The Marrying Game (28 page)

‘I’m not telling you. Ask him yourself.’

‘Roger’s are. I used to pull them out with tweezers, but it got too much. His scrotum started to look like a plucked duck.’ Rose let out a great sigh, full of relief. ‘Sit down. Stop doing things.’

‘If I don’t, who will? Oh, all right.’ Rufa sat down at the table, taking her cup of tea. Rose had forgotten to take out the tea bag and it was brick-red, but it was home tea. There was no other tea like it in the world. She did not care that she had lied about sleeping with Edward. The lie had put her mother’s mind at rest.

‘I’m glad your Marrying Game turned out so well,’ Rose said. ‘I’ve never seen Edward so angry as the day he found out about it – God, you’d think I’d sold you into slavery. It was like the bit in
David Copperfield
where Mr Peggotty finds out about Little Em’ly.’

‘You’ll have to cheer up your literary allusions now, Mum. We’re not being scripted by Chekhov. Or Dostoevsky, or Dickens – or Stephen King. This is more like the last chapter of a novel by Jane Austen. A
happy
ending, with all the ends tying up neatly.’

‘I hope so,’ Rose said. ‘Because if you’re honestly happy, I can start enjoying the un-pain. It feels blissful. No more agonizing over the debts. A mended roof over my Linnet’s little head. Unlimited gin.’

At last, at last, Rufa thought. This was the reward she had been working for all along: to see the strain and sadness lifting off her mother’s face.

‘I wish Nancy felt the same,’ she said.

‘That horrid girl.’ Rose drained her glass. ‘I had her on the phone this morning, screeching like a fishwife.’

‘She’s like you,’ Rufa said. ‘She refuses to believe I can possibly be happy. Me saying so isn’t enough. God knows how I’m supposed to prove it. Couldn’t you talk to her?’

‘I could try. She won’t listen, though. Leave her to come down in her own time – she’s mostly hot air. God, she’s like the Man sometimes.’

The door to the stairs opened. The small, airy figure of Linnet ran in, strangely bulky because the Ressany Brothers were stuffed into the front of her darned yellow jersey.

‘Granny, are you too drunk to give me a bath?’

‘Drunk? Me?’ Rose stood up, gulping her tea. Rufa had noticed before that however much she had put away, Rose was always brisk and collected with Linnet. ‘Certainly not. But don’t you want Ru to do the bath?’

‘No,’ Linnet said imperially. ‘She’s going to tell me a story afterwards. A new one.’

‘Am I?’ Rufa laughed. ‘OK.’

‘It has to be about the Ressanies. I wish Nancy was here to do the voices.’ Wistfully, she checked the faces of Rose and Rufa. ‘Is she coming soon?’ Like her late
grandfather
, Linnet needed to have all her people around her.

‘Very soon,’ Rose said firmly, with a smile at Rufa. ‘As soon as she’s got all the hot air out of her system.’

Linnet was interested. ‘I didn’t know Nancy had hot air. Is it in her bosoms?’

Rose and Rufa, weakened by champagne, howled with laughter.

‘Well. I must say.’ Linnet scowled, and tried to fold her arms across her stuffed jersey. ‘I asked a perfectly reasonable question. It’s appalling to laugh at children just because they don’t know.’

‘Sorry, darling,’ Rufa said.

‘And yet you’re still doing it,’ Linnet said coldly.

At this difficult moment, the front door slammed. Out in the empty, echoing Great Hall, a high voice shrilled, ‘Trotsky! Put on your saddle, we’re going for a ride!’

A guttural, accented voice replied, ‘Yes, Mr Ressany –’

‘Nancy!’ Linnet shrieked, the light flooding back into her disapproving face. The door between the Hall and the kitchen opened, and there was Nancy.

She knelt to embrace Linnet, and to cover her face with smacking kisses. ‘Oh, my peach blossom! My silk princess! I’ve missed you so much, and I’ve such naughty stories to tell about the Ressanies!’ She kissed the bears, through Linnet’s jersey. ‘What are they doing here?’

