‘Nothing, only the young woman in the room next to the gentleman who asked for directions to Market Bosworth came down a few minutes after him and told me that she wouldn’t be in for lunch either.’ Jack lowered his voice. ‘She followed him out and when she got to the door she turned and winked at me. I think she’s the historian chap’s fancy woman,’ he whispered.
‘If she is, she isn’t very discreet, is she?’
‘No,’ Jack said, ‘but I am.’ Bess smiled and took her position behind the reception desk. ‘Discretion is important in the hotel business. Take these two,’ Jack said.
‘I’d rather not,’ Bess replied, and, smiling politely, asked the middle-aged couple who had aired their dirty linen over dinner twice during the week if they needed any help.
Other guests came and went. Two children asked to see the animals, so Frank and his eight-year old helper led them and their parents outside. ‘Don’t let Nancy get near the pigs in her clean dress, Frank,’ Bess called after them.
‘Did you hear that, Miss?’ Frank turned and saluted Bess, and the little girl giggled.
After lunch, Bess and Nancy set off to see Margot and the baby, collecting Bess’s mother on the way. Lily Dudley chattered all the way to the hospital about when she had her children. ‘We had babies at home in the old days,’ she told Bess. ‘There was no way of getting to a hospital if you lived out in the country. I stayed in bed a day or two when I had our Tom, but when you girls were born your father was out at work all day, so I had no choice but to get up to look after you all.’
‘I remember Granny staying at our house and looking after you when Claire and Ena were born. Surely she came and stayed when Margot and I were born too - and Tom.’
Lily Dudley looked out of the window. ‘Yes, now I think of it, she did, but I still got up after a few days. Your granny was a good help. All the same…’
‘We’re here,’ Bess said, putting an end to the conversation, which Bess had heard so many times and which always ended with “it’s a wife’s job to look after her husband and children.”
The small room that Margot had given birth in was empty. ‘Margot has been moved,’ Bess said, leading the way to the maternity ward. From the corridor, Bess could see Margot, Bill and the baby through the square panes of glass in the ward’s door. A second later Bill came out and welcomed them.
Bess’s mother went in to see Margot first with Bill, and Bess and Nancy waited outside. Half an hour later, Bill came out and beckoned Bess and Nancy. When they entered the ward, Bill and his mother-in-law left.
Bess waved as she and Nancy walked down the ward to Margot’s bed. Bess stopped to greet her sister, but Nancy, letting go of her hand, tiptoed over to the cot and peered in.
‘Hello, darling.’ Bess kissed Margot’s cheek. She craned her neck and looked over at the baby. ‘Oh, Margot, she is beautiful.’ And on the balls of her feet, so she didn’t wake her niece, Bess skirted Margot’s bed to join Nancy. ‘Hello baby?’ Bess cooed, when the tiny child opened her eyes and yawned.
‘Hello baby?’ Nancy said, emulating Bess. ‘What’s your name?’
‘Her name is Natalie Elizabeth Goldie,’ Margot said.
Nancy looked from the baby to Margot and back again. ‘That’s my mummy’s name,’ she told the baby, who was looking in her direction through unfocused eyes. Bess’s heart beat heavily. The joy she felt at seeing her new niece was overshadowed by the pain she felt for her small ward. Standing behind Nancy, with her hands on the little girl’s shoulders, Bess watched Margot’s baby daughter’s eyes slowly close.
‘I think she’s asleep,’ Bess whispered. Nancy nodded, but made no attempt to move away from the cot, so Bess left her watching over the sleeping baby and returned to her sister. ‘Did you hear what she just said?’ Bess quietly asked Margot.
‘Yes. I wonder which of the names she meant.’
‘I’ll ask Maeve when she gets back.’
‘How has it been looking after an eight-year-old?’
‘Frank’s done most of the work.’ Bess told Margot how Nancy helped Frank with the hens, how she collects the eggs for breakfast, about her feeding the pigs. At the word pigs, Nancy turned and smiled. ‘And you love Donnie, don’t you?’
‘Donnie is a pit pony,’ Nancy told Margot.
‘I rarely see one of them without the other. Bath and bed are my duties, aren’t they, Nancy?’
Nancy nodded. ‘And reading me stories.’ Then, turning her attention back to the baby, she said, ‘Once upon a time,’ in a hushed voice.
‘So, asking the question again,’ Margot said, pointedly, ‘how has it been?’
‘Wonderful. I love it. I didn’t think I would. I thought I’d be worrying about work when I was with her, and feeling guilty when I was at work because I wasn’t giving her the attention she needed. But everything has worked out really well, so far.’ Bess lifted her hands and crossed her fingers.
She looked back at Nancy. ‘You should see Frank with her; he’s a natural.’ Bess lowered her voice, ‘I’m going speak to him about us adopting. I’ve raised the subject a couple of times already, but something has always stopped us from discussing it properly. I’m not sure Frank saw it as a possibility then, or would have wanted it, but seeing him with Nancy has made me realise what a great father he’d make.’
‘You’d make a great mum, too.’
Bess looked to the heavens. ‘It would be a dream come true.’
No sooner had Bess given Margot the news about Claire going home to sort things out with Mitch
