phenomenon, he had decided that the best course of action was to bring Catrin and the baby back to Hendre Ddu where she had her family to turn to, rather than to leave her alone all day while he was out seeing his patients. ‘She can bring Molly, the little nanny, with her to attend to the baby and to take over some of the night nursing, while I keep the housekeeper to look after me.’
Josi, of course, said that they would all be very pleased to help in any way they could and would be delighted to welcome Catrin and the baby whenever it was convenient.
‘Now,’ he said seriously to Mari Elen, ‘do you think you can be a really good girl while Catrin is with us. She’s not well and needs rest with no shouting or bad behaviour.’
‘I’ll try to be very good,’ she promised. ‘But if people are unreasonable towards me and treat me as a child, then, of course, it’s very difficult for me. It’s hardly my fault if Miss Rees thinks I’m too young to hear anything she has to say and sends me downstairs to fetch her a glass of water when she already has a full jug of fresh water on her side table. I promise to be good if people are good to me.’
‘But cariad, you are a child and people don’t want to burden you with grown-up troubles you can’t understand. But come and tell me or Lowri if you think people are being unreasonable to you, instead of screaming and kicking. Do you promise? Catrin is quite seriously ill and we must all be very careful of her. May is returning to London very soon, but she’s going to make arrangements for the wedding and after that she will be returning here to be mistress of Hendre Ddu. I heard a whisper last night that she may be asking you to be her bridesmaid, which will mean a lovely new dress and a crown of flowers. I shouldn’t really have told you that, but you see I want you to be happy.’
‘I hope pink rosebuds, then, for the headdress. And I think I’d better choose the dress I want so that Auntie May won’t choose anything babyish.’
‘Heaven forbid,’ Josi muttered. He often felt too old to be a father of someone so very young and new as Mari Elen. He also felt that he would far better understand a little lad. Women were a mystery. Catrin had been so excited and happy to be a new mother and now she was ‘seriously depressed’. Perhaps she needed a glimpse of the real world where women had babies without the means to care for them. He had seen cases of frightful poverty, but not, thank God, amongst the workers at Hendre Ddu.
Lowri was clearly the best companion for Catrin. The two were almost the same age and had always been firm friends. ‘You must now forget all the work that you normally do and concentrate on being with Catrin,’ Josi told her. ‘You can leave everything else, particularly caring for Miss Rees, to the new nurse. She seems so capable. Well, of course she is. Dr Andrews would have made sure of that.’
Tom and May seemed to drift about the farm in a daze of happiness. Tom was learning to walk with a walking stick instead of a crutch and never mentioned his misfortune in losing his leg. ‘On the contrary I regard it as the greatest good luck. I got out of that hell hole before being thrown out for attempting a mutiny. I wish someone would.’
‘What would your father, the colonel, think of my son’s cheerful insubordination?’
‘I think he has some ideas of what a fearful carnage the war is turning into. All the same, I shall certainly advise Tom to keep his thoughts to himself when he comes home to ask for my hand.’
That evening Lowri was unable to join the company for supper. Catrin was strruggling to feed the baby and Lowri was up with her, trying to get the tiny girl to take a few drops of nourishment from a spoon, all of them weeping.
‘I’m not having a baby when I grow up. They’re too much trouble and they cry too much. I think the one we’ve got is rather bad tempered and spoilt,’ Mari Elen said.
‘Has Lowri
Josi, of course, said that they would all be very pleased to help in any way they could and would be delighted to welcome Catrin and the baby whenever it was convenient.
‘Now,’ he said seriously to Mari Elen, ‘do you think you can be a really good girl while Catrin is with us. She’s not well and needs rest with no shouting or bad behaviour.’
‘I’ll try to be very good,’ she promised. ‘But if people are unreasonable towards me and treat me as a child, then, of course, it’s very difficult for me. It’s hardly my fault if Miss Rees thinks I’m too young to hear anything she has to say and sends me downstairs to fetch her a glass of water when she already has a full jug of fresh water on her side table. I promise to be good if people are good to me.’
‘But cariad, you are a child and people don’t want to burden you with grown-up troubles you can’t understand. But come and tell me or Lowri if you think people are being unreasonable to you, instead of screaming and kicking. Do you promise? Catrin is quite seriously ill and we must all be very careful of her. May is returning to London very soon, but she’s going to make arrangements for the wedding and after that she will be returning here to be mistress of Hendre Ddu. I heard a whisper last night that she may be asking you to be her bridesmaid, which will mean a lovely new dress and a crown of flowers. I shouldn’t really have told you that, but you see I want you to be happy.’
‘I hope pink rosebuds, then, for the headdress. And I think I’d better choose the dress I want so that Auntie May won’t choose anything babyish.’
‘Heaven forbid,’ Josi muttered. He often felt too old to be a father of someone so very young and new as Mari Elen. He also felt that he would far better understand a little lad. Women were a mystery. Catrin had been so excited and happy to be a new mother and now she was ‘seriously depressed’. Perhaps she needed a glimpse of the real world where women had babies without the means to care for them. He had seen cases of frightful poverty, but not, thank God, amongst the workers at Hendre Ddu.
Lowri was clearly the best companion for Catrin. The two were almost the same age and had always been firm friends. ‘You must now forget all the work that you normally do and concentrate on being with Catrin,’ Josi told her. ‘You can leave everything else, particularly caring for Miss Rees, to the new nurse. She seems so capable. Well, of course she is. Dr Andrews would have made sure of that.’
Tom and May seemed to drift about the farm in a daze of happiness. Tom was learning to walk with a walking stick instead of a crutch and never mentioned his misfortune in losing his leg. ‘On the contrary I regard it as the greatest good luck. I got out of that hell hole before being thrown out for attempting a mutiny. I wish someone would.’
‘What would your father, the colonel, think of my son’s cheerful insubordination?’
‘I think he has some ideas of what a fearful carnage the war is turning into. All the same, I shall certainly advise Tom to keep his thoughts to himself when he comes home to ask for my hand.’
That evening Lowri was unable to join the company for supper. Catrin was strruggling to feed the baby and Lowri was up with her, trying to get the tiny girl to take a few drops of nourishment from a spoon, all of them weeping.
‘I’m not having a baby when I grow up. They’re too much trouble and they cry too much. I think the one we’ve got is rather bad tempered and spoilt,’ Mari Elen said.
‘Has Lowri
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