Small Pleasures

Jean meets with Roy Drake ahead of the editorial meeting to let him know the results of the tests. Instead of agreeing they should drop the story, however, Drake wants to release the facts without a conclusion and “let the public decide” (274). This worries Jean because she doesn’t want the public finding out Gretchen’s true motivations. Drake tells Jean they’ll release the story in the first week of December.

Mrs. Swinney’s health is improving. Margaret is now living with Howard during the week and with Gretchen on weekends. Jean and Howard, therefore, spend only Saturday evenings together. Jean eats dinner with Howard and Margaret once, but feels uncomfortable occupying the space that used to be Gretchen’s, so she doesn’t do this again. Jean notices that Howard no longer mentions Gretchen, which makes Jean feel like his love for her trumps what love he still has for Gretchen.

Jean visits Kitty Benteen. Kitty lives with her sister, who helped Jean arrange the interview. Jean feels uncomfortable around mental illness but arrives punctually to meet and talk with Kitty. Religious idols dot the home; Kitty’s hair is well-done and she’s wearing rouge.

Kitty didn’t get to know Gretchen well because she was on the other side of the ward. When Jean asks whether there were ever men on the ward, Kitty says no—but then tells Jean about a visit she received from an angel with long hair who brushed her cheek and renewed her faith in God. Jean asks whether this happened while Gretchen was living at St. Cecilia’s and Kitty confirms that it did. Jean thinks about her mother’s experience with a strange man on the ward at night. She asks Kitty whether anyone else saw this angel; no one else did, and most people don’t believe her. Jean realizes she needs to visit the ward to solve what happened to Gretchen the night Margaret was conceived.

Jean’s mother returns home from the hospital. Jean makes her a dinner of fish pie with potatoes from Howard’s garden. Mrs. Swinney decides to remain upstairs since she is still weak from her fall. When she asks what Jean has been up, Jean, rather than telling the truth, tells her mother she hasn’t done anything out of the ordinary.

Jean delays calling Gretchen, not only because of her relationship to Howard, but also because her conversation with Kitty leaves Jean suspecting something bad happened to her at St. Cecilia’s. Gretchen, however, calls Jean and asks to meet at Martha’s when Martha is out. She asks Jean to bring her a specific eiderdown blanket and Jean agrees hastily. Afterward, Jean worries that Gretchen might be upset that Jean answered so quickly about something in Gretchen’s marital home.

When Jean arrives at Martha's house, Gretchen looks sickly with greasy hair, bags under her eyes, and layers of clothes. Jean informs Gretchen that the Echo is going to run her story as an unexplained mystery. Gretchen worries what this could mean. Gretchen is struggling to make things work: Having Margaret on the weekends is too hard, Martha is extremely jealous, and their life together is different than Gretchen thought it would be. Gretchen begs Jean to ask Howard to take Gretchen back. Surprised at Gretchen’s request, and resentful of her going back on her decision, Jean hesitantly agrees.

Jean begins working on the article featuring Margaret and Gretchen when Howard calls. He’s outside with some good news: Aunt Edie has decided to give him her house since she is moving into a hotel in Maidstone, a large town in Kent—now, he can let Gretchen and Margaret live there. In the meantime, Howard asks Jean to come with him there for the weekend, but Jean declines his invitation because she needs to stay with her mother.

Through a sob, Jean tells him Gretchen wants him to take her back. They agree it’s a complicated and unfortunate situation; though Jean wishes Howard would say no and proclaim his love for Jean instead right away, she knows he needs to consider Gretchen’s plea for Margaret’s benefit.

Jean returns to Broadstairs to tour the boys’ school that used to be St. Cecilia’s. She notices a window leading to the place where the old ward was through which someone could easily climb, but otherwise comes up with nothing.

Later, Jean returns with Susan Trevor, who tells Jean that Alice has been sick. Susan comments that Alice had a sad life: Alice’s sister had a baby out of wedlock and then immediately died, leaving Alice and her mother to care for “Vicky,” who had mentally illness. Jean remembers Alice’s diary entries about “V” and asks Susan why they didn’t simply care for the child at St. Cecilia’s. Susan reveals that the child was a boy named Victor, nicknamed “Vicky” because he kept his hair long.

Jean goes back to Alice’s house to ask about Victor, but Alice is in the hospital. She looks almost unrecognizable, but is glad Jean came. When Jean asks Alice about Victor, Alice wonders how Jean found out about him—she doesn’t remember writing about him in her diary. Alice then tells Jean about her sister and Victor’s childhood.

Victor began hearing voices when he reached puberty and flew into fits of violence, disappearing for days at a time. Because of this, they decided to lock Victor away to keep him and everyone else safe, but he would still escape from time to time. Jean asks whether Victor could have forced himself on Gretchen, resulting in Margaret’s conception. Alice confesses that she once caught Victor standing above her bed and masturbating while she was sleeping. Jean feels the weight of this secret. She asks where Victor is now, and Alice tells her he is dead—he fell onto the train tracks six years ago. Alice gives Jean a picture of Victor, asking her not to see him as a monster since he was only a child himself.

Jean keeps this secret. She continues to take care of her mother, occupying herself as much as she can to escape the burden and wishing she could confide in her sister. Jean decides she can never tell Gretchen that Margaret’s conception was the result of rape and that the voices Margaret hears could be symptoms of mental illness. She also believes Gretchen should move in with Howard to give Margaret every advantage. Struggling with this self-sacrifice, she mails Howard a letter explaining this regardless.

Jean works with the Echo’s photographer, Duncan, to pick a picture of Gretchen and Margaret. The editorial team will run the article on the front page the first week of December, in which the paper will leave the situation as a mystery. Jean wrestles both with the knowledge of Gretchen’s rape and with her decision to leave Howard for Margaret’s benefit. Her mood is apparent even at work. She wonders when her life will go back to the simple, calm routines she had before she met the Tilburys. To ease her suffering, she steps into church. There, she runs into Mrs. Melsom, who offers to help Jean take care of her mother.

As Jean prepares the article for publication, seeing Gretchen’s original note makes her feel ill. She goes for a walk through the woods where she and Howard walked. Howard meets her there, finding her after missing her at her office. Though the best scenario for Margaret would be to reunite the family, he cannot do it because he loves Jean. They agree that, for the time being, their relationship will be difficult to manage, especially while Howard has Margaret and Jean cares for her mother. To initiate their new courtship, however, Jean invites him for dinner with her and her mother the next night.

On December 4, 1957, a very foggy evening, Howard leaves the jewelry shop with gifts for Jean—a bracelet she picked out months ago and some flowers. On his way to catch the 5:18 pm train to Hayes, however, he realizes he’s forgotten the flowers and agonizes over whether he should be late or arrive without them. He decides to go back and get them. Returning to the station, he is relieved to discover the train is delayed. He jumps into a rear carriage, pats the jewelry box containing Jean’s bracelet, and imagines her face when she finally opens it.

Clare Chambers explains that the Lewisham train disaster was the second-worst train disaster in British history. Although Chambers lives in Hayes, Kent, she never learned of the train disaster until doing research in 2015. Her novel draws on this historical event and on a BBC radio interview with journalist Audrey Whiting, who worked at a newspaper that ran a competition to find a virgin mother. She also includes excerpts from real local Hayes newspapers from the 1950s.