by Anne Bennett
‘Gives us something to do, looking after them, though, doesn’t it?’ Molly reminded them. ‘And what are we doing really? I mean, the country might as well not be at war as far as we are concerned.’
That changed a little the next day as, under a directive from the government and in a fit of patriotic zeal, the hotel manager said the lawns had to be sacrificed to the ‘Dig For Victory’ campaign, and the staff were asked to volunteer their services.
Molly was a bit sad at first, for she loved the view from the attic windows: the expanse of lush green grass with the flowerbeds at the sides and the trees at the edge.
However, then she remembered reading about the ships being sunk with tons of foodstuffs on board, even in the early days of the war, and how Derry had been commandeered by the navy, and the sole purpose of the naval craft and RAF planes was to protect the merchant ships. She knew then that providing food for the country was far more important than a view and she lost no time in offering her services.
She knew she would feel better doing something useful, and after her years in Ireland she had developed a love of the land.
‘There is nothing like the sight of a field of crops ripening that went into the ground as little bulbs or seeds,’ she told the others, ‘and the springtime is the right time for planting.’
‘I’ll take your word for it,’ Daisy said. ‘Don’t have to experience things first-hand for me to appreciate them.’
‘Anyroad, what about that brother you was telling us about?’ Matty put in. ‘Don’t you want to see him in your free time?’
‘Course I do,’ Molly said. ‘But he is at school all day. Anyway, the Homes have got times for visiting. They are a bit flexible with me, knowing the sort of job I do and also knowing that I am the only family Kevin has, I suppose, but even so, there are times I am off and can’t see him. I mean, what about when we are on a split shift?’
‘That’s when I retire to my bed for a well-earned rest,’ Daisy said.
‘Aye,’ Lily said with a laugh. ‘That, my dear girl, is because lazy is your middle name. Resting is for old bones. You should come for a mooch up Four Oaks with me and Matty – and you, Molly.’
‘I’ve no money,’ Molly said. ‘What I don’t spend taking Kevin out I save because really eventually I want a place of my own where I can look after him properly and I’ll need every penny when that time comes.’
‘Why do that?’ Daisy said. ‘Ain’t he been looked after all right where he is?’
‘Yeah, and it is an awful responsibility,’ Lily said.
‘It’s what my parents would expect me to do,’ Molly said quietly.
No one said anything after that because they all felt incredibly sorry for Molly when they heard her tale, which was the same as she had told the manager.
And he, also feeling sorry for her, arranged her time off as she wanted, as far as possible, especially as she was willing to work so many evenings, particularly at weekends, so that she could have time off in the day. From the first Molly had been grateful to him and over that first month had visited Kevin on a weekly basis, either on a Saturday or a Sunday.
Things had not been going so well for Ray Morris since he had first caught sight of Molly in Sutton Coldfield. His mother, who used to welcome him with open arms, was different this time, rabbiting on that she didn’t have any money to give him.
‘You’ve cleaned me out with what I have given you in the past,’ she said. ‘I haven’t got a bottomless pit. And another thing, how the hell am I to feed you for weeks on end with rationing as tight as it is? You’ll have to get yourself up to Sutton Town Hall and register for a ration book.’
There was no way Ray was doing that. They would ask too many awkward questions, like how come he wasn’t in uniform. His mother had gone on about that too.
‘You want me to put my life on the line then?’ he had asked testily. ‘Thought you loved me.’
‘I do, you know I do,’ his mother had said. ‘But it’s the neighbours, you see. They will wonder. One even asked me straight out the other day.’
‘And what did you say?’
‘I said that you had flat feet. Couldn’t think of anything else, not straight out, anyway.’
‘Well, flat feet will do,’ Ray said. ‘So that’s all right then.’
‘No, Ray, it isn’t,’ his mother argued. ‘For a start I don’t think she believed me, and there are others who say nothing, but think plenty. I see it in their eyes. What if they report you? I have always been respectable and I can’t have police, or whoever it is deals with stuff like that, at my door, asking questions and poking about. And at the end of it, you will get in one heap of trouble.’
