The Price of Love (17 page)

‘We’ve done all we can,’ Sam commented as they went home. ‘It’s a pity Barry didn’t ask for extended leave, but I don’t suppose he thought his mother was as ill as she is.’

‘It seems to be her chest and not her leg that is the main cause for concern,’ Lucy mused. ‘All we can do now is wait and hope that perhaps Barry is back in time to visit her tomorrow.’

‘That’s hardly likely if the ship doesn’t reach Amsterdam until tomorrow.’

‘I suppose not. I was thinking what that clerk said about his turning up.’

‘He was trying to cheer you up,’ Sam told her. ‘We’ll go back tomorrow like he said and see if he has any news. If we know that Barry is definitely on his way home, we can tell Berky when we go to see her tomorrow night and that will delight her.’

Knowing they were both too worried to sleep they sat up late debating what they ought to do about Berky’s rooms until she came home.

‘Locking the doors and leaving them as they are is probably the best thing,’ Sam stated.

‘Yes, I know that, but it was more about her duties here as landlady that I was thinking about,’ Lucy told him. ‘Apparently Berky collected the rents each week on behalf of the landlord and I don’t even know who he is, do you?’

‘No.’ Sam shook his head. ‘I never gave it a thought. She seemed to decide what we all paid and she made sure she collected the money on time. The sooner Barry gets back and sorts such things out the better.’

‘That’s if he knows the ins and outs of it all,’ Lucy said worriedly.

‘Well, if he doesn’t, I’m sure the landlord will soon turn up if he doesn’t receive his money and then we can tell him what’s happened to Berky.’

‘Do you think we should tell the other people who live here?’

‘I don’t know; I’ve not had much to do with any of them. I’ve passed the time of day when I’ve met them as I was coming in or going out but that’s all.’

‘Probably we should leave it until Barry comes home and let him handle all those sorts of things,’ Lucy agreed.

It was almost midnight when they heard the sharp thud on the front door. They looked at each other questioningly.

‘Could it be Barry?’ Lucy asked.

Sam shook his head. ‘He’d never manage to get home this quickly.’

‘Shall we ignore it?’

‘No, it might be important, I’ll go and see who it is,’ Sam said, rising from his chair.

‘Be careful,’ Lucy warned as she followed him into the hall.

When Sam opened the door Lucy felt apprehensive when she saw two policemen standing there.

‘Does Mrs Mason live here?’ one of them asked.

‘Mrs Mason is in hospital,’ Sam told him.

‘I mean Mrs Lucy Mason.’

Lucy gasped and retreated quickly back into their room. They must have found out that she’d been lying and impersonating Berky’s daughter-in-law, she thought in alarm. She felt scared; surely, though, they couldn’t arrest her for doing that, she told herself.

‘I think you’d better come in and tell us what this is about,’ she heard Sam say. ‘Come through here,’ he invited, leading them into their living room.

‘Are you Mrs Brenda Mason’s daughter-in-law?’ one of them asked looking at Lucy.

She stared at them unable to answer and looked at Sam hoping he would take over.

‘You have some news about Mrs Mason for us?’ Sam asked.

‘Are you Barry Mason?’

‘No, I’m Sam Collins and this is my sister,’ Sam told them, putting an arm around Lucy’s shoulders. ‘Barry is at sea but we have sent a message through the shipping line for him to come home because his mother is so ill. As a matter of fact, we thought that was who it was knocking on the door.’

‘I see. When is he due?’

Barry explained about Barry’s ship being due to dock at Amsterdam tomorrow and he would be coming straight home.

The police officer nodded. ‘Well, I’m afraid he is going to be too late; we’ve come to inform you that Mrs Mason died at ten o’clock this evening.’

Lucy and Sam looked at each other in stunned silence after the policemen left. Then Sam hugged her and tried to comfort her as the tears rolled down her cheeks.

‘What a terrible shock it’s going to be for Barry when he gets home,’ she snuffled.

‘Let’s hope he manages to get here fairly quickly so that he can take charge of everything,’ Sam agreed.

‘They said something about letting the hospital have details about her and the funeral arrangements, didn’t they?’ Lucy asked, moving out of his arms and wiping away her tears with a handkerchief.

‘Yes, but I think we should wait for Barry to get home, don’t you? He mightn’t like us going through her private papers.’

