Little Plum, page 9
‘I believe,’ said Belinda suddenly, ‘I believe it’s Mr Tiffany Jones.’
Certainly Nona had seen him talking to Mother in the road, and once, when the children were all in bed, she had been certain she had heard Mr Tiffany Jones’s voice downstairs and, something is going on, thought Nona.
Just in case anyone got tired of Japanese food, there were sausages on sticks, little chocolate tarts, fruit salad, banana sandwiches and cola and lemonade to drink. ‘Just in case,’ said Mother.
The dolls had a feast too, in which Nona had tried to copy all the things Mother had made and filled the dolls’ bowls and plates with them, and she made hot green paint-water tea to pour out of the dolls’-house teapot. Miss Happiness and Miss Flower knelt on their cushions by the tea table; Little Plum with her curved legs could only sit on hers, and Little Peach was put to crawl on the floor.
In the midst of the happiness and excitement there was a loud knock on the door and, ‘Gem, will you answer it?’ asked Mother.
This immediately struck Nona as odd. Belinda was too busy handing round plates of sushi, seeing everyone had a bowl of tea, or a cola or a lemonade, to pay much attention but Nona stood still, a plate of sausage sticks in her hand; she was watching and listening. ‘Gem, will you answer it?’ Gem only thought Mother was making her one of the family and looked pleased and proud. She went to the door and a moment later, ‘Mother!’ shouted Gem in a voice as loud as Belinda’s. ‘Mother!’
So that’s what they were planning, thought Nona, our Mother and Mr Tiffany Jones, and she, like everyone else, rushed to the door.
There was Mr Tiffany Jones, not looking sad any longer, but happy and laughing. He was pushing a wheelchair and in it, with a fur rug tucked round her knees, a deep blue coat with fur sleeves, a fur hat, sat a lady laughing. Pale green-gold hair showed under the fur of her hat, she had Gem’s straight nose and grey-green eyes; her skin was pale too, but flushed now with laughing. ‘May we come in?’ she said, but, ‘Mother!’ cried Gem again and half strangled her with a big hug.
‘That isn’t treating her mother as a stranger,’ said Anne.
Mr Tiffany Jones wheeled the chair in, and in a moment Gem’s mother was surrounded by little girls. Nona, Belinda, Miss Happiness and Miss Flower were introduced: ‘We made our best and ceremonial bows,’ said Miss Flower, satisfied. Gem’s mother was shown Little Peach, but Little Plum did not have to be introduced or shown; she was sitting on Mrs Tiffany Jones’s lap.
Neither Mr nor Mrs Tiffany Jones would have known Gem; Gem with her hair flying, her cheeks pink, her eyes bright; Gem talking, snapping out remarks as fast as the other girls, Gem . . . ‘Happy!’ said Mr Tiffany Jones.
‘I can never be grateful enough . . .’ he was just beginning to say to Mother, when there was another ring at the front door – a peremptory ring – and, ‘Miss Tiffany Jones has come,’ said Anne in a warning voice to Mother.
A silence fell as Miss Tiffany Jones came into the room. Mr Tiffany Jones looked worried while Gem became stiff and silent, and Belinda went and stood behind Nona. Miss Tiffany Jones’s gaze went over them all, over Mr Tiffany Jones and Mrs in the wheelchair; over Mr Twilfit whom she seemed surprised to see; over Mother, Anne, the little girls, the dolls, the dolls’ house and the dolls’ festival, and ‘Why was I not informed?’ asked Miss Tiffany Jones.
‘Informed of what, Agnes?’ asked Mrs Tiffany Jones. Her voice went higher and higher. ‘Gem came to this party,’ said Miss Tiffany Jones, ‘without my being consulted. She came without Matson or me.’ But Gem had lifted her head; she was holding her mother’s hand now and, ‘I was asked to come with Little Plum,’ she said. ‘Only Little Plum.’
‘Little Plum? Who is Little Plum?’ asked Miss Tiffany Jones as she had asked before.
Miss Happiness and Miss Flower would dearly have loved Little Plum to sit up and tell Miss Tiffany Jones who she, Little Plum, was, but of course Little Plum had to be silent; yet Mrs Tiffany Jones seemed to understand how the dolls felt. Her finger was stroking Little Plum’s topknot in a soothing way and, ‘Little Plum is this little doll,’ she said. ‘A most important little doll who has been invited to this party with Gem – and only Gem,’ said Mrs Tiffany Jones. ‘We, Harold and I, came separately. It’s a wonderful party and in half an hour, Agnes,’ said Mrs Tiffany Jones, ‘we are all coming next door for some ice cream and fruit punch. Will you be so kind as to tell Cook, Agnes? Ice cream, fruit punch in half an hour.’
