by Anne Bennett
It began with stilt walkers dressed in long, long striped trousers and black jackets and top hats, walking seemingly effortlessly among the people and stalls, now and then proffering their hats for the watching people to put money in. They saw a prize-fighter promising to beat anyone foolish enough to take up his challenge to fight, but the five-pound prize should a man beat the champ might be a great temptation to many, Celia thought. Then they came upon another man dressed in what looked like an oversized nappy and a turban, lying on a bed of nails on that bitterly cold night just as if it was a feather bed, and another trussed up in chains.
And while they were sampling these delights of the Bull Ring, Henry and Norah were in the taxi travelling to the city centre and Norah was saying, ‘And he refused the job opening that you had for him? What reason did he give?’
‘He didn’t want to leave Billy.’
‘Well it might have something to do with you doing the asking,’ Norah said. ‘Andy is a very proud man, but the real reason is probably that he doesn’t want to do the dirty on Billy because they get on well together and Andy owes him a lot.’
‘I know he does,’ Henry said. ‘But I don’t want Celia to start her married life in a barge.’
‘She can’t, not that one, Andy told you that. But maybe he thinks he has plenty of time yet.’
‘And unemployment might be as bad as ever and this offer will not be on the table for long,’ Henry said. ‘It only came about because one of the owners banks with us and when he came in for the Christmas bonuses he happened to say that the father of his apprentice has been left a farm in Ireland and they’re all going over to see if they can make a living at it. Point is, it’s left the man who was training him in a bit of a fix. I told him about Andy and he said he was willing to see him on my recommendation, but he’s up to the neck with Christmas orders now so he wants this signed and sealed as soon as possible. He can only give Andy till Monday and then the advert is going in the Evening Mail.’
‘What business is it?
‘A brass works,’ Henry said and Norah remembered the conversation with the three sisters on the boat and how they said speaking for someone was the only way to get a proper job these days. She knew that Andy would be mad to pass this up.
‘And it’s only in Aston,’ Henry went on. ‘So if he lived in our place he could take the tram every morning and it’s a particularly good apprenticeship because there are three brothers side by side, all making different things in brass, so he will have the maximum experience. If he wanted to move in a couple of years when he’ll be through training, he will find it a lot easier to get a job as an experienced brass worker.’
‘It sounds good all right,’ Norah said. ‘What did Billy make of all this?’
‘Billy wasn’t there,’ Henry said. ‘He’d gone to see that old man that left the canal because he was ill and Andy and Billy took up the contract he had to take the Dunlops workers to the Fort and back. That’s why I was late home the other night, you remember. You and Celia were almost ready to send out a search party.’
Norah smiled. ‘I remember,’ she said. ‘You came home in a very funny mood. We thought you were cross about something.’
‘Not cross, more preoccupied,’ Henry said. ‘And nervous because I was worried Andy would do exactly what he did do.’
The taxi dropped them at the top of the incline and they were as impressed as Andy and Celia had been, but looking at how full it was Henry thought they never might find the others.
Henry offered his arm and Norah thankfully linked her arm through his, for though Henry had sorted her out a warm coat and boots and a scarf and mittens, she was a bit chilled leaving the warm taxi. They wandered around searching fruitlessly for Andy or Celia and then Norah spotted Billy walking with a girl snuggled into him and she hailed him.
‘It’s Billy,’ she said to Henry. ‘Come and meet him.’
Billy didn’t look best pleased to see Norah and before she had time to say who Henry was, Billy said urgently, ‘Hello, Norah. Don’t tell Andy, will you?’
‘Don’t tell Andy what?’ said a voice behind him and Billy wheeled round. In the light from the flares Norah saw him flush crimson in embarrassment. ‘H … hello Andy and you too, Celia.’
‘We’ll go into what you don’t want me to know later,’ Andy said. ‘Aren’t you going to introduce me to your girl?’
‘This is Emma Wilson and through no fault of her own she is linked to what I didn’t want you to know just yet. Look, is there somewhere quieter to go and I’ll tell you all.’
