by Anne Bennett
Oranges were so hard to get that Molly just gaped at it. ‘Where did he get it?’ she asked at last.
‘He wouldn’t say,’ Daisy replied. ‘“Ask no questions and you’ll be told no lies,” was his answer to me. I think he has his own sources. Anyway, he has sent you some apples too, and we girls all pooled our sweet ration to get you a bit of chocolate.’
‘Oh, you are so very good.’
‘Aren’t we?’ Daisy agreed. ‘Fitted up with halos, the lot of us. And I have a confession to make too.’
‘What?’
‘I have your handbag. I didn’t want them police ferreting through your things and I didn’t see how it could be relevant to anything anyroad. I went back up the lane real early the next morning to see if I could find summat, some clue about who did that to you, and when I saw your handbag stuck in the hedge I took it.’
‘Oh, yes,’ Molly said. ‘I remember it flying off my shoulder when that thug swung me round.’
‘Well, you can have it back any time you want,’ Daisy said. ‘That copper went all out to find it and had us all in to be questioned, but I never let on I had hold of it, like.’
Molly sighed with relief. ‘That’s great,’ she said. ‘You keep it for now. I’ll have it back when the inspector has given me up as a lost cause.’
‘When is that likely to be?’
Molly shrugged. ‘How would I know? You know what coppers are. But I can’t remember much. All I know is what the inspector told me you did.’
‘Don’t see what good it would be if you did remember, unless you recognised the men or anything,’ Daisy said. ‘I mean, I remember it all, for what good it is. With the blackout, those men could walk past me in the street, bump into me even, and I wouldn’t recognise them. Sickening, though, ain’t it that they are going to get away with what they did? I mean, they did bloody near kill you.’
‘I know,’ Molly said, ‘but there is nothing I can do about that. All I can do is thank God that they didn’t succeed.’
‘Amen to that,’ Daisy said fervently.
Inspector Norton felt in his bones that finding the handbag was of paramount importance and wanted to order a search of the grounds of the hotel. The manager was very worried about that because, though the news of the attack hadn’t reached the papers, as it had been blocked by the inspector, the guests would have to be told something to explain the police searching the whole place, and he expressed his irritation over this to Norton.
The policeman looked at him coldly. ‘I didn’t block the newspaper’s take on this for the comfort of you or your guests,’ he said, ‘but so as not to frighten other women unnecessarily who have to go out in the blackout. But let’s not forget Molly Maguire, the young woman in your employ, who was set upon and rendered unconscious in the grounds of the hotel you run. Finding her assailant is of paramount importance and the reason I am here.’
The newspaper editors didn’t mind not running the story. It was quite common anyway in wartime to suppress news that wasn’t thought to be in the common interest. The papers were reduced to four meagre pages then, with paper being at a premium, and people’s confidence that the war was going well was quite low anyway at that time. The papers’ directive was to concentrate on the Allies’ victories, like the successful battles against the Italians in Africa, and to fill the rest of the paper with heart-warming, patriotic stories to raise morale. They quite agreed with Inspector Norton that it would benefit no one to hear of the waitress knocked unconscious in the driveway of the hotel where she worked.
Norton never got his search of the grounds of Moor Hall Hotel, though. He was overruled by the Chief Superintendent, who said he hadn’t the inclination, nor the manpower to do such a thing. He said Norton was not to spend any more time on the Molly Maguire case either. ‘There were plenty of other things happening awaiting your investigation,’ he said ‘With so little to go on, you are no further forward in finding out who carried out the attack on Molly Maguire than you were at the beginning and no more police time can be wasted on it. After all, you say the girl is improving.’
Inspector Norton had no option but to close the file on Molly. The super was right in one way: Norton didn’t know why the attack had happened, or who had done it, and the bugger of it was now he might never know.
The fact that the incident was not reported confused Collingsworth. ‘I tell you I broke the girl’s neck,’ the beefy man assured him. ‘Christ, I have killed men bigger than her with that same blow. There was nothing to her.’
