‘You went back to Ireland?’
Kitty nodded. ‘But I’d asked about you before then. I went knocking at the door of the vicarage one day about a year or so after your aunt had thrown us out, and she threatened to have the police on me. Vicious, she was.’
‘She’s dead now, my uncle too.’
‘Aye, I know, lass. Miss Patience told me.’
‘Bridget, why don’t you start at the beginning and tell us the full story,’ Kane suggested, as Harriet came in with the tea tray.
‘Well, there’s not a lot to tell, sir. When your aunt,’ she turned to Sophy again, ‘got rid of us, we hung about these parts for a bit. I didn’t want to move too far afield because of you. But then we got the offer of work from a farmer at one of the hirings. The pay wasn’t much but it was Silksworth way so still close. The cottage he let us have was no more than a pigsty of a place, holes in the roof, all sorts, but we stuck it for a while. Then on me half-day off one Sunday I went to the vicarage. I wanted to let you know I was thinking of you, lass. That I hadn’t gone far. Your aunt was there. She said you’d been sent away and you weren’t coming back, and if I came again she’d have me locked up for stealing. Well, I’ve never stolen anything in me life, as you well know.’
Sophy nodded. ‘She was a hateful woman, Bridget.’
‘Then me mam got poorly, the cottage was so damp and cold, terrible it was, and then as luck would have it, we got set on at a big house in Newcastle.’
‘Newcastle? Oh, Bridget, I was at school in Newcastle! We might have met.’
‘You were? Well, I never. Well, me mam never really got better, not like she’d once been anyway, and she’d always had a hankering to go back to Ireland to see her sisters an’ that, and in the end she got right poorly and me and Da knew if we didn’t go soon, that’d be that. But I came back to the vicarage before we went, just in case. This little maid answered the door and when I asked after you she said there’d been a big row and you’d gone and no one knew where, but you weren’t coming back. I gave a letter to her to give to you on the off-chance.’
‘I never got it.’
‘No, well you wouldn’t if your aunt had anything to do with it,’ said Bridget darkly. ‘Anyway, we went back to Ireland and me mam died within the year but Da wanted to stay on, and as I was all he’d got . . . He went a month ago, God rest his soul, so I thought I’d come back and see if I could find out if you were all right. I’ve thought about you all the time, lass, and that’s God’s honest truth. I went to the vicarage but there’s new folk there and the lady – nice soul, she was – didn’t know anything about you, but told me Miss Patience had married a Dr Alridge and they lived Barnes Park way. I booked into a bed and breakfast last night and then went knocking on doors asking, but when I found the right house Miss Patience was out for the afternoon. So I went back tonight.’
Bridget didn’t add here how amazed she had been at the welcome she’d received. She remembered Miss Patience as a spiteful little madam with a tongue on her like her mother, but the warm, friendly woman who had invited her in and told her about Sophy’s success and given her Sophy’s address had been kindness itself.
‘And here I am,’ Bridget finished softly.
‘Here you are.’ Sophy hugged her again, she couldn’t help it. ‘Can you stay, Bridget? I don’t mean just tonight, although we’ll get your things picked up from the bed and breakfast in a little while, but for good? Can you?’
Bridget looked at Kane, clearly taken aback. He smiled broadly.
‘We’re looking for a nursemaid for when the twins are born and somehow I think we’ve found her,’ he said. ‘If you’re free, of course?’
‘Oh yes, sir.’ Bridget looked at Sophy. ‘Oh, lass, lass, I can’t believe it. I’ve been a bit low since my da went, not having bairns of my own, but I’ve always thought of you as my bairn . . .’ And then she stopped, again glancing at Kane as she said, ‘Not wishing to take liberties, sir.’
‘Take all the liberties you want, Bridget. You’ve done my wife the power of good. Now, give me the address of where your things are and Ralph will go and fetch them,’ he said briskly, pretending not to notice the tears in Bridget’s eyes. ‘And then we’ll see about settling you in. I’m sure my wife will want to show you the nursery later, but for now I’ll leave you two to chat.’ He put out his hand and touched Sophy’s cheek before leaving the room.
‘He seems a grand man, lass,’ Bridget said softly.
‘He is a grand man, Bridget.’
‘And you’re an actress, Miss Patience said? Fancy that.’