Love and Tears from Ireland Part III
Chapter 40 – Making Plans
"What am I going to do, Da?" Quinlan asked his father. "She doesn't know if she wants to convert and she wants a church wedding."
Kieran Branson regarded the two young men who were sitting across from him at the kitchen table while they played cards one evening in late January. Declan and Brody were playing as well. Lorna and his daughter Honor had gone out to a Ladies Aide meeting for the local hospital.
"You two are a fine pair," Kieran said. "One of you can't keep his dick in his pants and the other one picks a Protestant."
Declan was holding his cards over his mouth to hide a grin while Brody looked at his father appraisingly.
"You're just sore cause he got caught," Brody hooked his thumb at Liam who was giving his uncle an exasperated look.
Kieran was a lot slower than Liam's father to forgive him for sleeping with Sybil. Uncle Kieran had lit into him something fierce when they had gotten back after the disastrous engagement party. During the rest of the Christmas holidays whenever Sybil came over either his Aunt Lorna or Uncle Kieran were home and sometimes both. Even though he and Sybil were engaged and were to be married soon, they wouldn't allow contact of any kind including hand holding under their roof. From the stories Liam had heard of Kieran's younger days he knew they had been pretty wild, but Uncle Kieran was unforgiving when it came to his niece. Liam's only saving grace was that they had been engaged. God help any man who did wrong by Honor.
"Never mind that, what am I going to do?" Quinlan said.
"Go talk to Father Mike next time you go into Ripon," Kieran said.
"At least I picked a Catholic," Liam grumbled.
Kieran slammed his fist on the table so hard the cards bounced.
"That Catholic girl happens to be my niece so you just hold your tongue," he said pointing a finger at Liam.
"We got the contract with Enfield, Da," Quinlan said trying to change the subject. Quinlan and Liam had been negotiating with Royal Enfield since last summer to redesign the existing suspension system on one of their motorcycles, or as Quinlan referred to it, "their non-existent suspension system."
"We hired a good lawyer to look over the contracts and plug any loop holes. It took almost all the cash we had but if all goes well we should pull in a good fee and decent royalties," Liam said.
"So how do you plan to survive until you see a few pounds from that?" Kieran inquired. He was ever the practical businessman and wanted to make sure they were going in the right direction since part of his business depended on how well Liam and Quinlan did.
"We have the eight cars ready for sale and six motor bikes in storage we can unload this spring for a tidy profit. Plus we get an advance on the contract as soon as they deliver the prototype bike for us to work on," Quinlan replied.
"I'm going over to Malton to talk to the taxi company tomorrow," Liam said. "They're looking for a couple new cars and we have two late model ones they might take off our hands. Remember we got them cheap from the owner of that packing house before he went under."
"I remember. Wasn't he the one who gambled away his business?" Kieran asked.
"That's the one," Liam replied.
"Hm, well, see if you can negotiate a maintenance contract with them at the same time," Kieran replied thoughtfully. For all Liam had made him mad, the boy was a savvy businessman and could charm the birds from the trees when he wanted to.
"I'll give it a go," Liam said. "I'm a little anxious about the design contract. If it works out, we'll be able to start to build a portfolio and design full time, but it's going to take effort and a lot of trading to keep us afloat until that time comes around."
"And you'll both have families to support," Kieran reminded them.
"I don't see what good talking to a priest is going to do," Quinlan said thoughtfully. He was still thinking about his and Alice's religion issues. "The man's probably never gotten laid in his life. Brody here has probably seen more action than him."
"Me?" Brody said when his father turned to look at him. "What about Declan? He's the one all the girls go for."
Declan pulled a card from the pack, discarded and laid his cards on the table. "Rummy, I win," he said. His Da, brother's and cousin were all looking at him waiting for a comment. "What can I say," he said shrugging his shoulders and smiling with huge dimples. "Girls will do anything for cheese. Who knew?"
His father and the others burst out laughing, with his father ruffling his hair.
"So did you coax her with a slice of cheese?" Kieran asked Liam with a cocked eyebrow still laughing at his younger son's statement.
"I think it was squashed meat pie and a bottle of ale," Liam replied blushing and laughing.
"Mine was a box of Christmas candy," Quinlan added.
"I always found a can of motor oil for the girl's father's car worked wonders," Kieran said still laughing.
"I don't get it," Brody replied looking at his father, older brother and cousin as if they had gone mad.
"You will son, you will," his father said.
-0-
"It was a nice wedding wasn't it?" Quinlan asked Alice after Liam and Sybil had left the reception for their wedding for a small hotel in Ripon. Sybil only had two days off from training college and their honeymoon would be a short one.
"It was a nice wedding," Alice agreed. "Even though it rained. She looked beautiful."
"He was nervous," Quinlan said. They were sitting in a corner of the library away from the few remaining guests. "Do you think our wedding will be something like this?"
"It could be," Alice replied. "But we're getting married in summer. We could have the reception outside."
"What about the church?" Quinlan said looking at the glass of champagne in his hand and waiting for her reply.
Alice sighed.
"Do you really want to talk about this now?" she asked.
"We need to talk about it sometime," Quinlan replied quietly. "I'm not going to give up my religion. My parents have given me everything. It would devastate them."
Alice nodded her understanding.
"I still have some very strong reservations about joining the Catholic faith. I wonder how Uncle Tom and his first wife got around the difference in their faiths?" Alice questioned.
