by Weaver, Pam
She’d had a stroke of luck when George Gore came to Nelson’s funeral. Once again, Victor told her what to do but she’d had to follow George almost all the way back to his home before she got an opportunity. As luck would have it, the trains were delayed and, as they waited on the platform, she spotted someone with an open carriage door as the train pulled in. With Victor’s encouragement, a good push did the trick. They always screamed when it happened, and that gave her a headache, but afterwards, when she was resting and she heard her husband’s voice again, it was worth it.
Dispatching Linton Carver was easy. She’d been calling on him for months and nobody takes any notice of a middle-aged woman visiting a sick man in hospital. She just had to wait for Victor to tell her when. Then she’d heard the girls at work talking. ‘Roob reckons Percy is in the BUF head office. Her mum had a letter from a Colonel Blatchington, telling her so.’
She’d pricked up her ears. Blatchington was the officer in charge when they had killed her best beloved. True, the Blatchington the girls were talking about was a colonel, but after all these years he was bound to have been promoted. A decent sort of bloke, Victor had called him once; but what sort of decent bloke would stand by, ready to shoot a defenceless man in the head to make sure he was dead? She’d asked the girls a few questions and had discovered that Ruby’s wedding was being organized in haste. The stupid girl was probably pregnant. Ruby wouldn’t have much money to spare, so her offer to do the flowers free of change was gratefully received.
She’d deliberately made the child’s bridesmaid’s bouquet far too big to give her an excuse to stay behind and have a look around Nelson’s house. Once alone there, she’d searched the drawers on the dresser, found a brown address book and, sure enough, Blatchington’s address was there. So was a letter in Linton’s own hand.
The letter was a revelation. Linton had been nothing if not thorough in his confession, and her hatred of them all burned with a passion. She’d heard most of it before. For some time she had been encouraging Linton to talk to her, playing the part of a sympathetic matron with a deeply held religious need to help her fellow men. To him, she’d been a gentle simpleton who dispensed tea and cake as he unburdened his soul. Through Linton she’d already found out about Nelson and George, but he’d never spoken about Blatchington; and Charlie Downs was a new one to her as well. She toyed with the idea of putting the letter on the fire, but in the end she couldn’t resist taking it with her. She’d heard someone try the door handle and froze. They’d all be coming back soon, and she had to leave. She’d been in the house for ages and there was no reason why she should still be there. Then a voice called through the wood, giving her no option but to open the door. Now she wished she hadn’t.
She picked up Victor’s photograph now and kissed the glass. ‘Darling, I’ve made a stupid mistake. Help me. Tell me what to do to make it right.’
CHAPTER 38
Rex took Bea and May to the beach. Not in Worthing, but to a secluded beach at Elmer Sands partway between Littlehampton and Bognor. The place had remained unspoiled until ten years before, when the farmer sold some land to people who had built a few weekend cottages. More recently he had sold more land to developers, who had expanded it and called it Elmer Sands Estate. A line of trees screened the new estate from Bailiffscourt, and roadways had been created. Building was slow, because of the chronic shortage of builders (so many having been killed during the war), and the houses themselves were simple. Heating them by paraffin stoves and using only pump water merely added to the rustic feel of the place.
‘My parents brought me here as a child,’ he told Bea as he unpacked the car.
He had certainly come prepared, with a picnic hamper from Warnes and two folding chairs.
‘Warnes …’ she remarked. ‘Last time you stayed at the Savoy.’
‘I fancied a change,’ he replied.
‘I left you a note at the Savoy.’
He stared at her in surprise. ‘A note?’
‘I went to see you last year, and they put a note in the safe for you.’
‘Oh, Bea, I’m sorry.’
‘What if I had been unable to come today?’ Bea laughed as he spread a plaid rug on the sand.
‘Then I should have had another very lonely Sunday,’ he said, straightening up and kissing her lips. ‘Right, young lady,’ he said to May, ‘you need a bucket and spade.’
There was a small kiosk nearby and, taking May by the hand, Rex walked her to it. She came back kitted out with everything she would need for a happy time: bucket, spade, shrimp net and even a tray to put her ‘catch’ in. He’d also bought her a sunhat and a windmill. May was beaming as if it was Christmas Day.
