Bill Bailey Read online

  As soon as she saw her new family she wriggled from the couch and came towards them. But her hand wasn’t held out to her Uncle Bill’s, as she thought of him, nor to that of her new mother, nor to Katie or to Mark; but it was to Willie she gave her hand. And it was he who grinned at her as he said, ‘You all ready?’

  She nodded at him and smiled.

  Everybody was smiling, and the superintendent took Bill to one side and briefly he told him that he understood the adoption papers would be ready in a few days when the legalities were gone into. Bill thanked him, and with the child in his arms they all went out together.

  The children in the car and Fiona in her seat, he then placed the little girl on her lap, and, taking his place behind the wheel, he drove them home. But the excitement and pleasure was pierced when, all of them settled in the sitting room and surrounding her, the child said, ‘My mammy coming soon?’

  No-one spoke for a moment, but all eyes were turned on Fiona, and she said, ‘Yes, soon, dear.’ Then came the question, ‘And Daddy?’

  It was the first time since their first visit, to their knowledge, that the child had asked about her parents. And it was Willie who saved the day, albeit unconsciously—who was to know—by saying, ‘I’ve put your name on my horse’s belly next to mine, an’ you can ride him.’

  ‘Stomach, Willie.’

  ‘Its stom…ack.’ He pursed his lips and pulled a laughing face at his mother and the tension was broken…

  With regard to leaving the children so that they could attend their own wedding party, it had been arranged that Barney McGuire’s sister-in-law would come and babysit. Then only this morning Barney had come early to say his sister-in-law had a stinking cold, but he’d shop around and try to find someone else for them. It was then that Mr Bailey senior said there would be no need, that he and Madge would be only too happy to stay put with the bairns. And so it had been arranged; and also that the old couple hadn’t to stay up as the newly-weds naturally didn’t know at what time they would be able to get away…

  It was seven o’clock when they saw Katie and Willie and their new daughter to bed. They had put another single bed next to Katie’s, and had left them happily playing with their dolls and bears.

  When a short time later Fiona stood in the hall in her evening dress, a cloak around her shoulders, and Madge put her arms around her and hugged her as a mother would, she felt for a moment she’d burst out crying, because not for the first time on this, her special day, she had imagined how different she would have been feeling if she’d had a mother who could have been happy for her.

  When Bailey senior jerked his head and said, ‘By! you’re a good-lookin’ piece, girl,’ Bill demanded of his father, ‘Do you think I would have picked her if she hadn’t been?’ Then he won her heart in yet another way by bending down to Mark and saying quietly, ‘You’ll see to them up there, won’t you? Don’t stand any nonsense.’ And she watched her son’s eyelids blink and his neck stretch as he said, ‘Yes, Mr Bill; I’ll…I’ll see to them.’

  ‘That’s the ticket,’ Bill said, touching Mark on the shoulder; then turning to Fiona, he took her arm, saying, ‘Come on, love,’ and they went out together, leaving Mark standing on the step between Bill’s father and Madge. And when the old man called, ‘Come back sober, mind,’ Bill did not answer him with any quip, but, as he took his place beside her in the car, he took her hand and held it firmly as he said, ‘Tonight, if only for once in me life, I’ll aim to join Alcoholics Anonymous.’

  It was two o’clock in the morning when they tiptoed up the stairs, and on the landing when she whispered, ‘I’ll just look in on them,’ he hissed back, ‘No, you won’t. There’s only one person you’re going to look in on tonight, or this morning. Come on.’

  They had taken off their shoes and outer things downstairs, and now in the bedroom they stood looking at each other. He did not make any attempt to embrace her, but he took her hands and held them tightly against his chest as he said softly, ‘You know, I’m speaking the truth now, but I never thought I’d make it. Honest to God, I didn’t. Right up till this mornin’ I thought something would happen: your mother would put the ’fluence on us in some way and I’d have a crash in the car; I felt sure that some disaster was bound to happen. I’ve been worried for weeks, me with me big mouth acting as if I was God’s secretary. Still I never thought I’d have you. And that day of the big affair when I almost throttled your mother, I thought that in some part of your mind you might believe I really had been the gay Lothario. See, I know some big names.’

