Classic Bestsellers from Josephine Cox: Bumper Collection

Danny nodded. ‘I understand. But I’ll not be far away, you can be sure of that. If you need me, just yell and I’ll be there in the wink of an eye.’

While Aggie hurried to the cottage, Danny went in search of Emily and Cathleen. He looked in the barn and they weren’t there. He peered into the other buildings and there was still no sign of them, not even when he called their names across the yard.

Growing anxious, he went in search of them further afield. And there they were, the two of them, playing in the orchard. Little Cathleen was running round the trees, screeching with delight, while her mammy came after her, making animal noises. Just then, Emily swept Cathleen into her arms, pretending to bite her. ‘No, Mammy! NO!’ Cathleen was in fits of laughter.

On seeing Danny she squirmed out of Emily’s grasp and ran to him. ‘Don’t let Mammy get me!’ She clung to his leg. ‘She wants to eat me all up!’

‘You’d best run then!’ Dropping her carefully to the ground he watched her run and hide behind a stack of straw, her little face peeking out and her eyes shining with merriment.

While she hid, Danny told Emily what had happened. ‘I’d best go up there,’ Emily said. ‘It might be that we’ll need to get the doctor after all.’

Danny persuaded her otherwise. ‘No. Your mam said to give her a few minutes then I was to go after her. I’ll go up there with Cathleen, my love. We’ll be back soon enough. Don’t worry.’

For the sake of the child, Emily agreed. ‘All right, but if you need me, come and get me.’ She felt guilty about Lizzie. It was rumoured in the village that she had not been too well of late, and yet she had still gone to visit John, though no one was sure where John was these days.

‘She’s had letters postmarked Liverpool,’ the postmaster had gossiped, but that was all anyone knew. Apart from something Lizzie had let slip to the man. ‘She said as how John had sent her the money to go and see him – some special event, from what I can make out, but she wouldn’t say no more than that. She only told me that much because she wanted me to take care of the stray cats while she was away, and she gave me a key to open the windows so the cottage wouldn’t get too damp.’

Emily had thought about John ever since. In the long, lonely years since he’d been gone, Lizzie had made her so unwelcome, that in the end she had given up trying to visit. But now the old woman was poorly, and she wanted to help if she could.

Apart from that, she needed so much to talk with Lizzie. In the morning, if all was well, she would go and see her, and maybe this time, John’s aunt would give her news of him at dear last. Emily hoped so, because for a long time now, she had been desperate to know how he was.

By the time Aggie arrived at the cottage, Lizzie was sound asleep. At first when there was no answer to her knocking, Aggie feared the worst, and when she inched open the door to find Lizzie slumped in the chair her heart sank to her boots. ‘Lizzie?’ She gently shook her. ‘It’s Aggie, come to see you.’ She shook her again. ‘Lizzie!’

Startled out of a deep sleep, Lizzie opened her eyes. ‘About time an’ all!’ To Aggie’s great relief, she sat up straight. ‘You took an age getting here, lass.’

‘I rushed over as quick as I could,’ Aggie told her. ‘But never mind that, I’m here now. So what have you been up to, eh? Travelling to God knows where and wearing yourself out. And why won’t you let the doctor come and see you?’ She was pleased to see how Lizzie had some colour in her cheeks and her eyes were bright enough, she thought. But there was something about Lizzie that worried her. ‘Where do you feel ill, love? Do you hurt?’ Waiting for an answer, she held Lizzie’s hand.

The other woman shook her head. ‘I’m just tired. Me every bone aches.’ Her old eyes twinkled. ‘And me feet are terrible sore. By! It was a long hard trek to get home.’

‘You shouldn’t have walked across the fields,’ Aggie chided. ‘Old Tom only lives a stride from the tram-stop. He’d gladly have brought you home on his cart. All you had to do was ask.’

Lizzie managed a laugh. ‘I’ve seen his old cart, and I wouldn’t fancy being jolted down the lane on that. It wouldn’t have been me feet that hurt, it would have been my poor backside. And you know how he likes to josh with the women. No, lass. I’m too old for all that.’ She pointed to her empty cup. ‘Is that milk you’ve got there, Aggie love? Ooh, I’d love a cup of tea! Get yourself one, while you’re at it.’

Aggie was puzzled. ‘Is that all you wanted me for, to sit and drink tea with you?’ she asked. ‘I ran all the way here when Danny told me you were badly. Lizzie, are you sure it’s me you need, and not a doctor?’

Lizzie nodded. ‘I told Danny I didn’t need no doctor, and I don’t. It’s you I need. Now then, do as you’re told, lass. Get the two of us a nice cuppa tea and sit yerself down. Yer’ll find biscuits in the tin wi’ the late Queen on the front, God bless her. That’s right, it’s in the pantry … Then come right back in, Aggie. There’s summat I have to tell you, and it can’t wait no longer.’

