Carrying the infant in her left arm, Eveleen opened the door to find herself staring into Josh Carpenter’s face.
‘Oh!’
Eveleen had been so preoccupied for the past few days that she had not given a thought to letting her workplace know what had happened.
‘Please, come in, Mr Carpenter.’ She led him into the kitchen. ‘Do sit down,’ she invited. ‘You’ll excuse me if I get on with her feed. She’ll start to raise the roof any minute now.’
Josh eased his large frame into the chair at the side of the range and watched, fascinated, as Eveleen deftly juggled with the feeding bottle and tube. In a few moments the infant was sucking noisily.
Sitting opposite him, Eveleen said, ‘I am so sorry. I never thought to send word. Fred Martin would have told you for me if I’d thought to ask him.’
His gaze still upon the child, Josh nodded. ‘He did come to tell me that he thought you would be off work for a few days. But he was very evasive. Wouldn’t tell me exactly what was the matter.’ He glanced up briefly at Eveleen but then his gaze went back to the child. ‘I thought you were ill, Eveleen. Of course, I should have guessed, but you never told me when the baby was expected.’ He dragged his gaze away from the infant and glanced at Eveleen. ‘How is the mother?’ He gestured towards the child as if to say, Shouldn’t she be doing that?
Eveleen was touched by his concern. He had taken the trouble to leave work and walk all the way to her home. She sighed, and when she had finished telling him the sad events of the past few days, Josh shook his head in sympathy. ‘I wish I’d known what was happening, Eveleen. Maybe there is something I could have done to help.’
Eveleen hesitated and then took the plunge. ‘There is something I would like your advice about.’
Josh spread his hands. ‘Anything.’
She looked down at the baby. ‘I just want to do everything right by her. I want to know that I’m doing everything legally. That I can be her – what do they call it – her guardian?’
‘You want to adopt her?’
‘I suppose so. You see, my brother is her father but his name can’t be on her birth certificate because they weren’t married. She’s had to be registered in her mother’s name. Singleton.’
‘Leave it with me. I’ll find out about it for you.’ He frowned. ‘There is just one thing. I think you’re too young to adopt her yourself. It would have to be an older person. Your mother, for instance.’
Eveleen nodded.
‘What’s her name? Just so I’ve got all the facts.’
‘Mary Hardcastle, now, but she was a Singleton before she was married. Rebecca’s father and my mother are brother and sister.’
Josh nodded and heaved himself up out of the chair. ‘Leave it with me,’ he said again. He stood a moment uncertainly, looking as if he wanted to ask something else but did not know quite how to phrase it delicately.
‘I’m – er – afraid they will have stopped your pay at the factory for the time you’ve had off.’
‘Oh yes, I understand that.’ She smiled up at him. ‘Just so long as I haven’t lost my job altogether.’
‘No, no,’ he reassured her swiftly. ‘Mr Richard said I was to be sure to keep it for you.’
‘Mr Richard?’ Eveleen was so startled she let the feeding tube slip and Bridie yelled in protest. When Eveleen had popped the teat back into the little mouth and there was a contented silence once more, Josh said, ‘Oh yes. That’s why I’m here this morning. Mr Richard sent me.’
‘Oh,’ was all a very surprised Eveleen could say.
Later that day, while the baby was sleeping, Eveleen climbed the stairs to the top floor where her mother was still sleeping in the makeshift bed that Jimmy had used.
Apart from the day of the funeral, Mary had not got out of her bed since the day after Rebecca had died.
‘Why don’t you come back down to our room? Win washed all the sheets yesterday. Everything . . .’ Eveleen felt the familiar lump in her throat swell. It seemed to have been constantly in her throat for the past few days. She swallowed it determinedly. ‘Everything’s clean and . . .’ She hesitated to say bluntly that all trace of the poor girl, who had given birth to her child there and then died, had been washed away.
‘I’m all right here.’ Her head buried beneath the covers, Mary’s voice was muffled. ‘Leave me alone.’
Eveleen let out an exasperated sigh and tried a different tack. ‘Mam, I need to go back to work as soon as possible. You’ll have to look after the baby.’
Mary burrowed even further beneath the covers so that Eveleen could hardly hear the smothered, ‘I can’t.’
