the table. They were all relaxed and enjoying themselves, and even Enid lifted her glass to Lois, a lock of her neatly permed hair fallen over one eye. With a huge effort, she ignored the table in the corner where Cowgill sat with his steely-faced wife, and did her best to be the life and soul of the party.
“A toast,” said Bill loudly, when they’d finished coffee and all the etceteras. “To our gorgeous boss…Mrs M!” They all raised their glasses, and Enid sang a quavery line of ‘For she’s a jolly good fellow’.
“I’ll drink to that,” said a voice
“Oy, oy!” said Bill, looking round at a now empty dining-room. “D’you know him, Mrs M, or shall I punch him on the nose?”
“Neither,” said Hazel, butting in. She had drunk only water, and had noticed Lois’s worried look. Lois smiled at her now, mute thanks. Hazel was sitting next to Bill, and the pair had been getting on famously, as far as Lois could see.
Sheila, on the other side of Bill, had had only Enid to talk to, but seemed content. She came over to Lois and said her thanks. “It was very nice of you,” she said. “I’ve enjoyed talking to Miss Abraham…Enid…She was quite forthcoming, actually. Anything you need to know about the Abrahams, you just ask me,” she added. “Except the whereabouts of her rotten brother! She seemed a bit bothered about that. Concerned for him, though I’m blessed if I would be! Yes, we had a good old gossip. I don’t think she’s used to the drink!” Sheila smothered a hiccup, laughed and said she didn’t know what Sam would say, and left with others in a merry group.
Only Lois and Enid were left. “Will you be all right, Enid?” said Lois. “Where are you working this afternoon… it’s the Charringtons, isn’t it?”
Enid nodded, now suddenly perfectly respectful and sober as a judge. “That’s right,” she said. “I’ve got my things in the car, and shall go straight there. It has been a most enjoyable interlude, Mrs M. Thank you so much. It was a pity I didn’t have a chance to catch Mrs Cowgill…I haven’t seen her for such a long time. Used to teach piano to her little girl, you know. That was before…”
Enid’s voice had tailed away as usual, and she stood quietly staring straight at Lois, seeming to expect an answer or comment of some kind. She didn’t get it. At that moment, Lois’s mobile rang. It was Betty at the Waltonby pub, asking Lois if she could pop over as soon as possible. Not urgent, not to worry. Just Derek, needing a bit of help.
Lois left Enid without a word, and was on her way to Waltonby in seconds.
? Weeping on Wednesday ?
Sixteen
Enid Abraham took a packet of Polo mints out of her handbag. She was sure Mrs Charrington wouldn’t like her to arrive for work smelling of alcohol, though she had told her about the Christmas lunch. She liked working at Bell’s Farm. It had all been smartened up, with a Victorian-style conservatory built out into the garden from the sitting-room. Everywhere was freshly painted, and Rosie had hung cheerful curtains in every room. The children had all the latest toy crazes, and Rosie allocated for herself a little room she called her sewing-room, where she made clothes for Maria, and worked tapestry seats for the dining chairs she had picked up for a song at a junk shop in Tresham. To Enid, this clean and colourful family home was paradise, and if anyone had suggested the Charringtons had sinned in destroying most of the original farmhouse, she would have considered them crazy.
The only snag was Anna, the au pair. Enid could see straight away that the girl was not happy. In a rare moment of friendliness, she confided in Enid that she had always lived in towns and hated the country. “It is so cold always, and dirty, and nobody to be my friend,” she had said, and there were tears in her eyes. Rosie Charrington seemed not to notice, and Anna’s unhappiness caused her to take it out on the children, and especially on Enid. If she could find fault with any of Enid’s work, she would grin in triumph and mention it to Rosie with glee.
“I find a dirty tissue behind the laundry basket in children’s bathroom,” she said lightly one morning to Rosie, well within Enid’s hearing. “Do you think Enid overlooks it?”
