Another Man’s Child. Anne Bennett
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to clear away afterwards, but that is all. The rest of the time you will be locked in your room.’
Norah looked at her sister’s stricken face and shot her a look of sympathy as Celia faced her father and said, ‘How long for? You can’t keep me locked up for ever.’
Dan gave a growl of anger. ‘Don’t you tell me what I can and can’t do,’ he said. ‘You’ll push me too far, my girl. I’m angry enough at the moment to give you the whipping you deserve and if you annoy me further I might do just that.’
Looking at her father’s face, Celia knew he meant every word and thought it best to keep quiet – for now.
The worst thing about being incarcerated was the boredom. Peggy brought her work box up on Monday morning and a pile of mending and said she might as well make herself useful. Celia wouldn’t have minded any amount of mending if she’d had company, but they’d all been forbidden to talk to her and that more than anything drained her spirit. After nearly a week of this she was a changed person. She had no hope for the future and as one day followed another she lost all interest in life outside her room, and although she could see spring, her favourite season, unfolding in the farm beyond her windows, it seemed to have nothing to do with her.
She lost any interest in food for she found it hard to eat. Family meals were conducted almost in silence for even Ellie and Sammy, both picking up the atmosphere, seemed constrained and didn’t chatter as they used to; any conversation attempt seemed awkward and strained. Celia would feel her parents’ reproach that lay heavy on her heart. Her father’s every remark to her was delivered in a cold, curt way and although her mother’s voice was softer, her sighs and the sorrowful look in her eyes made Celia feel guilty for she knew she had caused her mother to be so sad. Norah felt immensely sorry for her sister for she hated to see her suffer so and knew she would be glad when the ticket arrived and she was on her way. Every time she thought of that frissons of excitement ran down her spine, which she tried to hide from Celia, for no such thrilling future was beckoning her.
Dan had decided that he and Tom would collar McCadden on his way to the dance on Saturday and teach him a lesson and so Tom headed up to Sinead’s house on Friday evening as he doubted he would be seeing her on Saturday. It was much later, as he was on his way back, that he met Joseph O’Leary, also making for his home, and he saw straight away that the man had had a skinful, a state he had got into a number of times since Norah had told him she was definitely going to America.
Joseph greeted Tom, lifting his hand in a wave so that he overbalanced and would have fallen if Tom hadn’t caught him. ‘Here, man, you need to steady up.’
Joseph’s voice was thick and slightly slurred. ‘Why?’ he said belligerently. ‘Nothing to steady up for.’
‘Norah’s not the only pretty girl around.’
‘She’s the only one I want,’ Joseph maintained. ‘Would you have me settle for second best?’
Tom didn’t answer for there was nothing for him to say, but he felt guilty that his sister’s callous treatment of this man had reduced him to a sot for they were friends, despite the differences in their ages. So when he added, ‘Every day that passes is one more day nearer the time that Norah will board that ship and sail away and I will never see her again,’ Tom felt a bolt of sympathy for the man as he looked into his pain-filled eyes and he made a decision that he was to realise later was not a very sensible one, because he said, ‘You can cheer up, Joseph, because Norah will not be going to America after all.’
Tom’s words made Joseph stagger again and he desperately tried to focus on Tom’s face and the words spilled from his mouth as he snapped out, ‘Now what you on about?’
Immediately, Tom realised his error. You don’t tell a drunken man something you don’t want to be made public knowledge yet. However, the damage was done now and just maybe Joseph was too drunk to remember anything about it, so he said, ‘It’s true. Mammy sent for the ticket right enough but, though Norah doesn’t know yet, it’s for Celia.’
‘Celia told me once she never wanted to leave Ireland.’
‘She probably doesn’t,’ Tom said. ‘But … look, it will probably be public knowledge soon enough anyway: Celia has got herself involved with someone unsuitable.’
‘If you’re talking about Fitzgerald’s farm hand, that’s news to no one who was at the dances and saw them together,’ Joseph said.
‘Wish someone had thought to tell me.’
‘Well,’ Joseph said, ‘I shouldn’t go blaming other folk if I was you, because you were usually otherwise engaged. You should really have seen it for yourself.’
Tom felt guilty that he had been too involved in his own affairs and so been neglectful of his sisters, but Joseph wanted to focus on only one thing. ‘Are you sure Norah isn’t going to the States?’
‘Positive sure,’ Tom said. ‘To keep Celia from this man’s clutches she is being sent away whether she likes it or not.’
‘Norah will be upset.’
Tom nodded. ‘She will indeed and angry too, I shouldn’t wonder, but she’ll get over it, people have to cope with disappointment. And then when she is over the worst of it, you can move in and comfort her, like.’
Joseph had a beam plastered across his face and Tom said urgently, ‘It’s important that you keep this to yourself for now. It’s important Norah doesn’t get to know just yet, so keep everything I have told you under your hat, all right?’
‘All right,’ Joseph said happily. ‘I can wait for the main prize.’
They parted company there and Tom had a frown on his face as he watched Joseph staggering home, humming a little ditty to himself, and wished wholeheartedly that he had kept his big mouth shut.
The following day it was afternoon before Norah went into town because once the breakfast dishes were washed Celia was once again locked in the bedroom and it took Norah longer to do the jobs she had always shared with Celia in the past. On the way to town she ruminated on her sister’s plight and decided she wouldn’t have her sister’s life for all the tea in China as she thought of her living her days out in that rural backwater. It was a desperate situation altogether.
She missed her sister’s company and she knew Celia missed hers and sometimes cried in bed, though she muffled the sounds as best she could because of Ellie. Norah would put her arms around her, but there were no words she could say that would make things better so she didn’t try, just held her tight. Celia had always been a bit on the thin side, but Norah was aware now how bony and delicate her sister was becoming and she seemed dispirited and lethargic. Eventually she told her mother that it was detrimental to Celia’s health to leave in her room every day, but knew, even as she spoke, she might as well have saved her breath because she knew her mother would not go against anything their father said.
The walk to town that afternoon seemed longer without Celia to chat to and Norah hurried along, anxious to get the things her mother wanted quickly and get back home again.
Joseph was leaving Paddy McIvor’s pub when he saw Norah. He was not quite sober but nowhere near as drunk as he had been the night before when he was talking with Tom. He dared not go home in that state again for his father had warned him as he helped him to bed that if he came home near paralytic again he would spend the night in the barn. Much of what had happened the previous evening was fuzzy to Joseph when he woke the next morning for a hundred hammers beat inside his head and his mouth was as dry as dust.
As he had milked the cows later, laying his head on the cow’s velvet flanks, the throbbing pain settled to a dull ache and Tom’s words had come back to him and he wanted to sing the news from the rafters. He didn’t do that, remembering what Tom had said about secrecy for now.
When he saw Norah across the Diamond it was as if his thoughts had conjured her up. He sauntered across and she suppressed a sigh as she put the heavy shopping bags on the pavement beside her. She could afford to be