She gave her another peck on the cheek, then she was gone, and Alice was all alone in the cavernous kitchen.
For a long time, Alice sat there, her mind alive with thoughts of these past months. ‘Darling Joe; I wish we could be together,’ she whispered. ‘But I know we can’t.’
She walked across to the window and looked out. The snow was still falling, now knee-deep in places. ‘I miss you so much, Joe. I think about you all the time, and oh, I do so much want these babies to be yours.’
Stroking her hand across her stomach, she suddenly thought about Frank, and the fear inside her was palpable.
Raising her eyes upwards to the vast, brooding skies, she spoke in the smallest of whispers. ‘Don’t let them be his!’ she pleaded. ‘Please, Lord…I couldn’t bear the thought of Frank’s children growing inside me, but I can’t snuff out their lives.’
It was partly that fear that kept her awake at night. And the questions; always the questions. Where was he? Was he hiding low, planning his next move? Was he watching her, even now?
Instinctively, she backed away from the window.
But one pressing question remained.
Had she done the right thing in not ending the pregnancy? And the answer came back loud and clear. It was right and proper, to give these innocents little ones the chance of life. After all, what happened that night was not their fault.
It was her’s and Joe’s, and it was only right that she and Joe should be the ones punished.
Upstairs in her bed, Tricia lay awake, waiting for Alice to come upstairs.
Twice, Joshua had opened one eye to watch her stirring, and each time he had asked worriedly, ‘What’s wrong with you? Why can’t you sleep?’
‘I’m just a bit restless,’ she told him. ‘Now stop fussing, and get back to sleep. You’re keeping me awake now!’
All the same, she was anxious. Alice was deeply troubled, she knew that, but hopefully once the babies were born and she was able to hold them in her arms then life might seem more worth the living.
There was something else too.
Just now, when she was speaking with Alice, she noticed the pink flush on her face. It reminded her of the time when she herself was expecting.
Just prior to Alice’s father being born, she too had that same pink flush and felt uncomfortably warm and bothered. So much so that she could hardly bear to be inside the house.
Was Alice feeling like that? Was it why she had been standing at the back door in her nightgown? Because she was hot and uncomfortable?
Tricia chided herself. ‘I’m imagining things,’ she muttered, ‘Alice still has over three weeks to go yet.’
‘What did you say?’ Joshua rolled over.
‘Nothing!’ Tricia shoved him back to his own side. ‘You get back to sleep!’
After a few minutes she heard Alice come up the stairs and then she heard her close the bedroom door. ‘Silly old fool that I am!’ she smiled. ‘Worrying about something and nothing, when there’s still plenty of time yet.’
With that thought in her mind and Alice now safely in her bedroom, Tricia soon dropped off to sleep.
Very soon, the house was quiet.
Alice however, was wide awake. She had climbed into bed and wanted to sleep, but she couldn’t. So after a while she got out of bed and threw open a window.
Now she was seated cross-legged on the window seat, watching the snow continue to fall, very quickly covering everything sparkly white.
As always when she was alone and quiet, her thoughts went to Joe. ‘The woman in the post office told Grandfather that you were beginning to take a few tentative steps on your own two feet. Oh, that’s so wonderful, Joe!’ she said to herself.
She closed her eyes for a moment and she could see his face, that familiar wonderful face with those handsome eyes and the mop of hair that seemed to have a mind of its own.
She wondered if he was looking up at the same sky right now, watching the snow tumbling down. ‘I know you don’t love me Joe, and after what’s happened, I can’t blame you for not wanting me.’
Kissing her finger tips she blew it to the breeze. ‘I’m sending my love to you anyway.’
She missed Joe so much. Since that day when he told her to leave, she had never gone back; though every minute of every day she had longed to see him again.
She had accepted his decision, because she had no real choice. Even so, nothing could stop her from loving him.
There was no other man she would ever need, not like she needed Joe.
With a heavy heart, she climbed back into bed, and within minutes had drifted into a shallow, restless sleep.
