Justice Is a Woman (16 page)

Well, she wasn’t going to stand for it. It was one thing for him to go down there openly, but now he was

doing it on the sly . Held up, indeed!

As she hurried from the room and ran across the landing, Betty’s voice came to her from the foot of the

attic stairs, calling, “Is anything wrong?” And i51 she answered briefly, “No,” then

continued running

down the stairs, out of the front door and down the drive.

She had rounded the bend and was in sight of the cottage when she saw them. Joe had

hold of the girl’s

arm and they were walking down the pathway, quite close together.

She stopped on the grass verge and stood in the shadow of a tree. She watched as her

husband took

hold of the girl’s hands, bringing them together on a level with his chest, then bending towards her. She

could not see what he was doing, for he had his back to her; but even if they had been facing her and

within a few yards’ distance she would have been unable to see clearly, for the rage that was filling her

was misting her eyes. For this to happen under her nose in their own garden! She had

given him

everything, nearly died in giving him a child; and now that child was but three months old and what was

he doing? She did not see their parting. The next thing she was conscious of was the car coming

towards her, then stopping beside her.

“Hello, Elly! Were you coming to meet me?” There was a surprised note in Joe’s voice, and when she

did not move he said, “Come on, get in. What’s the matter?”

When she stiJI made no movement, he sprang from the car and hurried over the verge

towards her.

“What is it? What’s the matter, dear?” When his hand came out to touch her she struck it a blow with

the side of her hand and the force behind it gave the lie to its delicate appearance.

He did not move away from her, but pressed his head well back into his shoulders and

narrowed his

eyes as he asked quietly, “What’s this all about?”

“How dare you! How dare you stand there and say to me. What’s this all about? Three

days this

week, and I’ve ... I’ve just seen you with my own eyes.”

Joe gaped at her before looking in the direction of the cottage. Then, returning his gaze to her, his mouth

opened wide and he let out a bellow of a laugh; at the same time his arms went about her and he hugged

her to him as he almost sang, “You’re jealous. You’re jealous.

Wonderful! Wonderful! You’re jealous! “

When she struggled fiercely in his embrace he let her go; but he was still smiling when she said harshly,

“Don’t treat me as an idiot. I could understand you having an affair with someone of your own class but

... but with that man’s wife.”

The smile had gone from his face. He half turned his head away from her while his eyes still held hers,

and he put up his hand in a warning gesture as he said, “Careful. Careful, Elly, because you could be

sorry for what you might say.”

“Are you telling me I’m blind? Is it usual for the master to be so attentive to his

chauffeur’s wife as to

take her hands and fondle her?”

He let out a long sigh as he said now quietly, “Yes, under the circumstances it was usual.

I had just

come from visiting David in hospital, where i53 he told me the good news that Hazel was going to have a

baby. What you saw me doing was trying to reassure her, to allay her fears as to what the child might go

through. Would he be treated the same as his father because of his mixed blood ? She was sad and

troubled also because her people are not pleased at the prospect of her having the child.”

They stared at each other in silence now. Her breathing was easier and she gave a

characteristic lift of

her eyebrows as she exclaimed, “Well, that’s understandable; who would want another

chocolate-coloured ...” The gasp she gave on the last word became almost a cry as she shrank back

from Joe’s uplifted hand. He stayed it in mid-air, and she took two slow steps back from him; then her

hands groping at the trunk of a tree, she moved some way around it before giving out a cry and running

away up the drive. She slowed her run to a walk as she mounted the steps to the house, making a great

effort to regain her composure in case she should encounter the servants; but she met no-one until she

burst into her sitting-room and saw Betty.

“What on earth’s the matter?” Betty took her by the shoulders and, peering into her face, said, “What is

it, what’s happened? You’re trembling like a leaf.”

“He ... he was going to strike me, Betty.”

“Who?”

“J ... Joe.”

“Don’t be silly; he’s not in.”

“He ... he will be in a minute.”

“What did you do?”

“I ... I went down to meet him. He ... he was with that girl at the cottage. I saw him holding her hands,

bending over her. When I accused him, he said he was comforting her because she was

going to have a

baby. And ... and when I made the remark that ...” She swallowed and swung her head

from side to

side.

“Yes? Go on. What remark did you make?”

“I ... I said it would be another chocolate—coloured ...”

“Oh, Elaine!” Betty interrupted.

“Well, it was nothing to say.”

“I think it was; you know that he thinks a lot of David.”

“And why?

Why does he think of lot of David? That’s what I want to know. “ The tears were running down

Elaine’s cheeks now.

“They were brought up together. Joe has a lot of compassion in him for ... for the

underdog.”

“Underdog! He’s no underdog; Joe treats him as an equal.”

“And will continue to do so.” Hearing Joe’s voice, Betty turned sharply towards the door; but Elaine

did not even glance towards it as she rushed into her bedroom and banged the door

behind her. Betty

paused for a moment, facing Joe in the doorway, and said softly, “Go easy on her.”

“I think I go too easy.” His voice was thick, his words muttered.

“She said you were going to strike her. You weren’t, were you?” i55 “Yes, I was.”

She looked away from him, her face puckered, and as she now moved past him she

murmured, “I don’t

understand you.”

She was walking towards the head of the stairs when the dinner gong sounded; at the

same time there

came a loud ringing of Mike’s hand bell from above. She looked first one way and then the other; and

having decided to answer the latter, she was crossing the landing in the direction of the attic stairs when

the nursery door opened and Nellie appeared, saying, “Oh, that bell, miss; it’s woke him up.”

Betty nodded towards her.

“I’ll see to it,” she said.

“Give him his bottle.”

“It isn’t time.”

“Nevertheless, give it to him. I’ll be down shortly; keep him quiet.”

