Scandal in the Village

by Shaw, Rebecca

  ‘Yes, I had breast cancer some years ago, I was terrified. It leaves you with a dreadful frightened feeling right inside, doesn’t it? As if nothing can be permanent any more and you think it could all so easily slip away. But stick it out, in the end it will all be to the good.’ Grandmama noticed that Caroline was looking puzzled. She leaned over and patted her knee. ‘I know people think of me as an old trout but I have got my understanding side too you know. Cancer can’t be shrugged off like appendicitis or something, it stays hanging around in your mind making you anxious and cautious about everything you do, even when they’ve given you the all clear. The thing is to get on with life, put it behind you and be positive, it’s the only way.’

  ‘I’ve to go back in December, and hopefully then they’ll give me something positive to be going on with. Fingers crossed …’

  ‘If I’m any judge you’re getting a healthier glow about you, I think you’re going to be OK.’

  ‘Thank you. It’s been a terrible shock for us. So, how is Georgie?’

  ‘Middling. She can’t bear to be idle with having been so busy all these years, in fact one night she nearly went to give Bryn a hand she was so restless, feels guilty you see.’

  ‘Naturally, it’s been her life for so long. Are they any nearer a solution?’

  Grandmama shook her head. ‘No. Give him his due, Dicky has kept away. I wouldn’t have him in the house in any case, that wouldn’t be keeping his word, would it? I’m in enough trouble from Jimbo over having Georgie staying. But someone had to give her refuge and it couldn’t have been you could it?’

  ‘’Fraid not. That would definitely have been taking sides.’

  Grandmama got up to go. ‘I won’t tire you. You need your rest and you won’t get any when those two little ones get home.’

  ‘You’re right about that. But I love them dearly.’

  ‘Of course. They’re absolutely delightful. You’re very lucky.’

  Caroline looked very directly into Grandmama’s eyes. ‘Yes, we are.’

  It was Grandmama who lowered her eyes the first. Did Caroline know about the rumour she’d spread? She hoped not. ‘Bye-bye, then my dear, take care. I’ll see myself out, don’t get up. Don’t forget to give Peter the message will you?’

  She shut me rectory door behind her and went to the Store to collect her fresh rolls for the freezer. The bakery had usually delivered by this time and if the van hadn’t come she’d sit in the Store on the customer’s chair and talk to Harriet or Jimbo till it came.

  ‘Not here yet, Mother. I’ve rung, they say it’s a new man who doesn’t know the area so he’s on his way but they don’t know when he’ll arrive. Last heard of the other side of the bypass delivering to the petrol station there, so he shouldn’t be too long.’

  ‘I’ll sit here and have a coffee if I may. Oh, there you are Bel. Now how are things with you?’

  Bel put down the gadget she used for pricing stock and smiled cautiously. ‘Fine thanks. Just fine.’

  ‘I’m sorry about all this business.’

  ‘So am I.’

  ‘Yes, of course. And Dicky?’

  ‘Stiff upper lip, you know.’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘And Georgie, how’s she?’

  Grandmama, feeling discomfited by Bel’s directness, said, ‘Like you said, stiff upper lip.’

  ‘I’ll get on then.’

  ‘Yes, of course.’ Jimbo had forgotten the sugar and Grandmama got up to get it for herself as Jimbo had disappeared into the back. Sometimes it was useful to sit in the Store watching the customers and keeping an eye on Linda and the other staff. You learned a lot from keeping quiet and just watching and listening.

  Through the window she saw the delivery van pull up. The driver leapt out, opened up the van doors at the rear and lifted out a large bright green baker’s tray. A customer opened the door for him and he came in looking very apologetic.

  ‘Bel! The bakery man’s here!’ Grandmama called out. Bel came from where she’d been pricing tins of soup as she filled the shelves and cleared a place for the baker’s man to put the tray down.

  ‘Sorry I’m late, better late than never though, I’ll get quicker once I know the route …’ His voice trailed away and he stared at Bel in amazement. ‘Why! It’s Bel Tutt isn’t it? I’d know you anywhere. Well, would you believe it! Well, I never. I didn’t know you’d moved here. What a lovely surprise.’

  Bel looked stunned. She put down the order book and blushed bright red. She dabbed her top lip with her handkerchief and said, ‘Why, it’s you, Trevor. Long time no see. How are you?’

