Read Online A Daughter's Duty by Maggie Hope - Free Book Online Page B

mother’s bed, I combed Sarah’s hair for her and plaited it out of the way, and I fed the bairns. And all that man could do when I’d finished was glower at me and push me out of the door. I tell you what, our Marina, he might be an overman at the pit but he’s pig ignorant. Though I will say for him, he looked worried to death about Sarah. Kept standing right up close to her. The doctor had to tell him to move so that he could examine her.’
    Marina nodded. ‘Did the doctor say anything else? I mean, I thought he’d have sent Mrs Sharpe into hospital –’
    ‘Not him. Says she’ll be all right looked after in her own home. Though, mind, when I think about it, she’ll likely be happier at home.’ Kate looked sombre. ‘If you ask me, she hasn’t got long at all. That lump on her neck’s getting bigger every day. I reckon the doctor thinks the same as me. Let her stop in her own home, like. Anyway he gave her an injection, though as far as I could see she was out like a light, wasn’t feeling a thing.’
    ‘That’s a blessing then if she has no pain at least,’ said Marina. Poor Rose, she thought, what must it be like to lose your mother? And poor twins an’ all, they were only six.
    Alf Sharpe certainly looked like a man frightened out of his skin. As soon as the doctor and Kate had gone he was back in the room by his wife’s bed, muttering something to her even though she had barely opened her eyes and had failed to respond so far to anything anyone had said.
    I’ll tell him in a minute, thought Rose, I’ll tell him to leave me mam alone. I know what he’s doing and why and I’ll tell him so. She had just come down from taking the twins to bed. Michael had cried himself to sleep and Mary was white-faced and quiet, too quiet. Rose went in and stood at the foot of her mother’s bed. Her father was right by the pillow, head bent to Sarah’s, whispering harshly. She just caught the words.
    ‘You saw nowt, Sarah, nowt at all. What did you want to get out of bed for anyway? I tell you, you saw nowt and now look what’s happened.’ He was practically eyeball to eyeball with his wife.
    She was staring up at him and as far as Rose could see there was absolutely no expression on her face at all.
    ‘Oh, you agree now she got out of bed and came to see what you were doing, do you, Dad?’ Rose asked acidly. ‘I thought you told the doctor she just fell by the bed?’
    ‘Well, it’s all the same!’ Alf twisted his head round and glared at her. ‘An’ don’t you contradict what I say neither or you’ll be sorry.’
    ‘Well, come away from her now. You leave her alone, do you hear me? Because I might not have said anything to the doctor, but by heck I will say something to Aunt Elsie. I will, I’m telling you!’
    ‘You’ll say nowt!’ snapped Alf. ‘There’s nowt to say. I don’t know what you’re talking about sometimes. Anyroad, I won’t have her staying here. She can take young Michael home with her. You can manage Mary and your mother.’
    ‘You’re not going to separate the bairns?’ cried Rose. ‘You’re not! I’ll –’ She stopped abruptly as something about her mother caught her eye. A flicker of … was it consciousness? It was definitely something, a ripple of emotion, something, crossing Sarah’s face. Rose rushed to the head of the bed and shoved her father aside.
    ‘Hey, what do you think –’ Alf expostulated, caught off balance for a minute. But she wasn’t listening.
    ‘Mam? Mam? Can you hear us?’ cried Rose, taking hold of her mother’s hand, so stiff and heavy it was and cold too, even though Rose had built up the fire and brought down an extra blanket from her own bed to pile on top of her mother’s. She rubbed the poor hand and stared at her mother’s eyes. The windows of the soul, they said. Did she blink just then? She had,
and
the blue lips moved. Rose could swear they had moved. ‘She moved, Dad, she did!’
    Alf Sharpe peered over her shoulder.