A Woman Undefeated (33 page)

At ten o’clock, Maggie sat on the bed, all wrapped up in the voluminous nightdress, as Jack carefully put his good clothes into the wardrobe, then stood before her in his underwear.

Her heart was beating painfully in her chest and she hoped that he couldn’t hear it.

She looked away when he sat beside her on the bed, especially when he put his arm around her shoulders. She was glad that he couldn’t see her embarrassed face properly, as she had half turned away from the candlelight.

“Maggie, there’s somethin’ I want to tell yer,” he said quietly. “Me father knows, but not me mother. There’s a chance I’ll be leavin’ England, for ever. Nothing is certain and that’s why I came home to get me head around it. I was intendin’ to see if you and me could make another go of it, but somethin’ has happened meantime and I think I’ve made up me mind.”

“What is it Jack, is it something to do with............”

She was going to say Kitty, the girl who was Jack’s maid at Toxteth, but he had interrupted and started to explain that Lord Belsham wanted someone to look after his interests in America. Find a man to sponsor like he had sponsored Jack. Be an agent like Richard Mannion, he supposed.

Jack squeezed her shoulders gently and said. “Do yer remember when we spoke of love and yer said perhaps I was confusing love with making babies? Well, yer was right. I was lonely without yer in Toxteth and I took Kitty May into me bed. I knew I was doin’ wrong, being married to you an’ all, but I felt rejected by yer and she was so willin’ to share my bed. Well, when everything went wrong and I was felled like a tree along the dock road, she was so good to me. Looked after me as if I was a little baby. Then me mother came over and she knew. I suppose mother’s have a nose fer these things and she told me to get rid of Kitty. I couldn’t do it, send her back to the agency on me mother’s say so. The girl didn’t deserve such treatment and so mother took the huff and came back home. One thing led to another and Dad went to see Lord Belsham on my behalf, and here I am waitin’ fer me orders, because what I haven’t told yer yet, is Kitty is expectin’ a babby.”

He looked away from her as he said it. Dropped his arm from her shoulders, as if he was expecting a blow.

Maggie looked askance at him. She couldn’t believe what she had just heard. Kitty May was having his child?

“So she’s made me mind up,” he continued, mumbling a bit now, as he had his head bowed in contrition. “I’m taking the job in America and she’ll be comin’ with me. Not that she knows any of this yet. I went to her house on Scotland Road and it’s a hovel that she and her family live in. Eight younger brothers and sisters all squashed together in two damp rooms. Her father died last year, so Kitty and her mother hold the family together. Her mother was mad when she saw me, said Kitty has been sick as a dog, three days on the run, and the people she works fer now are very concerned about it.”

“Well, all I can say is I wouldn’t like to be in your shoes when yer tell Alice. Yer’ll be the black sheep of the family and you’ll be glad to get away.”

“Yer takin’ it very well, what I’ve just told yer, Maggie. Isn’t there a tiny scrap of love in yer heart fer me?”

“I told yer once before, Jack. I’ll worry about yer always and wonder how yer are, but all this havin’ babies isn’t the life that I’m wantin’. I’m glad you’ll have Kitty, ‘cos I wouldn’t like it if yer were on yer own so far away. But I’m surprised yer went against yer marriage vows. We might have got over our problems in the future, but we certainly can’t now.”

Jack turned away, looking guilty. It seemed there was nothing more to say. But when he put his arm around her, as they settled down in bed together later, she snuggled up beside him and held him close. This marriage of theirs would bind them together forever. He was bound by their Catholic faith to never divorce. She could still have the status of a married woman, but answer to no one in the future, but herself.

An unspoken alliance seemed to exist between Jack and Maggie over the next few days. If the weather was favourable, he made a point of walking out with her and their baby and they’d stroll around the village, along the coastal roads and even visited Miss Rosemary’s shop. He was polite and courteous to her friend, when in her company, but Maggie could see a certain tightness in Betty’s face, and her smile didn’t quite reflect in her eyes. She assured her friend that Jack was only visiting and she would be back soon to help her in the shop again.

