Ronnie was asking if he could bring Sarah and Anthony to stay with them and that gave a strong indication of his feelings. He so desperately wanted to protect her from her husband, soon to be her ex-husband, she hoped.
She folded the letter neatly and placed it back in the envelope. She now needed to talk to Albert, Jim and the girls about the prospect of having strangers in the house. There would be a lot to organise, not the least of which was how they would all sleep. She was excited, yet at the same time a little nervous. If and when Sarah’s divorce came through, then it was highly likely they would want to marry. But he would be committing himself to raising another man’s child. She calmed herself. No need to be anxious. Albert had managed it and managed it very well. Therewas no need to assume that the child would present difficulties. How history repeated itself!
That evening, Kate was preoccupied with her thoughts. Several times she dropped stitches in her knitting and needed to unpick. Her mind was working overtime. There just weren’t enough bedrooms. How best to introduce the idea to Albert and Jim? What would the girls say? She would talk to them separately. Best to find out the adults’ opinions first. She waited until the girls were in bed and then decided just to leap in and get it out in the open.
‘I have something I need to talk to you about,’ she said. ‘Now, I want you to listen to everything I have to say first before saying anything. I’ve had a letter from our Ronnie . . .’
She read the letter to them and waited for their response. There was a long pause. Albert was the first to speak.
‘I despise any man who hits his wife,’ Albert said.
‘Just you let him turn up here and I’ll show him the end of my shotgun,’ Jim added. ‘The end that does the serious damage.’
‘I agree with you, Jim,’ Albert said. ‘Of course, we’ll do all we can to help Ronnie, his young woman and her son.’
‘That’s settled then,’ Jim said.
‘I’ll talk to the girls about it in the morning. There will be practicalities to sort out that affect them. The question of bedrooms being one. I’ll write to him immediately and in the meantime, I’ll try to solve the question of how to accommodate them.’
Chapter 16
April 1938
When Ronnie explained the plan to Sarah, she was, at first, cautious. She worried that it would be an imposition upon the Truscott family, but accepted that it was for her own safety and Anthony’s. Ronnie reassured her that the family were looking forward to meeting her and arrangements were quickly made. Sarah bade her aunts a tearful farewell and they, in return, encouraged her to do what was best for her and Anthony.
A few weeks later, the carter’s wagon dropped the three travellers off at the road junction at the top of Frog Lane. Sarah took a deep breath of the fresh country air. A gust of wind shook the hawthorn bushes and a shower of white petals covered Sarah’s hair like bride’s confetti. Would she ever walk down the aisle with Ronnie? If only she’d met him years ago, but then she was with him now and that was all that mattered. Her stomach was turning somersaults. How would it all be? Would they like her? She didn’t want to be a nuisance. She would pull her weight, contribute to the household. No one could ever accuse her of being lazy.
Anthony took her hand and looked up at her with round, questioning eyes. It was expecting a lot of him, to settle into the life of another family. He would be nervous of meeting these strangers, she was sure. She was nervous and she could comfort herself with all the rational thinking of an adult. She was prepared for him to clam up and not be communicative for quite a while.
Ronnie took her hand and kissed her gently on the lips. She felt his reassurance flow through her.
‘It will be all right,’ he said, smiling at her. ‘They are going to love you as much as I do.’
He took their bags and they began the long walk down the road towards Mead Cottages. The patchwork quilt of the countryside spread out either side of the lane. They passed a small copse and the scent of wild garlic filled Sarah’s nostrils. The pungent aroma filled the air. She’d never smelled anything quite like it. Catkins jiggled like lambs’ tails in the breeze and the pollen tickled her nose. The sounds of bleating made Anthony perk up.
‘What’s that, Mummy?’ he asked Sarah.
‘Sounds like lambs calling for their mother,’ Sarah replied.
‘The lambing season is well underway by now,’ Ronnie said. ‘I’ll take you down to the Taylors’ farm and you can get closer to the lambs, Anthony. Sometimes something happens to the mother sheep and she can’t feed her lamb. It needs to be fed with a bottle. If you’re lucky, the Taylor sisters will let you hold the bottle and feed a baby lamb.’
Anthony looked up at his mother and beamed a huge grin.
It’s going to be all right, Sarah thought.
Suddenly there was a disturbance in the brambles tangled around either side of the lane. Ronnie signalled for them all to be still and quiet. A tiny creature emerged tentatively. It stopped in its tracks, as if hypnotised, and turned first this way, then the other. Its tiny, pointed nose twitched until it finally decided to hurry on and complete its crossing.
‘What was that?’ Sarah asked.
‘A shrew,’ Ronnie replied. ‘You don’t often see them. They’re so quick.’
‘I think you’re going to like it here, Anthony,’ Sarah said. ‘So many new things to find out about.’
Ronnie led them around the back of the house. He paused.
‘They should all be at home by now,’ he said.
He tapped briefly on the door before opening it. The warmth from the kitchen range wrapped around them and five pairs ofeyes immediately focused upon the three figures standing on the mat.
