“Out where?”
She jerked her thumb towards the window. “Out there. That tree may look dead but don’t you believe it. If you thought a tree couldn’t move, take a good look at that one. It’s about six feet closer to the house than it was two years ago. Its branches are longer too and its leaves rustle, even though there are no leaves and the wind isn’t blowing.”
Angus felt a stiffening in his shoulders as he chose his words carefully. “Perhaps you’ve been overdoing things. Is there anything you’d like to talk about. We’ve known each other a long time. Maybe I can help.”
“I knew you’d say something like that.” She got up close to his face. “But I’m not crazy. Fred and Edna Fitzgerald are in that tree, hell bent and determined to get in here. You don’t think the bloody tree can move on its own do you.”
She got up and took a cautious step toward the window. “That’s why I’ve got the curtains closed. So they can’t see me. I’m even afraid to go outside. The tree, them, they’re out there waiting.”
“But surely—”
“But surely, nothing. Once they get in here it’s God help me.”
“But why would they be after you?”
Biddy grabbed hold of his sleeve. “How the hell should I know. I’ve done nothing but work my fingers to the bone taking care of Sarah, but what do they care? I’ll show them though. I’m getting the damn tree chopped down, then burned, roots and all, every last bloody twig of it. I’ll get the spot concreted over, then that’ll be that.”
“Perhaps you’re right,” Angus said, suddenly deciding to humor her. “It is rather unsightly.”
“Sarah isn’t going to like it though,” Biddy said, “Still, I’ve got to think about myself.”
Angus forced himself to place an arm on her shoulder, even patted it once or twice. “Why not let me handle this. I know someone who’ll do it cheaper than anyone else.”
“OK but I want it done this week. Every day it creeps an inch or two nearer.”
“Tomorrow’s Sunday but I’ll ring him first thing next week. He’s busy and it might take a few days, but I promise you that tree will be gone and the spot paved over as soon as he can get to it.”
“Good. I want it carted off and burned.”
Angus looked up at the cuckoo clock and checked it with his watch. “I need to be getting back. There’s a cleaning crew coming in at three. The house needs a good clean before Gladys gets home.” He headed for the door then turned, praying for diplomacy. “How’d it be if I take Sarah with me, just for a few days. What with her being ill, it’s bound to have been hard on you. Perhaps you could pack a suitcase?”
He watched Biddy closely, saw the relief, followed by a frown. “Can’t you wait until the tree’s chopped down. She’s company for me, and Fred and Edna wouldn’t dare try anything with her in the house. If she goes, I’ll have to go too. I’m not staying here by myself until the tree’s gone.”
Angus nodded, concerned for Sarah’s well-being, but what Biddy said eased his mind. As long as the tree was still on the lawn, Sarah was safe. Besides, if Biddy had to leave, where could she go? She didn’t have relatives. The whole problem needed to be thought through. Glen Ellen was just three miles outside the village. He’d give Jonathon a ring. See what he said.
“All right,” Angus said, his hand on the doorknob. “I’ll get in touch with the man about the tree. I’ll be back up here tomorrow.”
Before Biddy could say another word, he opened the door and walked toward Andy and Sarah who stood talking beside the car.
“I’ll find Jenny,” Andy said to Sarah when he saw his uncle come out of the house. “Just trust me.”
“OK, then you can get married and start on the babies. It’s the only way.”
“What’s the only way?” his uncle asked.
“Never mind.” Andy shook his head and smiled. “I may tell you later.”
As Sarah watched Andy’s car turn the corner, the postman cycled up the drive.
“Got something for you, Sarah,” he said as he lifted a brown paper parcel from the wire basket in front of his bike.
She grinned and poked him on his breast pocket. “Don’t you be teasing me, Harry Hogan. Nobody’s ever sent me a parcel, never once in my whole life.”
Harry grinned back, looked at the address then back at her. “Miss Sarah Fitzgerald. That’s you isn’t it? Still, if you don’t want it, I can take it back.”
