‘Mmm…yes; I suppose I’m quite lucky really, aren’t I?’ said Maisie.
But Patience knew that the girl was feeling somewhat left out of things, and not for the first time either. She and Luke loved her just as much as they loved Audrey and Tim. How could they help but love her? She had endeared herself to them in all sorts of ways. And yet…there was a difference, and the child knew it. It must be confusing for her to be living apart from her mother and her siblings. She was still, virtually, an evacuee, whereas the other two children were now members of the Fairchild family. But space was limited at Tremaine House – more land girls had come only recently – and it had seemed the best thing to do for Maisie to remain at the rectory. It was just one of the many complications that had come with the advent of war. How much longer would it be, Patience wondered, before families were reunited and life returned to normal?
Chapter Twenty-Five
Lily had kept in touch by occasional letters with Kate Smedley, who had been her next door neighbour in Armley. Kate had been a good friend, one of the few that Lily had had in Leeds, and the only one, apart from Edith Dennison, who had known of the parlous state of Lily’s marriage. But even Kate had not known the whole of it; Lily had not confessed to anyone about the abuse of Maisie by her step-brother.
Lily had been delighted to hear Kate’s own happy news, that she and her husband, Fred, were expecting their first child at long last. It was due in September, the same month as Patience and Luke’s baby was expected. Now that had been a surprise, to be sure! It had been Patience herself who had broken the news to Lily.
‘If I don’t tell you myself, then Maisie is sure to,’ she said, smiling joyfully. ‘All the children are excited at the thought of having a new baby in the house, and Luke and I, well, we can scarcely believe it.’
But how is this going to affect Maisie? Lily pondered to herself. There were three children already in that household, and how ironic it was that having adopted two children, the rector and his wife were now to have one of their own. It was often the way, though, that adoptive parents suddenly found themselves to be parents in their own right.
Lily knew though, in her heart of hearts, that Maisie’s proper place was with her own mother, and she began to wish, more and more, that she could have all her three children together, like a proper family. There was no father, of course, but they were all better off without such a one as Sidney Bragg. She had been tempted to ask Rebecca Tremaine if it could possibly be arranged for Maisie to come and live at Tremaine house. She was still classed as an evacuee whilst she remained at the rectory; and that had been a wartime emergency which, by and large, had come to an end as the majority of the evacuees had returned home again.
But then several more land girls had been billeted on them. Even Bruce’s bedroom was having to be used whilst he was away at boarding school; the lad would just have to squeeze into a corner somewhere when he came home for the holiday. So Lily had found she was busier than ever, and the problem of Maisie had had to be put to one side.
In July Lily received a letter from Kate which worried her. Apart from the usual chatty account of how they were looking forward to the birth of the baby, of the Betty Grable film they had seen at the local cinema, and the moan about the latest Government measure, clothing coupons, there were two other items of news. The first one that was Percy had joined the army. This gave Lily quite a jolt until she realised that by now the lad must be almost eighteen. Well, good for him, she thought, trying to feel magnanimous about it. She hoped it might do him a power of good; it might even be the making of him. She was able to have more charitable thoughts when she was away from him.
The second item of news was that Sid was on his own again. Completely on his own, because soon after his son’s departure his lady friend, Moira, had walked out on him. Kate had heard the rows going on, she wrote, and then she had seen the woman leaving with a large suitcase. Sid was moping around like a ‘bear with a sore behind’, she reported, although she and Fred had tried to keep their distance from him.
Lily was staring at the letter in her hand when Rebecca came into the kitchen. ‘What’s the matter?’ she asked. ‘Have you had some bad news, Lily? Do forgive me – perhaps I’m being nosey – but you do look worried.’
Lily shook her head. ‘I’m not sure,’ she replied, ‘whether it’s bad news or not. It doesn’t matter to me what happens to Sidney Bragg, unless…’ She looked at Rebecca. ‘It’s my husband, y’see. His lady friend – you know, I told you about Moira, the woman he had living with him, well, she’s upped and left him. I can’t say I blame her; I’m surprised she’s stayed as long as she has. Like I say, I couldn’t care less what happens to him, unless…unless he comes looking for me. You don’t think he will, do you, Rebecca?’
