A Dream Rides By by Tania Anne Crosse Page B

with one of the Civil Guards at the prison? Well, he’s been posted elsewhere, and so she’d like to take your place, to keep her mind off things so to speak.’
    Rose paused, her eyes boring into Ling’s with crystal brilliance. Ling sucked in her lips as if to contain the exhilaration that bubbled up within her.
    ‘Oh, Mother, what do you think? Could you manage without me? The laundry and everything? And what about Fanny?’
    ‘You can visit your family every week,’ Rose was telling her, ‘and I’ll give you a good wage as well as providing your keep.’
    ‘Oh!’ Ling burst into a rapturous smile. ‘You seem to have thought of everything!’ she laughed aloud now. ‘And what will Father say?’
    ‘I’m certain he’ll agree,’ her mother replied, her own face aglow with pride for this wonderful daughter of hers. Arthur had always said there was something special about her, something that Mrs Warrington had also recognized, and now a new world was opening up to her because of it.
    Barney had washed, scrubbing his fingernails until they were as clean as a dandy’s, and his face stung from the vicious assault he had made on it with soap and water. He donned a clean shirt and his Sunday suit, and then, smoothing his thick hair and pulling his better cap down over it, strode towards Ling’s home, his chest swelled with the jubilant anticipation of asking for her hand. They probably wouldn’t marry for another few years, but at least they would be
promised
, and that was all he asked.
    The chatter of happy voices reached him through the open door as he came up the garden path. He would hopefully find the opportunity to take Ling’s father aside to ask his permission, which he would surely grant at once. And then, later, he would suggest that he and Ling take a romantic stroll in the balmy spring evening, and he would pop the question as they watched the gilded sun sinking over the moor.
    ‘Barney!’ Ling waltzed outside to greet him, her face radiant and her eyes almost translucent with joy.
    Barney had never seen her look so beautiful, and his heart lurched. ‘Happy birthday, my darling,’ he mumbled so breathlessly that she didn’t even hear him.
    ‘See, Barney, Mrs Warrington’s here!’ Ling grinned exuberantly as they went inside.
    ‘Barney, son.’ Arthur, still in his working clothes, nodded gravely, making Barney feel uneasy.
    ‘Mrs Warrington.’ Barney bowed his head cautiously. The woman had always expressed a fondness for Ling, but why was she in the Southcott’s home?
    ‘Ling has some news, Barney,’ Arthur announced, and, from the expression in his merry eyes, the boy knew that, whatever it was, it pleased Ling’s father immensely. ‘But I expect she’d like to tell you herself.’
    Barney took in Ling’s elated face, and his heart began to beat faster. His own jubilation was instinctively dampened, and his mouth suddenly felt dry. He knew what Ling was going to say before she even opened her mouth.
    ‘Mrs Warrington has asked me to go and work for her. As her companion!’ she cried triumphantly, since Rose had sworn her and Mary to secrecy regarding the baby.
    Barney was poleaxed. Ling.
His
Ling. His girl, his
wife
, to be spirited away from him, and they all looked so bloody
delighted
about it! The room seemed to spin, and he had to take a staggering step sideways to keep his balance.
    ‘Congratulations.’ He was amazed to recognize that the flat voice that spoke was his own. It was all he could do to stay standing as Ling hopped across to him, her face alight and exultant. ‘Happy birthday.’ The strange voice spoke again and his hand held out the tiny package containing his present to her.
    Ling drew in a gasp as she opened the little brooch, and a spark twinkled in the blackness of Barney’s soul.
    ‘Oh, thank you, Barney! It’s lovely. I shall wear it always!’
    She reached up to plant a kiss on his cheek, and then she was away, the brooch he was paying off at a