  For a moment he was silent; then softly he said, ‘You know, most of my life I’ve been full of just wind and wishes. Not that I haven’t been about, but I’m certainly not the skunk she made me out to be. And when I’ve thought of what might have happened that day which could have separated us for life, and I might have done life at that for her, if some part of my mind hadn’t warned me what I’d be losing if I hadn’t you.’ Again he paused; then tracing his finger across her cheek he said, ‘I love you, Fiona. I can’t tell you to what extent I love you, that would be impossible, but I’ll show you in the years to come. I’ve got ideas, whopping ideas. And one day I’ll put you in a big house standing in its own grounds with two or three cars on the drive and servants and…

  ‘You’ll do nothing of the sort, Bill Bailey, so get your whoppers out of your head. All I want is…oh, shut up!’ And turning her back on him, she demanded, ‘Undo my zip!’

  He let out a high laugh, then choked it as he pulled her round to him and whispered, ‘You know what? You’re talking just like me; you sounded right common.’

  They were clinging to each other now, their bodies convulsed with their silent laughter.

  After a moment she pressed herself from him and, looking into his streaming face, she said, ‘Remember that day you told me about your father and his girlfriend, and I was surprised at him having a girlfriend at his age and sarcastically I said that you must take after him, and you replied that yes, you did, and you couldn’t take after a better man. And so I say to you now, Bill Bailey, if I’m talking like you and acting like you, I couldn’t have a better pattern. And at this moment I know what you’re wanting to say in your own inimitable way.’ Her voice now changed as she finished: ‘Stop your chit-chat, it’s me weddin’ night. Let’s get to bed.’

  His mouth wide, he put his hand across it; then she was lifted off her feet and waltzed round the room. Of a sudden he stopped, put her down, turned her round and then deliberately and slowly undid the zip of her dress.

  Chapter Nine

  ‘Why on earth couldn’t you let her wear her good coat?’

  ‘Because, Mr Bailey, her good coat is not half as good or as thick as her school coat and, as you yourself pointed out in your own polite way, it’s so cold outside that it would cut the lugs off a cuddy, not to mention its tail and other extremities. And—’ She now turned from her husband and looked at her ten-year-old son and his six-year-old brother and added, ‘And you two stop that giggling, because if your sister doesn’t put in an appearance within the next minute no one of us will see the school concert tonight; I’m not going in there once it’s started.’

  ‘Oh! woman, be quiet.’ Bill went to the foot of the stairs and yelled, ‘You! Katie. Come on pronto!‘ At the same time the sitting-room door opened and a young woman appeared and, looking at Fiona, she said, ‘Will I go up and get her?’

  ‘No, Nell; nobody’s going up to get her; she knows her way downstairs. But if she’s not here within the next minute we’re going without her. She’s been playing up of late.’

  ‘You wouldn’t do that.’ To which Fiona answered, ‘Wouldn’t I just!’ But she smiled at her neighbour.

  During the last four months, apart from having acquired a new husband, Fiona had also acquired a friend from among the family who had come to live next door. These were a Mr and Mrs Paget, a couple in their fifties. It was as though the husband had arrived to join
the rest of the redundant managers in the street. And with them had also come their daughter-in-law Nell and her husband Harry, who had only last week found a job after two years unemployment. Only Nell had been employed and then part-time in a store in the town. So she was very glad to do babysitting or anything else that came her way. And, too, she was about Fiona’s own age and of similar tastes, so they got on well together. And tonight, because Mamie had a cold, Nell was once again babysitting.

  Fiona now asked, ‘Is she all right?’

  ‘Fine,’ Nell answered; ‘she’s galloping with Bugs Bunny.’ Then their attention was drawn to the stairs, for there at the top stood the cause of the hold-up. But she was making no attempt to come down; instead she stood sniffing.

  ‘Do you hear me, Katie? Come down this minute, or you’ll go straight to bed.’

  As Katie now descended the stairs a chorus of sniffs rose from the hall.

  ‘What…on earth…!’

  ‘Phew! She smells.’

  ‘What have you been up to, child?’

