Peggy managed to get through Friday, simply because she kept busy and made sure she didn’t have time to think. Solly had been tremendously sympathetic when she’d told him about Jim, and even suggested she take the day off so she had a long weekend to come to terms with what had happened, but she’d refused his kind offer, knowing that she needed to work through this and firmly focus on the fact that Jim was alive and would recover.
She’d sat down that night and written Jim a long letter, telling him how much she loved him and how grateful she was that he’d asked the nurse to write to her so the telegram didn’t frighten her out of her wits. Having sealed the aerogram, she then wrote to Anne and Cissy. Ron had gone up to Cliffe aerodrome early on Friday morning and managed to get to see Cissy and assure her that her father would come through and her mother was being well looked after by everyone at Beach View, but Peggy needed to underline the fact that she didn’t want Cissy worrying about her and taking unnecessary time off by coming to visit.
Saturday morning was chaotic, with the two little girls getting under everyone’s feet, and Rita arriving with Peter Ryan to begin putting Cordelia’s chairlift on the stairs. Ron quickly disappeared with Harvey, Doris and Ivy went to work, and the cat decided to make herself scarce.
Much to Peggy’s relief, Sarah and Fran took the children to the park so they could let off steam, and she could get on with the washing and the housework. Yet as the banging and clattering carried on in the hall, she began to wonder if the house was about to fall down around her ears.
‘Danuta’s helping them now, but they’re making surprisingly little mess,’ said Cordelia as she came into the garden to help hang out the washing. ‘Although I’m not at all sure I’ll feel terribly safe being carted up and down in that contraption.’
‘We’ll get Ron to test it out before I’ll let you anywhere near it,’ said Peggy, who had grave doubts over the whole enterprise. ‘If it takes his weight, then I’ll give it a go. I’d hate to see you getting hurt.’
Cordelia eyed her over her sunglasses. ‘I still have a sense of adventure despite my age, and if he dares, then so will I,’ she said stoutly.
‘He has to stay at home for more than five minutes before we can get him to do anything,’ said Peggy, hooking the long forked pole into the line to raise it so the washing caught the warm breeze coming off the sea. ‘I honestly don’t know where he gets his energy from.’
‘I suspect Rosie has something to do with that,’ Cordelia twittered. ‘There’s definitely been a silly grin on his face and a spring in his step these past couple of weeks.’
Peggy smiled. ‘So I noticed. It’s about time those two sorted themselves out. My best hat is gathering dust since the last wedding.’ She eyed the unusually small load of laundry with satisfaction and then hitched the empty basket onto her hip. ‘Let’s go and see what they’re all up to in the hall.’
She helped Cordelia up the concrete steps, then they crossed the kitchen and Peggy opened the door into the hall, expecting to be met by a cloud of dust and a terrible mess. ‘Goodness,’ she breathed at the hive of industry going on without so much as a grain of dust.
She was a bit concerned that the stair carpet hadn’t been taken up and winced at the damage they must be doing to it as Rita and Danuta held the long metal runner that Peter was bolting into a second runner which followed the contours of each stair. Another ran parallel with them against the base of the bannisters, and sitting in the middle of the hall was a sturdy chair which had been bolted to a thick metal platform fixed to four heavy wheels.
‘Danuta, please be careful,’ she pleaded. ‘You can’t afford to damage your hands, and if that thing falls on your feet—’
‘I am in no danger,’ Danuta interrupted. ‘Please don’t worry. It’s good to be useful, and I’m having fun.’
‘Yeah, don’t fuss, Aunty Peg,’ said Rita, straining to keep the heavy runner steady. ‘We’ve got it all under control.’
Peter Ryan finished fixing a bolt and looked over his shoulder with a broad smile. ‘Reckon she’ll be right,’ he drawled. ‘But a cup of tea would go down well. This is thirsty work.’
Peggy took the hint and she and Cordelia went back into the kitchen. She placed the kettle on the hob, hunted out cups and regarded the old tea leaves drying out in a saucer. ‘These have already been used twice,’ she muttered, ‘and they deserve a good strong cuppa after all their hard work.’
She fetched the almost empty packet of tea from the larder, spooned some into the warm teapot and then sat down to have a cigarette whilst the kettle boiled. ‘I wish I’d remembered to put tea on the shopping list,’ she said, ‘but with one thing and another it slipped my mind.’
