“Why don’t you ask Danol that question?” Erith said with a grin. Although she would like to be there to see Danol’s reaction, she wouldn’t discourage the child from doing it just because she wasn’t present.
“Maybe later, over supper,” Annie said absently. “Bye, Momma!” Annie and Beatrice held hands as they skipped and giggled their way out of the kitchen.
“Did you want to go?” asked Alice.
“No, I have things to pack away up here,” Erith said as she nodded toward the stairs. “What about you?”
“I have bread to put in rise,” Alice said with a smile.
At the front door, Erith waved at her family as they left the dock. Danol’s smile was brilliant as he waved back. The two boys—George just turned fourteen, and Tommy eleven—had gathered around him, asking for directions on how they could help. He was a very patient man.
Erith and Danol had decided that Danol would move into the house with her while he finished everything he wanted to do with his own place. She wasn’t allowed to go anywhere beyond the first floor, not even in Danol’s room. She smiled, and her cheeks reddened, remembering what he told her they could do by the fire. Danol had big plans for the house, so he had told her. He wouldn’t even let Mary Ro help him.
Erith watched them go. It was a beautiful day on the water. All the fishermen were out. By the look of the clotheslines on the other side of the harbour, the women were busy as well.
She turned and went inside and poked her head in the kitchen. “I’ll be upstairs. If you need anything, just shout.”
“I will,” said Alice. “Where do you leave the bread to rise?”
“Over on the woodbox,” Erith said. “Just enough heat there.”
Erith went upstairs and began moving some of her things from the drawer to make room for Danol’s clothes. She packed some towels for Alice and John to take with them to Danol’s house. He had already set it up for John, Alice, and Beatrice. Mrs. Whalen had offered some bedding and got things ready for them. It was only their second day, but things seemed to be working out.
The curtain stirred on the open window. Erith listened to see if somebody had come for the mail, but there was no sound. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she pulled out another drawer. She’d bought too much the last time she was in St. John’s. Lost in thought, she pulled the drawers in and out and moved things from one to the other. At this rate there would be no room for Danol’s things. She needed another trunk.
Erith felt a waft of air on her neck. With short hair, this was something still new to her. She turned to see the sheer white lace curtain flowing out from the sill. “That’s odd,” she said. “There must be a door open. Hello? Is there somebody down there?” She listened. “Alice?”
She shuffled around the end of the bed toward the window. Maybe the wind had changed direction. Erith pulled back the curtains and grabbed the sill of the windowpane to close it. Movement from the backyard drew her attention, and she froze.
A tall, dark-haired man had his hand clamped on Alice’s mouth and was dragging her along with him. They were almost out of sight behind the shed when Alice’s eyes, wide with terror, met her own. Erith gasped. She bolted from the room, down the stairs, and into the shop. She scanned the walls for the guns. Seeing none, she combed the storeroom. Marie, the young girl who helped around the shop, must have stowed them away. Erith grabbed the tarp in the corner of the room and pulled it back. “Where are they, Marie?” she said. “Where would you have put them?” She began to panic when she couldn’t find them. Turning to search the shop again, she almost collapsed in relief when she saw three rifles leaning against the corner behind the door.
She grabbed two and put them on the mail counter. The ammunition was always stored under the scales behind her. Thankfully, the boxes were still there. Erith put a bullet in each gun, grabbed one of them, and ran out on the step. Danol and John were pulling in the dory on the far side of the harbour. The children had already gone up the beach toward the house.
Erith fired a shot into the air and planned to wait for the sound to reach them. She forgot about the kick and fell back against the door frame before losing her footing and toppling over the step. Leaving the gun in the grass near the corner of the house, she clambered to the top of the stoop once again.
Danol and John stopped and looked toward her. She frantically waved her arms and saw them scramble aboard the dory before she went in to grab the other gun. Taking a fistful of the colourful glass candy from the jar on the counter, she stuffed them in her pocket. Her heart was pounding as she dashed through the back door in hopes of catching up with Alice and her captor. Maybe waving the gun would stop him.