  ‘I couldn’t help it, Mam. I was only going to put a drop on, and…and it slipped and tipped, all the way down.’

  Fiona now pushed Katie none too gently to one side and dashed up the stairs, but within a minute she had returned, her arm outstretched and in her hand a scent bottle with just a drain left in the bottom.

  Holding it up to her husband, she said, ‘Look! Look at that.’

  And Bill looked at it; then turning his gaze down to Katie’s snivelling face, he said, ‘You know what I paid for that, Katie Bailey? Forty-nine quid. A bottle of Chanel she said she wanted. And where’s it gone? On your school coat. And now, when she wants to smell nice, she’ll have to wring it out. Aw! come on now; stop your crying. Worse things happen at sea. But by God! forty-nine pounds down the drain.’

  ‘No, down the school coat.’ He turned to a grinning Mark; then looked at Willie whose nose was now distorting his face as he said, ‘She stinks.’

  ‘I don’t! I don’t! I’ll slap your face.’

  ‘Come on. Come on; we’ll have none of that.’ Fiona grabbed her daughter’s hand and pulled her back to the stairs and up them. And Bill, turning to where Nell had an arm tight around her waist to stop herself from laughing outright, said, ‘I must have been barmy, right up the pole to saddle meself with this lot. I didn’t know when I was well off. A middle-of-the-road man, that’s what I was, Nell, a middle-of-the-road man. And now look at me, lumbered.’

  ‘I’m sorry for you.’

  ‘Aye, I know you are.’ He glanced now at Mark, saying, ‘And you’re not much help.’ Then looking down on Willie, he added, ‘As for you, you should be shut up in a home, or sent to your gran’s. Aye that’s the place to send you. Aye that’s what we’ll do with you, we’ll send you to live with your gran. I’ll have to see about it.’

  As he turned away to look up the stairs Mark said, quietly, ‘Mr Bill.’ Then he nodded towards his young brother, and when Bill turned it was to see Willie’s face screwed up now, not against the smell of the scent, but with tears.

  Going swiftly to the boy, he swung him up in his arms, saying, ‘Come on, Willie-wet-eye; you know I was only jokin’. I wouldn’t send a dog with rabies to your granny’s, unless’—he poked his face towards the wet cheek—‘it was to bite her.’

  As he growled and pretended to bite the child’s ear, Fiona, preceded by a still-snivelling Katie, came down the stairs, only now Katie was dressed in her best coat.

  ‘Ah! Ah!’ Bill put Willie down on the floor and looking towards his wife, he said, ‘If you’d let her have her own way at first I wouldn’t have lost forty-nine quid.’

  Without looking at him Fiona marshalled her small horde towards the door, saying, ‘You lost it when you bought the bottle. And please don’t remind me again what you paid for it.’

  ‘Not remind you? By God! I will; every chance I get. So be prepared. Well, get moving, the lot of you. Bye! Nell.’

  ‘We won’t be all that late.’ Fiona turned towards Nell, and Nell answered, ‘Oh, it doesn’t matter. Go out to supper after; have a fish and chip do.’

  ‘That’s the idea. That’s what we’ll do.’ Bill took up Nell’s words. ‘A fish and chip do to get over the misery of the school concert.’

  ‘We’ll do no such thing. It’ll be ten o’clock before we get out of there.’

  ‘Pattisons in the town is open till half-past eleven.’

  ‘Bill.’

  ‘Yes, Mrs Bailey?’

  When the door closed on them, Nell Paget went back into the sitting room where Mamie was bouncing on the couch, and sitting down beside the child, she sighed not a little in envy of this family, of her new friend who could have three children of her own and adopt another, whereas she, who had been married thirteen years, had no hopes of ever having a baby.

  Chapter Ten

  She was brought from her first sleep by the sound of the window being opened. And in a kind of panic her hand shot out and switched on the light. Then she almost splattered, ‘What…what on earth are you doing, Bill?’

  ‘Letting a little air in. The room stinks,’ he whispered hoarsely.

  ‘You’ll freeze. Get back into bed.’

  ‘Far better freeze than be suffocated with that smell. I don’t know how you can stand it.’

