‘I’ll make sure that won’t happen.’ He held her face in his hands, locking his eyes onto hers. ‘When we’re married, I’m going to give up the sea.’
She was startled. ‘But that’s your life.’
‘It was. But now you’re my life and the thought of sailing across the world and leaving you behind in Liverpool for months is not going to work. It’s not what I want. Not what I want for you. For either of us. Those months when I was at sea after I got your letter were unbearable. The knowledge that I might never see you again. It was too painful to think about.’
‘Then don’t think about it. I’m still ashamed about that letter. Even though I wrote it because I loved you so much that I wanted you to be free.’
‘But it was only my believing that you didn’t love me that made it possible for me to go on that voyage. How can I do that now, knowing I’ll be leaving you behind for months, knowing how much we love each other? No, Hannah I can’t do that.’
‘You could do the Irish ships again.’
He shook his head. ‘That’s no life. Not much better than working the ferries.’
‘So what will you do?’
‘I want to take you back to Australia with me.’ Feeling her body stiffen, he added, ‘Judith too of course. I know how much you mean to each other. There’ll be nothing for her here if you’re gone. We can all make a new life for ourselves there, away from all this. Away from all the terrible things that have happened. But we need to do it as soon as we can. Everyone’s saying there’ll be a war after all. That peace treaty wasn’t worth the paper it was written on. If war does happen then they’ll expect me to go back to sea. This could be our last chance to get away.’
He led her over to the dunes and they sat down on the soft sand, her head resting on his shoulder.
‘Australia,’ she said, savouring the word. She frowned, her mouth stretched tight, thinking, then she smiled. ‘It sounds like the perfect adventure. Tell me about it. Is it very beautiful there?’
‘It’s a bonzer country. Vast empty spaces with nothing but canyons and miles of gum forests. Rolling plains for sheep and cattle. Small friendly towns, like MacDonald Falls, where I come from. Big cities like Melbourne and Sydney. Clean cities with trees and skies and shimmering water.’ He swept an arm in the direction of Liverpool. ‘None of these blackened buildings and squalor and crowded houses. If we were there now, we’d be looking out at Sydney Harbour instead of that grey dirty Mersey. It’s the most beautiful place on earth, if you ask me – and I’ve seen plenty. Water the colour of your dress, brilliant sunshine, none of the smog we have here, warm water you can swim in, lots of little coves and inlets and islands. It’s a beaut, is Sydney.’ He thought for a moment. ‘Here, it’s all black and white and grey, even when the sun’s out, like today. There, the colours are so bright it makes your eyes blink.’
‘It sounds beautiful. Is that where we’d live? Sydney?’
‘Maybe. We’ll certainly visit it. But I was thinking I’d like to buy a plot of land and farm it.’
Hannah smiled. ‘Really? So I’d be a farmer’s wife?’
‘How would you like that?’ He grinned at her.
‘As long as you’re the farmer I’d like it a lot.’ She lifted her face to kiss him.
When they eventually drew apart, he said, ‘I’ve written to the school teacher in MacDonald Falls. Her name’s Verity Radley and she was your aunt’s best friend. I’ve asked her to pass on a letter to say that I’ve found you and we’re going to be married. If anyone knows where Lizbeth is it’ll be Miss Radley.’
‘You didn’t mention Mother, did you?’
He brushed a finger over her lips. ’No, I thought that was something you need to tell her yourself. When you finally meet her again.’
‘That would make going to Australia even better. To know that Judith and I might one day see Aunt Elizabeth again. Oh, Will, that would make me so happy.’
‘That’s all I want to do now. Make you happy, my dearest love.’
* * *
While they waited for Charles Dawson’s trial to begin, Will returned to the Irish runs on a temporary basis. He needed money if he were to bring both Hannah and her sister to Australia. While he could work his passage, he would need to pay for theirs. He also wanted to save as much as possible for a down payment on some land when they got to Australia.
Four months after Sarah’s death, Dawson was arraigned for the murder of his wife and the attempted murders of his daughter, Judith, and Nance Cunningham. To her intense relief, Hannah was not required to testify.