Sarah almost snatched the parcel out of his hand. “Thank you, Harry,” she remembered to say, then bustled over to the tree. She sat on the seat and hugged the parcel to her breast. Somebody had thought enough of her to send her a parcel, had even gone to the trouble to wrap it up in brown paper and string, then put stamps on and post it. She ran her fingers over her name and address before she tore off the wrapping. Inside the cigar box were six hair slides, all different colors, and a yellow chiffon scarf, as well as a tiny box containing the prettiest pearl earrings she’d ever seen. She held them in her hand and wondered who in the world would take her to get her ears pierced. The note was from Lottie Mellville, her friend in the next bed at Craighead Hospital. The note said she’d bought the things in the hospital gift shop and hoped Sarah liked them. Lottie was back in hospital for a few days of therapy, some sort of hiccup to her leg was how she put it. This time though there was no Sarah in the next bed to talk to.
Sarah fingered each slide in turn, tried on the scarf and read the note again. Finally she placed the trinkets back in the box and stood for a few minutes, the sun warm on her arms. While she thought of Lottie, she watched Bill Bass and his two dogs round up the sheep in the field across the lane, and then she headed back to the house.
***
As Andy drove toward Stoney Beck, his uncle gave him a rundown on his conversation with Biddy. “I’ll ring Jonathon when I get home. He’s their doctor here now, but Biddy’s headed for a mental collapse, no doubt about it. Maybe he can talk her into committing herself. I can’t do it. She doesn’t trust me.”
“Biddy’s been sliding downhill for a long time,” Andy said. “But even if we can get her out of there, Sarah can’t stay by herself. Maybe she could’ve handled a small flat in the village, or a small cottage maybe, but even that’s out now.”
Angus let out a long, deep sigh. “If she gets any worse, we’re looking at dialysis, even a transplant if we can get one.”
Andy slowed down to avoid a dog that had darted into the lane. “I’m still trying to get used to the idea that Jenny’s her twin. It’s hard to believe you’ve known all these years and never said a word about it.”
“I was the executor as well as the physician. It was for Sarah’s sake, especially since we had no idea where the mother and sister were. No way would Biddy tell because the last thing she’d want is them turning up. What I can’t understand is Jenny’s reaction when I told her. I know she likes Sarah, so it’s not that.” He glanced at Andy. “Do you get the feeling something else is on her mind, that there’s more to this than finding the answer to her mother’s note?”
Andy shifted into second to tackle the hill ahead. “There’s a priest at St. Mary’s in Daytonwater, a Father Woodleigh. Do you know him?”
“Never heard of him. What’s a priest got to do with anything?”
“On that first day, when Jenny rented one of our cars, she said she was going to St. Mary’s. Somebody back home had said it was very old and worth a visit. But Walter Pudsley told me she’d asked him on her first day if he knew anybody named Woodleigh. And what with the priest at St. Mary’s being called Woodleigh, well, I just thought it odd, that’s all.”
He crawled behind Herbie Hunt’s tractor from up at Marsdon Tarn Farm. “And there’s something else. She’s got this morbid fear of hospitals. Her father was sick for years before he died, then a couple of weeks later her mother died from an overdose. Maybe it all got too much.”
“Did she say what her father died of?”
“No.”
“We need to know because of Sarah. Did she tell you herself about her fear of hospitals?”
Andy told him the ambulance driver had stopped at the garage to put air in his tires and when Jenny had walk across the common, the man said he recognized her. She’d gone with Sarah in the ambulance. He said Jenny seemed uneasy when she’d climbed into the ambulance, and later a hospital orderly told him she’d had some sort of panic attack while she was in the hospital. Not screaming or anything, hot and out of breath. She couldn’t keep up with him and told him she hated hospitals.
“Maybe that’s part of it,” Angus said. “If she’s got some sort of hospital phobia, the last thing she’d want to be is Sarah’s twin. If Sarah ends up needing a kidney, wouldn’t all eyes turn to Jenny?”
Andy saw the clear stretch of road ahead and pulled around the tractor, throwing up his hand to Herbie as they passed. “Ever since she came to the village, I—”
His uncle turned toward him. “You what?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Sometimes I wish I’d never laid eyes on her.”
