Mary acknowledged her mother’s words with a thoughtful nod of the head. ‘You’re right,’ she murmured. ‘It doesn’t bear thinking about.’
The old doctor remembered each family member with affection, but as he recalled, Barney’s wife was an exceptionally delightful creature. ‘Vicky has managed to survive intact, I believe. Marriage to Leonard Maitland has given her security and companionship.’
Lucy said stoutly, ‘Yes, Vicky would have kept them all together. She was strong in nature, and very protective of them all. On that last day when she came to see Barney, it was to plead with him. Even after all he had done, she was ready to forgive him. But he played his part well. He sent her away, and that must have broken her heart; it certainly broke his. But, yes! I think somehow or another, Vicky would have kept them all going despite their problem.’
‘You did know that Leonard Maitland was in love with Vicky?’ the doctor said.
Lucy smiled. ‘I think most people knew that – even Barney. He would tease Vicky about it. But it made no difference to either of them, because they had eyes only for each other.’
She imparted a secret she had kept for too long. ‘One day, soon after Mary was born, Barney and I were sitting outside on the swing, when he spoke of Leonard. He told me how he had always known Leonard was a good man, that he had confided in Leonard and made him swear never to tell anyone the truth. He also said that he had asked Leonard to take care of Vicky, and marry her when he was dead, because he knew how much in love with her he was.’
Adam nodded. ‘Knowing that Leonard had promised to take care of Vicky would have given Barney some peace of mind.’
During the course of the conversation, they touched on most things. There was talk of Lucy writing to Vicky, and she said it was something she had to do, and very soon.
‘One thing at a time though,’ she said. ‘Coming here has taken up all my energy. But I have it in mind to contact Vicky.’ She looked at the old doctor. ‘I haven’t been able to write before, because I had no way of knowing where they were. But I have a sneaking feeling that you have their address. Am I right, Doctor Lucas?’
A shy little smile crept over his features. ‘You’ve caught me out,’ he admitted. ‘I do have the address of Leonard’s office in Boston. On the day he sailed for America, he said if there was anything that Barney needed, I was to let him know straightaway.’
He gave a long, drawn-out sigh. ‘Of course, I never asked him for anything. Firstly because Barney would not have wanted me to, and secondly, because there was absolutely nothing that Leonard could have done for him. When all was said and done, I thought it best to cut away from them, for the family’s sake, and because Barney had gone to such horrendous lengths to make sure they would not come back.’
‘Would you mind giving me the address?’
‘Not at all. I know exactly where I have it.’ He struggled out of his chair and picked up his stick. ‘In fact, I may as well find it now, and then we can simply enjoy our evening together.’
As he went from the room, Mary crossed to the window and peered out. ‘Such an interesting garden,’ she observed. ‘I do love the conservatory.’ Stroking her chin with the tips of her fingers, she mused aloud, ‘I wonder if there might be space for us to have one built at home?’
When she beckoned for the others to come and see, Lucy and Ben made their way over to join her. Adam, however, had other ideas. Leaving the room, he stood a while in the hallway, listening intently. When he heard the doctor muttering and moaning, he followed the sound down the passage towards the old man’s study, and tapped on the open door. ‘Do you think we could have a word?’ he asked as the doctor swung round to face him.
‘But of course. Come in!’
Adam thought he had never seen such a chaotic room.
The study was piled high with boxes of old files and documents; boxes on the desk, boxes against the wall, and more boxes on top of the filing cabinets. ‘I’m always meaning to set about tidying this place up,’ the old man explained, ‘but somehow, I never seem to get round to it. Lizzie kindly offered to sort it all out, but I can’t let her loose on this little lot. The poor darling would not know what goes where, or how to decipher half of it. Besides, most of these are patients’ private records. They need to be carefully gone through and meticulously filed, and that’s my job.’
He carried on muttering as he threw boxes out of the way. Then: ‘There it is!’ Digging into one of the half-open desk-drawers, he waved a piece of paper in the air. ‘I knew it wouldn’t be far away.’
‘I just need a minute of your time, if that’s all right?’ Adam thought that Raymond Lucas was more like an absent-minded professor than a doctor.
‘Sorry!’ He sat on the edge of the desk. ‘You have my full attention now, so please fire away. What’s on your mind?’
‘May I close the door?’
Dr Lucas frowned. ‘If you must, yes … close it.’
Adam quietly did so. ‘It’s just that I wouldn’t want Lucy to overhear this.’
‘Well, go on then, man! What is it?’
‘It’s just that, well, as you have the contact address for Leonard, I wondered if you might also have information regarding another ghost from the past.’ He lowered his voice. ‘Edward Trent … the man who caused little Jamie’s drowning. Lucy still has nightmares about that. She doesn’t know whether he’s alive or dead, or even if he might turn up at any minute. So, if it turned out that somebody had finished him off, it would give us all some peace of mind.’
The old man understood immediately. ‘That was a terrible thing and no mistake,’ he said sombrely.
‘So, have you any idea what happened to him?’
‘No,’ the doctor apologised. ‘None whatsoever. It’s a mystery to me why they never caught him, but then we knew him to be a cunning fox. Either he had an argument with some other lowlife and was left for dead in some dark, God-forsaken place, or he managed to get far enough away to escape the law.’
