For Many a Long Day (16 page)

He brought his other hand over to join the one already resting lightly on hers, took her hands firmly between his and squeezed them.

‘Just wait till I tell her,’ he said beaming at her, ‘that I know her wee friend Ellie Scott. I’m going up for her birthday in a fortnight. She’s going to be eighty. Did she tell you that? She’ll never believe me that I know you.’

Ellie looked at his smiling face and laughed.

‘I can always tell her myself, Sam. She’s invited me to her birthday party, so I’ll be going too.’

Before Sam had quite taken this in, the Master of Ceremonies announced that the First Supper would be served in the basement. They consulted their tickets, were pleased to find that First Supper included them, and five minutes later they were sitting down at a small table where Susie and Joe had kept seats for them.

The talk was lively, but did not interfere with the consumption of a generous supper of cold meats and salads, fresh rolls with butter, fruit trifle with cream, and coffee or tea.

Ellie looked across the table at Susie to see if she was enjoying herself. To her surprise, she found that the girl who was always talking, joking and laughing was eating her trifle very slowly and listening with close attention to something Joe was saying.

‘My goodness,’ she thought to herself, ‘how little we know of people if we always see them in the same situation.’ She’d seen these two talking to each over and over again in the last months, but there was something she saw now she’d quite missed. Susie wasn’t just ensuring that Joe, wasn’t left out of things, she was quite absorbed in what he was telling her. For his part, Joe was talking to her with a quite new confidence. A moment later, he stopped and she laughed. An easy, happy laugh which clearly delighted him, a laugh that spoke of something more than friendship. Susie wouldn’t be sixteen till November. But then, Ellie thought, she’d been younger than Susie when she and George first went out together.

‘Could you manage another wee dance, d’you think, Ellie, now we’ve got a bit more energy?’ Sam asked, as they rose from the supper table.

‘That would be lovely,’ she said, taking his hand as they wove their way through the next instalment of hungry people waiting expectantly outside the supper room.

The dance floor was emptier, the band reduced in number, the lights dimmed somewhat further. They said little to each other but when the dance sequence ended, they made no move to separate and when the Master of Ceremonies announced the Last Supper they laughed with everyone else.

Moments later, they moved into a vigorous
quick-step as the band got their second wind, much refreshed by their supper and the encouragement of the dancers.

‘You’re a lovely dancer, Ellie,’ he said, as they paused once again, stood side by side, clapping the band.

‘You’re not so bad yourself,’ she said lightly.

The moment she spoke a wave of sadness swept over her just as it had in the supper room when she’d looked at Susie and Joe and heard them laugh together. It was so unexpected, she nearly missed her step as the band struck up again.

In the relative quiet after the applause when the dance ended, they noticed the Master of Ceremonies bend down to the dance-floor and take a note from a member of the committee. He came forward to the microphone, his face inscrutable. He waited and waited, till he had all their attention.

Ellie wondered what on earth could have created such a solemn face and began to feel uneasy. Sam fidgeted at her side, then suggested it might be the winner of the raffle.

‘Ladies and gentlemen. It has been suggested to me by your committee that you might like to make requests for particular numbers. I cannot promise that we will be able to play them all, but we shall try. I have already received the first request. I have it here.’

He paused yet again, then his face broke into a broad smile.

‘We will be delighted to play ‘
If you were the only girl in the world
,’ for Sergeant Frank Armstrong and his partner Miss Daisy Hutchinson who have just become engaged.’

There was a riot of cheering and stamping and clapping. Without any previous signal, all the dancers moved to the sides of the ballroom, leaving Daisy and Frank quite alone. Daisy looked rather pink, but Frank was perfectly at ease. He put his arms round her and they circled the ballroom twice to the continuing shouts and cheers of Frank’s colleagues and the clapping of all their friends in the Tennis Club.

Ellie clapped as hard as everyone else but she had no idea at all what she was going to do if Sam should look down at her and noticed the tears streaming down her face and splashing on the soft blue fabric of her best dress.

‘I’ll walk over to Sleators with you, Ellie,’ Sam said quietly as the last strains of God Save the King faded away. ‘What about wee Susie? I can’t see her anywhere, can you?’

Ellie looked around. Moments ago the members of the Constabulary had been so obvious by the set of their squared shoulders and the solemn look on their faces as they sang the National Anthem. Now they relaxed, moved, became again just young men at a dance. She scanned the faces that streamed past
and spotted Daisy and Frank but there was no sign of Susie.

‘I’ll probably find her in the cloakroom.’

