The Passions of Bronwyn (18 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

The next day Betty was getting ready to leave.   Wyn walked over to her, put her arms around her, ‘I’m really happy you were here to see him born.’ she told her.

‘I’m happy I was here too,’ Betty replied.  ‘What are you going to call him? You can’t just keep calling him, the baby or him.’ 

‘I’m letting Gwyneth choose the name as he is going to be her son,’ Wyn told her. 

‘How long before they get here?’ Betty asked. 

‘Martha sent the telegraph to her this morning so she and Bert should be here in a couple of days.’ 

The doorbell rang at that moment, ‘that’ll be Ned,’ Betty said.  She looked at Wyn with tears in her eyes, ‘are you sure you’re going to be alright?’ she asked. 

‘Yes I will be,’ Wyn replied.  ‘It’ll be better once the baby has gone and I start working in the shop.’ 

Betty kissed her and told her she would see her soon. 

‘Maybe I’ll come and see you,’ Wyn replied, ‘it would be nice to see everyone again.’ 

They kissed again and Betty walked down the steps to the car where Ned was waiting.  She waved as she got in and Ned drove off.

Wyn walked back into the house sadly and went up to where the baby was sleeping in his basket.  She looked down at him and gently stroked his face.  She could see a slight resemblance to William in his face. 

‘Your father would have loved you,’ she told him, ‘but your new mum and dad will love you just as much and you’ll have a good life with them. I’ll always be around to help you if you ever need me.’ 

She wiped away the tears that had started streaming down her face and stood up straight as she heard Martha coming back into the house.  She left the room to meet her. 

‘I’ve got a telegraph for you,’ Martha told her. 

She put it into Wyn’s outstretched hand. 

‘It’s a reply from Gwyneth,’ Wyn told her.  ‘They’ll be here tomorrow.’ 

Martha sighed and shook her head. 

‘I hope this is what you really want,’ she commented.  ‘We’d have managed.’ 

‘I don’t want to just manage,’ Wyn replied.  ‘I want more than that for my son.’ 

‘I know said,’ Martha, ‘it’s just very sad that’s all.’ 

She patted Wyn’s hand and walked out of the door. 

Wyn looked down at her son, ‘we’d better get your stuff packed,’ she told him, ‘you’re going home tomorrow.’

It was early the next day when a carriage arrived outside the house.  Wyn had been watching for it and opened the front door before they had a chance to ring the bell.  Gwyneth walked straight up to her and took her into her arms.  Wyn sighed and pulled her close. 

‘Are you alright?’ Gwyneth asked her. 

‘I’m not bad,’ Wyn replied, ‘I’ll be glad to get this over with.  You’re looking very well though.  You were always very pretty and you look exactly the same.’ 

‘She certainly does,’ said a voice behind Wyn. 

‘Oh Wyn, I don’t know if you remember Bert, we used to meet him up the hill when we were kids but he left when his granddad died.  He came back a few years ago, we bumped into each other in the High Street one day and recognised each other straight away.  One thing led to another and we ended up married.’ 

‘Yes of course I remember, his grandfather used to tell us lots of stories.  I didn’t realise it was him you married,’ she turned to Bert, ‘it’s nice to see you again,’ she told him.  ‘Come in and meet your new son.’  Wyn showed them up to the bedroom where the baby was lying in his basket. 

Gwyneth looked down at him, ‘he’s lovely,’ she said, ‘can I pick him up?’ 

‘Of course you can, he’s your son,’ replied Wyn. 

Gwyneth picked him up and Wyn could see it was love at first sight.  Bert walked over to Gwyneth and took the baby off her.  Wyn could tell he was also full of emotion.  ‘We’ll take good care of him,’ they both told her.  ‘We’ll do our best for him.’ 

‘I know,’ Wyn replied, ‘that’s why I want him to live with you.’

Martha brought them up a pot of tea and as they were drinking, Gwyneth brought Wyn up to date about their family and friends in Penarth.  Her other sister Elizabeth was also married and had four children, and her brother Robert was away in the army.  Wyn told her the last she had heard about Henry as he had never been heard of again by his family.  Her parents had both died without ever knowing what had happened to their eldest son. 

‘Not that father ever wanted to know,’ added Gwyneth, ‘but mother would have liked to know even though he was only her step son.’ 

Bert hadn’t joined in the conversation, he was just staring down into the face of his new son.  It made Wyn very sad to watch as it made her think about how it would have been with William and how proud he would have been of his son, but she was comforted knowing how much they already loved him.  Martha came back into the room and asked Gwyneth and Bert how long they were staying in London. 

‘We thought we might stay tonight and get the train back to Wales tomorrow morning,’ they told her. 

‘Would you like to stay here?’ she asked. 

