Elm Tree Road (24 page)

‘Oh, Hugh.’ She could feel her cheeks growing hot.

‘Oh, Nell,’ he teased, mimicking her. Then his smile faded and he spoke straight from the heart. ‘I’m so glad I found you that day. I was beginning to think I’d never fall in love again.’

‘Did you love her very much?’

‘Of course I did. But she’s not here and you are. You’re different from her and I love you for your own self, I promise you.’

On the following Saturday, Nell, Hugh and May went into Swindon, something the child seemed to regard as a treat, but which Nell had been dreading. Even with Hugh beside her, she felt sick with apprehension today.

The trains were on time and they got there far too quickly for her peace of mind. Her family had lived in one of the railway houses. It could have been a nice little home if her stingy father had let them spend money on anything but his own comforts. She felt shuddery inside at the thought of seeing her father.

‘Do you want to take a taxi?’ Hugh asked.

‘I’d rather walk, if you don’t mind. It’s not far. You will be careful when we get there. Don’t let him goad you to fight.’

‘You’ve said that several times already. I promise you, I’m not the sort to get into fights.’

He might not be, but her father was, and Bart was a dirty fighter who’d maimed for life a young man who’d
tried to court her sister Mattie. She couldn’t bear it if he hurt Hugh.

At the end of the street, she stopped and looked at May. ‘My father can be very rough. If he starts fighting, you’re to stand right back.’

May looked puzzled. ‘You already said that.’

‘It’s worth repeating.’

‘Stop worrying, Nell. We’ll be all right,’ Hugh said. ‘I’m big enough to look after myself.’

As they turned into the street, she saw their reflections in the window of the corner shop and was surprised how much they looked like a family group. Maybe one day they would be. May needed a mother and Nell would like to have a daughter to love.

When they got to the house, Nell moved forward to knock on the front door. There was the sound of someone approaching it inside, the door swung slowly open and she braced herself.

But the person who opened the door was a complete stranger, a fresh-faced man, not much older than herself. And he looked very much at home. For a moment she couldn’t find her voice, she was so surprised.

He looked from Nell to Hugh. ‘Can I help you?’

‘I was … I came to see Bart Fuller,’ she faltered. ‘My father. Doesn’t he live here anymore?’

A voice from the back room called, ‘Who is it, Jim?’

‘Someone to see the last tenant, Alice.’

More footsteps brought a woman to join them. She was expecting a child and had another little one clinging to her skirt. She and the man exchanged worried glances.

‘Did you know Bart well?’ she asked.

‘I’m his daughter.’

‘Oh. Then you’d better come in and … I’ll tell you what happened to him.’

This seemed a strange answer. Nell followed the woman into the front room, which was chilly, with its furniture stiffly arranged, clearly not used much. She frowned. That looked like her mother’s china cabinet, and the sofa – it had a different cover, but it felt just the same as their old one. No, it couldn’t be. She was imagining things.

The woman took charge. ‘Please sit down.’ She waited until they were all seated. ‘I’m sorry to be the one to tell you that your father died a few months ago. The neighbours said he dropped dead in the back room.’

Nell gasped and the room seemed to waver around her as she tried to take this in. ‘He’s dead? My father’s dead?’

‘It must be a terrible shock to you. Would you like a cup of tea?’

‘No, thank you.’ She turned to Hugh. ‘All this time … we didn’t even know. Cliff could have come back to Swindon. I’m sure he’d have got his old job back, because he was good at his trade. But he wouldn’t even write to his own family, he was so afraid of my father finding out where we were.’

Everyone except May was looking at her, two of them politely, Hugh with compassion. Suddenly all Nell wanted was to get out of the room, out of the house and into the fresh air. She couldn’t weep for her father, was conscious of relief more than anything else, felt guilty about that.

Then it occurred to her that Bart had had possessions,
savings. It might sound mercenary, but her sisters might be glad of that money.

‘Do you … um … know what happened to my father’s things?’

‘We have some of the furniture. His friend sold it to us. He was clearing out the house when we came to look round.’

‘Which friend? Do you know his name?’

‘Stan Telfor. Everyone knows him. He buys and sells things. He’s done very well for himself. I have his address.’ She got up and fumbled in a vase, muttering in annoyance and tipping its contents out before she found the scrap of paper she was looking for. ‘There. Good thing I kept it, eh?’ She held it out to Nell.

