Across a Summer Sea (43 page)
‘I expected as much, Mary. You know himself is a stickler,’ Julia said after Mary had informed her of her argument with the priest.
‘But can’t he even try to understand? After everything that’s happened? The police, my arrest, Richard’s wife’s death, don’t we deserve to be happy? Aren’t we getting married? I’m not living in sin with him!’
‘You will be in himself’s eyes.’
‘As I told him, God knows the state of my heart and soul.’
‘And the children? Don’t you worry about them, Mary?’
‘I don’t believe God would punish them. They’ve done nothing wrong.’
Julia shook her head a little sadly. Mary had to do what she thought best. They were her children.
‘Are you very upset, Mary? If you are I will convert,’ Richard had said when she’d told him.
‘No, and you will not convert. I will attend your church and so will the children. Isn’t the world in a terrible enough state without all this?’ she’d replied firmly.
The children had all been astonished when they’d called them in that evening after he’d brought her home from the barracks and told them the news.
She’d been so touched at the way he’d told Lizzie. He’d taken her on his knee and had signed it to her and Mary had watched the little face still streaked with tears from the day’s ordeal break into a dazzling smile. It had struck her for the first time that Lizzie was going to be a beauty.
Lizzie had thrown her arms around Richard’s neck and hugged him tightly. She’d been so frightened when they’d taken her mam away but then he’d come home and gone and brought Mam back to them and now . . . now he would be her da. She’d never be frightened in her life again.
Katie had started to cry, seeing the tears on her mother’s cheeks, and Richard had asked her was she not pleased that they were going to be a family?
‘Yes! I never want to leave here again! I’m crying because, like Mam, I’m happy!’ she’d sobbed and Mary had hugged her and wiped away her tears.
Tommy had struggled to find the right thing to say. Mam was going to marry Mr O’Neill! They’d never be poor again and he knew that life now had far more in store for him. He could look forward to a bright future.
‘No words of congratulation, Tommy?’ Richard had asked.
‘Yes. Oh, yes!’
‘You’re a good lad and we’ll make sure you’re set up in life. Anything you want to do I’ll support you in.’
‘I want to learn to ride Juno!’ he blurted out.
Richard had laughed. ‘I was thinking a little more ahead than that, but I’ll buy you a horse of your own. A gentleman should have a decent horse and be a reliable judge of horseflesh as well as a good rider!’
‘Oh, thank you, sir! Will I . . . will I be a gentleman?’
‘You will if I have anything to do with it. I’m not having you grow up wild and uneducated. But I won’t stand any nonsense, lad, better to get that straight now.’
‘There’ll be none, I swear it, sir!’ Tommy, even in his wildest dreams, could never have envisaged such prospects. What would Georgie Price say to all this? he thought, but somehow it didn’t seem to matter.
Julia had been delighted too. ‘Oh, he deserves to be happy and he’s not been for so long.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me about her? I would have understood. I wouldn’t have been breaking my heart.’
‘I couldn’t. I swore to him on a stack of Bibles. And if I had, would you have come back, Mary, when he found you and asked you to?’
‘I don’t know, Julia. I don’t think I really could have stood it, had I known definitely that he was married.’
‘It may have been sinful of me, but I prayed that that poor demented creature would die and put all of you out of your misery - herself included.’
‘God obviously heard your prayers, Julia.’
‘He did and I praise Him for it and I’ll come to your wedding even if I’m denounced from the pulpit for doing so!’ she’d finished grimly. Then she smiled. ‘Well, you’d better write and tell your aunty Molly and - Rita, is it? - your news.’
Mary smiled back. ‘I’m so glad I got in touch again, despite Davy. Molly and Rita were always kind to me.’
‘They’ll be pleased for you, Mary. Just as we all are.’
There was to be no honeymoon; the outing to Banagher would be enough, Mary insisted. And then they would all move into the castle. But the outing was postponed when the news came through that Britain had declared war on Germany.
They stood together looking out over the peaceful green countryside bathed in the light of the August sun.
‘I’ve prayed so hard that it wouldn’t come to this,’ Mary said quietly.
He put his arm around her. ‘So had I. So had all right-thinking people, but it has.’
‘What will you do? Will you go?’ It was painful even to say the words. Such a short time to be married. Such a short time of complete happiness.
‘If I have to.’
‘And what about . . . Ireland?’
‘Men will go from here too, Mary, in their thousands. Perhaps our day hasn’t come yet but I pray to God that one day it will. That we’ll be a country able to rule ourselves. Make our own decisions. But I won’t go as a soldier. I didn’t finish my medical studies - perhaps I can do so now. If not, I’ll go as an orderly, not a combatant. We’ll be needed.’
‘And what will happen to us?’
‘You’ll stay here and keep the home going for when it’s all over and I come back. And I
will
come back, Mary! And whatever happens, I’ll make sure there’s a safe and happy home for all of us.’
will
come back, Mary! And whatever happens, I’ll make sure there’s a safe and happy home for all of us.’
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