A Mother's Duty (6 page)

Her eyes glinted. ‘I’m no snob! Perhaps we should change the subject and talk monkeys again.’

‘That suits me fine. Just tell me why you’re so interested in Joey?’

She stared at him, thinking that she did not want to talk about monkeys – she was far more interested in him – but there was nothing for it but to answer his question. ‘Because of Ben, my youngest. He’s missing his uncle who lived with us, and has taken a shine to the creature.’

‘You weren’t thinking of buying him, I hope,’ said the Scottie swiftly. ‘I wouldn’t recommend him as a pet. He might look the daintiest thing but he can give a nasty bite and would climb your curtains and tear them to shreds.’

‘Not buy,’ she said hastily. ‘I couldn’t have a monkey on my premises. Would it be possible for Ben to see Joey?’

‘I don’t see why not.’

‘You can arrange it for me?’

‘I can arrange it.’

They had reached the Arcadia by now and both looked up at its frontage which was badly in need of a coat of paint.

Kitty said, almost apologetically, ‘It was run-down when we took over but I’ve promised myself it’ll be painted after the Grand National this year. I’d also like window boxes filled with flowers.’

‘Sounds a good idea.’

‘I’m glad you think so.’ She smiled warmly at him before turning the handle of the vestibule door. He moved forward quickly and held it open for her while she stepped inside.
Another tick for nice manners
, she thought.

Annie was brushing the stairs. There was a cup of damp tea leaves at her elbow to sprinkle on the carpet to help bring up the dust. ‘There’s a family come, Kit. I gave them room three. They’ve gone down the Pier Head, something about emigration.’

‘That’s fine. Mr McLeod, my cousin Annie. Mr McLeod helped me with the Potters, Annie. They were doing a flit.’

‘Fancy that!’ Annie gaped at John. ‘You’re a big fella if you don’t mind me saying so.’

‘I’m used to it. It’s nice meeting you, Annie,’ he said in a friendly way before turning to Kitty. ‘You’ll be wanting this fish in the kitchen?’

‘Yes, please.’ With a wink at her cousin, Kitty went ahead of him to put on the kettle.

She was extremely aware of his presence as he paused in the middle of the quarry-tiled floor and knew him to be watching her as she spooned tea into the pot. She felt all fingers and thumbs and dropped a spoon. ‘Do sit down, Mr McLeod,’ she said, pausing to pick it up. ‘You’re making me nervous.’

‘Am I?’ He looked amused but made no move to obey her. Instead he went over to the sink and placed the basket on the draining board before turning on the cold water tap.

‘What are you doing?’ she asked, startled.

‘Washing the fish.’ He lifted the cloth from the basket. ‘How will you be cooking them? They’re fine big ones. I remember my grandmother’s cook used to stuff herring with a mixture of oatmeal and herbs.’

His grandmother’s cook! Her mind seized on that bit of information. She cleared her throat. ‘I’ll be cooking them in the Scandinavian way which my father showed my mother.’

‘And how’d that be?’ He began to wash the fish.

‘I bake them with a little melted fat and mustard.’ It was a pleasure to her to talk about cooking. Michael and Jimmy had never shown any interest in how the food on their plates got there.

‘And to go with them?’ He glanced over his shoulder at her.

‘Boiled potatoes with a vinegar sauce and parsley.’ There was a quiver in her voice as she took her apron from its hook. ‘Do you want to know what’s for pudding?’

One of his eyebrows lifted interrogatively.

‘Baked jam roly-poly. Does that meet with your approval, Mr McLeod?’ Her eyes smiled up at him.

‘If it’s the food you’re offering me, aye.’

‘It was not. I was offering you lunch which is ham bone soup with lentils,’ she said with mock severity. ‘The herring are for my guests’ main course this evening. If there’s any left over you can share it with us in payment for work. That’s if you wouldn’t mind doing the odd job?’ She could not conceal her eagerness. ‘Since my brother-in-law left there’s some things that the boys just can’t do. I’d really appreciate it if you could help me.’

‘I might be interested as long as you don’t think I’m stopping.’ There was a warning note in his voice. ‘I’ll be hitting the road as soon as the weather improves.’

‘I wasn’t thinking of you stopping,’ she lied, adding in a persuasive voice. ‘There’s only a few little odd jobs. You remember Mr Potter mentioning a trunk?’

‘No, but go on.’

‘I need it moving.’ She busied herself peeling onions for the lentil soup. ‘My brother-in-law said it weighed a ton.’

