Listening to the Quiet

by Listening to the Quiet (retail) (epub)

  Jo snapped her eyes shut, afraid to let Luke look into her eyes and read her thoughts. She recognised the truth behind her hunger for him was born out of more than a mutual enjoyment for love-making. She had never meant it to happen, and it scared her – she was in love with him. An aching sense of isolation overwhelmed her. She had prided herself on being in control of every aspect of her life but instead she had been naive, blind, foolish. To fall in love with such a restless spirit was going to cost her very dear. Luke had been honourable in pointing out the negative side of their involvement but to him this was just an affair. She should tell him to go, that it was over between them, and she would continue to do her best for Rex and Molly at the school. But she loved him and she couldn’t bring herself to desert tiny, needy Marylyn. Until she was forced to she could not make these sacrifices.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Luke hitched Lucky to his wagon at the back of the forge for the last time. When he came back to Parmarth from now on, he would stop at Cardhu.

  He became aware two men were watching him.

  ‘How’re things with you then, Luke?’ Keane Trevail asked with a false smile. His hands were stuck carelessly in his coat pockets but his watery eyes were sharp. His flat cap was pushed back from his brow.

  His face expressionless, Luke closed the canvas at the back of the wagon then moved forward and readjusted the straps of Lucky’s harness. ‘Fine, thanks, Keane. Couldn’t be better. How are you? And you, Lew?’

  ‘Aw, got nothing to grumble about,’ Keane said, attempting to swagger as in his younger days.

  Lew gave a curt nod. ‘Off on your travels again, I see. Where you doing business these days?’

  ‘Oh, all over. Anywhere between St Ives and Penzance. Around Mount’s Bay. Further afield.’ Luke smiled coldly. He knew why the Trevails were here. They had bragged in the pub they were going to warn him off Jo. ‘And Nance. I do a lot of business over at Nance.’

  Lew’s haughty sneer turned ugly. Springing towards Luke, finger pointing, he threatened, ‘That’s what we’re here for, Vigus. To tell you to keep away from Jo Venner and don’t have her in your house no more.’

  Luke casually folded his arms, but his fists were balled. ‘So you’ve finally worked up the courage to have your say, have you? It’s none of your business. Now bugger off the pair of you, before you say something that’ll make me really angry.’

  ‘She’s too good for the likes of you. People are talking about her. You’ll ruin her reputation. We’re not going until you swear to leave her alone,’ Keane thundered, the effort making him cough hoarsely, ‘or you’ll be bleddy sorry.’

  ‘No,’ Luke stated harshly. ‘If you set yourselves on me, it’s you who’ll be sorry. And what are you going to do anyway? An old invalid and his yellow-bellied son, who spends all his energy shagging anything in a skirt, including my whore of a mother. Have you forgotten, Lew, that you and Russell tried to turn me out of Parmarth when I first came here? Just because you didn’t like the cut of me? I beat the guts out of the both of you then. Now, if you two don’t want to make bigger fools of yourselves, get off home. And one more thing, leave Jo out of this.’

  Luke’s demeanour was so threatening, Lew threw an uncertain look at his father. He was not afraid of a fight, but Luke had a brutal way of grinding his fists into an opponent’s body, and he could be handy with the hunter’s knife he kept concealed about him. He could see it had been a stupid idea to confront Luke. Luke and Jo were both too headstrong to be chivvied away from anything they were set on. But Lew felt protective towards Jo. Everyone he had spoken to had agreed something should be done to distance her from this ne’er-do-well. Lew consoled himself that at least he and his father had made an attempt to shield Jo from any trouble.

  Keane scowled at his elder son, feeling let down. If Lew had had half the grit of Jo Venner, he would have laid Vigus out in the dust.

  To save face, he spat heavily on the cobbles. ‘We’ve said our piece. If you’ve got one decent bone in your body you’ll keep away from the maid. You’re no bleddy good and never will be, and you’ve got no right to risk ruining her life. Reckon you’ll be on your way for ever soon, and good riddance to you.’ He jerked his head at Lew, and they slunk away.

  Luke leapt up on the wagon, furious, indignant, hurt. He had no intention of ruining Jo’s career, her life. It would be wise on Jo’s part, however, to drop him. Perhaps, when he was back here, he’d find out she’d come to that decision. He hoped not. He’d never felt so close to a woman before. He’d never needed one before to approve of him, admire him. Be in love with him. This last time they’d been together, something had happened to draw them closer, bound in some special way. Sort of bottomless, spiritual.

