The Black Candle by Catherine Cookson

Author:Catherine Cookson [Cookson, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781780360430
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

‘Well, if the questions are annoying, I’m likely to do the same.’

She came close to his side now and put her hand through his arm, saying, ‘They’re not annoying, Daddy. Can’t we take a walk outside?’

‘No, we can’t, dear. Look, I am very, very busy. This is an important order and it has to be completed in a certain time.’

When his daughter withdrew her hand from his arm and turned away, he quickly caught her shoulder and said, ‘Come around here,’ and drew her round to the other side of the table and, sitting down on a long wooden form, he said, ‘Well, fire away. What is it you want to ask me?’

‘You won’t be mad at me?’

‘That all depends.’

‘Well, I don’t care if you are mad at me as long as you answer my question.’

‘And that all depends, too, I mean whether I answer your question. But, go on, ask it.’

‘Well…and’—now she was sticking her finger into his chest—‘I don’t listen in to people talking, and I don’t do it on purpose; but I have sharp ears…well, what I mean is, I can distinguish birds’ songs and…oh’—she shook her head—‘what I’m going to say is, I heard you and Mammy talking. She had got a letter from the man called Bright, and she told you your father was bedridden.’

He stopped her here, nodding and saying, ‘All right, all right, you listened in, and my father’s bedridden. Yes, he’s been bedridden for a long time. Now what are you going to make of that?’

She looked down towards the grit-covered floor and her voice was small as she said, ‘I didn’t know until then that I have a grandfather and…and I thought it would be nice to see him. Other girls talk of their grandmothers and grandfathers and they seem to like them.’ Her head jerked up, an action immediately reminiscent of Bridget, and the look on her face and the sound of her voice could have been Bridget’s, as she said, ‘Why don’t you visit him? Why don’t you take me? And, too, I am supposed to have an uncle there who is your brother, and his wife is related to Mammy. It’s all very puzzling. People have quarrels and rows in families but they get over them. I…I am ten and a half, Daddy, and I’ve never seen my relations.’

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