The Throwaway Children (63 page)

‘Where’s Rita?’ asked Rick, looking about him. ‘I thought she’d be here.’

‘She still doesn’t know you’re coming,’ replied Andrew. ‘Look, let’s get you into the car, and then we’ll explain the plans on the way home.’ He hailed a porter to take the luggage and led the way to the car. There was a chilly wind, and Lily shivered.

‘It is a bit cold today,’ Andrew said, ‘but we’ll soon warm the car up. It’s winter here of course.’

Once they reached the car, Andrew installed Lily comfortably in the front seat, while David dealt with the porter, the luggage and Rick.

‘Comfortable now?’ Andrew asked Lily.

Lily nodded wearily, ‘Yes, thank you, sir,’ she said.

As they drove into the city Andrew explained what they hoped to do. ‘What we thought was that, as you’d be so tired when you first arrived, it would be better to take you to my home where you can catch up on a bit of shut-eye, have a shower or a bath, and generally recover from the journey. We’ll look after you, and then as it’s Saturday tomorrow, David will bring Rita and young Donny over for lunch. She won’t know you two are there, so it’ll be a real surprise when she walks into the room and finds you.’

‘So we ain’t seeing her till tomorrow,’ muttered Rick.

‘No, I’m afraid not,’ answered Andrew. ‘I’m sorry if you’re disappointed, Rick, but we thought your grandmother would need a while to get over the journey. It would be a pity to spoil her reunion with Rita just because she was too tired, don’t you think?’

‘’S’pose so,’ he grumbled, ‘I just thought she’d be here, you know.’

Lily directed a quelling look at her grandson.

‘Please don’t listen to him, Mr Harris. I’ll be very pleased to have a good rest before I see Rita, I can tell you,’ she said firmly. ‘It’s very good of you both to have thought about it all, isn’t it, Rick?’

‘Yes, Gran,’ came the rather mutinous reply, but Rick’s disappointment faded as he turned his attention to the city, wide-eyed at the buildings, the traffic and the bridge. He heard no more of the arrangements as he pressed his nose to the car window, drinking in the sights and sounds of Sydney.

‘Rita’s foster mother will be coming too,’ David was telling Lily. ‘Delia. You’ll like her. She was the one who got Rita off that dreadful farm.’

‘Yes,’ said Lily. ‘Rita’s told me all about her. I shan’t be able to thank her enough for looking after her when there weren’t no one else.’

When they reached the house in Parramatta, Norah was waiting to greet them at the front door. She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting Rita’s grandmother to be like, but when she saw her, tired and pale from the long journey, she hurried out to welcome her.

Lily spent most of the day asleep, as did Rick, despite his best efforts to stay awake. She woke as evening approached, and as she and David’s parents sat down to supper, Norah began to ply her with questions about Rita and her childhood.

‘What happened to her parents?’ Norah asked. ‘All we know is that she was an orphan and was sent out here to start a new life.’

‘Yes, well, that sort of happened,’ agreed Lily. ‘Her dad was killed in the war. Her mum looked after her and her little sister…’

‘Yes, her sister…’

‘Norah,’ interposed Andrew mildly, ‘I don’t think you should be interrogating Mrs Sharples like this. These are questions you should be asking Rita, not her grandmother.’

‘But Rita won’t talk about it,’ objected Norah. ‘She never tells me anything.’

‘Then they’re probably things she doesn’t want to discuss,’ said her husband. ‘So I expect Mrs Sharples doesn’t want to either.’

‘No, I don’t,’ agreed Lily with a firmness in which Andrew heard an echo of Rita. Then fearing she’d been rude to her hostess, Lily went on, ‘You can imagine these things are painful to Rita, so if she’s managed to put them out of her mind, then I’m delighted.’

Lily turned to Andrew, sitting at the head of the table. ‘I’m sure you both realize how difficult it’s been for her. I’m just so happy that she’s found herself a lovely man like your David. After all, it’s the rest of her life what matters now, ain’t it?’