In the early hours of the morning, Tricia was woken by the sound of what seemed like a heavy thump. ‘Alice!’ Scrambling out of bed, she ran to Alice’s room. As she flung open the door, Alice fell into her arms. ‘I don’t know what’s wrong,’ she sobbed. ‘I think the babies are coming…’ When suddenly she grasped her lower abdomen and yelled out in pain, Tricia knew there was no time to waste. ‘It’s all right,’ she led Alice back to the bed. ‘Try to keep calm, Alice. We’ll get you to hospital. Don’t worry, child…’
Just then Joshua burst into the room. ‘What is it?’ He took one look at Alice bent double and groaning and his heart sank. ‘Oh, dear God, the babies are coming…’ Like all men he was lost as to what he should do next. ‘I’ll phone the ambulance, shall I?’
As he hurried out of the room, Tricia called after him, ‘Hurry, Josh. Tell them it’s urgent! Make sure they know she’s three weeks early!’
‘Oh, dear! Oh dearie me!’ Joshua almost fell headlong down the stairs in his hurry to get to the phone.
From upstairs he could be heard issuing instructions as to how the ambulance should get there, and then he was running back in a panic. ‘They say they might need to wait until the snow has cleared. They’re not sure they can get along the lanes, but they’ll do their best, and keep in touch.’
He had an idea that might just save the day. ‘The Land Rover!’ He went running back down the stairs. ‘It’s not the most comfortable thing in the world, but that old Rover can get through anything!’
Before anyone could stop him, he was away, determined by one means or another to get Alice to hospital.
In the meantime, Tricia got Alice as comfortable as she could, rubbing her back and keeping her calm. All the while Alice clung to her, intermittently crying out as the pains grew stronger, and the time between got short and shorter.
Tricia was no expert, but she knew enough to realise that the babies were on their way; they were not waiting for anyone.
Going to the window, she saw Joshua opening the garage doors. Quickly now, she flung open the window and yelled down to him. ‘Joshua!’ When he seemed not to have heard, she yelled again, this time louder. ‘Joshua…Joshua, look up!’
This time Joshua turned and saw her. ‘There’s no time! You have to get Nancy!’ Tricia recalled how Nancy delivered a baby once when the girl in the butcher’s shop went into labour without warning. ‘Hurry, Joshua! Tell Nancy she’s needed…fast as you can!’
Joshua jumped into the car as quickly as he could, the big wheels leaving wide, flattened tracks of snow as he sped off. ‘Don’t let them die!’ he prayed, as his hands gripped the steering wheel tightly. ‘You look after my girl, and them little babies. Or I’ll never forgive you!’
Tom heard the roar of the engine as the Land Rover skidded and fought its way up to the cottage door. ‘What the devil…!’ Grabbing his trousers he threw them on and ran down the stairs. ‘Damned lunatic…what’s he think he’s playing at…’ When there came a hammering and banging enough to knock the door off its hinges, Tom put his back to it and yelled out, ‘You’d best get away from that door if you know what’s good for yer! I’ve got a shotgun and I know how to use it!’
When Nancy came running into the hallway, Tom shouted out, ‘Get away from here, Nancy. It’s them bloody gypsies! I’ve seen ‘em parked up in that bottom field. I knew they
were trouble the minute I clapped eyes on ‘em!’
When there came another hard banging on the door, he shouted, ‘I’ve told you…clear orf! Unless you want a blast o’ shotgun pellet up yer arse!’
‘Tom! It’s me!’ Joshua tried to get himself heard above all the shouting and commotion. ‘Tom! It’s me…Joshua!’
Nancy heard. ‘Get outta the way, you silly old fool!’ With one mighty swipe she pushed him away from the door.
The minute she had the door open, Joshua was in. ‘Alice needs you!’ he said breathlessly. ‘Tricia says the babies are on their way and there’s no time to lose…please, Nancy. You’ve got to come. The ambulance can’t get through, and it’s too risky to put her in the Land Rover.’
