A Dinner of Herbs (The Bannaman Legacy)

by Catherine Cookson

  But the dog turned down the road. She thought it might be making for the mine, but no, it went straight on. But with the mine in sight she saw two miners looking up towards her and she beckoned them while she still kept walking following the dog. She saw them hesitate and she called to them, ‘Here a minute! Here a minute!’

  One of them hurried towards her, saying, ‘What is it, lass?’

  ‘The dog.’ She pointed to the dog. ‘It got out early this morning, but it’s come to the cottage and it wouldn’t come in. It wanted me to follow it. I…I think it must have…well’—she shook her head—‘it could have found him, or…or something.’

  The man shouted back to his mate, ‘Here a minute. Come on,’ and began to walk by Mary Ellen’s side.

  When the other man joined them, he said, ‘Look there, the animal knows something. It came down to Mary Ellen’s place. Got out this mornin’, she said. Looks as if its going straight on for Whitfield.’

  But the dog wasn’t making for Whitfield. Where the three paths joined, it turned off left and one of the men said, ‘Wild goose chase, if you ask me anything. That road leads to Bannaman’s place, a good mile and a half along there. And they’ve been over that with a riddle.’

  ‘It…it mightn’t be there, it might be somewhere around.’

  Both men looked at her; then one said, ‘The country’s as flat as a pancake for some distance there. It doesn’t start dropping until you get near Whitfield down to the river, the same as here.’ He was making a sweeping movement with his right hand.

  The men had slowed their pace to accommodate Mary Ellen’s for with the weight of the child she was finding difficulty in hurrying. And once when she stopped to ease the stitch in her side, the dog, some yards ahead, stopped too. And one of the men remarked,

  ‘That beast knows where he’s goin’ all right, and he wants us to go along of him.’

  ‘My God!’ A few minutes later the man was pointing. ‘The animal’s turned off to the farm. Look, there it is ahead. And it’s runnin’ now.’

  When they reached the opening to the yard they could not see the dog, but they could hear him barking, and when they went through the arch there was the dog, clawing at the barn door.

  ‘I’ve been in there.’ The man’s voice was very low. ‘There’s nothin’ but a bit of straw above. I even went up the ladder, so what’s he after?’

  The other man had hurried forward and had pulled the door open, and the dog rushed in and began sniffing around the bottom of the barn. Then he stopped at the foot of the ladder and, looking upwards, started to bark, loudly, harshly.

  ‘There’s nowt up there.’ The other man shook his head.

  When the dog attempted to climb the ladder, Mary Ellen said, quietly, ‘Lift him up.’ And one of the men did this. He put his arm round the animal and hoisted him up the rungs, and once on the platform the dog seemed to go mad.

  The other man had begun to climb the ladder when Mary Ellen called to him, ‘Will…will you take her?’ And she stood on the bottom rung and held the child up to him, and the man, bending down, took the child from her arms and slowly ascended, with Mary Ellen following. At the top, taking the baby from the man, she stood watching the dog clawing at the hay.

  ‘There’s something in there, at the back, there must be,’ she said.

  Both men now started pulling the loose hay aside, and then of a sudden they stopped and gazed at the dog that was pawing at the huddled figure tied to the beam.

  ‘Christ Almighty!’

  ‘In the name of God!’

  ‘Oh, Hal! Hal.’ It was an agonised cry wrenched up from the depth of her, and thrusting the child down onto the straw she flung herself forward and she pulled the scarf from around his face and closed her eyes for a moment to shut out the grotesque sight of the stiff gaping mouth. The men were now loosening the ropes that tied him to the beam; but once they had undone them the huddled form just toppled onto its side, and one of the men muttered, ‘He’s a goner.’

  ‘No, no.’ She looked up at him. ‘Do something. Get the doctor. Get the doctor. Go on, go for the doctor.’ The two men looked at each other for a moment, and one of them said, ‘Aye, aye. Go on, Bill. And bring the constables an’ all.’

  As Bill scampered away, she looked at the other man and said, ‘Can…can you untie him?’

  When the man attempted to unloosen the knots, he muttered, ‘My God! Whoever did this knew how to tie a knot.’

