A Family Christmas (36 page)

‘I, I think Prudence needs help, my love. I have thought so for some time, but I went on ignoring the things she did. I believe it was Prudence who tried to poison the livestock at Greenwood’s but I didn’t want to believe it. I’m as much to blame as you are. She’s sick, Herbert, I’m sure of it.’

‘What are we to do?’

‘Give Robert his life back. Persuade Prudence to give him a divorce. Make sure she has a lawyer, or at least answers the lawyer’s letters.’

‘I’m not a wealthy man, Louisa. Divorces can cost the earth.’

‘There may be a way. We must do our best for Robert’s sake.’

‘Yes, we shall take a few days’ break and go to Liverpool. Edith is right; the problem won’t go away.’

‘Now my love, let us pray; it may give us comfort.’

Herbert nodded, then he prayed to the God he loved above all else. He knew He wouldn’t let him down.

The library was almost ready for closing when the doctor hurried in to collect a book he had ordered. He hoped the assistant wouldn’t start flaunting herself and wished now he had sent his wife. The librarian went to find it and hoped Prudence wouldn’t make
a
spectacle of herself again. The poor man had been embarrassed enough on his last visit by her shocking behaviour. In order to prevent a repeat performance she turned to her assistant. ‘You can go now. It’s almost closing time anyway.’

The doctor was relieved and smiled at his benefactress, who was surprised when Prudence didn’t hang around but simply put on her coat and left. The girl waited outside the building, convinced that the man who so resembled her husband was attracted to her. After all, he always smiled when she removed the cards and handed him the chosen books. She watched him leave the library and set off along the street, then she began to follow him, deciding to surprise him by calling at his home. Unlike Robbie Grey, he wouldn’t turn her away; he desired her – she had seen it written on his face. She watched him take out his key and unlock the door. After he had let himself in she waited a few minutes whilst she studied the name plate on the door. Then she rang the bell, already undoing her coat.

Prudence was confused when a woman answered the door, a plump young woman. Then her confusion turned to anger – what was she doing here? He was meant to be alone.

‘Yes, can I help you?’

‘No, not you. I want him.’

‘I’m sorry, surgery’s closed for the night, but if you’re ill I’m sure my husband will see you.’ She
turned
and called his name. ‘Laurence, there’s a patient to see you.’

‘I’m not a patient, and you’re not his wife. He loves me. Why would he marry someone like you? Look at you, you’re fat.’ Prudence took off her coat, then undid the button on her skirt and slipped it down. Next she took off her blouse. ‘See, I’m slimmer than you and much more attractive.’ She continued to undress as the doctor’s wife looked on in horror.

‘Laurence. Please, where are you?’

‘Coming.’ He came to an abrupt halt at the bottom of the stairs.

‘What the …?’

‘I don’t know, she says …’ The woman burst into tears. ‘She says I’m fat and you’re attracted to her.’

‘Good lord. The girl’s ill; she must be. Please put your clothes on.’

‘No!’ Prudence placed her hands on her hips and posed in a sexual manner. ‘You know you want me. Well, I’m here now.’

The door on the left opened and a pretty little girl came out into the hall. ‘Daddy, why is that lady getting undressed? Is she going to sleep here? Is that why?’

‘He’s not your daddy; he doesn’t belong to any of you. He loves me.’

The doctor scooped his daughter up in his arms and took her back into the lounge. ‘Be a good
girl
and play with your toys, darling. The lady’s sick. We’ll make her better.’ Then he addressed his wife, who was trying to place Prudence’s coat round her now naked body.

‘I’ll ring for an ambulance, Joan.’ He picked up the phone and Prudence hurried forward and knocked the instrument from his hand. Then she spun round and slapped Joan sharply across the face, leaving the doctor’s wife shaking with fear. She backed away as her husband managed to make the call for an ambulance and the police. The girl was ill, mentally ill. She needed restraining and he doubted he could accomplish that on his own. The best thing in his opinion was to humour her. ‘Look, Joan will make us some tea and then we will all sit down and discuss what we are going to do. We’ve both been working all day and you are obviously overwrought.’

