Another Man's Child

by Anne Bennett

  Celia felt better about the money Fitzgerald would have to pay out then and when Andy said, ‘Are you ready to go on now?’ she nodded her head eagerly, glad to be on the move again, for every step she took was one further step away from her father, for she guessed his rage would be fierce and she would be afraid to face him.

  ‘I would hate Daddy to overtake us,’ she said.

  ‘He is hardly likely to do that,’ Andy said. ‘He might not have noticed you missing yet and when he does he will have no idea of where we are making, for we are so close to Letterkenny now. When I am in Belfast and send the telegram telling Fitzgerald where his horse is, he might not tell your father straight away for he’s not too friendly with him because of the fight I had with Tom. It was totally unnecessary, you see, because I had already decided to leave and he didn’t want to accept my notice either. We’ve got on very well in the time I’ve been here, but I made him see in the end that it was better for you. Anyway,’ he said, ‘fighting never solved anything.’

  ‘I agree.’

  ‘Between you and me, he thinks your dad is a little old fashioned about deciding who you marry,’ Andy said. ‘For, as he says, his son could be carrying on with all sorts of people in the States and he’d not know and if he eventually brings home a totally unsuitable girl to marry, they will have to accept her, because she will be the son’s choice.’

  ‘He’s right as well,’ Celia said.

  ‘Aye he’s a sound man,’ Andy said. ‘And a sensible one. Now we’re coming to the rail tracks on the other side of the border post and I think it’s getting light enough for Ned to carry us from here.’ Soon they were both mounted on the horse again and Andy guided him as he picked his way down the hillside. Once they reached the rails there was not a soul in sight and they continued their journey towards Letterkenny.

  When they arrived in the town, they located the railway station and Andy left Celia in the waiting room on the platform while he went to settle the horse and buy the tickets. It was as he came back a little later that it was light enough to see his face fully for the first time and Celia felt quite ashamed of the damage her brother had inflicted and she said so.

  Andy sat down on the bench beside her and told her not to worry, that he’d live.

  ‘How can I not worry?’ Celia said almost angrily. ‘Tom has made one unholy mess of your face.’ Andy knew he had and silently thanked God that he had got such good healing skin for if he applied for a job with his face still looking how it looked now, he doubted it would help his prospects. No one would want to employ a trouble-maker. But he wouldn’t burden Celia with that small concern he had.

  ‘And the further we go away from my home the more I see that Norah was right all along, and Fitzgerald,’ Celia went on. ‘I mean why do parents think they should have such a say in our lives and why do we allow them to go on thinking it? How would Tom feel if my father took against Sinead McClusky? Would he throw her over at my father’s say-so and look for someone he did approve of?’

  ‘Huh, shouldn’t think so,’ Andy said. ‘Seems pretty keen on her to me. But why worry what your father thinks any more? You’re getting away.’

  ‘This must be costing you some money,’ Celia said. ‘And there is no way I can help you because I was never given any money of my own.’

  ‘I’m all right for now,’ Andy said. ‘When I had to leave home my father gave me two ten-shilling notes in case I couldn’t get work straight away but I did and Fitzgerald was a good payer because he said I was a good worker. I had all my meals at the house, even overalls provided, and as I only went out on Saturday for a dander around the town and for the dance in the evenings I saved a good deal of my wages and I haven’t touched my father’s money at all. As long as I am set on as soon as we are settled somewhere, we should be all right.’

  But though he assured Celia, Andy was worried for he knew there was a massive slump in England. And yet he knew he had to find work to provide for them both and there was the problem of finding somewhere to live, for he didn’t want Celia to end up in some rat-infested dive of a place with no money coming in. She deserved better than that. He wanted to look after her properly and the worry that he might not be able to initially did gnaw at him at times.

  Something else bothered Andy greatly as well and that was how Celia really felt about him. She thought she loved him, had left home to be with him, and he certainly loved her, he loved her too much to abuse that innocence and naivety for Celia had little experience of life. Even if she was ready for marriage – and Andy doubted that she was – she couldn’t marry without her parents’ permission for three years and during that time they could not really live as man and wife. He was very glad the waiting room was still empty as he attempted to explain this to Celia.