The wind carried a coughing sound from the slide path heading into the woods. Erith dropped two candy and ran up the path toward the sound. The hill was steep, and her chest was heaving, but she forced herself to keep going. Alice was in trouble.
She reached a clearing where Tommy and George had cut wood the winter before. Pausing for a moment to get her breath, she wiped the sweat from her eyes. Erith felt ill at ease as she looked around the tangled area. A glimpse of blue caught her eye.
Immediately, she crouched low. She edged toward whatever it was that she’d seen. Perhaps George or Tommy had left a cap or something and this would delay her. But then she saw Alice lying behind a pile of blasty boughs.
Erith stumbled toward her. Tangled sticks and knotty stumps tripped her along the difficult terrain. She had almost reached Alice when the boughs rose up before her, and a giant of a man grabbed the gun from her hand. Erith screamed and lost her footing as a tree root caught her toes. The man made a swing at her but missed. She toppled backwards into more dried limbs, which knocked the wind out of her. She scrambled to get up, but the boughs had her wedged and she couldn’t get her hands under her.
Ezra grabbed an unresponsive Alice and slung her over his shoulder. She moaned. Erith could see the bloodied cut above her eye and the red stains on her dress. Ezra stepped over the tangle of branches as if they were flowers in the meadow. Erith had not seen anyone so tall and muscled in all her days. She was struggling to get free when Ezra pitched Alice to the side, onto another pile of dead limbs, and raised the gun.
Erith’s ears were pounding as Ezra fired the shot. He dropped the gun and crouched in waiting as both Danol and John tackled him at the same time. They rolled together, and Ezra went backward onto the ground. John flew one way and Danol the other. Like a bear, Ezra rose up before John while Danol recovered. Danol scrambled to stand and ran at him, hitting Ezra in the midsection with his shoulder. At the same time, John had gotten himself close enough to swing a punch that struck the giant under the jaw. Ezra stumbled and fell near Erith, and both John and Danol leaped on him.
Erith’s heart raced as she twisted, stretched, and wriggled, trying to get free of the boughs. Finally, she was able to get loose. Grunts and groans and the sound of fists hitting flesh filled the air as she stood. She saw the rifle in the bushes to her right and clambered across the brambles to get it, all the while praying she wouldn’t fall again. She turned in time to see Ezra elbow John in the jaw and send him flying. He landed on his back with a hollow thud, unmoving, a few yards away. Ezra rolled and trapped Danol beneath him, grasping his throat with his huge hands. Danol clawed at the man’s fingers and arms but to no avail.
Erith was petrified. She found a strength she didn’t know she had and sprinted toward them, hurling herself over the boughs and limbs that had tripped her before. With all her might, she swung the butt of the gun down on the back of Ezra’s head. He flinched and loosened his hold on Danol. Before she could take another swing, Alice brought a stick down on his skull from the other side.
They both pummelled Ezra, again and again, until he collapsed on top of Danol. Danol sucked in a breath and pushed the large man off of him. Erith helped him to his feet, and he grabbed
her and hugged her fiercely. He put his hands to each side of her face and looked her up and down.
“My God, what were you thinking?” Danol said. He pulled her to him once more and squeezed her tight.
“I wasn’t,” said Erith.
Alice tripped on a stick as she staggered to check on John. He opened his eyes and managed to ease her fall on top of him. Alice cried and hugged him.
Danol held Erith away from him. “I need your apron,” he said. She pulled the muddied and bloodied cloth over her head and gave it to him. He used it to tie Ezra’s hands behind his back. “I need strips of your dress to bind him.”
“Here, use this,” Alice said as she pulled off her own apron and threw it toward him. John stood to help, and Danol secured Ezra’s ankles.
