Love or Duty

by Rosie Harris

  ‘I think you should speak to your father first to find out if there are any grounds for that. He may be making it all up merely to frighten you.’

  ‘I don’t think that even Arnold would go that far,’ Penny said in a dubious voice.

  ‘Well, it’s entirely up to you, of course,’ Bryn said stiffly, his square jaw jutting ominously. ‘If you want to go ahead with your original plans and marry Arnold Watson then I can’t very well stop you.’

  Penny stared at him in silence. She wanted to tell him that of course he could stop her. He had only to confirm that he really was in love with her and to tell her that he wanted her to marry him and she would know immediately what was the right course of action.

  There was so much she wanted to say but with Kelly clutching tightly at her hand she felt it was wisest to remain silent. She wasn’t sure how much Kelly understood. The child had suffered enough for one day. She was afraid that if she started going into details or the two of them began arguing over the matter it might worry Kelly more than was necessary.

  Anyway, at the moment Kelly was jabbering away telling them all about the circus.

  ‘Why did you run away like that and give us all such a fright?’ Bryn asked her.

  ‘I heard you and Penny arguing about telling the police that you’d found me and that I was with you,’ she said in a contrite whisper.

  ‘I see.’

  ‘I was afraid you were going to send me back to St Saviour’s.’

  ‘You probably will have to go back,’ he told her solemnly, ‘but as we keep telling you it will only be for a very short time, because we will go to the court and ask for you to come and live with us,’ he added quickly.

  ‘You did that before and they took no notice of you,’ Kelly said in a sulky voice.

  ‘Yes, I know, but I am quite sure it will be different this time. Now promise you won’t worry about it and please don’t run away again,’ he added firmly. ‘If you are found by the police and taken back to St Saviour’s by them it will be much harder for us to convince the court that it would be all right for you to come and live with us.’

  Although he spoke to Kelly in a very reassuring manner, inwardly Bryn knew that it wasn’t going to be that simple to persuade the court to release her.

  He also felt that it would be in Kelly’s interest as well as their own to notify the police right away that she was with them. In fact, he was puzzled that the police didn’t already know about it and hadn’t come to find out for themselves. However, he decided to delay discussing the matter with Penny until after Kelly was in bed.

  Penny focused her attention on Kelly when they reached Bryn’s flat in Scotland Road. Kelly looked almost as bedraggled as when she had first met her, Penny thought. Her dress was dirty and torn and she looked as though she hadn’t had a wash or had her hair combed for days.

  ‘Now, what are we going to do first?’ Penny asked with a bright smile. ‘Would you like a nice warm bath or something to eat?’

  ‘A jam butty and then a bath,’ Kelly said after a moment’s hesitation.

  ‘Strawberry jam?’ Penny asked, knowing that this was Kelly’s favourite.

  Kelly’s face brightened. ‘Yes, please.’

  ‘Milk or lemonade?’

  There was a slight pause as Kelly weighed up the two items on offer. She loved both of them but in the end she settled for the lemonade.

  ‘Can I have them while I am in the bath?’ Kelly asked hopefully.

  Penny pretended to look shocked but then she agreed and Kelly dashed into the bathroom and started removing her clothes before Penny had time to fill the bath with water.

  An hour later, no longer hungry and now clean and towelled dry, she contentedly sat on Penny’s lap letting her comb the tangles out of her damp hair.

  Dressed in clean clothes Kelly looked like a different child and Penny saw the surprise in Bryn’s eyes when they sat down to the meal he had prepared for the three of them.

  After so many adventures and so much talking Kelly was tired and quite ready to go to bed almost as soon as their meal was over.

  When Penny returned to the living room after tucking Kelly in Bryn poured them both a glass of wine.

  ‘Have you had any more thoughts about what Arnold Watson said today?’ he asked as she sat down on the settee and took the glass from him.

  Penny shook her head and a worried look crossed her face. ‘I can’t believe that what he said about my father is true,’ she said ruefully.