She visited her father on one occasion only, while he was still on remand awaiting trial, but the visit was distressing. He showed no remorse at all over the murder of her mother. He continued to rant and spit forth verses from the Bible to justify what he had done as part of his divine mission. By the end of the brief visit, Hannah had come to the conclusion that he was insane. Perhaps he had always been. Maybe her fear had prevented her from recognising that he was a psychopath.
Criminal insanity was offered up in court in mitigation by the defence, but carried little weight with the judge. The prosecution summoned a wide range of witnesses. The neighbours admitted they had frequently heard Dawson’s violent outbursts through the walls but had not realised they were so serious or life-threatening. Sam Henderson attested to the attack on Nance Cunningham. A string of women, including Nance Cunningham herself, testified to Dawson’s violent attacks with much salacious detail to the great entertainment of the public gallery and the lasting gratitude of the Liverpool Post and the Echo, which had record sales for the duration of the trial. Will told of the discovery of Sarah’s body, the marks on Judith’s neck and the subsequent attack on Nance.
The most incriminating evidence came from Judith. Hannah’s fears that her sister would crumble under questioning were unfounded. The eighteen-year-old stood tall in the witness box and gave her answers clearly and succinctly. She was asked about the circumstances immediately prior to the death of her mother.
‘Mother was in the scullery washing up. I was in the back parlour, pressing a dress I was making. When my father came home, if it wasn’t for the fact that he’s a teetotaller I would have thought he’d been drinking. He immediately started shouting at Mother. He called her names.’
‘What kind of names?’ The prosecuting counsel asked.
‘He called her a shameless harlot. A sinful daughter of Eve.’
‘And how did your mother respond?’
‘She didn’t. Well, not at first. She carried on doing the dishes.’
‘Then what happened, Miss Dawson?’
‘He got angry. He went into the scullery and grabbed her by the hair and pulled her into the back parlour. He was hurting her. She begged him to stop. I begged him too. Then he pushed her hard against the wall and she fell over. When she got up she made a terrible mistake.’
‘A terrible mistake?’ The Counsel echoed.
‘She told him she’d got proof that the marriage between my sister and her husband was invalid.’
A murmur ran around the court.
‘They were forced by my father to marry and the wedding was carried out in a place that was not a proper church by a man who was not authorised to perform marriages. And Mother had found out he’d been blackmailing someone. He’d also been spending money from the company that he shouldn’t have. She’d found false bills.’
The defending barrister got to his feet and said, ‘Your Honour, this has no bearing on the case. My client is not being tried for fraud or blackmail.’
‘I imagine there was no room left on the charge sheet,’ muttered the judge sarcastically to much laughter. Dawson’s counsel sat down again, scowling.
The judge turned to Judith. ‘Continue, please, Miss Dawson.’
Judith looked across the court to where her father was sitting in the dock. For the first time she seemed to waver, to look nervous. Her eyes wandered round the room until she located Hannah, who gave
her a smile of encouragement.
‘Then Mother got back on her feet. She said that my father had no right to call her names when she had found out he had been visiting prostitutes and had been paying them out of the company money. She called him a dirty hypocrite.’
Another buzz ran around the courtroom and the judge banged his gavel.
Judith’s lip trembled and she began to cry. Fumbling for her handkerchief she dried her eyes and after another quick glance at Hannah, stood tall again. ‘That’s when he grabbed the iron. He picked it up by the handle from the ironing board and smashed it over her head.’ Tears streamed down her cheeks. ‘My mother didn’t make a sound. She just crumpled into a heap. I ran out of the room. I was going to go for help but he’d locked the front door, so I ran upstairs and locked myself in my bedroom. Almost immediately he came upstairs and kicked the door in.’
‘What happened then?’
