‘You’re right, Jack.’ Robin got to his feet. ‘This is my mother, Delia Delamour.’ He gave a huge grin. ‘She’s come on a visit to see me.’
Delia looked up at Jack as he slowly came forward to meet her, holding out his hand to greet her. He hasn’t forgotten his manners, then, she thought, and murmured, ‘You’d perhaps remember me as Dorothy Deakin.’ Robin looked at her with interest, and then at Jack, and frowned slightly as if recalling something.
Jack released her hand and a slow flush suffused his neck. He cleared his throat. ‘Aye? I – doubt I would’ve known you, Dorothy.’
‘Delia,’ she corrected resolutely. ‘Dorothy is long gone; dead and buried.’
‘Mother, what do you mean? I’ve heard you say that before.’ Robin looked confused.
‘You did,’ Delia reached for him, putting her arm round his waist. ‘It’s all right. I’m Delia. I changed my name a long time ago; you won’t remember. I like it better than Dorothy, don’t you?’ She spoke quietly and confidently, wanting to reassure him that there was nothing amiss.
‘Oh, yes, I remember now.’ Robin’s face cleared. ‘It sounds better for the stage, doesn’t it? Molly,’ he said to the little girl who was watching and listening, ‘come and say hello to my mother.’
‘You’re on ’stage?’ Jack seemed puzzled. ‘H-how come? I – we often wondered what had happened to you. You just disappeared.’
‘I did.’ She turned to Molly and said hello, and then returned her gaze to Jack. He seemed like a different person from the one she remembered, as she must seem to him.
He blinked and suddenly looked away from her and spoke to his father. ‘I, erm – I came to ask if I could tek owd Betsy and ’trap,’ he said awkwardly. ‘I’ve heard of a hoss and trap for sale over at Preston; it’s a good price, and we can do wi’ another.’
‘I’ll have to have them back by this afternoon,’ Aaron told him. ‘I’ve to run our Jenny and Delia back to Hedon to catch ’last train. I can’t tek them in ’wagon.’
‘I’ll onny be an hour.’ He seemed anxious to be off. ‘Susan’s coming wi’ me to drive back if it’s suitable.’
‘Aye, all right then,’ Aaron agreed. ‘Who’s selling?’
‘Rudge. His wife wants an older hoss; the one they’re selling is a bit too lively for her.’
Peggy commented that they could certainly do with another, younger horse and a bigger trap to fit everyone in. She called after him to bring the girls over before he left and Jack swiftly made his exit, muttering something about not being long. Molly, bored with the conversation, followed him out.
Peggy got up to take the beef out of the oven and prepare the vegetables. ‘I’d better crack on if we’re eating at midday.’
‘Granny Peg makes lovely Yorkshire pudding,’ Robin told his mother, and put his arms akimbo to show his waistline. ‘That’s why I needed bigger breeches.’
‘I’m sure she does.’ Delia trembled with relief now that Jack had gone; she hadn’t wanted to confront him and thought he’d been aware that there was something not quite right. ‘Are you happy?’
‘I am!’ Robin said. ‘I love it here, but …’ He looked into her eyes. ‘I mean – if you’re sad without me …’ Looking down, he picked up her hand and played with her fingers, ‘… then I’ll come back with you. Because I don’t want you to be sad and you seem sad now.’
Peggy turned from the range; Jenny looked across at her father, who in turn gazed at Robin with his lips parted.
With her other hand, Delia stroked her son’s face. ‘You’re the best boy in the whole world,’ she whispered. ‘The person I love more than anyone else, and the reason I’m here today is for us to decide what’s best for you.’ She swallowed. ‘And the only way to do that is to talk to Mr and Mrs Robinson and ask them if they’ll forgive me for leaving you here without asking their permission.’
‘But you didn’t know I’d come back with them that day at the hiring fair,’ he argued. ‘I should have waited for you.’
‘No, I didn’t know, but I guessed that you might,’ she murmured. ‘Or that they might take you with them if I didn’t turn up. I saw you with the family at the table in the Sun Inn and saw how you fitted in, and I left you, Jack.’ She spoke his given name without realizing it. ‘I left you, hoping that they’d look after you in the way that I couldn’t.’
Peggy sat down with a thump on the nearest seat, and Aaron put out his hand to find his easy chair without actually looking for it.
Robin smiled at her. ‘You’ve given the game away,’ he teased. ‘Now they’ll know my name’s not Robin.’ He grinned up at Peggy and Aaron and then Jenny. ‘You didn’t know that I’d swapped my name round, did you? Robin Jackson from Jack Robinson. It’s a good thing I did,’ he blithely and innocently went on. ‘It would have been confusing otherwise, wouldn’t it?’
Delia’s throat tightened; this wasn’t what she had planned, and she was about to tell him that his name was also Deakin. Then she decided that that was a step too far and would be too much for him to take in, as well as raising more questions.
‘I like it,’ Jenny chipped in to fill an awkward pause. ‘The robin’s a very cheerful bird, isn’t it, with its merry tune, and I think the name suits you very well.’
‘Robin,’ Aaron broke in, shakily, ‘could you build up ’fire in parlour? When all ’little girls get here we’ll have to spread out a bit.’
‘Yes, of course.’ Robin detached himself from his mother and went into the scullery to collect logs.
‘I think we need to have a discussion,’ Aaron suggested in a low voice. ‘If what I’m hearing and ’conclusion I’m coming to is true.’ He took a deep breath. ‘And we can’t do
