by Rosie Clarke
Fay shot a shame-faced look at Freddie, then burst out: ‘It was her, Mum – Gillian. She said Freddie pushed me, but I know he didn’t.’
‘Is that true?’ Peggy asked, looking from one twin to the other. Both of them nodded in agreement. ‘Right, well, we’ll see what she has to say for herself—’
‘I don’t like her. Whenever we see her, she looks at us in a funny way… as if she hates us,’ Freddie confessed. ‘I know you’re being kind to her, Mum, and I know she’s been badly treated, because Dad told me – but I wish she didn’t live here.’
‘Oh Freddie,’ Peggy said. ‘I’m sorry that she accused you unjustly, but she doesn’t know you or the way you two are. I shall speak to her and she won’t stay here forever, but she’s still not fully recovered and she has nowhere else to go. Until she is strong enough to face the world, I don’t feel able to turn her out.’
‘It’s all right, Mum,’ Freddie said and smiled in the way that made her heart leap with joy. He was such a special boy! So loving and kind – and thoughtful for others. ‘I understand.’
Able returned to the bedroom then. He smiled as he saw that Fay was no longer crying. ‘The doctor is coming straight round, so we’ll hear what he has to say.’
‘Would you both like a cup of cocoa and a slice of lemon drizzle cake?’ Peggy asked the twins and three voices said, ‘Yes please!’
Peggy laughed and went down to the kitchen to make the cocoa. Pearl was there washing up some cups and saucers.
‘The Brown family asked for a pot of tea in the lounge – and a packed lunch to take sightseeing. I made ham and salad sandwiches, gave them slices of apple pie, cakes and a bottle of wine plus some ginger beer for the two lads. Was that all right?’ Pearl asked.
‘Sounds perfect to me,’ Peggy smiled at her. ‘I’m so glad you came to me for a job, Pearl!’
‘So am I,’ Pearl agreed and frowned. ‘Gillian was here. She was eating the lemon drizzle cake, but when I arrived, she went off to her room.’
‘I wondered where she’d gone,’ Peggy said. ‘I hope she didn’t eat all the cake…’
Quite a large piece of the cake had gone, but there was still enough for her to cut her husband and the twins a generous slice each. ‘Pop the kettle on for us, Pearl. I’d like a chat when I’ve taken this lot up. I want to ask your opinion…’
‘I’m just ready for a cuppa,’ Pearl replied with a smile.
Peggy carried the heavy tray upstairs and deposited it on the bed. Able was telling the children stories about his time in the war as an American soldier and aide to a general and making them laugh. She listened to them for a while and then went back down to the kitchen, where Pearl was making a pot of tea.
‘I made a coffee cream sponge this morning,’ Peggy said. ‘I know that is your favourite.’
‘Yes, I saw it,’ Pearl said. ‘I love the soft icing you spread on the top, Peggy. No one makes it quite like you.’
‘I’ve always enjoyed cooking,’ Peggy said. ‘It’s satisfying to see a cake rise perfectly and then to make it taste delicious – and when it gives people pleasure to eat, it is all so worthwhile.’
Pearl nodded. ‘Yes, I love making clothes for my Judith and seeing her face when she gets a new dress is delightful—’ She bit into her cake and then a look of shock entered her eyes. ‘Oh, that is so bitter—’
‘Bitter?’ Peggy stared at her in dismay. She reached across and scooped a little of the soft icing with her finger, tasting it. Her eyes widened with horror. ‘That should not taste like that, Pearl! Please don’t eat any more of it. I have no idea what that is – it was fine earlier…’
Pearl frowned, then, ‘I saw Gillian in the pantry, Peggy. I’m not making accusations but—’
‘Surely you don’t think – she wouldn’t?’
‘I don’t think she likes me much…’ Peggy looked at Pearl doubtfully and she sighed. ‘Perhaps I’m imagining it, but I’ve seen the odd way she looks at me – and I reprimanded her for breaking one of your best plates. She just threw it in the sink when I asked her to put it there.’ Pearl shook her head. ‘Perhaps I shouldn’t have asked her, but she was just leaving her used things on the table – taking advantage of your generosity…’
‘She couldn’t have done anything so nasty – could she?’
