Chapter Sixteen
‘You mean he’ll allow me to stay here?’ Charity could hardly believe it when Maureen relayed what Eddie had said. She felt as if a huge weight was being lifted from her shoulders.
‘He certainly will. I can take you to see the cottage if you like?’ Maureen offered.
Charity nodded eagerly. At least now she would have a home for herself and her child.
They set off soon after with Tilly and Simon running beside them.
After passing through the orchard, Charity saw the cottage in a little clearing.
The garden was overgrown but the cottage itself looked sturdy enough.
‘It’ll probably be very dusty inside,’ Maureen warned as she took the key from her apron pocket.
They entered a large kitchen cum sitting room and Charity looked around.
As Maureen had said, it was very dusty but she liked it immediately.
A small parlour led off this room and a staircase led to two bedrooms upstairs.
‘We could have this cleaned and ready to move into in no time,’ Maureen said as they moved from room to room. ‘And there’s an outside toilet and a wood shed just out there. Everything you need.’
‘It’s lovely,’ Charity agreed. ‘And so kind of Eddie to do this for me.’ And yet deep down she dreaded living in one place.
She had enjoyed her time on the farm because of Eddie’s kindness.
She had made a good friend in Maureen and she had grown fond of the children, but she missed life on the road and sometimes felt like a caged bird.
Until now it was all she had ever known and she had loved it.
She had imagined she and Luca in their own trailer moving from place to place.
But that would never happen now. She would grow old here in her drab clothes.
There would be no more bathing in the river.
There would be no more dancing around the campfires.
No more whittling wood into clothes pegs to sell in the villages they passed through.
But she would have Luca’s child and that would have to be enough.
Over the next few days, Charity spent every spare minute she had preparing the cottage. She cleaned the windows until they gleamed and washed the curtains. She polished the furniture until she could see her face in it. The floors were swept and mopped and cobwebs were dusted away.
Maureen made the old brass bed up for her with fresh sheets and blankets and Eddie fetched an old crib down from the attic for the baby. At last, her new home was ready to move into.
On the same day Maureen informed her that the circus had left the town.
And on that day Charity’s heart broke afresh.
She could picture Luca with Scarlet sitting beside him as they took to the road.
She tried to push the images aside but it was easier said than done.
Even so, she was grateful to Eddie for giving her a place to live.
Things would have been so much worse if he had turned her out.
‘I’ve no doubt a pretty girl like you will find another love once the baby’s here,’ Maureen tried to comfort her.
Charity smiled sadly. She knew that what she had felt for Luca was a once in a lifetime love. It would never come again. From now on she would give all her love to his child.