The Girl with the Creel (47 page)

He turned his mind desperately to something which had been niggling at him for some time. He'd thought about it a lot, remembering how utterly devastated Elsie had been on the night after Jenny Jappy's baby was born … the night after Hannah had died. Died? It seemed to him that his wife wouldn't have been so badly affected by an ordinary death, sudden though it was. Not only sudden – providential, as far as Elsie was concerned. Every time she was at the Yardie she must have been scared that the old woman would come out with what she had been told and, pressed as to who had told her about Lizann's disappearance, she would name Elsie.

Jumping to his feet, he climbed the stairs. His suspicions had no real substance, but he had to prove or disprove them.

Elsie, obviously sure that his defences would fall, smiled seductively when he went into the bedroom, but he didn't respond to her. ‘Tell me again what you said to Hannah about Lizann going away.'

Elsie tutted testily. ‘Why are you digging that up again? It was ages ago, and she'd forgotten all about it. She thought Jenny was Lizann.'

‘I still want you to remind me.'

Annoyed at him for destroying what she thought would be a night of love, and irritated that he had interrupted her affair with Paddy, his wife took no time to cast her mind back to her previous confession. ‘I told her I'd made Lizann run away.'

Peter's gut twisted but he had to be certain. She hadn't admitted this before, but he had better gentle her along until he learned the truth. ‘What was it you said to her?'

Too late, Elsie realized her error and tried to correct it. ‘Oh, no, I mind now. I said somebody must have made Lizann run away.'

‘I'm more inclined to believe your first answer,' he said, dryly.

‘No, that's the gospel truth.'

His stomach muscles tightened. ‘You're lying! Tell me exactly what you said to Hannah!'

Fear of what he might uncover made Elsie tell another untruth. ‘That first time, I just said Lizann had ran off, but the night Jenny's baby was born and I was putting the old wife to her bed, I said … it was me that made her leave.'

Diving over and grabbing her by the throat, Peter shook her so hard that her head wobbled and her teeth rattled. ‘So it was you! What did you do, you bitch? Tell me, for God's sake!'

‘Let me go!' She tried to struggle free, but Peter had her in a grip of steel, and in her anger she spat out the truth. ‘I told Lizann to stop asking you to her house, or I'd …'

‘She never asked me there, you bloody fool!' Peter roared. ‘I went to her … as a friend, though I loved her as much as any man could love a woman. But come on, what else did you say to her?'

Elsie tried to excuse herself. ‘I didna ken she would run away, I was just … warning her to let you alone, or …'

‘You threatened her?'

‘I said if she didna stop seeing you, I'd tell the whole o' Buckie she'd been taking up wi' you for years and years.'

‘Christ almighty, woman! She'd not long lost her husband and her baby, and you said that to her? She must have been out of her mind with … no wonder she went away.'

‘I didna mean it! I just wanted to get you to myself again.'

At last he had learned why Lizann had left, but it was small comfort to him now, and he said icily, ‘You never had me in the first place!'

‘How can you say that? My body used to be sore from the times …'

He flung her from him and straightened his back. ‘Yes, Elsie, your body had me, I can't deny that, but Lizann always had my heart, and even if I never see her again I'll love her till the day I die.'

Peter became wrapped up in his own thoughts. If Elsie had told people that he was unfaithful to her – and she would have done if Lizann hadn't gone away, exaggerating out of spite – he could have lost his job, which meant everything to him then. Lizann would have realized that and, even though she was completely innocent of the accusation, she had left to save him being publicly shamed. She wouldn't care about herself, but she had cared enough for him to try to protect him.

Wishing that she had waited and told him about Elsie's threat, Peter was more glad than ever that he had joined up. He could never forgive Elsie for driving Lizann away, and if he'd still been coming home every weekend it would have meant endless fights between them.

His anger at her bubbling up again, he said, ‘God, I could kill you for what you did.'

‘Carry on,' she sneered, sure that he wouldn't. ‘It'll nae bring your darling Lizann back.'

