The Angels of Lovely Lane (36 page)

Victoria looked up at Roland and wondered how their friendship had become love. No words had been spoken. It had just happened. A seamless transition. He smiled down at her as though he had read her thoughts. ‘Is it acceptable for me to do this?’ he asked, and without waiting for a reply lightly kissed her on the lips.

‘Well, I hope so,’ Victoria replied, smiling back up at him, ‘as you just did.’

‘Well, that’s a relief, then. I did worry I may have misread the runes. That maybe you had found a doctor who had stolen your affections, although I have to say Teddy came home last weekend and reassured me on that score.’

‘Teddy?’ Victoria almost shouted his name. ‘Don’t speak to me about your brother. I still haven’t forgiven him.’

Roland slipped Victoria’s hand into one of his and picked up her case with the other as they headed towards the car. He and Victoria had almost had a row about his brother and so he was happy to let the subject slip.

‘Your letters sound as though you’ve been having a beastly time,’ he said instead.

‘Oh, no, I’m not. Not yet anyway. The beastly time begins when I return to my new placement, after the holiday. I am on ward two with Sister Antrobus. They call her the Anteater, because she almost looks like one. She near killed Pammy’s nursing career stone dead. No one knows how she survived.’

‘Has Pammy given you lots of tips?’

‘Oh, yes. I’ve met a lot of women like the Anteater. Lancashire is full of strong women. She doesn’t scare me one bit.’

Slipping into the passenger seat while Roland strapped her case on to the back, Victoria untied her headscarf, shook it out and folded it into a neat square on her lap as her hair fell down over her shoulders. She knew, deep down, that it was a lie to say she wasn’t scared of the Anteater. She was terrified. She also knew that now, after Roland’s kiss, they were officially courting, even if neither of them had said so. A life as a solicitor’s wife in Bolton with Roland was very appealing, but she had resolved that she would continue with her nursing until she sat her finals in a little over two years’ time. Since St Angelus didn’t employ married nurses, one day she and the others would have to make a choice. For her it would be to be a nurse, or to be a wife and mother. To give up the job she was loving so much, the job that made her feel useful and vital and fulfilled on a daily basis, or not to marry the man she was sure she was now in love with.

They chatted as they drove about Roland’s work, the estate, and the impending sale. About the fact that her father refused to take his calls and that Roland thought the new solicitor was probably dragging things out, helping himself to a large chunk of what was left of the estate.

‘Gosh, Roland, I am so sorry. Aunt Minnie has gone quite mad. I can’t even mention your name on the telephone without her changing the subject. That’s why I haven’t told them you are bringing me home. We will arrive together.’

Roland removed his hand from the wheel and slipped it into Victoria’s. They exchanged a sheepish smile, shot through with the thrill of first love. Victoria found it difficult to stop grinning and, not wanting Roland to see that, she turned to look out of the side window. She breathed in deeply the scent of the heavy autumnal mist sweeping across the moors as they motored away from Bolton and out into the countryside. Despite everything, it was good to be home.

‘What will you tell them?’ he asked. ‘Will you tell them we are together and we hope to be married?’

‘Are we? Do we?’ Victoria was still grinning.

‘I jolly well hope so, unless you make a habit of letting men kiss you at railway stations.’ He lifted Victoria’s hand to his lips and kissed her fingers. ‘I know I’m not supposed to mention him and I don’t want to spoil the moment, but as you are looking so beautiful and serene and you are trapped in my car and cannot escape, I have to ask you again. Teddy’s heart is broken, you know. He thought he had finally persuaded your friend to fall for his charms, but it’s been months now and she won’t even talk to him. He was home last weekend, full of woe.’

‘I’m not surprised in the slightest. He’s a cad. Asked Dana to meet him and then stood her up without a by your leave. At the very least, he could have made contact with one of us to let her know.’

Roland turned the corner into the driveway and Victoria could see Baker Hall standing proud against the skyline in the distance.

‘But he says he did, that he gave a note to one of your nurses to pass on.’

