The Best of Daughters (9 page)

‘You don't care about us,' Gwendoline muttered, sinking down on the sofa with her empty glass clutched in her hand. ‘All you care about is stocks and shares, and silly things like that.'

‘It's how I earn my living, Gwendoline. It has provided us with a not inconsiderable income over the years. These last months have been a struggle, I have to admit, but it's never easy to start again.'

‘I blame that dreadful man Carlton. I never liked him. His eyes were set too close together and he had crooked teeth.'

Daisy could see that her mother was working herself up into one of her states. ‘I think we ought to eat soon, Mother. The chops will be ruined if they stay in the oven much longer.'

‘How can you think about food at a time like—' Gwendoline broke off mid-sentence as the screech of rubber tyres on the road outside was followed by an ear-splitting crash.

Beatrice leapt to her feet with a loud shriek. ‘Oh, my God! It's the Prince Henry and it looks as though Rupert was driving.'

THE HUMBERETTE HAD
suffered the most and had almost concertinaed into the hedge. Rupert's cherry red Prince Henry was a sorry sight but the occupants appeared unscathed. By the time everyone reached the accident scene Rupert, Teddy and Bowman were on their feet examining the damage.

‘What happened?' Daisy asked, clutching her brother's sleeve.

Teddy shook her hand off. ‘How do I know, silly? One minute we were tooling along and the next moment we rounded the corner at speed and clouted the poor old Humberette.'

Rupert's face was pale beneath his tan. ‘Brakes must have failed,' he said, running his hand through his fair hair. ‘It's never happened before.' He turned to Bowman. ‘What d'you think?'

‘I'd say the wire snapped when you put your foot down, but as far as I can see the Prince Henry's come off lightly.' Bowman walked round to the front of the vehicle where the starting handle had lodged in the spokes of one of the Humberette's wheels. He shook his head. ‘This one will need more than a tow. It looks like a Meccano set.'

Victor groaned. ‘How much will it cost to fix my car?'

‘How long is a piece of string?' Bowman shrugged his shoulders. ‘It could be done, but it would take time, and money.'

‘Come into the house, Victor.' Gwendoline took him by the arm. ‘I never liked that motorcar anyway. Perhaps we could hire a carriage of some sort. It would be so much more genteel.' She led him unprotesting back to the house, with Beatrice trailing behind.

‘Can we have dinner now,' she asked faintly. ‘I'm dying of hunger.'

Ruby hurried after her. ‘I'll get you some bread and cheese, miss. It'll tide you over until everyone is ready to eat.'

Daisy moved closer to Rupert. She could see that he was shaken despite his outwardly calm appearance, and she felt a twinge of remorse. If she had handled his proposal better he might have been concentrating more on his driving. ‘I'm sorry about the Prince Henry,' she said softly. ‘Awfully bad luck.'

‘Awfully bad driving, Daisy Bell. Teddy warned me that your father's motorcar was just round the corner but I misjudged my speed. Must have had my mind on other things, but it was my fault entirely.' He turned to Bowman. ‘I'll leave my machine in your capable hands, Barnaby old chap.'

‘You trust him with your precious Prince Henry?' Teddy stared at him in disbelief. ‘Surely you'd want a qualified Vauxhall engineer to look at it?'

Once again, Daisy felt herself blushing. She wished that Teddy would not talk about people he considered to be socially beneath him as if they were deaf and totally
without feeling. She glanced at Bowman but he had his head under the bonnet as he inspected the Vauxhall's engine. He seemed intent on the task in hand but she was certain he must have heard. She nudged her brother in the ribs, jerking her head in Bowman's direction. ‘He can hear you,' she whispered.

‘Who cares?' Teddy took a silver cigarette case from his breast pocket and selected a cigarette. He offered the case to Rupert. ‘Have a gasper. It'll calm your nerves.'

‘No, thanks. My nerves are just fine.' Rupert drew Daisy to one side, lowering his voice. ‘I wanted to see you to apologise for this afternoon. I shouldn't have driven off like that. It was childish and I'm ashamed of myself.'

‘I'm not too proud of myself either. I could have put it better, but you took me by surprise.' She held out her hand. ‘Friends?'

