CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
It was less busy in the hotel, so Bess and Frank had started taking the occasional Monday evening off. After six o’clock or thereabouts, if they’d done everything that needed to be done, they would go into Rugby and see a film at the Granada. If they were too late to drive the seven or so miles, they’d go to the Ritz at Lowarth. And on one occasion, when there was nothing playing at either cinema that they fancied, they went to the Denbigh in Lowarth and had dinner. As much as they both loved the hotel, getting away from it for a couple of hours to recharge the batteries was necessary.
On the Monday Maeve asked Bess if she and Frank would adopt Nancy, Bess made sure she worked until it was too late to go out. After dinner, she and Frank retired to their private quarters. Bess went straight through to the bedroom and kicked off her shoes. After taking off her clothes and hanging them up, she went into the bathroom, had a wash and cleaned her teeth, before putting on her nightdress, dressing gown and slippers.
Returning to the sitting room Frank said, ‘Wireless or gramophone?’
‘Do you mind if we don’t have either?’ Bess dropped onto the settee, tucking her legs under her.
Frank sat next to her and took the newspaper from the occasional table at the side of the settee. He didn’t open it. ‘What is it, love, you’ve been preoccupied all day.’
Bess blew out her cheeks. There was no way of telling her husband what Maeve had asked of them, other than to come straight out with it. ‘Maeve wants us to adopt Nancy.’
‘Good God!’ Frank said. Neither of them spoke for some time. Bess thought it best to let the idea percolate in Frank’s mind. ‘We enjoyed having Nancy here while Maeve was in Ireland,’ he said at last, ‘but adopt her? What did you say?’
Bess took her time to answer. Frank was the kindest, the most understanding man, but he could be stubborn. Bess knew him too well to think she could coerce him into anything. ‘I said I’d ask you, of course,’ she replied, her voice as steady and impartial as she could make it.
‘She’s asking us to adopt Nancy because she has to go back to Ireland to look after her dying mother. Apart from thinking we’d make good parents, Maeve said because Nancy is bright, the village school wouldn’t be good for her. And if she took Nancy back there the gossips would stir up all the stuff about Goldie again. She said when she lived there before Nancy was too young to understand, but now she’s eight, she’ll understand every word.’
‘Looking after a child for a week is one thing, but adopting?’
‘You said you’d consider adoption after Nancy had stayed with us,’ Bess said, impatience creeping into her voice which she hadn’t intended.
‘I said I would think about it! But that isn’t the point.’
‘Then what is the point?’ Bess snapped.
‘Nancy is David Sutherland’s child!’
‘She is also sweet, dead Goldie Trick’s child,’ Bess cried. ‘But who her real parents are isn’t important. She’s a little girl who needs looking after and her aunt, her only relative other than her dying great-aunt, can’t do it.’
‘Can’t do it?’
‘All right, she doesn’t think it would be fair on Nancy to take her back to Ireland.’ Maeve had also said she couldn’t look after Nancy because she would be looking over her shoulder all the time. What she meant by that Maeve didn’t say and Bess didn’t ask. She wished she had now.
Frank put his arms around Bess. ‘You want this, don’t you?’
‘I want a child-- We want a child, and Nancy needs a mother and father.’
‘I know, love. I just can’t get past the idea of Nancy being David Sutherland’s daughter.’
Bess pushed herself away from Frank, astonished by what he had said. ‘I can’t believe I’m hearing this. Do you think that innocent little girl will have any of Sutherland’s wickedness in her?’
‘No! What do you take me for?’ Frank was angry, but Bess could see he was more hurt by what she had said. ‘I was thinking of you. Worried that because Nancy is Sutherland’s child, she would remind you of him, and what he did to you in London.’
Bess hauled herself off the settee. ‘I’m going to bed.’
‘Bess?’ Frank leapt up. He checked the door was locked and switched off the light. By the time he got into the bedroom, Bess was in bed. ‘Darling, don’t be angry with me.’ Frank sat on the bed and leaned into Bess. She turned over so her back was to him. ‘I’m sorry. I’m just frightened for you. Frightened that seeing Nancy every day would be a constant reminder of what Sutherland did - and that you would never be free of him.’
Bess turned back to face Frank and sat up. ‘If I had been pregnant after Sutherland raped me, I would not have gone to live with a distant relative in outer-Timbuctoo until the baby was born - like so many young unmarried women are made to do - and then give the baby away. I’d have kept her, as Goldie did. And if it came to it, if I had to decide between my life or my baby’s, I would have made the same decision as Goldie.’ Frank started to protest, but Bess put her forefinger to his lips.
‘When we met again after James had been killed and you asked me to marry you, you said you had always loved me and no matter what had happened in