  The dog now was lying to the side of Hal’s head, licking his forehead and making a sound like a child softly crying, and Mary Ellen, putting her hand on the animal said, ‘Oh, Boyo! Oh, Boyo! If I’d only let you out before. If only. If only.’

  Still struggling with the knots, the man muttered, ‘Aye, it might have saved him, but God, whoever did this wants stringing up, and I would do it meself if I could find them.’

  ‘He’s not, is he? He’s not?’

  ‘I’m afraid so, lass. I’m afraid so. ’Tis four days, remember, and strung up like this is more than human flesh could stand.’

  Tentatively now she opened the top button of Hal’s coat and put her hand on to his shirt, but she could feel no movement. And she closed her eyes and bent over him, her whole being crying, ‘Oh, Hal! Hal. Oh, my dear! Why? Why?’ Then straightening up, she said to the man, ‘Kate was right. She…she said the Bannamans. She kept saying “Bannaman”. She must have known it would be one of them.’

  ‘But they live miles away now, lass.’

  ‘Well, Hal said he had seen them over here two or three times.’

  ‘He had?’

  ‘Yes. Aye.’

  ‘Well, if that’s the case, they’ll be in for it this time and won’t get off by havin’ a stroke.’

  As he unloosened the last of the ropes, the man said, ‘We’d better not try to unbend him, not till the doctor gets here. Think ’tis better he sees him like this, he’ll know what to do. And the authorities an’ all. Nobody would believe it, they’d have to see it.’

  ‘Oh, Hal! Hal.’ Her tears were dropping on to his face now. And the man put his hand on her shoulder and said, ‘Don’t take on, lass. Don’t take on. Rest assured somebody’ll pay for this, ’cos I’ve seen some things in me life but never anything so cruel. A slow death.’

  ‘If…if we rubbed his legs or hands?’

  ‘Can’t see it’s much use, lass. You’ve got to admit he looks a goner. ‘

  ‘But…but couldn’t we try? Just…just rub them gently.’

  ‘Well, if it would give you any satisfaction, lass, all right, all right, we’ll do that.’

  She started on a hand. Taking the stiff fingers in hers, she massaged them one by one, while the man, taking up the other hand, did the same. But so rough were his hands she could hear the chafing of the skin as if a grater were being passed over the bloodless flesh.

  ‘Knead his arms next, from the shoulder.’

  ‘I can’t get at his shoulder at this side, lass, and I don’t think we’d better disturb him. But you do it from where you are and I’ll work on his legs. I’m more used to working on the legs.’ He gave a small smile now. ‘We often get the cramp you know, in the pit. Sittin’ in one position too long, you get all knotted up. I’ll be all right on the legs.’ And his hands began to move expertly up and down Hal’s legs.

  And so they went on for almost an hour, but there was no response from the twisted limbs.

  When they heard the commotion in the yard the man rose to his feet and ran towards the end of the platform, then beckoned four men up the ladder. And when the leading constable looked down on the twisted form and the ropes lying to its side he remained silent, until the miner said, ‘You should have seen him trussed up there’—he pointed to the beam—‘as tight as a vice. As I said, whoever tied these knots meant them never to be undone.’

  ‘Is he gone?’

  ‘Aye, I should say so. We’ve been rubbin’ him but there’s been no effect.’

  One of the constables said quiet
ly, ‘What’s to be done with him?’

  And it was Mary Ellen who put in quickly, ‘Wait for the doctor, please, wait for the doctor. He’ll know what to do. He…he might still be alive.’

  ‘Well, we can easily find that out.’ The constable now knelt down on the hay. Then gently opening the jacket further and the shirt and the vest, he put his head onto the cold flesh, and it seemed an interminable time before he raised it and, his eyes blinking quickly, he said, ‘I think I can hear his heart still goin’. Could be, faint like.’

  ‘You sure?’ The miner’s voice was eager.

  ‘Well, I’m not too sure but I’ll try again.’ Once more he laid his head on Hal’s chest; then he muttered, ‘Ease him over just a little bit.’

