Settling the Account (54 page)

‘No,’ Maudie said, looking disappointed.
‘Except he shook my hand when he said goodbye just now—he sort of
gave it a bit of a squeeze, too.’

‘Well, that’s enough for him to be doing,
when you’ve just started courting,’ Lizzie said. ‘Plenty of time
for holding hands later.’

‘Courting,’ Maudie repeated dreamily. ‘I
like courting.’ She gave a delighted little giggle.

‘Do, you, indeed?’ Lizzie said. Frank saw
the self-satisfied smile that spoiled her attempt to sound stern.
‘Let’s see if you can pull your head out of the clouds long enough
to make your poor father a cup of tea, my girl. And hurry up about
it.’

Maudie gave a toss of her head as she walked
over to the bench to do her mother’s bidding. She impulsively
rushed to Lizzie, flung her arms around her neck and kissed her. ‘I
do like Richard, Ma,’ she said breathlessly. Then she was suddenly
a young lady again, head held high as she made her way gracefully
back across the kitchen.

*

‘I feel a bit sorry for Richard,’ Frank
remarked to Lizzie as they got ready for bed one evening. Richard
had paid one of his regular calls that afternoon, and Frank had
watched the threesome making their way up the hill, Beth following
dutifully at what her mother judged an appropriate distance.

‘Why? Hurry up and get those laces undone,
Frank, I’m dying in these stays.’

‘Serves you right,’ Frank said, though his
fingers moved quickly to untie the knots. ‘You were the one who
said I was to pull them good and tight this morning.’

‘I just wanted to look my best.’

‘Oh, yes? Don’t think I haven’t noticed,
Lizzie Kelly,’ he teased.

‘Noticed what?’

‘You’re always a lot keener on looking your
best when Richard’s coming out here. Oh, yes you are,’ he said,
cutting off her indignant response.

‘Honestly, Frank, what a lot of nonsense you
talk,’ Lizzie said, her protest just a little too vigorous for
Frank to be taken in by it. He was fully aware of the pleasure
Lizzie took in any compliments paid her by the amiable young man
who had become such a frequent visitor, though the knowledge gave
him not the slightest pang. He was far too certain of his Lizzie to
be anything but amused. ‘Anyway,’ Lizzie said, ‘what do you mean,
you feel sorry for him?’

‘Well, you weren’t too free and easy with
the cuddles when we were courting, but you let me do more than
shake your hand!’

‘That was later. It was different once we’d
got engaged.’

‘You let me kiss you before then,’ Frank
argued. ‘Remember that dance? I thought you might slap me for doing
it, but you as good as asked me to do it again.’ He grinned at the
memory. ‘Now I come to think of it, you did ask me to do it
again.’

‘Shh,’ Lizzie hissed, looking meaningfully
at the wall beyond which the girls slept. ‘There’s always ears
flapping, and these walls are none too thick. Anyway, we’d been
more or less keeping company for months by then.’

Frank let the subject rest until they were
in bed, close enough to whisper with no fear of being overheard. ‘I
don’t know how you think Richard’s ever going to get around to
doing anything except shake Maudie’s hand if you never give them
any time on their own.’

‘There’ll be plenty of time for that later,’
Lizzie said. ‘He can make his intentions known first. In the
meantime I’m not taking any chances.’

‘I don’t know, Lizzie, I don’t think you
need to worry too much about Richard. He’s a decent sort of
fellow.’

‘Humph! Don’t think I’ve forgotten what
you
were like before we got married.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Frank asked,
too startled to be affronted. ‘What’d I do?’

‘It’s not so much what you
did
as
what you would’ve done if I’d let you get away with it. I know what
young men are like.’

‘I never did more than give you a kiss and a
bit of a cuddle!’

‘Yes, and that’s only because I wouldn’t let
you get away with anything else. Oh, don’t go getting in a huff
about it,’ Lizzie relented. ‘It’s not so much you I’m thinking of.
It’s that other fellow. I’ll never forget what happened to
Amy.’

‘Richard’s not like that ratbag.’

‘Of course he’s not. I wouldn’t let him near
the place if I thought he was. But he’s young and he’s a man, isn’t
he? There’s no need to go putting opportunities in front of
him.’

‘He’d probably have more idea what to do
with her than I had with you, too,’ Frank said. ‘What with him
knowing about women’s insides and all that.’

‘Well, he’s not going to know anything about
Maudie’s insides till they’re decently married.’

