The Runaway (22 page)

‘Don’t worry, I want a favour in return,’ was the reply. ‘I’ve decided
to visit my son and daughter-in-law in Bath for a few days. Can you manage if we find a part time assistant for you?’

‘Of course. I’ll be glad to help. When d’you plan to go?’

‘As soon as we can find someone suitable.’

They went through a list of possibles but none was available and it wasn’t until much later that Faith remembered Winnie. ‘It’s just in the mornings I’ll need help, things are quieter during the afternoon. If she could come between nine and three, or even one, I’ll manage perfectly.’ Negotiations took place and, with Paul working mornings and the three children at school, it was arranged.

Mrs Palmer left on Thursday evening and planned to stay until the following Wednesday. Faith started an hour earlier in the mornings and she and Winnie worked together until three, when Winnie left to meet the children. To Faith’s surprise, Paul then arrived and helped clean the shop while she checked the till and delivered the money to the bank. He then walked her back to No 3.

She would have managed; the tasks weren’t difficult but she was glad of his help, and surprised at the ease with which they all worked together: herself, Winnie and Paul fitting into the routine without a hitch. On Saturday there were a few cakes left, and she gave them to Paul to take home for Jack, Bill and Polly. He kissed her cheek, insisting the salute was from the children.

After discussing her possible family with Ian and Vivienne, Faith wrote to Mrs Green telling her in detail everything she remembered about her childhood. Names of foster-parents and of the homes where she had stayed were all written down, although dates were understandably vague. She waited a long, never-ending week and she still hadn’t received a reply. Then at last, at the end of June, a letter came. Faith stared at it, afraid to open it and have a dream shattered. She decided to wait until Ian called that evening. But he was away from home when she phoned, so she went to see Winnie.

Paul answered the door and he looked relieved to see her. ‘It’s Winnie, she’s been taken ill. I’ve been trying to find someone to come and let you know. Can you stay while I go with her to the hospital?’

Faith removed her coat, thrust the still unopened letter into her bag. ‘Where are the children? I’ll see Winnie first so she can tell me what I need to know, then I’ll look after them. That’s the best way I can help. Isn’t it?’

‘You’re an angel,’ Paul said, sighing with relief. He kissed her lightly adding, ‘That’s from the children.’

Once the children were fed and settled for the night she pulled out the letter, staring at the envelope, afraid to read what was inside. She was still staring at it when Paul came home.

‘Winnie’s all right but they want to keep her in for a few days to make sure,’ he said.

They discussed the sudden chest pains that Winnie had been suffering for a while, each reassuring the other, then Paul asked about the envelope. He watched as she opened it.

‘It’s from the woman who might be my mother,’ she told him. Then, after reading it twice, she said. ‘The sister I remember, called Joy, lives in Newport and has a daughter.’

‘Joy? Then it must be true. Against all the odds you’ve found your family. Your mother, your sister Joy and Verity, a sister you didn’t know existed.’

She looked up at Paul and said, ‘Joy would like to visit. All three of them, and also my mother and Verity.’

‘How d’you feel about that? Seeing them on your home ground would be better than visiting that classy shop again, wouldn’t it?’

‘Not a shop, Beautiful Homes is an upmarket design centre,’ she said with a smile.

‘Even worse. See them in your home.’

‘I don’t have room for them to stay.’

‘They can afford a decent hotel if the family own “Beautiful Homes”,’ he joked, miming quotes with his fingers.

When she reached home she wrote a reply. Two days later there was confirmation. Verity and her mother would call at No 3 the following Sunday. Joy and her husband and daughter would be with them. Not three but five relatives to face. It was a frightening prospect. Would they like her? Would she like them? Visions of the pompous Verity shattered most of her hope of a happy occasion.

Trying to put the proposed reunion out of her mind, the next day she went to see Winnie and found her friend happily ensconced in her home once more. ‘Just a scare, indigestion most likely,’ she said
cheerfully
. ‘Thanks for helping Paul with the children.’

