‘Of course. I suppose I mustn’t let pride and ill feeling get inway of duty.’ Matt knocked on the door.
They heard someone coming down the stairs and Grace opened the door. ‘Oh, Hannah! Matt!’ She was wary of them. ‘How’s Nathan?’
There was a feeling of acute awkwardness. ‘The doctor looked him over and said he’s none the worse for the experience. We’ve taken him swimming often and he wasn’t afraid. We’re keeping an eye on him in case he gets a cold or something. How’s Daniel?’ She glanced at Matt. ‘We were wondering if we could see him, to thank him for saving Nathan’s life.’
‘Oh! Yes, yes, of course. Do come in.’ When they were inside the hall and the door closed, Grace whispered, ‘I’m afraid he’s being a bit awkward. He should have stayed in hospital for a few days and I’m having a hard task getting him to stay in bed. He’s a bit weak and disorientated.’
Melanie, who had been playing with her birthday presents in the sitting room, peeped cautiously into the hall. Recognising Hannah, she tentatively moved forward and held out the doll in her hands.
‘Hello, Melanie.’ Hannah approached her. ‘Did you receive the doll for your birthday? It’s very pretty. I’ve got a little present for you.’ She handed over the wrapped parcel she had brought with her.
‘Thank you,’ Melanie smiled. Because her father had saved a life, many parents who had initially thought otherwise had sent their children along to the party. Melanie had enjoyed the feeling of importance, the attention of about twenty children playing games for her sake and eating a feast prepared specially for her.
She was wearing a green frilly dress, a matching hairband on top of her red hair. Matt had not really taken any notice of her before. Her features were strong yet tender and completely feminine; she was going to be a stunning beauty one day.
Suddenly Melanie said in a loud, rather aggressive voice, ‘Daddy doesn’t like him. Bad man!’
‘I haven’t come to quarrel with your father,’ Matt said. Her fierce expression was one he’d seen often on Daniel’s face. He hoped she wouldn’t inherit all his characteristics. ‘I’ve come to thank him for something, if that’s all right with you and your mother.’
Grace smiled apologetically. ‘Darling, why don’t you ask Mrs Penrose if she’d cut a slice off your birthday cake for Nathan? Hannah can take it with her for him.’
Melanie’s harsh blue eyes were clamped on Matt’s face and for a moment he felt embarrassed and angry about his scars. He wanted to turn round and stamp out of Daniel Kittow’s house. He looked away and she pattered off to the kitchen.
‘I’ll show you upstairs,’ Grace said. She was as delighted as if royalty had come calling. This visit boded well for the future. She and Hannah were both going to have babies next year and with each other to turn to it could even be fun. On the landing, she said light-heartedly, ‘I’m afraid he’s been swearing so I’ll apologise in advance if he disgraces himself. He hates being cooped up.’
She popped her head round the bedroom door. Daniel was lying against the pillows staring moodily up at the ceiling. ‘You’ve got some visitors, darling.’
‘Who?’ he barked.
Grace opened the door wide so he could see Hannah and Matt standing behind her. ‘Hannah and Matt would like a few words with you. I’ll go downstairs and make some coffee.’
‘Come in,’ Daniel said, pulling the covers up over his bare chest with his good arm. They could see he was in a lot of pain. His badly swollen, slashed shoulder had been stitched and bandaged and his arm was in a sling.
His visitors stood stiffly at his bedside. He kept his eyes off Hannah, stared at Matt.
Matt said in a formal voice, ‘Hannah and I want to express our gratitude to you for saving Nathan’s life.’
‘Yes, Daniel,’ Hannah added in a humble voice. ‘We’ll always be thankful to you.’
‘I would have gone in for anyone’s kid,’ he said impatiently.
‘I know,’ Hannah replied. ‘But it was our son you saved, at a painful cost to yourself, and we wanted to thank you in person.’
‘And I should thank you in turn for saving my life, Penney,’ he said, his tone less aggressive. ‘I didn’t know who pulled me out but I was told it was you. If I hadn’t saved your kid perhaps you’d have left me down there.’
Matt gave an ironic smile. ‘I might have thought hard about it, but no, Kittow, I wouldn’t have let you die.’
