Dreams Can Come True (29 page)

“Hey up, Olive.” She smiled up the drive at the cheeky new postman. He was a cocky bugger, she thought to herself, but she wouldn’t mind getting to know him better.

“Hey yerself, Alec. Got some letters fer us then?”

“That’s the reason I’m here, Olive. I’ve not come all this way to take tea with her Ladyship.”

“You can have a cup of tea if you were wanting one. There’s only me and Joan around. One of them’s walking the baby out and the other’s cleared off to God knows where.”

“I’ll go round the back then, shall I? Wouldn’t do to get yer nice clean floor mucky.”

Alec whistled happily, clutching the letters he had for Maggie, with his near empty bag dragging on the grass.

He startled Joan as he tapped on the window, but Olive had careered quickly through the house to anticipate him.

“It’s our new postman, Joan,” she cried. “Be nice to him will yer, get him a cup of tea.”

“So, Olive,” Alec said, after he had gulped the tea down that Joan had made him and had finished tucking in to a warm slice of bread.

“How long yer bin workin’ here then?”

“A couple of years, haven’t I, Joan? But she’s bin here fer a lifetime.”

“Hardly that,” replied Joan, as she poured herself a cup of tea and sat her heavy bulk at the table. “I was here when Miss Rosemary was alive, then Mrs. Haines kept me on after.”

“I’ve just started fer the Post Office, as yer know. It’s a great job, I love it. I know I’m out in all weathers, but look at today fer instance. I love springtime. All the trees come out in bud, flower heads start peeping through, sea breezes coming off the river and everything starts to look brand new!”

“Yer sound a bit of a poet,” Olive said alive with interest. “I hated poetry at school though, more then I hated reading and sums.”

“That’s why you’ve got the job of a skivvy,” Joan remarked, dryly. “You could have been working in an office if you’d put your mind to yer lessons, yer know.”

“Like you did?”

Olive glared at the cook, annoyed with the woman. She felt she’d been shown up in front of this very pleasant young man. He had a good job, with chances of promotion probably. Make an ideal husband for someone. Alec looked so handsome in his uniform; she wondered if his brown hair was curly under that black peak cap. She tried to change the subject and smiled provocatively at him.

“So what do yer do in yer free time?”

“Oh, I read, help me father in his vegetable garden, go with me mother to Birkenhead market on a Saturday and help her with the shopping. Take long walks along the beach as far as Heswall or Caldy. You want to come with me one Sunday?”

Olive’s eyes lit up as she heard his words. She hated walking, but she’d make herself do it for him.

“Do yer not have to work at the weekends? Or go to church or visit yer grandparents with yer Mam?”

He shook his head and boasted proudly.

“No, they look after their employees at the Post Office. We finish at midday on a Saturday and I don’t start again until five o’ clock on Monday morning.”

“Not like you eh, Olive? Work your fingers to the bone in this house, one day off at her Ladyship’s whim. Anyway, talking of working I need a hand with the peeling. Of yer go now, young man. Oh, did yer bring us any letters, by the way?”

Hannah came through the conservatory, leaving baby Johnny sleeping soundly in his pram.

“Hello, Miss Hannah. Did yer have a nice walk then?”

Olive took a break from peeling potatoes in the kitchen. She was excited as a flea on a cat after Alec had asked her out.

“The postman’s been. I put the letters on the table in the hallway. There’s one come all the way from India. Fancy that. Do yer think they have postmen in India too?”

“Have you been rifling through the post again, Olive? You know it’s not polite to look at someone else’s letters. Anyway, it will be for my mother, not for me.”

Hannah ran upstairs to use the W.C. Although it was a lovely spring morning, there had been a chill in the air, which always seemed to affect her bladder somehow. She looked thoughtful as she sat on the toilet seat. Maggie hadn’t heard from Michael since last August; why was he getting in touch with her now?

She said as much to Eddie when he came in at lunchtime. He was rosy-cheeked from walking around the development with the finisher. A cold wind had been blowing from the estuary, making him glad to get home to a warming fire.

“Perhaps he’s missing us all, Hannah,” Eddie said wryly. “Perhaps it’s a late Christmas greeting, as he couldn’t get it in the post on time.”

“I shouldn’t think so. I don’t think they celebrate Christmas in India. Well, the regiment might do so, but there won’t be any shops where he could get a card.”