Nobody mentioned Rosie again. Rosie was at peace. Rita was the important one now.

Rita woke on Saturday morning, still feeling tired. She’d been up with Donny twice in the night, once at midnight, and again at four in the morning.

‘Do we really have to go to your parents’ for lunch today?’ she asked David. ‘Couldn’t we cry off, just this once?’

David was alarmed. ‘Don’t you feel well?’ he asked anxiously.

‘I’m all right,’ Rita said, ‘just tired. I thought we’d have a nice quiet weekend just doing nothing. Not that I haven’t got loads to do,’ she added. ‘I need to wash nappies and the ironing’s reaching the roof.’

‘I’ll do the ironing,’ David offered.

Rita gave a shout of laughter. ‘You? Ironing?’

David looked offended. ‘Can’t be that difficult,’ he said, ‘just running an iron over a few shirts.’

Rita put her arms round him and gave him a hug. ‘Sorry, darling, I didn’t mean to laugh at you. It’s sweet of you to offer, but I can do it. I just thought I’d give your mother a call, and suggest we came next week instead.’

‘I really don’t think we can do that at such short notice,’ argued David. ‘She’ll have got food in, and prepared things.’

‘She didn’t think of that two weeks ago when they were coming here for dinner and then didn’t because she had a headache,’ retorted Rita.

‘Oh, come on, Rita,’ David said. ‘She really was ill. You know she went to bed for two days with one of her migraines.’

‘Yeah, well, they seem pretty convenient to me.’

‘Look, Rita, I’m afraid we’ve got to go—’

‘Why?’ snapped Rita. ‘Why have we got to go?’

‘It’s been in the diary for more than two weeks.’

‘So what? We can still not go. Suppose I had a raging fever, we couldn’t go then, could we?’

‘Come on, darling,’ implored David. ‘Be reasonable.’

Rita knew she wasn’t being reasonable, but somehow she couldn’t help herself. She was tired and cross, and the thought of listening to her mother-in-law telling her how to look after Donny was more than she could cope with. ‘I don’t
feel
reasonable,’ she said petulantly.

‘Look, I’m going to let you into a secret,’ David said, ‘and then you’ll see why we’ve got to go.’

‘Well?’

‘Dad’s got a special present for Donny. ‘He’s got it specially, as a surprise, and he’s going to give it to him today.’

‘What sort of present?’ demanded Rita.

‘It’s just a present, a surprise. Something that Dad thought Donny would like. He’s gone to a lot of trouble to get it for him. He’ll be most disappointed if we don’t go.’

‘Couldn’t he bring it here?’ asked Rita.

David sighed. What a day for Rita to be so awkward all of a sudden.

‘No,’ he said, ‘not easily. Look, I’m going to go, and I’ll take Donny with me. You don’t have to come if you don’t want to. I’ll tell Mum you weren’t up to it, she’ll understand.’ He waited anxiously, afraid she might call his bluff.

‘Don’t be silly,’ Rita said sharply. ‘You can’t take him on your own. How will you feed him?’

‘Oh, Mum’s got a bottle and some powdered milk,’ answered David, playing his ace. ‘It won’t hurt him just this once not to be breast-fed. I’m not going to let Dad down, Rita. We’ll manage.’

Rita stared at him obstinately, then she shrugged. ‘Oh, all right, I’ll come, if it’s that important to you. But we’re not going to stay all afternoon, are we?’

‘Not if you don’t want to,’ said David evenly, relief flooding through him at her capitulation.

‘I shan’t want to,’ Rita told him. ‘OK, I’ll be ready to go at twelve.’

On the dot of twelve, David put the carrycot into the car, picked up the bag that contained everything they could possibly need for Donny and waited in the driver’s seat with the engine running. Moments later the front door slammed and Rita, smartly dressed in navy slacks and a red jumper, climbed into the passenger seat.

