Blackie christens Edwina at home

Blackie christens Edwina at home in Leeds, turning Emma’s anxious, private wish into a makeshift family rite. The ceremony matters because Emma, though still an atheist, worries about what her daughter may believe in later life, while the child’s illegitimate birth makes a public baptism—and the paperwork surrounding it—feel dangerous. Blackie’s response is at once practical and devotional: he supplies the water, the words, and the willingness to shoulder responsibility when Emma cannot safely approach a church.

The problem Emma cannot dismiss

Blackie notices that Emma has grown gloomy while he is describing the part of the house he plans to design and build. When he presses her, she admits that she is troubled because the baby has not been christened. His surprise is immediate: Emma has spent months telling him that she is an atheist. She does not retract that position. Instead, she explains that she fears the child might grow up believing in God and resent her mother for having left her unbaptized. The anxiety is not a return to faith so much as an uneasy attempt to leave open a choice her daughter may later want.

A visit to the vicar of Christ Church seems impossible to Emma. She expects the vicar to ask for the birth certificate and discover that the child is illegitimate; she also refuses to let anyone else know her private circumstances. Blackie first suggests a church in another part of Leeds, where Emma is unlikely to be recognized, but she rejects that solution too. Her objection is not merely the risk of being known locally: she does not want anyone to learn the child’s status. With the ordinary route closed, Blackie proposes that they conduct a christening themselves at home.

A household ceremony

Blackie takes the matter into his own hands, announcing that Leeds Corporation water will serve for the baptism and asking Emma to bring him a bowl. Emma is doubtful that a ceremony performed by him would be proper or real. He answers from a faith that has survived his estrangement from the Church: although he no longer attends, he says he still believes, and holds that God’s presence and love matter more than the building or the officiant. Emma accepts his assurance and agrees that he should christen the baby.

The ritual begins with a small practical preparation. Blackie fills a bowl with tepid water and looks for a towel; Emma lifts the baby from her makeshift cot and cradles her. As she strokes the child’s face, Edwin Fairley comes forcefully back into her thoughts. She imagines that he would love the baby if he could see her, even though she has tried to think of him only with hatred. The recollection briefly draws her attention away from the ceremony, revealing how the child’s existence keeps Emma’s rejected past present even as she tries to build a future for her daughter.

Blackie initially makes a cross on the baby’s forehead. Emma stops him: she is not Roman Catholic, and neither is the child; in the Church of England, she explains, the vicar sprinkles water rather than making the sign of the cross. She asks him to begin again. The correction gives the improvised rite a precise form shaped by Emma’s insistence on the denomination she considers appropriate, despite her disbelief. Blackie wipes the mark away and sprinkles a few drops of water instead.

He names the baby Edwina Laura Shane Harte and invokes the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. He then crosses himself, kisses the child, and kisses Emma. The private act settles Emma’s immediate worry: she says the ceremony was beautiful and observes that the baby is smiling and has not cried. She promises that Edwina will have beautiful clothes, the best schools, and the chance to become a real lady. The vow transforms a small baptism into an expression of Emma’s larger determination to secure a life for her daughter that is not defined by poverty or illegitimacy.

From baptism to public identity

The christening cannot resolve the legal problem Emma had raised. Blackie reminds her that she must register the birth with the Leeds registrar and provide the father’s name. Emma does not want to name the real father. Blackie suggests that his own name would be better on the certificate than an entry identifying the father as unknown, although the document would still record that Edwina was illegitimate. He makes clear that he intends to accompany Emma to the registrar and see that she follows his suggestion. His offer carries the support of the ceremony into a practical act of protection, without changing the child’s actual parentage.

The decision also sits beside Emma’s long concealment of Edwin’s paternity. Edwin had rejected marriage after Emma told him she was pregnant, recoiling from the social and family consequences of marrying a servant. Later, when Joe Lowther proposes, Emma tells him that Edwina is illegitimate but omits the father’s identity, repeating the account she had previously invented about a sailor. The baptism names Edwina within a loving household, but it does not expose the truth that Emma is determined to keep hidden.

Significance

The scene is built around a contradiction rather than a conversion. Emma rejects God, yet cannot comfortably deny her daughter a religious rite; Blackie retains belief even though he has left regular church practice behind. Their disagreement over the cross and the sprinkling of water makes belief tangible as a question of household custom, personal conscience, and who has authority to perform a ritual. The result is neither a public church baptism nor a simple rejection of religion, but a ceremony negotiated between Emma’s skepticism, her concern for Edwina’s future wishes, and Blackie’s conviction that loving care can make the act meaningful.

Blackie’s role reaches beyond officiating. By giving Edwina his name in the ceremony and offering to supply his name for her registration, he helps Emma provide the child with an acknowledged place in the world, while leaving the truth of her birth concealed. The christening therefore holds together two opposing movements: a tender welcome into a family’s care and a deliberate effort to protect a secret. Emma’s promise that Edwina will have the best of everything points forward from the bowl of water to the sustained work of giving her daughter opportunities Emma herself lacked.