Tiger Bay Blues (10 page)

Peter appeared to be so brow-beaten by the interview with her father that if it hadn’t been for the presence of her parents Edyth would have kissed him. ‘I love Peter and want to share his life, Dad. And, as his life is the Church, then it will be mine.’ She thought back to the first sermon she had heard Peter preach:

‘For whither thou guest, I will go; and where thou lodges, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, thy . God my God.’

How apt and prophetic those words had turned out to be.

Lloyd held out his hand to Edyth. ‘Then there’s nothing more to be said, Edie.’

Edyth took it, left her seat and hugged her father.

Lloyd offered Peter his hand. ‘You have my permission to visit my daughter in this house as often as you like, and in view of the situation between you, regard it as your own. But only if you give me your word that you will not press her into a formal engagement or give her a ring without discussing the matter with me, while she remains under age.’

‘You have my word, sir. Thank you.’ Peter shook Lloyd’s hand.

‘Shall we go in to supper?’ Sali suggested.

Lloyd held the door open. Peter was the first to leave the room. Edyth followed but something prompted her to glance back at her parents, and she intercepted a strange look between them. She had what she wanted, their agreement – if not their blessing – to her courtship. But that was small compensation for their lack of warmth towards Peter.

She wished that they had welcomed him to the family in the same loving, open-hearted way that they had welcomed Mary and Toby. But then Peter was a clergyman. And given her father’s antipathy towards the Church she could understand his reluctance to see her become a vicar’s wife. Even one as handsome, kind, and forward-thinking as Peter.

‘Can you imagine how I felt, Uncle Jed?’ Judy demanded. They were in the upstairs sitting room of the Norwegian Mission. Judy knew her uncle was usually there around six o’clock every evening, whether he’d been fortunate enough to find a day’s work unloading or loading a cargo or not. And she had gone straight there from the audition in the hope of finding some sympathy.

‘Yes, I can,’ he said quietly.

‘Sitting there, watching them black up a girl so she looked like a pier minstrel in front of me. And then to be told that I had the talent but landladies might not want me staying in their house …’

‘Forget it, Judy.’ Jed knew it was easier said than done. He had lost more days work on the docks because of colour prejudice than he had found. And every single rejection had hurt.

It had pained him to be passed over, to see less skilled and dedicated men be given the jobs he wanted, simply because their skin was a different colour to his. Most of all, it hurt him to know that his beloved children would for ever be regarded as second-class citizens in the country of their birth.

‘There’s only one thing to do, Judy.’ Micah Holsten brought a tray of coffee over and set it on the table in front of them.

‘What’s that, Mr Holsten?’ she asked.

‘Forget it, like your uncle said. And if you can’t, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and sing with us in the upstairs room of the Ship and Pilot this coming Friday.’

‘You’ve a booking?’ Judy cried excitedly.

‘The Bute Street Blues Band has a booking. Unfortunately not at the same rate of pay as the wedding, but it’s only for a couple of hours. Two bob do you?’ Micah asked.

‘Very nicely.’

‘The way things are going, Judy, love, before long, the band’s bookings might be the only work any of us have,’ Jed said grimly.

‘Goodnight, Peter, I expect we’ll be seeing a lot more of you in future.’ Lloyd followed Peter into the hall and handed him his hat and coat.

‘I’ll walk Peter to the gate, Dad.’ Edyth opened the front door.

‘Take your jacket, Edyth, It’s been so hot today you could catch a chill,’ Sali called from the dining room where she and Mari were clearing the table.

‘It’s still warm, Mam.’ Edyth followed Peter outside and Lloyd closed the door behind them.

‘Your father hardly said a word at supper,’ Peter commented when he and Edyth walked down the drive.

‘You’ll have to give him time to get used to the idea of me …’ she almost said ‘marrying’ before amending it to, ‘courting a curate.’ They reached the wooden gates that were always left open, except when sheep came down from the mountain. At the first sign of a woolly coat Mari rushed to close them to protect Sail’s precious plants.

He glanced at the sky. ‘There’s cloud tonight, I hope that doesn’t mean the weather is breaking.’

‘Mam was right to tell me to take a jacket. It’s definitely cooler than it has been.’ Suddenly cold after the almost unbearable heat of the day, she shivered. It was impossible to decipher the expression on Peter’s face in the darkness. When he moved, he was little more than a silhouette beneath the shadows of the trees that her father had planted along the garden walls.

