Donna Douglas Digital Short by Donna Douglas

Author:Donna Douglas
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473505100
Publisher: Random House

Chapter 11

‘I wish you nurses would pick up your post more often,’ the Head Porter Mr Hopkins grumbled. ‘This has been waiting for you for two days now. If this continues, I will have to talk to Matron about it.’ He pulled himself up to his full five foot six and puffed out his chest. ‘I can’t have things cluttering up my cubby holes.’

But Jennifer Ryan wasn’t listening. She was too busy staring at the parcel, wrapped in flowery paper and topped off with a flamboyant bow, that Mr Hopkins had just set before her in the hatch of the Porters’ Lodge.

‘There’s a letter with it.’ Mr Hopkins slapped a plain white envelope on top of the parcel. ‘Most insistent you should read it, he was. As if it’s any of my business what you nurses do with your post. As long as you don’t leave it here.’ His neatly trimmed moustache bristled.

Given the chance, Jennifer would have abandoned the parcel and walked away. But with Mr Hopkins’ steely gaze on her, she had no choice but to carry the box back to her room.

Even then, she had no intention of opening it. Just because her father had delivered it, that didn’t mean she had to take any notice. His persistence irritated her. Why couldn’t he respect her wish to be left alone?

But in the end her curiosity got the better of her. Sitting on her bed, leaving the parcel on the floor by her feet, she tore open the letter and read it.

Dear Jenny, it said, in her father’s neat, precise handwriting. I tried to give this to you on Christmas Day, but you wouldn’t take it. However, I feel it’s very important you have it, so I am leaving it here for you.

You asked for the truth, and so I am giving it to you. Inside this parcel is a box containing everything your mother and I ever knew about your birth. It doesn’t amount to a great deal – just your birth certificate, and a couple of photographs taken when you were a baby, presumably with your mother. We never met her, but the adoption agency said she was a respectable young woman. Your mother and I prayed for her happiness every day, and never stopped thanking her for the wonderful child she had given us.

As I have said, it may not be much, but it may be enough for you to start looking for your real parents. If that’s what you want.

Jenny, I am so sorry you feel we let you down and lied to you. Perhaps we should have told you, but in our defence all I can say is that from the moment we brought you into our home, we genuinely felt you were our baby. There was never any question in our mind that we didn’t love you as our own, and we always have.

What you do next is your decision. You are a wonderful, wise young woman, and I daresay you will do what is best.

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