Parting

Her mistake baby folks called him called him that to his face. Riley never thought that, keepin’ her boy hadn’t been a mistake, not leavin’ with the daddy that was her mistake.

He’d asked her, more than once too, but she’d only been fourteen, frightened of leavin’ home, worried ‘bout her family. The same family that were so ‘shamed ‘bout her they sent out her out to the middle of nowhere to live with her grandma.

In the end she didn’t mind livin’ with grandma. The old lady loved her and Jayne, always looked after them, and made the rest of the relatives be nice. When she was dyin’ she fixed that Riley should marry a friend of hers, makin’ sure that Jayne and she were protected.

And they were for a few years, till her man died, leavin’ her and Jayne to be a team together, lookin’ after Mattie who was always sickly, keeping the farm goin’. They were doin’ all right too, till her family got themselves in trouble.

They were beggin’ her for help; relyin’ on her to get them out of trouble, save them from starvation or worse. All she had to do was marry the local squire.

To give him credit, she didn’t think that the future husband cared one way or ‘tother ‘bout Jayne, he just wanted heirs. But his mother did and it was she who ran the show. Lorded it over the rest of the population, controlled ‘em with a mixture of benevolence, fear and intimidation.

Jayne had no schoolin’, was slow, got into fights and was his fathers’ son. Her big wild boy would never fit in with the new family, wouldn’t be welcome. That’d been spelled out in a humiliatin’ interview with her future mother-in-law. Humiliatin’ and frightenin’. It seemed that Jayne’s daddy had infuriated the woman somehow and she might take her anger out on Riley’s boy.

To be truthful, after meetin’ her mother-in-law, she were more worried ‘bout Jayne’s safety now than she was ‘bout the rest of the family, ‘cept for Mattie. Mattie who was getting’ more ‘n’ sickly needin’ some expensive doctorin’. Riley didn’t know what to do.

She knew J