Having to admit to himself that this at least was true, he remembered what had prompted him to embark on his interrogation in the first place. He still hadn't learned what he wanted to know, just enough to make his mind go round and round, but not in circles. It was on a spiral course, driving him inexorably towards a crucial point, a point he felt himself shying away from. Skirting round it, he muttered, ‘You told Hannah that on the night Jenny had her baby?'

Fighting against the discovery of her greatest crime, Elsie said, as plaintively as she could, ‘She was getting right up my back wi' what she was saying.'

‘When you were putting her to bed?'

‘And her fighting against me all the time.'

‘She died that same night?'

There was something in the way he was looking at her that told Elsie she was on treacherous ground, so she blustered, ‘She was sleeping when I left her.'

‘Was she?' He had started out with only a sliver of suspicion, but her fidgeting hands and the fear in her eyes made him certain that he wasn't far off the mark. ‘Are you trying to tell me she died from shock? Or did you do something to shut her up for good?'

Her pupils dilating, she shrank against the pillows without admitting anything … nor denying, and bile rose in his throat. How could he have married this poor excuse for a woman? He felt no anger, no pity, just a desperate need to get away from her. She had taken spite at him out on a grieving young widow, then on a defenceless old invalid. Furthermore, he was positive she had been the cause of Hannah's death, however she had done it, but nobody would believe him – and the one person he must never tell was Mick Jappy. If he knew what Elsie had done to his sister and his mother, he would kill her … and he'd be the one to swing from the end of the rope.

‘What are you going to do?' Elsie quavered, as he stepped back.

‘I should report you to the police,' he barked.

She flung out her arms in appeal. ‘You'll not tell them? Think about Pattie and Tommy and Norma.'

‘It's them I am thinking about,' he said, quietly. ‘I just hope your conscience never lets you rest. You've as good as murdered Hannah, and I feel like throttling you for what you did to Lizann, but I can't deprive the children of their mother.'

Her patent relief turned his stomach. ‘When I walk out of here, I'll never come back, though it'll break my heart not to see my sons again.'

Peter had expected her to become cocksure again at being let off the hook, and he was astonished when she said gently, ‘You're welcome to come and see them as often as you like. They'll want to see you.'

‘Norma doesn't really know me, and it won't take Pattie and Tommy long to forget me.'

‘So that's us finished, is it?' she asked, wistfully.

‘That's us finished, and it's all your own doing. It was your jealousy and spite that brought us to this. I'm leaving now, Elsie, and as Hannah herself might have said, may the good Lord have mercy on you.'

He turned towards the door, wondering where he would go at this time of night, but Elsie, said, ‘Wait, Peter. I know I've been a bad wife to you, and you could never think kindly of me after this, but please bide. This is your house, your home. Go and see your bairns and then tell me you can leave them for good.'

Knowing full well what the sight of his two sturdy sons and sweet wee daughter would do to him, he nevertheless tiptoed in to look at them, and the flushed angelic faces were enough to convince him that Elsie was right. He couldn't bear to leave them for ever.

When he went back to her, he said, ‘I give in, but before I come back I want you to buy some kind of folding bed I can put up in the kitchen. The parlour's always freezing, and the couch is too short. And from now on you'll be my wife in name only, and we'll have to keep up a pretence of being happy in front of the kids.'

‘Thank God for that. I didn't want folk to be laughing and saying my man had walked out on me.'

This proof that it was still only herself she was considering made him snap, ‘They'd say a lot worse than that if they knew what you'd done.' He hadn't meant to cast it up. He had committed himself to keeping her secret, and it was best never mentioned again. ‘You haven't said if you agree to my terms.'

‘Oh, aye. Anything you say, Peter.'

He went down to lie on the couch, knowing he would keep thinking about the dreadful crime he was sure she had committed, the crime he should have reported to the police, but without proof …?

What a bloody mess his life had turned out. With seeing so many ships blown up lately, he had become increasingly conscious of his own mortality. With no Lizann, there was nobody left to mourn if anything happened to him. He wondered if Elsie had learned a lesson tonight. Should he try to salvage something from his marriage? Not yet, though. What she'd done was too fresh in his mind. He'd be best to leave it till he was home for good. Maybe he would see things differently. All he had to do now was to get through the next two days peaceably.