"They got permission from the Bishop," Quinlan replied. "You only have to be a baptized Christian if one party is Catholic to be married in the Catholic Church. Apparently she didn't care for religion one way or another."
"From what Mama says the two of them were quite rebellious when they were together and made up their own rules," Alice said. "I guess Sybil gets it from her parents."
"Don't change the subject, Alice. Why don't you come to church with me tomorrow and we can at least talk to the priest? You can make up your mind after that. I know you want a church wedding but I would prefer it be in the Catholic Church."
"And what religion will our children be?"
"Hopefully Catholic like their father," Quinlan replied.
"Quinlan!" Alice replied in exasperation. "Don't you think your natural father wanted you to be a Protestant like him?"
"He's not here to tell me and I have no way of knowing," he replied. "You know I don't believe in the monarchy and I won't attend a church with a King as its head."
"Just one with an elected official who might as well be a King," Alice replied.
"This is getting us no where. Will you at least come with me tomorrow?"
"Yes, I'll come. After church you'll have to drive me back to school though."
"We could take the same route we took last time," he leaned forward and whispered in her ear.
"First you pray and then you commit a sin?" Alice whispered back with a playful smile.
Quinlan shrugged. "I'll go to confession… Please?" he wheedled.
"If we have time," Alice replied blushing.
-0-
"If I don't help out down at the garage, I never get to see my husband," Sybil said to Alice in mid-July 1938 while they were sitting by their favorite swimming hole on a Sunday afternoon. Sybil was home from training college for six weeks. The only thing that had really changed at home was that she and Liam now shared what had been her old room at their parent's house.
"They are working awfully hard," Alice said. "I hardly see Quinlan either. He didn't even want to take any time off for the honeymoon. You know I had to do a lot of convincing just to get him to take four days off for a quick trip to Brighton."
"We knew they were ambitious when we agreed to marry them," Sybil replied.
"What sort of things do they have you doing?" Alice inquired. Quinlan and Liam ran their business from an office in the corner of the building Kieran rented for his garage. They had the cars for sale parked in a vacant lot they had rented nearby and had another large shed that at one time had been a livestock barn where they stored motorcycles in the winter and projects they were working on.
"I answer the telephone for Uncle Kieran and for them, make appointments, send out invoices, collect money and filing. It's all general office work. I even managed to sell a car on my own" Sybil replied proudly. "They have that short contract they took on after the one for Enfield and they have to get it done for the end of July. Liam got up last night at four o'clock in the morning and went back to work."
Sybil twiddled some grass thoughtfully.
"Did you think we would both get married and wind up living with our parents?" Sybil said.
"I never thought I would get married in a Catholic Church, let alone living at the Abbey with my husband. I thought Grandpapa was going to have a stroke when I told him where I would be getting married," Alice replied. "We still haven't agreed on what we are going to do when we have children."
"Being raised Catholic isn't the end of the world," Sybil said with a laugh. "It's just boring."
"Sybil, you're terrible," Alice laughed.
"Well, it is," Sybil replied. "Church is all in Latin and then the sermon is always the same. You will burn in hell if you have impure thoughts," she said in an ominous voice, then collapsed in fit of laughter. "I saw the priest staring down Gwen Smith's blouse during the service last week."
"Isn't she that girl from grammar school with the huge bust?" Alice asked.
"That's the one," Sybil said with a smile. "It's all silly. I don't think any priest or minister knows any more about God than the other." She added suddenly sobering. "Are you getting many hours at the hospital?"
"A few," Alice replied. "I get some here at the village hospital and I'm on call for the hospital in Ripon as well, so between the two I get three or four days a week most of the time."
"Lillian says there is a push on to get the age when children are allowed to leave school raised to fifteen," Sybil said thoughtfully. "It would mean an end to children being apprenticed when they are very young the way Quinlan was. The orphanages will have to educate the children they have."
"Are you still thinking about working with orphans?" Alice asked.
"I am. I'm used to children and taking care of them. I'm not too fond of nursing and emptying bedpans and changing dressings. I suppose you have to do that too if you work on a children's ward but getting some old man to take his pills is not what I want to do."
"But there aren't any orphanages close by except for the one in Ripon."
"I've been thinking we should change that," Sybil replied thoughtfully. "Crawley House is sitting empty. It has seven bedrooms plus four servant's quarters. It doesn't look like Aunt Mary and Uncle Matthew are going to move back anytime soon or live there if they do."
"You're point being?" Alice asked.
Sybil rolled over onto her stomach.
"Think about it Alice. We could live there, me and Liam and you and Quinlan. It could be a foundling home, a small one. We could have bunk beds in some of the rooms and dress up the old servant's quarters. There's a big kitchen and a garden perfect for children."
"And how are you planning to finance this venture?" Alice asked.
"I don't know all the details yet," Sybil said. "Just think about it. We all had hand me down clothes and the younger ones are still passing clothes from person to person, we'll you didn't but I did and my sisters are still wearing some of my old things. How hard can it be to clothe and feed a few children? We live in the middle of an estate and the family owns the largest farm in the district plus the only cannery and there is a school. We'll still need money but less than the orphanages that don't have any of the advantages we do."
"It sounds awfully ambitious," Alice said wrinkling her brow and looking doubtful.
"Aunt Edith started the cannery and the brewery and she didn't know anything about either one when she started. Mama knows a great deal. She would help I'm sure of it. There are so many evacuees coming out of Austria and Czechoslovakia right now the orphanages and refugee centers are filled to overflowing and everyone is talking about a war coming. Even if we only took a few children in to start it would be better than nothing."