For half an hour Eveleen begged, pleaded and finally got angry, shouting so loudly at her mother that even down two flights of stairs the baby began to wail. All to no avail. Mary flatly refused to get out of her bed.
‘I don’t know what to do to get her up,’ Eveleen said helplessly to Win, who had arrived by the time she came back downstairs.
Picking up the baby, Win said, ‘You might try setting fire to the bed.’
‘Eh?’ For a moment Eveleen stared at her and then she began to laugh. After the sorrow of the last week, it was good to have an excuse to laugh. Eveleen held her side and spluttered. ‘Oh don’t, Win. It hurts.’
The older woman chuckled. ‘You go to the shops, Eveleen. I’ll stay with this little treasure.’
‘Would you?’ Eveleen said gratefully. ‘I do need a few things.’ She pulled a face. ‘Though how I’m to pay for them, goodness knows.’
‘I can lend you—’ the kindly woman began, but Eveleen held up her hand. ‘Thanks, Win, but I’ll manage.’ She frowned and murmured, ‘If only I could get back to work next week.’
She saw Win glance at her, a thoughtful expression on her face.
Two hours later when Eveleen stepped back through the door with her shopping, she stopped in surprise. Mary was sitting in her chair by the fire, fully dressed with her hair neatly pinned into a bun, and she was nursing the baby.
Win stood behind her chair and, unseen by Mary, winked at Eveleen above her head. ‘We’ve got it all arranged between us. You can go back to work on Monday morning, mi duck. I’m going to bring my lace across here and between us, we’ll look after the house, the baby and each other.’
Eveleen stared at her in disbelief, glanced at her mother and then looked back at Win. Later as she put her shopping away, she whispered, ‘I don’t know how you did it, Win, but you’re a miracle worker.’
Win grimaced. ‘I thought I’d gone a bit far at one point. I told her a few home truths and I don’t think she liked it.’ The older woman glanced shrewdly at Eveleen. ‘Seems your brother was her favourite. That right?’
Eveleen nodded.
Win gave an unladylike snort. ‘I thought as much. Well, I told her in no uncertain terms that you was worth ten of ’im and she was a very lucky woman that you hadn’t washed yer ’ands of her a long time ago ’cos it’s what she deserved.’
Eveleen gasped, startled by Win’s frankness. Yet it seemed to have worked. ‘I can’t tell you how grateful I am,’ she said.
The older woman chuckled. ‘Tell you the truth, it gets very lonely some days working at home when the young ’uns are at school. I’ll be glad of the company. Besides,’ she added, a little sheepishly, ‘I love little babies. I just can’t stay away from ’em.’
‘Well, thanks anyway. I do need to get back.’ Eveleen held up her purse and shook it, adding, ‘I’ve exactly one farthing left to me name.’
She didn’t say any more to their neighbour but privately Eveleen thought, Hardly a sum of money that’s going to get us back home to Lincolnshire.
Forty-Six
When Eveleen returned to work the following week, Helen was eager for news. ‘She’s had it then? Well, come on. What did she get and are they both all right? And when can I come and see the babby?’
Soberly Eveleen said, ‘I thought you might have heard, with me being away from wo
rk so long.’
Now that she really looked at her, Helen saw Eveleen’s sorrow. ‘What’s happened? Nobody’s said anything.’
‘She had a baby girl. She’s a lovely little thing, but Rebecca died.’
‘Oh no!’ Helen whispered. ‘I’m so sorry.’
There was a murmur of sympathy around her from the women sitting nearby. In that moment, the last vestige of resentment against Eveleen, at least among those working closest to her, died away.
‘What’s going to happen to the baby?’
‘We’re taking care of her. My mother, me . . .’ She couldn’t miss out the wonderful Win. ‘And Win, who’s been a very kind neighbour to us.’
At the look on Helen’s face and her earnest, ‘Oh, Eveleen, I am sorry. Me an’ my big mouth.’
But Eveleen found it a relief to be able to talk to someone about the baby and now the women with whom she worked were friendly again, she chattered about the child, what she looked like and what they intended to call her.
