Chapter 17
Theo dropped me off at home the next day around two in the afternoon.
Those who, like me, had stayed overnight, were now gathered around the breakfast buffet, piling plates with scrambled eggs, kedgeree, bacon and mushrooms before signalling to Maureen that strong coffee – presumably to counteract the amount of alcohol downed the previous evening – was a necessity.
I felt ridiculously shy, standing there in my jeans and T-shirt, not quite sure what to put on my plate or who I should join at the table.
Of Theo there was no sign, and I was on the point of sidling back up to my room, when I felt a hand in my own.
‘You hungry?’ Mary asked. ‘I had my breakfast long time ago, but I’m going to have some more with you. Come on.’ She led me to the end of the queue and started helping herself to what was on offer.
‘Goodness, can you eat all that?’ I laughed. ‘You must be hungry.’
‘I very hungry,’ Mary said, her eyes gleaming at the sight of the sausage and tomato she’d put on her plate. She held out another plate to me. ‘Fill your boots.’ She giggled. ‘I says this every time I has my dinner…’
She broke off as Bridget came between us.
‘Mary, that’s too much. You’ve already eaten.
Your mother won’t be pleased if she knows you’re tucking in again.
’ I smiled at Bridget, willing her to be friendly to me in this room of strangers, but she ignored me.
‘Put it back,’ she warned, attempting to take Mary’s plate.
‘Could she maybe have a little and come and sit with me and keep me company?’ I smiled once again but Bridget’s frosty demeanour was more than enough to tell me what she thought of me. I was saved from what could have been an awkward situation when Theo appeared at our side.
‘Ooh, lovely, Mary, d’you want to share what’s on your plate with me?
’ he asked before bending to pat her blonde plaits.
He smiled at me before kissing my cheek.
‘Morning. You OK?’ he whispered in my ear.
‘I came along to your room to see if you wanted breakfast, but you were already packed and the bed stripped. I thought you must have had enough and hared off back to Rothersley, unable to take another minute of me and my family.’
With others around, I found myself unable to utter anything that wasn’t gibberish. Instead, for something to say, I said, ‘It’s what we do…’
‘What is?’ Theo raised an eyebrow.
‘You know. Strip the bed when we’ve been staying somewhere.’
‘Even in hotels?’ Theo was laughing at me, and I wondered where the hell I was going with this nonsense.
All I wanted was to sit down with a coffee, Theo at my side.
I certainly felt too overwhelmed amongst this braying and chatting horde to be shovelling mountains of breakfast down me as the rest of the people in the room were doing.
There were, in reality, probably only twenty or so family and guests in the room, but their self-assured familial knowledge of each other was undermining any confidence I might have gained the previous evening.
‘Go and sit down with Mary and Bridget.’ Theo smiled, understanding my awkwardness. ‘How about a coffee?’
‘Lovely,’ I said.
‘And a croissant?’
‘Please.’ Mind you, how was I to cope with the inevitable flaky croissant once it started to collapse around my mouth?
Maureen walked over. ‘Coffee?’ Her manner was still brusque, and I put it down to either she’d really liked the absent Susannah and thought I’d usurped her or, more likely, she recognised me as one of her own – a working-class chancer who’d somehow inveigled her way into the upper echelons of this little kingdom of hers, and to whom she now felt she had to defer.
‘Ah, Hannah.’ Theo’s mother was at my side once I was seated, frowning at Mary’s filled plate but saying nothing. I don’t suppose berating one’s kids in public was the done thing.
‘It’s Anna.’ I smiled politely.
‘What is?’ While Theo’s mother appeared cold, bloodless almost, her cheeks were red. Too much hunting in the raw north wind or too much gin, I surmised.
‘Sorry, you called me Hannah.’ I smiled again. ‘You know, with an H at each end…? It’s apparently a palindrome…’
‘I do hope Theodore is going to stay for lunch,’ she interrupted. ‘It’ll be a late lunch of course but… Do you know his plans?’
‘I need to get off, Mum.’ Theo appeared with two plates, placing a luscious-looking croissant, jam and butter in front of me. ‘I’ve to take Anna back to South Yorkshire and then, I’m afraid it’s head down for a while. I’ve end-of-year exams for the next two weeks.’
‘Of course.’ Ava Mandeville pouted. ‘I’d forgotten that.’
‘I could get the train back,’ I said, trying to put myself in a good light with Theo’s mother. ‘Really, not a problem.’
‘Oh?’ Ava turned to Theo with a questioning raised eye. ‘Would that be possible? I do hope you’ve not been neglecting your studies, Theo. You should stay for lunch and then crack on back to Leeds.’
