The Favourite Child by Freda Lightfoot Page B

women. I want you, me little treasure, and I’ve got yer right arm already, have I not?’ Taking hold of it again he tucked the arm, now blue with bruises, into his own in a parody of friendly companionship. ‘I’ll tell ye what I’ll do. I swear me lips are permanently sealed. This new chap of yours will never hear a word about your little difficulty from me if...’ He paused, smiled his handsome, devil-may-care smile. ‘Ye do have a new chap, d’you not? Is that not the way of it, Jinnie? I know ye well, so don’t t’ink to tell me any porkies,’ and Jinnie could do nothing but nod in a dazed sort of way. ‘Well then, we don’t want to spoil such a promising future for ye both, now do we? I’m sure we can work out some way fer ye to repay my generosity, if we put our heads together. Why don’t we go and have a bite of dinner and see what we come up with. What d’you say, girl?’
    With her arm grasped so tightly within his own and the fear so tight in her belly, Jinnie had little choice but to go along with his plan and agree.
     
    By the end of January, Bella felt overwhelmed with despair at ever returning to anything like a normal routine. She felt sick to her stomach with the constant smell of camphorated oil and lineament, of emptying chamber pots and of lifting her mother on and off them. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending upon your point of view, Emily had partly regained the power of speech though she had not, as yet, agreed to demonstrate this skill to the doctor. Nevertheless she would constantly whine to Bella to fetch Edward, who she complained rarely visited her.
    ‘H-have been - g-good m-mither, not?’ she’d complain, the words often slurred or jumbled. ‘Why dush he defy me?’
    ‘Don’t worry about it, Mother. All you have to do is to get well.’ But Emily, as was her wont, showed no sign of patience and on one occasion threw such a tantrum of rage, screaming and yelling and foaming at the mouth, that Tilly was sent running to the mill to fetch Edward upon the instant. He came at once and sat by her bed for hours, holding his mother’s hand while she simpered with love for him.
    Bella was nauseated by this display of control on Emily’s part and explained the distressful scene to the doctor when he arrived prompt at ten o’clock the next morning, as was his custom. ‘I feared for her sanity, yet the rage left her the moment Edward came.’
    He stood holding Emily’s limp wrist while he counted her pulse. Like many of his profession he still seemed able to carry on a conversation at the same time.
    ‘Unfortunate indeed and, as you say, most distressing, but at least her son came when needed. Most commendable. She is well blessed. And you, my dear, are fortunate to have such a brother who is able and willing to give up his work and offer the care your mother undoubtedly needs.’ The usually mild tone sounded marred by the slightest drip of acid.
    Surprised, yet Bella felt bound to agree. ‘I don’t deny it but Edward can’t make a habit of coming home in the middle of the day. He must work, as must my father. Jinnie does what she can but she too has taken a job at the mill, as she is eager to pay her way. On the other hand, I cannot be with Mother around the clock.’
    ‘Whyever not? You showed no sign of needing respite the other day, when I invited you out for supper.’
    So that was the way the land lay. Bella sighed, swallowing a natural inclination to retaliate. ‘Are you sure you can’t find a nurse to help me?’
    ‘Is our patient eating properly?’ Ignoring the question he spoke over her mother’s head, as if Emily were deaf as well as paralysed.
    ‘Why don’t you ask her? She can speak for herself now.’
    ‘Fooling yourself that your dear mother doesn’t need your full time care, will not ease your conscience indefinitely, Miss Ashton,’ he coldly remarked as he tucked the limp wrist beneath the covers, smoothing down the sheet before proceeding to