Till the Sun Shines Through (59 page)

By the time the children had disembarked from the ferry onto a tram to Derry and then a narrow gauge train to Strabane before a rail bus for the last leg home, weariness had overtaken excitement. Katie climbed on Rosalyn's knee and Liam on his mother's and both went fast to sleep.

Bridie was nearly home and safe and felt she was starting life afresh. ‘This will be so different,' she said. ‘There'll be no Francis, no secrets, no Peggy McKenna. I'll be able to bring the children up decently and in safety and give a hand rearing Jay and Mickey too.'

‘What about after the war?'

‘At the moment, that's like saying when the sky falls in as Henny Penny would say,' Bridie said. ‘After the war and, please God, Tom and Eddie and your Todd will come home safe from it, then we'll see. But for now, this will do me fine.'

‘I hope you're happy,' Rosalyn said. ‘You've suffered so much and mainly through my father.'

‘Oh for God's sake, don't you start feeling bad about it now,' Bridie urged. ‘That part of my life is over and done.'

‘Okay, I know how you feel,' Rosalyn said. ‘And I won't go on about it, I promise. And now shall we try and waken the children, for we'll be passing the farm in a few minutes?'

Katie did wake up, but Liam slumbered on. ‘I'll carry him,' Bridie said. ‘Daddy will be there to help carry the bags and packages.'

And Jimmy was there. The conductor had helped them down the steps of the rail bus, unloaded their baggage and begun to chug away from them towards Donegal town before Bridie noticed the man standing slightly behind her father.

The man was a stranger, not one of their neighbours certainly, and instinctively her arms tightened around Liam, worried even at this late stage that her children might be whisked away from her. Liam whimpered in protest at being held so tightly and that brought the man's eyes round to him. Bridie noticed they were a strange yellow in the light of the large torch her father carried. Before Jimmy was able to introduce him, Bridie heard the man say, ‘Glory be to God. Sure he's the spit of him.'

‘This is Sean Cassidy, Tom's father,' Jimmy said to Bridie ‘This is my daughter, Bridie, and a cousin of ours, Rosalyn.' Nothing had prepared Bridie for anything like this and she'd stared at the man incredulously.

‘And that's Tom's son?' the man asked Bridie, indicating Liam.

Bridie barely heard the question. This was the man that Tom had told her had run up tick in the pub because his son was to be a priest and who obviously cared more for that than his son's happiness, judging by the letter Tom's mother had sent before they were married. She wondered what he was doing there. Both he and his wife had given up any right to be involved in their lives. And she didn't have to be polite to him either. This man had badly hurt her lovely Tom and that damned him in her eyes.

Katie was tired, confused and cold and she wondered what her mother was doing standing in the dark without speaking, especially when the man had asked her a question about Liam. So, before Bridie was able to gather her wits to make any sort of reply, Katie, who reasoned that if the man wanted to know about Liam, he might be the grandfather her mammy had told her about, looked into the eyes of Sean Cassidy and asked, ‘Are you my grandad?'

Bridie wanted to tell her daughter the man was no part of her, that he didn't even know she was born for Tom had refused to tell his family, but before she could say anything, the man nodded slowly. ‘I imagine I am and this here is your other grandaddy,' he said, indicating Jimmy beside him. ‘He's told me all about you.'

Katie's eyes opened wider. Her mammy had never said there were going to be two granddads and then Jimmy lifted her into his arms. He felt tears prickle the back of his eyes, although he fought to control them for the sake of the child before him. But the sight of the wee girl had affected him so much, for it was like looking at her mother all over again.

‘Hello, darling girl,' he said, and he hugged Katie close and she smelt pipe tobacco on Jimmy's jacket and other smells she didn't recognise: the smoke from a peat fire, the hay he'd been feeding the sheep earlier and the general smell of the farmyard that had clung to him. It wasn't an unpleasant smell, just unfamiliar, and Katie liked being hugged that way and snuggled closer. She liked this man, she decided. She liked the words he said in his gentle, lilting voice and the way his eyes twinkled in the light of the torch he'd handed to Rosalyn before lifting her up.

Jimmy loved the feel of the child in his arms, the thing he'd longed for all those years, and over her head he addressed Sean. In a voice made husky with the tears he was fighting, he said, ‘This here is little Katie.' And then, because he knew Bridie was still suffering a form of shock from seeing the man there, he went on, ‘And that is Liam. These are both Tom's children.'

Sean went forward and peered closer at Liam and, like Jimmy, he had the feeling he was looking at his own child as a youngster and felt a yearning to hold him in his arms as Jimmy was doing with the wee girl. ‘They are fine children you and Tom have,' he said to Bridie. ‘Could I carry the boy for you? He looks a weight.'

Bridie felt as if her arms were being pulled from her sockets, but she had a reluctance to hand her son to this man. ‘No,' she said tersely. ‘I'm fine.'

Sean wasn't surprised at Bridie's reaction. It was what he might have expected and certainly what he felt he deserved. ‘Ah, cutie dear, I know how you feel,' he said. ‘I've been a stupid, proud fool and I'm prepared to admit it and so is my wife Annie, who's up at the house now.'

‘But how, why …?'

‘We got to thinking, the wife and me,' Sean said. ‘Aye, we were puffed up with pride at Tom going in for the priesthood, but as your wise father said we can't live our children's lives for them. We've missed our son and worried over him, especially when the war started, and in the end we swallowed our stupid pride and wrote to your parents just a few days ago. They told us you were coming back home today and invited us down to meet you.

