Miss Mary Martha Crawford (8 page)

that's a good idea, isn't it, Martha?"

Martha saw that he actually meant what he said, and she herself could see that there was something in the suggestion. She looked at Mildred whose mouth was in a wide indignant gape, but before Mildred could

express her are Nancy had grabbed hold of her hand, saying urgently,

"Gome on, Mildred. Come on." And she tugged at her sister who now appeared to be speechless, and so led her from the room- even while

Mildred strained her head over her shoulder as she glared back at

Roland.

Roland now nodded at Martha, and as if he were already the man of the house and in complete charge of affairs he stretched his neck out of his collar and pursed his lips for a moment before saying, "That would bring madam down to earth. And she wants bringing down to earth."

"We all want bringing down to earth."

Her flat remark, combined with her expression as she looked back at him seemed to deflate him somewhat and cause his shoulders to slump and his chin to sink. He slowly sat down and, putting his elbows on his knees, his hands gripped between them, he looked up at her and said, "This is some fix, isn't it? What are we going to do?"

"I don't know."

His tone now one of sudden bitterness, he said, "It's scandalous. What did he do with the money? Where's it gone?"

"Why didn't you ask him?" She noted that they were both speaking of their father without respect.

"There didn't seem any need."

"No? But you knew as well as we did that he let the other businesses go one by one."

"I thought it was because of trade. When he spoke of it he called it the result of the rise in wholesale prices or some such, but he always seemed to have money."

"Yes, yes, he did." She nodded slowly at him.

"For you he always seemed to have money."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Exactly what I said, Roland. Even when the household bills could not be paid you never went short; he saw to that."

"Well, how was I to know that things weren't as usual? When I came home everything appeared ..."

"Yes, everything appeared normal. All the while you were home there was a good table." 'you mean. you mean you all went short? "

"Yes, I mean just that."

"But... but father liked his food."

"Father was only here for supper, and not every night; he dined in the eating house at Hexham. And as you know he visited Great-Uncle James twice a month and for two, three, sometimes four days at a time. Even more so of late."

"I didn't know he went so often." His brows were gathered into a deep furrow.

"He hoped to be left his estate. He didn't actually say so but he indicated as much. That's why he's kept going there all these

years."

"Then as you said to Mr. Paine, Great-Uncle James should be able to help us, shouldn't he?" He leant towards her now, his long face, the paleness of which was accentuated by his black suit, bright with the hope.

She did not answer immediately, then she said slowly, "One would imagine so, but I've been thinking since I suggested it to Mr. Paine that if Father had to sell the businesses it doesn't appear that

Great-Uncle is a man one could appeal to for a helping hand in a

financial crisis. It appears to me now that he has been holding out

his benefits all these years as a bait so that Father would attend him to the end."

"Yes, you may be right, but... but nevertheless I think we should go and see him."

As she sat looking at him she recalled her father saying, Don't let

Roland know, ever," and over the past week she had pondered this and wondered what Roland shouldn't know that she herself would

understand.

And so she said now, "In the ordinary way you would return to your friend's the day after tomorrow and then go on to school, and... and I don't see why you should alter either arrangement. Anyway, with regard to the school, your fees have been paid up to the end of the term, so it would be foolish to leave before then."

She watched him take a deep breath, his shoulders rise, then fall

again, and his voice was tentative as he asked, "You think so? You really think I should go back to Arnold's?"

"Yes; yes, I do. Anyway, wills and such-like take time, I mean

straightening the business out. And they won't sell the chandler's

right away, so a few more weeks won't make very much difference no

matter where you are."

You really think I should go? It. it won't look bad? " His reaction was that of a young boy being released from some obnoxious chore, and she smiled faintly at him as she said, " No, of course not. "

"And you'll go and see him... Great-Uncle?"

"Yes. Yes, I'll go."

He held out his hand to her, saying, "Oh, thanks, thanks, Martha," and as she took it she thought. He's a child; they're all still

children.

"When will you go?" He was on his feet now straightening his cravat.

He had the look of someone in a hurry to begin a journey. He's not

sorrowing for Father in the slightest degree, she thought. But perhaps there was an excuse for him, he had been away to school since he was nine years old and only met his father when home for the holidays,

which periods got shorter as he grew older for it had become a habit for him to spend both the beginning and the end of his holidays with his friend Arnold. It was strange that never once had he invited his friend back to the house. All they knew about this Arnold was that his father was a prosperous business man in Scarborough.

She answered him now, saying, "As soon as the roads clear sufficiently to get the trap to the station."

"And you'll write me?"

"Yes, yes, as soon as I have any news I'll write to you." He said now generously, "I don't know what we'd do without you, Martha. It's odd, but you're not like a sister at all, you're more like a mother.... Yes, you are."

He stressed the last words as if he were defending his statement

against her denial, but she did not smile at his intended compliment.

In four days' time she'd be twenty. She was young and not unlovely;

no, she was not unlovely; but here she was being taken for a mother, and was likely to go on being a mother in name only unless. She

checked her thoughts, but not quite. When she returned from Newcastle, whatever news she had, she'd stay a while in Hexham and pay a visit to the bookshop . and Mr. Ducat.

she sat with the reins in her hands ready to go. Nancy held Gip's head and murmured to the animal who was fresh and eager to be off. Mildred stood by the step of the trap, her face tight as she looked up at

Martha and said, 'you could have let me come with you. "

"I told you, someone must be with Aunt Sophie, Nancy couldn't manage alone."

"Ooh!" Mildred tossed her head and her glance now took in Dilly and Peg who were standing to the side of her, and it said, "What about these two?"