“Funny that, isn’t it? No one sent cards to each other before Prince Albert brought the practice over from Germany. Still, I suppose it keeps people employed, doesn’t it, cutting card in factories and thinking up fancy words.”

“Have you ever thought what would happen if Michael came back to live in Neston, Eddie? I’m not sure he’d be happy to have us living here.”

“Why so? It’s Maggie’s house, isn’t it? He’ll know that we’re living here, anyway. Maggie will have told him, I hope.”

“She hasn’t, unfortunately. I think that’s why he joined the regiment, because he found out I was his half sister. She didn’t even let him know we were married or had little Johnny. She said she didn’t want to upset him, with him being out there.”

“I don’t think Michael left because of you, Hannah,” Eddie said trying to reassure her. “If yer remember back, his pals Jeremy Adshead and Monty Renfrew were itching to join up and you said yerself, he hated working fer Sheldon. He probably seized his chance to go off and have a great adventure. They’re all doing it now, yer know. Look at that Livingstone chap exploring up the Zambezi in Africa, then that fellow, Stanley, meeting up with him in the jungle and all these people upping sticks and taking off to places they’ve only heard about. No, I wouldn’t worry about it Hannah. Neston will be too tame fer him.”

“All good things have to come to an end I suppose, Maggie,” said Johnny, as they sat having dinner in their suite that Friday evening. “Though I hope they’ll continue fer us, long beyond this moment in time.”

“Let’s raise our glass to the future,” Maggie replied, smiling happily. She had taken to drinking champagne these last few nights, as it didn’t seem to give her a bad head like the wine did. This glass was her second one this evening, as they waited for the waiter to bring in their food. They had decided to forgo eating in the restaurant after Maggie had a scare on that first evening. Who knew who would be dining there, unless she went through the guest list herself? Besides, she and Johnny felt more comfortable there after a long day sightseeing or shopping. Her mind went to the bags they’d put in the bedroom. What they’d spent this week would have covered the annual budget of a Poor House, but at least Johnny had offered to pay his share.

“So, what were the best bits of our holiday, Maggie? Besides being made love to by a skilled and practised artisan.”

Johnny ducked as she threw a napkin at him.

“No, seriously, was there a favourite place? Did yer like the Botanic Gardens fer instance?”

“Well,” Maggie considered for a minute. “I enjoyed our stay in this place obviously. It was good to be able to shut the door on the world and be alone together. But I think I loved walking with you around Sefton Park, with its little bridges over prettily laid out ponds and the pagodas where we could shelter from the stares of other people and so much grassland, trees and bushes. You could close yer eyes and swear you were nowhere near a city. The Botanic Gardens were pleasant also, especially as we have plants from far off shores in our conservatory.”

“And what about the Brown’s Library and Museum, Maggie? I knew you’d like that,” broke in Johnny. “I’ve been going there since it opened over ten years ago. What did yer think of those Roman coins they’d found, when they’d been digging up a cemetery? I thought that the Romans only stayed round Chester, but obviously people used the coins here in Liverpool!”

“I thought it all fascinating,” replied Maggie, a little on the bored side. There was a part of Johnny that caused her irritation, especially when he had wanted to drag her around the galleries. She’d really preferred to spend her days shopping, as the stores around Bond and Lord Street were filled with a vast array of products that she’d never seen before. It was a wonderland for those that had the money and she’d spent hers as if the purse she was carrying had holes in it. To give him his due, Johnny never had seemed tired of carrying her loaded bags for her, though he begged from time to time to stop for coffee, or repair to his bank to draw more money from his account.

She’d bought him a solid gold fob watch and had it engraved with their Christian names. He bought her an amber-stoned pendant, with a set of earrings to match.

She bought him a jacket, a smart, single breasted one; he bought her a swishy silver gown, trimmed at the neckline with little tiny pearls. She bought a cashmere shawl for Hannah and a black silk topper for her son in law. She found the baby department in Lewis’s and bought up half the shop. Johnny bought some low-heel boots, a new jersey that he spied in the outerwear department and little bits of toiletries that he could use upon the ship.

“So where do we go from here, Maggie? The time has come fer an answer, don’t yer think?”

“Yes and I’ve given it a lot of thought while we’ve bin together. I think you’ve been as honest as you could be with me, but I don’t think I’m ready to throw the towel in yet. I want to finish off me projects first, talk to me solicitor, perhaps transfer some of me money to a Liverpool bank. We haven’t even talked about where we’re going to live. It’s got to be with a view of the river. The Mersey or the Dee.”

