Towards a Dark Horizon (31 page)

Janie had to give this a bit of thought. ‘I think it’s the Victoria Road School, Ann – at least that’s what Ma says. She said if you were dead then Lily must have gone to live with her father and stepmother and that’s why she’s changed schools.’

She was desperate to get home, especially as neither of her parents were at the gate so I let her go. What did this new development mean? Oh, I knew it was a bit further to walk here from Margot’s flat but surely it wasn’t that much further.

I felt the old tiredness sweep over me and I wished there had been a seat to sit on. Instead I leaned against the wall and watched as the children disappeared in all directions. For a moment, my mind was a blank. I knew I had to do something but what? Then I made up my mind. I would enlist the help of my grandparents.

They were both at home when I arrived and I was suddenly overcome with a feeling of emotion as I stepped into the room. Grandad was in his chair with his pipe and paper and Granny was sitting chatting to Alice. They all looked pleased when I walked in.

I had too much to tell them but my first worry was Lily. Any other time, I would have probably waited until Alice had left but I was too tired and concerned to bother about her knowing the problem. ‘Granny, did you know that Lily has been taken out of Rosebank School and put into Victoria Road School?’

She went white and shook her head, her eyes suddenly fearful. ‘No, Ann, that’s the first I’ve heard of it.’

‘Well, she has. Margot hasn’t brought her to visit me for about a week now and I went down to the school this afternoon to see her. Janie, her pal, tells me that I was dead and her father and stepmother had put her into another school. What do you make of that?’

Granny was beside herself with anger. ‘Did your father or Margot not tell you this, Ann?’

‘No, they didn’t and I’m not pleased about it either. As far as I’m concerned they were only looking after her while I was ill but I think it’s time we had her back with us.’

Granny put on her coat. No matter how warm the weather was, she always wore her coat. ‘Come on – we’re going round to Victoria Road to sort this out.’

Alice got to her feet. ‘Just make sure you sort out both of them, Nan.’ It was obvious that she still hated Dad.

We both headed for the flat and, by the time we reached it, I was out of breath. When was I going to feel better?

Dad opened the door and I was shocked by his thin appearance. He had just finished work by the look of it and he was still in his dungarees. At first he didn’t seem keen to let us in but the gleam in Granny’s eye made him stand aside.

Lily was sitting quietly in a chair in the living room. There were no toys or crayons or colouring books lying around. Everything was pristine and neat. Today the jardinière held a mass of mixed flowers and leaves and I noticed there wasn’t a crease in the neat seat cushions.

Lily saw us and rushed over. She was crying. ‘I want to come home with you and Granny, Ann.’

Margot rose elegantly from the bed settee. Again leaving no wrinkles on its surface.

‘Well you can’t go home with them, Lily. We’re your legal guardians now, your father and I.’

Granny ignored her. ‘Do you like your new school, Lily?’

After a fresh bout of tears, Lily said, ‘No, I hate it. I’ve no pals there and I miss Janie and Gladys and Cathie. They were my best pals at Rosebank and I liked the teachers there as well.’

Margot pulled her away from Granny. ‘Sit over there and be quiet.’

Granny looked her straight in the eye. ‘We’re taking her away with us. You were only looking after her while Ann was ill.’ She looked at Lily. ‘Get your coat on, lass.’

Margot immediately burst into a spate of anger. ‘She’ll do no such thing. Johnny, please see your mother and sister out of my house.’

Dad looked ill but he did as he was told. ‘You had better leave now, Mum – after all, Lily is my responsibility and not Ann’s.’

We found ourselves on the doorstep with the sound of Lily’s howls following us to the foot of the close. I was beside myself with grief. ‘We have to get her away from that awful woman, Granny. What will we do?’

‘I know what I’d like to do but I would get the jail for it!’ she said, looking fierce. ‘Still, there’s nothing we can do, Ann, because she’s right. Lily is your father’s responsibility and, just because he never took it on before, it doesn’t mean he’s lost the right. You get all the bother of bringing her up then along comes madam and she takes over.’

As we headed for the Overgate, she said, ‘I’m beginning to think your father has bitten off more than he can chew with that woman.’

My mind was on the furtive meeting I had witnessed with Jean. I told Granny about it and it stopped her in mid stride. ‘It’s such a puzzle,’ I said. ‘Surely, if she’s secretly meeting Dad’s boss, you would think she wouldn’t want to be lumbered with a bairn, would she?’