‘I think she must have – to get even with me.’
‘She has been ill-treated and I think it must just be her sense of insecurity,’ Peggy said, knowing she was making excuses. ‘It was Gillian I wanted to ask you about. She told me Freddie had pushed Fay down the stairs, but Fay admitted he didn’t. Why would she do that? Was it just a mistake? Did she think she saw it?’
‘Why did she accuse Freddie of pushing his sister? Why didn’t she just say they were quarrelling and it was an accident – unless she wants to cause trouble?’
‘Perhaps she just thought he did,’ Peggy sighed. ‘I hate to think badly of her after all she has been through.’
‘You tend to think the best of everyone,’ Pearl told her, looking worried. ‘I know she doesn’t like me, but if she is interfering with the cakes you make just to spite me then she is not a nice person, Peggy.’
Peggy shivered, a chill running down her spine. ‘I had noticed her hostility to Able and put that down to her fear of men, but she seems to really like Alice.’
‘Alice is no threat to her,’ Pearl said. ‘I’m not either, but she knows I help you – perhaps she feels that if I wasn’t here, you would rely on her more. As you said, it may be fear that you’ll send her away when she is better.’
Peggy hesitated. ‘I had thought we might be able to keep her here and let her help with the cleaning and cooking, but if—’ She shook her head. Reaching out, she tasted the coffee icing again and frowned. ‘I think it is just salt, Pearl, but it isn’t very pleasant.’ She got up and went to the pantry, bringing out an apple pie. ‘Let’s have a slice of this instead – and then I’ll leave you to clear up while I pop back to Sheila’s and see if they’ve finished.’
‘So, you’ll give her another chance?’ Pearl asked, looking anxious.
‘Yes, I’ll talk to her when I get home, but I shan’t make accusations,’ Peggy replied. ‘She’s young and vulnerable, Pearl, and I feel so sorry for what happened to her. She has nowhere to go – and if I do ask her to leave, I shall make sure I arrange for her to be taken in by the Sally Army or something of the kind.’
Gillian fled up the back stairs as she heard Peggy leaving. She’d overheard everything that bitch, Pearl was saying about her and she wished she’d put something worse on the cake! Pearl had been against her from the start and made it plain she didn’t trust her or want her here. Why did Peggy go to so much trouble to please that woman? She didn’t deserve it, creeping round Peggy to get her attention all the time! Gillian had seen her looking at her when she was doing the jobs Peggy gave her, resenting her. She wanted to be Peggy’s favourite!
She went to her room, shut the door and sat down. Peggy had been so kind to her, but she had so many friends and she listened to what they said. Gillian had stood outside the pub kitchen and heard them laughing together, which made her feel shut out. Why did Peggy like them better than her? She felt a tide of resentment rise up in her. She’d thought Peggy really cared about her, but now she was thinking about sending her away – just because she’d made a mistake over the twins. They’d been quarrelling and she’d thought he made a move towards his twin just as she fell… and, besides, he didn’t like her. She’d sensed it from the start and wanted him to be punished. She didn’t like any men and he would be one when he was older.
She’d suffered too much at her father’s hands and then the horrible beast her father had sold her to. She didn’t like the way Able looked at Peggy and she couldn’t bear him to sit next to her at the kitchen table – no men were worth a tinker’s curse.
Who had told her that? Gillian closed her eyes and tried to remember. She associated it with pain… Ah yes, her gran had s
aid it as she hit her about the head. Gran was always hitting her, calling her a slut like her mother, and complaining about men. ‘They’ve all got only one thing in their heads, girl, you remember that,’ Gran had shouted at her as she made her work like a slave and her aunt was worse. It had been: ‘scrub that step’; ‘fetch the coal’; ‘polish the table’; ‘fetch the milk from the pantry’; ‘wash the clothes’ and nearly every command was accompanied by a slap around the ear.
She’d made her aunt pay for that when she’d left, throwing jars of jam and bottled fruit on the kitchen floor so that they’d smashed into a sticky mess. Let her clean that up herself! If she’d been able, she would have done something worse.
