by Emma Hornby
‘About you and Lizzie?’ She felt tears bite. ‘Aye, she informed me this morning. Why didn’t you tell me?’
It was his turn to shrug. ‘Happen I didn’t think it the right time. I don’t know. Does it matter?’
‘Of course it matters, Daniel! It changes everything, don’t you see?’ Her tears spilled over to run down her face. ‘You … have a responsibility now … to Lizzie … and … and you need to leave. I’ll not see you risk getting yourself hurt or worse—’
‘I don’t love her.’
‘What?’ She shook her head.
‘Lizzie. I don’t love her.’
The wave of gladness his admission brought made her hate herself even more than she’d begun to of late. She was rotten to the core. Here she was, widowhood but a day old, secretly joyous that, just possibly, everything wasn’t lost after all, as she’d feared, with another man. A man she loved still, despite knowing – feeling – to the depths of her soul that it was wrong. Who was she at all? Even she didn’t recognise this stranger she’d become.
‘It’s the truth, Laura.’
‘Then why ask the lass?’
‘I have my reasons.’
‘It’s cruel, that’s what!’
His mouth hardened. He swung away from her with a frown. ‘Don’t fret, I’ll not shirk my duty. Although I regret it, I did ask for her hand, and I will see the marriage through. I’m a man of my word, if nowt else.’
She itched to go to him. What had his reasons been? Did he honestly regret it? Would he really wed Lizzie regardless? More to the point, why was she still asking herself these questions? It was no concern of hers. None at all. She must stop this. ‘Well, tha must do what tha must. It’s none of my business, after all.’ Then, though it pained her to say it: ‘I wish youse both luck and happiness.’
‘Thank you,’ he murmured flatly.
‘But the fact remains … You have to go home. It’s just not safe here.’
‘I’m not going anywhere. We see this through together then we leave together, as we planned. Right?’
That she had no intention of returning to Manchester she kept to herself. He’d learn the truth of that soon enough. ‘Lad, please listen to me, you must—’
‘Sshhh. What was that?’
They glanced towards the door then back to each other with terrible dread. Someone was coming up the stairs.
‘The wardrobe, quick,’ Daniel hissed, bundling her towards it.
Laura barely had time to climb inside when the bedroom door burst open and one of the Cannock brothers stormed into the room. Her heart was banging like a drum – she was certain he would hear it – and she had to hold a hand to her mouth to stem her heavy breathing. However, if Daniel shared her terror, he didn’t show it:
‘Summat wrong?’ he asked, his voice conveying only mild puzzlement.
‘Get your arse down here, you,’ the brother snarled. ‘Move it!’
The game was up. They knew what was afoot, must have overheard her and Daniel talking. Lord, they would kill them for sure. Think, her mind screamed. Do something!
Daniel folded his arms. Though he spoke as calmly as before, she saw through the gap in the wardrobe doors the nervous lick of his lips. ‘Eh? Why?’ he asked.
‘Why, tha asks?’ The man crossed the floor towards him. ‘’Cause that bleedin’ dog of yourn’s creating merry hell outside, that’s what. Yowling and scratching at the door for thee, it is. We’ll none of us get a wink of kip with that racket going on. Get and see to it afore I boot it into next week – and you along with it!’
Daniel stiffened at the threat. A muscle throbbed at his temple, hinting at his fury, and for a horrifying moment Laura thought he would lunge at the brother. When instead he forced an apology and followed him out, she sagged in relief. Moments later, he was back, Smiler at his heel. He closed the door, then leaned his forehead against it, fists bunched tight by his sides.
Laura emerged from the wardrobe and, after giving the excited dog a quick stroke, went to Daniel. What it must have taken just now for him to scrape to his brother’s murderer, to swallow every instinct in him and not pummel that face to a pulp, she could only imagine. She touched his shoulder. ‘Lad?’
‘May God forgive me, I’m going to get so much pleasure from ending that set of bastards!’ he spat in a whisper.
‘They suspect nowt?’
He heaved a long breath then turned to face her. He shook his head. ‘Nay, I don’t think so.’
‘Come, sit down.’
