The Harrogate Secret (aka The Secret)

by Catherine Cookson

  Connie sat down on the chair that Jinny placed near the bedside and she thanked her with a muttered, ‘Ta,’ then she looked towards the hand that was plucking the threads of the eiderdown before raising her eyes to Maggie. ‘I didn’t know till last night about him,’ she said. ‘Eeh, it’s awful! I was upset. I…I wanted to go and see him, but I didn’t know if that would make things worse for him or not. I mean, they’d want to know who I was. They shouldn’t have done it to him; he’s never done anything but help people and be kind…’

  She stopped talking abruptly and brought out a handkerchief and blew her nose, and now Maggie said simply, ‘You can help him.’

  ‘I can? I’ll do anything…well, I mean…’

  ‘Listen to me, my dear.’ Maggie was speaking to her now as if she were a young girl. ‘I can’t get out of this bed or else I’d be with him at this moment, but I’ve done what I can. I’ve seen to it that he’ll be cleared of one accusation. Jinny here is his mother.’

  The two women looked at each other now, then nodded, and Maggie went on, ‘His brother and Jinny saw him yesterday. He’s being accused not only of’—she now closed her eyes for a moment and pressed the hand that was underneath the bedclothes tight into her stomach before going on—‘murdering or knowing who murdered your master, but also of being in possession of what he carried that night to him. They think he has them stored away some place. What did you say?’

  Connie’s head was bowed now, and what she had muttered was, ‘Oh my God!’ But when she lifted her head again and looked at Maggie she said nothing further; and Maggie went on, ‘Can I ask you, my dear, if you know anything about those stones?’

  Connie’s lids were blinking rapidly. She looked from Maggie up to Jinny, then back to Maggie again, and she seemed to have to make an effort to speak, for twice her mouth opened then closed before she brought out what could not have been interpreted as either, ‘Yea’ or ‘Nay’, but then she said, ‘I…I’ll be able to fix it so as he’ll be all right.’

  Maggie’s hand gripped hers now as she said, ‘Thank you. Thank you, my dear. When…when will you do this?’

  Again Connie seemed to find difficulty in speaking, but eventually she said, ‘As…as soon as I get back. I’ll…I’ll go to them.’

  ‘To them? Who?’

  ‘Those at the Court House.’

  Maggie’s head now dropped back into the pillows, and with her eyes closed she lay quiet for a moment until Jinny said, ‘Would you like a drop of your medicine, dear?’ and she answered, ‘Yes, Jinny. Yes.’

  Jinny now measured two teaspoonfuls of a clear liquid from a bottle into a glass and she placed her big hand between Maggie’s shoulder blades, then put the glass to her lips. And Maggie’s hand covered hers for a moment until she swallowed the bromide. Then, looking at Jinny, she said, ‘Would…would you like to make Miss Wheatley a cup of tea?’

  ‘Aye, yes. Yes of course.’

  The moment the door closed on Jinny, Maggie said, ‘How will you go about it? Have you got them…I mean, to hand?’

  Connie nodded, then said, ‘Yes, they’re to hand, and I’ve never known an easy minute since they first came to hand. Me da would take them. We told him we could never do anything with them. The sovereigns and silver that we picked up was enough to get us going, but he wouldn’t listen. I won’t be able to tell them that, the authorities, that I’ve known about them all the time else I’d be for it, wouldn’t I? I’ve got a good little business going and I don’t want to lose it in any way. Leave it to me.’ She bent forward and patted the eiderdown. ‘I’ll…I’ll think up something, make up something convincing like about him having them hidden or stored away and he’s just told me. Well, I could say, the day before he took the stroke. I could say they had got on his mind, that’s what brought it on. Oh, don’t worry, I’ll say something. There’s one thing sure, they’ll get nothing out of him now for he’s as dumb as a bell without a clanger. And I thank God for it. I’ve been worn out of late with him. He took to the drink, you know. And when he was like that he split his mouth open…Eeh!’ Her, head was moving from side to side now. ‘I’m sorry to the heart of me about Freddie. Oh dear! I’ve just thought of something else. It’ll have to come out about Miss Belle, won’t it?’

