‘A nurse’ll be along shortly to help you into bed,’ the porter said.
‘I’m fine here,’ Emma told him. ‘But can you tell me where there’s a public telephone? In the hospital, I mean.’
‘In the corridor outside matron’s office. I can wheel you there if you like. You might have to wait for someone to wheel you back though.’
‘I’ll be able to wait,’ Emma said. She was starting to get tired now. Her labour hadn’t been as long as the doctor had told her it might be, given her age and the fact it was her first child, but she’d still gone the night without sleep. ‘Wheel me away.’
Emma had to wait for the church bells to stop ringing before she could make herself heard. She telephoned Ruby first, glad now that she’d gone to the expense of having a telephone installed in Shingle Cottage for Ruby and Tom. The whoops and squeals of delight on the other end of the telephone could, Emma was sure of it, be heard all over the hospital. Ruby promised to visit as soon as she could.
‘But not today,’ Ruby said. ‘There’s a certain person who needs to see you first. An’ if you don’t telephone ’im, I will, you stubborn bugger.’
‘Ruby!’ Emma said, laughing.
‘Careful. You’ll burst your stitches.’
‘I haven’t got any.’
‘Then you’re a stubborn, lucky, bugger.’ Ruby laughed. ‘An’ I’m puttin’ down this telephone to free the line so you can make that call.’
Emma replaced the receiver, waited a few moments, then picked it up again. No need to have Matthew’s number written down. She dialled.
‘You took your time making that telephone call,’ Matthew said, a huge smile on his face, making him look so much younger than a man who was well into his forties. Emma never had known his exact age, not that it mattered. ‘You left Romer Lodge at ten o’clock last evening. By taxi. And it’s now …’
Matthew looked at his watch and Emma took advantage.
‘It was a textbook birth, actually,’ Emma said, suddenly not tired, and not minding Matthew’s teasing at all. ‘But don’t tell me. You’ve been spying on me.’
‘I prefer to call it protection. And for the record you’ve cost me a fortune in telephone calls. “I’m so sorry, Mrs Jago isn’t available at the moment.”’ Matthew mimicked the voice Emma had used every time she answered the telephone.
‘Mrs Jago can pay you back. And she’s available now,’ Emma said, softly.
‘Not that I mind the cost of a few hundred telephone calls,’ Matthew said, which made Emma think he hadn’t heard her. ‘Not now I’ve taken the one I wanted to hear. I don’t think I’ve ever driven as fast before.’
‘Well, you certainly didn’t waste any time getting here,’ Emma said, a huge grin on her face she knew would be there for hours, if not days. Years even. Goodness, but it was wonderful to be able to look at him. It was as though the time since she’d last seen him was no more than the puff off a dandelion clock. ‘Indecent haste, I’d call it. Who did you have to charm to let you in?’
Matthew tapped the side of his nose.
‘Once a surveillance officer, always a surveillance officer, eh?’ Emma grinned at him.
‘Once an independent little firebrand, always an independent little firebrand, eh?’
‘Touché,’ Emma said. ‘Meet your daughter.’
She held out the baby towards Matthew, but he didn’t take his daughter from her. Emma shivered a little. Was Matthew going to say he wanted her, but not the baby?
‘I’m keeping her. I know it’s not the done thing, but I’m keeping her. She’s got your legs. Sister midwife Brumfield said so.’
‘Did she now? I don’t remember a sister midwife Brumfield seeing my legs.’
Matthew leaned over the top of the baby in Emma’s arms and kissed her gently on the lips.
‘Oh, you!’ Emma said. ‘I meant that she said the baby’s legs are long. Your legs are long. Don’t you want to hold your daughter?’
‘I’d rather hold you first. It’s been too long.’
‘I know. But I was cross with you.’
‘I know. A term of penal servitude isn’t as long as I’ve had to wait for you not to be cross with me any more. Just as well I’m a patient man.’
‘Hah!’ Emma said. ‘You weren’t the afternoon we made her.’
She kissed the top of her now sleeping daughter’s head. How good it was to have Matthew in the same room as her and to have slipped back into their easy banter.
‘You started it if I remember rightly.’
Oh, yes, I remember. A thought crossed Emma’s mind – how soon would they be able to make love again, given she’d just given birth? And was that a normal sort of thought to be having?
‘The best afternoon’s work I ever did,’ Emma said.
‘I’ll drink to that,’ Matthew said. ‘We both will when I get you out of here. I’ll stop off at Tolchard’s on the way home and buy some champagne.’
Champagne. Emma had first drunk champagne with Matthew back in 1909 when she’d been just fifteen years old. And now it was as though the years in between then and now had never been and she was going to be drinking champagne again with him very soon.
‘They won’t let me out for days.’
‘They will if I tell them I’m engaging nurses and the very best medical care money can buy to look after you.’
‘I can—’
‘Stop!’ Matthew held up a hand. ‘We mustn’t argue in front of our daughter.’
Emma laughed. ‘She’s asleep. Not that I want to argue with you.’
‘She?’ Matthew said. ‘Hasn’t she got a name yet?’
