The Pearl Locket (25 page)

‘No, I’m all right today, and I can go on. Actually I think it’s helping me, bringing it all out into the open at last. I’ve never spoken of this day before, you know. Only to Roy, and he was sworn to secrecy.’

‘Yes, that’s one thing I’ve been meaning to ask. Why was Joan kept such a secret?’

Gran sighed. ‘Father was so ashamed. There was a stigma attached to suicide in those days, you see. People thought it was a cowardly and selfish thing to do. And especially on that day, when the rest of the country was celebrating the end of the war. All those young men, her Jack included, had fought to keep Britain free and to build a future for everyone at home. Then Joanie went and threw her future away. It seemed so very ungrateful. Even I felt that way. I tried to understand why she’d felt the need to do it, but my word, it was very hard to come to terms with it. That should have been such a joyful, happy day. But it ended up being the most terrible day of my life. Of all our lives. So Father covered it up. He told the neighbours who saw the ambulance that night that Joan had taken ill. Then he said she’d gone away again, to live in the country with Aunt Doris. Then he just stopped speaking about her, ever, to anyone. Mother followed suit, of course. And Betty. Whatever Father said was right with Betty.’

She shook her head. ‘I argued with him about it. I said we should remember her, talk about her, be proud of who she had been before tragedy struck. We had some terrible fights. But he wouldn’t budge an inch. I couldn’t wait to leave home, get away from him. Thank goodness I met Roy. He was the only person I could talk to about Joanie. But he had never known her, of course, and although he’d listen for as long as I wanted to talk about her, it wasn’t the same. Eventually I stopped even mentioning her.’

‘Was this why you didn’t get on with Betty?’ Ali asked.

‘It was certainly part of the reason. Every time I saw Betty I was reminded of our other sister. But if I tried to mention her name Betty just turned her face away and started talking of something else. She wouldn’t have Joanie’s name mentioned at all. Once or twice, after Father and Mother died and I’d married, I visited her in the old house, your house now, I should say, and felt as though Joanie was still there somehow. As though her presence remained. I tried to tell Betty about it, but she laughed and said I was being too fanciful and, as usual, changed the subject.’

Kelly glanced meaningfully at Ali, then looked back at the old lady. ‘Yes, I’ve always felt she was still there, too. It’s why I started dressing like her, and wanting to find out what happened. Sometimes the feeling has been so strong I felt as though I was going mad.’

Ali put a hand on Kelly’s shoulder. It was all making sense now. This explained Gran’s reluctance for them to move into the house when Betty left it to them. Ali asked her about it.

‘Yes, that was why I wasn’t comfortable about your move. But then I told myself if there was a ghost, it was only my dear little sister Joanie, and she wouldn’t harm anyone.’

‘It’s so sad, isn’t it?’ Kelly said. ‘No wonder she couldn’t rest in peace if her own family refused to mention her after her death. Not you, Great-gran. The others. That’s so awful of them.’

Gran nodded. ‘She lived on in my memory, but because I wasn’t able to talk to people who knew her, my memories faded. Father had her remains cremated, and her ashes scattered. So there wasn’t even anywhere I could go, to be with her and remember her. Until you found those photos, and Kelly here turned up wearing those old-fashioned frocks and Joan’s locket, I’d almost forgotten what she looked like.’

‘So,’ Ali said, ‘now we know the full story. We know what happened to both Joan and Jack. Is that enough now, Kelly? Do you think you can move on, and forget about them now?’

Kelly fingered the locket thoughtfully. ‘Well, there’s just one more thing we don’t know. Where Jack’s body ended up. Can’t we find out? There’s a website, I think, which tells you where soldiers were buried. When we get home, can’t we research him? If we could find his grave, we could pay him a visit and maybe…’

‘Maybe?’

‘Maybe Joan, or Joan’s ghost I mean, would come with us, and stay there with him, and leave us alone.’

Kelly muttered this last part, looking down at her hands. Ali glanced at Gran but she seemed not to have heard. She was staring into the middle distance, presumably lost in her memories of Joan.

‘It’s an idea,’ Ali said. ‘If it’ll help lay her to rest, in your mind, we should certainly give it a go.’

‘Give what a go, Alison, dear?’ asked Gran.

Ali smiled at her. ‘We’re going to try to find out where Jack was buried. It’ll be in France somewhere, I suppose. Then we’re going to pay him a visit. You can come too, if you’re well enough and if you’d like to.’

‘I’ve never been to France,’ Gran said, her eyes shining.

