Chapter 46

Rory

The final rehearsal for the concert turned out to be great fun. At the interval break in the proceedings, George, who had come along with Kirsty, asked with a grin how I was getting on in my new department. I told him I had settled in fine. His grin got wider as I said that.

"I heard on the grapevine that you haven't just settled in, but that you have settled the capers of a couple of crooks who were defrauding the company."

The whole affair had not really been made public yet and I wondered how George got to know.

"You are remarkably well informed," I told him. "The matter is still under wraps as there are more than two crooks involved."

"It's ok. There hasn't been a leak from our end. Kirsty works with the accountant's wife's sister and when it came out that he was a fraudster, his wife left him and went to stay with her till she got somewhere else to go. She told Kirsty that some computer whizz kid had found out what he and his compatriots were up to and exposed them. I put two and two together and was sure it was you, so I asked Kirsty to keep it to herself since I was certain sure there would be more than the two people from our place involved and that investigations would still be ongoing."

"I can see that I am not the only sharp cookie around," I told him. "You are right. Frank suspected them and when he knew I was a computer nerd he got me to help him nail them. Why am I not surprised that you have worked all that out?"

"Well us union guys have to keep a sharp eye open for what the bosses are doing so that we keep ahead of the game." He said, falling into his usual banter with me.

Unfortunately he said it just as Kirsty was approaching and she heard him.

"What is Karl Marx the Second complaining about now," she asked me with the kind of grin that did not bode well for him when she got him home.

"Oh he has just revealed to me that he had worked out how your friend's sister's husband had been nailed for fraud and congratulated me because he was sure that I was behind it."

"He was right wasn't he," Kirsty said with a smile. "He told me that and said we should keep quiet about it until it was made public."

I am very grateful he did, because the police have now got to the bottom of it and have charged most of the people involved. It should hit the newspapers this week when they come up in court. So you see he is not all bad."

Kirsty gave a wicked smile. "Now he is the one who should be grateful, for you have just got him off the hook of my wrath."

"You owe me one George." I said with a laugh, "You know I am sometimes glad that my girl's Scottish roots have been mellowed by her Anglicanisation. Mind you I am sometimes still on the receiving end, because it has a nasty tendency to surface at times."

"I heard that Rebecca" said taking me by surprise because I had not noticed her approach. "What is more it may well be about to surface again if you don't watch your step."

"Now who has put his foot in it," George asked with a gleeful grin, but Rebecca turned her fire on him.

"If he is in trouble, I bet you are more than a bit responsible for it serf. I have you marked down for special treatment when it is my turn to squash the peasant rebellion."

"Quite right too," Kirsty told her. "I thought Karl Marx the Second here was making trouble again, but Rory got him off the hook just before he opened his mouth for a second time and then as you heard put his foot in it by denigrating our Scottish ancestry."

I laughed again at this turn of events as I seemed to have plunged not only myself into the mire, but pulled George in with me.

Don't you laugh too heartily Sirrah" Rebecca told me. "Once I have squashed these peasants led by this yokel here, I will turn my attention to you and you will not be laughing then."

I sometimes forget that my lady is a leading light in the drama club and can play the part of the imperious queen at the drop of a hat, but George rose to the occasion this time, or rather he did not rise, but fell to his knees watched now by the rest of the instrumentalist and pleaded.

"If you will spare me the Tower majesty, and the subsequent beheading, I will pack my bags and head for Australia right now. That for a Yorkshire cricket fan I can assure you will be a fate worse than death." *

That line brought the house down and even Rebecca could not keep a grin off her face. David suggested we should put that skit in the Halloween performance but Kirsty squashed the idea in case George thought it would qualify him for the role of Hamlet next. That brought another gale of laughter before got back to business of rehearsing our music.

Rebecca

Rory's mum came up with Baby Emma for the last week in October and stayed with my mum and dad. I was a bit disappointed that she did not choose to stay with us, but Rory said it was probably due to the fact that she did not want to be disturbed by my noisy reactions to his sexual ministrations. This earned him a hard dig in the ribs. I felt it would have been nice to have a baby in the house, but I suppose if she is still demanding a feed in the night it may be just as well. Rory can get a bit grumpy if he doesn't get a good night's sleep.