‘Rachel,’ Emma said. ‘I’d like to call her Rachel. After my mother. And I’d like for her to have Jago as a second Christian name, so that when she grows up and marries she’ll still have Jago as a name. For Fleur’s sake as much as anything. If you don’t object, that is.’
‘Why would I object? Seth Jago loved you and cared for you when I couldn’t and he made a wonderful job of it, so it’s only fitting. Besides, you could call her Cherry Blossom Boot Polish for all I care as long as she has Caunter for a surname.’
‘Cherry Blossom Boot Polish? Have you been at the champagne already?’ Emma laughed. ‘And is that a proposal?’
Matthew dropped down onto one knee. He leaned forward, putting his arms around Emma and their baby.
‘Emma, darling, will you do me the honour of becoming my wife?’
Gosh, Matthew was full of surprises. She hadn’t expected for a second that he would respond to her cheeky remark quite so quickly. But there was only one answer, wasn’t there?
‘I will.’
They sealed their union with the gentlest of kisses.
‘How soon will you be fit enough to stand in front of a registrar?’ Matthew asked. ‘How soon can you rustle up a pretty frock to marry me in?’
‘I’d stand in front of the registrar tomorrow as long as you held onto my arm, propped me—’
‘Try and stop me!’ Matthew interrupted.
‘I might need a week or so for the dress. It would be nice if Fleur could be here for the wedding but crossing the Atlantic this time of year probably isn’t a good idea. I haven’t told her about Rachel Jago yet—’
‘Rachel Jago Caunter,’ Matthew said. ‘And Harry is going to get a shock when he realises his old man can still get—’
‘Matthew!’ Emma said. She put her hands over the baby’s ears. ‘You’re going to have to watch what you say from now on.’
‘I love you. I love you. I love you,’ Matthew said. ‘Is that allowed?’
‘Pardon?’ Emma laughed, feigning deafness.
‘I love you!’ Matthew shouted. ‘And I don’t care if matron hears that and comes running to tell me to pipe down, and brings the hospital board with her.’
Emma reached a hand out to Matthew and pressed a forefinger to his lips. ‘And I love you.’
There, she’d said it. What had been in her heart for a long
time was out there now dancing in the air between them, hovering over their baby daughter – a bridge, protecting her, keeping her safe.
Keeping them all safe. For ever.
‘But before we go anywhere …’
Matthew put his hand in his pocket and pulled out something he was holding tightly in his fist. Slowly he unfolded his fingers to reveal Emma’s amethyst necklace, the one that had been her mother’s.
‘You’ve kept it safe for me all these years,’ Emma said.
‘Do you remember what you said when you left it in my keeping?’
‘That one day I hope to find you again. And when that day comes, you can – if you’re a free man and I’m a free woman – put it around my neck for me.’
Emma knew, word for word, what she had said.
‘And it’s amen to all that,’ Matthew said.
He walked to stand behind Emma’s chair and placed the chain with the amethyst on it around her neck and did up the clasp.
‘I’ll never part with it,’ Emma said. ‘Or with you.’
Epilogue
28th APRIL 1928
What a difference a year makes.
When Emma telephoned Fleur to tell her about Rachel’s arrival, Fleur had whooped with delight and promised to come back in June when the weather would be warmer and the seas calmer. She had, she said, guessed – a woman’s intuition, so she’d said.
Matthew’s son, Harry, had taken the news with disbelief, but it had rapidly turned to delight. He, too, promised to visit as soon as he could.
Matthew did as he’d said he would, and engaged a nurse to live in at Romer Lodge until Emma was back to full strength. Emma had countered that that wouldn’t be long – she was as strong as a horse.
‘Well, thank goodness you don’t look like one!’ Matthew had laughed.
So, on April 28th, Emma and Matthew married, by special licence, at the registry office in Totnes. Ruby was Emma’s witness and William was Matthew’s. Just the four of them standing in front of the registrar. Afterwards, Tom joined them, along with William’s fiancée, Eve Benjafield, and with two-week old baby Rachel in a wicker basket, they all went to the Royal Seven Stars for lunch.
‘To my beautiful wife,’ Matthew said, raising his glass of champagne high over his head. ‘Who, of course, has to respond with a toast of her own and say, “To my handsome husband”.’
‘Who’s that then?’ Emma said, with a giggle, happy almost beyond belief.
Everybody laughed. They chinked glasses.
‘To absent friends,’ Ruby said, looking at Emma … possibly, Emma thought, thinking of Stella Martin. ‘And to absent family.’
To Seth. Emma lifted her glass in a silent toast to Seth.
‘To absent friends,’ Matthew said. His eyes met Emma’s. He knows who I’m thinking about, doesn’t he? I’ll never be able to keep anything secret from him, not that I’ll want to. ‘And to Fleur and Harry. And to the memory of Seth.’
‘To Seth,’ Emma said.
They all clinked glasses again, and everyone started talking at once.
‘And to our darling daughter,’ Emma whispered to herself. She sipped at the champagne. ‘And to all that life will bring her.’
It might not be a smooth ride, but Emma hoped with all her heart it would be. Rachel might have been born into wealth but wealth could be lost in a heartbeat, Emma knew that.
