The Angel in the Corner - Monica Dickens [113]
‘How can you ask that? I would never go without you, and I know you wouldn’t want to.’
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Joe said lazily. ‘I wouldn’t mind. There might be better opportunities for me over there, especially with a rich father-in-law.’
‘No,’ Virginia said firmly. ‘We’re staying here. You and I are Londoners. We would never be happy anywhere else.’
‘We’re not so deliriously happy now, if it comes to that – are we?’ Joe was sitting by the window in the slanting sun which found its way to their side of the street in the late afternoon. He spoke without looking at Virginia, staring expressionlessly down at the street, where some children were scrabbling with a puppy.
‘Aren’t we?’ Virginia asked. ‘I thought we were. Things are a bit rough now, I know, but we’ll get on our feet again, if Helen will help us. We’ll pay her back. It won’t stop us being independent.’
‘I’m not worrying about that,’ Joe said. ‘I’ll be happy to take anything the old girl will give us, and Lord knows she must have plenty to give. It’s just that – well, I don’t know. I thought you were fed up with me.’
‘You know I’m not.’ Virginia came to the window and stood beside him, looking across at the featureless blur that was Mrs Baggott’s face behind her dusty window.
‘You should be. Most women would be fed up with living in this hole, if they’d ever known anything better.’
‘I don’t mind it nearly as much as you do. I’ve got used to it. In any case, what difference does this place make to you and me? What difference does it make whether we have money or we haven’t? We’ve never had any money. We’ve always only had each other. Isn’t that good enough for you? It is for me. I’m not complaining.’
‘No,’ he said dourly. ‘That’s the trouble with you. You never complain.’
‘What do you want me to do? Throw the furniture about, or go for you with a kitchen knife, like Mrs Roper did with Will?’
‘At least that would put you in the wrong for a change. It’s always me who’s the louse, and honestly, Jin, you’re so God damn forbearing and unselfish that sometimes it’s enough to drive a man mad.’
‘Well, I’m sorry,’ she said stiffly. ‘I’ll try not to be in the future. Remind me to be selfish.’ She walked away from him. ‘I think I’ll go down to the shops. I’m not doing much good here.’
She went into the bedroom to get the loose-fitting coat which she had to wear now. Her eyes were blurred, and when she looked into the mirror, she saw that the corners of her mouth were turned down. She hated the sound of the nasty little conversation, which was still vividly in her ears. When Joe said things which hurt her, she always remembered them word perfectly for a long time.
When she came out of the bedroom, Joe said quite cheerfully, as if the conversation had never taken place: ‘Bring us in a pint of whisky, will you?’
‘If I do, I won’t be able to buy the meat.’
‘Forget the meat then. We’ll have all we can stuff into ourselves once Mrs Rockefeller gets here.’
Virginia was hungry. She had been trying to fill herself up for too long with bread and cheap buns. She craved for meat, but what would Joe say if she took him at his word and retorted that she needed meat more than he needed whisky? He would not compliment her for being selfish. He would shout at her to get the whisky and shut up about it.
*
Virginia had no idea how Helen would behave towards Joe. Her mother never referred to him in her letters, and she had given no hint of how she felt about the marriage. Virginia was also uncertain of how Joe would behave towards Helen. He had only met her once, and then at a disadvantage, which had made him unusually diffident. Now that he was married to Virginia, he would be more cocky.
It might be a little difficult. She saw them bristling at each other like two irreconcilable dogs, with herself caught in the middle, trying to keep peace with both sides.
Joe was not in the flat when Helen came. Helen had not announced the date of her arrival, and she took Virginia by surprise by arriving at Weston House in a taxi and manifesting herself suddenly outside Virginia