Road to Berry Edge, The (28 page)

‘My God, Michael, you'll never be able to cross him again. However will you stand it?'

‘And a new house,' Michael said.

‘We can get married at our own church,' Nancy said and then her face fell.

‘What?'

‘Well, they'll know, won't they, that he took you back. They won't like him or you the better for that, and when everything went wrong they turned on me because of him.'

‘I won't let anybody hurt you, sweetheart. I'll be there this time. We're going home and nobody's going to stop us. They'll accept it in time. In the meanwhile we've got a house and a job and I've got the offer of a domino game on Saturday night.'

*

Harry came into the garden later that day, where Rob was sitting with his arm around Faith. It was early evening and the day had been perfectly fine. Now the peace and the quiet were what he needed. He looked up as Harry disturbed him.

‘Michael McFadden's here. He wants to see you. Shall I put him in the sitting room?'

‘No, send him out here. You don't mind, do you, Faith?'

She smiled at him, kissed him twice on the nose and then left. Michael came into the garden, cap in hand.

‘Hello, Mickey,' Rob said.

Michael said nothing. He didn't even look at Rob at first.

‘Have a seat,' Rob offered.

‘No, thanks.' He looked at Rob then. It was a straight, dark look that made Rob want to get up, or at least move around in his chair, but he didn't.

‘I don't think you know how badly I feel about you. You've given me a job. You've made me feel guilty. We're never going to be friends.'

Rob sat back further. ‘It has nothing to do with feelings. And it isn't for you, Michael, it's for Nancy. Since I came back here you've made very plain what you think of me. I'm not going to be around here much longer so you don't have to worry about it.'

‘And if I make trouble?'

‘I wouldn't,' Rob said softly.

‘I wish that just once I could get you into the Station Hotel before I've had a drink.'

Rob said nothing to that, but smiled. ‘What's the new house like?' he said.

‘It's a bloody castle. Nancy and me, we're getting wed.'

‘Nancy's a picture. I'm going back to Nottingham where I belong, but I'll be back from time to time so don't go getting any funny ideas.'

‘Are you leaving Shaw here in charge?'

‘Any objections?'

‘He's all right for a southerner,' Michael said.

Everything was going well, Faith thought, when she had the final fitting for her dress. It flattered her in every respect. She had thought that she would never see herself as a bride, and looking at her mother in the mirror she knew that she was thinking the same thing. Her mother was pleased but mostly relieved. She was marrying the most eligible man in the area and her parents could not have been more delighted.

They were not pleased that Faith was going to Nottingham to live. The idea of living at the abbey frightened her, but most of all she thought of how she and John had planned to have a small terraced house, and the important thing was that they would have been able to live there alone. The house in Nottingham was huge with dozens of servants, and she would have to watch what she said and how she behaved. She would rarely have Rob to herself. Also, Ida and Vincent intimidated her. They didn't mean to, she knew, but they were so knowledgeable and educated. They were well read and worldly. They didn't go to church, they didn't understand how people in Berry Edge lived. Faith liked them but she didn't want to live with them, most especially because they had been Sarah's parents. She could never live up to Sarah Shaw, she knew very well, and it made her heart thump. She didn't want to live up to her, she didn't want to go anywhere, she wanted a modest house in Berry Edge and for Rob to be there with her and manage the foundry.

Harry was looking for a house. He asked Faith to go with him. He was tired of lodging with her parents even though they were very nice, he said. He wanted his own place.

‘It doesn't have to be a big house,' Harry said, ‘just somewhere I can go and be on my own and you and Rob can come and stay.'

Faith was pleased to be asked to go with him because they hadn't been getting on very well lately, arguing over everything they discussed. He said that he would let her know when he found something suitable and it was only a few days later that he said, ‘I think I've found somewhere. Will you come and see it?'

Faith said that she would.

