Elizabeth Elgin - The Linden Walk

‘See, Lyn. Cherry scones from this afternoon. Tilda always makes cherry scones for special occasions. She gave me some leftovers. You’ll have to get used to Rowangarth’s little habits and cherry scone days, and suchlike. You’ll have to get used to being lady of the house. You and Drew will have it all to yourselves, once the Reverend and Aunt Julia have moved into the Bothy. She hopes to be in there by Christmas. It’s going to be just wonderful, isn’t it? So much to look forward to. Tatty and Bill having a Christmas wedding. And then there’ll be yours and Drew’s and by then Gracie will have had sprog number two and she said she wants it christened at All Souls, by Nathan. I shouldn’t wonder if Bas and Gracie don’t come over in the summer, once you’ve set a date, Lyn. The Kentucky Suttons used to come over twice a year, regular as clockwork at Christmas and for a month in the summer. That’s when the Clan were all together and oh, no !’ She ran to the stove as the milk began to froth and boil, removing the pan. ‘Now look what you almost made me do! All this wedding talk!’

They laughed, and Daisy spooned Ovaltine into the pan and whisked it, pouring it frothily into the mugs.

‘Take ours through will you, Lyn, and I’ll take Keth’s up to him and have a peep at the baby. And by the way,’ she said when they were settled once more beside the sitting-room fire. ‘I’m not going to be your matron of honour. If Bas and Gracie are over at the time of the wedding, I think Gracie should be asked. After all, she is family and she’ll be decorating the church for you. She’s smashing with flowers. Served her time as a gardener-cum-land girl at Rowangarth. In Catchpole’s time, that was. Have a scone. They’re delicious.’

‘Okay. So I ask Gracie, but who’ll wear the other dress?’

‘You should ask Tatty. She’d love to do it. Mind, she might be pregnant, by then. Told me they’re going to be very careless about things ’cos they want a family right away. Still, if push comes to shove, I wouldn’t see the other frock go to waste. And had you thought, Lyn? You and me almost next door to each other. Just like it was when we were Wrens. Doesn’t seem like five minutes since I arrived at Hellas House running a temperature, and you looking after me. We’ve come a long way, since then. We’ll be sisters-in-law.’

‘ Half -sisters-in-law, if you want to be nit-picky. And Daisy – would you mind if I took my drink upstairs? I’ve got to be up early tomorrow – get the first train out. I’m doing afternoons at the hotel and if I miss that train I’m going to be late for work. Sorry, old love …’

‘And would that be so very awful, considering you’ll be giving notice anyway? Why don’t you pack in working and stay with me till the wedding?’

‘Nothing I’d like more, Daisy, but right now I’m high as a kite. This isn’t the time for decision making. I’ll think about it, though. It’ll all depend on Drew. Can’t wait to see him in the morning – ask him if he really, really wants to marry me.’

‘Idiot,’ Daisy grinned. ‘A Sutton doesn’t go back on his word. Now get yourself off. I’ll follow you when I’ve seen to everything down here. Getting a bit tired myself. But hasn’t it been one heck of a day, Leading-Wren Carmichael?’

‘One absolute corker of a day, Wren Purvis-from-the-bottom-bunk. And I’m glad we’re going to be sisters. I truly am.’

Lyn lay in bed, looking through the uncurtained window at the moon, high in the sky and shining gold now; the same paler moon that was witness to what happened tonight. Because it had happened. Drew had asked her to marry him and she had said yes. Disbelievingly almost, she said, ‘Thanks, Drew, I will.’ Said it nonchalantly, as if she had proposals of marriage every day of the week, and had got rather blasé about them.

She was always doing that; hiding her feelings for fear of being hurt. Because she had been hurt. If worlds could end, then hers would have ended the morning Drew phoned Daisy to tell her he and Kitty were engaged; had met up on a Liverpool dockside and wham ! The two of them had spent the night at Kitty’s theatrical digs and the next morning Lyndis Carmichael smiled brilliantly into the phone, wished them both all the very best, then wept as if her heart would never be whole again – nor had it been, until tonight.

So why was she wide awake and tossing and turning? Why could she not believe that what she had longed for since the first time she and Drew met had happened? Why had she said – albeit jokingly – that she couldn’t wait to see him in the morning, ask him if he really wanted to marry her?

‘You’re a fool, Lyn,’ she whispered to the moon. Of course he wanted to marry her. A Sutton didn’t go back on his word, Daisy said. Yet she was afraid, still, and she knew it was because she would always be second best; second choice. Drew would never forget Kitty. He’d said so. Kitty would always be there because she had been one of the Clan – that bloody precious Clan she’d always envied because she could never be a part of it.

Mind, Gracie had never been part of the Clan and it had worried her not one jot. Pretty, happily married Grace Sutton who expected her second child at Christmas. Lyn liked Sebastian Sutton’s wife, just as she liked Tatty. Born to a Russian countess, Tatiana Sutton was as English as London Bridge. No one would know she was half-Russian, spoke correct Russian fluently, and conversed with the sombre Karl in his native Georgian, too. Tatty had taught Kitty to swear in Russian and in return Kitty taught Tatty to spit like a stable lad. Maybe Gracie’s baby would be born on Tatty and Bill’s wedding day. A cosy, family wedding in the little Lady Chapel it was to be and no white dress nor virginal veil Tatty stressed because she and Tim – her first passionate love – had been lovers from the start. Like Drew and Kitty, she supposed, because air-gunner Tim had been killed, too.

So why wasn’t Tatiana making a big production of her wedding to Bill and why did Bill Benson seem to happily accept the way things were – that the woman he would marry at Christmas had loved before; just as Drew had loved before – Drew’s mother, too.

‘Oh, dammit !’ She flicked on the bedside light, padded across the room to draw the curtains, checked that the alarm at her bedside was set for five in the morning, then whispered, ‘Goodnight, Drew. And it will be all right, my darling, I promise it will.’

She loved him – enough for both of them – and one day he would tell her he loved her too.

She closed her eyes and began to count each solemn second as it ticked away on the clock beside her, but it did nothing to help her fall asleep.

They waited on the platform at Holdenby Halt. Drew looked at his watch then said, ‘Any time now you’ll hear the train. The driver always gives a hoot just before the bend – a little past Brattocks. Then soon it’ll arrive, and you know what, Lyn? This station hasn’t changed one iota since ever I can remember.’

‘You don’t have to come to York with me. I’m quite capable of getting myself onto the Manchester train.’

‘Of course you are, but mightn’t it just occur to you that maybe I want to. For one thing, it’ll give us an extra hour together and for another, I want us to talk – plans, dates and all that. There’s always an empty compartment on this early train, so we can natter all the way to York. Have you had any thoughts on the matter, Lyn?’

‘Nope. All I could think about last night was had it really happened and when the heck I was going to get to sleep!’

‘You, too? Mind, it did happen quite suddenly. Takes a bit of getting used to. No second thoughts?’