The Price of Love (26 page)

She still didn’t think he would be able to hold down a job and hated to think that if he couldn’t, and ended up being sacked, it would mean that once again he would be humiliated by the Carters.

The appointment to see Mr Carter was timed for ten-thirty and Lucy was up early to make sure that Sam was ready in good time. She also wanted to make sure that he had a good breakfast and that he was wearing the white shirt she’d washed and ironed ready for him. She had sponged and pressed his one and only suit the night before and had done the same to her own skirt and jacket as well as ironing her white blouse in readiness.

She thought Sam ought to go to the meeting with Mr Carter on his own but Robert argued that if they left him to do that, then he might forget all about it and not turn up.

‘Nonsense,’ Lucy laughed. ‘He must be really keen to go back to work for him to have gone along there on his own in the first place.’

‘You don’t have to go in with him, you can wait in the general office while he has his interview,’ Robert pointed out. ‘You might enjoy the chance to have a chat with some of your old colleagues.’

His words had sent a shudder through Lucy. How could Robert be so insensitive? she wondered. She would have Anna with her and everyone in the office would know that she was Patsy’s baby.

If they didn’t already know then they were bound to wonder why she was looking after little Anna. If they already knew that she was living back in Priory Terrace and had moved into Robert’s house, then no doubt they’d be speculating and gossiping about what her relationship was with Robert.

Still, she decided she’d put on a brave face. So far she’d been fairly lucky in that she hadn’t bumped into many people she’d known in the old days. Even in Priory Terrace the neighbours were surprisingly cordial.

Well, there was one thing for sure, Lucy thought grimly as she started to get ready, they would be bound to recognise her in the office because she was wearing the same white blouse and dark skirt as she’d worn when she’d worked there.

She sighed as she brushed her hair and put on her hat; she’d enjoyed those days when she’d operated the switchboard so much, even though it seemed to be a lifetime ago.

Sam seemed to be quite positive that the interview with Mr Carter would go well and he talked about how pleased he would be to get back to work. Remembering that he had left under a cloud, Lucy wasn’t nearly as confident about what the outcome would be but she said nothing; she didn’t want to make him nervous.

As they approached the imposing showrooms of Carter’s Cars Lucy felt her own resolution to face her former colleagues ebbing away. ‘It might be best if I wait for you out here, Sam,’ she told him, stopping by the side door which opened on to a flight of stone stairs that led up to the offices above.

‘You’d better come in and show me where Mr Carter’s office is,’ he mumbled and her heart went out to him because she could see that in the last few moments his courage had waned and he seemed to be as nervous as she was.

‘It will mean taking Anna out of her pushchair and carrying her,’ Lucy prevaricated. ‘You can always ask someone in the general office,’ she added.

The sound of approaching footsteps as someone came up behind them wanting to go into the office part of the building made them move to one side. Lucy felt frozen to the spot when she saw that it was Percy Carter.

For a moment she thought he was going to walk past them, and then he paused and stared at them. ‘Lucy … Lucy Collins,’ he said, his face beaming. ‘I knew I was interviewing Sam this morning but I didn’t think I’d have the pleasure of seeing you as well.’ He opened the door wide. ‘Come along in.’

‘Well,’ Lucy hesitated. ‘I thought I’d better wait here for Sam because of the pushchair.’

‘Nonsense. Here,’ he pushed his briefcase into her hands, ‘you carry that and I’ll carry your little girl and her pushchair upstairs with no trouble at all.’

It all happened so quickly that Lucy found herself following behind as they all made their way up the stairs and into the general office. As the usual morning chorus of ‘Good morning, Mr Percy’ broke out Lucy felt that all eyes were on them. As Percy placed the pushchair with Anna in it down on the floor and then stood aside to let her take it, Lucy wished the floor would open and swallow her up.

From the other side of the room she saw Miss Yorke staring across at them, a look of astonishment on her tight-lipped face. It quickly changed to one of disapproval as, accompanied by Sam, Lucy pushed Anna across the room and into Percy’s office.

Once they were inside and Percy had closed the door behind them Lucy felt her self-confidence returning. She studied Percy as he took off his dark trilby and black Melton overcoat and hung them on the coat stand near the door.

