The Beachcomber Read online

  Maggie was shocked. “Bloody hell, Kathy, have you gone bleedin’ mad or what! You can paint if you like, but, pudding feet or not, I’m off to the Palais!”

  Kathy laughed out loud. “That’s more like it! Now stop your moaning and get ready. Eight o’clock as usual, outside Woolies.”

  Maggie sounded relieved. “You and your painting. You were just having me on!”

  “It worked though, didn’t it?” Kathy laughed. “See you later.” Eager now to be ready, she replaced the telephone receiver and nipped back up to the flat.

  Kathy glanced at the clock. It was just coming up for five. “Time enough yet,” she muttered. “Tea and crumpet sounds good.” Leaping off the sofa, she busied herself in the tiny kitchen area, filling the kettle and switching it on. She put two crumpets under the grill.

  In a matter of minutes she was seated at the table, a steaming hot cup of tea in front of her, and alongside that two golden toasted crumpets. After a moment’s hesitation, she added a scraping of precious butter from her weekly ration. “It’s an end-of-week treat,” she told herself.

  Hungrier than she’d realized, she soon devoured the crumpets. Washing them down with the tea, she cleared away and went into the bathroom, where she ran a hot bath, stripped off, and gently lowered herself into the soapy suds. It felt wonderful. “Just what the doctor ordered!” She sighed and lolled, and closed her eyes to dream about her perfect man; only to groan with disappointment when she realized there was no such thing on God’s earth.

  “One of these days, I might get swept off my feet by the man of my dreams,” she muttered, “though I’ll probably be old and gray, and he’ll have no teeth!” The image in her mind made her laugh out loud.

  Ready to submit to a full hour of soaking in the tub, she stretched out her legs and, draping her arms over the side of the bath, began to sing; not the rock-and-roll stuff Maggie was so fond of, but a quiet, romantic Nat King Cole song, “When I Fall in Love.” It was one of her favorites. She always loved to swell her voice up to that high note. She could imagine she was Alma Cogan, in sexy high heels and one of those frilly, swingy creations.

  Her romantic rendition was brought to an abrupt halt when suddenly the doorbell rang. “Oh, now what?”

  Slipping and sliding, she struggled out of the bath, grabbing a towel to wrap around her nakedness. It was her neighbor. “There’s a telephone call for you. Says it’s urgent,” he told her. Dripping wet and disappointed, Kathy pulled on a dressing gown, went back downstairs and took up the phone. “Hi, Maggie.” She couldn’t resist a tease. “Don’t tell me you’ve changed your mind about painting the bathroom walls?”

  “It’s not Maggie. It’s me … Samantha. We need to talk.”

  The familiar voice of her older sister instantly darkened Kathy’s mood. “What do you want?” She must want something, Kathy thought. It was the only time her sister ever called her.

  “It’s Mother.”

  “What’s she up to now?” Kathy’s mother was a law unto herself, though she hardly ever did anything that might hurt her darling Samantha.

  Now, though, Samantha sounded anxious. “It’s best if you come over,” she suggested hopefully. “She’s about to do something very silly.”

  “Such as what?” Kathy no longer had much patience with her mother’s selfish antics.

  “Please, Kathy. Come over. I can’t talk about it on the phone.”

  “What … right now?”

  “Please! I’ve tried talking to her, but she won’t listen.”

  “Good God, Sam! If she won’t listen to you, she’s hardly likely to listen to me, is she?”

  “If you don’t help me, I won’t be responsible for my actions. I mean it!”

  Kathy had never heard her sister so frantic. “Where are you now?”

  “At Mother’s house.”

  “Does she know you’ve asked me to come over?”

  “She wants you to. Be quick as you can. I just can’t deal with it.”

  Kathy was intrigued. “All right. I’ll be there soon as I can. Now if you don’t mind … I’m soaked through and catching my death of cold.”

  When a moment later she replaced the receiver, Kathy leaned for a minute on the wall by the telephone. “What the devil are they up to now?” There was no telling with those two … one was every bit as devious as the other.