Gwyneth looked at Wyn, ‘please do stay,’ Wyn pleaded.  ‘You can sleep in my room with the baby, I’ll sleep in the small bedroom down the hall.’

Gwyneth looked at Bert who nodded.  ‘That’ll be very kind of you,’ she told them, ‘we’d love to stay here.’ 

‘The Registry Office is still open,’ Wyn told them, ‘you could register his birth today, it’ll get it out of the way.’ 

‘That’s a good idea,’ Bert agreed, ‘we’ll be able to get away earlier tomorrow.’ 

Wyn cleared the huge lump that had formed in her throat and asked Gwyneth, what they were going to call him. 

‘We thought Edwin after Bert’s granddad and William after his own father.’ 

‘Thank you,’ whispered Wyn, ‘his dad would have liked that.  Edwin William Hook is a good name.’  When they had finished their tea Gwyneth and Bert took Edwin to have him registered as their son.

The next morning they were ready to leave quite early.  Wyn had found it strange to be sleeping in a different room to her son, especially when she could hear him crying.  She had been very uncomfortable when her breasts had filled with milk and she hadn’t fed him.  He had already been introduced to his new milk in a bottle and was taking to it very well.  She knew her milk would dry up soon but at the moment it didn’t feel right not to be feeding him.    ‘How was it last night?’ she asked Gwyneth. 

‘I loved sitting in the rocking chair feeding him,’ Gwyneth replied, ‘I didn’t think it would be so wonderful.’ 

Wyn gave a small smile and said ‘I’m glad, I want all of you to be happy.’ 

‘We will,’ said Bert coming up behind her.  He turned to Gwyneth, ‘the carriage is here, it’s time to go if we’re going to get the train,’  Bert took the bags and Moses basket out to the carriage and then came back to get Gwyneth and Edwin.  Wyn hugged Gwyneth hard, kissed Edwin on the head and ran back into the house crying. 

‘Don’t worry,’ Martha told them, ‘she’ll be alright, I’ll look after her. 

Gwyneth climbed into the carriage, Bert handed her Edwin and then climbed in himself.  They could see Wyn standing at the window and they both waved as the carriage moved off.  Wyn watched until they had disappeared then turned back into the room.  She fell into Martha’s waiting arms and sobbed her heart out for a long time.

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

Over the next few days the discomfort in Wyn’s breasts started to subside and they stopped leaking milk.  The pain of losing her baby was still as strong but she knew they had arrived back in Wales and Bob, as he had already become known, was happy and healthy as Gwyneth had written to her.  She had started working in the confectionary shop for Tommy and was really enjoying it.  She loved the time of day when all the kids would leave school and rush into the shop to choose what sweets they wanted.  Sometimes it took them a long time to pick from all the jars on the shelves but she never got impatient and rushed them.  All the mothers liked her because she was so patient with their children.  There was one child in particular that she developed a soft spot for.  His name was Martin and he had a mop of ginger curly hair and a mass of freckles on his face.  He was a cheeky, mischievous child who was always getting  into trouble but Wyn couldn’t help liking him.  The things he did were naughty but never hurt anyone.  He never had any money but still came into the shop.  He would stand at the counter and look up at her with his big eyes and a cheeky grin on his face.  Wyn couldn’t resist.  She would just have to give him a bag of sweets.

‘He takes advantage of you,’ Tommy told her but he didn’t try to stop her doing it.

One day she heard shouting coming from outside the shop and went to investigate.  She saw Martin sitting on the roof of a shed in the house opposite waiting for people to pass by then throwing jumping jacks onto the road after they had walked by making them jump.  A crowd had gathered and they were all shouting at him.  Martin was refusing to come down and was just sitting there poking his tongue out at them.  Wyn smiled wryly to herself and thought, that boy, he’s going to push people too far one day.  She walked over the road and looked up at Martin.

‘Come down and say you’re sorry’ she told him.

‘Why should I?’ he replied.  ‘I wasn’t doing nothing.’

‘That’s not how it looked from where I was,’ Wyn told him.  ‘I saw what you were doing,  now come down otherwise you’re going to be in big trouble.’

Martin looked at her and smiled sweetly.  ‘Can I have some sweets if I do?’ he asked.

‘Say you’re sorry and mean it,’ Wyn answered.

‘I’m sorry,’ Martin said in a small voice.

Wyn could see he didn’t mean it but everyone had started leaving so she didn’t say anymore.  She felt sorry for him because of the way he had to live.  He was quite often hungry and always looked grubby but, although his clothes were threadbare, they were always clean.  His parents lived in a very rough area and tried their best but having nine children made things tough for all of them.  Wyn always gave the children sweets when she saw them and would love to have been able to help them more but knew there wasn’t much she could do. Tommy couldn’t understand why she could felt so sorry for them although he suspected she was thinking about her own son so he didn’t say anything.

One day Martin came running into the shop.