‘That’s hardly surprising in the circumstances,’ said Cordelia. ‘But maybe Doris checked the larder before she took the list into town earlier. She keeps banging on about how efficient she is, so I wouldn’t put it past her.’
‘I’m still finding it very hard to take in how much she’s changed,’ Peggy confided. ‘That job was certainly the making of her. She’d never have dreamt of giving up her room before.’
‘It’s certainly given her something else to think about other than herself,’ said Cordelia with a sniff. ‘And it sounds as if she and the Colonel are getting on very well.’
Peggy grinned as she made the tea and gave it a good stir before leaving it to brew in the big brown pot. ‘So I’ve heard, and if it’s true, then I’m delighted – but she’s being very tight-lipped about it.’
‘Probably doesn’t want Ivy teasing her,’ said Cordelia dryly. ‘Now there’s a friendship I didn’t expect.’
Peggy poured the tea and placed three cups on a tray. ‘Neither did I, but this war has changed people – made them realise that if we don’t pull together, we won’t win – and I’m glad the happy atmosphere in the house is restored. We couldn’t have gone on the way things were.’
‘Amen to that,’ said Cordelia firmly.
The telephone rang just as Peggy entered the hall, so she handed over the tray to Peter and went to answer it.
‘Mrs Reilly?’
Peggy didn’t recognise the voice. ‘Yes?’ she replied warily.
‘Mrs Lloyd-Hughes here,’ the rather bossy upper-crust voice continued. ‘I need to talk to Mrs Williams.’
Peggy had a strong suspicion that the caller was one of the women who’d snubbed Doris at the memorial service. ‘Mrs Williams is unavailable at the moment,’ she said crisply. ‘Can I give her a message?’
‘That’s most inconvenient,’ the other woman snapped. ‘She’s needed urgently to help with the children’s charity Lady Chumley was setting up before the unfortunate business at Mrs Williams’s house.’
Peggy was about to comment when she charged on in her hectoring tone.
‘And then there is the matter of supervising Cliffehaven’s branch of the WVS. I cannot possibly do it alone, and I’m most disappointed in Mrs Williams for leaving me in the lurch.’
‘Mrs Williams has just been widowed,’ said Peggy icily, ‘and has far more pressing things to keep her occupied than running about after you. She has not left you in the lurch at all; in fact her resignation from her post with the WVS was tendered some time ago, so I would suggest it’s bad management on your part that you haven’t organised a replacement.’
‘Well, really!’ the other woman huffed. ‘I’ve never been spoken to like that, and will not stand for it. Don’t you know who I am?’
‘No, and I don’t care, either,’ said Peggy, who was now rather enjoying herself. ‘But I do know that if you’re one of the snooty, self-seeking crowd who shunned my sister at the memorial luncheon, she’s better off without you.’
There was a long silence at the other end before Peggy heard the clearing of a throat. ‘The charity work we do is far more important than personal grudges and perceived slights,’ Mrs Lloyd-Hughes said eventually.
‘Charity begins at home,’ said Peggy. ‘And if any of you had shown the slightest kindness or thought to how my sister felt after what you term as “the unfortunate business” that saw five women killed and Doris made homeless, she might have been willing to help.’
‘I apologise if Mrs Williams feels we’ve been neglectful,’ the woman said stiffly. ‘But I need her services, both with the charity and the WVS. Please see to it that you pass on my message the moment Mrs Williams is available.’
Peggy heard the sharp clatter of the receiver being slammed down at the other end and softly replaced her own. ‘Oh, I’ll pass it on all right, but I’ll jolly well make sure Doris has nothing to do with any of it.’ She turned to see that all work had stopped on the stairs and everyone was looking at her wide-eyed.
‘Strewth, Mrs Reilly,’ breathed Peter. ‘I wouldn’t fancy getting on the wrong side of you. You’re quite the tigress when you get going, aren’t you?’
‘Well done, Peggy,’ said Rita, shooting her a grin. ‘It’s about time someone told that snooty lot where to get off. I bet whoever that was had never heard the like.’
‘I don’t understand what that was about,’ said Danuta with a twinkle in her eyes, ‘but I think you enjoyed it.’
‘Damn right, I did,’ said Peggy, before going back into the kitchen to tell Cordelia all about it.
