Firebird (19 page)

As she reached the edge of the town, Maura saw a group of women standing on the corner near Bristow's boot and shoe shop. They fell silent, staring at her in open curiosity. One of them spoke, not even attempting to lower her voice.

‘She's one of them Irish peasants from Greenhill. Got herself with child and no ring on her finger, ought to be ashamed.'

As Maura walked on, head in the air, she heard the woman call out.

‘Whore! Not fit to be seen by decent folks.'

Tears came then, hot and burning. Silently, they ran down her face and into her mouth. She stumbled round the corner and into Pottery Row, anxious to be indoors, out of the sight of prying eyes.

‘Maura, what's wrong?' Llinos caught her by the shoulders. ‘Tell me, Maura, what's happened?' Suddenly Maura was sobbing as though her heart would break.

‘Come inside,' Llinos urged. ‘We'll have a nice hot cup of tea.' She guided Maura into the kitchen. ‘Everything will look better when you've had a little cry.'

‘No, it won't,' Maura said. ‘Some women in the street, they called me a whore and they are right. I'm going to give birth to a bastard and all because I fell in love with a man who will not marry me whatever I say. How can I bear it, how can I walk out with my child and face the world?'

‘To hell with them!' Llinos was surprised by her own bitterness. ‘They talked about my mother and Mr Cimla and made things ten times worse. Look, Maura, as long as the gossips are not paying for your keep then what you do with your life is none of their business.'

Maura rubbed at her eyes. ‘Maybe, but don't you make the same mistake as I've made, miss.' Her voice was thick with tears. ‘Loving a man can tear you to pieces and giving in to your passion without thought brings you nothing but trouble.'

She took the handkerchief Llinos offered. ‘But you are sensible, miss. You have been well brought up and you would not let yourself down as I have.'

‘I am no better than you so don't be silly. We are all capable of making mistakes.'

‘I know you are in love with Joe but you wouldn't be so daft as to go to his bed, would you?'

She saw the colour rise in Llinos's face. ‘I'm sorry if I'm being forward, but being in love myself I know the signs.'

Llinos walked towards the window, her back to the room, and Maura could tell by the squareness of her shoulders that Llinos wanted her to mind her own business.

‘Look,' Llinos said. ‘When Binnie finishes his shift on the ovens, I'll talk to him.'

‘I don't know if it would do any good. I don't think Binnie would take kindly to anyone, well . . .'

‘Interfering?' Llinos smiled. ‘Me and Binnie go back a long way, I think he will listen to me. I promise I'll be tactful.'

Maura swallowed her tears, she knew Llinos meant to be kind but talking to Binnie might only make him angry.

She rose to her feet. ‘I am looking for a place for me and Binnie to rent, miss. I'd like you to know that. We don't want to be a burden to you for ever.'

‘Oh, good heavens, Maura!' Llinos turned to face her. ‘I wouldn't hear of you leaving, not in your condition.' She paused. ‘I know I said you had to find a place before the baby came, well now I've changed my mind. You can stay until you find something suitable. I understand your wish to have a house of your own and I'll even help you find one, but first let us get your baby safely into the world.' She rested her hand on Maura's arm. ‘You can't be alone, not at a time like this. Anyway' – she spoke more briskly – ‘until I employ some servants you are the only other woman in the house. If you leave I'll be alone with all the menfolk. That would set tongues wagging.'

‘I never thought of that.' Maura smiled, she knew that Llinos Savage's future was secure, her father had come home and he was rich enough to employ a house full of women servants if he chose. There was no question of the privileged Miss Savage being compromised. Still, Maura would be grateful to stay. She did not want to be alone at the birth time when it came.

‘Thank you for being so kind,' she said but the words almost choked her.

The next morning, as Llinos strolled along the roadway into town, she was remembering Maura's words with a prickling of fear. The Irish girl was right, to love an unsuitable man was to look for trouble. She stopped outside Prosser's coffee-house and peered inside. Eynon was there before her as she had known he would be. He was nothing if not punctual.