  Ready hands now turned the stiff huddled limbs gently to the side and the constable laid his head once more close to the flesh. Presently, sitting back quickly, he nodded and said, ‘Aye, I feel sure. I do, aye, I do, I feel sure. Now now, lass’—he put his hand out—‘steady on. Look, you have the bairn to see to, so don’t you go and pass out on us. Here, sit over here.’ He pulled her to the side. ‘Lean your back against the wall, put your head down.’

  She put her head down, all the while crying inside herself ‘Come back, Hal. Come back, Hal. Oh, God, let him come back.’ She felt on the verge of a faint and heard one of the men say, ‘Here, take hold of the bairn. That’ll pull you round. Come on now, take her.’ She took the child and her arms instinctively went round it and she began to rock her gently, all the while staring at the dead white face with the wide open mouth on the straw some feet away.

  The further commotion in the yard brought her fully to her senses, and when she saw the doctor coming over the top of the ladder she turned on her knees and, with the help of one of the men got to her feet.

  And she watched as the doctor, just as the constables had done, stood staring down at Hal in absolute amazement for a moment before dropping to his knees.

  His actions, too, were much the same as the constables’ had been, but his voice wasn’t as enthusiastic as he said, ‘Yes, he could be, but it’s a slim chance. We’ll have to have a door. We must get him somewhere where I can apply hot water and oil.’

  ‘Bring him home to…to Kate’s.’

  He turned and looked at her. ‘Too far,’ he said; ‘his farm is nearer.’

  ‘Please, please, I…I can see to him there, and…and she has the salve and things.’

  ‘There’s a cart in the yard,’ said one of the men. ‘There are enough of us to pull him on that.’

  Minutes later she watched them gently lifting Hal onto the cart in which the men had laid their outer coats to soften the contact with the wood. There were now at least twenty people in the yard, for such news spread quickly, and they formed a procession as they left the farm: two men at each shaft, two men pushing at the back, the doctor riding to one side on his horse, and Mary Ellen, the child once more tucked in the shawl between her breasts, walking at the other, the rest trailing behind. There was no chatter, it was like a funeral procession.

  At the cottage the doctor spoke to the constables, and as if they were still attending a funeral quietly and without any fuss they asked the followers to disperse. And most of them, nodding, moved away.

  Once inside and the child in the basket, Mary Ellen sprang to life. She pulled her mattress from the corner of the room, laid it by the fire, and the men gently laid Hal on it. Then thrusting a pail into the hands of a constable, she said, ‘Fetch some water.’ Then she went to the shelf and took down a large jar of goose fat.

  The doctor now had his coat off and was kneeling by the mattress. Looking up at her, he said, ‘Get me a knife.’ And when she had fetched it, he systematically split the arm of the coat and then the trousers. These he gently eased off the twisted limbs; then did the same with the shirt, and then the long clothes. And when the body was lying bare he covered the middle with a sheet and said to Mary Ellen, ‘Keep the cloths coming.’

  And she did this. Just as Hal had done for her, she thrust her hands into almost boiling water and wrung out pieces of sheeting and handed them to the doctor who applied them to Hal’s arms and legs, while the four constables stood around in awe-filled silence, at times shaking their heads at what they imagined to be the futility of it all.

  Following the application of the hot cloths, the doctor now scooped handfuls of the goose grease and began to massage the stiff and seemingly frozen shoulders. And when at last he brought one arm gently forward, Mary Ellen imagined that there was a slight twitching in the muscles of the dead white face. But she said nothing, and the doctor continued massaging the other shoulder. Meanwhile she had been working on Hal’s knees as the doctor had instructed her. It was exhausting work for both of them but eventually they had Hal stretched out on his back with a hot brick wrapped up in flannel at his feet and similar ones at each side of him.

  When at last the doctor rose to his feet he asked, ‘Have you any spirits in the house?’ And for a moment Mary Ellen thought it was for himself and she answered, ‘A wee drop of brandy. It was a present to Kate at Christmas.’

  ‘Fetch it, and a spoon.’

