Nicola got unsteadily to her feet and reached out to hug him.
‘Owen, I’ve missed you so mu—’
He looked quickly over his shoulder like a hunted spy.
‘It’s Bill, now,’ he hissed. ‘Bill Stevens. I changed my name by deed poll, remember?’
‘Oh, we remember all right,’ said Martha, looking at him with distaste. She picked up her glass, sipped the wine and then pulled a face. ‘So… BILL… What brings you back after all this time? As if we didn’t know.’
‘I came to see my daughter. I’ve missed her.’
‘You heard about her inheritance you mean.’ Martha wasn’t to be taken in.
‘My reasons for coming back are no business of yours.’ Bill tried to hold Martha’s steely glare, but looked away after only a few seconds. He almost pushed Nicola back into her seat, looked around again and seeing only the restaurant host taking any notice of him, he pulled a seat from the next table and dragged it across to sit next to his daughter.
Nicola put a hand on his arm. ‘I’ve missed you, Ow… Bill.’
‘So you said.’ Bill shuffled his chair closer to Jessica. ‘Jess, I need a private word.’
‘Not here, Dad… Please. This isn’t the time or place.’
‘Where then, and when? Come on, Jess, I’m desperate. I can’t hang around here too long. You know that.’
‘Are they still looking for you after all this time?’ Martha was listening in. She might be almost eighty but her hearing was as sharp as it had ever been.
‘Keep out of it, Martha. I told you, my business is no concern of yours.’
‘No concern of mine. Hmmm. So, the fact that I lent you money to help pay off your gambling debts and you gambled it away and created fresh debt, is nothing to do with me. The fact that because of the despicable way you treated her, my daughter is now an alcoholic, has nothing to do with me. The fact that you fully intend to drag my granddaughter into your poisonous world, is nothing to do with me. Well, think again… BILL… Those issues have a lot to do with me.’
Jess tried to calm the situation before the restaurant management became involved.
‘Grandma, it’s all right. I know what he’s after.’ She looked into her father’s dark eyes. ‘Dad, I can’t give you any of Nana’s money because it’s locked away in a trust and I can’t access any of it without the backing of the other two trustees.’
Bill rubbed his stubbly chin and narrowed his eyes. ‘Who are these trustees?’
‘My solicitor, Bradley Wilson and his practice partner,’ replied Jess, calmly.
‘You’re telling me that Alice left you everything but you can’t get your hands on any money? I don’t believe a word of it.’
‘It’s true nonetheless,’ said Jess. ‘I do get an annual allowance and I get to live at the farm, rent free, but that’s it. Nana made it clear what can and can’t be done without all three trustees agreeing.’
‘That evil bitch. She’s still laughing at us.’
‘Dad, there’s no need for that.’
‘Jess, I’m desperate. I can’t tell you how desperate. You don’t mess around with the people who are chasing me for money. They make this lot up here look like a credit union.’
‘I’m sorry, Dad, but as I said—’
‘There must be a way, there’s always a way.’ Bill looked pleadingly at Jess. ‘Come on, love. You wouldn’t want to see me hurt, would you?’
He picked up the bottle of wine from the table and took a deep swig. Wiping his mouth on his sleeve he took another drink, then rested the bottle on his lap.
Nicola reached across the table to pick up the bottle of white wine that was still half full. She poured a good measure into her glass, then put the bottle next to her plate and gave Martha a defiant look. A shell-shocked Marjorie looked from Jess to Bill to Martha.
‘Who’s Bill? I’m confused.’
‘Then you’re in your usual state of mind.’ Martha shook her head and turned her attention to Jess. ‘If you do find a way to release money from the trust, don’t forget, I was at the front of the queue. Don’t allow yourself to be coerced into giving in to that snivelling idiot. You may as well hand it straight to the nearest money lender.’
Bill shot a glance over his shoulder as he heard the scrape of a chair behind him, but it was only a customer leaving her seat to visit the cloakroom. He put his hand on top of Jess’s.
