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

Amy ground her teeth as she listened.

‘You have to get him off the drink, Alice. That, or chuck him out. He’ll do you harm one of these days if you don’t. The man next door to us went to prison for it. He nearly killed his wife. The silly woman had him back when he came out. They moved away because of all the gossip.’

‘He says he’s off the beer but we’ll have to wait and see about that. The thing is, he thinks he’s entitled to part of the farm now that my father isn’t here. We had words about it earlier today. I told him I’ve put the farm in a Trust and he’s getting nothing, but he can’t accept it. Apart from that, and when he’s in drink, he can be a really nice man. He’s so warm and gentle when he’s in the mood. Anyway, I owe him for rescuing me from the pigs, so I’ll have to give him a chance to prove he means what he says.’

‘All right, I’ll give him that one. I won’t forgive him for not knocking on our door when he passed by, yesterday though. He could have let me know you were having the baby; I’d have been down here like a shot.’

‘He had things on his mind,’ I said. I don’t know why I defended him, nor did Amy.

‘I don’t trust him, Alice. I haven’t forgiven him for what happened on your birthday, and I don’t think I ever will.’ She opened the gate and walked through.

‘He’s a bad sort, Alice. I know it.’

Chapter 64

June 1938

Frank came in from work at nine. I would normally be going to bed at that time but I didn’t have to get up in the morning, the lads were taking it in turns to look after the piggery so I didn’t have to worry about that. Barney and Frank had everything in hand.

Frank didn’t mention the Trust at all. Instead he reported on the problems we were having with the drainage in one of the fields on the top acres.

I fed Martha without any tears from either of us, while Frank was eating the warmed-up stew that Miriam had made earlier. I made up enough formula for two more feeds, tipped it into the freshly washed bottles, and put them on the cold shelf in the larder. Then I picked up the basket and took Martha up to bed with me at ten. Frank sat up for a few minutes to allow his dinner to settle.

At one AM Martha woke up for her feed. I yawned and tried to summon the energy to drag myself out of bed, but there was no need. When I finally opened my eyes, I saw Frank walking to the bedroom door with Martha in his arms. I whispered, thank you, and went back to sleep. The next thing I knew it was four-thirty and Frank was shaking me gently awake.

‘I’m off to work in a few minutes, Alice. Martha will need to be fed again at about six-thirty, but there’s no milk left, so you’ll have to make up some more. He sat on the edge of the bed. ‘How long will it keep once you’ve made it up? If I bought a few more bottles could we get a bit in front.’

I scratched my head and blinked at the morning light. ‘I’m going to get some more formula from Elsie this morning. I’ll ask her if she can find me a couple of extra feeding bottles. She might have some spare.’

Frank kissed me on the cheek, and I thanked him for feeding Martha in the night.

‘I do mean it about the drinking,’ he said as he left for work.

Elsie arrived at eleven, as usual, and after checking me out and weighing Martha, she asked me if I had any questions.

‘I have a few things I’d like to ask you. Could you get me a couple of extra feeding bottles and another lot of formula milk? She won’t even consider taking my milk. As you can see, we’re running a farm and we’re up and about while the rest of the world are just turning over for the second half of the night. Poor Frank didn’t go to bed until ten, and he got up to do both her feeds, if they need less feeds on formula, then I’d like to keep using it.’

Elsie leaned forward and pursed her lips. ‘Firstly, I’ve got some spare bottles and teats in my bag, you can have a couple of those for three shillings. Regarding formula. I’d prefer you keep trying the breast milk, but I understand that for some babies, it’s not an option. You can keep her on formula, Alice, I’ll bring you some more tomorrow and give you a list of shops that sell it. You can also mix up condensed milk, but let’s leave that for now.’

Elsie was as good as her word, and when she turned up on Wednesday morning, she bought a tin of milk powder and showed me how to mix it with a spoonful of condensed milk to bulk it up a little. I paid Elsie for the formula and the new feeding bottles, and we had a cup of tea. When Miriam came in, they had a long chat about toddlers, while I pretended to be interested. Martha loved the new mix, and the number of feeds over a twenty-four-hour period, was cut by a third

After dinner, I sat in my chair by the stove while Miriam fed Martha. I wasn’t pushing my luck. I’d fed her twice that day without tears, but when I picked her up for a cuddle, late afternoon, she reverted to her petulant mode, and screamed until I handed her over.

At six-thirty, the telephone rang. It was my gangster lawyer, Mr Wilson.

‘Hello, Alice. Apologies for the lateness of the hour, but