Johnny leant forward and caught her hand in his.

“So you’ve got as far as that with yer thinkin’, Maggie. Oh, Muirnan, you’ll make me such a happy man!”

After dinner, he made love to her. It was done with a compelling need by Johnny, as if he doubted it would happen again. The thought came to him after as they lay together that perhaps she had conceived his child. Then perhaps not; he wasn’t sure about women’s matters. He’d never known a female long enough to find out about these scary things.

“So we met on the Woodside steamer. I’d just tied up at Liverpool and was making me way over here. You were loaded with bags and I helped yer carry them, then we shared a compartment in the train. I then hailed yer a cabbie, but I accompanied yer to Selwyn Lodge so I could help yer at the other end. That’s our story then, and I’ll stay fer a cup of tea and play with me godson if he’s not sleeping. Then when will we be together again?”

Johnny looked over to Maggie who had her back to the engine and was staring out of the window. She’d been very quiet on their journey as if she was regretting their time spent together. Or was it his imagination? Perhaps the girl was just tired.

“I can’t answer yer, Johnny. I’ve already said to Hannah I may get a country cottage somewhere fer us all to use as a holiday home, but if I go in telling her that it’s going to be sooner than later, she’ll get suspicious. Before I left, she was asking was I meeting up with Jack.”

“I’m sure Eddie and her would be delighted if me and you got together. They must know that yer lonely sometimes and I know Eddie would love me to be a married man.”

“But we wouldn’t be married, Johnny, you keep forgetting that. Divorce is difficult for a Catholic woman anyway. We’d have to wait for Jack to die, and I’m certainly not wishing that.”

Johnny shrugged.

“Whatever. Perhaps in a month or so we can go back to the Adelphi, or maybe we can stay at the North Western Railway Hotel. We passed it, do yer remember? It’s just opened up on Lime Street. It’ll be cheaper than the Adelphi; I can’t expect yer to keep on paying our hotel bill.”

Maggie felt a lump in her throat as the porter put their bags on a trolley and trundled it up the incline to look for a horse and cab. She looked at the shops on the high street, her eyes coming to rest on the place that used to be Miss Rosemary’s. Then across the way to the building that housed the Sheldon Company. How could she leave this village of Neston that had been home for longer than Killala had, with its familiar smells of horse dung, hops from the taverns and the tang of salt that came from the estuary? She thought of Selwyn Lodge where the buds had been appearing in her lovely garden. The daffodils could have bloomed for all she knew, since she’d had this week away. If only, she thought, then shrugged the idea from her. There was no way these people of Neston would accept her living in sin.

Hannah was wearing a cream pintucked blouse and a dark bombazine skirt as she carried little Johnny in her arms around the garden. It was a beautiful day; too warm really for springtime. Eddie watched her from the comfort of his cane armchair that he had dragged out onto the lawn from the conservatory. The sun lit up glints of gold in her shoulder-length light brown hair as she crooned a lullaby to their baby. Eddie sighed as he thought over this week that they’d had alone together. It wasn’t that he disliked his mother in law’s presence; really it was because they were only lodgers in this fancy house. But hadn’t it been bliss, just the two of them? Especially once the servants had gone in the evening and they had the place to themselves. His mind briefly touched on the letter that was waiting for Maggie on the hall table. Would it be bad news for them if Michael was to come home? Perhaps they should be thinking about their future, he and Hannah, in case it was the return of the prodigal son.

“Eddie, take little Johnny off me, will you? I’ve just heard a carriage draw up at the top of the driveway. I’ll run to meet her and you open the front door for me.”

Hannah dashed off along the side of the house, as Eddie carried the baby in.

“Mother, you’re back and look who you’ve got with you!” she cried in surprise as she saw Eddie’s Uncle Johnny loaded down with bags behind Maggie.

“Did you meet on your way up here then? Oh, I can see by all these bags you’ve enjoyed yourself shopping, Mother. Eddie’s somewhere about, I’ll call him. Eddie, there you are. Look who’s here with Mother, your Uncle Johnny! Here, give me the baby and help your uncle with the luggage and everything. Come on then, I’ve got the kettle on, we’ll sit at the kitchen table and you can tell me all about it. And there you were last Monday, Mother, making out you didn’t want to go.”