  ‘Very well indeed, now I’ve got this job. Been out of work nearly six months, glad to have anything that’s going. And how’s that brother of yours, tricky Dicky? Eh? My we used to have some fun with Dicky in the Prince Albert, I’ll tell them all I’ve seen you. Bye, Bel, see yer tomorrow. Bit earlier I hope. I’ll get better at it. We’ll have a chat when I’m not in such a rush.’

  Bel watched him leave then her eyes were drawn to Grandmama’s who’d rapidly risen to her feet. ‘When he said “that brother of yours, tricky Dicky” you didn’t correct him.’

  Jimbo dashed in from the back. ‘Oh great! The bread’s come. And not before time. I’ll put it out for you, Bel.’ Jimbo busied himself emptying the tray blissfully unaware of the tension under his very nose.

  ‘Well. I’m waiting.’

  Jimbo misinterpreted what she meant. ‘Well, come on then, Mother dear, help yourself. Here’s a couple of bags.’

  His mother ignored him. ‘Well?’

  Bel’s face had gone from bright red to deathly white. She dabbed her top lip again and babbled an answer Grandmama couldn’t hear.

  ‘Speak up! Jimbo, are you listening then I can’t be accused of rumour-mongering again.’

  Bel looked at Jimbo. ‘I can’t explain here, not in the Store.’

  Jimbo looked up from the baker’s tray and asked, ‘Explain what?’

  ‘I’m still waiting for your explanation. Why are you masquerading as Dicky’s wife when that man claims you are Dicky’s sister.’

  Bel burst out in desperate tones, ‘It’s none of your business. None of your business. It’s private.’

  ‘No, it’s not, not any more. He’s just shouted it out all over the whole shop. My son has a right to know.’

  ‘Now look here, Mother …’

  ‘No, I won’t look here. There’s something going on here we should all know about. I want the truth.’

  ‘Well, you’re not going to get it, you interfering old busybody. You’ve caused more harm in this village in the time you’ve been here than all the rest of us put together.’ Bel fled into the back and returned in a moment with her coat and keys. ‘School. Sorry.’

  As the door slammed shut Grandmama said, ‘I told you there was something very funny going on when the sewing-machine man was so odd when I mentioned her name. I knew it. I should have persisted then, but you warned me off.’ She paced rapidly about the Store. ‘So I was right.’

  ‘Mother, for heaven’s sake, you’re at it again. How many more times. The man’s mistaken.’

  ‘She didn’t deny it did she? Oh no! Put my rolls on one side. I’ll be back shortly.’

  She stepped smartly from the Store and headed for the rectory. As she turned into Church Lane she glanced to check the road for traffic and caught sight of Glebe Cottages, and the thought hit her like a sledgehammer. Oh God! Surely not! It couldn’t be true! That confirmed what she suspected. Of course! Those cottages only had one bedroom. That could definitely only mean one thing! Dicky and Bel must be lovers … they couldn’t be … could they? But that was … yes, that was … incest … they were committing incest! Well, there was one thing for certain then, that letter was not getting torn up, for she meant every word of it now and she’d make the others change their minds again if it killed her. Someone had to preserve the reputation of this village and keep it a good place to live. If the mantle had
fallen on her then so be it.

  Peter’s car was outside so the moment could not be more opportune. Breathlessly, she hammered on the rectory door.

  Sylvia answered the door. ‘Good day to you, Mrs Charter-Plackett.’

  Instead of answering in her normal well enunciated manner, Grandmama stuttered and stammered. ‘The Rrrector, he’s in, is he in, in is he?’

  ‘He is, but he’s having an early lunch. Can it wait?’

  ‘Wwwait. No, it can’t. Tttell him, tell I’m here. Ts’urgent.’

  ‘Step in, then. Wait there.’ Sylvia went into the kitchen where Caroline and Peter were eating lunch. Peter looked up. ‘Rector, it’s Mrs Charter-Plac—’

  ‘It’s me, Rector.’ Grandmama stood in the doorway. Peter got up from his chair.

  ‘It must be urgent for you to …’

  ‘It is. Your study if you please.’

  ‘Won’t you join us for coffee? Get another cup, Sylvia, would you, please?’

  Grandmama waved her hand impatiently. ‘No, there’s no time for that. Have you torn up that letter I sent?’

  ‘The petition?’

  Grandmama nodded.

  ‘No, not yet.’

  ‘Good, well don’t. Things are far worse than we thought.’

