Free The Promise by Lesley Pearse Page A

carrot-haired man in the family.’
    Mog put on a good display of being as surprised as Garth; she got up and hugged Belle and Jimmy and said it was the best news she’d ever had. Then as she poured the tea for everyone, she talked with breathless excitement about making a layette for the baby and getting a crib.
    ‘When will you give up the shop?’ Garth asked Belle. ‘You shouldn’t be on your feet all day.’
    ‘I hadn’t really thought that far ahead,’ she said.
    Garth crossed his arms and looked fierce. ‘Well, I think you should wind it up in the next few weeks,’ he said, and looked to Jimmy for back-up. ‘Don’t you agree, son?’
    Jimmy smiled at Belle and took her hand. ‘I’m sure Belle will do whatever is best for our baby.’
    To anyone else that would have sounded as though she had a free choice, but Belle sensed that he meant she should stay at home knitting and sewing till the baby arrived. Clearly some of his uncle’s values had rubbed off on him.
    Garth didn’t hold with female emancipation. Mog loved to challenge him on his views, whether that was women wanting the vote, coming into the bar, or doing a job which was a traditionally male one. Yet however much she teased him, in truth she was his ideal woman, for she washed, cooked and cleaned superbly and let him make all the decisions.
    Until now, having a baby was just a rosy daydream. Belle had imagined life going on the way it had been, yet with a plump baby that they’d all adore, cooing in a crib. She hadn’t really considered that it also meant her freedom to do as she pleased would end.
    ‘You look very tired, Belle,’ Mog said, perhaps sensing what she was thinking. ‘Why don’t you go and have a lie-down for a bit?’
    ‘Yes, I think I will,’ Belle replied. ‘But you have a rest too, I bet you’ve been up since the crack of dawn.’
    Belle was still awake when Jimmy came into the bedroom, but she kept her eyes closed and pretended to be asleep. She guessed he had hoped to talk about the baby, but she didn’t want that, not now. He took off his shoes and lay beside her, and within a short while his deep breathing told her he had dropped off.
    It was very hot, and Belle lay on her back watching dust particles floating in beams of sunlight coming through the white lace curtains. She had chosen everything in the bedroom herself, from the rose-strewn wallpaper to the brass bed with its thick white counterpane and the rosewood dressing table with tiny drawers that held all her jewellery. Garth had once teasingly asked Jimmy how he could bear to be in such a feminine room with all its frills and flounces, and Jimmy had replied that he loved it because Belle did.
    That reply had summed up how Jimmy was. He wasn’t soft by any means; he could be tough with customers who behaved badly and had little time for the work-shy or those who constantly complained about their lot in life. But he was an uncomplicated man who took things as they came and he didn’t care about other people’s opinion of him. In fact Belle didn’t know anyone who didn’t like him, for he was kind, generous, interested in other people and had a great sense of humour. But above all he was honest. If asked for his opinion, he gave it; if he promised something, he kept his word.
    There was a silver-framed photograph of them on their wedding day beside the bed. Mog had made Belle’s wedding dress of beautiful ivory satin, high-necked and long-sleeved with a pin-tucked bodice and a small train draped to one side to show it off. Jimmy had never looked more handsome to her that day, in a pale grey pin-striped morning suit. In all the other photographs they had looked very stiff and serious. But this one had been taken as they were looking at each other and laughing and it reflected their true personalities. It was a constant reminder to Belle of how lucky she was to have someone who loved her unconditionally despite her past.
    Here in this pretty room nothing