Erith gasped and blanched as she put her hand to her mouth. She slowly reached for Danol’s chest. “You’ve been shot,” she said as she touched the bloodied material of his shirt.
“My blood,” John said weakly. Alice screamed.
27
“Danol, Erith, where are you?”
“Is that Mary Ro?” Erith asked.
“Here in the cut-out,” Danol shouted back. “Sounds like her.”
“Mary, up here,” Erith shouted. She looked at Alice. “Mary Ro’s a doctor. She’ll fix John.”
John couldn’t keep his legs under him any longer. Danol helped him to the ground.
Moments later, Doctors Mary and Peter Nolan, accompanied by six constables, rushed into the clearing. Mary’s eyes were wild when she saw the blood on Danol’s shirt.
“Did you get yourself shot again?” She felt along his rib cage.
Danol grimaced. “It’s not my blood,” he said. “At least not from a gunshot.” He hugged Mary, and she put her arms around him.
“He’s going to be the death of me,” Mary said to Erith. She pushed away from him and went to Ezra as Peter tended to John.
“I see we arrived in time to save you,” Constable Jeffries said as he shook Danol’s hand.
“How? No, why are you here?” Danol asked him.
“It’s a long story,” Jeffries said. “I’ll tell you when we get out of the woods.”
“We have to get this man to the house,” Peter said, looking up. “He needs attention right away.”
Alice reached out and touched John as Peter and three of the constables picked him up. Danol helped her up and then let her go to assist John. Erith comforted Alice as they rushed toward the house. Mary caught up with them before they reached the back fence.
“Whichever of you gave him the cracks on the head, you didn’t kill him,” she said. “But you stopped him.”
“It’ll be me if he dies,” Erith said in a low tone. “I allow the gun was harder than the stick.”
“He attacked you. There’s no question about that. He left a young girl in Holyrood in a bad way, so the constables said.”
“Do you know who?” Alice asked Mary.
“No. The constables said it happened at the post office.”
Alice began to bawl. “This is all my fault!”
“This is the fault of that man back there,” Mary told her sternly. “You’re safe now.”
John moaned, and Alice walked beside the men carrying him.
“Where did you come from?” Erith asked Mary.
“We were coming to meet the children on the other side. At the top of the hill we heard the shot and knew something was wrong. We met the constables on the wharf in front of the house and followed Danol and John to the ridge.”
Mary put her arm around Erith as they walked out. “You did good, Erith.”
At the house, Peter said to Erith, “Kitchen table. Will that be a problem?”
Erith shook her head. “It’s fine,” she said. Peter and Mary had saved Danol’s life on that table a few years before. Erith remembered the horrible circumstances that had brought Danol close to death’s door. At the time, she had blamed herself. She had to choose between him and the boys, and deep down she had known that he wouldn’t want it to be a choice. That was when she knew she loved him.
Danol found her after he’d seen to John. He always came to find her. His warm embrace and soothing words would see her through anything. “You need to change your clothes,” he said. “Maybe find something for Alice.” He signalled to where Alice stood facing the kitchen door, covered in dirt and John’s blood.
“I will. You should change, too,” Erith said as she looked her husband over.
“I’ll go first, then I’ll speak to Jeffries.” He quickly kissed her and took the stairs two at a time while she went to talk to Alice.
“He’ll have the best care,” Erith said. “You can stay here as long as you want.”
Alice hugged her. “Why are you so kind to me?”
“I’ve been at that door, Alice. I was alone. I want you to know that you are not alone.”
Danol came down the stairs and brushed past them on his way out to the shop, where the constables had gathered. He gently squeezed Erith’s arm as he went.
“Now, let’s go get you out of those things before John sees you,” Erith said. Alice smiled half-heartedly and reluctantly turned to follow her upstairs. “Waiting there won’t make it go any faster.”
“I know, but what if something happens?”
“We’ll be right there.”
28
“The bullet is out,” Mary Ro said when she came to speak to Alice and Erith. “He’s going to be sore for a week or two, but he should make a full recovery.”
