Dreams Can Come True

by Vivienne Dockerty

  “I don’t think that’s a fair thing to say, Mrs. Haines, if yer don’t mind me saying so. Hannah may have had all the advantages, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be mismatched in our married life. She’ll make a good mother and will be able to help our children get a better future. I regret the hours I didn’t spend in the classroom, but I’ll make sure me kids don’t miss out.”

  Maggie could see that she wasn’t getting anywhere with this zealous young man who was so adamant that his future lay with Hannah. She decided to try one more tactic, then she was going to throw the towel in. Perhaps a bribe would work; perhaps Eddie could be persuaded financially to move away from the area. She would feel that it was rather a dirty trick, but it would give her the measure of the man.

  “Fifty pounds!”

  Eddie’s eyes nearly popped out of his head when he heard the sum that Maggie mentioned. But his voice was full of scorn as he flatly turned her offer down.

  “You’re trying to bribe me to give up Hannah. What kind of a man do yer think yer dealing with? If yer said a thousand it wouldn’t be enough to make me part from her. I love her, Missis, and I’m gutted that you’d think you could pay me to go away. Anyway…” Eddie’s voice dropped to a confidential whisper, “she may be expectin’ my child. It’s possible, and yer wouldn’t want its father to have cleared off and left it, now would yer?”

  Maggie’s anger reached boiling point when she heard his jeering words. So, the little madam had lied when she had said that it was Jeremy she had lain with. Her hand came up to give Eddie a hard slap across his smug-looking face. Then she turned on her heel to walk angrily out of the cottage.

  Chapter 10

  Maggie tossed and turned in her bed that night. Her head throbbed with the anger that she was still feeling. She hated being lied to, and she couldn’t make sense of why Hannah had done so.

  On her arrival back at Selwyn Lodge, she had quelled the urge to rush up to Hannah’s room and confront her. The girl wouldn’t be in any fit state to listen to her stepmother’s ranting and deep down Maggie would have felt a curmudgeon to have added to her suffering.

  She decided to get up and make herself a warm drink; maybe a cup of tea would calm her down, or perhaps a glass of Cook’s brandy would help her sleep. Maggie looked in on Hannah. From what she could see from the light of the oil lamp, the girl was sleeping, so she closed the bedroom door quietly and tiptoed away.

  Someone was sitting at the kitchen table as Maggie entered the room. It was Jack. He jumped as she glided in with slippered feet and set the oil lamp down so she could see him.

  “What are you doing here in the dark?” she asked gently. “Can’t yer sleep? Well, that makes two of us. What’s that yer drinking? Pour me a glass of it, will yer? Anything to make me sleep after a really terrible day.”

  “Can it get any worse, Maggie? You and me have fallen out over something that we could have worked out between us. I’m sorry, Maggie. I’ve been acting like a thoughtless idiot because I’ve got a dent in me pride.”

  “Well, one of the problems has gone away, Jack. Hannah isn’t expecting anymore. She’ll be poorly for a few days, then probably steeped in misery for a week or two, but that should be an end to it. At least she doesn’t have to marry Eddie Dockerty anymore and perhaps we could think of somewhere to send her to get over it. I have the address of her old nursemaid, who I’m sure would be pleased to see her after all this time.”

  “No, Maggie.” Jack said very firmly. “Hannah will still be marrying the Dockerty boy. I’m going to insist on it, even if she has lost his baby. He’s deflowered her, if that’s what yer call it and what other man will have her now? I thought at one time she was more than friendly with Jeremy Adshead and marriage to him might have been on the cards.”

  Maggie nearly blurted out that Hannah had said it was Jeremy’s baby she was expecting, but decided to hold her tongue. She was at a loss now as to whether Hannah had told her the truth and telling Jack would only confuse things.

  “So what are we going to do then? She’s not going to be up to getting involved with wedding preparations just yet and there’s something we’ve forgotten about, your mother and Mr. Arlington.”

  “Yes, I know. Poor mother has been pushed onto the sidelines with all this kerfuffle; their nuptials are on the 23rd. We can hardly tell her about Hannah getting wed, that would really put the cat amongst the pigeons. Anyway, what say I come back to our bedroom and make up for lost time? That’s why we’ve not been sleeping well, yer know. No one to warm each other’s feet and that bed in the guest room is as hard as hell!”