Ray didn’t doubt that for one minute.
‘And,’ his mother added, ‘there is still the business of the ration cards.’
‘Look, I’ll sort it. I said so, didn’t I?’
‘Yeah, when you arrived over a month ago. It don’t look to me like you are doing much about it.’
Ray knew he had to find somewhere else to live because his mother was right. One of the nosy old busybodies around the doors had only to whisper their concerns to those in authority and they would be round like a shot. But where could he go, and without a ration book?
Point was, he had a ration book and identity card that Collingsworth had got for him. He didn’t ask where he had got them from – the man wasn’t that keen on questions of any kind – and he had had to leave them in the flat the day he had made his escape.
He went to seek out the man he used to work for when he had been living in Sutton. The huge bear of a man, who went by the nickname of Tiny, ran an illicit and dishonest casino above a pub in Erdington. That was where Ray had met Collingsworth, who had offered him more lucrative work. Ray had jumped at the chance and left Tiny in the lurch at the time, and Tiny reminded him of it when he asked him if he had any jobs going.
‘That was years ago,’ Ray protested.
‘Yeah? Well, maybe I am like an elephant and never forget.’
‘Come on, Tiny,’ Ray coaxed. ‘We go back a long way.’ And then, as Tiny made no comment, he grew desperate. ‘Come on, I know a fair bit about what goes on here that I could spill into the right ears.’
Tiny lifted Ray by his lapels and almost spat into his face, ‘Don’t you try that on with me, mate. You ain’t in any position. And if I was in your shoes now, even I would be shitting myself.’ He dropped Ray with a look of contempt
Ray straightened the collar of his coat before saying as nonchalantly as he could, ‘What you on about now?’
Tiny’s mouth turned up in a malicious sneer. ‘The word is out Collingsworth’s heavies are after you and heading this way, reckoning that, as you have no dosh, you would be running home to your dear ma’s.’
Ray paled and his mouth went dry. He hadn’t been absolutely sure that Collingsworth’s bullyboys would follow him here, but then he knew too much, far too much, and he had made a balls-up of killing the girl. That was enough to sign his death warrant, he knew.
Tiny, watching Ray’s face, grinned before saying, ‘So I can’t touch you with a bargepole, mate. More than my life’s worth.’
‘They’re out to do for me this time, Tiny,’ Ray said. ‘Nothing less will satisfy Collingsworth.’
Tiny shrugged. ‘So what do you want me to do?’
‘I thought we were mates.’
‘So did I, until you ran out on me.’
‘So just because I left—’
‘No, it isn’t just ’cos of that, you stupid bugger,’ Tiny bawled. ‘I will have nothing to do with you because I value my own skin too much. Them blokes don’t mess about. I have seen what was left of a man Collingsworth thought needed teaching a lesson and the best advice I can give you is to leave town and stay left.’
‘I need money, Tiny.’
‘Not from me you don’t. Try your old woman.’
‘She won’t give me any more. Says she hasn’t got it.’
�
��’Tain’t your lucky day, is it?’ Tiny said. Then, suddenly tired of the man, he added, ‘Look, sling your hook, Morris. Just fuck off! It would never do for anyone to say you were seen round here.’
Ray had no option but to go. But he had no idea where. He bitterly regretted letting Molly get away from him when he saw her outside the pawnbroker’s. He couldn’t have done anything then, but he could have tailed her and found out where she was living. It was just that then he had expected his mother to cough up, as she always had in the past, and he could have been well away from this place by now.
So lost in thought was he that he almost walked into Molly leaving the Palace Cinema with a young boy, obviously the brother. So she had got her bloody memory back, Ray thought, stepping into an entry while they passed. But she couldn’t be allowed to live if she could remember stuff.
Molly took the boy into the milk bar and Ray took up residence in the pub across the road. He used the money he had wheedled out of his mother that dinner-time to buy a pint, and he positioned himself in a place where he could keep an eye on the café door.
