Break of Dawn (43 page)

Now it was Flo who stared at her in amazement until Peggy chipped in, ‘That means brave, lass.’

‘I know what it means!’ Flo glared at her friend. ‘I’m not daft, you know.’

‘No, you’re not, Flo.’ Sophy’s face was straight now. She glanced at the others as she added, ‘None of you are. So think for yourselves, that’s all I’m saying.’

She told Kane about the conversation when she got home that evening and he grinned at her, shaking his head. ‘I don’t think some of those husbands know what’s going to hit them if their wives continue working for you,’ he said dryly.

Sophy smiled back. ‘Peggy has already told Flo to hit her husband over the head with the frying pan next time he comes home drunk and knocks her about. It worked for her, apparently. She only had to do it the once and he keeps his hands to himself now. Peggy says Flo’s husband is a little rat of a man and she’s twice his size, but she’s always let him get away with murder. Funny that, isn’t it?’

They stared at each other, the spectre of Toby suddenly in both their minds. ‘Or perhaps not so funny,’ Sophy murmured. No. Not funny at all. It was amazing what people put up with when it became commonplace in their lives.

At the beginning of July the theatre was almost ready, the stage-manager and everyone had arrived, actors and actresses had been hired and rehearsals had begun. The first play they were putting on was one by Mr Arncliffe-Sennett, entitled
An Englishwoman’s Home
. The central theme of the play was the artificial division between women’s work and that of men, highlighting the fact that although inflation and unemployment had forced many women to take in work in their homes or take work outside where they could find it, there was resistance on the part of husbands and older sons to help with housework or childcare.

The play was a mixture of styles which was one of the reasons Sophy had chosen it for the all-important opening of the theatre. The opening scene carried a serious look at the effects of poverty on the relationship of the two main characters, a married couple, but this contrasted with the monologues in which each appeals to the audience for sympathy, and with the slapstick elements which came in with other characters demonstrating the inability of men to deal with ‘women’s work’. She wanted a play which would speak to the mainly working-class audience she was aiming for, and a couple of lines in particular – when the wife in a conversation with her husband says, ‘You don’t believe then, that what is
sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander?’ and his reply of, ‘I don’t know nothing about goose’s sauce ’cos we never have none,’ had made her little army of women workers howl with laughter, which she took as a good sign.

Their first night in the middle of July was to a full house and was enthusiastically received by audience and local press alike. Originally Sophy had thought she would like to take the lead female role when they had first begun work renovating the theatre, but over the last two or three months she’d felt increasingly that she wouldn’t be able to do it justice. She had thrown herself into the cleaning and hard physical work as vigorously as anyone else, wanting the women to see her as part of the team and not as a remote figurehead they couldn’t talk to. She was the first one to arrive in the morning and the last to leave at night, and once she got home she often had further work to see to – checking accounts, making lists of materials and items still to buy, settling bills, sorting out the women’s weekly wages, answering letters, writing letters – the list was endless.

She had lost weight and she knew Kane was worried about her, as she was tired all the time and very emotional, but she kept reassuring him that things would settle down once the theatre was ready and the show under way. They had known the first few months would be sheer hard work, she told him. It would all be fine in the end. Nevertheless, she hired another actress for the lead female role and was glad she had done so on the opening night. Kane had insisted she sit with him in one of the boxes and watch the show from the auditorium rather than clucking like an anxious hen with one chick in the wings. She sat, in an exhausted stupor, unable to judge whether the show was a success or not, and when it ended and the audience rose to their feet cheering and clapping, she stood automatically, feeling very strange. And then she fainted clean away.

‘Well, my dear.’ The doctor friend of William’s whom Kane had had brought to the house the next morning was very kind and thorough, and his voice was gentle as he looked at her after his
examination which had seemed to go on for ever. ‘Your husband tells me you’ve been working very hard over the last few months.’

Sophy gripped Kane’s hand tighter and nodded. Now the show was up and running and she could begin to relax a little, she had admitted to herself what her body had been trying to tell her for weeks. She felt unwell. Unwell and so exhausted she hadn’t argued with Kane when he had made her stay in bed. Terrified now that something was seriously wrong, she didn’t dare ask what was the matter.

