Dancing in the Moonlight

by Rita Bradshaw

  He followed Enid into the kitchen. Jacob was sitting at the table and as Enid said, ‘It’s Donald – Donald Fallow – lad’, Jacob stared at him with the same shock that had registered on his mother’s face.

  Recovering himself the next moment, Jacob stood up, holding out his hand as he said, ‘Don. It’s been a long time.’

  ‘Aye, too long,’ said Donald as he shook Jacob’s hand.

  ‘Sit down and have a cuppa, lad.’ Enid fetched another cup and saucer as she spoke, adding, ‘This one said he’s not hungry, but it won’t take me a minute to make you a bacon sandwich, if you’d like a bite?’

  ‘No thanks, Mrs Crawford.’ She was making him feel like a Judas and he knew he had to come straight to the point. ‘It’s Jacob here I’ve come to see, actually.’

  ‘Oh aye?’ Enid put the cup and saucer on the table, but made no effort to pour the tea. Her eyes narrowed as she said, ‘Why is that then?’

  ‘It’s private, Mrs Crawford.’

  ‘Private, is it? Well, if it’s anything to do with your sister I know my lad went to see her this morning and she told him to sling his hook, same as she’s made it clear she wants nowt to do with me.’

  ‘Mam.’ Jacob’s voice was grim. ‘This is nothing to do with you, and Lucy isn’t obliged to see either of us. I’ve told you.’

  Ignoring him, Enid kept her eyes on Donald. ‘In a right state he was when he got here, or I don’t doubt he wouldn’t have said anything. Tried to palm me off with some tale or other, but I got the truth out of him.’

  Donald could imagine. Enid Crawford in battle mode was frightening. Quietly he said, ‘It is something to do with Lucy, but I would prefer to speak to Jacob alone if you don’t mind, Mrs Crawford.’

  Jacob stood up. ‘Come into the front room.’ And as his mother went to speak again, he looked at her, a long look, and she made a ‘huh’ in her throat, but said no more.

  The front room was another step into the past. Donald could remember as a boy peeping into the Crawfords’ front room and standing agog at the stiff, shiny splendour of it. Even now he felt awkward about disturbing the mausoleum-like chill. A wave of the nausea that plagued him night and day made him glad to sit down as Jacob gestured towards the sofa.

  ‘Did Lucy send you?’ Jacob remained standing, tense and still.

  ‘No. She doesn’t know I’m here, truth be told. In fact she made me promise not to tell you what I’m about to say, but I was in the garden when you came this morning and after you’d gone she – well . . .’ Donald didn’t know how to put it. ‘She was in a state.’

  ‘That wasn’t my intention.’

  ‘I know that.’ Donald smiled gently. ‘Look, would you mind sitting down? I’m getting a crick in me neck and, frankly, for what I’m about to tell you, you’d be better sitting.’

  ‘Lucy’s not ill?’ Jacob’s face lost some colour as he sat down.

  ‘No, I’m the one with cancer,’ Donald answered with dark humour, and at Jacob’s ‘I’m sorry, man’ he shook his head. ‘I’m not here to talk about that, it’s unimportant. What is important is that you listen to me without interrupting, if you can. I didn’t know any of what I’m about to say until this morning when Lucy collapsed – only Ruby’s known. It’s not pleasant, I warn you.’

  Jacob stared at him, his jaw working. ‘Let’s have it.’

  ‘The night you were attacked and left for dead all those years ago, I walked out on Lucy and the bairns and went down south,’ said Donald, making no excuses for himself. ‘Somehow Tom found out she had no one to protect her and the next night he went to the house and tried to force her to marry him. When she refused, he—’

  ‘What?’ said Jacob, his face now chalk-white.

  ‘There’s no easy way to say it, man. He attacked her, raped her there on the floor in the kitchen.’

  The blood thundered in Jacob’s ears, the agony pressing in until it swelled his whole body and erupted in an anger and murderous hatred, even as his heart cried, ‘Lucy, oh, Lucy, Lucy!’ His mouth spewing curses, he wrenched himself from Donald, who had stood up and was trying to press Jacob back down in his chair. ‘I’ll kill him. I swear I’ll kill him.’

  ‘That’s exactly what Lucy was afraid of. You do that and he’s won, don’t you see? You’ll hang for him.’

  ‘I don’t care. He’s filthy – scum. He’s never been normal.’