Hugh had to take it because she felt as frozen as a stone statue. He handed her his card. ‘And if you hear anything of Mr Fuller’s other daughters, please get in touch with me. Mrs Greenhill’s been recently widowed and is now my housekeeper. She looks after my daughter and myself. I’ll make it worth your while.’

He helped Nell up and they went outside.

After the door had shut, she turned to look at the house and let out her breath in a long groaning sigh. ‘Sarah might still be alive if we’d known my father was dead,’ she said. ‘Cliff was a coward – and I let him be.’

‘It’s easy to be wise afterwards. Don’t berate yourself.’

But she continued to look sadly at the house.

‘What do you want to do now? Go and see this Telfor fellow … Nell?’

‘Oh. Sorry. I was just thinking. I suppose we’ll have to go and see Stan. I’d better warn you, though. He’s like
my father: a big man who gets into fights.’

But there was no answer at Stan’s house. A neighbour from across the street opened the door and yelled, ‘He’s gone to see his parents, taken his family with him, and they won’t be back till late.’

‘We’ll leave him a note,’ Hugh said. He patted his pockets. ‘Drat! I’ve left my notebook at home, and you can’t leave enough information on a business card, though I’ll leave him one of those as well. We’ll have to buy some paper and an envelope.’

The neighbour came in to borrow a cup of sugar, though Alice knew it was really to find out who her posh visitors had been. She didn’t mind. Joan was a good neighbour, if nosy.

‘It was one of Bart’s daughters,’ she said. ‘She didn’t know her father was dead.’

‘Fancy that!’ She lowered her voice. ‘They ran away, you know. All the daughters. One rainy day they just upped and left, and they’ve never been seen again. He was in a rage for weeks about that. Nasty old bugger, he was.’

‘And now she’s come back.’

‘Yes. Did she say where she was living?’

Alice reached up to the mantelpiece and picked up the business card. ‘She’s working as housekeeper for this gentleman. He said to get in touch with her at this address if I heard anything about her sisters.’

‘Fancy that.’ She studied the card. ‘He doesn’t live in Swindon, does he? Do you suppose she’s, you know, living with him?’

‘He said she was his housekeeper, and she doesn’t look
the sort to be anything else to me. Scrawny little thing, she is. They had his daughter with them too. No, I’m sure it’s nothing else.’

The three of them walked towards the town centre and called at the Commercial Road Market, a modern place, built only a decade or so ago.

‘It doesn’t smell very nice here,’ May whispered.

‘It never does,’ Nell said.

Hugh looked up at the ceiling disapprovingly. ‘It must be freezing cold in winter with that high ceiling. I edited a book about commercial architecture once. The author wouldn’t have approved of this place.’

Nell was getting used to the way he suddenly revealed pockets of knowledge, acquired in his work. ‘Look, they sell stationery on that stall.’

They bought what they needed, though Hugh pulled a face at the quality of the notepaper. She sat down at one of the small tables next to a refreshment stall intending to write a quick letter.

Hugh didn’t sit. ‘You both look cold. I’ll buy us a pot of tea and maybe this young lady would like to get some sweets from that stall over there?’ He held out a threepenny bit.

May squealed in delight and took the small silver coin from him.

‘Don’t drop it and don’t go out of my sight!’ He turned back to Nell. ‘We’re taking a taxi out to Mr Telfor’s house. You’re looking tired now.’

He was right. She felt exhausted, shocked that her father could have been dead all this time. It seemed as if
she ought to have known it. He was her father, after all.

She was glad to get home to the farm, and moved slowly through the evening, doing necessary chores mechanically, glad that Hugh left her to get on with them in peace.

That night, however, after May had gone to bed, he said, ‘Let’s sit in more comfort than these wooden chairs.’ As she moved from the table to the small sofa, Hugh pulled her into his arms. She didn’t resist, wanting the comfort, wanting him.

Though she’d half-convinced herself that she’d only imagined how wonderful his embraces were, he proved her wrong. When he kissed her, she couldn’t even think straight, was only aware of him in the whole world. He made her feel loved and happy and warm. How could one man do all that to you with just a touch of the lips? Cliff never had.

He laughed softly as they sat down on the small sofa. ‘I love kissing you, Nell, and unless you’re the best actress in the world, you enjoy it too.’

