Primmy came through from the back room at last, and Morwen was shocked by the sight of the girl. Her face had an unhealthy pallor, even though her eyes were almost feverishly bright, and she was more painfully thin than the last time Morwen had seen her. Primmy kissed her on the cheek, and the sweet, sickly scent surrounded her.
‘Mother, how lovely! I know we’ve been neglecting you of late, but you’ll have some tea with us, won’t you? I can’t promise that it will be served from a silver teapot, but it’ll taste just as good.’
She laughed as if she had made a great joke, and Morwen followed the two of them through to their sitting room with a great ache in her heart. Something was terribly wrong here, and she had no idea what it was.
‘So to what do we owe the pleasure?’ Primmy said.
‘The Americans are coming for a visit,’ Albert said abruptly before Morwen could reply.
Primmy gasped. Life had moved on, but she never forgot the last visit of her uncle and his family, and the way everything had seemed to drop out of her world when the odious Cresswell had betrayed the best-kept family secret to the unsuspecting children.
‘I won’t see them,’ she said at once.
‘Don’t be ridiculous, darling, you have to see them. They’re our family, and it will distress me and your Grandma greatly if you were to shun them,’ Morwen said. ‘Besides which, we want you to do something for us, Albert,’ she turned away from her mutinous daughter.
‘What is it?’
‘If Cresswell will agree to it, Grandma Bess and I would like you to paint his portrait as his birthday gift, and we’ll pay the proper price for it, naturally. It’ll be Cresswell’s coming-of-age around the same time as Justin’s, and we thought it would be a nice thing to do.’
She was furious at her own nervousness in saying it. It had seemed such a clever idea, but she could see the spark of anger in Albert’s face now, and the disbelief in Primmy’s. And then Albert began to laugh.
‘All right. Why not? It’d be good to let the insufferable little brat see that not all the family are content to be boring clayworkers.’
Morwen let that pass, relieved enough that he had agreed. But Primmy wasn’t so amenable.
‘He’s not coming here!’ she spluttered. ‘This is our place, and I hate him.’
‘Primmy, please don’t be difficult,’ Morwen said quietly, sensing that the girl was on a knife edge for some reason. ‘The Cresswell you knew was only a boy, and he had no idea at the time that he was going to hurt you so by his revelations about your real parents.’
She looked at Primmy steadily, remembering that during that awful time, this girl that she loved had been so sneering of the bal maidens on their way to Truro Fair, yet Morwen knew the time had come to tell her that she and Bess had been bal maidens too. It was an honest job, but her girl had been shocked, and showed herself to be just as outright a little snob as Cresswell Tremayne had ever been.
They had hated one another so much, and she felt an uneasy sliver of apprehension now, at the wisdom of Bess’s idea. But this was Albert’s studio, not Primmy’s, and if he agreed to it, then Primmy would just have to make herself scarce while Cresswell was sitting for his portrait.
Chapter Nine
By the end of the month the spring despatches had been variously sent to the port for loading, and onto the loaded waggons for trundling upcountry to the Staffordshire potteries. The orders had been completed, and there was still a mountain of clayblocks idling at the works.
As always, Hal Tremayne came to New World for the post-despatches discussions. Ran had long since moved the Killigrew Clay offices to his own home where everything was at hand. As the third partner, Morwen was also entitled to sift through the delivery orders and invoices, but she invariably declined, waiting for the outcome rather than add her voice to the inevitable wrangling.
After the two men had been locked in the study for several hours thrashing out the situation, and going through the disappointing figures and the dwindling orders, they joined Morwen in the drawing room.
‘I’ll ask Mrs Enders to bring in tea and coffee for us all,’ she said at once. ‘You’re probably parched after all that talking.’
‘So we are, honey, but tea can come later. It’s a stronger drink that we need now, wouldn’t you say, Hal?’
‘A brandy would do me fine,’ Hal agreed, to Morwen’s surprise. Her daddy wasn’t much of a drinking man, but the tautness of the two faces told her they’d been doing some serious talking, and her heart sank.
