Far From My Father's House by Elizabeth Gill

Author:Elizabeth Gill [Gill, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General, Sagas
ISBN: 9781784299903
Google: 2gphBQAAQBAJ
Amazon: 1784299901
Publisher: Hachette UK
Published: 2013-01-30T16:00:00+00:00

Nineteen

When Irene awoke her first morning in Seaton Town she did not even imagine that she was at her aunt’s, she was too comfortable for that. She remembered that it was Sunday, she remembered that it was Christmas Eve. She turned over, luxuriating in the warmth of her bed and then she realised that she was in the pitman’s house and she opened her eyes and got hastily out of bed.

The kettle was singing by the time she made her way down the treacherously steep stairs. Mary Ann turned smiling from the fire. Irene didn’t know what to say.

‘I’m sorry to have put you to such trouble and at Christmas too.’

A polite woman would have said that it was no trouble, leaving Irene feeling no better but Mary Ann came over and said, ‘You need a cup of tea, lass, sit yourself down and don’t fret.’

When the tea was poured Mary Ann sat with her.

‘Now,’ she said, ‘they’re both out. I want you to tell me what happened.’

‘There isn’t much to tell. My father wanted me to marry Robert Denham and I didn’t want to. He took it for granted that I would and he became very upset about it when I refused.’

‘Why didn’t you want to wed him?’

‘He’s very nice of course but . . .’

‘He wasn’t as nice as a certain pit lad we won’t name.’

Irene blushed but she said stoutly, ‘David’s not a pit lad.’

‘He is now, my girl—’

‘He was going to be an engineer. He was good too—’

‘I wouldn’t get your hopes up. He’s lucky to have work at all.’

‘I know.’

‘This Robert Denham,’ Mary Ann said slowly, ‘a gentleman, was he?’

‘Yes.’

‘Money?’

‘Oh yes, lots of that.’

‘A job?’

‘He’s a solicitor.’

‘Nice family?’

‘Very nice.’

‘And you turned him down for a lad who had no name, no family, no job, no money and didn’t even care about you? Eh, lass, you want your head read.’

‘I couldn’t help it. I knew David didn’t care about me, he told me about his girl at home. He went back to ask her to marry him and she was already engaged to somebody else.’

‘Aye, I know. That’s my granddaughter. Her parents would never have let her marry him.’

‘But he had a good job and—’

‘He lost it.’

‘That was because of me. When my father found out that I wouldn’t marry Robert because of David he threw him out. It was my fault he lost his job.’

‘And your father sent you away?’

‘To stay with my aunt in Newcastle. I was very unhappy there but I had nowhere else to go.’

‘So you asked Blake to bring you here?’

‘No, I wouldn’t have done that. It was his idea. He took me out for tea and then my aunt saw us outside and he could see what she was like. He wouldn’t let me go back in.’

‘You love Blake?’

‘He doesn’t care about me, Mrs McLaughlan. You said yourself—’

‘I think in the circumstances you’d better call me Mary Ann. You’re obviously no better than the rest of us. There’s a saying that goes something like – “be careful what you wish for, the gods might grant it”.

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