At the door she took one last look around. ‘Goodbye, Jack. God bless.’ Wiping away a tear, she quickly left that beautiful house where she had been so happy.

Walking down the street with her portmanteau, she looked a lonely, solitary figure. ‘It’s a punishment,’ she murmured. ‘For what I did.’

Chapter Twenty Two

Three days before the wedding, Rosie had a visitor.

When she opened the door it was to see a broken, haggard man with haunted eyes. ‘You’re Rosie, aren’t you?’ he said. ‘Amy’s friend?’

‘Yes, and who the divil are you at this time of the morning?’ It was not yet seven o’clock.

‘I’m Jack Mason,’ he answered. ‘Amy and I…’ Glancing up and down the street, he wondered if he’d done right in coming here. The last thing he wished to do was stir up trouble. He wanted Amy, that was all he had ever wanted. ‘Look, Rosie, don’t you think it might be better if we talked inside?’

It had taken Rosie a minute to put two and two together, and now she understood. ‘I’ll give ye one minute, then you’re to be on your way as quick as you can.’ She glanced at the fancy car parked down the street. ‘At least ye had the good sense to keep that from the door. There’s a wedding due any day now, and I’ll not have you upsetting that lovely lass, d’ye hear what I’m saying?’

He nodded. ‘Just let me in, Rosie. We need to talk.’

Once inside the parlour, he explained the situation. ‘I’ve searched high and low, but she’s nowhere to be seen. She said in her note she wouldn’t come back here, but I had to try. I’ve nowhere else to look.’

‘Why d’ye want to find her?’

‘Because I love her, Rosie. She ran off because she’s having a bairn, and she knows I get really nervous with children about me. It goes back to the orphanage… bad experiences and all that. Look, Rosie, I have to find her! I’m going crazy. I can’t work, I can’t think. Everything’s wrong without her.’

‘And what about the bairn?’

‘I’ve thought about that, and I think it’ll be different. It’s my bairn… part of me. I want it, Rosie, and I want its mammy. Please, for God’s sake, if you know where she is, tell me!’

Rosie took a moment to regard this man who had caused such havoc in their lives. What she saw was a man going out of his mind for the love of a woman. She saw how Amy might have chosen to throw in her lot with him, and she felt compassion for them both. ‘Wait.’

Going to the sideboard, she took out an envelope. ‘This came only yesterday,’ she said, handing it to him. ‘It’s from Amy. She’s no more happy than you are. I reckon you’d best go and get her, don’t you?’

Tearing open the envelope, he removed the letter with trembling fingers. He spoke the address out loud… ‘Fourteen, Albert Street, Lytham Saint Anne’s.’ When he looked up, tears were dancing in his eyes. ‘How can I thank you?’ he said brokenly. ‘What can I do?’