  As he snuggled down beside her again, she said, ‘It’s supposed to go on a drop at a time and not a whole bottle. I’d only used it twice. But the carpet got more of it than her coat. I’ll wash it tomorrow. What time is it?’ she asked now.

  ‘Half-past one.’

  ‘Haven’t you been to sleep yet?’

  ‘No; I’ve got tomorrow on my mind. Four of those ten I set on are a dead weight; it would take a gaffer to watch each of them. They’ll go as soon as I can get in in the morning. I didn’t get back into Newcastle until they had all gone, but Barney was waiting for me. There was a drizzle of rain,’ he said, ‘and there they were in the hut while our own fellas keep at it. And as Barney said, no matter how loyal our lot are they’re not going to put up with shirkers like that. And there’s another one I’d like to get rid of an’ all and that’s that Max Ringston. He’s a good enough worker but I don’t trust him somehow. I can’t pin anything on him, but when there’s stuff being lifted as I told you about afore, such as door frames, and floor boardings, he’s been one of the two who’ve been on the lorry that day, the other being Tommy Turnbull. But I’d trust Tommy with me life. And Dave, Dave McRae. He usually takes the other lorry, but he’s been in hospital, as you know, for some weeks now. And so Ringston’s been doing the driving.’

  ‘Can’t you have him watched?’

  ‘It’s difficult. And when he brings in the loads they always check with the lists. Barney sees to that. But it’s not until they start putting the window frames or the door up they find there’s some missing. And they’re all locked up at night in the shed. Barney and me are the only ones who have got keys, and added to that, there’s the watchman. Oh, I’m tellin’ you, Mrs B, life ain’t easy.’ He hugged her to him, then added, ‘Except when I’ve got you like this.’

  There was a pause while they both lay quiet; and then, his voice soft, he said, ‘You know, I sometimes ask meself, what kind of a life did I lead before I had you, before I came in as your lodger?’

  Laughing softly now, she said, ‘I know what kind of a man you were, as you were forever telling me, a middle-of-the-road man; but you didn’t go on to say that you draw your women in from both sides.’

  ‘Aw, that was mostly talk.’

  ‘Mostly?’

  ‘Do you love me?’

  ‘Yes, Bill Bailey, I love you. And I too can’t imagine what my life was like before you came into this house as a lodger. And as for the children, if you were their father they couldn’t love you more; in fact, I must admit that they love you as they never loved their father. And then there’s Mamie. She’s like one of our own now.’

  ‘Do
you think she’s forgotten about Susan and Dan and her brother?’

  ‘Well, it’s some weeks since she mentioned them. You remember that night at the table when of a sudden she said, “Will my mammy soon be back from her holidays?”’

  ‘Yes, yes I remember that. God in heaven! I didn’t know what to say. Then when Willie put in, “When I die I’m going to have wings on my heels so I can fly upside down.” Remember? we sat there both dumb.’

  They now laughed and held each other tightly, and Bill repeated, ‘Wings on his heels so he can fly upside down. He comes out with things, that fella.’

  He stroked her hair back from her face now as he said softly, ‘You know, I was thinking the night when I saw you walk across that schoolroom after you had been talking to the teacher, I thought you looked so young, so girlish. And you are young and you are girlish, and I wondered if you would like to go to a dance sometime, a nice dance, not a romp; you know, a dinner dance. Aye, that’s it.’

  She giggled now and her body shook against his as she said, ‘Thank you, Mr Bailey. I’ll think about it, but it’s on two in the morning and if I’m not mistaken you’ve got a stiff day before you tomorrow. That’s what’s kept you awake. So we’ll discuss taking this young girl out to a dance some other time, but now go to sleep.’

  ‘Yes, Ma. Goodnight, Ma.’ He kissed her long and hard; then almost caused her to choke by saying, ‘The only thing I thank your mother for was getting pregnant with you.’

  ‘Mammy B.’

  ‘Yes, darling?’

  ‘When will I get new teefths in?’

  ‘Oh, they’ll soon grow, dear.’

  ‘Big ones?’

  ‘Yes. Just a nice size to fit your mouth.’