Opal Plumstead Read online

  ‘Thank you, Mrs Liversedge,’ I said as coldly as I could, as if I were a mistress dismissing an impertinent servant. ‘You’ve been very kind looking after Mother, but we don’t need you any more.’

  ‘Ooh, Miss High and Mighty!’ said Mrs Liversedge. ‘You’re going to come down to earth with a bump when you find out what’s happened to your precious father. No more toff City job for him.’

  ‘If you must know, my father has decided to concentrate on his novel writing,’ I said, trembling with rage. ‘He has retired from City life.’

  This set her off in such a spiteful cackling fit that I couldn’t bear it any longer.

  ‘Please get out of our house this instant,’ I said. I looked to Mother to back me up, but she was lying there moaning, tears still seeping out of her shut eyes.

  ‘All right, then, I’ll go. There’s the thanks I get for bringing your poor mother round from a fainting fit after her terrible shock. I was all prepared to be a good neighbour and tried to help as best I could in these dreadful circumstances, but now I don’t see why I should lift a finger.’ She was so indignant that little beads of spittle gathered at the corners of her mouth. I wondered if she might actually spit straight at me and I took a quick step backwards.

  ‘You’re a stuck-up little nobody,’ she said, nodding her head emphatically, and then she marched out of the room.

  Mother moaned, hiding her face in her hands.

  ‘Mother! Oh, Mother, please tell me what’s happened,’ I said, trying to prise her hands away.

  I heard the door banging downstairs. ‘There, she’s gone! Why ever did you let her in? She’ll be rushing down the street spreading terrible gossip about us now. Look, you must tell me – where’s Father?’

  ‘Your father’s under arrest,’ Mother said, shaking her head from side to side as if trying to deny her own words.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Two policemen came this morning and took him away. The whole street saw. Oh, the shame of it!’ said Mother, and she sobbed even harder.

  ‘But why did they arrest him? There must be some terrible mistake. Father isn’t a criminal!’

  ‘Oh, but he is,’ said Mother. She heaved herself upright, looking straight into my eyes. ‘He stole money from the office – wrote himself a cheque. It was all so obvious and pathetic, the police worked it out straight away. How could he think he wouldn’t get caught? How could he do this to me?’

  ‘Oh, poor, poor Father!’

  ‘He’s not poor Father, he’s disgraced us all. It turns out the publishers changed their mind about his wretched book. They didn’t want it after all. He wasn’t man enough to admit to it so he stole the money to deceive us,’ Mother sobbed bitterly.

  ‘He wanted to treat us, Mother. He wanted us all to be happy. Oh, it’s so sad.’ I was crying too at the thought of poor, silly, valiant Father trying so hard to convince us all that these were happy days. I’d known something wasn’t right. I should have made him confide in me. He must have been in such secret agony – and how must he be feeling now?

  ‘Will Father be at the police station? I’ll go to him,’ I said urgently.

  ‘No! No, don’t leave me,’ said Mother, clinging to me.

  ‘Look, I’ll go and fetch Cassie home. She will look after you.’

  ‘I absolutely forbid you to call for Cassie! If Madame Alouette finds out, then Cassie will be disgraced too, and unable to continue her apprenticeship,’ said Mother.

  I felt a pang. So that was why Mother had sent for me and not Cassie, though if the teachers found out at school, then I would also be disgraced. How Miss Mountbank would glory in my humiliation! I felt ill at the thought, but I couldn’t dwell on that now. Father was my first priority. I had to go and find him.

  ‘Listen, Mother, I have to go to Father. He has to be supported. If he is to be charged and taken to trial, then he will need a lawyer.’

  ‘A lawyer! How are we going to pay a lawyer – with buttons?’ Mother said bitterly. ‘Don’t you realize we are ruined now? Without your father’s income we can’t even pay the rent, let alone feed and clothe ourselves. You think you’re so clever, but you didn’t realize that, did you?’ she went on, seeing the shock on my face.

  I knew it, of course I did. I just hadn’t let the full realization wash over me. I felt like bursting into tears and weeping like a baby, but I knew that one of us had to stay in control.

  ‘We will work something out. We can’t be the first family to be in such circumstances,’ I said, trying to sound calm.

  ‘I dare say there are many such families. In the workhouse,’ said Mother, still weeping.

  I knew I should feel sorry for her in her terrible distress, but her monstrous selfishness made me almost hate her. She was lying there howling, without an ounce of pity for poor Father and his far more dreadful situation. Mother looked so awful too, her face purple with rage and grief, her nose still smeared, her mouth puckering hideously as she moaned. She smelled strongly of perspiration and sal volatile, an unpleasant combination.

  I was ashamed to feel such revulsion for my own mother. I dumped a cloth in the cold water of her basin, squeezed it out, and put it on her forehead.

  ‘There now, Mother, this will help,’ I said. I went to her dressing table and sprinkled some of her lavender water around to try and clear the air.

  ‘What in God’s name are you doing? Don’t waste my precious scent!’ Mother cried.

  ‘I’m simply trying— Oh, never mind. Now, Mother, you lie here quietly, and I’ll go and find out the situation at the police station. I’ll see if I can be of some service to Father. You try and sleep a little. I’ll be back as soon as I can,’ I said quickly.

  I rushed out of the room, though Mother protested bitterly. I tore down the stairs and out of the front door, while she called after me. For ever afterwards she declared I’d abandoned her when she was taken so ill. Perhaps this is true, but even so, I’m glad my first concern was for Father.

  I knew where the police station was – the tall four-storey building at the end of the high street. When I was very little and fretful, Mother used to say she’d fetch a policeman to take me away. On trips into town I’d stared fearfully at the bleak brick building, wondering where they’d keep me locked up. I could scarcely believe that my own father was actually imprisoned inside. I hurried up the stone steps, took a deep breath, and then pushed open the sturdy door.

  I found myself standing in an ordinary little vestibule, with wooden benches against the wall and a polished parquet floor. I’d been imagining stone cells with prisoners in leg-irons. A policeman behind a counter gave me a cheery smile. ‘Yes, missy? You look a little distressed. How can I help you?’ he asked.

  ‘Oh please, I think you’ve arrested my father!’ I blurted, and then, like a fool, burst into tears.

  The policeman was astonishingly kind. He vaulted over the counter into the vestibule, offered me his own large handkerchief and patted me on the shoulder. He looked serious when I gave him Father’s name.

  ‘Oh dear, yes. We do have that gentleman in our cells.’

  ‘A cell?’ I sobbed.

  ‘Rest assured we’re looking after him. We’ve served him lunch, and he’s got a bed and a blanket, though of course it’s not quite home comforts.’

  ‘How long will he have to stay there?’

  ‘We’ll take him to court in the morning when we’ve done all the paperwork, and then—’

  ‘Then he can come home?’ I interrupted.

  ‘Afraid not, my dear. He’ll very likely be sent to a remand prison until his trial – and seeing as he’s confessed everything, as far as I’m aware, it’s an open and shut case. He could be sent for a five-year-stretch, but as he’s been very cooperative and behaved like a proper gentleman, I think we’re more likely looking at one year maximum.’

  ‘A year . . .’ I whispered. ‘A whole year in prison.’

  ‘Don’t look so shocked, my dear. It won’t be so bad. I dare say t