She so wanted everything on the horizon to be sunny, with Justin’s birthday imminent, and Matt and his family due home a few days before it. And with the glorious idea that Freddie had put to them all, when he’d finally gone to Killigrew House himself to tell his parents of his plans.
‘We want to offer Hocking Hall to Matt for the three months he’ll be here,’ Freddie said. ‘They can move in wi’ us right away to get the feel of the place, and ’twill give the land agent time to find a suitable person to rent it from us on a more permanent basis. But ’twill keep the property in the family for the time being, and also give us all some breathing space from one another.’
It was a perfect plan, especially remembering how they had all begun to get on one anothers’ nerves on Matt’s last visit, incredible though it seemed. But even then, they realized how they had all changed in the intervening years, and now they had moved on another ten.
But it did no good to brood on something that couldn’t be changed, and she thought instead that when Louisa and Cress had departed on their European tour, Matt would have the freedom of the lovely estate of Hocking Hall to himself. And she could visit him there as often as she chose, and hopefully recapture the special sibling friendship that had always existed between them.
She watched now as Ran poured the two large glasses of brandy for himself and his father-in-law, while she waited for the tea to be brought in. Only then did she burst out with what she was dying to know.
‘Well, are you going to tell me or not? Is it bad news? Or will we survive another year?’
Her father snorted. ‘There’s no foretelling the future, me dear, but I’d say we’re keeping our heads above water – just.’
‘Your family were always optimists, honey,’ Ran drawled. ‘But Hal knows as well as I do that if prices fall even further we’ll be heading for real trouble. And we’d have to think seriously of the options to put things right.’
‘But you wouldn’t lower the men’s wages? Daddy, we can’t do that,’ she said passionately, turning to her father, and remembering only too well the bare feet of most of the kiddley-boys in wintertime. If she had her way, she’d fit them all with boots…
‘No, I don’t mean that,’ Hal said shortly. ‘I’d rather lay a few of them off than cut the wages of all on ’em, though your husband don’t see it in the same way.’
‘I do not. It makes more sense to me to cut the wages of all, as sparingly as possible, and still keep the lot of them in work,’ Ran said, just as curtly, and it was obvious that this had been a major clash between them, and that their meeting had gone far from smoothly.
‘But for the time being, things can stay as they are?’ she persisted quickly, sensing that nothing had been resolved.
‘Well, providing that damn Pendragon woman don’t come along wi’ her offers of higher pay and better conditions,’ Hal grunted. ‘The clayers are loyal enough as long as they can feed their young uns, but when they can’t, they’ll be tempted right enough, and who can blame ’em?’
Now was the time, Morwen thought. She had never breathed a word of Harriet Pendragon’s visit to Ran, believing now that she had merely been trying to alarm Morwen, since nothing more had been heard from her. She hadn’t wanted to bring the woman’s name into her consciousness, but it was here now, and perhaps it was just foolish to go on pretending the visit had never happened. She took a deep breath.
‘Mrs Pendragon came to see me,’ she said flatly. ‘I nev
er told you, Ran, but she was quite threatening – oh, not in a physical way – but she made it clear she was used to getting her own way, and that she wanted Killigrew Clay.’
She avoided his eyes. It had been clear to her that she wanted all that went with it too, and that included Ran Wainwright. A thrill of jealousy ran through her, seeing the anger in Ran’s eyes, and knowing that he too would be remembering the arrogant splendour of the Pendragon woman.
‘Why the hell didn’t you tell me this before? When did it happen?’
‘A couple of weeks ago, soon after the meeting in St Austell,’ she muttered.
‘You should have told us, Morwen,’ Hal said.
‘What was the point? What could you have done about it? Gone to see her and told her to stop harassing me? A fine ninny I’d have looked then, needing my menfolk to look after me, when she – she—’
She stopped, but her thoughts finished all that she didn’t want to say out loud. When Harriet Pendragon was so all-fired self-assured, and could probably twist any man around her little finger as soon as look at him…
Her eyes blurred, and then she felt Ran’s arms go round her. She leaned against him, feeling his strength flow into her, and unembarrassed that her father was witnessing this show of affection.