  Peter raised his eyebrows. ‘Are they indeed!’

  ‘Oh yes. I have just found out that Dicky and Bel are brother and sister and Glebe Cottages have only one bedroom. It doesn’t take much intelligence to see which way the cookie crumbles. That’s the answer to the wedding ring. A complete cover-up. I knew there was something fishy. I knew it.’ She slapped her closed fist into the palm of the other hand and looked triumphantly at the three of them.

  All of them registered first shock, then disbelief and then downright scorn. Peter was the first to find his voice. ‘Come into the study will you?’ He led the way and left Sylvia and Caroline staring at each other.

  Sylvia gave a croaky little laugh and muttered, ‘I don’t believe this, she’s finally gone balmy.’

  ‘Balmy? She needs certifying. What a perfectly dreadful thing to say about anybody. How can it be true?’

  ‘It can’t.’

  ‘Of course, it can’t. Not Dicky and Bel. That’s ridiculous. Quite disgusting in fact. I just hope Peter is giving her what for. Jimbo and Harriet will be distraught. She can be so perceptive and considerate and then there’s this other side to her … She defies belief. What I can never quite comprehend is the way she always appears at the right place at the right time and picks up on all the gossip before anyone else does.’ Sylvia flashed her a questioning look, afraid there might be more to what she said than first appeared, but Caroline continued by saying, ‘I’ll clear up. Might as well keep myself occupied while I wait to hear the full story.’

  ‘Certainly not. You go and rest. You had a dreadful day yesterday with that chemo business so you deserve a rest.’

  ‘Sylvia! You’re spoiling me.’

  ‘I’m not. Off you go.’

  ‘Very well. But I won’t lie down, I’ll sit and watch TV.’

  ‘OK. But feet up. That blessed woman. Where does she get her mad ideas from?’

  After a quarter of an hour watching TV Caroline heard Peter opening the front door. Though he was trying to keep his voice low it was impossible for her not to overhear him say, ‘Not a word until I have verified it one way or the other. Remember! Not even to Georgie. No one at all.’

  She heard Grandmama answer in subdued tones. ‘Very well.’

  ‘Promise?’

  ‘Promise.’

  ‘Good afternoon, then. I’ll be in touch.’

  Caroline heard him shut the front door, and turned expecting him to come into the sitting-room but he didn’t. Then she heard him shut the study door. In that case then it was serious. When he shut the study door like that, no one not even she unless the house was on fire, dared to interrupt. Then there must be grounds for what Grandmarna had said. Heaven help Peter if it was true. Heaven help the village, too, if it was true.

  ‘More custard, darling? There’s still plenty left. I’m sure you’re not eating enough, I want to see you putting on more weight.’

  ‘No, thanks. You know full well I’ve gained half a stone since my op. If I keep on like this I shall be as big as Bel Tutt.’

  Peter didn’t take her up on that which she’d rather hoped he would. He hadn’t said a word about Grandmama since the door had slammed on her. Caroline was bursting to know, and he normally told her everything but there were times when he shut up like a clam and she knew not to trespass. After all it was the same for her with her patients. Confidentiality and all that. She sighed.

  ‘You’re overtired, I can tell.’

  ‘Peter! Stop mollycoddling me! I know whether or not I’m tired. And I’m not. I’m quite simply impatient to know what went on this afternoon.’

  ‘I can’t …’

  ‘I know you can’t, but I’m still bursting to know.’

  ‘I am aware we promised ourselves an evening in on our own but I’m afraid I’ve got Dicky coming round tonight, it’s rather important. We said eight o’clock.’

  Caroline glanced at her wristwatch. ‘He’ll be here in five minutes, then.’

  ‘Heavens I didn’t realise how the time had flown. Can you manage the dishes?’

  ‘Of course. Will you want tea or anything?’

  ‘I think the parish whisky might be more appropriate.’

  ‘OK. I’ll be in the sitting-room if you … There’s the door.’

  ‘Help! Is there ever a right way to broach this kind of subject?’

  ‘I have no doubt the Lord will provide the answer.’

  When he and Dicky were settled in the study Peter said, ‘I’ve asked you to come to see me tonight because of what happened this morning. I expect Bel has told you that the new bakery man is someone you knew before you moved here? And no doubt you know what he said, which unfortunately was heard all over the Store.’

  Dicky didn’t answer.

