Miss Treadway & the Field of Stars. Miranda Emmerson

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      ‘I think about half and half with the spinach, ma’am.’

      ‘Good. I will have a plate of that. And my daughter-in-law … My daughter-in-law does not like foreign food. She will have an omelette.’

      At this the daughter-in-law started to protest but was quickly silenced by the older woman. ‘If you eat, the milk will come.’

      She shot Anna a fierce look for reasons that Anna could not discern. Anna decided to ignore it. ‘And to drink?’

      ‘A pot of tea. We will have that first, please. My daughter-in-law is freezing.’

      ‘Of course.’

      While Anna was waiting for the tea she became aware of a struggle going on at the table by the door. The younger woman was trying to stand up, presumably to leave, and the older woman was pulling and pushing her back into her seat.

      Leonard leaned towards the hatch and asked Ottmar: ‘What do you think they are?’

      Ottmar leaned heavily over the wooden sill. ‘Georgian,’ he whispered. ‘Very dark, the Georgians.’

      Anna carried the tea over to the two women, wondering as she did so whether Ottmar had been speaking about their skin or their temperament.

      The younger woman had given up on her attempts to leave and had instead shifted into the far corner of the table away from her mother-in-law. Anna set the cups and saucers down and settled the pot away from the pram. The mother-in-law reached out and touched Anna lightly on the wrist. ‘Thank you, my dear. We did not mean to disturb the other customers.’

      Anna refrained from pointing out that the other customers seemed to be enjoying the floor show. She simply smiled at the woman and left.

      The older woman poured tea for the younger one and heaped sugar lumps into the cup, though no milk. A minute later Anna heard a cry and rushed out from the kitchen to find that the older woman had just pulled the younger woman’s hand out of the cup of scalding water.

      ‘Get her a dishcloth with cold water,’ Ottmar told Anna, and she did.

      At the table Anna passed the wet dishcloth to the older woman, who attempted to wrap the younger woman’s hand. Anna stood across from them and moved all the scalding objects out of the way. The younger woman nodded dumbly as her hand was wrapped and then she looked up at Anna, her face streaming with tears.

      ‘I am going to kill my baby.’

      ‘Shhh. Shhh,’ the older woman soothed.

      Anna was surprised to hear that the younger woman had no foreign accent. Instead her voice had a soft twang of east London to it.

      ‘If I don’t stop myself I’ll choke him in his sleep.’

      ‘Shhh.’

      ‘How old is the baby?’ Anna asked.

      ‘He is nineteen days,’ the grandmother said.

      ‘I think your daughter needs to see a doctor.’

      ‘The doctor tells her to sleep—’ the older woman started.

      ‘But I cannot sleep,’ the younger interrupted. ‘If I sleep, the dreams come.’

      ‘I knew a girl once,’ Anna said, ‘I knew a girl who was very young and when the baby came it seemed to make her mad. But she was not mad before.’

      ‘I know,’ the older woman told her, ‘I know of such things happening but we cannot make it stop. She will not feed him. She will not eat. She says she’s going to kill him if I leave them alone.’

      ‘Then you cannot leave her,’ Anna said.

      The older woman’s eyes overflowed with tears. ‘I will not leave her. I do not leave her any second of the day. I don’t know how to make her better.’

      Anna shook her head. The older woman’s face contorted into something more like control. ‘What happened to your friend? The young girl and the baby? Did she stay mad for ever?’

      ‘No. She didn’t. I don’t remember … I only knew her for a little while. A year after the baby came I heard that she was well again. She went back home.’

      ‘And the baby? The baby survived?’

      ‘Well, yes. I suppose. They took him away.’

      ‘Why did they take him away?’

      ‘Well, she was so young, you see. They were always going to do that.’

      ‘No father?’

      ‘No one who wanted to be a father.’

      The older woman looked gratefully at Anna, as if she were relieved simply to be spoken to.

      ‘Would you still like me to bring your food?’

      The older woman shook her head. ‘I pushed her out of the house too soon. I think we need to go home.’

      Ottmar and Leonard were listening from across the little room. Ottmar shook his head at the woman. ‘No charge,’ he called out. ‘No charge.’

      When they had gone Anna went and sat by Ottmar on the stools by the hatch. Ottmar introduced her to Leonard, who asked: ‘What were you saying to her? You seemed to be telling her a story.’

      ‘I knew someone … someone else who had a baby and then went a little mad for a while. It happens. I wanted her to know it happened to other people too. Their doctor … I don’t know what you do if your doctor doesn’t understand what’s happening. I mean, who else do you ask?’

      ‘God?’ Leonard suggested, but he seemed to be saying this almost as a joke.

      Anna looked at him carefully. He was in his forties, middling in height with dark hair and a little hint of beard and moustache. He wore a navy V-neck with a flowered shirt beneath and bottle-green cords. She could not quite place him in terms of class and station. He seemed to be something of an oddity.

      ‘Well, I suppose if they have a god perhaps that’s better than nothing,’ she said at last. ‘Though I don’t know. Can you lean on something that offers no resistance?’

      Leonard looked at Ottmar and raised his eyebrows. ‘She’s sharp.’

      Ottmar grinned in turn at Anna. ‘Our Anna is a heathen. But a very clever heathen. Very clever indeed. No time for boys, our Anna. Work and study, books and words, always in her mind. She’s reading Lermontov. Very keen on Lermontov right now.’

      Anna looked embarrassed. ‘I do like him very much.’

      ‘He’s a poet?’ Leonard asked her.

      ‘Poetry and a novel. A very good novel. Very modern and shocking. Upsetting in the strangest way … I could lend it to you, if you like,’ Anna offered.

      Leonard studied her face through the hatch. She СКАЧАТЬ