  No, Tom Crawford wasn’t normal. Donald’s mind recalled some of the stories he’d heard from Maurice Banks and other men who’d worked for Tom and the Kanes. But ‘abnormal’ wasn’t the right word for Jacob’s brother. Tom was something more than that. When a man was mad they put him away in a lunatic asylum to protect folk, but most of them poor blighters wouldn’t hurt a fly, in spite of their gibbering and jabbering. Yet the ones like Tom, the ones cunning enough to appear sane, were more dangerous than a hundred of the other kind.

  Now Donald did press Jacob back into his chair, saying, ‘She fled the next morning because he’d told her he’d be back, and no one was giving you any hope of making it. She couldn’t go to your mam for obvious reasons. Then, after the fishmonger took ’em in out of the kindness of his heart, she found out she was carrying a bairn, Tom’s bairn. The man married her to give her protection and he didn’t touch her until after the bab was born, and then not until she let him. She didn’t love him, but she was grateful to him for saving them all. He was a good bloke, Jacob, and your brother had him done away with.’

  Jacob had been sitting with his head in his hands and now his eyes shot to Donald. ‘Lucy knows that for sure?’

  ‘Oh aye, lad. Tom threatened he’d do the same to you if she had any truck with you, and he’s haunted her for years, turning up places or waiting outside the house. She’s had no peace.’

  Jacob ground his teeth, wiping his wet eyes with the back of his hand. ‘And you say I shouldn’t kill him? If I don’t, she’ll never be free of him, you know that.’

  Aye, he knew. For a moment Donald thought about telling Jacob what he was going to do, but decided against it. Jacob would say he had to be the one to deal with his brother, and the whole purpose of him coming here today would be useless. Jacob would know soon enough that the problem had been taken care of, and without him being involved and Lucy losing the man she loved.

  Quietly Donald said, ‘It’s Lucy who needs your attention right at this minute. I’ve never seen her like she was this morning after you’d gone. Go and see her. Tell her you know it all, man. She loves you; she’s kept quiet all these years to protect you, because she’s sure that beating you had years back was arranged by Tom.’

  Jacob groaned. ‘I thought she’d married the fishmonger because she loved him and that Daisy was his. How could I have doubted her?’

  ‘God Himself would have assumed the same, if He’d been in your shoes. How were you to know?’

  ‘I should have known. Dammit’ – Jacob drove one fist into the palm of his other hand – ‘what she’s gone through, and all because of my brother. My brother, Don, my own flesh and blood. I could go stark staring mad thinking about it.’

  ‘Then don’t.’

  ‘Easier said than done, and I shan’t rest until he doesn’t draw breath. When the fishmonger died and I went to see her that day, I should have known then she wouldn’t have walked out on me without one hell of a good reason when I was in the hospital. But I was jealous and angry. She’d had a bairn by someone else and it burned me up inside. I took what she said that day at face value. I didn’t dig deeper.’

  ‘Look, you believing her was your protection, the way Lucy saw it. The way she still sees it. Go and see her. I’ve a taxi waiting and I can drop you off before I go on to the hospital. I need more pills.’ He took a bottle out of his pocket as he spoke and rattled it. The lie had come to him as he’d been talking. ‘We’ll talk about how to handle Tom when I get back.’

  ‘I know how to handle him,’ Jacob said grimly.

  ‘Aye, well, I can’t say I blame yo
u, but talk to Lucy first – that’s all I’m asking. She deserves that.’

  Jacob nodded, but as Donald stood up he said, ‘The world will be a cleaner place with him gone, Don. That’s the way I see it, and she won’t have to live in fear any more. It’s no good trying the legal route – he’s a town councillor now, a pillar of the community, with half the town in his pocket. He bought his way out of the war by means of a bent doctor, our da wrote and told me so, and you can bet he’s making a packet with the black market. He’s clever, that‘s the thing, and he can be charm itself when it suits him. He’s had me mam eating out of his hand since the day he was born, and she’s no fool.’

  When they walked through to the kitchen Enid was stirring something or other on the stove. As she turned, Jacob said, ‘I’m off, Mam.’

  ‘You’re going with him? To see her, I expect.’

  ‘I’m going to see Lucy, aye.’

  ‘You’re a fool. The way she’s treated you, I should have thought you’d learned your lesson.’

