Abby Ch. 03

Their path had taken them back into the Market place and Abby stopped by her car. Toni drooled over the car. "Is this yours?" She asked, and when the reply was affirmative could not contain her envy. "If I worked at that Library for the next forty years I could never afford a car like that, not unless I married a rich man, and there are not too many of those around here." Abby felt that her gratitude was possibly not enough, so offered Toni a lift to wherever. "Thanks all the same, but it's only a five minute walk, tell you what though, if you're coming in tomorrow to see that Solicitor, pop over afterwards and we'll have coffee." Abby smiled and agreed that she would indeed have coffee with Toni tomorrow. Toni gave a little wave and carried on across the square, eventually leaving it down a side road.

On the journey back which she drove quite slowly for her, Abby ran through in her mind the information she had gathered so far, first her grandfather, how long had he been stationmaster, from what little she knew it was certain that he would not have reached that position at an early age, and most certainly would be promoted to it from another station. Abby had realised long ago that she was illegitimate, so the shock was not that, but of realising how desperate and lonely her mother must have been, and also of knowing that her grandfather had no idea that he was a grandfather. Then there was the strange Mr. Comberford, who she was now certain had known her mother. The more she thought about it, she was convinced that he had been about to say mother. But how could he have known? He had talked to Mary that was clear, so was it impossible that he would work out the relationship? Sam had done that easily. So Mr. Comberford must have known her mother. It was quite simple to put two and two together and get the correct answer. Any other theories and she would be making up conspiracies. Abby was a pragmatic, and the shocks that she had received were behind her, she was now determined to discover as much as she could from Sam and make sense of her family, hopefully she could make a start tonight.

To be continued