Chapter Twenty-Three

November 2014

It was a fine, bright day. Ali was pleased to see the sun shining—they had a long drive ahead of them. The car was full—it was a good job they had a seven-seater. Pete drove; Ali was navigating. Gran had insisted she was well enough for the trip. Kelly was there, of course, and Ryan couldn’t be left alone overnight. Finally, Ali had asked Jason if he’d like to come. Jack was, of course, his grandfather. Ali had told them all they were off to visit Jack’s grave.

Ali had booked rooms in a cheap hotel for that night. It was too far to go there and back in a day. She felt nervous about the day—who knew how it would go? There would be surprises all round. Only she, Pete and Jason knew exactly where they were going. Kelly had left Ali to research where Jack had ended up. She had planned to tell Gran and the kids while they were driving. And hopefully, this trip would help Kelly move on from her obsession with Joan and Jack and the war years. Ali wanted her twenty-first century teenager back.

It had been strange introducing Jason to Gran, when they collected her from the care home early that morning. She had taken a while to fully comprehend who he was.

‘My great-nephew? But Betty didn’t have any children, so how can he be my great-nephew?’ she’d said.

‘No, but Joanie had a child, remember? She had a daughter who was adopted. And Jason is that child’s son. Joanie’s grandson,’ Ali had explained.

Jason had stepped forward and kissed Gran’s cheek. ‘May I call you Aunty Margaret? You’re far too young-looking for me to think of you as a great-aunt.’

‘Ooh, you’re a charmer, aren’t you?’ she’d smiled, enjoying the flattery. Pete had looked vaguely put out. Charming Gran was usually his job.

‘It’s lovely to meet you. I wish my mum could have known you. She would have loved you.’

‘She knew Betty, didn’t she?’ Gran had asked.

‘That’s right. She lived next door to her for a few years. Did a lot of her shopping for her. She tried to talk to Betty about her sisters, but although Betty would talk about you she wouldn’t ever admit to having had another sister.’

‘Your mother should have come and met me,’ Gran had said. ‘I wonder why she didn’t.’

Jason had looked embarrassed. ‘I believe Betty told her you weren’t up to having visitors. I think she made it sound as though you were, well, not quite with it, any more.’

‘Demented? Oh, that was just like Betty. She was probably afraid I might say something about Joan, if I knew who your mother really was. Ah well. Betty’s gone now. A shame your mother’s gone too, but at least you and I can get to know each other.’ Gran had smiled at him, and taken hold of his arm to be helped into the car.

Well, Ali had thought, at least that reunion had gone well. But there was another one still to come.

‘So, Alison, would you like to share with us exactly where we are going?’ asked Gran, once the journey was underway and they were on to the motorway. ‘I assume we’re taking the ferry. How exciting! I’ve never been to France.’

Ali twisted round from her seat at the front so she could see everyone. ‘Right, yes, I’ll tell you all exactly where we are headed, now. As you all know, I’ve been researching what happened to Jack McBride. It took me a while, but eventually I found him.’

‘You mean, you found where he was buried?’ said Kelly. Her eyes were shining.

‘That poor lad,’ said Gran. ‘He was only eighteen.’

‘No, we’re not going to visit his grave,’ Ali said. This was it. Time to tell them the truth. She reached back and took Gran’s hand. ‘We’re not going to France at all. Sorry, Gran. When I said I found him, I mean I found
him
, the man, not his grave. He didn’t die in the war. He was reported missing presumed dead, but was actually taken prisoner by the Germans. He found his way home after the war ended. Poor Joan was gone by then, but Jack lived on. He’s still alive now.’

‘Oh my word!’ gasped Gran, putting a hand to her mouth. ‘Still alive, after all these years! But to think, if only Joan had known he’d survived, she wouldn’t have… Oh my poor Joanie, my little sister, she could still have been here today, with her beloved Jack… Oh how different things would have been!’ She gulped back a sob.

‘I know. It’s the most horrible tragedy. Please Gran, don’t think too much on what might have been. It’s too upsetting.’ Ali passed her a tissue to dab at her eyes.

‘Jack’s alive? Wow! That’s weird, like, all this time he’s been like a kind of ghostly presence in my mind, same as Joan, but actually he’s alive?’ Kelly was shaking her head in disbelief, fingering the pearl locket, which was around her neck, as always.

‘Cool,’ Ryan said, craning his head from the back row of seats. ‘He must be ancient.’

‘He’ll be younger than I am,’ Gran said, with a sniff.

