Rosie shook her head as she tried to take the facts in. ‘Yet, after doing all them wicked things, you went and risked your own health to put things right?’

‘That was the very least I could do.’ Sybil slumped miserably back against Rosie’s pillow. ‘Can you ever forgive me for everything that I have done to you and your family?’

Unsmiling, Rosie stood up before she coldly replied, ‘We’ll have to see about that, won’t we?’

39. Another Life

Throughout all the high dramas taking place at Mary Vale, Edith Mann’s mind remained firm and focused on organizing her escape plan like a military strategy. She was sorry for Rosie’s loss and the fact that her children had gone missing; in turn, she was impressed by Sybil Harwood’s heroic rescue mission and the reuniting of Ronnie and Sally with their poor mum. But, if the truth were told, her only real thoughts were for her darling Charles. Now that the emotional floodgates were open, the passion she felt for her lover knew no bounds. The brutal upbringing she had endured at her mother’s hands had hardened her heart previously to any kind of physical relationship. Men of her own age held no attraction for Edith; she considered them silly, young and foolish, and she, a plain-faced woman, certainly held no attraction for them. That was until she met her Mr Lamberty; sophisticated, mature, rich and accomplished, married he might be but that barely troubled Edith. That Charles’s wife was a feeble invalid aroused a protective love in Edith; Charles needed her to look after him in ways that his wife couldn’t. Edith was more than happy to step into that role; she would quite literally do anything for her beloved.