‘Ian enjoyed his stay with us, didn’t he?’ said Phil to Janice as they sat together relaxing after the day’s work. ‘And he worked jolly hard as well. He looked a bit downcast when I saw him on to the train but he seems to be in a better frame of mind about everything now.’
Ian had stayed a week longer than originally had been planned, and had only returned to Blackpool on the Saturday to start school again on the Monday.
‘Getting friendly with Sophie has done him a world of good,’ said Janice. ‘Finding out that her mother – and her father – had remarried made him realise he’s not the only one in that situation. And he says he’s going to write to her. But it remains to be seen, doesn’t it, how long that will continue?’
‘Yes, they’re only kids,’ said Phil with all the wisdom of his twenty-four years. ‘All the same, you can never tell. We were only young ourselves, weren’t we, when we met?’
‘What do you mean?’ said Janice with a smile. ‘We’re still young, aren’t we? I sometimes feel amazed at just how lucky we’ve been at our age. Our own business and our own home. Some young couples have to struggle like mad to get on their feet.’
‘Yes, we’ve got off to a good start,’ agreed Phil, ‘and it’s down to us to try to make sure it carries on that way. There may be something of a lull now that the summer season is almost over. It’s not like Blackpool where it carries on till the end of October. I’m thinking it might be time to start with evening meals.’
Janice agreed that they could give it a try, and they decided to put an advert in the local paper and a notice in their window to say that they would be taking bookings for evening parties, but they must be pre-arranged.
Their new venture started quite slowly but it was enough for them to cope with until they saw how it worked out. Their first engagement was for a silver wedding anniversary party, a smallish family group of twelve. Phil gave them a choice of four different menus, asking them to choose two options – more than two would be difficult to cope with – for each of the three courses. Toby, and Janice as well, helped Phil with the starters of homemade chicken soup and grapefruit cocktail, main courses of roast beef and fresh salmon (with appropriate vegetables in season), and raspberry pavlova and sherry trifle as the dessert options. A fairly standard sort of menu, but he did not want to run before he could walk. He hoped to be more ambitious as time went on.
An added bonus was that Janice was asked to make the celebratory cake, which she decorated with pink and white icing, pink ribbons and miniature silver bells, with a small silver vase containing freesias on the top.
This October meal was a success, and bookings followed at the rate of at least one a week. The daytime trade, as they had anticipated, had dropped off slightly, but the evening bookings made up for it.
In mid-October Janice had a phone call from Val. ‘Guess what?’ said her friend, not waiting for an answer. ‘I’ve passed my driving test, first time!’
‘Well done,’ said Janice. ‘You clever girl! I didn’t know you were so far on with your driving.’
‘I had some private lessons and Sam took me out as well. He was very patient. Anyway, we’re coming over to see you on Saturday and we’ll have lunch at your place. It will give me a chance to drive on a long stretch of road. We might stay for afternoon tea as well. We’ll see how it goes ’cause I want to look at the shops in Harrogate – they’re a lot posher than the ones we have here.’
‘We’ll look forward to seeing you,’ said Janice. ‘You’re making me feel guilty. I’ve not even started to learn how to drive yet.’
‘Well, you haven’t had time, have you?’
‘No, that’s very true. We’ve been busy here. Anyway, we can discuss all the news when we meet. See you Saturday…’
Janice made sure she had time to chat to her friends that Saturday after they had enjoyed their lunch. The lunchtime session was largely Phil’s province, giving Janice a little time to herself. They closed for an hour to give them a short respite before the afternoon teas started at three o’clock.
Janice was pleased to see that Val looked well and happy. Neither of them mentioned Val’s miscarriage earlier that year. Val did make an oblique reference to it, though, when she talked about being back at work.
‘I didn’t realise I’d missed the girls so much,’ she said, ‘while I was at home. I must admit I really enjoy office work and I’m not in charge any more. Susan took over my job when I thought – well, I hoped – I’d be leaving for good. And I don’t mind a bit about being replaced. It’s less responsibility for me and I’m still hoping I won’t be there for ever.’
