The Letter (29 page)

In the event, William waited two whole days. On the third day, at precisely nine o’clock when the library opened, Tina Craig entered the Great Hall and collected the birth certificate she had ordered for William’s mother, one Christina Skinner.

Chapter 32

Tina shook out her umbrella before turning to climb the steps to the library. The streets glistened as the rain bounced off the pavements, soaking right through the thin soles of her sandals. She cursed herself for being so stupid. Boots would have been a more sensible option today, but it was May after all and she stubbornly refused to re-visit her winter wardrobe at this time of year. She took her compact out of her bag and flipped open the mirror. Her long hair clung to her cheeks and the so-called waterproof mascara ran in long streaks down her face. She wiped underneath her eyes with the back of her hand as she climbed the stairs to the Great Hall. She approached the desk and propped her umbrella up against it. Immediately a little pool of rainwater collected on the polished floor. She ran her fingers through her hair and addressed the young girl behind the counter.

‘Hello, I’m here to collect a copy of a birth certificate I ordered.’

Karen Sutton’s heart quickened. ‘Your name?’

‘It’s Tina Craig. C-R-A-I-G.’

Karen took a deep breath. ‘Of course. Please take a seat for a minute.’ She gestured to a row of upholstered chairs nearby and then retrieved the key from the filing cabinet and made a show of thumbing through the various files. She smiled at Tina apologetically.

‘I’m sorry. I just need a word with my colleague.’

Tina waved her hand. ‘No problem. I’m not in any rush.’

Karen closed the filing cabinet and all but sprinted over to where William was ensconced at a table in the corner, hidden behind the morning paper. Karen slapped her hand down on the paper and a startled William looked up.

‘Hey! What do you think…’

Karen cut him off immediately. ‘She’s here.’

No further explanation was needed. He stood up, carefully tucked the newspaper under his arm and followed Karen to the desk, where she pulled out the certificate from a drawer.

‘Mrs Craig,’ she called. ‘Here’s your certificate.’

Tina took the envelope and dropped it into her handbag. ‘Thank you very much. Goodbye now.’

William stood open-mouthed and mute as he watched Tina exit the Hall without a backward glance. He gave Karen a stricken look and then made a decision. ‘I have to follow her.’

He caught up with Tina as she stood on the portico wrestling with her umbrella.

‘Excuse me, ma’am.’

Tina ignored him, not recognising his face, nor his American accent.

‘Excuse me,’ William tried again. ‘I wonder if I might have a word.’

Tina looked around, expecting him to be addressing someone else. ‘A word with me?’ She pointed at her own chest.

‘If you don’t mind. I won’t keep you long.’

He was mesmerised by her striking blue eyes, now accentuated by a smudge of dark mascara underneath. He was conscious of the rainwater which now trickled under his collar and made him shudder involuntarily. Instinctively, Tina pulled him towards her so he could take refuge under her umbrella. They faced each other in total silence for what seemed an eternity but was in fact only a split second. Two total strangers sharing a space on the planet no bigger than a paving slab. William spoke first.

‘My name is William Lane and I’ve been waiting for you.’

Tina thought she was being chatted up, and the cheesy line made her groan inwardly.

‘All your life, I suppose.’

William froze momentarily and then as he realised his remark had been misconstrued, blushed slightly.

‘Oh no, I didn’t mean that. I just meant that I have been waiting for you to come and collect that birth certificate. I wasn’t hitting on you or anything.’

It was Tina’s turn to blush. She wasn’t familiar with the term ‘hitting on,’ but could guess its connotations.

‘I’m sorry, I thought you were trying to pick me up.’

‘Pick you up?’ William frowned. Considering they both spoke the same language, communication was proving difficult.

Tina gazed up at the inside of the umbrella in embarrassment.

‘You know…ask me out.’

She shrugged her shoulders and smiled faintly. God, this was excruciating.

William searched her face and though she was undoubtedly beautiful, there was a sadness in her eyes that made his heart tighten.

‘Look,’ he said finally. ‘Shall we start again? Is there somewhere we could go to talk?’

‘Oh, I’m not sure. I don’t even know you.’

‘Please,’ urged William. ‘It’s important. I won’t keep you long.’

