Authors: Lesley Pearse
Charity (81 page)
As for James, he was torn too, wanting to be with Lou and Geoff and friends he’d grown up with, yet clinging to the idealistic Christmas with his sisters.
The silver salvers on the Jacobean sideboard, the cutlery and glass, even the vastness of the dining room, pointed out the amount of work required to create Christmas here. Margaret and Tom would gladly do it at the expense of their own family – but for what?
‘No Prue, we’re spending it at Albemarle Mansions. It’s too much bother here.’
‘It might be the last chance here,’ James retorted, but there was a glimmer of relief in his eyes.
‘Until we get the holiday cottage fixed up.’ Charity laughed lightly, aware this would mean nothing to Rob and she would have to explain later. ‘But both of you are welcome to join us in London. We’ll have the time of our lives there.’
A slow smile crept across Prue’s face.
‘I could drive up on Boxing Day,’ she said. ‘I have been invited somewhere else on Christmas Day, but I didn’t want to let you down.’
‘Somewhere else?’ Charity raised one eyebrow, guessing there was a new man behind that statement.
‘Well, bring him too on Boxing Day. And what about you, James?’
‘I’ll join you then,’ He smiled sheepishly. ‘Lou and Geoff will be thrilled if I’m at home.’
‘And I thought we were going to have a pitched battle,’ Rob sighed, pretending great disappointment. ‘Some people are never satisfied. They get given a whacking great house and they don’t want it.’
‘Not as a home.’ Charity smiled, happy now because she’d freed them all from the burden. ‘It’s never been a home, just rooms and ghosts. I suspect that’s why Mother never mentioned it.’
‘We’ll stay another night,’ Prue said as she kissed Rob and Charity goodbye that afternoon. ‘I’ll see James on to the train tomorrow and we’ll all meet up on Boxing Day.’
‘Is everything all right now?’ Charity asked, tenderly stroking her sister’s face. She had grown used to Prue’s reticence but still wished she could reach in and touch Prue’s inner self.
‘It’s resolved,’ Prue said starchily, but seeing Charity’s face fall she hugged her. ‘I didn’t mean it like that exactly. I mean, I’m relieved. Studley is a burden and I had no right to expect you to carry it.’
‘Have some fun,’ Charity said, holding her sister close. ‘We’ve all had too little of that. If this new man is special, hang on to him. Believe me, love is the only thing that counts for anything.’
Charity turned to James then, hugging him wordlessly. They were alike; there was no need for speeches or assurances, just a touch or a look said everything.
‘See you both Boxing Day.’ James held out a hand to Rob once Charity had let him go. ‘Merry Christmas!’
It was dusk when they got outside. Charity walked over to the railings and turned to look back at the house across the lawn, as Rob packed her bag in the boot. The sun was a huge orange sphere, about to slip down into the trees behind the stables. The Priory had a disapproving look, the stone turning black as light faded, its many windows like half-closed eyes. Even the cypresses seemed to shake their foliage in resentment.
Charity laughed, softly at first, then becoming wilder until tears ran down her cheeks.
‘Whatever’s the matter?’ Rob ran across the circular lawn, his face wreathed with concern.
‘I’m stronger than this place,’ Charity said, leaning on him for support and wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. ‘I just realised I’ve won! I’m walking away from it without one regret, and because of my plans it will never trap anyone I love again.’
‘I don’t understand.’ Rob frowned.
‘I don’t exactly either.’ Charity put her arms round Rob and kissed his cheek. ‘But it was the last burden – and now I’m free.’
The past was put aside, just a series of memories like faded photographs that in time they would bring out and look at again, sometimes with tears, but more often with laughter. The future was golden for all of them: a new family history was about to start from today.
Charity and Rob stood together, watching as the last ray of sun caught the tiles on the roof and turned them fiery red momentarily before slipping out of sight.
Rob shivered and took her hand.
‘Let’s go home, darling.’
‘Home.’ All her life that word had been her only true goal. There had been no home for all of them together when they were young. No home for Daniel, and by the time she made enough money for one for her brothers and sister, they had lives and goals of their own and her flat always seemed empty.
Charity reached up and kissed Rob.
‘Home,’ she whispered. ‘With you, for always.’
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Published by Arrow Books 2011
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Copyright © Lesley Pearse 1995
Lesley Pearse has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work
This novel is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
First published in Great Britain in 1995 by William Heinemann
First published in Great Britain in paperback in 1995
by Manderin Paperbacks
First published in paperback by Arrow Books in 1997
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ISBN 9780099557470
About the Book
When you’re sixteen, pregnant and alone, sixties London is anything but swinging …
Charity Stratton’s bleak childhood is changed for ever when both her parents are killed in a fire. Separated by the authorities from her younger brothers and sister, Charity is sent out to work as a skivvy in a boys’ boarding school. Her loneliness and misery are eased when she falls deeply in love with the dashing but fickle sixth-former Hugh Mainwaring, but when she discovers she is pregnant with Hugh’s baby she soon realises just how alone she really is.
Determined to be reunited with her siblings and to make something of herself, Charity runs away to London and begins to forge a new life.
