Chapter Twelve
CHAPTER
TWELVE
Violet was standing on the doorstep, the letter in her hand, wondering what she should do when she saw Felicity and Oliver approaching.
‘Violet!’ said Oliver. ‘What are you doing there? Waiting for a taxi? You’d do better going to the end of the road.’
‘I was just about to go for a walk when I saw you coming. I’ve had a letter and I don’t know what to do about it.’ She paused. ‘But don’t let me hold you up.’
‘Actually, we were just about to say goodbye,’ said Oliver.
‘I was going to invite you in!’ said Felicity, hoping she didn’t sound desperate.
Oliver shook his head. ‘I’m not dressed to see your mother, Felicity, and I have to be a guide on a London bus in about twenty minutes anyway. But I’ll give you a ring later.’ He caught hold of her cheek and kissed her gently. Then he left, waving to the pair of them.
‘Come upstairs to the flat if you fancy it,’ said Violet, who could tell Felicity was missing Oliver already. ‘I’ll make coffee.’
‘But you were going for a walk?’
‘It’s all right, I’ve gone off the idea.’
Felicity gave her a quick smile. ‘I’ll just go in and put on better clothes. You know my mother doesn’t like to see me in jeans.’
Felicity didn’t take long to change and join Violet in the flat upstairs. She did look particularly pretty today, Violet decided, and concluded it was to do with Oliver.
‘I gather Oliver took you mudlarking?’
Felicity went a little pink. ‘How do you know?’
‘I don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to work it out. You were wearing jeans and wellington boots. It’s early, and Oliver was a bit muddy.’
Felicity laughed happily. ‘I loved it!’
‘Shall I make you some breakfast?’ asked Violet.
‘No,’ said Felicity. ‘Please don’t. I’ve just been to a “greasy spoon” café and I don’t want to eat ever again.’
Violet smiled. Hearing Felicity say ‘greasy spoon’ was so charming in her accent. She started making coffee for the two of them while Felicity sat on the sofa.
‘I looked in on Maman while I was in the house. She was lying on her bed. She opened one eye, and I told her I was coming here. Fortunately, she went back to sleep before she could ask questions.’
There was something a little different about Felicity, Violet realised. It was as if a light had gone on inside her. Maybe Felicity would tell her about it later.
‘Read this letter while I make coffee,’ Violet said. ‘You don’t have to have any.’
Felicity took hold of Violet’s letter and a few moments later she said, ‘So your friend Jenny is working for this man, and he has made her spend all her money on goats?’
‘Yes,’ said Violet. ‘And now she wants to come home and she has no money. I must find out how I can send her some.’
‘I don’t know but I can ask David. I’m having dinner with him tonight. He insists on us meeting up whenever he’s in England. Did I tell you? When he’s not an actor – which is most of the time – he’s an antique dealer. He sells French brocante in England, and English—’
‘Junk?’
‘Not junk.’ Felicity was offended. ‘But antiques you would sell at a market and not a smart shop.’
Violet nodded, suppressing a smile. ‘Of course, if Jenny leaves, she won’t inherit the land she was promised.’
‘Oh?’
‘Yes. This old man apparently told Jenny that if she looked after him until he died, she would inherit his property. He said his daughter wasn’t interested.’
Felicity frowned. ‘But that wouldn’t be legal in France. You can’t leave your property away from your family – or at least not all of it.’
Violet was silent for a few moments. ‘I thought it all sounded very odd. I must get some money to her, so she can come home!’
‘David will know what to do. I think you should join us for dinner.’
‘I couldn’t do that!’
‘He won’t mind, really. I will telephone him at the friend he stays with when he’s in London. See what he says.’
‘Do you want to use my telephone?’ suggested Violet.
Felicity glanced at the grandfather clock in the corner. ‘He may not be in. I can’t remember when he’s selling at markets and when he sells his things direct to dealers. I’ll ring him later. But don’t worry, Violet, he will definitely want to help.’
It occurred to Violet that this lovely girl had been brought up surrounded by people who helped her and each other. Since Violet’s mother had died when she was young she was much more used to having to be independent. Her father was wonderful, of course, but she hadn’t liked to bother him with little things when he was still grieving for his beloved wife and couldn’t know how to deal with a girl who had just started her periods.
It was Jenny – another motherless girl – who had guessed why her younger friend was upset and helped her; Jenny who had understood about the heartbreak Violet had gone through when the boy she thought was the love of her life stopped writing to her from boarding school and ended up with someone with longer hair and more confidence.
And later, she hadn’t needed to explain in too much detail about the older man she’d met while helping out at the local riding stables. As a fairly experienced rider she had been asked to accompany him on hacks, and there was a pub close by that provided somewhere to put horses while the riders had lunch. Violet and Giles had become frequent customers on Fridays. And then one day he had kissed her.
Violet had been in heaven. For a couple of months he was all she could think about. She had left school with decent A levels and had hoped to go to university, but when she met Giles, those plans melted away. She only wanted to be with him.
Thinking back now she realised it had been completely inevitable. One day a glamorous, sophisticated woman had turned up at the stables, looking for Giles. She hadn’t been angry or suspicious and her questions to Violet simply revealed a woman trying to find a husband she had mislaid for a few hours. Violet’s dream was dashed into pieces while she politely explained that Giles’s hack was booked for three o’clock. No one would have guessed, she was sure, how devastated she was.
She had made an excuse to go home early but couldn’t face her father immediately. He was usually lost in his books, his mind elsewhere, but even he might have noticed his daughter wasn’t happy. So she had fled to her favourite spot in the woods. When Jenny and her dog found her sitting on a broken-down wall, her tears were flowing faster than the little stream which trickled charmingly over the rocks. Jenny took one look at her and said, ‘Oh, Violet. Is it a man?’
Jenny’s sympathy made her cry harder.
‘All men are bastards,’ said Jenny. ‘Come home with me. We’ll make chocolate cake and eat it until we feel slightly sick. You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to.’
But somehow Jenny managed to ascertain that Violet wasn’t in any danger of being pregnant, things hadn’t gone that far, but Violet had admitted that had the opportunity to sleep together arisen, she wouldn’t have hesitated. They’d eaten quite a lot of warm cake by this time.
‘I know it doesn’t feel like it now,’ said Jenny, when she had made another pot of tea. ‘But one day this will just be a memory. You may even think of Giles kindly. He didn’t take your virginity or make you pregnant. Although, of course, he has broken your heart.’ Jenny had smiled, Violet now remembered. ‘First love is very special.’
Violet had sniffed, already beginning to feel a bit better. ‘He’s not my first love. That was that boy who stopped writing to me from boarding school and went off with another girl in the Christmas holidays.’
‘And do you think kindly of them, now a bit of time has passed?’
‘Not really. But I never gave him a thought after I met Giles.’
She found out about Jenny’s own first love after they had been friends for a while and the gap between their ages had seemed to shrink a bit more, and soon they became best friends. What she had never found out was why there hadn’t been a second love for Jenny. As for herself, she felt that maybe she had missed that boat.
Now, as she tidied up and cleaned the flat, she remembered her godmother’s look of horror when she learnt that Violet was still living in her father’s house, in a village where the gene pool was tiny and where Violet would ‘never meet a decent man’. Which was why she had swept her up to London in the hope Violet’s life would change.
And her life had changed, Violet thought now. She was working in London and had a new friend whom she liked more every time she saw her. And now Jenny needed her help.