Free The Birdcage by Marcia Willett Page B

in?’
    â€˜I met him at a party. He’s quite a bit older than I am and I was rather bowled over by his sophistication, to tell you the truth. He never pretended that there could be a future but, like Pidge, I didn’t much care. He’s that sort of man.’ She glances at him, drawing on her cigarette. ‘Are you sure you want to know all this?’
    â€˜Quite sure.’ His sense of isolation has vanished and he is curiously bound up in this little history, feeling a sympathy for the man who has lost so much but accepts love when it is offered.
    â€˜Well, unlike Pidge, I was the foolish virgin who got caught out. Lizzie is his child.’
    â€˜Poor Angel.’ He gets up and goes to sit beside her, and she moves so as to make room for him. ‘How did you manage with a child and your career?’
    â€˜Rather badly to begin with.’ She chuckles, leaning against him. ‘My mother, after the initial shock, was surprisingly good. I had to tell her who the baby’s father was and that helped. Mike’s a war hero and he’s a very popular public figure. My mother instantly decided that it wasn’t really his fault and, since he was ready to help to support Lizzie financially, she was actually a tremendous comfort. We agreed that Lizzie shouldn’t know the truth – he has a son of his own, you see – and afterwards he simply continued to contact us through his lawyers.’
    â€˜So how did you end up here with Pidge?’
    â€˜Oh, that was just so typical of him.’ Angel stubs out her cigarette and settles comfortably in his arms. ‘When he found out that I was coming to Bristol he sent a little note to Pidge suggesting that she should come to see me at the theatre. On the opening night he sent flowers, something he never did, saying that he hoped I’d found comfortable digs. It was just so odd. And then darling Pidge was shown into the dressing-room, looking all nervous and twitchy and saying that she’d heard I was looking for somewhere to live which could take a small child. I smelled a rat at once.’
    â€˜But you weren’t upset that he brought you both together?’
    Angel frowns. ‘Pidge asked that. She was so anxious about it, she felt so guilty. But after all, she’d had him first, and, let’s face it, he didn’t belong to me.’ She makes a little face. ‘Actually, I thought it was rather fun. It connected us together, made a little family of us, and he’s been so good to both of us in an odd kind of way. That’s what’s so special about him, I suppose. We’ve never felt resentful or hard done by. Perhaps it’s because he’s so much older?’ She shrugged. ‘Anyway, that’s how it happened.’
    â€˜And Lizzie?’
    â€˜Oh, Lizzie’s happy here. We’ve stuck as close to the truth as we can and told her that her father was a soldier who was killed in the Korean war, which, let’s face it, is hardly an unusual situation these days. Of course, it’s wonderful having Pidge around. She looks after Lizzie when I go down to the theatre and takes her to school on the way to the library each morning. Between us we manage to look after her very well. Yes, Lizzie’s fine.’
    â€˜She wasn’t too impressed with Pidge’s diamonds,’ he says ruefully.
    Angel chuckles. ‘It was very clever of you, sweetie,’ she says, ‘but poor Lizzie couldn’t grasp it all.’
    Discovering that Pidge has a passion for playing patience he bought a charming double pack of tiny cards for her.
    â€˜Twenty-six diamonds,’ he said, holding out the little box, grinning at her expression. ‘Unfortunately there’re also twenty-six clubs, twenty-six hearts and twenty-six spades.’
    â€˜It’s a joke,’ Pidge had to explain to the disappointed Lizzie who was, nevertheless, very pleased with her own present: one Punch