It was Carrie who came into the hallway first after the housekeeper had left in search of her mistress and I marvelled at how my little girl had grown during those four, short years I had been absent.
‘Who are you?’ she asked politely, her thumb in her mouth, a tatty rag doll tucked under her arm.
How do I answer that one? What has she been told? I dropped down to her level and faced her. ‘Hello Carrie. I’m Jack.’
She put her head on one side in a manner I had seen so many times in someone else. ‘How do you know my name?’
‘I knew you when you were very small,’ I replied safely. ‘When you were just a baby.’
The little girl smiled. ‘Have you got a baby, Jack?’
‘Yes I have,’ I said, touching her cheek gently. ‘And she has grown up into a very pretty young lady.’
The conversation was disrupted by Elizabeth who rushed into the hall in her nightdress, her hair all over the place.
‘Jack,’ she greeted, running towards me down the hall and grasping my hands firmly. ‘I’m so glad you are back.’
I stood up to receive her but there was no kiss, no cuddle, no real warmth.
‘Of course,’ I said, puzzled at her attitude. ‘Didn’t I promise you that I would?’
‘Sarah? Is she...?’
‘Sarah is at Moor Hill with her father. She is well.’ I would say no more about that for now.
She sighed. ‘Thank goodness, I’ve been so worried.’
I frowned. Worried? Who about? Her loving husband, or her friend?
At that moment, the study door opened and a familiar figure staggered into the hall, a glass of brandy in his hand, ill-disguised contempt written all over his face. ‘So the wanderer finally condescended to return, did he?’
‘I’m glad to see you, Simon,’ I greeted warmly, stretching out my hand to him. ‘I’m sorry to hear about your problems in the New World.’
‘Are you now?’ he replied, ignoring my hand. ‘How nice.’
I was beginning not to like the direction this conversation was taking. And, I thought suspiciously, what was he doing here at this time of night? I looked back to Elizabeth. ‘Well, you need worry no longer, Beth. I’m home now for good.’
Elizabeth looked nervously at Simon who chose not to help her from an increasingly obvious predicament.
‘You knew I’d be home, didn’t you?’
‘But it was so long, Jack. I thought... I thought that you... you had gone for good, so I...’ She looked at Simon again for help but he didn’t offer any. ‘I thought... you were with Sarah, you know?’
‘I was, but not in the way you obviously mean.’
Simon laughed and it was horrible. Events in his life had turned him bitter and thence to drink. Where was the boyhood friend I had known? I didn’t like him like this.
‘Tell that one to the fairies,’ Simon eventually said.
I ignored him and looked straight at my wife. I was struggling and we all knew it. Had it all been for nothing?
‘Beth, I swear to you, I have not been with Sarah in the way Simon means. I promise you that I have not touched her.’
Elizabeth was clearly confused by my return, I could see that. I had spent four years living with a beautiful girl and had not touched her? How could I expect my wife to believe that? Perhaps if she knew the details, she would understand but I didn’t see why I should have to be defending myself like this.
She let go of my hand and stood back. ‘I don’t know, Jack.’
I sighed. So that’s how the picture stood, a stranger in my own home. I looked imploringly at Elizabeth but she went and stood with Simon.
‘Beth got a divorce last week due to your absence,’ Simon sneered. ‘She and I are to be married.’
‘But...but I’m home now,’ I stammered, my anger growing. ‘It doesn’t count.’
Elizabeth stood between the two of us. ‘It’s too late, Jack,’ she said quietly, her hand instinctively going to her rounded belly.
Simon sneered and I suddenly felt sorry for both of them. Elizabeth had a drunken invalid and he had a girl whose whim changed with the weather. Elizabeth had been right four years ago, she didn’t need me and she had now made that very plain.
However, in a strange kind of way, I found I was happy for her. The doctor had once told me that if she ever conceived again it would be a miracle and that miracle had now happened. I have seen a lot of miracles over these last few years but had the pain along the way been worth the end result?
Tears welled up and I found that I couldn’t look at them. Instead, I glanced down and found myself looking straight into a pair of brown eyes that smiled up at me from under a head of raven hair. A small hand slipped into mine and I knew where my future lay.
~~~~~~~
IT was very late by the time I arrived back at Moor Hill but a light still shone in the parlour. Dismounting in the lane, I tied the reins of the horse to the fence and then helped down the little bundle I had wrapped in a borrowed cloak for the short ride from Cricksee. Sarah was still there, leaning on the garden gate. She obviously hadn’t moved since I left.
‘Who is it, Sarah?’ called Will from inside the house.
‘It’s all right, dad, you go back to bed. Jack and Carrie have come home.’
The three of us stood and held each other tightly, saying nothing for a long time until I felt Carrie shiver. It was getting cold and we must go inside soon but I wanted to put off that moment as long as possible. Carrie snuggled up close to her parents who gazed into each others’ eyes like courting teenagers as the clouds drifted slowly across the face of the moon.
We were together at last - a family. Our lips touched briefly and the knot was irrevocably tied.
Sarah smiled. ‘I knew you’d come.’
~~~~~~~
Plot to War
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