Victoria gave a snort of derision. ‘Roland, do you really believe that? That he would give a note to one of us and we wouldn’t pass it on? No, I’m sorry, if Teddy doesn’t know how to behave, then he can keep well clear of Dana. She has vowed that hell will freeze over before she’ll ever speak to him again. And frankly, if he goes near her he will have me to deal with and then I shall hand him over to Pammy to finish off. No doctor plays around with or hurts the feelings of any one of us without having to face the consequences from us all.’

‘Ouch,’ said Roland, as he flinched. ‘Remind me never to be late.’

‘It wasn’t that he was late, Roland. He stood her up entirely. The poor girl stood there waiting for him for two and a half hours. She had to sneak out of the nurses’ home. She could have got into serious trouble. Don’t you understand?’

‘All right, I do. I am no longer defending my brother. I well and truly rest my case; he can battle on alone.’ Roland was laughing, but also thinking to himself how much more confident Victoria was since leaving Baker Hall and all the sadness that surrounded it. ‘I hear on the grapevine that they are almost packed up at Baker Hall. Although the new solicitor won’t speak to me, the agent is a good man and has been keeping me informed. I don’t want you to be upset.’

Victoria saw the concern for her on his face. He was everything her father had never been to her mother. Protective, and caring, and she loved it.

‘I won’t be upset. I have had a long time to think and to realize that there are things in life far more important than an estate. Health for one. Roland, have you ever eaten chips?’

*

As Baker Hall came into view, Victoria was surprised to see removal lorries parked in front of the house.

‘Have things gone already?’ she asked.

‘No, not quite.’ Roland had avoided going into details on the journey, but now there was no getting away from it. Victoria would have to be told everything. ‘I’ve seen some of the listings. The paintings are being sold at auction in London, but the rest is being sold here. Did you know that you had almost forty horse rugs in the stables, or so the inventory said?’

‘Yes. Some of them were there long before I was born. Mother looked after everything so well.’ Victoria’s eyes filled with tears and a sob caught in her throat. She had been desperate to come home, but suddenly, Roland or not, she wished she were miles away.

‘Victoria!’ Aunt Minnie ran down the steps. ‘What are you doing here? I wasn’t expecting you until this evening.’

Two men with folders in their arms came down the steps behind Aunt Minnie and Victoria guessed that they were the new solicitors. She felt Roland bristle next to her. Her aunt completely ignored Roland as she continued. ‘I had hoped this would all have been finished weeks ago, but these men, they drink so much tea, it has taken them twice as long as expected. It’s the war, you know; all the best workmen appear to have been killed off. I’m amazed this lot are tolerated by their employers.’

‘I wanted to get here as quickly as I could. I’ve come to help, Aunt Minnie. You can’t do this all alone. Where’s Daddy?’ she asked.

She felt anger bubbling up inside. She was no longer the shy and unsure Victoria who had left home nine months ago. This Victoria had made friends, passed exams, fallen in love and held patients’ hands as they exited the world. She had worked long hours, been with people as they were told the best and the worst of news. In short, she had learnt about life outside Baker Hall. This Victoria knew her own mind. Roland had put the palm of his hand in the middle of her back and was exerting gentle yet reassuring pressure. If you fall, I will catch you, said his touch, as clearly as any words.

‘Oh, your father. He’s worse than the workmen. Sitting in his study. Hasn’t lifted a finger. Shouted at them when they came in to take the pictures down. I told the auctioneer that he will have to sell your father as a job lot. He refuses to move.’

‘Poor Daddy.’ Victoria turned to Roland. She wanted someone who didn’t really know her father and all his faults to agree with her.

‘Poor Daddy my eye,’ said Minnie. ‘The dower house is lovely. You know, now that it is done, I cannot understand what has possessed us all to hold on to this crumbling pile for so long. I was dreading the auction only a few months ago, and now I can’t wait for it to come. I’m afraid there is nowhere for you to sleep inside – all packed up. You’ll have to go to the dower house and I will meet you over there.’

‘I think I’ll just take a look around the Hall, if you don’t mind.’ The pressure in the small of her back increased, just a fraction.

‘But the dower house is so warm. There are no fires lit in the Hall. It’s chilly in there. And I’ve had all your things moved over. Go and have some tea, darling. It will take a little adjustment.’ Minnie’s voice had moved from assertive to pleading and Victoria instinctively felt she was hiding something. ‘You don’t want to traipse around the place now. I know you won’t accept it overnight, no one knows that better than me, but honestly, in time you will feel just the same, glad to be rid of a freezing, oversized mausoleum.’