‘Does he know we’re coming?’ Kelly asked.

Ali bit her lip before answering. ‘Sort of. He knows we, that is, the Bradshaws, are coming. I also told him we’d bring Gran if she was well enough, which thankfully she is.’

‘Of course I am. I wouldn’t have missed this for anything.’ Gran folded her arms and leaned back in her seat. ‘Especially as it’s turned out he’s alive.’

‘What he doesn’t know about is me,’ Jason said, quietly.

Jack’s house was a bungalow in a housing estate on the edge of a small Midlands town. Jack had given Ali directions when she’d phoned him, but the satnav led them straight to his house with no problems. So he still managed on his own, at the age of eighty-eight, Ali thought. Well done to him. The front garden looked neatly tended, with pruned rose bushes and winter jasmine bordering a well-kept lawn.

Everyone piled out of the car, Ryan exiting via the hatch back, tugging Gran’s walking frame after him. ‘That thing’s been poking me in the eye all journey,’ he said. ‘Don’t they do fold-up ones or something?’

‘No, they don’t,’ Pete replied, taking it from him and helping Gran out. ‘There you are, Mrs E. Your chariot awaits.’ She smiled gratefully at him, but Ali noticed her hands shaking a little more than usual as she grasped its handles.

‘I’m strangely nervous,’ Jason said to Ali quietly, as the party approached the front door.

She put her arm around his shoulders and gave him a squeeze. ‘I’m not surprised. You’re meeting your grandfather for the first time. He doesn’t know you exist. It is a strange situation indeed.’

‘Don’t tell him immediately, will you? Let’s play it by ear. I mean, if he’s a bit, you know, past it, it might be better not to say anything.’

‘I won’t. You’re in charge. You tell him if or when you feel the moment is right.’ She smiled reassuringly at him. He wasn’t the only one feeling nervous. Kelly looked a bit shaky as well. Only Pete seemed unaffected.

Ryan looked vaguely bored. ‘Anyone going to ring the doorbell?’ he asked. ‘Or shall I?’ Without waiting for an answer he pressed it.

Ali held her breath for what seemed like an age before she heard the sound of a security chain being removed. Gran grasped her hand as the door opened.

‘You must be Alison Bradshaw?’ said a tall, slim, white-haired man. ‘And, I can hardly believe it, Margaret Perkins?’

‘Margaret Eliot now. But yes, that’s me.’ Gran smiled as Jack stepped forward and clasped her in his arms. ‘Steady now, you’ll knock me over!’

‘I’m so sorry. But to think, here you are, after all this time! Come in, come in. We have such a lot of catching up to do. Alison, it was such a wonderful surprise when you telephoned me. I still can’t quite believe it.’

He ushered them all into a small but tidy sitting room. There was evidence of a female touch—floral cushion covers, ceramic dancer ornaments, a bookcase containing two whole shelves of Mills & Boon novels. Ali wondered if there was a Mrs McBride. Perhaps even now she was hiding in the kitchen, too scared to come out and be confronted by her husband’s long distant past. Jason’s revelation would be even more difficult in that case.

‘You must be Alison’s daughter?’ Jack asked Kelly. He was staring at her oddly.

‘Yes, my name’s Kelly. I’m so pleased to meet you.’ Kelly impulsively kissed him on the cheek.

Ali watched as Jack put his hand to his cheek as if in a trance, then shook his head. ‘It’s funny. It’s so long ago but I can still bring her face to mind. You look very like her, you know. Same blonde hair and hazel eyes.’

‘Doesn’t she?’ exclaimed Gran. ‘I always thought so. My parents and Betty never let me mention her after…well, after what happened.’ She turned to Ali. ‘Does he know what happened to her? Oh my word, does he know?’

Jack put a gentle hand on Gran’s shoulder. ‘It’s all right. I know what happened to Joan. Sit down, please, all of you, gentlemen too—I am guessing the young fellow is Alison’s son and you, sir, are her husband?’ He indicated Pete who nodded and shook his hand. He looked then at Jason. ‘Alison’s brother, perhaps?’

‘Not quite. Her cousin, Jason Bergmann. Good to meet you, Mr McBride.’

‘Call me Jack, please. Right then, I shall make some tea for us all and then we can tell our respective stories.’

Ali leapt up to help him make the tea. There was no Mrs McBride cowering in the kitchen, she was glad to find. But a framed photo above the small kitchen table showed a smiling Jack arm in arm with a petite grey-haired lady, golden wedding balloons floating over them. ‘Your wife?’ she asked.