‘Please, Faith, never run away again,’ he pleaded.
‘I will move, though. I want a house where I can open a nursery. I won’t be moving very far, just to a house large enough for my plans.’ She looked serious and went on. ‘When I do I want to ask Ethel Holland to help. Like me she has had a sad life since the tragedy she suffered when she was little more than a child. People still blame the woman in these cases and she’s had to live with that shame and guilt for so long. I want to help her realize her worth, give her confidence.’
‘That’s a wonderful idea. But don’t think about moving away. What about my house? Didn’t you say it would be a perfect place for a nursery school?’
She hesitated, not sure what he was offering. He put his arms around her and said:
‘The house is large enough for lots of children, including ours.’
At once a picture of her tiny baby, a child she had abandoned, filled her heart with pain. ‘I don’t deserve to be happy,’ she said shaking her head.
‘Marry me, Faith. Our children will never make us forget your first-born,’ he whispered. ‘I’ll make you so happy you’ll never think of running, ever again.’
‘I’m sorry, Ian, but it’s too late. The time for loving is gone, swallowed up by your unhappiness and mine.’
‘I know we’ll be happy.’
‘Too much has happened.’
‘You could have the nursery school you dream of. A mother-in-law who’d be your friend. I love you, Faith.’
‘Surely love shouldn’t be so prosaic. It’s all too convenient.’
They were all exhausted by the events of the past hours and he kissed her gently and left.
‘’Ere, what’s been happening that I don’t know about?’ a voice called and Olive appeared, being dragged by the now enormous hound, Doris. ‘I’ve just been to see Kitty and Gareth and that lovely baby of theirs, surrounded by unpacked boxes they are, but as happy as you’d wish for them. Then,’ she went on, ‘then, I met someone who knew someone, whose auntie knows a man whose son is a policeman. Tell me, what have I missed?’ She listened to the story, punctuating it with lots of ‘Well I never’, and ‘Who’d have believed that?’ When it had all been explained she declared herself exhausted.
Faith didn’t hear from Ian for several days and she told herself she had been right to refuse his proposal. He hadn’t been sincere, it was a result of many things but not a passionate, undeniable love. The belief that she had been right to refuse him didn’t make her happy. She knew that for herself, being married to Ian would have been the start of a wonderful life, but the love she felt for him was all-consuming, deep and unselfish and she wouldn’t risk his unhappiness by accepting him while she doubted that it was best for him. If he still loved Tessa she wouldn’t prevent them being together. Marrying Ian would have been so right for her but she was afraid Ian was proposing for all the wrong reasons. She was certain he still loved Tessa.
Her unhappy childhood, with her lonely search for her family and someone who cared, had damaged her emotionally. It was Ian who had taught her to love but how could she spend her life as second best to a memory of his first love?
He came to the house on the following Wednesday afternoon to find her forcing her fork into the hard ground in an attempt to plant some forgotten spring bulbs. There were dried leaves in her hair which had fallen from its clips after she had reached into a hedge to clear some dead grasses. There was dried earth on her cheek and mud on her hands. He handed her an envelope and he was smiling. Something had changed, the look in his eyes was positive and filled with love, and with a rush of hope, she smiled back.
‘Plans for turning the ground floor into a nursery,’ he explained. ‘I had an architect draw them up but they are only a starting point. You and he can discuss them and he’ll make any changes you want.’
She opened them out on top of a wheelbarrow cautiously with the tips of grubby fingers and studied them, aware of him standing beside her, watching her and waiting for her reaction. ‘Any conditions?’ she asked, trying to stay calm. This was business, not a proposal.
‘Two. First, that you buy all your equipment from me. Second, that you marry me.’
She turned towards him and as she began to ask about Tessa, he took her in his arms, mud and all.
Much later, with the house filled with its usual visitors and guests, Faith looked around her at the smiling faces, all enjoying sharing their happiness. Paul and the children were there, having called to tell them the neighbour was taking on the children full time, or at least for the hours during which Paul needed to work. Olive was chatting to Mr and Mrs Gretorex, whose bungalow, when completed, would mean they would be her near neighbours.
‘We’re so happy in our caravan home, aren’t we, Doris?’ Olive said, and the huge dog gave a growling reply, which Olive insisted meant, Yes.
They had all needed her for a while, Faith mused, but now their lives were settled and it was right for her to move on. Not to run away, she thought happily, but to move on, to a new and wonderful life.
By the Same Author
Time to Move On
Copyright
© Grace Thompson 2008
First published in Great Britain 2008
This edition 2011
ISBN978 0 7090 9555 2 (ebook)
ISBN978 0 7090 9556 9 (mobi)
ISBN978 0 7090 9557 6 (pdf)
ISBN978 0 7090 8632 1 (print)
Robert Hale Limited
Clerkenwell House
Clerkenwell Green
London EC1R 0HT
www.halebooks.com
The right of Grace Thompson to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
The Runaway Page 27