Towards a Dark Horizon (16 page)

Grandad looked over. ‘What a load of twaddle – the wedding of that pair. More money than sense if you ask me.’

‘Well, we’re not asking you so don’t butt in,’ said Granny. ‘Ann and I think it’s really romantic.’

Grandad made a noise but continued to smoke his pipe.

Granny sighed. ‘You know, it’s the same with most men – while we think it’s the love story of the century, the men have no time for it. Unromantic beggars that they are.’ Still, I noticed she threw Grandad a fond look as she said it.

A silence developed, then it was back to the topic of Rosie – much to my dismay because I was afraid Granny would ask where Dad was and I knew I couldn’t lie to her – ever. I didn’t mean to be unkind but I asked Granny, ‘Do you think Rosie could maybe dress a wee bit more fashionably?’

She looked at me with astonishment. ‘More fashionably?’

I stuck to my guns. ‘Well, look at her. She dresses like you do, Granny!’

Grandad was annoyed. ‘What do you mean by that, Ann? Your Granny looks fine to me.’

‘That’s what I mean. No offence to Granny but she’s years older than Rosie but there’s no difference in their frocks.’

Granny seemed thoughtful. After a few moments, she said, ‘Ann’s right enough, Dad. Rosie’s frocks look like hand-me-downs from her mother. Now some men would think this is great because it means they’re saving money for the house instead of spending it on fripperies but our Johnny doesn’t think like that. With him it’s the outer wrapping that counts, not the inner person – much to my regret.’

Encouraged by this, I went on, ‘I mean look at Rosie. She’s a bonny woman but it’s spoiled by her dowdy appearance. I wish somebody would give her a bit of advice about her clothes and hair.’

I knew Rosie was slightly more plump than Margot but not that much. It was the clothes she wore that gave the impression of roundness. She had a lovely skin which was far better than Margot’s if I remembered right.

Granny’s face fell. ‘It’ll not be easy telling her because she’s aye looked like this. But I’ll have a word with Alice and maybe she can persuade her to change a habit of a lifetime.’

On that note I set off for home. Stopping briefly to let Lily know that Grandad was coming for her. The look of delight on her face was priceless. She turned to her friends, saying, ‘Oh, good! Grandad will let me stay out all night.’ Poor Lily. She had a high opinion of her charms over Grandad but she forgot one thing – Granny.

The evening was still hot. It was a warm sultry heat, almost as if the heat of the day had been trapped by the high buildings and they weren’t letting it go. The street was abuzz with children and adults, all taking full advantage of the good weather. They were letting the long golden rays of the sun stroke their thin arms and legs in a vain effort to store up the radiance of summer to tide them over the long dark days of winter.

What was Dad doing now? I wondered. To be quite honest, I didn’t really want to know because what I didn’t know I couldn’t relay back to Rosie. She would have to ask him herself.

Much later that night, he arrived back home. I didn’t hear him come in so it must have been very late indeed but that didn’t mean he was in the company of Mrs Connors all this time. Perhaps he had paid a visit to Joe but then, if I believed that, I would believe anything.

I asked him the next morning. ‘Where were you last night, Dad? Rosie was fair mad at you.’

He looked horror-stricken. ‘Oh, no! I forgot about her. I was supposed to have my tea with her and her mother.’

‘Aye, she said so,’ I told him bluntly, still feeling angry with him.

‘Was she annoyed?’

I recalled her red face and her manner. I told him the truth.

‘I just forgot. I just wish she wouldn’t want me to visit her every night. It’s just not possible.’

Of course it wasn’t – not now that the cool, yellow-dressed Margot was on the scene.

I asked him, ‘Is there any news about Harry?’

He looked unhappy as he shook his head. ‘I just wish I knew what was in his mind that day and maybe I could have helped him.’

I knew this was the truth because he was fond of Harry. Then something I had ignored last night reared its ugly head.

‘Why did you tell Rosie that Harry’s wife was an old woman?’

He looked guilty. ‘Och, well, Ann, you know what women are like. I didn’t want Rosie to feel jealous so I just told her a wee white lie. I don’t want her to think I’m enjoying myself with another woman.’

He could have fooled me. ‘What are you doing then, Dad, if you’re not enjoying yourself in the company of Mrs Connors? I mean you’ve been to see her just about every night since June.’

He was annoyed. ‘No, I haven’t – not every night.’

