A Second Chance (31 page)

‘Of course not. How could I possibly leave
you?’

‘I’ll be all right if you have to—I could
have my meals at the hotel.’

‘No, it’s simply not to be thought of—not
when I’ve no idea how long I might have to stay there. My place is
here, looking after you.’

It was clear to Thomas that, for whatever
reason, his mother had no desire to go to Auckland and see her
family. He did not mind being used as her excuse. ‘Well, if you
need to go up later—you know, if she does pass away—I can take my
holiday and go up with you, if it’s not for too long.’

She gave him a smile of genuine warmth.
‘Thank you, Thomas. I’d be far easier in my mind if you were to
come with me.’ She frowned as a thought struck her. ‘Though if it’s
before the wedding, we can’t possibly go. It would be rude of me
not to attend Beth’s wedding, especially with your being best man
for David.’

‘I suppose not.’ Thomas smiled pensively.
‘Funny to think of Dave getting married. I keep thinking he’s still
a little kid.’

‘Well, he
is
very young to be
married,’ said Susannah. Neither of them said aloud what Thomas was
sure they were both thinking: David was five years younger than
Thomas. ‘Though he does have his own farm, which puts a different
complexion on things.’ Her lips compressed for a moment. ‘Of
course,
you
should have had your own farm, too, or at least
a fair share of it, if your father had done the right—’

‘Don’t start that, Mother,’ Thomas
interrupted. ‘Pa did the best he could. He did right by us all.’
Not allowing any criticism of his father was the one thing Thomas
was prepared to be firm with his mother over, and she had learned
to respect his feelings on the matter.

‘I’m only thinking of you, I’m sure. Though
I must say I’m glad to have got you and George away from that
place. Of course George had to go and find himself an even dirtier
job than being a farmer, working with all that nasty cargo the way
he does.’

‘George is doing all right.’ Thomas was
unsure if their mother had any inkling of George’s living
arrangements, which had yet to involve marriage, but even without
that detail George’s situation was another subject that could
become tedious. He changed it. ‘I didn’t really think of Dave
asking me to be his best man. Nice that he did, though.’

‘And who else should he ask?’ Susannah said,
gazing proudly at him. ‘You’re almost his closest relation. I’m so
pleased you’re to be part of it—it should be a most pleasant
occasion. I’ve ordered a new dress specially.’ She looked away, and
spoke in a carefully casual tone. ‘They’re both very young, but
people on farms seem to marry at that sort of age. There’s no need
for someone in your position to rush into things.’

‘I’m not rushing into anything,’ said
Thomas. There was not much risk of his doing so. It would mean
finding a girl who not only wanted to marry him, but was also
willing to share a household with his mother. If such a girl
existed, he had yet to meet her.

*

Using the bridesmaids’ dresses from Maudie’s
wedding had seemed a good way to save time, but altering two of
them to fit Rosie and Kate had turned out to be more difficult than
expected. Lizzie announced that Rosie had grown suddenly. She made
it sound as if Rosie had done it on purpose; Rosie took it as a
personal insult, and hard words had been said. Maudie suspected
that her mother had cut more off Beth’s old dress than she should
have when cutting it down, and was reluctant to admit her mistake.
However it had happened, the dress altered for Rosie had
dangerously narrow seams, and she had been sternly warned not to
grow any more before the wedding. Kate paid the price by having to
wear a dress that had been so cautiously altered as to be baggy on
her; the five-year-old might not have noticed, but Rosie had
helpfully pointed out the dress’s shortcomings.

So tempers were frayed as the female members
of the household crammed into the kitchen, pink satin dresses
draped across every available surface. Maudie watched the
proceedings, wavering between amused tolerance and aloof
superiority. Really, the very idea of trying to organise a wedding
in a few weeks! She remembered with satisfaction the months that
had gone into preparing for her own day of triumph. Of course that
had been completely different.
Hers
had been a proper
wedding.

She flicked a crumb from Lucy’s pretty
dress, newly arrived in a package ordered from Auckland. ‘Lucy’s
talking ever so well. She’s very forward for her age.’

‘Maisie, see if you can do something about
the hem on Kate’s dress,’ said Lizzie. ‘It’s sagging down in the
middle. Yes, Lucy’s coming on all right,’ she added absently. ‘Up a
bit more, Maisie.’

