A Mother's Promise

by Dilly Court

  ‘Jane, it’s me.’

  The door opened slowly and Jane peered out. She stared at Hetty as if she couldn’t believe her eyes, and then she let out a shriek and flinging the door wide open, she threw her arms around her, laughing and crying at the same time. ‘Oh, Hetty, thank God you’ve come.’

  Stunned by this unexpectedly enthusiastic welcome, Hetty followed Jane down the narrow passage and into the kitchen. ‘Granny, Nora, look who’s here,’ Jane cried. ‘It’s Hetty, she’s come home.’

  Granny dropped the ladle she was holding and it fell into the pan causing the liquid to spill over, hissing and bubbling as it hit the hot coals. Nora rose from her seat in the chimney breast and waddled towards Hetty with her arms outstretched. ‘You’ve come back just in time, girl.’

  Abandoning their reading primers, Sammy and Eddie leapt up and ran to Hetty with shrieks of delight. Natalia dropped her bread and jam and it fell to the floor. ‘Hetty, Hetty,’ she cried, struggling to get down from the chair where she was secured by the strings of an apron.

  ‘Well, this is a welcome and a half,’ Hetty said, dropping her luggage on the flagstone floor. ‘I should go away more often.’

  ‘You won’t say that when you hear what’s been going on in your absence,’ Granny muttered darkly. ‘Gallivanting off across the ocean after a man. I never heard of such a thing.’ She stood arms akimbo, glaring at Hetty. ‘And it looks like you’ve come home without him. Turned you down, did he?’

  Jane hurried to Hetty’s side. ‘Don’t be unkind, Granny. Hetty’s home and that’s all that matters. Everything will be all right now.’

  ‘Did you bring us a present?’ Eddie demanded, tugging at Hetty’s sleeve.

  ‘Be quiet, stupid,’ Sammy said crossly. ‘You don’t ask questions like that. It ain’t polite.’

  Hetty bent down to give them both a hug. ‘I didn’t have time to go shopping, boys. But I’ll make it up to you, I promise. If you’re very good I’ll take you to Lowther Arcade and you can choose something extra special.’

  ‘You spoil them,’ Granny muttered, turning back to the pan and retrieving the ladle. ‘And you didn’t answer my question. Where is he, then? That fancy man of yours?’

  ‘Leave her be, Mattie,’ Nora wheezed as she bent over to release Natalia from the chair. ‘Hetty will tell us in her own time.’ She set Natalia down on the floor. ‘There you are, ducks. You show your auntie how well you can walk now.’

  ‘Hetty,’ Natalia cried, holding out her chubby arms and toddling towards her.

  Hetty picked her up and kissed her jammy cheek. ‘Hello, poppet. I’ve really missed you.’

  ‘Put her down,’ Jane said impatiently. ‘It’s time she was in bed anyway, and I’ve got something to tell you that won’t wait.’

  ‘No bed.’ Natalia wrapped her arms around Hetty’s neck, holding on for dear life and eyeing her mother with such a mutinous expression that Hetty couldn’t help smiling. This little scrap of a girl was going to be quite a handful when she grew up, but she was totally adorable. Hetty felt her heart swell with love and happiness to be home with her family. She turned to Jane with a placating smile. ‘I’m sure it will keep for another five minutes or so. Let me put her to bed, and then we’ll talk.’

  ‘Hurry up then,’ Jane said crossly. ‘You’ll be laughing on the other side of your face when you find out what’s been going on.’

  Hetty chuckled as Natalia planted a wet and sticky kiss on her cheek. It was good to be home and Jane was probably being over-dramatic as usual. She hitched Natalia onto her hip. ‘I’ll be as quick as I can and then you can tell me everything, Jane.’

  ‘I will, don’t worry,’ Jane said with an ominous frown. ‘And you boys can go to bed too. You’ve got school in the morning.’

  ‘Not me,’ Sammy protested. ‘I ain’t a baby.’

  ‘You’ll do as you’re told,’ Granny said, advancing on him with a purposeful step.

  ‘All right, I’m going.’ Sammy snatched up an oil lamp and backed towards the door. ‘I’ll carry the lamp for you, Hetty. Talia don’t like the dark.’

