‘D’you want me to take you to the lavvy?’
‘What!’ Horrified at such a prospect, he straightened his shoulders and looked her in the eye. ‘I keep tellin’ yer, woman, I may be a bit wobbly on me pins, but I’m not a flippin’ babby!’
When Aggie looked at the woman and caught her winking at Grandad, she chuckled under her breath. ‘I don’t know how you’ve done it, lass,’ she muttered, ‘but you seem to have tekken years off our Dad. By! I’ve not seen him so frisky in an age.’
She told him the same the minute he ambled back. ‘Whatever you say about her, yon farmer’s wife seems to have given you a new lease o’ life,’ she joshed. ‘You’re very full of yerself, all of a sudden.’
Making much of it with his groaning and grunting, he sat himself down. ‘Aye well, yer know I have good days and bad days. Today seems to be one o’ the good ’uns.’
‘Sez you!’ Slipping off her shoes with a sigh of relief, Aggie gave him a wink. ‘I reckon there’s life in the old dog yet.’
He actually blushed. ‘Gerraway with yer, woman!’
Later, when the joshing was over, they sat talking about this and that. ‘Look at our Emily,’ he said. ‘Do yer think she’ll be happy enough with Danny?’
‘I hope so.’ Since Danny’s father had taken up his turn on the accordion, Aggie had seen Emily chatting non-stop with her husband. Worried as she was, it did her heart good to see them together like that.
‘Danny’s a good husband,’ Grandad interrupted her thoughts. ‘An’ he’s a wonderful daddy to the lass.’
‘D’you want another drink?’ Aggie asked. ‘Or will it be safe?’
‘Whatever d’yer mean?’
Aggie chuckled. ‘I mean, will it send you wild after the farmer’s wife?’
He laughed at that. ‘Yer a tormenting bugger, so you are. And yes, I’d like a drink. A cuppa tea would go down nicely, lass, thank you.’
Aggie went off to the kitchen.
On her return with two cups of freshly brewed tea, she spoke to Thomas in a serious manner. ‘You must never talk about what you overheard,’ she said solemnly. ‘About what that fiendish devil did to me all them years ago, and then to our Emily – his own niece, God bless her! If it ever got out that Clem Jackson was Cathleen’s father, I don’t dare think what it would do to the family. Cathleen herself would be so upset!’ She rubbed her hands over her eyes as if to shut it out. ‘It would be a terrible thing if it ever became common knowledge. Even our Michael doesn’t know. I just can’t bring meself to tell him. God knows what it would do to him, Dad.’ Her eyes were full of tears.
‘Don’t you worry, lass,’ he told her firmly. ‘My lips are forever sealed.’
And thankfully, Aggie knew she could trust him above all others.
It was getting late. ‘I’m feeling the weight of the day on me shoulders,’ he said. ‘I’ll not be long afore I go to my bed.’
Aggie was tired as well, but she was more than content to sit there, watching the folks dancing and enjoying the food she and Emily had put out. Now, as Emily smiled at her from beside Danny, she nodded back.
When she turned to look at her father-in-law, she realised he’d been kidnapped by one old dear, who was leading him onto the floor. ‘Ah! Look at ’em, bless their old hearts!’ she chuckled at the sight. ‘Where there’s a will there’s a way.’
Beginning to feel lonely, she was delighted when Michael came in from the cold and asked her to, ‘Give us a twirl on the carpet, lass.’ In a minute she had been whisked away, and the two of them were soon dancing to the jolly music of the accordion.
Soon the party got its second breath and was in full swing, though Grandad and his new friend had fallen by the wayside to rest their sore feet and commiserate with each other about how old and feeble they’d become.
Cathleen sat at their knees, eating one cake after another. ‘You’ll be sick as a pig!’ Thomas Isaac warned her.
‘No, I won’t, Grandad.’ Jumping up, she gave him a sticky kiss. ‘I’ve only had three.’
By the dance floor, Danny stood with Emily in his arms, loath to let her go. ‘You look so lovely,’ he said, and held her even tighter.
Some movement at the door made her turn, and when she saw him there, her heart almost stopped. ‘John!’ Instinctively, Danny held on to her, as though not to let her loose.
Pausing in the doorway, John’s eyes were immediately drawn to hers. There was a poignant moment when their gazes held and there seemed no one in the room but the two of them. They drank in the sight of each other.