Dilly now stepped forward and tucked the rug more firmly around

Martha's legs, then patted her knee as she said, Take care now, lass, it's a long journey. God go with you. "

"Don't worry--' Martha smiled down into the wrinkled face 'the roads are nearly all clear now." "Tisn't the roads I'm thinkin' of, lass, it's that train. To my mind it's like ridin' a roarin' lion. And all that way into Newcastle an' all She shook her head.

"I wouldn't mind me self goin' on a train." Bright-eyed Peg voiced her secret desire only to be stamped on by Dilly, saying, "It'll be under one you'll end up, me girl. Come to a bad end you will with your

wants. Your wants 'ud fill a paddock an' come up weeds." Whilst Dilly was propounding her usual prophecy. Peg began to nod her head and,

keeping perfect time with Dilly, mouthed the words 'an' come up weeds'; then she let out a high giggle but checked it almost immediately with her hand tight across her mouth. Eeh! it was no time to laugh, with

her master hardly cold an' the blinds still drawn. But as

the trap moved away she added her voice to the rest, shouting

"Good-bye, Miss Martha Mary. Good-bye, Miss Martha Mary' as if Miss Martha Mary was going on a holiday, or at least a jaunt. It was no

unusual thing for Martha to drive the horse and trap into Hexham. She had never gone there so early in the morning, but she knew that if she hoped to return home today an early start was imperative. If the road had been icy or even snow-bound she wouldn't have been afraid of the drive into the town, but what she was afraid of, as much as Dilly

appeared to be, was the journey from there into New castle. She had

never been in a train before; the one and only time she had visited her great-uncle they had gone by trap.

Owing to Gip's freshness she made the journey to Hexham in little over an hour and a quarter, and having left him and the trap in the care of John Gilbert, who man aged the chandler's, she walked briskly and with false confidence from the shop to the station. There, in the booking office, she bent down and said quietly to the man behind the glass

window, "I would like a ticket to Newcastle, please."

"Return?"

"Pardon."

"Return? Do you want a return, miss?"

She was nonplussed for a moment until a voice from behind her said,

"He's asking, are you coming back today?" She jerked her head towards her shoulder and looked into two round dark brown eyes.

"He's asking you if you want a return ticket, do you intend to come back today?

Look--' the man glanced at his watch, then towards the door that led on to the platform, saying softly but nevertheless firmly, 'the train is almost due, do please make up your mind. " Her indignation brought her shoulders back and her head up, at the same time she took in the number of people who were standing behind the man. Now she was bending

towards the window again, saying, " Yes, a return please," " First, second. or third class? " s-mmmo-d 61 Again she hesitated, until the man behind her sighed, and then she said sharply, " Second, please.

"

"Well, now we know."

She pushed a sovereign through the arched hole in the glass, and the man pushed a ticket and her change back at her, and so great was her agitation that a shilling rolled off the narrow counter on to the dirty floor.

As she stepped to the side to retrieve the coin the man took her place and said, "Return first class Newcastle, please," and almost at the same time bent sideways and picked up the shilling from near his

feet.

When he handed it to her she kept her head bent, her bonnet shading her face, and she said stiffly, "Thank you," then turned away, knowing that her colour was as red as a cock's comb, and that the eyes of the other passengers were on her.

As she entered the platform the train came puffing into the station, making a great noise, and she had to force herself towards it. As she took her seat in the empty carriage she saw the rude man having a hasty conversation with another man on the platform, then make a sudden dash for a compartment further along the train.

She sat back and, opening her bead handbag, took out a folded

handkerchief and wiped her mouth. That man had embarrassed her. He

was a coarse individual. Yet he didn't appear a common working man.

He was dressed almost as well as her father had dressed, but his

square, blunt features seemed to suggest lack of breeding, as his

voice, too, certainly did. It hadn't the Northumbrian burr, but it had a definite northern accent and it wasn't a refined one.

She relaxed against the wooden partition. She was thankful she had the compartment to herself, it would give her time to get used to the

train, and time to think. And she needed time to think, for if no help was forthcoming from Uncle James then their plight would be sorry

indeed, for she had been both amazed and frightened by the number of bills that had poured in these past few days. Some were outstanding

for two years or more. Their accumulated amount seemed so colossal

that she couldn't see any way of clearing them except by selling both the chandler's and the house. She had never fully realized until these past two weeks just how much the house meant to her; even her thoughts of marriage had never carried her away from the house, for she pictured herself and her husband as living there whilst she still looked after her Aunt Sophie, and, of course, the girls until they should marry.

She had never before taken into account that Roland might marry and

bring his wife to live in the house; if she had she would have

dismissed it, by telling herself that Roland was an ambitious young man with three years before him at the university. Moreover, Roland

definitely favoured town life; during the holidays he could never wait to get back to Scarborough. Nor did she take this into account now,

for if the outcome of today's visit wasn't satisfactory then there was every possibility of them having to find a smaller habitation, a meaner habitation that could be run without servants.

Yet as the journey proceeded her mind was lifted temporarily from

herself and her troubles for she became interested in the passing

countryside. It was bleak and snow- sprinkled in many parts but there were stretches that were beautiful.

And the train journey itself, well, it wasn't so frightening after all, in fact the sensation, she could say, was pleasing, even exciting.

There were times when the carriage rocked somewhat alarmingly and

others when the passing scene was completely obliterated by the smoke from the engine, but altogether it was not in the least as unpleasant as she had expected, When eventually she alighted in Newcastle she was sorry the journey was over, yet reminded herself that she'd be

returning the same way.

Outside the station she stood for a moment gazing about her, and now the scene was really bewildering. Such crowds of people, and of all

types, finely dressed ladies descending from carriages, some enveloped in furs and walking into the