He rose and joined her in the street. ‘Morning, Llinos.' He smiled down at her as she linked her arm with his. ‘You are inviting gossip, you know.'

‘I don't give a fig for gossip,' she said. ‘Come on, let's sit in the park in full view of anyone who cares to look.'

‘I haven't seen you for almost a week,' Llinos said and Eynon nodded.

‘I know, but there is no need for me to come up to the pottery these days, is there? My little investment is paying dividends even while I sit here enjoying this fine winter's day.' He paused. ‘In any case, Joe is always around and I don't see any fun in torturing myself.'

‘I don't know what you mean,' Llinos said huffily.

‘I mean I see Joe as a rival for your affections, Llinos. Surely you are not so blind that you can't see we both want you?'

‘Since when? You and I are friends, that's all.'

‘You must like me a little, Llinos, otherwise you would not be sitting here with me.'

‘I wanted to ask a favour of a friend, Eynon, that's why I asked you to meet me.'

‘I guessed so. Things getting too much for you at the pottery, are they?'

‘Just the opposite. I have not enough to do. I feel useless in my own home.'

‘You need some servants up at Pottery House now that the funds are coming in. You would have your work cut out then, seeing they do their work properly.'

‘Nonsense!' she said impatiently. ‘Supervising servants is not what I want. Joe thinks the same idea of me as you do, he believes I have no ambition.'

‘Do you have ambition, Llinos?'

‘I don't know. All I know is potting, it's what I was born to, what I love. But now there are skilled workers in every department of the pottery and all I can do is stand by and watch.'

‘If you don't like your life then you must change it.' Eynon spoke quietly. ‘I did. I moved out of my father's house and since then my life has been much more peaceful.'

Llinos put her hand on his arm. ‘I know it took a great deal of courage to buy a house of your own and I admire you for making the break. But admit it, Eynon, you are lonely sometimes, aren't you?'

‘I can't deny that.' He stared down at her ruefully. ‘The house echoes with emptiness. What I need is a family to fill it.'

Llinos smiled. ‘That leads me very nicely to what it is I wanted to talk to you about.'

‘So it is not the love of your life, then? You are not here to talk about Joe?'

Llinos pushed at his shoulder. ‘No, I am not! No, it is not about love, at least not my own. Are you going to be quiet and listen?'

‘I'll be quiet.'

‘It's about Maura and Binnie. Once the baby is born, Maura will need a job where she can take the baby with her. No, don't speak, let me finish. The little family will also need a home, somewhere they can spread out a little.'

She smiled up at him. ‘Now your house is a very large one and at the moment there is just you in it, except for the servants. Do you begin to see what I am getting at?'

Eynon laughed. ‘I get the message loud and clear. You want me to give a home and a job to the little Irish girl, her lover and her illegitimate child. Don't you think I invite enough gossip as it is?'

‘Oh, I didn't think of that.'

Eynon put his hand over hers. ‘I'm joking. I think it is a great idea. My house will be full, I will have the little family that I long for albeit an adopted one and I will have someone to oversee the mundane household tasks.'

Llinos sank back against the wooden slats of the bench. ‘I thought it would be a good idea.'

‘Have you spoken to the happy couple about this?' Eynon asked with raised eyebrows.

‘No.' Llinos sighed. ‘I thought I would talk to you first, see if you would agree.'

‘Very kind of you. I wouldn't put it past you to turn up with a cart full of possessions and a list of my orders written large. Know something, Llinos, you are a formidable lady.'

‘Am I?' Llinos pulled a face. ‘Well, if I am, a fat lot of good it does me.'

‘Look, now we've sorted out everyone else's problems, what about yours?'

‘I agree with what you said earlier, Eynon. If I don't like my life, I must change it. The pity is I don't know what I want to change it for.'

‘What is your greatest strength?' Eynon asked. ‘Is it making the pots, decorating the pots or the administration of the entire enterprise? What do you really want to do?'