Granny set her mouth in a grim line. ‘I think she’s got some scheme on the go but what it is, goodness only knows.’

Alice came in as soon as she heard our steps in the lobby. Her face fell when she saw no Lily. ‘What happened, Nan? Is the bairn not with you?’

‘The new Mrs Neill has got us over a barrel, Alice, and there’s nothing we can do.’

This upset me. ‘I’ve got to get her back, Granny. I made a solemn promise to her that she would aye be with me.’

Alice voiced the same suspicions as me. ‘But why does she want to hang on to a bairn if it’s your father she wanted. You’d think she would be grateful not to have to bring her up.’ Her face was like stone as she spoke. She hadn’t forgotten that Dad had jilted Rosie.

What a mess, I thought.

‘If we’d known that then, it would have made all the difference in trying to her back,’ said Granny bitterly.

Grandad had been out when we arrived but he now appeared with a fresh pack of tobacco in his hand. He started to speak but stopped when he saw our faces. ‘What’s the matter? It’s not Lily is it?’

Granny nodded. ‘You know how Ann and I went down to see why Lily had changed schools?’

He nodded.

‘Well, Lily is fine but we’re trying to sort things out.’

If only we could I thought.

She told him the story and he was enraged. ‘That son of ours has dodged his responsibilities for years and now it seems a matter of utmost importance to him and that new wife of his to look after his bairn. I’m going over to sort him out and give him a piece of my mind.’

Dear grandad, I thought. Why, Margot would eat him for supper.

I thought of Lily sitting like a statue on that pristine chair with nothing to play with. And I remembered Dad’s thin, worried face. There was nothing I could do about him – he had made his bed and he now had to lie in it – but Lily was another matter.

Granny had a plan. ‘If we ask Rosie to go to that hotel as a customer maybe she could overhear them and we could confront her with the evidence.’

I had a mental picture of Rosie in her mismatched outfits sitting in that elegant lounge. Secretly spy on Margot? Why, she would stick out like a sore thumb.

‘That wouldn’t work, Granny.’

She asked why not.

With Alice sitting there I had to be tactful. ‘Well, Rosie has to work at the mill – she’s not one of the idle rich like Margot. It has to be someone who can pass herself off as a customer without looking suspicious.’

I thought of Jean. Would she be prepared to come into town maybe twice a week in the hope of spotting Margot and Mr Pringle? I would reimburse her, of course, for her expenses. Briefly, I felt like a criminal at the thought of secretly spying on someone but I then saw Lily’s small, sad figure and my heart hardened. My mind was made up and I wrote to Jean that night.

My initial euphoria at being back to work had evaporated with the crisis over Lily but I was pleased when Danny appeared at the shop at dinnertime.

‘Kathleen’s had a wee girl, Ann. I’m going out to see them tonight. Do you want to come with me?’

Because of my illness I had almost forgotten about Kathleen but I wanted to see her again – and the new baby. I arranged to meet Danny at the Lochee tram stop at eight o’clock.

It was a glorious evening with a golden sunset as we set off. Danny filled me in with the missing week from my life. ‘Kathleen and Sammy are living in a single room in Louis Square and she had the wee lass yesterday. I didn’t want to visit last night but it’ll be good to see them both.’

Lochee was bathed in a golden glow when we arrived. People were taking advantage of the lovely weather and they were standing around in groups, exchanging gossip. The sun shone like amber on a few fortunate windows but Kathleen’s window wasn’t so lucky. Her small flat lay at the end of a dark lobby. Once inside, the gloom was in sharp contrast to the golden sun outside and I had to adjust my eyes to the dimness. The room was tiny with a small black sink at the window and a fireplace with a small fire burning in it. This made the room feel warm and everything was clean and tidy.

Kathleen lay in the small box bed inset in the wall and she held her new daughter who was wrapped in a shawl. Kit and Maggie were sitting beside the bed. There was no sign of the new father, Sammy.

We moved over to look at the new addition to the Ryan clan. The baby was lovely. She yawned and gave us all an unfocussed look then made whimpering noises.

‘We’ve called her Kathleen but we’re going to call her Kitty,’ said the new mum.

Maggie fussed over her new granddaughter, adjusting the shawl around her tiny body.

