The Beaufort Sisters. Jon Cleary

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      He misunderstood her, thinking she was talking only about the strike. ‘Bumper phoned me – the men are going back to work. They haven’t announced it yet, but Bumper says they’ve all recognized now that they can’t win.’

      She had to concentrate to think about the events of the morning: she had been preoccupied with the wide empty horizon of the future. ‘Oh – you mean they’re giving up? So easily?’

      ‘Don’t criticize them. It’s too easy for us – ’

      ‘But you were hurt – for them! Daddy will laugh at us – ’

      ‘I don’t think he’s that heartless or undiplomatic.’

      She moved up closer to him on the bed, took one of his bandaged hands in hers. ‘Darling, let’s go away.’

      He stared at her closely, his eyes wary in his bruised and grazed face. ‘You don’t mean just for a holiday, do you?’

      ‘No, I mean move away from here, go somewhere else to live. Anywhere – I don’t care – ’

      ‘I think you’d better sleep on it – ’

      ‘I don’t want to sleep on it! For God’s sake, stop being so damn careful of me – I’m not doing this just for you! I’m thinking of me – of us, both of us. And Michael – ’ She was infested with pessimism, was building fears on fears without any real foundation. She had been too well protected, even from the knowledge that her father had another set of loyalties, ones outside that to her and her sisters. ‘Let’s go to England! You’d like that – ’

      He searched her face as if it were strange territory: he had never known her to look and sound like this. He sensed the seriousness in her: what she had just suggested may have come off the top of her head, but she felt it deeply. The decision she had made was bigger than her decision to marry him. But he wasn’t hurt by it.

      ‘All right, we’ll go back to England. But you have to promise me – we tell your parents together and you have to make them understand it was a joint decision on our part.’

      ‘But it isn’t – ’

      ‘Yes, it is. You may have suggested it, but you’re not to tell them you did. You’ll hurt them enough just by going – you don’t have to rub it in by letting them know you had to talk me into it.’

      It was her turn to look searchingly. ‘Why are you being so careful of their feelings? They’ve never been that way about yours.’

      ‘I’m being careful for your sake, darling heart. You may want to come back here some day – ’

      ‘Never – ’

      He shook his head on the pillow. ‘You’ll want to come back. Perhaps not to live, but you’ll want to come back for visits, long ones. There’s not just your parents – there are your sisters. You’re too attached to them to want to turn your back on them.’

      10

      Lucas and Edith took the news as Nina had expected: as if she had turned a gun on them. Lucas did not speak to her for two days, going out of his way to avoid her. But Edith, after her initial shock, did not surrender her daughter without a fight.

      ‘If we’ve made mistakes, Nina, then all I can ask is that you forgive us. It won’t happen again.’

      ‘It will, Mother. Daddy will never change. He thinks he owns us. Not just all of us, but Tim, too.’

      ‘You’re mistaking love for ownership. Maybe he shows it the wrong way, but it is love. I know him better than you.’

      ‘That’s why you can make excuses for him. But I can’t, Mother – not any longer.’

      Then she tried to explain her departure to her sisters. She got them together in what had been the old nursery and was now a games and television room. But all the artefacts of their childhood were still there: dolls, toys, finger-paintings. It was a museum now for the older girls, but it was Prue’s retreat and domain. She was delighted to have her sisters as her guests. She sat playing with her dolls, only occasionally cocking an ear to the conversation. But Margaret and Sally were in tears.

      ‘Oh God!’ wailed Sally. ‘We’ll miss you terribly!’

      Margaret wiped her eyes. ‘I suppose I knew marriage was going to break us up some day. But not like this. Daddy is like a zombie.’

      ‘I think I’d like a zombie doll,’ said Prue.

      ‘Oh God,’ said Sally; then wiped her eyes. ‘If you go, Nina, can I have your MG?’

      ‘How mercenary can you get?’ said Margaret. ‘Nina, how does Tim feel? We’re going to miss him as much as you. He’s part of the family.’

      ‘That’s just what he’s not. Daddy doesn’t think so. Will you come and see us when we’re in England?’

      ‘Of course,’ said all three; then all four of them had another big weep. ‘God, it’s just awful!’

      Later Margaret walked back with Nina to the Davoren house. Purple clouds boiled above then and a wind whipped the trees to life. There were tornadoes further south, but so far no warnings had been issued for this area. It was a good day for being miserable.

      ‘If there’s anything I can do to help – ’

      ‘Better not take sides,’ said Nina, linking her arm in her sister’s. She had never been as close to Margaret as to Sally and Prue, but now she was grateful for Meg’s comfort and presence. She wanted someone to talk to, and her mother had failed her. ‘Just watch out when it comes time for you to fall in love. Please yourself, not Daddy. Is there anyone you’re serious about right now?’

      ‘No.’ But Margaret seemed to close up; Nina felt her arm stiffen slightly within her own. ‘Well, maybe. But we haven’t talked about it. I could be crazy about someone else this time next year. Did you fall in and out of love once a month when you were my age?’

      ‘I was crazy for half a dozen boys. It was a wonder I didn’t have half a dozen babies.’

      ‘You mean you went all the way with all of them?’

      Nina laughed, beginning to feel a little better. Her sisters were indeed a comfort, she really was going to miss them. ‘I always said No at the last moment. I must have been a terrible tease. But I was afraid of losing them. I’m – I don’t know, I used to fall in love too easily. I did with Tim, all in a weekend.’

      ‘You’re not sorry about that, for God’s sake?’ Margaret pulled up, her arm jerking Nina to a halt.

      ‘Of course not. But I break out in a cold sweat sometimes. I mean I might have missed him, never met him, if I’d СКАЧАТЬ