City Girl by Patricia Scanlan

the few acres. Lydia said we would never be able to give you the opportunities they could.’ She sighed deeply. ‘It’s something I’ve always regretted,
especially as Rob and I did well for ourselves.’
    ‘But why did she adopt me? The way she spoke to me tonight made me feel as though she hated me.’
    The question was anguished and bitter and for a moment Katie felt a deep resentment of her sister. But she continued reassuringly: ‘Ah Devlin, she doesn’t hate you. She wanted to
adopt you to try and make up for the way she had treated your mother. When Tara died they were estranged. You have to understand, Lydia’s normally a very restrained person and when she loses
control she’s angry with the person who causes it. The drinking isn’t helping either.’
    Devlin shook her head. ‘No Katie, it was more than that. I know!’ she said emphatically.
    Katie sighed. ‘All right, Devlin, I’ll tell you what’s wrong with Lydia. Maybe then you can understand her attitude to your having a baby and find it in your heart to be sorry
for her.’
    ‘I’ll never forgive her,’ Devlin vowed savagely.
    ‘Hush pet, don’t say that. If you let yourself you can come out of this experience more mature and self-reliant than you’ve been. Don’t be so negative . . . that’s
one thing I’ve learned from life.’ Katie smiled lovingly at her niece. ‘Negative thoughts and bitterness get you nowhere. I learned that when Robbie died.’
    Devlin gave a sniff, wiped her eyes, blew her nose and said brusquely, ‘Well tell me why I should have sympathy for her.’ Katie threw another log on the fire and settled back
comfortably.
    ‘It was like this, you see. Lydia was beautiful when she was young and she knew it.’ She laughed. ‘I was the plain one and Tara, your mother, was fat and spotty until she was
seventeen and then . . . well she went away to her penpal in France for a whole summer and when she came back people didn’t recognize her, she was so slender and tanned. All her puppy fat had
just melted off her.’ Katie nodded at Devlin. ‘She was very much like you are now. Anyway, Lydia had been dating a young doctor and she was crazy about him. He was the only one of her
boyfriends who didn’t hop at her command and who wasn’t always at her beck and call,’ she smiled wryly. ‘You know Lydia! He was the only man she couldn’t dominate. To
make a long story short, Tara came back from France looking like a million dollars and Brian, that was his name, fell for her hook line and sinker. Tara was a lovely soft generous person, you
couldn’t but love her. They didn’t plan it that way. They tried to fight the attraction. But it was one of those things. Tara fell in love with him and he started dating her. Lydia
never forgave either of them and in a way, Devlin, I always feel she married Gerry very much on the rebound.
    ‘Then Tara became pregnant with you. Brian was in the middle of his internship in a Northern hospital – that was where he lived – and there was no way he could afford to marry
Tara immediately although he wanted to. Mother, God bless her, took the whole thing very calmly; she was always a brick in a crisis. She told Brian to save enough to get decent lodgings. She wanted
to be sure that Tara would have somewhere proper to live with her new baby. She never once reproached Tara and always told her to hold her head high.’
    Katie smiled, ‘It’s a pity you never knew your grandmother, Devlin. She was a lady with a lot of class. Anyway, Brian and Tara had made plans to marry two months before you were due
but two days before the wedding Tara went into labour and died shortly after the birth. Everyone was devastated. You weren’t expected to survive,’ she gave her niece an affectionate
smile, ‘but you were a little fighter, Devlin, and you made it.’ She sighed. ‘After much discussion Lydia and Gerry decided, with Brian’s blessing, that they would adopt
you. Your