‘Forgive the intrusion but I need to know,’ the man went on. ‘Your monthly cycle – has it been normal?’

Blushing furiously, she stammered, ‘Not-not really, Doctor. But I’ve been so busy . . . I – I think it’s been three months since – since I—’

‘Yes, that would be about right. You are expecting a baby, Mrs Gregory. Have you noticed any changes in your abdomen?’

A baby. Now it was Kane’s hand that squeezed hers until it hurt. ‘Changes?’ Sophy repeated vacantly, unable to take in the news. ‘I suppose it’s a little swollen but I put it down to not eating properly, flatulence . . .’

‘Well, I think this little piece of flatulence will be born some time in December.’

‘Are you sure?’ Kane’s voice was thick with emotion.

Dr Palmer smiled. He liked giving good news. ‘Quite sure, Mr Gregory. I definitely felt a baby in there.’

‘Oh, my love.’ As Kane crushed her to him Sophy’s eyes widened. A baby. A
baby
. A flood of protective joy caused her to put her hands to the swell of her stomach, but almost immediately, she said apprehensively, ‘But I haven’t felt sick, Doctor. Just tired and generally unwell. Are you sure?’

Not at all annoyed at being asked to repeat himself, Dr Palmer’s smile spread. ‘Quite sure. Now I’ll make an appointment for you with a colleague of mine who is a specialist in this area.’ He didn’t add. ‘There is something I would like him to check’, because he didn’t want to worry them.

Kane saw the doctor out and then dashed back to the bedroom
as fast as he could, his stick clattering on the stairs. Sophy was waiting for him with shining eyes. Taking her in his arms, he said huskily, ‘To think of all you’ve been doing.’

‘I know, I know. And I should have thought, when my monthlies stopped, but I put it down to all the hard work and tearing about. And I’ve lost weight, not gained it.’

‘There were days when you didn’t bother to eat, you were so busy, now weren’t there? And other times when you were so tired you came home and just picked at your meal.’ He shook his head. ‘I blame myself. But now, young lady, you are going to do what
I
say, and behave. If you won’t look after yourself, I will do the job.’

‘Oh, Kane.’ She looked radiant. ‘A baby. Our baby.’

Everyone was thrilled at the news. Patience and William, who had been worried to death when Kane had gone to see them that morning asking William to recommend a good GP, arrived with chocolates and flowers. Sadie cried. Harriet and Ralph beamed, and the women at the theatre let out a cheer when they heard which could have been heard in Gateshead.

Sophy rested at home for a few days and slept a lot, but then she was itching to get back to the theatre. Because Kane had been so concerned about her, she agreed to wait until they had seen the specialist Dr Palmer had spoken of. This occurred one week after Dr Palmer had been to the house and this time they saw the consultant at the Sunderland Infirmary. They left somewhat stunned. In the consultant’s opinion Sophy was between four and five months’ pregnant but from his very thorough examination he was sure there was not one baby but two. And in the next few weeks, he warned, her stomach would begin to expand rapidly as they grew.

‘That settles it.’ As Ralph drove them home in the sweltering heat of a July heatwave, Kane was adamant. ‘We’re going to have to get extra help for you.’

‘But I’ve told you, I’ll manage. Harriet and Sadie will help and I can take the baby – babies – into work with me when necessary.’

‘Sadie is the cook, not a nursemaid, and Harriet has enough to
do, and whether you take the babies with you to the theatre or not, you will need another pair of hands. You know I felt this way when we thought there was only one baby, but now twins are confirmed there is no way you can manage. The theatre will still take a great deal of your time, Sophy. Be realistic. Without a sound, capable nursemaid to take some of the burden, you will make yourself ill, and how will that help you, me or the babies?’