‘That was a pleasure,’ she said truthfully. ‘Now, while I’m here can I do something?’ A pile of ironing sat on a kitchen chair and without saying more, she put up the ironing board and prepared to tackle it.
Winnie didn’t argue. ‘I do find it a bit tiring to stand too long,’ she admitted. Faith looked at her and wondered if Winnie had told her the truth, and there really wasn’t anything to worry about.

On reaching home she looked at her small table. There was no possibility of getting an extra five people around that in comfort and manage to eat. Specially as Verity was one of the five! Christmas had been different, they had been friends who thought it added to the fun. It would have to be a hotel. A pity, though; Paul had been right and home ground would have helped her to cope.

Kitty solved the problem for her. She and Gareth were going out. A picnic, they insisted, would be perfect for them, and if it rained they’d find a bus stop in which to shelter.

‘Mr Gretorex will be away this weekend, visiting his family,’ Mrs Gretorex told her, ‘and I can eat at a hotel.’

‘But I can’t send you away!’

‘No arguments’ Kitty said firmly. ‘You mustn’t upset me, I’m soon to be a mother!’

Faith wondered why Mrs Gretorex wasn’t going with her husband, but Mrs Gretorex wasn’t the sort to explain.

The shopping was done and the meal planned. Ian and Vivienne promised to call at three o’clock in case things weren’t going well and Faith needed rescuing. The house was made as neat and welcoming as she could make it. She had done all she could, the rest was up to the fates.

At 12.30 on that Sunday everything was ready, the roasting joint and the potatoes around it looked perfect. She’d had no doubt what to cook, everyone liked a roast. She turned everything down, added coal to the fire, dusted the furniture unnecessarily, then went outside and watched at the gate for their arrival.

A large car arrived and the people she longed to see, yet dreaded to face, walked up the path. The woman who might be her mother, and Verity. She opened the door and faced the first problem. How should she greet them? A handshake, a polite hug? Or should she just stand and allow them to file past like customers booked for Sunday lunch at a small café?

They shook hands.

The second problem was that Verity didn’t eat meat. If anyone was going to be difficult today, Faith had guessed it would be Verity.

‘Omelette?’ Faith asked brightly.

Before they had removed their coats, another car drove up and a young woman, with her husband and daughter stepped out. The first shock was to see how much alike were Joy and Faith. With a couple of years between them they wore their hair in a similar style, their clothes were in the same subdued shades and their eyes revealed the same excitement as they approached, hugged each other and kissed.

‘Joy?’ Faith said breathlessly.

‘I’m Joy, this is my husband, and our daughter. Helen Mary.’ She looked quizzically at Faith. ‘My middle name and yours.’

‘Then you really are my sister?’

‘So it seems. Today we’ll find out for certain.’ Faith shook hands with Joy’s husband Simon, then bent down to greet the little girl. ‘Hello, Helen Mary, come on in, the others are here.’ Simon was smiling at her, then looking at his wife. ‘Peas in a pod. No doubt about it,’ he said.

Faith felt her heart racing making her feel breathless and she wondered how she would survive without bursting into tears. She concentrated on making the little girl feel at home and as soon as she began to set out the meal, she felt better able to cope.

The meal was a success, apart from the slight inconvenience of cooking an omelette for Verity, who also refused the dessert, convinced the pastry on the apple pie had been made with animal fat. As Faith had guessed, Verity repeatedly managed to disrupt the
otherwise
pleasant gathering.

‘I was injured during an air raid,’ her mother told Faith.

‘Apparently she was unconscious, lying across me to protect me,’ Joy added.

‘I was very confused for months, and for a long time after that I believed you had been with us and had been killed in that same raid. So it was a long time before I started to search for you.’

‘It doesn’t mean you’re the daughter miraculously returned, though. There’s such confusion over names, and people moved so much, you could be anyone.’ Verity glanced a warning at her mother.

‘Why was Joy with you? I thought she had been evacuated at the same time as me?’

‘I had a message telling me she had scarlet fever and as soon as she was convalescent I brought her home.’

‘If you’d been together you’d have known that.’ Verity said.

‘We were promised a place together, at least, that was what I was
told later, but we were separated. I don’t think I saw Joy after that first day.’

‘Surely someone would have told you?’

‘I was one year old.’

