Annie braced herself. Here was the man she had loved for so long but it was all too late. Too much water had passed under the bridge for both of them

Billy told himself it was for his daughter’s sake that he had to speak to Annie but he was also glad of the excuse to speak to her for himself. He also wanted to know how she knew John Adams. He knocked at the door, removing his bonnet as he did so. Would he be welcome? The door opened and there she was, flour on her apron and the smell of baking hitting his nostrils.

“Billy!” she exclaimed. Her unexpected visitor held up a hand.

“It’s all right,” he said, “there’s nothing wrong. I just need to have a word with you about something.”

Annie stood back and Billy entered. “Kitchen?” he asked.

Annie nodded. “Just baking some scones,” she explained, indicating he should sit down, while she took a batch out of the oven and replaced them with the next one.

Her mind ran through various reasons why Billy Dawson was in her kitchen while Euan was at work but none of them made sense.

Confused

Billy watched as she made them some tea and finally joined him at the table. “I need your help,” he said, “or support more like.” Annie was confused. It had always been her asking for his help in the past. “If I can help, you know I will,” she said cautiously. “It’s about Sarah and this John Adams she’s met.” “I thought Josie had put a stop to that,” Annie said, tensing at the mention of her son’s name by Billy.

“She had,” he said, “and that’s why I’m here. I think she’s making a mistake about the man.”

“Mistake,” Annie repeated, “how so?” She lowered herself on to a chair and felt the first signs of panic in her chest.

“He was at the infirmary when I visited wee Billy,” he told her, “and I took time to speak to him, you know, thank him for looking after the bairn and I got to know him a little better.”

Annie wondered where this was leading. Did Billy see images of himself as a young man in John Adams?

“And I think it would be fine for Sarah to be his friend while he’s in Scotland. I just can’t get Josie to agree with me.”

Annie stood up and busied herself with the cooling scones, taking them from their tray and putting them on the rack.

“So, what makes you think I can help?” Her back was to Billy and she could feel his eyes burning into her neck.

“Well,” Billy hesitated, unsure how to form the question he’d been wanting to ask since he’d been told about the kissing. “Well, Sarah seemed to think you knew him, the way you allowed him to kiss you in the street and all.”

Realisation

Annie closed her eyes. If there was a time for divine intervention it was now. But nothing happened.

Euan knew about her son, he just didn’t know that Billy Dawson was the father. “He’s my son,” she said simply. Billy took a few seconds to absorb what Annie had just said.

“But, Ian’s your son, yours and Euan’s and Lexie’s your daughter.” He was on his feet now and moving towards Annie. “So if he’s your son, then who is his father?”

He turned her around to face him. Annie said nothing but she may as well have screamed it from the rooftops.

The realisation dawned on Billy as he remembered his encounter with John Adams and how he’d felt he’d known him in the past. The connection was now plain. “He’s mine?” he whispered. Annie nodded. It was out at last. “But how, when...?” Billy felt as if he’d been hit by a sledgehammer.

“It was that time down by the river,” Annie said quietly, “during the flax gathering.

“After you left me and went to Scotland and married Mary, John was born in the poorhouse in Belfast and adopted by Dr Adams and his wife.” “Does Euan know about this?” Billy asked. “He knows that John’s my son, yes but he doesn’t know that you’re his father. And he won’t know Billy, not ever,” she added vehemently.

“He’s our son,” Billy breathed, tears forming in his eyes. “All this time and I never knew.”

Annie sat down again, spent of energy and weak with relief that Billy, at last, knew the truth.

“So, you see Billy,” Annie said gently, “Sarah and John are both your children. That’s why they must be apart now and forever.”

Billy grasped her hands in his. “And where does this leave us Annie,” he asked, urgently, “me and you?” Annie pulled her hands from his. “It leaves us nowhere, Billy,” she said, “there is no me and you any more.”

“There’s you and Josie and your daughters and me and Euan and my children and that’s how it’s going to stay.”

Out of her life

Billy felt a chill round his heart. “You don’t mean that Annie,” he said, “I mean really mean it?”

“Go home, Billy,” she told him, calmly, “to Josie. When John returns to Ireland, I’ll let you know his address and if you want to write to him and let him know you’re his father, then so be it but he won’t hear it from me.”

“I have a son,” he kept repeating, “and Annie Pepper is his mother.”

Annie braced herself. Here was the man she had loved for so long but it was all now too late. Too much water had passed under the bridge for both of them.

“Thank you Annie,” Billy said as he turned to leave, “for loving me and forgiving me for the hurt I must have caused you but most of all Annie, thank you for giving me a fine son.”

She heard the door close and his footsteps fade as he walked out of her life for the last time.

Calmly and without any more guilt or fear, she looked at the clock. Ian would be home from school soon and Lexie home from work but most of all, Euan would be coming home, at six as usual and she knew he’d always come home to her every day, for the rest of their lives.

(The end.)

* See Monday for the start of our new serial, Wee Georgie.