  Back in the flat, she quickly dried herself off. After pulling on clean underwear, she then slipped on a pretty blue blouse, together with a calf-length dark skirt, which she thought made the best of her not-so-slim legs. Lastly, she pushed her tiny feet into a pair of smart brown shoes with a slender heel. A quick brush of her shoulder-length brown hair, a dab of lipstick, and she was ready; though a casual, passing glance in the mirror made her pause. “Just look at yourself, Kathy Wilson! It’s time you did something worthwhile with your miserable life … you’re losing your figure – as if you ever had one in the first place …” She gave a long, sorry sigh. “You’ve got to take a hold of yourself before it’s too late.”

  Disillusioned, she turned away. “It’s time you stopped pretending. You’re in your mid-thirties and you’ve lost your way.” It was a sobering thought.

  Before leaving she gave Maggie a call. “I’ll try not to be late,” she promised, “but Samantha just rang. Apparently Mother’s up to her antics again.”

  There was a pause before Maggie asked what the problem was.

  “I don’t know,” Kathy confessed. “Samantha wouldn’t say over the phone, but it sounds like trouble! I should let her stew in her own juice, but she was frantic. I’d best go and see what’s happened. Like I say, I’ll try and get to you on time, but if I’m not there by ten past eight, go on without me and I’ll catch up.”

  Maggie was none too pleased, but agreed, with one reservation. “I don’t like going on without you, so I’ll give it a good half-hour.”

  “Okay.” Kathy had a bad feeling about getting involved in whatever was happening between her mother and sister. “I’ll be as quick as I can,” she vowed. “Maybe Samantha’s got it all wrong.” Somehow though, she didn’t think so.

  When Kathy reached her mother’s house, the dark mood was still on her. Even as she clambered off the bus, she was unsure about being here at all. It didn’t feel right. It never did. But her instincts told her there was something going on that she should know about. So, putting all her doubts aside, she strode determinedly down the street.

  A pretty four-bedroomed place, her parents’ house was in a nice part of Kensington, situated in a tree-lined road where the houses sat well back amongst beautifully tended gardens; though if Kathy’s memory served her right, her mother had never lifted one finger to the soil. Her father, Robert, was the one who had loved the garden, but since he’d been gone her mother had paid a man to come along once a week to tend and maintain the grounds.

  Approaching the house, Kathy took a minute to consider if she was doing the right thing. She came to a halt, her troubled gaze looking toward the house. She felt small and insignificant. She had lived in this house with her parents for many years – some of them good, some of them not so good. Her mother was a formidable woman; not the easiest creature in the world to get on with.

  For one heart-stopping minute as she glanced toward the house, she could see her father standing on the doorstep, waving a welcome, his smile enveloping her like sunshine after rain.

  In that moment of deep emotion, she turned away. Suddenly, to face her mother now seemed too much of an ordeal.

  “Kathy!” Samantha had been watching for her.

  Kathy looked up. Having seen her turn away, Samantha had opened the window and shouted. It was enough. Reluctantly, Kathy started toward the house.

  As she approached the front door it was flung open by a woman in her late thirties, tall, slim and with her dark hair swept up in a handsome swirl. “I’m glad you didn’t go away,” she said accusingly. “I’ve done the best I can but she’s impossible. I hope you can talk
some sense into her!”

  Propelling Kathy into the living room, she deposited her before the hostile stare of the older woman. “Speak to her, Kathy. Tell her she’s being selfish.” Digging Kathy in the back, Samantha urged, “Go on, Kathy! She won’t listen to a word I say.”

  “I probably won’t listen to you either, Kathy my dear, but I suppose you might as well have your say.” Her mother’s sharp brown eyes rested curiously on Kathy’s upturned face. “Whatever you have to say won’t make the slightest difference.”

  Out of the same mold as Samantha, Irene was taller and slimmer than Kathy. With her smooth auburn locks, bobbed by the most expensive hairdresser in town, and those exquisitely painted brown eyes, she was unnervingly attractive. Her fingers dripped with expensive jewelry, bought by Kathy’s father over many years. She was magnificent yet intimidating: a woman you either admired or avoided. Bathed in a cloud of perfume, she had style and confidence, and today was no different. Dressed in a smart light-brown two-piece with straight skirt and fitted jacket, she was obviously ready to go out.