‘Most likely. I’ll wait for the pair of you outside. I don’t think Daisy will need us to see her home,’ he said nodding back over his shoulder.

But Susie had no more need of a companion than Daisy. As Ellie retrieved her coat, she saw her meet Joe on the staircase.

‘No Susie?’ asked Sam, a hint of anxiety in his tone.

‘I don’t think we need worry. I saw her go off with Joe.’

‘Ah well, she safe’s enough with him. I always thought he was a desperate quiet lad, but there’s a big improvement there. He seemed to be enjoyin’ himself tonight. And so did Susie.’

He put an arm round her, drew her through the crowd milling through the double doors and out on to the pavement, waiting for friends, or getting into the few motors that had drawn up outside.

There was no moon and the only lamplight was the single gas lamp outside the Post Office, but the sky was perfectly clear and there was a mass of stars. Their pale light gleamed on slate roofs and was reflected back from the glass in the dark shop windows.

‘D’ye mind the day you brought the parcel for Wee Johnny?’ he said as they moved quietly past the front of Sleators.

‘I do. I didn’t know what to make of you that day,’ she said easily. ‘You gave me such a strange look, but then you weren’t expecting to see anyone …’

They paused, crossed the empty street and slowed their steps. Ahead of them, Susie and Joe were walking very slowly, their arms entwined.

‘Dear be good to them,’ Sam said unexpectedly. ‘If that’s a match, it’ll hardly suit the Sleators. Sure what prospects has Joe as a shop assistant?’

‘He’s a clever boy,’ said Ellie, ‘if he weren’t from a big family, he might have gone to college and become a teacher or something like that, but he certainly won’t be able to marry on what he’ll ever earn as an assistant at Freeburns. Just like George and his ten shillings a week, clothes and his keep. That’s why he went to Canada.’

Ellie stopped abruptly, amazed she had spoken so freely. But then, why shouldn’t she? Sam was just as open with her. If they were going to be friends, then that’s the way it should be.

‘And does he like it out there?’

‘I don’t think he’s terribly keen on the lumber camp, but it’s a stepping-stone. His uncle is a partner in a big lumber business in Peterborough, but he wants George to get experience in the camps before he comes down to the mills.’

‘And the money would be good there, wouldn’t it?’

‘Oh yes, when he first told me he was going, I
couldn’t believe how much he’d earn.’

Sam smiled and nodded. ‘Aye, I know all about that. Emily went and got a job in Macy’s.’

‘But I thought Emily was married and lived at Stonebridge.’

‘Oh yes, she does. She met her husband out there. But he’s from here, just outside Monaghan, and the two of them saved up to come home. He has a wee business now making car bodies, specialist work. Emily keeps the books. She’s always been great with money.’

‘Like Daisy,’ she said, laughing. ‘She can do a sum in her head while Susie and I are still looking for a piece of paper.’

They paused at the steps leading down to the broad walk crossing The Mall, the short way home to Sleators house on the other side.

There was no one anywhere in sight. The green space with its surrounding trees at the heart of the city, lay absolutely still in deep shadow. Ahead of them, the marble slabs laid edge to edge all the way across to the matching steps on the other side shone like a bridge through the darkness.

‘Wonderful night, isn’t it?’ he said, stopping and scanning the sky.

‘It’s a long time since I’ve seen so many stars,’ she said wistfully, ‘but then I’m not often out at two o’clock in the morning.’

‘Ach it’s a pity that. Do you think George would
be annoyed if you went out with your friends now and again?’

‘I don’t know, Sam. You know how people talk,’ she began thoughtfully. ‘The Club is great. I must say I’m grateful to Daisy, I’d never have thought of joining if she hadn’t kept on at me.’

‘Aye, she’s good at that. Sure that’s why I joined as well.’

‘Aren’t we lucky, Sam, we have such good friends?’

‘We’re lucky all right. We’ve an awful lot to be thankful for, the way things are these days. There’s a lot worse off than we are.’

They walked together across the shining path, up the steps and turned along the pavement under the trees. They could see a light in the bedroom that was Ellie’s. As they watched a light came on next door.

‘That’s Susie,’ she said quietly.

‘It might be a while before Daisy appears,’ he said lightly.

She nodded, suddenly feeling sad that the evening was over, that he would turn away into the darkness, walk back up to Sleators and ride home. In the deep silence, she would probably hear the roar of his motorbike as he headed out the Portadown Road.

‘Ellie, I want to ask you somethin’. I don’t want you to take it amiss.’

