Unspoken: A story of secrets, love and revenge T. Belshaw (good books to read for beginners txt) 📖

her excitement had died down, she put Martha back in the Moses basket, then slapped her forehead and looked at me, sadly.

‘I was so sorry to hear about your dad, Alice. Brenda from the machine shop told me about it at break time. I should have said this when I first came in but I was so excited about Martha that it slipped my mind.’

‘Blimey! If Brenda from the machine shop knows, I’m surprised it hasn’t made the front page of the papers. Does everyone in the town know?’

‘Probably. You can’t keep a secret in a small place like this.’

For the next twenty minutes, I told Amy all about the events of the day before. She held my hand through most of it. I wasn’t teary at all, and described the events of the day as though I was telling her about a suspense film I’d watched. Every so often she would say, ‘Oh no!’ or ‘Oh my goodness’. I did tear up a bit when I told her about the undertaker screwing the lid down on my father. She gave me a hug and held me close for a few minutes.

‘What a day, Alice. There’s a novel waiting to be written there.’

‘I didn’t have time to worry about anything. Stuff just kept happening,’ I told her.

Amy put her hand to her mouth and sniggered behind it.

‘What?’ I said, eager to be let into the joke.

‘Did John, the undertaker, really see your bits?’ she asked, wide-eyed.

‘He couldn’t have not seen,’ I replied. ‘My legs were spread so far apart; I had an ankle on each wall.’

Amy gasped, then doubled up in a fit of laughter.

‘The only other people who have seen your bits are Elsie and Frank. Three is a lucky number isn’t it? Or is that seven? Whichever, it was lucky for John.’

‘Frank hasn’t seen my bits, it was too dark when we were in the field and Elsie chucked him out before he got a glimpse, yesterday.’

Amy laughed again. ‘Poor Frank, fancy being usurped by an undertaker.’

‘I’ve got something to tell you about him. Frank that is, not the undertaker, but it can wait for now. Let’s cheer ourselves up a bit.’

I set the record player up, and we sang along to a few songs. Miriam, worried about the noise waking Martha, took her out into the yard to give her a first taste of fresh, farm air. She obviously didn’t appreciate the pig-poo smell, because she bawled the barn down. Miriam quickly brought her back inside, deciding instead to sit with her in the front room.

When we were tired of singing, we got to the girly gossip stage of the proceedings, and Amy filled me in on the doings at the mill, and our friends and acquaintances about the town.

‘Do you know of anyone with a pram for sale?’ I asked her suddenly, remembering that’s what I wanted to talk to her about.

She thought for a minute.

‘No, to be honest, I don’t, but I’ll ask around… Wait a minute! There’s one in the wool shop. It’s not a new one by any means. She uses it to show off dolls wearing some of the knitting patterns she sells alongside the wool and the other baby stuff. The right offer might persuade her to sell. It’s my half day on Wednesday. I’ll nip in to see her.’

She laughed suddenly. ‘You didn’t ask how I know about the pram.’

‘How do you know about the pram?’ I asked.

‘Well, it’s like this.’ Amy looked up at the ceiling, then back to me. ‘I was… I thought about… All right, I was going to learn to knit, so I could make something for the baby, so I went to the wool shop to see what she had by way of patterns for new-borns, but when I looked through the window, the shop was full of grannies. There must have been a dozen of them in there, chatting about whatever it is that grannies chat about. I sort of went off the idea, and decided to buy you something instead.’

‘What did you buy me then?’ I asked, teasing her.

‘Nothing yet. I didn’t know whether you would have a boy or a girl. I’ll tell you what though, if it’s coming from that wool shop, I’m sending my mum in. You won’t see me in one of those places until I’m at least fifty.’

At seven o’clock, Miriam brought Martha back in, and settled her down in the Moses basket. ‘We’ll have to get her a cot soon,’ she said.

‘One of the lads can knock a cot up; we’ve got plenty of timber in the shed. Barney is wonderful with wood, and I think Frank is handy with a plane too. We will need a mattress and some bedding for it though. Still, she’s fine in the basket for now. We’ve got plenty of time.’

‘I’ll buy the bedding,’ said Amy. ‘That can be my present.’

‘That only leaves me with the mattress,’ Miriam moaned.

‘Oh, Miriam, I’ll get the mattress, you can knit her some clothes if you like. Martha’s only got the few bits of mine that my mother saved. She arrived before I could sort all that sort of stuff out.’

Miriam brightened. ‘I’ll nip into the wool shop the next time I’m up there. I saw a lovely new-born, baby pattern in there last week. I was looking for ideas. I didn’t get a proper look at it because the place was full of grannies.’

Amy and I laughed riotously. Miriam looked at us wondering what we found so funny.

‘Are you staying for dinner?’ she asked Amy, when the laughter had died down.

‘No, I’d better go. Mum will have made me something. I was only home long enough to read Alice’s note.’

She whispered goodbye to Martha, and offered her arms to give me a hug, but I flicked my head towards the back door and we walked out into the yard.

We leaned against the gate, and I told Amy all about Frank’s drink problem, and how