‘She’ll not get it, nor anything that goes with it,’ he said, and there was a meaning in his voice that she knew and understood and accepted. ‘I know what Killigrew Clay means to you – to all of us, and I’ll fight tooth and nail with the rest of you to see that it remains where it belongs.’
Morwen looked up at him, her face flushed. Her daddy had moved tactfully away to look through the long windows at the spacious well-kept gardens of a gentleman’s house, and she spoke softly to her husband.
‘I already told you that Killigrew Clay means a great deal to me, dar, but you mean more. I meant it then, and I mean it now. I always will.’
She touched his cheek with her lips, not daring to be any more demonstrative at this hour of the day, and with her father the width of a room away. But the promise of love was in her eyes, and all the loving strands of their lives that bound them together were as strong as steel once more.
* * *
Walter came bursting into the house a short while later, his eyes shining, and all three of them turned to him in relief. Any kind of good news from the clayworks would be just what was needed at this time, Morwen thought, but it wasn’t clay business that he’d come about.
‘Congratulate me, Grandad!’ he said directly to Hal, but encompassing all of them. ‘I’ve just become the father of a fine young sprig, and he’s the spit of his great-grandaddy!’
He was embraced by three pairs of arms then, and Morwen thought fleetingly how strong were the family ties too.
‘But it wasn’t due to happen for three weeks!’ she gasped. ‘Is Cathy all right? And the baby?’
Walter laughed, and clearly nothing was going to cloud his pleasure today.
‘They’re both wonderful. It happened so fast that there was no time to let anybody know. She felt odd all evening, but assumed it was a just a bit of colic. Then in the middle of the night she thought we should send for the doctor and midwife to be on the safe side, and they only just arrived in time for the birthing.’
‘And there was no trouble?’ Morwen persisted, seeing all this rush from a woman’s point of view, and praying there hadn’t been any tearing or undue bleeding.
‘Not wi’ my Cathy,’ Walter said, as proud as if no other woman had ever given birth before. ‘She were a real Tremayne, and Grandma Bess would have been proud of her.’
Hal laughed, pleased at the compliment, and slapping him on the shoulder, while Ran pressed a glass of brandy in his hand to wet the baby’s head.
In the midst of her delight, Morwen couldn’t ignore the thought that another set of grandparents would also be pleased at hearing their daughter had come safely through the ordeal of childbirth. Tom Askhew and his wife, Miss ‘Finelady’ Jane… She tried to forget the ridiculous name she’d given the girl she’d thought so enamoured of Ben Killigrew all those years ago, and smiled at Walter, sharing in his joy.
‘When can I come and see them?’ she said eagerly. ‘And what are you calling him?’
Walter drank deeply before he answered, obviously enjoying Ran’s good brandy, but intoxicated enough without it.
‘Come as soon as you like, Mother. Cathy’s longing to show him off. We thought we’d call him Theodore, but Theo for short, since ’tis such a mouthful for a tiddler.’
‘Theo Tremayne,’ Hal echoed. ‘’Tis a good name, Walter, and I’m glad you weren’t persuaded to give un one o’ they northern handles.’
But no oblique reference to Tom Askhew was going to upset Walter today, and he merely laughed.
‘You should know by now that nobody persuades me and Cathy to do anything we don’t want to do,’ he said with a grin, and Morwen knew how true that was.
From the moment they met and fell in love, they had been determined to be together, no matter what the opposition. And it had been very bitter opposition at first, but love had weathered all the storms and separations, and been all the stronger for it.
She had a sweet glimmer of memory of the two of them, hiding from prying eyes in the secret, turreted room in this very house, just so they could be together. And then Freddie had come to the rescue of the young lovers, offering a sensible solution to all the opposition.