Miss Tiffany Jones, Anne said afterwards, gasped like a fish, but Mrs Tiffany Jones took no notice. ‘You see, you don’t have to tell people when you come home,’ she said. ‘And I,’ said Mrs Tiffany Jones, ‘have come home.’
‘Gem didn’t smile at us because she thought we didn’t smile at her. Think of that!’ said Belinda. ‘Gem liked my messages. She said they were interesting. I’m going to teach her to climb the ilex tree.’
‘But not to go over the ladder, I hope,’ said Anne.
‘Of course not,’ said Belinda scornfully.
‘Gem’s looking after Little Plum properly now. Tom says he will make another Japanese dolls’ house for her. I’m going to teach Gem to roller skate; she can use my skates and she says I can ride her pony. Gem says I can go next door whenever I like.’
It would have been difficult to find in all Topmeadow, or the whole of England, two happier girls than Gem and Belinda. ‘We’re best friends,’ said Belinda.
Nona was happy too. ‘All the worries and badness and teasing have melted away,’ said Nona.
Miss Tiffany Jones had packed her boxes and been driven away in the Rolls-Royce. ‘Forever!’ said Belinda.
Though Gem’s mother still could not walk and had to live in her wheelchair or on a sofa or bed, the House Next Door was changed. Mr Tiffany Jones no longer looked worried or sad and Gem was a different girl; her hair was cut so that it fell just to her shoulders and in the daytime was tied in two bunches; she wore trousers, an anorak like Nona’s and Belinda’s and was allowed to run in and out as she liked. Matson had left. ‘I don’t need someone to look after me,’ said Gem. ‘I have to look after Mother.’ Miss Berryman had gone away too. Gem was going to school. ‘Next term?’ asked Mother.
‘Next term? She’s coming tomorrow,’ said Belinda.
Every Friday night before dinner Father and Mr Tiffany Jones played chess, one Friday at the Fells’, the next Friday at the House Next Door. Mother wheeled Mrs Tiffany Jones down to the shops; Mrs Tiffany Jones took Mother out in the Rolls-Royce. The children went to school together, spent their playtimes together, shared their friends. Gem still learned ballet, spoke French, was good at music – and had a pony; the Tiffany Joneses still had Selwyn, Cook, Eileen, a gardener and a chauffeur, while the Fells had only Mrs Bodger, but it made no difference. As for Miss Happiness, Miss Flower, Little Peach and Little Plum, they were hardly ever apart.
Each night before they went to bed they sent each other a signal. Nona would switch on the dolls’ house lights; Gem would switch on her Japanese lantern. Miss Happiness and Miss Flower would come to the window and bow; Little Plum would come to hers and bow back. Belinda made Peach Boy give a little bob. ‘He’s too young to bow,’ she said. Then she would tuck him up. Miss Happiness and Miss Flower went into their quilts, Little Plum into hers.
Then Nona and Belinda would wave their hands and put out the dolls’-house lights.
Gem would wave and put out her lantern.
‘Sayonara,’ was called from the Fells’ house into the darkness past the ilex tree – ‘Sayonara’ is Japanese for goodbye. It was Miss Happiness and Miss Flower speaking, though it sounded like Belinda and Nona.
‘Sayonara,’ would come back from the House Next Door. It sounded like Gem’s voice, but it was Little Plum.
Little Plum
Rumer Godden was one of the UK’s most distinguished authors. She wrote many well-known and much-loved books for both adults and children, including The Dolls’ House, The Story of Holly & Ivy and The Diddakoi, which won the Whitbrcad Children’s Book Award in 1972.
She was awarded the OBE in 1993 and died in 1998, aged ninety.
Other books by Rumer Godden
Miss Happiness and Miss Flower
The Dolls’ House (Macmillan Classics)
The Diddakoi
First published 1963 by Macmillan London Limited
This edition published 2015 by Macmillan Children’s Books
This electronic edition published 2015 by Macmillan Children’s Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
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Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-4472-9277-7
Text copyright © Rumer Godden 1963
Illustrations copyright © Sarah Gibb 2015
The right of Rumer Godden and Sarah Gibb to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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Rumer Godden, Little Plum
