by Daisy Styles
Knowing she only had a few days to prepare for her trip, Rosa realized she couldn’t wander down to Clitheroe Station and book a single ticket to London; if anybody saw her there it would arouse instant suspicion. She’d just have to take the bus into Manchester, hoping that nobody would spot her en route; she could then buy a ticket to London at London Road Station. Troop trains were running all over the country; she was confident that even if she had to wait she would eventually find a seat on one of them.
Rosa wrote a brief note to Gladys, saying when she’d be arriving; as she was unsure of the exact time, she told Gladys that she’d sit and wait for her at the hospital. Next she packed a small rucksack with some warm clothes, several changes of underwear, the little money she’d managed to save, her notebook and the photographs of her brother. Now all she had to do was to wait and hope to God that she wouldn’t lose her nerve at the last minute.
Down in Pendleton, Edna was getting grumpier by the day. After trying to forget about her husband coming home smelling of Evening in Paris, she became anxious all over again when a letter went missing. She’d been busy preparing the chip shop for opening, but not so busy that she hadn’t seen the postman pass by waving a white envelope, which he normally popped through the letter-box. However, later on, when she went to collect the letter, she found nothing on the doormat. When she questioned Malc, he said he knew nothing about it – so where had it gone? Increasingly suspicious, Edna questioned the postman the next day; he assured her he’d dropped the envelope through her letter-box.
‘Well, I’ve not got it,’ Edna thought to herself. ‘And there’s only one other person who lives at this address so he HAS to have it!’
Malc had in fact seen the letter on the doormat; he’d also immediately recognized the writing on the envelope – it was Flora’s, and the letter was addressed to him. He’d snatched it up and shoved it in his coat pocket before Edna could see her daughter’s handwriting and start asking awkward questions. Several hours later, Malc read the letter in the privacy of his office at the Phoenix.
Dear Malc,
God only knows if you’ll ever get this as John is keeping me and the girls prisoners in our own home.
Malc instantly regretted the delay in reading the letter. ‘Oh, no!’ he groaned. The letter continued:
WHY do the army keep giving him sick leave? He needs help but instead of treating him they’ve sent him back to me. He’s drunk and abusive, Malc – my girls are crying all the time, which makes John even angrier. This time I can’t get them to the safety of a neighbour’s house, as he’s locked all the doors and keeps the keys. I don’t know what to do – I’m so frightened. My only hope is if I can slip this letter under the back door, my neighbour might pick it up and post it on to you.
If you get it please help us.
Flora
‘God Almighty!’ Malc cried, as he rapidly reread the letter.
He HAD to tell Edna this time; it simply couldn’t go on this way. But then he remembered his vow to Flora; he was torn between loyalty to his wife and his promise to her daughter. One thing he knew for sure was he had to get to Penrith right away; even by his calculations Flora and the little girls had been imprisoned in their home for at least as long as it had taken Malc to get the letter: twenty-four hours – or even more. Without telling a soul, Malc slipped out of the Phoenix’s back entrance, then ran all the way down the hill into town, where he picked up his car in the back street behind Edna’s chip shop. Thanks to his links with the local black market, Malc had been able to ensure that the tank was topped up with petrol in case there was another domestic emergency. Without leaving a message Malc set off on his grim journey North.
Edna was surprised when her husband didn’t come home for his tea; usually when he was working late she kept his meal hot in the oven until he got home. After she’d driven up to the Phoenix in her little blue van, and before she lit up the range to start cooking, Edna hurried into the factory to see if she could find her husband, who wasn’t in his office. After asking a few questions she realized nobody had seen him all afternoon.
‘Mebbe there’s an emergency in another part of the factory,’ Maggie suggested, as she and Edna smoked their cigarettes in the dispatch yard.
‘Mebbe,’ Edna replied.
She didn’t mention the missing letter or Malc’s previous absence; she didn’t need advice or comfort. She knew the cold truth in her heart – her husband of a few short months was having an affair behind her back.
19. The Truth
Malc drove like the devil, but when he got to Flora’s house he found it empty. After banging hard on the front door and getting no reply, he’d run round the back.
