At our bedroom door Mother Sullivan stopped short, as Liam lay blissfully asleep on top of the eiderdown. “Oh, I see you already have the bed made up,” she said. “Daniel told me you’d no bed linens. That’s why I brought the trunk with me.”
“Oh, these are only borrowed from my neighbors, in case you’d not brought the bed linens with you but had them sent by a carter service,” I said quickly. “And we’ll need to make up a bed for Bridie, since I didn’t know she was coming. There’s a bed up in the old maid’s room, Bridie, love. You can have a room to yourself.”
“You can get the linens you’ll need from the trunk and make up the bed yourself, Bridie,” Mrs. Sullivan said. As soon as Bridie was out of the way she turned to me. “She’s getting to an age when I’m wondering what to do with her, Molly.”
I glanced out of the door to hear Bridie rummaging around in the trunk. “Why, she’s not proving to be difficult, surely?”
“Quite the contrary,” Mrs. Sullivan said. “She’s turned into a grand little helper. I’m concerned about her future, that’s all. I’ve taught her to read and write and do sums, but I’m thinking she needs more education if she’s going to make her way in the world. She’s as smart as a whip and the local school only goes up to sixth grade. Besides, it must be boring for her with only Martha and me for company. So I was thinking maybe she might stay with you for a while, and attend a proper school. Meet children of her own age. And to pay for her keep she can help you out around the house, until you find yourselves a new maid. She’s good with Liam, isn’t she?”
“She is, and there would be no need to pay for her keep. I’d be delighted to have her with me. But what about you? Won’t you miss having her around?”
“I’ll miss her, all right. But I have to think of her, not me. I may not be around forever and I want her to be able to make her way in the world. Maybe she can become a teacher. She’d like that, I know.”
“I think it’s very sweet and generous of you,” I said, and gave her a kiss on her cheek. “I’ll need to talk to Daniel and see what he says, but surely he couldn’t object.”
“We won’t mention it to Bridie until it’s all settled,” she said, “and she can come up to me in the vacations, can’t she?”
“Of course.” I turned back to the bed, where Liam was now gazing at us sleepily. “Oh, look, Master Liam has finally woken up. It’s your grandmother come to visit us, young man.”
“Isn’t he the birthday boy today?” she asked. “I could have sworn it was the fourteenth? I’ve a little something for him in the trunk—Martha’s made him a new sailor suit and we’ve bought the hat to go with it and proper little leather boots now that he’s walking.”
“That’s grand. How kind of you,” I said. “And we’ve decided to have a proper celebration when I’m well and we’re properly set up in the house.”
Mother Sullivan looked around. “It seems as if you have most things you need here. Enough for me to get started on dinner anyway. What had you in mind?”
“My supplies haven’t arrived yet from the apartment so I thought we’d keep it simple tonight with ham and mashed potatoes. I’m sure you’re tired after traveling and I can manage,” I started to say but she held up a hand. “Enough of that. You’ve been in a terrible train crash,” she said. “I’m here to make sure you have a chance to heal. Now, let’s see to dinner.”
She had dinner on the stove and Bridie had fed Liam by the time that Daniel arrived home. He looked around the kitchen and beamed. “Well, isn’t this nice? My family and my home back together. I can’t think of anything that would make me more happy.”
“Your wife has been doing too much, Daniel. Trying to get the dinner herself with her poor ribs all bandaged up. I told her she’s to rest and let Bridie and me take care of the house.”
Daniel seemed to have noticed Bridie for the first time. “Oh, so you brought young Bridie too. That will be nice company for Molly and Liam.”
We sat down to the simple meal of ham, mashed potatoes, and pickles. Daniel ate with such relish that I had to believe it was his first decent meal in days. I watched him as he ate, noticing how his hair still curled boyishly across his forehead and how handsome he was. And how tired he looked. I wondered if Mother Sullivan was right and this job was killing him, and I wondered what I should do about it.