Rough Clay by Chrissie Loveday

Author:Chrissie Loveday
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: AudioGo Limited
Published: 2012-09-09T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

It wasn’t until the August of 1936 that Dora knew for certain that she was pregnant. She was overjoyed and on their wedding anniversary, the two of them went out for a special dinner. She broke the news to Archie, tears of joy filling her eyes. A flicker of alarm crossed his face but he managed to smile.

‘You are pleased aren’t you?’ Dora asked anxiously.

‘Course I am. If it makes you happy, then I’m delighted. My, my. A Dad. Fancy me being a Dad.’

‘I’d like to go and see your parents. Tell them the news. They’ll want to know they’re going to be grandparents, don’t you think? It’s their right to know.’

‘I s’pose so.’ Over the years Archie had grown so accustomed to his parents’, or rather his mother’s, lack of interest in anything that he’d almost given up including them in any news. ‘We’ll go over at the weekend.’

‘You’d better send a card to say we’re coming or they might be out.’

‘I suppose so.’ He had never admitted his mother’s difficulty with reading but went along with her suggestion. Always better to give a warning than to drop in unannounced. At least his Dad and William would be pleased to see them. Archie’s brother was now eighteen and had got himself a job at the pithead. It was a bit of a dead end but it earned him some money and he knew he could always look for something else when the time was right.

Mary and Harry were delighted with the news, though Mary claimed she had known for some weeks.

‘I could tell. Something about a woman when she’s pregnant. Besides, I thought she was looking a bit on the plump side.’

‘I never am,’ Dora protested. ‘Am I?’

‘You look wonderful to me,’ Archie told her. ‘But hadn’t you better think about giving up work? You don’t want to be on your feet all day, do you? You’ll have to take care of yourself.’

‘Don’t fuss. I’m not ill. Just expecting.’ Her smile of delight was enough to settle his fears, at least for the time being.

The visit to see Archie’s parents was planned for the following Sunday. They drove over after lunch, thinking that their reception might be slightly better if a meal wasn’t involved. The street looked as dingy as ever. Archie gazed round at the cobbles and the grey gutters, dirty houses, so stained that the bricks could scarcely be seen. He couldn’t help comparing it with their own tree-lined road. They were high up and far enough away from the grime of the factory chimneys and the pit head fires to feel as if the air was clean. Here in his parents’ own locality the black was so ingrained into the fabric of the buildings that nothing could ever make them clean. He knocked at the door and waited. It seemed strange to be knocking on the front door of his old home. Somehow, it didn’t feel right to walk round the back and push their way in through the gate.

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