‘There must be some other explanation,’ John’s voice broke in quietly again. But once more Hal went into a fury, crying now, ‘Explanation! Never off his doorstep, then bringing him here. And he sat at our table and hoodwinked the lot of us with the American jabber. Explanation! You don’t buy a house overnight. It takes time, meetings, deeds. Don’t I know? But this explains it, her worried look of late, guilty look I should say. I would never have believed it of her. Never! Never! Never!’ He banged his fist on the table, emphasising each word. ‘I would have staked me life on her uprightness. As for you, girl’—he now turned his full attention on Maggie—‘you were glad to bring this news, weren’t you? Oh, yes, you were. Yes, you were. Broke your neck to get back here and drop ’em. You’re another one that’s devious. Get out of me sight. Get out!’
So great was his anger that Mary Ellen turned hastily and took Maggie, who was now shivering with fear, from the room. And John, with difficulty keeping his voice low, said, ‘Why take it out on her?’
‘’Cos she’s being spiteful.’
‘Well, you’d rather that one of us brought the news than hear it from outside, wouldn’t you? Because then you wouldn’t have been able to fly your kite.’
‘Now don’t you start on me. God in heaven, don’t you start!’
‘I’m not starting, Dad’—John’s voice was stiff—‘only I’m going to say this. If Kate’s kept quiet about it, him buying the Bannamans’ place, there’s a good reason, and the first that springs to mind is she was afraid of your getting to know.’
Hal now slumped in his chair, muttering, ‘She can’t live there. I won’t let her. No, I won’t let her.’
‘I can’t see what you can do about it if she’s already made up her mind.’
‘She’ll unmake it. She’ll have to. She owes me that. Why?’ He moved his head slowly from one side to the other. ‘I’ve looked after her from the day she was born. Why, I brought her into the world. She was something special to me…’
‘Yes, we all know that.’ John’s tone brought his father’s eyes towards him, and he demanded of his son, ‘What do you mean by that? I’ve never neglected any of you.’
‘No, you haven’t neglected any of us, but Kate’s been first with you, and we’ve all been made aware of it, one way or another.’
‘That’s a bloody lie. I’ve never shown preference.’
‘Oh, Dad, Dad, you couldn’t help yourself. We were the eldest, Tom and me, we were lads and we didn’t mind so much. But Maggie did. And so did Florrie, in her own kindly way. When the topic once came up she explained it like this. She said you were trying to make up to Kate for not being her father, for after all she was only half related to us being step-like. And that’s why, as Maggie more strongly put it, it’s been Kate this, Kate that, and Kate the t’other. So I for one can understand Maggie’s attitude the day: in a way she was hitting back, not only at Kate, but at you.’
‘My God!’ Hal now drew on a long gasping breath before he said, ‘It’s like a day of revelation. I’m being shown up for what I am.’
‘Don’t be daft, Dad. You know what I’m saying is true. And if you take my advice you’ll calm down before Kate comes in, because no good will come of your raging at her; she could up and walk out, you know.’
‘She never would. She never would.’
‘But she would. In a way I know Kate better than you, because I don’t view her like you do, like a possession, she’s just me sister. And what’s more, she’s a woman. She’s not a girl any longer, and there’s nothing to stop her going to him, and him being a man of means.’ John paused here, then wagged his finger at his father, saying, ‘That’s it. You see, there could be an explanation. Not knowing anything about the Bannamans or the farm, he wanted to surprise her and bought the place and is getting it ready as a sort of…well, it could be a wedding present.’
There was a long pause before Hal said, ‘I wish I could think that, then I would only have him to deal with.’
‘Well, think on it until she comes in, and then you’ll know for sure. Now settle yourself down and calm yourself down. I’ve got to get back to the yard.’ With this John turned and walked out of the room, there to meet Mary Ellen hurrying across the hall. Stopping for a moment, he said to her, ‘You better pray, Mam, that Kate knew nothing about this, else there’s going to be hell to pay.’
