Fragile Blossoms (47 page)

‘Justine!’

‘No! Be quiet, you silly girl! Forty years have passed and how many days within those years did you live? Your life doesn’t depend on yesterday’s heartache, it depends on the things that matter. It depends on birds that sing and the sweet scent of flowers. Life looks to the joy of spring and the blessing of winter’s sleep. Now in your old age it depends on a warm quilt, a sensible diet, and a decent cup of coffee in the morning.’

‘Tell me where I went wrong!’ Callie was weeping tears tracking the runnels in her cheeks. ‘What did I do that you didn’t love me?’

‘I did love you. I still do. You didn’t go wrong, you grew up. We were friends. I gave you everything I could give. I was your tutor, not your lover. Why couldn’t you settle for that instead of bringing the village to my door? One way or another, Missy, you robbed us all of sleep. Our poor little cottage, our Needed and Necessary, you made a prison of it for the living and the dead. It’s time to let go, and leave us, and you, in peace.’

The table was in uproar, the sitters scattering. Callie was trembling. Daniel drew her into his arms. ‘Come mother! It’s done now so let go of it.’

‘Oh do let go!’ Madame sighed. ‘For God’s sake rest then I too can rest! It is over. It’s done. And to all of you here tonight with the ears to listen I say the past needs you but you don’t need it! If it haunts you, if it wears you down, take a hammer to it and beat it until it is dead. It’s what we did, Clarry and me. We killed it and put it where it should be in with the dirty linen. You never loved me, Callie. You were a little girl who wanted to play.’

‘Justine!’

‘It’s over. Henry died and you moved away. You had a husband. Now you have a son.’ Madame patted Daniel’s arm. ‘He is a gift from God. I could not have given you half a love as sweet. Cherish him, dear heart, and be at peace. The stars will fall. You’ll see them streak across the sky. And when the Wall falls so shall I.’

Luke isn’t feeling so well. Maybe it’s bad beer. They changed the barrels yesterday so it can’t be that. But he feels really bad. His legs twitch and his skin crawls as though an army of ants fight to break through. The last time he felt like this he had the ‘flu. He got to his feet. ‘I’m going, Ma.’

Nan nodded. ‘You don’t look right. Maybe you’re comin’ down with a cold.’

She accompanied him to the door. Nobody noticed him going, all so drunk they couldn’t find their arses with both hands.

Nan looked at him. ‘So when were you goin’ to tell me?’

‘What?’

‘You’re thinkin’ of goin’ to America.’

‘Oh that. Well we are only thinking. Who told you about it?’

‘Nobody told me, certainly not my son.’

‘From whom did you hear?’

‘Maggie Jeffers, the Town Crier, who else.’

‘Oh for Christ sake, Ma! ’

‘I know. Still it would’ve been nice to be told.’

‘I’ll tell you when there’s anything worth telling. Right now all I can say is step aside or I’ll be chucking up all over you.’

Out of the fug, the smoke and beer fumes, the cold air hit him like a square fist. It cleared his head but the antsy feeling remained.

It’s been with him all day. Busy running about trying to fasten loose ends he should have ate better. The business is alright. He has three good foremen on whom he can depend. They’ll get jobs done with minimum fuss. Outdoor work this time of the year is quiet. Cold weather, temperatures below zero, you can prepare but you can’t build. It’s all indoors and thanks to the Scholtz Hotel contract there’s plenty of that.

Luke has written to Daniel Masson declining their business. Some other firm can do the roof. It’s a conscience thing. And anyway, a new year and a new refurbishing job is promised. A big job! It’s still in the negotiating stage but if it comes off it’ll knock Bakers End, and Ma, sideways. It is suggested by Hugh Beresford Fitzwilliam and concerns the home of Lady Charlotte Walbrooke, a beautiful old Georgian house in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. So far he’s only agreed to look at the plans. So much going on he needs to haul back a bit. Yesterday he only need of himself, tomorrow he has a family.