Peggy decided that whilst the work was going on in the hall there was no point in trying to clean. The washing was done, it was a beautiful July day, the children were out and she had a couple of hours to enjoy the sunshine in relative peace. She took off her apron and knotted headscarf, got Cordelia settled into one of the deckchairs and put up the parasol Ron had filched from one of the bombed-out hotels on the front to shade her, and then sat down. The sharp exchange with Mrs Lloyd-Hughes had in fact released some of the tension she’d been feeling since hearing about Jim, and now the sun on her face and bare limbs soothed her.
‘Oh,’ she sighed, closing her eyes. ‘This is bliss.’
‘Enjoy it whilst you can, dear,’ said Cordelia drowsily. ‘Once the children come back you won’t have a minute to yourself.’
Peggy wriggled to a more comfortable position in the deckchair. ‘Hopefully Fran and Sarah will have worn them out by then, so when I take them up to the Red Cross centre they’ll play quietly.’
‘You do too much,’ murmured Cordelia, her sunglasses slipping unheeded down her nose as she nodded off.
Peggy accepted she had very little time to herself with all the dashing about she had to do, but she liked being busy – to feel useful, and part of the great army of women doing their bit to help win this war whilst the men were away.
Her thoughts, as always, turned to Jim. At least he was out of it for a while, and she could only pray that by the time he was well enough to be returned to his regiment, the war would be at an end and he could come home.
The news was becoming more hopeful by the day. The Japanese had been all but routed from Burma. They were still fighting in Siam and throughout the Pacific, but it was clear they couldn’t last much longer, for their huge losses in men, ships and planes had been exacerbated by the continuing monsoon and the lack of food and supplies.
In Europe, Allied troops were making headway south from the liberated northern shores towards Paris, and slowly advancing from the south through Italy; meanwhile, the Russians were advancing through Poland and had just liberated thousands of prisoners from the German concentration camp at Majdanek. The swiftness of this coup had meant the Nazis hadn’t had time to destroy the evidence of what they’d been doing at Majdanek, and this had clearly been so horrifying that Peggy suspected the newsreader had given only a heavily censored report on the previous evening’s broadcast.
The indications that the situation in Europe was beginning to shift in the Allies’ favour had been reinforced by the news that had come through this morning. There had been a failed assassination attempt on Hitler by some of his high-ranking Wehrmacht officers during a conference at a place called Wolf’s Lair in East Prussia. The plot to kill Hitler, negotiate a peace treaty, and thus bring an end to his reign of terror, had involved thousands, which proved to Peggy that Hitler wasn’t as firmly in control as he’d once been – but it was a great shame he hadn’t gone up with that bomb.
‘Well, it’s all right for some, sitting about with nothing to do.’
Peggy’s eyes snapped open as a heavily pregnant Kitty limped towards her with the aid of a walking stick, and she jumped out of her chair and gave her a hug. ‘Sit down,’ she urged. ‘You look all in.’
‘I am a bit,’ Kitty confessed, ‘but a lovely off-duty airman gave me a lift back on his motorbike, which was great fun.’ She regarded the sleeping Cordelia with great affection. ‘Bless her,’ she sighed. ‘Grandma Cordy does love a snooze in the sun, doesn’t she?’
Peggy was not about to be deflected. ‘Back from where?’ she demanded.
‘Cliffe aerodrome.’ She massaged her back as she eyed the teapot. ‘Is that tea still warm? I’m as dry as a bone.’
Peggy threw the dregs from her own cup onto Ron’s vegetable patch and quickly poured the tea. ‘It’ll be horribly stewed,’ she warned, ‘and what on earth were you doing up at Cliffe in the first place? Please don’t tell me you walked all that way in your condition.’
Kitty eyed her over the rim of the cup as she gulped down the tea. ‘Ahh, that’s better.’ She ignored Peggy’s stern glare and brushed back her fair hair from her hot face before running her hand over her swollen stomach. ‘Exercise is good for pregnant women,’ she said defiantly, ‘and I didn’t have to walk back, so there’s no good you looking at me like that.’
Peggy gave a sigh. ‘It’s only because I worry about you, and with the added weight on your prosthesis it can’t be doing your stump any good.’
‘The walking stick helps take some of the weight off,’ said Kitty, pouring another cup of tea. ‘But I do admit I might have overdone it a little today. My stump is throbbing a bit.’
‘Fran will be home soon. I’ll get her to look at it,’ said Peggy, fetching another chair from the shed. ‘But why did you go all the way up there?’