Gillian could hardly remember a word of kindness from anyone – until Peggy had rescued her. Peggy was hers. She felt a burning jealousy inside. If that rotten Pearl turned Peggy against her and got her sent away, she would kill her next time! Her hands clenched at her sides and she felt the rage building in her head. She knew how to kill…
A smile came to Gillian’s eyes as she remembered Gran lying there on the kitchen floor, her eyes slowly glazing. She’d died and all Gillian had had to do was just leave her to twitch on the kitchen tiles. The doctor said she’d had a stroke and what a pity it was that no one had fetched him, but Gillian had told him she was asleep in bed and so Gran had lain there slowly dying until Pa came home drunk. He hadn’t bothered to do anything and by morning it was too late. It served her right! Gillian smiled. Gran had hit her once too often, so she’d hit her back and then she’d had that fit.
The other one… the memory made her shake all over. He deserved to die too… but the blood…
Gillian closed her eyes, shutting the picture out, willing it to go away and leave her alone. She hadn’t meant to do it, but he’d been hurting her… but the blood had been so awful, it’d made her feel sick. She’d run from his blood and the awful sounds he’d made as he lay writhing on the floor… He deserved to die after what he’d done to her!
Gillian shut the memory out as she’d learned to do as she walked the streets, close to starving, afraid to ask for help, afraid to go back to her father because he would give her up to the police and they would hang her, afraid of the aunt who would beat her and treat her like a slave. Her hand went to her throat as the wave of fear overwhelmed her. She was a wicked girl and the police would lock her up or hang her – her aunt had told her so.
The panic was rising, but she fought it down. No one knew anything. Peggy believed her story. What she’d told her was true – she just hadn’t told her the rest of it. She’d thought she was safe here, but if Peggy was turning against her… A thrill of anger went through her. If people hurt her she would hurt them…
9
Peggy stood outside Gillian’s bedroom and listened to the girl sobbing. She took a deep breath and then tapped at the door. There was silence for a moment and then a voice breathy with apprehension said, ‘Please come in, Peggy…’
‘Is something wrong?’ Peggy asked, because it was obvious the girl had been crying. When she’d first seen her, she’d thought Gillian about twelve, but she was actually seventeen and a few months. She was small, slight and still so thin, with such a pathetic look in her tear-misted eyes that Peggy’s heart ached for her. Whatever the truth of the salt on the cake and the false accusation, this child had been badly hurt! ‘Can you tell me why you’re so upset?’
‘I had an accident and you will be cross and send me away,’ Gillian said looking at her fearfully. ‘I was in your pantry looking for something to eat and… and I knocked salt on to the lovely coffee cake you made.’
‘Ah, so that is how it happened,’ Peggy said, frowning as she tried to picture it. Gillian had been down to the kitchen more since she’d offered to clean her own room and Peggy had thought she was getting over her trauma but she still claimed she didn’t want to go out, but she’d run to the pub to fetch Peggy – were her excuses just that? A way of making sure Peggy wouldn’t send her away?
‘What did you do then – and why didn’t you tell me?’
‘I brushed it off as best I could and… and I daren’t tell you, because I was afraid you would send me away—’ Gillian looked so contrite, tears in her eyes and fear making her shoulders tremble. Peggy’s anger melted, even though something was telling her that Gillian’s story didn’t quite add up. Yet she looked so vulnerable and frightened and how could she cope alone in the world? ‘—I’m so sorry, Peggy. You’ve been so kind and Christian to me and you spent ages making it and it cost money and I spoiled it – how can I make it up to you?’
‘It was poor Pearl who ate it,’ Peggy told her. ‘Perhaps you should say sorry to her – and to Freddie. He didn’t push Fay down the stairs, they were quarrelling and she had already bruised her ankle badly, which is why it gave way.’
‘Poor little Fay,’ Gillian said and her tone was sincere and caring. ‘I hope it hasn’t ruined her chances of being a famous skater one day?’
‘No, I don’t think it will,’ Peggy replied. ‘Able called the doctor out to her and he said it was just bad bruising and an overtired ankle. He has advised her to rest it for three weeks – so that’s no skating for a while.’
‘She must be so upset?’