‘Please, Jess. I’m begging you. Just a few thousand. I promise, I’ll make a clean start afterwards. I’ve seen the error of my ways. I’ve had enough of running and hiding. Honestly.’
‘PAH! You pathetic individual.’ Martha shook her head again.
‘Dad, I don’t have a few thousand to give you even if I wanted to.’ Jess got stood up and nodded towards the waitress. ‘I think it’s time we all went home.’
Bill got to his feet with a furious look on his face.
‘So, that’s it. You’re just going to throw me under the bus? Can’t we at least talk about it?’
‘Of course we can talk about it, Dad. Come to the farm tomorrow morning, but I’m telling you now, my answer will be the same, because there is nothing I can do.’
Bill looked around as if trying to plot his escape.
‘I’ll be round in the morning then. I’ll stay with Nicola tonight.’
Nicola beamed, reached out and took his hand. ‘You can stay as long as you like, Owen.’
He snatched his hand away.
‘It’s Bill for Christ’s sake.’
A few seconds later, the waitress arrived with the manager.
‘Is everything all right, Ms Griffiths?’
Jess nodded. ‘Everything’s fine. This is just the way our family reunions go.’
‘Then you have my sympathy.’ The manager took the bill from the waitress and handed it to Jess. She scanned it, then followed him across to the far end of the bar to pay. As she was tucking her card back into her purse, she heard Nicola call from further along the bar. She waved a bottle of red wine in the air.
‘Add this on, Jess,’ she said.
In the car park, as Jess opened the back doors of her Toyota to allow Martha and Marjorie to climb in, Bill popped up from behind a Ford KA and slipped in to take the middle seat meaning it would be a bit of a crush on the drive home. The car wasn’t really made for five adults. Nicola, clutching her precious bottle of house red, almost fell into the passenger seat. Jess closed both the back doors, climbed into the driver’s seat, then reached across to help her struggling mother find the slot for the seat belt. She switched on the lights and with a deep sigh, started up the engine.
At her grandmother’s house, Marjorie, and a still furious Martha, got out of the car and walked towards the front door without a word.
‘Goodnight, Grandma, goodnight, Aunt Marjorie,’ Jessica called as the pair entered the porch.
Martha inserted the key in the lock, pushed open the door, then turned around.
‘I’ll call you in the morning, young lady. Don’t do anything stupid.’ With that, she stepped into the house and slammed the door behind her.
As soon as Jessica pulled away from her grandmother’s house, Bill started work on her again.
‘Jess, honestly. Just this one favour. I’ll never ask for anything again.’
‘You’ll never ask for anything until the next time you’re in trouble,’ said Jess quietly as she pulled out of the side street onto the main Gillingham road.
‘You can trust him, Jess,’ slurred Nicola. ‘He’s your father after all.’
‘I remember trusting him when he said he was taking my piggy bank away, to get it paid into my post office account. But not only did he smash the pig and take out a year’s savings, he emptied my account too.’ Jess wiped away the tear that appeared as she remembered the incident.
‘Jess,’ said Bill, soothingly.
‘I’d saved that money to buy a doll. The doll you promised me for Christmas but never arrived.’ A stream of tears rolled d
own her cheeks. ‘I’d saved eight pounds, Dad. Eight pounds and you stole the sodding lot.’
‘Jess. I’m sorry, but—’
Jess pulled off the main road, turned onto Burnett Street and pulled up outside her mother’s house.
‘What did you get for eight measly pounds, Dad?’ Jessica wasn’t going to let it go now.
Bill opened the car door and slid across the seat.
‘You got your bloody doll, didn’t you?’
‘No thanks to you. Nana, bought it for me.’
‘Leave it, Jess.’ Nicola pressed the release catch on her seat belt three times before she managed to free herself. She opened the passenger door and crawled into the street with her bottle tucked safely under her arm.
Bill closed the rear door then walked around to the passenger side and leaned into the car.
