Rosa's Island Read Free Page B

gazed with envy at the romance of it.
    Mary had brought him to the Drews’ farm and whilst Mr Drew took him on a tour of the estate, Mary sat with Mrs Drew as she suckled the baby Matthew, and told her that they were to be married in the church on Sunk Island. The whole of the population turned out to watch Mary marry her foreign gentleman and wild were the rumours as to who he was. Some vowed that he was a gypsy, some that he was an escapee from the law, but others firmly believed what Mary had told them, that he was a prince, with a castle in Spain.
    â€˜Come along up, Mrs Drew.’ She heard her husband’s voice call from the top of the stairs and she sighed. She had hoped that he had gone to sleep and would permit her to do the same, but it was Saturday night and tomorrow morning he would go to church and pray for forgiveness for the weakness of the flesh. She was now over childbearing years, at least she hoped she was, asDelia, their last child, was now seven years old; her flux had dried up and her husband no longer had the excuse for his excesses, that he was procreating as the Lord intended.
    She climbed into the feather bed and closed her eyes as she lay beneath his panting body and hoped that the children in the next room couldn’t hear his moaning and mutterings, asking God to forgive him for his wicked tendencies. She too prayed. I can put up with this, dear Lord, but please don’t let me be caught with child, and she knew that she was being wicked. Her husband had told her so, so many times, when she had begged him not to make her pregnant yet again. She had given birth to Jim when she was nineteen, then Henry two years later, Maggie was born when Henry was two, then Flo when Maggie was one. She had a respite until the twins Nellie and Lydia three years later, then miscarried the following year.
    â€˜You have enough children, Mrs Drew,’ the doctor had informed her. ‘What need do you have for more? You must speak to your husband and advise him it will not be good for your health to have another child.’
    She had told him, but he said that it was the Lord’s doing, that the act of marriage was designed for the procreation of children and that they must not go against His teachings. He was a churchwarden and a lay preacher and he addressed assemblies, bringing into the text that the Lord’s word was to be obeyed. And so she became pregnant with Matthew and nearly died.
    He left her alone for a time after that, andmade more frequent visits into the town of Hull, when sometimes he would stay overnight. He would dress in his best grey coat and his stovepipe hat and make the difficult journey from Sunk Island across the wide landscape of Holderness into the port of Hull. But when he returned he spent so much time on his knees praying to the Lord that his work was neglected, the embankment on which his men were supposed to be working was breached and he was called before the Lords of Holderness to explain himself. So she let him back into her bed, and Delia was conceived.
    When she heard that Mary too was carrying a child, she wondered how it was that she could look so fresh and radiant. Even though Mary was overcome with grief at her husband’s disappearance, when her dark-haired, dark-eyed child, Rosa, was born, the baby delighted everyone with her blithe and sunny presence, whilst her own pale-faced child, Delia, lay still, viewing everyone with sad grey eyes and petulant mouth.
    â€˜Have you thought any more about the Jennings child, Mr Drew?’ she asked after supper the next evening.
    â€˜You mean ’Carlos child,’ he remonstrated and she was surprised that he had remembered Rosa’s proper name, for she was often referred to as the Jennings child. ‘Yes, I’ve been to talk to Mrs Jennings today. Mr Jennings is in a poor way. He’ll not be much longer on this earth but will be joining our Heavenly Father.’
    Mrs Drew caught sight of a