won’t have you talking about your Da that way! Stop it this minute, please, for my sake.”
Once having begun her tirade, Callie was beyond stopping. Even pity for her mother could not still her tongue. “The one who is provided for is Da. And who does the providing? Not the good Lord, I’ll venture. It’s me down at the mill and you leanin’ over the washboard. At least Granda tries to do what he can with that little garden of his.”
“It’s your Da’s back, Callie. Some mornings he can barely walk and you know it!” Peggy tried truthfully. “He’s a man, and a man’s got his pride. He doesn’t want his children to think of him as a cripple. It’s his own torment that he’s unable to work and feed his family.” Peggy wrung her hands in distress. She couldn’t bear it when Callie took on about Thom’s not supporting his family. Times were hard, and jobs impossible to come by. Was there no pity in the girl’s soul? Didn’t she see her father dandle the babes on his knee and sing the songs of old Ireland in the sweetest voice the angels ever heard? Couldn’t she feel the love the man held for his family?
“How can you keep making excuses for him, Mum? Much less sleep with him. You no sooner give up nursing one babe and he puts another in your belly? Why, Mum? Why? How can you still love him?” Callie hated herself for treating Peggy this way—the one person she loved more than any other.
Peggy pushed her hair off her strong-boned face. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She realized Callie’s anger toward Thom was born out of the fear of losing her mother while birthing another child.
In the dimness of the early morning light that filtered through the tiny kitchen window, Peggy walked over to her daughter and touched her face. In a soft voice, the voice she always used when speaking about Thomas, Peggy said, “When your time comes, Callie girl, you’ll understand. There’s something that brings a man and a woman together, and not heaven, hell, nor even a baby’s hunger can change it. Makes no matter what he does, nor even if he betrays you. You’ll love him, and he’ll be your man till the day you die.”
Callie’s eyes strayed about the damp, chill room and fell on the two little ones sleeping just past the doorway in the next room, their noses always snotting, their deep-set eyes cavernlike in their thin faces. “Well, I’ll not be like you, Mum. You can be sure of that. My head will never be turned by a handsome face and a strong back, even if he does sing with the voice of an angel! It’s my head that’ll rule my life, not my heart!”
Peggy watched her best-loved daughter’s pretty face flush with the heat of her words. With a deep sigh, Peggy reached out to touch the girl and gazed somberly into her Irish blue eyes. “Well spoken, darlin’, and well meant. But sometimes one must listen to the heart, for not to would be to miss the best life has to offer. Oh, it may be mingled with tears, but I’ll vouch you, it’s still the best.”
Callie looked up into her mother’s face and then buried her head against the round belly. Throughout her life Callie would think of this moment and bitterly yearn for that headstrong, willful young girl, and wish she had heeded her own words.
Chapter Two
The sound of voices awakened seven-year-old Hallie. The little girl came out to the kitchen, sleep-heavy eyes immediately brightening when she saw Callie. “Hullo, Callie. Are you going to take us for a walk later? Are you, Callie? You promised.”
“Come here, sweet.” Callie smiled fondly at the child whose rumpled nightdress was growing so small that her thin legs were bare from the knee down. “Give us a kiss.” The child hurried over to her older sister, smiling shyly with delight.
“Are you, Callie? Can the twins and Georgie come, too?”
Picking Hallie up onto her lap, Callie nuzzled the softness under the child’s chin. Tousling Hallie’s bright golden curls, she hugged and kissed her soundly. Poor little thing, Callie thought, half-starved all the time and still with a disposition sweet as sugar. “Sure, love, I’ll take you for a walk. But you’ll have to wait till later. Hurry up now and go wake up the twins and Georgie; I’ve brought you a special surprise. Go on, now.” She put Hallie back on the floor. “And wake Granda and Da. This surprise is for them, too.”
Avoiding Peggy’s angry stare, Callie directed her attention to Hallie as the child asked, “A surprise, Callie? What kind of surprise? Did you buy me a candy? I love candy. Did you bring one for Georgie, too?” Hallie’s little girl’s voice tugged at Callie’s heart. Candy! When it was all they could do to buy the making for thin gruel and now and then a piece of fatback.
“No candy this morning, darlin’. But you’ll like this much more. Hush now, no more questions. Go and get everyone up.”
Hallie rushed into the next room, and Callie lifted her eyes to Peggy. She went and put her arms around the woman’s thin shoulders. “What’s done is done, Mum. No use thinking about it now. Come now, they’ll all be in here in a minute. Best get the kettle on the hob and help me slice this ham. If I’m not mistaken, there are eggs at the bottom of the basket. I only hope there’s enough for the little ones.”
“Callie, don’t be thinkin’ me ungrateful. I’m not. I know how you try for the family. I only worry for you.”
“I know, Mum. And I promise to resist temptation in the future. I doubt we’ll have a windfall the likes of this again. So let’s enjoy it, right?”
Peggy broke out into a grin. “Well, I guess there’s no help for it, is there?” She went to the hearth and stoked the fire in the grate, hanging a kettle of water onto the hob. “I declare your Da’s eyes will bug right out of his head when he sees this fare. Callie, do you think there’s an extra egg for him?”
Opening the tissue paper that protected the eggs, Callie found there were half a dozen. For herself, she didn’t care if she had an egg or not, but she sighed and resigned herself to the fact that although Peggy needed the nourishment more than anyone, the twins included, she would without a doubt forego the egg and give it to Thom. Well, the ham was plenty big enough, and hadn’t the grocer said there wasn’t another like it in all Dublin?
“What’ll we tell Da and Granda where I came by this?” Callie asked as she unpacked the oranges and bread.
“It’s your deed, Callie girl, so I guess it must be your lie. Tell as close to the truth as you can.” Peggy’s face pinched with worry. Hungry as she was and as much as she realized her children needed the food, she wondered if she would be able to swallow it. Callie had risked her life, literally, to help her family. The girl’s heart had been in the right place. Still, punishment for stealing was met at the end of a rope.
Callie whispered, “Don’t worry, Mum. It’ll be all right, I promise you. Later I’ll tell you about this man who helped me.”
“A man?” Peggy’s eyebrows shot up with worry.
“He’ll keep the secret, Mum. It’s Aunt Sara I’m worried about. Don’t whisper a word of this to her,” Callie warned. “Not that she’ll do without anything, not the way Uncle Jack consorts with the English. I wouldn’t want her turnin’ me in just to put herself in good stead with her fancy English friends.”
“Callie,” Peggy said, “where’s the love I’ve taught you for your family? Aunt Sara won’t know a thing about this. When she brings her ironing this afternoon, you’ll have taken the children for their walk. I wouldn’t want her to know my own girl took to thievery to put food on the table. I’m that ashamed.” Not for anything would Peggy admit that Callie’s suspicions concerning her own sister had their foundations in truth.
Granda shuffled into the kitchen, his rheumy gray eyes falling immediately to the rough table where Callie, his favorite grandchild, was unloading the basket. “And what’s this? Have you found the Little People’s pot o’ gold, child? Never have I seen such wondrous goods. Not even the time when me own Da came home from selling the cow to market and brought us a feast meant for kings!” Granda moved about the table, smelling the oranges and lifting his gaze heavenward to express his delight.