Reluctantly Home(38)

‘Hello, Joan,’ she began. ‘I’m back.’

‘So I see,’ said Joan.

‘And this is my friend Ted. He’s been kind enough to drive me and my things up from London.’

‘How do you do,’ said Ted, and held out a hand.

Joan regarded Ted with disdain and made no attempt to take his outstretched hand. ‘Is he the one, then?’ she asked, cocking her head in Ted’s direction but without making eye contact with him.

‘No,’ replied Evelyn, unable to keep the irritation from her voice. ‘I said. He’s my friend.’

‘Funny kind of life you lead, having friends who are men,’ replied Joan stiffly.

Evelyn rolled her eyes at Ted and sighed, as if to say this was what she was going to have to put up with from now on.

‘I have a perfectly normal kind of life,’ she said. ‘And now I’m going to make him a cup of tea. Would you like one? Sit down, Ted,’ she added.

Ted picked a chair as far away from Joan as possible and muttered his thanks.

Evelyn refused to let Joan’s rudeness fluster her, and she got on with making the tea, opening cupboards to retrieve teapot, cups and tea leaves, all still exactly where they had been when she left.

‘Nice place you’ve got here,’ said Ted.

Joan didn’t reply.

‘I’ve always fancied living by the coast myself. I had an aunt who lived in Margate. Used to visit when I was a nipper.’

Joan’s stony silence continued, and so Evelyn stepped in to help Ted.

‘You never told me that,’ she said brightly. ‘Is she still there?’

‘She passed over,’ said Ted, dropping his head and crossing himself, even though he was no more a Catholic than she was. ‘God rest her gentle soul. They gave her flat to the Cat’s Protection League in the end. Shocking waste.’

He was messing about now. Evelyn knew his humour and could spot it at twenty paces. He had obviously cut Joan as much slack as he was prepared to and was now wanting to have some fun. Normally, Evelyn would have played along, asking him questions so he could embellish the answers, but it would do her no good to upset Joan before she had even brought her things in from the van.

When she turned around, pot of tea in hand, she could see Joan’s eyes trained on her stomach, her lip slightly curled.

‘There’s not much to see yet,’ she commented scornfully. ‘That’s a blessing, at least. Heaven only knows what the neighbours will say when they realise the shame that you’ve brought on this house.’

Evelyn put the teapot down on the table with enough force that a little splash of tea bounced out of the spout and on to the Formica mat.

‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, Joan,’ she snapped. ‘It’s 1979, not 1929. Who cares what the neighbours think? I haven’t done anything illegal. I am having a baby. Millions of women do it all the time.’

‘When you can afford your own house, then you can disregard what your neighbours think, but whilst you’re living under my roof then you’ll show due respect.’

Ted bristled. ‘I thought the house belonged to all three of . . .’

Evelyn shook her head at him to silence him. He was right, of course, but no good would come of picking fights. Evelyn really wanted this to work out and she would do what she needed to to win her sister round.

‘Listen, Joan,’ she tried more gently, ‘I know this is a lot to take in and believe me, it’s not what I wanted to happen . . .’

‘You should have thought of that before you opened your legs,’ muttered Joan.

Evelyn sucked in a breath and ignored her. ‘But we are where we are, so why don’t we all just try to get along, shall we? There’s no point us fighting all the time. Let’s just make the most of it. And you might even like having the patter of tiny feet running about the place when the time comes.’

As the words left her lips, Evelyn thought of the glass cabinets filled with china ornaments, the precious books that her father had never let them touch, let alone read. From the little she had seen of the house so far, it looked as if Joan hadn’t changed a thing. It was still the least child-friendly place you could imagine.

Still, she was here now. In time, she could change things herself, introduce a new way of living in the space. She had no money, but perhaps she could persuade Joan to make a few improvements, bring the house up to date. It might even be fun.

‘You respect my way of doing things,’ Joan said, ‘and keep out of sight, and everything will work just fine.’ And then she went back to her crossword.

Evelyn caught Ted’s eye and rolled hers heavenwards, and he gave an almost imperceptible shake of his head to show that he understood; but he couldn’t, not really. Evelyn had hoped Joan might be different, that somehow the two of them would muddle along until they were able to form a relationship that kind-of worked. But now she was here, it was clear that had been a pipe dream. Joan was exactly the same as she always had been, and there was nothing Evelyn could do to make her any warmer or more empathetic. She was just going to have to try and find a level that worked for them both.

Ted was glaring at Joan, as if he was ready to leap in and defend Evelyn at any moment, and she felt grateful for his moral support. At least she wasn’t entirely on her own.

‘So, shall we start bringing my things in?’ she asked him. ‘Am I still in my old room, Joan?’ she said, although she knew the answer.