  ‘Yes. Yes, I’m afraid so.’

  ‘Eeh! It’ll be a nine days’ wonder. It’ll be in all the papers. Will she be very upset, d’you think?’

  ‘Not as much as her husband will, I fear, for her birth now will have to be brought into the open, otherwise there would be more complications, wouldn’t there?’

  ‘Yes, yes indeed. But that part’ll be awful for her. I’m sorry for the lass, for she was so nice and bonny. And to think—’ She paused. ‘You know’—she leant forward now—‘there are nights I can’t go to sleep. I just think back to the time when that young lass gave birth. That awful night when he acted like a maniac…Mr Gallagher, and I can see him now pushing that tiny scrap of a lad under the bed. It all started from then, didn’t it?’

  ‘If…if they question you about…about how you hid the child, will…will you tell them exactly what happened?’

  ‘Oh, aye, aye I will. I’ve got nothin’ to cover up there. I only thought of that bairn; she was so bonny and so full of life and kicking. I can remember the time as if it was yesterday when I knew what he meant to do so I played rough and said, “Give her me here!” And I hauled her up roughly by the little nightgown neck and I said to me da, “Get a shovel.” Then I yelled at him, the master, “D’you want to come and see how deep we lay her?” I think now it was only me brazenness that stopped him from comin’ with us at first, but come he did. You see I had pushed her into a box, but as soon as I got into the garden I took her out of the box, dropped off me petticoat, wrapped her in it and pushed her in the bushes. And it’s as well I did for, not five minutes later there he was. He didn’t come close up, but he watched me da digging, then me lifting the box and laying it gently in the bottom of the hole. And he stayed for some minutes until the soil was all pushed back, then he turned about and we heard him get on his horse and gallop off. You know, he often rode half the night. But as soon as he was out of the way I took the bairn and I put her upstairs in that room. Me da wasn’t for it, he was scared, because, believe me, the master was a dangerous man, even when he wasn’t in one of his turns. Me ma said that he had quite a bit in him that had been in his grandma, that’s the one the room was built for. It only showed at times, but when it did, eeh! God, he raised skull and hair through that house. By the way, where is the young lass now?’

  ‘She’s on her honeymoon.’

  ‘So she won’t know about Mr Musgrave and him being taken to Newcastle?’

  ‘She will now. I sent her an express letter on Sunday. I don’t think she’ll even bother to write, she’ll come straight back.’

  ‘Aye, yes, she would, ’cos she owes him a lot, she does.’

  Maggie’s hand was again pressing tight on her stomach and her words came out between gasps now as she said, ‘You’ll…you’ll do something…right away…won’t you?’

  ‘Aye; yes, I will; and I’ll get off now.’

  As she stood up she added, ‘I’m sorry to see you like this. Are you in much pain?’

  ‘A…a little.’

  ‘That’s a pity, it surely is. But some folks get off lightly; the doctor said me da’s not suffering at all, he’s just lying there like a log. Well, I’ll go then and do me best, but—’ she backed a step from the bed, then she paused before she ended, ‘I’m not goin’ to say I’m not afraid, ’cos inside I’m all worked up. I know I’ve got to stick to the first thing I say and I’ll get that pat in me mind. So, don’t you worry; I’ll…I’ll do what I can. Ta-ra then.’

  Maggie inclined her head towards her for she was unable to speak at the moment; but as the door closed on her visitor she thought, Some people get off lightly…and that’s true. But God or the powers that existed somewhere had a strange way of working things out because
if she hadn’t been near her end, her end would have been either in jail for life or at the end of a rope, having done what she did this morning.

  It was six o’clock the same day. The room where Freddie had been questioned now seemed packed with people. The same man with the accentless voice sat behind the table and on his right was the inspector, but at his other side sat a magistrate. And at the corner of the table sat a clerk, as also did one at the desk further back in the room.

  The wooden bench on which Freddie had sat was now occupied by Maggie’s Doctor Wright, her solicitor, Connie Wheatley and the doctor who was attending her father.

