Until they could find a place to rent near the factory, Molly had arranged for herself and Charlie to stay with Jesse. Very reluctantly, Jesse had agreed, saying they could stay in her old room for as long as they needed to.
‘Why don’t you like him, Dad?’ she’d asked, although she already knew the answer.
‘I don’t really know him,’ he replied, unwilling to share his evident dislike.
‘Is it because he was married before? Because I was too. This is my second divorce.’
Jesse’s eyes narrowed. ‘That’s as may be, Molly, but you didn’t go breaking up a family.’
‘He’s going to look after her properly, and the children,’ she assured him. ‘We both are.’
‘And who else was he married to? What happened to that wife?’
Molly wasn’t sure what he meant, but then worked out that he’d calculated that Charlie must have been married before, as he was so much older than Muriel. She took a deep breath. ‘He wasn’t married before, Dad. He was in prison. For twenty years.’
She told him Charlie’s tale of incarceration, and Jesse heaved himself up to make coffee.
‘Got yourself a fine one, there, Molly,’ he said quietly, and she had bitten back a retort about how much he’d approved of Tommy, and what a “fine one” he turned out to be.
Now they set about moving back into her bedroom, beside Maureen who was also still there, though her sons had moved out with even the youngest at college in Colorado. Maureen was dating a widower with a very nice house of his own, and both she and Jesse were hopeful that she’d move into it if they married. For now, it was nice for Molly to have some support in the frosty atmosphere that surrounded her marriage to Charlie.
They returned to work on Monday, and were instantly confronted by their co-workers about their marriage – and Molly about her divorce from George.
‘I can’t believe you kept it all so quiet,’ bleated Annette from her coveted place at their lunch table. ‘And George, how’s he? Maybe I should have married him! Oh,’ she said, thinking aloud, ‘maybe I still can!’
Molly had to laugh. ‘Maybe you can,’ she said, as Charlie winked and stirred salt into his soup. ‘He’s a lovely, decent man. I enjoyed being married to George, and we are remaining very good friends.’
‘And what about Muriel?’ Danny slid into place beside Charlie. ‘Who’s going to look after her and all those children you kept having?’
‘Well, not that it’s any of your business,’ said Charlie evenly, ‘but Muriel is very well looked after – she’s even got my new car - and I’ll be supporting the kids until they’ve all graduated from high school.’
‘So …’ mused Danny, the confirmed bachelor, ‘Muriel’s single again.’
Charlie laughed. ‘I don’t think so, but feel free to find out for yourself.’
Within a few weeks, they were working in an atmosphere that was nearly the same as it had been before their wedding, except that now they almost always ate lunch together, and they never again passed secret notes to each other.
Chapter 19
* * *
There’s No Place Like Home
* * *
Now I shout it from the highest hills
Even told the golden daffodils
At last, my life’s an open door
And my secret love’s no secret any more
Calamity Jane (Doris Day)
They ended up spending nearly two weeks at Jesse's house, before finding a nice rental home within walking distance of their work, during which time both Jesse and Maureen warmed up to Charlie.