‘What do you say?’ Bea reminded her.
‘Thank you,’ said May dutifully and, as she headed towards the water’s edge, Rex sat down next to Bea.
‘You’ve been very generous to her,’ she smiled. ‘Of course, you do realize it was all a dastardly trick, just to get you alone,’ he said.
‘I would expect nothing less from a captain in the British Army,’ she replied coyly.
‘Ex-captain,’ he corrected her, ‘and I’m not sure I deserve such an accolade. When I was in office, I did something unforgivable.’
Bea glanced at him with a puzzled expression.
‘I seduced another man’s wife and fell hopelessly in love with her.’
‘She didn’t take much seducing,’ said Bea. ‘I have it on good authority that she was already head-over-heels in love with you.’
He caught her hand and drew it to his lips. Bea watched as he kissed her fingers. ‘My poor darling. Was it awful?’
‘It wasn’t easy,’ she conceded, ‘but I still had the hope that we might be together one day. That’s what kept me going, but I never thought it would take this long.’
‘Eighteen years,’ he said, shaking his head.
‘I was cruel,’ she said. ‘I should never have made you promise to wait for me. I should have let you go and live your life. Please forgive me.’
‘Nothing to forgive,’ he protested. ‘I would have waited anyway.
‘Nelson never let me forget what we did. After he knew I was pregnant with Ruby, he didn’t touch me.’
Rex looked out to sea, where May was crouched over a rockpool. ‘But you went back to him in the end?’
‘Remember when we bumped into you?’ said Bea quietly. ‘We were in Hastings visiting friends, and we saw you going into someone’s house – a patient, I suppose. You had your doctor’s bag.’
‘I remember.’
She shook her head sadly. ‘Nelson must have seen something in my eyes – my reaction to you … I don’t know. I tried to laugh it off, pretend it never happened, but he was so angry.’
‘So May …?’
She looked down at her lap. ‘Nelson was a big man. That night he forced me. It was easy enough.’
He seized her hand. ‘Oh, my poor darling …’
Bea looked up at him and he saw the tears standing in her eyes. ‘She doesn’t know,’ she said deliberately, ‘and she must never know. I love my daughter, Rex. It’s not her fault.’
He nodded and looked back at the little girl playing in the rockpools. ‘Your secret is safe with me, but I hate the thought of what he did to you,’ he said brokenly.
Bea reached for his hand. ‘You mustn’t dwell on it, my love,’ she soothed. ‘It’s all in the past now. You’re here, and you still love me. That’s all I want in life.’
‘How can you brush it aside so easily?’
‘I saw what holding onto a hurt did to Nelson,’ she said, ‘so I made up my mind to forgive him. It wasn’t easy, but it released me from him. Please don’t feel sorry for me. I’m no martyr. I made a choice to love you, and I made a choice to save my children from the workhouse. I made a deliberate decision not to hold anything against him. I don’t regret anything. Nelson only did it the once. He was insanely jealous, and yet he hated me for trapping him into marriage. I�
�d made up my mind to leave him, once May was old enough to fend for herself. But although he never hurt her, I was too afraid to take the risk.’
A far-away child’s voice called, ‘Mummy, come and look at this.’
They both stood up. ‘How did he come to die?’
‘Ruby and I think he was murdered.’
‘Murdered?’ Rex gasped.
‘Mummy … look!’
Bea was pulling her shoes off. She put her finger to her lips. ‘I’ll tell you later.’ Then, calling to May, she said, ‘Coming, darling. Have you caught something nice?’
May was skipping in the road with her friends when Ruby and Jim slowly made their way back home. They were both tired. Eastbourne had been crowded with August bank-holiday visitors and the weather was kind to them. Cecil’s coach might have been a bit of a relic, but it was clean and comfortable and he was a careful driver. Their picnic on the beach had been a pleasure and they both enjoyed the newness of their married relationship.