‘No, I’m just in love, that’s all. We’ll go away, you and me, leave the fat woman here, the one who calls herself your wife.’ Prudence began to laugh. ‘As though you would want her when you can have me! She must be mad to think such a thing.’ The doctor wished he could sedate the girl but everything he would need was kept in the surgery. By this time Prudence was laughing hysterically. The ambulance came at that point.

‘Thank you God,’ the doctor sighed with relief. He realised the situation could have turned out a lot worse; patients in her condition were sometimes
driven
to serious assault and if Joan had been alone in the house he dreaded to think what might have happened.

Prudence fought like a wild cat, but between them the two ambulance men and the doctor managed to get her in the vehicle. She was still declaring her undying love for a man she had barely spoken half a dozen words to until tonight. Indeed, if he had met her out in the street the doctor doubted he would have recognised the assistant librarian. He only hoped Joan would believe him when he told her he had done nothing to encourage such behaviour.

Joan was a compassionate woman, not given to jealousy. In fact she possessed all the qualities necessary in the wife of a doctor. All she could think of was the poor woman, knowing it would be a long haul back to sanity.

By the time Prudence was carried, struggling into hospital she had already threatened to kill the fat woman, strangle someone called Dot Greenwood and invited the youngest of the ambulance men to make love to her, in language strong enough to make the young one blush and shock the older one.

The next morning Reverend Goodman received a telegram from his sister which was short and to the point.

Come at once STOP Edith.

Within an hour, the verger had been put in charge of the church and Jane in charge of the house. The rector from Cragstone had promised to hold the
Sunday
services and Herbert and Louisa were on their way to the station. They realised they could ignore the situation no longer, but little did they know how ill their daughter was, or that she was in a secure room at the mental hospital. Louisa had been right: Prudence did need help, urgently.

At the beginning of the year Nellie had wondered if the bookings would justify all the money Tom had spent on the guest house, but by Easter the rooms were already being booked for the summer season, and four family rooms and two singles already occupied for the Easter holiday. Lily had discovered a way of making a bit of extra money, by offering a childminding service so that the parents could take advantage of the entertainment Blackpool had to offer. The children would be put to bed by the parents and all Lily had to do was patrol the rooms at regular intervals and comfort any of the restless ones. Because Lily loved children she considered it to be the easiest way possible of making a little extra spending money. She still insisted on one night a week off however, so that she and Phoebe could get dressed up and go out, sometimes to the dances on the pier or the Winter Gardens, other times to the pictures. Once they went to the Pleasure Beach where they rode on the Flying Machine, but mostly they would simply wander along the Golden Mile with Jim and his mate Stan, who quite fancied Phoebe, though Phoebe couldn’t
make
up her mind whether she fancied him. Lily wished she would decide to have him for a boyfriend; it would be nice if they could be two courting couples. Anyway, she thought Jim was ever so romantic; they would stand by the railings looking down at the sea whilst the brass band played and Jim sang to the music. He made her blush sometimes when he gazed at her with his big brown eyes and sang romantic love songs. Lily thought he should be singing on the stage, so beautiful was his voice. Phoebe would giggle but Lily didn’t care – she thought Phoebe was a little bit jealous because Stan didn’t sing to her.

Nellie was thrilled that the guest house was proving a success, forever commenting on how fortunate she was, not realising that it was nothing to do with luck and everything to do with her cooking. Tom said there wasn’t a restaurant in Blackpool that served better food, and he should know as he had dined in most of them. When Lily and Phoebe compared menus they found that Nellie provided almost as wide a selection as the larger, posher establishment said to be in the finest position in the resort. Nellie was surprised and delighted at Lily’s discovery. Still, Nellie wouldn’t have liked a larger place, preferring to offer a more homely atmosphere.

It came as a shock at the end of June when Nellie discovered she was pregnant. Tom considered Nellie to be the cleverest woman in the world and
wanted
to rush around spreading the news to everyone. Margaret was in tears at the thought of a grandchild and Henry experienced such a rush of emotion he threw his arms round Nellie and almost smothered her with kisses.