  ‘I’m quite sure it isn’t,’ Bryn said emphatically as he walked over and sat down in the armchair before taking a drink of his wine.

  ‘Then why did he say such a thing?’

  ‘I think he is trying to blackmail you.’

  ‘Why would he do that?’

  ‘I’ve no idea, but I think there is some underlying reason why he is so anxious to marry you.’

  Penny shot him a quick look but he avoided her eyes. Once again she wondered what his feelings for her were and whether she was imagining that only a few days ago he had said that he felt the same about her as she did about him. She wished so much that he would tell her again, or even that he had sat beside her on the settee.

  When he did speak it was not about Arnold but about Kelly’s future. ‘We really must inform the police that she is safe,’ he told Penny firmly.

  ‘Must we? In all probability they will take her straight back to St Saviour’s and I can’t bear to think about what will happen to her if they do that. The nuns are bound to punish her severely for running away.’

  ‘I know, but I can’t see any way out of it. We can’t possibly hide her here forever and your ideas about taking her away somewhere are ludicrous. The police would trace you in no time at all. They are still searching for her, remember, and they would be bound to find out where you both were.’

  ‘If only we could persuade the authorities to let her stay in our care,’ Penny said wistfully.

  ‘Don’t worry, that is exactly what I intend to do,’ Bryn assured her. ‘The only thing is it may take some time, and if they find out that we are deliberately perverting the course of justice it won’t be to our advantage.’

  ‘Would it help if I went to my father and asked him to use his influence as a magistrate?’ Penny asked as she took another sip of her wine.

  ‘You tried that before and you know he refused to do so.’

  ‘Yes, but now I have some background information about him and if necessary I will face him with it.’

  ‘You can’t do that,’ Bryn exclaimed in a shocked voice. ‘We have both agreed that what Arnold said can’t possibly be true and that he only said it to try and blackmail you.’

  ‘Then in that case it will put Arnold in the wrong, and if I threaten to take it further my father might do as I ask in order to keep me from doing so.’

  ‘That sounds very muddled, but I think I know what you mean.’ Bryn frowned. ‘Even so, why would punishing Arnold or putting him in the wrong make your father do what you want him to do over Kelly?’

  ‘To shut me up, of course, so that I don’t do anything that might smear his good name or that of his associates,’ Penny explained.

  Bryn shook his head. ‘I think you are quite wrong and that such scheming is dangerous,’ he warned.

  Penny felt annoyed. ‘Will you let me try and see if it does any good?’

  ‘I can’t very well stop you.’

  ‘I know that, but will you give me the chance to speak to my father before you inform the police that we have Kelly here with us?’

  Penny could tell from the expression on Bryn’s face that he wasn’t very happy about agreeing to any sort of delay.

  She put down her wine glass and rose from her chair. ‘Look, I’ll go over to Penkett Road right away. It’s the perfect opportunity. I don’t want to take Kelly with me and at the moment you are here to keep an eye on her.’

  Bryn looked dubious. ‘Leave it until tomorrow morning; by then you may have thought of
a different way of dealing with things,’ he prevaricated.

  ‘No, it’s my one chance to go on my own. Tomorrow I would have to take Kelly with me, and as I said I don’t want her to hear an argument going on between my father and me about her because it will only upset her.’

  She left the room before Bryn could answer. As she collected her hat and coat she half hoped he would try and stop her. When she returned to the living room to say she was leaving he merely nodded.

  On the ferry boat across the Mersey she tried to plan out what she was going to say to her father. She didn’t for one moment think that there was any truth in what Arnold had said, but nevertheless she felt nervous about facing him with such a story. However, if it was a way to make her father do what she wanted him to do then she was prepared to tell him.

  What if it is true, she asked herself when half an hour later she walked down the drive to her home. Would Arnold take her father to court?

  The thought sent a shudder through her. Was she opening up a can of worms and doing something she would later bitterly regret?

  If on the other hand there was some sort of truth in Arnold’s story then perhaps she was doing the right thing in warning her father of what lay ahead.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Penny’s parents were astonished to see her at such a late hour in the evening.

