i f6c06dd9cf3fe221 by Unknown (the false prince .TXT) 📕

no, nothing frightened about her, she wouldn't run. Ah, she was going through, and without a word too!

They watched her turn and walk away, the child walking behind her, tearing the thumb of her glove with her teeth. No one spoke. They were suddenly deflated; even Mrs. Luck voiced no thought, merely rolling her folded arms tighter in her shawl. It was as if they were fed by one artery, so general appeared their sense of defeat. All at once they seemed to remember they were busy women and were wasting time.

They dispersed in twos and threes, Dorrie Clarke and Mrs. Luck together.

"Well, you showed the bitch," said Dorrie.

Mrs. Luck straightened her shoulders: "Yes, I showed the bitch."

"Nice way to spend a Christmas Eve! Who started this bloody business, anyway?" said one of the two remaining women.

"I think it was Dorrie."

"Aye, it would be. But, if my Sam gets to know I've been mixed up in this he'll bash me face in!"

"Did you see Kate Hannigan's face, Mary? D'yer think there could have been a mistake? ... About the doctor, I mean. She looked so surprised."

"No, there's no mistake; he's her fancy man, all right. But she was a damn fool to let the hairn know."

When Sarah opened the door to Kate, the glad smile of welcome died out of her face.

"My God, hinny ... what's happened? What's the matter?

Are you ill? "

Kate said nothing, but walked past her. Annie followed, the thumb of her glove now a mass of tangled wool. Sarah closed the door and hurried after them into the kitchen, crying, "Kate, hinny, tell me what's happened."

Kate sat down heavily on a chair by the side of the table and leaned her head on her hand. Annie stood in the dark recess which housed the wash-bowl; her eyes gleamed out of the dimness in mute appeal to her grandmother, but when Sarah put the same question to her, "What's happened, hinny?" she only dug her fingers into her lower lip and remained silent.

Kate looked up at her mother. "She's been telling people the doctor is her da.... They're all saying he's my ... that I'm..."

There was a strangled silence in the kitchen.

"No, Kate I' Sarah's voice was horrified and incredulous.

"Yes," said Kate dully.

"They were baiting Jessie Daley;

I told them they should mind their own business, and they turned on me.

It was Mrs. Luck and her crowd. If they think that, others do .

everybody must. "

"Dear God," said Sarah, 'what'll happen if he hears? Oh, and him such a nice man too. But how can they say that, Kate? You didn't know him, did you? "

To the question behind the question Kate replied, "No, ma, I didn't know him; I never saw him before he came upstairs when she was born."

"Oh, what made her say such a thing?" Sarah looked at Annie.

"What made you say it, tunny?"

Annie simply stared back, her eyes becoming wider, threatening to slip beyond the boundary of her face.

"Come here," said Kate quietly.

Annie came slowly forward, and the look on her face broke the ice in Kate's heart.

"Don't be frightened," she said, 'you won't get into trouble. Only tell me, what made you say it? Has anyone ever said it to you? "

Annie shook her head.

"You just made it up?"

Annie nodded quickly.

"But you knew it was a lie, didn't you, and it was wrong?"

"They said ..." whispered Annie.

"Yes?" prompted Kate.

"Well ... they said I hadn't got a da at all, and I wanted a da, and I just made on the doctor was my da. And I told Rosie, and she told Cissy Luck.... Oh, Kate, I was only making-on!"

Looking at her child, Kate realised the hurt and loneliness that must have preceded this game of 'making-on'. She was suddenly overwhelmed with the pity of it. She had done everything in her power to make up to Annie for the lack of a father, but it would seem nothing one could do would ever fill that gap.

"How long have you pretended he was ... your da?"

"Just this morning, round at the shop."

"You've never said it before?"

"No, never, Kate. I made it up in the lavatory."

Kate looked at Sarah.

"It isn't something fresh they have just got hold of, ma. They must have thought this ... for a long time; I could see it in their faces.

But, oh, the irony of it, that she should play into their hands by picking on him." Great tears welled up into her eyes; she dropped her head suddenly on to her arms and sobbed.

Sarah stood mute, mechanically rolling and unrolling the corner of her apron. She had never seen Kate cry since she was a child . not even when she came home that time did she cry! And now the sound of her sobbing was more than she could bear.

"Don't, hinny, don't," she pleaded; 'he can't know, and nobody would dare say anything to him; and you know it's all lies. Oh'--she turned to Annie--'why did you say such a thing? What made you? "

Kate put her hand out blindly and drew Annie's shivering body to her.

"Don't blame her, ma; please. She's not to blame." She sat up and dried her face with her handkerchief, and unpinned her hat and put it on the table. Then, taking Annie's two hands in hers, she drew her close to her knees: "Dear," she began, 'now listen carefully to what I am going to say . "

Annie listened, but the softness of Kate's voice and the love and understanding in her eyes in no way eased the blow when it came.

"You are not to ride in the doctor's car any more, and you are not to wait for him at