Free Eliza's Child by Maggie Hope

Moore stayed his approach. ‘What are you going to do with that?’ he asked softly. ‘Defend your honour? The honour of a pithead lass?’ He laughed loudly and Thomas whimpered then began to wail.
    â€˜Get out,’ said Eliza. ‘Please go now before I stick this handle where it hurts.’ Her heart was beating so loudly she thought he might hear it. He stared at her for a minute or two then looked towards the baby, who was still crying.
    â€˜You’d best put that down and see to your child,’ he said.
    â€˜When you get out,’ said Eliza. He took another step towards her and he was directly in front of her. He leaned towards her and she jabbed him hard in the stomach with the broom handle.
    â€˜Ah!’ The air was expelled from his body and he bent over for a second or two. In that short time she had crossed to the baby and picked him out of the drawer that served him as a cot and hugged him to her. She looked to left and right frantically for a way to get round him to the only door of the pitman’s cottage, but there was none, he was directly in the way. He straightened and glared at her and his face was full of anger.
    â€˜Don’t you touch me,’ she warned though she was shaking with fear. Dear God, what was she going to do? By, he picked his time, he did, when he knew the rows would be just about empty.
    â€˜Nay, I won’t touch you,’ he replied. ‘I’ve never yet forced a lass, I haven’t felt the need. Mostly they’re willing enough.’ He chucked Thomas under his chin. ‘As you will be when you’ve thought about it.’
    â€˜I will not,’ Eliza avowed. Jonathan Moore smiled. ‘Oh aye, you will.’ He was close enough to lift a hand and she shrank back, but he simply chucked Thomas under his chin again and the baby smiled and gurgled and hid his face in his mother’s shawl.
    â€˜Shall I do it to your mam?’ he asked and laid his finger on Eliza’s neck, crooking it under the collar of her dress. She moved sideways quickly and he laughed.
    He walked to the door before turning and saying, ‘Don’t bother to come to work on Monday. I’m afraid your employment is at an end. Unless, of course—’ He didn’t finish the sentence but left.
    Eliza breathed out slowly. She sank on to the settee, feeling nothing but relief at first. Then her ankle began to throb with pain. She had been on it too much, she knew, but what could she do? And what was she going to do now? She had to earn her bread. The Poor Law Guardians would not help her while she was living with her family and not while her husband was alive. She had nothing. She lay back against the head of the settee and closed her eyes. She was still holding the baby and he struggled to sit up on her lap, making unmistakably demanding cries.
    â€˜Aye then,’ she said. ‘All right,’ she said and sat up straighter. He smiled at her with satisfaction and her mood lightened. How could she say she had nothing when she had Thomas? He was so precious to her. He was all she had of Jack and just now she ached for Jack. She buried her nose in Thomas’s neck and breathed in the baby smell of him.
    The sound of someone at the door made her jump, her pulse fluttering wildly. He’d come back and it would be another hour before the family returned. When she saw who it was for a minute she thought she must be hallucinating.
    â€˜I reckoned you would be here,’ said Jack. It was as if her longing for him had somehow spirited him up. But when he strode over to the settee and took her and his son in his arms he was solid and very real.
    â€˜Oh, Jack!’ Eliza cried and clung to him. Between them, Thomas wriggled and protested and they moved apart a little. ‘Where have you been?’ Eliza couldn’t bear to let him go yet her joy at the sight of him was turning to anger.
    â€˜I—’ Jack began but she