Miss Mary Martha Crawford (40 page)

some water from a jug into the wash-basin. Her throat was tight, and her heart was crying, "Oh Aunt Sophie! Aunt Sophie! What am I

doing?"

while at the same time her head was saying, "Don't weaken; it's your life, or hers."

When she took the bowl and towels to the bed and placed them on a side table Sophie raised herself on the pillows and said, "I can wash myself this morning, Martha Mary; I feel very well this morning, as if--' she looked about the room, then towards the window 'as if it were a

beautiful day, and it isn't, is it? But that's how I feel, as if it

were a beautiful day and I was going on an excursion. Father used to take me on excursions when I was a girl. I wish I had remained a girl, Martha Mary."

"Wash your hands, Aunt Sophie."

"Yes, Martha Mary. You know something, Martha Mary?"

"What, Aunt Sophie?"

"It's a dreadful thing for a man to leave a girl, a young girl in a church, in front of all those people, waiting, waiting. If he had been kind he would have done it before, even the day before would have done, and then there might have been some hope for her. Don't you think so Martha Mary?"

-Martha stared down into the upturned face. Her Aunt Sophie was

sane;

she was talking sanely. She'd had her

bright periods before, but never, never had she admitted in them that she was anything but a married woman. Now the eyes that looked back

into hers were showing an intelligence, an awareness of herself that she hadn't seen there before. Perhaps it had been there all the time and none of them had realized it. But she should have known, she who had spent so much of her time in this room, she should have realized that the poor creature had to have a shield, and the. shield had been the phantasy she presented to them. Yet she also knew that there were times when Sophie had been far from normal; these were the periods

following her bouts of fits when she was so bad that afterwards when she had seemed normal no one had accepted that this could be so.

"Oh! Aunt Sophie." She leant over and drew the trembling wasted frame into her arms and her tears flowed as she said, "Yes, it was a terrible cruel thing to do to you. Oh, my dear, my dear."

"There, there." It was Aunt Sophie actually comforting her now.

"Don't cry. Aw, Martha Mary don't cry. That I should make you cry, you above anyone. You've been my daughter Martha Mary; even in my bad spells you gave me the love of a daughter, and I've had very bad

spells, haven't I? ... Martha Mary," "Yes, Aunt Sophie." Martha turned her head away as she wiped her eyes.

"Don't let such a thing happen to you."

She blinked now and looked down into the upturned face, but she made no answer, she only shook her head as Sophie went on, "You have such a lovely face, my dear, and one day some man will take it, in his

hands.

But make sure they're honest hands, won't you, Martha Mary? "

"Yes, yes, Aunt Sophie." Her throat was so tight she felt she would choke. She looked towards the floor. The hands were downstairs, the

hands that she wanted to touch her face, even if he saw it only as the face of his housekeeper. And she had known all along that should he

repeat his proposal she would accept it on his terms for she needed to be near him. She needed comfort; but now even comfort would have to

wait, wouldn't it, for she could not leave this poor creature. Roland had won.

"You're a fool. Do you know that? A fool." Harry was sitting on the side of the couch with a blanket around him, and he pushed it roughly under one buttock, then gave a small groan before continuing, "But you're a nice fool, a compassionate one. I knew from the beginning you wouldn't leave her. You know, with good nursing she could last a year, perhaps two. But as I've told you, her heart is pretty weak and if she were to have a bad bout of fits it could give out."

"Long or short, I can't leave her. I'm very sorry."

"So am I, for your sake, for you need to get away from her, And let me be honest, for my own too; I'm a very impatient individual. I like

things cut and dried. Anyway, I've never had your answer from the

other day, but now it would seem there's plenty of time.... Your

brother will be delighted."

His tone was flat, his words clipped. His attitude to the situation

was defeating; it appeared to her that he wasn't much troubled by her decision, and so she answered dully, "Yes, he will."

"You'll stand up to his lady wife, won't you? And don't let her make a drudge of you."

