Justice Is a Woman (21 page)

their feet, and Betty, opening the door to allow Lady Mary to pass into the small hall, remarked, “I think

it’s going to rain. Do you think you should make the journey?”

“Don’t try to put me off, girl. And stop thinking I’m buying this car to induce you to stay.” She turned

and confronted Betty, and she, looking straight into the old lady’s blue eyes and smiling faintly, said, “It

never entered my head.”

“Liar!”

“Well, you should know.”

“Huh! Huh!” The chuckle came from deep within Lady Mary’s throat; and then they

were at the front

door, and there stood a man, but not the chauffeur of the hired car.

“Why, Joe!”

“Hello, Betty. Good morning. Lady Ambers.”

“What do you want?”

“I’ve ... I’ve come to see my sister-in-law.” His tone was polite but stiff.

“She’s on holiday.” Lady Ambers now took Betty’s arm in an effort to thrust her back

into the hall, but

Betty, covering the hand gently, said, Come and let us sit down for a moment. Come in, Joe. “

Protesting loudly and her words almost unintelligible, the old lady went back into the drawing-room and

when she was seated Betty turned to Joe, who had come no further than the doorway, and asked quietly,

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

“I’ve ... I must talk to you, Betty.”

“You can say what you’ve got to say here; there’s no secrets between her and me. She’s going to stay

here; she’s made up her mind,” said Lady Ambers defiantly.

“Please, please, Lady Mary.”

“Aw! girl.” Now the old woman thrust out her hand and grabbed at Betty’s, saying

pathetically, “You

don’t want to go back there, I know you don’t; you’ve been content here. We get on well, don’t we?

We do, don’t we now?”

“Yes, yes, we do, very well.”

“Then why be persuaded to go back there and be everybody’s servant?”

She now turned and looked up at Joe, saying, “Oh, you can look as angry as you like, my man, but it’s

the truth. I keep my eyes and ears open; I heard a lot while I was with Sarah, along the road.”

Joe drew in a long slow breath; then, looking at Betty, he said, “I must speak with you alone.”

“Yes, yes. Please excuse me a moment, Lady Mary. Now, now.” She patted the hand that

was still

gripping hers.

“You must realise that my brother-in-law wouldn’t have come all this way unless the

matter was urgent...

Please.”

The grip was slowly relaxed; the old head was turned completely away;

and Betty, hurrying past Joe and from the room, motioned him to follow her.

Both having swiftly climbed the shallow oak stairs, he followed her to her bedroom, and she, opening the

door, stood aside for him to pass her; then closing the door behind them, she asked

quickly, “What is it?

What’s happened? ... is it Mike?”

“No, no.” He shook his head.

“It’s ... it’s Elaine. She’s ... she’s in a state. “

“State? What kind of a state?”

He closed his eyes for a moment, nipped at his lip, then said, “She discovered she’s

pregnant again and

she’s tried to do everything she can to get rid of it. I didn’t know until yesterday; I mean, what the real

trouble was. I knew she’d been taking medicine, stomach medicine.

She .. she had indicated she had trouble with her bowels. I . I came across a letter just by accident.

She was lying on the bed sweating. I went to her handkerchief drawer and there it was tucked between

them. Well, naturally, it intrigued me. I read it. It was from this schoolfriend of hers arranging to have

somebody do an abortion.

I went berserk, and when she said she intended to go through with it I told her .. well’ he thrust out his

head and turned towards the window “I threatened to divorce her and ... and give the

reasons why; and

oh, so many other things besides. And then last night’ he turned towards her again “ I found her on the

bed and bleeding. I got the doctor immediately; she’ again his head moved in desperation

‘she must have

tried to bring it away herself. Have you ever heard of any such thing? “

“Oh, dear God!”

“The doctor wanted to put her into hospital, but she refused to go.

She kept telling me to come for you. She promised me she wouldn’t do anything more if I would bring

you back. “

“Oh, Joe.” Her face was screwed up as if in pain.