“You’re not falling for her are you?”
“Wouldn’t you? Have you seen anything like her around here lately? I was at the station when she got off the train. Gave her a lift to the Hare. Thought I was really getting somewhere, but then she cooled. Come close, she seems to say, but not too close. Yesterday, in Malone’s, I was all set to ask her for a date when in walks Prissy acting like nothing ever happened.” He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “God, what did I ever see in her.”
“So, you’re over her at last, ay?”
Andy glanced at him and gave a short laugh. “What do you think? I didn’t know it then but she did me favor that day she walked out. Next to Jenny, she just doesn’t stack up and what’s more, she knows it. Oh, I had a drink with her at the Hare and told her it was over but she didn’t believe me until I dropped her off at the farm. She told me then how she’d noticed the way I looked at Jenny. I didn’t know I did that but you know how women are. They don’t miss much. I drove off then because it was time to pick you up, but she kept ringing me last night until I finally took the phone off the hook. She rang again this morning and said she was going back to London.”
His uncle drummed his fingers on the car door. “We’ve spent half the afternoon talking about Jenny and this is the first time you’ve said one word about falling for her. What’s the big secret?”
“There isn’t one. If anything had come of it, I would have told you. Anyway, she’s an American. How do I know she hasn’t got some guy waiting for her back home. And what would she want with the likes of me anyway? All I’ve got is a room full of clocks and a garage tucked up here in the hills. Not very exciting is it?”
“It is to you. You do have a degree in marine biology. You’re the one who wanted the garage, and you’re one of the best damn clock people in the North West of England.”
Andy stopped at the post office and waited while two cyclists passed. “I’ll pull into Malone’s, so you can have a word with her.”
When they went inside, Ada Malone told them Jenny had left early, said she was going for a long drive. No, she didn’t say where.
***
Biddy lit a cigarette and poured herself a strong one. She propped up the snapshot once more against the sugar bowl and blew smoke on Beverly and the priest as Sarah came into the kitchen. “How about you and me putting on our glad rags tomorrow and going to church.”
Sarah clapped her hands. “Do you really mean it? We haven’t been since the funeral.”
Biddy turned to look at the window, making sure the curtains were closed. She picked up the snapshot and held it out to Sarah. “Take a look at this. Do you recognize anybody on it?”
Sarah sat opposite her and squinted at the picture. “He looks a bit like Father Woodleigh. It’s not his son is it?”
“No. It’s him when he was young.”
“Oh.”
“What do you think of the girl with him?”
Sarah held the snapshot at arms length, and then brought it up close again. “She’s very pretty. We don’t know her do we?”
“No. She’s someone the priest was in love with.” Biddy put her thumbs in her mouth and pressed them against her upper plate. “How about you and me having some fun while we’re in church tomorrow?”
“We can’t have fun in church, Biddy. We have to behave.”
“Oh, it won’t be that bad.” Biddy leaned forward, warming to the idea. “We’ll wait until halfway through the service. This should be the perfect time.”
“Perfect for what?”
“For you to walk down the aisle and show him this snapshot.”
Sarah’s hand came up to cover her mouth. “I can’t do that. Father Woodleigh would get very cross. Why can’t we give it to him on the way out?”
“Don’t ask stupid questions,” Biddy said, her voice high and strange. “We’ll do it when I say so.”
Sarah lowered her head, uneasy now, feeling Biddy’s eyes on her, wild like they were a lot these days. “OK.”
“You can wear that red dress with the white polka dots and we’ll put a new red ribbon on your white straw hat. Your mother loved you in that getup.”
Sarah looked at the snapshot closely. Maybe Father Woodleigh wouldn’t be cross after all. He had been so kind to visit her in hospital even though she didn’t know him. Lottie had teased her and said that he had taken a shine to her. When he came again, he told Sarah he was a friend of Jenny’s. On another day he had stopped here at the house and told Biddy that a prayer would be said for Sarah during Mass. Sarah could hardly believe that part because she hardly ever went to church any more.