Being here, though, allowed her to come to the Halloween concert in the church and as Phil had arrived for the weekend he accompanied her. I think she enjoyed the camaraderie of the group as she mingled with us and showed off Emma before taking her seat for the start. Emma showed her appreciation of our efforts by going to sleep for the whole time the performance lasted.

When we adjourned to the hall afterwards for coffee or tea and cake she became the centre of attraction not just for members of the group but for many of the congregation who came up to see the new baby. Her own performance was a wow. Although only a few weeks old, the fact she had slept through the concert must have refreshed her for she smiled and chortled at everybody. Rory said it was probably not a smile but a grimace because she was suffering from wind since Mary had breast fed her between the end of the concert and the beginning of the serving of refreshments. That produced a laugh from Mary who promptly handed her to him and told him to practice burping her and saved him from another dig in the ribs from me.

On the Sunday we all had lunch at my mum and dad's house before Phil and mar left for home. It was a lovely occasion having all the family together. Phil asked us if we were still determined to go to St, Andrews and both of us affirmed that this was the case. Rory had definitely been accepted and I had a provisional acceptance if I got the required grades in my A levels. This brought home to me, not only how close I was to finishing my school days, but also how close I was to becoming a married woman. When the lunch was over and coffee had been served it was time for Mary and Phil to depart.

Rory and I helped her carry all their stuff to the car. With the pushchair and all the other accoutrements for Emma it was a pretty full boot by the time we had finished. I think both of us were amazed at how much stuff you seemed to need if you were going away with a baby for a week. After they had gone, mum said that it was lovely to have Mary and the baby for a week, but she would be quite glad to get the house back in order and would not miss the clutter having a baby in the house brings. I said jokingly that maybe I should be pleased they stayed with her rather than with us.

"Oh I expect you will get your turn before you go off to University," my mum told me. "I warn you that by then Emma will be a few months older and you can expect the clutter to be much worse. Even though you can borrow the cot we have bought, there will be toys added to the nappies, the clothes and all the other stuff that seems to be needed for a baby now a days.

"Mum, are you trying to put me of making you a grandmother. We are so used to just jumping in the car and driving off. Then there is the fact that even when I go off to school and Rory goes to work we always come back to a house which is clean and tidy. You make it sound as if going somewhere with a baby is like preparing for an expedition. You also paint the picture of toys scattered all over the place and despairing because the house will be forever an untidy mess."

"Just get used to the idea my girl. There is nothing that changes your life as much as becoming a parent. Not even the precursor of getting married and that in itself is a dramatic change, though probably not so much for you and Rory as you have been living together for some time now.

"Oh well, it's a case of hope for the best and prepare for the worst," I said with a dramatic sigh and my mum burst out laughing.

"That just about sums it up my girl," she said with a smile

As we rolled into November I had my head buried in books every spare minute as I had exams coming up that would give us some idea of how we would fare in the A levels proper. I did have a break in the beginning of December because Rory asked for a day off on the Friday and Monday in order that we could go and spend a long weekend with his mum and Uncle Phil. We enjoyed it immensely and it was amazing to see how quickly Emma was developing. After listening to my mum I decided Mary must be a good organiser because there was nothing like the chaos my mother described, but then as Rory pointed out this was probably the easiest stage because Emma was not yet mobile and was being breastfed. Just wait until she reaches the toy stage and see what things are like when that happens.

Rory

The year has flown past and we are now facing our last Christmas as single people. Next Christmas, we will be married and coming home for the Christmas holidays. When we got back from our long weekend at mum's Rebecca reminded me we would have to go Christmas shopping for presents for the family. I think she was especially looking forward to buying for Emma, though I did not have a clue what you would give to a new baby other than clothes.

I agreed that we should go shopping on the next two Saturdays in order to get what we needed. Rebecca looked at me with a grin on her face.

"You had better bring your banker's card with you for we are going to be spending quite a bit of your hard earned money."

"Who is the heiress in this family," I asked, and who has her own bank account into which her grandfather deposited a small fortune, yet it is the poor working boy who has to use his hard earned money for Christmas presents." I put my hand to my forehead and pretended to swoon. "It is indeed and unfair world and the downtrodden can do little about it"