She didn’t lie, couldn’t. ‘I do love it.’

‘We’ll find your sisters, my little darling. We’ll set your world to rights, then we’ll build our own world together.’

She sighed and nestled against him, sure that if anyone could help her find Mattie and Renie, it was him.

Only … how could their love have a happy ending? She still couldn’t believe in that, somehow.

She wouldn’t know how to behave in his London life. She’d felt out of place just sitting in the elegant office, where even the office boy spoke better English than she did. And Hugh loved London.

He kissed her on the temple. ‘Are you all right? You gave such a heavy sigh just then.’

She couldn’t face any more sad thoughts today so told him the simple truth. ‘I’m tired out. I think I should go to bed. It’s been a difficult day, hasn’t it?’

‘Things will get better, my love.’

That was another difference between them. He truly believed the future would be brighter. She didn’t trust fate at all. It could deal you a blow that nearly tore you apart, and without even a hint of a warning.

Joan’s husband went round to see Frank Greenhill. She’d memorised the address on the card and written it down as soon as she got home. It was all very satisfactory and he pocketed the five shillings, thinking it an easy way to earn money. This money would go towards their annual holiday, which had to be saved up for carefully.

When he’d gone, Frank went to tell his aunt and uncle. ‘She’s living near Faringdon, not in Swindon. That’s why we couldn’t find her. She’s acting as housekeeper to some fancy gentleman.’

‘She’ll be warming his bed too, if I know her,’ his aunt said at once.

‘They didn’t think so. His daughter was with them and they seemed very respectable people.’

‘She’s landed on her feet, then – doesn’t deserve it.’

‘I’ll go and check the place out tomorrow. Maybe it’ll be worth paying my pal to take me in his motor car.’

‘You’d not get me to ride in one of those things,’ his aunt said at once.

She was turning into a proper old misery. He looked
round. But it was worth putting up with her because this house would be his one day – and some of that money too.

And Nell had better not cross him about this.

The following morning Nell, Hugh and May were walking back from the village, about to turn off onto the path across the fields, when they heard the sound of a motor car. They moved to the side of the road and it slowed down as it came near.

Nell stared at it in shock. Could that be … It
was
! Frank Greenhill. She reached out blindly for Hugh’s hand and he looked at her in puzzlement.

The car came to a halt and the passenger stared at them. ‘Nell,’ he said. ‘Fancy meeting you here!’

She couldn’t speak for a moment, then said quietly, ‘I’m visiting friends.’ Tugging Hugh’s hand, she moved on quickly, but she didn’t hear the car start up again. As they turned off the main road, she glanced back and saw Frank still staring at her.

‘Who is he?’ Hugh asked quietly.

‘My husband’s cousin Frank. I can’t think what he’s doing out here. They aren’t the sort to go out driving. The Greenhills usually only do things for money.’

The car started up again.

‘Well, he’s gone now. You’ll probably never see him again.’

But Nell couldn’t get the thought of Frank out of her mind, or the memory of the fierce way he’d looked at her. She couldn’t believe their meeting was just a coincidence, either. He must have found out where she lived. But why
was he bothering to pursue her? Cliff’s mother had made it plain they wanted nothing more to do with her.

Was he still after the money?

She tried to shake off her worries and get on with her day, but although Hugh went to work in his study in the afternoon and May went out to play with the dog, Nell still couldn’t concentrate on her book.

In the afternoon Nell heard the sound of a motor car approaching the farm and her first thought was that Frank was pursuing her. As it came up the lane to the farm and stopped outside, she looked out of the window. Thank goodness! It wasn’t him.

Thinking it was someone who’d got lost, she went to open the door, but took an involuntary step backwards at the sight of Stan Telfor, looking as big and boisterous as ever. Common sense took over. They’d left their address for Stan, so he was here by their invitation. She was letting her nerves get the better of her.

He beamed at her as if they were old friends as he came towards the house. ‘Living posh now, are you, Nell girl?’

‘Shh, Stan. This is my employer’s house and—’

‘If this is Mr Telfor, you’d better invite him in,’ said a voice behind them.

She glanced at Hugh, grateful that he was there. ‘Come in, Stan.’

She took him into the kitchen, which felt like her domain now and gave her a bit of much needed confidence. At least this man wasn’t scowling at her. In fact, he looked happier than she’d ever seen him before.