The supervisor was standing over her. ‘They want you in the office,’ she said, sharply. ‘I don’t know who runs this place. You’ve been away over a week and now they’re calling you out. If I had my way . . .’ The woman turned away muttering and grumbling beneath her breath.
‘Take no notice of the old sourpuss,’ Helen whispered. ‘But just you watch yourself with old man Carpenter. I reckon he’s got his eye on you.’
For once the remark didn’t bother Eveleen. She just grinned and said, ‘Better to be an old man’s darling than a young man’s slave, eh?’
Helen pretended to wince as if being Josh Carpenter’s darling was the worst fate she could imagine. Eveleen chuckled as she left the workroom to make her way to Josh’s office. Halfway along the corridor, she was surprised to see Josh lumbering towards her.
‘Eveleen, I wanted to catch you before you get to the office to explain.’ He mopped his brow with his handkerchief and, breathless from hurrying, said, ‘You know you asked me to find out for you about you caring for the child?’
Eveleen nodded.
‘I didn’t quite know how to set about it so I thought Mr Richard would be the best person to ask.’ He paused a moment but when Eveleen remained silent, waiting for him to go on, he continued. ‘I thought he’d know about the law, you see, or he’d certainly know someone who did. He’s got friends among solicitors and people like that.’
Get on with it, Josh, Eveleen wanted to say, but steeled herself to stay silent and wait patiently.
‘I gave him all the details, but he says he’d like to talk about it to you himself. They’re waiting in my office for you now.’
As she hurried away all Eveleen was thinking, her heart in her mouth, was, I hope he’s not going to say I can’t keep her. Oh dear Lord, please don’t let him say that, she prayed to the huge figure in white sitting up there in Heaven. In her anxiety, it hadn’t registered in her mind that Josh had said ‘they are waiting for you’, so when she reached the office, she was surprised to see not only Mr Richard sitting there, but also his father, Mr Brinsley Stokes.
The two men half rose from their seats as she stepped through the door. How polite they are, she thought, irrationally at such a moment, to get up out of their chairs for the likes of me.
‘Sit down, my dear,’ Mr Brinsley said. His voice was deep and his eyes were filled with concern. ‘Mr Carpenter has told us something of the recent tragic events in your life.’
This was the first time Eveleen had been really close to the man who had been her mother’s sweetheart and lover. This was the man who had caused her mother so much pain, who had deserted her when she had needed him the most. And, although he couldn’t possibly know it, his show of kindness towards Mary’s daughter now felt like a further act of betrayal to the girl.
He was more than twenty years too late.
‘I’m sorry you’ve been troubled, sir. I thought Mr Carpenter might be able to help me. That’s all. I didn’t intend him to worry you with my problems.’ Her hostile glance included Richard. ‘Either of you.’
Father and son glanced at each other and then Mr Brinsley cleared his throat and leant towards her, resting his arms on the desk. ‘But we would both like to help you, my dear. Please believe me. Now, I’ve asked my solicitor to find out what all the legalities are so that you can keep the child and bring her up as your own.’
‘I can’t afford fancy solicitor’s fees.’ Eveleen knew she was being unfair. The man sitting before her couldn’t know who she was or even begin to guess at the reason for her rudeness.
‘Don’t concern yourself about the cost,’ he said gently. ‘We’ll see to all that.’
Eveleen’s chin defiantly went a little higher and there was no hint of the gratitude that should have been there in her tone. ‘Thank you, sir, but I’ll manage.’ As long as it doesn’t cost more than a farthing, she thought dryly.
Her antagonism was fuelled by Richard saying, ‘I told you she’d be prickly, Father.’
Eveleen glanced at him and felt her mouth tighten. If you only knew, she thought. I could wipe that smile off your face in five seconds flat.
Brinsley cleared his throat. He shuffled some papers on Josh’s desk unnecessarily and was obviously ill at ease. ‘There’s something I would like to ask you, my dear. I hope you don’t mind?’
Eveleen knew she was in no position to refuse, so she sat there, her face like a thundercloud, while he struggled to find the right words. ‘Er – the names Mr Carpenter gave us. Well, I just wanted to ask you. Er . . .’ Still he did not seem able to phrase the question.
