The Whiskerly Sisters Read Online Free PDF Page A

reason.” He gestured towards the swollen stranger. “This be his wife and she’s come across town to let you know he won’t be coming, not now, not ever. That’s the way of it, my lovely. There’ll be no wedding today. Best we take you home and get you out of that getup.”
    Fresna froze. She felt light headed. She couldn’t take it in. There must be some mistake. Alex? Not coming? No wedding? Impossible! And what on earth had this strange woman to do with it? His wife? Did granddad call her his wife? That can’t be. Anyway she’s pregnant too… pregnant TOO? Thoughts tumbled out of her like buttons from a box and she found she could barely grasp them. The world was spinning out of control. She tried to stand, but found she couldn’t and somehow the bottom of the cart was rising to meet her.
    When she woke up, it was dark. She was lying on her bed with a cold compress over her forehead and with her grandmother sitting beside her, quietly shelling peas. For a moment, Fresna had difficulty remembering the events of the day. Why was she lying in a darkened room with a wet flannel on her head? She lay back against the pillows staring at the ceiling, puzzled. Something was wrong, but she couldn’t for the life of her think what it might be.
    And then she remembered and she was immediately overcome with a deep sense of anguish and humiliation. The vision of the heavily pregnant stranger swam before her. Her heart lurched into her mouth and she felt sick. She was so ashamed. Her eyes filled with tears, her breathing began to heave and the sobs threatened to choke her. She struggled to sit up and, as she did so, her grandmother put aside her pot of peas and placed a comforting arm about her.
    “Now don’t take on so, my angel,” she murmured, patting her back gently. “That bugger’s a bad lot, but he’ll get his. Don’t waste your tears on him. You must put him out of your mind. The important thing now is that you concentrate on the bairn. Your granddad and I will do all that we can to help you. There now, don’t take on so. Time and hard work will ease the pain. That’s the way of it.” And that was all she ever said on the subject. She simply pulled her devastated granddaughter into her gentle embrace and let her cry it out.
    After that first evening, Fresna was never again allowed to wallow in self-pity. She was given work in the laundry at the local hospital. In the evenings, she knitted or sewed baby garments. On Saturdays, her grandparents gave her her spends and she was allowed to go to the cinema.
    In late autumn, she gave birth to a baby girl.
    Of Alex, there was no sign.
II
    To her surprise, Fresna took to motherhood like a duck to water. Despite the fact that she had her heart broken every single morning as she bent over the cot and looked into the eyes of Alex in the face of the baby girl smiling up at her, she loved her daughter with every inch of her being.
    When Verity was just six weeks old, Fresna resumed her job, working part-time, at the cottage hospital laundry. Great-grandma was delighted to take care of the child in her absence, rocking and crooning to the bairn for hours at a time. Great-granddad, despite his ‘women in the kitchen’ attitude and refusal to be a modern man, felt a great sense of pride as he pushed the enormous second-hand perambulator down the little high street on a Saturday morning to get the paper. The new little family was content.
    Time passed and, all too soon, the time came for Verity to go to school. Through hard work and diligence, her mother had, by this time, risen to the dizzy heights of Laundry Manager at the hospital. Every spare penny she earned was spent on the child. Fresna was determined that Verity would never go without nor suffer from the stigma of her birth. She made sure that Verity’s school uniform was immaculate, her shoes highly polished, her hair always off her face and neatly braided. In turn, Verity strove to be a credit to her mother and