‘How long do you think your father will need to get used to the idea of my courting you?’

She shivered again, and hoped that he would put his arms around her. When he didn’t, she crossed her arms tightly. ‘As long as it takes him to get to know you.’

‘I hope that will be sooner rather than later. The prospect of three years of strained visits to your family when you come home from college in the holidays is rather daunting.’

Still hoping he would at least hug, if not kiss her, she moved even closer to him. ‘It might have been better if we hadn’t said anything to him or my mother just yet.’

‘If we hadn’t, I would have felt that we were sneaking around behind your parents’ backs.’

‘Perhaps you’re right. At least this way everything is out in the open.’ Edyth recalled what Bella had said about the clandestine visits she’d made to Toby when they were engaged, and trembled from more than the chill in the air.

‘Possibly too much in the open, as far as your sisters are concerned. Did you hear Maggie tonight? “Isn’t Edyth spending a lot of time in the church and youth club helping you out, Reverend Slater?”’

‘That’s just Maggie,’ Edyth dismissed. ‘She can’t bear anyone else in the family to be the centre of attention. First it was Belle with her wedding, now it’s me and my matriculation. She’ll grow out of her mood when she matriculates herself next year. She’s bound to get honours. She’s brighter than the rest of us put together.’

‘That’s magnanimous of you considering the way she behaves towards you.’

‘You’ve noticed?’

‘I couldn’t help it.’

‘I’m not always very nice to her,’ she confessed.

‘You’re not?’ he asked, in surprise.

‘My sisters and I are always squabbling, which is why my father insisted the builder put in a third floor so we could each have our own bedroom. We’ve fought one another since cradle days. Bella and I were probably the worst. We’ve said and done the most awful things to one another but we didn’t really mean them. We’re absolutely the best of friends now. And when there’s a real problem that affects the family we stop bickering and work together to solve it.’

‘That seems a strange way to live,’ he commented, ‘but I’m hardly qualified to pass judgement when I’ve no brothers and sisters.’

‘Given the families I know well, like my Uncle Joey and Auntie Rhea’s, and my Uncle Victor and Auntie Megan’s, I’d say it was normal. All my cousins fight and argue with one another.’

‘You should have put on your jacket.’ He held out his right hand. She took it and, to her dismay, he shook her hand. ‘Goodnight, Edyth. You’d better run back into the house before you catch cold.’

‘Will I see you tomorrow?’ she asked hopefully.

‘Mrs Hopkins asked me to administer the holy sacrament to her at her home. I could hardly refuse.’

‘The last time she had gout she didn’t leave her bedroom for six weeks,’ Edyth warned. ‘You could be visiting her for quite a while.’

‘Reverend Price suggested that I make an allowance for a daily visit to her in my diary when he asked me to call on her this morning. But it is convenient for us.’

‘It is,’ she agreed.

‘So, may I call and see you after I have visited her tomorrow?’

‘What time are you likely to be here?’

‘Around four o’clock?’

‘Just in time for tea?’ She made a mental resolution to bake another cake to replace the one they had eaten at supper.

‘That would be nice, thank you. I’ll see you then.’

‘I’ll look forward to it.’ She stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek.

He stepped smartly away from her. ‘They can see us from the house and the curtains are open.’

‘So?’ she challenged. ‘We’re courting, aren’t we?’

‘Not in public, Edyth.’

‘It’s dark.’

‘I’d prefer it to be darker still, and more private.’ He held her hand between his for a few seconds. ‘Until tomorrow.’

‘Until tomorrow,’ she repeated, then turned and raced back into the house.

Maggie was in the hall, ostensibly tidying the coat rack, but Edyth knew she’d been waiting for her.

‘You weren’t out there long,’ Maggie observed slyly. ‘Doesn’t the handsome curate go in for long goodnight kisses?’

‘When are you going to stop nosing into my private life?’ Edyth retrieved the jacket she’d hung on the hall stand when she’d come home from youth club and slipped it on. She went into the dining room, but only the cloth and napkins were left on the table.

‘You weren’t long.’ Sali stowed the silver cruet in the sideboard.

‘You were right; it is chilly out there. Is there anything I can do?’