  It was Hannah and Eddie’s wedding day: 8th January 1870. It was also Eddie’s 21st birthday, as Madeline had flatly refused her permission for her son to marry into the uppity Haines family. That had greatly puzzled Eddie when he had asked her to sign the paper. He had thought his mother would have been happy for him, knowing how he had always nurtured that dream.

  Over the years Madeline had lost her prettiness. After the birth of seven children her girth had widened significantly and her expression was of permanent sulkiness, as she experienced life married to a pub’ landlord. Their tavern was the hub of the working-man’s community and Ted spent long hours running it.

  Madeline’s pampered upbringing in Formby was now a distant memory and her dreams of a career as a dress designer dwindled with every birth. She had turned into a bitter, resentful woman and she placed the blame of her misfortune squarely at Maggie’s door. For her son to marry into that family was to her a flagrant travesty. She had refused point blank to give the marriage her blessing, and threatened her husband with all sorts of misery if he signed and went behind her back. There was nothing for it but to wait for Eddie to legally be the master of his destiny.

  Hannah, on the other hand, experienced none of this hostility from her parents. Jack was glad to be getting rid of her. She was no more than a slut in his opinion and deserved all that life with Eddie was going to bring her. Hannah was his princess no longer; just a constant reminder of his time with Kitty May.

  Maggie, however, had been more sympathetic. The thought of Hannah having to live in a tumbledown dwelling, which was all the couple could afford, dismayed her. The fact that Jack was denying her the wedding that all brides dream of was enough in itself, but Hannah was still her stepdaughter; a child that she had nurtured since a babe of eighteen months old.

  Behind her husband’s back, she had arranged with a team of her workmen to add two rooms and a bathroom to Lilac Cottage, fix the roof and repair the place into an habitable home. Ironically, she had chosen Lilac Cottage, not because the couple had used it for their secret trysts, away from the prying eyes of those who would have frowned upon their relationship, but because the place down there brought out the best of Maggie’s nostalgia. It had been a haven, somewhere simple and uncomplicated; a shelter where she could hide away from the villagers who had looked down their nose at an immigrant. Now Hannah and Eddie could embrace the same protection, because there would be those who would make it their business to point fingers as before. What was a well brought up girl like Hannah doing with a no-hoper like the Dockerty boy? Was he after the family money? Was there a Dockerty baby on the way?

  “Hannah, I’ve never seen you look so beautiful,” Maggie remarked as she put the finishing touches to her stepdaughter’s hair. “I think I made a good job of yer gown if I do say it meself. I’ve not lost the touch even after all these years.”

  She had copied Hannah’s wedding gown from a picture in a fashionable London magazine. They had made the journey to the fabric house in Chester and chosen a length of heavy white silk, which Maggie had made into a fitted bodice dress with a skirt that draped across the front in neat swathes and covered Hannah’s now-womanly figure. A small bustle sat under a waterfall train that fell to the floor, then trailed a couple of feet behind her. A long-sleeved jacket made of white baby seal skin completed the outfit and Maggie was now fixing some white satin roses into Hannah’s ch
ignoned hair.

  “It’s all thanks to you, Mother,” Hannah said brightly, though tears of emotion were welling into her eyes. “Left to father, I’d be wearing sack cloth and ashes, not this elegant dress on my wedding day.”

  “That’s because yer father is still hurting. He’s unhappy that yer marrying Eddie, he only ever wanted the best fer you.”

  “You mean marry someone like Jeremy Adshead? This is all Jeremy’s fault that I’m in this situation. Did you seriously think I would have married Eddie, if Jeremy hadn’t given me a baby?”

  “Hannah!” Maggie said in a shocked voice. “What are yer telling me? Are yer still insisting that the baby yer lost was Jeremy Adshead’s child?”

  “Why, didn’t you believe me?”

  “Well, no, not after Eddie told me yer could be expecting his.”

  “When was that?”

  Both women stared at each other aghast.