  ‘There’s more to this than you know, Mam.’

  ‘She had that fishmonger she married on the go long before she left here, you know. Our Tom told me so. She might be bonny enough, but she’s as hard as iron, lad. She has to be, to have done what she did to you when you were at death’s door in the hospital.’

  ‘You know nothing about it.’ Jacob picked up his army cap.

  ‘That’s what you think. Our Tom said—’

  ‘Don’t tell me what that filthy liar said.’ Jacob swung round with such ferocity that Enid nearly jumped out of her skin. ‘He’s putrid, Mam. Diseased. Here, in his mind.’ He tapped his forehead. ‘Did he tell you he was responsible for putting me in that hospital, eh? Did he tell you that? Or that he took Lucy down, the night after Donald had left? Raped her in her own house because he didn’t want her to be with me? She didn’t know Perce Alridge before that. She and the bairns lived rough for a week when she fled from here, because of what Tom had done, and the man took them in out of the kindness of his heart. And the result? Tom saw to it he was done away with.’

  ‘You’re mad.’ Enid’s hand was clutching her throat and she looked from Jacob’s livid face to Donald and then back to her son. ‘Has he told you that?’

  ‘Tom’s rotten, Mam. Through and through. He always has been and he’s got blood on his hands.’

  ‘It’s true, Mrs Crawford.’ Donald had had to sit down on one of the kitchen chairs. ‘My father and Ernie were killed doing a job for him. I was there, I saw it. The people he’s mixed up with are the worst sort of villains.’

  ‘I don’t believe it.’ Enid had straightened, but her face was white. ‘It’s all lies. Just because he’s got on, you’re jealous – you’ve always been jealous of him. And Lucy knew that fishmonger all right. How else do you explain her marrying him in next to no time and having a bairn?’

  ‘He married her because she was expecting a bairn, Tom’s bairn, and it was either that or the workhouse. And she accepted him for the same reason. Like I said, he was a kind man.’

  Their voices had been raised and no one had heard the front door open and close. It was only when a voice from the kitchen doorway spoke, saying, ‘I knew it. I knew she was mine’ that they became aware of Tom’s presence.

  Enid screamed as Jacob whirled round and sprang at his brother, but Tom had been expecting it, his great fist delivering a mighty blow under Jacob’s jaw that snapped his head back and sent him crashing senseless to the floor. Donald staggered forward, the knife in his hand, but as he lunged, Tom caught the hand holding the knife and with seemingly little effort took it from him, before punching him full in the face. He, too, crumpled into a heap, blood pouring from his broken nose as he lay groaning on the floor.

  Enid groped at a chair, pulling it out from beneath the kitchen table and sitting down heavily. She watched as Tom hauled Donald to his feet, but when he hit him again, protested, ‘What are you doing? Stop it.’

  ‘Stop it? He came at me with a damn knife.’

  As he raised his fist once more, Enid stumbled over, hanging on Tom’s arm as she said, ‘You’ll kill him. Stop it, I say.’

  She dragged Donald free, but he slithered unconscious to the floor next to Jacob, who was out cold. Enid looked from them to Tom, blinking as though coming out of a deep sleep. ‘You said, in the doorway . . .’ She took a deep breath. ‘You said you knew Lucy’s bairn was yours.’

  ‘I suspected it, aye.’

  ‘So you did take her down?’

  ‘It wasn’t like they said, Mam.’ Tom was thinking fast. He’d heard enough to know that Donald and Jacob were out to get him, so he had to deal with them. Permanently. But there was his mam to consider. ‘She made eyes at me, led me on.’

  ‘But she was a bairn, a wee lass.’

  ‘She was no bairn. I told you, she had the fishmonger on the go an’ all.’

  ‘Then why did you think the child was yours?’

  He stared at her, unable to think of a reason that would hold water. ‘I just did, that’s all.’

  ‘She hadn’t been with a man when you took her, had she.’ It was a statement, not a question. ‘She was pure, a virgin. That’s how you knew. I always wondered why she went without a word to me. Me, who’d been like a mam to her after Agnes passed away. But she couldn’t come to me, because you’re my son. So she lived on the streets till the fishmonger took them in.’ She put a hand to her brow. ‘Did you kill him? Her husband?’

  ‘Don’t talk soft.’