Kitty squirmed in the chair as if trying to find a more comfortable position. ‘Charlotte got notification from the Red Cross that Freddy has been transferred to another Stalag. This is the second time he’s been moved, and knowing my brother, it’s because he’s been making a nuisance of himself. He’s always hated feeling trapped and probably kept trying to escape.’
Peggy thought fondly of the dark-haired, handsome young man who’d always had such a lust for life, women and excitement, and could well understand his frustration at being kept behind barbed wire. ‘Is it the same one Cissy’s Randy has been sent to? Is that why you went to Cliffe?’
Kitty shook her head. ‘He’s further south, but I thought she’d like to know that this shifting of prisoners seems to be random, and probably has nothing to do with nationality. I suspect Randy was proving to be a thorn in the side of the Germans too – he’s just as gung-ho as Freddy.’ She winced and shifted again in the deckchair. ‘The little blighter’s lying on my bladder. I need the loo – again.’
Peggy ran up into the kitchen to freshen the tea whilst Kitty used the outside lav. She popped her head around the door to the hall. ‘Kitty’s here,’ she said to Rita. ‘Her Freddy’s been moved to another Stalag, and would you believe it – she only walked all the way to Cliffe to tell Cissy.’
Rita shook her head. ‘That girl never ceases to amaze me,’ she said in awe. ‘Look, we’re almost done here; tell her I’ll see her in a minute or two.’
Peggy noted that the metal platform and chair was in place, the wheels on the runners, and that Danuta was helping Peter connect the wires on the small engine. ‘I don’t expect she’ll be leaving in a hurry,’ she said. ‘The poor girl’s worn out and needs to rest. Bring your cups with you, I’ve freshened the pot.’
She went back into the garden to find Cordelia was awake and chatting to Kitty. She waited until there was a pause and then asked, ‘How’s Charlotte taken the news?’
Kitty chuckled. ‘She’s just relieved he’s not flying any more. Of course she’s very worried he might go too far and get shot trying to escape – but by all accounts this new Stalag is where the Germans send serial escape-artists, so the security is extremely tight.’
Rita came flying out of the back door and enfolded Kitty in a hug. ‘It’s so lovely to see you,’ she said, plumping down on the ground beside her. ‘You don’t visit us nearly enough.’ She poured the fresh tea into her cup and eyed Kitty’s huge stomach. ‘Goodness,’ she breathed. ‘How much bigger are you going to get?’
‘Not very much more, I hope,’ Kitty replied ruefully. ‘This baby’s due in ten days’ time, which frankly can’t come soon enough. I haven’t seen my feet in months, let alone managed to touch my toes; I can’t bend or sit properly and at night she keeps me awake by kicking me.’ She gave a soft smile. ‘Apart from all that, I feel and look like a beached whale.’
‘You look radiant and very lovely,’ said Peggy with an affectionate smile. ‘But you seem very certain it’s a girl you’re carrying. I hope you won’t be too disappointed if it’s not.’
‘I don’t really mind either way as long as it’s all right. Roger would love a boy, of course, but I rather like the idea of a little girl.’
‘Have you thought of names yet?’ asked Cordelia.
‘Faith for a girl – because I have to keep faith that Roger will come home – and George for a boy, in honour of the King.’
Peggy turned as Peter and Danuta came into the garden. She made the introductions, poured more tea and settled back to listen to them chatting, enjoying the sunshine and the prospect of babies to coo over once Kitty had delivered and Charlotte had had her twins. Freddy Pargeter had better behave, she thought darkly. His wife Charlotte was relying on him to come home in one piece to help care for his babies.
She tuned back in to the conversation to find that Rita and Peter were explaining about Cordelia’s chairlift.
‘It’s bonzer all right,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘Carried me up and back several times without a hitch, so I let the girls have a go as well.’ He looked at Cordelia, his mesmerising eyes lit with humour. ‘Reckon it’s your turn now,’ he said. ‘Are you up to it, do you think?’
Cordelia blushed. ‘I can hardly say no with you looking at me like that.’
Peter helped her out of the deckchair and Cordelia hooked her arm in his to go and see what all the fuss was about. The others trooped after her and they all stood in the hall regarding this new addition with interest.
‘You go first,’ Cordelia said to Peter. ‘I want to make sure that contraption really does work.’
