So Long At the Fair by Jess Foley

‘She went out again last night, but this time she didn’t come back. And her clothes are gone from her room.’ From her pocket she brought out the letters. ‘Here . . .’ She handed one to him. ‘I got one as well, and there’s another one here for Father.’
    Eddie turned the envelope over in his dirty hands, then tore it open.
    Abbie watched his face as he unfolded the letter and read it. She saw his mouth twist and the sudden shine of tears in his eyes. ‘What does she say, Eddie?’
    He hesitated and swallowed before replying, ‘She’ve gone away. She’ve left us. She ain’t comin’ back no more.’
    Abbie began to cry again, silently, the tears streaming down her cheeks. ‘Tell me what she says. What does she say?’
    ‘She says,’ he said, looking back at the letter, ‘that she’ve got to go away . . .’ His voice trembling, he began to read aloud from it. ‘“You’ve been a good son, Eddie, and from now on I want you to be a good brother to your sisters and look after them. It’s no use me trying to explain now why I’m leaving, but perhaps one day I’ll be able to, and you’ll be able to understand. I’m very sorry.”’ He paused. ‘She signs it “Your loving Mother”.’
    Suddenly the tears were flowing unchecked from his eyes and he sobbed out into the still morning air. He spun, took a few steps away, then turned back again. The tears were streaming down his face. In all her life, Abbie had never seen him weep like this. She watched as, in a fever of anguish, he tore at the letter, ripping it to pieces. ‘Well, she can go!’ he cried, letting the fragments of paper fall at his feet. ‘Let ’er go! Well manage without ’er. Let ’er go!’
    A little later, after a brief conversation with Mr White, Eddie was given permission to saddle one of the mares and ride to Bath. He found his father working on site, mixing mortar. As Eddie approached, Frank Morris’s eyes registered alarm at the sight of his son there, so far from home. In silence Eddie delivered to him the third letter.
    His father read it and then turned away. ‘I’ll see the foreman. He’ll let me off – though of course I’ll lose the pay. It can’t be helped. Tell Abbie I’ll be back later on today.’
    ‘Where’s Mam gone, Father?’ Eddie asked.
    ‘She doesn’t say. Though I’ve no doubt she’s gone back to London.’
    ‘But – but why ? Why would she want to go off alone and leave us like that?’
    ‘She hasn’t gone alone,’ his father said. ‘She’s gone with Jack Pattison. They’ve gone off together.’
    That evening, after her father had returned, grave-faced, from Bath, Abbie went to tell Jane and Mrs Carroll what had happened. When they had sympathized and given her what comfort they could, Jane asked what she intended to do about her post at Marylea House. Abbie replied that she would have to write to Mrs Curren and tell her that she could not work for her after all, that from now on she would be needed at home. After some discussion it was decided that, if Mrs Curren would accept her, Jane would go in Abbie’s place. So after Abbie had left, Mrs Carroll went to tell Mr Taggart that she and Jane would like to travel with him to Westbury the following day instead of the Morrises.
    They approached Marylea House the next morning with some trepidation. They need not have worried, however. Mrs Curren was immediately agreeable – for, as she remarked, Jane had only lost out in the first place through the fall of a coin.
    Later, after a rest over a cup of tea, Mrs Carroll and Jane went into the yard where they embraced and said their goodbyes. Then, with tears in her eyes, and watched by Jane from the gate, Mrs Carroll set off back on the dusty road to Flaxdown.
    While Jane was learning her duties in Eversleigh, Abbie was trying to deal with the changes in her own life. At first she lived in hope that her mother would return, but the days dragged by and Mrs Morris did not come. How,