  ‘Is it because you don’t love me any more?’ she asked plaintively.

  Andy took hold of her shoulders and looked deep in her eyes and felt his heart turn over with love for this girl on the verge of womanhood. ‘It’s because I love you too much, my darling girl,’ he said. ‘I cannot take anything from you until I can make you my wife. It wouldn’t be right.’

  ‘Then what … when …’

  ‘I will still stay with you and take care of you always,’ Andy said, lifting Celia to her feet and putting his arms tight around her. ‘But for propriety’s sake we should travel as brother and sister.’ And he went on, ‘Andy and Celia McCadden, alone in the world as our parents are dead and we have come to England in search of a better life. How does that sound?’

  ‘All right I suppose,’ Celia said in an uncertain voice.

  ‘This is to protect you and your reputation,’ Andy said. ‘Do you mind very much?’

  Celia shrugged. ‘It isn’t as I imagined,’ she admitted and added, ‘But I do understand why you want to do this.’

  ‘And you’ll go along with it?’

  Celia nodded. ‘I’ll go along with it.’

  They had a bit of a wait for the train to Belfast. The bustling station of Letterkenny, though not that large, quite unnerved Celia. And she was pleased when eventually the train clattered in on singing wheels and stopped at the platform with a squeal of brakes and a hiss of steam. There was soot-laden smoke spluttering from the funnel wafting in the air and Celia tasted the tinge of coal dust on her lips as she moved forward to get on.

  They found a carriage very quickly but Celia thought the steam train went far too fast with the countryside flashing past so quickly it was hard to see anything and the train swayed that much that it was hard to keep her footing. Andy seemed much steadier and when the train had been running for a bit he went off and bought cheese sandwiches for them both from the restaurant car. Celia, who hadn’t had anything to eat for some time, felt suddenly famished.

  ‘Ah,’ she said as she finished the last vestige of her sandwich. ‘My stomach was beginning to think my throat was cut.’

  Andy let out a bellow of laughter. ‘Well I haven’t heard that one before,’ he said. ‘But I gather it means you were hungry and I am delighted to hear it because it looks as though you haven’t been hungry for some time. Norah mentioned it, but then I saw it for myself.’

  Celia nodded. ‘I wasn’t eating much,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t work up any enthusiasm somehow and it wasn’t that I was hungry either. I was full up of misery.’

  ‘I’ll try to see you never feel that way again,’ Andy said but he had his fingers crossed in the hand he had behind his back and truly hoped he would be able to keep the promise he had made to her.

  When Celia’s disappearance was noticed, which was fairly early in the morning, everyone appeared astounded and Peggy was extremely worried. Climbing out of the window was the very last thing she would have expected any of them to do and Celia least of all. Both Ellie and Norah denied all knowledge of Celia’s flight and both said they had heard no strange noises in the night, which was true in Ellie’s case. It was Ellie who noticed the bag was missing from the top of the wardrobe and Peggy then
went through Celia’s drawers to find most of her clothes were missing too and faced the fact she had run away.

  ‘But run away to where?’ Peggy cried. ‘There’s no one for her to run to.’

  ‘We must look for her, that’s all,’ Dan said.

  ‘Look where exactly?’

  ‘Well we’ll start with the farm. She could be hiding out some place.’

  ‘With a bagful of clothes?’ Peggy said edgily. ‘I’m just worrying that she might do something stupid. You know, harming herself in some way – for you do hear of girls doing that sort of thing when they were being made to do something they didn’t want to do.’

  Dan was dismissive of that. ‘Celia wouldn’t do any-thing stupid,’ he maintained. ‘She has too much sense for that.’

  ‘I’d hardly call climbing out of the window in the dead of night sensible,’ Peggy remarked.

  ‘Anyway, didn’t you say she has been better in herself these last few days?’

  Peggy nodded her head. ‘I did and she has been,’ she said. ‘But now she has disappeared and I can’t help feeling that maybe she was more accepting because she had planned something to make sure it didn’t happen.’