‘No…I shouldn’t think so,’ said Rebecca, but rather unsurely. ‘He told you in no uncertain terms to clear off, didn’t he? And you’ve made a new life for yourself up here. He has no claim on you…’
‘He has though, hasn’t he?’ said Lily. ‘I’m still his wife. You don’t know what he’s like…’ She could feel the panic rising in her throat and her voice was harsh with anxiety.
Rebecca put an arm round her. ‘Now calm down, dear. He doesn’t know where you are, does he? You have had no communication with him, have you? And who is your letter from, if you don’t mind me asking?’
‘It’s from a good neighbour; she keeps in touch with me.’
‘And she wouldn’t give him your address, would she?’
‘Would she hell as like! I mean, no, of course she wouldn’t. But he could find out, couldn’t he, if he really wanted to? There are ways and means. Oh, Rebecca; I’m scared, I really am.’
‘Here, sit down and I’ll make us a cup of tea,’ said Rebecca. ‘Let’s just try and look at it sensibly.’ Rebecca Tremaine was a very calming sort of person, and in a few moments Lily began to feel more composed.
‘Now why should he come all this way looking for you? From the sound of it, he would be far more likely to get himself another…floozie, wouldn’t he?’ The word sounded strange on Rebecca’s lips and Lily actually smiled.
‘Yes, I suppose you’re right. I’ve been so happy up here. I don’t want anything to spoil it. I know the war’s still going on, and maybe I haven’t the right to be happy with so many people dying and being killed in other places. But I feel that Middlebeck is my home now. I couldn’t go back to Armley.’
‘Then we will make sure that you don’t,’ said Rebecca.
The school broke up at the end of July for the long summer holiday. The scholarship results had not brought many surprises. Both Maisie and Audrey had passed the exam and would be starting in September at the High School near the next village of Lowerbeck. Doris had known all along that she would go to the Middlebeck Senior School along with the majority of her classmates. She was quite resigned to this; in fact she was looking forward to leaving school at fourteen and starting work on the farm with her brother, Ted, and her father, who would, she thought, be back from the war by then.
‘We’ll still be friends though, won’t we?’ she said to Audrey and Maisie. ‘I’m still not right keen on Gertie and Norma, but I know I’ll have to put up with them ’cause we’ll be at the same school. You won’t get all stuck-up and lah-di-dah, will yer, in yer posh uniforms?’
Maisie and Audrey assured her that they wouldn’t. Doris, in fact, began to help her mother more and more with the household chores and on the market stall, whereas the other two girls and Timothy revelled in the long days of freedom. They helped Patience, of course, with little jobs around the house. She was getting very big now with the coming baby, and needed to rest in the afternoons; but Luke assured the girls that she was very well indeed. The doctor was pleased with her and there was nothing for them to worry about.
‘Shall we go and have a look round the market?’ said Maisie one afternoon in early August. ‘I ’spect Doris’ll be there helping her mum, and she likes us to go
and see her. I tell you what. I’ll go and see if our Joanie wants to come as well.’ Maisie and her little sister were becoming quite pally and Joanie often wanted to tag along with the older girls.
‘All right,’ said Audrey, ‘but Tim’ll want to come as well. We can’t leave him out.’
They walked to Tremaine House and collected Joanie who had been ‘helping’ her mother with the baking; but she was delighted to be asked, and Lily, too, seemed pleased to be able to get on with her job in peace. Jimmy declined the offer. He didn’t want to go looking round ‘some silly old market’. He was playing with his toy soldiers in a corner of the kitchen.
‘Tara, then,’ shouted Lily. ‘Joanie, you keep hold of Maisie’s hand, there’s a good girl, and don’t go running off…’
She put the scruffy bits that Joanie had been playing with to one side, and went on rolling pastry for the apple pies. She was feeling contented and far less worried now by thoughts of Sid. Several weeks had gone by and she had not heard any more from her former neighbour. It was peaceful in the kitchen and cool away from the heat of the sun. Lily found herself singing quietly as she worked, something she only did when she was feeling happy; that song she liked so much – it was always on the wireless these days – about the nightingale that sang in Berkeley Square.
