Chapter 3 #2
‘You know?’ I turned in surprise, taking in the floppy blond longish hair, the large brown eyes and the perfect white teeth. Was there anything about Theodore Mandeville that wasn’t a parody of his class and upbringing?
‘Your friend told me. You know, once you’d backed out in horror at my nakedness before disappearing at speed up to the next flat with Henry.’
‘Henry…? Oh, right.’ I was embarrassed at my seeming gaucheness that morning when confronted with a stark-bollock-naked male rising from the water like some sort of Italian Renaissance statue.
Why hadn’t I just stood and stared, a critical smile playing on my lips while I held up my dustpan in the manner of a judge on TV’s New Faces while being exhorted to ‘press your buttons now’?
Like Fliss would have done, had it been her who’d been in charge of cleaning the bathroom rather than the kitchen.
‘So, what’s your friend called?’
‘Felicity,’ I said. ‘Fliss…’
‘Fabulous hair,’ he said. ‘Amazing colour.’
‘She has. It is.’
‘Up for a laugh, I think?’ He smiled in my direction.
‘Always.’
‘Hmm, I’ve seen her around a lot. Very mobile, I think?’
‘Mobile? Well, she does have her own little Mini.’
‘A yellow one?’
‘Yes, that’s right.’ Goodness, he had been taking note of Fliss.
All her hard work at hunting Theo Mandeville down appeared to have borne fruit.
I’d be reporting back to her the minute I got through the door.
So why then was I feeling something akin to disappointment that it was Fliss he was talking about? Fliss he so obviously had the hots for?
‘OK.’ Theo said nothing more, concentrating on the road ahead until he needed to ask for directions to our student house on Kirkstall Lane.
‘You know,’ he said conversationally now, as we finally turned onto my street, ‘you and I have met before.’
‘Before the NMIB episode?’
‘NMIB?’ Theo pulled up in front of the red brick terraced house I was indicating. ‘Is that something to do with the National Union of Miners? I believe your dad’s a miner,’ he added, almost politely.
‘Naked Man In Bath, actually,’ I said, staring. ‘How on earth do you know that my dad is a miner?’
‘You told me.’ Theo smiled. ‘Actually, told is a huge under-exaggeration. You yelled it at me.’
I continued to stare. ‘I don’t know what on earth you’re talking about.’
‘Back in October. At the beginning of the autumn term. I’d just started my course here; was determined to take everything in. A friend and I got caught up in a little demonstration you were talking at.’
‘Oh?’
‘I believe Scargill had got wind of the fact that Margaret Thatcher was considering closing ninety-five pits…’
‘With a loss of one hundred thousand jobs,’ I interrupted hotly. ‘Yes, I did get up to speak at that meeting. The miners had to opt for an overtime ban – the only thing they had to try to fight off the threat of closures.’
‘Someone from the crowd heckled you,’ Theo said. ‘Wanting to know what the hell it had to do with you anyway.’
‘Someone?’
‘The bloke I was with actually.’ Theo looked uncomfortable. ‘Anyway, you thought it was me who’d asked the question and you came down on me like a ton of bricks.’
‘And it wasn’t you who’d shouted it?’ I narrowed my eyes suspiciously.
Theo put up both hands. ‘Honestly, not me.’
‘And are you still friends with the bloke who did shout it?’ I knew I was being judgemental again, but I kind of liked this man and hated the idea of his hanging around with mindless idiots.
‘Do you not think one has the right to be friends with any number of different people?’ Theo asked, raising an eyebrow.
‘Well, put it this way.’ I was warming to my theme. ‘I could never see myself having a relationship with anyone voting for Thatcher.’
‘I wasn’t talking about actually having a relationship with someone.’ Theo gave me a searching look and, once more, I couldn’t help but think how utterly gorgeous he was.
‘So,’ I said, slightly embarrassed at where the conversation was going. ‘I hear you’re pretty much royalty.’
Theo burst out laughing at that and shifted his weight in his seat. ‘Sorry, just sitting on my crown. And would that bother you?’
‘Bother me? Why on earth would it bother me?’
‘What about your friend?’
‘Frank?’
‘I thought she was called Fliss.’
‘Oh, sorry, yes, Fliss.’ This man really was interested in Fliss, it appeared and again, I felt a little trickle of disappointment that he was using me to curry favour with her.
But then again, I’d never associate myself with preppy Tories, ex-public schoolboys – he had to be one – who went round with unintelligent mates who heckled at protest meetings.
‘Right,’ I said, clearing a space in the misted car window and looking out at the rain. ‘Thanks for the lift.’
‘Lovely to meet you again, Anna.’ He held out a hand. Was he laughing at me? ‘I’ll make sure I’m fully dressed next time.’
‘Next time?’
‘Aren’t you continuing to clean the flats at Bodington Hall?’
‘Well, yes, but it won’t be yours. You’ve had a good clean and you’ll be sent a bill apparently. Your bits and pieces are safe from any further female scrutiny.’
‘Not permanently, I hope!’ Theo laughed out loud and then put up two hands in acquiescence. ‘Fair enough re the cleaning although, in my defence, I’m pretty much house trained.’
‘Oh? No maids and butlers to attend to you at home? No fags at school to clean your boots and make your toast?’
‘You’ve been watching too much Upstairs, Downstairs.’ Theo smiled.
‘Only as an exercise in social history. Only to see how the entitled wealthy were – still are – able to get away with trampling over those less fortunate. Do you know the long hours girls much younger than me had to work when in service? My grandmother was a scullery maid at Wentworth Woodhouse when she was just fourteen…’
‘And as for fagging,’ Theo protested, ‘well, it went out with the ark.’
‘Oh, so you don’t deny it then?’
‘Deny what?’ Theo looked puzzled.
‘That you were at public school?’
‘Why on earth should I deny it?’
‘You don’t think it morally unfair that money buys a better education for those who can afford it?’
‘I don’t think fagging constitutes a better education…’
‘But paying for it does?’
Theo looked at me and shook his head. ‘Is everything one big fight with you?’
‘Only those things that I believe are worth fighting for.’
‘OK.’ Theo smiled. ‘I think it’s stopped raining.’ He handed me the broken umbrella which had fallen into the footwell of the Mini, before reaching across me to open my door. I made to take off his gloves.
‘Keep them.’ He smiled. ‘Really.’
‘I couldn’t.’
‘I’ve loads,’ he said. ‘My grandmother appears to think I need a new pair every birthday and Christmas.’
‘Well then, thank you.’ I pulled the woollen gloves back on, enjoying the continued warmth.
‘Bye, Anna,’ he said. ‘It’s been good to meet you. Properly this time.’
I stepped out, my head full of the conversations we’d had, my senses full of Theo Mandeville, and made my way up the path to the front door.
Theo drove off without a backward glance.