Moving On (20 page)

They heard the telephone ringing as they approached Jenny’s flat on returning from a walk along the promenade. As Tom unlocked the door Jenny hurried to answer it, saying with a smile, ‘Whoever it is they’re determined that I’ll answer it.’

When she lifted the receiver she was surprised to hear Bill’s voice say, ‘Hello, is that you, Jenny?’

‘Hello, Bill, is something the matter? You sound worried.’

‘There’s nothing wrong, well, not really, but I’m trying to speak to you before Karen comes back from the clinic.’

‘So there is something wrong … is it to do with the baby?’

‘No, no; nothing like that; she’s only paying a routine visit, the baby is fine, thriving in fact.’

‘So what is wrong, then?’

‘Well …’ He hesitated and Jenny heard him take a deep breath. ‘It’s just that I have a problem that’s all.’

‘Go on.’ Jenny held her breath, wondering what was the matter. She could hear Tom moving about in the kitchen filling the kettle and switching it on, then the rattle of the cups as he laid them out on a tray ready to make tea the moment the kettle boiled.

‘Well, it’s like this,’ Bill explained. ‘I have to go away next week, school trip to Belgium. I’d like to get out of it but it’s not possible and, well, the truth is I’m worried about Karen. I don’t like leaving her to cope with the baby for a whole week on her own.’

Jenny was on the verge of pointing out that during the war mothers had been left to cope on their own for far longer than a week when their husbands went off to fight. But she knew that would be no comfort to Bill so she kept silent.

‘What I’m really trying to say, Jenny, is would you and Tom come and stay down here for the week while I’m away. I know it’s only a couple of weeks since you were here and that you probably want to get back to your normal commitments but …’

‘Oh, Bill, don’t sound so worried and apologetic,’ Jenny interrupted. ‘Of course we’ll come and stay for the week, no problem at all.’

‘You will?’

The relief in his voice was so great that Jenny couldn’t help laughing.

‘You don’t have to sound like a condemned man reprieved right at the last minute,’ she said with a laugh.

‘Well, I can’t help feeling that it is rather an imposition to ask such a favour of you. Can you come next Friday? We leave early on Saturday morning and we don’t return until the following Sunday.’

‘Of course we will. Don’t give it another thought. Simply tell Karen of the arrangement,’ Jenny told him.

Tom frowned when she conveyed Bill’s message and told him that she had agreed that they would go down and stay for the week with Karen.

‘What’s wrong? Why don’t you want to do it?’

‘I’m happy to help Bill out but at the moment it is rather inconvenient.’

‘What on earth do you mean?’

‘You seem to have forgotten that I’m in the middle of decorating my flat.’

‘Yes, I know you are but there’s no urgency is there?’

‘Well, yes. I want to complete it while I’m still in the mood for decorating.’

‘Surely a week won’t matter?’

‘It will to me. I want to get it finished and then do your flat. Anyway, it’s not a week, it’s ten days if we have to be there for Friday night and we don’t come home again until the Sunday.’

He paused, then his face brightened. ‘I tell you what, why don’t you go and stay with Karen for the week and that will leave me free to devote all the time I want to finishing my painting job here. With any luck,’ he went on enthusiastically, ‘I can do your flat as well while you’re away and then we’ll have everything spruced up and we can go ahead and plan the date for our wedding.’

‘OK, I’m agreeable to that; in fact it sounds a splendid idea,’ Jenny agreed. ‘I’ll make enquiries about train times and let them know what time to expect me on Friday.’

‘There’s no need to do that. I’ll drive you down and then come straight back,’ Tom told her.

The thought of spending a week alone with Karen and baby Angela pleased Jenny immensely. They really would have time to talk, take little walks together and go shopping. It would be so much more intimate than when Bill and Tom were there as well.

They travelled down on Friday morning, deciding to make a day of it and stop somewhere for lunch. It was a glorious late spring day and Jenny felt excited and as light-hearted as if she was going on holiday.

Well, she told herself, it would be a holiday in a way. Certainly it was something quite different. Secretly she was glad to be away from the upheaval the redecorating was causing. Everything seemed to be untidy and topsy-turvy and it made her feel irritable even though she did her best to conceal the fact from Tom.

In truth she didn’t want her flat decorated; as far as she was concerned it was all right as it was. She knew Tom was being practical and that it meant that if they decided to stay on at Merseyside Mansions then whichever flat they elected to live in would be in pristine condition and so would the one they decided to sell. It also meant that if they agreed they wanted a bungalow then both flats could be out straight on to the market.

Spending a week with Karen in her house, Jenny thought, would also give her a chance to decide if she really wanted to take on the responsibility of a house again.

If they chose a bungalow there would be no stairs to contend with but there was bound to be a garden. Tom liked decorating and doing things around the flat but she wasn’t too sure that he was keen about gardening. He’d certainly never said that he missed having a garden.

Perhaps a garden meant more to a woman than to a man, she mused. It was so lovely to peg out the washing and watch it blowing in the wind and then a few hours later gather in armfuls of fresh-smelling dry clothes rather than simply fish them out of a tumble dryer.