  ‘You did, didn’t you? It’s true, isn’t it, what they said?’ She put out her hand and, like a blind person, lurched over to the table, leaning on it heavily. ‘And Jacob? Did you put him in hospital that time?’

  He didn’t have time for this. He could deal with Donald with one hand tied behind his back, but Jacob was a different kettle of fish. He’d taken Jacob by surprise and got in the first punch, but if he came round it might be different. He had to get them in the car and take them to Jed’s place, where he could deal with them and make sure they disappeared for good. ‘Get me something to tie ’em up with.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Before they come round. You don’t want them to go for me again, do you?’

  ‘There – there’s a ball of string in that cupboard.’

  She watched as he tied Jacob’s hands and then his feet together. There wasn’t enough string left to tie Donald’s ankles as well as his hands. There was blood everywhere, most of it from Donald’s broken nose. Shakily she said, ‘What are you going to do?’ as he finished the knot on Donald’s wrists.

  Tom straightened. His mother would understand. He had always known that he had her love in a way none of the others did. Heaven and hell might pass away, but his mam would be for him. Softly, with the look he reserved purely for her, he murmured, ‘They’re out to ruin me, Mam. You heard what they said. It’s lies, it’s all lies, but mud sticks and my name’ll be nowt in this town if they have their say.’

  Enid couldn’t speak, her throat had closed up with the pain she was experiencing. Not a physical pain, that would have been bearable, however severe it was, but a pain born of the inescapable knowledge that her buried fears were out in the open and her son was bad. How bad she hadn’t even guessed at in the past. How long had she refused to believe what her mind had been trying to tell her? So long that she couldn’t name when it had begun. But no matter what she had sensed, or what Aaron and the others had said, she’d always given herself the answer she wanted to hear.

  Taking her silence for complicity, Tom continued, ‘Get me a couple of blankets to wrap them in, and then you keep watch till it’s clear for me to get them in my car, all right? I’ll have a word with the taxi driver and pay him what he’s owed, so he clears off out of the hockey. He brought ’em both, did he?’

  Numbly Enid forced out, ‘No, just Donald. Jacob was already here.’

  Tom nodded. He’d get the taxi registration. It might be necessary for the driver to dis
appear too. Jed didn’t like loose ends. ‘Watch them a minute.’ Without waiting for a reply, he walked out of the kitchen into the hall and then she heard the front door open.

  She had to stop this. Jacob was her son, her baby. But Tom wouldn’t really do what she had imagined he was saying – he just intended to frighten them. To make sure they kept their mouths shut.

  A voice outside herself, a harsh voice that grated in her head, repudiated the thought. He was going to kill them both. In cold blood. And it wasn’t even a problem to him. Oh, God, God! She looked upwards, wringing her hands. Help me.

  She heard Tom’s footsteps coming back and stood up, facing him as he came through the kitchen door. ‘You can’t do this. We have to get the police. They attacked you, I can vouch for that. You’re the’ – she had been about to say ‘innocent party’, but couldn’t bring herself to voice it, changing it to – ‘offended party, lad. They’ll see that.’

  ‘I haven’t got time to argue, Mam. Go and get me those blankets.’

  She stared at him. ‘Please, Tom, listen to me.’

  ‘I’ll get them myself.’

  He turned and a moment or two later she heard him running up the stairs. Beside herself, she knelt down by Jacob, shaking his arm. ‘Wake up, lad. Wake up.’ Donald was stirring and groaning again; leaving Jacob, she bent over Donald and now she shook him none too gently.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Tom was back, the blankets draped over his arm.

  ‘He – he was waking up.’

  ‘Leave him, he’s not going anywhere. I’m not bothered about him, but I need to get Jacob in the boot of the car before he comes to.’ He knelt, rolling Jacob’s unresisting body in the blanket. ‘I’ll come back for Donald in a minute. I need you to come with me and stand outside, so that you can tell me when it’s clear. The boot’s already open.’

  ‘Someone will see.’

  ‘No, they won’t, not if I’m quick. It’ll be all right. It’s the only way, Mam. When I’m gone, you can clear up and no one will be any the wiser.’

  He was really going to do it. Enid stood up as Tom hoisted the cocoon he’d made of his brother over his shoulder, and from somewhere within her being flowed a wave of resolution. Reaching behind her to the range, she grabbed the heavy iron poker that lay on the fender. ‘Put Jacob down, Tom.’