Nellie thought she must be the only one who had considered the implications. Not that she didn’t want Tom’s children, but how would she cope with the cooking whilst being a good mother to her child? Fortunately it would be born out of season, so this year’s guests wouldn’t be affected, but what of next year? When she voiced her fears to Lily she was amazed when the girl said, ‘What a pity Mrs Cooper doesn’t live ’ere. It’d be right up her street being a kind of nanny. She could wheel the baby on the front and sit in one of them theer shelters with the pram. Ooh, it would be nice for ’er. Mrs Cooper loves Blackpool so much it meks tears come to ’er eyes.’ Lily almost had tears in her own eyes at the thought of the woman she had grown to love. ‘Do yer know what I think, Nellie? I think Mrs Cooper was in love when she came to Blackpool.’ Just like I love Jim, Lily thought.

‘Oh I don’t know about that,’ Nellie answered, but she was thinking about what Lily had said. The girl was right: Mrs Cooper would be ideal to take care of her baby, just for the few hours Nellie would need to cook the main meal and breakfast. She would be a kind of grandmother, a doting one no doubt. It would also solve Mrs Cooper’s problem
of
where she would go when a younger woman took over at the manor. Nellie realised she was becoming carried away with the idea. She couldn’t expect Tom to take the woman into their home. Besides, where would she sleep? It would mean taking up one of the bedrooms. No, she would have to come up with another solution; there was plenty of time before the baby was born.

Lily might have been a mind reader, for she sighed and said, ‘Ooh it would be lovely if Mrs Cooper was ’ere, and theer’s plenty o’ room for another bed in my room.’

For the first time in ages Nellie saw the tears filling Lily’s eyes and realised that it wasn’t just Lily who was missing the elderly housekeeper. Nellie was too.

Chapter Twenty-three

‘PRETTY BETTY, DON’T
fail,

‘Let me carry your pail,

‘To the banks where the primroses grow.’

Little Peter laughed and swayed to the rhythm as his uncle William sang tunelessly. It was a beautiful morning and Will had been up with the lark, intent upon enjoying every moment of his day off. He had placed Peter in the battered old pushchair that had been handed down by a woman on Side Row. The twins were too big now to sit end to end in the pram and were wheeled out in turns by an army of volunteers from Top Row. Rosie had gone with Mr Slater to the allotments, Violet to Mary’s and Bernard to play at Mrs Cadman’s. Will could hear the bell ringing for morning mass at St Catherine’s and though it sounded more like an old tin can, the familiarity of it comforted William and the memories of his childhood came rushing back. He could hear his dad now as he bade him get ready for a Sunday walk to Sheepdip Wood. It had been Lucy who had washed his face and combed his hair, always Lucy, the little mother. He wished there was some way of repaying her
for
all the loving care she had handed out to him over the years.

Even though Will had had a hard childhood, he considered himself the most fortunate of all the family. Not for him the horror of the coal mine or the earsplitting sound and heat of the steelworks, but a job he loved. And now he had Betty with whom to share his happiness. He looked out from the rock he was resting on and could see the road winding up the valley between Millington and Cragstone. He had visions of the two towns being joined together in the not too distant future by red brick houses, which would rob both places of their harsh beauty and character. He could just see the chimneys of the little cottage in which he and Betty were about to begin married life together. Betty’s father had surprised them by handing over the deeds to the small stone property. ‘Not very big I admit,’ – he had apologised even though the couple considered it a grand place – ‘but there’s plenty o’ room to build on with a garden that size.’ There was too, and Will could hardly believe they would never have to worry about paying the rent. Will didn’t know anyone else who owned their own house; well, Mr Brown probably did, and Smiler Grundy, but as for people of his class! It was almost unthinkable. When he had tried to express his gratitude Mr Hague had dismissed his thanks with a wave of the hand.

‘Eeh, lad,’ he had said, ‘if I can’t spend me hard-earned brass on me only daughter, it’s coming to
summat
. If yer want to repay me, just you concentrate on making our Betty happy. That’s all I ask.’

Will let down the back of the pushchair as he noticed Peter had fallen asleep. He had just made the little lad comfy when a voice called out, ‘Is it Annie’s youngest lad?’

‘Aye, Mrs Greenwood. It is.’

‘Well, lad, it’s some time since I saw you to talk to.’