‘The trouble is, we let those policemen think that I was her daughter-in-law and Barry has said I’m her next of kin so we might have to be the ones to do so,’ Lucy said worriedly.

‘Well, we don’t need to do anything about it tonight and with a bit of luck Barry might arrive home tomorrow. We’ll both be out at work so if anyone comes here looking for us in the morning they won’t be able to find us.’

Barry arrived early in the afternoon the following day shortly after Lucy came home from work.

‘I wasn’t sure whether to come home first or go straight to the hospital,’ he told her as he dropped his kit bag on to the floor and hugged her. ‘How is Mam?’

Lucy bit her lip. She wanted to break the news to him gently but couldn’t find the right words. He took one look at her face and shook his head in despair. ‘I’m too late, aren’t I?’

‘I’m afraid so.’ Lucy nodded. ‘I’m so sorry.’

‘When did it happen?’

‘Last night. The police came to tell us. They said the hospital needed her personal details and information about the funeral arrangements.’

He nodded again but didn’t speak.

‘Would you like a cup of tea?’

The moment she’d asked the question she felt that it was a trite thing to say but, to her relief, he simply nodded, then walked over to the window and stared out unseeingly.

He was still standing there, his hands in his pockets and his shoulders hunched, when she had made the tea and poured him out a cup and she could see the grief etched on his face when he turned round to take it from her.

It brought back memories of when she’d lost both her parents in the car accident and it made her feel so sad that she wanted to put her arms round him and comfort him. She hesitated, wondering if he would read more into it than she intended and the moment passed.

Barry drank his tea in silence, and then put the cup down on the table. ‘I suppose I’d better go to the hospital,’ he said.

‘Would you like me to come with you?’ Lucy asked.

He hesitated then shook his head. ‘No, I think it might be better if I went on my own. You said they wanted to know about the funeral arrangements; you haven’t done anything about that, have you?’

‘Well, no. I wasn’t sure what had to be done. I didn’t like to go into her room and look for all the personal papers they said they would need.’

He frowned. ‘Do you know where she kept them?’

‘No,’ Lucy shook her head. ‘I have no idea at all.’

‘I’d better go and see if I can find them. I suppose they’ll want her birth certificate, wedding certificate, that sort of thing.’

‘Yes,’ Lucy nodded, ‘I think that is what they want and probably any insurance policies, if she had any.’

‘You mean to pay for her funeral,’ Barry muttered and there was such unhappiness in his voice that Lucy threw caution to the wind and put her arms round him to try and comfort him.

He groaned and buried his face in her hair as he returned her hug then, with a great effort, he freed himself and went out of the room and downstairs to start searching.

Lucy respected his need for privacy. She wanted to help because she knew from her own experience how traumatic having to deal with all the officialdom could be. She suspected, though, that Barry wanted to do these things himself; it was a way of atoning for not being there when his mother died.

The funeral was a simple ceremony. Lucy and Sam attended, and one or two of the other lodgers in the house, but after the internment they all quietly went their own way. Barry went home with Lucy and Sam and they had a meal together. He stayed for a couple of hours before saying he was tired and, as he hadn’t had much sleep lately, he thought he’d have an early night.

The next day he told Lucy that he’d only been given a few days’ compassionate leave so he was clearing out his mother’s rooms because he’d be rejoining his ship, which was still in the Albert Dock in Liverpool taking on fresh cargo, almost immediately.

‘It seems senseless to go on renting them simply as a base for when I get leave,’ he told Lucy. ‘It would be different if I was planning to get married and needed a home for my wife,’ he added looking pointedly at her.

Lucy didn’t answer; she felt uncomfortable as the blood rushed to her cheeks.

Barry walked across to the door, then paused and turned round. ‘I’m not much good at this sort of thing, Lucy, but I’m trying my damnedness to ask you to marry me.’

‘Oh, Barry, I’m sorry, but the answer is no.’ Lucy laid a hand on his arm. ‘I like you very much as a friend, but I can’t commit further than that.’

‘Ah well, I thought that was the case,’ he muttered. He pulled out his cigarettes and Lucy noticed his hand was shaking slightly as he lit one. ‘If you would like to have the rooms my mother had, I could always ask the landlord on your behalf,’ he offered. ‘Of course, it would mean that you would have to take over her duties as janitor and collect the rent from all the other tenants and be the one to interview new tenants when there were rooms to let.’