‘Well, there’s a coffee shop on the corner,’ suggested Tina. ‘We could go there, I suppose.’

‘Perfect,’ said William. ‘Shall we?’

He made a sweeping gesture with his forearm as they picked their way along the pavements, desperately trying to avoid the puddles.

Once they were seated with their coffees and pleasantries were out of the way, William began to tell his story.

‘I came here from America in the hope of tracing my birth mother. I was born in Ireland in 1940 in a convent and was told my mother’s name was Bronagh Skinner.’

Tina shuffled in her seat at the mention of the name Skinner, but did not interrupt. William continued. ‘I went to the convent to see if they would help me, but it was no use. The sisters there would not give me any information at all. Anyway, a midwife who works there took pity on me and offered to help. It turns out she remembers my mother because she was English, from right here in Manchester. And her real name was not Bronagh, but Christina.’

Tina took another sip of coffee. She could see where this might be going, but let William continue.

‘She was sent to Ireland in disgrace, you see, because she was pregnant and not married. Grace, that’s the midwife who’s helping me, didn’t know where she had been living in Ireland, just that it was a remote place. She thought if I could trace my mother’s birth certificate, it would give me the names of her parents. My grandparents, I suppose. Anyway, I know she was sent to live with her mother’s sister, so if I could find out her mother’s maiden name, when I return to Ireland I’ll have something to go on. I came to the library to order a copy of her birth certificate and found out that you had already beaten me to it. I don’t know if it’s the same Christina Skinner I’m looking for, but I wondered if you’d mind if I took a look at it.’

Tina already knew that the birth certificate now tucked away in her handbag was surely that of William’s mother. Both Alice Stirling, Billy’s mother, and Maud Cutler had told her Chrissie had been sent to Ireland in disgrace.

William continued. ‘I know it’s an imposition but if you wouldn’t mind.’

He raised his eyebrows expectantly as Tina bent down to retrieve her handbag. William’s heart quickened as she reached inside and pulled out not the envelope she had been given by Karen Sutton, but an older, yellowing envelope which had already been opened. Tina solemnly slid the letter across the table. ‘I think you should read this.’

William’s hands were shaking as he picked up the envelope. ‘It’s addressed to Miss C Skinner.’

‘Your mother,’ confirmed Tina.

‘I don’t understand.’

‘Just read it. Afterwards, I’ll explain everything.’

He carefully eased the letter out of the envelope and unfolded it. He glanced at Tina before beginning to read. Tina held her breath as William first scanned the letter and then read it again more carefully. When he had read it twice, he set it down on the table between them and smoothed out the paper. ‘Where did you get this?’

‘I work in a charity shop and someone left a bag of old clothes on the doorstep. Inside there was a suit and tucked into the jacket pocket was that letter.’ Tina tapped it with her forefinger. ‘As you can see from the envelope, it was never posted. When I opened it, I was so moved by the words and mystified as to why Billy never posted his letter that I vowed to try and find Chrissie and hand the letter to her myself.’ Tina blushed slightly. ‘You might think it was none of my business, but it stirred something in me.’

William stared at the letter again. ‘This baby he mentions, that’s me.’ His eyes began to mist with tears. ‘I thought he had abandoned my mother. She thought he wanted nothing more to do with her. Grace told me she never stopped longing for him, even though he had treated her so badly, and now I find this.’ He held the letter up to his face and breathed in the scent of it. ‘Why didn’t he post it, Tina? What happened to him?’

Tina knew there was no easy way to break the news to William. ‘Last year, when I first found the letter, I called round to 180 Gillbent Road and believe it or not, Billy’s parents still live there.’

William’s eyes widened in astonishment. ‘My grandparents are here in Manchester?’

‘Yes, William, they are.’ Tina smiled briefly at his enthusiasm, but then continued solemnly. ‘Your grandmother, Alice Stirling, told me all about her son. She and her husband, Henry, adopted him when he was ten months old. He was an orphan and Alice and Henry had lost their own baby son, so when Billy came into their lives they lavished all their love on him. Henry had trouble bonding with him, but in his own way I’m sure he loved him. I showed Alice Billy’s letter and she remembered him writing it; in fact it was her idea. He then went out to post it but he never heard from Chrissie again after that. He called round at her house after he wrote the letter and spoke with her mother, but she knew nothing about the letter. He was heartbroken to learn that Chrissie had been shipped off to Ireland and begged Mrs Skinner to let him have her address. She promised to contact Chrissie on his behalf.’

