An Orphan's Promise by Cathy Sharp

Author:Cathy Sharp [Sharp, Cathy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2020-03-26T17:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 23

‘I am so very sorry,’ Jenny said to the children after Sister Sonya had left. ‘I know what this must mean to you, and I know it hurts. I cried all the time for weeks when my mother died and I was older than either of you.’

Maisie was sobbing but Charlie looked at her dry-eyed. She saw what looked to be anger and hatred in his dark eyes and suspected that he was thinking of the man who had murdered their mother and ruined their lives. Jenny was under no illusions that Mrs Howes had been a perfect mother, but her children loved her.

‘I don’t know what I can do to help …’ Jenny said hesitantly. She was aware now, like most of the nurses, that he was living on the streets and visiting his sister when he could.

‘We want to be there when Ma is buried,’ Charlie said firmly. ‘She hadn’t got much but if her things are sold it might cover the cost of a proper funeral – I don’t want her shoved in a pauper’s grave. I know about them ’cos it happened to me neighbour.’

‘I’ll talk to Nurse Sarah and we’ll go round to your house and see what we can do,’ Jenny promised, her heart wrung by his pain and his bravery. ‘Promise me you will stay here now and let us help you? Matron won’t make you leave us until your mother is buried, Charlie. You can talk to her and decide what to do after the funeral – but stay here until then, will you, please?’

‘Ain’t got no choice if we’re goin’ ter bury Ma proper …’ He put his arm about Maisie’s shoulders, his expression proud. ‘We’ll be all right, nurse. You’ve got things to do …’

Jenny agreed, because she’d already spent more time with them than she ought, but their plight tugged at her heartstrings. She wasn’t sure what the situation would be with their mother’s things, because the house had been empty a long time. It might have been broken in to or the landlord could have helped himself if he hadn’t got his rent paid; such an action might not be legal, but landlords in the slum areas did pretty much as they liked.

Smothering a sigh, Jenny put her mind to her work. She wasn’t sure how much the cheapest funeral would cost but she and Sarah could organize a whip round if the children’s things didn’t raise enough to pay for a proper burial.

‘Stop crying, Maisie, and listen,’ Charlie said once the nurse had left them alone. ‘We shan’t be sent to that orphanage until after Ma’s funeral. When that’s over, we’ll scarper.’

‘Run away?’ Maisie’s eyes were red where she’d rubbed at them and her pretty face was blotchy. ‘I wish Ma was coming home, Charlie. I miss her!’

‘So do I,’ Charlie said, ‘but she’s gone, Maisie. We shan’t see her again – not until we die. Ma says we go to Heaven when we die so we’ll see her then but it will be a long time.

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