Part 14 (1/2)

At this, Mary Ann moved into the comfort of the old woman's knees, and tracing her finger around Mrs.

McBride's frayed and rusty coat sleeve, and with one eye c.o.c.ked upwards that held just a trace of amus.e.m.e.nt in it, she said, ”There was a nun like you in the convent, Mrs. McBride.”

The shout that filled the kitchen brought Lizzie to the door, and Mrs. McBride, her hands in the air,

bellowed to her, ”Have you heard this 'un?” y' Lizzie, smiling, shook her head.

”There's a nun like me! Can you see that, Liz?”

Again Lizzie shook her head and her smile broadened, and

Mary Ann, looking from one to the other of the women, for the

j first time in days, laughed freely. ”But there was, Ma. It was

”**” Sister Alvis; she talked like Mrs. McBride, and she looked like

her.”

The roar filled the kitchen again, and f.a.n.n.y cried, ”Well, I've been likened to many things, and everything on the farm from a

heifer to a cow in ” She rubbed her finger across her nose

and did not finish her description, but cried, ”And many more things I've been likened to. But a nun !

BeG.o.d, I'm going up in the world. What do you say, Liz, eh? A nun. Eeh! Oh, hinny!” She touched Mary Ann's cheek tenderly. ”That's imagination for you. G.o.d help her, poor woman, if she was like me.”

”She was, Mrs. McBride, and I liked her.”

”Bless you, bairn.”

”Mrs. McBride ” Mary Ann started playing with the b.u.t.tons on the old woman's blouse as she said, ”You know something? I can speak French and

German.”

”No! French and German?”

”Yes, I learnt it at the convent.”

”Go on, let's hear you.”

Mary Ann considered a moment, then said very slowly, as if each word was being dragged from as far

away as the convent, ”Nous avons-une grande maison-et-un beau jardin. ... Je

vive-avec ma mere et mon pere. That's me ma and da, that last bit.”

”Your ma and da in French? G.o.d in Heaven ! D'ye hear that, Liz? That's what education does for you. Makes you into a foreigner.” She laughed. ”Go on, tell us some more.”

”German?”

”Aye, German. Oh my, can you speak German an' all?”

Mary Ann, all woes forgotten for the moment, and in an accent that was more Geordie than German, was telling her friend that this was her brother Hans, and Mrs. McBride's eyes were stretching to a complimentary width when an alarmed exclamation of, ”Oh, no!” from Lizzie made them both look towards the window.

Lizzie was carrying a tray full of tea things which she now held stiffly suspended, and her gaze was fixed on something outside. Again she exclaimed, ”Oh, no!” then quickly turning she looked across the room and said, ”Your grannie!”

”Me grannie?” Mary Ann had pulled herself from Mrs.-McBride, and Mrs. McBride exclaimed, ”Oh, G.o.d in Heaven, not her! How did she get here, she wasn't on the bus?”

Lizzie wearily putting down the tray on the table said, ”She's sported a taxi seemingly.”

Mary Ann could say nothing. She looked from her mother to Mrs. McBride, then towards the door, but she did not attempt to make her usual escape. She was experiencing very much the same feeling as she had done when she had been confronted by Beatrice at the door of the recreation room. She felt tied to the room, to the spot. She turned towards a chair and sat down. She had no fight in her with which to combat what was surely coming from her grannie, and all for her, exclusively for her.

Within a minute, there came a sharp rat-tat on the front door, and walking heavily Lizzie went to open it, while Mrs. McBride arranged herself as if ready for battle. She opened her coat, smoothed down her skirt, hitched up her enormous bust, then folded her arms under it, while Mary Ann, from her chair, kept her eyes on the door.

As Mrs. McMullen's strident voice was heard from the hall, f.a.n.n.y hissed across to Mary Ann, ”Don't look like that, that's i53 not you. Give her as good as she sends. Go on, up with that chin of yours.”

With an effort Mary Ann lifted up her head, and as soon as her grannie entered the room she made herself look straight into her face. The look seemed to hold Mrs. McMullen, and she stopped and stared back at her grandchild. Then, with her eyes slowly drawing to slits, she gave a pregnant exclamation.

”Ah!” she said. Then looking towards Mrs. McBride, she added, ”Huh!” and f.a.n.n.y, her face and voice amiable, replied, ”Aye, huh ! We're all out the day, eh, like Flannagan's Fleas.”

Mrs. McMullen, wearing a stately dignity, moved to the big chair near the fire. ”You must speak for yourself, Mrs. McBride, I am visiting my daughter.”

Now it was f.a.n.n.y's turn to say, ”Huh!”

”Will you ha've a cup of tea, Mother?” Lizzie stood near the ^tray, and Mrs. McMullen with raised eyebrows, said, ”Well, I should think that goes without saying after this journey.”

”Was your journey really necessary?” f.a.n.n.y, trying to imitate a refined tw.a.n.g, muttered this under her breath, and it brought into Mary Ann's worried being a little gurgle of laughter. Oh, Mrs. McBride was funny. Oh, she was glad she was here. Her grannie wouldn't start on her surely, not in front of Mrs. McBride . . . she'd hold her tongue for a while.

But Mary Ann had misjudged her grannie's powers of selfcontrol, for no sooner had she received a cup of tea from Lizzie's slightly shaking hand then she turned her eyes on her granddaughter and again gave her pregnant exclamation, then added, ”So you're back!”

Mary Ann said nothing, she only looked at her grannie, and her grannie began to stir her tea while she peered down into the cup. Then without raising her eyes she said, ”I suppose now that you've had the whole country on the alert for you you're feeling fine. Trust you to draw attention to yourself.”

Mary Ann's eyes slid to her mother and Mrs. McBride and then back to her grannie. SI e had found no help in the sight of her ma's shoulders stooped over the tray, nor from Mrs. McBride's face which seemed to be expressionless-she had no one to rely on but herself. But the forced proximity to her grannie was restoring her fighting feeling. Her grannie's words were now stinging her all over, like hailstones.

”I suppose, as usual, you were greeted with open arms and pptted on the head, and told what a clever girl you were, eh?”