by Sharon Sant
Jimmy grinned. ‘So she told you where we were?’
‘She didn’t know. But she was only too happy to hand over the key to Braithwaite’s office and Dad had a quick rummage through his stuff and worked it out.’
Jimmy looked across at Pierre with new respect and awe.
The whole story was pieced together from the disparate narratives, brought to the table by everyone who had played a part. Elijah’s tale from the previous night slotted in to complete the picture. As Isobel flitted around like a mother bird, dropping titbits and drinks in front of people, Elijah rested his chin on his fist, gazing at the tabletop in silence.
He shivered, suddenly aware of voices around him, and sat up, embarrassed to find that he had fallen asleep at the table.
‘Don’t worry,’ Isobel said smiling, ‘you’re bound to get tired. You’ve done well to be up at all.’ Elijah rubbed his eyes.
‘Are you alright?’ Sky asked him.
Elijah nodded. ‘Are you?’
‘Of course.’
Jimmy was pulling some elaborate face that was making Rosa giggle while Xavier looked on with an expression of mock despair and Elijah, almost smiling, suddenly realised he was starving. As if she had read his mind, Isobel placed a plate of kippers in front of him with an encouraging nod. He took up his fork just as Pierre rapped on the table for silence.
‘We’re going to get Rowan’s sponsorship papers sorted.’ He looked across at Rowan. ‘As you know, it means that we take responsibility for you, so please, don’t let us down, Rowan. It’s my neck on the line now if you get into trouble.’ He paused; his face remained expressionless apart from his eyes that betrayed a smile. ‘Welcome to the family.’
Xavier grabbed Rowan around the neck in an armlock and roughed his hair.
‘Gerroff.’ Rowan shouted, pulling himself free.
Elijah looked up and saw Sky smiling, as was her way, not a trace of bitterness or jealousy that Rowan had been rescued while she still waited. Even Rosa and Jimmy, who had been through the hell of the camps, had waited for their uncertain fate in the Vanishing Woods, seemed happy for their friend. Elijah wanted to feel it, and in the light of Ishmael’s offer had more reason than any of them to be truly happy for Rowan, but he couldn’t. It just wouldn’t come.
‘There are some other things that we need to sort out, while we have you all together,’ Pierre continued. ‘Elijah, it’s not over for you, I’m afraid.’
‘I don’t understand –’
‘The police will be looking for you,’ Pierre interrupted. ‘A man died. A very powerful man, and you were one of the last people to be seen with him. I’m afraid that your story, convincing as it is to us, will not sound terribly convincing to the police.’
‘What if we all testify?’ Rosa cut in.
‘We’re Runners,’ Elijah replied dully. He looked at Pierre who nodded in agreement.
‘He’s right. I’m afraid the reality is that anything you have to say will hold very little credence.’
‘So, what are you going to do?’ Elijah waited for the axe to fall. Was this where the hopes he had started to build for the future came crashing down once more?
Pierre glanced at Isobel, then Xavier and Francois. Every person in the room hung on the reply.
‘I might be able to help there.’ Ishmael, who had been quietly taking in the scene, spoke now. He glanced at Elijah before continuing. ‘We had a little chat ourselves, didn’t we?’ Elijah nodded and Ishmael carried on. ‘You thought any more on it?’
‘Wouldn’t it be a pain for you? And what about the police?’
‘I can hide you; they won’t bother rummaging round my old place.’
‘No,’ Pierre cut in. ‘I have a better idea. I have a cousin in Fort William –’
‘Fort William? Where’s that?’ Jimmy asked.
‘Scotland,’ Xavier replied, grinning. ‘God, Dad, you’re not sending him to stay with mad Jean MacMadman?’
‘Xavier!’ Isobel cuffed him round the head as she passed with some dirty plates. ‘That’s your father’s family you’re talking about.’
Xavier nudged Francois who returned it with a grin of his own.
‘Scotland?’ Elijah almost choked. ‘I can’t go to Scotland… I don’t know anyone… have I got to stay there for ever?’
Pierre held up his hand. ‘Just until the dust settles. I’ve thought about it long and hard and it’s the only way I can see round this.’ Pierre looked at Ishmael for agreement.
‘Aye, could be you’re right. Just for a while.’
‘I’ll make some arrangements and drive you myself. Isobel will stay up there with you, she’s due a holiday. I have surgeries and some meetings that I really have to attend this week, so it won’t be for a couple of days. Elijah, can you stay out of trouble till then?’
Elijah, again buffeted by life’s currents in a direction not of his choosing, nodded. He didn’t see he had much of a choice.
The police called the next day. Xavier, sharp eyed as always, saw them drive towards the house in good time. Elijah was safely stowed in the loft by the time they arrived. He sat in the dusty darkness, surrounded by spiders and old toys, unable to know his fate, but grateful for Pierre’s foresight that had made sure they had all rehearsed the same story, one that would, hopefully, put Elijah out of the frame. After what seemed like hours, a steadily growing chink of light appeared and Xavier’s head filled the space of the trap door.
‘They’ve gone.’
