The Girl with the Creel (50 page)

Judging by the woman's grave expression, Jenny guessed that Elsie was not expected to live, and she was turning away when the sister said, ‘We know from letters she had that her husband is in the Navy, but is there anyone else we should notify?'

‘Her mother and father live in North Pringle Street in Buckie. I don't know the number, but their name's Slater.'

‘The police'll trace them from that, I'm sure. I'll tell the almoner.'

She hurried away and Jenny went into the ward, but when she saw the white, still figure on the bed she thought she was too late. As she stood uncertainly, a young nurse came over to her. ‘Mrs Jappy? Let her know you're here, but don't stay longer than a few minutes.'

The girl went to attend to another patient and Jenny leaned forward. ‘Elsie, can you hear me? It's Jenny Jappy.'

The eyes opened. ‘Jenny?' It was very faint, the lips scarcely moving. ‘My bairns … wi' my mother … be all right … have to tell you …'

The fidgeting fingers told Jenny that she was about to learn something she wouldn't want to hear, but she bent her head to listen.

‘I … made … Lizann … run away.'

Jenny was shocked, but the tic flickering at the pain-filled eyes made her murmur, ‘It's all right, Elsie.'

The voice became a fraction stronger. ‘I said … I'd tell … she was … carrying on … with Peter.'

Knowing that this was not true, Jenny couldn't help gasping. She had thought she was the cause of Lizann leaving, but what Elsie had said to her was far worse.

The hoarse, low voice started again. ‘I … told Hannah … at the time.'

Another piece of the jigsaw slotted into place in Jenny's mind. It had been Elsie who made Hannah change so suddenly for the worse, and that was why the old woman had shouted, ‘It was her!' when the baby was being born. She had always been puzzled about that. Sick at heart, she could only say, ‘It's all right, Elsie. I won't tell anybody.'

But Elsie wasn't finished yet. ‘There's more.' Her hands fluttered frantically now. ‘The day … your Lizann was born …'

Her voice tailed away, and Jenny waited anxiously, afraid that Elsie would die before confessing the rest. After about ten seconds, however, she seemed to dredge up enough strength to carry on. ‘I couldn't stand … any more …'

Her eyes fixed on Jenny, she hesitated then whispered, ‘A pillow … over her … face.'

Aghast, Jenny couldn't think what to say. How could she give comfort to this woman, this murderer, when she wished with all her heart that she was dead. She had known Elsie wasn't to be trusted, but she had never dreamt that she was so evil.

‘Jenny?'

‘Yes?'

‘Sorry.' It was the merest breath, and in the next instant there was no movement, no life.

In a panic now, ashamed at what she had been thinking, Jenny looked around for the nurse, who came hurrying over. ‘I think she's …' Jenny murmured.

The girl went to the bed and felt for a pulse. Then she looked up and shook her head. ‘Yes, I'm afraid she's gone.'

With the nurse eyeing her in pity for losing her friend, Jenny went out to the corridor and sat down heavily on a chair. She shouldn't have come. She should have let Elsie go to her grave with everything on her conscience … but she hadn't known what she was going to hear. She had imagined it would be something more about being unfaithful to Peter, which would have been bad enough, but this? She daren't tell Mick. It would be enough to send him clean off his head. She couldn't even tell Peter, for he'd been as upset as any of them when Lizann left, and she couldn't hurt him even more by telling him that his wife had murdered Hannah. In any case, neither of them could do a thing about it now. Nobody could.

‘Did Mrs Tait die?'

The voice startled her. She hadn't noticed the policeman waiting to take her home. ‘Yes.'

Gathering that she didn't want to talk about it, he said, ‘I'm sorry,' but asked nothing more. Nor did he say anything on the drive back to the Yardie, but as Jenny got out of the car, he said, ‘Are you sure you're all right? You look a bit shaky. Do you want me to come in with you?'

‘No thanks, I'm fine.'

She let herself into the house, and put on the kettle, hoping that a cup of tea would help her to pull herself together. She couldn't drag her mind away from what she had learned, however, and eventually came to the conclusion that she would have to face up to being burdened with Elsie's secret for the rest of her life.