She looked up at his face, now visible in the spill of light from the windows above.

‘If you and George hadn’t grown up side by side and you hadn’t been spoken for long ago, an’ if you’d met me, like Frank met Daisy, or Joe met Susie, d’you think I
might
have been in with a chance.’

For a moment she felt overwhelmed with anxiety. What
could
she say? Then it came to her. There was no question about what to say. He’d been truthful with her. She could only be as truthful with him. She nodded.

‘Oh yes, Sam. You’d have been in with a chance.’

‘Good,’ he said firmly. ‘I’m glad about that,’ he added as they crossed to Sleators front door. ‘I hope you’re not tired out in the mornin’.’

‘If I am, it’ll have been worth it,’ she said, putting her key in the door.

He stepped back, watched till he saw the door swing open.

‘Goodnight, Sam. Thank you for a lovely evening.’

‘Goodnight, Ellie. It was great.’

Ellie woke early on the morning of Rose’s birthday party, blinked in the June sunlight, looked at the clock and gave thanks there was no need to get out of bed for another half hour. There was a great deal to be done at home before Sam Hamilton and his father arrived to collect her for the drive to Belfast. As they were due at twelve noon, however, it meant she couldn’t go to church and that would give her a bit more time.

Her father liked her to go to the parish church on the hill most Sundays, though he never went himself. She’d never managed to discover what had caused the falling out between him and the Rector. Even Charlie, could only say it was about money. Though he couldn’t be sure, he had a feeling that, once, when the Rector had come looking for subscriptions for the church fabric, Robert had told him he thought the church was too interested in money for its own needs and too little concerned for those in real poverty.

It had surprised her that her father should have spoken out so strongly, for he always tried to be on good terms with everyone, unlike Charlie, who didn’t care who took offence at what he said provided he knew what he was saying was true. But then, she reflected, people were always capable of surprising you.

She thought of Susie and how slow she’d appeared when she first came to Freeburns. And Joe, who’d been good enough at his job but so desperately quiet they could hardly get a word out of him. As Susie had gained in confidence she’d revealed just how practical and imaginative she could be. Since she’d finished redecorating the staff-room she’d been looking out for other ways of making life easier and more comfortable for all of them. As for Joe, he had amazed everyone including Mr Freeburn himself.

‘Miss Scott, I wonder what you think of these,’ he’d said, as he waved her to a chair one morning only last week.

He’d passed over some documents he’d been studying.

She leafed through a collection of graphs and diagrams beautifully drawn and neatly labelled in Joe’s small but very legible hand with coloured inks to distinguish particular points he wished to emphasise. She’d been so fascinated by them, it was several minutes before she realised exactly what Joe had done.

‘So this graph is the turnover for the shop and this is the breakdown by department,’ she began, running her eyes up and down the coloured lines. ‘And these circular charts show which lines are most profitable and at which time of the year.’

He nodded and looked pleased. ‘Are there any surprises there, Miss Scott?’

‘Well, yes. I know we sell a lot of curtain fabric, but I didn’t think there was quite so much, or so profitable. And I didn’t know, or had never noticed, we sell most of it in October and November. I suppose if I’d guessed, I’d have thought it would be the springtime.’

‘It seems Mr Hanna has been most observant,’ he said nodding vigorously.

For a moment, Ellie couldn’t think who Mr Hanna was. She smiled to herself when she realised it was Joe. But it was significant Mr Freeburn had never mentioned him before. This was the first time he’d done something on his own initiative.

The thought of Joe’s achievement and Mr Freeburn’s enthusiastic response delighted her. It was one more thing to add to the pleasures of this summer, the dance, the evenings at the Tennis Club, and Daisy’s engagement.

It was hard to believe that only a year ago, Daisy was distraught because their landlord had served notice and the anxiety it produced had made her mother even iller than she’d been. But all that was
over and gone. There’d been no more difficulty with the landlord since Mr Freeburn had intervened and her mother was now completely recovered thanks to Doctor Richard Stewart.

She’d doubled her flock of hens last summer and added some turkeys to rear for Christmas. Since then, they’d had no trouble paying the rent. Daisy said they still hadn’t paid the arrears, but they were saving up a little each week in case the outstanding debt should suddenly be presented.

Daisy looked so happy these days, the ring on her finger still so new she kept glancing down at it as she cut cloth or made up a parcel. It was not a diamond ring, but it was old and pretty and had once belonged to Frank’s grandmother. He’d had it in his pocket the night of the dance, not sure if it would even fit, but it had. Ellie would never forget drinking cocoa at three o’clock in the morning with Daisy and Susie, both of whom were far too excited to want to go to bed.

