Taking the newspaper cutting out of her pocket, she showed it to the policeman ‘That’s the man I saw…Frank Arnold…I tell you it was him!’
She now had his interest, ‘Are you absolutely certain this was the man you saw getting on to that barge?’
‘It was, I tell you! He got on the barge and he went away. Painted dark brown it was, with blue all round the windows. It was him I tell you!’
She was still talking, when the police clerk ran off to fetch a senior officer.
Having grabbed both babies and shoved them into one cot, Frank had run like the wind, dodging and diving, keeping low as he scurried down the back ways and alleys. Breathless but jubilant, he clambered aboard the barge. ‘I’ve done it!’ he laughed and sniggered. Placing the cot on the bed, he stared at the tiny infants squashed up to each other, and seeming no worse for their ordeal.
‘Little bastards!’ There was no pity in his heart; no love or compassion for these helpless infants. Only revenge and hatred, and a black heart filled with murder. ‘She’ll suffer now, won’t she eh? Oh, but I won’t do you in…oh, no. I’ll just let you lie there and starve to death, and if you start bawling, I’ll just have to stuff your mouths up, won’t I, eh?’
Going to the window, he glanced out. ‘They’ll never find me,’ he gloated. ‘How will they know where I am, eh? They won’t! They’ll be looking here and there, and all the time I’m down here, in this dark little corner, far enough away so they can’t even see me.’
He stood for a full minute, just looking down at the infants. ‘Who do you belong to, eh? Me, or Joe?!’
Going to the cupboard, he flung open the door and searched for the bottle he had put there earlier. When his hand alighted on it, he drew it out. ‘Ah. A drop of this will do me for now.’
Popping the cork out, he tipped the bottle to his lips, gurgling and spluttering as the fiery liquid spilled from his mouth.
He sat down beside the cot, looking and smiling. ‘She wants you, but she can’t have you, because now I’ve got you. She can never have you…because all she deserves are years of pain and regret. When you die, it’ll be her fault, not mine.’
He took another slug from the bottle, laughing and singing and poking the babies until they cried.
In the midst of song, he thought he heard a noise outside. ‘What the devil’s that?’ He got up and peered out the window and then he saw them…dark blue uniforms creeping up the towpath looking for him. Looking for the bastards.
Snatching the cot, he climbed outside. ‘That’s him! That’s Arnold!’ A chorus of angry voices shattered the night air.
From the back of the growing crowd, Jimmy brought Joe gently forward. ‘Take it easy, Joe,’ he urged. ‘I wish now I’d never let you persuade me to bring you. I should never have told you.’ There were times when he opened his mouth before he engaged his brain, and this was such a time.
When Joe heard what was happening, he had to be here. He had to confront his brother…make him see sense.
His gaze went to Alice. She looked wretched. Contained in the arms of a burly policeman, she constantly fought to surge forward, her face soaked with tears as she called out to Frank, ‘Don’t hurt my babies. Please don’t hurt them.’
Out of his head with booze, Frank climbed to the back of the cabin. ‘Come another step nearer and I’ll throw them in the water!’ He took another step back. ‘I mean it!’
The order went out, ‘Back off!’
Then one of the officers inched forward, his hand up to calm the situation. ‘Just give me the babies,’ he said quietly. ‘Listen. You’re frightening them. You don’t want to be hurting them, Frank. Just come down and we’ll talk.’
‘Keep back!’ Shaking his fist he warned, ‘If you come one step closer, I’ll drown ‘em, I will!’
With Jimmy’s help, Joe now wended his way through the police. He called up to his brother, ‘Don’t do this, Frank.’ His voice was calm, while inside he was in turmoil, wishing he had the strength to launch himself at this man who was his own flesh and blood. ‘You’ve done some very evil things in your life Frank, but you must not harm those babies. Come down, Frank. Come down. Those innocents have done you no harm.’
Suddenly Alice was at his side, and as he looked down on her, he could feel her pain. ‘Go back,’ he murmured, but she would not.
The official’s voice called out to Frank, ‘Be sensible, man! So far you’ve not murdered anybody. Let’s keep it that way, shall we?’
He dared to take a small step forward, and as he did so, Frank took a step back. He was dangerously balanced on the edge of the barge. ‘THE BITCH HAS TO SEE THEM GO DOWN…’ He gave a low wicked laugh. ‘I want to see her face when they disappear under the water.’
Now he was waving his fist and shaking the cot, working himself up into a rage. When he began laughing he went backwards and lost his footing. The cot went up in the air. One small bundle rolled back to the floorboards, the other went with him, backwards and down, into the murky depths.