Alice sucked in a deep breath and reached for Erith, who helped her to a chair. “Can I see him?” she asked.
“Not yet,” Mary said. “We still have a bit of cleaning up to do.” She looked at Erith. “Where’s Danol? We need help to move him. Or even one of the constables would be fine.”
“I made a place in the storeroom for him,” Erith said before Mary could ask. “Danol’s outside with the children. I’ll get him. The constables have all gone.”
“I’d better get back. Peter is finishing up.”
Mary eased back through the kitchen door, and Erith left in search of Danol.
Alice rested her back on the wall and wrung her hands around one another in an attempt to ease her mind. She had brought so much trouble to these people. It seemed like no matter where she went or how hard she tried, if it wasn’t one thing, it was another calamity following her. Someone, somewhere, was keeping track of her sins, and there were many. As soon as she’d let herself think that things were going to work out, something else was thrown at her.
In her past life, when she was Nancy Martin, her father had put her and Irene on the Labrador floater boats when she’d been barely fourteen, and Irene fifteen. She remembered him coming into the house and shouting to their mother, “Belle, come here! It’s written here.”
Alice’s mother was upstairs and had just put baby Michael in the cot. They had nine girls before he got his first son, and Irene was the eldest.
“What are you wailing about, Cyril?”
He handed her the Twillingate Star. “Look here, Belle, the girls can go on the boats now.” He slapped the newspaper on the table and pulled out the chair for her to sit. “All these hungry mouths. It’s time. Old Albert Pearce, the collector at the custom house, posted that there would be privacy for the women on the floaters or the owners would pay a hundred-dollar fine.”
“You must be mistaken, Cyril. Not unlike you to get things mixed up.”
“Read it for yourself, woman. It’s right there!”
“How would you know? You can’t read,” said Belle.
“Carl told me, that’s how,” Cyril said. “Carl said he allowed that because I had so many girls I’d be interested in this fact.”
“Did h
e, now? And did you tell Carl to mind his own business?”
“Now, Belle. Don’t go getting on like that. He was just saying, that’s all.”
“I hope he don’t go sending that good-for-nothing crowd that he’s rearing up here after my girls. Maybe he thought they’d make some money and be a good catch for Simon or Archie.”
“Well, Archie is sweet on Nancy,” Cyril added. “She could do worse.”
“Worse than Archie? Near impossible around here,” Belle said as she turned the paper over to read.
The headline read, “Notice to Schooner Holders.”
“Sailing vessels carrying females engaged as servants in the fishery or as passengers between Newfoundland and Labrador shall be provided with such separate cabin or apartments as will afford at least fifty cubic feet for each of such females, and the owners of such vessels shall provide for such females sufficient accommodation for sanitary purposes.”
Mrs. Martin drummed her fingers on the table. Nancy was putting bread in rise, and Irene was washing clothes. “You girls hearty enough to cook for seven or eight men?”
“Suppose they are, Belle. They cook here,” their father said.
“Yes, Cyril, but cooking for a bunch of hungry men is a lot different.”
Nancy spoke first. She had no intention of staying in Ragged Head and marrying Archie Barnes. That’s what her father would have her do. Archie Barnes, of all people! She could see herself doing everything that her mother did and everything her father did because Archie was as lazy as a cut ram. Just like his father. Carl had worn out three women and was on his fourth. The other three were glad to be dead, she reckoned.
“I can do it, Momma,” she said.
“It’s a rough life, girl. Nothing to be taken without some thought.”
“I can do it, too,” Irene said. She looked at Nancy and winked. Both girls had had more than one talk by the light of the lamp about getting out of Ragged Head. Neither knew how to do it, aside from running away, and they were just shy of plans to do that. They’d have been out in service a few years before but for the fact that there were lots of girls in Ragged Head, and her mother had a crowd of small young ones and needed help herself.
The Liars Page 14