It was also so invigorating to simply open the door and step outside and breath in fresh air first thing in the morning or on a hot close day.

Strangely enough, she thought, Karen, like most of her generation, didn’t really appreciate this. There was no daily fluttering of white terry-towel nappies because she used disposable nappies for the baby and all the tiny baby clothes usually went into the washing machine not out on to the clothesline.

They arrived at Karen’s just after three o’clock. Bill had not yet come home from the school but Tom said he wouldn’t stay as he wanted to get back.

‘I know your time will be taken up getting Bill on his way when he comes in and I’m busy decorating,’ he told Karen. ‘I’ll come back a week on Sunday to collect Jenny. You two enjoy yourselves next week.’

Bill came home almost the moment Tom had left. He said he was sorry to have missed him but he was only in the house for about half an hour before he, too, left for his journey to Belgium. Along with the help of two other teachers he was taking a party of twenty boys and since it was the first time they had participated in such a venture it needed a great deal of supervision.

As soon as they were alone Karen put the kettle on and they settled down to a cup of tea and to make plans for what they wanted to do in the coming week.

‘We have the car so we can get out and about and I can take you to see some of the local beauty spots or to visit some of the local National Trust places,’ Karen told her.

‘With the baby?’

‘Why not? I can put her in the back in the special carrycot I have for her that fits on to the back seat of the car. We unfasten it and simply take it out of the car with her still in it when we reach our destination. It’s so simple.’

‘So different, too,’ Jenny remarked with a smile. ‘I remember I used to have to walk everywhere with you when you were very tiny because your pram was too big to take on a bus or train.’

‘Well, her pram is too big for trips of that kind, but in a few months’ time when she can go in a pushchair I shall get one that folds up and then we will take it in the car or on a bus with no problem at all. At the moment she is so light that this carrycot is perfect, so let’s start planning where you want to go and what you want to see.’

‘Sounds admirable, but of course we will only be able to do short trips,’ Jenny commented.

‘No, we can go out for the entire day if we want to. All Angela’s paraphernalia can be packed in a bag and taken with us. She needn’t be any trouble at all.’

Jenny and Karen had a wonderful week together. Jenny felt as if things were almost the same as they’d been when Karen was a lively schoolgirl, enthusiastic about everything they said or did. It was as if all the traumas during the intervening years had been wiped out and there had never been all the worries and upsets they’d endured.

Jenny found baby Angela a real delight. She was now almost two months old and a bundle of joy. Jenny felt almost as proud as Karen when people stopped to admire her and say that she looked like a lovely little doll in the pretty pale pink layette that Jenny had knitted for her.

‘I don’t know what it is about babies but they really seem to bring the best out in people,’ Karen said, smiling happily.

‘Probably the trusting way they stare up at you or because they look so fresh and innocent,’ murmured Jenny as she looked over her shoulder at Angela, who was asleep in her carrycot, firmly anchored on to the back seat of the car.

They were driving home after a day spent on the coast in Weston Super Mare and Jenny deemed it was a good opportunity to sound Karen out about the plans she had formulated in her own mind for a new wedding date.

‘I thought early in June,’ Jenny told her. ‘Or perhaps about the middle of June, say a month from now. Tom will have finished decorating both flats by then and with any luck we will have made up our minds about whether we are going to move or stay put.’

‘Why do you want to move? I thought you were quite settled there, Gran,’ Karen said in surprise.

‘Well, yes I am. I do like my flat very much but Tom wants us to move into his because it is larger and has a second bedroom.’

‘Do you need two bedrooms?’ Karen mused.

‘Well, yes, we do for when you and Bill come to stay.’

‘We could always put up in a hotel, there’s certainly plenty of those in New Brighton so that would not be a problem.’

‘If you and Bill are coming to visit us then I would sooner you stayed under our roof than someone else’s,’ Jenny said firmly.

‘You are still missing having a house and a garden?’ Karen murmured.

‘A house or perhaps a bungalow.’

‘Is Tom in agreement?’

‘Well, yes, but I don’t think he would want a garden, leastways not a very big one.’

‘If it’s only a small one then you have neighbours living so close to you that you haven’t any real privacy,’ Karen pointed out.

‘That’s true! We could always employ a gardener but you know what it’s like – they never do things quite the way you want them done.’

‘I think Tom’s idea is the best then, and you should stay on at Merseyside Mansions. There are plenty of shops close by in Victoria Road, you can always take a walk on the promenade and you are only half an hour or so from Liverpool. Why not give it a try and if you don’t like it and still feel you want a house or a bungalow then move later on.’

‘That is one solution,’ Jenny agreed, ‘but we are getting older and the longer we put off moving the more difficult we will find it is to do so later on. We are no spring chickens you know,’ Jenny reminded her.

‘Rubbish. These days moving house is so simple. The removal men come in, pack everything for you and put it exactly where you want it to be in your new home.’

‘Anyway,’ she went on when Jenny remained silent, ‘Bill and I would always come and help you.’

‘You make it all sound so simple and easy that it looks as though I’m making a fuss over nothing.’ Jenny sighed.