Seeing it and fearing that everyone else might sense that same magnetism, Aggie got out of her chair and bade the accordionist to keep on playing. ‘Something bright and cheerful, Bob!’ she urged, and going to John, she warmly shook his hand. ‘Come on in! It’s so good to see you, lad,’ she said, ‘after all these long years. Michael told me he’d invited you. I can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done. I reckon my Michael owes you his life, and for that we’ll never stop being grateful. Come away in, all of you, and welcome to Potts End!’
Drawing his gaze from Emily, who he thought to be even more lovely than he remembered, John thanked her in return. Then, bringing Rosie forward, he introduced her. ‘This is Rosie, my wife.’
Rosie gave her a kiss. ‘Thank you so much for inviting us, Mrs Ramsden.’
‘Nay!’ Aggie protested. ‘The name is Aggie. You call me that and I’ll call you Rosie, if I may.’ And so it was settled, and the two women liked each other straight off.
‘And this rogue here is Archie!’ Propelling the old chap forward, John explained, ‘He was my mate at sea, and he’s been my good mate ever since. In fact, I don’t know what I’d do without the old rascal.’
‘Well now, my dear, I never expected to see such a fine-looking woman, no I never!’
Charming as ever, Archie bent to give her a kiss, and was jokingly chided by Michael, who had just approached. ‘Steady on, Archie! Mind how you handle my wife,’ he mocked, and the friendship between them all was sealed for ever. Archie gallantly escorted Lizzie to a chair and set about fetching her some of the buffet.
Considering it to be his duty, Danny limped over with Emily to greet the Hanleys. ‘Of course I know of you,’ he said, ‘but I don’t recall ever having made the acquaintance.’ He shook hands with John and Rosie. ‘I’m pleased to meet you.’
‘Likewise,’ answered John.
Rosie and Emily also shook hands politely, both thinking that the other was attractive, and had a certain aura. When Emily briefly shook hands with John, she was dazzled by his good looks and his confidence as a self-made businessman. He and Rosie made a lovely couple, she realised, and the knowledge stabbed at her.
In spite of their outward politeness, there was a certain wariness between the two men, that had not gone unnoticed by Lizzie, who was quietly watching from her seat by the fireplace, where Archie was plying her with a glass of elderberry wine.
‘Come and have some food.’ Aggie broke the mood. ‘You must be famished.’
‘Thank you, Aggie, yes, I am.’ That was Rosie.
‘Me too!’ Archie chipped in as he rejoined them. ‘Me stomach’s playing a tune to set all our feet a-tapping,’ he joked – with a hearty laugh that had them all smiling.
As they walked away, Rosie saw the possessive way in which Danny was holding Emily, with his arm round her waist and one foot before hers. She knew well enough what had happened here, because John had told Archie everything, and Archie, being the good friend he was, had told her – though John had already let her know enough for her to realise that there was still a measure of love in his heart for Emily.
‘Danny!’ Rosie called him away. ‘I wonder if you wouldn’t mind helping me to choose something to eat, and afterwards we might even dance?’ She was bold because she knew he was on the verge of breaking up the talk that John and Emily so desperately needed.
Being the gentleman he was, Danny could hardly refuse. ‘Will you be all right?’ he asked Emily. ‘I’ll be back soon as I can.’
‘You go and keep Rosie company,’ she said warmly. ‘I need to talk with John … if that’s all right with you?’
He looked into her face and he saw the love there; love for him – yes, but love for John also, and it was that love which bothered him. Yet he was sensible enough to know that if he took her away now, he might live to regret it for the rest of his life.
‘Danny!’ Rosie called him again. He looked round and in her eyes he saw a warning. She knows, he thought. She knows how it is between these two, and she’s telling me to give them the time they need.
‘All right.’ He gave Emily a kiss on the lips. ‘Talk with John if you must.’ He had no choice – he knew that. ‘It’s all right by me.’ Addressing John now, he told him kindly, ‘I’m sure there are things to be ironed out.’ His meaning was clear enough:
Say your piece and be gone … leave Emily to me
. That was what he had in mind, but he didn’t say it. How could he?
As he walked away he glanced back to see the couple walking out of the door, and his heart was broken.
‘Right then!’ Aggie was off in search of her own wandering husband. ‘Danny will take care of you,’ she said. ‘If you need me, I’ll be around.’ Her first stop was the barn. It was where Michael always went whenever he felt nostalgic, and lately, he was deeply regretting every minute he had spent away from his beloved family.