‘Well, maybe that’s an overstatement but it looks like it. You’re ignoring Rosie and it’s not fair because she doesn’t deserve this. Either tell her the truth about Mrs Connors and give her up completely or stop seeing Mrs Connors.’

He looked at me with dismay. ‘That’s a terrible thing to tell your father. I’m just seeing a woman through a bad patch. If you can’t help someone when they need it, then it’s a sorry old world.’

‘So you’re just helping her come to terms with the disappearance of her husband?’

He was hurt. ‘Of course I am. What do you take me for? Harry was one of the best gaffers a man could have and I just wish I knew what had happened to him.’

I suddenly felt sorry for him and I knew I shouldn’t have questioned him like this. ‘I’m sorry, Dad. It’s my fault and I know it’s none of my business but Rosie was really upset last night and I felt sorry for her.’

‘I’m sorry as well, Ann, but I really forgot about her. Still, I’ll go to see her tonight.’ He seemed almost cheery as he picked up his piece bag and hurried through the door.

Within a minute he was back. ‘Blast it but I forgot – I promised to see Mrs Connors later to cut the grass for her.’

‘To cut her grass?’ I was mystified.

He explained, ‘Well, you saw the size of yon garden she’s got. Somebody has to keep it neat.’

‘Does she not employ a gardener?’

He shook his head. ‘No, seemingly Harry aye did it and I feel I have to keep it shipshape until he turns up.’

‘So you think he’ll do that, Dad? Turn up I mean.’

He looked unhappy. ‘Nobody knows what to think any more – even Mr Pringle, my boss. He goes to see Mrs Connors as well but he aye takes his wife along with him for some reason. Margot gets a good laugh at it.’

‘Does he look like his brother? Maddie’s dad?’

He shook his head. ‘Maybe it’s because Maddie’s dad is a solicitor and that gives him a stuffy look.’ He stopped when he saw my face. ‘That doesn’t matter because Maddie’s dad is a great man but he is very precise while his brother is more fun. He likes a good laugh and a joke.’

Mentally I gave full marks to Mrs Pringle for not letting her husband go to see Mrs Connors on his own. For some reason, I couldn’t get her cool image out of my mind.

Later that week, I ran into Minnie Fraser and her little boy. The hot spell had continued and it felt as if every day was hotter than the one before. Minnie was still as I remembered her. Her small slim figure and elfish face with its almond-shaped eyes and short dark hair always reminded me of Hiawatha’s bride Minnehaha. This was my secret pet name for her.

Her little boy didn’t resemble her in the slightest and I thought he must take his looks from his father. Fair haired with blue eyes, he was eating a large ice-cream cone. The ice cream was all over his face and it had even dripped down the front of his shirt and short trousers.

Minnie seemed pleased to see me. ‘How is Danny?’ she asked. Before I could reply, she said, ‘I was really sorry to hear about his broken engagement, Ann.’

I didn’t realise it was common knowledge but I should have guessed that bad news always gets around.

‘I don’t know Maddie very well but I’ve aye been fond of Danny so it’s a rotten shame this has happened.’ She sounded genuine.

I asked her, ‘Did Danny tell you, Minnie?’

She grinned. ‘No, it was Bella. I met her a while ago and she told me.’

Bella – I might have guessed. I thought my outburst would maybe have cured her but it would seem that old habits die hard – especially with her because gossip was like her life’s blood.

Minnie continued, ‘I don’t want to hear chapter and verse, Ann, but I wanted to say how sorry I am about it.’

She glanced down at Peter, her son, as he dropped his ice-cream cone. For a moment, I thought he was about to lick it up from the pavement but she pulled him away and he burst into tears.

I turned to go on my way but she seemed desperate for company. She said, ‘I can’t stand in the street with the bairn howling like this. Can you come up to the house?’

The schools were back after the summer holiday and I had an hour to spare so I nodded. We went to her mother’s house in the Hawkhill with the boy still crying for his lost ice cream.

‘I’ll get you another one, Peter, so just be quiet. Everybody is looking at you.’ This made him cry even louder but, thankfully, we soon reached her close which lay between Hunter Street and Kincardine Street. Like most of the houses in this teeming part of the town, the close was long and dark and her mother lived on the third floor of a dingy-looking tenement.

Climbing the stairs seemed to tire her son out and he almost stopped crying, just giving a heavy sob now and again.

