A Second Chance (49 page)

‘He’s got a couple of other fellows with
him,’ Frank reported to Lizzie. ‘That brother of his—Des, is it?
And some bloke he was in prison with—he’s a bit simple, they
reckon, but he does what Liam tells him.’

‘And they’ve gone back to their old place?’
Lizzie asked.

‘So they were saying down at the factory.
Apparently the rest of the Feenans have pretty well cleared out
over the last few years. Liam and Des’s ma’s still there, as far as
anyone knows. Maisie’s father, too, from what I hear. No one seems
to have seen much of them for a while.’

‘I don’t suppose Liam and those other
fellows will stay around Ruatane for long,’ said Lizzie. ‘Not with
everyone knowing who they are—they wouldn’t get away with any of
their nonsense now. With a bit of luck, we’ll none of us even see
them before they take themselves off.’

*

Lizzie’s optimism proved unfounded. Only a
few days later, Frank was in a paddock near the road when a rider
approached on a rangy, unkempt horse. He slid from his mount,
leaving it to pick at the grass along the roadside, sauntered over
to Frank and leaned on the top rail of the fence.

‘A fine place you have here, Kelly,’ he said
in a pretence at affability.

Liam Feenan’s time in jail had left him more
heavily muscled, and certainly more liberally scarred, than when
Frank had last seen him loitering on the streets of Ruatane. His
clothes were ill-fitting, as if they might have belonged to someone
else, and extremely dirty, but what struck Frank most was Liam’s
air of menace. It was as much a part of the man as his matted hair;
heavy brows; and hard, dark eyes.

‘What can I do for you?’ Frank asked
curtly.

Liam grinned at him, displaying an array of
blackened teeth with several gaps. ‘I’ve come to see my little
cousin Maisie. I heard you’ve got her living with you. Very nice,
I’m sure.’

‘I don’t think she’s keen on seeing you.
What do you want with her?’

‘Well, I’ve been talking with my Uncle
Kieran about you having Maisie here. We think it might be time she
came home. Her dad’s not too well, and my old mam’s not the best,
either. We could do with the help.’

Frank shook his head. ‘No, this is Maisie’s
home now. I’m sorry for your troubles, but you’ll have to sort it
out yourself. You’re not taking Maisie.’ He put no real credence in
Liam’s assertions of illness in the family, but there was no point
in openly accusing him of lying.

Liam looked him up and down. ‘I don’t know
as it’s up to you to decide where our Maisie lives,’ he said, an
edge of malice in his voice. ‘It’s up to her family.’

‘It’s up to Maisie. And she’s said she wants
to live here with us. I sorted that out with her pa a couple of
years back.’

‘Oh, yes, I heard about you buying her off
Uncle Kieran. I’ve been talking about that with him, and I think
you got too good a bargain. Ten pounds wasn’t enough to buy
her—you’ve just been renting her for the last couple of years.’ His
lips curled into an ugly leer. ‘Rent’s due again, Kelly. Either
that, or time to give her back.’

Frank returned Liam’s hard stare. ‘Get out,’
he said, surprised at how controlled his voice sounded. ‘I’m not
letting you near Maisie. You can tell her father that from me.’

Somewhat to his surprise, Liam turned to go.
‘I’ll be off home now,’ he said over his shoulder. ‘You’ll be
hearing from me again. Be sure and give my love to Maisie,’ he
added before mounting the horse and setting off down the track.

Frank watched till Liam was out of sight,
then walked up to the house. He found Maisie in the kitchen with
Lizzie, the two of them doing a batch of baking while Benjy was
having a nap.

‘I saw that cousin of your just now,
Maisie,’ he said. ‘Liam, I mean.’

Maisie let the tray of scones she was
carrying fall heavily to the table. She stared at Frank with
frightened eyes, but said nothing.

‘What’d he want?’ Lizzie asked.

‘Never mind what he wanted. I sent him
packing. But…’ he looked at Maisie in concern. Her hands gripped
the back of a chair; he saw them trembling. He wondered what
memories were dredged up for her by the knowledge that Liam had
been so close to the house. Frank hesitated, deliberating over how
wise it was to frighten her further, then decided it was better
that she be properly warned.

‘He probably won’t come around again. But
just in case he does… you’d better not go too far from the house by
yourself, Maisie. All right?’

