September Morning, page 21
Celia turned away from him and sought her mother out at once, bursting with rage at his lawyer’s pomposity. She loved him dearly, but sometimes, just sometimes she wanted to hit him.
* * *
She found Skye in the midst of a fiery argument with her brother, and wondered hysterically if every family was like this, or only theirs.
Olly rounded on Celia at once, his eyes bright with fury, clearly intending to enlist her support.
‘You don’t think it’s a stupid idea for me to want to move in with Lily and David, do you? They’ve got the room, and it makes perfect sense since David and I work together.’
‘My Lord, just listen to the little worm,’ Celia said before she could stop herself, in no mood to consider his needs. ‘Work with David indeed! I thought you were a junior tea boy, not a star reporter!’
The minute the words left her lips she saw the stricken look on Olly’s face, and the shock on her mother’s.
‘Celia, that was unforgiveable. You will apologise to your brother at once.’
‘Don’t bother,’ Olly yelled. ‘Everyone knows she’s the favourite, anyway. Everything has to revolve around her, and I wish she’d never come back, making everyone creep around her as if she’s half dead. I wish she’d go back to her fancy German employers where she belongs. And I am going to move in with David and Lily, if they’ll have me. At least they see me as a person and not just as a tea boy!’
He stormed out of the room, and the next minute they saw him pedalling furiously away from the house on his bicycle.
For a moment the two women were too stunned to say anything. Then Celia held out her hands helplessly, hardly able to speak, her head throbbing with shame at the way she had humiliated her brother.
‘Mom, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. I don’t know what’s happening to me.’
For once, Skye didn’t take her in her arms and console her. This time, Celia had gone too far.
‘What’s happening to you is that you’ve become so self-pitying that you never consider anyone else’s feelings, Celia. What’s happening to you is that you think the world has to stop turning because you’ve had one little setback—’
‘One little setback?’ she said, choked.
‘That’s what I said. For pity’s sake, pull yourself together and look at the world round you and see what’s happening to other people. As a start, you might care to read the letter I received from Fanny this morning, and then tell me how important your little setback really is.’
She thrust the envelope into Celia’s hands and left her to it. Celia knew she had sought her mother out for a reason, but right now the memory had vanished in the shock of hearing her mother censure her so. It was so very rare. Simply to give her trembling hands something to do, she pulled Fanny’s letter out of the envelope.
The words dazzled in front of her. Fanny was not an articulate letter writer, but as Celia read on, the one long ungrammatical paragraph made the horror all the more poignant.
We got a letter from Vienna a few days ago. It came from an old friend of Georgie’s folks. You knew they was shopkeepers of course. Well it seems like the Jew-bashing bastards burned their shop down one night and Georgie’s parents was still in bed and couldn’t get out. It couldn’t be proved who done it of course and anyway who would care about an old Jewish couple? The friend who wrote to tell us said it happened a couple of weeks ago and there was nothing left of them to bury properly. So some friends just had a secret service for them and that was that. They begged Georgie not to go there as everything’s so bad now. But he’s real cut up about it and he cries all the time when he thinks I can’t see. He don’t like folk to know any of it and Wenna thinks we’ve shut the club for a week for painting. We’ll have to open again soon though. You can’t sit back and let the buggers win can you gel?
Celia wept over the letter, knowing just why her mother had wanted her to read it. It put everything into perspective. Poor, poor Georgie… she wanted to run to the telephone and speak to him, but she knew it wouldn’t be wanted. He was so proud, such a good man… and those terrible people had done this to his family, just for being who they were.
She found Skye in the garden and gave back the letter.
‘I’m so sorry. I didn’t understand,’ she said in a small voice. ‘Sometimes I think that for all my education, I don’t know anything at all. Fanny – even Fanny makes me feel humble – and I know that sounds as snobbish as hell, Mom.’
‘Come here, honey,’ Skye said. ‘If you’ve realised that much, then I wouldn’t say your education was wasted. Now what did you want to see me about? I know there was something.’
She shook her head. ‘It doesn’t matter now. I’m going into town to make my peace with Olly. That’s more important than raking over old history.’ She hesitated. ‘You will let him move in with Lily and David, won’t you? It would be good for him.’
Even though the idea of working in the shop with Lily and suggesting that she herself should take the Kingsleys’ spare room had been hovering in her mind, she knew that this was Olly’s time, not hers.
A short while later, and with her mother’s blessing, she got out her own bicycle and pedalled towards Truro. She caught up with Olly long before she reached the town. She caught sight of his own machine, thrown down on the grass above the cliffs, and saw his hunched shape, sitting with his hands clasped around his knees, a lone, miserable figure, and her heart went out to him.
‘Olly, I’m so sorry,’ she said at once. ‘I didn’t mean any of those things. Life has just been so bitchy lately, and I was just taking it out on you.’
‘Is that one of the fancy words they taught you at Gstaad?’ he said, not yet prepared to compromise an inch, and staring resolutely out to sea, where a distant ocean-going liner was making its way steadily westwards on the calm, mirrored water.
Celia gave a small smile. ‘It’s the way I feel right now, Olly. Why do you think I’m here?’
