Elizabeth Alone by William Trevor

Author:William Trevor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2019-08-02T16:00:00+00:00

13

By evening they felt better. They had thin vegetable soup and plaice, and stewed apples and custard. They talked in the Marie Atkins Ward; only Miss Samson still seemed bewildered and far from herself.

As visiting time approached, Sylvie put on eye-shadow. She treated her lashes and her fingernails. She said she was feeling quite perky.

Mrs Delve and the Reverend Rawes came. They sat on the left-hand side of Miss Samson’s bed, on two of the metal-frame chairs. Everything was all right, they told her, but she couldn’t help remembering how in the dream the Reverend Rawes had stood with his back to the door of the sitting-room and had forbidden the Tonsell brothers to telephone the Daily Express, how Mrs Delve had referred to Arthur as a half-wit, how she’d shouted at her and she said she put people off.

‘Now, when’re they going to let you out?’ Mrs Delve asked briskly. ‘We’re very anxious to know, dear.’

Miss Samson shook her head. The only time they’d mentioned the matter was when they’d asked her if she was booked into the convalescent home in Eastbourne. They let you out quicker if you were, she’d heard. She spoke in a whisper, finding it difficult to speak louder.

‘Thing is, we want to make the booking in the Seaview.’ Mrs Delve repeatedly blinked, which was a sign of anxiety with her.

Miss Samson shook her head again.

‘Oh, dear!’ Mrs Delve cried, and the Reverend Rawes hastily interjected that they’d had a nice piece of neck for supper. ‘Everything’s going really trim,’ he said. ‘No need to worry.’ He added quietly, addressing Mrs Delve, that they’d sort the matter of the hotel out afterwards. Better to talk about something else, he suggested, and after a hesitation Mrs Delve accepted his judgement.

‘Edward Tonsell’s definitely taking an interest,’ she said. ‘Carol’s a different person.’

Miss Samson nodded. She remembered Edward Tonsell’s face in her dream, the way it had all been cruelly twisted, the dark jowl sinister in the sitting-room, the eyes glaring at Carol Pidsley. Carol Pidsley’s face had been twisted, too.

‘They were talking on the stairs tonight,’ Mrs Delve said in whispering, confidential tones.

Miss Samson nodded again, managing to smile.

The Reverend Rawes remarked that it was hot in the ward and wondered that Miss Samson could stand it. It had been a cold day, he said. There’d been snow in the West Country and the North.

‘She’s really a different person,’ Mrs Delve said. ‘She was singing like a linnet this morning. I heard her in the bathroom.’

‘Who’s this?’ the Reverend Rawes said.

‘Carol Pidsley, Mr Rawes. She’s been paid attentions by Edward Tonsell.’ Mrs Delve was red in the face. For several months, she confessed to the clergyman, she and Miss Samson had been speculating about Carol Pidsley and the older of the Tonsell brothers. They had been certain that attentions were being paid; they had in fact been aware of them long before Carol Pidsley was.

‘Well, I’m blessed,’ said the Reverend Rawes. ‘But are you sure of it? Has Carol said something?’

Mrs Delve laughed.

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