However, the discovery of the bullet in the bed had dominated their day. They had rehearsed the names of everybody who had come to the house the day before, and the list was so long that it felt as if the rest of the world and his wife had passed through the doors. Friends, neighbours, Susan Marley, the florist, the chimney sweep who had come to wish them good luck, several fishermen who had sailed with Nelson, all the girls from Warnes … the list went on and on. Everyone had had access to the bedroom, because their coats had been thrown across the bed and Ruby couldn’t resist showing some of them her new ‘home’. As far as she and Jim could see, not one of them was a threat, let alone a killer. They’d gone over and over it until Ruby’s head hurt, so they’d made a pact not to speak of it again, only to find themselves drifting back to it once more.
May waved and ran towards them.
‘Hello, Pipsqueak,’ said Ruby. ‘Did you and Mummy have a nice day?’
‘We went to the beach with Mummy’s friend.’
‘Did you now,’ said Ruby.
‘It wasn’t our beach,’ said May. ‘It was miles and miles away, and we went in a big car.’
Ruby chuckled. ‘Oh, yes?’
‘We did,’ May insisted. ‘And I went fishing in a rockpool and I caught a baby crab, but Mummy said I had to put him back, because that’s where he lives and he would miss his home.’
Her mother had come to the door. ‘May, you can stay outside for another five minutes and then it’s time for bed,’ said Bea. ‘Ruby, Jim, I need to talk to you.’
Ruby’s heart sank. Something was wrong. Had something happened to Percy? ‘What is it, Mum?’ she said, going indoors and pulling off her hat.
She listened open-mouthed as Bea told them about Rex turning up.
‘Did he know it was my wedding?’
‘No, love,’ said Bea. ‘He was most upset to miss it. Apparently he was here in Worthing, but he was ill and had to stay in his room at the hotel.’
‘Oh, darling, what a terrible shame,’ Jim murmured.
‘Is he all right now?’ Ruby asked anxiously.
Bea nodded. ‘He turned up soon after you’d gone, and he took May and me to Elmer Sands.’
Ruby felt a stab of jealousy: Rex was her father. Jim must have sensed how she felt because she felt him reach for her hand. In the run-up to their wedding she had told him everything she knew about her mother and Rex. Surprisingly, for a man, Jim thought it was romantic. ‘I’m glad your mother has known real love,’ he’d said. ‘She deserves it. Your father … Nelson was never very nice to her.’
‘The thing is,’ Bea went on now, ‘he wants to meet you both.’
‘When?’ Ruby asked eagerly.
‘I told him you might be too tired, but he’d like us all to have dinner with him at the hotel tonight.’
Ruby gasped.
‘He’s sending a car around in about …’ she glanced at the clock, ‘forty minutes.’
‘Forty minutes!’
‘If you’d rather leave it for now,’ said Bea, ‘we’ve arranged that you could meet him tomorrow instead.’
Ruby glanced at her husband. ‘I can’t wait until tomorrow and, besides, it’s bank-holiday Monday. All the day-trippers will be on the prom wanting their “Magic Memories”.’
‘This is far more important, Ruby,’ said Jim. ‘He’s your father.’
Ruby suddenly realized that her mother was all dressed up. She was wearing the dress she had bought for the wedding, and her hair was neatly curled.
The next half-hour was manic. Ruby and Jim dashed around each other, concentrating on getting ready before the car came. Susan Marley came round to babysit, while Bea put May to bed. The child complained and pleaded to come, but by the time everyone was ready, she was already tucked up and Susan was reading her a story.
No one could have been more shocked than Ruby when the car pulled up outside Warnes Hotel. But if any of the staff who greeted them were surprised to see their ex-chambermaid walking through the doors as a guest, they certainly didn’t show it.
As they were shown into the dining room, a man sitting at a table near the window stood up. Ruby’s eyes never left his as they made their way through the tables. He was tall, with a military bearing. He had dark hair, greying at the temples, and he was clean-shaven. He was wearing a dinner jacket with a dark tie on a snow-white shirt. Ruby waited as he kissed her mother on the cheek and shook hands with Jim. Then Jim stepped aside and Ruby came face-to-face with her real father for the first time. They smiled at each other shyly, then Rex opened his arms and she stepped towards him with a shiver of excitement. His hug was warm and inviting, and yet sensitive to her feelings. He smelled of the carbolic fragrance of Lifebuoy soap. This was the hug she had longed for all her life; the hug Nelson could never have given her – her father’s hug.
