‘I see,’ said Roddy thoughtfully. ‘And now you feel you can’t do it, that you’re trapped by the promise you made to Allegra?’
‘I wouldn’t say trapped exactly, but certainly outmanoeuvred by such a tragic turn of events.’
‘You could employ the services of a first-class nanny and still go off and do your bit.’
‘No, I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t abandon Allegra’s baby into the care of somebody else right away. And this may surprise you – it certainly surprises me – but I have to admit to possessing more feelings of a maternal persuasion than I would have ever thought possible. Which all adds up to a desire to do the best I possibly can.’
‘I applaud you for your altruism, and I have no doubt that Jack would too. But what about your writing? You will still keep that up surely? Your readers would be very disappointed if you stopped. Not to say your publisher.’
‘Oh yes, I shall continue writing, and to that end I shall find a way that enables both Hope and myself to pursue our work.’ Romily kept to herself that she thought she knew just the person to help in that respect.
‘You have it all worked out by the sounds of things,’ said Roddy.
‘Not by a long chalk, but I feel that to a degree, Jack left me custodian of his family, so all I’m doing is trying to honour the faith he had in my ability to succeed where, of his own admission, he failed.’
After she’d waved Roddy off from the station platform, Romily returned to her car and started for home.
She was halfway there when she spotted Arthur in a taxi on the other side of the road, presumably heading towards the station and the next train for London. He gave her what she could only describe as a sardonic wave of the hand. She had exchanged no more than a few words with him and was sorry to say she didn’t care if she never set eyes on him again. Her custodianship of Jack’s family stretched only so far. Yet even as she thought this, and acknowledging that Arthur had made the effort to attend Allegra’s funeral, she had to consider the chance that there was perhaps a very small shred of decency to be found within Jack’s eldest child.
She continued on for a few yards, then had a sudden change of mind. Instead of returning to Island House, she would go to Winter Cottage to check on the house.
She left the car by the gate and went round to the back of the cottage, knowing that Allegra had kept a key hidden under a flowerpot. But the key wasn’t there. She looked around for another suitable hiding place, and then, out of curiosity, she tried the door. To her surprise, it opened. How strange, she thought. Had somebody been here before her and taken the key away with them? But seeing the key in the lock on the inside, she closed the door behind her and ventured further into the cottage.
‘Hello?’ she called out. ‘Is there anybody here?’
There was no audible reply, but there was the unmistakable sound of movement upstairs. On the kitchen table there were signs of somebody having recently eaten there – an opened tin of corned beef with a fork sticking out of it, together with a half-empty glass of water, gave the impression of an improvised meal of sorts.
She moved towards the spiral staircase, picking up a china vase from the dresser, and called out again with fearless authority: ‘I know there’s somebody up there. Come down now and make yourself known.’
Footsteps sounded again over her head, and as she gripped the china vase, a grubby face appeared at the top of the staircase.
‘Stanley!’
Chapter Fifty-Seven
‘Please don’t be angry, miss, I didn’t mean no harm. It’s just that I missed Bobby. I missed Island House too. And school with Miss Flowerday.’ His words tumbled out of him in a hurried rush.
‘I’m not cross with you, Stanley, far from it,’ said Romily. ‘But you did give me a terrible fright just now. How long have you been hiding here? And how did you know the cottage would be empty?’
‘I got here late in the night after getting the last train from London. I kept my fingers crossed that Miss Allegra would still be with you at Island House. I knew where she kept a key and I walked over the fields so no one would see me. Only trouble was, it was so dark I got lost and then I fell in a ditch and got all wet and muddy.’ He grinned. ‘I’d forgotten how bloomin’ muddy the countryside is.’
Romily smiled too. ‘Well, that certainly explains the filthy state of your clothes. We’ll have to get those laundered, and then we’re going to have to think what we’re going to do with you.’
‘You ain’t gonna send me back to me mum, are you? You can’t do that. I won’t go back!’
Romily raised a hand to calm him. ‘For now, let’s not talk about that. Far more important to me is when did you last eat properly?’
‘I found a tin of peaches and some corned beef in the larder last night. There weren’t nothing else, other than some flour and sugar. ’ow’s Miss Allegra? ’as the baby come now?’
Romily drew in her breath and braced herself. ‘I’m afraid I have bad news,’ she said at length. ‘Allegra died after having the baby. We held her funeral today.’
Stanley’s jaw dropped and his eyes widened. ‘But she can’t be. Not bleedin’ dead! Not ’er!’
‘That’s how we all feel. We’re in a state of shock.’
‘What about the baby?’
‘It’s a girl and she’s beautiful, just like … just like her mother.’ Grief welled up inside Romily with a painful suddenness. All day she had kept her emotions in check, but now, explaining to Stanley what had happened, and seeing the look of shocked disbelief on his grubby face, it pierced the veneer of self-control she had mastered for the funeral. His reaction, so raw in its sincerity, brought home to her how close they had all become at Island House. Even a ten-year-old boy had been touched by knowing Allegra for so short a time.