‘Don’t you believe it,’ Collingsworth said with feeling. ‘Look how I suffered at her hands.’
‘That’s why we decided to finish it there and then,’ the man said. ‘I know you said bring her back alive, like, but Christ, she’s nowt but a heap of trouble alive. She was better off out of the road.’
‘I would have liked to have known who helped her,’ Collingsworth said.
‘Does it matter now?’
‘Not if you are sure you have killed her.’
‘She folded straight off,’ the second man said. ‘She never moved a muscle. Honest to God, she was dead all right.’
‘Why wasn’t it reported then?’
‘They don’t always, do they?’ Ray put in. ‘Look at the outcry when the casualty lists were printed. Probably wouldn’t allow this to go to print in case it caused widespread panic or summat.’
‘Well, I know we only hear a quarter of what is really happening,’ Collingsworth conceded. ‘I suppose I can’t believe that she is really gone this time.’
‘You better believe it, boss. Molly Maguire ain’t no more.’
Collingsworth smiled as much as he was able and his eyes glittered. Molly Maguire had had her comeuppance at last. He tossed Ray a set of keys and said, ‘Fetch a couple of bottles of single malt from the cellar and we will drink to a good night’s work.’
When Will found out what had befallen Molly the following day, he felt sick, and he barely reached home before the tears began. Betty, alarmed, took his hand and led him to the settee and the tears continued to roll down his face as he told her.
‘They boasted about it,’ he said finally, ‘as if it was something to be proud of. One said that before he left, he kicked her in the stomach to make certain like. Jesus, Betty. I put you and the baby, not to mention Ruby, at terrible risk and in the end it was all for nothing.’
‘Don’t blame yourself,’ Betty said brokenly.
‘But I made it worse,’ Will cried. ‘If I had left well alone, she would still have died, yes, but Ray isn’t a natural killer, unlike some of the others, and he would have probably drugged her first.’
‘As if that makes it better,’ Betty said scornfully.
‘It might have been for her,’ Will retorted. ‘I can’t imagine her panic, or the terror she must have felt. Anyway, this has finished me with Collingsworth and his mob. I can’t work for him again after this.’
Betty paled. ‘I thought you said that it was hard to leave if you know as much as you do.’
‘It is, unless it’s official,’ Will said. ‘Even Collingsworth can’t argue with the War Office. I have a confession to make. When I was invalided out of the army, they offered me a desk job and I was so mad with them at the time that I refused it. I was feeling sorry for myself that night I met up with Ray Morris in the pub. Well, tomorrow I am going down the recruiting office in Thorpe Street Barracks and ask if there is still a desk job I can do. Then I’m sure they can write a letter recalling me to duty if I ask them for one to show to my present employer. No need to tell them who it is. Even Collingsworth can’t argue with that. But do you feel all right about me doing this, Betty?’
Betty’s eyes were shining. ‘That is the best news I have had in ages,’ she said.
‘There will probably be a cut in wages.’
‘As if I care about that. At least now I can sleep easy in my bed – Hitler permitting, of course.’
‘I think the guilt I feel at the death of Molly will stay with
me for ever, though,’ Will said.
Betty took Will’s face between her hands, looking into his eyes, still bright with tears, and said earnestly, ‘Listen to me, Will. We can do nothing now to change the situation and I do think it’s best not to dwell on it, because our lives have to go on. I’m sure you will feel better when you are doing a more useful job, one that will help the war effort.’
TWENTY-FIVE
‘Have you up out of here and back home in no time,’ Molly’s doctor said to her a few days later, after he had examined her. ‘It was only that wound on your side that was giving me concern, but it is responding to treatment well now.’
Molly feigned enthusiasm, as it was expected, but she had no home, was fearful of the future and absolutely terrified of leaving the safety of the hospital.
That day Molly was transferred into the main ward beside a young girl, who introduced herself as Lynne Baxter. She was very pretty – her hair the colour of burnished bronze and cut short so that curls of it framed her face and her cheekbones were slightly pink and dusted with freckles.
