White Boots (9 page)

“So you're Harriet; I hear you are skating.”

Harriet was not usually shy with strangers, but Aunt Claudia was much grander and more glittery than anyone she had ever met before. She hesitated before she answered.

“It's because of my legs, they got wobbly after I was ill, and Dr Phillipson thought…”

Aunt Claudia was not in the least interested in Harriet's legs unless they were useful to Lalla.

“You enjoy skating?”

“Awfully.”

Aunt Claudia studied Harriet. She saw only the top half of her because of the table; the top half seemed to have a great deal of reddish hair and very large eyes in a pale face. She noticed there seemed a neat though shabby brown frock. The child seemed to her to have pretty manners and to speak nicely. She thought that it might be worth while seeing whether she made a suitable friend for Lalla, but if she was to be that she was to understand how wonderful it was for her to be allowed to know Lalla, and what an important child Lalla was. She signalled to Nana and Harriet to sit.

“Go on with your tea.” She settled herself in an armchair by the fire. “My brother, Lalla's father, was Cyril Moore, you know. Lalla will have told you how he was drowned. I was his only sister; he left me Lalla's guardian and from the beginning I knew what I must do. I must make my brother live again in Lalla.”

Lalla was sitting with her back to Aunt Claudia, with Harriet facing her. Aunt Claudia never took her eyes off Harriet to see that she was taking in what she was told. While she was talking Lalla behaved very badly. She did not move her body at all, but she moved her face, giving a rude imitation of Aunt Claudia. Lalla's face, as Aunt Claudia said that her father had to live again in her, was so silly that the corners of Harriet's mouth began to
twitch, and there was an awful heaving feeling in front as if she must laugh. Nana saw this. She spoke in the kind of voice that would kill any laugh before it started.

“Get on with your tea, Lalla. I want none of your nonsense messing the food about. And you eat nicely too, Harriet, there's no need to stop eating. Mrs King wouldn't wish that.”

Aunt Claudia had seen the twitch of Harriet's lips, but she knew there was nothing at all about which Harriet could laugh, so she thought she was nervous. She nodded at her kindly.

“Yes. Go on with your tea. You can eat as well as listen.”

Nana put another large slice of pink cake on Harriet's plate, and though Harriet had really meant to have a chocolate biscuit, she ate the cake thankfully, glad of something to do, which meant she need not look at Aunt Claudia. Aunt Claudia went on with her story.

“You must understand that Lalla has never been treated as an ordinary child. All of us who are round her are striving for the same goal, and look upon our lives as dedicated to that goal. First of all, of course, there is Nurse; you have never thought any trouble too great that improved Lalla as a skater, have you, Nurse?”

Nana's face was respectful, but her voice was not quite so respectful as her face.

“Nice manners and ladylike ways and a healthy child, that's what I like to see in my nurseries.”

Aunt Claudia was used to Nana.

“Quite, and a strong body and ladylike ways are part of Lalla's training. When she travels all over the world, as she very soon will for international championships, she will not be little Lalla Moore, she will be Lalla Moore, her country's little ambassadress.”

Harriet by mistake looked up and saw Lalla making the face of a little ambassadress. She choked over her piece of cake, which luckily gave an excuse to drink her milk.

“Miss Goldthorpe, Lalla's governess, gave up a wonderful scholastic career to take over her teaching. ‘Mrs King,' she said, ‘I feel any sacrifice is worth while if I may be allowed the privilege of educating a child with such a future before her.'”

Harriet felt Aunt Claudia expected an answer, so she said very politely:

“Yes, Mrs King.”

Aunt Claudia nodded approvingly.

“As well there is Alonso Vittori. He has more pupils than he can manage, but when I asked him to teach Lalla ballet he kissed my hand and said that he would be proud. Then there's Monsieur Cordon for fencing, another devotee, isn't he, Lalla?”

Nana saw that Lalla was going to spoil her chances of being allowed to know Harriet by saying the wrong thing, so she answered for her.

“Indeed yes, ma'am.”

Aunt Claudia got up.