‘They’re not born yet,’ Linnet said. ‘They’re going to come out as tiny new babies, and I’ll have to get up in the middle of the night to feed them. But –’ she added quickly, ‘they can still talk. And sit in their rocking chairs.’

Rose crossed the room to kiss Nancy. ‘My darling, how lovely to see you.’

Over her mother’s shoulder, Nancy looked imploringly at Rufa, and mouthed, ‘Sorry.’

Rufa smiled at her delightedly. ‘I’m so glad you changed your mind, Nance.’

‘Oh, I couldn’t have stayed at Wendy’s. It’s like a funeral parlour, stuffed with great triffid-like flowers for Roshan, from that bloody Tiger Durward.’

‘You’re just in time for my story,’ Linnet said.

Nancy turned her attention back to the little girl. ‘All right. Give me a few minutes to have a cup of tea, and I’ll tell you about the Ressanies’ school trip to London.’

‘Oh yes! But they don’t go to big school. It was a nursery trip.’

‘Sorry I got arrested,’ Nancy said, in a deep, growling voice. ‘I won’t take a bomb with me next time.’

Linnet giggled, showing a row of tiny, perfect teeth. ‘Did he go to prison?’

‘Where’s Mummy?’ Rose asked.

‘Upstairs.’

‘Ask her to do your bath, darling. I want to talk to Nancy.’

Linnet considered this suspiciously, then nodded. ‘All right. If Nancy comes up straight afterwards. And brings up Trotsky’s cage. And if Ru sings me a song and switches the light off.’

‘Yes, yes – God, you drive a hard bargain,’ Rose said. ‘If only your poor parents could be more like you.’

The moment Linnet had scampered away upstairs, Nancy blurted out, ‘Ru, I’m so sorry. I was an utter bitch, and I didn’t mean a word of it.’

Rufa put the red-hot kettle back on the range. She was
radiant
. Nothing felt right when she was at odds with Nancy. ‘I’m sorry too. Let’s just forget it. You’re just in time for a superb supper.’

‘Is Edward here?’

‘No, he had to go back to the farm. He’s coming back for supper, though – you’d better get used to it.’

‘Ru, darling – I actively want to see him. I want to apologize.’

‘That’ll be worth watching,’ Rufa said, laughing. Nancy being home made this seem like a happy ending.

Rose was wrestling with the foil of a champagne bottle. ‘This is just like the bit in
Little Women
where Jo and Amy bury the hatchet, after Amy nearly drowns –’

‘Shut up, you doting old crone,’ Nancy said. ‘Get me a drink. And a large cup of strong tea. I’ve had a very stressful day.’

The champagne was opened, with a festive pop. Rose handed Nancy a crippled Melismate glassful. Rufa made more tea. The three of them settled at the kitchen table. Rufa and Rose were in a state of vast contentment.

‘So,’ Rose said, ‘you’ve decided not to have your sister sectioned under the Mental Health Act. You’ve decided to give her your blessing.’

‘I was crazy this morning,’ Nancy said, pensively sipping champagne. ‘It seems ages ago now.’

‘Where did you storm off to?’ Rufa asked. ‘I made Edward wait half an hour, to see if you’d come slinking back.’

Nancy’s eyelids were swollen. She looked tired, but she was smiling. ‘I was too far gone to slink. In fact, I was so bonkers, I went straight round to Berry’s and asked him to marry me.’

‘You didn’t! What on earth did he say?’

Nancy’s smile wavered a fraction. ‘I had a go at seducing him. It didn’t work. He turned me down, actually. You were right, Ru – he obviously doesn’t fancy me as much as I thought. He’s determined to marry the Digger.’ She sighed, and made a visible effort to brace her smiling muscles. ‘And this is the really good bit – he’s not rich enough for us, anyway. I was aiming myself at the wrong target all along.’ Her smile finally gave up, and faded away. ‘He was absolutely lovely, though. He made me coffee, and let me rant at him, and pointed out what a good egg Edward is. And then he drove me back to Wendy’s. So I rang the bar to bunk off work, got on the train – waited at Swindon for half a lifetime, and took the world’s most expensive taxi from Stroud. And here I am.’

