Settling the Account (32 page)

‘You’d better get on with it, then, Lily,’
Lizzie said. ‘Then Miss Denton can have a go when you want a rest.
Maudie’s going to play for us later,’ Lizzie announced to the room
at large, making it clear that this was to be considered the
highlight of the evening.

Lily took her place at the piano, beckoning
Maudie to stand at her side to turn the pages of the music.

She began with a brisk little gavotte, but
came to an abrupt halt when Maudie leaned across her to turn the
first page. ‘Oh, Maudie, those sleeves!’ Lily said, startled by the
sudden brushing of Maudie’s leg-of-mutton sleeve against her face.
‘I’m sorry, dear, but we’re going to have to do something about
them. Here, let me try and flatten this one down a little.’

Lily wrestled with the stiff fabric,
creasing it visibly, while Maudie scowled at her mother. ‘I didn’t
want to wear this dress,’ the girl muttered, uncowed by the
answering glare she aroused.

‘I know, dear,’ Lily said soothingly. She
slipped two pins out of her bonnet and used them to hold the sleeve
flat. It gave the dress an oddly asymmetrical look, but reduced the
unwieldy effect of the excess fabric. ‘It should be all right now.
Let’s go on, shall we?’

She began the piece again, though not before
Amy had heard Miss Denton say to her friend, ‘I used to like those
sleeves when they were in fashion. I haven’t seen such full ones
for years.’ Amy saw from Maudie’s expression that she had heard it,
too; it was fortunate that Maudie was soon too busy turning pages
to be able to make any sharp remarks in return.

Lily played several pieces, then announced
that she was ready for a rest. ‘Would you like to play now, Miss
Denton?’ she asked.

Miss Denton gave a nervous laugh. ‘I’m not
sure that I want to now that I’ve heard you, Mrs Leith. I’m afraid
you’re all used to better than I can manage.’

‘Oh, don’t say that,’ Lily protested.
‘Really, I’m not as good as all that! Anyway, I’m sure you must
know lots of the newer pieces that I’ve never heard—it must be
twenty years since I went to any sort of concert. Do let me hear
you.’

‘Yes, you’d better play,’ Bill put in. ‘I
don’t want Lily getting too big-headed, with you praising her up
like that—there’ll be no living with her soon.’

‘Honestly, Bill, fancy saying that to Miss
Denton!’ Lily scolded. ‘Take no notice of him, Miss Denton, he’s an
awful tease sometimes.’ She tried to grimace at Bill, but it turned
into a smile instead.

Miss Denton let herself be persuaded to
play, choosing some pieces from those she had brought with her. Amy
knew she was no judge of music, but she could tell that there was a
huge difference between Lily’s playing and Miss Denton’s. When Lily
played, Amy was tempted to close her eyes and let the music take
away her awareness of where she was and even who she was. Miss
Denton’s playing had nothing like such power, but she played
capably and the tunes she chose were pleasant. They were indeed
tunes that none of her audience except Miss Harding had heard
before, most of them taken from the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas
that Amy had read of in the newspapers from time to time.

‘Some of those would be good to teach
Maudie,’ Lily said when Miss Denton paused between pieces. ‘They’re
such cheerful tunes, and they don’t sound too difficult.’

‘Oh, they’re terribly easy,’ Miss Denton
said. ‘The ones I play, anyway! And they’ve lovely words, too. I
love singing Gilbert and Sullivan. I’d rather sing than play,
actually. Would you like to try it, Mrs Leith?’ she asked, seeing
the interest with which Lily was studying the music.

Now it was Lily’s turn to protest. ‘I don’t
think I could, just like that, not when I’ve never seen it
before.’

‘Oh, do try,’ Miss Denton urged. ‘It really
is very easy, especially this one.’

‘Come on, Lily, you’re dying to have a go at
it,’ Bill said, while Miss Denton stood up and offered the piano
stool with a flourish.

‘Now you’re all siding against me,’ Lily
complained, but she took the vacated stool readily.

After a few hesitant bars, Lily was
confident enough to tell Miss Denton to begin singing. Lily’s
playing and Miss Denton’s pleasant soprano made an enjoyable
combination. The whole family applauded after the first song,
insisting on several more.

Lizzie studied Lily and Miss Denton as they
performed. During a pause in the music, she leaned across to speak
to Amy in a low voice. ‘I think Maudie should get into singing—you
see the one singing much better than the one sitting down at the
piano. Yes, I think I’ll start her on that.’

