Nancy Carson - Rags to Riches

‘Stephen! What a thing to say!’

‘Well it’s true. I want to kiss you all over your body, I want to caress every inch of you, and…oh, you know what I mean.’

‘Stephen! If you did that with Evelyn, you’re not doing it with me. Lord above!’ She shuffled in her seat, affecting righteous indignation. ‘They say men are only interested in one thing. Is that all you want to marry me for? So you can…so you can do that to me?’

‘No. Of course not. I want to look after you. I want to provide a home for you, give you security. I want us to have children.’

‘I’d want children too, Stephen. But the world’s not fit to bring children into if you ask me. Not the way things are. You only have to look at what’s happening in the world…Unemployment, poverty, the Depression, Hitler, Mussolini and all that. Why, every day in the papers you read about some lunatic thing somebody’s up to. Everybody says there’s going to be war sooner or later. Will reckons there’s going to be a war again.’

‘He’s got a child now,’ Stephen argued logically.

‘That doesn’t mean I should have one yet. I don’t want to bring children into a world riven with war.’

‘All the more reason to let me look after you, Maxine. Anyway, there might not be a war at all. It’s only speculation.’

She shrugged. Of course, she could not be sure. Nobody could be sure.

‘Look, Maxine, I’m going to start my own business soon. I shall do well. I shall do very well. I know I shall.’

‘Well, I hope you do,’ she said sincerely. ‘I’m sure you will. But I don’t want to get married, Stephen. Really, I don’t. I don’t want to be tied down by marriage. Not yet at any rate. I’ve got my career to think about. It’s only just beginning. I want to exploit it. I want to get the most out of it. I’ve just been presented with a once in a lifetime opportunity. You don’t begrudge it me, do you, Stephen?’

‘I don’t begrudge it you at all, sweetheart,’ he replied earnestly. ‘You know I don’t.’

‘It sounds as if you do.’

‘Rubbish. You can still do all that even if we get married. Marriage wouldn’t stop you.’

‘Says you now. What if I found myself having a baby?’

‘You wouldn’t, Maxine…I wouldn’t…I mean, I wouldn’t let you get pregnant if you didn’t want to. I’d be careful. I’d be very careful. It wouldn’t interfere with your career. We’d only think of starting a family when you were ready.’

Maxine sighed. What madness had suddenly seized him to make him think of marriage? Why did he have to spoil everything by wanting to tie her down?

‘Do you want to think about it?’ he asked.

‘Oh, Stephen…’ With the utmost sympathy she took his hand and gently stroked it. ‘I don’t deserve such consideration. I’m not ready yet for marriage. I’d be no good for you, my love, because I don’t feel the same way you do. I’ve got so many other things to do in my life I couldn’t give you even half the devotion you deserve. Ask me in another three or four years. Ask me when I’ve got all this out of my system.’

He sighed heavily. ‘Oh, I think I could wait forever if I had to, Maxine. You’re worth waiting for…It’s just that I prefer not to wait, that’s all. In the meantime, we could get engaged,’ he suggested brightly. ‘What do you say to that?’

She sighed again, but with exasperation. ‘What’s the point? If you’re engaged, you’re still promised to be married…You’re still spoken for.’

He shrugged. ‘I know. That’s the idea. But, like I say, we needn’t be married till you’re ready. But at least you would be spoken for.’

‘Stephen, I don’t want to be spoken for. If I ever decide I want to get married, that’s when I’ll get engaged…You can’t be seriously engaged and not name the day, can you? It makes a mockery of engagement. It belittles it. Don’t you see?’

‘No, I don’t agree. I want to be engaged to you, Maxine. I want the world to know how I feel about you…And I had this smashing idea for a ring.’

‘Stephen, the whole world doesn’t need to know by virtue of a ring. It’s a promise between two people – no ring required really. If we’re still friends in a couple of years’ time, ask me again. Who knows, I might feel different then. I’m too young to think of marriage yet.’ She summoned a smile of sympathy. ‘What do you say? Agreed?’

He shrugged, profound disappointment darkening his expression. She had won this round. She had wriggled out of it tonight. But next time she might not wriggle out of it quite so fast.

‘All right,’ he said. ‘But I’m not giving up, Maxine. You’ll be mine one day – one way or the other. You’ll see.’

‘One day, maybe,’ she said, happy to concede that point for now. ‘Are you going to come in for a night cap?’

He peered at his wristwatch by the scant light of the street lamp. ‘Much as I’d like to, I’d better not. I’ve got to be up. When shall I see you?’

She shrugged with indifference. ‘I don’t know. Come round Wednesday night, if you want.’

‘Not till Wednesday? What about before that? What will you be doing tomorrow night…and Tuesday night?’

‘Practising my cello, I expect. I have to practise, Stephen.’

‘I could listen. You know I love to hear you play.’

She shrugged again, irked at his tedious inability to face reality. ‘Come round Tuesday night then.’

‘What about Monday night?’ he persisted.

‘Stephen, I can’t see you every night. And I don’t want to see you Monday night.’

‘Just Tuesday then.’

‘Just Tuesday.’

‘…A kiss?’

She pursed her lips in the least romantic way she could and he pressed them with his own. At once breaking off, she opened the car door, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and, before he had chance to open his and come round to her side, she was gone. As she thrust open the front door of the house she heard him start the car and drive off.

Inside, while she hung up her coat, she heard Henzey and Will talking in the sitting room. Henzey called, and Maxine answered.

‘The kettle’s just boiled if you want a drink,’ Will said. ‘Had a good night?’

Maxine smiled enigmatically. ‘Yes, and no.’

Henzey looked up from folding clean napkins on her lap, instantly curious. ‘Tell us, then.’

‘Well the concert was smashing. The orchestra was brilliant. And I met one or two of them afterwards…’

‘But?’

‘But…’ Maxine sighed dramatically and shook her head. ‘On the way home Stephen asked me to marry him – of all the stupid things.’

‘I take it you don’t want to marry him,’ Will said.

She slumped down on the settee, disconcerted. ‘I’m too young, Will. This new job. I’m not ready for marriage. I don’t want to be tied down. There are too many other things in life I want to do first.’

‘You could do a lot worse, our Maxine,’ Henzey commented. ‘You could do a lot worse than marry Stephen Hemming.’

‘Oh, I know, Henzey. He’s as good as gold. But I’d be no good for him. He’s just a friend. It wouldn’t be fair.’

‘Then let’s hope he doesn’t get tired of waiting.’

‘If he wants to wait that’s up to him, but there are plenty of other fish in the sea for him. Maybe I ought to swim around in it a bit and meet a few more. Just think what I might be missing.’ She got to her feet again. ‘I think I’ll make myself a cup of cocoa. Anybody else?’

‘No thanks,’ Will said.

‘Not for me, either,’ Henzey said. ‘But, hey – I nearly forgot…’

‘What?’ Maxine stood poised at the door, ready to take off into the kitchen.