However, it was Lynne’s smile that turned that prettiness into true beauty. Few people could resist the desire to smile back at her and Molly was no exception.
‘I am glad I am in the main ward now,’ she said. ‘I was so bored on my own.’
‘I agree,’ Molly said. ‘I was in a side ward too. It helps the time pass with someone to talk to. What are you in hospital for?’
‘I had an appendicitis,’ Lynne said. ‘Only by the time Mom got them to believe that it really was serious, it had burst and so I had blood poisoning as well. That’s why, for a while, I had to have a room of my own.’
‘Goodness!’ Molly said. ‘That sounds very nasty.’
‘Yes, it was,’ Lynne agreed. ‘What about you?’
‘I was attacked,’ Molly said briefly.
The young girl’s eyes opened wide with astonishment. ‘Attacked?’ she repeated. ‘What for and who did it?’
Molly shrugged. ‘I can answer neither question,’ she said, ‘because I haven’t the answers and neither have the police.’
‘You mean you were attacked for no reason, bad enough to land you in hospital, and the police cannot find out who did it?’
‘That’s it exactly,’ Molly said. ‘It isn’t the fault of the police either, because you see I can’t remember anything about it at all.’
‘But that’s terrible.’
‘I agree,’ Molly said. ‘There is nothing I can do about it either, but because I don’t know who it was, I will be so nervous when the time comes to leave here.’
‘I’m not surprised,’ Lynne said. ‘Will you go home?’
‘I haven’t really got a home,’ Molly said. ‘My parents died six years ago.’
‘Ah,’ Lynne said, sympathetically ‘That’s really sad. Are you an only child?’
Molly only hesitated for the briefest minute before deciding to tell Lynne Baxter the same story she had told everyone else. ‘I was just getting to know Kevin again,’ she said at the end. ‘We had been apart for over five years and that is a long time for a young child.’
‘I’ll say,’ Lynne agreed. ‘Five years is a long time for me. and I am fifteen, but it is an awful story really. You and your brother suffered so much and it is such a shame that there are just the two of you left.’
‘Have you any brothers or sisters.’
‘Just the one brother, Mark.’
‘Older or younger?’
‘Older. Mark is twenty-two,’ Lynne told her. ‘And man of the house now that my father is in Scotland, doing something hush-hush for the war, Mom says. Not that we see that much of Mark either, really. He’s in the RAF, you see, but he’s stationed at Castle Bromwich aerodrome and he gets home when he can.’
‘Is your brother a pilot?’
Lynne nodded. ‘A squadron leader. He lost a lot of friends last year.’
‘In the Battle of Britain?’
Lynne looked surprised. ‘I didn’t know whether you would know about that, living in Ireland and all.’
‘Even there, most people took a great interest in it,’ Molly explained. ‘They knew that Britain’s survival at that time depended on the Royal Air Force, and if Britain fell, Ireland’s claim to remain neutral would probably count for nothing. I mean, they had little pockets of soldiers dotted here and there to protect Ireland’s neutrality, but everyone knew they hadn’t a hope of stopping any German Army intent on invasion. Believe me, we too were relying on the Royal Air Force. He must be brave, your brother.’
‘He is,’ Lynne admitted. ‘Mom says they all are. She was ever so worried about him and still is, I suppose. She hides it well but I know. We’ve become even closer since the war started and we’ve had to do without the men around and cope with a lot of things by ourselves.’
‘You are a very lucky girl,’ Molly said. ‘Even now, after all this time, there are few days that pass when I don’t miss my mother. We were close too.’
‘Sorry.’
‘Don’t be sorry. It isn’t your fault that my parents died. Just appreciate what you have.’
‘Oh, I do,’ Lynne said. ‘When you see the pictures in the paper of the raids and everything, and read some of the stories, it is very sad a lot of the time. I even appreciate Mark. He does tease, and yet I know that he really cares for me and I do miss him.’
‘I missed my brother so much when we were first parted,’ Molly said.
‘Does it make you sad that he has had to go to an orphanage?’ Lynne asked. ‘I think it must be one of the worst things.’