‘The Royal George isn’t far,’ Henry said. ‘Let’s go there. Better than trying to explain anything in the melee.’
It was Celia and Norah’s first visit to a pub and Celia did wonder if they would be let in, but Henry had such an air of authority that no one said a word to them.
Once they were seated around the table with drinks in front of them all, Billy said, ‘Right, first thing is Emma is my girl and we were going to wed after the war. And then my brothers died and for my parents and me it was a very bad time. I was hurt that Emma hadn’t been to see us, couldn’t understand it. Then Ma went and Dad was … Well, I couldn’t leave him and when he went as well I felt like I was in some dark hole and couldn’t do anything for ages. In the end I went looking for Emma and when I felt able to call on her, none of the family were there.’
‘What had happened?’ Celia said, for she could see that the love light shining in Emma’s eyes was all for Billy.
‘I caught Spanish Flu,’ Emma said. ‘And they said I had to get off the boat and away altogether to avoid infecting others, but the Birmingham hospitals were full and I was sent to a hospital in Wolverhampton and Dad moved the whole family over and began to work on the Wolverhampton Canal so they could see something of me.’ She caught up Billy’s hand and held it tight as she said, ‘No one gave poor Billy a thought because my life hung in the balance for weeks, so they say. Anyway they couldn’t send him a note because they can’t read and write and neither can Billy.’
‘Nor you?’
‘I can now,’ Emma said. ‘I was at the convalescent place and there was a schoolteacher there and she taught me. It’s really easy once you get the hang of it and once we’re wed I’ll teach you if you like, because it’s a good skill to have. When I recovered, I didn’t know what had happened to you, see, whether you had been called up and died like your brothers or whether you were dating another girl. So I came to find you and when I heard about Stan I went to see him and he told me how you go every Sunday and Mabel said she’d have got to hear if you were walking out with someone else and so that first Sunday I waited for you to come to their house. And,’ she added, ‘we meet there every week now.’
‘How long have you been seeing each other?’
‘A month now.’
‘And why was you seeing Emma such a big secret?’ But even as he asked the question, Andy knew the answer. ‘Because you couldn’t wed with me on the boat,’ he said. ‘If you got married I would have to leave.’
‘I’d never just chuck you out, Andy,’ Billy said. ‘We’d work something out.’
‘But, Billy, how will you manage without Andy’s help?’ Henry asked.
‘Emma’s brother is coming over,’ Billy said. ‘He has a small boat of his own and he will berth it by mine and use it to sleep in.’ Then he turned to Andy and said, ‘And that’s all right and that, but I feel a real heel because I know you really like canal life. You said only a while ago that you have never been happier.’
‘And I meant it,’ Andy said. ‘It’s been great and I will never forget what I owe you, and once the idea of leaving you and trying to find employment elsewhere would have filled me with panic, but Henry has thrown me a lifeline.’
‘What?’
‘When I left Ireland I only knew farming and those skills aren’t that useful in a city and so I wanted to learn a trade, something I can hold up to Celia’s father to show I am looking after her proper
ly. In the boat coming over, I was talking with a young fellow who was going into the brass industry and his uncle had spoken for him. Seems that’s how it’s done in a slump like this – you need someone in the know to give you a bit of a leg-up.’
‘Are you telling me Henry has done that for you?’
‘Yes, well, he got me an interview and gave me his recommendation.’
‘Which Andy initially refused to even consider because of the fix it would leave you in,’ Henry said to Billy. ‘So now you and Emma can plan your wedding with an easy conscience. Seems to me you have waited long enough.’
‘Couldn’t agree more,’ Andy said.
Billy’s face was one large beam of happiness and Emma seemed incapable of speech but her radiant smile spoke volumes as Billy said, ‘I will do that, sir, and thank you. And, Andy, I would like you as my best man.’