‘What happened then?’ asked William eagerly. ‘Did they get in touch?’

Tina shook her head. ‘Mabel Skinner was killed in the blackout that night and as far as I know never made contact with her daughter.’ She bent down and retrieved her handbag from the floor. She pulled out the old photograph of Billy that Alice Stirling had given to her and pushed it across the table. ‘This is your father.’

He took the photo and studied it carefully as tears collected in his eyes, making the image blurry. ‘He was a handsome man,’ William declared. ‘Do you know what happened to him?’

Tina steeled herself. ‘I’m afraid he was killed in action in 1940. I’m so sorry.’

The tears spilled over now and William wiped them away with the back of his hand. Tina handed him a paper napkin from the little pot on the table. ‘He was a good man, William. He didn’t desert your mother at all. He loved her and wanted to be a family. Alice said he would have made a wonderful father.’

‘But my mother never knew this. If only she had received this letter, things would have been different.’

‘I know, William. That’s why I felt I had to try and find Chrissie and give her the letter.’

‘So this is why you ordered her birth certificate?’

Tina nodded. She then told William all about going to 33 Wood Gardens, Chrissie’s home address, and how she had met Maud Cutler. ‘Maud knew the Skinners well and Mabel and Chrissie had delivered her baby. She also told me about Dr Skinner’s fearful temper and that Chrissie had been sent to Ireland.’

‘This is unbelievable, Tina. Thank you so much for caring. You could have just tossed that letter into the trash, but the fact you took time out to try and trace my mother is just so…’ William searched for the right word.

‘Well, it’s just remarkable.’

‘It was over a year ago now that I first found the letter and it intrigued me from the start.’ She took another sip of her coffee and stared at the raindrops running down the window. The glass on the inside had steamed up and she absently drew a line along the window pane with her finger.

‘Anyway, I had a lot going on in my life at the time, so the letter just got pushed to one side. Then when I rediscovered it, it crossed my mind that maybe Chrissie would not want to be found. I mean what if she’s in a happy marriage now and doesn’t want to be reminded about the past?’

‘That had crossed my mind,’ admitted William.

‘Well, in the end I decided to make a start with the birth certificate. I thought I could always change my mind at a later date.’

Just then a waitress appeared at the table, her once-white apron now stained with tea and coffee. ‘Excuse me,’ she began. ‘I’m not being funny or owt, but will you be ordering anything else? We have a queue for tables you see.’ She gestured towards the door where a line of irritable-looking people looked over in their direction.

William stood up. ‘So sorry. We got a little carried away.’ He stood up and offered Tina his hand. He helped her on with her raincoat and beckoned her to lead the way to the exit. Once out on the street they stood facing each other, not sure what to say next. The rain had stopped and the thick white clouds had parted to allow the sun to tentatively shine through.

‘Shall we go for a walk?’ suggested William. ‘I’m not holding you up, am I? Is there anybody waiting for you? A husband? Boyfriend?’

Tina shook her head. ‘There’s no-one. Come on, we’ll head towards Piccadilly Gardens and find a seat there.’

They found a relatively quiet bench and watched for a moment or two as office workers hurried past clutching brown paper bags containing sandwiches and fruit to be snatched as an early lunch.

‘Tell me, how did you manage to locate my mother’s birth certificate, when all you knew was her name?’

Tina smiled. ‘Well, like I said my first port of call was 33 Wood Gardens, where the letter was addressed to. When I got there I knew straight away that number 33 no longer existed because all the housing was quite modern and couldn’t possibly have been around in 1939. I wasn’t sure what to do next so I sat down on a bench and gathered my thoughts. That was when Maud Cutler came by. Now, you might think that that was a huge coincidence, me meeting Maud Cutler like that, but the fact is, I could have gone there on any given day of the week and I would have met Maud Cutler. She told me she spends most of her days just walking the streets, remembering the good old days. It’s quite sad really.’ Tina shook her head.