But there was one thing her daughter was never going to go short of.
Love.
The End
We would love to hear how you enjoyed Emma and Her Daughter. Please leave a review on the eBook store where you purchased this novel. Reviews on eBook stores really do help the author. Thank you!
Find out more about Linda and her novels next …
About the Author
Linda Mitchelmore
Linda has lived in Devon all her life, where the wonderful scenery and history give her endless ideas for novels and short stories. Linda has 300 short stories published worldwide and has also won, or been short-listed,
in many short-story writing competitions.
In 2004 she was awarded The Katie Fforde Bursary by the Romantic Novelists’ Association. In 2011 she won the Short Story Radio Romance Prize.
Married to Roger for over 40 years, they have two grown-up children and two grandchildren. As well as her writing, Linda loves gardening, walking, cycling and riding pillion on her husband’s vintage motorbikes.
Emma and her Daughter is Linda’s third novel in the Emma series and sequel to Emma – There’s No Turning Back.
Read more about Linda’s novels next …
More Choc Lit from Linda
To Turn Full Circle
Book 1 – Emma series
Life in Devon in 1909 is hard and unforgiving, especially for young Emma Le Goff, whose mother and brother die in curious circumstances, leaving her totally alone in the world. While she grieves, her callous landlord Reuben Jago claims her home and belongings.
His son Seth is deeply attracted to Emma and sympathises with her desperate need to find out what really happened, but all his attempts to help only incur his father’s wrath.
When mysterious fisherman Matthew Caunter comes to Emma’s rescue, Seth is jealous at what he sees and seeks solace in another woman. However, he finds that forgetting Emma is not as easy as he hoped.
Matthew is kind and charismatic, but handsome Seth is never far from Emma’s mind. Whatever twists and turns her life takes, it seems there is always something – or someone – missing.
Purchase from your eBook provider or visit www.choc-lit.com for more details.
Emma – There’s No Turning Back
Book 2 – Emma series
It isn’t easy to look forward when the past is so close behind you
Life hasn’t always been kind to Emma Le Goff. She has had her fair share of hardship and now finally, her life appears to be looking up. She and her childhood sweetheart, Seth Jago, are set to marry and both believe that an idyllic existence, free from heartache, awaits them.
However, when they discover that the past is more difficult to forget than they could have ever imagined, Emma continues to be haunted by the mysterious circumstances surrounding her family, and Seth is hounded by a jealous ex-lover set on revenge.
Seth plans for their escape to Canada, but when the charismatic Matthew Caunter returns to Devon, Emma finds herself uncertain of whether a move to Canada is really what she wants …
Purchase from your eBook provider or visit www.choc-lit.com for more details.
Hope for Hannah
How can two brothers be so different?
Hannah French has always wanted more from life than her sleepy Dartmoor village can offer. On the wild Devonshire moors, she loses herself in poetry and dreams of escape.
And there are two men who are willing to give her that escape: William and Ralph Lawlor. They are brothers but their bloodline is all that they have in common.
William is gentle, kind and sensitive; a painter who yearns for a creative life in France or Italy. Ralph is rugged, dangerous and extravagant. He is equally keen to show Hannah the world outside Dartmoor – but at what cost?
When events in Hannah’s life take a devastating turn, she is no longer certain who she can trust. Will somebody come to her rescue or will she have to accept that Hope is all she has left?
Set in Devon in 1903.
Purchase from your eBook provider or visit www.choc-lit.com for more details.
Grand Designs
You can change the house but can you change the man?
Carrie Fraser is an interior decorator and cannot believe her luck when she is invited to work at Oakenbury Hall – a beautiful manor house in the heart of the English countryside. Nor can she quite get over the owner of Oakenbury – the gorgeous (not to mention, completely loaded!) Morgan Harrington.
Morgan appears to have it all, but his previous life is clouded with sadness and heartache, which Carrie can relate to only too
well. He is intent on running away from his troubled past to a glamorous, celebrity-filled existence in Cannes, but there’s a problem …
Morgan is bound by his late father’s wishes to keep Oakenbury Hall within the family and have children, and the more time Carrie spends with him, the more she yearns to be the woman to fulfil this wish.
But the likes of Carrie Fraser could never be enough for a high-flying businessman like Morgan … could she?
Purchase from your eBook provider or visit www.choc-lit.com for more details.
Red is for Rubies
What if you had been living a lie for most of your life?
In the first flush of love, Jonty promised to buy Lydie a precious ruby necklace when his art career took off. But the ruby never materialised and Lydie is left heartbroken when Jonty ends the relationship, leaving her pregnant out of wedlock, much to the fury of her straight-laced parents.
Nearly thirty years later and Lydie still thinks of Jonty and the passion they shared, stuck as she is in a marriage she never wanted to a man she was never in love with and desperate for a way out …
And then Jonty comes back into the picture. But not without a set of tragic circumstances that shock Lydie to the core and change her life beyond anything she could have ever imagined.
Purchase from your eBook provider or visit www.choc-lit.com for more details.
Read about Choc Lit next …
Introducing Choc Lit
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Where heroes are like chocolate – irresistible!
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