‘Right oh,’ he replied cheerfully. He sat down, his large feet projecting from the footrest, fastened the belt across his hips and pulled the lever on the side of the chair. With a soft wheeze it began to slowly roll upwards, and when it reached the top, Peter engaged the brake, beamed at them all in triumph and then set it rolling back down again.
‘It’s fair dinkum, all right, isn’t it?’
‘If that means it works, then I suppose it is,’ said Cordelia, eyeing it with some trepidation. She waved away Peggy’s offer to go next and determinedly sat in the chair. Allowing Rita to fasten the safety belt, she rested her hand on the lever, and before she could change her mind, pushed it down.
‘Ooh,’ she twittered as she was ponderously carried up the stairs. ‘Goodness me. How do I stop it?’
‘Just pull the lever up,’ said Rita. ‘That will work the brake.’
Cordelia yanked on the lever and she came to a halt halfway up. Tentatively pushing the lever down again, she continued the slow journey to the top of the stairs where it came to a halt against the sturdy buffer of a wooden block. She engaged the brake and beamed down at them victoriously. ‘I did it,’ she giggled. ‘Oh, what fun.’
Peggy watched at first with her heart in her mouth as Cordelia made several journeys up and down the stairs, but it seemed the contraption was working perfectly. It would bring her a new lease of life now that she would no longer have to rely on others to fetch and carry.
Peggy stepped forward after Cordelia’s eighth trip. ‘I think that’s enough for now,’ she said gently. ‘You don’t want to wear out that motor, do you?’
Cordelia reluctantly stepped away from her new toy and beamed. ‘It’s truly wonderful,’ she breathed, hugging Rita before turning to Peter. ‘I’d hug you too, but you’re too tall.’
‘Fair go, every bloke likes a hug from a pretty woman,’ drawled Peter, bending to lift Cordelia off her feet and give her a hug and a smacking kiss on the cheek.
Cordelia slapped him flirtatiously on the shoulder. ‘Naughty boy, taking liberties with an old woman like that!’
Peter kissed the other cheek and very gently set her back on her feet. ‘Glad you like it, Grandma Cordy. Now I’ve gotta go. I’m supposed to be back on duty in less than an hour.’ He turned to Rita. ‘Thanks for helping out on the project. It wouldn’t have happened at all without you working all hours.’
‘Well, it was my project too,’ she reminded him sternly, ‘so don’t think you can take all the credit, Wing Commander Peter Ryan.’
He grinned and then said goodbye and hurried down to the motorbike he’d left parked outside. With a burp and a rattle the engine came to life and he roared off, leaving a trail of black exhaust fumes behind him.
‘He still hasn’t sorted out that bike,’ sighed Rita. ‘But then he hasn’t had much time to do anything in between working on the chair and flying ops. If only he’d trust me with it, I could have it running like clockwork within days.’
Cordelia was still discombobulated by Peter’s affectionate response, and was trying to pull her wits together. ‘Men are always a bit precious about their things – especially if it has an engine,’ she said distractedly. ‘I wouldn’t take it to heart, Rita.’
‘Kitty, are you all right?’ asked Danuta sharply.
‘I don’t know,’ she replied, unsteadily making her way to the chair by the telephone. ‘I’ve had back ache all day and it’s suddenly got much worse.’
Danuta was nearest, and helped her to sit down. ‘There is other pain?’
‘No, no, just my back.’ She looked at Danuta and gave a wan smile. ‘I’ve overdone things, that’s all. I’m sure I’ll be fine if I just have a little rest.’
The gush of water soaked through her dungarees and pooled on the floor, and she looked at it aghast. ‘I’m so sorry, Peggy,’ she breathed in horror. ‘I seem to have wet myself. I’ll clear it up immediately.’
‘You’ll do no such thing,’ said Peggy, pressing her back into the chair. ‘That’s your waters breaking. Baby is on its way.’
‘But that can’t be,’ Kitty gasped. ‘She’s not due for ten days.’
‘Well, it looks like she’s decided to come early,’ Peggy told her.
Kitty stared at her in disbelief and then bent over with a groan as a strong contraction gripped her like a vice. ‘No, oh, no,’ she gasped.
Peggy reached for the telephone. ‘I’m ringing the doctor,’ she said firmly. ‘Danuta, help Kitty into the bedroom and make her comfortable. Rita, clean the floor before someone slips and then put the kettle on. Cordelia, could you help strip Doris’s bed? She won’t appreciate—’ She was interrupted by the receptionist answering the telephone, and after a very short exchange she replaced the receiver.
