Gypsy Wedding (13 page)

Vicky turned to him with shining eyes. Her own trailer. Her very own home. And what Liam had chosen was exactly what she’d have chosen herself.
He’s so wonderful
, she thought.
I couldn’t be happier than I am right at this minute
.

‘I’m going to be living in it from now on. I’m over twenty, I think it’s time I did, but Ma and my sisters are going to keep it nice so it’ll still be perfect for when you move in.’

A tiny bit of Vicky resented that she wouldn’t be the first person to cook or clean in the place but it was just as much Liam’s trailer as hers – more really; he’d paid for it when all was said and done.

‘But I’m not going to sleep in the double bed till we’re wed. I want to save it for when I can share it with you. I want my first time in that bed to be so special.’

Vicky felt her eyes welling with tears. ‘Oh Liam, that’s wonderful. I do love you so.’

Vicky spent the rest of the afternoon ferrying her new possessions into the caravan, watched by Shania, who did little to hide her jealousy.

‘You’re just jammy, you are,’ her little sister grumbled. ‘Your own trailer waiting and ready for you and a fiancé who can’t wait to get you into it.’

Vicky put down the stack of plates she was about to carry over to her new home and put her hands on her hips.

‘Yes, I am lucky but it isn’t as if I don’t appreciate it. And Mammy bought you a load of nice stuff today, to be sure. It isn’t as if things are that unfair for you.’

Shania just gave her a look that clearly showed her disbelief, which Vicky, not wanting a row to spoil things, ignored.

‘Why don’t you help me carry this lot over? I’ve got to wash all these plates and glasses before I put them away. I could do with a hand. Please,’ she added hopefully.

‘I suppose.’

Vicky gave her a warm smile that Shania returned. ‘It’ll be your turn soon,’ Vicky assured her, ‘and I know Mikey will make sure your trailer will be just as nice. Better maybe.’

Shania, placated by the thought of one day having a nicer trailer than her sister’s, began to help.

Together the girls finished lugging Vicky’s stuff over to the new trailer. Shania managed to put her envy aside long enough to admit it was ‘very nice’ and then in a better frame of mind she and Vicky got on with the business of washing all the crockery and glasses before they stored them. Vicky washed and Shania wiped, sometimes chatting, sometimes in friendly silence. Dusk fell as the girls finished.

‘I think we deserve a cup of tea,’ said Vicky as she surveyed the shelves stacked neatly with her new possessions.

‘We could christen the tea set.’

‘Why not. You get the tea and milk and I’ll put the kettle on.’

While Shania was gone Liam popped in to see why the lights were on.

‘You’ve been busy,’ he said, admiring the neat stacks of china and the ranks of glasses lined up with military precision.

Vicky wiped her hands on a tea towel before polishing the kitchen counter with it. ‘Just putting stuff away. Shania helped. We’re about to have tea, fancy a cup?’

‘That’d be wonderful.’

Vicky lifted down the teapot and three cups and saucers from the cupboard over the sink.

‘Oh,’ said Liam. ‘Is this what you got?’

‘What do you mean?’ Vicky was on guard; Liam didn’t sound thrilled.

‘Nothing.’

‘No, it’s not
nothing
. Don’t you like our tea service?’

Liam swallowed.

‘You don’t, do you. You hate it.’

‘I don’t hate it. It’s just – it’s just a bit ordinary, isn’t it?’

Vicky felt deflated. That was exactly what her mammy had said. ‘I thought it looked classy.’

‘Classy? What do the likes of us want with
classy
?’

‘I’ll go back next week and change it. I’ve kept the box it came in so I can pack it back up.’

‘No, I don’t want you to do that. Not if you really like it.’

Vicky looked at her tea set and wondered if she really did.

Shania returned with the teabags and milk. ‘I brought sugar too,’ she said, dumping the paper bag on the table. As she did so she picked up on the atmosphere between Liam and Vick. She glanced from one to the other.

‘Make up your mind,’ said Vicky. ‘I can’t take it back if we’ve used it.’