Jack asked later why she had said that to the dressmaker. Surely it was none of the auld woman’s business how long he stayed at home? She told him that they had to get a story together, for when he had gone from there. Once Alice heard the reason for his departure, she would never be able to hold her head up again.

Each day Jack intended to say something of his plans to his mother, mention the possibility of working again for Lord
Belsham, then maybe later say it could be in America, and finish up that his lady friend was expecting. But, he couldn’t do it, as he knew the truth would break Alice’s heart.

Jack kept saying to Maggie, that the biggest wrench in his life was going to be leaving all his family, especially Mikey, his little seven month old son. He intended to work very hard to make a lot of money, then he would come back and visit them all again. One of those times was when they were out walking, passing the house named “Selwyn Lodge”and the grandeur of the building had caught his eye.

“That’s the kind of place I want to live in, Maggie. I would think that I had it all if I lived in a place like that. In fact, I would be proud to live in any of these swanky places along this road.”

“I think yer’ll have to wait ‘til yer mother has passed over before yer come back,” Maggie told him, keeping it to herself that she might be living in Selwyn Lodge herself one day, “though she’ll probably swing at the end of a rope when she finds out what yer up to, then yer won’t be here to buy a swanky house at all.”

Maggie had said that tongue in cheek, but she was glad she wasn’t in Jack’s shoes. Alice would kill him when she heard his plans. Of that she was very sure. In the end, Jack took the coward’s way out and left all the telling to Michael.

Mikey had been causing a few interruptions to the households’ sleep at night, due to teething and restlessness, so Jack had taken to sleeping on the chaise lounge in the parlour. Though, for appearances, he usually started off in the marital bed, then sneaked away downstairs.

On his last night at Seagull Cottage, he had been particularly loving as they had settled down to sleep. She had been aroused by the little kisses he had placed on the nape of her neck, and she had turned in a friendly fashion, to snuggle into him. She had felt a wild desire to turn and face him, as stirrings of something, she knew not what, began to stir in her private bits. Would it matter if, for one last time, she allowed him to do the things he used to do? She lay there, rigid with tension, feeling her body begin to burn
with a passion that took her by surprise. Then she heard Jack, softly snoring beside her and chastised herself for being such a fool.

Could she really have coped with another baby, while her husband was with Kitty May on the other side of the world? She drifted off and soon it was morning.

“Come on, you two sleepy heads, it’s time yer were up. You should be gettin’ a job, Jack. Yer’ve bin lollin’ about fer far too long!”

Maggie scrambled up to a sitting position, as Alice pushed her way into the bedroom, bearing a tray and talking stridently. Mikey pulled himself up in his cradle and began to wail at the sound of her voice, so Alice handed Maggie the tray with two cups of tea on it, then went to the cradle and scooped her grandson up.

“Has he been teethin’ again, poor little soul?” she asked, shaking her head. “I’ve told yer Maggie, yer should get up to the chemist and see if he’s got something to put on this poor little mite’s gums. Where’s Jack?” She looked across and saw that her son wasn’t lying in the bed.

“Couldn’t stand the baby’s wailing then? Typical. Has he gone out, gone out fer a run?”

Maggie knew then why Jack had been so loving. She shook her head at Alice and said she didn’t know where he had gone.

Suddenly they both heard Michael, shouting for Alice from down below. She handed Maggie the baby, saying she would see him later on.

After Maggie had fed Mikey, changed him into his day-wear and got herself dressed, she suddenly heard her mother-in-law come pounding up the stairs. This time Alice was waving a letter, with Michael close on her heels. Maggie draped a light shawl around her shoulders, she had a feeling she would be sitting on her bed for a while.

Alice threw the letter at her, as if it was about to burn her fingers. Her face was puce with anger and her body was trembling, as she raised her voice.

“Don’t tell me what Michael has been tellin’ me is true! Read
it out, will yer, and let’s get to the bottom of it. This letter is from Lord Belsham, Maggie. See, look!”