Mary Ellen said nothing but went towards the office, thinking, There’ll be hell to pay anyway, for there’s something not right with Kate. Ever since she’s got to know that fellow, she’s become a different person…There was something strange about that fellow. She couldn’t put her finger on it. Only one thing she was sure of, he wasn’t all he appeared to be.
John met Kate in the yard and he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw she was riding alone. She had ridden in ahead of the cart, and Charles and Florrie were riding behind more leisurely. And so he had time to say to her, ‘You better prepare yourself. You’re in for a blow-up. Have you any idea what it’s about?’
He stared at her for a moment, and when she didn’t answer he said, ‘Well he knows about the house…your Ben buying the house.’ He watched her draw in a long shuddering breath and when all she said was, ‘Oh?’ he came back quickly at her with, ‘You can say “Oh?” like that. Don’t you know what you’ve done?’
‘I’ve done nothing, John.’
‘Well, I mean what you know and haven’t let on?’
‘There was a reason, a good reason, and likely you’ve experienced some of it already. He’d go mad when he heard.’
‘Mad’s the word. You’d better go in and get it over with afore the others come.’
As she handed the horse’s reins to him he said, ‘How did the market go, by the way? He’ll want to know that when he calms down.’
‘Not in the way that will please him. Prices being up, folks aren’t spending, so the stallholders say. Some of them can afford to wait. We brought four dozen eggs back and ten pounds of butter.’
‘Lordy, lordy. It’s going to be that kind of a day.’
In the kitchen Kate was confronted by Annie. Maggie was there too, but she was sitting on the settle, her face towards the fire and she didn’t turn and look at Kate. And Annie said quietly, ‘I saw John talking to you: you’ll be prepared for the hot blast awaiting you in the office. Go on in now, lass. And speak the truth and shame the devil. ’Tis the best way in the end.’
Kate did not immediately move away but, looking at Annie, she said quietly, ‘If it was only as simple as that, Annie, I would have no fear.’ Then she walked up the room leaving the elderly woman staring after her, her head moving in small jerks, her teeth nipping at her lower lip.
Kate paused outside the office door; then turning the handle, she walked briskly in to see her mother and Hal sitting side by side, their eyes staring at her.
Getting to her feet, Mary Ellen said quietly, ‘We’ve been waiting for you, lass.’
‘So I understand.’ Kate nodded at her. Then looking at Hal, she said, ‘Before you start on me, let me have my say. It won’t be all the truth, I’ll tell you that at the start, because you wouldn’t be able to take it. But this much I will tell you. I knew nothing about him buying that house until it was done; I was as shocked as you are. If I hadn’t loved him so much I would have flown from him; in fact, I made an effort, but it was no good; I care for him in a way that I never imagined possible to care for anybody. So whatever he does is right with me, because—’ She held up her hand silencing Hal, saying, ‘Just another minute, Dad. I repeat, whatever he does is right with me, because he’s a good man. And I’ll say this, too, you think that you had one hell of a life when you were young, but let me tell you, it was nothing compared with his. He’s fighting his way back, I could almost say to sanity. Now that’s as much as you need to know of his life at the moment. But with regard to the house, he bought it for a purpose.’
‘You could have told us.’
She walked nearer to him and, lo
oking down on him, she said, ‘How could I? How could I have come in here and said cheerfully, Ben has bought the Bannamans’ farm, knowing how the very name upsets you and that you couldn’t bear the thought of me living there?’
‘My God! You’re not going to live there? Oh, no. I couldn’t have that.’
He pulled himself to his feet now and stood glaring at her. ‘No, Kate, you wouldn’t do that to me, go and live in that place.’
‘He cannot see why not.’
‘Well, I’ll bloody well tell him why not. You bring him over and I’ll give him the history.’
‘He already knows the history.’
‘My God! He knows the history and yet he buys the place and wants to take you there. He’s a swine of the first water.’
‘Hal! Hal!’ Mary Ellen was gripping his arm now. ‘Stop it. It’s not going to do any good. Sit yourself down.’ She pushed him back into the chair, and he yelled at her, ‘Did you hear what she said? He knew it, knew the history.’
