Chapter Eight
‘You have been gone a long time!’ Charity’s mother scolded when she arrived back at the camp. She had bought the shopping her mother needed on the way.
‘Yes, I’m sorry. I got carried away looking in the shops.’ She hated lying but what choice did she have?
The rest of the day passed painfully slowly. Charity was feeling a mixture of emotions. There was sadness at the thought of leaving her parents and the life she had known. She felt anxious about what might lie ahead. But overriding everything was her need to be with Luca.
During the afternoon, her mother went outside to cook over the campfire.
While she was gone, Charity hastily packed her belongings into a pillowcase and wrote her family a note admitting that she had met someone she loved and telling them not to worry about her.
When she was finished, she hid them beneath her small pallet bed.
Then all she had to do was wait for her chance to leave.
Luckily, the Gypsies retired early that evening.
The men had had a busy day tending the horses and the women had been busy cooking.
They were all tired. Soon after they had all settled in their beds, Charity’s family’s snores echoed around the vardo.
Charity had gone to bed fully clothed and lay awake until she was sure they were all fast asleep.
Only then did she quietly rise and retrieve her bundle.
Then she looked down on them all with tears in her eyes as she placed the note on the table where they would find it.
Once she left there could be no coming back.
The shame of what she was about to do would mean that they would disown her.
Even so, what she felt for Luca was strong, so very quietly she slipped away.
She paused once at the edge of the camp to look back at the vardo.
It had been the only home she had ever known, but it was time to start the next chapter of her life.
She reached the farmhouse in the early hours of the morning and saw that it was in darkness.
She had no wish to disturb the farmer so she crept into the barn.
She made herself a bed of hay and lay down to sleep with the chickens.
When the farmer rose with the dawn, he found her sitting on the doorstep.
‘Ah . . .’ He looked mildly surprised to see her. He hadn’t been at all sure that she would turn up. He looked embarrassed as he stood aside and she stepped past him. ‘I’m sorry, I forgot to ask you your name.’
She dropped her bundle onto a chair. ‘My name is Charity.’
‘Right, and I’m Eddie. Eddie Wells, and this is Top Acres Farm. I was just about to put the kettle on for some tea.’
‘I’ll do that,’ she volunteered. ‘If you’ll just show me where everything is.’ She supposed she should start as she meant to go on.
He was embarrassed as he pointed to the sink. ‘I’m afraid most of the pots are in there. I was going to wash them last night, but I never got around to it. What with seeing to the children and one thing and another. The kettle is on the hob.’
Charity had only ever cooked or boiled water over a fire before. Still, she was sure she would soon get used to it. While she was waiting for the kettle to boil, she washed some mugs. She carried them to the table before asking, ‘Where do you keep the milk?’
‘There’s a pantry to the side of the sink. That door there.’ He pointed. ‘And when I’ve milked the cows, I’ll bring you some fresh in.’
‘I could take that job on for you,’ she offered. She was used to milking a goat. Surely milking a cow would not be that much different.
‘Really?’ He looked relieved. It was a job his wife had always done before she passed away.
Soon, they were seated with steaming mugs of tea in front of them.
‘So where will I be sleeping?’ Charity asked.
He nodded to another door that led to some stairs. ‘There are three bedrooms up there. I sleep in one, the children sleep in another and you can have the third. I’m afraid it will need cleaning though.’
‘That’s no problem. I’ll tackle it later on.’
The children came downstairs soon after. They eyed Charity warily as she ushered them to the table, but when she served them with bowls of sweetened porridge they actually smiled. Since their mother had died their staple diet had been stale bread and jam.
When they had eaten, Charity set about cleaning the kitchen.
Her own room could wait until later. Mid-morning she stopped cleaning to prepare a meal.
The children had gone out to play in the sunshine and when they came in for their lunch, they eyed the meal hungrily.
Charity had made them a cottage pie. She had been out into the vegetable garden and fetched a cabbage too.
Eddie was still out in the fields working so she’d warm his in the oven when he came in.
The children cleared their plates, mopping them clean with the last of the stale bread.
Bellies full, they went back out into the sun to play while Charity finished cleaning the kitchen.
As yet, they had barely spoken to her although they were smiling at her now.
Eddie arrived home late afternoon and stared around in amazement.
The whole kitchen seemed to be sparkling.
The windows had been washed and the floor mopped.
She had taken the rugs outside and beaten all of the dust out of them.
The sink was no longer full of dirty pots and the dinner she was warming for him in the oven smelled delicious.
His stomach rumbled in anticipation. She had even found time to bake a fresh batch of bread.
While he ate, she left him to have some time with the children, who had just come back in from the yard.
She went up to look at her room. It was small but adequate and she set about making the bed up with clean sheets, before dusting and mopping the floor.
It wasn’t until much later that evening when she went to bed exhausted that the tears came.
She was missing her parents and her own little bed.
It would be the first night she had ever been apart from them.
She was homesick, but there was no turning back.
She just hoped in time that they would forgive her.
Her thoughts turned to Luca. Very soon now he would be arriving in Appleby with the circus.
She could hardly wait to see him. But first she would have to try and get her address to Scarlet, and then her life with Luca could begin. She could hardly wait.