"Yes, I'll stand up to her."

"He was in here a minute ago looking for you. Have you seen him?"

"No."

"From the glimpse I got of him he looked in a bit of a tear;

I don't think things are running as smoothly as he expected, perhaps it's the servant shortage. " He now smiled wryly up at her.

"That and other things. She was introduced to Aunt Sophie last

night."

"Oh. Oh, Aunt Sophie seems to be the root of the matter."

When the door jerked open they both looked towards it to see Roland

standing there.

Td4ike to speak to you for a moment, if you can spare the time. "

Martha, looking down at Harry, now said, "I won't be a moment, I must see to your dressing," then she turned and went slowly towards the door where Roland still stood holding it wide.

When she had passed him she walked towards the entrance of the hall, and there she turned and asked, "Where would you like me to go?"

He gave her no answer except a look of utter impatience, then marched into the drawing-room, and she followed him.

After she had closed the door she did not move from it because he was standing only a few paces from her.

His voice now little more than a growl, he said, "You'll be pleased to know that Eva is cutting her visit short and is returning home today.

Your attitude and the treatment she has had since she arrived has

become unbearable to her. "

"Really!"

"Don't use that sarcastic tone to me, I won't stand it."

"Then there are two of us who don't intend to stand it." Her voice had risen.

He now glared at her for a while before saying, "I'm taking her home, it's as little as I can do. I shan't be able to return until tomorrow, or the next day. Is it too much to ask that you stay on until I get

back?"

She could have said to him at this point, "I'm not leaving, not as long as Aunt Sophie is alive," but she could not at the moment bring herself to give him this satisfaction, so what she said was, "I can do that."

"Even if your friend goes?" There was a deep sneer in his tone.

She felt a warmth spreading over her face, but she made herself remain calm as she replied, "Yes, even if my friend should go, which is very likely, because as soon as the rain eases Doctor Pippin will be calling for him."

For a moment longer they stared at each other, then he flounced past her and out of the room. She remained standing for a moment before she returned to the study and there, with her hands gripping the horsehair head of the couch, she made a small sound that could have been the

forerunner of

laughter or tears as she said, "It's funny, it's really funny, but ...

but she's going, he's taking her home today, now. She ... she cannot abide my presence any longer."

"Really!"

"So it seems."

"Do you think she will change her mind?"

"Oh, I doubt it."

"I do, too' he nodded at her now 'because she's a desperate woman."

"Desperate? In what way?"

He did not answer her immediately but when he did the warmth again

returned to her face for he said, "For marriage. Some women become desperate about marriage when they reach their late twenties."

She busied herself now at a side table and her tone was prim as she

said, "If that is the case, then I would feel inclined to be sorry for her."

"Oh, I shouldn't waste your sympathy; the only thing you should be sorry for is that she's set her sights on your brother because, and I'm not going to say pardon me for saying it, but he's a very immature

young man and, to my mind, not yet ready for the responsibilities of marriage.... You didn't tell him that you were staying?"

"No."

"I thought not, or he'd have induced her to stay in spite of your annoying ways."

If he had meant this to cause her to smile he was disappointed for she remained silent, and she did not speak until after she had renewed the dressing on his forehead and he had remarked on an impatient note,

"Listen to that rain, it seems to be getting heavier."

"The river's rising."

"The river? Is it? ... Does it flood here, you're lying very low?"

"Yes, but very rarely. It must be all of eight years since it got as far as the door. There was a tale that it once reached half-way up the landing wall; there's a mark on the wainscoting; but my opinion is that the landing being wide was

once used as a room, and the mark is where a chair rail ran round it.

"

"Well, there's one thing, if this keeps up we shan't see the doctor today."

"Perhaps that will be just as well, for I don't think you are fit to travel yet."

He lay back and looked at her as she busied herself at the table and he said, "Perhaps you're right. Anyway, the urgency to leave has gone.

