Page 46

Chapter 46

October 1931

The drawing room at the front of the house hadn’t been used for almost a year.

Ann and Isobel stood in the doorway and took in the vastness of the task ahead of them.

‘I’ll find you one of my working headscarves to tie over your hair,’ said Isobel.

Ann made a snipping motion with her hand.

‘I was serious about the scissors!’

Isobel surveyed the room.

‘I don’t think we should add haircutting to the list of jobs to be done before tomorrow.

There’s more than enough to be getting on with as it is.

’ She put her hands on her hips and took a deep breath.

‘Come on. Let’s get started.

If we work steadily, it won’t be so bad.

’

Ann hoped that Isobel’s confidence was well placed.

The room hadn’t been touched since the previous December.

Even then Ann had wondered why she had bothered when there had only been herself in the house, but as she had walked back from the shops in Morningside, she had caught glimpses of Christmas trees in her neighbour’s front windows.

She had reluctantly tried to join in with the festivities, opened the shutters just a peep, and had even hung some paper chains on a large plant she had placed in the bay window.

It had almost ended her, trying to carry the heavy earthenware pot through from her room at the back of the house.

Eventually, she had edged it onto a wooden trolley with wobbly wheels and managed to get it through that way.

The trolley had then died and so had the plant, left alone through the spring months in a dark, unheated room.

Isobel shivered. ‘We’ll need to light a fire.

’

‘The chimney hasn’t been swept for two years.

I didn’t bother last winter.

’

‘Do you think we could risk it?’

‘Definitely not,’ said Ann hastily.

‘I should have had them done in the summer when you suggested it. Mind you, the chill may speed her visit up somewhat. Maybe the four of us should just go out for the day and avoid seeing her altogether.’

Isobel shook her head.

‘If she has something to say, and if it’s about Finlay, you are going to let her visit, and you will be polite and make her welcome, at least until you know what it’s about.

’ Isobel walked over to the big bay window.

‘We need to draw these curtains and air the room at the very least. That should help a bit.’

‘I know, but it’s such a mess in here.

We can’t use the parlour upstairs.

Keith and Rab stripped the wallpaper off last week, remember?

And the two of them work fast, but with the best will in the world they aren’t going to paper and paint a room that size overnight.

’

‘Well, she can’t go into the old dining room.

That’s your bedroom now and it would be too much effort to start moving furniture for what might be a ten-minute visit.

So really, we don’t have much choice.

’ Isobel bent down and ran her finger along the edge of the skirting board.

‘This place needs more than a quick clean. It’s the one room I haven’t been into properly.

’

Ann sighed. ‘I know it’s my house and I should feel proud of it and want everything to be perfect, but it wasn’t me who asked her to visit with just a few days’ notice.

I suppose we could plug in an electric fire to warm the place up a bit.

Thank goodness Keith and Rab have finished the hall and the stairs, at least it looks respectable when you walk through the front door.

But honestly, Isobel, why am I worried what a stranger will think about the decoration of my home?

’

‘Everyone does. It’s human nature.

’ Isobel walked around the room slowly, her fingers stroking the canvas dustcovers on the furniture.

‘You know, if you like how the room looks when we’ve got it clean and tidy then maybe we could all be sitting here with a roaring fire and some chestnuts on Christmas Day?

Wouldn’t that be nice?

’

Despite the cold wind, they opened all four of the sash windows, and began to get the room aired.

They carried Keith’s tall A-frame ladders down the newly painted stairs very, very carefully, and started attacking the ornate cornice with feather dusters, before moving on to the lights.

Ann steadied the ladder and Isobel climbed up to remove the glass globes, one at a time.

‘When were these last cleaned?’ said Isobel, horrified.

‘Not since you left, I don’t think.

’

‘It’s a wonder anyone can see a hand in front of their face with the state of them.

They need a proper wash and polish.

I’ll go and put some hot soapy water in the sink.

I’m sure we’ll soon have them looking much better.

’

On her return from the kitchen Isobel brought the wireless with her and plugged it in.

The Home Service was broadcasting music, which seemed to speed up their work.

They removed several years’ worth of spiders’ webs from the corners, and when Keith and Rab came home at lunchtime, they helped to take down the heavy crimson velvet curtains and hung them over the washing line in the back garden for a good beating.

Fortunately, the dustcovers had kept the worst of the grime off the furniture, and when Ann had hard-brushed the carpet, and Isobel had washed the black painted edges of the floor with a mop and bucket, and polished the mantelpiece and the tiled grate, the room looked quite presentable.

Clean, but cold. It was still not somewhere anyone would want to linger, but that suited Ann very well.