Danny spoke to Kit. ‘Where’s Sammy? We would like to congratulate him as well.’

Before Kit could answer, Maggie swung around, her eyes blazing. ‘He’s out wetting the bairn’s head with his pals – damned wee besom that he is. Here’s his wife just over a long hard labour and what does he do? Goes around like he’s just had the bairn instead of his wife. Out celebrating the fact as well. Wait till I get my hands on him. I’ll give him a piece of my mind.’

The whimpering from Kitty became a wail.

Maggie said, ‘Are you needing a feed, wee lass? Are you hungry?’

Kathleen gave us a shy look and I realised she wasn’t wanting an audience while she fed the baby.

‘We’ll wait outside, Kathleen.’ I then steered Danny through the door.

We stood outside in the late evening sunshine. It was the time of night I liked best during the summer months when long slanting fingers of sunlight slowly faded into the deep indigo-tinged twilight.

I gazed with interest at the building. ‘Is this the house that Maggie mentioned? The one belonging to the old dressmaker?’

He laughed. ‘No it’s not and Maggie is very annoyed about it as well – the fact that the woman didn’t pop her clogs and leave her house behind. No, this is someone else who died. Another old body – a man in his sixties but he looked about eighty.’

No wonder, I thought – living in permanent gloom wouldn’t do anyone any good.

‘Luckily for Kathleen, Maggie was also chummy with the rent man for this building and she and Sammy had moved in to the empty flat a few weeks ago. I’ve heard that Maggie is still fuming that her original target is still alive and kicking and refusing to leave this world. In fact, I heard Maggie’s even stopped speaking to her!’

‘But if she’s got this house why is she bothering?’

‘Seemingly the other house has two rooms while this one just has the one room but she’s told Kathleen that as soon as the other tenant dies then her house will be theirs.’

What a world, I thought. Even the poorest people couldn’t die in peace without someone coveting their house.

Mainly to cheer myself up I asked, ‘When is the wedding, Danny?’

He looked gratefully at me. ‘It’s booked for September but Maddie will be speaking to you and Lily because she wants you both to be bridesmaids along with Joy.’

The mention of Lily brought a lump to my throat but I didn’t want to worry Danny now that he was so happy.

‘We’ve got your illness to thank for us being together again, Ann. I’ve been so stupid that I can hardly believe it now. Maddie didn’t bat an eye when I told her about my father’s death. Oh, she was sorry about the sad circumstances but she said it was our lives that mattered and not something that happened so long ago. It was just as you said it would be and it was a shame that you almost had to die before I realised it.’

All this talk of dying was getting me down so I changed the subject. ‘Will you be looking for somewhere to live, Danny, or will you be staying with Maddie’s parents?’

He shook his head. ‘No, we’re looking for a flat.’

Suddenly I shook with laughter and had to wipe the tears from my eyes. Danny looked puzzled.

‘Do you think that old woman will pass on in time for your wedding and that Maggie will get her house for you?’

We both laughed while I imagined Maddie being grateful to Maggie for being so chummy with the rent man.

Kit appeared and stood beside us. She gave me a concerned look. ‘We were all worried about you, Ann. George and I came to see you but you’ll not remember it because you were so ill.’

I felt terrible. How many visitors had I not seen during my long days of the fever?

Kit gave a sigh. ‘Still, it’s a blessing that you’re better now.’ She leaned wearily against the rusty railings that marched up the shabby stone steps. ‘Maggie is a good soul but she can be a wee bit wearing. Still, she’s been really good to Kathleen but we’re all fuming at Sammy. He’s hardly been in the house since the bairn arrived and, when he has put in an appearance, he’s been drunk.’

Danny was furious. ‘I’d better not meet him then, Kit, because I’ll give him a talking-to that he’ll not forget.’

Kit shook her head. ‘He’s not worth it, Danny. When I think of all the lads that fancied our Kathleen and she goes and ends up with Sammy Bloody Malloy, I could cry. But she wanted to marry him and she’s now got to live with the consequences.

‘How is Ma?’ I asked.

Kit smiled for the first time. ‘Och, she’s just the same as usual. Nothing seems to put her up or down. She watches and waits and she says everything comes in God’s own good time. Let’s hope He has something good up His sleeve for Kathleen – like Sammy becoming teetotal!’