“And now perhaps Lalla is going to have a friend of her own
age, but being a friend of Lalla's is rather a special privilege; it means being very ambitious for Lalla and taking as much interest in her success as her teachers. Are you interested in Lalla's success, Harriet?”

Lalla had never mentioned Alonso Vittori, Miss Goldthorpe or Monsieur Cordon. She had spoken vaguely about a governess but there had been nothing to suggest the whole collection of teachers waiting to do nothing else but teach her. Harriet felt as if she was in the pages of a story book. She had never supposed in real life that anybody was treated like Lalla, not even princesses; she could not think of the right sort of answer to make to Aunt Claudia and her face got quite red with trying. Aunt Claudia had made her see a new Lalla, a Lalla travelling all over the world, awfully grand and awfully famous, a lucky Lalla who was able to be grand and famous by doing something so nice as skating. The thought of this made her eyes shine. She spoke with real sincerity.

“I think it must be simply gorgeous to be Lalla, I wish I was her.”

If Aunt Claudia had been on the right side of the table to do it she would have patted Harriet's head. Admirable child, what a stimulant for Lalla to have a friend who was not only admiring but envious! She nodded approvingly, then looked at the silver cups and trophies. She took a deep breath.

“‘Her square-turn'd joints and strength of limb, Show'd her no carpet knight so trim, But in close fight a champion grim.'”

Harriet understood what Lalla said about the reciting but she had no feeling of wanting to laugh. Aunt Claudia made her feel as if she had been out in a very strong wind and had no breath left to do anything. She heard Nana's reverent amen-like “And very nice too, ma'am,” and with eyes round with amazement watched Aunt Claudia walk towards the door, and it was only when her hand was on the door handle that she got her wits back enough to remember the very important thing her mother had told her to say.

“Please, Mrs King, Mummy says might Nana bring Lalla to play with me on Sunday and stay to tea?”

There was complete silence for a moment, so complete that the clock could be heard ticking, and a piece of coal drop in the fireplace. Six eyes were fixed on Aunt Claudia. Nana tried not to make hers look pleading, but Lalla's were and so were Harriet's. At last Aunt Claudia nodded.

“I think we may say yes, don't you, Nurse?”

OLIVIA SAID IT was no good making special preparations for Lalla's and Nana's visit on Sunday.

“And don't look so anguished, Harriet darling, you know I always give you the nicest tea I can on Sundays as it is.”

Harriet thought her home the loveliest place in the world, and her family the nicest family, but she did think on the Sunday morning, before Lalla came, that it looked shabby compared with Lalla's home. She knew Lalla would not mind a bit what it looked like, but Nana would and Nana was the one who would count.

The boys had heard so much about Lalla that they had got tired of her. To show how tired they were they mimicked Harriet before she had a chance to say what she had done at the rink. First Alec and then Toby would ask “How's little Lalla today?” or “What did Lalla say today?” To mark the fact that
Lalla, her grand home and her beautiful skating meant nothing to them, both Alec and Toby had meant to be out on Sunday afternoon. This would have been what is known as cutting off your nose to spite your face, for they had a great deal they wanted to do indoors on Sunday, and nothing they wanted to do out of doors. Luckily for them Sunday turned out to be the nastiest, wettest day anybody could imagine, and not even decent rain but a sort of dirty, damp sleet. So when Lalla and Nana arrived they found the whole Johnson family in the sitting room waiting to meet them.

Nana came in first. She took a quick glance round. She saw that the furniture was what she called “been good once”. She saw that the taste, though not of the sort that she fancied herself, was the kind that Aunt Claudia would approve. As well she saw, and this meant far more to her than the furniture, that the Johnson boys had been brought up nicely, for they all got to their feet the moment she and Lalla came in. Lalla, almost for the first time in her life, was silent. Coming from her big home, with so much space for everybody and so few people to talk to, Harriet's home seemed gloriously cosy and full of people. Olivia saw what she was thinking.

“Bless you, we surprise you, don't we? You aren't used to a big family, are you?” Then she signalled to the boys to come over. “This is Alec, Lalla.”

Harriet did not want Lalla to get muddled about whom she was meeting.

“He's the one who earns the two shillings for my skates, you know I told you.”