  Kathy’s thoughts were of Maggie and how she had promised to be as quick as she could. “I don’t know what’s going on here,” she said, “and to tell you the truth I don’t really care. I only came because Samantha was frantic … she said that I should get over here right away.” Seeing her mother in all her glory, made Kathy felt foolish. “The way she was going on, I thought you might be about to kill yourself!”

  Irene laughed out loud. “Really? And you came to rescue me, is that it?”

  When she trained her brown eyes on you as she did now on Kathy, there was something chilling about her manner, some fearful coldness that froze your heart. “All the same, it’s as well you’re here.”

  Kathy didn’t trust her. “What game are you playing?”

  “I don’t need to play games.” Her expression was calm. “I’ve made my decision and I’m happy with it. But there are things you both should know, and as I told Samantha, it’s best that you’re both here. Afterward, for all our sakes, I hope there’ll be an end to it.”

  Moving through the haze of sweet-smelling perfume, she walked across the room to the dresser. “She’s getting married!” Samantha whispered fiercely. “I didn’t even know she was seeing anybody.” Samantha was concerned only about one thing. “When you marry, isn’t it true that everything you’ve got becomes half-owned by the other person? Where does that leave us, that’s what I want to know.”

  “Married!” Shutting her ears to Samantha’s rantings, Kathy felt as though she’d been knocked to the ground. “But she can’t! It’s not long enough … since Dad …” It was a shock, and for a minute she couldn’t get to grips with it.

  Returning with a small leather document case, Kathy’s mother laid it face down on the table close to her. Turning to Samantha, she told her, “You’re right, of course. When I marry, things are bound to change. You thought you would be getting all my jewelry after I was gone, and as for you, Kathy –” Bestowing a generous smile on Kathy, she went on, “I know it was your father’s dearest wish for you to have this house, but the truth is, I have other plans for it. Everything I shared with your father will be got rid of: house, furniture, even the jewelry he gave me. It’s only fair on my new husband that I make a clean sweep.”

  Kathy had never cared about what might come to her after her parents were gone, but she had adored her father, and now that he was being swiftly discarded along with the house and everything in it, she felt physically sick. “Who is he … this man you’re about to marry?”

  “You know him well,” her mother said with a cool smile. “You both do. His name is Richard.”

  Samantha gave an audible gasp. “Not Richard Lennox?”

  “Clever girl, yes, you’re absolutely right.”

  Kathy was shocked. “But he’s a terrible man. You know Daddy hated him! He tried time and again to ruin his business. He undercut his trade so much, there was a time when Dad almost went under. Then, when he was succeeding again, that man wanted to buy him out.”

  “Nonsense. Your father was capable of seeing anyone off. He was in merchandising long before Richard moved into the business. Besides, Richard has quite enough of his own work, without taking on anybody else’s.”

  Samantha too was shocked by her mother’s choice of man-friend. “All right! You’ve told us often enough how well he’s done. He was a coalman and now he owns fleets of lorries and mines in the North. But it still doesn’t make him decent. I can’t believe you’re marrying him. Good God! He must be seventy if he’s a day!”

  “Not quite.”

  “But why? You could have any man you wanted.” Samantha had expected something better for her mother. “I can’t believe it. How could you bring yourself to marry a man like that?”

  Kathy knew straight off. “It’s money, isn’t it? You’re marrying him for his money!”

  “Well, why not?” Seeing the look of incredulity on Kathy’s face, Irene demanded, “What’s wrong with looking after my future? In another few years I’ll be sixty. Oh, I know your father left me well off, and I’ve got that all tucked away. But it won’t last forever. Anyway, I don’t enjoy being alone. I need a man in my life, someone to take me out and about. I want to travel the world … I need the very best of everything. Unlike you poor things, I’ve never had to work, and I never want to. I’ve always been used to the finer things in life, thanks to a generous legacy left me by your great-grandfather. Then, of course, when I married your father, he wouldn’t even hear of me working, and of course, I didn’t mind that at all.”

