a grimace from Carl as he said, "Don't ... don't say things like that." Then she walked out.

The minute the door was closed on her, Jessie sprang from the chair and, going to Carl, she said, "You ... you've got to stop it! It's indecent. That man must be forty or near it."

"My dear' he put his arm around her shoulders " I can't stop it, and I wouldn't if I could. In fact, I've known it would come about some day.

Yet, I must admit it was a bit of a shock, especially today and the way she

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put it over, when she implied he would never ask her. And what he

says when she proposes to him will never be known, I suppose. "

"But he'll take her."

"If he's wise, yes he will, dear. She's loved him from the beginning, I know that; and that man had a most protective feeling for her as a child, which must have grown with the years, especially of late."

"Oh dear Lord!" She turned from him now.

"More fodder for the village."

"Damn the village!" She almost jumped at the sound of his voice, and he repeated, "Yes, Jessie, damn the village. That village is not going to impinge on my life or on this farm any more. And she being who she is, it won't impinge on hers. I'll take a bet on that. So damn the village!" And on this he, too, walked out of the room, and she was left exclaiming to herself, "Oh, that girl! That girl! She's been the bane of my life. And now this. Is it ever going to end?"

The bane of her life was standing at the farm gate and Carl was saying to her, "I understand, dear. Yes, I understand."

"And ... and he's not forty, Carl, he's thirty-seven or perhaps thirty-eight."

He smiled at her now, saying, "What does a few years matter? The main thing is that you love him. But how do you think he's going to take your proposal?"

"Not quietly." She smiled at him.

"He'll argue a lot, put up more obstacles than Auntie Jessie would ever dream of, and ... well, I'll take it from there. Whatever he says I'll point out to him that I consider myself engaged and ... and that next year we could be married."

He suddenly pulled her to him and said, "You're one in a million. You always have been."

When she put her free arm around his neck and said, "Thanks for everything, Carl. Next to him I love you best of all. And oh my!" she pressed herself from him 'my dress will be all crushed," she said, and she made motions of smoothing out the dress, then said, " Bye-bye, Carl. "

"Bye-bye, love. Come over tomorrow. I ... I want to hear the end of the story. No, no, not the end, the beginning."

"Yes, Carl, I'll do that ... and the beginning." ..

It was an hour later when she reached the cottage. The weather had turned sultry, the sky was low and it promised rain. He was standing outside in his shirt-sleeves and he greeted her with, "Hello. I think we're going to have a storm."

"Yes, yes," she said; 'we could have a storm. "

"Happy birthday, Janie."

"Thank you."

"Do you feel any different?"

"Yes. Yes, I feel twenty-seven."

He laughed his gentle laugh.

"You have a long way to go, my dear, before you come to that. But come in. Look, it's spotting rain."

"Have ... have you been working?"

"Yes. Yes, ma'am, I've been working since early on. I should say that I have a quarter of an acre ready for planting. So watch out, I might beat you at your own business."

"It isn't my business, never was my business. It's your business. I've just been carrying it on for you."

"Now, now, now, don't start, it's your birthday. Look, I've got a little present for you. Stay there." He pointed to the couch, and she sat down. When he returned to the room he dropped a parcel on to her lap, saying at the same time, "I'd better light the lamp. It will soon be dark in here."