"I don't know. Papa and Grandpapa are both saying war is on the horizon but they're hoping it doesn't come," Alice sighed and thought for a moment, "Have you talked to Liam about this idea? How would I live in an orphanage and take care of children? I don't know how to cook? If there is a war and supplies become hard to find how would we feed them?"
Sybil thought for a few minutes. "I don't have the answers to all the questions about how to run an orphanage, and no, I haven't talked to Liam yet, but I'm sure he'll agree and he is wonderful with children," Sybil replied.
"He could recite a rhyme backwards and you would think he's wonderful," Alice sighed. "But you're right he is good with children."
"So do you want to help me get things organized and create our own jobs?"
"You know we'll never get rich doing this?" Alice said.
"Our husbands are working on that part for us. Besides we'll be helping the less fortunate. Maybe we'll become Saints," Sybil said jokingly. "Come on, lets go talk to our husbands then we can start work on some ideas. There is a family management meeting for the estate tomorrow. I looked in Da's schedule book. We can talk to Grandpapa and the rest of them then."
"I hope I'm not going to regret getting drug into this scheme," Alice said.
"Do you regret me talking you into the trip to Ireland last year or going swimming in the nude?" Sybil asked archly.
"Not one bit," Alice replied with a smile. "Although seeing my brother in the buff was a little unnerving."
"He is rather attractive," Sybil commented. Alice knew what was coming next.
"Just not as pretty as Liam," both girls said in unison then laughed as the collected their towels and headed into the village to talk to their husbands.
Chapter 41 – Three Pews Full
"Did you hear the news on the radio?" Lillian said to Sybil when she telephoned her at the nursing college in late November 1938.
"No, what news?" Sybil asked.
"Viscount Samuel was on the BBC Home Service last night. They are evacuating the Jewish orphanages and children of parents who are political prisoners in Austria and Czechoslovakia. They're bringing children from Poland as well. Two hundred children are expected to arrive on December 2 at Harwich. They're expecting over two thousand later in the month and they think there will be up to ten thousand children evacuated over the next few months. Viscount Samuel was putting out an appeal for people to take children into their homes."
"Mama that's horrible, where are they going to go?" Sybil could hear the urgency and worry in her mother's voice.
"I don't know," Lillian replied, "but we've decided to open the orphanage here early. We can at least take a few."
"Do you want me to come home?" Sybil asked.
"No. You need to finish your training. You can help when you're home over Christmas. I just wanted you to know. Thank goodness it is the slow season for the cannery and the farm. We'll have help and both Aunt Edith and Uncle John speak fluent German. I speak French, but I doubt we'll have any French children."
"This is going to be difficult. I barely speak any German besides, please pass the sugar and the flowers are lovely in your garden today, but I agree. We must do something. It's just too horrible."
"Sybil, I just don't know when this madness on the continent is going to end, but we can't stand by and do absolutely nothing. Take care, dear one. We'll see you at Christmas."
-0-
"How are things at Crawley House?" Sybil asked Liam once they were settled in the car and headed home from the nursing college in York two days before Christmas.
"Busy," he said. "I haven't been over there much. I thought I'd wait until you got home before I moved over."
"How are Quinlan and Alice doing?" Sybil asked.
"He's hardly getting any sleep staying there. They have twenty children at the moment. From what I understand the group running the evacuation is Jewish but their taking children who are at risk regardless of religion. Most of the children Mama and Alice have had come to the orphanage aren't Jewish, but there are one or two. The ones at Downton are almost all from families who parents were jailed for their political views. Apparently the organizers are setting up hostel groups for the children who are from orthodox Jewish families or trying to place them with Jewish families here. Mostly the children are just scared and don't understand why they are in a strange place where no one speaks their language."
"Do you want to move in now or wait until I'm done my training?" Sybil asked.
"I'd rather wait," Liam replied. "But we could spell Alice and Quinlan off. Give them the time you're home to sleep either at the Abbey or at Willowbrook House with Mama and Da."
"We only ever planned to start with ten for the first year and then we weren't planning to open until next summer," Sybil said worriedly.
"Never mind," Liam replied with a sigh. "They're children who need help. We're fortunate Mama has had experience with orphanages all these years. She's already sent all kinds of letters of inquiry looking for family members who can care for the children in the UK or America."
"What is going on over there in Europe, that it's come to this?" Sybil questioned.
"I don't know, but whatever it is can't be good," Liam replied.
Liam dropped Sybil off with the car at Crawley House in case she needed it then went to work. Lillian, Alice and Lorna were at the house along with Honor who was helping out with some of the younger children.
"I'm so glad you're here," Alice said when she saw Sybil at the front door.
"How are things?" Sybil asked. "Liam said you aren't getting much sleep."
"That is the least of our problems. Things are rather chaotic," Alice said. "We have ten children from Czechoslovakia, two from Austria and eight from Poland. They range in age from two to thirteen. We don't speak the language and they can't all understand each other. Two of them speak Yiddish so they can understand each other and the two who speak German. One or two understand some English. They translate a bit but it takes forever to get anything accomplished."
"It sounds as though English lessons are in order," Sybil said. She spotted Honor sitting on the floor in the drawing room by the Christmas tree, trying to teach some younger children a few simple words in English.
"Blocks," Honor said showing them one of her old toys she had brought over.