The house was perfect, she thought. It was near the top of the bank so it was not far from the works and the station, being further along from the terraced houses where she and John would have lived. It was a bigger house than those, but by Harry's standards very modest. It had a garden to back and front and a carriage house and stable, a well and even a paddock, and the usual assortment of buildings outside, the hen house and the wash house. It looked out over the park and in the distance you could just see the fell. The rooms were nicely proportioned, and on the outside it had a stone piece that was completely decoration, between the ground and first storey windows, on which were carvings of fruit and flowers which Faith thought very pretty. It also had on the first floor a garden room, a wooden structure in which plants could be grown and people could sit. The view from there was what Faith thought of as the best view in the world.

‘Do you like it?' Harry asked.

‘It's the prettiest house I ever saw,' Faith said. ‘I wish we could have it. I wish we weren't going. Couldn't you talk to him?'

‘There's nothing you can do about it, Faith. You must have known that you would probably be living in Nottingham.'

‘I didn't think. I always think that Rob belongs here. I don't want to leave.'

‘It isn't for good.'

‘I don't understand why you are staying here and Rob is going. It ought to be the other way round.'

‘Thank you, Faith.'

‘I didn't mean it like that, it just seems all wrong.'

‘How can I put this? I'm content here. Rob isn't.'

‘Is he content anywhere?'

‘Not that I've noticed.'

*

Nancy had mixed feelings about moving back to Berry Edge, but they went. Once she was there and saw how nice her new house was, she was pleased. They were to be married in a fortnight, the same day that Faith and Rob were to be married. Michael was so happy to be there that Nancy hid her misgivings. The very first day that she was in Berry Edge, Vera arrived with a big rice cake and some ginger wine and an offer of help in putting up the curtains. Vera talked about Rob and Faith.

‘I never thought he'd marry somebody like her, nobody did. Nobody can understand why he's marrying her except that he feels he has to after what happened to that brother of his. They're moving away, you know. A lot of the men say “good riddance to bad rubbish” but my Shane says if it wasn't for Mr Berkeley there would be no works by now. Mind you, he only says it to the right people, there's plenty won't have Mr Berkeley's name mentioned. You like him, don't you?'

‘I hardly dare say it,' Nancy admitted, standing back to admire her new net curtains in the front room.

‘It's a lovely house,' Vera said.

‘Don't tell Michael, but I liked the other one better. I've missed you.'

‘I've missed you an' all,' Vera said. ‘Put the kettle on and let's try this cake.'

They were glad of the sit down and the cake was pronounced good.

‘I tried to tell Miss Norman where you were in Durham because she wanted to come and see you, but I couldn't remember the address.'

‘She found us anyway,' Nancy said. ‘I wish she hadn't, it really upset things, but I think that's why we're back here so we should be glad.'

‘What you do mean “it upset things”?'

‘Oh, the people we lodged with in South Street,' Nancy said obscurely.

‘Here, isn't that where that woman lives?'

‘What woman?'

‘You know, the one the men all fancy. The dear one. She's back here, my Shane says. Saw her in Durham, says she's a real bonny piece. Huh, I know what I'd do with her, pinching other women's men, taking money like that for what other women do for nothing. I think it's disgusting.'

‘As a matter of fact she's very nice,' Nancy said clearly.

‘You know her?'

‘I've seen her.'

‘How could you think a low person like that is nice?'

‘It isn't her fault.'

‘Oh, isn't it? I would think there's many a lass cried her eyes out because that Seaton woman had her husband.'

‘Not round here, nobody could afford her,' Nancy said.

‘Only men with a lot of money, like that Mr Shaw. He's like that, he has fancy women.'

‘How do you know that?'

‘Everybody knows. Him and Mr Berkeley. Mr Berkeley has a woman in Durham.'

‘Where did you hear that?'

‘You told me.'

‘I did not.'

‘Maybe it was Theresa then.'

‘She didn't say that?'

‘Well, somebody did.'

‘How would Theresa know?'

