A Better World than This (34 page)

‘Now then, Edna.’ Arnold in his tweed flat cap, hovered uncomfortably in the doorway, holding their bulging suitcase strapped with stout string.

As ever, Edna ignored him. ‘Well, our Daisy?’

Daisy spoke brightly to hide the despised blush creeping up from her throat. ‘Sam is arriving tomorrow. He was coming for the Easter weekend but he has to work, so he’ll only be here for the one night, that’s all.’ She tried to keep the
disappointment
out of her voice and failed miserably. ‘He’s not his own boss, you know.’

‘You’ve not told me what his lad’s doing here.’ Edna sat down on the nearest chair to take the weight off her feet which always swelled when she’d been travelling. ‘From the way that child came busting in it seemed to me as if he’s been
living
here. Has he been stopping with you?’

‘Now then, Edna.’ Small and cowed, but not quite beaten into submission, Arnold smiled at Daisy, his pale eyes almost watering with kindness plus shame at his wife’s behaviour. ‘What Daisy does is none of our business. She’s a grown woman now.’ He nodded round the room. ‘Nay, but this is a gradely room, lass. A real bit of class. I bet there’s not a room in the Savoy Hotel to compare with this.’

‘Has he got divorced?’ Edna refused to be side-tracked. ‘Because if he hasn’t it’s about time somebody with your best interests at heart put the kybosh on things.’ Edna went into a little rocking motion to give herself the impetus to rise from the low chair. ‘I’ve kept saying I had a feeling something was going on. I reckon we’ve come none too soon. What you need is someone to talk straight to you, Daisy. Our Betty, bless her, hasn’t a mean bone in her body, she’s never had a dirty mind, but even she thought there was something fishy going on, reading between the lines of your last letter.’

‘There’s
nothing
fishy going on!’ Daisy appealed to her uncle, but he was tracing the outline of a cabbage rose on the carpet with the toecap of a brown boot. ‘Sam asked me to look after his son for a while and I said I would. It’s as simple as that.’

‘Has his wife died? Done away with herself on account of his philandering?’ Edna’s nose looked hard and sharp. ‘What about the little lass? Have you got her here an’ all?’

‘No!’ Daisy tried not to sound exasperated. ‘She’s with her mother. Look, I know it all sounds complicated, but it
is
my own business, Auntie Edna. I’ve gone twenty-one, and I know what I’m doing.’ She walked towards the door. ‘Now, if you’ll come with me I’ll show you to your room.’

She turned to face them, one hand on the door knob. ‘I’ve given you my best room, right opposite the bathroom.’ Her voice faltered. ‘I want you to enjoy yourselves. I want you both to have the best time you’ve had in the whole of your lives. There wasn’t much I could do to repay you both for all you did when me mother died, but I want this next week to be one you’ll remember for a long time to come.’

She started for the foot of the stairs. ‘You’re my very first boarders, apart from the regulars on the top floor. See, Florence has ruled lines in this visitors’ book here. I want you to sign your names, then before you go back home I’d like you to put something in this “comments” column. Something complimentary, I hope.’

‘A home from home,’ Arnold said, trying to keep the peace.

Edna said nothing.

‘She thinks she’s fobbed us off by telling us next to nowt.’

In their bedroom Edna busied herself opening and closing drawers and testing the mattress for bounce.

‘Why isn’t that little lad with his own mother? I’ve never heard nothing as daft in me whole life. What does our Daisy know about fetching little lads up? Is that chap going to marry her, or isn’t he? She went nearly purple when I mentioned the word divorce. She’ll shame us all yet, you mark my words.’ Pulling back the green candlewick spread Edna fingered the top sheet. ‘Bleached twill, but then I don’t expect she could afford better. She’s been spending money on this place like it grows on trees. I’ll have a word with that foreign chap when he comes. With our Martha gone to her rest I’m the only one that can.’

‘He’s not a foreigner.’ Arnold was patiently picking at a knot in the thick string holding the battered suitcase together. ‘He’s not from abroad.’

‘London
is
abroad to folks like us.’ Edna bent down to look under the bed for the chamber. ‘They’ve got different morals down there. It’s all taxis and nightclubs and drinking
cocktails
like water. They’re a different breed from us.’