‘We wouldn’t have wanted that, Daniel,’ Hannah said in a small voice. Not so long ago she had been trying to get him hanged.
He looked deeply at her for a moment, his eyes asking her if she meant it. She smiled at him with sincerity. He nodded. They understood each other and his heart filled with a strange joy. Rubbing his arm with a rueful expression, he said in a friendlier tone, ‘I’m sorry if you find me grumpy. I don’t make a good patient.’
‘We’ll go and let you get some rest,’ Matt said.
‘Sit down.’ Daniel painfully manoeuvred himself to sit upright. ‘Grace is bringing up coffee.’
‘No, thank you. We didn’t come to make friends, Kittow,’ Matt said firmly, pushing Hannah towards the door.
Hannah had hoped to leave on a better note but she allowed Matt to propel her down the stairs.
Daniel listened to them saying goodbye to Grace at the door, explaining they must get back to Nathan – only half the truth — then he sank down in the bed, feeling very emotional. A few hours ago he had faced death but hadn’t really been frightened. He had saved a life and that made him feel good. His action had given him back some standing in the village but it didn’t matter much to him. It was having Hannah come into his house, thank him, smile so gloriously at him, be kind to him, that moved him, for the second time in his adult life, to tears.
Chapter 31
Hannah was upstairs dressing Nathan when she heard a lighter than usual tread on the stairs. She kissed Nathan’s cheek. ‘Wonder who that is, darling.’
‘Mum, mum, mum,’ he cooed, trying to clutch one of his toys on the chest of drawers. He always wriggled about while he was being attended to and it took a long time to get him dressed. Hannah gave him the rubber duck to distract him while she pulled on his trousers. She smiled as Miss Peters came into the room. ‘Hello, Miss Peters. Have you come to see Nathan? He’s right as rain now.’
‘So I can see. Your mother-in-law said ’twas all right for me to come up.’ Miss Peters closed the door. She was wearing a grave expression, her shrewish eyes unreadable.
Nathan slipped out of Hannah’s grasp and ran up to the tiny old lady, showing her the rubber duck, jabbering away in baby talk. As she put out her hand to take it from him and admire it, he pulled a mischievous face and threw it down hard on the floor. ‘Hee, hee,’ she wheezed. ‘You’re getting to be a proper little spurticle.’ She ruffled his silky fair hair then put her hand in her apron pocket and produced a square of homemade fudge wrapped in greaseproof paper. He was soon nibbling on the treat, endangering his clean clothes with sugary brown dribbles. ‘I’ve left un a stick of liquorice downstairs. Young’uns need building up in the spring.’
Hannah didn’t like Nathan being given sweets before breakfast but it wasn’t like Miss Peters to call on anyone as early as this and her sober manner was disquieting. Hannah got up from the nursing chair, put a bib round Nathan’s neck and waited uneasily.
‘I’ve got something to tell ’ee, Hannah.’ Miss Peters parked herself on the small bed in the room.
‘I thought you had. I take it something is wrong.’
‘Aye. You haven’t been out and about for a couple of days looking after the boy so you wouldn’t have heard the gossip, although what’s being said probably wouldn’t be said to your face yet anyway,’ Miss Peters finished with a surge of disgust.
Hannah was alarmed. ‘What is it? I can’t think of anything that would upset me.’
‘This will,’ Miss Peters returned bluntly. ‘It’ll get to the ears of one of your family sooner
or later but I thought ’twould be best to tell you now. ’Tis going round the village, my dear, that Mrs Opie is your real mother.’
‘What? I…’
Miss Peters kept her inscrutable eyes on Hannah. ‘People are believing it. ’Tis known your mother lost a baby soon after its birth backalong then a few days later went off for a bit and came back with you. Like everybody else, I speculated where you came from and ’twas assumed you were the child of an unmarried relative. Now people are putting two ’n’ two together and are coming up with four. I admit I believe like them. Out of the blue you were offered a job at Roscarrock when no one had been employed up there for many years. You still go there regularly and ’tis obvious Mrs Opie has a great fondness for you. Most unusual is that she has come to your home many times since you got married. ’Tisn’t likely for a lady like she, for she’s not a particularly kindly woman, to take so much interest in you if there wasn’t a strong connection.’