‘When we arrived here, your father told me of the raid that killed his wife's sister and her husband and their own daughter, and that your two weans were buried in the rubble of the house. God, that was dreadful altogether. We were smote with guilt, Annie and I. We're here to beg your forgiveness and, if you'll let me have Tom's address, we'll write to him the same way. Can you forgive us, Bridie?'

Bridie knew it had taken Sean a lot of courage to say he'd been wrong and that he was sorry and she could tell he was genuine. She had no wish to alienate Tom from his parents – it had never been her intention – and their children deserved two sets of grandparents. She smiled at last at Tom's father. ‘I'm pleased to meet you,' she said. ‘Tom has told me much of the farm you have, and his sisters. Maybe we could come over and visit you one day?'

‘You'd be welcome,' Sean said sincerely.

Jimmy let the breath he'd been holding leave his body gently. He had no idea how Bridie felt about Tom's family, no idea either whether she would welcome Sean or not. That is why he advised the man to come with him to meet the rail bus and why he would let neither Jay nor Mickey come with them – he'd left the two of them straining at the bit in the farmhouse, mad with excitement. Remembering them now, he said to Bridie, ‘We must be away. There's two young boys who will be plaguing the life out of your mammy. Two boys who've been longing to see you all.'

Bridie suddenly felt surrounded by love and contentment stole over her. In the farmhouse beyond there was a family waiting to greet her. Delia and her family, who now held no horrors for her, would live beside her as they had all the days of her growing up, and now too there was Tom's family to welcome her. It was more, much more, than she'd ever dared hope for in those dreadful days after the raid when she thought she'd lost nearly everyone belonging to her.

Katie suddenly stirred in Jimmy's arms, pulling herself from his tight embrace, and said accusingly to her mother, ‘You didn't say nothing about two granddads.'

‘I didn't know either,' Bridie said. ‘Aren't you the lucky girl?'

‘Have I two grandmas too?'

‘You have,' Sean answered the child. ‘And they are both up at the house this minute waiting for you, along with your cousins Jay and young Mickey.'

‘Maybe we'd better go then,' Kate said and she wriggled in her granddad's arms and Jimmy laughed as he set the petite child on her feet. ‘If you're half as good as your mother, you'll do well enough,' he said. ‘And now will you do an important job for me,' and at her eager nod, he placed the torch in her hand. ‘You light our way up the field,' he said, ‘while we carry up these bags.'

Then Jimmy turned and embraced first Bridie and then Rosalyn. ‘You're a treat for sore eyes,' he said. ‘The pair of you. Now let's be away before we stick to the ground, the night's cold enough so.'

‘Wait a moment,' Bridie said, and she approached Sean and gently placed Liam in the man's arms. ‘He is heavy,' she said. ‘Will you carry him for me?'

The man didn't have to speak, the smile that lit up his whole face spoke for him, and they were off, following Katie's wavering torch. Sean Cassidy after her, his grandson in his arms, and then Jimmy, laden with bags.

Bringing up the rear were the two cousins and friends and whatever distance they were from each other now, Bridie knew it didn't matter; they'd always keep in touch. Between them they gathered up the rest of the packages and made their way towards the house over grass crunchy with frost and Bridie felt as if her heart was as light as air.

She thought of the letter to Tom she'd almost finished writing. She'd told him the children were being released from hospital, not the whole story yet, and she'd left the letter open in order to describe the way the children took to the journey and the welcome waiting for them at the farmhouse.

What a wonderful postscript she could now add, she thought. She knew Tom had often felt guilty about his parents, knowing they'd given up a lot for him to train in the seminary, and his doting sisters taking up the jobs on the farm that should have been his duty, and all without a word of complaint.

He'd not said any of this to Bridie, but she knew Tom so well there were things he didn't have to say. She could visualise his reaction when she told him who was waiting for her to alight from the rail bus.

If it wasn't for the shadow of war looming over their lives, then it would be perfect, Bridie thought, but as it was, they had to make the best of what they had and hope for a better future. As she turned the corner of the farmhouse, she felt her heart skip with joy. It was good to be finally home.

I have many people to thank for making this book possible. First of all, there are my husband Denis, daughters Nikki, Bethany and Tamsin and son Simon, who are always supportive, and a special thanks to Simon for designing my website. My daughter-in-law Carol, son-in-law Steve and mother-in-law Nancy are encouraging too, and Nancy also helps me with the memories she has of the times I am writing about.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my special friends Ruth Adshead, Judith Kendall and Judy Westwood for their immeasurable support, and my agent Judith Murdoch, editorial director Susan Opie and editor Maxine Hitchcock for their belief in me. I really appreciate their help, advice and constructive criticism.

Thanks must also go to Ann Temple of the Railway Restoration Society based in Donegal Town, whose help was invaluable, and to Carl Chinn in Birmingham. I really would find it difficult to write as accurately as I do without the marvellous books he writes of old Birmingham. Immense gratitude to you all.

Anne Bennett was born in a back-to-back house in the Horsefair district of Birmingham. The daughter of Roman Catholic, Irish immigrants, she grew up in a tight-knit community where she was taught to be proud of her heritage. She considers herself to be an Irish Brummie and feels therefore that she has a foot in both cultures. She has four children – three daughters and a son – and four grandchildren. For many years she taught in schools to the north of Birmingham.

An accident put paid to her teaching career and after moving to North Wales, Anne turned to the other great love of her life and began to write seriously.
Till the Sun Shines Through
is her sixth book.

A Little Learning

Love Me Tender

A Strong Hand to Hold

Pack Up Your Troubles

Walking Back to Happiness

Harper
Fiction
An imprint of HarperCollins
Publishers
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First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins
Publishers
2003

Copyright © Anne Bennett 2003

Anne Bennett asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

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