Page 7 of Mrs. Endicott's Splendid Adventure

That evening Lionel came home with a worried frown on his face.

“Ellie, we must talk,” he said as she put a bowl of nuts beside the sherry.

“Michelle doesn’t want to marry you after all?”

He flushed. “No, nothing like that. She is really anxious to see the house, decide what changes she wants to make. And she won’t do that until you’ve gone.”

“At least she has some feelings of propriety,” Ellie said. “But don’t worry, I’m all ready to go. I’m just waiting for the nod from my travelling companion.”

“Your what?” His jaw dropped open.

“I’m travelling with a friend. So much nicer, don’t you think?”

“A female friend?”

Oh, how tempted she was to reveal that it was actually a Frenchman called Marcel. But she had never been a good liar. “Naturally. A woman of good character and impeccable background. Her father was a brigadier, Lionel. She was presented at court. You don’t have to worry.”

“I wasn’t worrying. Of course it’s splendid that you’re travelling with a friend. It’s the destination that worries me. Ellie, I don’t think you should be going to France at this moment.”

“Why on earth not?” Since he hadn’t poured himself a sherry, she poured her own and took a sip.

“You must know that the situation in Europe is not looking good, I’m afraid. That blighter Hitler has designs on conquest, you mark my words.”

“Yes, but surely his aim is to reclaim territories that used to be German—Poland and Czechoslovakia. Eastern Europe, not France.”

“That will be only the beginning, I’m afraid. He may well draw us into another war.”

Ellie looked up, horrified. “Surely not after the carnage of the last one. Neither side would think it was a good idea to go to war again.”

“You’d think not, wouldn’t you? But he’s not a rational being, if you want my opinion.

He’s a new Napoleon. Highly dangerous. We’ve already got Franco and that idiot Mussolini.

Hitler doesn’t want to be seen as less than them, I can assure you.

He’s been busy amassing weapons, and any day now he’ll annex Czechoslovakia, then it will be Poland, then God help the rest of us. ”

“You really think we could find ourselves in another Great War?”

“You’d hope not, wouldn’t you? But as I just said, Hitler is not rational, in my opinion. And he’s got the whole population brainwashed into thinking he’s some kind of god figure who is going to make the Aryans rule the world. An empire to last a thousand years—that’s what he’s saying.”

She felt a chill gnawing at her stomach but attempted to sound light. “Then England would be in as much danger as the South of France, I’d imagine.”

“We have the Channel as a barrier.”

“And they have aeroplanes. I don’t think the Channel is going to protect England any longer.”

Lionel slapped the arm of his chair. “I’m just thankful I’ll be too old this time. After what I went through in the last lot.”

“You were in the pay corps, Lionel. You didn’t see a trench for four years.”

He bristled at this. “I wasn’t that far from the front at times. I lost good friends. I got the war medal.”

Ellie tried not to smile. Everyone got the war medal, she wanted to say. Then the smile faded. “But the boys,” she said. “Richard’s already in the army. And Colin ... he’s safely far away right now, but.”

“But look how Japan is sabre-rattling and has similar imperial designs on the Far East. Look what they are already doing in China. Colin will not be safe in Hong Kong. Anyway, I expect his bank will send him home if there is a threat of war.” He paused, looking up at her now.

“Our bank is already moving assets from vulnerable countries.”

“Gosh,” she said.

“I don’t want to alarm you too much, my dear,” he said, “but I do think you should reconsider your plan to travel. Go somewhere pleasant in England. Go to Devon or Cornwall.”

Ellie shook her head. “I’m not going to France permanently, Lionel. Just a long holiday probably, and I don’t think that Mr Hitler intends to start a war within the next couple of months.”

“Let us hope not,” he agreed. “At least Mr Chamberlain is all for appeasement. He’s heading there himself, but I just wanted to make you aware of the situation. We had a meeting today, and I can tell you that the bank’s president is taking this whole thing very seriously indeed.”

“Then I’d better go and have my holiday without delay, hadn’t I? And return to the comparative safety of an English village.”

