by Linda Sole
He would have to make sure that he asked for Mrs Martin and that Keith Rushden was not in the house. The man would be gloating now that he had it all, but not satisfied with the money and the house, he wanted Roz too.
‘You look as if you’ve lost a shilling and found a farthing,’ Ellen said as she entered the kitchen bearing a basket of clean linen. ‘Changed her mind, has she?’
‘No, Ma, she hasn’t. I told you she’d lost the child. She’s ill and wants to see me but Keith Rushden is trying to stop me visiting her.’
‘Why would he do that, then?’
‘Perhaps he doesn’t think I’m good enough for her.’
‘What’s it to do with him? You’re good enough for anyone, Tom. Just because he’s richer than you are it doesn’t make him a better man.’
‘No, it doesn’t. I’m going over there now, Ma. If she’s well enough I might bring her back here.’
‘I’ll put fresh sheets on Carrie’s bed.’ Ellen hesitated, then: ‘I’m sorry, Tom. Sorry for the things I’ve said and done. You’ve got a perfect right to sell your father’s land and go off where you want.’
He nodded, a faint smile on his lips. ‘It depends on Roz. I shall do whatever she wants.’
Roz opened her eyes and looked at the man sitting on the edge of her bed. She blinked but when she looked again he was still there.
‘I thought you were a dream. I was feeling so ill and I wanted you but you didn’t come.’
‘They wouldn’t let me see you on Sunday. I came yesterday and I’ve been here all night. Your husband’s cousin didn’t like it much. I knocked him down and he went off in a huff. Told me this was his house and he’d thank me to get out, but I told him to make me and he couldn’t.’
‘Oh, Tom . . .’ Roz shook her head wearily. ‘I must’ve slept for hours. I was so tired. I feel as if I’ve been beaten all over.’
‘It isn’t an easy thing to lose a child, Roz. I’m so very sorry, my love.’
‘The doctor told me not to worry because I would have more children,’ Roz said, her throat caught with tears. ‘He didn’t understand. A lost child hurts so terribly, Tom.’
‘I know, dearest. I know I can’t do or say anything to make it better for you, but I’ll be here when you want me.’
‘Keith will tell us to leave as soon as I’m able to leave my bed.’
‘He won’t put you out until you’re ready.’
‘As soon as I’m well enough to go out I want to leave here.’ Roz reached for his hand. ‘Mrs Martin told me your father had died?’
‘He died on Sunday a short time before we were due to meet. I was going to ask you to wait until we buried him. The funeral is tomorrow morning.’
‘You must go, Tom. I’m so very sorry.’
‘He was frustrated at being confined to bed. We sometimes thought he was playing us up, but he had another seizure and this one killed him.’
‘What will you do now?’
‘The farm belongs to me, Roz. I can sell the land and let Ma live in the house until she decides she’s had enough and moves into the village. It doesn’t have to change what we planned.’
‘Your house is not small,’ Roz said thoughtfully. ‘In time it could be built on, made larger and become more substantial.’
‘What are you saying? You wouldn’t want to live there?’
‘Why not? Why shouldn’t we, Tom? I thought I wanted to run away but now I think I prefer to stay. I can be a farmer’s wife as easily as an innkeeper’s – and with the money I have we can buy more land. In time you might own as much land as my father once did.’
‘Would you dare, Roz? You know what people will say? They’ll remember the murders and they’ll talk behind your back. The people you knew may cut you.’
‘There’s no one I care about but you and Julia.’ Roz held his hand. ‘Would your mother have me? Could she bear to have me living in her house after everything that’s happened?’
‘It would be our house,’ Tom told her. His slow smile lit his eyes. ‘I reckon she’d be grateful for the chance to welcome my wife home, Roz – if you could bear it?’
‘When we first met I was proud and spoiled,’ Roz confessed. ‘I’ve been taught a few lessons, Tom. I thought it would be easier to run away, but lying here grieving for my poor baby, I’ve realized that I’m lucky to have a life. I can make what I choose of it and I don’t intend to let a few spiteful tongues drive me away.’
‘You’re as brave as you’re lovely,’ Tom said and bent to kiss her. ‘I love you and I’ll do anything you ask of me, Roz.’
‘Then take me to your home as soon as I’m well enough. I was going to take just a couple of bags but now I’ll take everything I’m entitled to. We can sell what we don’t use and we’ll work to make it a good life, Tom.’
‘If I have you it will be.’
‘I love you, Tom.’
‘Did you love me the day you let me win the archery contest?’
‘Yes, I think I did.’ Roz laughed softly. ‘I pulled that arrow deliberately because I thought Carrie was owed the money.’ She gripped his hand tightly. ‘Can we really forget all the hurt and move on?’
‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘But we’ll have a damn good try, Roz.’
Epilogue
Ellen stood watching as Tom came out of the church with his new wife on his arm. It was summer because they’d waited a few months for decency’s sake and their happiness seemed to surround them like a golden glow. She couldn’t help smiling as Roz looked across at her and winked.
Ellen nodded back. Over the past few months they’d formed a good working relationship. Roz wasn’t afraid of hard work, though she’d had to be taught even the simplest of tasks.
‘It’s what comes of being born a lady,’ Ellen had told her when she’d despaired of learning how to bake bread. ‘It’s a good thing you’ve got me to show you or Tom would be on short rations.’
‘Yes, he would.’ Roz laughed. ‘You won’t tell him how useless I am, will you?’
‘You’re everything that man ever wanted and he’d starve rather than admit you’re not perfect.’
Glancing at Roz’s friend Lady Julia, Ellen was glad of the new dress her daughter-in-law had insisted on making for her in a dark blue silk. Ellen had never worn anything like it in her life and might not ever again but she had to admit that it felt good. Lady Julia had been so generous and so friendly, different from Roz’s mother who had not come to the wedding and was refusing to have anything to do with her daughter.
Roz didn’t seem to mind too much that most of her old friends had cut her. There weren’t enough hours in the day to sit and mope because the work never stopped. Roz was happy with her life and she made them smile as she struggled to do all the things a farmer’s wife ought to be able to do. She hadn’t quite got the hang of the milking yet but she was learning. One of these days she would be as quick and clever at her chores as she was with her sewing and her reading. Ellen loved it when the chores were done for the night and Roz read to them all from one of her many books.
Tom had bought more land and he was talking of building on to the house soon. Roz needed a parlour of her own for all her bits and pieces and they wanted more bedrooms because there was already a baby on the way and she was set on having a big family.
Most of all, Roz was happy and that made Tom happy too. You could see it in the way they looked at each other as they walked arm in arm towards the wedding carriage. There was laughter in the house now and love, and that was how it should be.
All in all life hadn’t turned out too badly, Ellen decided and darted forward to shower the couple with rice and flower petals.
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