Settling the Account (20 page)

‘Don’t go talking about husbands, then, for
goodness sake! Let her go on being a little girl for a few more
years.’

‘It’s all very well saying that, but when it
is
time to be thinking about a husband for her, who’s she
going to get?’

‘My girl could get any man she wanted,’
Frank said. ‘Finding one good enough for her would be the
problem.’

‘Well, I wouldn’t be so sure about that. I
mean, look at Maudie—what’s she really got going for her? She’s all
right to look at—’

‘She’s a real beauty.’

‘No, she’s not, Frank. Maudie’s got quite a
nice face, there’s nothing wrong with her looks, but she’s
certainly not a beauty. There’s plenty of other girls around
Ruatane the men’d go for before they took a second look at her.
Jane and Harry’s older girls, say—they’re both better looking than
Maudie.’

If it had been anyone but Lizzie daring to
say it, Frank would have been decidedly angry. ‘I don’t know about
that,’ he said huffily. ‘Not everyone likes red hair.’

‘Say what you like, Frank, it’s not you
who’ll be marrying Maudie. Oh, I dare say we’d find some fellow
who’d take her cheerfully enough—someone with a rough bit of farm,
and maybe half a dozen brothers to share it with. Maudie’d do for a
fellow like that. But I want better for her.’

‘I should think so! I’m not going to give my
daughter away to the first fellow who asks for her.’

‘That’s if anyone
does
ask for her.
Now, look at you—you’re an important person around here these
days.’

‘I don’t know about that, either,’ Frank
said with a laugh.

‘Yes, you are! Chairman of the co-operative
and all that, and breeding all these champion cows. You’re a…
what’s the word? A prominent citizen,’ she intoned solemnly.

‘Shall I tell your pa that next time I see
him?’ Frank said through his mirth. ‘He’d have a few words to say
about that. “Big-headed” would be about the kindest of them.’

‘Never mind Pa, what does he know about
anything? Stop interrupting all the time. What with you being so
prominent, I think we could do pretty well for Maudie. But we’ve
got to make a young lady of her first.’

‘I don’t know what you’re on about. What’s
meant to be so bad about Maudie?’

‘Well… I don’t exactly know,’ Lizzie
admitted. ‘But there’s nothing
special
about her. And don’t
say there is,’ she added, forestalling Frank’s protest. ‘Of course
she’s special to us, she’s our daughter. But there’s nothing to set
her apart from the other girls around here, and that’s what she
needs.’

‘I can’t say I agree with you, Lizzie. Don’t
go getting yourself in a state over it, eh? She’s still a little
girl.’

‘I’m not getting in a state. I’m going to
do
something about it. I’ve decided I need to talk to
someone who knows about this sort of thing.’

‘Who’s that?’

‘Who do you think? Who do we know who’s been
to the sort of school they send young ladies to?’

Frank puzzled for a few moments. ‘Um… Lily?’
he offered.

‘I would ask Lily—I’d rather, come to that.
But she’s the size of a house right now, with the baby due this
month. I don’t want to bother her. And she’ll be tired after the
baby comes, she doesn’t take to bearing all that well, so it’ll be
no use asking her for months and months. No, I’m going to take
Maudie to see Aunt Susannah.’

‘Hey, hang on a bit, Lizzie,’ Frank
protested. ‘I don’t want Maudie turning out like Susannah, even if
she does think she’s such a fine lady.’

‘Don’t talk rot. As if I’d let Maudie get
haughty like that! I’m just going to get Aunt Susannah to tell me
how young ladies are meant to behave, that’s all. Where’s the harm
in that?’

‘Well, I suppose…’ Frank said doubtfully.
‘I’d just as soon you didn’t.’

‘I’ll go on Friday,’ Lizzie announced.
‘Maisie’s coming then, she’ll be able to watch Danny for me. I can
sit Rosie on my lap for riding, she’s still little enough for that.
I’ll keep Maudie home from school, that’ll put her in a good mood
for a start. Right, that’s settled, then.’

*

‘I don’t want to go and see Aunt Susannah,’
Maudie grumbled as she rode beside Lizzie.

‘So you’ve said half a dozen times. Say it
once more and I’ll give you a hiding when we get home,’ Lizzie said
briskly. ‘You should be grateful to me for taking you visiting like
you were grown up, not moaning all the time.’

‘But Aunt Susannah’s so
boring
. All
she ever talks about is dresses and Auckland and all that stuff.
And she’ll just look down her nose at me the way she does, like I
smell funny or something.’