A sudden noise stopped all conversation.

A look of bewilderment crossed their faces as they stood united. Paralysed by disbelief. And then they heard a piercing scream from one of the maids and Roland moved ahead of Victoria, up the steps to the house. Still she could not move. She had heard that sound so many times before, but never inside the house. The sound of her father’s gun.

*

Her father’s dog put his head on Victoria’s lap and stared up at her, his eyes dark pools of misery.

‘That’s the worst thing about dogs, you can’t explain to them what has happened. They don’t understand,’ said Roland, as he sat next to Victoria on the big comfortable sofa in the library. The label attached to the string that hung from one arm said that it was lot number 147. They both nursed glasses containing the best brandy Baker Hall had left in the cellar. The funeral had been held that afternoon, allowing mourners time to travel from London.

Although her father had spent most of his time in recent years alone, brooding and blaming, now that he had gone the Hall felt to Victoria as though the life had been sucked out of it. Minnie walked into the room, still in her black funeral attire complete with her hat, and spoke in a voice that was pleading for forgiveness.

‘May I join you?’

‘Yes, of course,’ said Victoria. ‘Please, come and sit with Roland and me.’ She slipped her hand into Roland’s. Within an hour of the doctor having pronounced her father dead, she had taken charge.

‘Baker Hall is now yours,’ Roland had told her. ‘You’re in charge, not your father, God rest his soul, or your Aunt Minnie. It’s you. I’m sorry, that’s the solicitor in me, but I thought you should know. I documented your father’s will. Everything goes to you. Many of your father’s debts have died with him. Obviously, there are still death duties but things aren’t quite as bad as they were. You can negotiate with the Inland Revenue as this is possibly an unusual situation. I’m sorry, Victoria, but I know you will want to know.’

Victoria knew that if Roland hadn’t been at her side she would have been swamped by all that faced her.

‘Right,’ she said, looking at him through eyes blackened and smudged by tears. ‘In that case, the first thing I am going to do is sack those solicitors. Is that all right with you?’

Roland smiled down at her. ‘Darling, can I make that task a little easier for you? May I do it?’

‘Did you see that woman, Lady Bella, at the funeral?’ said Minnie now as she flopped down on the sofa next to Victoria. ‘God, if only she knew the truth. She had been trying to catch your father’s eye ever since your mother died. She would have loved to get her feet firmly under our table and bring her horrible children here.’ Aunt Minnie shuddered at the thought. Victoria hadn’t spoken to her much at all during the day and her aunt had felt it.

Roland had been wonderful and had seen each of the mourners out through the front door with a businesslike farewell. He had acted just as a husband would have done and that was not lost on Victoria or, unbeknown to her, Aunt Minnie.

He had helped to arrange the funeral, instructed the caterers, made small talk with the mourners. He had dealt with the police and the agents.

‘I don’t know how we would have managed without you this past week, Roland,’ said Aunt Minnie. ‘You went way beyond the call of duty and do you know, all the time, I couldn’t stop thinking about my husband,’ she tilted her head to remind Victoria, as though she could have forgotten, ‘your Uncle Jamie.’ There was a moment of silence while her remarks sank in.

‘I appreciate that.’ It was Roland who responded as he twirled his glass around in his fingers in a self-conscious manner. Victoria glanced at him under her eyelashes. This was his moment, not hers.

‘All the men in this family have gone,’ Minnie went on. ‘I kept thinking, if it hadn’t been for that hellish war, those young men would still be with us, at the head of our family today. I thought I saw their ghosts mixing with the mourners, and then I knew I was seeing them as they were, before the war, before they died. What in God’s name did we all do to deserve this?’

‘Don’t cry, Aunt Minnie. Here you go, drink the rest of this brandy, and put your head on the cushion. You must be exhausted.’ Victoria reached for a cushion at the small of her back and placed it behind her aunt’s head.

‘Thank you, sweetie,’ said Aunt Minnie. She patted Victoria’s hand.

‘Do you think if I had come home earlier?’ Victoria had been asking herself that question since the moment her father took his own life and now she had voiced it and steeled herself for the answer.