Life on board a corvette in the Mediterranean was even more hectic than in the Atlantic; the whole German Navy seemed to be concentrated here. The crew of the
Hercules
had had very little sleep for weeks. Several battleships had been sunk, and morale was beginning to slip. Being stuck in the engine room, Mick hadn't seen Peter for some days, so when he came on deck one night for a breath of air and saw his friend leaning over the rail, he went across to him. ‘How long'll this calm last?'

‘God knows,' Peter muttered, ‘but it's bloody welcome. I've lost count of the times I thought we were goners.'

‘Aye, it's been hairy.' Mick hesitated for a moment, his eyes on the water below. ‘Peter, it's maybe bad luck to say this, but if … anything happens to me, will you make sure Jenny's all right?'

‘Nothing's going to happen to you, man.'

‘If it does … do you promise?'

‘Of course I promise.'

Mick had expected to be asked to look after Elsie, but after a short pause Peter said, ‘Will you promise me something, and all? If Lizann turns up again, will you tell her … I've never stopped loving her?'

‘But … you said you might try to make a go of it with Elsie.'

‘I thought about it, but there's no way I …' Peter sighed. ‘Lizann's worth a hundred of Elsie's kind. It was Lizann's face I kept seeing every time I thought we'd had it, and I know I'll be thinking of her when I die … in the war, or from old age. I'll never forget her …'

The shrill hooting of the alarms blocked out his last words, but as they moved to man their action posts, he shouted, ‘Promise me, Mick?'

‘I promise.' Reaching the hatch, Mick yelled, ‘Fingers crossed we come through this,' before he swung himself round to go down to the engine room again.

Rumours were flying fast in Buckpool, each person's speculation being added to when it was passed on, and by the time Jenny heard them she wondered how much was true. One version was that Elsie had gone to Elgin to meet an airman from Lossiemouth and he'd pushed her into the street because she'd been flirting with somebody else. Another was that she'd been running away with a Seaforth Highlander who had shoved her out of his lorry when she told him she was married with three children.

Jenny wished now that she had been more sympathetic towards Elsie when she came to the Yardie that last time. Maybe, when she told Lenny she was expecting, he'd denied it was his; with him turning his back on her as well as the woman she'd thought was her friend, would that have made her desperate enough to kill herself? Jenny couldn't believe that. Elsie was a survivor. She would have found a way out. Besides, she hadn't needed to go to Elgin to throw herself under a truck; there was a never-ending stream of trucks, lorries and buses whizzing along Main Street every day. She had led a reckless life and done some awful things, but whatever she had done didn't warrant a death like that. It would likely come out that she'd been pregnant, and with Peter having been away for so long, folk would know it wasn't his. When he came home he'd be a laughing-stock, and poor soul, he didn't deserve that on top of everything else.

Jenny was surprised when Elsie's mother came to her door in a terrible state. Mrs Slater introduced herself, then said tearfully, ‘She used to say she was great chums with you, so do you know what was going on? She asked me to keep the bairns till she went to Aberdeen, but it was Elgin she was in.'

‘I don't know anything.' Jenny wished she hadn't been dragged into it. ‘We'd words, you see, and I never saw her again, except at the hospital for a wee while.'

‘Aye, they told us she'd asked for you. Did she not say anything?'

Hating herself for having to lie, Jenny said, ‘She wanted to make it up with me, that's all.'

‘Did you know she was expecting?'

Feeling a guilty blush creep up her neck, Jenny could not deny this. ‘That's why we'd the row.'

‘Did she tell you who the father was?'

Crossing her fingers at this second falsehood, Jenny muttered, ‘No.'

Mrs Slater wiped her eyes. ‘I suppose I'll never know, and what does it matter now? You know, Jenny – you don't mind if I call you Jenny? – she's aye been a handful, and I thought I'd be landed looking after …' She stopped to wipe her eyes again. ‘Thank God the three she had were legitimate, the poor wee mites, and maybe they're better with me, though I never thought I'd be looking after bairns again at my age. But me and Chae'll see they want for nothing.'

