The Little Prisoner_ A Memoir - Jane Elliott [22]
I don’t remember my nan, but I do remember the wooden box she had left with all her jewellery in it. Granddad must have had some money at one time because there was a Rolex watch in there and an eighteen-carat gold charm bracelet. Each charm represented a significant event in Nan’s life. For instance, there was a tiny cathedral which you could open up, which he had given her when they got married, and there were also her engagement and eternity rings. The bracelet was a huge great thing, much too heavy to wear. Granddad gave the box to me, but inevitably Richard and Mum sold the watch to pay for something or other and pawned the bracelet. They promised me they would redeem it for me, but of course they never did. That was my nan’s whole life gone and I felt so sad.
When I got a bit older Granddad used to pay me to do his housework. He would write me out cheques for three pounds, which made me feel really rich. One day he asked me to make him a fresh cup of tea.
‘Oh, Granddad,’ I complained. ‘I just made you one.’
‘Go on,’ he cajoled, ‘and rinse this cup out well first.’
When I took the cup to the sink and poured away the dregs, a gold bracelet plopped out. I knew to keep this one secret.
Granddad had a big gold ring in the house too, which was studded with rubies. He knew I loved it.
‘You can’t have that,’ he said, ‘because your Mum will just sell it. But you can wear it while you do the housework if you like.’
He had a brother living in Australia and he was always planning to go and visit him, touring the world on the way there and back. He offered to take me with him. Silly Git refused, saying that it wasn’t fair on the boys.
‘I can’t take them all,’ Granddad protested, ‘and it will be a chance in a lifetime for her.’ But nothing was going to change my stepfather’s mind.
One year, though, Granddad was actually allowed to take me away on holiday. We went to Hastings in the tourer caravan that he kept on the drive and it was just him, me and the dogs. It was like heaven, feeling safe and happy all the time.
Granddad also had a static caravan in a holiday park at Southend. We sometimes went there as a family at weekends or during the holidays, and if Granddad was around it was harder for Richard to get at me. He still managed to, of course. In the evening he would tell the others to go out to Bingo, offering to stay in with me because I’d been naughty earlier in the day and had to be punished.
‘Oh, Janey,’ Mum would sigh, ‘what have you done now?’
‘We’ve been in a caravan together all day,’ I’d think. ‘You know everything I’ve done.’ But I never said anything in my own defence, knowing that would ignite Richard’s wrath, and Mum would be willing to accept that I needed to be punished. So they would all go off without me, leaving me alone with Richard for a few hours. I usually got to go out one evening in every holiday, but to earn that treat I would have to go out for a walk with him earlier in the day to find a quiet place where I could ‘do him a favour’.
One year he actually announced that he was going to go home for the day to collect a giro, because otherwise we wouldn’t have any cash. Needless to say I had to go with him. He would always use the same excuse: ‘I’ll take Jane with me in case my leg plays up. She can make me my tea and get me my fags.’ That was always the reason why I had to be with him wherever he went. This time I couldn’t believe that not only was I going to have to spend an uninterrupted night with him but I was going to be missing my holiday as well.
When we got home we had to go straight to his and Mum