  ‘Look,’ Dan said, ‘I’ll use your argument; if she intended doing away with herself, she’d hardly bother to pack a bag of clothes for herself.’

  ‘No, I suppose not,’ Peggy said, wringing her hands in agitation. ‘But where in God’s name is she?’

  ‘We’ll find her, don’t fret yourself,’ Dan said soothingly. ‘We’ll have a quick scour of the farm and if she’s not found then I’ll get the horse out and go after her. She can’t have gone that far.’

  Everyone was marshalled in to help with the search and Norah searched along with the rest, but in a desultory way, knowing her sister would not be found on the farm or anywhere near it. She wondered that they hadn’t thought her disappearance was linked in any way with McCadden, but Dan had made quite sure Celia had had no contact with him, for even when she saw him at Mass, she was never allowed to talk to him.

  Norah knew he would find out just how involved McCadden was and well before the day was over. It was like the sword of Damocles above her head, for while at the moment her father had a chance of believing she knew nothing about Celia’s disappearance, the moment he knew Andy McCadden was implicated he would automatically believe Norah was involved in some way. She trembled inwardly and she knew she would bear the whole brunt of his anger. And all she could do was continue to protest her innocence, because to admit anything would not help her.

  Ellie and Sammy were sent to school as usual, both protesting loudly that they wanted to stay behind and help find Celia. But Peggy was too distracted to listen to their grumbles and so was Dan, only warning them to say nothing about their sister’s disappearance to anyone at school as he put the saddle on the horse and set off to try and find his daughter. Two hours passed before Dan returned with no success in finding Celia. Peggy was a nervous wreck by then and said that she thought the Guards should be notified, but Norah knew involving the Guards in family business was the last thing Dan would want to do. However, he knew it might come to that and, as the morning wore on, Norah began to wonder why Fitzgerald hadn’t been to see her father, for she imagined he might think his missing farm hand and horse might have something to do with her sister.

  However, Dinny didn’t think that straight away for he didn’t know Andy was missing until he’d gone to the barn to rouse him, surprised that he hadn’t gone to fetch the cows in as usual, and found his bed hadn’t been slept in. He was irritated that he had taken off without a word and left him in the lurch like that and complained to his wife about it as he had his breakfast after tackling the milking single-handed and she expressed concern. ‘Maybe something’s happened to him,’ she said. ‘It’s not like Andy to let us down.’

  ‘No, it isn’t,’ Dinny agreed. ‘I mean, I know he was leaving anyway, but he gave notice in the proper way and agreed to stay on till I found a replacement and now this.’

  ‘Like I said, maybe something has happened to him.’

  ‘Aye, and I’d say that that might have something to do with that Mulligan girl he’s sweet on.’

  ‘If you’re right maybe those Mulligan thugs have set upon him again,’ Dinny’s wife pointed out, for she had been incensed at Dan and Tom Mulligan beating up their farm hand for no good reason.

  ‘Well I don’t think he’d be able to do anything about her at the moment, however sweet he is on her,’ Dinny said. ‘Rumour has it the father has her locked in her room like some princess of old.’

  ‘He can’t do that for ever.’

  ‘No he can’t but I don’t think he intends to,’ Dinny said. ‘He’s shipping her to America as soon as ever he can.’

  ‘Thought that was the other one, Norah – she that threw over that nice Joseph O’Leary because of it.’

  ‘Well I don’t know what they have decided. Maybe the two of them are going, but one way or another they are sending Celia away to keep her away from Andy,’ Dinny went on. ‘It’s madness and I said as much to Dan. I mean she could take up with a right rascal in America, I hear tell there are plenty of them around, while Andy McCadden is a decent young man. Dan Mulligan has an inflated idea of himself. He thinks he’s bloody royalty but he’s only a blooming farmer same as the rest of us and it’s madness to say that Andy McCadden isn’t good enough for his daughter.’

  ‘Dinny, while we sit here discussing something we can do nothing about, Andy might be lying injured somewhere about.’