‘Not for ever! You’d have been told when you were old enough to understand, surely?’

‘I remember being told I no longer had a daddy but I chose not to believe it and even after all this time I sort of hoped he’d come back one day.’

‘Yet you didn’t ask about your sister? How odd.’

‘Of course I asked. I’ve never stopped trying to find her!’ Conversations were repeatedly stopped by Verity who seemed determined to disprove her claim.

‘I remember us being gathered in a church hall,’ Joy said. ‘You were sick and went away. That’s my last memory of you.’

‘You remember a sister,’ Verity insisted. ‘You can’t possibly say this is the same person. This is a preliminary discussion only.’

‘Discussion? I thought it was friends getting to know each other,’ Faith said.

‘It’s far too early to think we might be friends, and nothing has been said to convince me we might be more.’

‘Look at them. The similarity is amazing, and did you know they both trained as teachers?’ Simon argued. Verity tightened her lips but didn’t reply.

At three o’clock there was a lull, no one willing to try again. Faith knew whatever she said would be criticized. She was relieved when a knock at the door announced the arrival of Ian and his mother.

Conversations widened; the subject of relationships was avoided and the rest of the afternoon was relaxed. Vivienne helped her make tea, Ian handed round plates of cakes and sandwiches and at 5.30 the visitors prepared to leave.

‘I have a question for you,’ Verity said as she picked up her handbag. ‘How did you and that other person who came to Beautiful Homes, manage to be wearing the same ghastly coat?’

Faith and Vivienne laughed but didn’t try to explain.

As the two cars drove away Faith turned to Ian and said, ‘I still don’t know who Verity is.’

‘Fingers crossed she isn’t another sister,’ he said. ‘She’s prickly beyond.’

A letter two days later confirmed that Verity was a sister, born after the death of their father. It also informed her that Verity was getting married in October and that she, Faith, was invited. She took the letter to show Winnie and to check on her friend’s recovery.

‘I’ll have to tell them about Matt and my abandoned baby,’ she said, when the letter had been reread. ‘They won’t want to know me once they know about that. This could be the end, just when I was feeling so hopeful.’

When the card came inviting her to Verity’s wedding, Faith knew it was time to tell her secret. It was tempting to do so in a letter, but instead, she travelled up to London on a Sunday morning, intending to travel back the same day. Aware of the distress of having to tell her new family about her daughter, Winnie at once offered to go with her.

‘I know I can’t help,’ she said, ‘but we can travel together and go somewhere to have a meal and make it a bit of a day out. No matter how the day ends you won’t be on your own.’

Faith thanked her friend and gratefully accepted.

They left very early, intending to give themselves time for coffee somewhere before going to see Faith’s mother and sister. She wrote to the woman whom she still hesitated to call Mother, explaining that she needed to talk about an aspect of her life not so far discussed. ‘It sounded very mysterious but I didn’t want to even hint about what I had to tell them,’ Faith explained to Winnie. ‘And I won’t accept the wedding invitation until they know the full story.’

‘They wouldn’t turn away from you, no matter what you have to explain. After all the years of searching, your mother won’t let you go now. I’m certain of that.’

‘I wish I felt the same. I think Verity is the least keen to accept me. She and my mother have built that business and perhaps she’s afraid I’ll interfere or want a part of it.’

They had arranged to meet at a hotel where lunch was available. Faith was pleased. It would be easier to talk over a meal. When they reached the place and walked into the dining room her mother and Verity were already there and, sitting beside them, she was relieved to see her other sister, Joy. ‘Thank goodness,’ she whispered to Winnie. ‘She’ll make coping with Verity a bit easier.’

After introductions were made and the meal ordered, Faith waited with a beating heart for the first course to arrive. When at last the
waitress went away, she said, ‘I had a child and I gave her up for adoption.’

Verity dropped her fork to her plate and stared open-mouthed. Joy said nothing but sadness and sympathy were in her eyes. She reached towards Faith and touched her arm. Her mother just stared, but there was no anger, or even curiosity, just sadness in her expression too.

‘You must have had a very strong reason,’ her mother said. She continued to stare, awaiting further explanation.