‘I thought I was going to die. He tried to strangle me. He had both hands round my neck and was squeezing. Then there was a sound of breaking glass from downstairs. He let go. For a moment I thought it was Mother. That she was all right. That she was trying to raise the alarm.’ She dried her eyes again. ‘But it was Mr Kidd breaking the glass in the back door. That’s when my father went downstairs. That was the last time I saw him until today. After that, I heard all the people in the house, neighbours and police, so I thought it was safe to come downstairs. By then my father had gone. The police interviewed me, then the doctor looked at me. He tried to persuade me to go to hospital, but I felt alright and I just wanted to be with my sister.’ Her voice quavered. ‘So, finally they took me to her in a police car.’
The only question from Dawson’s lawyer was whether Judith could be certain it was her father’s blow that proved fatal to Sarah Dawson. If he was about to launch into a theory that someone else – no doubt William Kidd – was the actual killer he had no chance to pursue it as the judge cut him off immediately. ‘Don’t waste the court’s time, Mr Davies, we have already heard medical evidence from the pathologist that the victim was killed by a single blow to the skull. Miss Dawson is not a medical expert. Any more diversionary tactics like that and I’ll hold you in contempt.’
The case for the defence was feeble. The decision to call members of Henderson’s church as character witnesses backfired when, under cross examination by the prosecution, it was revealed that both Dawson and Henderson had extorted substantial and increasing sums of money from them in so-called religious tithes.
When the jury took just an hour to find Charles Dawson guilty, the court was bursting at the seams and a cheer went up from the public gallery as the death sentence was intoned by the judge.
Since the night of her mother’s death, Judith remained with Hannah in the Henderson house along with Sam and Nance. The sisters now shared what had been Sam and Hannah’s bedroom, while Sam cleared out the whips and canes and moved into his father’s old bedroom. The whole house felt different now. The joy of knowing there was no risk of an angry or violent outburst, the pleasure at bringing books home, entertaining guests, listening to the wireless and sharing meals around the dining room table was a new experience for them both. Will was a frequent visitor at dinner whenever he was in port.
On the day of the verdict, Judith and Hannah stayed behind at The Laurels, not wanting to be in court to witness their father being sentenced. They waited for the other three to return.
‘You don’t have to tell us,’ said Hannah. ‘We all knew what to expect.’
Will nodded and took Hannah in his arms. ‘It’s all over now, my love. We can get on with the rest of our lives.’
Hannah shed no tears. She’d cried herself out over the loss of her mother and she wasn’t going to waste any tears on her father. As Will held her, she reached out a hand and grasped Judith’s. Easing herself away from Will, she turned to face Nance and Sam. ‘We are a family now. All of us.’ She looked at Will, who nodded. ‘We want you three to be the first to know. Will and I are going to be married. As soon as we can get the licence.’ She gave a little smile to Sam. ‘A proper licence. And we will be married in a proper church. I was wondering if you’d give me away, Sam?’
‘I’d be honoured.’ A wide grin broke across his face.
‘And we’ll make sure you get a proper wedding this time, ducky. A real party.’ Nance rubbed her hands together.
Judith was jumping up and down with glee. ‘At last. Something happy! I can’t wait to start making your dress.’
‘You a dressmaker, love?’ Nance raised her eyebrows. ‘You and I are going to be the best of friends, I can tell.’ She put her arm round Judith’s shoulder.
* * *
British law required that a minimum of three Sundays must elapse between an individual’s sentencing to death and the execution, to allow for the emergence of any new evidence. None was forthcoming, and early in the morning of Monday 28th August 1939 Charles Henry Dawson was hanged at Walton Jail, less than a fifteen-minute walk from The Laurels. No one sitting around the breakfast table in the house that morning spoke of it, but the four of them were all acutely aware of Dawson going, unrepentant, to meet his maker.
Hannah’s wedding to Will was set for the following Saturday. When they’d booked the date and made their plans, neither of them had expected that Hitler would invade Poland the day before. But by then, Will already knew that their planned voyage to Australia would probably need to be postponed. Some passenger liners had already been ‘taken up from trade’, fitted with guns and readied to act under Royal Naval command to protect merchant convoys. Britain would be dependent on the merchant ships to keep the island in food, raw materials and armaments. Now, with war an inevitability, Will had a big decision to make. The night before their marriage, with news of the invasion of Poland very much on their minds, the couple were alone in the drawing room at The Laurels. After all the years of music being banned under his father’s roof Sam had bought a gramophone player, and music at last filled the house regularly.