Intrigued, Aggie quickly did as she was bid.

Bringing the tea, Aggie gave Lizzie her cup and sat herself on the chair beside her. ‘No, lass. Go an’ sit on the sofa where I can see you,’ Lizzie instructed.

When Aggie moved to seat herself on the sofa opposite, Lizzie asked outright, ‘Do you think your Emily is happy, wed to Danny?’

Momentarily taken aback, Aggie thought for a minute. There had been many a time when she had asked herself that same thing. ‘She seems happy enough,’ she said guardedly.

‘Does she ever mention John?’

‘Sometimes, when the two of us are on our own. Though I’m sure he’s on her mind all the time.’

‘Do you think she and John would have been happy together?’ Lizzie needed to find out the answers to what was plaguing her.

Taking a deep breath, Aggie sighed. ‘She still loves him, I’m sure of that. But it’s no good speculating as to what might have happened, is it, Lizzie? If this … if that. What’s the use of it? John’s not here. Emily’s married to Danny, and they’re raising Cathleen as his daughter. Things would have been different, of course, if only John hadn’t done what he did. It was a great shock to Emily and I truly don’t think she’s ever got over it. But as far as I’m concerned, it’s all water under the bridge.’

Lizzie paused before embarking on the truth. ‘It could ’ave been different, lass,’ she murmured, ‘if only I hadn’t interfered.’

‘Now that’s silly talk, Lizzie. You mustn’t blame yourself.’ Aggie thought it a strange thing for the other woman to have said. ‘I don’t see how you could have changed anything,’ she said forthrightly. ‘Your John did a bad thing. He got my Emily with child, then went off and set up with some other woman. That wasn’t your fault. You couldn’t have foreseen that, any more than I could.’

Lizzie thought there was only one way to say it, and she did. ‘He did come back for his Emily. He loved her, y’see … still does, I reckon.’ She paused, knowing she would shock Emily’s mam with what she was about to divulge. ‘He didn’t go away on his own accord,’ she blurted out. ‘The letter I delivered to Emily was all a lie … there was no other woman. Y’see, it were me as sent him away.’

‘What?’ Aggie was suddenly bolt upright on the sofa. ‘What are you saying? I don’t understand. Why would he write that he’d found some other woman, if he hadn’t? And why did you send him away?’

‘It wasn’t easy, but he was shocked and hurt when he saw Emily with Danny and Cathleen. I lied to him. I told him they were happily married, that Cathleen was Danny’s child. I convinced him that going away was the only thing to do. I did it, because I didn’t want him taking on the responsibility of another man’s child.’ There! It was said and there was no going back.

Aggie almost leaped out of her chair. ‘That’s nonsense and well you know it!’ Bearing in mind that the old woman was poorly, Aggie tried to keep calm. ‘Everybody knows the child was John’s.’

Lizzie shook her head. ‘Gossip,’ she said. ‘Vicious gossip.’

‘Did John tell you that?’ Aggie asked angrily. ‘Did he claim he wasn’t the father?’

‘He thought the child was Danny’s.’

Aggie was trying hard to keep control. ‘But why in God’s name would he think that?’

‘Because I told him so.’

It was all too much for Aggie. Dropping back on the sofa, she said in a quiet voice, ‘Lizzie, tell me something, will you?’

‘That’s what I’m trying to do, lass.’

‘You’re saying that Cathleen is not John’s child, and that John believed Danny was the father. Have I got that right?’

Lizzie nodded.

‘So John denied being the father, did he?’

‘He didn’t need to. I already knew he wasn’t.’

‘How could you possibly know that?’

‘Because Emily …’ Remembering her promise to the girl, she hesitated. Then: ‘Because your lass told me so herself. She made me promise I would never tell, but I reckon it’s time you knew the truth.’

For a long, shocked moment, Aggie fell silent. Then she asked: ‘Is that the God’s honest truth? Emily told you herself that John was not the father?’

‘As God is my judge.’

There was another long silence. Aggie simply could not understand why Emily should confess that to Lizzie, while all the time letting her own mother and family believe that John was Cathleen’s father. It was too upsetting. Moreover, it posed yet another question, which she had to ask. ‘So who is Cathleen’s father? Did she tell you that?’

Lizzie shook her head. ‘No, lass. I did ask, but she wouldn’t tell me.’ Lizzie remembered the very day when Emily had cleared John of having got her with child. ‘All I know is, she stood in this very room and told me that John was not to blame. When I asked her who was the father, she sort of panicked.’ Lizzie recalled how Emily had rushed off, unwilling to stay and talk. ‘She seemed frightened – refused to be drawn on the matter, other than to clear John’s name.’