White Boots. Noel Streatfeild
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old the winter her parents popped through that thin ice. I’ll never forget it, Aunt Claudia moved into the house, and the very first thing she did was to have a glass case made for the skates and boots her father was drowned in. She put it up over my blessed lamb’s cot.‘With all respect ma’am,’ I said,‘I don’t think it’s wholesome, we don’t want her growing up to brood on what’s happened.’ And do you know what she said? ‘He’s to live again in Lalla, Nana, he was a wonderful skater, but Lalla is to be the greatest skater in the world.’”
Olivia, enthralled with the story, had forgotten about Harriet. She turned now to look at the two children.
“I don’t know whether she’s going to be the greatest skater in the world, but she certainly seems to be a wonderful teacher. Look at my Harriet.”
Nana was silent a moment watching the two children.
“We’ll call them back in a minute. Harriet shouldn’t be at it too long, not the first time. They say Lalla’s coming on wonderfully, she’s got her bronze medal, you know, and she isn’t quite ten.”
Olivia had no idea what a bronze medal was for but she could hear from Nana’s tone it was something important.
“Isn’t that splendid!”
“It’s a funny life for a child, and not what I expect in my nurseries. She has to do so much time on the ice every day, so she can’t go to school or anything like that; governesses and tutors she has as well, of course, as being coached here every day by Mr Lindblom.”
“It must cost a terrible lot of money.”
“Well, what with what her parents left her, and her Aunt Claudia marrying a rich man, there’s enough.”
“She has got a step-uncle, has she?”
Nana was knitting again; she smiled at the wool in a pleased way.
“Yes, indeed. Her Uncle David. Mr David King he is, and as nice a gentleman as you could wish to find, I couldn’t ask for better.”
Olivia was glad to hear that Lalla had a nice step-uncle because somehow, from the tone of Nana’s voice, she was not certain she would like her Aunt Claudia. However, it was not fair to make up her mind about somebody she had never met, and anyway probably Lalla enjoyed the skating.
“I expect the skating’s fun for her, even if she has to miss school and have governesses and tutors because of it.”
“She enjoys it well enough, bless her, I’m not saying she doesn’t, but it’s not what I would choose in a manner of speaking.” Nana got up. “I’m going to signal the children to come off the ice, for, if you don’t mind my mentioning it, your little Harriet has done more than enough for the time being; she better sit down beside me and have a glucose sweet the same as I give my Lalla.”
The moment she sat down Harriet found her legs were much more cotton-woolish than they had been before. They felt so tired she did not know where to put them, and kept wriggling about. Nana noticed this.
“You’ll get used to it, dearie, everybody’s legs get tired at first.”
Olivia looked anxiously at Harriet.
“Perhaps that had better be all for today, darling.”
Harriet was shocked at the suggestion.
“Mummy! Two whole shillings’ worth of hired boots and skates used up in quarter of an hour! We couldn’t, we simply couldn’t.”
“It can’t be helped if you’re tired, darling. It’s better to waste part of the two shillings than to wear the poor legs out altogether.” Olivia turned to Nana. “I’m sure you agree with me.”
Nana had a cosy way of speaking, as if while she was about nothing could ever go very wrong.
“That’s right, ma’am. More haste less speed, so I’ve always said in my nurseries.” She smiled at Harriet. “You sit down and have another glucose sweet and presently Lalla will take you on the ice for another five minutes. That’ll be enough for the first day.”
Lalla looked pleadingly at Nana.
“Could I, oh, could I stay and talk to Harriet, Nana?”
Nana looked up from her knitting.
“It’ll mean making the time up afterwards. You know Mr Lindblom said you was to work at your eight-foot one.”
Lalla laughed.
“One foot eight, Nana.” She turned to Harriet. “Nana never gets the name of the figures right.”
Nana was quite unmoved by this criticism.
“Nor any reason why I should, never having taken up ice skating nor having had the wish.”
“Harriet would never have taken up ice skating, nor had the wish either,” said Olivia, “if it hadn’t been for her legs. I believe two of my sons came here once, but that’s as near as the Johnsons have ever got to skating.”
Lalla was staring at Olivia with round eyes.
“Two of your sons! Has Harriet got brothers?” Harriet explained about Alec, Toby and Edward. Lalla sighed with envy. “Lucky, lucky you. Three brothers! Imagine, Nana! I’d rather have three brothers than anything else in the world.”
Nana turned her knitting round and started another row.
“No good wishing. If you were to have three brothers, you’d have to do without a lot of things you take for granted now.”
“I wouldn’t mind. I wouldn’t mind anything. You know, Harriet, it’s simply awful being only one, there’s nobody to play with.”
Olivia felt sorry for Lalla.
“Perhaps, Nana, you would bring her to the house sometime to play with Harriet and the boys; it isn’t a big house, and there are a lot of us in it, but we’d love to have her and you, too, of course.”
“Bigness isn’t everything,” said Nana. “Some day, if the time could be made, it would be a great treat.”
Harriet looked with respect at Lalla. Even when she had gone to school she had always had time to do things. She could not imagine a life when you had to make time to go out to tea. Lalla saw Harriet’s expression.
“It’s awful how little time I get. I do lessons in the morning, then there is a special class for dancing or fencing, then, directly after lunch, we come here and, with my lesson and the things I have to practise, I’m always here two hours and sometimes three. By the time I get home and have had tea it’s almost bedtime.”
Olivia thought this a very sad description of someone’s day who was not yet ten.
“There must be time for a game or something before bedtime, isn’t there? Don’t you play games with your aunt?”
Lalla looked surprised at the question.
“Oh no, she doesn’t play my sort of games. She goes out and plays bridge and things like that. When I see her we talk about skating, nothing else.”
“She’s very interested in how Lalla’s getting on,” Nana explained, “but Lalla and I have a nice time before she goes to bed, don’t we, dear? Sometimes we listen to the wireless, and sometimes, when Uncle David and Aunt Claudia are out, we go downstairs and look at that television.”
Olivia tried to think of something to say, but she couldn’t. It seemed to her a miserable description of Lalla’s evenings. Nana was a darling, but how much more fun it would be for Lalla if she could have somebody of her own age to play with. She was saved answering by Lalla.
“Are your legs better enough now to come on the rink, Harriet?”
Harriet stretched out first one leg and then the other