  Eddie followed Hetty as she carried Natalia out of the steamy kitchen and he clutched her free hand. ‘There might be bogeymen upstairs.’

  Hetty smiled down at him. ‘There’s no such thing, Eddie.’

  ‘Granny says there is,’ Eddie countered. ‘She says they’ll come and get us if we’re naughty.’

  Hetty gave his fingers a squeeze. ‘It’s what grown-ups say to children to make them behave. Don’t worry about it.’

  ‘I’m glad you’ve come home,’ Eddie said softly. ‘I missed you.’

  Sammy glanced over his shoulder as he mounted the staircase. ‘I bet I missed her more than you did.’

  ‘There’s no need to argue about it,’ Hetty said, smiling. ‘I’m home now and I’m never going away again.’

  ‘Do you promise?’ Sammy stopped on the second step, holding the lamp so that he could see Hetty’s expression. ‘Cross your heart.’

  ‘Yes,’ Eddie echoed. ‘Cross your heart.’

  Hetty rubbed her cheek against Natalia’s soft curls and was rewarded by a sleepy smile. ‘I promise that I will never leave you again. Cross my heart and hope to die.’

  This seemed to satisfy them, and after Hetty had settled Natalia in her cot she stayed upstairs to supervise the boys while they washed their hands and faces, making sure they scrubbed behind their ears and cleaned their teeth. She helped Eddie into his night-shirt, and was amused to find that Sammy was shyly aware of his growing body and spurned her offer of assistance. When they were ready for bed, she tucked them in and kissed them goodnight. She lit a candle and left it burning on the mantelshelf in their room, and then made her way downstairs taking the oil lamp with her. It was comforting to be able to pick up the threads of her old life again, and the simple task of putting the children to bed was reassuring in its normalness. At the foot of the stairs, she paused, listening for sounds of pattering feet or the horseplay that often ensued when the boys went to bed early, but all was quiet. Perhaps Granny’s dire warnings of bogeymen still played on their minds, or maybe they were simply tired. She headed for the kitchen to find out exactly what was troubling Jane. It was probably something and nothing; Jane loved to exaggerate.

  The table was set for supper and Granny was ladling soup into china bowls. Nora had already taken her place at the table and Jane was cutting slices from a loaf. She looked up as Hetty entered the room. ‘You took your time.’

  ‘I haven’t seen the nippers for almost a month. I wanted to see them safely tucked up in their beds.’

  ‘Sentimental nonsense,’ Granny said, holding out a plate filled with savoury-smelling soup. ‘Do something useful and pass this to Nora.’

  When they were all served and seated round the table, Hetty looked from one to the other with her eyebrows raised. ‘Well? What’s been going on? And where are Dorrie and the boys? And why isn’t Tom here? You haven’t called the wedding off, have you, Jane?’

  ‘No, nothing like that,’ Jane said, shaking her head. ‘Tom is working nights and Dorrie, Wilfred and Stanley are with Miss Heathcote in Berkeley Square.’

  ‘They are? Why? I don’t understand.’

  Granny dropped her spoon with a clatter. ‘Oh, for Gawd’s sake, Jane. Tell her the worst and be done with it.’

  Jane’s lips trembled and her eyes were magnified by unshed tears. ‘Miss Heathcote sent a note to say that Dorrie was to live in the big house, and then her man came to take Wilfred and Stanley because Dorrie wouldn’t stay without them.’

  ‘But why?’ Hetty demanded. ‘Why would she do such a thing?’

  ‘I dunno, but that ain’t all. This very morning, Cyrus Clench come to the coffee shop and made me hand over the takings. He said Miss Heathcote was going to put a proper manager in and he took the keys off me and he locked the shop up. I run straight to the market to find George and told him what had happened.’

  Hetty stared at J
ane in disbelief. ‘What did he say?’ she asked faintly.

  ‘You know George,’ Nora said with a grim smile. ‘He said he was going to see the old girl and he took off in a great hurry.’

  ‘And that’s the last we saw of him,’ Jane murmured tearfully. ‘I’m sorry, Hetty. I dunno what’s got into the old girl, but I ain’t done nothing wrong. Honest.’