Suddenly the light from the back door, which she had left open, was blocked by a dark shadow. She looked up, then dropped the rolling pin with a clatter when she saw who was standing in the doorway leering at her. It was the all too familiar, but dreaded, figure of her husband.
‘Somebody sounds happy,’ he said. ‘Glad to see me, are yer, me little Lily flower?’ He advanced towards her, his pale blue eyes gleaming with a malicious light. He looked larger and coarser than ever; his face and bulbous nose were mottled with purplish-red veins, his fair hair was long and greasy and his bristly chin and cheeks showed a two-day growth of stubbly beard.
‘Get away from me!’ yelled Lily. She picked up the rolling pin, but Sid wrenched it out of her hand.
‘Don’t be so bloody silly, woman. Yer don’t need that. I only want to talk to yer…’ He turned and looked at the child playing on the floor. ‘And who’s this ’ere? Well, if it isn’t me little Jimmy! Hello, Jimmy lad; aren’t yer going to come and say how do to yer dad?’
The child stared at him, a puzzled frown on his little face. Sid turned away, drawing closer to Lily. ‘Ne’er mind; he’ll soon get to know me again. And so will you, me darlin’. Now, you’re going to be a good girl, aren’t yer, and get yer bits and pieces together, ’cause yer comin’ ’ome wi’ me.’
‘No!’ cried Lily, ‘Never…get away from me, Sidney Bragg. I want nowt to do with yer. You told me to go, and so I did. An’ I’m stopping here…’
‘Oh, you are, are yer? We’ll soon see about that…’ He moved round to the back of the table where she was standing and grabbed hold of her. She could smell the stale sweat on his clothes, and his beery breath. She turned away in revulsion as he tried to bring his slobbering mouth down on to hers. She landed out at him with her fists, beating him wherever she could on his head and chest.
‘Oh, so yer want a bit o’ rough stuff, do yer?’ he smirked. ‘Well, that just suits me fine.’ He took hold of her arms and shook her violently, then he lifted his hand and slapped her hard across the face, one way and then the other. She staggered backwards, stumbling against a chair, then she fell to the stone floor, banging her head against the table leg as she fell. He stood looking down at her.
‘Don’t you try any funny business wi’ me. You’re me legal wife, an’ yer comin’ home wi’ me. Now, get yerself up.’ He kicked her savagely in the groin, and when she winced and made no move to get up he kicked her again in the stomach. She tried to protect as much of herself as she could with her arms, but she felt his boot strike her time and time again and she knew he had completely lost control of himself. She had suffered before when he was in a drunken rage. She felt his heavy boot make contact with her temple. Her head lolled sideways and that was the last blow she felt.
Sid hadn’t noticed Jimmy scurrying round the side of the room, and before he was aware of it the child was out of the door and running for his life.
‘Somebody help! Somebody help!’ he yelled as he ran through the garden and into the nearest field. ‘It’s me mum. There’s a big man an’ he’s fighting her…Bruce, Bruce, come an’ help me mam…’
Bruce was at the far end of the field throwing sticks for Prince to retrieve. On seeing the little figure of Jimmy racing towards him, shouting wildly, and not quite comprehensibly, he ran to meet him, a long stick still in his hand and with Prince yapping excitedly at his heels. He caught hold of the little boy.
‘Whoa, Jimmy. What is it? What did you say? Something about a man?’
‘Bruce, you’ve got to come, now!’ He pulled at the older boy’s hand. ‘It’s me mam. She’s lyin’ on t’ floor…’ His breath was coming in short gasps as he tried to get the words out. ‘An’…an’ there’s a big feller; he’s kickin’ ’er. I think he’s goin’ to kill ’er…’
‘Get your breath back, Jimmy…and just stay where you are,’ said Bruce. ‘I’ll go and see what’s happening.’ He set off running towards the house with Prince lolloping after him. ‘Go and see if you can find my father,’ he shouted back over his shoulder. ‘He’s in the top field…’
Bruce reached the garden just in time to see the man escaping through the back door. He gave chase, brandishing his stick, but it was Prince, barking madly, who outstripped him and caught up with the intruder. The dog snapped at his trouser leg and managed to get his teeth into it, but the man, armed with what appeared to be a rolling pin, landed out, hitting Prince on the side of his head and then on one of his front legs. The dog was momentarily stunned and taken aback; he was not used to treatment like that. And in those few seconds his assailant was off round the front of the house and down the lane.