  ‘Penny, my dear, what are you doing out on your own at this time of night? Is something wrong?’ her mother asked worriedly as she hugged and kissed her. ‘Have you decided to come back home?’ she asked hopefully.

  ‘I’ve come to ask you both for a very big favour,’ Penny said, returning her mother’s welcoming hug but looking directly at her father.

  Captain Forshaw looked up from his newspaper questioningly, his heavy brows drawn together in a questioning frown.

  ‘We have found Kelly but we haven’t informed the police yet because we know that as soon as we do they are bound to return her to the remand home.’

  ‘Of course they will!’ He rustled his newspaper impatiently. ‘Surely you realize that is the right thing to do.’

  ‘I can’t bear to think of that happening,’ Penny went on, ‘so I am begging you to intercede and see if you can persuade the presiding magistrate to remand her into my care.’

  ‘Oh Penny darling, isn’t it time you stopped worrying about this child,’ Leonora Forshaw said wearily.

  ‘No, Mother, I’m afraid I can’t do that. We’ve been through all this before and you know exactly how I feel about my duty to Kelly.’

  ‘And surely you must know how we feel about you being involved with this wretched little slum child,’ her mother retorted sharply. She picked up a handbell from the table by her side. ‘I’m going to ring for Mary and get her to bring us a pot of coffee and then we can chat about it if you wish.’

  Penny didn’t answer her but continued to stare hard at her father.

  Captain Forshaw cleared his throat. ‘This is damned awkward, Penny. In all probability the case will have to go back to the magistrates’ court and I don’t want it to get into the newspapers that I have spoken to the police or even asked a fellow magistrate to do something like that.’

  ‘Why on earth should it get into the newspaper?’ Penny asked in a puzzled voice.

  ‘My dear girl, you are so naive. Things like that are always mildly sensational and invariably there is tittle-tattle. Sooner or later someone leaks it to the press.’

  Penny was so incensed by his answer that she let her tongue overrule her better judgement. ‘Better they leak that than the terrible accusations that Arnold has made about you,’ she blurted out.

  Too late she realized what she had done and also that there was no way she could possibly retract what she had said without giving some explanation.

  They were all silent as Mary came into the room with a tray of cups, a silver coffee pot and a plate of biscuits.

  ‘Did I hear you say that you are seeing Arnold again?’ her mother asked. ‘Does that mean you two have made up? Oh, that is so wonderful,’ she went on in a delighted voice, not waiting for Penny to reply.

  ‘No, Mother, we have not made up. I saw Arnold when I had to go on to one of the Watson Line boats to rescue Kelly after he had kidnapped her.’

  ‘Rescue her? What ridiculous nonsense is this?’ Captain Forshaw said testily.

  ‘Arnold had sent someone to kidnap Kelly from her hospital bed and then had her taken on board one of their freight ships. When I got there he was arranging with the captain for her to be transported out to Almeria where they were planning to abandon her.’

  ‘What!’ There was anger and astonishment in Captain Forshaw’s voice. ‘Penny, do you know what you are saying? Have you completely taken leave of your senses?’

  ‘No, what I am telling you is the truth. Arnold persuaded his secretary to pretend that she was me and sent her to collect Kelly from the hospital this morning.’

  ‘He must have simply been trying to scare you or something,’ Marcus Forshaw blustered. ‘Kidnap her! I never heard such damn nonsense in all my life.’

  ‘That’s only the half of it,’ Penny told him. ‘He agreed that I could have Kelly back, but only if our engagement was back on again and that I set a date for our wedding.’

  ‘Oh, the poor boy! Can’t you see, Penny, that he’s so desperately in love with you, my darling, that he will go to any lengths to get you back,’ Leonora exclaimed, clapping her hands together in approval.

  ‘That was not all,’ Penny went on. She bit her lip, undecided about whether to go on or to remain silent about Arnold’s other threat.