Fortunately, Rosie was only too well aware that cleaners were hard to come by, and dismissed Anna’s remark with a laugh. “It was me,” she said, “I missed the rubbish bin; and it was after Enid had done the bathroom anyway. Do put the kettle on, Anna, and make us all a nice cup of coffee.”
Confident that her breath now smelled sweetly of peppermint, Enid cheerfully began work. When she took a short break for coffee, she noticed Rosie taking something from the drawer in the kitchen table. “Look, Enid,” Rosie said. “We finally managed to tidy up that pile of rubbish left in the garden when it was so wet. Sebastian made a start on getting it straight, and when he raked the ashes he found this.” She held out her hand, and Enid saw a blackened penknife. “Perhaps Mrs Meade might know whose it is?”
Enid took it from her. She looked at it more closely, and saw what she suspected at first sight. The initials ‘E.A.’ showed up clearly. She felt dizzy, and grabbed the back of a chair. Hoping Rosie had not noticed – and she hadn’t – she collected herself, and shook her head. “Doesn’t mean anything to me,” she said quickly, “but if I can take it, I’ll ask Mrs M. She might know. If not, do you want it back?”
Rosie said no, they didn’t approve of having knives around the house, except those needed in the kitchen. “Knives and guns, even toy ones, are absolutely forbidden,” she said. Enid did not mention she’d seen six-year-old Felix conducting a fierce battle with his sister, both of them wielding gun-shaped twigs with great expertise.
“No, you take it, Enid. I am sure you can find a home for it.”
I am sure I can, said Enid to herself, and slipped it into her overall pocket. She did not show it to Lois, Lois especially, as she knew perfectly well whose it was, and intended to keep it to herself.
¦
Lois was, meanwhile, concerned with more important matters than penknives. She arrived at the pub and rushed into the bar. No Derek in sight, but Betty had seen her coming and beckoned her into the room at the back.
“Um, he’s there,” she said, pointing to a slumbering figure, head back and snoring, in a comfortable armchair.
“Is he…?”
Betty nodded. “Sleepin’ it off,” she said. “I asked Geoff what to do, and he said to serve him four pints and on no account let him out of the door. That’s why I rang you. I hope it was all right, Lois?” she added anxiously.
Lois frowned. “Stupid bugger,” she said. And then she sat down opposite Derek and stared hard at him. “There’s something up with him, Betty,” she said. “He’s not been right for a while. Not himself at all.” Derek stirred in his sleep, and Lois caught a word in a slurred voice…It sounded like her name, and she put her hand on his arm.
“Derek?”
He stirred again, and his eyes opened a fraction. Then he groaned, turned his head away, and seemed to go back to sleep. But Lois knew him only too well, and reached for a glass of cold water that Betty had placed on a nearby table. Her aim was deadly.
Derek sat up, spluttering and shouting. “Bloody hell, what d’you think you’re doin’, Lois?!”
“Taking you home,” she said bluntly, and dragged him to his feet.
“Geoff and me’ll follow and bring the van,” said Betty, trying not to laugh. “Time to close up, anyway.”
Lois got Derek into her car, and they made their way back to Long Farnden in a silence broken only by heavy sighs from Derek and the occasional “Huh!” from Lois.
When Betty and Geoff had gone, Lois and Gran made another mug of black coffee and got it into an unwilling Derek. Lois had telephoned the house where he should have been working, and made an excuse that he’d had to go out on an emergency call in Tresham. The customer wasn’t very pleased, but said he hoped Derek would be at work at the crack of dawn tomorrow as it was time the job was finished.
By the time the kids came home from school, their father was more or less sober, but feeling very fragile. He grumbled that the telly was too loud, that the smell of Gran’s cooking was making him feel sick, and that he thought he’d be better putting his feet up for a bit.
Lois put a stop to that. “There’s that washer needs replacing in the cloakroom,” she said. “Might as well do it now, while you’ve got the time.”