There seemed little enough risk of Richard’s
finding out anything more than was proper. Unwelcome though it was
to her, Beth took her role of chaperone seriously. Frank cast his
mind back to the casual approach Bill had had to the same job so
many years before, cheerfully letting the courting couple have all
the privacy they wanted. He felt a warm sense of gratitude to his
brother-in-law, and at the same time felt more sorry for Richard
than ever.

But Richard persevered with his visits, and
as time wore on Frank saw Maudie and Richard become more at ease
with each other. When winter’s approach sometimes made walks
impossible, Lizzie would send the courting couple out onto the
verandah to talk. This had the advantage of freeing Beth from her
obligations, though it was harder to keep Rosie away. Kate, now two
years old, had begun to follow Rosie’s lead in wanting to hover
around Richard whenever he came, but Lizzie always insisted that
both little girls have a nap for at least part of his visits.

Maudie was so determined to make a good
impression that Frank became used to the hitherto unknown sight of
his daughter sitting in the parlour of an evening with a book on
her lap, frowning with concentration as she struggled over the more
difficult passages.

‘I’m going to ask Aunt Amy for an easy book
next time,’ she grumbled one evening, flinging the book down in
disgust. ‘That one’s as dry as anything—just some man going on
about politics and stuff. As if anyone’s interested in what he
thinks.’

‘Why’d she lend you that one, love?’ Frank
asked.

‘Well, I suppose I did ask her for one of
her hard ones,’ Maudie admitted. ‘I thought it’d sound good if I
told Richard I was reading it. She said I might enjoy a novel
better, she’s got lots of them, too.’

‘A novel’s more suitable for girls,’ said
Lizzie. ‘A nice, romantic one, that’s what you want to read. I’ll
tell your Aunt Amy what to lend you next time.’

Maudie scowled in her mother’s direction.
‘As if you know anything about books.’

‘That’s enough of your cheek, my girl,’
Lizzie said.

Frank was relieved to see Maudie subside
into silence. Richard’s attentions seemed to have given her more
self-confidence than ever, and this added assurance was inclined to
lead to trouble between her and Lizzie. Maudie often seemed to be
going to bed in tears lately, after having overstepped the bounds
of her mother’s forbearance. Frank could never see any difference
in Maudie’s behaviour after these sessions, but Lizzie showed no
sign of tiring of what seemed to him to be a losing battle.

It always troubled him to see Maudie
unhappy. He could not deny the truth of Lizzie’s assertion that he
was soft on the children; on Maudie most of all, he knew. Maudie’s
tears had never lost the ability to wring her father’s heart.

‘Don’t you think Maudie’s getting a bit big
for hidings?’ he asked one night, after seeing Maudie rush sobbing
from her parents’ room.

‘No, I don’t,’ said Lizzie.

‘But she’s growing up. She’s got a real
figure now and everything. It doesn’t seem right, her still getting
hidings like she was a little kid.’

‘It’s what’s on the inside that counts. I’ll
think she’s too old for hidings when she starts behaving like a
sensible young lady.’

‘I bet you didn’t get them when you were her
age.’

‘Of course I didn’t,’ Lizzie said. ‘Ma had
no need to be giving me hidings. I always behaved myself.’

‘You were too good at getting your own way
without your ma catching on what you were up to, you mean. I don’t
know, I… I sort of think Maudie gets confused,’ Frank said,
struggling to put his thoughts into words.

‘I’ll straighten her ideas out, don’t you
worry about that.’

‘No, it’s you who makes her confused. I
mean, one minute you’re telling her to be all grown up and act like
a young lady so Richard will like her, and next thing you’ve got
her bending down so you can get stuck into her with the belt. It
seems to me Maudie doesn’t know if she’s grown up or a little
girl.’

‘It seems to
me
,’ Lizzie said, as
imperturbable as ever, ‘that Maudie’s much too good at playing up
to you. Don’t you worry about her, Frank. I know what I’m
doing.’

Arguing with Lizzie was rarely worth the
effort. ‘I suppose so. You’re probably right,’ Frank said
doubtfully.

*

‘You’ll be able to come to tea next
Wednesday, won’t you, Doctor Townsend?’ Lizzie asked Richard after
one Sunday lunch in June. ‘It’s Maudie’s birthday, and we’re having
a little birthday tea for her.’

