Page 105 of The Girl from the Tea Garden
‘What do you mean?’
‘I know all about our family. Mother told me. Your Indian grandmother went with a British clerk, and Jane Cooper, your mother, was the result. So we’re all half-castes.’
‘How dare you!’ Olive struck, half slapping, half clawing at Adela’s cheek. Adela recoiled, clutching at her face.
‘Don’t you ever dare say such a thing again,’ Olive cried. ‘George and Jane know nothing of all that, so don’t you say a word. You’re a disgrace to the family. You can’t stay here. So get out of my sight!’
‘So you’d put me out on the street at six months gone?’ Adela cried. ‘Mother would never do that to one of yours.’
‘No daughter of mine would have been so shameless.’ Olive glared.
Adela swallowed and took a deep breath. ‘You’re right to be angry with me. I’ll regret what I’ve done for the rest of my life. But please, Aunt Olive, help me. We’re family.’
Olive collapsed into her chair again. ‘What am I to do with you?’
‘Perhaps I could go and stay in the flat with Lexy.’
‘No. Not the café. We’d be the talk of the town. You’ll have to stop going round there.’
‘Then where? Let me at least go and speak to Lexy and see if she can help.’
‘Very well,’ Olive agreed. ‘But Lexy is the only one you’re to tell. And I’ll not have you sharing with my Jane any longer, so you better get summat sorted quick.’
Lexy was shocked by Adela’s news but soon recovered. ‘Of course I’ll help you, lass.’
‘Aunt Olive says I’m to move out of Lime Terrace and I’m not to come near the café either.’
‘She’s a coward,’ Lexy said crossly. ‘Always has been. To think of the times Clarrie helped her sister and looked after her bairns; the least she could do now would be to help you out. Is that how you got them marks on your cheek?’
Adela ignored the question. ‘There must be places I could go till the ba—, till my time comes.’ Adela thought of the grim stories she had heard of homes for fallen women, part of the workhouse system. She shuddered at the thought.
‘I’ll not have you put away in one of them places.’ Lexy was adamant. ‘We’ll sort summat. I’ve got half an idea already.’
Two days later Lexy sought out Adela at the cinema as she was coming off shift and told her the plan.
Olive made the announcement around the tea table later that week.
‘Going to Edinburgh?’ Jane asked in dismay. ‘That’s very sudden.’
‘Well, I’ve got the chance of some theatre work,’ Adela lied, ‘and a lift up the Great North Road from someone at the cinema. So it has to be tomorrow.’
‘That’s grand, lass,’ Jack said.
‘Congratulations!’ George cried. ‘Which theatre?’
‘The Playhouse,’ said Adela. She hoped there was such a place, or if not that her cousin’s knowledge of Edinburgh was as vague as hers.
‘Maybe I’ll come up and see you perform.’ He grinned. ‘You’ll be a star, I know it.’
‘I’m glad for you,’ Jane said without enthusiasm, ‘though I’m sorry to see you go.’
‘Thank you.’ Adela was surprised and touched by her cousin’s obvious disappointment.
Olive sat smiling tensely throughout the meal, hardly touching her food. Adela was relieved when it was over and she could retreat to the bedroom. Jane followed. She watched as Adela packed a few clothes into the smaller of the two suitcases.
‘How long will you be gone? Will you come back for Christmas?’
‘I’m not sure. I’ll just see how it goes.’ She closed the suitcase. ‘If there’s anything of mine in the wardrobe you’d like, then please help yourself.’
