by Emma Hornby
Complete silence followed her speech. Ambrose stared at her for an age. Then he broke contact and lowered his head. Laura breathed easier.
‘Wait. I want to say something.’
All eyes turned to see Bridget making her way across. She paused in front of a shocked-looking Ambrose and a single tear rolled down her cheek. In a cracked voice, she addressed him as she’d never done before.
‘I can’t be as forgiving as your niece, here. I detest you for all you’ve put me through. I loved ye, sir. I would have waited until the end of time for you, but you used the fact to your own advantage and in the most despicable way. You’ve belittled me, assaulted me, stripped away my self-respect. You played with my heart and you broke it. Worse of all, you hurt my Millicent. Aye, ye did, I know it,’ she told him with a nod when his face flushed brick red. ‘I always feared you’d go too far and I’d have to walk away. Now, I feel only relief that it’s here. You, sir, are on your own. I put my curse on ye, and I hope it catches up with you before you meet the fires of hell.’
‘Figg. You can’t leave me. You need me. Figg!’
‘My name is Bridget,’ she said over her shoulder, before turning once more and disappearing inside Laura’s shop.
‘It’s over, let him go,’ Laura told the men. Then she, too, crossed the road without a backward glance.
‘He’s gone,’ Edwin announced, entering the confectioner’s moments later. Then Daniel appeared behind him. And Laura knew, she just knew …
He made his way across the floor and paused in front of her. ‘Laura.’
Lad …
‘The child?’
‘I don’t … I don’t know.’ She motioned to Millicent, standing with her aunt. ‘The lass has been for the doctor. He’s on his way.’
Biting back tears, Daniel nodded. Tentatively, he placed his hands on her stomach and stroked the neat globe. ‘Fight,’ he whispered. ‘You must fight, little one, you must— ’Ere!’ He swivelled his gaze to Laura. ‘Was that …?’
‘Aye,’ she choked, laughing through a sob of overwhelming relief. ‘It kicked, Daniel. It kicked.’
‘Oh, my love.’
‘Oh, lad.’
He rose and wrapped her in his arms, and Laura lost herself in his embrace.
Then someone cleared their throat.
Drawing back and glancing around at the uncomfortable faces, Laura felt the changed atmosphere, the realisation, seep into her soul. My God. She shut her eyes, not daring to look. ‘Lizzie … Lass … I …’
The slamming of the shop door shattered the air.
‘She’s gone.’
No.
‘Daniel!’ Laura cried.
Face pale, he opened and closed his mouth, his guilt absolute.
‘Lad, what have we done?’
CHAPTER 29
‘I’LL, ERM, I’LL take Bridget and Millicent along to mine, give youse chance to sort … Aye, well.’ Edwin coughed awkwardly. ‘Come along with me, lasses. Let’s get a cup of tea and some grub inside you, eh? I’ve a leek pie in t’ oven I made fresh this morn.’
The Irishwoman’s voice, low with surprise, followed them out: ‘You cook? You’re a rare breed indeed, so. Sure, fancy me being waited on for once …’
‘Bridget seems to have a thing for coal merchants, don’t she? It’s just a pity she wasted so long on the wrong one,’ Daniel said. Yet one look at Laura’s distraught expression and his false smile slipped from his face.
‘You think this is the time for jokes?’
‘’Course not, I was just trying to … ’Course not,’ he repeated on a sigh. He ran a hand through his hair. ‘What the hell are we going to do, Laura?’
‘I don’t know. Actually, yes, I do.’ She snatched her shawl from behind the counter. ‘We look for her. We find her and we front this out. We, we were just lost in the moment, we’ll explain that to her, aye, and—’
‘And you’d be lying.’
Laura and Daniel whipped round to see Lizzie standing in the doorway. Frank Higson was by her side. Most surprising of all, she was smiling.
‘You love each other,’ she added, nodding.
‘Lizzie, lass—’ began Daniel, but she stopped him.
‘It’s all right. I think I’ve allus known. Least I knew you loved Laura. I just needed to see it without doubt, with my own two eyes, that she felt the same. Now I have.’ She turned to Laura with that same smile. ‘When he took you in his arms, love, the look in your eyes … I’m right? You do share his feelings?’
Laura swallowed several times. Then: ‘Aye.’
‘Right. So why don’t we sit and talk this through, the four of us, like adults. Civilised, like. For I’ve some things I’d like to get off my chest an’ all.’