They went to perch on the end of the bed, the dog settling down between them. Not long afterwards, movement sounded again on the stairs – two sets of footsteps this time. Once again, Laura hurried to hide, but the brothers didn’t put in an appearance. They made straight for the room they shared next door and soon their loud snores pushed through the adjoining wall.
She and Daniel shared a look. A little longer, they told each other with their eyes. Let the pair reach a deep slumber and then we’ll strike.
When finally they rose and moved to the door, Laura was shaking from head to foot. Daniel didn’t look much better. Despite his earlier impatience to exact revenge, his face was now ashen and, before turning the knob, he released several steadying breaths. He nodded to her, she returned it, and they tiptoed on to the tiny landing.
They paused outside the brothers’ room. Daniel reached inside his trouser pocket and brought out two flick knives, one of which he passed to her. Then he opened the door slowly and they crept inside.
Both brothers lay on their backs, mouths wide, fast asleep. The high moon’s silver sheen pouring through the curtainless window lit the way as she made for one bed, he the second.
The weapons were poised ready at their victims’ necks. Laura and Daniel glanced across at each other.
‘For Nathan.’
‘For Father,’ she mouthed back.
In a rapid, simultaneous sweep, they drew the blades across the tender flesh.
Laura could only watch in numbing horror as the younger, more vicious brother, whom she’d attacked, opened his eyes wide with a sharp gasp. Then he was leaping from the bed, roaring like a crazed bull. With a cry, she dropped the knife, sending it clattering to the bare floorboards to become lost in the shadows. He came towards her and she staggered back on legs that felt like melting jelly, hands outstretched to ward him off.
Dear God, she hadn’t done it right! The blade hadn’t penetrated; she’d barely drawn blood.
‘What the …? What the …! You?’ Taking in her face, he swung his head incredulously. Then he bared his teeth. ‘You whore, I’ll kill thee!’ he screamed.
‘Nay, you stay away from me! Daniel!’ she added on a shriek, not daring to take her eyes off the one advancing towards her. ‘Daniel, help me!’
Frowning, the man paused – clearly, he’d thought her alone – and scanned the opposite end of the room. Picking out his brother’s bed, his expression dropped slowly. ‘Bastard … Nay!’
Laura followed his gaze. His brother, making soft gurgling sounds, wild eyes gazing at the ceiling, was clutching at his neck with both hands. Blood, almost black in the dim light, covered him, the bed, the walls. Standing above, the knife still poised in his fist, was Daniel, frozen with shock, as though not quite believing he’d inflicted the injury in front of him.
‘You’ve done for him! You’ve slashed his throat!’ The younger brother was dragging in each breath painfully and pulling at the hair at his temples, almost delirious with panic. ‘Why? Who the hell even are you?’
‘He’s my brother-in-law.’ Choking with sobs, Laura ran to Daniel’s side. She turned murderous eyes back on the younger Cannock. ‘The fella youse stabbed to death in Manchester the other day was my husband. This, this,’ she added, swinging round to jab a finger at the dying man, ‘it’s your comeuppance! You killed Daniel’s brother and now he’s killed yours! I only wish I’d done a better job and seen thee off as well!’
All vestige of colour h
ad left his face. He stared back dumbly in stunned silence.
‘Burning down Mrs Hanover’s premises. Father, Nathan, now him,’ she went on, tears pouring freely down her cheeks. ‘All gone. So much destruction and death, and for what? I had no part in Adam’s demise!’
‘You reckon you’d still be breathing if I thought that?’ he bellowed back. ‘What the bugger are you talking about?’
‘The … the accident. His trip on t’ stairs. You believed me responsible. You came for me afterwards, forced me to flee for my life. You said you were going to kill me!’
‘Aye, because of the brass, yer brainless bitch!’
‘But … But I …’ A terrible, terrible feeling washed through her, making her stagger. This was all some sick ruse. He was lying. This couldn’t be happening, it couldn’t! ‘What brass?’ she stuttered.
‘Don’t act gormless, you sneaky, lying whore. You know exactly what I’m talking about, and I want it back. Every last penny, d’you hear?’
‘I don’t know. I don’t!’
