Someone to Call Her Own by Rowena Summers

Author:Rowena Summers
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Canelo
Published: 2023-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Mrs Wood was spending the afternoon baking. Her hands were immersed in flour up to the elbows as she joyously pummelled the dough. All her lodgers had their own keys, so she didn’t bother to look up as she heard the front door open and shut. But then the kitchen door opened, and Kate Sullivan’s pale face peered around it.

“Mercy me, but you gave me a fright, my duck. I thought you’d be gone for the rest of the day.”

She registered the pallor of Kate’s face properly and paused in her pummelling. “Has my Lukey been working you too hard already?”

“Mrs Wood, my father and brother are here to meet you,” Kate said in a strangled voice. “Luke’s here too, and if you could come into the sitting room for a minute or two—”

Normally, Mrs Wood would have told her the visitors could wait but the baking couldn’t, but this was different. This looked serious. She nodded and wiped her floury hands and arms on a cloth before joining the foursome in the sitting room. And what a motley foursome they were, she thought.

There was Luke, decidedly grimmer than usual; Kate looking as if she was about to burst into tears at any minute; and two rough-looking men, as out of place as a plate of jellied eels at the Lord Mayor’s banquet.

“So, these are your folks, are they, Kate?” said Mrs Wood, as nobody seemed inclined to speak first. “It’s nice to meet you both, I’m sure.”

Brogan growled beneath his breath, while Donal muttered a short greeting, and Kate could see that they had never expected something like this. The atmosphere was so homely, with the warm smells of baking tantalising their nostrils, and Mrs Wood like anybody’s mother. If they had half expected Kate to be living in a den of vice, this certainly wasn’t it.

Luke’s mouth curved into a semblance of a smile, seeing their discomfiture. He spoke boldly now.

“Kate’s folks were afraid she’d got herself into bad company in London, so we’re just assuring them that she hasn’t, and that she’s very comfortable here.”

Mrs Wood laughed in astonishment. “Well, for pity’s sake, I should think she is. I pride myself on my establishment, and I don’t allow no ruffians here. Then, of course, I’ve got my Lukey’s patronage, which counts for a lot – almost as good as royalty.”

“Don’t overdo it, my old dear,” he said cheekily. “But I’m sure you’d allow Kate to show her folks her room.”

It would give him time to talk with Mrs Wood, and try to come to terms with the revelations he’d heard all too briefly. Kate would have to tell him about the bigamist now – if she could bear to. His heart ached with love for her, imagining what she had gone through, but this wasn’t the time for speculation, and he saw her turn to the other men.

“Come upstairs with me, Dada and Donal.”

She almost fled out of the sitting room, glad for the first time to be away from Luke’s curious eyes.

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