her to do what she’d done, but how could she sit on information like this? She worked for the government. Suddenly she felt totally conflicted. What was the right thing to do?’
Julia knew this was the bitterness affecting Agnes. The bitterness of losing her husband in the Great War. She’d never ever been able to get over it. It must’ve poisoned her. Made her this way. She wanted to reach forward and grab the scrawny little woman. Hug her or something. But Agnes would have never allowed it; everything about her was prickly. Apart from the children who seemed to win her heart; the adult world to her was the enemy.
‘Agnes, you’ve put me in an impossible position. I’ll need to report this.’
Agnes’s eyes widened. ‘You would do that? You would report your own mother-in-law?’
‘It’s my duty, Agnes. I work for Mr Churchill, and you are working against us.’
Agnes became angry. ‘He should never have married you. I told him not to marry you,’ she spat. ‘You with your high and mighty ways, even though you grew up right here you always thought yourself a cut above the rest of us. Get yourself a nice girl, I said, who will cook your dinner and take care of your children. But no, you had to go and work for Churchill. Work at the War Office. Work above your station.’
Julia was shocked. She’d never heard Agnes talk like this, and though she’d always sensed that things weren’t right between them, she’d had no idea she felt this way. ‘I can’t stay, Agnes. I have to go. And you know I can’t sit on this information.’
As she reached the door, Agnes sent her last crushing blow towards her. ‘If you do that, if you tell anybody about this, John will never forgive you. I’m his mother, and he might love you and your children, but he’ll never forgive you for putting his mother in prison.’
The words made Julia freeze because there was a side of her that knew Agnes was right. The guilt that John felt for his mother, the need to protect her and coddle her because she’d lost her husband, was so intense in him that he was blinded to who she was.
He would excuse her behaviour, saying she was probably scared or fearful or trying her best. What frightened Julia, though she didn’t believe John would leave her, was that it might drive an impossible wedge between them. Would he ever be able to truly forgive her? As she walked out of Agnes’s house, Julia knew there was no one she could trust with this secret, but she couldn’t see how she could not report it. It was her duty, wasn’t it?
43
Lizzie awoke with a start. She hadn’t slept for more than a couple of hours at a time since Jack’s death and had finally dropped into a deep sleep, but someone was pulling on her arm. She dragged herself back from the thick fog of exhaustion and forced her eyes open; it was Abigail. As she focused on the concerned look on her tiny face, Lizzie became aware of a noise. Was it coming from the hallway? Trying to orient herself, she pushed up into a sitting position and realized someone was knocking on the front door.
Stumbling out of bed, she made her way out of the bedroom and down the stairs. Pulling open the door, it took her a moment to remember who the woman was who was staring at her, and then the realization came back in a rush. The nurse! The nurse from the night she’d given up her baby. She felt the sting, again. Lizzie hoped this was good news. She didn’t feel strong enough to take any more bad news right now.
‘I found her,’ the woman assured her. ‘They’d moved out of their last house. But I tracked her down. Their last name is Henshore.’
Fresh tears clouded Lizzie’s vision. She had lost one love and found another.
‘I have her address,’ the woman continued and handed her a piece of paper.
Lizzie stared at the address in her hand. ‘Thank you so much,’ she said, noticing her voice was still croaky, her throat still sore from the crying, mind still blurry from the lack of sleep, but she felt a surge of momentary joy. The woman nodded and scuttled away.
Lizzie looked down at the address in front of her with renewed hope.
She dressed and, as she went to put her shoes on, Lizzie noticed Abigail standing