‘How’s Cissie going on?’ asked Janice. ‘Do you see much of her now?’
‘Not as much as I did, but we still keep in touch, of course – we’ve been friends for so long. Oh… I nearly forgot. She’s passed her driving test as well. She failed twice but she was determined to carry on. She can be real determined, can Cissie, when she sets her mind to something. Anyway, she’s done it and she’s as pleased as punch.’
Sam laughed. ‘I only hope I’m not on the road when she’s anywhere around!’
‘Oh, Sam, don’t be like that,’ said Val. ‘I’m sure she’ll be OK. And the examiner wouldn’t have passed her, would he, if she wasn’t good enough?’
‘Oh, I don’t know so much. She’d flutter those big blue eyes at him. I’m only going by what Walter says. He’s a bit worried about her going out on her own.’
‘Well, I don’t think she’ll be able to do much driving while she’s got the children to look after. She just wanted the satisfaction of knowing she could do it. She’s probably improved a lot since she stopped going out driving with Walter. I know he used to get exasperated with her, that’s why she had lessons.’
‘Are Cissie and Walter getting on all right?’ asked Janice. ‘Apart from the driving, I mean?’
‘Yes, as far as I know,’ answered Val, a little warily. ‘Why…?’
‘Well, I sensed there was a bit of tension between them the last time I saw them. And there was that scene at your party…’
‘Oh, yes, with Rita,’ said Val, remembering only too well. ‘He was only being friendly because she had just started working there. She’s a very shy girl – at least she was at first, and he wanted her to feel at home. I think Cissie realised she’d been too hasty. Yes, Cissie and Walter are OK. They think the world of their children but I’ve tried to tell Cissie that she must spend more time with her husband when she can. She’s so wrapped up in the kids that I wonder sometimes if Walter might feel rather left out of things.’
Val had heard a little rumour which she hoped was not true. She certainly wasn’t going to spread it around. She was not a gossip and neither was Janice. She knew that Janice was only enquiring because she liked Cissie.
‘Yes, she was such a fun-loving girl, wasn’t she?’ said Janice. ‘It’s odd to think of her as a housewife with two children.’
‘Well, she seems happy,’ said Val. ‘Now I’ve passed my test I’m going to suggest that I babysit one evening so she and Walter can go out.’
‘I’d better come with you,’ said Sam. ‘We could both babysit. I don’t want you driving around in the dark on your own.’
‘Honestly! You’re as bad as Walter!’ said Val. ‘You must realise that we girls are perfectly capable of looking after ourselves.’
‘You’re quite right, Sam,’ said Phil, who had just joined them after the lunchtime session. ‘I would be just the same if it was Janice driving.’
‘Well, it looks as though that might be a long time ahead,’ said Janice. ‘So you don’t need to worry about it just yet.’
Val and Sam decided to walk to Harrogate to see the shops before returning for afternoon tea.
‘It’s great to see those two doing so well,’ said Sam. ‘They’re really making a go of it, aren’t they?’
‘Most certainly,’ agreed Val. ‘I was wondering if we could come and have an evening meal here quite soon. What about us coming when it’s your birthday?’ Sam’s birthday was at the end of November, in about six weeks’ time. ‘We could invite Jon and Thelma to come with us. What do you think?’
‘Yes, good idea. They never have any trouble finding a babysitter. My parents or Thelma’s are always pleased to look after Rosemary. We’d probably have to stay the night, though, and there’s no room at Janice and Phil’s place.’
‘There are hotels nearby,’ said Val. ‘See… There’s one there.’ It was a prosperous-looking place overlooking the Stray, close to the town centre. There were other similar ones and Sam made a note of them to phone nearer the time, after he had asked his brother and wife if they would like to come.
They had a quick look at the shops, although time was limited. They were grander than those in Halifax and Sam bought Val a shoulder bag in soft brown suede that he saw her admiring.
‘You’re so good to me,’ she said. ‘You mustn’t buy me everything I say I like, it isn’t good for me.’
‘Why not?’ He smiled at her. ‘Make the most of it, darling. The time will come when we shall have… other priorities.’
