The Hidden Years by Penny Jordan

Author:Penny Jordan
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: 0
Published: 2012-10-22T00:00:27.890000+00:00

'She had a baby, a little girl,' his mother told him quietly. 'A pretty little thing, she was. I think I must have been about fifteen at the time. She and Robert still lived here then. She was a pretty girl, Nora… always one to like a bit of a laugh and a joke with the boys… Bit of a flirt, like, some said.

'Anyway it seems she'd gone for a walk along the cliff and she'd taken the baby with her in the pram. Only while she was up there she'd met this lad, whether by accident or on purpose I don't really know. They got chatting and she must have forgotten to put the brake on the baby's pram, because the next thing they knew it was rolling towards the edge of the cliff. They tried to stop it, but it was too late. It was a full tide, and a good two-hundred-foot drop over the cliff there… The poor little mite had no chance really…

'Totally changed Nora, it did… Took to wandering along the cliff top late at night crying and wringing her hands. She had to be sent away for a while to a special hospital…' She gave a brief shake of her head. 'It's a terrible thing to happen to a woman, that… Poor woman, indeed. God willing, she's at peace now.'

'And Robert—Mr Cavanagh. How did he…?'

'Well, Robert was heartbroken… Fair doted on the child he did and no mistake, but it's different for a man…'

'And did they have any more children?' Daniel wanted to know. His mother shook her head.

'She couldn't, see… something went wrong when she had the first and the doctors told her then that there wouldn't be any more. That's what made it so hard for her.'

It was only later that Daniel recognised that this conversation with his mother had marked a turning point in his life: that she was now treating him as a co-adult and not a child, that with the removal of his father from their lives he had now become the man of the family.

Later, looking back, that summer in Wales was one of the happiest in his life.

The twins, his cousins, Andrew and Anthony, although almost two years his senior, welcomed his company.

The small town had no senior school, there weren't many other young adults in the town, and their nearest friends lived in Aberystwyth.

A bike was found from somewhere for Daniel and the three of them would sometimes cycle into Aberystwyth to meet up with a gang of the twins' friends, and to spend the afternoon watching the girls on the beach and the pier, occasionally throwing out flirtatious remarks to them, talking light-heartedly about what they would do, if they were lucky enough to get one of the girls to take up their vocal invitations.

In the end, and much to his own surprise, it was Daniel who aroused the most interest in the groups of girls who gathered on the beach ostensibly for the purpose of sunbathing, but in reality in order to amuse themselves by teasing the boys.

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