Maisie was still trembling. She seemed to be
staring into the distance rather than focussing on Frank.

Lizzie went to her and slipped an arm around
her. ‘Come on now, you’re all right.’ She guided Maisie to a chair,
sat down beside her, and looked at Frank over the top of Maisie’s
head, frowning in concern.

Maisie gripped Lizzie’s hand, took a deep
breath, and spoke for the first time since Frank had entered the
room. ‘What about the girls?’ she said in a low voice.

‘What do you mean, Maisie?’ Lizzie
asked.

‘Rosie and Kate.’ She gave Frank a fierce
glare. ‘I don’t want them going to the school and back on their
own. You or one of the boys’ll have to take them.’

‘I don’t think…’ Frank stopped himself when
he saw distress mounting in her eyes. He was sure that Liam and his
cronies had no interest in anyone in the house except Maisie, but
it seemed a small enough thing to agree to. ‘All right, that’s a
good idea. We’ll get Danny or Mickey to go with them, just till
things settle down.’

‘Those two’ll be happy enough to get out of
doing their work,’ said Lizzie.

In fact she was wrong, somewhat to Frank’s
surprise. Mickey and Danny both grumbled over the task of escorting
their little sisters, feeling it beneath their dignity, and only
grudgingly agreed to take it in turns. Maisie suspected they might
conveniently “forget” to pick the girls up after school, so every
afternoon she would track them down and dispatch one of them,
ignoring their complaints.

Frank was sure Rosie and Kate were in no
danger, but Maisie’s safety preyed on his mind. If Liam Feenan
posed a threat to her, Frank wanted to know just what protection
might be available beyond what he himself could offer. The next
time he was town, he called in to Sergeant Riley’s house to speak
to the policeman.

‘You know Liam Feenan’s back in town?’ Frank
asked after they had exchanged perfunctory greetings.

Sergeant Riley scowled at the name. ‘Him and
his brother, and some other fellow who’s probably as bad. Yes, I
know. He been giving you any bother?’

‘Maybe. He came poking around after
Maisie—she’s his cousin. You know she lives with us?’

‘Yes, I heard that. You’re a brave man,
Kelly, taking in a Feenan brat.’

‘Maisie’s a good girl, and she’s like one of
our own now. Well, Liam started talking a lot of rot about wanting
to take her back home with him. Says her father wants her back. I
don’t know if Liam’d be fool enough to try it, or if he was just
throwing his weight around. We’re keeping an eye on Maisie, there’s
probably nothing to worry about. But I just wanted to let you know,
in case he does try something.’

Sergeant Riley looked at him blankly. ‘If
the girl’s father wants her to come home, that’s none of my
business. None of yours, either.’

‘Eh?’ Frank said, startled. ‘But Maisie
doesn’t want to go back there! She wants to stay with us.’

‘That’s as may be, but the girl’s father’s
got the right to say where she lives. You can’t go taking other
men’s children and saying you’ll hang on to them, Kelly. And you
can’t have young girls deciding for themselves where they’ll live.
That’s how those other Feenan girls ended up in the
whorehouse.’

Sergeant Riley’s response was so unexpected
that Frank was briefly lost for words. ‘But… but Maisie’s not a
little kid,’ he managed at last. ‘She’s come of age.’

Riley looked at him skeptically. ‘Maisie
Feenan of age? That little runt? You sure about that?’

‘I know she’s small, but she’s a couple of
years older than my girl Maudie, and Maudie’s twenty. So Maisie
must be twenty-two.’

The sergeant continued to look unconvinced.
‘I don’t suppose you’ve got a birth certificate to prove it?’

‘No,’ Frank admitted.

‘That’s if her father ever bothered to
register her, which I doubt. No, the girl’s underage, and she’s
none of my concern. Now, I’ve things to attend to, Kelly, so if
you’ve nothing else on your mind?’

Frank took the hint and left, a good deal
more troubled than when he had arrived.

*

Maisie had become a careful clock-watcher
ever since Liam’s visit. ‘It’s about time for one of those boys to
go and get the little ones,’ she said to Lizzie one afternoon.

Lizzie glanced up from Benjy, who was
claiming her full attention as she fed him. ‘Mmm? Yes, I suppose it
is. Don’t fret, Maisie, they won’t be too far away.’

‘I don’t know, they might have wandered off
somewhere. They’ll be larking about, with the mister not here to
keep an eye on them.’