  Closing his eyes he prayed in the way Gran had taught him. Please, God, make something happen to make it work.

  * * *

  One afternoon, after the children had been dismissed, Jo and Miss Teague sat opposite Marcus at his desk for the teachers’ weekly meeting. Jo had a pen poised over a notebook and was making regular jottings as they discussed the merits and misdemeanours of various pupils.

  Jo reported in disgust, ‘Arnold Jelbert pushed muddy stones down the back of Molly’s dress during playtime this afternoon. He never stops tormenting the poor girl.’

  ‘I shall take it into account tomorrow when I speak to Arnold on another matter. Please remember, Miss Venner, that he is not responsible for all the mischief in the school,’ Marcus said firmly. He had intimated before that he thought Joanna was getting somewhat overconcerned at Arnold’s continual high jinks.

  ‘It is bullying, Mr Lidgey,’ she emphasised, ‘and should not be tolerated.’

  ‘I am not powerless to deal with it,’ Marcus said rather curtly. Powerless only to break the cruel hold his mother had over him. He and Jo had been coolly polite in their communication over school affairs since his refusal to allow her to host parents’ meetings at Nance. ‘The school is the only place for such a consideration, and anyway, it would be a waste of time. The bi-annual meetings I trouble to take are very poorly attended.’

  ‘We’ll move on to the end-of-term Easter service,’ Marcus said, glancing at his wristwatch.

  ‘We always put a lot of effort into the school play, sports day and the celebrations for Empire Day,’ Miss Teague told Jo. ‘And we have a special Easter service, with a display of maypole dancing beforehand.’

  ‘Do the parents attend, Mr Lidgey?’ Jo enquired.

  ‘They are invited but few bother to turn up.’ He raised his dark eyes in a dismissive gesture she found greatly irritating. Not all the parents shared Jessie Vigus’s attitude to parenthood, she would like to point out. Yesterday, Mr Moore had turned up at the school asking about a music scholarship for Adam; the fact that Adam did not possess the talent if a scholarship could be procured for him was not the point. She watched as Marcus tapped his fountain pen on the desk, was sure she heard him sigh.

  Did he feel the children of Parmarth were not worth him keeping up his best efforts? To help her class with the art of conversation she had introduced a five-minute slot, twice a week, called ‘Discussion time’. Miss Teague had raised her eyebrows at this. On the first occasion, Jo had brought up the subject of farming, inviting the children to contribute. Most of them had looked blank at what was required of them, so used were they to being told what they should think. Then Ann Markham had talked about how hard her father worked on Boswella Farm. Once the others realised they could say what they liked, and on subjects they could bring up themselves, Jo had encouraged them to let their imaginations fly. She had even got some of the shyer children talking to the class.

  Marcus gave nothing away as he made his own notes. ‘Miss Venner, you will supervise the building of an Easter garden. All classes can make paintings on seasonal subjects. The school orchestra will be employed and the vicar will end the occasion with prayers.’ He gathered up his papers, putting them into his briefcase.

  Jo understo
od his eagerness to go home. At dinner time, Eleanor had suffered greatly with pain in her back and her breathing had seemed troubled.

  * * *

  Molly was slow at putting on her coat and woollen bonnet, and Arnold Jelbert, Adam Moore and two other boys waylaid her at the school gates.

  ‘Last out again,’ Arnold jeered. It had been raining all day and he kicked icy water from a puddle at her legs. Molly wailed and the boys giggled. ‘No one wants to walk home with you, Molly Vigus. You stink. You’ve got fleas.’

  ‘Leave me alone,’ Molly cried, ‘Rex will be waiting for me.’

  ‘No, he won’t,’ Arnold hissed. ‘We told him you’ve gone on to Mrs Wherry’s. He’s doing the errands Luke left him. You’re all alone with us, pissy-pants.’

  Molly backed away. ‘M-miss Venner and Mr Lidgey are inside. I’ll scream and you’ll be caned again.’

  ‘Get her before she gives us away,’ Arnold ordered his gang.