He was draining his third pint and full darkness had fallen before he saw them appear, and he slipped out after them. He guessed they were making their way to the Cottage Homes at Fentham Road, but it was where Molly went then that was important.
‘Here we are then,’ Ray heard Molly say as she stood before the gates and pulled on the bell. ‘Same time next week.’ She gave the boy a hug. ‘We better make the most of this as well, because once Easter gets nearer I might not get the weekends off so easily.’
‘And you are taking me to see Pinocchio next week?’
‘I said so, didn’t I? It’s part of your birthday treat.’
The gates opened and a man’s voice said, ‘Hello, Kevin. Had a good time?’
‘Yes, thanks,’ the boy said. ‘We’re going to see Pinocchio next week.’ Then he turned and said to Molly, ‘Don’t be late, Moll, will you?’
There was a laugh in Molly’s voice as she answered, ‘I’m never late and you make sure you’re ready. I will be here on the dot of half-past two.’
‘We’ll see he is washed and brushed up ready for you,’ the man said. ‘Good night, miss.’
‘Good night. Good night, Kevin.’
The gates clanged shut and Molly began to hurry down Hunton Hill. As she turned into Gravelly Hill, Ray understood the reason for her haste for he could see the train was chugging into Gravelly Hill Station. He caught it by the skin of his teeth, causing the stationmaster to shake his head at him for his foolishness, but a lot he cared. Far better upset the stationmaster than alert Molly to the fact that he was tailing her.
When Ray saw her leave at Four Oaks Station he got off too, and he followed her to the hotel where he saw her go in the side door. He smiled to himself.
‘Gotcha!’
He returned to the station and checked his watch. Half-past eight, and the pawnbroker’s didn’t shut until nine. He checked the notes in his wallet and the coins in his pocket. He regretted buying so much beer for he had barely enough to redeem the cufflinks, but for some reason he knew they were important. When he had them in his hand, he smiled to himself, for he recognised them as Collingsworth’s. He put them in his pocket and made for the tram to take him to town.
Long before he reached Collingsworth’s house he was spotted and marched before the man with his arms held tight behind him.
‘There is no need for this heavy stuff,’ Ray said. ‘I was coming to see you anyway.’
Collingsworth signed for the men to release Ray’s arms. ‘Really?’ he said with heavy sarcasm. ‘When a couple of my men called round to wish you the time of day a few weeks ago, it was to find the bird had flown, as it were.’
‘Time of day, my arse!’ Ray said. ‘They were there to beat me to pulp. Now there is no need to do that.’
‘And why is that?’
‘Because I have found Molly,’ Ray said, adding sneeringly, ‘Something none of your fine henchmen was able to do. And here is another thing.’ He drew the cufflinks from his pocket and laid them on the desk in front of Collingsworth.
‘I was looking for these the other night,’ Collingsworth said angrily.
‘You wouldn’t have found them,’ Ray told him. ‘Molly stole them from you and then pawned them to get some cash.’
‘And where is she now?’ Collingsworth growled. ‘God, I could tear that girl limb from limb myself.’
‘This is the beauty of it,’ Ray said. ‘She is at Moor Hall Hotel in Four Oaks – and the place is in the middle of bloody nowhere. She has made contact with her brother and so the bitch has got her memory back and she could do for the lot of us.’
‘She is not going to get the chance.’
‘No, by Christ, she isn’t,’ Ray said vehemently.
‘You mess up this time, Morris, and you’d better start saying your own prayers.’
‘I won’t mess up,’ Ray said. ‘But listen, next Saturday she is taking her brother to the pictures in Erdington. Then, if it follows the same pattern as today, she takes him for a bite to eat, then on to the orphanage place and then catches the train at Gravelly Hill Station. The train gets in at ten past eight and she walks to the hotel alone. There is not a soul about. We could have a van parked in the fields. In the blackout behind the hedge it will never be seen. I’ll drive that, if you like, and all your fellows have to do is snatch Molly, bring her back here and I will deal with her.’
‘Before she dies,’ Collingsworth said, ‘I want to know how she got out of that flat. Somebody had to help her and I want to know who that person was.’
