Dastardly Gus Malcolms delivers yet another crushing blow to Rhona Goskirk as Ivy saga continues
At the beginning of Monday (February 19)’s Emmerdale episode Rhona Goskirk (Zoe Henry) was concentrating on trying to mend her broken relationship with step-daughter April (Amelia Flanagan).
April and her brother Leo (Harvey Rogerson) suffered a lot of upset when Rhona fled from the village with baby Ivy, and April has made it clear that she blames Rhona.
A desperate Rhona took Ivy away to a remote cottage when Gus Malcolms (Alan McKenna) announced that he was taking the little girl to live with her grandparents in France. Knowing that this meant she would hardly see her child as she grew up, Rhona couldn’t bear to say goodbye to Ivy and fled the village instead.
She now faces a prison term for kidnap, and the knowledge that her actions have caused a huge amount of suffering to the rest of her family, including Leo and April.
So Rhona had bought tickets for April’s favourite band to try to get back into her good books. Marlon (Mark Charnock) thought it was worth a try, but agreed that April might see straight through the idea and think Rhona was trying too hard.
They were interrupted by a knock on the door and Marlon was shocked to see Gus standing there. He’d come to get Ivy’s toy bunny which had been left at Smithy Cottage.
Rhona was angry that Gus was breaking the conditions of her bail by coming to the house, but while Marlon went to look for the bunny, Rhona realised something else. Ivy was in the car.
She asked if she could see her, but Gus said no. While that was entirely sensible under the circumstances, it was another blow to Rhona who is desperate for contact with the child she considers to be her daughter.
The encounter made Rhona realise something. ‘This won’t be the last time we have Ivy in our lives,’ she told Marlon. He was naturally disturbed that she was thinking like that, because the law was against her.
Rhona was insistent. All they needed to do was to prove that she should be seen as Ivy’s mum – ‘Because I am.’
Her plan was to get her name on the birth certificate and then work on getting the kidnap charge dropped.
These are massive mountains to climb and Marlon was still worried about whether she could cope with the potential heartache and disappointment of a long and complicated legal battle.
‘All I know is I want my daughter back where she belongs, and that journey starts now,’ Rhona vowed, as it seems that this story still has a long way to run.