‘You’re really not angry, lass?’ asked Laura when they were seated around the table in the back room.
‘Nay, love, I’m not. I’m relieved.’ Lizzie looked at Frank, and it was like the sun had come out behind her eyes. ‘So many nights I’ve lay awake, knowing I loved this man right here, fearing there would never be a way for me to be with him. I dreaded us wedding,’ she continued, turning to Daniel, ‘but I hadn’t the courage to break things off. You see, you’re not the man for me. I don’t love thee, never have, not really. Oh, I thought I did, aye, forra long time. But it were nobbut a young girl’s infatuation, a crush, if you like. What I have with Frank …’ Her sigh was one of sheer contentment. ‘That’s real. He’s everything to me.’
‘I don’t know what to say,’ said Daniel, shaking his head. ‘Thank you, lass. Thank you.’
‘No need for that, lad. A body can’t help who it falls for. Just do me one favour.’ Reaching across, Lizzie took both their hands. ‘Love each other, always. Be happy. ‘’Specially you,’ she told Laura softly. ‘You’ve had more than your fair share of sadness, but let the day mark an end to all what’s passed.’
‘Oh, lass.’ Laura threw her arms around her neck. ‘I don’t deserve you.’
‘Aye, you do. It’s me what’s lucky to have our friendship. You’ve done so much for me, and I don’t just mean the shop. I’ve grown in myself since knowing thee. You showed me I can do anything, follow any dream, if I’m brave enough. Ta, love. Now it’s time you did the same. Save, go abroad, wed, and to hell with what anyone might say.’
When the new couple rose to leave Daniel held out a hand to Frank, who shook it warmly. ‘Look after her, for she’s one in a million.’
He cast Lizzie a besotted smile. ‘Have no fear of that, lad, I will.’
Alone, Laura and Daniel stood facing each other with tears in their eyes.
‘Joyce will give us her blessing, won’t she?’
‘Mam will want her family’s happiness, same as Bee O’Brien. Lizzie and Frank, me and thee … and this little one.’ He kissed his fingertips and touched them to her stomach. ‘There’s a brand-new future ready and waiting, for all of us.’
A stir of guilt filtered through her joy. ‘Us … It’s not a betrayal to Nathan, is it, lad?’
‘Nay, lass, nay. My brother loved us both. And we’ll never stop loving him. Nowt will ever change that. Come here.’
Daniel opened his arms and she walked into them.
‘We’ve been through so much together.’
‘Aye.’
‘I’ve suppressed my feelings for thee, ached for thee for so long … I, I just …’
‘Lass?’
‘I’m afraid it’s all going to be taken away from me, as it allus is. I’m … I’m afraid to love.’
Smiling, he took her wet face in his hands and pressed his lips to hers in a feathery kiss. ‘Carpe diem,’ he murmured.
And Laura did.
If you enjoyed A Daughter’s Price, look out for A Mother’s Dilemma, also by Emma Hornby and available now
Gritty and page-turning historical saga set in Northern England in the late 1800s, for fans of Dilly Court and Rosie Goodwin.
Minnie Maddox cares deeply for mothers and their babi
es – she makes a living by taking in unwanted children and finding them good adoptive homes – and is delighted for her neighbour when she finally becomes a mother after decades of trying. But when the baby dies of natural causes while under her roof, and knowing her neighbour will be devastated, Minnie swaps it with one of the infants in her care.
Now seventeen, Jewel Nightingale knows nothing of her true origins. But assaulted by her hateful cousin and making the dreadful discovery that she is pregnant, she faces a desperate dilemma. Fleeing her job as a domestic maid, she follows an advertisement to a house in Bolton's dark slums, where a woman promises to help her when the child is born. Little does Jewel know that there’s a terrible price to pay . . .
Can she keep herself – and her baby – safe? And what will happen when Jewel discovers the truth about where she came from?
THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING
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First published in Great Britain in 2020 by Bantam Press
an imprint of Transworld Publishers
Copyright © Emma Hornby 2020
Cover photography: © Colin Thomas; except background © Getty Images
Cover design by Richard Ogle/TW
Emma Hornby has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
This book is a work of fiction and, except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Every effort has been made to obtain the necessary permissions with reference to copyright material, both illustrative and quoted. We apologize for any omissions in this respect and will be pleased to make the appropriate acknowledgements in any future edition.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 9781473560109
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