‘Why did he leave?’ John slapped a fish down on the draining board.

Kitty turned her head. ‘A woman. I wouldn’t mind if she was any ordinary woman but—’

‘Are you sure about that?’

She remembered how Jimmy had kissed her and inexplicably blushed as if she had a guilty secret to hide. ‘Of course I’m sure,’ she snapped. ‘The woman involved is called Myrtle Drury, but you won’t have heard of her although she’s quite well known by some in Liverpool.’

‘But I have heard of her,’ he said softly.

She could not believe it and as she stared at him their eyes met, but his expression was hard to read. ‘She was dunning my god-daughter’s mother, who’s hopeless with money and fell behind with her rent. Charley, that’s Miss Drury’s bully boy if you didn’t know, got nasty. I had to scare him a little. I don’t think she was pleased with him. In fact I know she wasn’t because she offered me his job. I turned it down, of course, with me not wanting regular work.’

‘That wasn’t your only reason, surely,’ said Kitty. ‘You must have realised she was no lady.’ The kettle began to hiss and Kitty dropped the knife on the table to make the tea.

‘Naturally. Ladies don’t threaten to have you thrown in the Mersey.’

‘Is that what she did?’

‘Haven’t I just said so.’ His eyes teased her.

She found herself blushing.
At my age
, she thought, and said hurriedly, ‘I wish Jimmy’d had as much sense as you.’

‘Ach, you make her sound like the whole German army. I’d left home and seen death when I was twenty-one. I’m sure he can cope with one woman if he’s any kind of man.’

‘He’s over thirty but that doesn’t mean anything with some men,’ said Kitty, cutting the remains of a sponge cake into three before calling Annie.

Her cousin entered the kitchen. ‘That there doorknob’s worked loose again, Kit.’

Kitty pulled a face and resting an elbow on the table she looked at John with a question in her eyes. ‘Please?’

‘I’m no expert at doorknobs,’ he said woodenly. ‘But if it’s only a loose screw I’m sure I can manage.’

She smiled as she filled his cup almost to the brim and murmured, ‘A whole herring for you, Mr McLeod. But first that trunk. After you’ve drunk your tea of course.’

The trunk stood in a corner of the bedroom, large and imposing. John took a grip on a handle and lifted one side before lowering it carefully. ‘I’ll need help if it’s downstairs you want it.’

‘Along the passage will do,’ said Kitty, thinking he really was strong. She had tried to lift one end of it before and had been unable to shift it. ‘There’s a small room I never use unless we’re absolutely full, and we haven’t been that for ages, since the last Grand National.’ She
rat-a-tatted
on the trunk with her fist. ‘I wonder what’s really inside? Mr Potter had to be lying about props.’

‘Have a look.’ John leaned against the wall, his tongue in his cheek. ‘Perhaps there’s a body in it?’

‘You think so?’ She was half inclined to take him seriously as she slowly turned the key in the lock before lifting the lid. Her heart seemed to miss a beat as she gazed inside. ‘Ohhh!’ she exclaimed.

‘What is it?’ He moved hurriedly and lowered his head as she lifted hers. Their heads bumped and she winced. He took her arm and led her over to the bed. ‘You sit there. I’ll deal with this.’

She rubbed her head and watched him go back to the trunk, glad to leave it to him. As he looked inside she said, ‘My eyes didn’t deceive me, did they?’

‘What do you think you saw?’ he said carefully.

‘A body as you said.’ The words came out in a whisper.

He reached inside the trunk. ‘Don’t!’ she cried, jumping to her feet.

He surprised her by grinning and producing a ventriloquist’s dummy.

She laughed. ‘I’ve never liked those things.’

‘It was lying on what looks like a hundredweight of bricks,’ he murmured. ‘It’s crazy the lengths some people’ll go to con others.’ He dropped the dummy on the floor. ‘Where d’you want the bricks?’

‘The back yard. Perhaps we can build something with them?’ She was so relieved, so pleased with him that she added, ‘For the extra work you can have a bed for the night. A comfortable bed, better than you’d get at the Sally Army.’

There was a silence and their eyes met. ‘You’re taking a risk, aren’t you, Mrs Ryan?’ he drawled. ‘You don’t know me from Adam.’

‘I don’t know the majority of my guests from Adam,’ she countered.

‘Of course you don’t! Stupid me!’ He sounded vexed. ‘Thanks but no thanks. I could get too comfortable here and besides I’m not staying at the Sally Army but with friends.’

