‘For God’s sake, woman, can a man get no peace in this house? I’ve just finished work, I stink to high heaven and I’m bloody well hungry, and all you are bothered about is our bloody Lucy and a fella. I’ll have a swill, feed my belly and then I’ll talk to her. Now, hold your noise, and make sure the water for my wash is hot, and I’ll see what Lucy says after supper. I don’t mind the man; he seems alright to me. Are sure you are not against him because you’ve got your head set on her marrying somebody with more brass?’ Bill took his jerkin off and hung it at the back door, then watched as his wife filled the pot-sink with hot water from the kettle and placed a clean towel and a block of carbolic soap out for him to wash with.
‘Money’s nowt to do with it. Folk will talk. He’s been wed before, and she’s his maid. Lord only knows what they will be getting up to in that house, all on their own, every day.’ Dorothy watched her husband as he stripped to the waist and lathered the soap and water.
‘I’ll speak to her after supper. But until then, give me a bit of peace. Not that it’s likely in this house.’ Bill glared at his wife, as Bert started wailing and the noise of his two sons fighting with one another in their bedrooms could be heard from above. ‘Bloody young ’uns! I wish we’d never been blessed – they are nowt but bother,’ he groaned.
‘Now, just think on what you are saying. We are blessed, and Lord knows we’ve suffered enough losses. So step up and look after the ones we have, Bill Bancroft, else the devil must take you.’ Dorothy went and picked up the bawling baby and scowled at Bill. He was a devil for getting out of his fatherly commitments, but this time she needed his support.
Lucy put her head on Adam’s shoulder and enjoyed every second of having his arms wrapped around her, as she kissed him goodnight in the doorway of Black Moss. ‘I wish I could be with you tomorrow, and that I never had to leave your side,’ she whispered as he kissed her gently.
‘It will soon be Monday. And besides, your family will need you. Your mother’s got her hands full, with all your siblings in that small house. I’m not going anywhere, and now that we know how we both feel about each other, there will no longer be any need to be coy about our feelings. Bless Ivy, for making us face the truth. We would still have been fooling one another, if she had not stepped in.’ Adam kissed Lucy’s forehead.
‘I know. And there was me, feeling jealous of her. I thought she was going to steal you from under my nose, and that I daren’t say anything about how I felt.’ Lucy held Adam close and buried her head in the warm, comforting smell of his jacket. ‘I’d better go. It’s getting late, and I don’t want to make Mother and Father suspicious of my lateness in returning home.’
‘We will have to tell your parents how we feel shortly. It wouldn’t be fair not to do so. They might not approve, with me being married once before – and being your employer.’ Adam tilted Lucy’s head up and kissed her on the lips.
‘They will have to, because I know that I will always love you. I’ve known it for weeks, but have never dared say so. My parents will not come between us – we can’t let them. Not now, when we both know how we feel about one another.’ Lucy looked up into Adam’s eyes; she’d dreamed of this moment for so long, and she wasn’t ever going to let it slip away.
‘We will see. Let’s give ourselves a bit more time to make certain of one another’s feelings, then I will speak with them both. Make it clear that we are right for one another, and that my intentions are honourable. Now go, else they will be worrying about you.’ Adam released Lucy from his arms and watched as she blew him a kiss on leaving the farmyard. He knew that in his heart there was still a place for his late wife Mary, but Lucy had already filled the empty space that had been left upon her death. It would, as Ivy had predicted, be only a matter of time before he asked Lucy to become his wife.
Lucy sat at the kitchen table and looked across at her mother. Something was wrong. Both her brothers had been banished from the room they sat in, and Bert and Susie were in their beds far sooner than usual, as the sun had not yet set. Her father looked at her from his chair near the fire and shook his head, as her mother spoke up.
‘Your father’s got something to say to you. And we want the truth, young lady, so don’t give us any flannel,’ Dorothy said sharply and looked at her daughter, as Lucy squirmed in her seat, waiting to find out what was to be asked of her.
‘Aye, lass, I’ve had nothing but earache from your mother. She says she thinks that Adam Brooksbank is having his way with you, and that you are daft enough to let him. She thinks it’s not proper, and that it’ll only end up in shame.’ Bill looked sternly at his daughter.
‘It’s not only me – you think the same, Bill. Now tell her that if it’s true, she doesn’t go back there. I’m not having her carrying on with a man like him. He’s her employer, and I’ve heard folk gossiping about him, saying that he thought more of his job as a peeler than he did of his first wife. It just shows what sort of man he is. I’ve kept that to myself until
