She was musing about her plight when a tap came on her bedroom door and Fliss stuck her head around it.
‘Adina,’ she said, ‘Theo and I are going out to visit some friends of ours for a couple of hours. Mother has gone to bed. Will you be all right entertaining yourself, or would you like to come with us?’
‘Oh, thank you, but I’ll be absolutely fine,’ Adina assured her. ‘You get off and have a good time, and please don’t worry about me. I was planning on an early night anyway.’
‘If you’re quite sure then.’
Minutes later, Adina heard the front door close and when she peeped from behind the curtain she saw Theo and Fliss climbing into a cab. It was an awful night, with the rain slamming against the windows and the wind howling from above. It was the first time she had ever had the house to herself and so, after tightening the belt of her dressing-gown, she decided to do a little exploring. She was well aware that there were two more floors above her and was curious to see what they were like.
On the landing she paused to make sure that there was no sound coming from the old lady’s room below, but everything was as quiet as the grave. She moved along, cautiously opening doors and peeping into the empty rooms but there was little to be seen as most of the furniture inside them was covered in dust sheets – until she came to the last room, and what she found in there made her blink with surprise. It was a nursery, with everything a baby could possibly need arranged inside it. The walls had been painted in soft shades of blue, pink and lemon, and bright curtains hung at the window. A large wooden cot with a pretty white lacy pillow was positioned against one wall, and toys and teddy bears of various shapes and sizes were displayed on a number of shelves. There was a thick warm carpet on the floor and pretty pictures of Beatrix Potter characters displayed on the walls. As Adina ventured inside, her breath caught in her throat and she had to stifle a sob. Poor Fliss must have had this room made ready for the baby she had never borne.
Adina’s heart flooded with sympathy for the woman as she thought how unfair life was. Here was she, unmarried and having a baby that had not been planned, when all Fliss wanted in the world was a child of her own and she was unable to have one. Crossing to a large white chest of drawers, Adina carefully opened one drawer and looked inside it. A pile of nappies was arranged on one side of it; a number of tiny nightdresses lovingly folded on the other.
The next drawer revealed a store of little bibs and Liberty Bodices, and Adina closed it, unable to look for a second longer. She suddenly felt very much as if she was intruding on a dream, and badly shaken, she hastily left the room after making sure that everything was exactly as she had found it.
Out on the landing she swiped away the tears from her cheeks and ventured towards the stairs that must lead to the top floor. Now that she had come this far, she reasoned that she might as well see the rest of the house.
The set of stairs that she was climbing now were uncarpeted, and her soft slippers sounded faintly on the bare wooden boards. High above her she could see the tarpaulin that had been secured to what was left of the roof flapping madly in the wind and she felt slightly nervous as she scurried along the landing. The rooms she peeped into up here had no wallpaper on the walls and bare wooden floorboards, and she guessed that in times gone by these would have been the servants’ quarters. The rooms were little more than bare cells with no comfort whatsoever, and she tried to imagine the people who must once have slept in them. Another door led into what she discovered was an enormous attic with pieces of discarded furniture and large wooden packing cases strewn haphazardly about. The sound of the wind was deafening up here and it was bitterly cold, so after a very quick exploration Adina hurried back the way she had come, not stopping until she once more came to the landing which her room was on.
‘Had a good look round, have you?’ a voice asked sarcastically and Adina almost jumped out of her skin. She had been so busy thinking about the nursery that she hadn’t noticed old Mrs Montgomery standing there outside her bedroom door.
‘I er . . . yes. I went off exploring,’ she said guiltily. ‘I hope you don’t mind?’
‘Why should I?’ The old lady shrugged. ‘I haven’t got any bodies hidden or anything to hide. Found the nursery, did you?’
Adina nodded as the old woman sighed. ‘Theo did that for Fliss when they first got married. Trouble is, she never gave him anything to put in it.’