Chapter Twenty-seven

Peter having left on the early morning train, Elsie spent the forenoon, unusually for her, wrestling with her conscience. He likely thought she would turn over a new leaf after being found out in her lies, but surely he wouldn't expect her to be faithful when he was away for so long at a time? She loved her three bairns, but they would drive her up the wall if she had no diversions to look forward to. Maybe she should ask Jenny how she coped when Mick was away.

‘Lonely already?' Jenny smiled, when she opened her door. ‘Me too.'

Setting Norma down beside wee Lizann on the mat, Elsie began, ‘Does Mick … does he make love to you every night when he's home?'

Jenny flushed. They had never talked about intimate matters, but she could see her answer was important to Elsie. ‘Yes, did Peter not …?'

‘Oh, aye,' Elsie prevaricated. ‘Do you not miss it when Mick's away?'

‘I miss him, but I wouldn't dream of taking another man, and neither should you.'

‘But if you think about Mick making love to you, do you not want …?'

‘You've gone far enough, Elsie. I've hated thinking you're unfaithful to Peter, for next to Mick he's the nicest man I know, but I can't stop you if that's what you want. Just don't tell me about it.'

‘Aye, you're right, Jenny. You see, Peter got me all fired up when he was home, but I'll not do anything. It wouldn't be fair to him.'

‘No, it wouldn't.'

Elsie kept Jenny's lecture in mind for only three days, then, unable to bear being parted from Paddy any longer, she decided to let him know the coast was clear by giving him the prearranged signal.

After settling her children in bed, she lit the fire in the parlour, then made herself ready for her lover, painting her face, splashing herself with the 4711 cologne he had given her for her birthday, and putting on a gossamer-thin nightdress. Her juices were boiling as she sat down to await his arrival and when he knocked she jumped up to let him in, flinging herself into his arms as soon as he was inside.

He grabbed her and steered her into the parlour, where the fire was burning up nicely. ‘I'm desperate,' he moaned. ‘I've been watching your window every night for two weeks.'

‘I was trying to be a good girl, but I can't.'

‘Thank God for that. The worse you are, the better I'll like it, and I can't wait a minute longer.' His mouth came down on hers now, draining away the tiny seed of guilt that she hadn't realized was there, and in a few seconds they sank naked on to the couch, so frantic with passion that Elsie forgot to close the curtains.

Lenny Fyfe had been in the Harbour Bar since the doors opened at half past five, and with quite a few whiskies and beers inside him by half past eight, his mind had turned to Elsie. She had told him to keep away, but he had to have her and he knew Peter had gone back off leave.

Going along Main Street he saw a light at her front window, and was surprised that the warden hadn't been round knocking on the door. Then it dawned on him that it was the flicker of a flame and, thinking that the house was on fire, he sprinted forward to save his paramour. When he came closer and saw that it was only the fire in the grate, he wondered who Elsie was entertaining; only honoured visitors were ever taken into parlours.

His mission aborted, Lenny decided to have a peep inside. If it was the minister he wouldn't stay long – she would be free in half an hour or so. He let out a horrified gasp when he saw that it wasn't the minister, and though his heart, and his desire, had sunk like a stone, he couldn't tear his eyes away from the nude bodies on the couch. The bitch! The bloody bitch! No wonder she had told him to stop coming to see her; she was having it off with another man!

Blind fury boiling up inside him, he edged the door open and tiptoed inside. He meant to wait until they finished the act before he made his presence known, but the ecstatic moans and animal grunts were too much for him. ‘You bloody whore!' he screamed.

Elsie's astonished face, blood-red with lust, turned towards him, but the man was beyond stopping. Giving one massive thrust, he shuddered for a few moments before he slid off her on to the floor. ‘What in the name of Jaysus is he doing here?' he demanded, scrambling to his feet with his hands over his genitals.