Classic Bestsellers from Josephine Cox: Bumper Collection

Chapter 17 (#ulink_10107beb-f03f-5fd6-8274-af734d39beb8)

JUST AS SHE had done every afternoon for the past week, Emily climbed the stairs to the first floor of the infirmary. At the top she turned left and continued down the corridor, quickening her steps as she went.

In a matter of minutes she approached the ward. Weakened by the loss of blood but, thankfully, free from the dreaded septicaemia, which would have cost him his life, Danny was well on the way to recovery. During the first few days following his brutal fight with Clem Jackson, he had drifted in and out of consciousness, but now, thanks to good care and tending, he was regaining his strength.

As she thanked the nurse who was greeting the families at visiting time, Danny saw her and his face lit up. ‘Hello, sweetheart.’ He held out his arms for a kiss. ‘Home tomorrow, God willing.’ He beamed at his wife.

‘Don’t get your hopes up too high,’ Emily warned. ‘Wait until the doctor tells you himself.’

‘He already has.’ Danny explained how the doctor had been called away for some emergency or other. ‘He dropped in to see me … said he was so pleased with my progress, he might let me go home tomorrow. Matron should be round any minute to confirm it.’

Emily was delighted. ‘Oh, love! That’s such good news.’

His face was wreathed in smiles. ‘You’d best get the fatted calf out,’ he joshed. ‘They only feed you on carrots in here.’

Holding him for a moment, Emily kissed him with real affection. ‘I’ll go and find a vase for these daffs and sticky buds,’ she said. ‘I picked them from up Potts End Lane. Your dad helped me – and he sends his love. Cathleen can’t wait to have you back, nor can the rest of us, neither. See you in a minute, love. I want to be here when the matron comes.’

Without further ado she hurried away to search for a vase, but by the time she’d found one and got back to Danny, he was smiling all over his face. ‘I’ve missed her, haven’t I?’ Emily groaned. ‘All right, so what did she say? As if I couldn’t guess.’ His jubilant face told its own story.

‘I shall need my clothes tomorrow, ’cause I’m coming home,’ he said excitedly.

Emily was relieved but, ‘Don’t go getting all worked up and putting yourself back,’ she said. ‘And what about the stitches?’ He had twenty-one stitches in his side, and twelve in his leg. Apparently the gashes had been so deep there had been damage to the muscles. ‘Will you be able to get about all right?’

‘They’ve already made me walk slowly round the ward a few times,’ he told her, ‘but when I come home, I’m to use crutches. When I come back to have the stitches out, I should be off the crutches and walking unaided – that’s what I intend.’

‘You’ll do it. I know you will,’ Emily replied fondly. ‘As long as you take things easy and don’t damage the muscles any more than they are already.’

While he chatted, asking after the family and Michael in particular, Emily told him how good it was to have her father home again. ‘At first Mam gave him the tongue-wagging he deserved, and even Grandad had a lot to say … after he refused to talk to him for a whole day! It was so much for us all to take in, what with him walking in like a ghost and nearly giving Mam a heart attack, and then the fight with Uncle Clem,’ she shuddered, ‘and meeting his granddaughter and son-in-law for the very first time …’

She took a long, long breath. ‘They’re all right together now. Oh, Danny! Everything’s so wonderful. Once you’re home, it’ll be just perfect. I feel sure everything will go like clockwork now.’

In that moment, John came into her mind and she felt a pang of regret. Her father had told her of John’s part in his rehabilitation, getting him back to work and giving him the chance to regain his mental balance and his self-respect. ‘He’s wed now – a lovely lass named Rosie – an’ he’s building a good life for her and their bairns when they come.’

When Michael had come out with this, for a time Emily could think of nothing else, even though she had known about the other woman for years – ever since his letter. Emily still believed he had left her for someone else, all those years ago. She had cried bitter tears in secret, back up in the hayloft, and wondered how it could all have gone so wrong between her and John. But then she put it to the back of her mind, for it was too painful. And now, seeing her brave Danny so well, and knowing her mam and dad were reunited, thanks be to God, her heart was uplifted.

The following morning, there were celebrations to prepare. Cathleen and Emily had already hung fancy decorations in the barn, and Aggie was rolling up her sleeves to get the food started. The meat had been cooked last night and the jelly moulds put to set in the cold larder. Now it was time to get the cakes mixed and put in the oven.

Aggie had been up since early light, and now she was resting in the rocking-chair, a cup of tea in one hand and Mrs Beeton’s famous recipe book in the other. ‘I were thinking to make some of these fluffy pastry things,’ she said to her husband.

‘If you want my opinion, I’d stick to what you know best, lass.’

That was Michael, who had got out of bed soon after her and now, tousle-haired and more content than he had been in an age, was pouring himself a brew. ‘If I were you, my love, I’d throw that Beeton book in the oven and bake it. Nobody makes cakes like you,’ he told her loyally. ‘You’re the best cook around.’

Aggie laughed. ‘You allus were an old flatterer, Michael Ramsden,’ she said. ‘But you’re right. Happen I’ll stick to what I know best.’

‘That’s my woman,’ he murmured, coming to nibble her ear. ‘Listen to them as knows.’

