was her own knight in shining armour.
One day in the autumn of 1923 Brian asked Joe if he had ever thought of taking any of the courses being advertised in the city institutes. Shock ran through Joe at Brian’s words, because he knew his employer well by now, and when he spoke like that, it wasn’t really a question at all. It was more like the iron fist inside the velvet glove.
Yet Joe answered, ‘No, sir. Things like that are not for the likes of me. I am not brainy enough.’
‘Who says?’ Brian said. ‘You have to have a brain in your head to understand the mechanics of a car, and they are always praising your knowledge at the garage.’
‘That’s different, sir, and—’
‘They do courses in typewriting and accounts, and I need a man in the office,’ Brian said.
‘Oh, sir, it is kind of you and all, but I am not fitted out for office work.’
‘Kind be damned!’ Brian cried. ‘You would suit me very well. I am impressed by your common sense and your intelligence. Will you do this for me, Joe?’
Joe shook his head helplessly. ‘I honestly don’t know if I will be able to make head nor tail out of any of it,’ he said. ‘And I would probably need a typewriter.’
‘Leave that to me,’ Brian said. ‘Your job is to take the course and get Bobby ready to take over from you in a year or so.’
Joe sighed and yet he knew the hand of opportunity was being extended to him again, and he would be a fool if he didn’t grasp it tight.
A month or so into the course Joe thought he had made a vast mistake. He found it the hardest thing he had ever done in his life. He had always been good at figures and thought he would find accounts not that difficult. He was wrong, but he found typewriting much worse. Memorising the keyboard was hard enough and his fingers seemed too big and cumbersome for the keys.
He laboured on and didn’t bother complaining because he knew that Brian would obviously want some return on the money he had spent educating him, and he hoped that his employer’s belief in him was not misplaced.
None of the Brannigans’ staff could understand why he was doing all the book work, and neither could Patrick. Joe told none of them, not even Tom, what Brian had said about being taken on in the office if he should pass the exams, because he could not visualise himself in such a role. He didn’t know if he wanted it, certain he would feel out of his depth. Anyway, there would be no possibility of it if he were to fail his exams, as he was certain sure he was going to.
In one way, though, Joe was pleased that he had so much going on in his life because that summer he had found himself attracted to Gloria physically for the first time in his life. He had been appalled and disgusted that he should have such feelings for a young girl, and the boss’s daughter, no less, and seventeen years younger than he was. He knew he wasn’t just lusting after her beauty and her developing figure, for his love for Gloria seemed to fill every part of him. Just to be near her caused the heat to fill his body as the blood coursed more quickly through his veins and he knew that he would willingly lay down his life for Gloria and feel it an honour to do so.
He recalled the day she had left to start boarding school she had sought him out in the garage first and put her arms around him and kissed him on the cheek. She had been a child then, though, and he had thought of her as a child. But two years down the line she was a child no longer. He wasn’t sure that he could trust himself not to betray his feelings if she were to do anything like that again, and he knew there was no way that he would ever risk that.
This meant that his manner towards her changed. They had always had a special relationship. Gloria never forgot that Joe had possibly saved her life, and so they had always been free and easy with one another, and she never thought of calling him ‘Sullivan’, as her mother did. But suddenly Joe became very stiff and proper, as that was the only way he could deal with emotions that he had never imagined he would have.
Gloria had been confused and hurt at first. She assumed that she must have said something to offend, though Joe denied she had, nor would he admit that there was anything wrong. Then she became irritated by his remoteness and the peculiar way he was behaving, and one day she had stamped her dainty little foot on the floor and almost hissed, ‘Joe, if you say just one more time that it is not your place to comment on something I say then I will get very cross with you.’
Joe had no reply to that, and in the end Gloria had barked out, ‘Are you going to say nothing at all?’
Joe shrugged. ‘What is there to say, Miss Gloria? You and your parents are the bosses around here.’
‘Joe Sullivan, you must be the most aggravating man in the whole world,’ Gloria cried.
‘So you say, miss,’ Joe had replied, and she had flounced back to the house.
He was sad that he had made her so angry, and from that point her attitude to him had been cooler, and although that made life easier for him, he missed the camaraderie that they’d once enjoyed.
But he didn’t allow himself to dwell on any sort of relationship with Gloria. He knew the only way to get rid of any madness of the mind – and this was a form of madness – was to work harder until he got over it, as he knew he would in the end.
However, Joe’s hard work paid off because in the summer of 1924, he took exams in accountancy and typewriting and in the autumn of that year found out that he had passed both with high grades. He was delighted, but unaware that his results meant that his life was going to change completely. Brian clapped Joe on the shoulder, said that he had always had faith in him and that he would be an invaluable help to him in the office.
That was enough of a sea change for Joe to cope with, but then Brian dropped another bombshell.
‘Of course, now that you are going to be working for me in the office a servant’s room in the basement will no longer be suitable accommodation for you,’ he announced.
Joe was astounded. ‘But why, sir? I’m very comfortable there.’
‘Joe, this is an opportunity to better yourself,’ Brian said. ‘You must trust me in this.’
‘But where will I stay, sir?’ Joe asked.
‘Why, in the house, of course,’ said Brian, as if the decision had all been signed and sealed. ‘You’ll be put in one of the guest rooms.’
Joe’s whole being recoiled from living in the house. It was the largest and most sumptuous dwelling he had ever seen, but it was someone else’s house, and he really didn’t want to leave his room in the basement.
But Brian had decided that that was how it was going to be, and Joe was to take his meals with the family in the house too. Joe remembered the only other meal he had had in the house, the evening he had arrived in New York, and the way that Norah had resented his presence then. He had no reason to think that she thought any more of him now, for all Brian’s praise. He would much rather have taken his meals in the kitchen and knew he would miss the banter and companionship.
But never in his wildest dreams had Joe thought the other servants would act the way they did when he told them what Brian had in mind for him. Kate actually called him an upstart and made a few pointed references about people not knowing their position in life and aping their betters.
Joe