‘You’ll never guess what,’ he said excitedly.

‘I can’t guess so you’ll have to tell me,’ Wyn answered with a smile.

‘We’re going on holiday,’ Martin told her.  ‘We’re going hopping in Kent.’

He seemed to be so excited Wyn couldn’t bring herself to tell him that hopping wasn’t really a holiday but was very hard work.

‘When are you going?’ Wyn asked.

‘Tomorrow,’ he replied.

Wyn felt sad that she wouldn’t see him for a while but thought, maybe it’ll be nicer in the country for him, it’s not exactly fun for him here. 

‘Come into the shop with me,’ she told him. She took  some jars down from the shelf and filled several bags with sweets.

‘Here take these,’ she said.   ‘They will keep you all going during the journey.’

She was surprised and moved when Martin reached up and gave her a kiss.

‘Thanks,’ he said as he ran back towards his home.  He stopped on the corner and waved to her.  That was the last time she saw him. She found out later that his father had been given a farm hands job in Kent.  She felt sad that she would never see Martin again but knew it would be a better life for all the family and Martin would be much happier down there.  All the children were even going to school. 

As the weeks passed Wyn found she was becoming quite happy and content.  She still missed her son but liked what was happening in her life. Sometimes she found Tommy looking at her with a huge smile on his face.  She knew he was becoming fond of her but didn’t know how she felt about him.  She still missed William and her baby but she liked Tommy and knew she had to get on with her life.  Her baby weight had gone and she was back to her slim self.  She had been saving money for a while as she wanted a new dress for Betty’s wedding which was in three weeks’ time.  She and Betty were having dresses made for them and Wyn was going back to Mrs Brompton’s house at the weekend, when Betty had her day off, to see the dressmaker and Wyn was really looking forward to it.  She had been looking in the posh magazines they sold in the shop to see what kind of dress she might like but they were all too dressy for her.  After all, it was a wedding not a posh ball, she thought to herself.

It was Saturday and Wyn was off to meet Betty after she had finished work.  The shop closed at twelve on a Saturday so she would have plenty of time.  She was just putting her hat on when Tommy came up behind her. 

‘You look very smart,’ he told her taking her hand and putting a wad of pounds notes into it.  Wyn looked up at him in shock. 

‘What’s this for?’ she asked. 

‘Just buy yourself a wonderful dress,’ he said, ‘if I’m escorting you to this wedding, you have to look nice for me.’ this last bit was said with a smile. 

Wyn gave him a big smile, kissed him on the cheek and said, ‘Thank you, I’ll choose something so nice you’ll be happy to come with me.’ 

‘I’d be happy if you wore a sack,’ he said with a leer. 

Wyn left the shop laughing. 

When she got to the house Betty was waiting for her.  ‘The dressmaker is a bit late,’ she told her, ‘but come up to my room, we’ll get ourselves ready for her.  We have the house to ourselves for a while as Ned has driven Mrs Brompton to have lunch at the Ritz with her future husband and Mrs Davis has gone to visit her sister.’  Wyn followed Betty upstairs to her bedroom. 

‘This brings back memories,’ she commented as they entered the room.  Betty turned and put her arm around her and pulled her close.

‘I’ve missed this,’ Betty said as she turned her face to kiss Wyn on the lips. 

‘Me too,’ replied Wyn as she opened her mouth to deepen the kiss. 

Betty moaned, ‘we’ve got time if you want to,’ she told her. 

Wyn didn’t reply just moved her hands down to rub her finger over Betty’s nipples.  They fell onto the bed and nearly ripped each others clothes off.  Betty kissed her way down Wyn’s body until she reached the heart of her sex.  She moved her tongue round and round until Wyn arched her body and cried out in pleasure.  Wyn pulled Betty back up the bed and kissed her hard on the lips.  She could taste herself but didn’t mind. She moved down and took a nipple in her mouth and sucked hard.  Betty moaned, ‘use your finger,’ she whispered.  Wyn moved her finger down and moved it round and round the nub of her sex going faster and faster at the same time sucking on her nipples.  Betty gave a loud cry as the pleasure in her body rose to a peak. Afterwards they lay cuddled together in a satisfied silence. 

‘That’ll probably be the last time we ever do that,’ Betty told her, ‘now that I’m going to be a married woman I’ve got to save myself for Ned.’ 

‘I know,’ replied Wyn smiling, ‘I’m going to miss it though.  I would never do that with any other woman but you.’ 

The doorbell suddenly rang and they jumped out of bed and pulled their clothes on quickly.  Wyn sat back down on the bed as Betty ran down to the door to let the dressmaker in.  Betty had already organised her wedding dress, so this was just for a dress for Wyn.  She had decided to have a jacket and skirt made out of a light material.  The jacket would be tight waisted and the skirt would be tight over the hips but then flowing to the hemline. 