‘I suppose I want to oversee all those things. I think my ambition is to make the Savage Pottery as well run and as successful as your father's pottery.'

‘And I thought you said you had no ambition!'

‘No, Joe said that. He was trying to tell me the same thing as you but in a different way. I've done a great deal of growing up over the past months,' Llinos said.

Eynon squeezed her hand. ‘You have become a woman, no, a lady, since that first time I saw you.'

He lifted her fingers and kissed them. ‘I love you, Llinos, do you know that?'

Llinos rose from the seat. ‘Come on, enough flattery. It's getting chilly sitting here. Let's walk.'

They left the park and Llinos thought with a tinge of wistfulness that to anyone watching they might have looked like a happy couple deeply in love. Was she destined to always meet men who were unsuitable in one way or another?

She smiled up at Eynon and he, unaware of her thoughts, smiled back. She slipped her hand through his arm and sighed inwardly. One day, perhaps, she would forget Joe and fall in love with another man but somehow, she did not believe it.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

‘You should have talked this over with me, Llinos.'

Binnie was staring at her across the kitchen table, his face flushed. It was clear he was very angry.

‘You and me been good workmates, good friends,' he continued, ‘but that doesn't give you the right to run my life.'

‘I'm sorry, Binnie, I didn't think . . . I was only trying to help.'

‘Do you want me and Maura out of here so bad that you'd push us in with that toffee-nosed fop?'

‘It's not like that,' Llinos protested. ‘Anyway, I thought you liked Eynon.'

‘He's all right for a Morton-Edwards but living with him, well that's something different. Anyway, for a start, I don't want to get married.'

‘Well you can be unmarried at Eynon's house just as well as you can anywhere else, can't you? For heaven's sake, Binnie, stop thinking of yourself and your pride, think of Maura and the child she is having. Your child.'

He rubbed at his thick, coarse hair. ‘I don't know, Llinos, I just don't know what to do or what to think. Perhaps I'm not ready for . . . for all this.'

‘Well, that is just your bad fortune, then, isn't it?' Llinos was growing angry. ‘You were ready to take Maura to bed, weren't you? Man enough to make her pregnant. Are you not man enough to face up to the consequences?'

Binnie sighed and sank into a chair. ‘This has been my home for so long.' He rubbed at his eyes and suddenly he seemed like the youth he was.

‘But everything changes, Binnie. Mr Cimla changed things for us, didn't he? He threw you out and Maura's family were good enough to take you in. Are you to repay them by failing their daughter when she most needs you?'

‘Oh, for God's sake, Llinos, don't preach!'

‘And don't you blaspheme!' Llinos brushed a stray curl of hair away from her face. ‘I'm sorry, Binnie. You're right, it's none of my business.'

He looked across the table at her. ‘Truth to tell, I don't know what to do.'

‘Take your time, Binnie, just take your time and let me know what you decide once you've thought about it.' Llinos sighed heavily. ‘How can I expect to sort your problems when I can't deal with my own?'

‘What problems have you got, Llinos?' There was not a little sarcasm in Binnie's voice.

‘Plenty! For a start I no longer have a place here,' Llinos said. ‘I've been used to taking charge; used to working hard, taking all the responsibilities for running the pottery. Now there is nothing for me to do, I feel lost.'

‘Aye, I can see that right enough.'

Llinos reached across the table and took Binnie's hand. She saw the warmth in his eyes, knew how much affection and loyalty he still felt towards her.

‘I will be even more lost if you and Maura move out but I thought it was best for you.'

‘It's good of you to put me and Maura before your own feelings but . . . oh, I don't know.'

‘This is a good chance, Binnie,' Llinos said. ‘Maura will have a position with fair wages and a roof over her head and, better yet, a place where her baby will be welcome. You won't find such security anywhere else.'

‘I like Eynon well enough.' Binnie was uneasy. ‘But then I'm not comfortable when I'm around him. He's too posh, not one of us.'

‘So you are a snob, are you, Binnie?' The irony in Llinos's voice was not lost on Binnie and he flushed.