Mary Ellen now looked sadly at Kate, and Kate, looking back at her, said quietly, ‘He imagines he can purge evil. As you know, it’s a fine house, and all that happened in it is past and gone these twenty odd years.’
Hal was now holding his head, muttering, ‘I can’t believe this. I just can’t believe this.’ He glanced at Kate, asking now, ‘Is he getting over mental trouble or something? By what you said earlier, has he had mental trouble?’
‘No, not in the way you mean, but he suffered from someone who had.’
‘I give up. I give up.’ His hand on his brow, he stared towards the fire, and Kate, her voice soft now, said, ‘I wouldn’t hurt you for the world, Dad. He knows that. But I can’t help my feelings. And you should understand this part of it anyway: your feelings for Mam’—she glanced at Mary Ellen—‘and hers for you; well, in a way, I feel I’m lucky, not only to have found someone to love, but to be loved by a man like him. And he does love me, this I know, and would lay my life on. I can’t understand it, why he should do, me looking like I do, and knowing that I’ve been overlooked by all the men in the district, except that Harry Baker, which was no more than a beggar’s choice. You thought so yourself, beggars can’t be choosers. I was in that category. But along comes a man of class who says he loved me, and did from the moment he saw me, and I him. To my mind, it was like a miracle, and you don’t ignore miracles, you grasp them with both hands and hold them tight.’ And she joined her hands, giving emphasis to her words, and pressed them hard between her breasts.
Hal and Mary Ellen stared at her. It was as if they had been mesmerised by her words. Then as if protesting against the intrusion of reason, Hal flung his head to the side and, once more banging his fist on the desk, he cried, ‘Aye, well, when all that’s said and done, there’s still the house. You can’t go and live there, you know you can’t.’
‘Why not?’ The question was quiet.
And now he almost screamed at her, his voice cracking with the hoarseness, ‘You know what happened there. You know who lived there. The man who owned that place murdered your own grandfather and my father, and his daughter crucified me. That’s the word, crucified. I have nightmares still. She can tell you.’ He jerked his thumb in Mary Ellen’s direction but kept his eyes tight on Kate the while. ‘I wake up groaning, never yelling, because she stilled my voice, that devil, that demon who was born in that house, brought up in that house. Even to this day I feel the screws in my joints from the way she left me. And you, knowing this, would go and live there…Does he know that it has been taken four times over the past years and the longest stay was five years? Two of them only stayed a matter of eighteen months and every crop they put in failed for the lot of them. The place is accursed. Why, nobody will ride that way after dark even today.’ He paused, then, his voice dropping, he said, ‘There’s other farms to let off or for sale within a few miles, why did he pick on that one? Like one or two of the others that took it, he had heard that there still might be some loot hidden away somewhere. And that was what that devil and her brother were after the day they cornered me. Has he heard that?’
‘No, I don’t think so.’ Her voice was quiet, dull sounding now. ‘Anyway, as far as I can gather he has no need of money.’
‘No, no? That’s another thing I’d like you to explain to me, why a man of means should shut himself away in a place hardly bigger than a pigpen, up in the wilds. Nobody’s lived up there for the last ten years. Joe Stollard was the last and he was a lone man and wrong in the head. And—’ His voice rising now, he ended, ‘You must be an’ all. There’s something fishy. And it’s my belief, as you’ve kept close about this business, you’re keeping close about other things.’
‘Let up. Let up.’ Mary Ellen pushed her hand towards him; then she turned and, walking quickly towards Kate said, ‘Sit down, lass, sit down,’ and pressed her into a chair. And when Kate was seated with her head bowed, Mary Ellen turned and looked at Hal and screwed her face up at him to silence any further protest.
A tap came on the door now and Florrie entered and, looking anxiously from one to the other, she said, ‘We’re back. I mean, Charles is here.’
‘Charles? Tell him I want a word with him. Aye, he’s another that wants sorting out.’