"Blowks," one of the girls repeated in a heavy accent.
"That's right, blocks" Honor said then pointed to another item and said the name trying to get the group of five younger children to repeat the word.
By the time Sybil headed over to Willowbrook House that evening she was exhausted.
"We'll spell Quinlan and Alice off tomorrow for the holidays," she told Liam with a smile. "I want to spend a night with my husband first."
He smiled and nodded then headed to the washroom to get cleaned up for bed. When he returned he found Sybil fast asleep on her side of the bed.
"Merry Christmas, love," he said as he got into bed and kissed her on the cheek.
-0-
"What do we do for Christmas Day?" Alice asked. Lillian, Sybil and she were together on Christmas Eve trying to make plans for the next day.
"I think we should take them to the village church for the services in the morning," Lillian replied. "I've asked Lady Grantham to get together a simple gift for each of the children. It's the best we can do."
"Quinlan won't like going to a Protestant church for services," Alice said warily.
"Too bad," Sybil replied. "There are Lutherans, Catholics, Baptists and Jews in the group. Grandmamma brought over an old menorah she brought with her from New York for Hanukah and did the prayers she could remember with two children. Most of the others joined in. We can't take them all to the Church in Ripon. There are too many. We'll make do with what we have on hand and that includes a church in walking distance."
Just then thirteen-year-old Anya knocked on the door to the room they were using as an office.
"Seebyl, can go sleeding?" she asked.
"Who wants to go with you?" Sybil inquired slowly so Anya could understand her better.
"Anton, Gunter and Gretel, go too."
"That's fine," Sybil replied. "Be back for three o'clock." Sybil took out a wristwatch from the drawer and pointed to the three. "Three o'clock." She gave the watch to Anya.
Anya nodded her head vigorously.
"Three," she repeated heavily rolling the r and dropping the h.
A few minutes later they spotted the four children ranging in ages from eleven to thirteen getting two sleds from the shed in the back garden and heading for the hill that was popular with the local children.
"What are we going to do about education? We can't send them to the local school in January. They can barely communicate," Sybil said.
"We'll have to set up some English lessons and teach them ourselves until they can manage in an English classroom," Lillian replied. "For now the priority is to find any family they may have and help them to cope in their new land."
"My priority is to find enough for us to eat," Alice said. "We have double the amount of children we were planning on and no supplies put by since we weren't planning on opening yet. Next fall we will be in better shape but for right now it's a stretch."
"I'll talk to my husband to see if there is anything left from the farm that didn't get sold last fall. I'll stop by the cannery too," Lillian said making a note. "It might be best to get a milk cow over from the dairy and keep it in the old stable or clear out one of the sheds, then you would have a steady supply of milk and cream."
"I'll have the older boys work on getting a stall cleaned out right after Christmas," Sybil said. "We should probably think about having a chicken coop as well."
"Must we," Alice said wrinkling her nose.
"Alice you said yourself supplies are getting harder and harder to come by. The children can help with milking and gathering eggs as well as feeding the animals," Sybil replied.
"Hopefully, we'll hear back from some of their relatives soon," Lillian said. "I'm going to go and gather a bunch of the children for some music time. They should know some of the more traditional carols, even if they sing in a different language."
Alice and Sybil went about various tasks for the rest of the afternoon until their husbands showed up. Some of the younger children ran to Quinlan when he came in wanting him to play a game with them. Two little ones were terribly shy and hid behind a chair when they saw Liam as they had seen less of him.
Sybil went to greet her husband and let him know the arrangements they had made for taking the children to church in the morning.
"It is rather different, isn't it?" Liam said. "Are you looking forward to our first night here?"
"Christmas Eve is quite the night to chose to start," Sybil replied with a grin. "We'll make do."
"Of course we will," Liam replied. "I don't suppose we are having roast beef for dinner as we usually do on Christmas Eve."
"Thick soup and buns, I'm afraid," Sybil replied. "It stretches the meat a lot further with this many mouths to feed."
"Soup and buns it is," Liam replied. "He went and got a story book off a shelf with lots of pictures then settled on the sofa in the drawing room. It wasn't long and he had a group of children hanging on him looking at the pictures in the book. Even the two who had been hiding soon came out to see the pictures and listen to the story. One of them crawled onto his lap.
"My angel," Sybil said softly when she saw him with the group of children a little while later.
-0-
"Two hours to get everyone settled last night," Sybil told Alice when she arrived early the next morning. Alice and Quinlan had a basket of gifts with each child's name on it for under the tree.
"You're doing well," Alice replied. "It took almost six hours the first night they were here. We couldn't find much for presents. Ginger cookies for the little ones, a pair of socks for each of the boys, mittens for the girls and a piece of Christmas candy for each."
"It's enough," Sybil said.
Her parents, Ronan, Aideen, Branna and Lilly arrived to stay with the two Jewish children while the others went to church.
"Happy Christmas, Da, Mama," Sybil greeted them.
Once everyone was dressed, Sybil, Alice and both of their husbands headed over to the village church with eighteen children in tow.
"I can't believe I'm doing this," Quinlan grumbled.
"They way I can't believe I got married in a Catholic Church," Alice replied with an arched look.
"OK you win, I'll behave," Quinlan said as Alice threw a blob of snow at him. She quickly found out starting a snowball fight with eighteen children wasn't a good idea. They were all covered with snow and slightly damp by the time they arrived at the church almost late and filed in. They filled three rows of pews all on their own. There were some odd looks from a few of the villagers but the majority smiled and nodded as they took their seats.