‘Well, the home is all right as far as places like that go,’ Molly said. ‘I mean, they seem kind enough. Kevin puts up with it and doesn’t moan much, but ideally I would like to have someplace where I could have him live with me.’
‘That would be lovely,’ Lynne said. ‘Would you mind if I tell my mother about you? There isn’t much I don’t share with her.’
‘I don’t mind,’ Molly said. ‘It isn’t exactly a secret.’
Helen Baxter was very striking-looking and it was quite clear where Lynne had got her good looks from. She was both shocked and horrified when Lynne recounted Molly’s whole tale to her that evening and she wished she could do something to help her in some way.
It was Kevin who asked Molly if she was going back to Moor Hall Hotel when she got out of hospital. Molly hid the involuntary shudder she gave at the thought, but when she answered Kevin her voice was steady.
‘I couldn’t go back there, Kevin. They couldn’t keep my job open for ever.’
She knew even if they had she couldn’t have taken it. She doubted she would ever have the courage to walk down that lane again because she knew Collingsworth’s men would be back for another go.
When Kevin said, ‘What will you do then?’ she shook her head helplessly.
‘I really don’t know, Kevin.’
Lynne heard what Molly said and told her mother quietly when she visited that same evening. ‘We’ve got to do something for her, Mom,’ she said. ‘She has nowhere to go when she leaves here.’
‘Leave it with me,’ Helen replied. ‘Mark is coming tomorrow. Maybe he will have some ideas.’
Even if Lynne hadn’t gone on and on about her brother coming that evening with her mother, Molly would have known who the man was framed in the doorway. He was the male double of his mother and sister, and dressed in his RAF uniform he looked absolutely stunning. He caused quite a stir amongst the young nurses. He looked at Molly as he passed her bed and smiled, and it was as if a light had been turned on inside him. She felt the breath catch in her throat.
He sat by his sister’s bed first and had a few words with her. Molly saw how kind and understanding he was with Lynne, although she could guess he had a highly developed sense of fun, because it seemed to spark off him. She was surprised when he left Lynne talking to their mother and approached her bed. His mother had talked to him earlier that day about Molly Maguire and h
er problems. However, it was one thing hearing about her and quite another seeing this gorgeous, fragile-looking creature, who had already suffered so much. His protective streak was aroused and he knew he would do all in his power to help her.
‘Would you mind if I sat with you for a few minutes?’
‘Not at all.’
Mark pulled out the chair, sat beside the bed and said, ‘My mother has been filling me in about your situation, hoping that I might be able to help.’
‘I don’t see how.’
‘Look,’ said Mark. ‘As I see it, when you leave hospital what you need is a job and ideally some place where you can have your brother live with you.’
‘Yes, and how likely am I to get anywhere to live in this city, which has been bombed to bits?’ Molly said. ‘At least somewhere I can afford – because that is another problem, of course. I need to work.’
‘Doing what?’
‘Anything that pays a decent wage,’ Molly said. ‘I will do anything. I’m not fussy.’
‘And when do you hope to leave?’
‘Soon. In the next day or two, they say.’
‘I’ll ask around,’ Mark said. ‘I am obviously not promising anything, but I will do my level best.’
‘Thank you,’ said Molly. She knew it was good of the man to offer to help, but she didn’t hold out much hope that he would find a suitable job for her.
The next day he was back. This time Lynne didn’t know he was coming because he had come straight from the air base and she gave a squeal of excitement when she saw him. Though he waved across to her and told her he would see her later, it was Molly he had news for.
Daisy had popped in to see Molly, which she did when shifts allowed, and she was astounded when the very gorgeous man came towards them. Molly smiled, for what Daisy thought about Mark Baxter was very apparent in the coy smile she gave him when Molly introduced him.
‘Have you news?’ she asked him.
Mark nodded. ‘I think so,’ he said. ‘Could you work in a Naafi?’
‘What on earth is a Naafi?’
Mark smiled. ‘Just about the most important area on the air base. It’s where the grub is dispensed.’