Classic Bestsellers from Josephine Cox: Bumper Collection

During the course of the afternoon, Aggie managed to take Grandad aside. ‘Sit here with me awhile,’ she invited. ‘You look like I feel – worn out.’

‘I am,’ he confessed. ‘I’m an old dog trying new tricks, and I should have known better.’ He had been dancing with the farmer’s wife and now he could hardly walk. ‘Me back hurts, me arms ache and I need the lavvy.’

‘You’d best go down the garden then.’ The Ramsdens had an outside water-closet, like everyone else in Salmesbury, and made do with chamber-pots at night. Thomas Isaac had his very own armchair commode – the subject of many jokes, but an absolute godsend.

‘Not yet,’ he answered in a whisper, his gaze going to the farmer’s buxom wife. ‘If I so much as move, she’ll be on me like a ferret after a bunny rabbit.’

Aggie hid a smile. ‘What – you mean she’s been making up to you, is that it?’

‘Aye, summat like that.’ When he saw the red-cheeked buxom wench eyeing him again, he confided from out of the corner of his mouth, ‘She med a point o’ telling me how the old man doesn’t keep her satisfied … if yer know what I mean? What’s more, she calls me “Tommy-Izzie” an’ it’s drivin’ me potty.’

Aggie couldn’t hide her smile any longer, especially when at that moment she got a dark glare from the woman herself. ‘By! She’s a big ’un, isn’t she? I reckon she’d be too much of a handful for you, Dad,’ she said and, made merry from the elderberry wine, they broke into fits of laughter, which had the woman turning away in disgust and everyone else smiling, though they didn’t know the reason for it.

‘I’d best hobble down t’path now,’ the old man tee-heed. ‘It wouldn’t do to wet me pants in front of all and sundry,’ he cast a wary glance at the farmer’s wife, ‘especially not in front of her.’ Hoisting himself upright, he leaned on the wall for support. ‘She thinks I’m a virile, active fella, so she does.’

‘You’d best behave yourself,’ Aggie cautioned. ‘You’re not as young as you were.’

‘No, and I’m not so agile neither,’ he said, falling against the wall. ‘Me old pins don’t seem to carry me where I want to go.’

‘D’you want me to take you to the lavvy?’

‘What!’ Horrified at such a prospect, he straightened his shoulders and looked her in the eye. ‘I keep tellin’ yer, woman, I may be a bit wobbly on me pins, but I’m not a flippin’ babby!’

When Aggie looked at the woman and caught her winking at Grandad, she chuckled under her breath. ‘I don’t know how you’ve done it, lass,’ she muttered, ‘but you seem to have tekken years off our Dad. By! I’ve not seen him so frisky in an age.’

She told him the same the minute he ambled back. ‘Whatever you say about her, yon farmer’s wife seems to have given you a new lease o’ life,’ she joshed. ‘You’re very full of yerself, all of a sudden.’

Making much of it with his groaning and grunting, he sat himself down. ‘Aye well, yer know I have good days and bad days. Today seems to be one o’ the good ’uns.’

‘Sez you!’ Slipping off her shoes with a sigh of relief, Aggie gave him a wink. ‘I reckon there’s life in the old dog yet.’

He actually blushed. ‘Gerraway with yer, woman!’

Later, when the joshing was over, they sat talking about this and that. ‘Look at our Emily,’ he said. ‘Do yer think she’ll be happy enough with Danny?’

‘I hope so.’ Since Danny’s father had taken up his turn on the accordion, Aggie had seen Emily chatting non-stop with her husband. Worried as she was, it did her heart good to see them together like that.

‘Danny’s a good husband,’ Grandad interrupted her thoughts. ‘An’ he’s a wonderful daddy to the lass.’

‘D’you want another drink?’ Aggie asked. ‘Or will it be safe?’

‘Whatever d’yer mean?’

Aggie chuckled. ‘I mean, will it send you wild after the farmer’s wife?’

He laughed at that. ‘Yer a tormenting bugger, so you are. And yes, I’d like a drink. A cuppa tea would go down nicely, lass, thank you.’

Aggie went off to the kitchen.

On her return with two cups of freshly brewed tea, she spoke to Thomas in a serious manner. ‘You must never talk about what you overheard,’ she said solemnly. ‘About what that fiendish devil did to me all them years ago, and then to our Emily – his own niece, God bless her! If it ever got out that Clem Jackson was Cathleen’s father, I don’t dare think what it would do to the family. Cathleen herself would be so upset!’ She rubbed her hands over her eyes as if to shut it out. ‘It would be a terrible thing if it ever became common knowledge. Even our Michael doesn’t know. I just can’t bring meself to tell him. God knows what it would do to him, Dad.’ Her eyes were full of tears.