‘Those at the pet shop?’ she murmured and then could have bitten off her tongue.

He said seriously, ‘That would be the last thing I’d do. What do you want doing with this dummy?’

‘Sling it in the yard.’ She decided it was time for her to go. Time perhaps to stop being so friendly. She did not want him to feel hunted. She nodded regally and allowed her skirts to brush his leg as she left the bedroom.

By the time John had cleared the bricks, moved the trunk and fixed the doorknob, the soup was ready. Watching him eat, Kitty wondered why he had taken to the road. There was little of the vagrant about him. He was strong, quick-witted, well-mannered, clear-eyed and with no smell of drink on his breath. He fascinated her. She wanted to question him further about himself and the way he lived but she held back.

After their meal she showed him the chair with its back-to-front leg and when he had sorted that out and still appeared willing to be of help she handed him some newspapers and a bottle of vinegar and asked him to clean the front windows. He was still at work when she realised Ben would be coming out of school in five minutes and went to meet him.

She hurried up the Mount, thinking of the man she had left behind. He really could be useful to her but she was not sure how to handle him. He was different to anyone she had met before. She knew she would have to take things slowly, although if he planned on leaving Liverpool she did not see how she could do that.

By the time she reached the school gates there was only a trickle of children coming out. She waited a while but when there was still no sign of Ben she turned her footsteps homeward, thinking how once again she had fallen down on her responsibilities towards her youngest son and all because she had got too interested in a man who seemed to have no sense of responsibility at all.

Ben had returned home by a different route to Kitty and arrived at the hotel to find John cleaning the basement window. ‘Who are you?’ demanded the boy, pausing at the top of the area steps.

‘Don’t you remember me, laddie?’ John tossed the used newspapers into a bucket and came up the steps. ‘I’ll have to be going. You tell your mother that Mr McLeod will be back for that meal she promised him.’

Ben nodded and trotted beside him as he went indoors. ‘Have you come in place of Jimmy and Horace?’

‘Who’s Horace?’ asked John, making for the kitchen.

‘Annie’s uncle and he was useless and had a fat tummy. Teddy said he liked his drink too much and he didn’t do the jobs properly so Ma got rid of him. Are you here for a trial p-pe-riod?’ Ben stumbled over the word.

‘Your mother might think so,’ said John dryly, washing his hands at the sink.

The boy stared at him and then crowed with laughter. ‘I know you! You’re the man with the monkey!’

John smiled faintly, ‘You’re spot on, laddie. Now I’ve got to be off to get changed and fetch my fiddle and Joey, or I won’t be catching the first-house queues.’ As he dried his hands Annie entered the kitchen. They nodded at each other as she took potatoes from a box.

Ben said earnestly, ‘Can I come with you? I won’t be any trouble. Just let me see the monkey.’

‘You’ll be Ben. How old are you?’ said John, hanging up the towel. ‘And tell me, what time do you have your evening meal?’

‘I’m seven. And after the guests. We have what’s left over.’ Ben sighed. ‘Generally Ma’s here now and I have a buttie.’ He followed him out of the kitchen and onto the pavement.

John halted and looked down at Ben. ‘This is as far as you go. Tell your mother to keep my food in the oven. I’ll be back about half nine.’

‘But I want to come with you and see the monkey,’ pleaded Ben. ‘Did you say his name’s Joey? I like that name. It sounds right for a monkey.’

‘I’m thinking it would be more than my life’s worth to take you with me. Maybe I’ll take you to see him in the morning.’

‘But I want to see him now.’

‘I said no, laddie.’ The tone of John’s voice brooked no argument.

Ben sighed and sat on the step, oblivious to its chill, and watched him go down the hill. After several minutes he rose and followed him. Teddy, whose school was only round the corner from the hotel, was playing marbles in the gutter with a couple of his mates but Ben did not speak to him and his brother did not look up as he passed.

The boy trotted in John’s wake across the centre of Liverpool, past St John’s Gardens, the free library and the technical school, and on up Byrom Street. Despite the cold Ben was beginning to get hot and his legs ached but he had no trouble keeping the man in sight because he was head and shoulders above anyone else. They were now in an area Ben had visited with Jimmy but knew only vaguely. He felt hurt when he thought of his uncle. The Scottie passed a couple of churches and Ben began to feel uneasy. Wasn’t the man ever going to stop? The lamplighters were out now and street lamps shed pools of light on pavements.