‘Stop it!’ Mary Ellen turned harshly on him now. ‘You’ve said enough for once,’ and taking hold of Kate’s arm and saying, ‘Come on, lass,’ she pulled her up from the chair and led her from the room. And as Florrie went to follow them her father’s voice came at her, saying, ‘Do what I tell you. Send him in.’
A minute later Charles entered the room and he began courteously by saying, ‘Good day, Mr Roystan, although from what Florrie tells me it wasn’t such a good day at the market, but…’
‘Cut the cackle about the market, I’ll hear about that later. Answer me truthfully, did you know that Kate’s fellow had bought Rooklands, the Bannamans’ place?’
‘Yes, I did, but only after the business had been settled. If I’d known his intentions beforehand I should have persuaded him against it, knowing he was fond of Kate, and also how you felt about that place.’
‘Why didn’t you let me know after he’d done it then?’
Charles looked down to the side as if he was examining his leather gaiters and paused a moment before he said, ‘Well, I suppose I sensed what would happen, what apparently has happened today. You’ve been very upset by the knowledge. Anyway, it was Kate and Ben’s business, not mine; what had to come should have come from them.’
‘Right you are there. Right you are: what had to come should have come from them. But God’s sake, man, I ask you, our Kate goin’ to live in that house. Why? The whole countryside will be asking the question: why, of all places should she take that as her home? Because it isn’t like if what happened there happened in the last century, it happened in the lifetime of all of us around here. True, you were but a lad yourself, little, admitted; and like to many another bairn the story was given to you as a fairy tale no doubt. Now am I right?’
‘Well…er, yes, you are, because I remember it being told to us in that way. And I was a good age before I realised that it was true, even though my father had stated from the beginning that it was true; but at Christmas time he would always regale us with tales of horror and ghosts, which he also maintained were true.’
‘Well, there was no fairy tale about Bannaman’s business, you know that. Anyway, I’m goin’ to ask you a straight question, and I want a straight answer. There’s nobody here’—he waved his hand backward and forward—‘to witness what you’ll say. But now, tell me, give me your honest opinion of that fellow.’
Again Charles hesitated for a moment before answering. ‘My honest opinion of Benedict Hamilton,’ he said, ‘is that, as far as I know, he is an honest young man; he is definitely an educated and travelled one; but having said that, I think there is something in his past that has been a great source of trouble to him. It may not have affected himself, by that I mean he is not the culprit s
o to speak, but in a way—’ He now turned and looked out of the window and jerked his chin upwards before looking at Hal again and continuing, ‘I don’t know how to put this. I mean, I don’t know how to simplify my own thoughts on the subject. But I may be wrong, yet it seems to me he’s expunging someone else’s guilt. That might be fanciful, yet, I don’t see him as a person who himself has committed any crime. I’m…putting it badly.’
‘No, no, you’re not, lad. No, you’re not. You’re explainin’ things that’s in me own mind, that’s what you’re doing. Aye, well, he needn’t have committed any crime in that sense, but—’ He leant forward towards Charles now and, pointing his finger at him, he said, ‘there’s kind of crimes that are not crimes, such as he could have been married afore, or could still be married. What d’you think on that?’
‘I haven’t thought along those lines, but as you say, that could be.’
‘Aye, aye, that could be. America’s a long way away, nobody knows what he did there, but whatever it was, it drove him to go and live by himself and put up with weather up there that we shy from.’
‘Yes, yes, you’re right. Once or twice I was very anxious about him. But when I rode over I found that he was quite comfortable…well, as comfortable as he could be in that little place.’
‘He’s a man of means. Well, he must be to have bought that place. He’s told me all about that and the business that his people were in in America. He’s talked about his father and his grandfather. The only one he hasn’t mentioned is his mother. A man usually mentions his mother, doesn’t he? Has he mentioned his mother to you?’
‘No, no, he hasn’t. His grandmother…Oh yes…yes he did. He said that his mother died when he was, I think when he was twelve, and he had lived with his grandmother. He seems very fond of his grandmother.’
A Dinner of Herbs (The Bannaman Legacy) Page 51