‘You are going to look lovely,’ Betty told her. 

Wyn was to go back for a fitting the following week.  Once the dressmaker had gone Wyn kissed Betty goodbye and made her way back to Martha’s house. 

The next day was Sunday and Martha had invited Tommy round for dinner.  When he arrived he kissed Martha on the cheek and asked her where Wyn was. 

‘She’s gone for a walk,’ Martha told him.  ‘She’s feeling very sad today and just wanted to be by herself.’ 

‘I feel sad for her,’ Tommy told her, ‘she’s such a lovely person.’ 

‘You really like her don’t you?’ 

‘Yes I do,’ Tommy replied, ‘I intend to marry her one day.’ 

Martha looked at him in surprise. 

‘Do you think she’ll marry you?’ she asked him.

‘I hope so,’ he replied, ‘I know she likes me, I’ll just have to work on her.’ 

Martha just smiled at him, ‘I hope it happens, she deserves some happiness.’ 

When Wyn got back, he started telling her funny stories making her laugh out loud. 

‘Oh you have cheered me up,’ she told him.  ‘I don’t know what I’d do without you.’  Tommy looked at Martha who smiled back at him.  The following day at work Tommy started flirting with her making her smile.  Every time she walked past him he would touch her arm or stroke her face.  At first, it made her jump but the more he did it, the more she found herself liking it.  Oh my, she thought to herself, am I falling for him?  The thought of it made her feel happy, which surprised her after all that had happened.

The day of Betty’s wedding had arrived and Wyn was feeling quite excited.  Things were happening between her and Tommy and she was very happy about it.  I really like him she thought to herself.  I think I could be very happy with him.  She was hoping that after the wedding something would happen between them and she made sure she was wearing her best underclothes just in case.  When she had done her hair and got dressed in her new clothes, she looked at herself in the mirror.  Not bad she thought even if I do say so myself.  As Tommy had given her the extra money she had been able to buy a jacket and skirt made of a better material.  She loved the way the skirt fell and swirled at the ankle.  She pinched her cheeks to put some colour in them, took one more look at herself and walked down the stairs.  She was surprised to see Tommy waiting at the bottom smiling up at her. 

‘You’re early,’ she told him, ‘we haven’t even had breakfast yet.’ 

‘I couldn’t wait to see you,’ he replied, ‘you look beautiful.’ 

Wyn flushed with pleasure but didn’t reply.  They walked into the kitchen where Martha was just putting porridge into bowls. 

‘I didn’t think you’d want much,’ she said, ‘so I’ve just made this.’ 

‘You were right,’ Wyn told her, ‘I’m too excited to eat much,’ although she did manage to finish a large bowl full.  When it was time to leave Wyn skipped out of the door. 

‘Come on you two,’ she said, ‘hurry up, we don’t want to be late.’  

‘Slow down,’ they told her, ‘we’ve got plenty of time.’ 

Tommy grabbed hold of her hand and pushed it through his arm so she would walk slower.  She looked up at him and smiled but didn’t pull her hand away.  Martha walked beside them smiling in pleasure at the sight of them.  It looks like Tommy is going to get his wish she thought to herself.

When they arrived at the church, Wyn walked over to where Mrs Davis was standing.  She gave her a big hug.  Mrs Davis looked at her closely.

‘You look very well,’ she commented, ‘how is everything?’ 

‘I feel very well,’ Wyn replied.  ‘I’m getting used to things now and Martha and Tommy are very kind to me.’  She smiled at her as she said this. 

‘I’m glad,’ Mrs Davis told her.  

At that moment a very nervous looking Ned turned up.  He didn’t speak but gave them a smile as he walked into the church.  ‘I think we had better go in,’ Mrs Davis told them. 

They walked into the church and took a seat at the front.  Wyn and Tommy were acting as witnesses.  Betty had earlier asked Wyn to be her attendant, but her and Ned had changed their minds about a big wedding, so there was no attendant and no best man.  The organ started playing as Betty entered the church and started walking down the aisle on the arm of an uncle Wyn had never met.  There had been a lot of discussions about who would give Betty away as she didn’t have much family left alive.  She had only remembered this uncle at the last minute and was relieved when she found he was still alive and was happy to give her away.  Wyn looked at her and smiled as she walked past.  She looked beautiful in her wedding dress.  Wyn had already seen it when she had gone for her last fitting as Betty was having hers at the same time.  Mrs Brompton had given her the extremely expensive dress she had worn at her wedding to Mr Charles.  Her daughter, Catherine hadn’t wanted it for her wedding and it was just sitting in the attic.  Betty had it altered to fit her and made a bit more up to date and it looked wonderful on her.  Betty reached Ned’s side and he turned to look at her.  Wyn saw the way he smiled down at her, I want someone to look at me like that she thought.