The House of Women by Catherine Cookson

Author:Catherine Cookson [Cookson, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781780360638
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

‘No; not if you don’t want to.’

‘Well, let’s say I don’t want to.’

This little side-play caused Peggy to stop and wonder, and it also gave Lizzie the opportunity to try to bring a smile to her daughter’s face and perhaps ease the tension she saw there. ‘You know something?’ she said to Peggy. ‘He will repeat everything I say, part of it at least, and it can get on your nerves, you know.’

Peggy smiled and, looking towards her stepfather, she said, ‘Yes, I can imagine how he gets on your nerves,’ at the same time questioning why her mother should be so happy, and she a settled woman forty years old, whereas she was twenty-one and so miserable inside that there were days where she wanted to take to her heels and run. Run away from the two old women. Run from the ambitious young man who was her husband and who was bringing fear into her existence, a horrible fear to which she daren’t put a name and which had sprung into life a month ago. She wished she could talk about it to her mother, but that would be fatal. It would be equally fatal to talk about it to her Auntie May. She could to Charlie, though. Yet how could she bring such a subject up to Charlie? Oh, she could talk to Charlie about anything. Oh, Charlie. Charlie.

She said now, ‘Have you heard about Charlie?’

‘What about Charlie?’

Mother and daughter were walking down the room together. ‘He’s going to London to give a concert. His agent phoned him last week. He won’t be on the stage all the time, he said, his will be just a little spot. He’s always playing himself down. Auntie May, though, said there’s only a quartet, and after he’s done some solo pieces he’s playing with them. Mr Reynolds is going with him; if his legs will hold out, that is, Charlie said.’

‘My! My! He’s certainly going places. Well, May always said he would. And of course he’s slept and eaten with that guitar over the past five years. How many hours a day has he been practising since he left school?’

‘At least six.’

‘Enough to drive anybody mad. But then May thinks the sun shines out of him. She must be stone deaf. For meself, I could never see what’s in guitar playing.’

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