With blinding clarity, Eveleen suddenly realized what he was trying to say, but she kept silent. She took pleasure in seeing the man struggle.
‘Your mother, Mary?’ His dark eyes were looking directly into Eveleen’s. ‘Was her name really Mary Singleton before she married?’
Eveleen nodded, watching him closely. ‘Yes,’ she said with deliberate emphasis on every word. ‘She used to live in Flawford in Singleton’s Yard in what they call Ranters’ Row.’
She was quite unprepared for the effect her words had. There was such a look of longing and of loss deep in Brinsley Stokes’s eyes. The colour drained from his face, leaving it ashen. His hands, still lying on the desk, trembled and he seemed, suddenly, to find difficulty in breathing.
‘Father? Father, are you all right?’ Richard was bending over him, his hand already on the older man’s shoulder.
Brinsley waved one hand and said huskily, ‘Yes, yes, I’m fine.’
He pulled in a painful deep breath and looked straight into Eveleen’s wide-eyed gaze. Now it was Eveleen’s turn to pull in a sharp breath. She was shocked to see unshed tears brimming in the man’s eyes.
Brinsley closed his eyes and sighed. ‘It must be,’ he murmured more to himself than to anyone else. ‘It can’t be a coincidence. It must be her.’
‘Oh it is, Mr Stokes.’ She could not stop the words spilling out of her mouth, could not hide the years of resentment against him. ‘It is the girl you deserted and left pregnant more than twenty years ago.’ Bitterly, thinking of Jimmy, she added, ‘It seems as if history repeats itself in our family.’
Richard’s hand was still resting on his father’s shoulder and she saw it tighten, but at this moment she dare not meet the younger man’s eyes. She kept her hostile gaze directed solely at Brinsley Stokes.
He was staring back at her, his colourless lips slightly parted in a gasp. ‘Deserted? And – pregnant? Mary was – pregnant?’ His face worked, threatened to crumple as he whispered, ‘You say she was expecting a child? My child?’ Even Eveleen, determined to detest this man, to make him suffer as much as it was in her power to do so, could not fail to hear the incredulity in his tone.
All the anger and the hurt against him, and now Jimmy too, seemed to boil up inside her. ‘Don’t try to tell me you didn’t know.’ Remembering the more recent denial by her brother, she added, ‘Don’t you dare to say it wasn’t yo
urs.’
He was shaking his head in bewilderment. ‘I didn’t know about the child. I swear I didn’t. But no,’ he added hoarsely. ‘I’m not going to deny that it’s mine.’
‘Oh!’ That, more than anything, surprised her.
He leant on the desk and buried his face in his hands and groaned aloud.
‘Father,’ Richard was anxious now. He turned angry eyes towards Eveleen. ‘I think you’d better leave.’
Brinsley looked up. ‘No, no. I’m fine.’ He patted his son’s hand that still rested on his shoulder. ‘Really.’ Then, suddenly brighter and with renewed spirit, Brinsley began to flash questions at Eveleen. ‘How is she? Is she well? And the child? Was that – is that you?’
Eveleen shook her head. ‘No, she had a baby boy.’ Still needing to twist the knife that she had already plunged in deep, she said, ‘She gave birth to him in a ditch with only a gypsy woman to hold her hand.’ Her voice flat, she added, ‘The child died and my mother nearly died too.’
He was shaking his head again. ‘And I never knew.’ He was gazing at Eveleen as if trying to find a likeness in her features to his lost love. ‘I must see her. Do you think she will see me?’ The yearning in his tone was evident and against her will Eveleen found her resolve to hate him begin to crumble.
He sounded sincere. If she let herself, she could almost believe that what he said was true. That he had not known about her mother’s pregnancy. But even yet she was not prepared to forgive. ‘I was told you went away. That you left her.’
‘I – did. My parents arranged for me to go away to London to learn other aspects of our trade. But I explained all that to Mary in a letter. I wrote to her time and again . . .’ His voice faded away as realization came to them all. ‘She never got the letters, did she?’
‘I don’t know,’ Eveleen said truthfully, ‘but it sounds very unlikely.’
‘But what happened? Why – why did she – have to give birth in such dreadful circumstances? I don’t understand.’
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