Lizann had not seen much of Dan lately, the weather had been so cold and stormy. It would have been no pleasure to wade ankle-deep in snow, no matter how much she looked forward to talking to him. Anyway, Meggie hadn't ventured out, either, and he didn't want her to know. Not that she could find any fault with what they did, Lizann thought, for it was all very innocent.

On the first dry night in March, Meggie having taken the chance to go to Wester Duncairn, Lizann decided that she may as well go out too. It wouldn't matter if Dan didn't come, it would be good just to get out in the fresh air again. She went upstairs for her coat, and when she went down he was in the hall putting on his.

‘I thought you'd be going out tonight,' he grinned.

They had to keep walking smartly – it was too cold to have a seat on a fallen tree as they had done in the Indian summer of September and early October. Lizann was happy listening to Dan's deep voice telling her that he was thinking of buying a tractor, and what a help it would be during the ploughing, planting and sowing.

They went as far as their usual turning place and were coming back on the other side of the burn when he said, ‘I hope you're still getting along all right with Meggie?'

‘We're not exactly chums, but we get on fine.'

‘I know she can be a bit difficult, but she's been … well, practically mistress of the house since my mother died. She still treats me like a wee laddie sometimes.'

Without stopping to think, she said, ‘Have you never thought of taking a wife?'

He was so long in answering that she realized how forward she'd been and was about to apologize when he gave a soft, humourless laugh. ‘Yes, I have thought about it, but I know the lady won't have me if I ask.'

‘But you …' she stopped, because her tongue had almost run away with her again. ‘I'm sorry, it's none of my business.'

‘We're friends aren't we?'

‘You've been a very good friend to me, Dan,' she said, earnestly. ‘I'd never have got through the two funerals if it hadn't been for you, nor been able to pay the doctor and the undertakers. And you sent all Adam's things to a roup and gave me what they sold for when it wasn't mine to take.'

‘It wasn't much, and I know he would have wanted you to have it. Now, tell me what you were going to say a minute ago.'

‘You said your lady friend wouldn't have you if you asked, but how do you know? You should try … she might say yes.'

There was another pause before he said, ‘I'll consider it.'

‘Don't take too long, then. She could meet somebody else.'

Dan came to a halt when they crossed the wooden bridge, and neither of them noticed the dark figure dodging out of sight behind a tree. ‘Here we are again.' He gave a long sigh, as if reluctant to leave her. ‘I'll say goodnight here, my dear, sweet Lizann.' He bent his head and kissed her cheek before striding away in the direction of the byre.

Astonished by the kiss and the endearment, she didn't move for a few moments, then, telling herself that they had been a thank you for the advice she had given him, she walked on into the house, still unaware of the watcher who had seen and heard both.

When the kitchen door closed behind the girl, Meggie came out of her hiding place, her face darkened by an almost apoplectic rage. If she hadn't had a sore head and come back early, she'd never have found out what was going on. ‘My dear, sweet Lizann,' the master had said, and it hadn't needed the kiss to prove something was brewing – had been brewing for a good while, by the look of it. And it was all that young madam's doing, for Dan Fordyce wouldn't have done that if she hadn't encouraged him. But if she thought she could trap him into making her mistress of Easter Duncairn, she had another think coming. Meggie Thow wasn't going to stand by and wait till her job was taken out of her hands. She would watch the little monkey like a hawk now, and make her life such a misery she'd be glad to pack her bag and leave.

Lizann could not understand why Meggie had changed towards her. She had done nothing wrong, as far as she knew, yet the housekeeper was picking on her for the least little thing, and she was getting so nervous that she was dropping dishes and breaking them, which brought more trouble down on her head. Besides that, she was made to work on until sometimes eleven o'clock at night, tasks which she used to do only occasionally but had to do almost daily now. This meant that she couldn't go out in the evenings, not even on Thursdays, because the housekeeper always left her long lists of things to do.

After being cooped up inside for some weeks, and in a state bordering on nervous exhaustion, Lizann decided to take a risk one night when Meggie left to visit her friend. She had to get out, if only for ten minutes to shift her pounding headache, then she'd feel more able to do her chores.