Will produced a record from behind his back. ‘I’ve been looking for this everywhere, but today I found it in a shop in Bold Street. I heard it in a bar in Africa and as soon as I did, I couldn’t help thinking about you. It’s in French.’ He took it out of its paper cover and slotted it onto the player. Before he eased the arm back and placed the needle on the disc, he spoke the words he had remembered so carefully. They sounded awkward with his Aussie twang. ‘J’attendrai toujours ton retour.’
Hannah put her head to one side, puzzled, then as the music filled the room, she smiled. ‘What a beautiful song. How sad. Do you know what the words mean?’
‘I will always wait for you to come back.’
Hannah placed her hand on his arm. Moving in front of him she put her other hand on him and looked deep into his eyes. ‘I knew you were worried. You don’t have to tell me why.’
He looked startled. ‘What do you mean?’
‘We can’t go to Australia. Not yet anyway.’
Will’s jaw dropped. ‘How did you know?’
‘Because I know you so well. You’re a man of honour, the bravest man I’ve ever known. You won’t be able to become a farmer, knowing that there’s a war going on here.’
‘Oh, Hannah, I don’t know what to do. I’m in a turmoil. I can’t bear the thought of leaving your side ever again, but I can’t just run away from Hitler. I went to a meeting this morning. Everyone reckons war will be declared any day now. Probably some time this weekend. Chamberlain is giving Hitler a chance to pull back – but we all know he won’t. The Prime Minister has no choice now. No more appeasement, he has to take the country to war, and that means the whole empire including Australia will be sucked in. I can’t stand by and do nothing.’
‘Will, you don’t need to explain. I understand completely. I wouldn’t love you the way I love you if you were a man who put himself first.’
‘I put you first. That’s what my problem is.’ He drew her close against his body,
her head resting on his chest. ‘Look, I want you and Judith to go to Australia without me. My old ship, the Christina is already heading back to Liverpool. I’m going to rejoin it if they’ll have me. I’m ready to do whatever we have to for the war effort. But I want you to go to Australia where you’ll be safe. Hitler’s Blitzkrieg won’t stretch that far.’
‘I’m not going. Not without you, Will Kidd. I want my first view of that beautiful harbour you talked about to be with you standing beside me, your hand in mine. Until then, I’m staying in Liverpool. Wherever they send you, it’s likely you’ll come back into port here. I’m not budging.’
‘Liverpool’s the most important port in the country – especially for shipping between Britain and America. Once the war starts, Hitler’s going to blast the hell out of it.’ He paused, brushing his hair back from his eyes, nervous. ‘If you won’t go to Australia, then will you and Judith go to Dublin? You’re going to meet Eddie O’Connor’s sister, Bridget, when she comes to the wedding tomorrow, and her family are all good people who’ll look after you and Judith. I think you and Bridget will get on well.’
She shook her head, her mouth set firm. ‘I’m sure we would. But my family is here. I don’t just mean Judith, but Sam and Nance too. We’ll all take care of each other. I want to stay so I can be standing on the Pier Head whenever your ship comes into port. Don’t send me away, Will. Please.’
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her, both of them longing for tomorrow, when at last they would be married, but both fearing what the coming war might bring.
‘Whatever happens, we’ll face it together. I love you, Will.’
Acknowledgements
I drew on the support of both Liverpool and Everton supporters in researching this book. My extended Merseyside originating family is divided along football lines – although probably united in their condemnation of me for being a Chelsea supporter! Cousin David McFarlin (Everton) for his insights into life in the merchant navy and his kind gift of a book which was a very helpful glossary to all the complicated terms used by sailors and for the various parts of ships. Cousin Tony Lundy (Liverpool) very kindly went to Crosby Library and photographed local street plans of the waterfront between Seaforth and Blundellsands from before the war. This was an invaluable aid.
Storms Gather Between Us Page 30