Everything happened at once. When a frantic cry went up, Joe kept Alice back. One policeman ran to collect the child from the cabin floor, while two others threw off their jackets and shoes and dived into the murky depths.
In Joe’s arms, Alice prayed like never before, as they could only stand helplessly while the policemen came up several times for air. The water was deep and dark, and it was difficult to see.
When they finally surfaced, one of them had the cot in his fist.
As he handed the cot up to the helping hand, he shook his head, a look of sadness in his eyes.
Some time later, the divers moved in.
It took a while, but eventually, they found two bodies. One was Frank Arnold. The other was the baby.
Once they knew the whole story, people said it was poetic justice.
Acting on information and other suspicions, the police later discovered another body in the murky dark waters further away; that of Jack, the bargee.
Some said that with the drowning of Frank, Jack had taken his revenge, but that the tiny innocent had been caught up in the evil that was Frank Arnold.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
ON A GLORIOUS June day, in the church at Husborne Crawley, Joe stood tall and proud as the music started. He wanted to look round but he made himself wait, because this was a moment he wanted to keep in his heart forever.
When finally he did look round, he saw her walking up the aisle towards him, and no man could have been prouder. Alice was about to become his wife.
At long last, after many trials and much heartbreak, they were together, and it was a bittersweet moment.
But there was one, very precious matter to tend to, before they made their marriage vows.
Smiling, Alice walked up to him, and together they went with the priest to the font at the side of the altar, where they christened the boy with the brown eyes, ‘Michael Ronald Arnold’.
After the christening, his grandfather Ronald took the boy, while Joe and Alice made their vows. Mandy was there, all dressed up and looking pretty in her bridesmaid dress. Pauline and Maureen had dressed to the nines for the day, but throughout they kept their distance. No one expected anything different.
Afterwards, Alice and Joe went into the small churchyard on the hill, where they stood beside the tiny resting place cradled amongst the rhododendrons.
Alice laid her bouquet and, kneeling there, she prayed that the good Lord would hold her lost baby in His arms and keep him safe.
Then, with feelings of joy and sadness, she walked down to the arch, with her husband at her side, and their son Michael, safe in his embrace. ‘I love you, Alice Arnold,’ Joe whispered. ‘I love you too,’ she said, and they held each other for a precious moment.
Later, back at Tom and Nancy’s cottage, Tom came up to Alice. ‘I’ve been a silly old beggar!’ he said.’ I didn’t believe it was you who kept me in our beloved little home. You even chose to bring the celebrations back here. I owe you everything.
And I gave you nothing.’
Alice hugged him. ‘You gave me more than enough,’ she said. ‘You gave me the man I love, and now we have a son, and people who love us. We have a house of our own, thanks to Edward Baxter, who bought another cottage especially for us. So, Tom, what else could anyone else want?’
Another voice intervened. ‘Nothing at all!’ Nancy said, and then she told everyone to go out to the barn and start up the dancing. ‘And for them that don’t want to dance, the food’s waiting,’ she said. ‘So, go on! Get to it!’
Merry music echoed through the air, until the early hours of the morning.
Outside, away from the noise and the crowd, Joe and Alice strolled awhile. Joe smiled down on Alice. ‘I’ve loved you forever,’ he murmured.
‘Somehow I always knew you and I belonged together,’ she confided softly.
There was a long moment of silence, when they looked back on all that had happened. ‘It’s been a bitter journey at times,’ Joe said. ‘There were moments when I thought this day would never happen.’
He took her in his arms with a kind of fierceness. ‘I will always look after you,’ he promised. ‘I won’t ever let anyone hurt you or the baby, ever again!’
‘I know,’ she said.
This was not the end.
It was just the beginning.
Also by Josephine Cox
QUEENIE’S STORY
Her Father’s Sins
Let Loose the Tigers
THE EMMA GRADY TRILOGY
Outcast
Alley Urchin
Vagabonds
Angels Cry Sometimes
Take This Woman
Whistledown Woman
Don’t Cry Alone
Jessica’s Girl
Nobody’s Darling
Born to Serve
More than Riches
A Little Badness
Living a Lie
The Devil You Know
A Time for Us
Cradle of Thorns
Miss You Forever
Love Me or Leave Me
Tomorrow the World
The Gilded Cage
Somewhere, Someday
Rainbow Days
Looking Back
Let It Shine
The Woman Who Left
Jinnie
Bad Boy Jack
The Beachcomber
Lovers and Liars
Live the Dream
The Journey
Journey’s End
The Loner
Songbird
Born Bad
Divorced and Deadly
Copyright
HarperCollinsPublishers
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Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2010
FIRST EDITION
Copyright © Josephine Cox 2010
Josephine Cox asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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