‘GOD!’ he thought as he began to panic. ‘I hope I’m not too late?’
Seeing him furiously hammering on the back door, the kind neighbour he recognized from his previous visit called out to him. ‘The police have carted the drunken bugger off in a van – again!’ she said sourly.
Frantic with fear, Malc called back to her, ‘What happened to Flora and the girls?’
‘There was enough screaming to wake the dead – half the street must’ve heard; we were all out here, wondering what to do for the best. The local bobby called in for help – they were all taken to the hospital, Flora on a stretcher and the bairns hysterical with fear. A terrible thing to happen to a family when you can’t trust a man with his kids.’
Malc didn’t waste a moment longer talking. He jumped into his car and drove straight to the hospital, where he was told quite firmly that Flora couldn’t be seen.
‘She’s in no state for visitors,’ the desk clerk told him crisply.
‘Can’t I at least see her daughters?’ he implored. ‘I’m their grandad.’
After much persuasion Malc was shown to a side ward, where Katherine and Marilyn were lying side by side in a single bed, clinging on to each other.
‘GRANDAD!’ they cried when they saw Malc’s familiar burly figure in the doorway.
After hugging them tightly, Malc pointed at the empty bed on the other side of the room.
‘Why are you two sleeping in the same bed?’ he asked.
‘We wanted to be together ’cos we were frightened,’ Katherine, the youngest, explained.
‘Have you come to take us home?’ Marilyn asked nervously.
Malc’s eyes filled with tears at the state of the poor mites, who, with dark bags under their eyes, looked like they hadn’t slept in days.
‘I thought we might go to Nana’s – what do you think?’ he asked brightly.
Obviously relieved they weren’t going back to their real home full of terrifying memories, the girls cried in unison, ‘Yes! Yes! Yes!’
‘I’ll have to ask your mummy’s permission first,’ Malc warned.
Marilyn said in a low anxious voice, ‘We mustn’t leave Mummy alone with Daddy; he shouts at her and hits her.’
‘Mummy’s with the nice nurses right now,’ Malc gently explained. ‘She’s asleep, but as soon as she wakes up I’ll ask her if I can take you both to Nana Edna in Pendleton, where you can eat chips and fritters all day long!’
Giggling at his silly remark, the girls snuggled closer to him. ‘Now,’ he said, as he took a pack of cards from his pocket, ‘look what I found in my car.’ Flicking the cards, he sat on the chair beside their bed. ‘Who fancies a game of snap?’
After what seemed like twenty games of snap, the little girls finally fell asleep, and so did Malc, who slumped over on to their bed with his head in his hands. When he awoke it was to a nurse shaking him by the shoulder.
‘I’m afraid you can’t stay here,’ she whispered.
Malc nodded and rubbed his tired eyes as he followed her out of the room. ‘I didn’t want to leave the girls until they were sound asleep,’ he told the young nurse, who gave an understanding smile.
With nowhere to go but his car, Malc settled himself in the back seat, where in between fitful snatches of sleep, he anxiously tried to wo
rk out what he’d say to Edna on his return; only the absolute truth would do this time, he decided.
By seven thirty Malc was back in the hospital asking once again to see Flora.
‘I have to get my daughter-in-law’s permission to take her children to their grandmother in Pendleton, where they’ll be safe from their father,’ he pleaded to the new desk clerk. ‘After what they’ve been through, they need proper care and protection.’
Eventually, after the staff had stopped serving breakfast, Malc was briefly allowed to see Flora, who was sitting up in bed with her left arm in a splint.
‘What happened?’ he gasped, as he bent to give her a quick kiss on the forehead.
‘I tried to open the front door to get the girls out, but John grabbed my arm.’ She winced as she recalled the pain. ‘I thought he’d rip it off.’
Malc also winced as he noticed the multiple bruises on her face and arms.
‘Have you seen Marilyn and Katherine?’ Flora quickly asked.
Malc smiled reassuringly. ‘I stayed with them until I got thrown out of here last night; we played snap,’ he added with a wink. ‘They won of course!’