Aggie understood. There were times when even she needed to get away on her own, where she might peaceably contemplate past and future.
When John led Emily out to the garden, it was all Danny could do not to hobble after them. ‘Leave it be,’ Rosie warned him kindly. ‘I know how you feel, but they knew and loved each other long before we came on the scene. If we interfere now, we’ll only drive them away. Anyway, I hear you’ve only just come out of hospital. Let’s have a bite together, and I’ll tell you all about me barges.’
For the next half-hour, Danny stayed with Rosie. They ate and drank, and all the while their glances kept going to the door. Though she wouldn’t say as much, Rosie felt every bit as apprehensive as Danny. ‘I don’t know what I’d do if he left me,’ she confided when they were seated away from the others. ‘John didn’t really marry me for love. We were both lonely and working long hours together. We just drifted together.’
Her smile said it all. ‘I love him, though. We’d only been married a few weeks when I realised I could never imagine being without him.’
‘It’s the same with me and Emily,’ Danny replied softly. ‘She was honest enough with me. She told me she still loved John and was only waiting for him to come back. I’ve loved her for ever,’ he imparted shyly. ‘It were me as persuaded her that John wasn’t ever coming back. I talked her into marrying me, and o’ course there was little Cathleen to be considered. I love that darling little lass.’
‘But she’s yours, isn’t she?’
He smiled. ‘She is now!’
At his remark Rosie was made curious, but sensing there was more to it than met the eye, she wisely said nothing.
Walking in the twilit orchard, strangely shy and awkward in his company, Emily listened to what John had to say.
‘I came back for you that day,’ he told her softly. ‘I had the money in my pocket and the dream in my heart, and then I saw you with the child, and Danny, and I knew I’d lost you.’ He bowed his head. ‘It was the worst day of my life.’
Close to tears, Emily slid her hand into his, warmed and content when he curled his strong fingers about hers. ‘If only you hadn’t gone away,’ she told him. ‘Things may have been so very different.’
A yearning came into his expression. Suddenly she was in his arms and he was holding her so close she could hardly breathe.
‘She should have been my child … not Danny’s!’
For a while, Emily made no reply. She was relieved for him to believe the child was Danny’s. Now though, she felt his fleeting rage and it was a frightening thing. As she felt his grip loosen she looked up to see him gazing down on her, his eyes dark with emotion. ‘I never stopped loving you,’ he told her fiercely. ‘There were times when I thought I’d go crazy without you.’
Bending his head he cupped her face and for a long, wonderful moment he just looked on her; seeing those familiar features and gazing into those wonderful eyes, feeling that he was home at long last.
Emily saw he wanted to kiss her and she raised herself to him. Locking her arms round his neck, she softly pressed her lips to his, thrilled when he drew her closer.
It was a passionate, hungry kiss – the kind of kiss that neither of them would ever forget, and yet there was something else. Some other emotion that neither of them had ever experienced before.
Peering out of the window with trepidation, Danny and Rosie saw it happen and they were afraid. When Danny stepped forward to end it, Rosie pulled him back. ‘No!’ she whispered, and held onto him.
He stayed, gaining strength and comfort from her, some deep instinct telling him she was right and he was wrong. ‘Let’s leave them, Danny.’ Older and wiser than her years, Rosie ushered him back to the kitchen, where she got him a hot drink and sat chatting quietly with him.
Taking her by the hand, John led Emily to the bench, where they sat for a long time, she curled into him, and he with his arm round her, holding her close, as he had yearned to do all these years. ‘Are you happy, sweetheart, with Danny?’
Emily took a moment to think about it. ‘I believe so.’ She didn’t look up, nor did she move. There was that special closeness between them that allowed her to stay in his arms the way they were. ‘And what about you, John?’ she murmured. ‘Are you happy with Rosie?’
He smiled. ‘She’s kind of grown on me, I suppose.’
Emily smiled at that. ‘They’ve been watching us from inside.’
‘I know.’
‘They’re both good people.’
‘I know that, too.’
She drew away. In the quietness of evening with the skies above and the stars twinkling down on them, it was as though they were the only two souls in the whole world. ‘John?’
He looked at her then, his eyes roving her face and thinking how deeply he loved her. ‘Yes, sweetheart?’
‘I’ll always love you.’ A single tear ran down her cheek.
‘I know that.’ He wiped it away. ‘And I’ll always love
you
.’