Sophy stared at him miserably. She knew he was right but she didn’t want a stranger coming into her home and living with them, and that was what it would mean. Furthermore,
she
wanted to look after her children, but at the same time she didn’t want to let the theatre go, not now, not after the wonderful women she’d found who relied on her. Her hand rested on the mound of her stomach wherein her children lay. She nodded. ‘All right, but I’ll write the advertisement in my own way. Agreed?’

Kane eyed her suspiciously. ‘What are you going to say?’

Sophy giggled at the look on his face. ‘Nothing untoward, I promise. You can read it if you like. But I don’t want one of those officious types of nannies for my babies, someone who thinks they know better than me.’

Kane smiled. ‘I’m sure you’d put her right immediately, but do as you see fit.’ He put out his hand and stroked the side of her face, his eyes soft. He just wanted the best for her. He hadn’t thought he could love her any more than he did, but since he had known she was carrying his child – children, he corrected himself silently with a surge of inexpressible joy – he’d felt so protective, all he wanted to do was to wrap her up in cotton wool until the confinement. But Sophy was the last person to agree to that. Which was partly why he so adored her. He knew better than anyone how her beginnings had affected her, but she had fought back every inch of the way. She was a strong woman, but strangely, he knew, she didn’t see herself in that way. He also knew that although she was enough for him in every way, there was still something in her, a sadness, an aloneness, something, which afflicted her at times and which his love had not been able to banish.

She said now, ‘Two babies, Kane,’ with a gurgle of laughter.
‘Patience and David are twins, you know, so perhaps this has stemmed from my side.’

‘Are you pleased?’

‘That it’s twins?’ She smiled serenely. ‘Double the blessing.’

‘And double the crying, the feeding, the changing, the sleepless nights . . .’

She pushed into him with her shoulder. ‘And of course you, as a man, have to worry about all that,’ she said with gentle sarcasm.

Suddenly serious, he turned her face to his, his fingers holding her chin as he murmured, ‘I don’t want to be a distant father, Sophy. As youngsters we, my brothers and I, were left to the nanny and the nursemaids. We had an hour each evening before bedtime when we were brought to the drawing room to see our parents, but more often than not it was only our mother who was there. We were lucky if our father joined us for ten minutes. It was the way it was with many families such as mine, I suppose. And then there was prep school, followed by other boarding schools, and as often as not when we returned home for the holidays our parents were elsewhere – in Scotland for the shooting or taking the waters at Bath or holidaying on the continent.’

‘We won’t be like that.’ She kissed him, cradling his face between her hands. It hadn’t taken her long to realise, even before their marriage – while they’d still been engaged – that his reserved, enigmatic air was a front he’d erected to hide behind. The real Kane, the Kane she knew, was warm and spontaneous and endearingly vulnerable, with a heart as big as the ocean. ‘And you’ll be a wonderful father.’

By the end of September Sophy was feeling as big as a house. Her appetite had returned shortly after she had found out she was expecting twins, and with the theatre up and running and doing very nicely, the latter part of the summer had been enjoyable. At the beginning of October she placed an advertisement in the
Sunderland Echo
and the
Newcastle Journal
, as well as contacting three agencies in the north-east. Her advertisement did not follow the pattern of most such notices, but she was satisfied with it:

Her advertisement in the papers brought fifteen replies. From these she chose five, and on interviewing them deemed none of the women to be what she had in mind. The two Sunderland agencies she’d visited sent her seven interviewees between them but it was the same story. One stiff-faced matron told her straight out that she worked on the principle of ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’; another was a fluffy-haired girl who giggled a lot and whom Sophy was sure wouldn’t know one end of a baby from the other; yet another lady, well past middle-age, smelled strongly of stout at eleven o’clock in the morning, and so it continued.

By the end of the month, the evening before she was due to see the Newcastle agency’s offerings, Kane asked her – kindly – if she was perhaps being a teensy-weensy bit too particular. Sophy, tired from an unproductive day and feeling huge and unattractive, promptly burst into tears. The babies had kept her awake most of the night for the last week with their gymnastics, but as it was the start of a new play at the theatre she had insisted on going in each day, which meant most evenings she had been dealing with office work at home.