It’s cold and starting to snow. Luke planned to go to Fairy Common and check his gear for tomorrow make sure he looks okay. The coat is fine. He bought it at Ede and Ravenscroft in Savile Row, the chap there remembered him and kitted him out in good black broadcloth. Other than that he’s asked no one what he should wear or do or say tomorrow. At times like this he feels lonely and wishes Freddie nearby. As it is he will stand at the altar alone.

Of course his best man for the job is a dead man. Jacky would be coming up twenty-eight now and perfect for the job. It’s strange that he dreams of Italy and all that but never of him. It’s as though the link between the brothers was severed that day never to be healed. Doctor’s reckon Jacky was unconscious before he drowned. A great gash in his head they said he must have hit something diving in. ‘If it’s any consolation,’ said one, ‘he wouldn’t have suffered.’ Poor sod! Luke went for him. ‘How do you know that? How can you be sure what he felt?’

He was a fool that day yelling. All these years and he’s still yelling.

Midway to the Common Luke changed direction. The scratching at his nerves and unease has become a roar. Betty stabled at the cottage this week he didn’t bring a trap. He walked. If he was going to get drunk, which he wasn’t, it’s best the old horse stays in the warm. So he changed direction thinking to take a look at her to see if she need rubbing down. He won’t knock on the cottage door. Julianna will be home now and you’re not supposed to see the bride the night before the wedding. It’s bad luck.

People ask if he’s nervous. Until now he wasn’t. He is as sure of his love for Julianna as he is sure the sun rises. Now his stomach is whirling and every hair on his head is upright like a bee’s antennae, an early warning system.

Hands in his pockets he trudged across country. He hadn’t gone a few yards when he quickened his step, making a diversion, saving time by cutting through Wentworths’ farm. Then, his hand on the gate, he heard it.

‘Wolf, wolf, wolf!’

It came through snowflakes blown there by winter.

It brought him up sharp.

It came again. ‘Wolf, wolf, wolf!’

It was like a dog barking but no dog.

It was Matty!

Matty is calling him.

Miles away but Luke hears him clear as a bell!

He started to run.

Julia sat putting on her galoshes. An odd night and Callie in such distress she stayed to see if she could help. Everyone else has gone carriages pulling away down the Rise the lamplight bobbing through the darkness.

Daniel was coming back down the stairs. He rolled his eyes. ‘What can I say to you after that?’

‘I think it best we say nothing.’

‘I agree. Talk about one’s soiled linen washed in public! I won’t dare venture a post-mortem of this evening’s events. I’d hate to think what else might float to the surface. ’

‘Are you surprised by what you have heard?’

‘You mean my mother’s feelings for her tutor? Not a bit. I used to think the Grevilles Massons a stoic kind of person. Lately I have begun to see we are creatures of passion. We love hard and I’m sorry to say clumsily, Callie’s school-girl crush a case in point.

‘Is she much distressed?’

‘She’s more surprised than wounded. It’s my guess she cobbled this evening together more in curiosity than hope.’

‘How is she now?’

‘She’s with Dulce being petted before being packed off to bed.’

‘I hope she may recover.’

‘Oh she will. She’s made of durable stock. All the Aunts lived well into their nineties. They bend rather than break. Trust me, she’ll do the same. Tonight’s revelation, the smashing of Meissen china, Henry Lansdowne and the rest, will have taken the wind out of her sails but she’ll recover.’ He pushed his hands through his hair. ‘Whether I shall do as well is debatable.’

‘And Madame Leonora?’

‘She’s another in desperate need of recuperation. Whatever it is she does, and speaking for myself the jury will always be out, it knocks her seven days from Sunday.’

‘I don’t think it helps any of us to go where we’re not wanted.’

‘No and should not be repeated.’

‘I must get back.’ Julia bent to put on her galoshes but her hands were so shaky she couldn’t manage.