He’d changed quite a lot since she’d last seen him. His untidy mousy hair was now cut in a sharp, short style and his heavy-framed spectacles had been replaced by lighter horn-rimmed ones. He had filled out and was no longer thin and gangling.

‘Right, would you like to take this chair over here, Lucy?’ he pointed to an armchair in the corner of the room, ‘and you take a seat here, Sam,’ he said in an authoritative voice, indicating a chair on the other side of his desk.

‘Is this Patsy’s little girl?’ he asked looking at Anna, who gave him a smile and giggled.

‘Yes, we’ve moved back to Priory Terrace and I’m looking after her,’ Lucy said in a low, stilted voice while at the same time giving Percy a warning frown. She was conscious of Sam listening to their conversation and she wondered what his reaction would be if he remembered how in the past even though Patsy had been his girlfriend she had often flirted with Percy but to her relief he didn’t seem to take any notice at all.

‘I had heard something of the sort.’ Percy’s voice was clipped, almost as if he disapproved. He looked at Anna speculatively. ‘She looks more like her father than her mother,’ he murmured.

Lucy nodded but said nothing.

‘I was hoping when I saw the name Collins against the timetable that you were the one who was coming for an interview,’ he commented as he moved to his desk and sat down in the imposing high-backed leather chair.

‘I didn’t know I would be seeing you, I thought I was seeing Mr Carter himself,’ Sam interrupted.

‘My father only comes in three days a week now to check on what we are doing and to deal with anything he feels needs his attention. For quite some time now I have been dealing with all the day-to-day matters,’ Percy explained.

‘So are you the one I have to ask if I want my job back again?’ Sam asked.

Percy frowned as he picked up a file and began to look through it. ‘You left us in September 1921,’ he murmured. ‘That’s almost three years ago.’

‘Sam didn’t simply leave, he was sacked the same as I was,’ Lucy intervened.

‘Yes, you’re quite right; the details are all here,’ Percy affirmed, tapping the folder.

‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt, but Sam sometimes has difficulty in remembering things that happened around that time and I didn’t want you to get the wrong impression,’ Lucy said, the hot blood rushing to her face.

‘I understand it has something to do with his accident? Now which accident are we talking about?’ Percy frowned.

‘The very last one,’ Lucy told him.

‘I see; not the accident when he was driving one of our cars but the one he had on Orangeman’s Day in July last year. I read in the
Echo
all about that; it seemed to be quite serious and caused a lot of commotion.’

‘Well, yes it was. Sam was trampled underfoot by the marchers and was in a coma for a while. He’s fully recovered from that incident, though,’ Lucy added hurriedly.

‘So which accident has impaired his memory?’ Percy persisted.

‘It was an incident since then. Sam was hit over the head with a heavy bottle several months ago when we were living in Horatio Street,’ Lucy explained. ‘I know when you read the list it sounds like a catalogue of disaster but he’s just been unlucky,’ she added wryly.

‘I see. But you are saying he has fully recovered and is fit enough to work now,’ Percy commented. He selected a sheet of paper from the file on his desk and studied it. ‘It appears that you never completed your apprenticeship as an engineer, Sam.’

‘He was unable to do so after the bonfire incident because both his hands were so badly burned; surely you must remember that,’ Lucy said sharply.

‘Oh, I do. Very vividly. I don’t think I will ever forget the ordeal I went through or the time I had to spend in hospital. That was followed by the dreadful car accident and I recall the dressing down I had to take from my father because I was the one who had suggested that Sam should become a driver—’

‘Do we have to go over all those painful details again?’ Lucy interrupted. ‘Sam doesn’t remember anything at all about the car accident and so we never mention it.’

‘Very well,’ Percy agreed hastily. He shuffled the papers together and put them back inside the folder. ‘So what sort of work are you able to do now, Sam?’

Sam looked confused. ‘I was hoping for my old job back, as a mechanic.’

Percy shook his head frowning. ‘I don’t think that’s possible because you aren’t qualified.’