  It was the magistrate who now addressed Doctor Wright. ‘You say that the woman Margaret Hewitt is on the point of death and cannot be moved?’ he said.

  ‘I do, sir. Your men have already ascertained this.’

  ‘My men are not doctors, they cannot give a medical opinion.’

  ‘One of them was a police doctor.’ Doctor Wright’s voice was terse, and the magistrate, nodding now, said, ‘Oh, yes, yes, of course, yes.’ He now leant forward and had a word with the man sitting next to the doctor. ‘You maintain, sir, she was in her right mind when she dictated this letter to you?’ He patted some paper that lay to his hand on the table.

  ‘I do, sir. She was in great pain but her mind was clear.’

  There was further whispered conversation; and then he was addressing Connie. ‘You have a very strange tale to tell, Miss Wheatley, and it would be quite unbelievable if it wasn’t for the practical evidence you have brought here today.’ He now gently lifted up a small chamois leather bag. ‘But when your father confessed to having stolen and hidden these jewels three weeks ago why didn’t you then inform the authorities?’

  ‘I’ve told you, sir.’ Her voice was weary because she had told the story three times in the last two hours. ‘I was frightened. I didn’t know what to do with them. If he hadn’t had the stroke I would have made him come and own up, at least I would have tried. He…he was a very dominating man.’ She hung her head as she congratulated herself once again on how she was putting this over. Then she added, ‘But when I heard that Mr Musgrave was being charged with stealing them…’

  ‘Mr Musgrave was not being charged with stealing them. He was being held pending enquiries concerning them.’

  ‘As you say, sir. But remembering what a good little lad he was and how he was upset when he saw the bairn in that awful room and couldn’t bear to leave her there, I knew I just couldn’t keep me tongue quiet about them jewels. Anyway’—her voice took on a louder tone—‘what could I have done with them?’

  ‘I’m going to ask you now, Miss Wheatley, why all those years ago when Mr Gallagher’s body was found that you didn’t come into the open, you and your family, and explain about the child? It could then have been made a Ward of Court and given its rightful position.’

  ‘Well, sir, we felt that nobody would believe us, but…but I think I would have done something about it later only that I saw that she was in very good hands and being beautifully looked after at Miss Hewitt’s and Miss Hewitt seemed to love her. So we decided to let sleeping dogs lie, sort of, and when Mrs Birkstead took over and brought all her own servants we were turfed out and went to Scotland and started a new life.’

  Connie now put her hand out to the back of the bench to steady herself, and this was no acting because she was tired and really sick with fear inside trying to remember to say the same things each time she was questioned.

  ‘You can sit down and continue answering.’ The man motioned his hand towards her, and she sat down and then he said, ‘Where is the letter now that the young lady’s mother wrote explaining the rightful father?…’

  The man to the magistrate’s side leant forward and was once more whispering; and now the magistrate said, ‘Oh, yes, yes, as has been said, it is in the possession of the young lady herself and she’—his head wagged in disbelief—‘is now married, you say, to Mr Gallagher’s son by his first wife?’

  Connie nodded her head. ‘Aye, yes sir, she is.’

  ‘Amazing. Amazing.’ There was more whispering at the table and after a full minute the man in the middle stood up and said, ‘This is but a preliminary hearing but it is enough to allow Mr Musgrave to be freed for the present. This much I must say; his being in possession of information all these years of the said murder will have to be dealt with later. But for today we are finished now, though you will be called back to a full court at another date. You understand?’

  They all answered by a motion of the head, and Connie finally ended the meeting by clapping her hand tightly over her mouth and making for the door, assisted now by a policeman…

  Fifteen minutes later Freddie was brought into the same room and, standing between two policemen, he faced the men at the table and was told briefly of what had transpired and also that he was free to go until a certain date when he would be recalled to answer the charge of withholding information. Did he understand?

  He understood.

  As he walked through the long corridor, then into the hallway and looked to where his mother and John, Nell and Nancy were waiting, he felt as if he were an old man returning home after years of absence.