He took it in a warm grasp. ‘Friends, of course. I'll sleep better knowing that there's no hard feeling between us.'

‘Of course not.' She squeezed his fingers. ‘After all, I don't want to upset my driving instructor.'

‘You don't need me any longer, Daisy. You're competent enough to apply for a driving licence.'

‘That will have to wait until I've saved up five shillings, and anyway I don't really need one at the moment. It looks as though the poor old Humberette will be off the road permanently.'

She must have raised her voice without realising it as Bowman straightened up and turned to face them. ‘I can fix it, but it will take time.'

Teddy, who had been smoking and staring moodily into the distance, suddenly took notice. ‘You can?'

‘I've got a lot on at the moment, but if we can get what's left of it into your stables I could work on it in my spare time.'

‘There you are,' Rupert said cheerfully. ‘That sounds like a perfectly good offer, Teddy. In the meantime I'm sure that Mother will lend you one of our carriages so that you and Mr Lennox can travel to and from your place of business. You only have to ask.'

‘That's very kind of you, old boy.' Teddy cocked his head on one side. ‘That sounds like heavy horses. Let's hope it's Farmer Hayes coming to the rescue.'

‘We don't want the shires to come to grief in that tangled metal.' Bowman sprinted to the bend in the lane, waving his arms to attract the attention of the farmer.

‘That chap thinks more about animals than he does people,' Teddy said, grinding the stub of his cigarette beneath the heel of his highly polished shoe.

‘But he's a first class mechanic, and they're hard to find.' Rupert held on to Daisy's hand a little longer than was strictly necessary. ‘I'll say cheerio, old thing. I'm leaving early in the morning so I won't see you before I go.'

She met his intense gaze with a tremulous smile. ‘We'll have those cucumber sandwiches and cakes on your next leave.'

‘I'll look forward to it.' He turned away, addressing himself to Bowman. ‘I'll leave the motor with you, Barnaby. Do what needs doing and send the bill to my
mother at Pendleton Park. I'll see that it gets paid promptly.'

Bowman saluted with a grin. ‘It'll be a pleasure to work on such a vehicle, sir.' He shot a sideways glance at Daisy. ‘I'll be round some time tomorrow to take a closer look at the Humberette, Miss Lennox.'

His respectful tone was at odds with the boldness of his expression, and there was something in his smile that Daisy found unsettling. She drew herself up to her full height. ‘Good evening, Mr Bowman.' Turning her back on him she stood on tiptoe to brush Rupert's cheek with a kiss. ‘Goodbye. Take care of yourself, my dear.' She left them discussing how best to deal with the damaged vehicles, but she had the feeling that Bowman was watching her as she walked towards the house. The prospect of having him working on the car so close to home was making her uneasy and she decided to broach the matter with her father when he was feeling better. After all, there must be other persons who could repair motorcars just as efficiently as Bowman.

Teddy stomped into the kitchen next morning, struggling to attach a starched white collar to his shirt. ‘Give me a hand, Daisy. This bloody stud keeps popping out.'

She left the pan of porridge she had been stirring and went to his aid. The offending collar stud slipped easily into place. ‘What a fuss about nothing. What's the matter with you this morning? Did you get out of the wrong side of the bed?'

He snatched a slice of toast from the silver rack. ‘No. It's the old man. He's insisting on walking into Colchester. If he thinks I'm trudging three miles a day to work and the same again at night, he's got another think coming.'

His pained expression made Daisy want to giggle but somehow she managed to keep a straight face. ‘It'll make you very fit.'

‘Rubbish. I don't believe in all that stuff that you girls suck in as though it's God's truth.' He reached for the marmalade. ‘We'll spend more in shoe repairs than we would in cab fares. Now if we were on the telephone we could have ordered some form of transport for this morning.'

Daisy slapped his hand as he went to stick the butter knife into the marmalade. ‘For heaven's sake, Teddy. Just because we're living in the country doesn't mean you can behave like a pig. Let me take the tray into the dining room where you can sit down and eat your breakfast like a civilised human being.'

‘Can't. Father says we've got to leave early or we'll be late opening the damned office. I honestly wish I'd gone in the army like Rupert, the lucky blighter. What wouldn't I give to be in his shoes?'