They did not often discuss the family that they both wanted, having decided it was better to just let things take their course.
‘You seemed a little wary when Janice mentioned Cissie,’ he said to her as they walked back. ‘You’ve not heard anything, have you? That Walter might be… playing away from home?’
‘Nothing definite,’ she said. ‘I know he spends a lot of time with his cycling club and that’s something Cissie has never taken part in. I think she should make more time to be with him on his own without the children, but Paul and little Holly are everything to her at the moment. Why, have you?’
‘Er… yes. I’ve heard a little rumour,’ said Sam. ‘I try not to get involved in gossip. After all, it’s none of our business.’
‘It is if it involves my friend,’ said Val. ‘Let’s hope that it’s something and nothing.’
It was not long, though, before they were to learn more about it.
Cissie parked the car close to the entrance to Walker’s mill. She had seized the opportunity she had been waiting for when Walter decided to cycle to work that morning, a bright sunny morning at the end of October. He was obsessed with keeping fit at the moment.
She had left the children with her mother who was pleased to look after them, but not for too long. That was why she had decided to take the car. Holly was OK on the back seat in her carry-cot, with Paul at her side to keep an eye on her. To walk to her mother’s and then to the mill and back again would take too long.
She sat there for a few moments, but not because she was having second thoughts. She knew the time had come to act on what she had heard.
She had been in the market hall last week, with Holly in her pram and Paul at her side, when she had seen Marlene, a young woman she had once worked with at the mill.
‘Hello, Cissie,’ she greeted her. ‘How nice to see you. It’s been ages, hasn’t it?’ Marlene had left the mill a few years ago. Her little boy was now at school but she had not returned to work. ‘You look just the same, well, nearly the same. I heard you had two kiddies – time flies, doesn’t it? Actually, I thought I saw you last week but when I got near I realised it wasn’t you.’
Cissie looked at her quizzically.
‘Er… perhaps I shouldn’t be telling you this, but on the other hand you’ve got a right to know when it’s about your husband.’
Cissie knew that Marlene had always loved to gossip and had often been guilty of spreading rumours far and wide. Nevertheless, she wanted to know. ‘Come on then,’ she said. ‘What’s all this about Walter?’
‘Well, I was in the Fox and Hounds one night last week, with Sid, and I caught a glimpse of Walter at the other side of the room. He was with a blonde girl and… well, of course I thought it was you. Who else could it be? So I say to Sid that I’ll just go and have a word with you. But when I got near I realised it wasn’t you at all. So I turned round and went away again. I didn’t speak to Walter. He might not have remembered me. Any road, it was nowt to do with me who he was with. Happen it was his sister, eh?’
‘He hasn’t got a sister,’ said Cissie. ‘So… what was she like, this… blonde girl?’
‘Well, she wasn’t really like you at all, it was just the hair, y’see. She was a lot slimmer than you. Sorry, Cissie, no offence meant, but she was. Quite a scrawny-looking girl actually, not much meat on her bones. Looked as though a puff of wind ’ud blow her away. Quite pretty, though, and delicate looking.’
Cissie guessed at once who it must be. Her mind went back to the young lass that Walter had been talking to at Val and Sam’s party all those months ago. Rita – that was her name. Walter said he was just being friendly because she had come to work in the office. She was keen on cycling and said she might join the local club…
‘Thanks for telling me, Marlene,’ she said. ‘I know who she is. She belongs to Walter’s cycling club but there’s nowt in it. There’d be a few of the others there an’ all. They meet at the pub now and again but I can’t go ’cause I have to stay and look after the kids.’
This was not true, and probably Marlene would know that, but Cissie was damned if she would give her the satisfaction of thinking she’d caused trouble. She’d never liked Marlene anyway – spiteful little cow!
‘Ta-ra for now. Be seeing you…’ But Cissie hoped that she would never set eyes on the interfering madam again. She walked away quickly, tears of anger and hurt brimming up in her eyes.
She had been boiling up inside ever since but had tried to act normally in front of Walter. It was time now, though, to tell that scheming little hussy just what she thought of her.