After lunch they assembled the children in the drawing room around the tree and handed out the gifts. If any of the children were disappointed they didn't show it. The two children who hadn't attended church received gifts as well.
"I brought a gift for everyone," Tom said. It took a few minutes for the children who could understand to translate for everyone else. "Get you coat and shoes on and meet at the back door."
There was a great deal of scurrying about and excitement as the children assembled. They all went outside to see a dairy cow tied just inside the old stable plus a stack of hay bales and two bales of straw. Anton and one of the other boys, Gregor dashed forward and started patting the cow. They had both lived on farms and were used to animals.
It took a little while to arrange the children to clean out one of the stalls and lay a fresh bed of straw as well as fill the manger with hay and fill a bucket of water. The children were all so excited about the cow the actual chores were done in a flash once they understood what to do.
"It's a wonderful present, Da. Thank you," Sybil said hugging her father. Alice was still wrinkling her nose slightly at the prospect of having livestock to care for but at the same time was happy that at least a milk supply for the children had been secured.
By the time Sybil was ready to head back to college two of the children's distant relations had been located in Southern Ireland and were on their way to pick them up and distant cousins living in Scotland had retrieved another three. Almost as fast as the five children had found relatives they had requests to take ten more from the orphanage in Ripon, which was so overcrowded, some children had to sleep on pallets on the floor.
More beds had to be found which included raiding the old servant's quarters at the Abbey and turning one of the old servant rooms they had been using for storage back into a bedroom. By the time Sybil went back to her nursing college for the beginning of winter term she was worn out.
"I can't believe I would ever say this, but I think I'm too tired to kiss you goodbye," Sybil said against Liam's chest while he was hugging her goodbye when he dropped her off.
"Things will be in a routine by the time you get back again," Liam said. "It will all work out. For now I'll have to kiss you and let you off easy."
"You're such an angel," she said against him dreamily.
"Don't you forget it," he said as he kissed her goodbye.
Chapter 42- Echoes from the Past
"Quinlan, there's a man here to see you," Brody called.
Quinlan straightened up from the motorcycle he was repairing. It was early August 1939 and he was working near the doors of the shop. Liam was off in Coventry talking to a vehicle manufacturer about them doing some design work. Quinlan had his doubts about the prospect but it didn't cost anything but time to listen to what they wanted.
"Who is it? Did he say?" Quinlan asked as he went to wash his hands.
"Some bloke in a suit. I put him in your office," Brody said.
Quinlan quickly pulled on his jacket and tie from where he had left them on a hook in the shop before he headed into the office to see what the man wanted.
"Hello, I'm Quinlan Branson. How can I help you?" Quinlan greeted the man who was sitting in the office on a spare chair holding his briefcase on his lap. The man rose when Quinlan entered.
"Dalaigh Mac Cormaic of Mac Cormaic and Sons," the man introduced himself.
"What has brought you here to Downton, Mr. Mac Cormaic? Quinlan inquired.
"Are you Quinlan O'Callaghan formerly of Ballyclaire, Northern Ireland?"
Quinlan was so startled he jumped in his chair from where he was seated.
"And who might like to know?" he replied narrowing his eyes and looking at Mr. Mac Cormaic closely.
"I'm only at liberty to discuss my business with Mr. O'Callaghan personally," Mr. Mac Cormaic said.
"Well, you've found him, and the name is Branson," Quinlan replied tightly. "My surname was changed thirteen years ago."
"Mr. Branson, I'm here at the request of your grandfather, James Nolan Brady. He would like to see you."
"He does, does he," Quinlan said, his voice rising in a flash of anger. All the hurt and pain he had felt while standing on the man's driveway two years previously came back in a rush. "You can tell the old prick, I'm busy and don't have the time."
"Mr. Brady said you might feel that way. I have his authority to offer you a substantial amount to make this happen."
"You what!" Quinlan yelled.
"Mr. Brady is prepared to offer you the sum of ten thousand pounds if you will meet with him," Mr. Mac Cormaic replied calmly.
Kieran had come to door of the office to see what the commotion was about. Brody was hovering about trying to find out what was going on, but not make it look too obvious.
"Do you need a hand with anything, Quinlan?" Kieran inquired.
"It seems my dear maternal grandfather has suddenly found a conscientious and wants to see me," Quinlan snarled.
"Oh, I see," Kieran said with his face setting and his jaw clenched. "What's brought this on after all these years?"
"I don't give a damn," Quinlan shot back in a loud voice.
"Mr. Brody is dying and wants to meet his heir before he dies," Mr. Mac Cormaic said completely unfazed.
"His what?" Kieran replied in shock. "All these years he couldn't look at the boy or do right by him. Now he suddenly wants to see him and make him his heir? Now that he's running his own business and married with a babe on the way?"
"You can tell him I don't want to see him and furthermore you can tell him what he can do with his money. If he wants to see me that bad he can get off his old boney arse and come down here to see me," Quinlan said. "I have work to do, Mr. Mac Cormaic. You'll have to excuse me." He got up and walked out the office door leaving his father to deal with Mr. Mac Cormaic.
"Here is my card, should Mr. Branson have a change of heart," Mr. Mac Cormaic said handing his card to Kieran and leaving another on Quinlan's desk. "I'll be at the Grand Hotel in Ripon until noon tomorrow when I depart for Belfast."
