The Family Way (Molly Murphy, #12)

“Don’t be ridiculous. Call him John,” her mother admonished.


“Good-bye John,” Emily called after him in a mechanical voice. “Thank you for coming over.”





Eighteen

As Emily’s fiancé went down the front steps she turned back to us. “Would you care to take a walk around the grounds? We have a pretty little lake and I know your young charge will like to see the ducklings.”

She didn’t wait for her mother to reply before she ushered us back to the front door and out into the sunshine. As soon as we were well clear of the house she took my arm. “You have news of Maureen?” she asked. “I’ve been waiting to hear from her. She promised she would write. Is she all right? Where did she go?”

I looked at her hopeful face and felt terrible. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I’ve no news of her. That’s why I’m here.” Then I added hastily because I saw the agitation in her face, “My name is Molly Sullivan. I was asked by her family in Ireland to trace her and I’m trying to find out where she went when she left the convent.”

“Oh.” She looked so horribly disappointed. “Then you don’t know anything about her. I so hoped that you had come with a message from her. I don’t understand why she hasn’t tried to get in touch with me, unless Mama has been intercepting all my mail—which I wouldn’t put past her.”

Our feet crunched on the gravel as we walked along a well-raked path between rose beds; Emily and I in front, and the others following at a respectful distance behind.

“I went to inquire at the convent but they couldn’t tell me where she had gone. Only that she had run off without saying good-bye. However, I gathered that you were her friend. So I wondered if she perhaps had a secret plan and might have shared it with you.”

Emily shook her head. “I thought she was going back to those people. What was their name now?”

“The Mainwarings,” I said.

She nodded. “That’s right. Mainwaring. She didn’t want to. She said she hated it there, but it was better than nothing. And in fact Mrs. Mainwaring came to the convent the day before Maureen ran off. I know it was she because one of the sisters mentioned her name.”

“But she didn’t leave with Maureen at that time?”

“No. I don’t believe Maureen even saw her. She came to see the sisters. I do know Maureen was furious afterward and said Mrs. Mainwaring couldn’t be trusted.”

“Did she say why?”

Emily shook her head. “You have to understand that we had almost no time to ourselves. Everything we did was monitored by the sisters. We weren’t allowed to talk and Sister Angelique was always snooping. It was like being in jail.”

“I know a jail,” Bridie chimed in brightly. “It’s called Sing Sing. Were you there?”

“No, Bridie,” Gus said firmly.

I realized that there were aspects of this conversation that Bridie should probably not overhear, now that she was old enough to understand. “Now why don’t you go and see if you can find the ducklings,” I suggested.

“I think I can see them over there.” Bridie skipped off happily.

I gave Emily an apologetic smile. “I didn’t want her to overhear,” I said. “So you have no idea why Maureen ran off suddenly?”

“I was as surprised as anybody. I looked for her at breakfast that morning and I asked if she was not feeling well. Sister Jerome sent someone back to our dormitory and she had gone. Sister was furious.”

“Had anything happened that would have made her run away like that? Apart from not wanting to go back to the Mairwarings. Had she perhaps received a letter?”

“Nothing that I know of. We were both due to leave that week and we were both dreading it in a way. We couldn’t wait to be out of that place, but we really didn’t want to return to our previous situations. She promised she would come and see me and we joked about running off together and opening a tea shop in a small town, and then coming back to rescue our babies. She really loved her baby and she was furious at having to give it up.”

“Do you know who adopted the baby? Maybe she went there.”

“We were never told. Sister said it was better that we didn’t know; better to make a clean break. One moment our baby was with us, the next it had vanished.”

“So nothing happened just before she ran off? Nothing at all you can think of?”

She paused, staring out over the lake on which swans were swimming. “There was one thing,” she said carefully. “She had an awful row with somebody the day before she left. I heard her shouting. She said, ‘I’ve made up my mind. You can’t make me do it and I won’t. I won’t go through with it. You can’t make me. It’s cruel.’ Then a door opened and she came running out. I tried to stop her and ask her what was wrong, but she just pushed past me and ran away.”

“Was this row while Mrs. Mainwaring was there?”

“I’m not sure. It might have been.”