‘Take what back?’ asked Shania.

‘The tea set. Liam doesn’t like it.’

‘I never said that. I said it was ordinary. There’s a difference. And I’m getting used to it. Anyway, you like it, which is all that matters to me, so we’ll keep it.’

‘Are you sure?’ asked Vicky doubtfully. Maybe it
was
too plain.

‘You don’t want to go back to the Sunday market,’ said Shania. ‘You might run into that horrible Chloe girl again.’

‘What’s this?’ asked Liam.

‘Nothing,’ said Vicky quickly, shooting a warning look at Shania. But Shania missed it as she was busy popping teabags into the new pot.

‘Some girl from college was there. Called Vicky and me pikeys and then accused Vicky of wanting to steal her boyfriend.’

‘Vicky?’ Liam sounded horrified.

Vicky sighed.
Thanks a bunch, Shania
. ‘It was nothing. The stupid cow was making a mountain out of a molehill. Her bloke plays around behind her back so she’s jealous of everyone. And she’s a troublemaker. I swear, I’ve never even given him the time of day. Besides, I hardly see him. I’m doing textiles, Liam, there isn’t a single boy in my class, let alone Jordan.’

‘Yeah, well, I suppose dressmaking isn’t the sort of thing a bloke would do,’ said Liam with a grin.

‘Exactly.’

‘But I wish you weren’t mixing with gorgios. I worry about you, Vicky. I don’t like you being somewhere I can’t protect you. Supposing she gets others to gang up on you? I couldn’t bear it if that happened, it would break my heart if you got hurt.’

‘I don’t have a choice, Liam. There aren’t any colleges for travellers, are there. If I want to learn proper dressmaking this is my only chance. I’ll be fine, though. Trust me.’

But as he was drinking his tea Vicky caught him glancing at her once or twice with a worried expression. It almost seemed to her that he was trying to figure her out. Well, good luck to him because she couldn’t even figure herself out, so she didn’t think anyone else stood a chance.

When she and Shania got back to the family trailer her mum was making supper for the whole family. Her kid brothers were watching re-runs of
Top Gear
with her dad in the sitting area and Kylie was in her high chair banging an upturned plastic bowl with a wooden spoon.

‘What’s for tea, Mammy?’ asked Shania, ‘I’m famished.’

‘Stew and dumplings. But I want some carrots peeling. You can make yourself useful and do that for me, so you can.’

Shania dragged a big bag of carrots out of the cupboard in the corner of the kitchen and got busy.

‘And you, young lady, can lay the table,’ she told Vicky.

It was a scene of domestic harmony: the girls busy in the kitchen helping their mother and the boys enjoying TV with their daddy. Vicky looked at it as she worked and wondered if her own trailer would be as contented as this when she had a family of her own.

‘So,’ said her mammy as she stirred the stew, ‘is that new trailer Liam’s bought you everything you dreamed?’

‘It’s lovely.’ Vicky’s eyes shone as she spoke.

‘I’ve had such a job keeping that piece of news to myself. He’s been asking me so many questions about what you would or wouldn’t want. What colours you like, what arrangements you’d like.’

‘So you knew about it all along?’

‘To be sure I did. That’s one of the reasons we had to get you away off the park today so you wouldn’t see it being delivered. So now you’re getting your bottom drawer sorted and you’ve a home to put it in we need to get you over to the dressmaker for your dress. No more excuses, miss. You’ve got everything now to get wed, except a date and a dress.’

For a second Vicky felt trapped. Her mother was right, there really was no excuse now. She totted up the months till the summer – seven till June. Eight if she could hang on till July. That would be another few weeks’ grace, a few more textile lessons squeezed in, a few more skills learned.

‘You need to get married in May or June,’ chipped in Shania. ‘Then I can wed Mikey in August. I’ll be sixteen by then and I don’t want to wait a minute longer.’

‘Mammy? Two weddings in one year?’ Vicky was aghast. ‘You couldn’t manage that, surely?’