‘So, God forbid, he could still be on the loose somewhere?’ Adam was bitterly disappointed, because even though many years had passed, Edward Trent still cast a dark shadow over their lives.
Though Adam would never mention it to Lucy, not a day went by when he didn’t fear for her safety. ‘When Lucy rejected him that night, he seemed to lose his sanity. I would feel much safer if I knew where he was today. Somehow, I don’t believe he’s a man who would easily forget being rejected by a woman.’ A thought occurred to him. ‘I hope you never give out Lucy’s address?’
The older man was wounded. ‘Good God, man, what do you take me for? Haven’t I kept her address safe these many years?’
Adam apologised. ‘I’m sorry. It’s just that I do worry about her. There’s always the chance that he might come back and look for her.’
‘I doubt that. He may be dangerous, but he’s not mad. Even if he is still alive, why would he take a chance like that now?’
All the same, he understood Adam’s concern. ‘Let’s hope we’ll never see hide nor hair of him again, and Lucy can learn to forget.’
But Adam was unconvinced. ‘She will never forget,’ he murmured. ‘And neither will I.’
Chapter 9
LUCY HAD RETURNED home to Salford with the intention of writing to Vicky at the earliest opportunity.
Unsure of how to start, she took a moment to reflect.
Looking out across the garden of Knudsden House, her mind was alive with memories of her incredibly eventful life. Where had they gone, all those years? How did they fly away, without her even noticing?
Tears of regret burned her eyes. Fate was so cruel. She brought you joy, filled your heart with love and hope, then just when you were beginning to feel safe and content, you turned around and it had all been taken away from you.
Releasing a great sigh that seemed to move her very soul, she stood before the desk in the sitting room, her gaze falling to the blank page awaiting her, her voice whisper-soft as she spoke
her thoughts aloud. ‘Oh Vicky, I’m so sorry!’
Slowly shaking her head, she let her gaze momentarily drift to Barney’s photograph. For a long, agonising moment she soaked the contours of his familiar features into her senses, the bright eyes, the winning smile, the wonderful energy in his face. Such a man, she thought. Such a joy.
She returned to his smile, though whilst his was sunny, her smile was sad. ‘You should never have left me,’ she chided. ‘Oh, dear God, Barney! Look how long I waited to be with you … then suddenly one day when I wasn’t looking, you were gone.’
When emotion threatened to overwhelm her, she sat herself down at the desk, and picked up her fountain pen.
Three times she started the letter, and three times she tore it up and threw the remnants in the waste-paper bin.
Leaning back in the chair she closed her eyes, let her mind reshape her thoughts and started again.
My dearest Vicky,
I know this letter and its contents will come as a shock to you, and for that I deeply apologise. But there is something you should know.
All those years ago, you left for America, wrongly believing that Barney had forsaken you. He made you think he did not love you or his children, that he wanted rid of you all. You must have been heartbroken. I can’t even begin to imagine how desperately hard it was for you.
Sadly, Barney had a reason for wanting to make you believe he had turned bad. I knew the truth and I wanted to tell you, but I could not, until now …
Throwing down her pen, she snatched up this page, too, and tore it into the tiniest fragments. ‘It’s not right!’ She was angry, with Vicky for not being here where she could explain face to face, with Barney for having created such a dilemma, and with herself for not being strong enough to do what she knew in her deepest heart must be done.
‘Why can’t I say the right things?’ she asked herself. ‘Why can’t I say them in a way that won’t cause her any more heartache?’
She gave a wry little laugh. Look at her – trying to protect Vicky, when what she really wanted to say was that, whatever Barney had done or said, Vicky should have trusted and loved him enough to know that when everything bad was happening, she should have questioned it more. As his wife, Vicky should have known that being cruel or spiteful was not in Barney’s nature.
Pushing the chair back, Lucy began to pace the room, her own heart beating fast in agitation. Vicky should never have left him! Never have doubted him! When he needed her, she should have been there for him. Instead, his wife had left him alone … deserted him and sailed to the other side of the world, just when he needed her the most.
After a time, anger and confusion subsided. She regained her composure and returned to sit at the desk, where she laid out a clean sheet of paper and began to write. ‘It has to be done,’ she murmured as she formulated her thoughts. ‘Painful or not, Barney’s family must be made aware of the truth.’
As she wrote, the years rolled away and memories sharpened into focus: of Barney, Vicky, their three lovely children and the times they all enjoyed together.
Though determined not to avoid what she now considered to be her duty, Lucy was later to recall writing that letter as one of the most painful episodes in her life.
The room was small. Smelling of new polish and aging leather, it had magnificent panelled walls and narrow high windows, and behind the long table, the four men talked amongst themselves in whispers.
Eventually one by one they straightened their shoulders and all raised their heads to look at Edward Trent; though of course he was known to them as Edward Carter.
‘Pay attention, Carter,’ the Governor snapped. ‘We have looked at the facts and examined your record here. Unfortunately, it seems you have excelled yourself in making trouble and undermining the discipline of this establishment.’