She ran a finger across the narrow mantelshelf to check for dust. ‘Anyroad, what sort of a man would let his child be fetched up by a single woman, with his own wife still alive? I’ll get to the bottom of this. You know what our Daisy’s like. Easy meat for any man just out for one thing. Our Martha never gave her no freedom; she’d have stopped the wind blowing on her if she could have. Going to the pictures three times a week wasn’t right. Daisy was bound to get wrong ideas the way they carry on in pictures.’

She walked to the door and clicked it shut. ‘And another thing. Those two regulars Daisy mentioned are
men
! I bet you never cottoned on to that. There’s been two men under the same roof as two single women. You know what they say about frustrated spinsters. Give them the opportunity and over the windmill go their caps. It’ll be fur coats and no knickers next.’

Arnold rolled the string into a ball ready for using again. Seen in profile his wife’s face had a squashed Minnie Mouse look to it.

‘I’d leave well alone, lass,’ he said, without much hope.

When Sam arrived the next day Edna and Arnold were in Woolworth’s searching for take-home presents with a seaside slant to them for Betty, Cyril and the baby.

‘Best to get this job out of the way early on, there’s nothing worse than worrying all week what you’re going to take back.’ Edna stood by a counter, trying to decide between a set of false teeth fashioned in bright pink rock – Cyril liked a joke – or a humbug the size of a large pincushion.

Arnold said nothing.

‘I’m sorry it’s worked out this way, Daisybell.’

Sam stood in the hall of Shangri-La wearing a new raincoat with the collar turned up round his chin. He looked so handsome Daisy felt weak at the knees.

‘The Evisons have decided to dump the kids on a relative for Easter and go off to Cornwall, so naturally they want me to drive them there.’

‘I understand,’ Daisy said, wondering for a brief disloyal moment if this was the way it was always going to be. Sam apologizing and her understanding. She ached for him to put his arms around her, but Florence was in the kitchen with the door half open, and Jimmy was coming slowly down the stairs, to eye his father with grave and unchildlike suspicion.

‘Have you brought me a present, Dad?’

When Sam bent down to kiss him he turned his head away.

‘Big boys don’t kiss, do they?’ Florence came into the hall. She looked bad-tempered. ‘Hello, Sam. Did you have a good trip up here the other week?’ She gave a small sarcastic laugh. ‘A pity we didn’t get the chance to have a word.’

Sam composed his face into an expression of baffled bewilderment. ‘How do you mean, Florence? Were you there?’ He turned to Daisy for the explanation which came at once.

‘Florence saw you driving Mr Evison past the shop. She was on her way to the station after seeing her father.’

‘Ah. …’ Sam visibly relaxed. So that was it. He’d boxed clever after all. By his own admission in the letter to Daisy that he’d been in Blackburn, he was in the clear. His sigh of relief was almost audible. ‘I wish I’d seen you, Florence,’ he said with deep insincerity. ‘It would have been nice to have some first-hand news of Daisy and this little chap, but when I’m driving I concentrate on the road.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘How is your father? I hope you found him in good health.’

‘Very well, thank you. Excuse me.’ Florence turned on her heel and marched straight-backed into the kitchen.

The flarchy rotter. Of course he’d seen her. It was there on his handsome face, as plain as a pikestaff for anybody not totally blinkered to see. He’d likely been up north for a couple of days, avoiding making the short journey to Blackpool for reasons best known to himself. Devious, that was Mr Samuel Barnet. Underhand, deceitful, and slimy as a
toad
, playing some game best suited to himself. He was as unrufflable as a slab of concrete; he was an unmitigated swine. The sort of fella who would make the suave George Sanders look like Little Boy Blue.

With quite unnecessary force she topped and tailed a carrot, chopped it up viciously and hurled it into a waiting pan of salted water. ‘
I’d
best him,’ she muttered darkly. ‘By billyheck, I’d have his guts for garters, the two-timing cad.’

Daisy felt as if the smile she was smiling was painted on her face. What was wrong? The touching little scene she had rehearsed so often in her head wasn’t being played right at all. In her fantasy she had opened the door to a beaming Sam who had swept her up into his arms with a joyful cry, kissing her feverishly, holding her tightly as if he never wanted to let her out of his sight ever again. In her dream Jimmy had rushed down the hall to fling himself into his father’s arms, all the pent-up longing on his little face bringing tears to Sam’s blue eyes. In her dream they had stood there entwined, a little family like the advertisement for Better Homes for Britons, united in happiness and devotion.

As it was, Sam appeared to be suffering from amnesia, as if he had stepped into the wrong house, not knowing where he was, or why exactly he was there at all.

