Читать книгу Daughter of Mine - Anne Bennett - Страница 11

Niamh Mary Gillespie was born on 30^th May 1934, a day before her cousin Deidre was born to Tressa, and Steve’s delight was sincere and enthusiastic.

He was a wonderful father, who never objected to minding Niamh if Lizzie was busy, even if he’d just come in from work. Flo was shocked one day, seeing him do this while Lizzie was sorting the hot water for his wash, but Steve paid her no heed. ‘I see little enough of her, Ma,’ he said, cradling her in his arms. ‘This is no hardship to me.’

Nothing he did for his daughter seemed a hardship to him, and every fine Sunday afternoon Steve would forego the lunchtime binge with his mates and walk out with his wife and baby, pushing Niamh proudly in the pram he’d bought from Lewis’s when she was just a few days old.

‘When she’s older, we’ll take her to the Lickey Hills,’ Steve would promise as they wheeled the child through Calthorpe or Cannon Hill Park.’ My old man never did much with me or our Neil, and I intend to be a better dad than that to mine.’

How could Lizzie resent the few occasions when she’d known he’d sought satisfaction elsewhere, when under doctor’s orders she’d been unable to have sex before she’d had the child? There had been times she had burned with frustration herself and she’d missed the cuddles they used to have in bed, but Steve said you never knew where that might lead. He was right, but it had been hard, and if she’d found it difficult how much worse must it have been for him? Men couldn’t really do without sex like women could, it was a well-known fact, except for priests of course. She resolved to put those past incidents out of her head and let them both take joy in their child.

Niamh was over three months by mid-September, old enough to make the trip to Ireland, and so, desperate to show her daughter off, Lizzie went to see her mother. Steve didn’t go with them, so he was able to indulge himself with all the street women he wanted as soon as Lizzie’s back was turned.