‘You’ll wear a hole in the carpet at this rate, my darling,’ Lavinia told her gently but Sunday was beyond reasoning. Every instinct she had told her that something was seriously wrong, but there was not a thing she could do about it. And then suddenly the noises stopped. As one, Sunday and Maggie started across the room, almost colliding in the doorway, and then they were racing up the stairs side by side. Without even bothering to knock, Sunday flung Kitty’s bedroom door open just as the doctor was handing a tiny blood-covered infant to the midwife.

Maggie’s hand flew to her mouth as she realised that the child, a little boy, wasn’t breathing and then the midwife was hanging him upside down and smacking his bottom soundly. When it became clear that this was having no effect she laid him on the end of the bed and began to blow gently into his rosebud mouth but after a few minutes the doctor shook his head and laid his hand on her arm.

‘You can stop now.’ His voice was grave. ‘I’m afraid he was dead before we managed to deliver him.’

Sunday held each other and began to cry. Poor Kitty, all that effort and nothing to show for it! And he was such a bonny little boy.

Chapter Fifty-Six

Once the midwife had wrapped the baby in a blanket and laid it silently in the crib, Sunday crossed to Kitty whose eyes were feverishly bright in her waxen face.

She clutched at Sunday’s hand before saying on a sigh, ‘I love you, Sunday – never forget it. You’ve been more of a mother to me than my real mother ever was. And you, Maggie, I love you too.’

And then she was drifting away from them again and the midwife was shooing them out of the room. They found Tom and Ben waiting like expectant fathers on the landing for them and it felt like the most natural thing in the world for Ben to wrap his arms about Maggie as Tom hugged Sunday.

‘I-it was a little boy, but he was stillborn,’ Maggie sobbed, and then suddenly becoming conscious of their closeness she hastily stepped away from him and her cheeks began to burn. Ben would never look at a plain Jane like her, she knew. At the same time, Ben’s face set in hard lines as he cursed himself for a fool. How could he ever have allowed himself to believe for a minute that Maggie would ever look the side that he was on? She was a grand lass and bonny, the sort that any man would take for a wife, but she must find the sight of him disgusting, just as he himself did every time he glanced in the mirror.

‘That’s a shame.’ He nodded at her then turning abruptly he made off down the stairs with a speed that would have done justice to one of Tom’s racehorses.

Seeing the look of bewilderment on Maggie’s face, Sunday gently chided, ‘You shouldn’t have pushed him away like that, lass. Not when he cares so much about you.’