  ‘Go on!’ her father said in a hard voice. ‘I can see you are holding something back, so tell us the rest.’

  ‘It concerns you, Father,’ Penny said hesitantly.

  ‘Concerns me? What the hell could Arnold Watson have to say about me that would have any bearing on the matter we’re discussing?’

  Penny shook her head, desperately wishing she had not brought up the subject at all.

  ‘Go on! What did Arnold have to say about me?’ her father insisted.

  ‘He… he said that your company had been in financial trouble and that he and his father had lent you money to help you get out of the scrape you were in. When they asked you to pay it back you said you couldn’t do so. He said that unless I agreed to marry him he and his father were going to sue you; take you to court over it.’

  ‘The lying young dog!’ Marcus Forshaw exclaimed heatedly, his face growing florid with anger.

  ‘Marcus, what is going on? I don’t understand what this is all about,’ Leonora said, her voice shaking, her face white with shock.

  ‘Mother, don’t take on so, please don’t upset yourself, we all know it’s not true,’ Penny said quickly as she placed a protective arm around her mother’s shoulders.

  ‘Oh my darling, can’t you see that it’s only because Arnold is so deeply in love with you and wants you to marry him so much that he’s threatening you in this way. I’m sure he’s saying and doing all these dreadful things to try and make you change your mind,’ Leonora whispered.

  ‘Bryn was quite sure that it was without foundation and, as he said, simply a form of blackmail,’ Penny affirmed, looking at her father.

  ‘Not only without foundation, but also a wicked way of saving his own damned skin,’ her father stated grimly. His face was almost puce with anger and he looked as if he would explode at any moment.

  ‘I can assure you that if anyone is going to end up in a court of law over embezzlement it is going to be that young blackguard, not me,’ he went on heatedly.

  ‘Why? What has he done? What is this all about?’ Penny asked, her curiosity aroused.

  ‘It doesn’t matter, my dear,’ her father said tersely. ‘I don’t wish to discuss it. It’s probably far better that you don’t know,’ he added and picked up his newspaper again.

  Penny wanted to know the details but she sensed her father didn’t want to talk about it
in front of her mother.

  ‘Now if you are not going to stay here with us tonight then you’d better be on your way,’ he said suddenly, folding up his newspaper and putting it to one side.

  ‘Yes, I must get back, it is getting rather late,’ Penny murmured.

  ‘For heaven’s sake don’t worry about Arnold Watson’s threats,’ Marcus Forshaw told her. ‘I can assure you that they’re absolutely groundless and I will be dealing with him when I see him tomorrow.’

  ‘There is still the question of deciding what is going to happen to Kelly,’ Penny murmured tentatively, desperate to talk about the real reason for her visit before she left.

  ‘Kelly?’ Marcus Forshaw’s brow creased in a frown and for a moment he stared at her vaguely as if unsure what she was talking about.

  ‘Well, as I told you, we have found her again after she ran away to join Bilkie’s Circus. She’d had a slight accident and had to be taken to hospital but at the moment she is safe. We know we must inform the police where she is because they are still looking for her.’

  ‘Yes, yes, of course you must let them know where she is. You should have done so in the first place. If you had and they’d taken her back into care she wouldn’t have been able to run off and join the circus and none of this silly nonsense would have arisen.’

  ‘You don’t understand what I’m saying,’ Penny persisted. ‘The moment we inform the police that we have found Kelly and that she is with us then they will come and take her back to St Saviour’s.’

  ‘Yes, Penny, I do understand, and as I keep telling you that is exactly where she should be,’ Marcus Forshaw assured her emphatically.

  Penny shook her head. ‘How can you say that,’ she argued. ‘It’s a really dreadful place, Father. When I went there to see her they—’

  ‘I know, I know all about that,’ he cut her short. ‘You’ve already told me all the details, so there’s no need to go over it all again.’

  ‘It’s not only the drab uniform or the nuns and their strict discipline but the grim surroundings of St Saviour’s,’ Penny went on, ignoring his interruption.