‘Both doctors are out on call, and the midwife is delivering another baby,’ she said as she hurried into the hall-floor bedroom to find the bed stripped and Kitty shuffling back and forth clutching her stomach. ‘The receptionist has promised to send someone over as soon as possible, and as Kitty has only just started her labour, we’ve got plenty of time to get her prepared.’
‘I’m supposed to go to the hospital,’ groaned Kitty, reaching for the chest of drawers to lean on.
Danuta’s expression was solemn as she took Kitty’s pulse and placed her hand on her stomach as another contraction came. ‘This baby will come fast, so there’s no time for an ambulance. I shall need towels and a rubber sheet if you have one – as well as a sharp pair of scissors, disinfectant, soap and a bowl of very hot water.’
Peggy shot out of the bedroom and raced upstairs to the airing cupboard, snatching out towels, a clean sheet and a spare pillow. Running into her bedroom, she stripped the two cots of the rubber sheeting she put there in case of accidents, grabbed her sewing scissors and almost fell down the stairs when she stubbed her toe on the safety block. Cursing under her breath, she hobbled down and dumped everything on the top of the chest of drawers.
Kitty was sweating and clinging to the footboard, almost bent double as she dealt with yet another strong contraction, and Cordelia’s little face was a picture of concern as she tried to soothe her by rubbing her back.
‘How far apart are they?’ Peggy asked as they quickly laid the rubber sheet over the mattress and covered it in towels.
‘Every five minutes,’ Danuta replied. ‘Is a long time since I deliver baby,’ she muttered. ‘I hope either Fran or the doctor get here soon.’
‘But you do know what to do, don’t you?’ Peggy asked fearfully.
‘Yes,’ Danuta replied shortly.
Peggy glanced at her watch. It was almost midday, and the children would be on their way home for their lunch. She called out to Rita who was running a mop over the tiles in the hall. ‘We need that hot water, soap and disinfectant quickly. Then you’ll have to run down to the park and get hold of Fran. This baby’s on its way and in a hurry.’
Rita returned within minutes with a jug and bowl brimming with hot water, and as Kitty gave a deep groan, she shot off like a startled deer to find Fran.
Kitty panted through the contractions and within half an hour, she gasped urgently, ‘I need to push.’
Danuta was very calm. ‘Not yet. Is too soon. You must pant like a dog until we get you undressed.’ With Peggy’s help she managed to get Kitty’s clothes off and settle her on the bed.
Cordelia covered her in the clean sheet and then held her hand. ‘What about her false leg?’ she asked fretfully. ‘Shouldn’t we take it off?’
‘There isn’t time,’ said Danuta.
‘I’m going to push,’ grunted Kitty.
‘No, you’re not. You keep panting,’ Danuta ordered. ‘I must look to see if baby has crowned. If you push too soon you will have a tear, and you won’t want stitches down there.’ She swiftly washed and soaped her hands in the hot water, dropped Peggy’s sewing scissors in to sterilise them with disinfectant, and tied a hand towel over her hair before lifting the sheet to examine Kitty’s progress.
‘It’s all right, Kitty,’ Peggy soothed, patting her shoulder. ‘Danuta was a nurse in Poland; she knows what she’s doing.’
Danuta emerged from beneath the sheet with a wide grin. ‘You are fully dilated and I can see your baby’s head. ‘You may push now, but very gently.’
Danuta disappeared beneath the sheet and began issuing instructions and encouragement as Kitty pushed. ‘That is good. Steady and slow. Now you can push as hard and as long as you like, Kitty. Your baby’s head is almost out.’
Peggy and Cordelia looked at each other across the sweating, straining girl, their emotions a mixture of hope and fear as her grip on their hands tightened and she gave a guttural groan and strained as hard as she could.
‘One last push, Kitty,’ urged Danuta. ‘Good girl. That’s the shoulders, and here comes the rest.’
Kitty slumped breathlessly back against the pillows, sweat running down her reddened face, her damp tangle of hair flopping in her eyes. ‘Is it all right?’ she managed.
There was a long, ominous silence before Danuta emerged with a beaming smile and a squalling bundle wrapped in a clean towel. ‘She is perfect, but first I must cut and tie cord.’ Moments later she placed the baby in Kitty’s arms and both Cordelia and Peggy burst into tears.