“Quite right,” he said. He put out a hand and covered hers. “I do still feel responsible for you, Ellie. I’m very fond of you in my own way, and you’ve been a good wife to me.”

“Not good enough, apparently,” she said. She pulled her hand away and left the room.

“Is that the lot, then?” Mavis was helping her to get the last items into a trunk. It was a blustery autumn day, and rain was peppering the window.

“I hope so,” Ellie replied. “There’s not another inch of space. I couldn’t even take more hair clips. Gosh, I hope there really are porters everywhere. I have to make my way to Paris before I take the train to the Riviera.”

“You ain’t backing out now, I hope,” Mavis said. “You don’t want to let him feel that he’s got the better of you.”

Ellie pushed a strand of hair back from her face. “No, I won’t back out. I’m just trying to face the realities of the journey.”

Mavis leaned over to try and close the lid of the trunk. Ellie went to help, then stopped and stared. “What did you do to your arm?”

“Oh, that?” Mavis went red. “I bumped into something.”

Ellie could recall other occasions when Mavis had accidently hurt herself.

Bumped into something, brushed against the stove and burned her arm.

Before, in the true British way of minding one’s own business, she had said nothing, but today she couldn’t help herself.

“He did that to you. Your husband. Didn’t he? ”

Mavis turned away. “He’d had a drop too much again, and I hadn’t kept his dinner hot enough for him.”

“He hit you.”

“No. He shoved me into the stove,” Mavis said.

“Let me take a look at it.” Ellie took her arm.

“It’s just a bruise,” Mavis said, backing away. “I’ll live.”

“This time, yes. But what about next time? It always escalates, Mavis. When he finds he can get away with it once or twice, it gets worse.”

“He don’t mean it,” Mavis said. “It’s just when he’s had a drop too much.”

Ellie put her hands on Mavis’s shoulders, turning the other woman to face her. “Do you love him?”

“Love?” Mavis gave a bitter laugh. “I can’t say I ever did.

He was a soldier in the war, quite good-looking in his way in those days, and he was going off to the trenches and I was keen to get away from home—I was eldest of six kids in our house and not enough food.

I didn’t know he’d turn out to be a worse bully than my old dad.

” She gave a big sigh. “It might have been all right if kids had come along, only they didn’t.

He blamed me for that, of course. Called me a barren cow.

I once said it might be his fault, but I got a black eye for saying that. ”

“Mavis, you’ve got to leave him,” Ellie said. Her grip on Mavis’s shoulders tightened.

“Leave him?” Mavis frowned. “And where do you think I’d go, eh? I don’t have no nice fat bank account. I couldn’t even afford to rent a room somewhere new. I’m trapped, that’s what I am.”

“Why don’t you come with me?” Ellie said impulsively.

Mavis stood staring, facing Ellie. “What, abroad? To the Continent? You must be joking.”

“No, you’d love it. It’s so beautiful, and the food is so good, and it’s warm. I’ll pay your way. It will give you time to think about what you want to do next, just as I’m doing.”

Mavis stared out of the window. A big gust of wind rattled the frame and blew leaves from the apple tree. “I suppose you will need help with your things ...,” she said hesitantly. “Someone to do for you over there ...”

“No, don’t think you’d come as a servant, Mavis. Come as a friend. You’ve always been a true friend to me.”

“I ain’t coming if I can’t be useful,” she said, but her voice cracked with emotion. Ellie could see tears in her eyes. “I’m going to do my share.”

“Then you’ll come?”

Again Mavis hesitated. Ellie could see she was torn between the desire to escape and the worry about what her husband would say.

“He ain’t going to like me going away,” she said. “He’s used to being waited on hand and foot.”

“Then it will be good for him,” Ellie said.

“Yes, but you don’t know what he’s like if ...”

Ellie understood what was going through Mavis’s mind. She was worried he wouldn’t let her go—make sure she didn’t go. “Maybe you shouldn’t tell him in advance, Mavis. Leave him a note to say you’ve been called away suddenly.”

“I can’t do that,” Mavis said. “There would hell to pay when I came back.”