‘My wife is not going anywhere!’ Tom was adamant. ‘Whether Alice is having her babies or not is none of our concern. So you can go right back where you came from, and tell her that!’
‘You don’t speak for me, Tom Arnold!’ Nancy said quietly but boldly. ‘Did you not hear what Joshua said? Your daughter-in-law is about to have our grandchildren, and the ambulance can’t get through. You can stay here if you like, but as for me, I’m ready to do anything I can to help.’
Still dressed in her nightgown, she ran back to get her shoes and long coat. As it was knee deep in snow along the path, Joshua carried her out to the Land Rover. ‘There’s a blanket in the back,’ he said breathlessly as he sat her in the seat. ‘It’s an old picnic thing, but I dare say it’ll keep you warm if you need it…’ Reaching inside the back, he got it out and spread it over her knees.
As they drove away, Nancy looked back to see Tom, still standing at the door; a small, solitary figure that made her heart ache. ‘He’s a good man,’ she told Joshua. ‘It’s just that he’s finding it hard to deal with everything that’s happened.’
‘I know.’ Joshua had also suffered a few bad moments these past months. ‘Like you said, Tom is a good man. Just give him time. He’ll come round, you see if he doesn’t.’
Nancy kept her gaze on Tom for as long as she could. ‘I’m sorry, Tom,’ she whispered. ‘There’s already been too much pain and unhappiness. Maybe it’s time we started looking forward.’
When they got to the big house, Alice was wrapped up and beng loaded into the ambulance. ‘We managed to get through in the end,’ the driver said, ‘…but it might help if you were to go in front of us on the way back. We followed your earlier tracks but the road’s still a bit dodgy out there.’
Joshua was only too pleased to do whatever he could, zigzagging and and creating a wider, flatter trail, to give Alice a smoother ride.
On arriving at the hospital, Alice was quickly whisked away.
While she was gone, Joshua, Tricia and Nancy walked up and down. They chatted and talked of Joe, and Alice, and even Frank, while they waited for news of Alice and the babies.
Three hours later, when they were huddled in the chairs, half asleep, they received news that Alice had given birth to two healthy babies. ‘Two perfectly beautiful boys,’ the nurse assured them, and told them that Alice was doing fine.
On realising that everything was well, all three of them shed a tear. ‘Think of it! Two grandsons!’ Nancy was laughing and crying all at the same time.
‘Dearie me!’ Joshua felt proud of his own part in it all. ‘I was thinking of selling it, but I think I’ll keep that Land Rover now.’ He was that excited he didn’t really know what to say.
Tricia was very quiet.
‘Are you all right?’ Joshua asked her.
With tears in her eyes, she told him. ‘We’re so lucky, you and me. We have a wonderful son in Ronald, and a lovely granddaughter, and now…two new grandsons. What have we ever done to deserve it?’
Her heartfelt comment made them all stop and think.
PART SIX
January/February 1953
A Price to Pay
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
BY A MIXTURE of luck, accident and devious means, Frank Arnold had avoided capture for many months.
Having kept himself to himself, he took on the lonely life of the modest man he had so callously murdered, and travelled freely up and down the many miles of waterways; showing himself only when needing to earn money in the fields, or to purchase fuel and necessities.
Occasionally he would venture out on a dark night to look for the kind of woman who did not mind spending the night with a stranger.
Wily and cunning, he was also a bitter, driven man. A man who had lost all sense of reality. And the only thing on his mind was revenge on those who had ruined the life he knew before.
‘Alice! That bitch!’ Murmuring her name, he stood at the back of the barge, skilfully shifting the tiller this way and that, gliding along the water as though he was born to it. Having worked with engines all his farming life, and tracked straight lines up and down a field, the barge was not too great a mystery.
His one aim in life was to mete out a just punishment on those who had belittled and deceived him. It was the one thing that kept him going.
He had a plan, and he was biding his time.
He also had a thirst.
That was why he now made his way down to his favourite watering hole.