Flora’s wide green eyes, so like Edna’s, filled with tears. ‘They were so frightened,’ she murmured.
‘They’re all right now, sweetheart, and you will be too,’ Malc promised. ‘Now, lovie,’ he added briskly, ‘whether you like it or not, it’s time to put your mother in the picture.’
Flora nodded as tears slipped down her thin cheeks. ‘You’re right,’ she agreed. ‘Mum needs to know. I can’t go on like this any more – if the army won’t protect us from my husband, we’ll have to protect ourselves.’
Malc nodded at the woman who had repeatedly taken the brunt of her deranged husband’s anger. ‘With your permission I’ll take the girls to Edna – they’ll be safe as houses with her, have no fear,’ he chuckled. ‘She’ll kill anybody who as much as looks at ’em!’ he joked. ‘As soon as you’re fit I’ll come back for you and take you home too,’ he promised.
Flora nervously bit her nails. ‘Mum will be cross with me for keeping her in the dark, won’t she?’
‘She’ll be relieved to know what’s going on,’ Malc assured her. ‘She’s had her suspicions,’ he added. ‘She’s not daft, is our Edna.’
Malc insisted on Marilyn and Katherine speaking to their mother before they left. Both of them were quiet when he brought them to the ward, where they stared solemnly at their mother lying in bed.
‘Why is your arm in a stick, Mummy?’ Katherine piped up.
‘Because it’s a bit sore,’ Flora replied. ‘Now listen carefully, girls, Grandad’s taking you to Nana’s.’
‘Will you come too, Mummy?’ Marilyn begged.
‘I’ll come as soon as my poorly arm is better,’ Flora promised.
‘I’m frightened Daddy will hurt you again,’ the terrified child blurted out.
‘Daddy’s being taken care of, and I’m safe here with the nurses and doctors,’ Flora gently reassured her.
After a tearful farewell with lots of hugs and kisses, Malc finally got the girls into his car. Even though they needed fresh clothes, he had no intention of taking them back to their home; instead he tucked them up in the back seat and, after covering them with his heavy tweed overcoat, he set off for Pendleton with them in the back happily singing ‘There were Ten in the Bed and the Little One Said, Roll Over!’
Edna hadn’t slept a wink all night long. Lying wide-eyed and staring up at the ceiling, she’d listened to the old clock chiming out the hours; by six o’clock she couldn’t stand doing nothing for a minute longer. Hurrying downstairs, she put on the kettle for a brew and lit up her first cigarette of the day. But where in God’s name was her husband? When and if he ever did get home, there’d be no creeping about this time; she’d get the truth out of Malc, even if she had to wring it out of him with her bare hands. It all added up: the perfume incident, the missing letter and now this – her husband gone all night with no explanation. It was as clear as the nose on her face: her husband, less than four months wed to her, was committing adultery.
She would never have put her money on Malc being an adulterer; the one thing she’d always loved about him was his honesty; often blunt to the point of rudeness, he was a man who always spoke the truth and stood by it too. How could he have broken his marriage vows to her so quickly? Didn’t he love her any more? Had he fallen for a younger woman with a better figure? The thought of him with somebody else made Edna’s insides turn upside down, and unable to stop herself she was suddenly violently sick in the kitchen sink. Feeling weak and dizzy, she reached out to steady herself on the kitchen table.
‘Get a grip, woman,’ she told herself. ‘The bugger will be back, with his tail between his legs, and you’ve got to face him! No shilly-shallying, it’s the truth you want – you deserve nothing less.’
Half an hour later Edna was dressed and in the chip shop, peering out of the window for the first sight of her wayward husband; in her hand she held her rolling pin, which she had no fear of using if it meant she’d get to the truth. She heard Malc’s car before she saw it turn into the street, and, ducking down so he wouldn’t see she was waiting for his return, Edna dashed to the front door, which she threw open.
‘And where the ’ell do you think you’ve been?’ she raged at her husband standing on the doorstep.