The conversation she’d overheard. They had mentioned a haul that would have set them up for life, had called her a thief.
Dear God, he spoke the truth. All of this. All of it, for all this time …
Their vendetta against her had nothing to do with them thinking her to blame for Adam’s death. They believed she’d stolen from them. That was it. Everything that had happened, the terrific level of loss …
‘This whole thing … It’s been about nowt but money?’ she rasped.
‘My money, aye. And I want it back!’
Her legs threatened to give way; she grasped on to Daniel to stop herself from falling. She’d lost her home and her father, her husband, her freedom, everything she’d ever known and loved … for money? This was some horrific nightmare, surely? This couldn’t be real.
‘We need … need to get out of here,’ she murmured in a daze to Daniel, tugging at his jacket.
‘Youse are going nowhere.’ Fumbling at a tall chest, the brother pulled something from the top drawer. When he held it aloft, Laura felt the blood drain from her face and knew the threat to her life in light of this new development had far from diminished. She was still in as much danger now as she’d ever been. ‘Nowhere, you hear?’ he added in a low growl, pointing the gun directly at her. ‘Unless you fancy the contents of all five chambers of this revolver emptied into your head, that is.’
Charged silence crackled between them. Then a groan rent the air and they turned as one in surprise to the bed.
‘He’s alive?’ the younger brother asked in disbelief. ‘He’s alive, he is! Quick, there might still be time. Now, you bitch!’ he shouted, prodding the gun’s barrel into the small of her back. ‘Tend to him. Do it!’
The seemingly miraculous resurrection appeared to snap Daniel from his stupor – galvanised, he sprang into action. He lifted his victim’s head whilst, by the guttering light of the candle the younger brother had produced, Laura assessed his injury.
‘I need water,’ she said, and Daniel hurried for the pitcher on the washstand by the window. ‘You, fetch me the sheet from your bed,’ she told the weapon-wielding Cannock. This he did, and she tore it into strips. ‘Now, mind back, give me room to work,’ she instructed as she wetted a rag and turned her attention to the brother’s wound.
‘Well, Laura?’ Daniel’s voice eventually broke through the silence. ‘Is he …?’
‘Aye, he’ll live.’
The younger brother wasn’t the only one to emit a breath of relief – Daniel visibly sagged. Seeing it, Laura knew for the first time a touch of thankfulness that the man had survived. She’d agonised over what the hell she was doing as she battled to save her enemy; surely he’d be better off dead, his sibling along with him, for both their sakes? But what would it have done to Daniel? The guilt of knowing he’d taken someone’s life would have ruined him, of that she was certain.
Unlike some, he wasn’t capable of such evil. He was a good man, and good men didn’t go around murdering others, no matter the provocation or how much they might deserve it. She should never have suggested they come here. What an utter mess she’d made of everything – things were now ten times worse.
‘You’re sure he’ll pull through?’ demanded the younger brother.
She nodded. ‘The blood made it look worse than it were; he lost a fair bit. He has two cuts and they’re quite deep, but I’ve patched him up well enough.’ She checked again the improvised bandage she’d fashioned from a left-over piece of the sheet. Satisfied it was secure, she focused next on the injured man’s pallor and pulse rate. The former wasn’t too good, resembling the colour of old dough. But his skin wasn’t clammy; his temperature seemed fair. Furthermore, his breathing was steady. Nor did he look to be in much discomfort.
She rose from the bed and lifted her gaze slowly to the younger brother. He in turn stared from her to Daniel. The gun followed his eyeline, pointing at them alternately. He cast the man resting in the bed another glance. Then he jerked his head towards the door.
‘Youse two, downstairs. Move it!’
Laura led the way. In the kitchen, she awaited the next instruction with crippling dread. They were not for getting out of this alive, she and Daniel, she just knew it. How had she been so naive as to think their plan could work? Blinded by rage, terror of further reprisals and the need for revenge, she’d taken the pair of them straight to the slaughter. She’d been such a damn fool. Now, she and Daniel would pay the ultimate price.
‘Sit,’ the brother ordered Daniel, pointing to a chair. When Daniel had obeyed, he went to stand in front of him. In one swift movement, he swung the weapon, smashing the butt with brute force across Daniel’s head.