‘He had nearly completed his four-year apprenticeship,’ Lucy reminded Percy. ‘I’m quite sure that Robert Tanner would keep an eye on his work and I understand that Robert is your head mechanic and in charge of the workshop.’

Percy pursed his lips and looked uncertain. ‘You’d better leave it with me for a couple of days, Sam, so that I can discuss the idea with my father,’ he prevaricated. ‘I’ll get in touch with you again as soon as we reach a decision.’

He pushed back his chair and came round to the other side of his desk, then opened the door to show them out. Lucy felt bitterly disappointed on Sam’s behalf. He had been so convinced that the interview with Mr Carter was merely a formality and that he would automatically be reinstated.

‘Would you like me to carry the pushchair down the stairs for you?’ Percy offered.

‘There’s no need,’ Lucy told him stiffly. ‘I can bump it down them quite easily.’

‘That won’t be a very comfortable ride for the little one, though,’ Percy said gravely. ‘No, if you carry her, then I’ll take the pushchair down for you.’

The moment she had lifted Anna out the pushchair he picked it up and strode across the general office and through the door leaving Lucy and Sam to follow.

Conscious that all eyes were on them as she walked through the office with Anna in her arms, Lucy wondered what they would say about them after they’d left.

When they reached the street outside Percy waited until Lucy had settled Anna into the pushchair, then held out his hand to her to say goodbye.

‘I didn’t know you were living back in Priory Terrace,’ he told her in a low voice. ‘I’ve tried several times to find you. What about meeting me one evening to give us a chance to catch up properly?’

‘I don’t think that’s possible because my time is taken up looking after little Anna,’ she told him.

‘Surely Robert can look after her for one evening; you must have some free time and a life of your own, even if you are living in his house.’

Lucy was conscious that he was watching her closely as he said this and her lips tightened. ‘Of course I get time to myself,’ she said quickly. ‘Robert usually looks after Anna when he gets home from work and he often puts her to bed.’

‘There you are. I’m glad we’ve sorted that out and that there’s no problem at all about us meeting. Shall we say tomorrow night? By then I will have had time to talk things through with my father and be able to tell you what decision has been made about Sam coming back to work for us.’

Lucy hesitated. She didn’t want to go out with Percy Carter. He had asked her to do so many times in the past but she had always refused and he’d never argued about it.

She hadn’t had a night out for so long that it suddenly seemed to be an attractive idea. If it was going to help to make sure that Sam was reinstated, then perhaps it would be diplomatic to accept Percy’s invitation on this occasion.

‘Thank you, Percy, but I’m not sure,’ she prevaricated, hoping he would let the subject drop.

‘Good. I’ll pick you up at seven o’clock and we’ll go to the Paradise Club. A nice meal and a spot of dancing afterwards, how does that sound?’ he asked in a jovial voice.

Although she smiled and nodded her acceptance, inwardly she was perturbed about what he would expect from her afterwards. Also, what on earth would she wear to the Paradise Club? She had nothing remotely suitable for such an exotic occasion; except a summer dress and that would hardly do justice to such an occasion.

Lucy found that she kept going hot and cold all over as she walked home with Sam and Anna. What on earth had made her accept an invitation to go out for the evening with Percy Carter? she asked herself over and over again.

She wasn’t at all sure what Robert would think when he heard; in fact, she decided that it might be better not to mention it yet. She hadn’t even made up her mind whether she would be going or not. She had nothing suitable to wear and she suspected that everybody there would be dressed to the nines.

Sam was jubilant about the prospect of working again but she only half listened to what he was saying; her own problem made it impossible for her to think of anything else.

She decided to take Anna out in her pushchair in the afternoon because she couldn’t stand listening to Sam talking about working at Carter’s any longer. She hoped Anna would fall asleep so that she could sort out in her own mind what she was going to do, but Anna chattered so much that it was impossible to think.

Instead of their usual walk to the park Lucy went into the centre of Liverpool and it seemed to her that although it was still only the beginning of spring all the stores were displaying the sort of dresses that would be just right to wear to the Paradise Club.

Over their evening meal to Lucy’s dismay Sam related every detail about his interview that morning with Percy Carter. He even added that Percy had carried the pushchair down the stairs for them and then asked Lucy to go out with him.