‘Why not? Shania doesn’t want to do anything daft like you and make her own dresses.’ Mary-Rose stopped stirring the stew and faced Vicky. ‘And once we’ve found a place for your wedding breakfast we can use it again for hers. In fact, Shania’s wedding will be easy to sort as we’ll know what we’re doing by the time we fix hers.’

‘But June?’

‘And what’s wrong with that?’ Mammy waved her spoon at her daughter. ‘You said you wanted a summer wedding. June’s summer, so what’s your problem?’

‘Nothing, Mammy.’ She went to her room, shut the door and lay down on her bed. Through the thin partition she could hear the sounds of family life carrying on, the soundtrack that she’d known since birth. As she listened she realised it wasn’t just family life she was hearing but a way of life. Getting married was her destiny. It was what she’d been brought up to do.
Really
, she told herself sternly,
just pull yourself together and get on with it
. But maybe she could get the family to let her wait till the summer term finished in July. Would that be such a compromise?

‘So what’s this your mammy told me about a row at the market?’ asked her dad through a mouthful of beef stew.

‘It was something and nothing, Dad,’ said Vicky.
Jesus, does everyone in the world need to know about the row I had with Chloe?
She recounted the unpleasant meeting for the second time that day, leaving out the bit about what Chloe had said about her and Jordan. Her dad really didn’t need to know about that because she just knew it would lead to another row, only her dad mightn’t be so easy to convince as Liam that it was just a storm in a teacup.

‘So everyone at college is going to know who you are now.’ Johnnie made the statement flatly.

‘Not necessarily.’

Johnnie snorted. ‘Like this girl is going to keep this information to herself. If she’s as spiteful as you say she’s going to just love spreading around that you’re a traveller.’

‘Maybe not.’

Johnnie forked up another big mouthful. ‘Trust me, gorgios never cut a traveller an inch of slack. She’ll make life miserable for you, mark my words. If I were you I’d cut college. Give it up, darlin’. Your little sister gave up school two years ago and it hasn’t done her any harm. I just don’t understand why you’re so hell-bent on carrying on. It’s not worth the heartache. I’ve never met a non-traveller that I’ve liked and I don’t suppose I ever will, and I’ve no doubt that if you go back to college on Monday you’re going to find out the truth of that for yourself the hard way.’

Vicky sighed. The trouble was that she knew her dad was right. She hadn’t got to the grand old age of seventeen without experiencing endless petty discrimination. She’d had friends whose wedding receptions had been cancelled at the last minute because the hotel had found out who the guests were. At the Appleby Horse Fair and at the one at Stow she’d seen gypsies being spat at, being turned away from pubs and picked on by the police for doing nothing more than just standing on a corner. She knew with a sinking feeling of dread that college wasn’t going to be any different. Chloe would see to that. Chloe would make sure she was stared at, singled out, bullied and discriminated against. Much as she wanted to be a proper dressmaker, maybe she ought to just cut her losses. Maybe her dad was right and she should sack her ambition. Her dream seemed to be fading and Vicky felt like crying.

On the Monday morning, after she’d helped her mother clean their own trailer, Vicky went over to Liam’s new trailer to help Bridget, his mother, clean that one. Why not, she reasoned, as she wasn’t going to college when all was said and done? Although how she’d finish all the bridesmaids’ dresses without the college’s fancy machines she didn’t know. Hand sew them, she supposed, or give in and let a professional dressmaker finish them. Another dream down the pan.

‘You not at college?’ Bridget asked.

Vicky was still feeling hideously raw about her decision to quit but managed to bite back a slightly snarky remark that unless she could be in two places at once then, fairly obviously, she wasn’t.

‘No. Giving it a miss for a while.’

Although more realistically it was for ever. But she wasn’t going to tell anyone that just yet. If she breathed a word of her decision it would be round the site in less time than it would take to say ‘please don’t tell a soul’.

‘Is this to do with the trouble at the market?’

Was there no one on the trailer park who didn’t know?
That’s the trouble with this place
, thought Vicky,
no one can mind their own business, not for one second
. She nodded.