  A moment later she watched him pouring the brandy drop by drop into Hal’s open mouth. And it was when the second spoonful had gone down his throat that there came a twitching of his face muscles. And Mary Ellen, who was again kneeling by his side, put her hand over her lips and looked up at the doctor, and he gave a small smile and a quick nod of his head before he poured out another spoonful, saying as he did so now, ‘That’s it. Come along, come along.’ And as if answering a call, Hal’s jawbones moved in an effort to close his mouth. And the men round about, as if suddenly becoming alive themselves, began to talk to each other.

  ‘Eeh, my God! Did you see that?’

  ‘Never thought it possible.’

  ‘Talk about comin’ back from the dead.’

  ‘I’ll believe anything now.’

  ‘Eeh! By! Doctor, you’ve done a job there. An’ you an’ all, lass. By! My, you have. Well, if any of us owes anybody else their lives, he does. Another day and he would have been a goner sure. What d’you say, doctor?’

  ‘Indeed, indeed, yes.’

  ‘’Twas his dog.’ Mary Ellen pointed to where the dog was lying by the baby’s basket, and they looked at it and then at her, and no-one spoke for a moment until the doctor said, ‘His dog found him?’

  ‘Yes.’ She nodded at him. ‘I kept him tied up but he got out. And then he came back and…well’—she moved her head in wonderment—‘he practically spoke to me. Then I met Mr Boston and Mr York, and they came along of me.’

  The doctor now rolled down his sleeves, saying, ‘Miracles do happen, not very often, but they do. Now’—he looked down on Mary Ellen—‘it may be some time before he comes round. Have some hot broth ready. Don’t let him talk. Keep him quiet. I’ve got to go now but I’ll be back later in the evening. I don’t know at what time, but I’ll be back.’

  When he went to pick his coat from the chair, the men made way for him. But he did not go immediately towards the door; instead he went up to the bed in the far corner of the room and stood looking down on Kate for a moment.

  She was lying with her eyes open. She made no attempt to speak, nor did he, but he put his hand gently on her brow for a moment before turning away.

  Mary Ellen went with him to the door and outside he stood looking up into the sky taking in deep breaths of air; and she stood for a moment, too, looking upwards. The stars were coming out, the sky was high. When he brought his gaze down to her he said quietly, ‘You’re forming a knack of saving men’s lives, Mary Ellen.’

  ‘’Twas the dog,’ she said again.

  ‘Well, we’ll give credit to the dog, but you certainly have a hand in these things. Now the next move is to find out who attempted this act of slow murder.’

  ‘You won’t have to look far, doctor. It was one of the Bannamans.’

  ‘That’ll have to be prove
d.’

  ‘The scarf round his mouth has two initials on it: there’s B.B. woven in with silk thread, and they call the son Benjamin.’

  ‘Well, it’s in the hands of the authorities now. Whoever did it, it was an act of evil revenge.’ He smiled wanly at her now, saying, ‘I used to think nothing ever happened in the country, it was a dead place. Sometimes I think I’d like to go back into the town for a rest.’

  She answered his smile, saying gently, ‘You’d be sorely missed if you did, doctor, indeed you would.’

  ‘Bye-bye, Mary Ellen, for the present.’

  ‘Goodbye, doctor.’ She stood for another moment watching him going down to the gate where his horse was tethered and where lanterns were swinging showing up the outlines of people still waiting for news.

  As she went back into the room one of the constables said, ‘Two of us’ll be away, lass. The others’—he jerked his head backwards—’they are stayin’, they want to hear what he says when he comes round.’

  It was ten o’clock the following morning before Hal returned to full consciousness. At two o’clock in the morning he had opened his eyes and looked to where Mary Ellen was sitting by the fire, her head drooped on her chest in weariness. It was one of the constables who spoke to him, saying, ‘How you feelin’, lad?’ But he had made no answer, just closed his eyes and gone to sleep again. But at the moment he became full conscious, Mary Ellen was kneeling by his side, and he blinked his eyes a number of times before endeavouring to speak. His voice a croak, he said, ‘I’m…I’m alive.’

  She had the desire to gather him up in her arms and press his head tightly to her and say, ‘Yes, my love, you’re alive.’ But what she did was to take one of his hands between her own and hold it to her, saying gently, ‘Yes, Hal, you’re alive. You’re going to be all right.’

  ‘Me legs.’

  ‘They’re all right.’