‘It’s about time
he
got home, come to
that,’ Lizzie remarked. ‘He always ends up spending longer than he
says he will when he goes to see the factory manager. He took Joey
with him today, though, and I’d have thought Joey would start
moaning if he thought he was going to miss his afternoon tea.’

‘Well, I’m going out to find those boys if
they’re not here in ten minutes,’ said Maisie.

Mickey and Danny had not appeared when the
ten minutes were up, and Maisie set out in search of them.

She could not see the boys from the house,
nor from the paddocks nearest it. Her fruitless search took longer
than she had intended; she glanced at the lowering sun, anxiously
aware that the afternoon was wearing on. She looked back at the
house and briefly considered asking Lizzie’s opinion on what she
should do. Her mouth set in a firm line. If she did not ask
permission to go on her own, she would not have the bother of
arguing with her when Lizzie said no.

Maisie looked around apprehensively when she
reached the end of the farm track and turned onto the road, but
there was no one in sight. She set off briskly towards the school,
and was nearly there when she met the girls trotting towards her on
the fat little pony they shared.

‘Those boys didn’t turn up,’ Rosie said
indignantly. She had been enjoying the distinction of an escort to
and from school; all the more so since she was aware how reluctant
her brothers were to provide it. ‘They’re meant to be there when we
get out!’

‘I know,’ said Maisie. ‘I’ll give them a
piece of my mind, don’t you worry about that.’

She rested a hand on the bridle as they
walked back towards the farm, Rosie and Kate prattling away about
their day while Maisie darted quick glances around her. There were
patches of scrub on the far side of the road, and once or twice she
thought she saw movement behind them. Probably just her nerves, she
told herself.

They reached the entrance to Frank’s farm,
and Maisie allowed herself to relax. She looked up at the
chattering little girls and smiled at the sight. Until they
abruptly fell silent, and their eyes widened in alarm.

‘Who’s that—’ Rosie began, then she let out
a shriek.

Maisie turned and saw a man running towards
her. She had not seen him for six years, but she knew him at once:
her cousin Liam.

For a moment she was frozen to the spot.
Then she let go of the bridle, slapped the pony on the rump and
shouted at the girls, ‘Go home! Go on!
Hurry!
’

A slap was not enough to startle Lumpy into
rapid movement. The pony gave a snort, took a few steps forward,
then halted as Rosie hauled on the reins. Both little girls were
screaming now.

Liam reached Maisie, and by way of greeting
he backhanded her across the mouth, knocking her head to one side.
‘Well, if it isn’t my little cousin Maisie,’ he said, grinning at
her. He snatched at her arm. ‘I’ve missed you something awful,
girlie. Your old dad’s fretting, too. Time you came home.’

His fingers were digging into her arm like
pincers, and she could taste blood in her mouth. He was dragging
her towards a tall patch of scrub. She now saw the horse tied to a
branch. Maisie pulled back, trying to ignore the pain in her arm,
and twisted around to face the little girls. ‘
Run
,’ she
sobbed. ‘Get
out
of here.’

Liam’s grip tightened. ‘That’s right,’ he
called to the screaming girls. ‘You run home and tell your old man
that Liam’s taken Maisie home. He knows what to do to get her back.
You be sure and tell him that.’

He snatched a length of rope from behind his
saddle and tied Maisie’s hands with it, tightening the knot till
she felt the rope rasping at her wrists. He flung her face-down
across the horse’s back just in front of the saddle, then mounted.
When Maisie tried to move, he dug his elbow into her back until she
cried out. ‘Just behave yourself, Maisie, and it’ll all be a lot
easier. Get out of here, you little brats,’ he called to Rosie and
Kate.

By twisting her head, Maisie could just see
the pony. Rather than running away, Rosie was kicking vigorously,
trying to come nearer. Maisie felt the horse move awkwardly; out of
the corner of her eye she saw that Liam had hold of a rough branch.
He rode at the little girls, raised the branch, and whacked the
pony with it.

Lumpy snorted, reared, and set off for home
at a gallop. Maisie saw Kate fall to the ground, and Rosie haul
with all her strength on the reins, trying to stop the pony. Liam
turned his own horse and kicked it into motion. The sudden lurch
knocked the wind out of Maisie, and robbed her of one last chance
to call out to Rosie and Kate.