"I'll speak to my son. We know where to contact you if Quinlan decides he wants to see his grandfather," Kieran said. "Don't hold your breath," he thought before he showed the man out.
-0-
"The government regulations for these children are ridiculous," Sybil complained to Lillian that same afternoon. "We have three boys all aged seventeen. One was going to university before he and his parents were detained. None of them know where their parents are or their relatives. The government refuses to fund their care beyond the age of eighteen. Jacob will be eighteen in just a few months. What is he supposed to do? He barely speaks English. Levi should be going back to university but his records are lost. They're not supposed to work. Are we to put them on the street without a penny to their names?"
"It's no different than what's been happening all along," Lillian replied. "It's just lucky they needed help at the cannery so they can all have summer jobs under different names."
"I know. It's rather ludicrous isn't it? The Smith brothers working at the local cannery and all amazingly have Czech accents," Sybil said shaking her head. "I just hope they don't get caught. At least they'll each have a few pounds to their names when the time comes for them to leave."
"I haven't had much success finding relatives for the last group," Lillian said. "It's as though their families have been wiped from the earth. Their stories are all so similar. Either their parents disappeared in the night and they were sent to an orphanage or they remember soldiers coming to arrest the family and then were separated at some kind of camp. They've brought over almost fifteen thousand on the Kindertransport so far and they say there are still thousands more waiting."
"We have eighteen now with no family and nowhere to go," Sybil replied. "We'll have ten able to start at the village school this fall. That leaves the three older boys who need English lessons before they turn eighteen and five younger ones who will need care through the day. The other six who just arrived can go to school once their English improves."
"Is running an orphanage what you thought it would be?" Lillian asked her stepdaughter. Sybil looked tired since she had returned from nursing college this spring.
"It's much harder than I thought. We had planned to start small which would have been much easier and really not that much different than a house full of younger brothers and sisters, but this." Sybil sighed. "There are so many problems. Some of the younger ones keep asking when their parents will come for them. Others like Anya seem to think their parents are dead. Not to mention the issues around religion. Thank goodness the older ones take care of the animals and help out with the heavy chores."
"At least the majority are Christian, even if they are all from different denominations" Lillian replied. "There is no way for us to accommodate the Jewish children and there is no Synagogue or Jewish community close by." Lillian paused for a minute. "What else is worrying you?"
"War. The papers say it could be any day now. Liam and Quinlan and the other boys are still citizens of Northern Ireland and are exempt conscription for now, but what if they decide to sign up. Peter had a terrible row with his father. He finally agreed to wait until if and when war is declared before he joins."
"He's twenty-one and finished his degree. His father can't stop him, but it is a worry," Lillian agreed.
"I'm worried Liam will decide to go as well. You can't be around these children and not be concerned for what is going on in their countries. People just don't disappear in the middle of the night without a trace," Sybil said.
"What about Quinlan? Does he feel the same way?"
"I don't know," Sybil replied. "Alice is expecting and he's so like Da and Uncle Kieran in some ways. They are so anti-monarchy and all the rest although Da tones it down in public.
"I think we need to make a short term policy," Lillian said. "We investigate family for this last group of children who just arrived and then no new intakes until next spring.
"But Mama there are so many," Sybil complained.
"There will always be many that need help," Lillian replied. "It won't help the ones you have here now if you wear yourself out and Alice is pregnant and needs regular rest. Let things stabilize a bit for a while. Then you can take a few more next spring if you have room."
"Yes, you're right," Sybil agreed seeing the wisdom in her mother's logic. "I'm sure Alice will agree as well."
-0-
"I think you should do it," Kieran said that evening at a family meeting in the sitting room of Kieran and Lorna's cottage. Quinlan and Alice were over to discuss the events of the afternoon.
"Da, have you lost your senses?" Quinlan replied. "He left me to rot in that hell hole and you know what I went through. I don't owe him a damn thing."
"Quinlan, language," Alice said. She was sitting beside her husband holding his hand in both of hers.
"It's not for him. It's for you," Kieran said. "See if you can force him to give you your parents wedding picture if one exists and see what you can find out about your father's family. Tell him exactly what you think of him for abandoning you. There's something else as well." Kieran paused. "You're going to be a Da soon and it looks like this war is going to happen whether anyone likes it or not. You don't remember the last one. You were too little. Times were hard. There wasn't any food in the stores. After the war was finished men were left by the sides of the roads with no jobs, no food, nothing. He's offering a substantial amount. Take it. Put it away. You don't have to touch it but if anything ever happens Alice and the baby will be taken care of."
"You're saying to sell my soul to the devil to see my family is taken care of?" Quinlan stated angrily.
"I'm saying say your piece and protect your family. You don't know what the future will bring. None of us do," Kieran replied. "If you decide to go. I'll go with you."
"Da, you can't leave the garage and I can't leave Liam on his own."
"Liam can run the business, and Brody can run the shop for a few days. He's not a bad mechanic as long as he doesn't take on any jobs that are too involved. We can see if Sybil can come over and take care of the office one or two days while we're gone. She knows what to do."
"I'm sure she'd agree," Alice said. "I can't go right now. I'm too ill in the mornings and we've decided not to take any new children at the home for the next while. I'll be fine for a few days and Liam and Sybil will be there at night."
"Are we settled then?" Kieran asked.
"I'm going to sleep on it," Quinlan replied.
"Just don't sleep too long," Kieran said.