  A grubby hand was clapped over her mouth, her arms were pinned behind her back and the four boys dragged her down to the bottom of the boys’ playground. Molly was too scared to struggle. She went limp, eyes bulging with terror. She was brought to the slatted door of the coal house, a low building with a sloping roof, attached to the boys’ block of toilets.

  ‘We’re going to throw you in there, Miss Pissy-pants,’ Arnold sneered, ‘where no one can smell you, you filthy Pig.’

  Gibberish emitted from Molly’s throat. Urine trickled down her legs.

  ‘You beastly bitch!’ Arnold howled, yanking open the coal-house door. ‘You deserve to be eaten up by the coal-house bogeyman. He won’t leave a scrap of flesh on your bones. You’ll be nothing but a skeleton, Molly Vigus, rattling round in the darkness for ever and ever.’

  The boys threw Molly inside. ‘L-let me g-go,’ she pleaded, her arms outstretched as she tried desperately to get past them.

  ‘Get in there!’ Arnold roared, ripping the rabbit’s-foot pendant from her neck and pushing her down on the coal heap.

  The other three boys began to chorus, ‘Pissy-pants! Pissy-pants!’

  Molly was petrified, then Arnold ran at her and she found her legs and started scrabbling up the hill of coal. Slipping and sliding, her legs and hands were becoming scratched in her madness, and blackened blood trickled from the wounds.

  Arnold slammed the door on her.

  Jo was walking out of the teachers’ entrance with Miss Teague, putting up her umbrella, when they heard the anguished screaming. It sounded like a child in abject fear. The two teachers traded worried glances, then thrusting her things into Miss Teague’s hands, Jo ran in the direction of the screams.

  She saw Arnold Jelbert and his gang banging and kicking on the coal-house door, shouting obscenities to someone they had imprisoned inside. Then she recognised Molly’s terrified voice.

  ‘Get away from there at once, you little savages!’ Jo shrieked in shock and anger.

  The boys scattered. She wrenched open the door and saw Molly crouched pathetically on the coal heap. Even in the dark confines and the girl’s dirty state, Jo could see blood on Molly’s hands and knees. She must have been trying frantically to escape the suffocating blackness.

  Arnold and the three boys were about to slink off. Her feelings almost out of control, Jo grabbed Arnold’s shoulder and shook him. ‘How dare you hurt her like this, you little beast! I’ll see you’re punished more severely than you’ve ever been before.’

  For one terrible moment she had the urge to slap the boy’s smirking face. He was staring insolently at her, then her expression must have changed because he paled and began to tremble. She snatched Molly’s pendant out of his hand. ‘You’re the most despicable child I have ever come across and you are a thief.’

  ‘Let him go, Miss Venner,’ Adam whimpered at her. ‘We didn’t mean her no harm.’

  Before Jo could answer, her fingers were prised off Arnold’s shoulder. Marcus pulled her away from the culprit. ‘I’ll deal with this, Miss Venner,’ he said, stilling her protests with a look that had warning in it. ‘You boys go home at once and tell your parents what you have done. I want you all in school early tomorrow morning. Miss Teague, escort them off the school grounds, please.’

  Jo had not wasted any time. She was scrambling over the coal towards Molly. The little girl was sobbing pitiably. ‘It’s all right, Molly, dear. I’m coming for you. I’ll take you home.’

  Lifting Molly into her arms, she made the precarious journey back down the coal heap. Pieces of coal fell into her boots, ripped her stockings and savaged her feet.

  Her eyes still ablaze with fury, she faced Marcus in the rain with Molly clasped against her.

  ‘Give her to me,’ he said.

  She ignored his outstretched arms. She knew he was displeased with her reaction to Arnold’s bullying. ‘There’s no point in us both getting dirty,’ she said, scowling.

  ‘Do as I say,’ he ordered. ‘She may need a doctor and there’s a telephone in the schoolhouse.’

  ‘She’s my responsibility.’ Molly was clinging to her and it would only add to her fears if she relinquished her. Jo desperately needed to take off her boots and tip out the coal hurting her feet. The rain was sending black rivulets of coal dust down over Molly’s stricken face and Jo’s hands and raincoat.

  ‘Joanna, be sensible. You may be closely connected to the family but on these premises Molly is my responsibility. The Vigus house, I’m told, hasn’t even got a proper kitchen sink in it and both you and Molly need attention.’

