The Way We Were_ A Novel - Marcia Willett [50]
Em took the spray of azaleas, the yellow luteum, that Liv had picked in the garden at Trescairn, and bent her head to inhale its heady scent. She was assailed by a memory, fleeting and poignant, but was too busy welcoming Liv to pursueit.
‘I love your house, Aunt Em,’ Liv said, waiting for her tea to be poured. ‘It's very couth, isn't it?’
Em chuckled at the word. ‘Is it?’
‘Oh, yes. You've avoided the old-world cottagey bit and retained its proper house-like qualities even though the rooms are small. It's very elegant, though Uncle Archie always seemed rather too big for it.’
‘Poor Archie.’ Em was seized with compunction. ‘If I hadn't nagged he'd have probably stayed on at Trescairn.’
‘Well, I love Trescairn too. It was a fantastic place to grow up in.’
‘To be honest, Archie was getting rather weary of carrying logs and coke, and the grounds needed quite a lot of work. They still do. It's nice for Julia that Pete is retired now and can take on some of the load. And it was very sensible to convert the Rayburn to oil and put in central heating. It's much easier to run now than it was back in the seventies. Archie had permanent backache at Trescairn.’
‘I remember how he used to lie along this sofa.’ Liv smiled at the recollection. ‘Feet up on one arm, his head on the other. He was so tall. Actually, your ceilings are higher than Trescairn's so he was better off here from that point of view. He always had to duck at home.’
‘Trescairn is a group of cottages converted into one big house.’ Em passed Liv her tea, offered a plate of fruit scones. ‘This is a little Georgian house. Quite different. He liked to stretch out along the sofa and listen to the Third Programme, though he couldn't bear anything composed after eighteen fifty.’ She laughed. ‘He was such a dinosaur. He always said that there were three phrases he never wanted to hear when he tuned in to listen to a concert: “The composer is with us in the studio”, “This next work has been specially commissioned” and “World premiere”. He'd switch off at once.’
She fell silent, and Liv glanced at her.
‘You must miss him terribly’ she said. ‘Poor Aunt Em. Isn't it beastly?’
‘Well, it is,’ said Em. ‘I've grown accustomed to certain aspects of being alone but we were married for forty years, he was retired for twenty-five of them, and there are certain things I never quite get used to. It's mostly not having him around to talk to any more. I miss the way he'd read something aloud from an article, or call out clues from the crossword puzzle when I was making breakfast. It's the companionship, of course. You have to learn to live without it.’
‘I can't really imagine it,’ admitted Liv ‘Not forty years of it. Of course, Chris and I lived together during the last year at Durham but that's not quite the same.’
Another pause.
‘And how is he?’ asked Em warily ‘Chris, I mean. And Val too, of course.’
Liv finished her tea, accepted another scone. ‘They're OK. They get a bit wound up now and again. You know what it's like with a new venture; bound to be a few problems. We'll get over it. I've enjoyed the challenge actually I wish I owned Penharrow but I think I'll have to lower my sights a bit.’
As she poured more tea, Em studied Liv covertly: she seemed less effervescent today, more thoughtful. Oddly this was just as worrying, though Em wasn't quite sure why.
‘Come and see us,’ Liv said when she got up to go. ‘You haven't been over for ages and they'd all love to see you again.’
‘What about Thursday next week? Is that a good day? What sort of time?’
‘Come and have lunch. Debs will be thrilled to see you because you're always so complimentary about her cooking. If you come about one o'clock I can have some legitimate time off with you for a change.’
Em waved her off, went back inside and began to clear the tea things. The scent of the luteum drifted through the house and Em paused, holding plates in one hand and the teapot in the other, remembering.
1976
The rhododendrons