‘Don’t you worry, lass,’ he told her firmly. ‘My lips are forever sealed.’

And thankfully, Aggie knew she could trust him above all others.

It was getting late. ‘I’m feeling the weight of the day on me shoulders,’ he said. ‘I’ll not be long afore I go to my bed.’

Aggie was tired as well, but she was more than content to sit there, watching the folks dancing and enjoying the food she and Emily had put out. Now, as Emily smiled at her from beside Danny, she nodded back.

When she turned to look at her father-in-law, she realised he’d been kidnapped by one old dear, who was leading him onto the floor. ‘Ah! Look at ’em, bless their old hearts!’ she chuckled at the sight. ‘Where there’s a will there’s a way.’

Beginning to feel lonely, she was delighted when Michael came in from the cold and asked her to, ‘Give us a twirl on the carpet, lass.’ In a minute she had been whisked away, and the two of them were soon dancing to the jolly music of the accordion.

Soon the party got its second breath and was in full swing, though Grandad and his new friend had fallen by the wayside to rest their sore feet and commiserate with each other about how old and feeble they’d become.

Cathleen sat at their knees, eating one cake after another. ‘You’ll be sick as a pig!’ Thomas Isaac warned her.

‘No, I won’t, Grandad.’ Jumping up, she gave him a sticky kiss. ‘I’ve only had three.’

By the dance floor, Danny stood with Emily in his arms, loath to let her go. ‘You look so lovely,’ he said, and held her even tighter.

Some movement at the door made her turn, and when she saw him there, her heart almost stopped. ‘John!’ Instinctively, Danny held on to her, as though not to let her loose.

Pausing in the doorway, John’s eyes were immediately drawn to hers. There was a poignant moment when their gazes held and there seemed no one in the room but the two of them. They drank in the sight of each other.

Seeing it and fearing that everyone else might sense that same magnetism, Aggie got out of her chair and bade the accordionist to keep on playing. ‘Something bright and cheerful, Bob!’ she urged, and going to John, she warmly shook his hand. ‘Come on in! It’s so good to see you, lad,’ she said, ‘after all these long years. Michael told me he’d invited you. I can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done. I reckon my Michael owes you his life, and for that we’ll never stop being grateful. Come away in, all of you, and welcome to Potts End!’

Drawing his gaze from Emily, who he thought to be even more lovely than he remembered, John thanked her in return. Then, bringing Rosie forward, he introduced her. ‘This is Rosie, my wife.’

Rosie gave her a kiss. ‘Thank you so much for inviting us, Mrs Ramsden.’

‘Nay!’ Aggie protested. ‘The name is Aggie. You call me that and I’ll call you Rosie, if I may.’ And so it was settled, and the two women liked each other straight off.

‘And this rogue here is Archie!’ Propelling the old chap forward, John explained, ‘He was my mate at sea, and he’s been my good mate ever since. In fact, I don’t know what I’d do without the old rascal.’

‘Well now, my dear, I never expected to see such a fine-looking woman, no I never!’

Charming as ever, Archie bent to give her a kiss, and was jokingly chided by Michael, who had just approached. ‘Steady on, Archie! Mind how you handle my wife,’ he mocked, and the friendship between them all was sealed for ever. Archie gallantly escorted Lizzie to a chair and set about fetching her some of the buffet.

Considering it to be his duty, Danny limped over with Emily to greet the Hanleys. ‘Of course I know of you,’ he said, ‘but I don’t recall ever having made the acquaintance.’ He shook hands with John and Rosie. ‘I’m pleased to meet you.’

‘Likewise,’ answered John.

Rosie and Emily also shook hands politely, both thinking that the other was attractive, and had a certain aura. When Emily briefly shook hands with John, she was dazzled by his good looks and his confidence as a self-made businessman. He and Rosie made a lovely couple, she realised, and the knowledge stabbed at her.

In spite of their outward politeness, there was a certain wariness between the two men, that had not gone unnoticed by Lizzie, who was quietly watching from her seat by the fireplace, where Archie was plying her with a glass of elderberry wine.

‘Come and have some food.’ Aggie broke the mood. ‘You must be famished.’