She was now running up the attic stairs; at the top she thrust open the sitting-room door and exclaimed

straightaway, “Oh, stop that row, Mike! You’ve woken the child. You’ll have to get an electric bell

installed; that one makes such a racket.”

“Well, you’ve taken your time in coming. What was all that about down there?”

“What do you mean?”

“Her, running down the drive, then dashing back as if the devil was after her; and our Joe getting out of

the car as if he were the devil himself, his face as black as thunder. Come on, come on, what’s up?”

“He’ll likely tell you himself.”

“He won’t, or only half the story. Now look, put me in the picture or I’m going down

there to find out

for me self

Betty drew in a long deep breath, then said, “Apparently Hazel had told Joe that she was going to have

a baby and when Joe told Elaine, she she came out with a silly remark.”

“Hazel is going to have a baby?” Mike’s voice was low now.

“Yes. Is there anything surprising in that?”

Before Mike answered he turned himself round in the chair, pulled himself upwards, then with the aid of

his stick walked to the window, there saying, “No, there’s nothing surprising in that, nothing to cause a

hullabaloo between those two either.” He turned his head to the side and so wasn’t

looking directly at

her as he asked, “What was the silly remark?”

She paused a long moment before she said, “It was something to do with Hazel producing a coloured

child.”

“The bloody silly bitch! The empty-headed ninny!” He banged the stick on the floor now, then leaned

forward and supported himself on the window-sill with his hand.

“Why, in the name of God! did he have to go and marry a narrow-minded, vain, silly

little bitch like

her?”

“Mike! Please! Please! Mike.”

“All right, you can say Mike as much as you like, I know she’s your sister, but let me tell you something:

I’d rather see him married to a whore, because at least she’d have a bit of humanity in her.” 157 Betty’s

voice was stiff and low as she came back at him, saying, “She’s still young; and what you seem to forget

is that she’s still living in a foreign atmosphere, as it were. She can’t please you all.”

“She doesn’t need to please us all; she’s only got one to please.”

“Well, she tries hard to please him.”

“Does she?” He now thrust himself round to confront her: “Let me tell you something,

Betty: the only

one your sister pleases is herself;

everything she does is aimed at number one. He can’t see it yet because he’s blinded by his feelings, his

needs, and at the same time he’s fascinated by her because she’s of a different class. And I know what

I’m talking about. Men of our type can be fascinated by women of her type. His mother was as much

like her as two peas in a pod; and whereas I came to me senses very quickly, his is going to be a slow

awakening, because he doesn’t want to open his eyes to the light.

Perhaps it’s just as well, because it can bowl a fellow over and leave him scarred for life if he comes to

too quickly. Do you know what I advocate, lass? And I’m not jokin’, mind you, no, I’m not jokin’.

Trial marriages, that’s what I advocate. And ‘tisn’t the day or yesterday I said that; I was twenty-two

when I first voiced it, and a middle-aged bloke almost jumped on me, told me to take me coat off. It

wasn’t till after I found out his only daughter was living with a bloke.

“Good luck to her,” I said. But just think on it, Betty. It would do away with a lot of heartbreak, don’t

you think?

because who knows what they are taking on when they shackle themselves for life, eh ?

Who knows, I

ask you, who knows? “

She said quietly, “In this case, they should have done; neither is a child.”

“She is.” His voice was high now.

“She sees herself as a bloody little flapper, and she’ll go on seeing herself like that until she’s an old

woman. I know the type. I tell you I know the type.” Betty’s eyes narrowed and her voice held a note

of scorn as she said, “Then, thinking about her as you do, why are you so two-faced in her company?

You’re always so pleasant to her.”

“It’s like you to hit the nail on the head, isn’t it? Aye, all right, I am two-faced, but I look at it this way:

he’s got enough to put up with; I’m not going to add to it. He thinks I like her. Let him go on thinking

that, but I’ve got to speak me mind to somebody, an’ who better than you, ‘cos you don’t like her

either.”

“Mike! ... she’s my sister and ...”

“Aw, come off it, lass. Don’t take that tack with me; don’t tell me you take that bloody, unintelligent

way of looking at things. This business that we’ve all got to try to be little Christs and love each other

makes me sick; in the widest sense it makes me sick; but when it’s pumped into you that because you’re

born of the same mother an’ brought up in the same house you’ve got to love every damn member of the

family. God! On the face of it, imbeciles would think with more reason. You show me a family where

all the members love each other all the time, and I’ll show you a family of hypocrites ...

Go i59 on, get

yourself away.” He turned from her now and napped his hand backwards towards her.

“Go on downstairs and play the self-effacing attendant to your bitch of a sister, and while you’re at it

remember that you shouldn’t condemn others for being as big a hypocrite as yourself.”

Betty turned about and left the room; but outside the door she stood for a moment, her head bent, her

eyes closed, her fingers moving backwards and forwards across her brow. The self-

effacing attendant.

Yes, he, too, had hit the nail on the head; that’s what she was, the self-effacing attendant.

She liked Mike. Yes, she liked him very much, but too often in his presence she felt she was in an

operating theatre being roughly dissected. She was getting weary of it all. It was as if she were living on

a battlefield in the midst of four different camps: the camp in the kitchen; the camp on the first floor; and

this one-man camp up here; then the camp down in the cottage. And it was strange, but that camp,

which was apart from the house and which appeared to be the happiest, was the cause of most of the

dissent in the house.

At this moment she had the overwhelming desire to be with Lady Mary, for then she

would have to

please but one. A self-effacing attendant she might be, but with Lady Mary she’d be at the beck and call

of someone who’d pay adequately for the duties of an attendant, not someone who’d

make her feel she

should consider it her good fortune to serve, as did her sister.