Theo smiled winningly at his mother before picking up Mary’s napkin from the floor. ‘It’s all in hand, Mum. Anna and I’ll be off as soon as we’ve had breakfast. I’ll be back at my books by this afternoon.’
‘Well, do let us know how the exams go, dear.’
‘I’m actually hoping to catch up with Wills and Fraser and the rest of the Stowe gang once the exams have finished. One weekend in June? Meeting up with them for some do in London.’
‘Oh, that is good!’ Ava smiled for the first time. ‘I’m so pleased you’re in touch with those lovely boys from school. I saw Fraser’s mother last week – we were at a Save the Crocodile function in York…’
Crocodiles in the River Ouse? Well, there was a novelty.
‘…You have a key for the London house? Know the alarm? I’ll make sure Mrs Crabtree has been in – that there’s something in the fridge for you.
Let me know your exact dates and your bedroom will be aired.
’ She turned back to me, holding out a hand.
‘It’s been so lovely to meet you, dear. I do hope we meet again.
Now, if you’ll excuse me…’ She bent towards Theo, proffering a cheek which he dutifully kissed and, frowning once more at Mary’s bulging mouth, walked back towards the open double doors leading to the entrance hall.
‘I’d forgotten all about end-of-year exams,’ I said, once we were back in the Mini. ‘Have you done plenty of revision?’
‘Enough.’ Theo grinned in my direction. ‘Don’t they always say, first- and second-year exams are not important?’
‘Well, I don’t know who says that,’ I retorted almost crossly. ‘I certainly put time and effort into mine.’
‘I wouldn’t have expected anything less.’
‘I suppose you’re one of these lucky people who can do the minimum and yet come out with top results? Fliss was like that,’ I went on sadly.
‘I do what’s needed,’ he said and then added, ‘Are you still up for spending some time with me in London? Having said that, I don’t think I can wait until then before seeing you again. How do you feel about coming over to Leeds one evening next week?’
‘What about your revision?’ I knew I couldn’t bear not to see him for a couple of weeks.
‘You can help me.’ He laughed. ‘How about it? You like history.’
‘I can get the train over.’
‘Great. And if you came over next Friday you wouldn’t need to get back to work.’
‘You mean stay with you? Overnight? In your student bedroom? In your single bed?’
‘It’s a double, and yes, I mean just that.’
‘Well, that’s all right then.’
‘Where’s Mum?’
‘Doing something with mushy peas,’ Les said, not looking up from the kitchen table where he was polishing his shoes. ‘Planning how to make vats of them anyroad. Got a hot date tonight,’ he added, spitting and rubbing at the already shiny leather.
‘When haven’t you?’ I retorted. ‘I do hope you’re good to all these girls who you’re always out with. Don’t mess them around and lead them on. I hope you don’t dump them the minute you have your way with them.’
‘Hey, what about you, hobnobbing off up to North Yorkshire with some posh bloke? I notice you didn’t bring him in when he dropped you off.’
‘He’s got exams this week. He needed to go back to Leeds to revise.’
‘Well, remember your roots, Anna. I’ve never been ashamed to bring anyone back here.’
‘I’m not ashamed,’ I said hotly. ‘Theo met Mum yesterday when he picked me up.’
‘You know what I’m saying.’ Les paused and then gave a strange laugh. ‘Don’t suppose our David’ll be bringing anyone back here either.’
‘If he does, I’m sure Mum and Dad will welcome any partner he has.’
‘He’s not bringing any poofter back here,’ Les said crossly. ‘What’ll folk think? There’s that there AIDS as well now. I’m not going into the lav after some queer’s been in there.’
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake, Les, grow up.’
‘You grow up,’ Les snapped.
‘Well, your shoes might be shiny,’ I said, ‘but I can’t imagine any girl being impressed with those fingernails.’ I reached for Les’s hand as he continued to rub at his shoes.
‘Been over at Brampton all morning,’ he said, attempting to remove some of the black with the point of Mum’s nail file.
‘There’s a field over there which they once used to stockpile coke.
We had to do quite a bit of digging with our hands in the soil and the grass to find what bits of coke had been left behind.
Me and Kenny Roberts got a bit of a bag each. ’
‘But we don’t need to light a fire at the moment,’ I said. ‘Have you not noticed, there’s a heatwave on, even if it is only May?’
‘And it might have escaped your notice, with you off up with your posh bloke an’ all, that if we need hot water in this house, we have to light a fire. I need a bath if I’m going to get anywhere tonight.’
‘Sorry, I forgot that.’
‘Yes, well, just remember that next time.’
‘So, what’s Mum up to, you say?’