Chapter 43 – Rations and Other Problems
"Well, doesn't he just think he's something," Kieran muttered pointing to the butler as he and Quinlan were shown into the library of the house belonging to Mr. James Nolan Brady. "I haven't seen this much highfaluting nonsense since before they got rid of the servants at the Abbey." They were following the uniformed butler to a door leading off the main entrance.
"I still think this is a bad idea," Quinlan grumbled to his father.
"You've got the check in the bank. We'll give him ten minutes. If you want to leave, we will," Kieran said placing a hand on Quinlan's shoulder to steady him. Quinlan was looking pale and hadn't been able to eat hardly a thing since they had stepped onto the train at Downton.
The door opened to reveal a dimly lit library with a fire burning in the hearth despite the fact that it was the last day of August and it was a sunny day. As their eyes adjusted to the gloom they could see there was an arm and wrinkled hand lying on the arm of one of the armchairs by the fireplace.
"Come here where I can see you," a raspy voice demanded.
"I've come this far, the least you could do is turn around and look at me you old bast…," Quinlan began.
"I've paid you a tidy sum. You walk across this room where I can see you," the raspy voice demanded. "If I could still get up and run my own affairs we would be having this conversation under different circumstances." The demand was followed by the sound of the old man clearing his throat and spitting into a handkerchief.
Kieran nodded to Quinlan and they both walked forward to where they could see a wizen old man sitting in an armchair wrapped in a robe and covered with a lap blanket. What was left of his white hair stuck out in tufts. Amongst the mass of wrinkles that made up his face were a pair of bushy white eyebrows and a hawk like nose underlined by a pair of thin lips that had little color. The most unsettling part of the entire picture were a pair of piercing blue eyes not unlike Quinlan's that seemed to look straight through the pair of them.
"Who the hell are you?" James Brody demanded.
"Kieran Branson, Quinlan's father," Kieran identified himself.
"You mean the one that took him in and gave him your name. What's the matter O'Callaghan wasn't good enough for you?" James Brody challenged.
"Why you miserable old prick," Quinlan began. "I don't know why I wasted my time coming here. We're leaving."
Kieran put a hand on Quinlan's shoulder. "Hear him out and say your piece. We have plenty of time to get to the ferry," Kieran said. Quinlan nodded his understanding.
"I want any pictures you have of my parents and I want to know if my father had any family," Quinlan stated defiantly.
"You're like your father in looks and attitude, I'll say that for you," James Brody replied. "There," he said pointing to a shelf. "The album on the end. It's all I have left of your mother. Take it."
Quinlan went to the shelf and pulled out the old photo album. He flipped it open briefly. There lying loose in the back of the album was a wedding picture of his natural parents. The man looking back up at him was almost the image of himself. He snapped the book shut and put it under his arm.
"Did my father have any family?" Quinlan demanded again.
"None that I know of," James Brody replied.
"Why did you turn your back on me?" Quinlan asked through gritted teeth.
"Pride, arrogance, stupidity, you name it I've got it in spades," James Brody replied. My representative tells me you've done well for yourself. A Master Degree in Mechanical Engineering, your own business and married to a peer."
"My wife's father and brother may inherit titles if her uncle dies without offspring," Quinlan replied. "I've worked damn hard to get where I am, no thanks to you."
"Humpf. You seem to have made out well enough in the end."
"Do you think it just happened without pain and sacrifice, you miserable old bastard? Do you have any idea what they did to me in that workhouse?"
"No and I really don't want to know. I can't change it. There's no sense dwelling on the past. What's done is done," James Brody replied. "I've asked you to come because you will be my heir and inherit my estate."
"I don't want it," Quinlan replied peevishly.
"I don't give a hoity-toity damn what you want. You're my last surviving relation. The estate is yours whether you want it or not. You're an educated man who has some business acumen. You can do with my assets as you please once they are yours."
"I don't think there is much more to say," Quinlan said turning to leave. Kieran turned to follow him out.
"I shouldn't have turned my back on your mother when she married your father and I should have taken care of you," James Brody said from his chair. "I'm sorry."
"You couldn't have said that in the first place?" Quinlan said not turning around.
"It's hard to admit when you're wrong," James Brody said. "I wish you better luck facing your mistakes in life than I have had. You can go now."
"Goodbye. I won't be back," Quinlan replied.
"I wouldn't expect that you would," James replied in his quavering voice.
Kieran glanced back over his shoulder as they left the library to see the old man hanging over the arm of his chair watching them leave and looking more shrunken than he had when they arrived.
Quinlan didn't say a word as they took the cab that had been waiting for them back to their hotel. He sat on the side of the bed and slowly flipped the pages of the old photo album that were mostly filled with a young girl in different stages of growing up. Finally Quinlan put the photo album into his suitcase and checked his wristwatch.
"Let's go get something to eat and maybe a pint or two," he said.
As they headed down the street Quinlan looked at the buildings around him, then at his father.
"Have you ever thought about moving back to Ireland, maybe the south?"
"Could never afford it," Kieran replied. "The wages there are nothing. I do better in England."
"I have a feeling in the not too distant future I'll be able to afford it if you want to move when you retire," Quinlan said. "Maybe a nice cottage on a hill overlooking the sea."
"Sounds boring," Kieran replied.
Quinlan shrugged and chuckled a bit. His Da was too much of a go-getter to ever sit still for long.
"Whatever you want Da, you'll have it."
"I want you and your brothers and sister to be happy," Kieran replied.