‘Well, you
don’t
smell funny, not
with your clean drawers on, so take no notice if she does. And it’s
time you started taking more interest in dresses, my girl—I think
you’d run around in trousers like your brothers if I let you.’

‘Wish I could,’ Maudie said sulkily. ‘Boys
have all the fun. We don’t have to stay long, do we?’

‘We’ll stay as long as I want, and you’ll
behave yourself like a young lady.’ She saw Maudie’s lips move, but
did not catch the muttered complaint. ‘I’ll tell you this just the
once, Maudie—you play up for me there, or disgrace yourself in
front of Aunt Susannah, and you’ll get a good hiding when we get
home.’

This time she heard Maudie’s muttering.
‘Probably will anyway. Usually do.’

‘You wouldn’t if you behaved yourself
better,’ Lizzie told her in what she considered a perfectly
reasonable fashion.

Susannah was alone in the kitchen when
Lizzie walked through the back door holding the sleeping Rosie,
Maudie trailing at her heels.

‘Oh, it’s you,’ Susannah said. ‘And which
one’s this? Maud, is it? You’ve so many I have trouble telling them
all apart.’

‘Hello, Aunt Susannah,’ Lizzie said, turning
her most winning smile on her startled aunt. ‘We thought we’d come
and see you, didn’t we, Maudie? I’ve decided it’s time Maudie
started learning to mix properly so as she’ll pick up some nice
ways, and of course you were the first one I thought of.’

‘Was I?’ Lizzie was pleased to hear the note
of surprise in Susannah’s voice.

‘Of course. I was talking to Frank about it
just the other night, and I thought to myself, who around here’s
got really nice manners? Who’s like a real lady? So here we are.’
She beamed at Susannah.

‘I see,’ Susannah said, looking a little
dazed.

Lizzie lowered her voice in a confiding
manner. ‘I need some advice about Maudie. I was hoping you might
help me—as long as it’s not too much trouble?’

‘No, it… it’s no trouble at all,’ said
Susannah. She graced Lizzie with a tight smile. ‘You’d better come
through to the parlour, then. Sophie will be back shortly, she’s
off getting meat out of the safe. I’ll have her make us some
tea.’

She led the way towards the parlour. Lizzie
took hold of Maudie’s arm as they followed Susannah up the passage.
‘Now, look at the way Aunt Susannah holds herself. That’s how a
lady walks, see? Not stomping around as if she was a boy like you
do.’ Susannah turned to usher them into the room, a small smile of
satisfaction on her face.

Lizzie watched Susannah take her seat, then
turned to Maudie. ‘Did you see the way Aunt Susannah sat down then?
Wasn’t that ladylike? You don’t see
her
legs just dangling
anywhere so people can see right up her dress, do you?’

Susannah looked horrified at the very
notion, and Maudie squirmed in her chair. ‘You don’t walk like Aunt
Susannah,’ Maudie said.

‘Yes, well, neither will you when you’ve had
six children,’ Lizzie said. Maudie pulled a face at the idea.

‘Just what exactly is it you want from me?’
Susannah asked, interrupting the tense moment.

Lizzie leaned forward as far as the plump
baby on her lap would allow. ‘Like I said, some advice. I want to
make a lady out of Maudie,’ she announced portentously.

Susannah studied Maudie for a moment, then
turned to Lizzie. ‘That’s rather ambitious of you.’

‘I know she’s a bit rough around the edges.
That’s what I need the advice for, so you can tell me how to
smarten her up. Frank’s getting to be quite
prominent
around
here,’ she said, enjoying the sound of her favourite new word. ‘I’m
going to see that Maudie gets the chance to meet the right sort of
person, you know?’

Susannah met her eyes. Lizzie saw that her
meaning had not been lost, though it had gone right over Maudie’s
head. ‘She’s rather young for you to be thinking about that sort of
thing, isn’t she?’

‘No sense leaving these things till the last
minute. Anyway, there’s not going to be much point seeing that she
meets this right sort of person if she puts them off straight away,
is there? I mean, people like that must be used to girls with a bit
more going for them.’

‘Hmm,’ Susannah said thoughtfully. ‘Well,
she’ll have to learn not to scowl so, for one thing. A face like
that would frighten off anyone who got within ten feet of her.’

‘Maudie!’ Lizzie said sharply. ‘Don’t you go
pulling faces.’

Maudie looked down at her lap and began
tugging at a loose thread in her dress. ‘Don’t like you talking
about me like I wasn’t here,’ she muttered. ‘You make me sound like
one of Pa’s cows.’

