Chapter Sixteen
Monty came home one evening in mid-December with a huge Christmas tree and Nancy could hardly contain her delight. This would be her first Christmas away from the workhouse and she was looking forward to it. She’d already settled far better than Annie had dared hope, and Adam and Alfred adored her.
‘What do you think, girls?’ Monty smiled as he dragged the tree into the parlour, leaving a trail of pine leaves in its wake. ‘Will it do?’
‘Oh, it’s lovely!’ Nancy was jiggling from foot to foot with excitement. They’d always had a small tree in the day room in the workhouse, but never anything as nice as this.
‘I’ll dig out the baubles we got last year and you can help me decorate it this evening if you like,’ Annie told her.
‘Baubles?’ Nancy looked confused. The trees in the workhouse had always been decorated with crepe paper.
‘You can stand it in a bucket of earth for us after dinner,’ Annie told Monty.
‘But first you can come and sample Nancy’s mince pies.
She helped me make them today.’ She’d been giving Nancy basic cookery lessons ever since she’d arrived and she was getting quite good at making certain things.
In fact, Annie had to admit that Nancy’s pastry was far better than hers.
After dinner, Nancy helped Annie get Adam ready for bed, and once he was settled, they set to decorating the tree. Nancy was amazed at the beautiful glass baubles and was almost afraid to handle them for fear of breaking them.
‘Oh, don’t worry, I’m sure Adam will be doing his share of that; he’s into everything, and Alfred is just as bad,’ Annie chuckled as she placed the fairy on the top and they stood back to admire it.
‘You’ve done a fine job,’ Monty’s voice came from behind his newspaper and Annie and Nancy smiled at each other.
Annie was still in a quandary about whether she should tell Monty about Nancy’s father.
She’d been keeping her suspicions to herself – after all she had no proof, and wasn’t sure if she ever would have.
I’ll speak to Peggy and ask her advice about it tomorrow, she thought as she sat back and studied Nancy’s face.
Was she imagining her nose was the same shape as Monty’s?
Or that their eyes were exactly the same shade of blue?
With a sigh she went to make them all a cup of cocoa, leaving Monty to read his newspaper and Nancy to admire the tree.
The week before, she’d taken the girl to a cobbler that Peggy knew who had agreed to make Nancy a pair of shoes with one heel higher than the other and she really hoped he could make them in time for Christmas.
How lovely it would be to see Nancy walk without her limp.
With a smile she put the milk on the hob to heat up. Her biggest regret this year was that there was no sign of a little brother or sister arriving for Adam, but she certainly didn’t regret bringing Nancy to live with them.
The next morning, when Peggy arrived, Annie sent Nancy to fetch some shopping and over a cup of coffee, she told her what Nancy had said about her father living in Swan Lane.
‘We both know what he did to Eve,’ she said quietly. ‘But how can we find out if he’s Nancy’s father, too?’
‘Hmm.’ Peggy pursed her lips as she pondered.
‘Leave it wi’ me,’ she said after a short time.
‘I know a few folk as live in Swan Lane who might remember who the Taylor-Lloyds’ maid was before Eve.
I’m sure some of o’ the women I worked wi’ in the workhouse would ’ave been there at the time Nancy were born an’ all. What were Nancy’s mother’s name?’
‘I seem to recall she said it was Emma.’
Peggy nodded. ‘Let me ask about.’ And they went on to talk of other things.
As Christmas approached, Annie invited Levi and Peggy, Susan, and Eve and Davey to have Christmas dinner with them.
Eve and Davey politely declined saying they would prefer to stay in their own home with the children, which Annie perfectly understood.
Levi and Peggy were delighted to come, but when Annie visited Susan at the shop to invite her, Susan blushed to the roots of her hair.
‘I, er . . . I’m sorry. I would have loved to,’ she said uncomfortably. ‘But I’ve already agreed to have dinner at Tim’s with him and the girls.’
Annie beamed. She’d noticed how happy Susan had been of late and how close she and Tim seemed to be growing and hoped it boded well for the future.
‘Don’t you dare apologise.’ Annie smiled. ‘It’s wonderful to see you happy again. Tim is a really lovely man.’
‘Yes, he is.’ There were stars in Susan’s eyes as she turned away to serve a customer.
The shop was busy in the lead-up to Christmas, so Annie departed and left her to it.
Today was the first time she had left Nancy minding Adam and she was keen to get home to see how she’d managed.
She needn’t have worried. When she arrived home, she found that Nancy had put Adam down for his morning nap and had cleaned and tidied the whole of the downstairs.
‘Goodness me you’ve been busy.’ Annie looked around with a smile.
Nancy beamed. ‘Yes, an’ I thought after dinner I might make Mr Monty some more mince pies. He seems to like ’em.’
‘He certainly does, but please don’t call him Mr Monty. It’s just Monty; you’re family now, Nancy.’
Nancy flushed with pleasure. She loved living here and already felt at home thanks to Annie and Monty, who really did treat her as one of the family.
Before they could blink, Christmas Day was upon them and they all got up early. Monty lit the fire while Annie fed Adam and then, still in their nightwear, they gathered in the parlour with a large tray of tea to open the presents.
Nancy’s eyes were on stalks as she stared at the gifts beneath the tree. This really was a world away from what she’d been used to at the workhouse where Christmas Day had been much as any other, apart from the fact that they all got a decent meal at dinner time.
‘Ah, now this one is for you,’ Monty declared, handing a gaily wrapped small package to Annie. ‘Happy birthday, darling.’