The painted smile widened. ‘It was meant to be, you coming today instead of over the holiday weekend,’ she said too brightly. ‘I won’t have time to breathe after today. Auntie and Uncle are here already, and two more early visitors arrive at six o’clock coming straight on from work, then it’s all action stations.’ She touched the sleeve of the smart fawn raincoat. ‘I’ve planned it so we can take Jimmy out this afternoon.’ Glancing over her shoulder at the kitchen door through which penetrated the furious sound of chopping: ‘Florence has been marvellous about it.’ She ruffled Jimmy’s hair. ‘We’re looking forward to it, aren’t we, chuck?’

‘Daisy says we can go in Fairyland.’ Jimmy was still eyeing his father’s small suitcase hopefully. ‘It’s open now for Easter, Dad. We’ve got a week and a day and a half off
school
. Daisy says we can go on the Pleasure Beach as well. On
everything
.’

‘I don’t remember saying
everything
.’

‘You said we could go on the Giant Plunger.’ Jimmy put his head on one side in what Daisy recognized as the familiar lie-telling position. ‘A boy in my class has been on it more’n a hundred times. His dad is a sailor. He brings presents every time he comes home. A case full.’ Jimmy’s eyes bulged with greed as Sam picked up the small case. ‘You can open it down here if you want to, Dad.’

‘If you’d like to come upstairs, Sam.’ Daisy spoke in desperation. ‘I’ll show you where you’re sleeping tonight.’

Florence had voiced strong disapproval about the arrangement. The room had been booked for a couple from Darwen arriving the very next day, which meant Sam would have to move out early in the morning for the sheets to be changed and the room got ready.

‘Extra work all for one night,’ Florence had grumbled. ‘Why can’t he sleep on a camp bed in the dining-room for one night? I can’t see Joshua putting you to so much trouble. Joshua thinks of others before himself. Your precious Sam has nobody on his mind but his precious self.’

Daisy threw a bedroom door open with a flourish. ‘I think you’ll be all right in here.’ Her voice was high, false, a landladyish tone to it. ‘The mealtimes are on the notice here behind the door. If you’d like early-morning tea, just say so.’

Sam slung the case on to the bed and unbuttoned his coat. ‘Vamoose,’ he told Jimmy. ‘Right now! This minute!’ He held out a threepenny bit. ‘Don’t spend it all at once.’

With lip-curling disgust Jimmy stared down at the tiny coin in the palm of his rather grubby hand. His mind calculated to the last gob-stopper how many sweets he could get for it. The picture he’d cherished of his dad staggering up the road laden with presents faded and disappeared.

‘Can’t you make it sixpence?’ he wanted to know.

‘Out!’ Sam pointed a finger at the door. ‘Or I’ll take it back and swap it for a penny.’

Jimmy went, clattering down the stairs to jump the last
four
steps and trip over his shoelaces in his headlong flight to the door which he slammed to with a crash that seemed to shake the house to its foundations.

‘
He
hasn’t altered much.’ Sam clicked open the case and took out a shirt. ‘You looked tired, Daisybell.’ He didn’t turn round. ‘You’re all big-eyed and thinner. Jimmy must be hard work for you on top of everything else you’ve had to do. You’ve done a marvellous job on the house.’

‘Sam?’ Daisy walked towards the bed, her going to him as instinctive as breathing. ‘Put your arms round me. Hold me, Sam.’

The need inside her was so great she began to shake. This man was the dream she dreamed; he was the answer to her longing to be cherished. As he turned, she lifted a hand and traced with a finger the smooth wing of his eyebrows, the slight stubble on his chin. His mouth … oh, dear God, Sam’s mouth, the lips firm yet soft. Her fingers lingered, tracing its shape.

‘Oh, Sam. …’

It would have been hard to say who was kissing whom, but the emotion in her caught Sam unawares. His hand slid down her back, jerking her close.

To Daisy the kiss was as erotic, as sensual as she imagined the act of love itself would be. Tender at first, then demanding. She pressed herself against him, passion running like quick-silver through her veins. No part of her held back.
Love
, she told herself. This then was love.

He was only human. ‘Daisy. Oh, Daisybell.’ His voice was hoarse. When he released her she swayed and would have fallen across the bed but for his arm supporting her. His face was flushed, the dark eyes hooded as he looked down at her. ‘Have you missed me all that much, darling?’