Daniel knelt to help. ‘Let me help and then I’ll escort you down. You can’t go home alone.’

They were thus when there was the sudden clatter of running feet and a shout. ‘Madam, I say, madam!’

‘Oh!’ Julia started up out of the chair knocking Daniel backward.

‘Madam!’ Gown in disarray Madame Leonora stood at the top of the stairs.

‘For God’s sake!’ Daniel got to his feet. ‘What is it now?’

It came again, a voice Julia knew. ‘Madam! I say, madam, hark at that noise!’

‘Noise?’ She gazed up the flight of stairs to the figure standing back of the shadows. What noise?’

‘Listen!’

Julia listened. Then she heard it, Kaiser howling.

She turned and fled, the voice she knew so well, Old Joe Carmody’s voice, calling after her. ‘He’s there, madam! The nasty sod that hides in the wash-shed! He’s after our little lad!’

‘
Wolf! Wolf! Wolf!
’

The Shadow Man is inside the house! Maggie left the back door unlocked!

It happened as Dorothy’s sweetheart was leaving. She was sitting beside Reg seeing the cart down the lane to down to the main road. That’s when the Man slipped inside.

Kaiser heard and whining, his fur blown up like a Porcupine, scratched at the bedroom door. There was nothing else for it, Matty must go downstairs and get a cigar and give it to the Man, hopefully then he’ll go away.

Matty put on his boots and the warm woolly hat Oldie Hubbard knitted and tied his dressing gown very, very tight. Trying not to cry he knelt down. ‘Now listen, Kaiser. We’re going to play hide and seek
.
I’m to hide and you’re to close your eyes and count to a hundred and then look for me.’

Kaiser whined. He knew Matty was fibbing. He knew the real reason he was to be left behind, he could hear Matty’s heart crying out, ‘
You can’t come! I can’t let the Seed Lady have you! You must stay here and be safe!

‘You’re not to peep!’ He locked Kaiser in the bedroom and crept downstairs.

The parlour door was open and the silver box on the corner table. He took out the biggest cigar and put it in his pocket.

‘Is that for me?’ the Shadow Man was at the door.

Trembling Matty nodded.

‘What, just the one?’

Matty took another cigar.

‘Nah,’ the Shadow Man smiled. ‘I reckon you can do better than that.’

‘You mustn’t!’ Matty whispered. ‘You’ll get me into trouble.’

‘Gobble-gobble, you’ve got a funny voice, lad. You sound like a half-throttled turkey.’ The Man put the glass shepherdess that stands on the bureau in his pocket and the snuff box belonging to Mumma’s Papa. Then he gazed about as though planning to put the whole house into his pocket.

Matty held out the cigars. ‘Here you are, Mister Shadow Man.’

‘Shadow Man?’ The Man laughed. ‘That’s me alright.’

‘Please don’t hurt my Mumma.’

‘Where is your mother?’

Matty shook his head.

‘She’s out, ain’t she, across the Rise. I bet she don’t know I’m here, nor does your maid out in the lane with her boyfriend. I’ll tell you what.’ The Man sat in a chair. ‘I’ll wait for them to come back. Think what a nice surprise that’ll be.’

Matty put the cigars back. He knew no matter what he offered the Man would want more. He can’t scream, it hurts his throat to do that, and as the Man says he probably does sound like a turkey. People say his throat will get better. They say do this and do that but it won’t get better. Matty doesn’t need it to, the piano’s black and white keys speak for him.

He can’t scream but he can make a noise.

Closing his eyes and clenching his fists he put all the noise he’d ever heard into the cigarette box, the bass notes of a piano, a train rattling into the station and a barrel of Pipers Best newly piped at the Nelson, and then roaring he threw the box at the Man and ran.

He made for the front door and the Rise and Mumma and the Big House where all the lights were shining. But then Kaiser began to howl and pound the bedroom door.

‘Whoo! Whoo!’ A scary sound, it rose up into the night sky.