“And this,” said Olivia, “is Toby.” Toby blinked at Lalla through his glasses. Lalla thought, though he said “How do you do?” politely, that Toby was looking at her rather as though he wished she was not there. What Toby was doing really was wondering whether he could find out how much Lalla was costing to train, and then work out how much was spent on each cubic inch of her. “And this,” said Olivia, “is Edward.”

Edward had been looking forward all day to Lalla's coming; the more people there were in a room the better he liked it. He gazed at Lalla with his enormous, beautiful eyes, and Lalla and Nana, just as Edward knew they would, looked at him with the same pleased faces strangers always wore when they met him.

“I'm so glad that you've come to tea. I've been hoping and hoping you would.”

Nana thought what a pity it was such looks should have been wasted on a boy. They would have been so useful to Harriet, poor little thing.

“That's very nice of you, dear, and Lalla's been looking forward to coming, haven't you, Lalla?”

Edward beamed at Lalla.

“I'm afraid you won't get tea here like the beautiful, beautiful tea you gave Harriet.”

Because Edward was so good-looking and so friendly Lalla might have forgotten what Aunt Claudia would say if she asked
Edward to tea without permission, but Nana, though Edward was the sort of child she would have been proud to have had in her nurseries, was never carried away by a child's looks. She said briskly she was sure there would be a very nice tea, and in any case food wasn't everything. Edward was disappointed; he had meant to be asked to tea with Lalla.

“Food's a great deal, especially when it's a cake with pink sugar on it and chocolate biscuits.”

“I hope Harriet's told you about Edward,” Alec said. “He's a born cad; we do our best, but we can't do much about him.”

“I'm not,” said Edward. “I like nice things to eat and people being nice to me. It's much duller being someone like you who doesn't tell anyone what he likes.”

Olivia laughed, and told Edward he was an insufferable child, then she took Nana and Lalla into her bedroom to take off their things.

At first it seemed as if the afternoon was going to be difficult. It would have been all right if only Lalla had been there, but having Nana to entertain too seemed to make it awkward, but Olivia soon arranged things so that people of different ages in a small room did not seem to matter at all. She got out some playing cards and suggested that George should play with the children, then, while Lalla was being taught how to play Slippery Anne, she sat down beside Nana and discussed knitting. Not that Olivia was a good knitter, she was not, but Nana had her knitting with her, and liked talking about knitting, and was
soon deep in describing all the knitted things she made for Lalla, and how many sets of everything she had to have.

Lalla, who was quick, soon picked up Slippery Anne and found it the most exciting game. Sometimes she and Miss Goldthorpe played patience, for Miss Goldthorpe was good at patience, and sometimes she persuaded Nana to play Snap, but otherwise she had played no card games, certainly not a family card game, with everybody trying to do down the rest of the family, and roaring with laughter when they succeeded; but after tea, when Nana insisted on helping Olivia and George to wash up, was the time she enjoyed best, for it was then that the Johnsons sprawled across the table and talked, and told her things which made her feel not Lalla Moore, who had come to tea for the first time, but Lalla Moore, part of the family. She heard all about Mr Pulton and the paper round, and how much money there was in the money-box and what it was meant to be spent on. Toby told her that in the spring when Alec had enough money to start buying things for the shop he was going to trust him with the accounts, or in no time there would be nothing left. That on Alec's capital outlay a profit had to be shown and that he was going to keep a proper profit and loss account book. Lalla had never thought where vegetables came from, or what you paid for them, but quite soon she was as deep in the discussion of whether it would be better to start spending Alec's capital on early forced lettuces, or wait for the peas and beans period and strawberries, as any member of the family.
Alec drew for her a plan of the sort of nursery garden he intended to have when he had so increased his capital that he could afford to buy a nursery garden, and Toby got out an atlas and showed her whereabouts that nursery garden had to be so that the consumption of petrol used up by a lorry bringing in the fruit, vegetables and flowers did not absorb more than the fruit, vegetables and flowers could support.

“You mustn't mind him,” Alec said, “he's got a mathematical mind, he can't help it.”

Lalla looked respectfully at Toby.

“Miss Goldthorpe wishes I had. I can't do sums at all.”