She looked up at him then, and she thought of how he had gone away and left her to pick up the pieces. But she had never stopped loving him, and never would. Smiling back at him now, she held out her empty cup. ‘Make yerself useful and fill that up,’ she said with a wink.

Having done that he sat down with her and they talked of events just gone; mainly the demise of Clem Jackson. ‘He brought it on himself, but it’s a terrible way to go … being mauled to death by his own beasts.’ It would take Michael many a long year to forgive himself for leaving his elderly father and his womenfolk to the mercies of that warped and evil man.

‘He deserved every inch of what he got!’ Aggie had sworn her father-in-law to secrecy about her having been molested by Clem. But the bitterness and the loathing of that man, who had deflowered both her and Emily in their tender years, and then turned his eyes on the child … would live with her for ever. She thanked God for sparing young Cathleen any trace of a physical resemblance to that devil, and her heart ached for the lonely torment and public censure her poor daughter Emily had endured.

Michael saw the dark loathing on her face but mistook the reason for it. ‘He’s gone now, lass,’ he said, holding her hand tight. ‘Thanks to you, our Emily was kept safe. What’s more, it’s only a matter of time afore we get the farm back, you see if we don’t.’

‘Why does it all have to be so legal-like?’ Aggie wanted to know. ‘Clem’s dead, so we don’t owe him owt any more, seeing as he’d got no family but us. Why can’t we just take the farm back? It’s our farm, after all.’

For the umpteenth time, Michael explained. ‘When your brother first came here he did pay off all the debts, and so he had a hold on the farm. But then, as it turns out – and none of us knew this – he got into serious gambling. The debts piled up again. He then forged papers of ownership and such, and borrowed money against this place. It all has to be rectified, and it’s such a mess, the solicitor says it will take some considerable time.’

Aggie was not given to understanding legal stuff, and right from the first, there was one thing that played on her mind. ‘Will we lose Potts End, Michael? Tell me the truth.’

At the request of his aged father, Michael had taken on the responsibility of going through it all with the solicitor. ‘I have faith,’ he answered thoughtfully, ‘but we need to go about it in the right and proper way. In the end though, when rightful ownership is proved and the money’s paid back, thanks to the generous loan John Hanley has offered us, it should all come out right.’

Aggie nodded. ‘Please, God!’ she murmured, hands in prayer. ‘This farm is all we’ve got.’

Michael continued the conversation. ‘I only wish John’s loan was enough, but that evil bastard borrowed so much against this farm, we’ve had to take Danny’s offer of money as well. I know you’ve always refused it before.’ Ever an honest man, Michael was prepared to work his fingers to the bone to repay both men and with interest. ‘Both John and Danny say we’re to see their money as a gift, but I can’t do that.’

Aggie knew what he was saying and she was proud of him. In spite of that, she harboured reservations. ‘It’ll take years to pay back.’

‘I know – but I’ll do it. First Danny, because he and Emily will need a place of their own one day. Then John. Oh, I know he insists he doesn’t want or need the money, but my pride’s at stake here. I need to pay my dues.’

Aggie saw it differently. ‘Pride comes before a fall, or so they say.’

Michael picked up on her doubt. ‘What – you want me to take their money and never give it back?’

‘No. All I’m saying is, there’s no point in breaking yourself to pay it back. If John and Danny say it’s a gift, then it’s a gift because they love you and want to help you.’

‘Yes, lass, I know that. But like I say, I have my pride to think of. God knows I haven’t had much to be proud of so far.’

‘Listen to me, husband. They each have a business and neither of ’em are short of a bob or two. All I’m saying is, you have your pride I know that, and it’s good. But to my mind, the gift of friendship is more important.’

‘In what way?’

‘Well. If someone thinks enough of you to give you a gift, what might they think, if you can’t wait to give that gift back?’

Satisfied that her words had got Michael thinking, she deliberately changed the subject. ‘Come on!’ She clambered out of her chair. ‘I’ll get on with the baking while you get washed and changed. You look like the scarecrow outta the field. Besides, you’ve Danny to fetch home soon, don’t forget that.’

‘As if I could.’ He kissed her and went away, deep in thought. She had touched something in him, with her wise words about friendship and how Danny and John would feel if he threw it all back in their faces. ‘Happen she’s right,’ he murmured. ‘Happen pride doesn’t come before friendship, after all.’

When Danny limped through the door, early that afternoon, the cry went up. ‘Welcome home!’

Standing tall and straight, albeit throwing some of his weight onto the crutches, he beamed from ear to ear, his cheeks a slight shade of pink and a look of acute embarrassment on his face. ‘It’s good to be home,’ he said.

Aggie hugged him; Grandad shook him by the hand. ‘By! Yer a sight for sore eyes, so yer are,’ he exclaimed happily.

Cathleen held his hand and walked with him as he went to the armchair, and Emily watched the two of them with a strangeness in her heart. In her mind’s eye she could see John in her husband’s place and, for a little while, her thoughts were as muddled and painful as they’d ever been.

That afternoon, while the celebration tea was being set out, Grandad fussed about, wanting to wear this shirt, now that one. Then: ‘Why do I need to wear a smart shirt anyway – strangling mesel’ when I’d much rather be comfy? It’s only a party, after all.’