Matty stopped running. He knew Mumma would hear and come running down the Rise and the Shadow Man would be waiting to hurt her.

Matty loves his mother. She is his One and Only mother. He must do the noble thing and lead the Shadow away. He ran back through the house.

The Man almost got him! Red blood running down his face he came staggering out of the parlour. ‘Come here, you little sod!’

Matty ducked under his arm and ran out of the back door and didn’t stop running, and as he ran he sent a message to the Wolf.

It’s not the first time he’s sent. He sends all the time. Most messages are made of kisses, some are made of piano notes. This is a distress call.

SOS ....---..... Save Our Souls
!

Julia ran. ‘Hold on, darling! Mummy’s coming!’

The Rise had never seemed so high nor the cottage so far away. She tried the path. Churned about by carriages it was treacherous with ice-filled ruts and she fell twice the cape tearing and her knees skinning. Thicker untried snow was heavy and she had to push but at least she’d a chance of staying upright.

It was snowing and bitterly cold but she didn’t feel it. All she saw was the cottage, all she heard was Kaiser.

Then she saw the front door open.

‘Oh, Daniel, look! He’s there!’

Matty was in the doorway! One moment he was there framed in the lighted doorway, a little boy in blue knitted cap and woollen dressing gown then he was gone turning back into the house and danger.

‘No! Not that way!’ she screamed. ‘Come to me!’

The kiddie was terrified and didn’t know what he was doing! Daniel could see that even from back here. ‘Go back to Greenfields, Julianna!’ he shouted skidding by her. ‘Tell Crosby to call the police!’

‘No!’

‘But we don’t what’s happening down there! You may have intruders.’

‘Intruders?’

‘Matty was running from something!’ Daniel kept going. It was pointless saying anything, best save his breath. He did think to saddle a horse but then this snow is heavy going and it would’ve meant unlocking the stables. There simply isn’t time.

‘Someone’s coming!’

A figure appeared out of darkness. Bonnet askew and mouth open the maid ran back down the lane. ‘It’s Dorothy,’ panted Julia from behind him. ‘Oh where has she been? She said she wasn’t going out!’

Daniel ploughed on. What kind of night is this? Voices from hell and messages from the dead! His guts shrink just thinking about it.

Was it real, did the guy from Pretoria News talk through that wrinkled old mouth or was it a trick and she a ventriloquist’s dummy. But then any idea of fraud has to be absurd. Only Daniel knows what happened in Bloemfontein especially about the rabbit’s foot. Damn it he’d forgotten about it, how he washed blood off the miserable article and scrawled a note to Jack’s wife. It was a last minute thing. He didn’t sign it. As for sending money newsmen are always broke. Thinking the family could use it he’d enclosed a hundred dollar bill. But it was so last minute no one could’ve known.

Running at last into the Wall he threw the bolt on the gate.

‘Matty!’ Gown torn and wet with snow Julianna pushed by him.

‘Matty!’ She ran through to the parlour. ‘Darling, if you are in here hiding do come out! Mummy is here and so is Daniel!’

Upstairs the dog was going crazy battering the door and screaming.

‘Listen to that!’

‘He’s frantic! He must be shut up in Matty’s room.’

‘Wait!’ Daniel shouted. ‘Let me go up first.’ He raced up the stairs and across the landing. The door was half off the hinges. ‘Hold on, old boy!’ he shouted. ‘I’ll let you out.’ He got to the door, turned the key, and wham, it blasted open throwing him aside. Kaiser was down the stairs and gone.

Daniel followed. He couldn’t match the speed but the howling noise told him where to go. That dog! What a terrible sound, a child weeping or wolf caught in a trap who could tell!