Grim-faced and unforgiving, the man who spoke recognised that he had a personal dislike of this particular prisoner; though it would jeopardise his own position if he was not seen to be impartial. ‘In our view, and it is unanimous, your record is such that you should consider yourself fortunate not to have your sentence lengthened. You’re a threat to every prisoner here; whenever there have been stabbings or punishment attacks, your name comes up time and again.’
His expression hardened. ‘We know you’re behind it, Carter, but you have such cunning that so far you’ve managed to escape blame.’
He finished with a dire warning. ‘You’re being watched, man. It’s only a matter of time before you’re caught red-handed.’
His stiff gaze rested on the prisoner a moment longer, before stamping the document with a flourish. ‘Appeal denied!’
Instructing the officer to take him away, he was deeply shaken when at the door, the prisoner turned to stare at him, and in those brooding eyes, he saw a glimmer of pure evil.
With the prisoner gone and the room plunged into silence, he turned to the men around him. ‘There goes a bad lot!’
‘He deserves to be locked up for good,’ said one. ‘Two men scarred for life; another terrorised out of his mind, and another in hospital for three months. And we all know who’s responsible.’
‘Yes, but he’s so devious,’ said another. ‘The other prisoners are in such fear, we’ve never been able to prove anything against him.’
The Governor had to agree with his colleagues. ‘We all know he’s the culprit, and so far we’ve managed to keep him detained. But I’m very much afraid there will come a time when we can’t keep him under lock and key.’ Anger coloured his voice. ‘Unless he happens to slip up, or some brave man steps forward to point the finger.’
There was a lull in the conversation, during which every man there felt helpless.
When after a few moments someone spoke out, it was with deadly earnestness. ‘So, what you’re saying is, we may have to let him go, the next time he’s brought before us?’
A quieter voice intervened. ‘Even if he gets out, he’ll be back soon enough. A man like that … it’s only a matter of time before he kills.’
Part 2
October, 1954
Barney’s Family
Boston, Massachusetts
Chapter 10
LATE AUTUMN IN Boston was a time when the magnificent colours of the trees, which had created magic to the eye only a few weeks before, were already drifting away as their leaves fell, heralding the onset of winter. But in spite of all that, it was Mrs Vicky Maitland’s favourite season.
‘I always enjoy our evening walks alongside the water,’ Vicky tucked her arm through her husband, Leonard’s, ‘but autumn is best. The trees may be shedding their leaves, but the beauty never fades.’ She playfully kicked the leaves along under her feet. ‘It’s just different,’ she mused. ‘A quieter, deeper kind of beauty.’
Leonard smiled down on her. ‘You see beauty in everything,’ he said lovingly. ‘But yes, I know what you mean – and you’re right, as always.’
They strolled on for a time, eventually sitting down to rest where the overhanging branches of a giant tree dipped into the water.
For what seemed an age, not a word passed between them. Over the years they had grown so close, they almost knew what the other was thinking. And just now, in that moment, Vicky was thinking of another stretch of water, the Atlantic Ocean, and a journey that she would never forget. It seemed a lifetime ago when she and her children boarded the liner that would carry them away from their homeland forever.
She thought of Barney, and the way their marriage had ended. What he did had broken her heart. It had almost ruined one of their sons, made the other forever bitter, and taken away their daughter Susie’s childhood. Each and every one of them had changed because of what Barney had done, and for that, Vicky could never forgive him.
In the beginning, there was deep shock, and a yearning to punish him for splitting the family asunder. But though she might blame him for the pain he had caused, Vicky could never stop loving him. Barney was her first and last real love. Noth
ing could ever change that.
Eventually, she forgave him for what he had done to her. But she could never forgive him for what he had done to the children – Susie in particular. She had been made to grow up before her time.
‘A penny for them?’ Leonard’s voice cut across her thoughts.
‘Oh Leonard, I’m sorry,’ Vicky apologised. ‘I was just thinking.’
‘You were miles away.’ Sliding an arm round her shoulders, he drew her to him. ‘You were thinking of Barney again – I can always tell. But it’s all right, my dear. I understand, I really do.’
Vicky felt ashamed. ‘You’re such a good man,’ she muttered. ‘I don’t deserve you.’
‘No, you don’t,’ he agreed, ‘because you deserve the best – and in your eyes that will always be Barney Davidson. I don’t pretend to match up to him, because I never will, nor would I want to. Yes, I know he caused you all such pain. But it’s never the bad things we remember about the person we love. It’s always the good times – the laughter and the joy.’
Pausing to gather his thoughts, he watched the rowboat go past. He saw some children running along the riverbank trying to keep up, and it made him smile. ‘We do the best we can,’ he said. ‘We strive and struggle, yet sometimes it’s not enough. We must never forget, Barney was very special. A strong, determined man, he was totally devoted to you and the children. You can’t dismiss a man like that – and no one would expect you to, least of all me.’
In the deepest recesses of his mind, he recalled the night he had found Barney huddled by the tree trunk, desperately ill and almost out of his mind. That night, he had made a sacred promise to Barney, and for Vicky’s sake he had kept that promise; though with every passing year, the burden of guilt weighed heavier.
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