Toby thought this was a pity. So expensive an education being given to somebody and she could not do sums.

“What else do you do besides skating?” Alec asked.

Lalla was puzzled.

“I do lessons.”

Toby saw she had not understood.

“Alec didn't mean that, he meant what other things do you like doing? I play chess, and I collect stamps, and Alec paints pictures, and he's awfully good at games.”

Edward felt he was being neglected.

“And I sing. I'm going to get a scholarship and sing in a choir school, and I'm the best at acting in the family, I was the prince in the school play, and I'm going to be another prince this Christmas.”

Alec rubbed Edward's hair the wrong way.

“Not because you can act, you little show-off.”

“It's because of his looks,” said Toby.

His family looked sorrowfully at Edward.

“We're worried about him,” Alec explained. “If he goes on as he is now he's bound to turn out a spiv.”

Edward had heard that before.

“I needn't. I can't help it if people like me. They talk, and I talk back.”

Toby gave Lalla a look as if to say “you see”.

“We'll be lucky if he's only a spiv, we think he'll be a confidence trickster.” Then he remembered that Lalla had not answered their question. “What else do you do but skate?”

Lalla tried to think. There were her books, but she was not what Miss Goldthorpe called “a great reader”.

“I listen to the wireless sometimes, and on Sundays, if nobody's in, Nana and I look at television.”

Harriet saw that her brothers thought this a very poor answer. She flew to Lalla's defence.

“She goes to Alonso Vittori for ballet, and she fences, and she wouldn't get time for the sort of things we do.”

Toby drew a piece of paper towards him.

“What time do you get up? How many hours lessons do you do? How many hours skating, dancing and all that?” Lalla told him. In the quickest possible time he had got the answer. She had two hours of her own every week-day and almost the whole of Sundays. What did she do with those hours?

It was the first time that Lalla heard anyone suggest that skating by itself was not enough to fill anybody's life. She looked first at one Johnson and then at the other, and saw, to her amazement, that they did not think it was enough. They thought just doing one thing very dull indeed. Ever since she had been pushed in her pram to the rink, Lalla, at the rink and at home, had been quite a person and she was unaccustomed to eyes looking at her in a reproachful way; eyes in her life had usually been filled with envy. Suddenly she felt a need to make Harriet's brothers see how important she was; without knowing it she spoke in rather an Aunt Claudia voice.

“It's dull doing things alone. I was never allowed a friend before I met Harriet.”

It was not only the boys who were surprised, but Harriet too, for it did not sound a bit like Lalla talking.

“No friends?” said Alec. “Why?”

Toby did not believe her.

“You must have some, everybody does.”

Edward beat on the table with his fists to attract attention.

“I've simply hundreds and hundreds.”

More and more Lalla felt a need to be grand.

“My Aunt Claudia didn't know any who were suitable.”

“Suitable for what?” asked Toby.

Lalla's face was red; she knew she was being silly but she could not stop.

“For me; she thinks a skating champion, I mean somebody
who's going to be a skating champion, ought only to have friends who talk about skating.”

Toby began reckoning in his head.

“How many good skaters are there at your rink? I mean of your sort of age?” Lalla thought there might be about ten, fairly good but not as good as she was. Toby wrote the figure ten on a piece of paper. Then he put down the number of towns in England. Then he guessed the number of rinks per town. Then he gave each rink ten promising pupils. “It's impossible to get a true figure, but if I were you I'd tell your aunt that your chances of becoming a champion skater are much less than one in a thousand.” He could see that Lalla did not know what he was talking about. “I mean if there were a thousand girls in a row, all skating about as well as you do, and about the same age, it's unlikely any one of them would be a champion skater.”

Lalla lost her temper.

“You're very rude. I'm going to be a world champion. Everybody knows it. You see, my father was.”

Toby was about to explain that it was not that he was being rude, but that her facts were wrong, and he thought she ought to know, but Alec stopped him.

“Shut up. If Lalla isn't a champion skater she ought to be, seeing how many people are trying to make her one.”

“And you've never seen her skate,” said Harriet. “She skates gorgeously, everybody says so.”