A hundred thoughts were rushing through Hannah’s mind. How this would affect Mrs Opie was the most prominent one. It could ruin her. She ran a hand down over her face. ‘There’s no point in me denying it, is there? And even if I did, no one would believe me after what you’ve told me. Thank you for being honest with what you believe, Miss Peters. Are they saying who my father’s supposed to be?’
‘No, haven’t heard nothing about that.’
‘So, who started all this? Only the Opies, my mother, father, Leah, Aunty Janet, Uncle Roy, Matt and Mrs Penney know the truth and none of them would say anything.’ Her face turned as black as thunder. ‘And two other people. One of them is Lily. She’s very chatty but I can’t see her spreading this sort of gossip knowing full well it would cause untold trouble.’
‘If she was, I’m sure your aunty would know about it and she would’ve been here before me. Must be the other person.’
‘He promised he would never tell!’ Hannah seethed, only just controlling her rage. ‘I should have known he could never be trusted. I’ll kill him!’
Leaving Nathan with Mrs Penney, Hannah stormed down the street. She had seen Grace leaving home with Melanie earlier and it suited her that Daniel would be alone. Without knocking on the door of the new house, she barged inside.
‘Daniel! Daniel! I want to speak to you!’
‘Hannah?’ His curious voice came from upstairs. ‘I’m up here. Just a minute.’
She didn’t wait for him to come down and was up the stairs in an instant. He was in the bedroom, wearing only his trousers, gingerly pulling on his shirt. She entered in such a force of furious energy he blinked and stared dumbly at her.
‘You bastard! There can’t be anyone lower or more evil on God’s earth than you, Daniel Kittow!’
He looked totally bemused. ‘What am I supposed to have done?’
‘You know very well what you’ve done,’ she screamed, clenching her hands into tight balls to stop herself from attacking him physically. ‘You’ve told someone in the village that Mrs Opie is my real mother. Just about everybody knows and they believe it. There’s no way it can be covered up now.’
‘I promise you I did not,’ he said in a serious, quiet tone. He was standing on the other side of the bed, his face pinched and unnaturally pale, as it had been the time he had accosted her on Hidden Beach roughly this time last year. The difference now was it was she who was in control. She was stronger than he was.
‘I don’t believe you.’
‘I can’t help that but I swear I’m telling you the truth, Hannah.’ He kept calm but his eyes were imploring her to believe him. ‘I meant it when I said I’d never cause trouble for you again. Why should I? I’ve settled down to family life and have another baby on the way, hopefully a son to take over the boat Things aren’t as bad as they were between us. I want us to be friends. Why should I risk that now?’
‘You can’t hide behind the fact that Matt and I came here after you saved Nathan. You obviously started off the rumours before then.’
He began to tremble and turned a sickly hue. She knew he was too ill to be out of bed, was in pain, but she didn’t care. He deserved to suffer for what he’d done. His revengeful antics had shaken most of the people in Porthellis but except for the Joses, all had recovered. Not even his cruellest actions had succeeded in destroying Matt or her marriage. Roscarrock, however, would be knocked completely off its foundations.
‘I don’t know where the information came from but it wasn’t me,’ he repeated, his voice husky with discomfort. He put out a hand to steady himself on the bedpost.
‘You lying swine. I could tear you limb from limb,’ she hissed, making the operation with her hands.
‘Go on then.’ Still, he did not raise his voice. ‘Do it, if it makes you feel any better.’
‘It would only make you feel better,’ she retorted. ‘Actually, I couldn’t bring myself to touch you.’
‘Hannah, please—’
‘Go to hell, Daniel.’ She’d had enough of him, the sight of him, the sound of his voice, the powerful sense of masculinity he exuded even though he was weaker than she’d ever known him. ‘You’ll end up there anyway, so at the end of the day everything you’ve done will hurt you more than the rest of us. You don’t worry me any more. There’s nothing else you can do to me now, is there? You just sicken me. You’re pathetic.’
He said nothing. He sat down on the bed, trembling, gulping as if he was trying to prevent a rise of nausea. She left him to his thoughts.
* * *
‘I’ll have to leave here! What else can I do?’ Feena Opie exclaimed.
