The Ladies' Midnight Swimming Club(55)

‘I don’t know. Nobody really knew much about what went on there. It was all kept very hush and the truth was, I’d say, the older people wanted to forget or even better pretend it wasn’t happening under their noses.’ Lucy shook her head sadly.

‘Elizabeth was the only one to get her nose in the door of the orphanage. She raised plenty of money for them with all kinds of fundraisers and she used to drop in occasionally to help out where she could.’

‘I didn’t do half enough, but I did as much as they’d let me. It was a fine line, between being allowed to help and being seen as stepping over the mark.’

‘The way I hear it, you helped a great many of those girls get out of there when they might have been stuck for years on end.’

‘Ah well, I only wish I could have helped more,’ Elizabeth said sadly, ‘but it’s all in the past now. You do what you can, don’t you?’ Elizabeth said modestly.

‘I’m sure it took courage, a lot more than telling old Berthilde what you thought of her, just now,’ Dan said. He could imagine Elizabeth years ago, helping as many as she could and probably more than she’d ever admit to. ‘Would you come with me, to meet Mother Agatha?’

‘Ah, Dan, I’d be delighted,’ Elizabeth said placing her hand gently on his arm. He had a feeling it was assuaging. She did not expect the old nun to know anything more about his birth mother than Berthilde and he wondered once more, if he was on a completely wild goose chase. Still, he knew with certainty that these were the questions that had truly brought him here, more than any solitude or novel writing.





23


Elizabeth


It had been Lucy’s suggestion, to go and see her husband’s solicitor. Stephen Leather was as old as Eric, and yet they couldn’t be more different; they’d never really been friends.

‘I’m not sure I’m the right person to advise you,’ he said kindly, but he pushed his glasses up over the bridge of his nose as he jotted down exactly the position that Elizabeth had found herself in financially since Eric’s death. The news of the envelope outlining the damage of his gambling debts hidden in her husband’s possessions had come as an uncomfortable surprise to him.

‘So, you see, I’m penniless, really, by the time the gambling debts are paid off,’ she said and she felt a pinprick of tears in her eyes again.

‘That’s a tad fatalistic, isn’t it?’ He smiled at her then and she wondered if he wouldn’t have made a much better doctor than Eric. ‘Listen to me now.’ He leant forward. ‘These debts, I know it feels as if they are hanging about you, but the truth is you’re living in a huge house, with what has to be a thriving practice attached to it. If you sold up everything in the morning, you’d surely still have enough left over to set yourself up in a nice little flat somewhere, wouldn’t you?’

‘Do you think so?’

‘My best advice to you, Elizabeth, is that you need to take matters in your own hands. I know that’s not easy since you’ve let Eric take care of everything over the years.’ He was speaking slowly, picking out his words, because at the end of the day, they both knew, that Eric hadn’t really taken care of things at all.

‘So?’

‘Don’t wait for the banks to turn up on your doorstep looking for their money. They will sell the lot for a song. Legally, they only want to recover what they are owed, so you could be out of there without so much as a penny over the amount if a bidder came in on the button.’

‘I see. So I have some decisions to make,’ she said thoughtfully.

‘You need to decide what makes the most sense to hold onto and what you really just want to let go,’ he said smiling at her.

‘Should I go to the bank and just explain…’ But there was no point, because as far as she knew, there was money owed to several banks and she was certain they would each race to foreclose before one another.

‘I wouldn’t, not if you could sell up quickly, which you might. The practice might be a desirable enough business. I hear you have a new doctor there who is really very popular about the village. Would she possibly think of taking it over in a more permanent capacity?’

‘I don’t know. The timing is terrible for her and even if it wasn’t, it’s going to take a lot of money…’

‘Well, I’m sitting here long enough to know one thing.’ He pushed his chair back from his desk.

‘Oh?’

‘These things always work out. Why not put out the feelers gently? Go and visit the estate agents, see which they think is more likely to sell and do up your sums. See exactly how much you need to make to pacify the banks – then at least you’ll have a fair idea.’

*

Elizabeth thought it was strange how some things just seem to snowball. A few nights earlier they had been swimming when they agreed on the idea of the charity swim.

‘The Ladies’ Midnight Swimming Club – of course we’ll continue it after…’ she said. They needed something to focus on, well, she needed something to focus on now, otherwise she would go mad thinking of the way the world as she knew it seemed to be sliding away from her.

The following morning, Elizabeth felt that old familiar feeling of doubt. Seriously, that nagging voice in her head asked, are you really thinking of asking every decent woman in the village to strip off all their clothes and go galloping into the freezing sea? For money? No matter how Elizabeth worked it out in her head, reminding herself that it was in a very good cause, Eric’s derisive laugh broke through her resolve. But then, she remembered Jo’s enthusiasm. She wanted this to happen and, most importantly, she wanted to be part of it. She was aiming to be fit enough to make it down to the second cove along the beach and go skinny-dipping with everyone else by the middle of August. Elizabeth knew she couldn’t let her down.