‘Her manners could certainly do with some
polishing,’ Susannah said.

Lizzie gave Maudie a warning glare, and
turned her attention back to Susannah. ‘What do you think I should
do with her, then? How can I make a lady out of her?’

‘Well, let me have a good look at her. Stand
up, Maud, let me see you properly.’

‘Hurry up, Maudie,’ Lizzie said. ‘Do what
Aunt Susannah says.’

‘That’s right. Walk around the room a
little—now stand still, and turn around slowly. All right, that’ll
do. Just stand there while I look at you.’ Susannah stood up and
walked around Maudie, studying her from every angle.

‘What do you think of her?’ Lizzie
asked.

Susannah took a few steps back from Maudie
and stood with one hand on her chin. ‘She’s not a bad looking
girl,’ she allowed. ‘You could almost call her pretty. Her hair’s
her best feature, being blonde. A pity it’s not wavy.’

‘It just won’t hold a curl,’ Lizzie
bemoaned. ‘I’ve tried and tried with rags. Mine was just the same,
though.’

‘Still, curls aren’t everything.’ Susannah
took another long stare at Maudie. ‘I don’t know how much you’re
going to be able to do, but you’re quite right to want to make the
best of her. I’d have liked a daughter,’ she said. A wistful note,
which Lizzie did not normally associate with her aunt, came into
Susannah’s voice.

‘You should try having three of them,’
Lizzie said. ‘They’re just as much of a trial as boys, only in
different ways.’

‘Yes, well, I never said I had any ambitions
to be a brood mare,’ Susannah said, the wistfulness disappearing as
suddenly as it had come. ‘I don’t know where I would have found the
time to teach a daughter the finer things of life, anyway—not that
it would have been much use to her in
this
house. I suppose
you’ve a good deal of time on your hands for this sort of business,
now that you have a housemaid.’

‘Housemaid, indeed,’ Lizzie scoffed.
‘Maisie’s not a housemaid. It’s more like having another child
around the place—though Maisie’s a hard worker, I’ll grant her
that.’

‘Can I sit down now, Ma?’ Maudie asked
plaintively.

‘Not until Aunt Susannah says you can. And
stand still—don’t keep shifting from one foot to the other like
that.’

Rosie stirred in Lizzie’s arms and let out a
fretful cry. ‘Don’t worry about her, she’ll settle down again when
I’ve given her a feed,’ Lizzie told Susannah, and began unbuttoning
her bodice.

‘Wouldn’t you rather go into another room
for that?’ Susannah asked, looking away in distaste. ‘You can use
the bedroom if you like.’

‘No, I’d just as soon feed her here,’ Lizzie
said. She waited until Rosie was suckling, then turned her
attention back to Susannah. ‘You went to one of those proper
schools for young ladies, didn’t you?’

‘I certainly did. “Mrs Sanderson’s Academy
for Young Ladies”,’ Susannah said dreamily. ‘Those were the
happiest years of my life, I think.’

‘Well, what sort of thing would they teach
Maudie if she went to a place like that?’

‘Ma!’ Maudie protested. ‘You said I could
stop going to school this year! I don’t want to go to some ladies’
school.’ She pulled a disgusted face.

‘I don’t know that they’d take you, dear,’
Susannah murmured.

‘I warned you, didn’t I, Maudie?’ Lizzie
said, pointing a threatening finger at her daughter. ‘We’ll have a
talk about you playing up when I get you home.’ Maudie managed a
defiant look with obvious difficulty. ‘Anyway, I’m
not
going
to send you away to school. You can stop home and help me for a few
years. I was just
trying
to ask Aunt Susannah—before you
butted in with your twopence worth—what they teach girls at those
special schools.’

‘All sorts of things,’ Susannah said. ‘Oh,
it was wonderful there. Deportment, now—Mrs Sanderson was very
strong on deportment.’

‘What’s that?’ Lizzie asked doubtfully.

‘How one carries oneself. Take Maud,
here—see how she slouches when she’s standing still?’

‘Stand up straight, Maudie,’ Lizzie ordered.
Maudie made a half-hearted attempt at doing so.

‘Now walk about the room, like you were
doing before—see?’ said Susannah. ‘Her shoulders drop as soon as
she starts moving. And she takes such long strides, too, not
ladylike at all. She should float along, so that under a long dress
you wouldn’t see her limbs moving at all.’

‘Show her how to do it,’ Lizzie asked.
Susannah obliged readily enough, gliding up and down the centre of
the parlour. ‘Now
that’s
how a lady walks,’ Lizzie told
Maudie.