‘I’ve been thinking about it as I walked here,’ Hannah said, keeping up her pacing of Feena’s sitting-room floor. She was too agitated to sit down. ‘You should stay and we should take no notice of the gossip. You know what people are like. It’ll be a seven-day wonder. And why care what people say anyway?’
‘It’s easier for you, Hannah,’ Feena said pitiably. ‘It’s always been known Prim wasn’t your real mother. After a while you’ll be able to go on as though nothing much has happened. For me there are many things to consider. I shall never be able to show my face in Porthellis again, or further afield when the gossip spreads. I had no idea Lily knew. Her family may have been spreading the gossip for a long time so people outside Porthellis may know all about it already. People will ask why Prim took a child belonging to me. They’ll chew over all the facts. They’ll realise Jeff is your father. Why did I ignore you for twenty years? Why didn’t I do something when Jeff threw you out after the boating tragedy? I may not mix much with society but the few friends I have will shun me for a heartless woman as well as a loose one. I couldn’t bear that. Then Greg and his child will suffer too, people will always be whispering behind their backs.’
‘Greg wouldn’t care about that,’ Hannah pointed out.
‘If I go away, the gossip may stop in the fishing villages,’ Feena went on as if Hannah had not spoken. ‘It’s the only thing to do.’
Hannah stilled herself and took her mother’s hand. ‘I know it’s going to be hard for you but don’t you think you’re panicking?’
‘No, I don’t, Hannah,’ Feena said vehemently. ‘I don’t really have you, do I? You’ll never leave that common fisherman for me and Nathan will be his father’s son. He’ll never be as close to me as I hope. I don’t really count in Greg and his child’s future. All I really have is my reputation and I prize that above anything.’
Hannah turned and looked out of the window, at the graceful lawn and ancient oak tree, the magnificent gardens and peaceful wood, and the breathtaking view of the sea beyond it. Could Feena really leave this beautiful place? She was grief-stricken, sobbing. Hannah placed comforting hands on her shoulders. ‘What will you do?’
‘I’ll move out of Cornwall, buy a property near the sea, like I planned to do with you three years ago.’ She dried her eyes but continued to lean against Hannah. ‘I’ll take Miss Benson and Angie with me. Mary is loyal to Leah and I expect Patrick
will want to stay here with his beloved gardens. It may not be a total disaster. You, Nathan and the new baby can come for holidays. Surely Matt wouldn’t object to that. I’ll be able to have you all to myself for a short while every year, which is more than I do now. I’ll say I’m leaving so Greg and Leah can establish themselves here at Roscarrock, that it’s been my intention for some time.’ She ended faintly, ‘It might not work out too badly for us, Hannah.’
‘Don’t do anything for a while,’ Hannah begged. She loved her real mother, it was a heart-wrenching thought her going away. ‘You may think differently in a few days.’
‘No, I won’t. From the moment you were born I thought about what I’d do if the truth ever came out.’ She patted Hannah’s hand. ‘Well, there’s no point in delaying the inevitable. Will you fetch Greg and Patrick for me, please? I’ll tell them what’s happened.’
In the bedroom she shared with Greg, Leah was dozing fitfully. She groaned as her baby kicked her. She opened her eyes and rang for Mary who promptly appeared. ‘Would you mind passing me a drink of water, Mary?’ Leah motioned to the glass and jug on the bedside table. ‘It’s awkward for me to stretch across.’
‘Certainly, Mrs Opie. You mustn’t do anything that’s strenuous for you. I don’t mind how many times you ring for me.’
‘You are kind,’ Leah said, sipping from the glass. She had an idea that since her fit of hysterics Greg had ordered the under-housemaid to spend a lot of time with her and constantly report back to him, but she felt Mary had a genuine concern for her.
‘Ma’am,’ Mary said carefully as she put the glass back on the tray, ‘your sister Mrs Penney is with the mistress at the moment. If she asks to see you, shall I say you’re resting?’
‘No,’ Leah sighed. Greg wouldn’t like it and he would again demand to be told why she resented Hannah so much. She’d just have to endure it. ‘Will you help me to the sofa, please? I’d like to look tidy if she comes in here.’
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