Tears were flowing freely now as the memories flooded back. ‘When I showed it to your father he was like a mad thing and he slapped me so hard that I saw stars. It was then that I began to realise he’d only married me for my money and I was heartbroken. The next day he didn’t come home from work. I wasn’t too worried because he often went to the inn first. Eventually I went to bed and fell asleep and when I woke the next morning I found that he hadn’t been home. He’d left me … with a baby on the way,’ Emma said brokenly.

‘Oh, Mother …’ Holly’s heart went out to her as she thought of how frightening that must have been for a young woman all alone and far from home. ‘So what did you do?’

Emma shrugged. ‘What could I do? I had no money, nothing. The next day I went to see the farmer he had worked for and he informed me that your father hadn’t turned up at work for two days. I knew then that he wasn’t coming back so I pawned my wedding ring and that paid for the train fare back to Nuneaton. I didn’t have anywhere else to go and I couldn’t work because I was almost due to have you by then. I had to throw myself on my father’s mercy and thankfully he didn’t turn me away, but he did make me promise to tell everyone that I had been widowed and to never have anything to do with your father again. That wasn’t hard because by then any love I had ever felt for him had died.’

‘So my father is still alive somewhere then?’ Holly questioned and Emma nodded.

‘As far as I know. He’s never been in touch from that day to this, even though he must have realised that I would come home with my tail between my legs when he left me penniless. Soon after I went into labour and gave birth to you and your sister. She was older than you by ten minutes and I called her Laura but from the start she was a weak little thing. While you thrived she seemed to fade away in front of my very eyes despite your grandfather summoning the best doctors that he could find to tend her. I loved the two of you so much, you were all that was left for me, so when I lost Laura …’ She stifled a sob as she thought back to that heart-breaking time. Even now, after all these years, she still grieved for the child she had lost. ‘And so now you must see why I can’t leave him? Many men would have closed the door on me when I came creeping back but he didn’t and so now I owe it to him to stay here.’

Suddenly, Holly was viewing her grandfather through different eyes. It was no wonder he was so cold towards her mother and herself. It must have broken his heart when she ran away with someone who turned out to be a scoundrel. Perhaps that was why he wanted to arrange her own marriage, to try to avoid history repeating itself? Even so she knew that she couldn’t marry Walter Dolby and so now she slowly continued to pack her case.