‘How should I know?’ he said bitterly. ‘Nobody ever tells me anything. At least David treats me like an adult and not like a baby.’
‘You want that room with David and Lily, don’t you? And I think you should have it. You don’t object to my putting in a good word for you, I hope. It’s what older sisters do, and I know I can persuade Mom to let you do it.’
So what if it was a little white lie as yet? Celia was damn sure she could swing it for her brother. The smile he gave her was worth any sacrifice she had to make. It was such a small sacrifice, anyway, she thought shamefacedly, still caught up with the dreadful thing that had happened to Georgie Rosenbloom’s parents.
‘You mean it?’ he said eagerly. ‘But I thought you might be wanting to move there yourself.’
‘Not me,’ Celia said, her gaze also following the stately progress of the ocean-going liner. ‘I’ve got other ideas, and if you promise to keep it our secret for the time being, I might just tell you what they are.’
She realised that never before in her life had she deigned to share a secret with her young brother. But seeing the look on his face she knew it was exactly the right thing to do to restore his hurt pride. It made her feel slightly better than she had for weeks. Life wasn’t all bitchy.
* * *
A few days later, when she had made her peace with all concerned, it wasn’t hard to wheedle out of Lily what had really happened all those years ago when a small group of German youths had been employed at Killigrew Clay and White Rivers, amid very mixed and vociferous reactions.
‘Your mother was an angel then,’ Lily told her. ‘Though me and Vera didn’t do so badly either. We became shopkeepers at White Rivers when nobody else would give us the time of day, and Vera withheld her favours from Adam, if you know what I mean. For a couple of newlyweds I don’t think it went down very well with Adam,’ she added with a grin. ‘Anyway, Skye wrote a special newsletter that David published, saying how we should all let the past remain in the past and welcome good workers wherever they came from. Or words to that effect. I don’t remember all of it now, except that it was addressed to the women of the area, and it turned the tide. The foreigners had to leave, of course. The situation was too volatile for anything else. But instead of Theo running ’em out of the country, your mum and dad smuggled them from their lodging house onto a ship in the dead of night and sent them back to Germany without any fuss. The poor little devils were terrified by then anyway, and all the fight had gone out of them.’
Celia was open-mouthed at hearing all of this.
‘We were all too young to know what was happening, and I had no idea it was such a traumatic time,’ she exclaimed. ‘You were all regular heroes, weren’t you?’
‘Oh, we had our moments, darling. Now what did you want to tell me? You know Olly’s moving in and he’s like a dog with two tails about it. I’d rather hoped it might be you, and that you’d decided to come and work for me. Are you?’
‘I’m afraid not, Lily, but I’m not going back to Germany either. I’ve made up my mind and nobody’s going to stop me.’
‘When did anybody ever try?’ Lily said dryly.
Not everybody was so agreeable to her plan. Her stepfather thought it a mad idea to go to America in search of a dream, while Skye thought that Celia was simply putting as much distance as she could between herself and Stefan.
‘I know why you’re doing this,’ she told her daughter bluntly. ‘But you can’t run away from your feelings for ever. At some stage you have to come back and face up to them.’
‘You didn’t go back, did you? You came to Cornwall and you stayed. Why is it so impossible for me to do the same thing in reverse?’
Skye spoke softly. ‘I think you know the answer to that, honey. The time will come when you’ll realise where your heart lies, and I don’t believe it’s in New Jersey.’
Celia looked at her pleadingly. ‘I want your blessing, Mom. I feel too restless to stay here, and I can’t go back to Germany, so where else is there for me to go? Anyway, the crossing only takes a little more than three days now. If I absolutely hate it, I can be back here in no time at all!’
Skye hugged her tightly, knowing that in the end she would give her blessing. Celia’s complex feelings were tearing her apart, and the only place to sort them out clearly was as far as possible from everything familiar. Didn’t she know that for herself?
‘Then hadn’t you better inform Herr Vogl that you won’t be returning to Berlin? I’ll write a separate letter to him explaining that you want to see something of the world and have decided to go travelling. I’ll sort out some addresses and contacts for when you get to New Jersey.’
‘You’re a darling, Mom,’ Celia whispered.
* * *
The plans were made, and nothing was going to change her mind. Celia stayed at home for the rest of her month’s official holiday, but in early August she was a passenger on the Queen Mary, bound for New York. She left Cornwall with very mixed feelings, not least because of the letter that had finally arrived at New World a few days earlier, re-directed from the Vogl offices in Berlin. She had shown it to no one, but the words Stefan wrote were imprinted in her heart.
I was devastated when you never replied to my earlier letter, Celia, and saddened that we had to part so abruptly. But if you wish to have no further contact with me, then I must accept your decision. Our paths are unlikely to cross again, since I have severed all connection with the Vogl company following the death of my father. My duty is here now.
I have been told that you declined to take the post in Cologne and have left the company. I can only assume that you preferred to be back in England with your own kind. My deepest regret is that I was clearly mistaken in the feelings I believed were genuine between us.