‘Prince, Prince…here, boy,’ shouted Bruce. ‘Let him go. I’ll ring the police. They’ll soon catch up with him.’ The dog limped towards him and Bruce gave him a quick hug. ‘Well done, boy; you nearly had him. Come on; let’s go and see what has happened to Lily…’
He entered the kitchen to find his mother on the floor cradling Lily in her arms. Lily seemed to be unconscious and Bruce could see blood trickling from a wound on her temple.
‘I was up on the top floor,’ said Rebecca, turning a frightened face towards her son, ‘and I heard some shouting. But by the time I got down here poor Lily was on the floor and the brute was escaping through the door. Then I heard you and Prince… Couldn’t you catch him?’
‘No; Prince nearly did, but he got injured for his trouble. Listen, Mum…I’m going to ring the police, and I’ll ring for an ambulance as well. It looks as though Lily needs one. Who do you suppose he was? Somebody trying to rob us?’
‘No…’ Rebecca shook her head. ‘I’d make a guess that it was Lily’s husband. And by the look of her I’d say he’s pretty well done for her this time.’ She leaned closer to the recumbent, seemingly lifeless, figure of Lily. ‘Lily, Lily…it’s Rebecca. Can you hear me? Oh Lily…oh, please God, don’t let anything happen to her. Bruce, hurry up and get some help…’
By the time he had made the first phone call, for an ambulance, Archie had arrived on the scene holding Jimmy by the hand. ‘Oh…dear God!’ he whispered. ‘I got a garbled tale from Jimmy, but I couldn’t make out just what was going on.’
‘We think it was her husband,’ said Rebecca. ‘He’s…well, you can see what he’s done to her.’
‘Is me mam dead?’ asked Jimmy. His pale blue eyes were puzzled as he stared at Rebecca and at the prone figure of his mother.
‘No…no, dear; of course she isn’t,’ said Rebecca. She was still kneeling with her arms around Lily, and just as she spoke she heard her give a faint moan. ‘I think she’s coming round… Hurry up and ring the police, Archie. Bruce was just about to do it.’
‘But I p
honed the ambulance first,’ said Bruce. ‘It shouldn’t be too long now, Mother.’ He glanced at Jimmy who was standing motionless, staring at the scene as if in a state of shock. ‘Come along, Jimmy,’ he said. ‘Come and help me to look after poor old Prince. He’s had a bang on the head and he’s feeling a bit sorry for himself. Don’t worry; my mother and father will look after your mum. She’s going to be all right.’
Rebecca gave him a grateful smile as the two boys and the dog left the room. Lily was stirring a little, but had not yet opened her eyes. Rebecca guessed she might have other injuries as well as the wound to her head.
The ambulance arrived quite speedily, and whilst the men were carrying Lily, on a stretcher, into the van, the police arrived on the scene.
‘Are you able to give a description of the assailant?’ asked Sergeant Taylor. ‘Although I should imagine he will be easy enough to spot, and he can’t have got very far.’
‘Quite tall, well built,’ said Rebecca. ‘Dirty fair hair and a sort of brownish jacket. Scruffy looking chap altogether…’
Bruce, called from the dining room, could not add much more. ‘Grey trousers,’ he said. ‘They might have a tear in the leg where my dog snapped at him,’ he added, grinning a little. ‘And he was carrying a rolling pin, although he’ll probably have thrown it away by now.’
‘Thank you, young sir,’ said the constable. ‘Don’t worry, Mr and Mrs Tremaine, we’ll soon catch up with this ’un.’
‘I should imagine he’ll head for the railway station,’ said Archie, ‘unless he lies low for a while. We have good reason to believe he is Mrs Bragg’s husband – estranged husband, of course – from Armley.’
‘And from the sound of him, he is probably known to the police there,’ said Sergeant Taylor. ‘We’ll get on to it straight away…’
Above the Bright Blue Sky Page 39