  Miss Teague returned. ‘Go to the schoolhouse, inform Sally Allett what’s happened and instruct her to prepare the necessary ministrations for Molly and Miss Venner, please, Miss Teague,’ Marcus said.

  Miss Teague trotted off dutifully again.

  ‘You can’t carry Molly with your feet in agony,’ Marcus said. His eyes had not left Jo’s face, but he was aware of her resting first on one foot then the other.

  Jo could not argue. In addition to nearly weeping over poor Molly’s plight, she was fighting back tears of pain as the coal rubbed her raw flesh. With the greatest reluctance she made to hand Molly over to him.

  When Marcus tried to receive her, Molly shrieked and put a stranglehold on Jo.

  ‘It isn’t going to work,’ Jo cried, trying to loosen Molly’s grip so she could breathe properly.

  ‘Calm yourself, Joanna. Lean on me for support and I’ll see to your boots.’

  Lowering himself, he put an arm round Jo’s waist. She rested against his shoulder, and he lifted each of her feet in turn, unlaced and took off her boots and tipped the coal out of them. The cold, wet, coal-dusty ground was less painful to her flesh as he put her feet down.

  ‘There’s too much grit inside your boots to enable you to walk in them,’ he said, straightening up and keeping his arm round her. ‘I’ll carry you both.’

  ‘But—’

  He ignored her protest. Jo hoped no one saw them as he lifted her and Molly up into his arms, strode through the playground and took them round to the back of the schoolhouse.

  Sally had the back-kitchen door open and ushered them into the kitchen. Beth was hovering, ready to be given orders. Marcus placed his light, double burden down carefully on to a chair which had been placed beside the table. Bowls of steaming water, towels and rags were waiting.

  ‘Miss Teague,’ Marcus said, ‘would you mind making two more little journeys, please? To fetch the pair of shoes Miss Venner keeps in the school, then to go to Molly’s home and fetch clean clothes for her.’

  ‘Of course, Mr Lidgey,’ and she hurried away again.

  ‘I’ll leave you in Sally’s capable hands, Miss Venner,’ he said, and Jo looked up from lifting dirty hair away from Molly’s face to see his caring expression. It was how he looked at Eleanor, or was it? ‘Before you leave I would like to see you in my study.’ He asked Sally about Mrs Lidgey and was informed she was sleeping in her room, then he left the kitchen.

  ‘Poor l
ittle mite,’ Sally said as she knelt and undid the buttons of Molly’s cardigan. ‘Arnold Jelbert wants a good belting.’ Now the headmaster had gone, Molly became more pliable and allowed Sally to ease her off Jo’s lap.

  It was a great relief to have the clinging child’s weight removed from her. Jo looked with dismay at her raincoat. ‘It’s ruined,’ she sobbed angrily, wresting herself out of the garment.

  ‘Here, Beth,’ Sally said, ‘you finish with Molly. She knows you better than me. Then give her an iced bun from the larder. Miss Venner needs my help.’

  Molly stopped crying and went meekly to the quiet girl she trusted. Her eyes looked enormous and pathetic in her blackened face. Jo’s heart lurched at the sight.

  ‘Why are children so cruel?’ she sighed as Sally helped her to remove her stockings. Jo flinched as the wounds on her feet stung in a bowl of warm water.

  ‘We’re all born with spite and malice inside us,’ Sally said. Standing behind Jo, she pulled off her hat and tidied her hair.

  ‘Her clothes won’t be no good any more,’ Beth said, holding the girl’s ripped, coal-marked and urine-stained bundle at arm’s length. ‘What shall I do with them?’

  ‘Burn them,’ Jo instructed. ‘Thankfully they aren’t her best clothes and she’s got other things to wear.’

  When Molly was washed and wrapped in towels, her cuts and grazes bathed and dabbed with iodine, and Jo’s feet were attended to, Miss Teague, flushed and excited, came back with the results of her errands. ‘I had to fetch Rex from Mrs Wherry’s to get the clothes. I couldn’t make their mother understand why I was there. He was about to come looking for Molly. I’ve brought you my summer coat to borrow for your journey home, Miss Venner.’

  ‘Thank you, Miss Teague. I’ll return your coat tomorrow.’ Jo was grateful the incident was coming to an end.