“Was Father Woodleigh in love with this girl?” she asked.
“What do you think? Look at his hands. They’re all over her.”
Sarah nodded, anxious not to upset Biddy. “You’re right. He’ll be so pleased when I show him.”
“Tickled pink more like it,” Biddy said.
Sarah leaned on the table, chin in her hands. “If I do this, will we be friends forever and ever. Will you cross your heart and promise?”
“That’s right, Sarah,” Biddy said, crossing her heart. “We’ll be friends forever.”
“Can I get my ears pierced?”
“You can get your nose pierced if you want to.”
Sarah giggled. Biddy hardly ever tried to be funny. If showing the snapshot to the priest meant so much to her, Sarah would do it. She’d do anything to keep Biddy happy. Perhaps she’d been teasing when she’d said Jenny was leaving. So if Sarah showed the picture to Father Woodleigh, maybe, just maybe, Biddy would be in such a good mood, Sarah could coax her into swinging by Jenny’s cottage and inviting her to tea.
“Tomorrow’s going to be such a lovely day,” she said. “I can hardly wait.”
“Neither can I. Now be a good girl and ring Dr. Thorne. Don’t mention tomorrow or anything. Just say you were glad to see him today and that you and I are very happy together. If you’ll do this, I promise we’ll be friends forever.”
Biddy gave the phone to Sarah and listened while she talked to Dr. Thorne, making sure there were no slip-ups. Later, when Sarah had gone to her room to listen to her records, Biddy leaned back in her chair thinking about tomorrow. After Sarah had given the snapshot to the priest, this would clinch it for Biddy. Thorne coming home early would make no difference. When Jenny Robinson found out the priest had the snapshot, you wouldn’t see her for dust. Biddy would get the whole shebang. Everything was going to be all right after all.
Chapter Sixteen
In the cottage that same evening, Jenny sat by the phone and tapped her international phone card lightly on the desk. Finally she punched in the numbers embossed on the card and added her uncle’s home phone number.
“Hello.”
“Uncle Tim? How’s it going?”
“Jenny? It’s so good to hear your voice. Seems like you’ve been gone forever.”
�
�Is everything OK?”
“I guess so. I was up at the cabin yesterday. Beautiful day. Eighty-five degrees. Carolina blue sky with just a whisper of a breeze. I looked at your skis hanging there, covered in dust. Couldn’t help but wonder when you’re coming home?”
“Not yet awhile. Got something to tell you, Uncle Tim.”
“Oh? You’ve told the priest? How did he take it?’
“Haven’t done that yet. I want to tell you something else. Are you sitting down?”
“Oh, God, Jenny. Every time you say that, you hit me with a two by four.”
“I’ve found out what Mom was trying to tell me in that note.”
As calmly and succinctly as she could, Jenny brought her uncle up to date. She told him about her conversation with Dr. Thorne and how the man had broken the news to her that she had a twin sister named Sarah. By the time Jenny had explained the complicated will, at least half an hour had passed. Somewhere in all of this, she told her uncle about Biddy, at the same time trying to paint her as a befuddled old woman rather than the bitch she really was. Finally Jenny asked him to send copies of the documents Dr. Thorne wanted and could he please mail them the fastest way.
“When we talked the other night,” Uncle Tim said, “I thought then you might be on to something. But I never dreamed it was anything like this.”
“Neither did I and I’m still trying to take it in. You will get those papers off won’t you?”
“I’ll get them off tomorrow. Thank God we found all these things before you left. But are you OK? Over there by yourself with all this going on?”
Jenny leaned back in her chair, feeling the load lift just a little. “Yes. I’m fine. Especially now, since I’ve told you all this. Everybody here seems nice and friendly. There’s no telling what Dr. Thorne thinks of me after I stalked out of his house. I think he expected me to jump up and down, but all I could think about was the priest. I mean how do I tell him he’s got grown-up twins?”
“You have to tell him Jenny. This is as much his problem as it is yours. You can’t carry all this on your own shoulders. Don’t forget what we said. The truth will set you free.”
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