It was a year now since she’d waited so anxiously for George’s first letter. He’d said before he went it would need a year, or two, to save up for her ticket, or come home to marry her. Yet not once since he’d gone had he mentioned a time or a date. All he ever said was how much he missed her and longed to be with her again which might be true enough but wasn’t much to help her with the waiting.

She turned on to her left side, stared at the beam
of light striking the rag rug in front of her washstand and found herself thinking of Sam Hamilton. A dozen times now she’d caught herself going through that last little piece of conversation they’d had after the dance, standing under the trees on The Mall opposite Sleator’s house.

If there had been no George, might he have been ‘in with a chance’, he’d asked. And there was only one answer she could give. Indeed, yes, he would. He certainly would. She’d never met anyone she’d liked better nor felt easier with. Except always George, of course.

Sam was someone she could talk to. He listened and he shared his thoughts with her. He’d told her about his bad upset as well as about his good fortune in having father and sisters to help him see that running away wasn’t the answer.

If he’d gone off to New Zealand, they’d never have met, never danced together, never walked home in the starlight and she wouldn’t be going up to Belfast today by car to meet his sisters and to talk to Rose. It would have been such a pity to have missed all that.

She had no idea what she was going to say to Rose about George and his letters and their plans for the future, or rather, the lack of them. But perhaps it would come to her on the drive. There was something about Sam’s presence that always made her feel steadier.

Suddenly, she felt uneasy and anxious. It still wasn’t seven o’clock, but she slid out of bed and poured water into the china basin from the tall, flower-scattered jug. There was no doubt about it, every time she thought about George and the fact he’d still offered no plan for the immediate future, it made her feel uneasy. That was what she needed Rose to help her sort out in her own mind.

Sunday was the day Ellie did all the household chores her mother could not or would not do during the week. She had long since stopped asking herself whether her mother was really ill, whether it was simply ‘nerves’, as the doctor from Armagh declared on his regular visits, and if so what that might mean. Sometimes, when she thought no one was looking, Ellen could be quite vigorous. She’d clean out the hen-house or wash the floor, peel vegetables and make a stew, or even polish the furniture, but there was no method to her work. She did what she felt like doing and ignored the rest, knowing that her daughter would do it for her.

Normally on a Sunday morning before church, Ellie did the weekly wash and hung it out behind the gable of the old house where no one would see it, then caught up on the pans and saucepans left soaking in cold water under the kitchen table. She changed beds and ironed shirts and was grateful for the hour of physical rest provided by the
Episcopalian service before she came home to cook a midday dinner.

Today, along with the rest, she made time to scrub the kitchen floor, then she emptied her bucket, rinsed her cloth and retired to her room to change out of her oldest skirt into her blue dress.

‘Sure you’re well late for church, Ellie. Could ye not read the clock?’

‘Not going to church, Ma. I told you. I’m going up to Belfast to visit a friend I made when I stayed with Aunt Annie.’

‘An’ how long are you staying’ away? Who’ll bring me the spring water if you’re away?’

‘I’ll be back tonight, Ma, and Da brought two buckets in a while ago. Did you not see him?’

‘Ah sure I can see nothin’, I’ve lost my glasses.’

By the time Ellie had found the spectacles, collected her jacket and handbag, the sitting-room clock had struck twelve. It was always ten minutes fast, but she still looked out of the kitchen window. A motor was parked down on the road and Sam Hamilton was walking up the lane. Before she could go to the door, she saw her father put down the buckets of water he was carrying to the forge. He stretched out his hand to the young man.

‘Sam Hamilton, I’m pleased to meet you. I’d have known you anywhere,’ he said, his voice echoing on the silent air. ‘Yer even more like your grandfather than yer Da. Is he in the motor?’

‘No, Mr Scott, he isn’t. He said to apologise to you. He wasn’t planning to go to Meeting today, but there’s a Friend from Belfast has come to talk to them about destitute children. He said he had to go after all. So I’m collectin’ your Ellie first and then Da and Emily on my way through Richhill.’

‘Ach tell him I’m sorry I missed him. Is he well?’

‘He’s the best.’

‘An’ Rose, your granny?’ he asked, a softness in his voice.

‘She’s rightly too. To be honest, she’s amazin’ for her age. I hope I’ll be as sharp if I get to eighty.’