“You’ll come?”

“Of course, Joe, of course.”

She watched his shoulders slump as he came towards her and when he was standing close to her he

took hold of her hand, saying, “We’ve missed you. Nothing’s the same: Father’s lost;

there’s been

trouble with Ella again; she cheeked Elaine and she wanted me to dismiss her, but ... but I couldn’t. I

explained to her there’s three out of work in Ella’s house. It’s odd, you know, Betty, but she doesn’t

seem to understand the situation; I mean, of ordinary people. Somehow I don’t think she ever will. How

is it you can see their side and she can’t? “

“I... I suppose it’s the business of being kept in the nest for too long.”

“Well’ he nodded at her now, smiling wryly ‘it’s just as well for all of us that you were pushed out early

on.”

She had to withdraw her hand from his, saying now, “I must pack. Would . would you

mind going

downstairs and talking to Lady Mary; try to explain. If if you tell her everything, she will understand;

she’s really a very understanding person when you get beyond her sting.”

“All right, I’ll tell her as much as I can.” He turned towards the door, then stopped and looked at her.

“Had ... had you made up your mind to stay?”

She had already turned to pick up a case, and she looked down at it as she said, “Yes.

Yes, I had,

Joe.”

“Oh dear.” He turned slowly and went out.

Less than ten minutes later she entered the drawing-room again to see Lady Mary sitting bolt upright in

her chair. When she looked at her the old lady did not say, “Well, you’re going then;’ nor did she voice

any reprimand, but, lifting her hand, she beckoned Betty towards her and said, “ I can under stand that

you’ve got to leave now, but, remember, I’ll go on waiting for you to come back, and I mean, to come

back for good. But in the meantime I shall buy that car and hire that chauffeur and I shall send it down to

that house to bring you here for a few days at a time. You will come? “

“Yes, yes, I shall come. Lady Mary. And thank you, thank you so much for being so

under standing.”

She now leaned forward and kissed the wrinkled cheek; but there was no response from

the old lady;

nor did her position alter in the slightest; all she did was to champ her lips together, gulp some spittle

down her throat and say, “Well, if you’re going, get yourself away; I’ve never believed in sobbing

farewells.”

“Goodbye, Lady Mary.” Betty turned slowly and walked up the room. And Joe, too, said

quietly,

“Goodbye, ma’am. And thank you for your understanding.”

Left to herself Lady Mary’s stiff back bent for ward; her hands, which had been flat on her lap, curled

inwards. Then, her eyes blinking the moisture back into the sockets, she exclaimed aloud,

“Blast all

empty-headed, selfish, pregnant women!”

Elaine’s second child was born on the last day of March 1930, and when Betty held her in her arms she

shuddered as she moaned inwardly, “Oh no! No!” and whatever exclamation she might

have been

about to utter was silenced by the doctor as, with a look, he indicated to the nurse that she take the child

out of the room.

When Joe saw his daughter, he said, “Oh my God!”

When after twelve days no-one would bring the child to Elaine she got herself up and

went to the

nursery, and when she saw what she had given birth to she screamed and fell into a dead faint.

After a month, by which time the child had made no effort to move its limbs, the doctor confirmed there

were definite signs of brain damage.

It was left to Betty to see to the child. From the first moment she had taken the flannel over the harelip,

and had wiped the matter from the corners of the small eyes that were set at an angle in the domed head,

and had gently washed the right leg that resembled a piece of twisted rope, she knew that as long as this

child lived she’d be bound to the house.

Strangely, the only one not repelled by the sight of the child was Martin. He would stand by the side of

the cot, chattering away to it, and he would always begin with, “Hello, little girl.”

The child had not been christened, nor had she been given a name. When Martin had said to Betty,

“Nice baby,” she had replied, “Yes, she’s a nice little girl; she’s your sister.” From then on he had called

her ‘little girl’.

In the works it was known that Remington’s classy wife had given birth to a monstrosity.