On my side, they were most sincere, but as I do not wish to put you under any obligation or sense of remorse, I will merely say that if ever you need me, I am here.
She couldn’t read any more of it. It said so much, and yet it was so very stilted, and more like a formal office letter. Its tone was so unlike the lover who had held her and adored her, and even though she treasured his final words, she knew she would never contact him again.
Even his address, von Gruber Estates, heavily embossed in gilded letters at the top of the letter, set him apart from her. She should always have known it.
Where was this earlier letter she was supposed to have received, she raged? There had been no other letter, nor telephone call, nor message of any kind. Until now, she thought, he had forgotten her existence. This was his way of breaking all ties now that he was a rich landowner.
She clung to her anger. It was far safer than letting her emotions tear her apart. She told herself that he wasn’t for her and never had been, and that she had to forget him, and travel to whatever fate awaited her on the other side of the Atlantic.
One thing was for sure. She wouldn’t follow her mother’s lead on her own long-ago voyage to Cornwall when she had met and fallen in love with Philip Norwood. This girl was keeping herself very much to herself for the few days of the voyage, and falling in love was not included in her itinerary.
* * *
‘Well, that didn’t last long, did it?’ Seb asked his father when he heard the news. ‘I thought she was going to stay in Cornwall and get more involved in the business.’
‘She was always too high and mighty to think about throwing a few pots, boy,’ Theo said sneeringly.
‘I didn’t mean that. You never did have much time for Celia, did you?’
Theo scowled. ‘She was too sharp-tongued by far. And I’ve got no time for any of ’em while they remain so stubborn about mergin’ with Bourne and Yelland. But I’ve got a trick or two up my sleeve that’s soon going to change all that.’
‘Oh? And what’s that?’
He laughed. ‘Oh, no, my lad. You’m too hand in glove with cousin Skye for me to give anything away. You’ll all find out soon enough anyway.’
He wasn’t telling anyone about the deal he’d struck privately with Zacharius Bourne. The deal that was going to give him more say-so in what happened at the clayworks than he’d had since old Morwen Tremayne decreed that Skye should be a partner. He didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of it before.
The two partners at Bourne and Yelland, and himself, would be three-quarters of a thriving merger in which the fourth partner was not only a woman, but could always be outvoted. Once the two clayworks merged, Skye would be in the minority for decision making. The three men would hold the greater percentage of shares, which was the way it should be, Theo thought arrogantly.
Selected workers were already spreading the news at both clayworks that the merger was imminent. They said there was strength in numbers, and that all the clayworkers would benefit by it, especially from the fat bonuses the new combined company was prepared to pay as soon as things were settled.
That would be the clincher, Theo thought gleefully. Money talked, the way it always had. For the clayfolk, never the world’s most affluent of workers, the golden handshake each of them would receive, would be irresistible. He and Zacharius Bourne had agreed to dip into their own pockets to see it through, which proved Theo’s dogged intention to get his way over the American upstart.
He readily conceded that Bourne was a better negotiator than himself. The man had the gift of the gab without resorting to wild rages when things didn’t go his way. This very day he was putting their case across to the two company lawyers far more eloquently than Theo could, which was why it had been decided that he would keep out of it for the time being. The fact that one of the lawyers concerned was Skye’s own husband was a small fly in the proverbial, but Theo didn’t anticipate any major problems now that he and Zach had sorted things out to their mutual satisfaction.
* * *
Nicholas Pengelly drove home to New World that evening at a greater speed than usual. There was no way he could object to the arguments that had been put to him today, and nor could he ignore the well-prepared documents that the Bourne and Yelland lawyer had produced. Private negotiations had clearly been going on for some time, and even though he was soured by the fact that Theo Tremayne had had a pretty hefty hand in it, he had to reluctantly agree that the conditions were fair and sensible.
As the fourth partner in the proposed merger, Skye wouldn’t have any real choice about it, even though the entire workforces of the two companies would need to be drawn together to give a vote on it, the way they always did. To be seen to be fair and to give everyone their say, was the slogan, though in effect, it rarely worked that way. And there was little doubt what the outcome would be. The figures Bourne had produced for the bonuses, and the proposed rise in pay for the men, would see to that. Nick couldn’t blame them. Nothing was stable in the world these days, and money in the men’s pockets and food in their children’s bellies counted for more than outdated principles.
He didn’t relish the task of convincing his wife of it. She would see this merger as a betrayal of all her family stood for, despite the fact that Nick had been telling her for months that it made sense.
He waited until they had finished dinner before he told her he had something of importance to discuss with her.
‘I think I know what it is,’ she said, looking at him unblinkingly in a way that he wished she wouldn’t. That wide, blue-eyed gaze could always unnerve him, and it did his self-esteem no good at all to have to ask himself if he was a man or a mouse when it came to discussing things with his wife.
Right now she was looking at him as a businesswoman who knew very well he was about to destroy everything she had fought to preserve since the days when Morwen Tremayne had fought these same battles. That was what unnerved him, Nick thought savagely. This damn family thought they owned the world, and could do what they liked in it. The arrogant Theo Tremayne was proving that only too well. But in doing so, he diminished Skye.
