Another Man’s Child. Anne Bennett
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with doing some jobs on the farm and would likely go to the later Mass and a sudden excitement gripped her as she realised that this might be the only chance she had to see Andy McCadden alone.
But had she the courage to walk out of church in the middle of Mass? Not if she had been near her mother, she knew, but she was right on the other side of the pew. And her eyes were fastened on Sammy. He was sitting on the boys’ side of the church with all the others but his mother always sat as close to him as she could because he was inclined to fidget and chatter and drop his collection money and make a great deal of noise and fuss retrieving it and sometimes he was better behaved after a good poke. So Peggy’s attention was taken by her youngest son and beside her were Dan and Dermot, then Celia, and Norah was at the end. ‘Cover for me,’ she said to Celia out of the side of her mouth.
‘What?’
‘I need to leave Mass. There’s something I’ve got to do.’
‘What sort of something?’
‘Tell you later,’ Norah promised. ‘When Mammy notices I’m not here, say I was taken sick.’
She slipped from the pew into the side aisle before Celia could reply to this and for the benefit of the parishioners, who were looking at her askance and who she knew would report what they saw to her mother, she bent her head as she scurried quickly down the aisle with her hand to her mouth. Once out of the church she continued to hurry for she knew she wouldn’t have long. Her mother might not notice her absence until communion, but then she would miss her and quiz Celia and she might send someone to see if she was all right and it would never do if she was found anywhere near Fitzgerald’s farm.
The day was fine and warm and the countryside had never looked lovelier, but Norah hadn’t time to stand and stare and she cut across the fields which was quicker and where there was less likelihood of her being seen. She had expected to see McCadden in the field, or failing that the farmyard, but he was in neither place and she reached the farmhouse door without seeing him and though she knew he slept in the barn there was no way she was going in there on her own.
Then she heard a noise from the kitchen, like the scrape of a chair on the kitchen floor, and though she nearly took flight she reminded herself what was at stake and knocked on the door tentatively. When it was opened, McCadden stood there with a towel over his arm and his face was one unholy mess, battered, bruised and grazed, one eye blackened and nearly closed up and his lip was split open as well.
‘What happened to you?’ Norah asked though she knew fine what had happened him.
‘Give you one guess,’ McCadden said in a voice slurred and a little indistinct because of the swollen lip.
‘But who did it?’
‘Huh,’ McCadden said. ‘Thought you might have figured out who that was. Even wondered if you’d come to gloat.’
‘What?’ Norah said, confused. ‘What are you on about?’
McCadden gave an ironic laugh. ‘You really don’t know?’
‘Know what?’
‘It was your brother did this.’
‘Tom?’ Norah cried. She could hardly believe it and her shocked reaction was genuine, McCadden saw. ‘Tom did this to you?’
‘Yes,’ McCadden said. ‘And he didn’t get all his own way I can tell you. I left my mark on him too.’
‘You did,’ Norah said, remembering her brother’s odd behaviour and what Sammy had told them about his blackened face on the way to Mass. ‘He didn’t get up for Mass this morning.’
‘Well if your father had had his way, I might not be getting up at all,’ McCadden said. ‘I might still be lying in the ditch in the mangled mess they would have made of me because the two of them attacked me first and I said only cowards think it takes two men to attack one.’
Norah’s eyes grew wide. ‘You called my father a coward?’
McCadden nodded. ‘I did.’
‘Surprised he didn’t kill you.’
‘He didn’t try because Tom said I was right and he would fight me fair and square.’
‘Who won?’
McCadden shrugged. ‘I did knock him down in the end, but I think we were fairly evenly matched. All in all, Tom gave a good account of himself.’
‘And this was all over Celia?’
Andy nodded. ‘To teach me a lesson, your father said. He could have saved himself the bother. I have already given my notice to the Fitzgeralds and not because of the money your father offered me or the beating he tried to give me.’
It was news to Norah that her father had offered McCadden money – to stay away from Celia, she presumed – and she was surprised by the lengths he was prepared to go to in order to protect Celia from Andy McCadden, as if he was some sort of monster.
‘Unless I move on,’ Andy went on, ‘Celia will be given no life at all. I see how they have her at Mass and she is like a frightened little sparrow.’ He shook his head sadly and went on. ‘I can’t do that to her.’
‘How much do you care for her, Andy?’
‘A great deal. I thought you knew that.’
‘I had to be sure,’ Norah said. ‘Do you care for her enough to take her away from here when you go?’
Andy started for that was the last thing he’d expected Norah to say. Knowing she had not been that keen on him in the beginning, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. ‘What rot are you talking? You know your father—’
‘My father mustn’t know,’ Norah cried. ‘You must sneak away.’
Andy shook his head regretfully. ‘I can’t do that,’ he said. ‘For all Celia is eighteen now, she’s emotionally younger than her years. She needs to live a bit.’
‘She loves you.’
‘She has met no one else, that’s all,’ Andy said. ‘When I am gone they will ease up on her and she will meet someone else your father approves of.’
Norah shook her head. ‘She won’t. She will be sent to America.’
Andy looked at her disbelievingly. ‘There’s no point in that if I am not here anymore. Anyway I thought it was you going to America.’
‘It was,’ Norah said with a sigh. ‘Now, to keep Celia out of your clutches, she is being sent there. I doubt it would help if you disappeared off the scene now because my father wouldn’t know where you’d gone to and whether you’d be back. Celia’s fate, I’m afraid, is sealed.’
‘I still can’t take her with me,’ Andy said. ‘It wouldn’t be right.’
‘Is it right to send her to America where she doesn’t want to go?’
‘Maybe not,’ Andy conceded. ‘But your parents have rights over Celia until she is twenty-one.’
Andy was silent and Norah heard the ticking of the clock and she felt quite desperate. This was maybe the only chance she would have to talk to Andy alone. She thought he would have jumped at the chance. The silence between them had begun to feel uncomfortable when Norah gave a shrug and said, ‘That’s that then. Celia will be going to America. That’s if she’s well enough to make the crossing.’
Andy’s head shot up. ‘Why wouldn’t she be?’ he cried. ‘Is she sick?’
‘In the mind only,’ Norah said. ‘She is locked in her room every day and let out only for meals, not that she eats much of anything put before her. Andy, her clothes are hanging from her and she looks pale and listless. It’s like she is pining away and I think she is pining for you. Don’t desert her now, Andy. It would be too cruel and might indeed be the last straw for her.’
Andy