The serial: The Pepper Girls Day 2

Lexie would never understand – not at her young age – and Annie worried that she could end up losing her forever

This was the last thing Annie had expected to hear and her spirits plummeted. How could Lexie take such a huge decision without telling her first and especially now!

Annie’s son, born out of wedlock in the poorhouse in Belfast and fathered by Billy Dawson, was soon to be on his way to Dundee and wanting to meet Annie and maybe her family for the first time.

Annie’s son, John, had been adopted at birth by a Belfast doctor and his wife. The nuns had spared no time in arranging the adoption, while Annie had sunk into a deep depression, saved only by the gentle care from her fellow-inmate, Bella, who had looked after her and who Annie had left behind when she came to Scotland.

“Weren’t you engaged once before,” Annie reminded her, her voice more forceful than she intended, “to Robbie Robertson, wasn’t it and we all know how that ended, your father having to warn him off because you’d ‘changed your mind’ after two weeks.”

Flinched

Lexie flinched. “But, I was only fifteen then,” she squealed and needed no reminder of the real reason she had ‘changed her mind’ but that was a secret no one, not even Charlie knew about.

“I’m seventeen now and Charlie and me are in love,” she told Annie loudly, hurt and confused at her mother’s disapproval.

“I thought you liked Charlie,” she said, “you always said you liked him.”

Euan came into the kitchen, followed hard on his heels by Ian.

“What’s all the noise,” Euan asked, quickly realising that mother and daughter were at loggerheads again.

Lexie burst into tears. “Mum hates Charlie,” she sobbed, “but I love him and we’re getting married...” her red eyes glared at her mother, “whether you like it or not,” she added as she ran from the room.

Ian grinned and looked from one parent to the other. He loved a good fight and this one was shaping up to be a ‘biggie.’

Annie flopped down on a chair and pulled her apron up over her face, trying to mask the fear she felt for her daughter, herself and the future.

Ian stopped grinning, realising it was more serious than the usual spats Lexie had with her mother.

“I’ll get on with my homework then,” he mumbled, inching his way out of the kitchen but not before retrieving another scone from the cake tin.

Euan pulled up a chair beside Annie. “Hey,” he said gently, lifting the apron from her eyes, “what’s this all about?” he urged, “you can tell me anything, you know that.”

Annie sighed and shook her head. “She’s just too young,” she whispered, making Lexie’s age the focus of her fear.

“And what kind of a future will there be for them in Dundee?” she continued. “The mills are on short time, they say there’s a recession on the way and what will become of them if she...” Annie hesitated. “If she what?” asked Euan. She turned tearful eyes on her husband, “What if she gets pregnant like Nancy did? What then!”

Stalling

Euan put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into him.

“I’ve told you before, you worry too much,” he said, his words heavy with resignation, “but I see what you mean,” he conceded with a sigh.

“Maybe if I have a word with Charlie and see what he thinks. Would that help?”

Annie nodded. “Maybe,” she said, painfully aware that she was stalling.

Euan of all people needed to know the truth about Billy Dawson’s son, but not now, not till the time was right, if ever that arrived.

The first letter from her son John’s adopted parents had been a shock.

However, over the two years since then, she had formed a wonderful bond with her son, writing to him regularly while praying for the right time to broach the subject with Euan and her family, but panic always overwhelmed her.But now, it looked like fate was making the decision for her. Her illegitimate son, John Adams, who was a medical student in Belfast was coming to Dundee on an Exchange Scholarship for six months and couldn’t wait to meet her in person.

Euan patting her gently, brought her back into the moment.

“Now, how about those smokies,” he soothed, trying for normality and failing, “they smell lovely. You dish them out and I’ll calm Lexie down.”

Annie held Euan’s arm. “It’s a changing world,” she said, “and it’s women who are having to change the most.

“She’s not worldly wise like Nancy and if anything happened to her, to hurt her, I don’t think I could bear it.”

Annie remembered her daughter’s reaction to Nancy’s unplanned pregnancy with Billy Donnelly and the hastily arranged wedding. Lexie had been horrified and ashamed by it all. And now, to find out her own mother was a ‘fallen woman’ with a bastard son was too much for Annie to cope with.

Anxious

Lexie would never understand – not at her young age – and she could end up losing her forever, especially if she got married and left home.

Euan gathered her into his arms. “Nothing’s going to happen to her Annie,” he assured her, still trying to grasp why his wife seemed so anxious, “not while I’m around.” But Annie wasn’t so sure. Annie’s niece, Nancy, had set up home with Billy Donnelly and their little girl Mary Anne, in one of the grey stone tenements in Lochee, built by the mill owners to house their workers.

Billy was a well-liked spinner at Cox’s Mill and the manager, Mr McKay, had spoken up for him and his need for housing, when Nancy and him had wed, ‘albeit rather quickly’ as he’d put it to the mill factor at the time.

(More tomorrow.)