David turned to look at her. ‘You know,’ he remarked conversationally to her stiff profile, ‘I think I love you even more when you’re cross, that stern expression makes you even more beautiful.’

For a moment Rita didn’t move, then she looked at him, a rueful expression on her face. ‘Sorry,’ she said in a small voice and she leaned over and kissed him on the ear. ‘Come on, David,’ she chided, ‘let’s get going, or we’ll be late.’

When they drew up at the house, David lifted Donny, still fast asleep in his carrycot, out of the car. Rita grabbed the change bag and together they walked to the door. Norah opened it before they could ring the bell. She must have been standing at the window waiting for us, Rita thought, a little of her earlier anger creeping back. We aren’t late, well, not much, and here she is on the doorstep.

‘Come on in,’ Norah said, smiling. ‘We’re in the lounge.’

David stood back to let Rita precede him into the room, and the first person she saw was Delia.

‘Deeley,’ she cried in delight, ‘I didn’t know you were going to be here! Why didn’t you say, we could have given you a lift.’ As she went to hug her mother, Rita was suddenly aware of other people in the room and paused to look round. There was an elderly lady sitting in a chair by the fire, and a young lad perched on the window seat.

‘Oh,’ said Rita, ‘sorry, I didn’t realize there were other guests.’

‘Rita.’ It was the old lady in the chair who, very softly, spoke her name.

Rita froze and a waiting silence enveloped the room. She stared at the old woman, who was now struggling out of her chair.

‘Gran,’ she whispered. ‘Gran? Is it really you?’

‘It’s Gran all right,’ said a voice from the window seat, ‘and I’m Rick.’

Rita spun round. ‘Rick? My brother, Rick?’ She looked wildly round the room and found they were all smiling at her. David, his mother and father, Deeley, and miraculously her gran and Rick, her brother.

‘Gran,’ she croaked, ‘oh Gran, I don’t believe it,’ and finally she moved towards the grandmother she hadn’t seen for more than sixteen years, gathering her into her arms, clinging to her, weeping on her shoulder as if she were a little girl once more.

Lily sat down again, and Rita sat at her feet on the floor, still clutching her hand. Having greeted her with an awkward kiss on the cheek and then a bear-like hug, Rick sat beside her. There was so much to say that they didn’t say anything. There were so many years missing, they didn’t know where to begin.

Rita remembered David’s words from earlier in the day,
Dad’s got a special present for Donny. He’s gone to a lot of trouble to get it for him. He’ll be most disappointed if we don’t go.
She looked up at Andrew, who was standing by the door smiling broadly, and getting to her feet, she went over and put her arms round his neck.

‘You did this for me, Mr Harris,’ she whispered. ‘I don’t know how to begin to thank you.’

Andrew hugged her. ‘I think you could start by calling me Andrew, or if you can’t manage that, how about Grandad, like young Donny?’

Rita reached up, and kissed him on the cheek. ‘Thank you, Andrew,’ she whispered, tears shining in her eyes, ‘thank you so very much.’

There was an excited buzz of conversation in the room as everyone began to talk at once. Andrew produced another bottle of champagne, and when everyone had a glass, he said, ‘I’d like to propose a toast. To young Donald Andrew and all his family, from both sides of the world.’

‘Donald Andrew,’ they chorused, and raised their glasses.

~

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About Diney Costeloe

An invitation from the publisher

Gritty, heartrending and unputdownable – the story of two sisters sent first to an English, then an Australian orphanage in the aftermath of World War 2.

Rita and Rosie Stevens are only nine and five years old when their widowed mother marries a violent bully called Jimmy Randall and has a baby boy by him. Under pressure from her new husband, she is persuaded to send the girls to an orphanage – not knowing that the papers she has signed will entitle them to do what they like with the children.

And it is not long before the powers that be decide to send a consignment of orphans to their sister institution in Australia. Among them – without their family’s consent or knowledge – are Rita and Rosie, the throwaway children.