‘I hope my mother is out,’ she said. ‘She did say she was going to the Sosh for her messages.’ This was the large Co-operative grocery shop which was a few hundred yards up the street – a shop that catered for the needs of most of the families who lived around its doors.

She ushered me into a small dark kitchen that looked quite bleak. This was because the fire was unlit and the grate resembled a yawning sooty mouth. My own kitchen looked the same and it was clear to see that a bright glowing fire was what made these rooms look cosy.

But, as it turned out, Mrs McFarlane wasn’t at the shop. She was on her knees with a tin of polish and a duster and the linoleum had a lovely shine which matched the rest of the immaculately clean room. She took one look at her grandson and stormed. ‘For heaven’s sake, Minnie, can you not keep your laddie clean? He’s aye clarted with something – if it’s not mud, then it’s ice cream.’

At the mention of the latter, the boy burst into a fresh bout of tears. Mrs McFarlane paid no heed to his howls as she carried him over to the sink and sat him on the wooden coal bunker. Rinsing a cloth in cold water, she vigorously wiped his face which made him howl even more. Meanwhile his granny was having no sympathy with him.

She then inspected his hands and rolled her eyes at her daughter. ‘Will you look at the dirt? He looks like he’s been down a coal mine. I’m aye telling you to keep him clean but do you listen? No, you don’t.’

By this time I knew Minnie was regretting asking me to the house but, to our relief, her mother picked up her message bag, took Peter’s hand and they both departed for the shop. He was still grumbling about his lost ice cream.

The room was quiet after they went and we sat down on the chairs beside the unlit fire. They were covered in a prickly sort of fabric and the chair backs were snowy white linen.

Minnie poured out two glasses of lemonade and we sat in silence for a few moments. As she was a girl I hardly knew, I didn’t know what to say but, thankfully, she was eager to talk.

‘I don’t know what to do, Ann. I can’t get a house of my own because they’re like gold dust to rent.’

I knew what she meant. We had been in the same boat when we’d given up our house after mum’s death but, thankfully, we had managed to get our present flat.

‘My man is still in Glasgow and he’s living in the house we have there but I was hoping he would put in for another transfer back to the Overgate shop.’

I wondered if she knew about Danny’s transfer request.

It became obvious that she did because she went on to say, ‘If Peter does come back here, then Danny can move to his job in Glasgow. The only thing is that Peter’s quite happy there and it was just me who couldn’t make any friends. I know it’s my fault because I’m too quiet but I get really lonely with just the bairn for company.’

She looked so unhappy that I couldn’t help but ask her, ‘So you want to stay here and hope that Peter will also come back?’

She nodded. ‘But he’ll not come back to stay with my mother. She’s so house-proud that it’s unbelievable. You saw how she was with the bairn. I’m frightened to get a bit of dirt on him and I’m aye washing him. It’s no life for a bairn to live like that.’

‘And there’s no chance of a house in the near future?’

She shook her head. ‘I’ve tried all the house factors in the town but there’s nothing available.’

I didn’t know what to say to her. I could hardly tell her that I always associated her not with a house but a wigwam on some Red Indian reservation.

‘I’ve made up my mind tae go back to Glasgow,’ she sighed.

At that moment her mother appeared with her bag in one hand and a whimpering Peter in the other.

She sounded exasperated. ‘Will you take this grumbling bairn away, Minnie? He’s been whinging all the time I’ve been in the shop.’

Minnie took his hand and turned to me. ‘I’ll walk down the road with you, Ann.’

We set off and, when we reached the small ice-cream shop, she bought the boy another cone.

She warned him, ‘Now make sure you don’t make a mess because it annoys your granny.’

She looked at me, her face screwed up in the sun. ‘I have to get away from my mother because she’s driving me barmy. As I was saying when she came in, it’s not that I hate Glasgow – it’s a great place – and it is my fault that I’m lonely. I know that.’

I felt sorry for her and for little Peter. I knew her mother was extremely house-proud and bossy because granny told me this when Minnie got married. As Granny had said at the time, ‘Her mother will not be pleased with a bairn around the house. I’ve heard she washes and polishes her floors twice a day.’ At the time, I hadn’t believed it but it was true. Poor Minnie and Peter had to toe the line in the house or else return to Glasgow where Minnie was unhappy. I made a mental note to keep an eye out for an empty house for her but I also thought that maybe it would be best if she went back to her husband and tried again to settle down.