As he came round the curve, a cavalcade of ducks and swans flew up into the air, quacking and calling and making a flurry in the sky. ‘Gerrout of it, you buggers!’ Frank had no love for birds; they made a mess of his boat, and soiled his washing-line.
His foul mood lifted when he saw the old pub before him, tucked back on the towpath, and looking warm and inviting. The Glen in the vale of Stoke Hammond was a haven. This old place was visited by every boatman up and down the canal.
Anticipating that pint glass overflowing with amber nectar, he licked his lips as he came round, gently and easy, taking the barge further up the towpath, so as not to be too easily noticed. Drawing into the side, he threw off his line and moored the barge with ease. Like someone born to it.
Once the barge was secure, he then put on his duffle coat and pulled the woolly hat down over his forehead. As ever, he maintained a low profile, and kept his wits about him.
‘Right, sir! What’s it to be then?’ The barman had seen him arrive. He also knew him to be a man of few words.
Frank sidled up to the bar. ‘A pint of your best.’ As always he avoided eye contact.
‘Bit nippy out there, eh?’
‘You could say that, yes.’
‘Travelled far have you?’
‘Far enough.’ He kept a civil tongue, but in his head he was thinking. ‘Get a damned move on! I’m not here for idle chit chat.’
‘There you go, matey.’ The barman slid the pint over to him, and Frank slid the coins back. Then without another word he walked away to seat himself in the far corner, by the window.
From here he could see the barge, and anyone who dared go near it.
As he tipped the glass to his lips, he heard the murmur of men talking. Seated at a wooden trestle outside the window, they were discussing the time of day and the recent freak storms in Britain that had taken the lives of over four hundred people.
The conversation moved on to which horse might win in a certain race on Saturday; while the women present among them talked of the forthcoming coronation of Elizabeth the second.
Ignoring them, and pleased to be out of sight, Frank again took a long slow gulp of beer, savouring the flavour as it hit the back of his throat.
As the voices wafted up to him, Frank suddenly realised they were talking about him.
‘It’s time they caught that wicked bugger!’ one woman declared angrily. ‘What he did to his wife was unbelievable. He must be mad as a hatter!’
‘Yes, but what I want to know is where the devil is he?’ That was her companion. ‘It’s like he’s vanished off the face of the earth.’
‘You’re right! And it now begins to looks like the police are scaling down the search, more’s the pity.’
A man’s voice intervened. ‘Acc
ording to the papers, they did arrest somebody, but it turned out to be some poor devil who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.’
The first woman interrupted excitedly, ‘Apparently, the police are keeping an eye on the maternity unit at Bedford.’
‘Why?’ That was the first man.
‘Well, because according to the papers, she gave birth to twins, and for some reason, that’s where they still are…in Bedford maternity unit. Think about it, Lenny. If he tried to kill his brother and his wife, what’s to say he won’t harm the babies?’
A new voice chipped in, ‘What about the brother…the one he crippled?’
There was a small silence, before someone else said, ‘They don’t say too much about him, do they? It’s like they’re more interested in the woman and her babies; probably because they think it’s her he’ll go after.’
One man had a strong opinion on Alice. ‘I’ll tell you what…she was wrong to sleep with his brother. Any man would go out of his mind if that happened.’
‘She may have been wrong, but that Frank Arnold was worse! He tried to kill three people; all family. As far as I’m concerned, he should be locked up and left to rot!’
When the men began discussing the next Australia versus England cricket match at the Oval, Frank gulped down his drink, and made a hasty exit.
His shortest route was straight out the front door and past the group he had heard talking.
Frank caught the eye of the woman. For the longest few seconds when their eyes met each other’s, the woman felt a cold shiver go through her; while he found delight in imagining his hands locked around her neck, choking the last drop of life out of her.
In the space of a heartbeat, he held her with his hard stare, before quickly turning and hurrying away.
Climbing on to the barge, he went straight to the calendar, which was hanging behind the cabin door.
He carefully studied the fine red line that ran from the date of his wedding, to a date which was two days away.
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