  “I went to see Eddie that day you were losing the baby. He had left a message for you to meet him at Lilac Cottage. I went instead and tried to get him to change his mind about seeing you. That was when he told me that you were probably expecting his child already. Unfortunately I lost my temper and belted him one, because I thought that you had told me a lie. And he was mocking me, making out that you were his already and that there was nothing I could do.”

  “Oh, Mother, I wish that you had told me. It’s true what he said though. Because I needed a father for my baby I sought Eddie out. I didn’t want to be the subject of people’s gossiping. I purposely let him have his way with me, one evening at the cottage. Then of course I lost the baby shortly after, but by that time Father had issued his ultimatum. So, here I am making the best of it. There’s really no choice in the matter, is there? Eddie will be waiting at the church and in an hour I’ll be a married woman.”

  Maggie sank down onto the bed in despair. It seemed like history repeating itself. She hadn’t wanted to marry Jack, but circumstances had forced her into it. Now here was Hannah feeling forced into marrying Eddie, because she had let him couple with her.

  “You don’t have to marry him, Hannah. You can take the carriage and drive down to Malpas. Sarah, your old nursemaid, would take you in until we can think of something. Here, I’ll go and get her address. Take Lincoln or Jefferson, you could be there by nightfall and I’ll square it with your father after yer gone.”

  “Mother,” Hannah patted Maggie’s shoulder gently, her voice all wobbly as she tried to stem her tears. “I can’t do that to Eddie. It would break his heart. He has loved me since we were tiny tots and though I don’t return his love, I am fond of him. I’ll go ahead and marry him and who knows, it could be the making of me. It’s not as if I’ll be living in a hovel; your workmen have made a wonderful job of the cottage and Eddie will have regular wages with all the building that’s going on. You don’t know how grateful I am to you, Mother. You could have left me with Grandmama all those years ago and I’m sure she would have made my life a misery, but you have always been kind and I’ve wanted for nothing.”

  Hannah put her arms around Maggie’s neck and hugged her fiercely.

  “Well, if that’s yer decision, come downstairs and we’ll have a nice cup of something. At least yer father said he’d walk yer to church, so now he can see what an elegant bride you will be.”

  Meantime, Eddie was getting ready in the living room of his parents’ four-roomed accommodation above the tavern. He adjusted his silver-coloured cravat in the flyblown mirror above the mantelpiece. He smirked with satisfaction, then turned to his mother who was watching him.

  “What do yer think, will I do yer proud when I take me bride up the aisle?”

  Madeline sniffed and smoothed down the dark blue skirt of her best outfit.

  “I’ve told you before, nothing good will come of this marriage. Chalk and cheese the pair of you. Why Miss Goody Two Shoes Haines had condescended to wed you is beyond me. It’s not as if she’s expecting and her father’s after yer with a shotgun. Though maybe the pair of you have been up to no good, seeing he’s being mean with the wedding breakfast.”

  “Oh, Old Sour Puss will soon come round, Mother. Once he sees me and Hannah are happy and there’s a baby on the way to make him a granddad, he’ll get over his jealousy. That’s all it is, jealousy, because I’m taking his little princess away. That’s what Hannah has told me anyway. I didn’t dare go near him or Selwyn Lodge once he knew we were getting married, though her mother Maggie has been a star. Look how she’s let us have the cottage, had it done up fer us and given us fifty pound to spend as a wedding present. That’s where me suit came from by the way. Hannah took me to Browns in Chester. I felt a real toff with all the other gents.”

  “Ah, a kept man already is it?” came a voice from the stairs.

  It was Uncle Johnny, who had travelled over from Ireland to be with the family on his nephew’s wedding day.

  “Not so long now before yer a married man, young shaver. I was wondering if yer were going to ask for the borrow of me suit again.”

  “No, according to Eddie, he’ll be getting a wardrobe full,” Madeline broke in. “Thinks he’ll be landed once her dad gets used to them being wed, but I know that family. Especially that Maggie. She’ll be ever so pleasant, Eddie, then you put one foot out of line and then you’ve had it. I’d go carefully and not get any big ideas, ‘cos whatever she does, she’ll do it for Hannah, not you.”

  “Yes, I can second that, Eddie. Years ago I thought I was in with a chance with Maggie. I took her out, did a spot of courting with her, was prepared to give up the sea ‘cos I thought I’d be moving into that great big house and be taking over her affairs. Then before yer know it, her husband appeared. Out of the blue, just like that.”