‘Yes, she was a bit, but she didn’t make as much fuss as I expected. Able promised to take her and Freddie swimming instead. The doctor thinks that will do her injury good and keep her occupied and interested.’
Gillian nodded and then turned suddenly bright eyes on Peggy. ‘Does Able always play with the children and leave the work to you, Peggy?’
‘It helps me if he takes them about during the school holidays,’ Peggy told her, smothering the instinct that almost had her telling the girl not to be rude. ‘He has his own business concerns that will very likely bring us far more money than my small business.’
Gillian’s eyes widened in disbelief. ‘You love him and believe in him so much?’
‘Yes, I do. Able has never given me cause to do anything other than trust him.’
‘You must be very lucky,’ Gillian said. ‘My grandmother and aunt said men could never be trusted – and when they smiled, they were up to something behind your back.’
‘Then they were very unfortunate,’ Peggy replied. ‘I think you have had an unhappy life, Gillian, and I wish I could help you more. You know you can come down to the kitchen and help me when you like – unless you feel ready to go shopping or for a walk?’
‘No…’ Now there was alarm in the girl’s eyes. ‘I don’t want to go out – please, Peggy, don’t make me… I had to do what Able said earlier, because he might have got cross and hit me.’
‘Able would never hit you, Gillian. Even if he was cross, he wouldn’t harm you.’
‘But he’d make you send me away…’
‘I told you before that I would not make you leave. You may stay here until you’re much better and we can find you a proper job and a safe home.’
Gillian’s eyes filled with tears and one rolled down her cheek. ‘I knew you would hate me because I knocked salt on the cake.’
The nape of Peggy’s neck was prickling again. She hesitated, then, ‘I cannot keep you with me forever, Gillian, but I shall let you stay here until you’re able to face the outside world a little easier – and I promise I’ll find somewhere nice for you to live and work.’
Gillian rubbed the tear from her cheek and for a moment Peggy saw a flash of something – she thought it might be malice but dismissed that as an unworthy suspicion. Gillian was harmless. She was young, vulnerable and bruised, and she’d never seen anything of what life could be like. Peggy had helped her and so it was inevitable that she would cling to her and it would take a little time to wean her on to her own two feet.
Leaving her with a little smile and a nod, Peggy went in search of her family. Fay and Freddie were playing a game of noughts and crosses on a slate on her bed. Able had left them to it and she found him downstairs in the office, porin
g over some documents of what looked like figures and calculations.
‘Are you busy, Able?’ she asked, hovering in the doorway.
‘Never too busy to spend time with you, hon.’
‘I’m a bit concerned, Able,’ Peggy said and went in, closing the door behind her. She sat down in one of the two armchairs he had installed and told him about the incident with the salt. ‘Gillian is so young and vulnerable and she’s been through a terrible time – but I have an uneasy feeling…’
‘She does seem a harmless little thing – nervous of her own shadow,’ Able agreed. ‘But your instincts are always good, Peggy – if you feel something is not ringing true with her story, you’re probably right.’
‘Freddie doesn’t feel comfortable around her – and I can’t see how the salt could have tipped over the coffee icing. My salt jar has a screw-on cap and needs a good twist to open it. The condiment sets are never kept in the pantry – so how did it just tip over the cake?’
‘It couldn’t – unless the cap had been left off by someone?’ Able frowned. ‘You wouldn’t do that and nor would Pearl – it does sound unlikely. If salt was spilled on it and then brushed off, it would surely show signs, unless the icing was still soft and some of it was smoothed over from another part of the cake, which would make it more likely to be deliberate.’
‘I’m pretty sure it was deliberate. Everyone knows that I make the coffee cake especially for Pearl. I sometimes eat a piece and you eat any of my cakes, but Alice isn’t partial to it and nor are the twins.’
‘Why would Gillian wish to spoil the cake for Pearl?’
‘Because Pearl has not taken to her. She picked some sort of vibes up from her the first time she saw her. She has questioned me about her a couple of times and Gillian may have overheard. Alice thinks she is a dear little thing and Gillian likes her – but she may have tried to cause trouble for Freddie – and I’m almost sure she wanted to upset Pearl—’