“WHERE SKY AND LINCOLNSHIRE AND WATER MEET”

Amy burst into tears and flung herself on to the bed. She had made such a mess of her life. Handing a baby over to a Welfare Officer was something that she had never envisaged. How could she have thought that her life would be unaffected by the events of 1944? Why had she not real ised that her husband would react in this way? She felt that her heart would break. How would this predicament affect her precious first born? Would she miss her new sister? It need not have been like this, if only... Why did it have to be HIM that had returned safely? Why was she being made to feel guilty, humiliated, dirty? HE had taken their small daughter out, away from the house of shame and heartache. Would they come back? Would she lose both her babies on the same day? Perhaps her mother, Alice, always an anchor and support whatever the storm, could have helped if she had been around. Alice always had an answer for a problem even when she was unwell. HE had insisted that HE was now all that was necessary to keep the household in order. Her parents were no longer needed. Amy knew that her mother would not have landed herself in such a situation. She recalled Alice’s stories of green fields, which stretched further than the eye could see and the ripe, yellow corn which waved in the breeze, where Alice had grown up. She had told Amy of the peaceful aura in the grounds, although as a young girl she had had no idea that Woolston Hall was in such a beautiful part of the country. She had never ventured further than the town nearby but as she grew older she had started to feel restless.