Morwen drew in her breath, as the glimmerings of another idea came to her mind. Perhaps it was impossible, but Freddie seemed destined to be the solver of so many things… but she wouldn’t even let herself ponder on it yet. It was something to keep private until it was properly thought out.
She gave her best-beloved another hug, congratulating him again on his new role as father.
‘I’ll come to see Theo this very afternoon,’ she said.
‘Good. Cathy will be pleased.’
He was obviously finding it difficult to get his thoughts onto anything but his wife and son, but now he turned to Ran. ‘I’m forgetting everything but my own good news, but since I’m here, do you want me to make any comments on the despatches? I can’t promise to keep my mind on it, though, since I was up all night.’
‘For goodness’ sake, man, I wouldn’t expect anything else. Get yourself off home to your wife and family,’ Ran said with a smile. ‘There are more important things in life than dull old books and figures, and there’s no other day in the world to compare with the day your first-born arrives.’
Sometimes, Morwen thought, Ran showed an insight that reminded her just why she had fallen so madly in love with him, and she felt a lift in her heart. Maybe Theo’s arrival heralded a new beginning in many ways. A new baby in the family was always a good sign. It meant that life and hope in the future were being renewed, and life was good.
* * *
Morwen went into St Austell that afternoon, to the small house where Walter and Cathy lived. They had waited a long time for Theo, but now the family was complete.
Her face dropped a little as she saw the carriage standing outside the house. The Askhews were here, and for a moment she wondered if she should go away and come back later. She could always go and see her mother… but then she told herself not to be so spineless. They all shared a common stake in young Theo Tremayne’s future, and she would have to come in contact with these people sometime or other, so it might as well be now. She knocked at the door, and Walter himself answered it.
‘Cathy’s parents have been here a while, Mother, but I’m sure they’ll be leaving soon,’ he said, once he’d greeted her. She immediately felt awkward.
‘Don’t be silly, Walter. All the grandparents will be anxious to see the new baby, so I certainly don’t want to push them out.’
Dear Lord, she was a grandparent, thought Morwen. The excitement had carried her along all day, but now she had time to stop and think about the new status Walter had given her. Even while she knew she wou
ld love the baby, she didn’t care too much for the title of grandmother.
She went upstairs to the bedroom Walter and Cathy shared, feeling her heart pound a little. There was excitement, yes. There was awe, of course, because every birth was a little miracle. And there was also the wish that she’d managed to come at some other time when she didn’t have to meet the eyes of Miss ‘Finelady’ Jane Askhew…
She forgot all of that when she entered the bedroom. The two people sitting on one side of the bed meant nothing. The only thing that mattered was pretty Cathy Tremayne, sitting up in bed with the shawl-wrapped bundle in her arms.
Morwen moved quickly forward and bent to kiss her daughter-in-law. She smelled of soap, talcum powder and rose-water, and that indefinable scent of new motherhood that every woman’s own baby recognized so miraculously.
‘I’m so glad you came to meet your grandson,’ Cathy said, smiling. ‘He’d very much like you to hold him.’
Morwen drew in her breath. Her arms were suddenly hungry for the baby. Having given birth to five of her own, and been surrogate mother to three more, she knew the God-given sense of belonging when you held a newborn child in your arms. And this one was part of her… she reached out for Theo, and as she did so, a little tremor ran through her, as keen as a knife.
This baby was no more part of her than any other child in the county. Walter wasn’t her birth son, and therefore Theo wasn’t her true grandson. These Askhews, that she had never been able to accept, were the true grandparents.
The momentary shock of realization passed, as Cathy pushed the baby into Morwen’s arms. She gazed down mutely on the perfect little features, and as she felt the tiny fingers curl around her own, her throat thickened. And then when the baby’s eyes opened and gazed unseeingly into hers, her world righted itself again. They were the bluest of blue Tremayne eyes, and the features were far more like Walter’s than Cathy’s, though she could see why Walter had said the baby’s little wrinkled old man’s face was the image of Hal’s.
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