Jessie gave a gasp of surprise; but once again William was watching for Maddy’s reaction. She looked shocked, horrified almost, as she cast a searching, unsmiling glance, first at Hetty and then at her father. There was a silence which seemed interminable before Faith spoke.
‘Well then, you are doubly welcome, my dear,’ she said. ‘Maddy love, would you pop into the kitchen, please and tell Mrs Baker that there will be… How many will there be for dinner tonight? There are usually seven of us, so with Patrick – he’s coming tonight – and Hetty, that makes nine. Goodness me, what a large family we are! And how nice it will be to have a celebration.’
Maddy nodded. ‘Come on, Jess,’ she said ‘Let’s go and see Mrs Baker.’ She was the cook and live-in housekeeper.
‘Whatever do you think of that?’ said Jessie when they were out of earshot. ‘What a surprise! You could have knocked me down with a feather.’ She looked closely at her friend who had suddenly gone very quiet. ‘What’s the matter, Maddy?’ she asked anxiously. Maddy had turned quite pale and Jessie could see the glimmer of a tear in the corner of one eye. ‘Oh… I’m sorry,’ she continued quickly. ‘How stupid of me to ask what’s the matter. It’s your father, isn’t it, and…Bella. Oh dear, what an idiot I am! It must be much more of a shock to you than it is to me.’
Maddy nodded. ‘Yes…it’s a shock, sure enough. I can’t quite take it in yet.’ She lowered her head and closed her eyes tightly, trying to prevent her tears from falling. Jessie put an arm round her and Maddy leant against her, glad to have the support of a good friend. ‘Jessie…’ she said. ‘You go and tell Mrs Baker, will you, about the arrangements for dinner? I would like to be on my own for a little while.’
‘Of course,’ said Jessie. ‘You go and think things out. I can understand how you feel; at least, I think I can. I remember my father, you see, and…and the other woman he went to live with.’ She paused before going on to say, ‘That Hetty, though… I thought she looked rather nice, really.’ She lowered her voice. ‘Nicer than Bella; I never liked her very much.’
Maddy managed a weak smile. ‘Yes, I thought so too. She looks friendly, but she seemed a bit embarrassed, didn’t she? It must have been an ordeal for her as well, meeting us. She’s so much like Bella – to look at, I mean. That’s what gave me such a shock.’ She opened the door of the dining room. ‘I’ll just sit in here for a few minutes. Don’t worry; I’ll be all right.’
They would be dining in there later, nine of them, round the long mahogany table which would be set with the best linen, silverware and china. Maddy sat down now on a low velvet armchair at the side of the fireplace. The grate was laid with sticks and paper and small pieces of coal, ready for lighting in a little while. It was turning chilly in the evenings now and there was usually the need for a fire.
Maddy took several deep breaths, something she had learnt to do whenever her nerves started to get the better of her. She soon began to feel calmer and the threatening tears did not overflow. She was determined not to give way to a bout of weeping. After all, what was there to cry about? Her father was happy. He had been so ever since he married Faith; and she, Maddy, and Patrick had come to love their stepmother too. They both thought of their own mother, very often, as they knew their father did; but their thoughts of her now brought back memories of happy times and they were able to smile instead of feeling sad.
Seeing that young woman, though, who was the very image of Bella, had evoked unpleasant memories, things she had tried so hard to forget. And then to discover that she was her sister! Her…stepsister? No, Jessie and Tilly were her stepsisters. This Hetty was her half-sister because they both had the same father. Hadn’t she always suspected, though, that there was something between her father and Bella? Maddy had come to realise that Bella had loved him and had been jealous of her mother. But she pushed away, as she always did, the dreadful memories of the time when her mother died and the shocking scene she had witnessed.
How old was this Hetty? Twenty-five or thereabouts, she guessed. Certainly much older than herself and Patrick. So what had happened between her father and Bella must have been long before he met their mother. She gave a deep sigh and rose to her feet. It was time she went back into the sitting room or else her father and Faith would start to get anxious. And she knew what she had to do.
Faith smiled at her encouragingly as soon as she entered the room. ‘I am sorry,’ said Maddy, looking straight at the young woman, Hetty, who was half smiling at her, a little unsurely. ‘I’m sorry if I seemed rude and unwelcoming. I didn’t mean to be. It was quite a shock, seeing you. You are so much like Bella, and of course I had no idea…’
‘I understand perfectly,’ said Hetty. ‘I said to William – your father – that it might be better if he broke the news to you first. But he insisted that I should come and meet you all.’
Maddy nodded. ‘It was very brave of you.’ She held out her hand. ‘How do you do, Hetty? It is good to meet you.’
‘So it is,’ agreed Hetty with a warm smile as she took hold of Maddy’s hand. ‘There is something you should know, though, Maddy… My mother – Bella – she died, six months ago. That is why I decided to come, now, and find…William. She had told me about him, you see.’
‘Oh dear!’ said Maddy. ‘I am sorry to hear that.’ It was, of course, not strictly true. She could not be sorry for her own sake that Bella was dead. She regarded it, in fact, as an unhappy and worrying chapter that had now closed. But it was sad for this young woman to have lost her mother at an early age as she, Maddy, had done. ‘I know what it’s like to lose a mother,’ she said. ‘You must miss her.’
‘So I do,’ replied Hetty, ‘but I hadn’t known her for very long really.’ Maddy realised there was a lot she didn’t know about her new half-sister. But she was beginning to learn that everyone went through periods of sadness as well as joy in their passage though life. ‘I am just glad that I knew her for a year or two before she died.’ Hetty smiled a little sadly, and the two young women looked at one another in perfect understanding. Suddenly her face brightened ‘But now,’ she said, ‘I have a new half-sister. I do hope we can be friends, Maddy?’
‘So do I,’ replied Maddy. And she knew that she really meant it.
Author’s Note
You may have found yourself humming along to some of the songs I have mentioned in the book. These have been quoted from a number of popular songs from the era, listed below:
The Band Played On – JF Palmer and Charles B Ward
Here We Are Again, Happy As Can Be – old music hall song
The Boy I Love is Up in the Gallery – mid-nineteenth-century music hall song made famous by Marie Lloyd)
Soldier of the Queen – Leslie Stuart
Goodbye-ee – RP Weston and Bert Lee
How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds – hymn by John Newton
And Can It Be That I Should Gain? – hymn by Charles Wesley
Amazing Grace – hymn by John Newton
I’ll Be Your Sweetheart – Harry Dacre
The Forsaken Merman – Matthew Arnold
Scarborough Fair – traditional song dating from the seventeenth century
I Know Where I’m Going – traditional Irish song
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About the Author
MARGARET THORNTON was born in Blackpool and has lived there all her life. She was a teacher for many years but retired early in order to concentrate on writing. She has
had twenty novels published.
By Margaret Thornton
Above the Bright Blue Sky
Down an English Lane
A True Love of Mine
Remember Me
Until We Meet Again
Time Goes By
Copyright
Allison & Busby Limited
12 Fitzroy Mews
London W1T 6DW
www.allisonandbusby.com
First published in Great Britain by Allison & Busby in 2007.
This ebook edition first published in 2016.
Copyright © 2007 by MARGARET THORNTON
The moral right of the author is hereby asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All characters and events in this publication other than those clearly in the public domain are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent buyer.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978–0–7490–1787–3
A True Love of Mine Page 35