The New Breadmakers (31 page)

‘It was terrible about Alec,’ Catriona agreed. ‘I was fond of him. We all were.’ Then she added, ‘Your father … is he?’

It was Julie who answered. ‘It’s sad to see anyone in the state his father’s in now. He doesn’t recognise anyone, even Sammy. Apart from that, Sammy’s read some of his diaries, and he understands why his father was so awful a bit better now. The bits about his childhood were enough to upset anybody. I feel sorry for him myself.’

Catriona understood. She’d eventually felt sorry for Melvin.

The silence that followed was broken by a knock at the door. Julie went to answer it.

‘Oh, Mrs Robertson!’ They heard the mixture of surprise, confusion and apprehension in her voice. ‘Come in.’

‘There’s something I wanted to talk to you about.’ A small, elderly lady entered the room and immediately looked taken aback. ‘Oh, I didn’t realise you had a visitor …’

‘It’s all right. Catriona’s my best friend. You can talk in front of her. And I think you’ve met my husband, Sammy.’

Catriona and Sammy both smiled a welcome. Sammy rose and pulled a chair over.

‘Have a seat, Mrs Robertson.’

Mrs Robertson returned his smile and settled herself on the chair. She hesitated, then looked over at Julie. ‘You already know about Alice, don’t you? That’s why you came to live here. I guessed a while ago.’

Julie’s eyes widened with anxiety. ‘Yes, but I never meant … I would never try to come between you and your daughter. I’m so sorry if finding out about me living so close has been a shock or a worry to you. I just longed for the occasional glimpse of Alice. I didn’t mean any harm.’

‘Of course you didn’t, dear.’

‘Why have you come to see me about this now?’ Julie sank on to the couch beside Sammy.

‘Alice has started trying to find her biological mother. She asked me first if it was all right with me and I reminded her that I had told her years ago that I wouldn’t mind a bit if she tried to find you. But, as I say, it’s only recently …’

Julie was trembling so much that she had to clutch at Sammy’s hand to steady herself. ‘And now she’s changed her mind? She doesn’t want to see me?’

‘Why do you say that?’

‘Well, you’ve come instead.’

‘Oh, she doesn’t know I’m here.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘She’s like you, Julie. She didn’t want to risk causing you or your family any trouble or embarrassment. But I knew you longed to meet her. When I thought back on all the times you asked me about her, I knew. I couldn’t convince her, though.’

Julie looked as if she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

‘Can I go across the road with you now?’ She jumped eagerly to her feet.

Mrs Robertson laughed. ‘Calm down, dear. You’ve waited all these years, you can surely wait another day. She’s on duty tonight but tomorrow’s her day off. Come over tomorrow afternoon. I’ll have spoken to her by then.’

‘Do you think it’ll be all right? Will she be all right about me coming?’

‘She’ll be absolutely delighted.’ Mrs Robertson rose. ‘I can assure you of that.’

‘Oh, thank you so much!’ Julie saw her to the door and then came skipping and dancing back into the room, her face alight with joy. Sammy was suddenly transformed as well. He rushed towards her and swung her up into his arms.

‘I’m so happy for you, Julie. So happy, darling.’

‘It must be infectious,’ Catriona laughed. ‘I feel as excited and as overjoyed as the pair of you!’

‘Impossible!’ Julie cried out. ‘Nobody in the world could be as happy as I feel right now!’

Sean and Chrissie had put their names onto the Corporation Housing List, hoping they’d get something as far away from Balornock as possible. They discovered that the waiting list for a house anywhere was enormous. They even tried Edinburgh, without any luck. They were becoming thoroughly disillusioned, not to mention exhausted, tramping about here, there and everywhere trying to find a decent place to live. They had begun to have nightmare visions of never getting away from Aunty Mary and her icons, her tiny kitchen, with its high hole-in-the-wall bed and her beloved books.

‘I’ll go mad,’ Chrissie said, ‘if I’ve to stay there much longer.’

‘Me too,’ Sean fervently agreed.