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Hetty leapt to her feet. ‘Why didn’t you tell me all this the minute I walked in the door?’

  Jane’s face paled alarmingly and she clutched her swollen belly. ‘Don’t shout at me.’

  Nora reached across the table to pat Jane’s hand. ‘Don’t get upset, ducks. It won’t do the baby any good.’

  ‘It’s no use getting at Jane,’ Granny said, frowning. ‘You shouldn’t have gone off like that and left everything to a daft girl like your sister. If you want to know what’s been going on you should go straight to the old cow in Berkeley Square.’

  ‘Don’t worry, I will, but first I’m going to see George.’ Hetty moved swiftly across the room to retrieve her bonnet and cape. She hesitated in the doorway, torn between guilt and anger. ‘I know that I’m to blame for some of this, and you were right, Granny. Charles was just stringing me along. All the time he was sweet-talking me he was secretly engaged to his blooming cousin.’ Her voice broke on a sob and she fled from the room.

  Outside the rain was coming down in a steady drizzle that showed no signs of letting up. Hetty went in search of a cab but without any success, and she ended up walking all the way to Cottage Green. By the time she reached George’s lodgings she was soaked to the skin and close to exhaustion. It had not occurred to her that he might not be at home, but when no one answered her urgent summons she stepped back to peer up at the windows. She knocked again, and this time she was rewarded by the soft padding sound of bare feet on wooden floorboards. The door opened and George stood there, half naked, with a towel wrapped round his waist and water pooling on the floor at his feet. ‘Hetty! What the hell are you doing here?’

  She had received more enthusiastic welcomes but she didn’t care. A bubble of near hysteria rose in her throat and she giggled nervously. ‘You’re wet, George.’

  ‘You caught me taking a bath.’ He stood aside, holding the door open. ‘You look like a drowned rat yourself. You’d better come in.’

  The giggle turned into laughter and then Hetty found she couldn’t stop. Clutching his towel about him, George hooked his arm around her shoulders and led her into the kitchen where a tin tub had been placed strategically in front of the fire. He guided her to a chair and handed her a scrap of towelling. ‘So you came back then?’

  His icy tone acted like a shower of cold water and the laughter froze on her lips. She took off her bonnet and shook out her wet hair. ‘Don’t look at me like that, George. I know I don’t deserve your friendship and I’m truly sorry if I’ve treated you badly, but I need your help.’

  He stared down at her, unsmiling. ‘What sort of man allows his woman to wander the streets on a night like this? Where is he then, your Yankee boyfriend?’

  The harsh tone in his voice and the steely glint in his eyes were almost too much for Hetty to bear, and she lowered her gaze. ‘He doesn’t want me,’ she whispered.

  ‘What’s that, Hetty? Speak up, I can’t hear you.’

  She rose slowly to her feet. ‘You heard me all right, George. I said he doesn’t want me. Charles is engaged to someone else and they had an understanding even before he came to London. Are you happy now?’

  ‘No. Of course not. What do you take me for, Hetty? I didn’t want to see you hurt any more than I wanted to see you lose your business.’

  ‘Our business, George. I never forgot that it was both our names over the door.’ She hesitated, turning her head away while he stepped into his trousers. ‘I’ve been wrong about so many things, but I never meant to hurt you. I don’t expect you to forgive me, but you must care about me a little, or you wouldn’t have gone rushing off to see Miss Heathcote.’ She shot him a sideways glance but her heart sank as she encountered his hostile gaze.

  ‘Don’t use my feelings for you against me.’

  ‘You’re not being fair, George.’

  ‘You come here begging for my help, all wet and bedraggled, looking like some damned beautiful mermaid and you call me unfair. Do you really think that you can put everything right by just saying sorry?’

  ‘But I am sorry. I am sorry that I took you for granted and that I didn’t listen to you.’ She grasped his right hand and held it to her cheek. ‘I am sorry that I hurt you, and I am sorry that I . . .’ Her voice trailed away and she stared at his bruised and scraped knuckles in horror. ‘You’re hurt. Have you been fighting?’

  His bleak expression was chased away by a reluctant grin. ‘Let’s just say that I’ve been teaching someone a well-deserved lesson.’

  ‘Who was it? What have you done?’

  ‘When Jane told me what had happened, I went straight to Berkeley Square. I was going to make the old girl see me whether she liked it or not, but as I reached the house who should come slithering down the front steps but Clench and Shipworthy. I knew then where to set the blame and I challenged the bastards. Shipworthy ran off but I caught Clench and we had a chat.’

  Hetty ran her fingers lightly over his injuries and she shook her head. ‘It must have been a very rough sort of conversation.’

  ‘He had it coming to him. He was just lucky that I’m a fair sort of bloke, otherwise I’d have killed the sod for what he did to you.’

  Hetty was momentarily taken aback by the suppressed violence in his tone. She had only seen him this angry once before, and that was when he had pitched Clench into the canal. She brushed his injured hand with her lips. ‘You’ve always been there when I needed you, George.’

  ‘I only did what any man would do for the woman . . .’

  Hetty moved closer to him. ‘You do still care about me then?’

  ‘Of course I bloody care for you, Hetty. I loved you right from the start but you had your head turned by that Charles bloke, and then you got in with Miss Heathcote. Almost overnight you changed from my little match-girl who had set her heart on having her own coffee stall to an ambitious young woman who wanted to mix with the toffs and run a chain of coffee shops.’

  ‘I know what you say is true, but I realise now that I was wrong.’ Hetty raised her eyes to his face and saw him clearly for perhaps the first time in her life. It was not the cheerful, easy-going fellow who never took anyone or anything seriously she was seeing now – it was a quite different man. This George was a sensitive, kind-hearted and caring person who had stood by her, comforted and protected her. His mask of insouciance had been stripped away, and she was gazing into the eyes of a man who had been deeply wounded by her uncaring indifference to his feelings. It was not just his angry outburst that had brought about the sea-change in her affections. She had been falling in love with George without even realising it, and her passion for Charles had been a mere flight of fancy. Maynard had made her think about who she was and what she really wanted out of life, and the answer was . . . ‘George.’ His name came out in a whisper as Hetty laid her hands on his bare chest. His skin was slicked with water and she could feel his heart beating almost as fast as hers. She slid her arms around his neck, pulling his head down so that their lips met in a tentative kiss. ‘George,’ she whispered. ‘I don’t care about the coffee shops; I don’t care about making money. All I want is you.’

  For a brief but intoxicating moment, he returned her embrace with an almost savage passion that robbed her of breath, but he was the first to pull away and his eyes were dark and unfathomable. ‘No, Hetty.’

  ‘No? But George, I’ve just told you that I love you. What more do you want?’

  He held her gently by the shoulders and his generous lips contorted with pain. ‘If you’d said that a month ago it would have made me the happiest man in the world.’

&
nbsp; ‘But I’m saying it now. I do love you, George. I suppose I always did but I was dazzled by Charles, and then I got carried away with the excitement of working with Miss Heathcote. I never meant to hurt you. Honour bright!’

  This drew a reluctant laugh from him. ‘You’re such a kid.’

  ‘No. Indeed I am not,’ Hetty cried angrily. ‘Don’t you dare laugh at me, George Cooper.’

  ‘I’m not laughing at you, and I do believe you mean what you say now, but I’m not going to take advantage of you when you’re in this state. You need time to get over that cheating swine and you need to put things right with Miss Heathcote before you make any big decisions.’

  She clapped her hands to her hot cheeks. ‘Now I feel quite foolish.’

  ‘No, my darling,’ he said, reaching for his shirt. ‘You may be headstrong and obstinate sometimes, but you are never foolish.’

  ‘George, I . . .’

  He stopped her protest with a kiss and then drew away, clearing his throat. ‘I’d best take you home, girl.’

  Confused by a whirling eddy of emotions, Hetty was about to tell him that she was quite capable of finding her own way when the sound of the door opening made her turn her head. A small thin woman bustled into the room. She was dressed for outdoors and carried a wicker basket over her arm. She stared from one to the other with disapproval written all over her lined face. ‘What’s going on here, Mr Cooper?’

  ‘I was just taking a bath, Mrs Haynes,’ George said, tucking his shirt tails into his trousers.

  ‘I ain’t blind, Mr Cooper. You know my rules about not entertaining females in this house.’