Chapter 32
It took Bobby rather longer these days to walk the half-mile to Cow House Cottage. She hadn’t realised how much she relied on Charlie’s arm for support until she reached the packhorse bridge and had to stop to catch her breath.
She felt like she weighed a million tons. If she had been thinking clearly, it might have occurred to her to commission one of the boys playing football near her cottage to take a note over for a sixpence fee, and get Lilian to come to her. But she had been too impatient to wait.
She knew her sister would be in. It was Tuesday, the night of Tony’s Home Guard parade. Lilian always made sure she was at home to prepare his sandwiches and Thermos.
Bobby frowned as she descended the track to the cow house, however.
Even at the top, she could tell that there was an almighty racket coming from the place.
The door stood open, and sounds drifted out to her – raised voices, the baby screaming.
The voices belonged to Tony and Lil. And there was something on the ground outside – some sort of animal, it looked like, although it wasn’t moving. What on earth could be going on?
Bobby sped up, at least as much as she was able to. She wondered Reg and Mary hadn’t come out to investigate. The row must be audible from Moorside. She wouldn’t be surprised if it could be heard even as far as the Parrys’ house.
No sooner had she thought of the Parrys than a pale, frightened face belonging to Jess peeped round the cow house door. When she caught sight of Bobby, she came running up the track and flung herself into her arms.
‘Jess, sweetheart, what on earth is going on?’ Bobby asked, hugging her tightly.
‘It’s Mr Scott,’ Jess whispered. ‘He’s gone mad, Bobby.
He keeps shouting and shouting. I ain’t never heard him shout before.
Aunty Lil told me and Florrie to take Annie over to Mary, only Mary ain’t in, nor Reg.
And Dad’s gone out in town with that Miss Simpson so he ain’t in either.
He was supposed to come for us soon. I was looking to see if he was coming and I saw you. ’
‘Where’s Florrie?’
‘She’s watching Annie. Aunty Lil told her to. But Annie won’t stop crying and Mr Scott won’t stop shouting and me and Florrie don’t know what to do.’
All thoughts of the exciting news that had filled her brain moments ago had been forgotten now. Bobby took the child’s hand and hurried with her to the cow house. As she drew closer, she saw that what she had taken to be a sleeping dog was in fact Lilian’s fur coat.
‘Oh God, no,’ she muttered.
She could hear what Tony and her sister were saying now.
‘Just tell me how long it’s been going on,’ Tony was demanding.
‘Tony, please, not in front of the children. Calm down and we’ll discuss it sensibly.’
Tony gave a hollow laugh. ‘Sensibly! Bit late for being sensible, don’t you think?’
Bobby hurried in with Jess. Florrie was there, white and frightened, with the screaming Annie in her arms. Tony was standing over Lilian in his Home Guard battledress, white with rage and hurt.
‘What on earth is going on?’ Bobby demanded. ‘I could hear you yelling halfway over the bridge, Tony.’
Tony spun on her, and she winced at the look on his face.
Bobby had only seen him look so utterly overcome with emotion one other time – the night Lil had been in labour, and they had so nearly lost her.
She still remembered Tony, almost brutish in his grief, muttering angry prayers demanding God take his worthless life instead of his wife’s.
‘Ask your sister,’ he growled.
Lil flushed. ‘He found my coat. The one Geor— that Captain Parry gave to me.’
‘So you knew too, did you?’ Tony said to Bobby, in the same voice of strangled rage. ‘Well, of course you did. Thick as thieves, you two, aren’t you? You’ve been covering for them, I suppose. Pete told me what he’d seen. The two of them coming out of some teashop in Skipton.’
Bobby turned to her sister. ‘What?’
‘I met George there to break it off, like I told you I was going to,’ Lil said in a low voice. ‘That’s all.’
‘Break it off?’ Tony turned to face her again. ‘So there was something. How long has it been going on?’
‘It hasn’t. I swear to you, Tony, that man has never so much as touched me.’
Tony gave a grim laugh. ‘Right. He dresses you up in fur coats as a token of appreciation for making such a good cup of tea, I suppose.’
‘He gave me the coat because I was pregnant and miserable and he thought it might make me smile. It was damaged stock from his shop.’
‘And you accepted it. You, a married woman. A fur coat, Lil! You know what people would think if they knew, right?’
Lil flushed. ‘I know, it was wrong. It was so long since I’d had anything really nice to wear that I couldn’t help it.’
‘The clothes I slave away earning money for you to buy aren’t good enough, are they?’
‘I never said that.’
‘And what did he want in return for this fur coat, as if I couldn’t guess?’
‘He never asked me for a thing, Tony,’ Lil said quietly.