Andy was a little choked by that, which he hadn’t expected for they hadn’t known each other that long, but he gave a brief nod of his head and said sincerely, ‘I would be honoured, Billy, truly honoured.’ He looked at Henry and said, ‘I don’t think I have thanked you properly for thinking of me in relation to this job but I am very grateful.’ Then he gave a rueful smile and said, ‘Seems as if I am making a habit of throwing job offers back in your face initially.’
‘For a different reason this time,’ Henry said. ‘And loyalty to a friend is always commendable.’
‘Oh, isn’t it wonderful how everything is working out?’ Celia cried in delight and no one disagreed with her.
Celia was happy, so happy that she felt she could burst. She loved Andy with a passion and she could tell him and show him, which was much more than they could do in Ireland. And then it was like she got the icing on the cake in the form of a loving and understanding letter from her mother, acknowledging that there were faults on both sides.
Peggy had been so happy to get letters from both her daughters and such lovely ones. Celia was doing a good and worthwhile job caring for a motherless child and now Norah was helping her. In her heart of hearts she knew Celia was a good girl, but she couldn’t help worrying when she had run away with a man she had not been married to, but it appeared all the time they had been living apart at their different places of work. And she knew exactly what Celia had been saying when she said that Andy McCadden had behaved like a perfect gentleman. When Peggy read that, she knew it was time for her and Dan to swallow their pride and meet the man her daughter had chosen. She acknowledged that neither she nor Dan had really listened to Celia or tried to understand and she expressed regret over that:
But it is not too late, my darling girl, and if Andy McCadden is the man for you then we must accept it. But if he is to join our family we must get to know him and so we must meet him as you urged us to do before you left and we refused. So, my darling girl, come for Christmas, all of you – Norah, Henry that you speak so warmly of and I would love to see Grace.
Celia was ready to turn cartwheels but she knew her mother would probably have to stand against her father to send that letter and she was right. Initially Dan had forbidden Peggy to write back and had been astounded that she said she intended inviting their two disobedient daughters home for Christmas as if they had done nothing wrong. But Peggy stood firm and said it was their own actions that had caused Celia to go. ‘And then,’ she said, ‘because you decreed that no one was to speak Celia’s name, when Norah thought Celia might be in trouble, she had no one else to discuss it with, no support at all, and she went all by herself and travelled to England to find her. I think that was commendable and if you don’t then there is something wrong with you. Now here is the ultimatum, you either relent and let those girls come home for Christmas and behave like a normal human being for the duration of their stay or I will spend Christmas with them instead and take the young ones with me. It’s up to you.’
To say Dan was astounded would be an understatement, he was completely flabbergasted that Peggy had spoken to him in that way and in front of the children too, but looking at her anguished and anxious face he realised that he had pushed her to her limits and she meant every word she had said. Deep down he had wondered if he had dealt with Celia correctly. He knew many of the townsfolk had thought he had been too harsh and some had told him so. It wasn’t in his nature to apologise and he didn’t now but what he did say to Peggy was, ‘Oh bid them come if you must.’
‘No, not if you say it in that begrudging way.’
‘All right,’ Dan conceded. ‘Maybe it’s time to build bridges. Bid them come and welcome and I promise I will behave myself.’
Norah however didn’t know about this confrontation between her parents nor the promise forced from her father and she said, ‘Andy won’t go. Why should he?’ Celia felt her heart plummet and Henry saw it and though he thought Norah was right, he said, ‘Let him speak for himself. I will take a taxi now and fetch him. He will have finished for the day now.’
They were back in no time and Andy scanned the letter and looked up and said to Celia, ‘You’d like me to go to your house for Christmas? To the house where I was vilified, where you were locked up to keep you away from me, and sit with the man who beat me and the other who endorsed and encouraged the violence?’
Celia didn’t speak, she couldn’t speak. She was asking too much. It was not the right time for Andy. It might never be the right time.
‘And what of you?’ Andy said.
‘What about me?’
‘Well you never wanted to leave Ireland. If you go home for Christmas would you want to stay?’
