Copper to Red (The Dillwyns' Stories) by Ceri Bladen Page A

lunged for him again.
    “My Sarah!” 
    Tom felt his
stomach lurch to the floor, he did know Dai’s daughter, he had courted her for nearly
two years.
    “My Sarah –
you have got her pregnant!” Dai shouted for all to hear.
    Tom glanced
quickly at Willow’s stunned face, as he rolled back on his heels, his world
crashing down around him.
    ~~~~
    Evan’s large
hand came pounding down on the wooden table making everyone around it jump. 
The whole family had been called for a chat, usually when that happened they
all knew there was trouble.  “How could you be so stupid boy!” he boomed, his
voice filling the room with its emotion.  “Haven’t you heard of protection!” 
    Anne hid her
mouth under her hand, immaturity and nervousness had her trying to stifle her
giggle.   Her brother, Sam looked white, hoping no attention would be brought
to him, he hadn’t even had his first kiss yet! 
    “Of course I
have!” Tom raised his voice too, but then tempered it, getting angry wasn’t
going to change the fact that he had got Sarah Davies pregnant.  “I am always careful, something must have gone wrong.”
    “You don’t
say,” Evan took a steadying breath.  He was extremely angry at his son.  Evan
had hoped his son would find someone to love and marry, not be forced into it
by an angry father.  He exhaled the breath and shook his head, but if Tom says
he was careful not to get her pregnant, there wasn’t much they could do, he was
nearly thirty after all. 
    Meg placed a
pot of tea into the middle of the wooden table, then she placed a gentle hand
on her husband’s arm, upset at the stress on Evan’s face.  Even though she had
been disappointed at the news as, she too, had secretly hoped he would fall in
love and marry, Megan was also wise enough to know that life didn’t always work
out the way you wanted it.  Tom had been seeing Sarah for a while and she was
liked by the family, but it hadn’t lasted.  Like it or not, there was a grandchild
on its way, and Meg knew they would all love it once it arrived.  Now they
needed to work out what they were going to do, as a family.  “Tom, what do you want to do?”
    He looked at
his mother, defeat in his eyes.  He knew what he wanted to do, he wanted to make a go at a relationship with Willow.  But he knew what he needed to
do, to go and chat to Sarah.  “Mam, Dad, everyone, I need to talk to Sarah and
we will decided together what is to be done.”  He got up, his shoulders
stooped slightly, the weight of the world on them.  “I’m not sure when I will
be back.”
    ~~~~
    Tom pulled
the front door closed behind him and finished buttoning up his coat before
heaving a big sigh.  After hours of discussions, heated at times, Sarah’s and
her mother’s tears, everything was now sorted.  He ran his fingers through his
rumpled black hair.  Only one more thing to do and he wasn’t going to like it
one little bit.
    ~~~~
    Willow was
busy wiping the bar down lost in her own thoughts.  She was trying to get a
handle on how she felt about the scene last night.  She hadn’t had chance to
see Tom to ask him if Sarah’s father was right and he hadn’t been in this
evening, which didn’t bode well either.  Continuing her scrubbing, she ignored
her father’s remark about rubbing the varnish off the bar.  Her heart beat
faster in anxiety.  What did it mean to their fledgling relationship if Sarah
was pregnant?  She moved a mat and continued wiping up spills.  But they didn’t
have a relationship did they?  A couple of kisses and a night of passion did
not equal a relationship.  She squeezed her eyes tight as her heart constricted
in her chest.  But she did want a relationship with Tom, she loved him.  She
threw the cloth down in anger, she had done it again, she had gone and let her
heart get trodden on once more.
    David had
been quietly observing his daughter all night and he was unsettled about what
he was seeing, she looked pale and in