She smiled as she opened it with Adam’s help and beamed with pleasure when she saw the lovely bracelet inside the box. It was a gold chain, on which charms could be hung, and Monty promised that from then on, he would buy her a charm for every special occasion.
For Monty, there was a leather-bound book he’d been after for some time, and a warm sweater that he said he would wear that day.
And then Nancy was handed the first of her presents.
She was so excited that her hands shook as she tore the paper off it.
Inside was a beautiful red dressing robe.
She’d been wearing one of Annie’s old ones until then and could hardly wait to wear her new one.
And so it went on, with each of them opening gifts until the floor was littered with wrapping paper. Even Alfred hadn’t been forgotten and was now happily chewing on a juicy bone and guarding his new ball, while Adam was playing with his new toys.
And finally, there was just one present left beneath the tree, which Annie handed to Nancy.
‘And I believe this one is for you,’ she told her.
Nancy thanked her as she peeled off the paper to find a box underneath. She frowned as she lifted the lid wondering what it could be and gasped as she looked down at a lovely pair of little black buttoned boots made of soft leather.
‘Are these the ones you had me measured for?’ she asked with a catch in her voice.
Annie nodded, watching as Nancy pulled them on. She was relieved to see they fitted like a glove. ‘Come on then, this is the moment of truth. Let’s see if they make any difference.’
Nancy stood up and tentatively took a step, paused and then another and another, and with each one her smile broadened. ‘I’m not limpin’,’ she said in wonder. ‘Look at me!’
Annie felt a lump form in her throat as she watched the delight on the girl’s face and she could have sworn she saw a tear glistening in Monty’s eyes too. The cobbler had done a marvellous job, so good that no one would ever have known that one of the boots was made up higher than the other.
‘This is the best present . . . in fact, the best Christmas ever!’ Nancy flew across the room in her red dressing gown and her new boots and flung her arms around Annie. ‘Just think, no one’ll make fun o’ me now.’
‘No, they won’t, pet.’ Annie was delighted to see the girl so happy and went off to make them all a tray of tea.
Levi and Peggy arrived just before lunchtime and Peggy blushed as Annie admired her dress.
‘Levi bought it fer me fer Christmas – from your shop o’ course.’ She giggled and blushed like a schoolgirl.
‘Then I hope Susan let him have it at a discount,’ Annie told her with a smile as Levi sniffed at the air appreciatively and rubbed his stomach.
‘By ’eck, lass, sommat smells good!’
‘It’s the turkey,’ Annie told him. ‘And I hope you’re both hungry because the one Monty fetched home would feed the whole street!’
The dinner was a huge success and young Nancy, who had helped prepare and cook it, beamed with pleasure. She also insisted on clearing the table after dinner and making the adults a pot of tea while Adam went down for a nap.
‘No, I can’t let you do that on your own,’ Annie protested.
But Nancy was adamant. ‘I want to, so you just sit where yer are an’ I’ll ’ave the tea in in no time.’ She’d been clunking about in her new boots all day and Annie was beginning to think she might even sleep in them.
‘They’re just what she needed to boost ’er confidence,’ Peggy said when the girl had departed to the kitchen.
‘She already don’t look nothin’ like the little stray you brought home from the work’ouse.
’ Then glancing towards the men on the other side of the room, she lowered her voice.
‘I ’ad a word wi’ one o’ the women who worked at the work’ouse when Nancy’s mam were admitted, an’ she comfirmed that Emma told ’er that she had worked fer the Taylor-Lloyds in Swan Lane. ’
Annie’s hand flew to her mouth. ‘So Nancy is actually Monty’s half-sister then?’
Peggy pursed her lips and nodded. ‘It certainly looks that way. The dirty old bastard. That’s our poor Eve and Nancy’s mam who he put in the family way, an’ who knows what ’e might be doin’ to that poor little girl as is workin’ fer ’em now, eh?’
Annie bit on her lip before asking, ‘What do you think we should do? Should we tell Nancy . . . or Monty?’
Peggy sighed. ‘I’ve been givin’ that a lot o’ thought an’ I’ve come to the conclusion that it might do more ’arm than good.
What I mean is, it’d break your Monty’s ’eart to know his dad were capable o’ behavin’ like that.
It ain’t as if Taylor-Lloyd is goin’ to ’old his ’ands up an’ confess what ’e did to Eve or Nancy’s mam, is it?
It’s up to you, o’ course. But if I were you, I’d ’old fire and give it some more thought afore you do or say anythin’. ’
The conversation was halted when Nancy appeared bearing a tray of tea for the women. The men had opted to have a post Christmas dinner glass of port and were now engrossed in discussing football.
‘Here we are!’ Nancy plonked the tray down and beamed at them, and Annie found herself looking at the girl through different eyes.
She’d tried to treat Nancy as a member of the family ever since she’d come to live with them, but now she knew that she really was related to them.
‘I’m gonna make a start on the washin’ up afore his lordship wakes up,’ Nancy told them.
Annie shook her head. ‘No, you don’t have to do that. We can tackle it together later once our dinners have gone down.’
‘It’s all right, I like washin’ up,’ Nancy responded and with another grin she disappeared back into the kitchen.
‘She’s a little treasure, ain’t she?’ Peggy said quietly and Annie nodded. Peggy had never spoken a truer word.
The rest of the day passed pleasantly and it was quite late before Levi and Peggy set off for home, just as the first snow began to fall. Apart from the revelation about Nancy’s parentage, it had been a perfect day, one that Annie would think of often in the months ahead.