  ‘I bet he isn’t,’ Dinny said, getting to his feet. ‘I think we might have seen the last of him and I don’t know why he hadn’t the decency to wait and tell me to my face. I would have expected that of him at least. But to put your mind at rest I will saddle up old Ned and have a look round.’

  That was when Dinny discovered the horse was missing too and he was enraged. ‘Going off is one thing, but stealing horseflesh is quite another.’

  ‘What are you going to do?’

  ‘The only thing to do,’ Dinny said. ‘I’m informing the Guards. Horses cost money and, anyway, I’ve had Ned some years. I’d hate to hear of something bad happening to him. I want the Guards to find him and bring him home and McCadden deserves to be punished for taking him.’

  Dinny went into the police station but it was some time later before a policeman, on a bone-shaker of a bicycle, bumped his way up the lane and said he intended first talking to the farmers of the area around to see if they had seen or heard anything unusual in the night. He called at the Mulligans’ first and heard a tale of a young daughter of the house who had climbed out of the window in the dead of night and the policeman’s suspicions were aroused. He told Dan and Peggy of the disappearance of McCadden too and Dinny Fitzgerald’s horse.

  ‘It’s my belief they went together on Fitzgerald’s horse,’ the policeman said. ‘Have you any idea where they would make for?’

  Dan and Peggy were stunned. Inside Dan pure rage was simmering, but Peggy just felt helpless. She wondered if their harsh treatment of Celia had led her daughter to flee her home in such a way and with the last man in the world they would have chosen for her and felt a wave of immeasurable sadness flow through her. But neither she nor Dan had any idea where they would have gone to and the girls also pleaded ignorance.

  Dinny and his wife were no help either. ‘McCadden came from Killybegs way,’ Dinny said. ‘But he would hardly head for there, knowing it would be the first place they would look for him.’

  ‘There is more importance given to this now that the safety of a young girl is involved,’ the policeman said. ‘You don’t think they might make for England?’ he asked Dinny.

  Dinny shook his head. ‘I don’t think I ever heard him express a wish to go there and Celia’s family said truthfully that Celia had always said she never wanted to leave Ireland.’

  ‘Even so,’ the policeman said. ‘It will do no harm to keep a watch on the ports. When I
get back to the station I’ll put a call through to the police in Belfast and they can take it from there.’

  ‘Well, if they are apprehended,’ said Dinny, ‘ask McCadden what he’s done with my horse.’

  However, Dinny soon found out what happened to Ned for the policeman had only been gone an hour or so when a telegram was delivered to their door by a boy on a bicycle. Neither of them had ever received a telegram before and to their knowledge, telegrams usually conveyed bad news. Convinced it would tell of some catastrophe that had befallen their son in America, Dinny took it from the boy with hands that shook. But it wasn’t from their son but from Andy McCadden who apologised for taking the horse and gave the address of where he was stabled and said Celia was travelling with him and that she was all right.

  Dinny took the telegram to the police and when the Letterkenny police went to see the man at the stables he said truthfully he had never seen a woman, it had been a man who had delivered the horse. He had been polite and well-spoken and said his boss would be along for the horse later. He looked respectable and the man at the stables said he hoped he wasn’t in any trouble and, no, he didn’t say where he was bound for and it wasn’t his business to ask.

  Still, the search centred on Letterkenny, which was just as well for the police in Belfast said they hadn’t the manpower to look out for a couple who just might be making for the boat. They didn’t even know what these people looked like – did they in Donegal have any idea of the number of people crossing on each sailing? They would have the normal dockside police there anyway, but they wouldn’t have the resources for anything further.

  When Andy and Celia reached Belfast they had another wait to board the boat, as they were on the evening sailing. Celia wished the time would speed past for she knew she wouldn’t feel perfectly safe from her father till she was on English soil.

  She wasn’t the only one to feel that way, for Andy too knew that he could relax more if a great expanse of water separated him from Dan. But as he could do nothing to speed up the process, he suggested a walk around the city. He had to send his telegram to the Fitzgeralds about the horse he’d left in Letterkenny anyway, and he did so at the first post office he came to. Otherwise, generally not knowing the city at all, they stayed close to the docks.