"We already are Da," Quinlan said as they reached the pub and went in.
-0-
"Seebil, Alyce, when we are eighteen we will go fight for our home and our family in British Army," Levi told the women late in the afternoon on September 1, 1939. The announcement of war had come earlier in the day. The other two boys Jacob and Isaac nodded their agreement. They were all seventeen years old. Levi had just started university before he was detained and spoke more English than the other two.
"You must consider what you do carefully," Sybil replied.
"You all have time before you are eighteen," Alice said. "Jacob your birthday will be first. You must work very hard on your English lessons so you can get a job or join the army. You won't be able to do either if you can't speak the language."
Levi translated and Jacob nodded his understanding.
"Alyce, I work now," Jacob said.
"Yes, but that is because the lady at the cannery is my mother and you have Levi to translate," Alice replied. He understood well enough to nod.
"Levi, the cannery will be closed in another two weeks. You must try to get back into university. You were studying to be a doctor. That is what your parents would want," Sybil said. "All parents want their children to do well."
"I want to fight," he replied stubbornly.
"The army will need many doctors," Sybil rationalized. "You need to think about it carefully. The group that brought you to England will have money to help with education, but not if you join the army right away. Czechoslovakia will need doctors after the war and so will England."
"I don't speak English well enough for doctor school," Levi replied.
"We can work on that. You won't be eighteen until next spring you have all winter," Alice said.
"I go army too. Fight Nazi," Isaac said finally.
"Isaac, you must also learn English," Alice said. "You cannot be an English soldier if you don't know the language. You must be eighteen to be a soldier. Your birthday isn't until February."
Everyone was terribly upset in the village by the announcement that England was now at war with Germany. Plans were being made. Rationing was already in place to prevent people from hoarding food, but most had been collecting extras for the entire last winter. Alice had been trying to get extra food stocked up, but with so many mouths to feed the task had been nearly impossible. To make matters worse they had quickly found out the Jewish children did not eat pork. Meals had to be worked around the requirement, which meant stretching the provisions on hand even more difficult.
"I wish Quinlan was home," Alice told Sybil after the boys had left.
"We'll, have a meeting and tell the children tonight," Sybil said. "They'll know soon enough when they get to school tomorrow. I rather they hear about the war from us."
"We should take the ones not in school to pick apples and pears tomorrow," Alice said. "We can walk to the orchard at the Abbey and back with the baskets. It will save on petrol."
"Everyone is in such a flap," Sybil agreed. "Our biggest concern remains how we feed them all."
"Marta and Sarah's Aunt will be down from Scotland in a few days," Alice said. "That will be two less. I think we should go to all the fields after each harvest and collect anything that is left. The garden this summer helped but it's still not enough."
"It will mean a great deal of work," Sybil replied.
"Most of the children can help with peeling apples and chopping things up to put in jars," Alice said. "It used to be done when there was a huge staff at the Abbey every year. We'll just have to use some of the old practices. I think apples can be kept longer if they are packed in saw dust and kept in the cellar."
"I don't like pheasant much, but we can get them from Grandpapa for nothing" Sybil replied wrinkling her nose, "and those periwinkles Anya had the other children collect from the side of the road the other day weren't overly appealing either."
"They're called escargot," Alice replied. "They were free and she was quite taken with herself for finding a meal for everyone."
"I know. I just closed my eyes and bit into it," Sybil said.
"I can't believe I was so hesitant about having animals out back," Alice replied. "Now I'm so happy we have enough milk, cream and cottage cheese we don't have to worry about it. We could use more chickens though."
"More chickens means more feed," Sybil replied.
"And more poop to clean," Alice added with a sigh.
That evening they told the children England was now at war with Germany. Most of the children were frightened the fighting would come to them and the men with the black uniforms who had taken their parents away would now be coming for them. It had taken hours of reassuring they were safe in England and multiple trips to the washroom and glasses of water before they got everyone down for the night. After the third time up for a nightmare Sybil crawled back into bed with Liam. He was lying on his back staring at the dark ceiling.
"What are you thinking about?" Sybil asked him quietly.
"Everything and nothing at the same time," he replied. "I feel like I should be doing something, but at the same time the contract we just took on is important. Don't repeat this but the company signed us so fast because they need vehicle improvements for the military."
"That makes your work essential doesn't it?" Sybil questioned.
"I have no idea," Liam replied. "I can't be conscripted because of my citizenship, but at the same time I don't feel like I can hide at home and do nothing."
"Designing vehicle components for the war effort is not doing nothing," Sybil said. "Neither is helping us with all these child refugees."
"They have enough work to keep us busy until next spring," Liam said. "Then who knows?"
"Concentrate on the contracts," Sybil urged. "Then think about things again when they're completed. Quinlan and Uncle Kieran should be back tomorrow. I'm hoping to get over and see Da for a bit and Grandmamma and Grandpapa as well."
"They should be heading to Scotland soon," Liam said.
"I don't know if they will go this year with everything happening," Sybil replied.
"Try and get some sleep before the men in the black uniforms invade another dream," Liam said quietly.
"You spoke to quickly," Sybil said as she threw back the covers and got up for yet another sound of someone crying. By the time she finished and had gone downstairs to check on the boys who slept below stairs she was worn out. She spotted Jacob carrying one of the little boys who was only two years old to the bathroom and Isaac escorting another back to bed. It was going to be a long night for everyone, the first of many if she didn't miss her guess.