Laura cried out and as Daniel slithered to the ground, made to rush forward, but the young Cannock sprang in her path. Then he was lifting his arm again and she hadn’t the speed to dodge.
She knew a moment of fierce pain, then darkness claimed her, too.
CHAPTER 19
LAURA AWOKE TO dull throbbing in her skull and an intense dragging in her shoulders. The candle had burned out and the dark room was ice cold. She attempted to stand but found that she couldn’t, and when she tried to lift a hand to the tender spot on her head it refused to obey.
Drowsiness threatened to sweep her off again and she was about to let it when a small voice murmured from far away, urging her to waken. She forced her eyelids back open.
Twisting this way and that, she slowly began to understand her situation. The tightness in her shoulders and her inability to rise seemed to point to her being constrained. The bite of rough rope at her wrists and ankles confirmed it. She was tied to a chair. And she wasn’t alone. Breathing was coming from somewhere behind her.
Daniel? It had to be. Overwhelming relief flooded through her. By some miracle, like her, he was alive. Gulping back tears, she whispered his name.
‘Aye, it’s me.’ He sounded groggy, his voice scratchy like gravel. ‘Is tha … all right?’
‘I think so. What happened?’
‘I’m guessing we’ve been out of it forra good while. Christ, my head.’ He sucked in air sharply. ‘Are you hurt, an’ all?’
‘Aye. The revolver … he hit us with it, must have restrained us whilst we were unconscious. Where is he? Have you seen him?’
‘Nay. His mam’s not here, neither. We’re the only ones.’
A small whimper escaped Laura. She bit her lips. ‘What’s to become of us, lad?’
‘I don’t know,’ he admitted after a pause. ‘We’re just going to have to tough this out. Can tha move at all?’
‘Nay.’
‘Try, Laura. There’s no way tha can break loose?’
‘Oh, I can’t!’ she finally cried when a few minutes of pulling against her bonds yielded no result. ‘What are we going to do?’
‘Tell the truth, that’s what,’ a voice said from the stairs.
Laura and Daniel craned their necks, but the darkness
obscured the speaker – though it didn’t take a genius to work out who it was. Then a flare of light punctured the gloom as a candle was lit and they found themselves staring into the hate-filled eyes of their captors.
The brothers perched side by side on the end of the table then reached forward and pulled the wooden chairs Laura and Daniel were imprisoned in around to face them. Folding their arms, they looked from one to the other in silence.
‘What are youse going to do to us?’ Laura forced herself to ask. They didn’t respond. ‘Please, let us go. I know nowt about any brass—’
A sharp slap across her face shattered her speech, the sound rebounding off the walls like a thunderclap and bringing stinging tears to her eyes.
‘You bastard!’ Enraged, Daniel bucked and yanked against the rope and tried to throw himself forward at the men, but it was no use – he was powerless and they knew it. They laughed in his face, bringing from him a roar of frustration. ‘Lay one more finger on her and I swear to God, I will gut you like the hog that you are – and I’ll do it right next time,’ he promised the elder Cannock, who had delivered the blow. ‘We should have left you to rot, you evil swine, yer!’
‘Aye, but you never, and more fool you,’ he shot back on a guffaw. For all his bravado, however, he looked terrible. Beads of sweat pricked his temples and brow and his complexion was a sickly grey. Though he tried to mask it, it was evident he was in some pain.
‘You’ve not the bottle for it, you see,’ the younger brother added to Daniel, shaking his head with a grin. ‘Not like us. We did a right number on your brother, aye. Finished him off good and proper, we did—’
‘Stop it, stop it, please!’ Laura cried over their manic laughter and Daniel’s heart-rending howl. ‘Just let us go! Please, let us go!’
‘We want our money.’ All trace of mirth had gone – the snarling brothers loomed towards her. ‘You’re going to spill to us where you’ve hidden it, or God help thee.’
Not this again? She closed her eyes in hopeless dread. For how long would they keep up the impossible interrogation? How could she give them the answers they sought when she hadn’t a clue what they were talking about? And yet their lives very possibly depended on her telling them what they wanted to know. But how? What money?