Seeing the rolling pin twitching in his wife’s hands, Malc quickly said, ‘I can explain everything, Edna.’
‘You better bloody had!’ she raged. ‘And it had better be good too. What kind of a fool do you take me for?’
‘Edna,’ he pleaded. ‘If you’ll just give me a minute.’
‘A minute!’ she shrieked. ‘I’ve been up all night waiting for you. You won’t put a foot over this doorstep until you tell me about the floozy you’re spending so much time with!’
‘Edna –’ Malc implored.
‘First you come to bed stinking of another woman’s perfume, then you lie, deliberately lie to me about a letter that was delivered here and you hid, and now you come home after being out all night.’ Looking like she was going to explode, Edna added, ‘What do you expect? A welcoming party?’
Keeping his eye on the wavering rolling pin, which Malc had no doubt his wife would use on him if he didn’t tell her the truth pretty quickly, he yelled over the top of her ranting, ‘If you want proof of my innocence, come and look in the car, right now!’ Hurrying back to the car, he called over his shoulder, ‘Come on, take a look.’
Edna hesitated. ‘This had better be good,’ she snapped, as she slowly made her way to his parked car.
‘There are my other women!’ Malc said, as he pointed at Edna’s grandchildren sprawled out and fast asleep on the back seat of his car.
Edna gaped in disbelief at the sweetly sleeping children. ‘What …’
Taking her trembling hands (and at the same time relieving her of the menacing rolling pin!), Malc quickly said, ‘It’s a long and not a very pretty story, sweetheart, but it’s nowt to do with another woman – well, unless you call your Flora a threat.’
Edna was so shocked she could barely speak. ‘What’s going on?’ she spluttered.
Before Malc could begin to tell his wife about his involvement in Flora’s domestic affairs, Katherine woke up and held out her arms to Edna, who rushed to embrace her precious granddaughter.
‘Mummy said you’d look after us till she gets out of hospital,’ Katherine said sleepily.
‘Oh, I will, my sweetheart,’ Edna cried with tears in her eyes. ‘Nana will always look after you.’
Before Malc could even begin to offer an explanation, Edna’s granddaughters poured out the terrible story themselves.
‘Mummy told us to hide in the wardrobe.’
‘Daddy kept shouting.’
‘He hurt Mummy, she was crying a lot.’
‘She’s poorly in hospital.’
‘The nurses are making Mummy better.’
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br /> After their tearful outpourings, the girls requested something to eat. Once they were sitting by the fire in the kitchen, Edna started making toast and boiling the few precious eggs she’d been given by a neighbour who kept chickens in his backyard. Glancing up from slicing a loaf of bread, she said in a low voice, ‘You’d better explain what’s been going on up there, Malc.’
After Malc told her in hurried whispers what had happened, Edna looked both hurt and angry.
‘And why did nobody bother to tell me?’
‘Flora didn’t want to upset you; she made me promise not to tell you,’ Malc explained.
Clearly offended, Edna snapped, ‘But she told you!’
‘I hated keeping it a secret, but Flora was adamant.’
Edna’s eyes swam with tears. ‘And there was I thinking you’d run off with a floozy,’ she murmured.
Malc took her in his strong arms and held her close to his chest. ‘My sweetheart,’ he whispered softly. ‘You’re the only woman in the world I want.’ Then, spying Katherine and Marilyn grinning at them over the top of Edna’s bent head, he added with a chuckle, ‘Well, apart from those two cheeky little monkeys who are waiting for their breakfast!’
It was shortly after Malc returned to Pendleton with Flora’s children that the day dawned that Rosa had been both dreading and longing for: the day she would begin her search for Gabriel. Feigning sickness, she groaned as she lifted her head out of the metal pail she’d been retching into.
‘It must have been something I ate.’
Looking concerned, Nora and Maggie offered advice.
‘Best stay in bed,’ Maggie said.
‘We’ll tell Malc you’re ill,’ Nora added.
‘Sleep it off,’ Maggie suggested, as she turned to go.
‘Hopefully you’ll feel better in a few hours’ time,’ Nora called over her shoulder.