‘She’s saying whole words one after
another,’ Maudie said more loudly. ‘Show Grandma, Lucy. Say, “I
want a bikkie”.’

Lucy obliged with a burst of sound that to
Maudie was clear proof. ‘See?’ she said triumphantly. ‘A whole
sentence, just like that.’

‘All kids do that,’ said Lizzie. ‘You were
just the same at her age. I probably thought it was talking, too. I
know it seems a marvel to you, but it’s just noises. Pass me those
pins, Beth.’

‘It’s not just noises! It’s proper talking.
Richard agrees with me.’

‘Richard can’t be bothered arguing over it.’
Lizzie paused in her work to hand Lucy a biscuit and plant a kiss
on the top of her head. ‘She’s a good little thing, and she’ll talk
soon enough. Now, just keep her out of the way so we can get on
with this stuff. You know we haven’t got time to waste with a lot
of nonsense.’

Maudie drew herself up stiffly. ‘Well, I’m
sure I don’t know why everyone’s making such a fuss about this
wedding. It’s not as if things are as they should be.’

Rosie, always alert for signs of strife,
looked up at once. ‘What’s she mean, Ma?’

‘Never you mind what she means,’ said
Lizzie. ‘Little girls should mind their own business. And so should
some big girls,’ she added with a dark look at Maudie. ‘That hem’s
good enough, Maisie—no one’ll be taking much notice of Kate,
anyway. Rosie, get your old clothes on and you and Kate can go and
tell your father to come up for afternoon tea.’

She watched as the little girls slipped out
of the pink dresses, pulled on their everyday ones and went
outside. ‘Beth, you can… now, where did she go?’

‘She went up the passage,’ Maisie said,
casting an accusing look at Maudie. ‘She’s probably gone off to
have a cry.’

Lizzie glared at Maudie. ‘Oh, thank you very
much. We’ve just got her to stop bawling all the time, and now you
set her off.’

‘What’s she bawling for?’ Maudie asked in
surprise. ‘She’s getting married!’

‘Yes, now that I’ve finally talked your
father round. The poor girl’s been that miserable worrying if she’d
be allowed or not, she’s been making herself ill with it.’

‘She was crying till she was sick some
nights,’ Maisie put in.

‘And now you come in all high and mighty,
with your “things aren’t as they should be”,’ said Lizzie.

‘Well, they’re not,’ Maudie said, struggling
to maintain her sense of moral superiority. ‘Richard and I
didn’t—’

‘Richard and you weren’t out of my sight
long enough to get up to any mischief,’ Lizzie cut in. ‘And don’t
you go telling me you wouldn’t have, given the chance,’ she said
before Maudie could express her outrage. ‘If I’d kept a proper eye
on Beth like I did on you, this wouldn’t have happened either. But
it did happen, and we’re trying to make the best we can of it.
She’s not going to have a flash wedding like we gave you, what with
us having to do everything in such a rush. And there won’t be any
nonsense with engagement rings or honeymoons, either. Dave can’t
afford that sort of thing. But it’s still the girl’s wedding, and
she doesn’t need you trying to spoil it for her.’

‘I didn’t know she’d been miserable about
it,’ Maudie said.

‘Should I go and see if she’s all right?’
Maisie asked.

‘No, leave her in peace for a bit,’ said
Lizzie. ‘Take her a cup of tea when it’s ready, she can have it in
there.’

Maudie sat quietly, mulling over what her
mother had said. The idea that she might have been responsible for
marring Beth’s pleasure in so wonderful an event as her own
wedding, even the small and plain one this was to be, was too heavy
a burden of guilt to bear.

When the rest of the family had come in, she
placed Lucy on Frank’s lap, took Beth’s cup from Maisie and went
through to her old room.

Beth was sitting on the edge of the bed she
had once shared with Maudie, their mother’s old veil on her lap and
a needle and thread in one hand. She looked up when the door
opened; on seeing who it was, she bent lower over the veil and
appeared to be giving all her attention to the rent she was
mending. But Maudie had seen the telltale red blotches on her
face.

Maudie placed the cup and saucer on the
dressing table and sat down beside her. ‘Ma’s veil’s a bit ratty,’
she said, fingering the net gingerly. ‘You’re going to have an
awful job trying to mend all those ripped bits.’