  “And we all thought she was a widow, didn’t we, Johnny?” said Madeline jeeringly. “We felt sorry for her, me and her were the best of friends, but all the time she was double dealing us. So be careful ‘cos you never know where you are with her.”

  “Well, I’m marrying Hannah, not her mother,” laughed Eddie good-humouredly. “Now do yer think yer could round up all the kids? I don’t want the Dockerty’s to turn up late.”

  At least one side of the church was full, thought Hannah, as she walked slowly down to the altar with her father. She saw the grinning faces of Eddie’s brothers and sisters, the disapproving face of his mother, Ted, Eddie’s father, who winked at her and gave her an encouraging smile. A whole host of villagers (‘come to gawp’ as her mother would have put it) and at least ten young men from the building site. On the bride’s side were Maggie, Grandmama and her new husband, Mr. Arlington, Sean, Jack’s brother with his wife, Matilda, and Fergal whose wife would join them later on. There was no sign of Cecelia and Florence, who hadn’t even replied to Hannah’s invitation; she had fallen back on an old school friend to be her attendant. Emily Watts, by return of post, had said she would be delighted to come. Of course Mikey was away in India, though Hannah knew he wouldn’t have approved of her marriage to Eddie, if he had been here. Well, never mind; it was the people who were here that mattered and Hannah smiled gently at Eddie as he turned to look her way.

  “So we meet again, Maggie,” said Johnny, as he saw his chance to get her on his own after the wedding, as the other invited guests made a beeline for the church hall.

  “I see you’ve gone to inordinate expense on behalf of the young couple. I thought the do after would be at least at the Grosvenor Hotel.”

  “Get lost, Johnny,” muttered Maggie, stung by his criticism. “It’s not as if it’s the wedding of the year, it’s your nephew Hannah’s marrying after all.”

  “What do yer mean by that?” he asked her, his eyes narrowing as he looked at her. “Eddie’s good enough for any girl, especially one who has a dubious background like hers.”

  “Do you not think we should join the others?” Maggie smiled at him sweetly and began to walk away. No doubt Johnny had been listening to Madeline’s gossip and Maggie was de
termined not to take him on. This day was Hannah and Eddie’s, and no one was going to spoil it. She nodded at the priest who hovered by the church hall door and asked him if he would care to join them.

  “I don’t think much effort has gone in to this,” Madeline remarked to her husband, as they waited for the bride and groom to arrive. “Two tables of food to cater for our lot, I could have done better if we had done it all at the pub’!”

  “Well, yer should of volunteered then, shouldn’t yer, but all you’ve done is bitch and snipe. You and Maggie could have got together, but it looks as if all the hard work has fallen on them over there.”

  Ted pointed over to Olive and Joan, who both looked tired and harassed. They were filling sherry glasses as fast as they could, while Olive’s younger sister, Polly, was still buttering slices of bread.

  “At least someone’s bothered to make a wedding cake, probably shop bought from the bakery though. I can’t see Maggie putting a pinny on, can you?”

  “Give it a rest will yer, Maddy and get our Jimmy out from under that table. If he pulls on that tablecloth any more, he’ll have the cake on top of him. Ah, here they are. Our Eddie and the beautiful Hannah. Ladies and Gentlemen, make way for the bride and groom!”

  “Who does he think he is?” commented Alice to her husband, Mr. Arlington. “At our wedding we had a proper Master of Ceremonies, not any old person who just shouts that the couple has come.”

  “Well, we had a more refined wedding, my dear Mrs. Arlington. None could better our special day at the Victoria Hotel. And if I do say it myself, we didn’t stint on our guests as your son appears to have done. I mean ours was a sit down do, not a help yourself to a buffet, with a choice of meats and a bowl full each of trifle. I’m surprised with all the wealth that the Haineses have that their guests should be treated in this way.”

  “Ah,” replied Alice knowingly. “This is because of who Hannah is marrying. Jack was very upset when she told him of her choice. He had got his heart set on her marrying Jeremy Adshead of Causey Hall. I notice none of their family are present either; just that common lot from the village. He runs that vulgar tavern by the fountain, yer know.”