‘Don't talk like that. If there's a war and they introduce conscription, you'd be one of the first to be called up.'

‘I can't wait.' He turned with a guilty start as their father burst into the room.

‘What are you doing, Edward? I've been waiting for you.'

‘Won't you stop and have some breakfast, Father?' Daisy asked anxiously. ‘It's a long walk into town.'

His expression softened slightly. ‘I'll get something later.' He held the door open. ‘Come along, boy. We'll be late.'

Munching and muttering beneath his breath, Teddy left the kitchen followed by his irate parent. The door had barely closed before it opened again and Beatrice burst into the room. ‘I was almost knocked down in the rush. What's going on?'

Daisy noted her sister's riding outfit with raised eyebrows. ‘You're lucky that Father was in a hurry, Bea. You know what he thinks about women wearing jodhpurs and riding astride like men.'

‘I've done with side-saddles. You've no control over your mount on one of those silly things. They may look elegant, but I'm not riding down Rotten Row.' Beatrice paused, sniffing the air. ‘Is something burning?'

‘Oh, no!' Daisy hurried over to the stove, seizing the bubbling pan and lifting it off the hob. ‘I've burnt the porridge and it's your fault for coming down dressed like a boy.'

‘Scoop the top bit off, no one will notice.' Beatrice pulled out a chair and began helping herself to toast and butter. ‘Anyway, you're supposed to be the suffragist. You should encourage me to be myself and not give in to male prejudices.'

Daisy placed the saucepan on the table with an emphatic thud. ‘What's the matter with everyone this morning? We've got a perfectly good dining room but you and Teddy want to eat in the kitchen.'

‘I don't see why we have to pretend that we're still living in London. What's wrong with eating in here?'

‘Mother wouldn't hear of it.'

‘Well she doesn't get up until mid-morning, and I'm hungry. It seems a frightful waste of time setting the table and carting hot food all the way to the dining room so that it's barely warm when it gets there. Besides which, we never have bacon or kidneys these days, and I've almost forgotten what kedgeree tastes like.'

‘We have to economise, Bea. We can't afford to live as we did in Warwick Square.'

‘I suppose not. Give me some of that beastly goo then. It's like being back in the nursery.'

Daisy spooned a generous helping into a bowl and passed it to her. ‘Don't take too much cream. Mother likes it in her coffee.'

Beatrice pulled a face. ‘And we mustn't upset Mother.' She poured a liberal amount onto her porridge, adding a heaped dessertspoonful of sugar. ‘Why don't we get a cow? Then we could have as much milk and cream as we like.'

‘Maybe we will one day when Father's business picks up.'

‘I'll be old and grey by then.'

Daisy poured tea into two cups and passed one to Beatrice. ‘Where are you off to this morning?'

‘I'm going to ride Pumpkin to Folly Farm and help Jimmy with the harvest.'

‘You're lucky. I'll be spending the morning baking, but I wondered if I could borrow the pony this afternoon?'

‘Why? You don't like riding.'

‘I want to do a few errands and it would save me time, that's all.'

Beatrice eyed her curiously. ‘What are you up to, Daisy Lennox?'

‘Nothing very interesting. I thought I'd pay a call on Lady Pendleton, but if you're going to be out all day I'll walk.'

‘Why are you going to see Rupert's mother? Are you trying to ingratiate yourself with your future mother-in-law?'

Daisy choked on a mouthful of tea. ‘Certainly not. If you must know, I was going to ask if we could borrow some sort of conveyance so that Father and Teddy could drive to work. It was Rupert's idea.'

‘I thought you two were getting very pally.' Beatrice dropped her spoon into her empty bowl and leapt to her feet. ‘I'm off then.'

‘It wouldn't hurt you to stay and help in the house.'

‘You've got Ruby to do that, and you know I can't cook. But I'm very good at handling farm machinery, and the Gurneys are thinking of buying one of these new-fangled steam tractors. Wouldn't that be smashing?'

‘I suppose so, but it wouldn't help Father and Teddy to get to and from work. We've got to be practical, Bea. They earn the money, we don't. The least we can do is to help all we can.'

‘I can't ask Mr Gurney to pay me. What would that look like?' Beatrice said, pouting.