Maggie’s fingers began to tremble also, as she opened the very expensive looking envelope and read the written words out loud to her in laws.

“Dear Jack,

Thank you for agreeing to be my agent in Chicago. I enclose a draft that can be drawn on my account in Tithebarn Street, for any expenses you incur before you go. Your passage has been booked. A double cabin, as requested, on the SS Methuselah, leaving Liverpool on the 27th February. Please would you send a telegraph to Richard at his office, on your safe arrival. I will be following on in the middle of March, so would be obliged if you could reserve a suite of rooms for my visit. Of course at the best hotel.”

Lord Belsham had signed it with his compliments and a flourishing signature, but by the time Maggie had got to that part, Alice was in a swoon beside her, looking very agitated and distinctly unwell.

“So, he’s gone and done it then,” she moaned, then she put her head into her hands and began to cry. Michael fluttered anxiously at the side of her, patting her shoulder and saying that all would be well. Maggie got up, as her baby had filled its cloth and she needed to change him, while Alice was getting over her shock. It didn’t take her long, and within minutes she was shouting.

“Yer both were in this together. You and Michael, yer knew he wasn’t goin’ to stay here and settle down. What was it? Were yer waitin’ fer this letter to come? Neither of yer seem in the least surprised!”

“Hush, Mother,” soothed Michael. “The lodgers will probably be still eatin’ their breakfasts, I haven’t heard the front door shut.”

“Never mind the bloomin’ lodgers!,” she spat. “What I want ter know is what you two have bin up ter and why I am the last to hear of it?”

“Jack didn’t want to upset you,” Michael answered. “He knew that yer were goin’ to be upset anyway, so he thought it was best if he waited for the letter to come. Yer know he wouldn’t have settled down to our kind of existence, not now he’s tasted the fruits of the high life.”

“And you, Madam,” Alice shot a look of venom in Maggie’s direction, seemingly content with her husband’s explanation, but having to put the blame on someone. “Yer’ve bin pretendin’ that everything’s rosy between yer, taking little walks together and proudly showing off yer little son.”

“I had no choice, Alice,...........”

“Never mind yer excuses. Well, we’ll all have to get ourselves dressed in our best and go after him. No son of mine is going off to the other side of the world, without him saying goodbye to his family.”

“But we don’t know where he will be staying, Mother,” Michael answered, no doubt thinking they’d all be off on a fool’s errand. “We can’t just go off to Liverpool, it would be like a dog chasing its own tail!”

“Ah, but you know where this office of Mr Mannion is, so we can go there and ask of his whereabouts. Come on now, the pair of youse. Michael, run up to the Cross and see what time there’s a trap leavin’ fer the station and Maggie, get a basket together for the baby and put in plenty of changing cloths.”

“Alice,” Maggie said gently, waiting fearfully for the bombshell that would surely explode when Alice heard her words.

“Alice, I don’t think yer know that Jack is going to America,........with Kitty May.”

“Kitty May?” gasped Alice, her eyes narrowing with this new information, as she struggled to take in Maggie’s words. She dashed away the tears of frustration with her palms, as she looked at her daughter-in-law in disbelief. She repeated, “Kitty May? Isn’t that the name of the little baggage that was looking after Jack at Toxteth, when he was ill? What is she to Jack? Why’s she goin’ to the America’s with him?”

“She’s expectin’ his child, Alice,” replied Michael gravely, then flinched as his wife started hitting out at him with wild, flailing fists, screaming that it was all his fault for not keeping an eye on their son.

Maggie decided to make for the door and let them get on with it. Up to now Mikey had been turning his head as Alice or Michael spoke, wondering at all the excitement, but she could see that his bottom lip was beginning to quiver.

“Stop there, Maggie,” Alice commanded, as she saw what Maggie was about to do. “I want to know what part you played in all of this. No, wait, Michael and I will go down to the kitchen. See to the child and then come down to me.”