‘You will come, won’t you?’ Maudie added,
looking up at Richard with a look that Frank knew he himself would
have had no chance of resisting had it been directed at him.

‘I’d be delighted,’ Richard said, smiling
back at her. ‘I didn’t know your birthday was coming up.’

‘She’ll be seventeen,’ Lizzie said. ‘Do you
know,’ she added as if it had just that moment struck her, ‘that’s
the age I was when I got engaged. Remember, Frank?’

‘Yes,’ Frank said, grinning at the memory as
much as at Lizzie’s attempts at subtlety. ‘Seventeen, and your pa
said I could have you when you were eighteen. It was the longest
year of my life, I think.’

‘It wasn’t a year, only nine months. Anyway,
it’s good to have a decent engagement, it gives lots of time to get
everything organised. Seventeen, eh? Fancy Maudie being as old as I
was when I got engaged.’ Frank saw her dart a sly glance at Richard
to see if her meaning had gone home, but Richard’s expression gave
away no sign of what he might be thinking.

Richard was the only guest at Maudie’s
birthday tea, but, as Lizzie lost no time in telling him, ‘You’re
almost one of the family now, aren’t you?’ The short winter days
meant that it was already dark before they had finished eating, so
there was no chance for Maudie and Richard to have any time alone
on the verandah that evening. The whole family was his audience
when Richard took a small, carefully wrapped package from his
pocket and held it out to Maudie.

‘I’ve a small gift for you, Miss Kelly. I
hope that’s all right,’ he added, looking to Lizzie for
approval.

‘It’s very thoughtful of you,’ Lizzie said.
‘We don’t usually bother with a lot of presents, what with having
so many of them to buy for.’

Maudie opened the package, eagerness warring
with her desire to appear refined. ‘Oh, it’s lovely,’ she said,
lifting something bright from a small box. ‘Look, Ma, look at this
lovely brooch. See the pretty colours? Look, Pa.’

Frank leaned over to see what lay in
Maudie’s palm. It was a brooch of finely wrought gold in the shape
of tiny leaves and flowers, with patches of bright enamel for the
petals. He vaguely remembered having seen it in Mr Hatfield’s
window the last time he had checked to see that ‘his’ pearls were
still there. ‘It’s nice, love,’ he told her. ‘It’s really
pretty.’

‘Thank you, Doctor Townsend,’ Maudie said,
her eyes shining. ‘Thank you very much.’ The tension in her body as
well as her expression told Frank that she desperately wanted to
show her gratitude. He had to hide a smile when she thrust out her
hand to shake Richard’s.

Richard made it into a graceful gesture by
taking her hand in both of his and squeezing it for a moment. ‘I’m
glad you like it,’ he said with a smile. ‘After all,’ he added,
looking straight at Lizzie, ‘I could hardly let so portentous a
birthday as a seventeenth go by without doing something to mark the
occasion, could I?’ His smile grew broader.

*

For days after Maudie’s birthday, it seemed
to Frank that whenever he came into the house she and Lizzie were
involved in deep discussions over the significance of Richard’s
having given her so fine a gift. He was mildly surprised to find
Maudie missing when he came in for his afternoon tea a week after
her birthday, but assumed that Lizzie had set the girl some task
elsewhere in the house.

He had just settled comfortably in his chair
and lifted his cup when they heard a wheeled vehicle approaching.
Beth went to peer out the window, and looked back at her mother
with her face full of alarm.

‘It’s Richard!’ she said, as if this were a
dreadful piece of news.

‘Oh, no!’ Lizzie said, startling Frank even
more. ‘What on earth does he have to come out today for? Frank,
you’ll have to talk to him.’

‘I wouldn’t mind,’ Frank said. ‘I don’t
usually get the chance these days. What’s up, Lizzie?’

But Lizzie ignored him in her rush to smooth
her apron, make an unnecessary attempt to tidy the table, and
assume a rather forced smile as she went to open the door for
Richard.

‘Doctor Townsend, what a lovely surprise,’
she lied. ‘Do come in, we’re just having a cup of tea.’

Richard came into the kitchen, looking
almost as flustered as Lizzie. ‘I shouldn’t really… I was in the
area…’ His voice trailed away awkwardly. ‘I had to go out to the
Carr’s today, to see how Mr Carr’s leg was mending. You know he
broke it in that bad fall he had? As I was so near… well, not as
near as all that,’ he added, looking somewhat abashed, ‘I thought
I’d take the opportunity to call in on you.’