  He could find no words to say to them as they gathered round him, Jinny saying, ‘Oh, lad, lad. Thank God.’

  And John saying, ‘How are you feelin’?’

  Nell said, ‘It’s over. It’s over.’

  Only Nancy said nothing but she gripped his arm with one hand and touched his face with the other.

  They went into the street in a bunch. The twilight was deepening and Freddie stopped and looked upwards, his eyes travelling past the buildings and up to the sky. Then looking at John, he said in a broken voice, ‘I know how you used to feel, lad, down the pit;’ and the next moment he gave his head a violent shake because he knew he was on the verge of crying, bursting out like a child, howling. He’d only been in that cell a matter of thirty-six hours but they had been like thirty-six lifetimes. And he had discovered himself in those lifetimes and knew there were great pockets of weakness in him and that he would never be able to stand a prison sentence without losing his mind. How did men ever survive, some of them manacled too? And those people back there who dealt out justice: they were a different kind of human being, their minds worked like machines…

  It wasn’t until they were in the train that he looked from one to the other and realised what an effort it had been for them all to come up to the city to see him; they couldn’t have known if he would be released or not. He said, ‘It was good of you to make the journey.’

  ‘Don’t be daft. It’s like a holiday…well’—Nell’s whole body seemed to wag—‘you know what I mean, at least for me it is, in a train. This is only the second time I’ve been to Newcastle, and I hope it’s me last. Aw, lad!’ She leant forward and gripped his knee. ‘I’m pleased to see you.’

  ‘No more than I’m pleased to see you, Nell.’ And now he looked at John and said, ‘How did you manage to get off? It must have taken you nearly a day.’

  ‘Oh, I just gave him a sort of ultimatum, either he let me go or I went.’

  Freddie smiled weakly; then addressing his mother, he said, ‘Who’s seeing to Maggie?’

  ‘Oh, I got Mrs Carter. You know, she does nursing. She charges. Oh my, she charges! But she’s very good.’ Her voice broke, her throat became full and she turned abruptly and looked out of the window; then after a moment she spoke again, saying now, ‘Your da said I had to give you…his best. He’s very cut up. D’you think you could slip along and see him in the mornin’?’

  ‘Yes, I’ll do that, Ma.’

  They parted at the station, Nell going home with Nancy, for she was staying the night, John making his way down to the sculler ferry, and Jinny and Freddie hurrying now towards the house.

  In the hallway, Freddie paused a moment. The lamps were lit, the house had its usual warm, comforting, welcome feeling, but in this moment it could have been lik
e a portion of heaven except for one thing, there would be no agonising pain in heaven. He threw off his coat and hat and went straight to the bedroom.

  The sturdy middle-aged woman standing at the side table said, ‘Oh, you’ve got back then,’ then she looked behind him, and when she saw Jinny beckoning her she went towards her, and they left the room together.

  Maggie didn’t say anything at his approach, but she held out her arms and he went into them, and in spite of the effort he endeavoured to make the tears sprang from his eyes and mingled with those on her cheeks.

  ‘My dear. My dear.’ She was stroking his hair and murmuring almost unintelligible words now till he raised himself from her, saying, ‘There, there, stop it. Stop it,’ and looking into her misted blue eyes he said, ‘You shouldn’t have done it.’

  ‘What does it matter? They can’t make me pay in any way. And you know something? I always meant to do it just in case something might come up. I thought about writing it out years ago; then got a bit fearful. But I thought today it was wicked of me to have put it off because I could have had a stroke, like Miss Wheatley’s father, and then wouldn’t have been able to say or write anything. That thought has made me sick all day.’

  He said now, ‘Have you heard from Belle?’

  ‘No; and that’s strange. Somehow, I’ve been expecting her to walk in the door.’

  ‘You sent the letter off on Sunday, didn’t you?’

  ‘Yes; she would get it yesterday morning, and if she expressed back I would have got it this morning. But what I’m thinking is perhaps they were out and didn’t get back till late and that they’re on their way today. Here it is, though, nine o’clock, so she won’t be home tonight. I can’t understand it.’