‘I think all that responsibility might be rather too much for me,’ Lucy said dubiously.

‘Yes, you wouldn’t have the right firmness in your tone when you said no to them; they might think that deep down you didn’t mean it,’ Barry said darkly.

Before Lucy could think of an answer he’d gone. She felt confused; surely he didn’t think that she was playing hard to get, she thought angrily.

The minute Sam arrived home she related what had been said but to her annoyance he seemed to be surprised that she had turned down Barry’s suggestion.

‘Surely collecting rents would be far better than washing up dirty dishes and greasy pots and pans?’ he pointed out. ‘Barry was probably trying to make things easier for you; he’s daft about you. I can’t understand why you keep pushing him to one side. Marry him and your troubles will be over.’

Lucy decided not to argue with him.

She saw very little of Barry during the remaining few days of his leave. Once or twice she caught sight of him hurrying out of the house as though dashing to keep an appointment.

Sam said he had seen him going into Berky’s room with a tall middle-aged man whom he thought was probably the landlord. When Barry finally popped in to say goodbye and tell them that he was sailing later that night, he said that the landlord was keeping all Berky’s furniture so that he could let out her place ready-furnished to one of his relations who would also be collecting the rents and supervising the lettings.

‘Have you any idea when you will next be coming home on leave?’ Lucy asked.

‘Home?’ Barry gave her a wry smile. ‘I don’t have a home here any longer so I don’t suppose our paths will ever cross again.’

‘There will always be a bed and a meal for you here whenever you come ashore,’ Sam told him as they shook hands.

Sam frowned as the door closed behind Barry and he turned to face Lucy. ‘So you’re happy to let him go without a word, are you?’ he said bitterly.

‘I don’t know what you mean,’ Lucy prevaricated, turning away and busying herself tidying some things on the table.

‘Oh yes you do. What on earth is wrong with you, Lucy? Are you going to spend the rest of your days mooning over Robert? He was a first-class scoundrel who double-crossed you, so forget him and get on with your life.’

‘I am getting on with my life,’ she defended. ‘We both are, if it comes to that.’

‘That’s utter rubbish and you know it,’ Sam said angrily. ‘You’re not happy living here in a couple of rooms with only me for company. You have no friends; you earn your money charring. Heavens above, Lucy, you are worth far more than that. You make me feel a burden; it’s as if I’m dragging you down and holding you back.’

‘Why should you feel like that?’ she asked in surprise. ‘You’re earning enough to pay your share. I would be much worse off if we weren’t living together.’

‘So you want to spend your life like this, do you, with no future to look forward to and struggling to make ends meet?’

‘How else should I spend it?’ she sighed.

‘Well, you could have accepted Barry’s proposal. He’d make a good husband.’

‘Look, Sam, can you get it into your thick head that I don’t love Barry?’ Lucy told him angrily.

‘No, you are still wearing your heart on your sleeve for Robert,’ he said contemptuously.

‘I don’t dwell on what is all in the past,’ she told him stiffly. ‘I wish I could say the same about you.’

‘What do you mean by that?’

‘You still feel angry and hurt by what Patsy did; betraying you and having another man’s baby.’

‘And who was that other man?’ he sneered. ‘It was your boyfriend. The man you were on the verge of marrying – and would have done, if it hadn’t been for the accident.’

Lucy walked over and put her arm round Sam’s shoulders. ‘Don’t let’s keep going over it and stirring up the past. We’ve had some bad fortune but it’s time to forget all about that. We’ve got each other and I’m happy enough if you are.’

He stared at her for a moment, his chin jutting out, then he relaxed and returned her hug. ‘Don’t take any notice of me. I’m happy enough and grateful for all you’ve done for me; it’s just that I hate to see your life slipping by unfulfilled.’

‘It’s not. I’m far too busy to think about what might have been.’

‘You’re going to miss Berky. You haven’t made any friends at all since we’ve been living here,’ he said changing the conversation.

‘No, and I didn’t make any when we were living in Hans Court,’ she reminded him. ‘I think I am a loner; I’m happy enough with my own company and yours.’