‘No,’ Celia said. ‘I know what I said and I meant it at the time. But I did leave Ireland and I’m glad I did and would never go back to live. You would always be the hireling man there … but we don’t have to go to Ireland. It doesn’t matter.’
‘To you it matters a great deal. I can see it in every line of your body,’ Andy said.
‘No.’
‘I think the answer is yes,’ Andy said. ‘We’ll go. It matters to you so much and I want to please you, so we’ll go.’
‘What about all you said, what about all my family have done to you and to me because of you? Does it not matter any more?’
‘Look,’ Andy said, ‘I love you and I would go through that and more if I could have you at the end of it. I really wouldn’t care if I washed my hands of your family altogether but then you would be unhappy. I don’t want the person I love to be unhappy because I can’t put the past behind me, especially as I have come away with the first prize anyway.’
Everyone was impressed by what Andy said and tears were trickling down Celia’s cheeks. Henry vowed that if ever he got to see Celia’s parents he would stress what a fine man they were getting as a son-in-law.
Andy put his arm around Celia and said, ‘I will be starting to learn the brass industry in the New Year and I have a yen to stand before your father and tell him that. And with my head held high I will ask him for your hand in marriage in the correct and proper way and I will assure him that I will be earning enough to provide for you and any children we may be blessed with.’
‘Oh Andy!’
‘Really though I know one person should be asked before your father.’
‘Who?’
‘You, of course,’ said Andy. ‘You may not want me at all for I have never asked you.’ And then and there, without any lead-up to it, he dropped on one knee and said, ‘Celia, will you do me the honour of becoming my wife?’
‘Oh Andy!’ Celia said again and burst into tears. She wanted to marry Andy, there wasn’t a doubt in her mind, but there was a lurch to her heart when she thought of leaving Grace behind when that happened. She wasn’t Andy’s responsibility, she was another man’s child and her rightful place was with her Uncle Henry.
‘What’s the answer?’ Andy demanded.
And despite the tears coursing down her cheeks, Celia cried out, ‘Yes, Yes. Yes and as soon as possible!’
With a shout of joy, Andy leapt to his fee
t, put his arms around Celia’s waist and spun her round the room. And Celia thought that, despite everything they had endured, their love had proved strong and true and her joy was complete.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am always grateful to have such a strong team behind me at HarperCollins because without them the books would never hit the bookshelves at all, so heartfelt thanks go to my editor, Kate Bradley, and Charlotte Brabbin, Amy Winchester and Ann Bissell. A sterling job was done by Rhian McKay and special appreciation must also go to Susan Opie, who does such a marvellous job copy-editing my work, and to my agent Judith Murdoch, who is always there for me should I need her help or advice. It is very reassuring for a writer to have such a comfort blanket at their back and I owe a debt of gratitude to you all.
I am also grateful I can rely on the support of the family too: my husband, Denis; my three daughters, Nikki and her husband Steve, Tamsin and her husband Mark, Beth and my son Simon and his wife Carol and, of course, the five grandchildren. All of you are immensely dear to me.
But the most important people are you, the readers, for without you there would be no point to what I do and I value every single one of you. So thank you from the bottom of my heart and I sincerely hope you enjoy this book. I love it when you write to me and tell me what you think.
The title Another Man’s Child was thought up by my agent and so an especial thanks again to Judith. You know how rubbish I am at titles. As always I did a lot of work on research and the internet is a wonderful tool and I could not manage without it. From there I obtained a timeline of the Black and Tans roaming Ireland at the time. But I also used books such as Rekindling a Dying Heritage by Evelyn Ruddy, a book of rural Ireland at the time, Catholics in Birmingham by Christine Ward Penny and Life on the Home Front, which is a Reader’s Digest publication. However I found a lot of information for this book through my cousins – Martin Logue, who lives in the Midlands, and Michael Mulligan, who lives in Dublin. Both of them have been researching the family tree for some time and there is also now a Facebook page, ‘The Logues of Tawnagh’, so I can ask questions if there is something I’m not sure of. I have found it such a valuable resource in writing this book that it is being dedicated to both of them.