Ellie heard her father laugh as she said goodbye to her mother and walked down the path to join them.

‘Tell Rose I was askin’ for her,’ Robert instructed Sam as they both turned towards Ellie. ‘Is that a birthday present?’ he went on, nodding and laughing again as he caught sight of the carefully wrapped long stems of pink briar rose she was holding.

‘Oh no, Mr Scott,’ said Sam, ‘we’ve been well warned. No presents, she says. That must be somethin’ between her an’ Ellie.’

‘Aye an’ there’ll be somethin’ between you an’ me if ye go on callin’ me Mr Scott,’ said Robert with a short laugh. ‘Sure didn’t your grandfather serve his time with my grandfather and your Da an’ I chase one another up an’ down that field there.’

‘I thought maybe I should use a Sunday name on a Sunday,’ said Sam, his blue eyes twinkling.
‘Especially when I’ve come to chauffeur this young lady of yours.’ he added easily.

‘See ye enjoy yourselves. An’ tell yer Da to take a run over. Even if he hasn’t some fancy motor home from work with him he can surely still ride his bike this far.’

‘I’ll tell him what ye said, Robert, and I’m glad to have made your acquaintance after all I’ve heard about you, one way and another.’

The two men shook hands. Sam took Ellie’s jacket to carry for her and together they made their way down the lane to the vehicle parked on the opposite side of the road in the entrance to Robinson’s field.

Sam did a neat turn in the road and Robert watched and waved to them as they headed back towards Richhill.

He scratched his head and wondered if he’d made a mistake. Surely Sam was the young man who had bought the furniture for the girl that had let him down. Hadn’t he told his father he wouldn’t even look at another woman for many a long day.

Or could it be that Ellie had looked at him? Well, if she had, she could do a lot worse.

‘Isn’t it a lovely mornin’?’ he said glancing at her, as they drove slowly down to Scott’s Corner and turned right through Annacramp. ‘Granny’s going to get a good day for her party. We’ll be able to go out into the garden.’

‘It’s such a lovely garden, Sam,’ she nodded. ‘She and I sat out there after lunch the day I went to see her last October. She says the only thing James hasn’t done for her is move the Mourne Mountains to the bottom of it where she can see them.’

Sam laughed. ‘Aye, Da says he’s good to her. He’s more than made up for the past, as it were.’

‘What d’you mean, Sam? What happened in the past?’ she asked anxious that she might have misread a man to whom she’d taken a liking.

Sam drew in a deep breath and drove more slowly.

‘James was very ambitious,’ he began. ‘An’ as ye can see he’s a big man now in the Government … but he started off with Harland and Woolf as an apprentice. I don’t know the ins and the outs of it, but he got very full of himself and very bitter. He couldn’t say a good word about Catholics and I’m sure ye know Granny’s father was Catholic and all that side of the family still are. There was a big row and James went off. He married into a wealthy family in Belfast but then he disappeared and nothin’ was heard of him. Da thought he might be dead, but Granny said no. An’ she was right. He came back, maybe eight or nine years ago … it was the year Rosie got married, for it was she who first met him at a Trade Fair in the City Hall. That was when she was with McGredys. After his wife died and his son went to live with his grandparents
in Belfast, James went off to Australia. Slater is his son’s name. He’s an engineer. Goes all over the world. I’ve never met him, but Uncle James comes to see us and brings Granny regular. He and Da get on the best.’

‘My goodness,’ Ellie said, ‘that’s a story, isn’t it? At least it has a happy ending. Poor Rose, she must have been heartbroken when he went away. She never mentioned that to me, though she’s told me so many stories about her family. I loved the one about Hannah and Teddy, who was really Lord Cleeve, and how Sarah married Hugh Sinton when she was only eighteen. It’s like something you’d read in a book.’

‘Aye and Granny herself, a wee chile thrown out on the road in Donegal that now has one daughter a countess and one a lady and a son up at Stormont … and my Da, God Bless him, away at Meeting this mornin’ to try and see how the Friends in Richhill can raise the money for another orphanage in Belfast.’

‘Is that what he’s doing?’

‘Aye, otherwise he was lookin’ forward to seein’ your Da. They don’t see other often, but they seem to be very great, as the sayin’ is.’

He broke off as they drove round Cannon Hill and he slowed on the steep downslope beyond.

‘If you look over there to your right, ye’ll see where we live. It’s just over the level crossing,’ he
said, starting to laugh, ‘I don’t know why they call it a level crossing, it gets bumpier every year,’ he added as they bounced across.