“Mavis, do you really want to come back?” Ellie reached out and put her hand on Mavis’s arm. “Are you happy with him?”

“Of course I’m not bloody happy, but ... I did promise for better or worse, didn’t I?”

“And so did I. And look where it’s got me,” Ellie said. “Out on my ear. Nowhere to go after thirty years. And my husband never laid a hand on me. Yours is liable to do you serious injury one day.”

Mavis nodded, digesting this.

“Now’s a good time to make the break, Mavis,” Ellie continued.

“Don’t tell him ahead of time, but leave him a note to say you are accompanying me to the Continent.

And then, if you decide you are better off without him, you write to him again and say that you’re not coming back. That way you never have to face him.”

“But what do I do when you come home? How do I survive on me own with no money?”

“You stay with me until we figure something out. I promise I’d never leave you stranded.

You could find a job as a live-in housekeeper for a while or stay with me until you’ve enough new jobs to pay for a little cottage of your own.

You could even go back to school, learn typing or some other skill. Either way we’d make it work.”

There was a long silence.

“It’s certainly tempting, missus,” Mavis said at last.

“Then say yes. It’s your perfect chance to escape, to lead a life you want.

” She put a tentative arm around Mavis’s shoulder, leading her across the room.

“I’m not doing this because I want company or I want someone to help me.

I’m doing this because I’m genuinely fond of you, and I’m frightened that you’re going to wind up in the morgue one day after he loses his temper.

Your one chance, Mavis. What do you say? ”

There was a long pause, then Mavis gave a sigh.

“All right. Why not? What have I got to lose?” She broke off. “Here, hold on. I don’t have no passport.”

Ellie sighed. “That is a problem.”

“No, it ain’t,” Mavis said, her face suddenly lighting up. “Remember Major Radison at the Grange? I used to clean for them. They went abroad once, and her maid got to go with them as a servant, so she didn’t need no passport of her own. She was written in as part of the group.”

“That’s splendid,” Ellie said. “We’ll go up to London today and get you added to my passport.”

“London? Today?” Even the thought of that made Mavis uncertain.

“Yes. We want to get on with things, don’t we? So take off your apron and let’s get going. We’ll take the Bentley.”

As they drove off in the car, Ellie gave Mavis a delighted grin. “This is splendid. We have our own little tour group.”

“What do you mean ‘group’?”

“Now there are three of us ...”

“Three?”

“Oh, I didn’t tell you. Miss Smith-Humphries is joining us.”

Mavis recoiled. “Her? Oh no. Stop the car. Turn around. I ain’t coming if she’s part of it. She’s a critical old cow. Told me I didn’t polish the church brass properly.”

“She’s dying, Mavis. She wants one last trip to a place she loved. We can’t deny her that, can we?”

“I suppose not,” Mavis said grudgingly.

“If you had to choose between Miss Smith-Humphries and a trip to the Continent and being left at home with your husband, which one would it be?”

Mavis gave a nervous little chuckle. “All right, then. But listen, I know I’ll be on the passport as your servant, but you make it clear to her I ain’t her bloody servant. And I’m not taking no nonsense from her.”

“I will.” Ellie had to laugh, too. “What a motley crew we’ll be.

The Three Musketeers—all for one and one for all.

I don’t know how we’re going to manage getting three of us and our luggage on and off trains and .

..” She stared out of the windscreen, watching the wipers sweep away raindrops, as the thought slowly formed itself in her head. “We could take the Bentley,” she said.

Mavis put her hand up to her mouth and let out a shriek. “What? Take your hubby’s car? He’d have a fit. He’d go bananas.”

“Well, why not?” Ellie said. “He was complaining the other day that it was ancient now and he should look into getting a new car. And he said I could have my share of our possessions. I’ll leave him a note saying that I am taking the Bentley in lieu of any other items that would rightfully be mine. ”

“He won’t like it, Mrs E.,” Mavis said.

“He’ll just have to lump it,” Ellie replied. She and Mavis exchanged a delighted grin.