‘I’m so pleased to meet you, Ruby,’ he smiled. ‘Your mother has told me so much about you. I can’t believe I missed your wedding. I am so sorry.’
‘Please don’t worry,’ said Ruby, her eyes shining. ‘It couldn’t be helped.’
They sat opposite each other, and several times during the evening Ruby realized she was staring at her father. They talked about everything: her childhood; how much he loved her mother and missed her; how hard it had been to wait for the right time; his days in the army; and his life now as a country doctor. They talked about Ruby’s job at the hospital, Jim’s life in the children’s home, and Rex keeping alive the memory of Bea with the help of the locket …
Ruby frowned. ‘The locket?’
Bea took something from around her neck. Ruby hadn’t noticed it before – or had she? It was vaguely familiar. Her mother showed her the hidden catch and she found herself looking at the picture of a baby.
‘That’s you,’ said Rex. ‘That was all I had of you, for all these years.’
Ruby ran her finger over the curl of hair.
‘You had dark hair, even as a baby,’ said Bea.
‘Didn’t Lily …?’ Ruby began.
‘On the day of Nelson’s inquest, Rex gave that locket to Cousin Lily to give to me,’ said Bea crossly, ‘but the little minx kept it.’
Ruby leaned across the table to show Jim her picture.
The meal they ate as they talked was amazing. Ruby had occasionally seen what was being served at Warnes, but she had never tasted it for herself. The choice was unbelievable: hors d’oeuvres, consommé – a sort of watery-looking soup – or cream of rice amandine, followed by fillet of whiting, duck with green peas or English roast beef, all served with either fresh vegetables and boiled potatoes or lettuce and tomato salad. Dessert was Viennese tartlets, fruit jelly and whipped cream or ice cream.
A little later Jim changed the subject. ‘Do members of your regiment keep in touch with each other?’ He glanced at his wife; Ruby would know where this was going. He was trying to find out if there was any way of contacting Charlie Downs.
‘Sometimes,’ said Rex. ‘There’s the regimental club and, of course,
the wonderful work the British Legion does helps to keep friendships alive.’
‘So if I wanted to find someone,’ Jim ventured, ‘would the Legion be able to help me?’
‘I imagine so,’ said Rex. ‘Or if you knew which regiment your friend was in, you could try writing to them. Why? Are you thinking of tracing your own father?’
‘Just curious,’ said Jim brightly. ‘I have no idea who my father is. The Searle family tree begins with me.’
They drank wine with the meal, but Ruby thought it wasn’t as nice as Susan Marley’s home-made elder-flower wine. Then they were invited to take their coffee in the lounge.
Ruby was following the group when she realized she’d left her scarf on the back of the chair. As she came out of the dining room into the corridor, Mrs Fosdyke came down the stairs. Her mouth visibly tightened when she saw Ruby.
‘What are you doing here, Bateman?’ she hissed as she advanced towards her. ‘How dare you!’
‘Is everything all right?’ Rex was standing in the doorway.
‘This girl,’ Mrs Fosdyke spat contemptuously, ‘has no business to be here. She is trespassing.’
The maître d’ came out of the dining room as Rex said in acid tones, ‘This girl is with me. She is my guest, and I’ll thank you to treat her with respect.’
With the maître d’ apologizing profusely and Ruby blushing a deep crimson, Mrs Fosdyke gaped from one to the other.
‘I think it’s you who should give my daughter an apology,’ said Rex, glaring at her.
Mrs Fosdyke’s lips curled. ‘Your daughter?’ It was obvious by her tone of voice that she didn’t believe him for one minute.
Ruby opened her mouth to say something, but Rex interrupted. ‘Yes, my daughter.’ He turned to the maître d’. ‘Do you usually allow your guests to be insulted like this?’