‘It’s very sad.’ Adina said the first thing that popped into her head, feeling that some response was necessary. She suddenly wondered how the old lady had managed to get to her room unaided. She had had her suspicions for some time that in actual fact, old Mrs Montgomery could do a lot more than she admitted to – and now those suspicions were confirmed. She had certainly managed to get up here from the first floor without assistance, although she always told Theo that she could not manage the stairs unaided.
‘I thought, seeing as those two are out of the way, it would be a good chance for us to have a little chat,’ she now said. ‘May I come into your room?’
‘Of course,’ Adina said immediately, wondering what it was she wanted to speak to her about.
Leaning heavily on her cane, the old woman came inside and sat down. She looked approvingly at the neat and tidy room before saying, ‘So, is there something you wish to get off your chest?’
Adina flushed to the very roots of her hair. ‘Such as what?’ she managed to say eventually.
‘You know very well what I’m talking about,’ the old woman told her sternly. ‘I’m on about this here.’ She suddenly raised her cane without warning and gently prodded Adina in the stomach as the girl’s mouth fell open in a horrified gape.
‘I . . . I don’t know what you are talking about,’ she spluttered as she knocked the cane away indignantly.
‘Do you not? Well, just look at those flying past your bedroom window then.’
Adina looked innocently towards the window, falling into the old woman’s trap as she said, ‘Look at what?’
‘That row of purple pigs which just flew past – that’s what! You know full well what I’m talking about, my girl. I wasn’t born yesterday! You’re pregnant, aren’t you?’
Adina opened her mouth to deny it, but then she lowered her head in defeat.
‘Yes, I am,’ she said in a voice so quiet the old lady had to strain to hear it.
‘Right, now we’ve established that, we can talk about it and see how I can help you. Sit down there where I can see you without having to strain my neck.’
As Adina meekly did as she was told, she asked, ‘Why would you want to help me?’
‘Let’s just say that once upon a time, I found myself in the very same position.’ The old woman’s eyes grew misty as her mind wandered back in time. ‘I was born and bred in Camden Town and my family were as poor as church mice,’ she went on, and interested now, Adina raised her head and listened intently.
‘I was the oldest of eight children and times were hard. I was in service before I was fourteen in a house not far from here, and every week when I got paid I used to go and give my wages to my mother. It was either that or the little ones didn’t get to eat. My father was a heavy drinker, and half the money he earned as a furniture remover went straight over the bar of the Leighton pub in Kentish Town on his way home every Friday night. He and my mother had some right old ding-dongs, I don’t mind telling you. Anyway, when I got to sixteen I met this sailor at a dance. He was Norwegian and just about the handsomest man I’d ever set eyes on.’ She smiled ruefully at the memory. ‘From then on, whenever he came to London he would take me out and treat me like a queen. And then one day I found out I was pregnant. I had to wait six weeks until he was back in London again, and when I told him he promised me he’d sort things out. He said he was going back home to make arrangements for me, and then we’d be married . . . That was the last I ever saw of him.’
Mrs Montgomery took a handkerchief from the pocket of her dress and blew her nose on it lo
udly. ‘I was absolutely terrified of my father finding out. He was very strict with us, you see, and fond of using his belt. Anyway, one day my father was off work sick, and as I had just taken my wages round to my mother I offered to fetch his for him. My dear I’ll never forget that day, for as long as I live. When I got to the yard where my father worked, his boss called me into his office. He’d always been very kind to the family and we were all fond of him. He always made sure that the children had a little gift for under the tree at Christmas, and when things were really tough he would slip my mother an extra shilling or two without my father knowing. Anyway, this day I’d been crying as I was starting to show and I knew that I couldn’t hide my condition for much longer. I didn’t know which way to turn and I was scared out of my wits.’