‘I’ll see you in the morning, Jess. You, err, couldn’t come here instead, could you, save me the bus fare?’
‘No, I bloody couldn’t,’ said Jess with feeling. ‘Don’t leave it too late either. I’m out for the afternoon and I have to get ready.’
‘Oh, you have a new boyfriend already? Nic told me about Calvin. I never did like him. He was a wrong ‘un.’
‘It takes one to know one, Dad. Shut the door please. I’m going home.’
Chapter 17
Jess made the short trip home with tears streaming down her face as she remembered the hardships and betrayals she had been forced to endure as a child. In bed that night, she found sleep to be impossible as her overworked brain trawled up the memories of her childhood.
One occasion in particular refused to be sent back to the dark cupboard in the back of her mind where such distressing memories were securely locked away. She could picture the event as if it had happened a few seconds earlier.
Jess was in her room, reading a second-hand book she had been given for her birthday. The majority of her toys and books that held any value were stored safely at Nana’s farmhouse where she would sleep over most Friday and Saturday nights, as well as a week at a time during school holidays.
Her attention was caught by an argument her parents were having in the next room. Her father’s voice was raised, there was nothing new in that, but it was the pleading response from her mother that made her want to listen in. She crawled out of bed, opened her door a crack, cocked her head to one side.
‘It’s only for a few weeks. I can’t see why you’re so opposed to the idea.’
‘It’s disgusting, Owen. I’m not going to do it.’
Jess heard a thud as if something heavy had been thrown onto the floor.
‘Come on, Nic. Just a few weeks. I’ll be hanging around to make sure you’re safe.’
Nicola began to sob.
‘Owen. I’m not going on the game and that’s that. It doesn’t matter if it’s one night or every night for a year. I’m not going to do it. My reputation around here is bad enough as it is.’
‘But it’s the only way out,’ Owen roared.
‘You do it then,’ Nicola screamed back at him. ‘I’m sure there are plenty of men willing to pay for your services.’
‘Now you’re being ridiculous. Come on. Just try it. It probably won’t be as bad as you think.’
‘No, Owen.’
‘You’d rather see me in hospital than do this little thing for me. That’s nice. You know what the Duncan brothers are like. I’ll be lucky if I can ever walk again.’
Jessica had no idea which game her father was demanding her mother take part in, but it didn’t seem to be a game that she wanted to play. The voices quietened for a while, then Owen spoke again, this time with a more persuasive tone to his voice.
‘Nicola, come on. Put something sexy on. We’ll just go out and have a look to see what it’s like. You don’t have to bring anyone home tonight. Just stand near the railway station with the other girls. They’re not a patch on you, Nic. You can do it, just have a drink first. It will be fine. I’ll be watching out for you.’
‘What about Jess? We can’t just leave her.’
‘I’ll look after Jess if you bring anyone home. Come on, you can do it.’
Jess decided that she didn’t like the idea of being left alone while her parents went out to play games. They had left her alone when they went out to a New Year’s Eve party and had promised to be back by a minute after midnight, but Jess had stayed awake, frightened and alone, jumping at every creak the old house made, until they finally got home at three in the morning.
She pushed her door open and made her eyes into slits as she stepped along the landing to her parents’ room.
‘Mummy, I have a pain.’
‘Jessica! Go back to bed,’ her father ordered.
‘But I have a pain, I think I’m going to be sick.’
The door flew open a few seconds later and her mother appeared pulling a dressing gown over black lingerie.
‘Oh, Jess, come on let’s get you back to bed. Mummy will sit with you until the pain has gone. Do you think a glass of warm milk will help, maybe an aspirin?’
She led Jess back to her bed and lay down alongside, stroking her hair to soothe her.
‘I don’t want you and Daddy to play the game, Mummy.’ Jess began to cry.
Nicola looked across at Owen, standing in the open doorway, then turned her attention back to her daughter.
‘I don’t want to either, my sweetheart. So, we won’t play it. I promise.