Maudie caught her mother’s remark and darted
a glare at her. ‘Not in this dress I won’t. I’m not making a
spectacle of myself.’

‘You’ll do what you’re told, my girl. And I
think it’s a lovely—’

‘Maudie, come and turn the pages for me,’
Lily broke in, cutting short the discussion. Maudie and Lizzie had
to make do with casting occasional hostile glances at each other
while the music continued.

Just as Lizzie was threatening to serve
supper without waiting any longer for her, Susannah arrived at
last. She swept into the parlour on Thomas’s arm in a rustle of
lilac silk, pausing in the centre of the room long enough for
everyone to take in the full effect before she took the chair Bill
gave up to her, acknowledging his attention with a gracious nod of
her head.

‘We’d just about given up on you, Aunt
Susannah,’ Lizzie said. ‘I thought you must’ve changed your mind
about coming.’

‘Really?’ Susannah said. ‘Oh, you must
remember I’ve lost touch with a lot of your farm ways now I’m
living in town. When I lived in Auckland I’d never dream of
arriving at a soirée before eight o’clock.’

‘Well, people in Auckland don’t have to get
up and milk cows in the morning,’ Lizzie answered tartly. ‘Never
mind, you’re here now. Let’s get on and have supper, then, we’re
all starving. Maudie, you and Maisie can go and fetch it, and
Beth—oh, look at the poor little mite.’ Her voice softened at the
sight of Beth sprawled on Frank’s lap sound asleep. ‘She’s not used
to staying up this late.’

Sensing their attention, Beth sat up and
rubbed at her eyes. ‘I wasn’t really asleep,’ she said
unconvincingly, looking around in confusion. ‘I liked the
music.’

‘Off to bed, love,’ Lizzie told her.
‘Maudie, put your sister to bed, she looks as though she’ll fall
over if she tries going by herself.’

Beth put her arms around Frank’s neck and
gave him a rather damp kiss, then let herself be led off by Maudie,
pausing long enough to give her mother an even sleepier
embrace.

‘You haven’t met these ladies, have you,
Aunt Susannah? This one’s Miss Denton, she can play the piano. And
this is Miss Harding. She can’t. Miss Denton, Miss Harding, this is
Mrs Leith. And Tom’s her son.’

The new acquaintances shook hands. ‘It’s so
nice to meet someone new,’ Susannah said. ‘Ruatane’s such a small
town, it’s a treat to see a new face.’ She gave a little laugh. ‘Of
course, after so many years on the farm, Ruatane seemed quite a
city to me at first! To be able to walk down the street to the
shops, or to go visiting of an afternoon—oh, it was like coming to
life again!’

She caught her breath and looked around
warily, clearly wondering if her delight in her new state was a
little too overt; she was, after all, in the same room as two of
Jack’s children. But no one spoke to rebuke her. Susannah turned
her attention back to the visiting women and began interrogating
them on the latest fashions in Auckland.

Amy managed to hide her rush of hurt; the
way Susannah had spoken made it sound as though Jack’s death were
almost a cause for celebration.

The change in Susannah over the first year
of her widowhood had been striking, Amy reflected. Their paths
rarely crossed now, other than glimpsing one another at church; the
one or two invitations to visit that Susannah had issued expressed
the demands of politeness rather than any desire for Amy’s company,
and they both knew it. Since leaving the farm, Susannah had
acquired a sprightliness that Amy had never seen in her before. Now
as she spoke to the teachers, clearly aware that she was the most
elegant person in the room, she was positively glowing. For the
first time, Amy thought she might be glimpsing a little of what
must have attracted her father to Susannah in the first place.

‘And this is your son?’ Miss Denton said,
smiling at Thomas. ‘I think I must have seen you in town—Mabel,
doesn’t Mrs Leith’s son look familiar?’

‘Yes, he does,’ said Miss Harding. ‘I
suppose we must have met on the street.’

Thomas shrugged. ‘You might’ve seen me at
work. Everyone seems to come in there, I don’t remember who I see
half the time, what with trying to get the sums right.’

‘Thomas has taken a position at the bank,’
Susannah said, endowing each word with great significance. ‘He has
very good prospects there, the manager is terribly pleased with
him.’

‘Mother,’ Thomas said, squirming with
embarrassment. ‘You said you wouldn’t go on about that.’

‘And why shouldn’t I take some pleasure in
my son’s achievements? You’re doing very well, and I don’t see why
I shouldn’t tell people. Heaven knows your brother gives me nothing
to boast about.’