‘It doesn’t matter. No one’s going to worry
what I look like.’

‘Of course it matters!’ Maudie hesitated for
a moment, then said, ‘Would you like to borrow my veil? You’d look
really nice in it.’

Beth looked up, startled. ‘I didn’t think
you’d want me wearing anything of yours.’

‘Why wouldn’t I?’ Maudie took Beth’s hand in
hers and squeezed it. ‘Sorry.’ After a moment she felt a matching
movement of Beth’s hand that told her she was forgiven. ‘It’s good
your baby and Lucy will be so close together, isn’t it?’

‘I hadn’t thought of that,’ Beth said. ‘I
suppose I haven’t really thought much about the baby. Just about…
you know. All the fuss and everything.’

‘You’ll have more time to think about it
once the wedding’s over. I hope you have a girl, too. Girls are
best.’

*

The day of the wedding dawned grey, with a
heavy, lowering sky that threatened rain.

‘We’ll have to squeeze everyone into the
parlour if it pours,’ Lizzie said, peering anxiously through the
bedroom window. ‘I want to put the food out on the verandah.’

Frank grunted. The weather was the least of
his worries on this day when he had to allow Beth to go to
David.

The leaden sky kept up its threat all
morning, without ever delivering more than a few spots of rain.
Lizzie had decided to risk the weather, and as the guests arrived
they were shown to a mixed assortment of chairs in front of the
verandah. Beth and the other girls had disappeared to their room
some time before, with Lizzie dividing her time between supervising
their preparations and keeping the boys busy and away from the
food.

Maudie had had Richard bring her out the
previous evening, and had somehow squeezed herself and Lucy into
the girls’ room for the night. She and her mother, united in the
cause of making Beth’s wedding a success, were getting on
remarkably well.

Only a small number of guests had been
invited. Beth had made it clear she had no desire for a large
wedding, and given how short a time there was to organise the
affair, Lizzie had agreed readily enough.

Amy and David arrived some time before the
guests. Amy set to helping Lizzie, while David and Frank found
themselves forced into an uneasy association. It seemed a long time
to Frank before he was called into the house and David was told to
take his place on the verandah, Thomas at his side.

Beth emerged from her room. She and Frank
stood silent, staring at each other. It was the first time he had
ever seen Beth with her hair up, and certainly the first time she
had worn such an elaborate gown. Her small figure was almost lost
in the pale pink satin, all gathers and ruffles. She and Lizzie had
discarded the bustle as hopelessly old-fashioned, which made the
dress even longer for her than it already was. She looked far too
young to be wearing such a gown, but Frank thought she looked
beautiful. To see her in Lizzie’s wedding dress made his heart
leap, until he recalled whom she was to marry. It should not have
been like this, not for his little Beth.

‘Are you two going to stand there all day?’
said Lizzie. ‘I need to get out there ahead of you.’

Beth took the simple bunch of flowers,
picked from the garden that morning, that Maudie was holding for
her. Lucy clung to her mother’s skirts, looking like a tiny image
of the bridesmaids in the little pink dress Maudie had made for her
out of Kate’s old one. ‘I’m ready, Ma,’ Beth said, and Lizzie
walked off, casting a glance at Frank as she did. Frank held out
his arm for Beth to slip hers through.

It was the first time she had touched him
since the day a few weeks before when he had given his consent to
her marriage. He had had a brief, grateful embrace from her that
day, but when she and David had returned from their conversation on
the verandah Beth had turned a disapproving glare on her father,
and she had been distant ever since. She clearly believed he had
been unfair in thinking David might behave in any way like his
father. Frank fervently hoped she was right.

‘You look really good, love,’ he said,
squeezing her hand.

‘Thank you.’ The pretty brooch that had been
a gift from Amy and Sarah was pinned to the front of Beth’s dress;
she gave it a brief touch, as if for luck. Frank had hoped to raise
a smile from her, though he could not produce one himself; instead
she sent him a piercing look, in which he recognised a plea. If the
plea was for him to be happy about her marriage, he found himself
unable to grant it.

Maisie and the little girls clustered behind
them. Maudie drew the veil over Beth’s face before stepping quickly
off in her mother’s wake, Lucy on one hip. Frank led Beth out to
the verandah.