Chapter 18
The next morning, Jess was woken by the rattle of the door’s heavy knocker echoing up the stairs from the hall. Rubbing her eyes, she picked up her phone to check the time.
‘Seven-thirty. Who the hell?’
She sat up, remembering not only that her father was calling in, but the dreadful memories that had haunted her sleep. She swung her legs off the bed, and yawning, stood up and stretched. The banging became more intense, then the sound of a muffled voice came through the letterbox.
‘Jess.’
‘Sod it, you can wait,’ she muttered, reaching for her dressing gown.
She walked through to the shower room, had her first pee of the day, cleaned her teeth, then took a leisurely look at herself in the wall mirror. She dragged a brush through her hair, then walked back to the bedroom just as her phone rang. She picked it up to see ‘unknown caller’ on the screen. Refusing to answer, she stepped onto the landing and walked to the front window. Outside, on the asphalt parking bay, her father was looking angrily at his phone. He pressed a button and Jess’s phone rang again. This time she answered.
‘Yes.’
‘Jess, It’s Dad, love, are you going to let me in?’
‘What time do you call this, Dad? It’s Saturday you know?’
‘I do know, but you said you had to get ready to go out?’
‘Good heavens, Dad. It won’t take me four hours to get ready.’
There was a pause, then he spoke again. ‘Well, can I come in?’
Jess sighed and hung up. She slipped her phone into the pocket of her dressing gown and walked slowly down the stairs, stretching as she went. She paused at the front door, in two minds whether to let him in or not. The old memories hadn’t yet returned to the locked room in the recesses of her mind.
‘Hello, Dad,’ she sighed as she opened the door.
He saw the indifferent look on her face and turned on the charm, leaning forward to kiss her cheek. Jess pulled her head back while his was still a foot away.
‘Tea?’ she asked.
‘If you’re making it?’
He looked around as he walked into the lounge.
‘She’s had the place knocked about a bit since the last time I came inside. The stairs used to come off the kitchen. There was no hall here, just a door out to the front yard.’
‘That was about twenty-five years ago,’ replied Jess. ‘The old stairway had a problem and had to be taken out, so she had the place redesigned. You can still work out where the old stairway used to be in the kit
chen. Haven’t you been in here since then? I’m sure Nana said you and Mum came around to borrow some money when I was little.’
‘I didn’t come in. Your mother had to persuade the old witch to give us a few quid.’
Jessica’s lips became a thin line.
‘She helped you out, Dad, and what did you do? You gambled away the money she gave you to pay the mortgage, so we ended up getting evicted.’
Bill looked like he was going to argue the point, but decided against it.
‘Water under the bridge,’ he said.
‘There’s been a lot of water flowing under that particular bridge over the years, Dad.’
Jess walked into the kitchen, filled the kettle and switched it on as Bill walked around, opening a drawer here, a cupboard there.
‘It could do with a revamp,’ he said.
‘It’s having one,’ replied Jess. ‘I got Robin’s Kitchens to do an estimate.’
Her father whistled. ‘That won’t be cheap.’
‘It won’t,’ Jessica agreed as she poured boiling water into two mugs.
Bill pulled out a chair and sat down at the huge oak table. He rubbed his hands over it as Jess put his tea in front of him. ‘I bet this has lived through some interesting times.’
‘Nana gave birth to Grandma on that table,’ Jess replied, running her own hands over the surface.
Bill pulled his hands away as if he’d received an electric shock.
‘She always was a strange one. Can you remember? Martha and Marjorie used to claim she was a witch and practiced magic in the loft.’
‘Of course I remember. I remember everything.’ She curled up her lip as she looked across the table at her father. ‘I remember the Christmases with no presents. I remember the birthdays without parties and just a second-hand book or two as a present. I remember going to school hungry because there was nothing in the cupboard for breakfast, I remember—’
The Legacy: Trouble Comes Disguised As Family (Unspoken Book 2) Page 11