‘If we could just get another roof over our heads, a new job in another town would be no problem. The library service is crying out for library assistants all over the place. There are even vacancies in London just now and they can even arrange accommodation for anyone coming from a distance! I could get a transfer no bother.’

‘London?’ Sean repeated. ‘Would you be willing to move that far?’

‘I never thought about the London vacancies in connection with us …’

‘But would you?’

‘Move to London? Well … yes … why not?’ Chrissie flushed with excitement. ‘Sean, that might be the answer!’ Her excitement fizzled out again. ‘But what about you? You’d need a job as well and I’m not going anywhere without you.’

‘Of course not. But I could get help from McHendry’s. They correspond with shipping offices all over the place. I could get the address of a shipping office in London and make enquiries. Oh, Chrissie, I think this might be our new beginning. Just think of it!’

She did and could hardly wait until next day to find out all the details of the London vacancies for library assistants. Sean contacted a London shipping office, found there were vacancies and immediately applied for one of them.

‘What with my experiences and the excellent references from McHendry’s, Chrissie, I should have a good chance.’

They were walking on air for the next few days. Eventually Chrissie was able to go to Copeland’s and tell Ailish.

‘Well,’ Ailish said, as they made for the tearoom, ‘I’m happy for you, of course, but I’ll miss the pair of you.’

‘I’ll miss you too but you’ll come and visit us in London, I hope. We won’t lose touch.’

‘I hope not. But London’s an awful long way away. I know people even travel abroad, nowadays, but I’ve never been out of Scotland.’

‘Neither have I. What an adventure it’s going to be, Ailish. I can hardly wait.’

‘I’ll miss you,’ Ailish repeated.

‘Och, you’ve got a new boyfriend, don’t you? He’ll keep you occupied.’

Suddenly Ailish laughed and flung back her blonde head. ‘You think you’ve had trouble with your family! Wait until they hear about my man.’

‘He’s not a Protestant, is he?’

‘No, worse. He’s English!’

Chrissie laughed. ‘Oh dear, oh dear.’

‘Exactly.’

‘Whereabouts in England is he from?’

‘York. A lovely place, he keeps telling me. He’s really interesting, the way he talks.’

‘You obviously like him.’

‘Yes.’ Ailish looked thoughtful. ‘I do. We get on so well together. He’s a sales rep, travels around a bit, but his heart’s in York, he says. He’s hoping to buy a house there and settle down one day.’

‘Oh, Ailish, maybe that’s not all he’s hoping!’

Ailish smiled. ‘That’s what I’ve been thinking too.’

‘I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you.’

They parted in high spirits and with high hopes. As soon as Chrissie arrived back at Aunty Mary’s, however, her mood dampened a little. The tiny flat had become so claustrophobic and depressing. As soon as Sean returned, though, her happiness leapt into life again. He had good news. There had been interviews held in the Central Hotel in Glasgow for the job he’d applied for in the London shipping office. He had been successful. She had, of course, already asked the Mitchell for a transfer and it had been confirmed a few days before.

Their dreams were going to come true at last. It was so wonderful. Despite Aunty Mary looking on, they threw caution to the wind and hugged and passionately kissed each other. ‘Now, now,’ Aunty Mary remonstrated.

Aunty Mary didn’t know what she was missing.

Other B & W Titles

by Margaret Thomson Davis

a darkening of the heart

a deadly deception

burning ambition

double danger

goodmans of glassford street

light and dark

red alert

the breadmakers saga

the clydesiders trilogy

the dark side of pleasure

the Glasgow belle

the kellys of kelvingrove

the tobacco lords trilogy

write from the heart

First published 2004

by Black & White Publishing Ltd

29 Ocean Drive, Edinburgh EH6 6JL

www.blackandwhitepublishing.com

This electronic edition published in 2014

ISBN: 978 1 84502 655 4 in EPub format

ISBN: 978 1 90326 514 7 in paperback format

Copyright © Margaret Thomson Davis 2004

The right of Margaret Thomson Davis to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission in writing from the publisher.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Ebook compilation by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay