CHAPTER XVI
SUSAN ON DUTY
Susan had been up early too, and when she came down to the kitchen to get some breakfast ready for Roger she could see at once she was not the first. From the state of everywhere she could see Nancy and John had already been there, the third mug? Could have been Dick, he was usually quite tidy, but then he would have just gone along with the others leaving everything a mess.
As she prepared a tray for Roger she thought about Dot. Twenty years with Timothy, fifteen while he was married. She was surprised, she knew Dot was no innocent or naïve, but she rarely gave any of them the impression of wanting excitement of any kind, or even a serious relationship. Then they said that about her being 'married to her career', they always said that, true, but none of them, except perhaps Dick, knew actually what her career was. When she confronted Dick about his wartime work back in the nineteen seventies she could see he then began to understand more of what she may have done in the navy. John didn't, so I've never told him, my older brother would never have accepted I'd been more important than he was, I didn't captain a ship but my desk job gave me more influence over the course of the war than he ever had. Father would have understood.
She continued to ponder all this as she carried the tray of boiled eggs, toast and marmalade and coffee up to Roger in his room. Another naval career cut short like fathers, only this one was destroyed by torture.
Now she cared for Roger, and had done so mostly on her own since mother died, she had tried to find out more of what happened to him in the Far East, but nobody knew. He was liberated from a camp after the surrender, shipped home and demobbed, there was no records or paperwork of his incarceration. How much he understood when they talked to him she didn't know, they told him everything that went on, well, almost everything, but never knew how much he comprehended.
Entering his bedroom Susan found Roger was up and washed and dressed and sitting in the armchair, she was pleased to see this, some mornings he needed help, this was a good sign. She had told him Dot's news, and how this evening Daisy would be cooking for them all.
She was relieved. She did no cooking or housekeeping at all, too much of their childhood they all relied on her, even mother did to look after the younger ones, the navy thankfully stopped all that. She was pleased that Daisy not only helped Peggy but she enjoyed it, Roger was enough for her to deal with.
The money, what could Dot do with it? She doesn't want it, does she feel guilty? John's no help, he wont say anything sensible, he'll want to give it to charity, or even to the awful widow, he always does what he thinks is the right thing, I remember when told mother about the night sailing, he had to, why? That won't help Dot, Dick will think of something.