  ‘Come, Dicky, I’m trying hard not to get impatient. I struggled last weekend with your close encounter with death, now it’s allegations of a very serious nature and I need answers if I am to be expected to back you up.’

  Still Dicky didn’t answer.

  ‘Please.’

  ‘It’s a long story.’

  ‘Then shall we begin?’

  Dicky rested his elbow on the arm of his chair and without looking at Peter began to speak, his voice was far from being the jolly laughing one everyone knew. It was quiet and distant and very thoughtful, and his words were chosen with such care. Peter braced himself for what might be going to be revealed.

  ‘That chap, Trevor, is quite right. Bel is my sister. I make no bones about that. She’s older than me by eleven months, so we’ve grown up together just like twins. She doesn’t remember a time when I wasn’t there. We don’t remember our parents at all, because apparently so we’ve been told, when Bel was just two and I was just one year old someone, perhaps our mother, left us in our twin pushchair outside a doctor’s surgery and walked away. We’ve seen neither hide nor hair of her since. Why she left us there I’ll never know. Desperation I suppose, well at least Bel and me hope it was desperation and not … not because she didn’t love us. They named Bel and me after the two doctors on duty that morning, and we got the name Tutt because the surgery was in a suburb called Tutt End. So it began, in a home first and then foster parents. All our lives we’ve looked after each other. There isn’t a bond quite like that of children who’ve never known their parents. You stick like glue. You’re all each other’s got you see. You’re mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, grandparent. There isn’t anyone else to stand up for you.’

  Dicky locked the fingers of both hands together very tightly and looked up at Peter. ‘See what I mean? Like that. So close. They talked about separating us at one time, Bel for adoption and me to another foster home, but we ran away and spent two miserable nights
hiding in a shed tall they found us. Bel screamed and cried so much and did such dreadfully bad things that they decided she wasn’t suitable for adoption so we went together to another foster home. It’s hell, without roots. Not knowing who or what you are. Like living on shifting sands. When you’re young you study the faces of the people in the street just in case you catch a glimpse of someone who looks like you and they might be the mother or the father you’ve been waiting for all through the years. Daft isn’t it? We don’t do that any more of course. Then when we were sixteen I got the job at the factory where I work now and Bel went into service, but didn’t sleep in and we had a little tiny two-roomed flat and it was home. In capital letters it was home. The first real home we’d ever had. We could call it ours and we could lock the door and we were untouchable. We ruled our own lives, we ate what we wanted, we went out when we wanted and we were accountable to no one.’

  ‘Whisky, Dicky?’

  ‘Don’t touch the hard stuff, Rector, thank you.’

  ‘Right. Carry on, I’m listening.’

  ‘About three years ago, Bel met this chap. To me it seemed like a gigantic earthquake, my whole world felt as though it was falling apart. There’d been just the two of us, still in the same flat, all those years, and here was an intruder disturbing our very foundations. For Bel’s sake, for I could see she was smitten by him, I had to keep quiet, because I thought maybe my prejudice was rooted in the fact that I didn’t want to lose my Bel. And it well could have been, for I loved her and she was my anchor in the storms of life like in the hymn. I always will love her, it’s not difficult to love Bel.’

  He looked up at Peter unable to continue, then he cleared his throat and carried on speaking. ‘She’s a gem. She knows me back to front and inside out. Every move. I’ve no secrets from Bel. Anyway he said he had a flat for them and he would persist that they should marry. Bel asked what I thought and well, what could I say? I couldn’t stand in the way of her happiness, just like she won’t stand in the way of mine now. Selfish love isn’t real true love is it?’

  Peter shook his head. ‘No, it isn’t.’

  ‘So they had a wedding. It was a poor do, he said he’d no family and we certainly hadn’t so it was just friends and a do at the Prince Albert after. I don’t think they’d been married three months when I started getting suspicious things weren’t right. They lived in their own flat, and I was definitely feeling the pinch trying to pay the rent for our home all by myself, so Bel used to ask me over quite often for a meal to help me out. Did my washing and that Called one night unexpected, I was feeling lonely, fancy me Dicky Tutt feeling lonely! Ridiculous isn’t it? Even before I knocked on the door I could hear the shouting. They didn’t hear my knock so I walked straight in and he was thumping her, like nobody’s business. She was thin then, like me and she wasn’t half taking a battering. He was a big chap and there wasn’t anything I could do to stop him. So a neighbour called the police and he was arrested.’