‘Oh, you’ve another son as well, Mrs Leith?’
Miss Denton asked politely.

Susannah sniffed. ‘One would hardly know I
did, for all the notice he takes of the fact.’

‘Now, Mother.’ The resignation in Thomas’s
tone made him seem older than his eighteen years. ‘We agreed you
wouldn’t talk about that, remember? You’ll just upset
yourself.’

‘I’m only answering Miss Denton’s question,’
Susannah said. ‘I’m afraid my younger son has seen fit to abandon
his mother.’

Thomas gave a sigh. ‘My brother works on a
boat,’ he explained to the two women, who were both looking
suitably shocked at Susannah’s announcement. ‘Mother doesn’t
approve.’

‘I should think not,’ Susannah said.
‘Working with such rough, common men! And me never knowing where he
is or what he’s getting up to. We hear nothing of him for weeks on
end.’

‘He was home last week, and he’ll be back
next Tuesday,’ Thomas amended. ‘He’s doing pretty well, too, saving
his wages. He wants to buy his own boat one day.’

‘He needn’t think he’s using his inheritance
for that,’ Susannah said. ‘He won’t see a penny of it till the day
he turns twenty-one. I
hope
he’ll have learned a little
sense by then, though I sadly doubt it.’

‘It’s steady work,’ Miss Harding offered.
‘People will always need boats to travel on and get things
delivered.’

‘Oh, I don’t deny it’s steady,’ Susannah
said. ‘And I dare say it’s suitable enough work for a certain class
of boy. I did, however, have hopes of better things for my
sons.’

Miss Denton broke the brief, awkward
silence. ‘Well, you’ve Thomas, here, haven’t you? No wonder you’re
proud of him.’

Susannah gave Thomas a look that, to Amy’s
mild surprise, seemed to have genuine affection in it. ‘Thomas is a
great comfort to me. I don’t know how I’d manage without him.’

‘Don’t start on that again, Mother,’ Thomas
complained. But Amy could see that he enjoyed his mother’s praise,
despite the embarrassment.

Maudie chose that moment to offer a plate of
sandwiches to Thomas. He took advantage of the distraction to move
further away from Susannah and her captive audience. Amy got up and
followed him, and they stood close together so that they would not
be overheard.

‘She still hasn’t come round to the idea of
George working on the boat, then?’ Amy asked quietly.

Thomas shook his head. ‘I don’t think she
ever will—not unless he ends up owning a fleet of them, anyway. I
don’t know, sometimes I think she enjoys having something to go
crook about. You know what she’s like.’

Amy did indeed, but she was careful not to
criticise Susannah to Thomas. ‘You and her are getting on well
these days, anyway.’

‘We have our ups and downs,’ said Thomas.
‘Once or twice she’s tried going on about Pa—we had a couple of
rows about that, she’s stopped doing it now.’ He cast a pensive
glance at his mother. ‘It’s funny how things turn out. I never
thought she liked me when we lived on the farm—she used to be a lot
grumpier with me than with George. Now she’s… well, she’s not too
bad. I think it was the farm, mostly. She hated it there, you know,
really hated it. I don’t know why.’

‘I suppose it was just different from what
she was used to. She might calm down about George when she gets a
bit more used to that, too.’

‘Maybe,’ Thomas said doubtfully. ‘If he
doesn’t come home for a week or two she says he’s abandoned her,
then when he does come she gives him such a hard time he’s breaking
his neck to go again. Last time he was here they’d been carting a
lot of hides, and I don’t think they’d cured them properly. Mother
went on and on about George stinking the place out, and not being
fit for polite company.’ He pulled a face. ‘He did stink, too.
Don’t know why she was complaining, she didn’t have to sleep with
him.’

Amy laughed at his expression. ‘If she was
Lizzie, she’d have held him down and scrubbed him. Poor old Tom,
caught in the middle.’

‘I’ll say I am. George makes it worse, you
know—he stirs her up on purpose sometimes. He likes a fight. There
was one time a couple of months ago, the two of them were having a
real set-to. She said he was no better than a common sailor, and he
called her a… well, never mind. She’d put dinner on the table, and
she said she didn’t know why she went to the trouble of feeding
him, and he reckoned the food wasn’t worth eating, anyway. He ate
plenty, though. She was nagging at him about having dirty
fingernails, and Lord knows what else. Said she thought she’d left
dirty men behind when she got us off the farm.’