‘I’ll swear to that on my daughter’s life.
He’s never asked me to go to bed with him.
He’s never tried to kiss me. He’s never even held my hand.
He was just kind to me when I needed kindness, and…
’ Her blush deepened. ‘…and occasionally we’d go to the cinema. That’s all there was to it.’
‘To the cinema?’ Tony shook his head darkly. ‘I don’t bloody well believe this.’ Something seemed to dawn on him. ‘That’s who you named her for, isn’t it? The other baby.’
‘Georgia,’ Lilian whispered. ‘Yes. He was there that night my labour started. He brought help – saved my life.’
It was this, even more than the fur coat and cinema trips, that seemed to knock Tony reeling. He stared at his wife with a look of impotent horror that was as piteous as it was frightening. Bobby almost thought for a moment he might strike Lilian, he looked so wild.
‘You’d even take her from me,’ he whispered. ‘Even her, Lil.’
All the while, Annie had been crying at the top of her lungs. Florrie jiggled the little thing helplessly, white and scared, while Jessie lurked by the door as if preparing to flee.
‘Tony, can you please stop?’ Bobby begged him. ‘You’re upsetting the children.’
‘Nobody asked your opinion,’ he snapped. ‘Go home, can you, Bob? This doesn’t concern you.’
Bobby approached Florrie and held out her arms.
‘Here, my love, give me the baby,’ she said gently. ‘I think you girls ought to wait outside for your father. You shouldn’t be listening to this. Florrie, take care of your little sister please, and don’t wander off.’
Florrie nodded soberly and took Jessie’s hand to lead her outside.
Tony showed no sign of calming down. He was pacing in long strides from one end of the room to the other, hands over his ears, as if to shut out the sound of his thoughts.
‘My mam told me you were no good,’ he was saying.
‘And me, I told her to shut her mouth. Took your part while all the time you were…’ He turned to face Bobby.
‘You’re no better either.’ He sneered. ‘My friend, eh? And all the time your sister’s running around like a tart while you lie through your teeth to me. ’
Bobby didn’t answer. She couldn’t trust herself to say anything that wouldn’t make matters worse.
She supposed she shouldn’t be here during this intensely private confrontation, except that there was no chance she was going to leave her sister alone with Tony in this mood. So she just shushed the poor baby, whose cries had settled to a dull whimper, pressing Annie’s soft cheek against her own.
‘Bobby hasn’t lied to you,’ Lilian said quietly.
‘She didn’t know a thing about it until a few weeks ago when she saw us in Skipton, and she took your part right away, Tony.
That’s why I ended things – not that there were things to end, really.
You’re right, it was wrong of me to hide things from you.
But in spite of how it must look, George and I were never more than good friends. ’
Tony snorted. ‘A friend who takes you out to the pictures and gives you fur coats. Men who give gifts like that always expect to get paid, Lil – that’s if he hasn’t been paid already.’
‘You don’t believe me?’
‘Any reason I should, after all the other lies?’
Lilian sighed, looking suddenly weary. ‘No, I suppose not. But it’s true, all the same.’
Tony stood there, looking at her with a helpless expression. Then he burst into tears. Bobby and Lilian stared at him, neither knowing what they ought to do.
‘Why though?’ Tony asked after a moment, when he had got his outburst under control.
‘I’ve been good to you, haven’t I? I don’t get roaring drunk or beat you or run around with women.
I work hard to get you and the baby what you need.
I never complained when you insisted on having your dad live here with us.
Never questioned it when you told me Annie was mine, though I knew you’d had plenty of other boyfriends.
’ Tony’s voice broke. ‘I’ve done everything for you, Lil.
Everything. I’ve loved you more than I thought I could love someone. And you pay me back with this.’
‘I know,’ Lil murmured. ‘And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry, Tony. The last thing I wanted was for you to get hurt.’
‘Aye, but you didn’t go out of your way to prevent it, did you? Why did you do it? Can you just tell me that?’
‘I told you, I didn’t do anything. There was no affair. Just… companionship. Conversation.’
‘Why with him? Why not with me? I’m your husband.’
‘Because… because…’
‘…because you don’t love me,’ he finished for her. ‘Do you?’
Lilian bowed her head. ‘I’m sorry. I tried, really I did, but…’ She trailed off in a sigh.
‘Do you love him?’
‘I… I honestly don’t know. I admire him a lot. I respect him.’
‘You respect him but you don’t respect me.’
‘I didn’t say that.’ She met his eyes. ‘You’re my husband, Tony. I accept that. I won’t be so foolish again, I promise.’
He snorted. ‘You accept it?’