‘She worked at the house, she would know a lot. He used to go every Saturday night to Durham and sometimes not come back. You wouldn't have known that likely because you weren't there at weekends. Posh men are like that, they can't keep their hands off. And they don't need to, not when they've got deep pockets.'

Nancy was wishing that Michael and the children would come home. He had taken them out of the way so that she could get on and he thought that she wanted some time alone with Vera. If only he knew, Nancy thought.

‘You don't think it was her, do you?'

‘What?'

‘You know, that Seaton woman. Her and Mr Berkeley. She's got a bairn, I hear. Disgusting, isn't it?'

‘Let's put the bedroom curtains up, Vera. I can't sleep for the light so we have to get them up before we go to bed.'

‘Righto,' Vera said and she put the dirty cups and plates in the sink.

They finished putting up curtains in the bedrooms and Vera went home when Michael came back. The neighbours had helped him in with the furniture earlier that day, and they had done a lot, so when the children were in bed Michael said, ‘You don't mind if I go to the pub, do you? I promised Geordie I would look in.'

Since he had come out of prison Michael had not once gone to a pub. Nancy looked anxiously at him and he came over and kissed her.

‘There's no need for you to worry, sweetheart, I won't ever come back here drunk and knock you around. I won't go with other women or gamble away the little we've got or any other of the awful things the McFaddens are famous for. I'm going to play a game of dominoes and have a couple of pints, which is all I can afford, and then I'm coming home to go to bed with you.'

‘Michael …'

‘What?'

‘Vera mentioned something to me about Mr Berkeley and Susannah. I think some people know.'

‘It's an old rumour. She hasn't seen him since long before the baby was born, isn't that what you said?'

‘Since last summer.'

‘Well then, there's nowt to talk about, is there? Stop worrying about things, Nancy, and just be glad. I won't be late.'

Nancy prowled the house when he had gone, so pleased that he was happy, the children sleeping upstairs, the house quiet. Things were better now in Berry Edge than they had been for a long time, she thought, and she would be part of that. Michael would have a good job, and she would have the kind of marriage which she had intended to have in the first place. A small part of Nancy still thought about how Sean had come back from the pub and the awful things he had done to her, so when Michael was later than she had thought he might be, she began to feel sick. Just as the sickness turned into a pain, the back door opened and there he stood, looking the picture of Sean. Then he smiled and wasn't.

‘Am I late? You look worried.'

‘No.'

He shut the back door and came over. He was wearing his good suit and he really did look nice, Nancy thought.

‘What are you looking at?' he asked her.

‘The best looking man in Berry Edge.'

‘Get away with you,' Michael said.

The sickness went as though somebody had stolen it.

‘You look a bit white, Nancy. Are you sure you're all right?'

Nancy hesitated. She had been putting off telling him for days now, because although she knew that he loved her, there was a tiny part of her which was still afraid.

‘I think I'm expecting actually,' Nancy confessed. ‘I'm not sure, mind you, but—' She got no further. He grabbed her and kissed her and wanted to make her a cup of tea and accused her of not telling him sooner.

‘I said I don't know. You are pleased though, if it is?'

‘Pleased? Nancy, I love you. You're the bonniest lass in the whole world, and the kindest. I've never been as happy in my life as I have been since I came out of gaol. I've got you and the bairns and a house and a job - and I beat Geordie at dominoes.'

Nancy threw her arms around him and whispered in his ear. ‘If you carry me up the stairs I'll give you something nice.'

‘Will you? What's that?'

‘Me,' Nancy said.

Rob and Faith were a week away from their wedding and Faith could tell that his mother and her mother were excited. They had had new outfits made, ridiculous hats with feathers and pretty dresses. The food was ordered, the chapel was cleaned, the guests had all answered and most were coming. Faith could not believe that in less than a week she would be married. She was cross because the weather was bad, but perhaps even that would change. Everything else was fine.