Rose and Rufa shot curious glances at each other. It was a long time since they had seen Nancy so subdued.

Rufa touched her hand gently. ‘And you’re not cross any more?’

‘No,’ Nancy said, ‘I’m not cross. I suppose I should be pleased, because you marrying Edward means I can let my foolish heart out of its chains.’ She raised her glass. ‘Here’s to wild, imprudent romance!’

Edward came into the kitchen before supper and found only Nancy, smoking a joint over a pan of the lamb sausages he had bought in Cirencester. When she saw him, she crushed out the joint, pushed the pan off the heat, and faced him like a mayoress opening a bazaar.

‘Before you say one word, I’m sorry. I behaved disgustingly this morning.’

He smiled, watching her shrewdly. ‘You were shocked.’

‘That’s no excuse.’

Edward took off his waxed jacket, and reached over to empty a brimming ashtray into the bin. ‘Apology accepted. No need to go on about it.’

‘Thanks. I’ve been apologizing all day.’ Nancy turned away from him, back to the sausages. ‘Ru swears she forgives me, but she’s still a bit pained.’

‘Well, she can be rather prissy sometimes,’ Edward said, briskly and surprisingly. ‘How she manages it, after twenty-seven years living with your father, is utterly beyond me. Don’t take any notice. She’s thrilled that you made it up.’

‘So am I. I hate it when we fight.’

‘Ru doesn’t mind so much what the others think. But, for some reason, she values the good opinion of the local barmaid above all others. The Man always said you two were the Colonel’s Lady and Judy O’Grady.’

Nancy turned back to face him. ‘You’re laughing.’

Edward said, ‘You’re crying.’

The lamp on the edge of the dresser caught the tracks of tears on Nancy’s face. She rubbed them away with the back of one hand. ‘It’s been that sort of day.’

There was a silence. When he spoke again, Edward’s voice was gentle. ‘I know you think I’m taking advantage of her. Maybe I am. But Nancy, please don’t think I’m doing it just to get her into bed. You know as well as I do, someone has to take care of her. God knows what she thinks is going to happen, once this house is restored.’

‘She hasn’t accepted reality,’ Nancy said. ‘She still thinks something will change.’

‘The point is, she needs someone, and it might as well be me. Because I love her.’

‘Oh, I know,’ Nancy said. ‘I was thinking about it on
the
train, and it hit me that you’ve been in love with her for years.’

‘Was it obvious?’

‘Far from it – and a good thing, too. The Man would have killed you.’

There was another spell of silence. Edward asked, ‘Do you think I’m betraying him?’

‘No,’ Nancy said. ‘At least, I did a bit, at first. But he hated any man who fancied Rufa.’ She sniffed, and began to turn over the sausages. ‘You’re not a bad old stick, and it’s fantastic that we’re keeping the house. You’re right, she does need looking after. I wasn’t crying because of you.’

‘Thanks. I need your approval too,’ Edward said. He smiled. ‘Have some more champagne.’

‘I’m legless already.’

‘Go on. It’s been that sort of day.’ He bent down to the cardboard box on the floor. ‘Only three gone? You girls are losing your touch.’

‘OK.’ Nancy held out her glass. ‘You’ve talked me into it.’

He opened a bottle of champagne, as efficiently as a professional sommelier. ‘Why were you crying just now?’

‘Nothing,’ Nancy said. ‘A completely silly reason.’ Her eyes brimmed again. ‘I was just feeling rather wistful about weddings.’

Chapter Sixteen

RUFA ROSE TO
meet her future in a state of joy that was almost dreamlike. Everyone else, however, found living happily ever after rather hard work. Edward quickly made it clear that there was to be no more muddling, botching or making do. Melismate was under new management, and the days of mouldy damp blotches and howling pipes were officially over.

On the Monday after his engagement, Edward sat Rose down at her own kitchen table and bombarded her with details of builders and scaffolders, foundations and drains. There was no point in hanging about, he said. The structural work should begin as soon as possible.