Beth felt as if she was walking on air when she got to work the next morning. She hung up her light jacket and tidied her counter, and then saw Maggie enter the department. One look at her pale face told her that something wasn’t quite right.
‘What’s the problem, Maggie love?’ she asked, putting the formality of their working titles to one side. ‘Has someone upset you?’
‘It’s my mother…’ Maggie spoke in hushed tones. ‘The police came round yesterday evening and told us that she has been found…’
‘They came to Ralf’s home? How did they know you were there?’
‘I gave my address to Mr Stockbridge as soon as I knew I was moving, and the police said they’d got it from the store.’
Beth moved towards her, putting an arm about her waist. ‘What did the police say about your mother?’
Maggie’s eyes filled with tears. ‘She’s very ill, Beth. They say she’s dying in an infirmary. She doesn’t have any money and they think… they say her accomplice took it all and then deserted her. She asked for me and they came round to Ralf’s mother’s house…’ Maggie gulped. ‘Mrs Higgins didn’t know about the scandal and she was upset when the police came looking – Ralf said she didn’t mean to be harsh, but she told me she would not have been as welcoming had she known what my mother was accused of…’
‘Has your mother been accused of anything formally?’
Maggie shook her head. ‘The police said she was too ill to question and they say that if I don’t visit her by this evening, it may be too late.’ Her eyes met Beth’s. ‘Ralf’s mother says I should not go because it looks as if I’m condoning her behaviour. According to her, my mother is at the very least a thief and mostly likely a murderess…’
‘Oh no!’ Beth cried. ‘She ought not to have said that to you…’
‘Ralf said it would be better if I didn’t go – but I have to, Beth. I know I said I didn’t care, but she’s dying…’
‘Of course you must go,’ Beth said sympathetically. ‘Jack is going to meet me after work this evening, but we could both come with you…’
Maggie thanked her but had to take her place at her counter because they both had customers. During her break time, Maggie confided in Mrs Craven, and in the end it was she who insisted on accompanying her to the infirmary to visit her mother.
‘It was kind of you to offer to go,’ she said to Beth, ‘but I feel this needs an older woman. Maggie quite rightly wants to see her mother, but she must not be compromised or bullied. I shall accompany her and then take her home and sort things out with Mrs Higgins.’
So it was arranged that Mrs Craven would look out for Maggie and Beth was able to go out for the evening with Jack, as they’d previously arranged. He took her to a small restaurant and they sat all evening talking and laughing over the excellent food.
‘This is where I’m in my element,’ Jack told her with a grin. ‘I think I should have been a chef – or maybe just the manager of a place like this…’
‘You like food,’ Beth said and looked at him thoughtfully. ‘And you’ve certainly learned how to look after people. Why don’t you take a course in the things you don’t know about managing a hotel?’
‘I’d never given it a thought,’ Jack said. ‘I could study while I’m away – there must be places where I could take some sort of course to earn a diploma or a certificate…’
‘It’s something to think about for the future,’ Beth said and smiled as he touched her hand. ‘There’s no hurry about any of it, Jack. I shall enjoy getting to know you when you’re home – and I could write to you when you’re away…’
‘I probably wouldn’t get them,’ he said. ‘We call in at various ports, but although I can send you cards, yours might miss me…’ He looked at her seriously. ‘While I’m away, will you get a photograph done for me, so I can take it with me in future…?’
Beth made a mental note to write him some letters, chatty, friendly missives telling him about her feelings and what she’d done at work. She would have a small batch ready for him to take with her photo on the following Monday and while he was away she would write about her life every day and give them to him for the next voyage.
She lay for a while that evening thinking about Maggie and wondering how she’d got on visiting her mother. It seemed unkind of Mrs Higgins to want to deny her, when she must know that Maggie was upset. Not for the first time, Beth wondered about her friend’s snap decision to move in with Ralf’s family. It had seemed a brilliant idea, but Maggie didn’t really know any of them yet – even Ralf.
Beth knew it was easy to think yourself in love with someone. She’d loved Mark, but she’d been young then and she thought now that she would probably have realised that he was the sort of man who would sulk and get angry if he didn’t get his own way, which meant that she might not have been happy with him.
For years, Beth had regretted having to give him up, but now she’d begun to see that perhaps Mark had never been right for her, and that meant her mother’s refusal to let her go had been a blessing in disguise.
What Beth needed was a man who took things more in his stride – and she thought she might have met a man she could be happy with, but this time she wouldn’t jump in too soon. Jack’s job took him away and that was good because it gave them both time to think about what they really wanted…
Smiling to herself, Beth turned over and closed her eyes. She was feeling so much happier than she had for a long time and she thought it was partly due to her job and the friends she’d made at Harpers – but also because of a man’s smiling eyes…