‘Tomorrow morning, I’ll get up sharp and get the windows washed so we can get the curtains back up,’ said Isobel.

‘Mrs Stuckup isn’t coming until the afternoon, so we’ve got plenty of time.

’

*

Isobel was as good as her word, and in the morning the sash windows were washed inside and out.

And that was when it happened.

The storm door had been left ajar while the tiled vestibule and the front step were drying.

A gust of wind blew through and caught one of the unhooked windows.

It swung back suddenly, clattering against the frame.

A large crack appeared in the glass, and then a second one, and then a third, and finally a section of the windowpane crashed to the ground, leaving a snaggle-toothed gap in the glazing.

Isobel gasped and lifted her hand to her mouth.

‘Oh my! Oh my goodness.’ She turned to look at Ann, who had heard the crash and run through from the kitchen.

‘I am so sorry. So, so sorry. I should have been more careful, Miss Ann,’ she said, reverting to the past.

Ann took Isobel by the shoulders and studied her closely.

‘Are you hurt?’

‘I’m so sorry,’ Isobel repeated.

‘Stop that. Are you hurt?’

Isobel shook her head.

‘No, I just got a terrible fright and I’m so—’

Ann left Isobel and walked over to the window to examine the damage.

And then she started to laugh.

Isobel looked at her in astonishment.

‘This isn’t funny.’

‘Yes,’ squeaked Ann.

‘Oh yes, it is.’

‘I will pay for the window, I promise.’

Ann could barely speak.

Isobel waited, not seeing the amusing side of it at all.

Eventually, Ann managed to draw breath.

‘You will do no such thing.’ She sat down on a newly uncovered chair.

‘Look at us. We have turned ourselves inside out and back to front trying to get this room ready for a complete stranger and for what reason? So that we can look as though we are something we are not.’

‘We have?’

‘I think Mrs Beatrice Stuckup is going to have to sit in the kitchen like any normal person. I mean, this is a great improvement already, even though there’s a howling gale coming through that window, but I don’t think it’s fair to make her sit in such a draught, no matter how unpleasant she is likely to be.

’

‘I said I—’

‘And I said no. Absolutely not. I’m sure Keith will be able to fix it with a new pane of glass and some putty.

’ She paused. ‘The smell of it always reminds me of Finlay. It’s the linseed oil.

He used to rub it into his cricket bat.

’ Ann pulled herself together.

She walked over to the fireplace and looked around at everything they had achieved.

‘This room looks a lot better now, and all our hard work has given me the nudge to get those chimneys swept as soon as possible and think about lighting a fire. Maybe if Keith and Rab have any energy left on their Sundays, they might be able to help us get it wallpapered before Christmas. We might even put a Christmas tree in the window. That will scare the rest of the street.’

‘We could do that.’

‘Since Ursula died, I’ve barely been in here.

’ Ann ran her fingers along the mantelpiece.

‘This was her favourite room.’

Isobel allowed a respectful period of silence before pushing on.

‘Unfortunately, if we’re going to be entertaining in the kitchen then it will need a proper clean, and it’s already noon.

I haven’t made the sly cake yet, and she will be here at three.

’

Ann folded her arms. ‘Nonsense. We have parkin; you made it on Monday, as you do every week, and it will be lovely and chewy. If the sly cake is ready, that’s fine, and if it isn’t then we can just have it for supper instead.

The kitchen is clean, you scrubbed it down yesterday.

There might be some soot on the range but nothing a damp cloth won’t sort out.

We have the perfect excuse to be there, should we even need one, because she won’t be able to miss the broken glass in the window as she walks up the front path.

And with the price of coal I expect we aren’t the only household who are lighting fewer fires.

I’m sure even the most well-heeled citizens of the city are thinking about how much fuel they use and whether they really need to have a fire lit in every single room on every single day.

’

‘You might be right. I spoke to Agnes up the road just last week and she said they’ve cut right back on the coal order.

Between you and me, she is rather worried about her position.

’

Ann frowned. ‘She won’t be the first, nor the last, sadly.

What age is she?’

‘I’m not sure.

Older than me; she might be fifty.

The family sort of inherited her from their parents.

’

‘Times are definitely changing, and a lot of people are going to be caught up in that.’ Ann walked over to the window, tiptoeing around the shards of glass.

‘But for now I’m just going to clear up this mess and wedge some thick card over the hole.

That will have to do until the menfolk get back.

I need to tidy my hair, and there’s the cake to make.

It might still be warm when Mrs Stuckup gets here but that’s alright.

It’s not the Jenners Tea Rooms she’s visiting. ’