Few of the

men had known of such an idiot, for surely an idiot it must be. There might be some in Bog’s End who

were not very bright, but they weren’t idiots. No, by God! They left that kind of thing to the

high-breeders.

During the following months the atmosphere in the house changed, becoming charged

with gloom from

Mike’s quarters down to the kitchen;

while on the first floor war raged.

Joe understood Elaine’s feelings, because he knew how he had felt that first moment

when he had

looked on the child. So, for six months, he bore her outbursts of grief, her prostration when, for days on

end, she would remain in bed, and he also accepted her sudden change of attitude towards their

first-born, for whereas previously she had left him almost solely to the care of Betty and Nellie, she now

monopolised the child. But when she decided that her son must sleep in their room he put his foot

down. Even her suggested compromise that Martin should have a room to himself was

met with a firm,

“No!” because, as he pointed out, Martin was the only one in the house who saw their

daughter as

normal: to him she was a baby, and as yet he did not see the difference between her and other babies.

Up till then he had not accused her of being the cause of the child’s deformity, because when he had put

the question to the doctor as to why such an event had occurred, the answer had been

evasive:

such children appear in all families, the doctor had said; the cause wasn’t really known.

Not until the child was a year old, which was in March 1931, did he openly accuse her of being the

cause of the baby’s deformity ..

Apart from worries at home Joe was experiencing additional problems at the factory. The orders for

packing-cases and such-like had dropped to almost half of what they had been in 192,7.

Unemployment

in the country was rife, with almost two million people out of work. The previous week he himself had

had to lay off half a dozen men, and there was the likelihood that another half dozen would have to go

within the month if he didn’t bring off that York order.

A few years before it seemed to be only the miners that were hard hit, but now it was every industry.

This worry alone would have been quite enough to cope with without the complexities he had to face

with his wife and the tragedy that lay immobile in a cot in the nursery. So his mind was in anything but a

peaceful state when he arrived home at six-thirty on this particular evening to

be informed almost immediately by Ella that the mistress had gone into Newcastle.

“Really!” He smiled at Ella.

“Did she order a taxi?”

“Yes, Mr. Joe.”

“Miss Betty didn’t go with her?”

“No, Mr. Joe ... Miss Betty’s up in the nursery.”

“Thanks, Ella.” He still called her Ella.

He hurried up the stairs and into the nursery, and Betty turned from the cot, saying, “Oh, hello, Joe.”

Instead of answering her greeting he said, “Ella tells me that Elaine’s gone into

Newcastle.”

“Yes, she suddenly took it into her head this afternoon.”

“Didn’t she want you to go with her?”

“No.” She scraped the spoon around the bowl and gently placed the contents in the

child’s mouth;

then going to the basin in the corner of the room, she wetted a flannel and on her way back to the cot

she said, “It’s a good sign.”

“Yes, yes, it is. Did she say why she was going?”

Betty didn’t answer until she had dried the child’s face and had lifted up the side of the iron-railed cot

and dropped it into place.

The precaution of the railed cot was not so much to prevent the baby from falling out as to stop Martin

from climbing in beside it. And now she turned and looked at Joe and said slowly, “No, she didn’t.”

“Perhaps she just wanted to go out, to see the shops.”

“Yes, yes, perhaps that was it.”

They stood staring at each other, he waiting for her to say something, she thinking. She’ll likely tell him

about the telephone call herself.

If she doesn’t, then it’s just as well I haven’t mentioned it.

“How’s himself?”

“He has what he terms the hump. I tried to persuade him to come downstairs; he’s alone too much up

there and ... and I can’t get up as often as I would like.”

“I know that, Betty.”

She started visibly when he caught hold of her hands, saying, “What would we do

without you? They

say that there are compensations in life, and by! you’ve been a compensation to

everybody in this

house.”

“Oh’ she jerked her hands away, her face unsmiling ‘don’t start pinning wings on me. I do what I do