The old lady paused to look at Adina. ‘You wouldn’t think so now, but back then I was a bit of a head-turner. In fact, so much so that my father always told me it would be my downfall – and he wasn’t far wrong. Anyway I went into the boss’s office and straight away he saw that I’d been crying and he made me sit down while he brought me a cup of tea, bless him. Before I knew what I was doing I’d blurted everything out to him – he was so easy to talk to, you see? And that’s when it happened: he’d lost his wife a couple of years before, and out of the blue he offered to marry me and bring up the child I was carrying as his own. He and his wife had never had any children, and he was keen to have an heir to inherit the business. Well, I don’t mind telling you – you could have knocked me down with a feather! He was fifty-six years old and I was just sixteen, but what choice did I have? It was either that or be thrown out onto the streets when my father found out, and what would have happened to the baby then? So quick as a flash I agreed to it, and although I couldn’t have known it then and I married him for all the wrong reasons, in time I grew to love the very bones of the man. He was the salt of the earth and he treated me like royalty. I shall never forget the look on his face the day Theodore was born, not for as long as I live. He looked as if I’d given him the greatest gift of all, which I suppose in a way I had. He and Theo had a wonderful relationship until the day William died, so there you have it. You’re not the only one to wind up in the family way without a ring on your finger, and I’ll warrant you won’t be the last.’ Old Mrs Montgomery heaved a sigh. ‘The thing is now, what are we going to do about it? Who is the father? Will he stand by you?’
‘Oh yes,’ Adina assured her quickly. ‘I’m waiting for him to come for me and then we’ll be married.’
‘Come for you?’ the old woman asked, thinking the scenario sounded all too familiar.
‘Well, the thing is, Karl had to go back to Germany to—’
‘Stop right there.’ The other woman held her hand up in horror. ‘Are you telling me that you, a Jewish girl, are pregnant by a German?’
Slowly Adina began to tell her the whole story, and as it unfolded, Mrs Montgomery’s eyes narrowed.
‘Can’t you see, girl?’ she said harshly. ‘He isn’t coming back.’
‘Oh yes he is!’ Adina shot back, unable to face the alternative. ‘Karl loves me, I know he does.’
The woman watched the different emotions flitting across the girl’s face. After a time, she asked quietly, ‘And what are you going to do if he doesn’t come back?’
‘I . . . I don’t know.’ Suddenly Adina was sobbing.
There is a solution to this mess, you know,’ Mrs Montgomery said eventually, and when Adina raised tearstained eyes to look at her, she went on, ‘You could give the baby to Theo and Fliss.’
When Adina leaped up and opened her mouth to protest, the woman silenced her with a glare. ‘At least hear me out,’ she said sternly. ‘After my husband died I eventually sold the business. Theo wasn’t quite old enough to take it over, and it fetched more money than I could ever spend in a lifetime. In two lifetimes, if it came to that. If you were to give the baby to my son and his wife, I would see that you had enough money to set you up for life.’
‘You are asking me to sell my baby?’ Adina breathed disbelievingly.
‘Oh, don’t be so melodramatic!’ the old woman snapped. ‘I’m offering you and the baby a solution, that’s what I’m doing. The child would never want for anything, and you would be free to build a new life for yourself. What could you offer the child? Love doesn’t put food on the table or clothes on your back, you know, and how will you manage?’
Adina’s head wagged from side to side vehemently. ‘This is our baby,’ she declared. ‘Mine and Karl’s. And he will come for me. You just see if he doesn’t!’
Shrugging, the old woman stood up and hobbled away. ‘Yes, I’m afraid we will see,’ she said softly as she closed the door behind her.
Adina stood there; her hands clenching and unclenching as she tried to deny what Mrs Montgomery had prophesied. Karl would come for her, she just knew it. It was the only hope she had left to cling on to.
Chapter Thirty-Two
The atmosphere in the house was somewhat strained for the next few days, although Adina thought that Mrs Montgomery had not told Theo and Fliss of her condition as neither of them had mentioned it.
As she and Fliss arrived home late one afternoon, her eyes instantly fell to the tray in the hall where Beattie put the mail, and she pounced on an envelope that was addressed to her. It was Beryl’s handwriting – she would have recognised it anywhere even without the USA stamps.