‘Don’t worry,’ Ray said, ‘I will enjoy extracting that information from her.’
‘That’s what I like to hear.’ Collingsworth extended his hand and as Ray shook it he said, ‘Welcome back.’
TWENTY-THREE
Molly would only leave the security of the hotel once a week, and then just for Kevin’s sake, because she felt completely safe there, the way she thought she would never feel again.
It wasn’t entirely for lack of money that she refused the other girls’ offers to go to see the shops at Four Oaks or Sutton Coldfield; it had been nervousness, certainly in the beginning. Of course, she might be being overcautious. They had probably given up the search for her by now, but she couldn’t risk it – not just for her own sake, but for Will and his family, who had to be protected at all costs.
She felt a little guilty about Will and wished, despite wanting to draw a line under the whole episode, she had sent him a little note assuring him that she was fine. She could have included a message with the bundle of clothes she returned to Betty as she had promised to do. But she had shied away from that in the end, thinking that, as she didn’t know how things were, it was probably safer for Will and her to have no contact whatsoever.
She had even taken care to post the clothes from an Erdington post office, because Four Oaks was only a small place and if he knew she was there and wanted to, he could undoubtedly have traced her, and so could anyone else who caught sight of the franked stamp.
She gave a sigh that night as she turned down the lane to the hotel. She had been on the go all day because she had served at breakfast as well as chambermaiding before going to meet her brother. Her feet throbbed but then she told herself she always slept better with fresh air in her lungs.
Once she would have said that she would miss nothing from her time in Ireland, but she found that she did miss the stillness that had unnerved her so much in the beginning, and that night was no different.
The blackout didn’t affect Molly as much as many of the others because there had been no streetlights on the farm either. She had been unnerved by this at first, but eventually had learned to rely on the moon and the stars. Sometimes there was no moon, of course, and the stars might be obscured by clouds or by the smoke and smog in the air, but that night the moon was almost full and hung like a shimmering ball, casting its silver light down, and the
stars twinkled in their midnight-blue backdrop.
‘Never be afraid of the dark, Molly,’ her uncle had said. ‘Sometimes then you see things hidden in the day, for many wild animals are shy and use the cover of nightfall to go about their business. They won’t harm you, so don’t be feared.’
Dear, dear Uncle Tom, Molly thought as she walked on. He had no notion of human animals who used the cover of darkness to be about their business, and who definitely did mean harm. But not here, she thought, not in the grounds of this hotel miles from anywhere. She gave a sigh of contentment and drank in the night air as she walked up the lane, catching the smell of the dew-dampened earth the other side of the hedge that she had taken a great hand in cultivating. That brought back memories of Ireland too and working alongside Tom, and she felt a sudden pang of homesickness that took her by surprise.
But, she told herself sharply, she would have to get over it, for it was better by far that they remember her as she was. All that mattered to her at that moment was Kevin, and she smiled as she remembered how he had enjoyed Pinocchio earlier. She hadn’t been looking forward to it herself, seeing it as a film just for children, and was surprised by how much she had liked it. She wasn’t the only adult either and they all seemed to be equally impressed.
She had been thinking about the future a lot recently, for she realised that she couldn’t live the rest of her life fearful and constantly looking over her shoulder. She had resolved that when Kevin was finished with the home, or she managed to get him out sooner, they would take off and start a new life in another town entirely.
Barely had this thought left her when she felt herself grabbed from behind by two muscular arms. For a second she froze and then she screamed for all she was worth, her mind filled with terror, for she suddenly knew that this was no random attack: this was the sort of thing Will had been afraid of.
A man slapped his hand over her mouth, but it had been open for her scream, and she clamped her teeth down hard. He gave a cry and dropped his hand as she tasted his blood in her mouth and screamed again, louder than ever. Frantic at the noise she was making, the other man made a grab at her, but she twisted away from him and he was able to grab just the one arm. She gave a cry and pulled at her arm, trying to free herself, and when that didn’t work she swung her free hand at him wildly and caught his cheek a ringing slap.
