Miranda gasped. ‘It’s a fairy-tale carriage.’
‘But not very comfortable,’ Caroline added. ‘The queen says it creaks like an old galleon, and it’s very poorly sprung, which means that you feel every bump in the road. It was made in 1762, almost three hundred years ago.’
Miranda was awed. ‘It’s so anachronistic that it’s almost spellbinding.’
The carriages kept coming, open and closed, large boat-like structures and small high-perched ones, a succession of opulence and flamboyance, the old-fashioned tradition making modern practicality seem cheap and mundane.
‘The royal family owns over a hundred of them, but only twenty-seven are going to be in the coronation. The rest are stored in Windsor Castle.’ Seeing Miranda’s confusion, Annabel added, ‘That’s the queen’s castle just west of London.’
After a couple of circuits, the carriages began to turn back to the barracks amid a torrent of cheers from the crowd. Caroline spotted a few faces from the palace, including Miss Driscoll, and, eager to leave, she looked through the throng for the path.
And that was when she saw him.
There, not far from them in the crowd, was Angus. Not only that, but he was walking in their direction, heading toward the Underground station, weaving through the onlookers.
Turning her back to him, she stepped in front of Annabel, hoping that his attention would be so fixed on the parade that he wouldn’t see them. Even a glance of Annabel would tell him that she was his daughter.
As he drew close, it appeared that he hadn’t seen them.
But then suddenly he turned, his face meeting hers full on, drawing to a surprised halt as he took her in. It was only moments before he sawthe girl behind her, the movement of her auburn hair as she chattered to Miranda.
Immediately, he stepped towards them.
Staggering back, Caroline grabbed her daughter’s hand and pulled her into the crowd, hurrying them across the road into a busy shopping area. Behind them, she heard Miranda calling for her to slow down.
‘Mum, what are you doing?’ Annabel tried to tug her hand away as Caroline dragged her into a department store.
It was only when they were safely in the haberdashery aisle that Caroline’s heart began to slow. She managed to convince Annabel that she had to buy some fabric for Lucy’s new dress and sent her off to find the best one, while Miranda caught up, losing no time in getting to the subject at hand.
‘The man you saw, is he related to Annabel?’ she whispered.
Caroline gave a slow nod. ‘You have to promise never to breathe a word.’
‘She’s not Frank’s?’
‘Please don’t judge me.’ Caroline wove her fingers into a tight ball. ‘Angus and I were going to be married when he left for war. Then he vanished, and when I found out I was pregnant, I didn’t have any other choice but to accept Frank’s proposal.’
‘Does Frank know?’ Miranda paused, her eyes narrowing in thought. ‘Ah, yes, of course he does. It’s all starting to make sense.’ She nodded sagely. ‘And please don’t worry about me being judgemental. I don’t care about petty notions like chastity and virtue. Those rules are only there to make sure women don’t step out of line.’
‘But what I did was wrong. I got pregnant before I was married. I can only be grateful that Frank saved me.’
‘Don’t think he did this out of generosity, Caroline. I saw the way he is, how he reminded you to finish the extra mending, how he insisted you were home in time to make his lunch. He got a free maid in return, someone he could control.’
Caroline frowned. ‘He’s a good man, Miranda. We even made avow not to tell anyone about Annabel’s real father. He was willing to draw a veil over it, pretend the child was his.’
‘I know you want to believe that he’s honourable, Caroline, but when he made you vow not to tell anyone, wasn’t that convenient for him, too?’
‘Does it matter? My father would have been devastated if he found out. It would have broken his heart – not to mention how miserable my life would be if people knew.’
‘But what about your heart, Caroline?’ She gestured wildly in the general direction in which Angus had vanished. ‘If the love of my life had survived the war, if Jack had returned for just one single day, I would go to the ends of the earth to be with him.’ Her voice shook, raw with uncharacteristic emotion. ‘Regardless if it meant leaving a man who may or may not have helped me in some small way.’
‘But I have to think of Annabel. Frank is down as her father on her birth certificate, and if I left, he could keep her. I can’t risk losing her. Things may not be perfect as they are, but we are a family, with a roof over our heads.’ She took a breath. ‘What counts, Miranda, is that I’m still alive, getting through this.’
‘Are you though?’ Miranda scrutinized her. ‘Are you really living?’
A needle of pain went through her, and her eyes met Miranda’s. Gently, she said, ‘I could ask the same of you.’
Annabel’s voice came from the aisle, and there she was coming towards them, a bolt of lilac cloth held aloft. ‘What about this one, Mum?’
