Part 17 (1/2)
”Have you enough money?”
”Yes, thank you. They're paying my fare. If I don't come back I must return it,” ”Don't do that, Cressy; they want to repay you for all you've done and for going out to look for Anna and Baby.” She hesitated.
”Is there anything I can do for you--messages or the like?”
Cressida got to her feet.
”No, Charity, dear, I'll say my goodbyes tomorrow but please say goodbye to Tyco for me and thank you both for being so kind to me. I've been very happy here. I'm glad I was here when little Tyco was born. Oh, and I do love the little girls.”
Charity went to the door with her and watched her get into the Mini.
Tyco was in Leeuwarden at the hospital, it would be easy enough to ring him up, but he would be home at teatime and he would know what to do. She waved goodbye and went indoors, longing for the day to be over and for Tyco's rea.s.suring calm.
There was one other person Cressida wanted to say goodbye to the do mine He was in his study at the severe little house by the church, writing what she supposed was his sermon. He was pleased to see her but his face fell when she told him why she had come.
”I had hoped that you would be staying with us,” he told her.
”I.
believe that we might have become good friends. ”
”Well, I hope we're friends already,” said Cressida, ”I've been very happy here, you know and I'll not forget any of you. Perhaps we shall meet again one day.”
”You do not intend to come back?”
”I don't know. It very much depends on Miss Mogford. I can't just leave her, you see she was with my family for years and years and she has no family now that her sister has died, and no money.”
”That is sad. You will miss us, then?”
”Indeed I shall.”
”But I think that there is some reason why you wish to go away from Friesland and not return.” His eyes searched her face.
”You do not wish to talk about it but I would respect your confidence.”
”Oh, I know you would, and you're quite right, there is a reason I want to go away from here. If Miss Mogford hadn't telephoned me I think that I would have gone anyway; the only thing that would have stopped me was the inconvenience to Mevrouw ter Beemstra.”
Presently she said goodbye and drove back to the house, packed her case and went to talk to Anna in the queer mixture of Dutch and English which they used together, and then when Mevrouw ter Beemstra came back with the twins there were the careful explanations to make the little girls understand and the last-minute arrangements to make with their mother.
Leave-taking was hard; she hadn't realised quite how much she had absorbed of the life in Friesland and now that she was going away she felt that she was leaving part of herself behind. She had been happy there and she had grown to love Aldrik there too; it wasn't just part of herself, she reflected sadly, it was her whole heart. Since there was nothing else to be done, however, she would do her best to forget him and make a new life in England. She would have to help Moggy first, of course, although she had no idea at the moment how she could. She would at least go and see Mr. Tims or write to him and get his ad vice. If the nephew who was to have the house didn't want to live in it he might even agree to rent it to her at a rent she could afford; he might even be generous enough to add a little to her pension and if she could herself find a job locally she could get settled in the house with Moggy and share the expenses. It would be like old times. She watched the flat coast of Holland disappear under the plane's wing, fighting her tears. Everyone had been so kind; the children had been upset and so had the ter Beemstras and she was really going to miss Charity and Tyco.
She swallowed her tears with the coffee and then concentrated on the problem of settling poor Moggy.
She was in Templecombe by teatime. The cottage was close to the station and she walked to it, burdened by her heavy case and a plastic bag filled with presents from the children and several packages from Charity and Mevrouw ter Beemstra, as well as the rather wilted bunch of flowers she had bought at Schiphol for Moggy; she had bought a bottle of wine too. It might help them to make sensible plans together Moggy, she saw with a shock, had aged in the few months since they had last seen each other, but her welcome was very warm.
Moggy, who never cried, cried now.
”I'm a selfish old woman,” she mumbled into Cressida's sympathetic shoulder, 'but I'm at my wits' end. A couple of weeks, that's all I've got to find somewhere to go. I went along to the job centre in Yeovil but the lady there said I'd find it difficult to get anything I'm too old. ”
”Hush, Moggy, dear,” said Cressida, ”I'm going to write to Mr. Tims and see if he can help and if he can't I'll go and see Stepmother and ask her to help. Then I'll get a job and we can pay her back. I'd better see whoever is advising the nephew...”
”It's Snide and Snide in Yeovil my sister's nephew lives in Leeds.”
They had dropped everything in the little hall and gone to sit in the kitchen and Moggy had made tea.
”You mean to say that he is coming here to live?”
Moggy shook her head.
”That's just it he's going to sell the place lock, stock and barrel there's been one or two enquiries already.”
”Is he a poor man?”
Moggy snorted.
”Got a tidy little business, 'e 'as, no children and a wife who goes out to work.”
Cressida finished her tea.
”Well, you're not to worry any more, Moggy.
I'm sure something can be done about it. ”
She spoke rea.s.suringly, but she had her doubts, and Moggy was too upset
to share them.
She went first to Snide and Snide where, after being kept waiting for all of half an hour, she was seen by the junior partner in the firm, a young man who took one look at her and decided that this rather plain girl with the quiet voice hardly merited his full attention. No, he
told her, their client was adamant about Miss Mogford leaving the cottage; he intended to sell it.
”How much does he want for it?” asked Cressida.
He named a sum which she thought excessive, and in any case there was
no hope in raising such a sum unless her stepmother would help.
She went away presently and was glad to go. She didn't like theyounger Mr. Snide and she was aware that he felt the same about her.She tried Mr. Tims next, this time with a carefully worded letter, and she received a reply by return of post telling her that're ally there was little he could do unless she was in a position to buy the cottage. However, he did promise to look into the matter in case there was some loop hole.
Cressida was discouraged but she had no intention of giving up.Despite protests from Moggy she took herself off to her home.The girl who answered the door knew Cressida.”Miss Cressida have you come back home? How nice to see you...””I've only come to see my stepmother, Mary. If you would tell her I'm here, please?”
Her stepmother looked up from her chair as she went in.