‘It’s from my friend in America,’ she told Fliss, her eyes shining. ‘Would you mind very much if I went up to my room to read it before dinner?’
‘Of course not,’ Fliss told her indulgently. She had grown fond of Adina although she wished sometimes that she would go out a little more with people her own age. The way she saw it, the girl was too young to be stuck in with them every night, and it was nice to know that she had a friend, even if the friend was in America.
Adina shot away up the stairs and in no time at all she had ripped the letter open and was gleefully scanning the pages. Almost at once she sensed that this was the Beryl she knew writing to her, and not the one who had seemed to be choosing her words carefully since going to America. But in no time at all the smile died on her lips as she read on.
I thought I was coming out to live on some stud ranch like you see on the movies, with Tye’s well-to-do parents. But in no time I realised that he had been lying to me. The baby and I are living in what amounts to little more than a ghetto. There is barely room to swing a cat around and the place is so damp and dirty I fear for Catherine’s health. Tye’s mother hates me and shouts at me and the baby all the time. Oh Adina, how could I have been such a fool? Tye is barely at home and when he does come back he smells of other women’s perfume, and treats me like a skivvy. What am I to do? I feel I shall go mad, stuck here so far away from everyone I care about. I am so sorry to burden you with my troubles but I have no one else I can talk to and I feel so alone.
Adina read the letter right through twice and then slowly folded it and replaced it in the envelope. She hated to think of her friend being so unhappy, but what could she do about it? She had been diligently saving her wages since coming to London for things that she would need for the baby, but even if she were to send Beryl every penny she possessed, she doubted that it would be enough to cover her fare home – if she could get a ticket, that was. She thought back to the suspicions she had had about Tyrone and wished that she had told Beryl about them at the time. But then commonsense took over and she knew that it would have made no difference, even if she had. Beryl had been blindly, madly in love, just as she was with Karl, and she would never have believed anything untoward that anyone said about him.
Sighing, she placed the letter in a drawer, and went down to join the family for dinner.
‘You’re very quiet this evening. Is everything all right?’ Fliss asked as she loaded a succulent piece of lamb – from chops that Beattie had somehow managed to obtain – onto her fork. As usual Adina was merely toying with her meal,
although Fliss wasn’t overly concerned. She must be getting enough food, she reasoned, because she seemed to have put a little weight on.
‘What . . . oh yes, thank you. Everything is fine,’ Adina replied as she glanced at the old woman. Mrs Montgomery said nothing as she continued to eat. It was so nice to have something other than chicken or mince for dinner, and she intended to savour every single mouthful.
It was almost two hours later, when the kitchen was tidy again and Beattie had gone home after a hard day’s work, that Adina joined the old woman in the drawing room.
‘What would you like me to read to you this evening?’ Adina asked, as her eyes scanned the bookcase.
Mrs Montgomery patted the seat at the side of her. ‘Nothing for now, thank you dear, but I would like to talk to you.’
Reluctantly, Adina perched next to her as the old woman studied her solemn face. ‘Have you thought any more about what we talked about?’ she asked, and when Adina stiffened, she squeezed her hand. ‘I know it isn’t easy, my dear. But you mustn’t just think of yourself. You must think of the baby. Whatever you decide to do, I think it is time we informed Theo and Fliss of your condition. You should see a doctor or a midwife to check that all is well with the child. You owe it that much, at least.’
When Adina sighed resignedly, Mrs Montgomery smiled with relief. ‘Right, leave it to me,’ she told her. ‘I shall speak to them this very evening when you have gone to bed, and tomorrow, Fliss will arrange for you to see a doctor. A visit is long overdue already – and who knows what might happen to the baby if you don’t go soon. Are you agreeable to that?’
Adina nodded. She could not go on trying to hide her condition for much longer, and in a way it would be a relief when the others knew. At least then she wouldn’t have to keep lying to them.
A Band of Steel Page 25