Luke had never run so fast. Terror shifted him, the muscles in his legs driven by the noise in his head. Three years ago he ran this way for the same child. Shaken out of bed and tossed up and down, the Lord God shouting, he will never forget it. If God is once again on guard He hasn’t a hope of being heard above the noise in Luke’s head, Ma bemoaning the fact they’re thinking of going to America, Albert, pissed as a newt, and Julianna telling him to hurry, they’re falling apart! And all the while cutting in and out of the hubbub there’s Matty crying, ‘Mister Wolf, please come and get me!’

The thought of him getting hurt drained the blood from Luke’s heart. It can’t happen! Nothing must happen! They’re to be married tomorrow! No one to give her away, and none needed, she is to come down the aisle on her own, and her little lad, her pride and joy, to carry the posy when needed.

‘Can Kaiser walk with me?’ he’d asked his mother. ‘He is a good dog, and humble, and loves Gentle Jesus, and wouldn’t misbehave.’

‘Oh don’t!’ Momentarily Luke had to pull up. He was not sure who he begged only that again he offered his life for another. ‘Please, I’m begging you, not Matty! If you want a life take mine. If she loses her boy she’ll die anyway. ’

The woods in darkness and muffled and underpowered he ran. It’s been a bad year for animal life. A bitter wind and snow thick on the ground those creatures that don’t sleep throughout the winter have nothing to forage during the day. It’s the same with birds. Last Monday was so cold some fell in midflight their wings frozen. For some reason Luke associates Matty with a bird, no one variety unless it’s the smallest the wren. The kiddie is so alive, so here and now, so vibrant and so infinitely fragile. He must not die mid-flight!

‘...wolf.....wolf....!‘

The plan was to lead the Man away. Now, cursing and crashing through bushes the Man is so near his breath melts the snow on the path.

Matty’s chest hurts. He can hardly breathe. He is small, he was born small. Papa in Heaven said he was born before his time but not to worry because ‘little is good.’ Being little was good for a while it helped him to hide in places where only little things can go. But he is so very cold now and so very tired he can neither run nor hide.

‘Oy!’ The Shadow Man reared out of nowhere. ‘Come here, you little bugger, or I’ll do you harm!’

Matty shrieked, dodged sideways, and scuffling on his hands and knees crawled inside the husk of a fallen tree.

‘.......wolf............wolf......!’

Dark eyes glowing and teeth sharp the Wolf is coming, Matty can feel him pounding through the snow. But now he is more afraid. He thinks he may have brought the Wolf to harm as he might’ve brought Mumma. And Oh he is so sad because the Seed Lady told fibs. Being chased through darkness by a Shadow who wants to hurt people there’s no good purpose in that. Love is a big thing and so very heavy. It is too heavy for a little boy to carry.

‘Got yer!’

The Shadow Man reached out, grabbed Matty’s foot and began to pull. Matty didn’t struggle. He couldn’t! So weary he couldn’t do anything but lie still and pray to Gentle Jesus and close his eyes so not to see what is coming. ‘I’m sorry,’ he whispered. ‘I meant to get it but couldn’t. The box was in the parlour.’

Luke was coming. He saw it happen but in slow motion and as though viewed through treacle. The moon was high and floodlit the world. That bastard Sherwood swung his fist at Matty. Then the dog arrived.

Fur glistening Kaiser hurtled out a patch of scrubland like some ancient heraldic dragon beast. Claws outstretched and jaws gaping, poetry in motion and justified anger, the dog launched into the air. Whump! He landed on Sherwood’s back knocking him forward.

For a moment there was silence, or so it seemed to Luke, though the dog savaging the man, tearing at his face, there must’ve been a hell of a racket.

Matty was motionless, a curled up foetal shape, a frozen child, a dead child for all Luke knew. Then he moved and cried out and straight way the dog released Sherwood to go to his young Master.

‘No!’ Luke knew what would happen. ‘Stay put Kaiser!’

Sherwood scrambled to his feet and snatching up a piece of wood ran at the dog. That’s when Luke’s mind turned to treacle. From then on all was slow and so damned painful it might have been coming from the other side of the world.