Hope smiled at Florence. ‘Romily’s right, you’d be perfect. Annelise would hate the idea of a stranger playing with her or putting her to bed now.’
‘But what about my other duties? I’m not lazy, Miss Romily, you know that, but there’s only so much time in the day. As it is, there are things I have to skimp on.’
‘I’ll vouch for how busy she is,’ said Mrs Partridge. ‘She never stops all day.’
‘I know,’ said Romily, ‘and that’s why I’m going to advertise for somebody to take your place and carry out your old duties, Florence. I wouldn’t expect you to look after three children, especially not a tiny baby, and do everything else as well. As you all know, I promised Allegra personally that her daughter would be loved and well cared for, and I fully intend to learn on the job and do my fair share of looking after Isabella. So it won’t all be on your shoulders, Florence. But your help, should you agree to this, will allow Hope and me to continue with our work.’
Mrs Partridge patted Florence’s hand. ‘I’ll help you all I can, love, you know I will.’
‘Me too,’ said Hope. ‘We’ll pool our resources, just as a family should. Because that’s what we are, aren’t we? A family.’
Romily smiled at Hope, who was suddenly blushing. ‘I couldn’t have put it better myself,’ she said.
‘Does this mean you think Stanley is going to stay with us permanently?’ asked Florence.
‘Permanently might be too strong a word to use, but after what you’ve told me this evening about the burns on his body, I shall move heaven and earth to keep him here with us for as long as possible. Don’t ask me how; I haven’t got that far yet. And who knows, maybe his mother won’t come looking for him again.’
After taking a sip of her tea, she said, ‘I have other changes in mind also. We have no idea how long the war will go on for, and with Finland now in the hands of the Russians, more rationing on the way and goodness knows what else to emerge in the coming weeks and months, I’ve decided that we should make more of an effort to economise and cut back on things. I’m sure it won’t be long before coal is rationed, so we’ll shut up any bedrooms not in use and we shan’t use the dining room any more. That will mean fewer rooms to heat and clean. We’ll eat our meals here in the kitchen – that’s if you don’t object, Mrs Partridge, this being your territory. It makes good sense to scale things back.’
‘You’ll hear no objections from me,’ said Mrs Partridge, ‘after all, it is your house.’
‘It’s our house,’ Romily said firmly, ‘our home.’
That night before she got into bed, Florence wrote to Billy. Her last letter had been to tell him about Allegra’s death; now she wrote and told him that she was to be a nursery nurse and that Miss Romily was going to increase her wages. I’ll be able to save even more now for our home together when you eventually come back, she wrote.
She also told him about Stanley running away from his mother and Bobby’s joy at being reunited with him. I swear that if that dog could sing, he would be singing from the rooftops how pleased he is to have Stanley back with us.
She finished her letter by telling Billy to take care, and that if he saw Elijah, he was to let him know that Isabella was well and growing just as she should be.
Funny, she thought, when at last she got into bed and turned out the light, life just kept on surprising her. Every day seemed to bring something new for them at Island House. What would be next? she wondered as she drifted off to sleep.
Chapter Fifty-Nine
‘I see that evacuee is back, then,’ said Elspeth Grainger, looking out of the window of the Cobbles Tea Room onto the busy market square. Her gaze was hooked on one passer-by in particular, the woman pushing a pram with a boy and dog at her side.
‘You’d think his mother would have more sense than to allow him to return to such a household,’ said Edith Lawton.
‘It’s the baby I feel sorry for, growing up in a house of sin. God help her,’ joined in Ivy Swann. ‘Motherless and as good as fatherless.’
‘And of course Elijah Hartley isn’t the child’s father; heaven only knows who is.’
‘Personally I’d say the child is better off without that flighty Italian piece as her mother.’
Their gaze still on the woman pushing the pram, Elspeth said, ‘It didn’t take long for Jack Devereux’s widow to start making eyes at another man, did it?’
Nods of agreement followed, and then:
‘He was at the girl’s funeral,’ said Ivy, ‘bold as brass, I heard. You’d think she’d be more discreet.’
‘Women of that sort are without shame. They just do as they please.’
‘And look where it gets them.’
The three women tutted in mutual disgust.
Well aware that the coven was keenly observing her, Romily was on her way to see Dr Garland.
Florence had offered to take Stanley to the doctor, but Romily had thought it better that she do it herself; after all, it was she who was going to fight on behalf of the boy if his frightful mother came back for him. If possible, she wanted to have Dr Garland on her side, and she would also involve Constable Ashwood if push came to shove. Her hope was that Mrs Nettles would guess exactly where Stanley had gone and would be too lazy to make the journey a second time. She strongly suspected that by rights she should notify the authorities that Stanley was at Island House, but for now she was prepared to flout the law.
