The screaming and shouting outside his house hit Samuel before he’d turned the corner into the street. Fiona’s high-pitched screech was immediately followed by his mother’s deeper pleas for her daughter to come back into the house.
He broke into a run.
Half the neighbourhood stood on their doorsteps watching the spectacle of his family playing out their latest drama in full public view. Samuel swore under his breath as his gaze landed on a young, thickset man in the centre of the commotion. His face was red with exertion, his dark-blond hair awry as he restrained Fiona from physically attacking her mother.
Is he the father of Fiona’s unborn babe? Samuel briefly closed his eyes. God, give me strength…
‘Knock it off, Fiona,’ Samuel shouted as he came closer. He faced his mother. ‘Go inside, Ma. I’ll take it from here.’
His mother hesitated, tears glinting in her eyes, before she turned and ambled towards the house.
Samuel looked at his sister and glared. ‘You, too.’
‘But, Sam—’
‘Now, I mean it.’ He turned his focus on the stranger. ‘You stay right where you are.’ He turned around to the spectators circled around him and those watching from the other side of the narrow street. ‘Show’s over. I suggest you get back to your business.’
His mother and sister stood on the short pathway to their front door, his ma damn near crying and Fiona looking like she wanted nothing more than to wring his neck. Samuel narrowed his eyes. ‘Get inside. Now.’
He succeeded in staring Fiona down and she dutifully escorted their mother into the house. The door remained wide open.
He faced the man nursing a red mark on his jaw and nodded. ‘Courtesy of my sister, I assume?’ He held out his hand, gauging the man’s six feet height and shoulders not much narrower. ‘Samuel Murphy. You are?’
‘Benedict Brown.’ He shook Samuel’s hand, his brown eyes quietly appraising. ‘I came to speak to your sister, but it seems she wants to forget the talking and march me up the aisle.’
Samuel crossed his arms. ‘And will you?’
‘Will I what?’
‘Walk my sister up the aisle… or at least the registry office.’
‘I don’t know.’
‘You don’t know?’ Samuel huffed a laugh. ‘You think you’ve got the privilege of thinking about this now? Don’t you think that smacks of locking the gate after the horse has bolted? My sister’s carrying your baby. Now, are you going to do the right thing or are we going to have a problem?’
Benedict held Samuel’s stare before slumping onto the wall beside them. He ran his hand over his face. ‘I carry coal for a living, Mr Murphy. I live with my ma and help support my four younger brothers and sisters. I’ve got nothing to offer a girl like Fiona. She deserves more than me. Much more. I’d marry her tomorrow if I could, but I haven’t a pot to piss in.’
A girl like Fiona? Samuel didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. If this man looked at his sister and saw a match made in heaven, there was no way Samuel was going to disillusion him.
He sat beside him on the wall. ‘So, what are your options? Have you room at home for my sister to come live with you?’
‘I can’t see my mother agreeing to that. We’re already like sardines and what with the baby coming…’
‘I see.’
Benedict looked towards the house. ‘But I suppose we could make it work if Fiona was willing, but… I’m not sure my mother will love her as I do.’
‘You love her?’
Benedict grinned, her grey eyes lighting. ‘With all my heart.’
Biting back a smile, Samuel sighed. ‘Right then, this is what is going to happen. I’ll make it my job to sort you out with a cheap suit and Fiona with a cheap dress, we head down to the registry office before she starts showing and then she moves in with you. I don’t want your ma going without the earnings you’re giving her, and Fiona will help out with your brothers and sisters before and after the baby comes. How does that sound?’
‘What’s going on?’ Fiona’s screech came from an upstairs window behind them. ‘Don’t you chase him off, Sam. We love each other. He’ll see me right once he runs the coal yard. Isn’t that right, Ben?’
Samuel raised his eyebrow at Benedict. ‘That’s what you’ve told her? You’ll be running the yard one day?’
The other man shrugged. ‘A man can dream, can’t he? I love her, Mr Murphy. I just want to make sure she has good reason to love me back.’
Benedict dropped his head as though the prospect of having more than what he had right now was dire. Samuel sympathised with him. At least the man had a dream. That in itself was enough to make Samuel want to help him.
Samuel pushed to his feet. ‘Go into the house and make nice with Ma. When I come back, I’m expecting everybody to be in a much happier mood considering you’ve asked Fiona to marry you. In the meantime, I’ll think how we’re going to make the rest work.’
Fiona came barrelling through the front door and stood in front of them, her face red with anger. ‘Don’t you make him leave, Sam. I mean it. You don’t get to tell me what to do when you disappeared for weeks, leaving us starving and neglected. You can do whatever you like, when you like, but the rest of us can’t so why don’t you just go back to America? You’re not wanted here.’
‘Is that so?’ Samuel looked at Benedict. ‘You might live to regret it, but you know what you need to do. Go on in the house. I’ll be back later.’
Samuel walked along the street and through the town centre, heading for the river.
What in God’s name was he supposed to do now that he’d laid down the law to a complete stranger about how his life was going to play out for the next six months? The only thing Samuel did know was he couldn’t stay here anymore.
His family were draining him of every positive thought, ambition and dream. He would ensure they were fed and warm, the baby, too, but he had to get out before he was brought so far down, he’d never get up again.
Staring into the murky depths of the River Avon, his guilt and musings of possibility swirled on an eddy inside of him. His love for Amelia was strong and real. The most he’d ever felt for anyone his entire life.
Yet, was love enough reason to live your life in a place that didn’t quite fit? Especially when a man knew there was a city thousands of miles away that fed his soul and made him feel as though he could conquer the world.
Amelia’s face on the night she’d returned from RH Macy’s loomed large in Samuel’s mind and he smiled. She’d been so alive. So happy and excited. And she could be again. He hadn’t seen that look in her eyes since and he doubted he ever would if he couldn’t persuade her that they belonged in America.
She had openly confessed her love for him when they’d been on the train and he’d confirmed his love for her. Yet, neither had said whether they were willing to change their plans – to give up what they believed to be their individual destinies.
He pushed away from the wall at the water’s edge and headed for Pennington’s. He had to try just one more time to convince her they belonged in America. If he failed, then he would stay here.
With Amelia. The woman he loved with his whole damn heart.