They all solemnly shook their heads. ‘You’re too late, Da!’ Molly said.
He heaved a big sigh of disappointment that made the children laugh, and Delia wondered how they would react if they found out the truth about their father and her and Robin. And what about his wife? How would she take the news? Delia didn’t know her except by name, but she’d heard Jenny’s unfavourable comments about her.
‘You can tek ’remains of ’joint home if you like,’ Peggy offered in an offhand kind of way. ‘Susan can mebbe serve it up cold with some fresh vegetables.’
‘Thanks, Ma,’ Jack murmured. Then he bestirred himself. ‘Are you staying here for a bit or coming home?’ he asked his daughters.
‘Staying,’ they chorused. ‘We’ve got games to play,’ Rosie explained; then Louisa stood stock still and looked at Delia.
‘You’re not taking Robin home with you, are you, Mrs Del—’ She hesitated over the name. ‘Mrs Delmore?’
‘Not today,’ Delia said quietly. ‘Not unless your gran and grandda say so.’ She silently uttered a plea that they wouldn’t; what would they do, now that they knew, or almost knew, the truth? ‘Would you like him to stay?’
It was unfair to say that, she realized. She was playing on everyone’s emotions.
‘Yes we would,’ Louisa and Molly spoke as one, and Emma and Rosie both nodded their heads.
‘Where do you live?’ Jack interrupted abruptly. ‘In Hull, or … have you come back to live wi’ your folks?’
He must have seen the shock and dismay on her face and his eyes widened. ‘You haven’t been to see them?’ He looked from Delia to Robin, who was standing tense and confused and looking at each grown-up in turn; then Jack looked back at Delia. ‘Why not? They’re your kin. Surely …’
He doesn’t understand, she thought. He has no idea whatsoever. Do I explain now or leave it for another day? Peggy and Aaron were watching her, waiting with bated breath for her answer to their son’s question. It had to be now.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
‘Go and play, then,’ Peggy told the children. ‘We’ll have a cup of tea.’
The girls trooped out but Robin stood looking at his mother until Louisa tapped him on the arm, urging him to join them. He followed her, but gave a last backward glance to Delia.
She picked up her shawl and draped it around her shoulders. ‘I’ll explain if you like,’ she said to Jack. She pointed through the window to where a pale sun was attempting to break through the cloud. ‘Shall we go outside, so we don’t bore everybody else?’
Jack looked curiously at her, clearly wondering about her motive. ‘Aye, if you like, then I must get back home. Susan’ll wonder what I’m doing.’
‘Will she?’ Delia asked as they went to the door. ‘Does she keep you on a tight rein?’
He closed the door behind them, and gave a wry laugh. ‘Ma thinks she does. There’s not much love lost between them two.’
‘Why’s that?’ Delia walked across to the fence, away from any view from the house, and leaned upon it. The dog had gone to his kennel and the hens were clucking around the barn. She looked towards it and gave a little shudder as she remembered.
From where they stood she could see the edge of Foggit’s land, where she and Jenny had once dashed across to reach one’s house or the other’s. She could see the corner of her parents’ old cottage and the light glinting on a window, and knowing that her mother sometimes spied on her neighbours she turned her back to it.
‘Not sure, really.’ He stuck his hands in his jacket pockets, then with his boot he idly scraped at a weed growing beneath his foot. ‘Goes back a long way. Ma thought I was too young to get married. She said it was a shotgun wedding.’
‘And was it?’ she asked quietly.
He gave a slight nod. ‘Yeh, I suppose.’ He was silent for a moment, and then muttered, ‘I had no sense back then – easily led.’ He chanced a look at her. ‘I did a few things wrong; things that I’m sorry for. You know that I did, Dorothy.’
Here it comes, she thought. ‘I’m Delia,’ she reminded him. ‘It was Dorothy who was violated; Dorothy who was beaten by her father when he found out she was pregnant. It was Dorothy who was turned out of the house. Dorothy who ran away from everything and everybody she knew.’ She paused. ‘Because of you.’
He lifted his head and looked at her, his mouth open. ‘No!’ he said in a low voice. ‘Oh, God! No!’
She held his gaze. ‘Yes.’
‘Why didn’t you say?’ His voice was hoarse. ‘Why didn’t you come and tell us?’
‘I did,’ she said softly. ‘I did come.’ Her voice shook. ‘I spoke to your mother; I’d hoped to see Jenny but she wasn’t here; she was still in Hull. And then … your ma – Peggy – told me that you’d gone with Susan to talk to the vicar about reading the banns for your marriage.’
Tears streamed down her cheeks; it suddenly seemed like yesterday that it had happened to her other self, and she was sorry for her.
Jack turned his back to the house and with his elbows on the fence he covered his eyes with his hands. ‘I’m sorry,’ he mumbled. ‘I’m so very sorry. How could I do such a thing? Where did you go? What did you do?’
‘When my father heard he took his belt to me and said I had to get out, but then he said I could stay until the next morning, so it was then that I slipped out and went to your house. When your mother told me about you and Susan, I didn’t know what to do or who to turn to, but I knew I had to get as far away