And if I did return home the old fellow wouldn't let me get down to

work, so it doesn't matter really where I recuperate, does it? "

She gathered up the soiled linen from the table and, without looking at him, she answered, "No, not really," then walked down the room; and he watched her. There was still no sway to her gown, he imagined she was even thinner than when he had that first time walked behind her up the stairs, and he wondered if there would come a day when he'd see her

hips -so round that her skirt would dance with each step. Strange, but he wanted to see her plump, even fat, and happy, which in a way proved something to him. He wasn't just in love with her. he loved her.

the rain did not stop, it poured incessantly all day and all night and all the following day.

Mildred had not returned home last night, nor would Roland return today because the main road beyond the hill was under water from the river.

Peg, running into the kitchen, shouted to Martha, who was putting a pan on the fire, "Miss Martha Mary! It's at the bottom of the front steps; another couple of feet and it'll be into the kitchen."

"Don't worry, Peg, it'll be all right. If the worst comes to the worst and it does come in we'll only have to make for upstairs and stay there until it goes down." "Twas said that once it reached half-way up the landin' wall."

"That was nonsense."

"Eeh!" Peg now bit on her thumb.

"We're in a right fix, aren't we, stuck out here in the wilds you might say, and no one to give a hand should anythin' happen, 'cos the

doctor's still as weak as a new-born kitten, an' Clan not come. He

couldn't get across the river, 'cos he would have been here if he

could, he would, Miss Martha Mary, he would.... An' he would have gone an' seen to me grannie...."

"Peg." Martha now went to the table where Peg was standing, her scarred hands idle for once, and she said quietly, "Now I've told you, don't worry about your grannie. Your grannie's a sensible woman; she would have left her cottage long before now."

"Aye, Miss Martha Mary. Aye, aye, she's a sensible woman, an' it isn't the first time she's been flooded, is it?"

"No, it isn't. Where does she usually go?"

"Oh, to me cousin Alice's. She's up on the hill, not a stone's throw from Robbie Robson's place; not as high as them but still high enough to keep out of the river's way."

"Well then, don't worry. Now here, carry that tray into the study and I'll take this one, and when you come back take Aunt Sophie's tea up, then get your own, by which time we'll be able to see if it's necessary to take foodstuff and some hot drinks upstairs. Now go on, take the

tray...."

By six o'clock in the evening Martha was as concerned as Peg about the situation, for the water had reached the top step and was seeping into the hall. Looking out through the hall window she could see nothing in it. Yesterday she had taken the precaution of putting Belle in the

back field, for the ground there rose quite a bit towards the boundary, and should the animal become afraid of the water she could jump the dry stone wall, or kick it down in parts. She was glad there was no other livestock to worry about.

She turned hastily from the window now, thinking, I must tell him, he must sleep upstairs tonight.

Half an hour later when Harry limped into the hall and saw the water now easing its way towards the bottom of the stairs, he cast a sharp look at her as he said, "Have you got the necessary things up above, food, drinks, etcetera?"

"I've ... I've got it all ready to take up, but let me show you your room first."

"Where are my clothes?"

"They're upstairs. They have been sponged and pressed but I'm afraid your coat and trousers are torn in parts."

"That doesn't matter, let me have them." The words carried his old tone; it was as if he had just come into the house on a visit and was finding that his orders had been disobeyed.

"Where's Peg?"

"In the kitchen. Don't worry I'll get her, just come along, please."

He now made an impatient movement but when he went to mount the stairs he had to grip hold of the balustrade and take one stair at a time.

"Is it very painful?" As he paused she looked down at his leg.

"Just stiff, that's all; it'll wear off with use."

When they reached the top of the stairs she went before him to her

father's room, in which Miss Harkness had left a strong odour of

perfume, and when he lowered himself into a chair she said, "If you'll make yourself comfortable I'll go and bring up the food and ... and the necessary things for the, night."

He nodded at her, then watched her hurrying from the room. What a