‘No, everyone helped. Mari and the girls are already washing the dishes. But your father would like a word with you in his study – nothing bad,’ Sali reassured her when Edyth’s face fell. ‘You look tired. Why don’t you go on up to bed after you’ve seen him? I’ll call in to kiss you goodnight. Would you like a glass of hot milk?’

‘She’d prefer hot chocolate.’ Mari carried in a tray of clean silverware, set it on the sideboard and gathered the tablecloth and napkins into a bundle.

‘You’ll clean your teeth afterwards?’ Sali returned the candlesticks to the mantelpiece.

‘I’m not seven years old now, Mam,’ Edyth retorted.

‘More’s the pity. If you were, I wouldn’t be losing you to Swansea in September.’ Sali winced as a crash resounded from the kitchen. ‘I hope that’s a cup of tea plate and not one of the expensive serving dishes.’

‘Mam, Susie’s broken the meat plate
and
the butter dish,’ Maggie shouted gleefully.

‘Can I slap maddening Maggie?
Please?’
Edyth begged.

‘Slapping her would only make her worse,’ Sali said philosophically.

‘Poor Susie probably feels dreadful. No one breaks dishes on purpose.’ Edyth lifted a rose bowl from the sideboard and set it in the centre of the table.

‘The number you’ve broken, you should know. I suppose it’s to be expected that one of your sisters would take over from where you left off, now you’ve outgrown your clumsy phase.’

‘Don’t tempt fate by talking too soon, Miss Sali,’ Mari warned. ‘Only this morning I –’

Edyth held her finger to her lips until Sali left for the kitchen.

‘It was such a pretty little china figurine,’ Mari said regretfully.

‘It was grotesque, Mari,’ Edyth contradicted. ‘Bella bought it for me when she was five years old and even she outgrew pink cupids and shepherdesses by the time she was six.’

‘You’ll miss it.’

‘I won’t.’

‘What won’t you do?’ Maggie appeared in the doorway.

‘Miss your snide remarks when you get struck by a lightning bolt of niceness.’ Without giving Maggie time to think of an apt rejoinder, Edyth walked along the passage to her father’s study. The door was open and he was sitting at his desk, an ash tray in front of him and the pipe he had recently taken to smoking instead of cigarettes in his hand.

He saw her and smiled. ‘You look exhausted, my sweet.’

Edyth returned his smile. Her mother was right, he wasn’t cross with her. Ever since she could remember he had called her mother, ‘sweetheart’ and she and her sisters ‘my sweet’, except when he was angry with them for breaking one of his few cardinal rules, all of which were centred around consideration and respect for others.

‘I feel tired. It’s probably down to the fresh air and long walk to Brew Falls this morning.’ She sat on the long sofa that faced his desk.

‘This courting business? Was it Peter Slater’s idea or yours?’

‘Peter’s, but to be honest, I’ve chased him – not too noticeably, I hope – since Belle’s wedding.’

‘I suppose a curate is not difficult to chase. Head for the church and he’ll turn up sooner or later, if he’s not already there.’ Lloyd packed a wedge of tobacco down in his pipe with the end of a pencil and lit it.

‘You knew I was chasing him?’ She had the grace to blush.

‘I’ve never known you to be so interested in church activities. You had me worried. I thought you’d been infected by a case of religion and were heading for a convent.’

‘I’m not Anglican nun material, Dad.’

‘I didn’t bring you up to be Church fodder, that’s for sure.’ He puffed his pipe slowly and she knew better than to hurry him. ‘You really love him?’

‘Yes, Dad.’

‘In that case I only have one more thing to say to you before closing the subject, until you or Peter bring it up again. If there should come a time when you feel that you have fallen out of love with him, promise me you will put an end to this formal courtship of his.’

‘I won’t need to, because I know that one day we’ll make the perfect married couple.’

‘Promise me?’ he reiterated solemnly.

She sensed that he wouldn’t be happy until she had given him her word. ‘I promise, but I do love him, Dad, and we will be happy together – you’ll see.’

‘I hope you’re right, Edie. Because I want nothing less for any of my girls.’ He left his desk, went to the sofa and offered her his hand. She took it, and allowed him to pull her to her feet.

‘Thank you, Daddy.’

‘You haven’t called me that in years.’ He kissed her forehead. ‘And why are you thanking me?’

‘For being you and not flying off the handle like so many fathers would have done at the prospect of losing a second daughter to marriage so soon after the first.’