‘Let’s get back to fixing this new wedding date,’ Karen suggested, adroitly changing the subject.

‘Well, I thought if we made it when Bill has his half term then you and Bill can be there and we won’t have to try and do everything over a weekend. We could even spend a few days together afterwards. So when is Bill’s half term?’

‘It’s now. That’s why he’s taking these boys on this holiday trip to Belgium. They do it now so that it doesn’t interfere with their term’s work and gives them a break before they have to sit exams.’

‘Oh, dear. I didn’t realize that.’

Jenny sounded so crestfallen that Karen quickly said that it wasn’t really any problem. They would make the time to come as long as it wasn’t when Bill had to organize exams.

For the rest of the journey they talked about what they would wear and the hundred and one other things that would have to be planned in advance.

As they pulled up outside Karen’s house they could hear the telephone ringing. ‘Stay here in the car with Angela while I dash to answer it, will you,’ Karen said as she took her keys out of the car. ‘It’s probably Bill,’ she called over her shoulder as she hurried towards the front door.

When she reappeared a few minutes later she came over and opened the passenger door. ‘It’s for you, Gran; it’s Jane and she said it was important.’

‘Jane, Jane Phillips? What does she want?’

‘I don’t know, Gran. She simply said she wanted to speak to you urgently because it was very important.’

‘Really!’ Jenny’s tone was scathing. ‘She’s a trouble-making old witch. Probably seen Tom talking to another woman or going into my flat and she thinks it’s a juicy bit of gossip to pass on to me,’ she grumbled as she got out of the car and headed for the house.

Two minutes later when Karen followed with baby Angela she found Jenny white-faced and shaken, holding the receiver in her hand.

‘Is something wrong, Gran? Have you had bad news?’ Karen asked, taking the phone from her hand and putting it back into its cradle.

Jenny nodded. ‘Yes. It was about Tom. He … he’s had an accident.’

‘Oh, no! What sort of an accident?’

‘He fell off a ladder while painting the ceiling in my flat and he’s been taken to hospital in Liverpool. Jane said they think he has a broken femur. I’ll have to get back right away, Karen.’

‘Yes, of course. I understand.’ Karen put an arm around Jenny’s shoulders and gave her a reassuring hug.

‘Do you think you will be all right here on your own Karen? I promised Bill I’d stay until he got home.’

‘Of course I’ll be all right. He’ll be home in a couple of days’ time. Don’t worry about me,’ Karen told her quickly.

‘Can you run me to the nearest railway station or shall I phone for a taxi?’

‘Slow down, slow down or you’ll be having a heart attack,’ Karen said worriedly.

‘I’m all right. Don’t fuss, Karen. I must get back as quickly as possible. I’ll go and get my things together.’

‘Come and sit down in an armchair for a minute or two. If Tom is in hospital then he’s in good hands and there is not a lot you can do so do sit down for five minutes.’

‘Come on,’ Karen urged when Jenny looked uncertain.

‘I’ll make a pot of tea and you can think through what is the best thing to do,’ she said, leading Jenny over to one of the armchairs and making her sit down in it.

‘Gran, will you look after Angela for me for a minute or two,’ she said quickly, picking the baby up out of its carrycot and passing her to Jenny.

‘Stay in that armchair and don’t move. I don’t want you dropping her,’ she added with a forced laugh as she went into the kitchen to make the tea.

Jenny had calmed down a little by the time Karen returned with the tea.

‘I hate leaving you in the lurch like this and I know there may not be very much I can do for Tom if he is in hospital but I do feel I ought to be there,’ Jenny explained as she sipped the hot tea.

‘Of course you do, and don’t worry about me,’ Karen told her, leaning forward and squeezing Jenny’s hand.

‘As soon as I’ve drunk this tea I’ll go up and pack my case. If I leave anything behind then you can let me have it next time we see you.’

‘Don’t worry if you leave things behind, I’ll take care of them,’ Karen assured her.

‘Right,’ Jenny placed her cup down on the side table. ‘While I go and do that could you look up the train times for me and then send for a taxi.’

She stood up and made for the door, then paused and looked back at Karen. ‘Now are you quite sure you will be able to manage on your own?’

‘Of course I can; now stop worrying,’ Karen told her as she picked up her own cup and Jenny’s and carried them through to the kitchen.

When Jenny came back down ten minutes later, Karen was putting the baby into her carrycot ready to put her in the car.

‘You’re not driving me to the station; I told you to order a taxi.’

‘When did I ever do what you told me,’ Karen replied teasingly. ‘Come on; stop wasting precious time. I’m driving you.’

It wasn’t until ten minutes later, after they’d left the house, that Jenny realized that Karen wasn’t driving in the direction of the railway station.

‘Where are you taking me?’ she asked in a worried tone.

‘Home to Wallasey, of course. I wouldn’t trust you on a train, not in the state you are in. I’ve phoned Bill so he knows what is happening and he will come to Merseyside Mansions when he gets back home.’

‘Karen, I don’t want you to do that,’ Jenny complained.

‘No arguing, Gran! You didn’t seem to be very sure that I could manage on my own, remember? Well I’m not sure that you can either so this way we can support each other.’