Chapter 38

May 1931

‘I think you should offer Keith a room here.’ Isobel poured flour onto the scales from the mouse-proof tin in which it was kept.

‘In this house?’ Ann leaned back in the kitchen chair and studied her friend.

‘Yes.’

‘And turn it into a lodging house instead of a family home?’

Isobel sighed. ‘There may be a possibility of it being a family home again one day. But at the moment it’s just you and me and we only use the downstairs and often not even all of that. This kitchen is the warmest place so that’s where we sit, and let’s face it, the drawing room needs attention.’

‘My father would turn in his grave.’

‘That may be true.’

‘And I don’t know what Ursula would think.’

Isobel concentrated on weighing the flour for the pastry. Half Allinson’s wholemeal, half white. She sifted them together, high above the bowl to aerate the flour, and then tossed the bran which was left in the wire sieve back into the bowl. ‘Well, that’s the thing.’

‘What thing?’

‘Pass me the butter, please.’

Ann lifted the lid off the butter dish and pushed it across the table.

Isobel eyeballed two ounces of butter and chopped it against her fingers with the back of a knife and started to rub the fat into the flour so it looked like breadcrumbs. When she was happy with the fineness of the mixture, she added cold water, a dribble at a time. ‘What would she think, really and truly?’ She gathered it into a dough with her hands and looked up at the clock. ‘There isn’t time to let this rest, I’m running late. I think I’ll just roll it out now.’ She paused. ‘This is important, Miss Ann.’ She only used this title when she was being serious about something and wanted to be listened to. ‘What would Ursula Black do if she were here now?’

‘I don’t know. But why is it my place to bail him out? Why can’t his family help?’

Isobel was ready for her. ‘There isn’t anyone. His father is dead, his mother is unwell and she lives with his aunt in Dundee. There’s no room for him there, and it’s too far away. And anyway, he isn’t a child.’

‘How do you know all this?’

‘I asked. You know, like you do when you have a conversation with someone?’ She finished shaping the pastry into a ball. ‘There’s no need to look so scandalised. I’m surprised you haven’t discovered all this yourself, but I suppose the two of you are always too busy putting the world to rights to worry about the really important things in life.’

Ann was defensive. ‘That’s not fair. And what about brothers or sisters?’