Bonnie was very protective of Lucy and never let anyone near her, but now she found she didn’t mind Aunt Maggie holding the basket; indeed there was something comforting in having her take control.
‘Leave your bag and shoes down there,’ Maggie said, pointing to a place in the hall just below a row of coat pegs. ‘Don’t you have a coat, girl?’
‘No,’ Bonnie said, still shivering.
Maggie tutted. ‘Well, come and warm yourself.’
Bonnie slipped off her trainers as the children watched. She saw that they and Maggie went barefoot, but unlike Bonnie’s their feet were clean.
‘Sorry,’ she said, embarrassed. ‘I’ve been sleeping rough.’
Maggie tutted again. ‘Through here,’ she said, and led the way into their neat front room.
Bonnie took in the thick-pile mauve carpet, the china ornaments that filled the shelves and the framed family photographs dotted on most of the walls. It was warm and friendly, a proper home, like no other she’d ever known.
‘So my sister sent you here?’ Maggie said, setting the Moses basket on the floor and pulling back the cover so she could see Lucy. Her children peered in too.
‘Sort of,’ Bonnie said. ‘I didn’t have anywhere to go and she suggested you.’
‘And your mother wouldn’t have you home?’ Maggie said.
‘No.’
‘All right. Let’s get your baby sorted out first and then you. What’s her name?’
‘Lucy.’
‘When was she last fed?’ Maggie asked. For having pulled back the cover she could see little Lucy was sucking ravenously on her fist.
‘About twelve o’clock.’ Bonnie said. ‘I guess she’s hungry now.’
‘I bet she is, poor little mite,’ Maggie said. ‘That’s six hours ago. Too long for a baby to go without food. How old is she?’
‘Just over six months.’
‘It’s all right, pet,’ Maggie said, cradling Lucy in her arms. ‘We’ll soon have you fed and comfortable.’ Then to her children she said: ‘Go upstairs and fetch your sister. Tell Liza I need her downstairs now to keep an eye on the dinner. Tell her now, not when it suits her.’
The children scuttled off and Bonnie knew they were used to doing as their mother told them and that Maggie was used to being obeyed. Yet while Maggie was firm, Bonnie sensed she was also very caring and loving – so unlike her own mother it was difficult to believe they were blood relatives.
She heard the children’s footsteps disappear upstairs and then their shouts of: ‘Hey, Liza! Mum wants you now. Guess what!’
Maggie looked at Bonnie as she perched awkwardly on the edge of the sofa. ‘Relax, girl. You can tell me later what’s been going on. First, we need to get this little one fed and bathed. Is she ill? I can smell sick.’
‘She was sick, but I gave her medicine from the chemist.’
‘You didn’t take her to a doctor?’
‘No. She stopped being sick.’
‘So what does she eat?’ Maggie now asked, taking the empty milk-stained feeding bottle from the Moses basket.
‘Milk, yoghurt and anything soft I have,’ Bonnie said.
Maggie didn’t voice her thoughts. ‘OK, let’s start her with a bottle of milk first and then we’ll bath her. Then, once she’s more comfortable we’ll give her some dinner. We’ll also need to wash her clothes and the covers from the basket.’
‘I have some clean clothes for her in my bag,’ Bonnie said, grateful that Maggie knew what to do to help them.
Footsteps sounded on the stairs and the children reappeared, with a teenage girl dressed fashionably in leggings and a long jersey top. She looked at Bonnie and then at Lucy in her mother’s arms.
‘Liza, this is Bonnie,’ Maggie said. ‘My sister’s girl, your cousin. I need you to help me with dinner while I get this little one sorted out.’
Bonnie thought she saw the faintest flash of resentment cross Liza’s face as she gave a small nod and then left the front room to go into the kitchen.
‘You hold your baby while I fix her a bottle,’ Maggie said to Bonnie, placing Lucy in her arms. She took the bottle, which was in need of a good wash, and disappeared into the kitchen, while the two younger children stayed, staring quizzically at Bonnie.
‘Are you going to sleep here?’ the boy asked after a moment.
Bonnie shrugged. ‘I dunno.’
‘Haven’t you got a home?’ the girl asked.
Bonnie shook her head and concentrated on Lucy, who was sucking hard on her fist.
‘How come?’ the boy asked. ‘How come you haven’t got a home and a mum and dad?’
‘I just haven’t. That’s all,’ Bonnie said, niggled by their intrusive questions. She could hear muffled voices coming from the kitchen and hoped Maggie would reappear soon. These kids had so much confidence they frightened her. She felt safe with Maggie, and Lucy was going to start crying again soon and worry her further.
In the kitchen, Maggie was using boiling water and a bottle brush to thoroughly clean the bottle of congealed milk. ‘Little wonder the baby was sick,’ she said, scrubbing the rim of the bottle for the third time.
Milk was warming in a milk pan on the hob and Liza was keeping an eye on it while stirring the pan of food for dinner.
‘Is she staying?’ Liza asked, glancing at her mother.
‘She’ll have to tonight,’ Maggie said. ‘It’s late and cold. She can’t be out with a baby. They’ve nowhere else to go.’
‘You weren’t thinking of giving her Bett’s bed?’ Liza said, giving the spoon a sharp tap on the edge of the pan before setting it on the work surface.
‘Yes, just for tonight.’
Liza knew better than to complain; it was her mother’s decision to allow Bonnie to use her elder sister’s bed while she was away at university.
‘What about the baby?’ Liza asked. ‘Is she coming in my room too?’
‘She’ll have to until I get something else sorted out.’
Maggie poured the warmed milk into the clean bottle and took it into the living room where she left Bonnie to feed Lucy while she went upstairs to prepare the bedroom.
That evening, once Lucy was fed, dressed in clean clothes and asleep, and the family had eaten, Maggie had a long talk with Bonnie, from which it soon became clear that there was no point in phoning her sister as she couldn’t, or wouldn’t, help her daughter. So Maggie assumed the responsibility, although she made it clear from the outset that Bonnie staying was only temporary, until she could find something more suitable. The social services’ records show that Bonnie and Lucy stayed for two months and that Bonnie came to view this period as the best two months of her life – living in a loving family headed by a woman who actually cared for her.
Every evening when Leon, Maggie’s husband, came home from work they ate around a large circular table, with a spotlessly clean tablecloth and cutlery that gleamed. Dinner was a sociable event, with everyone talking and laughing, sharing their news and catching up on the day’s events – it was unlike anything Bonnie had experienced before. To begin with she felt uneasy and slightly intimidated by this noisy family and ate in silence, but gradually she began to relax and join in the conversation, although she never had that much to say. Leon did most of the talking and was a great storyteller. Bonnie loved to listen to him; to her, he was a proper dad and far removed from the men