  Savoring the moment, she went on with a calm smugness that irritated Kathy and filled Samantha with admiration. “I intend to look after number one from now on.” She pointed an accusing finger at her youngest daughter. “And I’ll thank you not to look at me as if I’m some kind of monster.”

  Samantha remained in a sulk. “I thought you cared about me, but you don’t. You’re nothing but a grabbing, selfish bitch. All you care about is yourself! You couldn’t care less what happens to me.”

  Infuriated, Irene rounded on her. “Is it my fault if you’ve both made a mess of your lives? At least I stayed married long enough to see my husband off. Look at the pair of you. It’s pathetic! Neither of you married. You don’t even own the roofs over your heads.” Waving her arms to embrace the room, she declared triumphantly, “Look at what I’ve got to show for my efforts. Doesn’t it make you feel ashamed?”

  “You cow!” Samantha’s temper was a match for her mother’s. “You always promised you’d look after me, and now here you are … walking out with everything … feathering your nest again, and to hell with everybody else.”

  “How dare you!” In two strides Irene had Samantha by the shoulders. “You’re the biggest disappointment of my life. It didn’t matter about Kathy making a mess of her life … it was only what I expected. But you!” Shaking her hard, she let out a torrent of abuse. “I told everyone my daughter Samantha would make something of herself, but you let me down! You humiliated me in front of all my friends. You and her –” she thumbed a gesture in Kathy’s direction “– you make me sick! Failures, the both of you!”

  Suppressing her anger, Kathy’s calm voice cut through her mother’s cruel words. “You’re right,” she said. “It’s true our marriages didn’t work out. But you’re as much to blame as anyone else. Always interfering … nothing was ever right. Constantly picking fights with Samantha’s husband and mine … causing no end of trouble, excluding them from family; deliberately hounding them, until in the end they had no choice but to leave us. No man on God’s earth would put up with what they had to put up with.”

  “That’s not true!” Samantha now defended her mother from Kathy’s anger. “Mother’s right. They were weak and cowardly, or they would have stayed with us, no matter what.” Samantha had married an American GI at the end of the war in a whirlwind romance. When Samantha had refused to go to Germany with him after the war, the
marriage had stood little chance.

  “I’m glad they didn’t stay.” Irene’s feathers had been ruffled but now she composed herself. “They were wrong from the beginning, those two.”

  “It’s all in the past, Mother.” Kathy could never forgive her, but there was nothing to be gained by being at each other’s throats. “You said you had something to tell us?”

  Looking from one to the other, Irene took a deep breath. There are things you should know –” she glanced at Kathy “– about your father.” Clearing her throat, she collected the document-case papers from the table. “In here are keys and the deeds to Barden House. It’s a place in West Bay, Dorset.”

  Her face stiffened. “I didn’t even know it existed until I was looking through your father’s papers. I also found letters – intimate love-letters; hordes of them – from some woman who signed herself as Liz.”

  Bristling with indignation, she directed her hurtful words to Kathy in particular. “The truth is, your father was not the innocent you thought he was. He and this woman apparently had an affair and, judging by those letters, it went on for some considerable time. When he was away from home – when I believed he was working – he was with her, in that house! The two of them … in their little love-nest!”

  Shocked and confused, Kathy was stunned into silence, while Samantha began to laugh. “The old so-and-so … carrying on behind your back. Well, I never!”

  In a gesture of disgust, Irene thrust the folder at Kathy. “What do you think of your precious father now? He wasn’t the caring man you always thought he was. Instead, he was a cheat and a liar, and I want nothing that was his! Go on, take them: the house, the letters, too. They’re yours. Sell the house, burn it down, I don’t care.”

  In an almost inaudible voice, she made a confession. “I went there … to West Bay. I was curious. I thought maybe it was her he’d bought the house for … that she was still living there. But it seems the house stood empty for months on end before I turned up. I learned a lot when I asked about. You’d be amazed how much people know in a small place like that.”