The immediate urgency to leave was less now that they had all been questioned thoroughly, and Pierre’s work had taken longer than he had at first anticipated. After a week, it seemed that the focus of the murder investigation had moved to Tessa and Stein, due to their conspicuous absence and their prior connection as employees. Stories of Braithwaite’s brutality and ruthlessness began to leak out into the public domain, though the nature of the work he had set for Stein appeared to remain secret. Pierre was still convinced that Elijah needed to be stowed away for a while, though, and was set upon his plan to send him to Fort William, oblivious to any pleadings from the others. Meanwhile, Elijah’s physical injuries healed well and some semblance of calm returned to his chaotic thoughts. He alone now accepted Pierre’s plans for him with a measure of quiet composure. But he was still desperate for some closure over Tessa; his guilt over her fate ate at him every day, something that Sky, as intuitive as always, understood. The world, he had noted with bitter disappointment, hadn’t changed. Their suffering had been meaningless. He wasn’t quite sure what he had expected - shafts of heavenly light from pink clouds, a god-like hand reaching down, trumpets and angelic singing – of course not. But everything was just as it had always been. What did it mean?
It wasn’t just that. Tessa’s disappearance had affected them all, especially when they learned just what she had sacrificed for them, but for Elijah it was something more. It wasn’t mourning because she wasn’t dead. In a way, mourning would be easier, more tangible. There was a sense of displacement; something about her still perplexed him in a way he couldn’t explain. Why had she helped them when she clearly had so much to lose? He wished he knew what had happened to her. Was she happy, being cared for, or was she scared and running in an unknown and terrifying new world? The thought of it obsessed him, till he felt he would go mad.
Sky found Elijah sitting on Xavier’s bed absorbed with his own thoughts. She showed him a small scrap of paper and the backpacks she had prepared for them both.
‘Tessa’s mum’s address.’
‘Where did you get that?’
Sky blushed. ‘Never mind. Do you want it?’
‘What for?’
‘We could go and see her, explain everything.’
‘Pierre says I can’t go out.’
‘He doesn’t have to know – does he?’ Elijah blinked. This surely wasn’t the Sky he knew? Maybe, even after everything, he didn’t really know her at all. ‘It’s not far from where we first met you.’ she continu
ed.
Another coincidence. Elijah’s life seemed to be constructed entirely from them. He gave her a small smile. ‘Just you and me?’
‘Xavier and Francois still feel really bad about what happened. They said they wanted to come –’
‘It’s not their fault,’ Elijah interrupted. He was tired of telling them.
‘I know. But if they come along, I think it would be good for them.’
Elijah considered. ‘What if she doesn’t understand what we’re telling her, Tessa’s mum?’
‘It doesn’t matter really does it?’
‘Maybe not.’
His thoughts, for a brief second, returned to the plans they had made for finding his own mother. It felt like a lifetime ago. ‘You know that Ishmael offered me some room at his place?’
Sky nodded.
‘What should I do?’
‘What do you want to do?’
‘I don’t know… what are you going to do?’
She gazed at her boot as she scuffed the floor. ‘Mrs Bettencourt is doing her best to find somewhere… but at the moment it’s not looking good. Or for Jimmy and Rosa, for that matter. I had wondered if Ishmael would let me carry on staying there when you move in, but… well, I suppose that’s a little awkward. I’m not trying to make you feel bad or anything.’
‘I know,’ Elijah replied. ‘But I do.’ If he was completely honest with himself, he felt he was pushing her out and he knew the unfairness of it. Perhaps, if their relationship was different, less complicated, it would be ok for them both to stay there.
She took both his hands in hers. ‘Something will turn up. You mustn’t throw away your chance. Besides, we’ve only a couple of years till we’re adults. It’s not so long really.’ She squeezed his hand uncertainly, gauging his reaction, wondering whether the time was now. His gaze was drawn away to the window as she asked him: ‘You’ll wait, right?’
Forty: A New Start
The pale winter sun had graced the world with its presence. How different the sea looked today, dressed in its benign rays, from the first time he had seen it in that raging storm, so many months before. Elijah could not suppress a smile. How strange, he reflected, to end up right back in the place where it all began. The sun had shone for three days, a warm, friendly light that infected everyone with an incurable case of optimism. The seafront, which had been so deserted and forlorn the last time he had seen it, was now bustling with cheery faces, and the sea was smooth as a mirror. The buildings set back across the coast road, which had held such fear for him, now looked ordinary and inviting. Most importantly of all, he had Sky holding his hand this time, and because Francois and Xavier’s absence would have been a little too conspicuous, and because Rosa now rarely went anywhere without Xavier, he had Jimmy and Rowan instead with their infectious good humour. They had full bellies and full backpacks, and a safe place to run back to if it all went wrong.
Sky studied the address on the scrap of paper. ‘I’ll go and ask someone where this is.’
Elijah nodded. Jimmy and Rowan exchanged nervous glances.
‘I don’t know what we’re going to say to her…’ Rowan began.
‘You don’t need to say anything,’ Elijah replied. ‘We’re just going to tell her how sorry we are about Tessa, that we know she didn’t do it and that we met her and she’s really nice. There’s no point in going in to any more detail than that, she may not even understand why we’re there at all, but at least we’ve been.’
‘I suppose it’s more about us than it is her really,’ Jimmy mused.
‘In a way. But it’s about Tessa as well. I want to see for myself that her mum is ok. We owe her that much at least.’
Sky returned. ‘
Sparrow Street is that way.’ She pointed to her left. They followed her as she wandered, counting turnings until they saw the faded black and white plaque for
Sparrow Street. Elijah’s stomach began to somersault. The misgivings that he had so easily assuaged for Jimmy and Rowan began to rear themselves in him now. Together they counted down the row of tightly-packed, dirty terraced houses until they arrived outside their destination. ‘103. This is it.’ Sky folded the paper up and stowed it in her pocket. Elijah looked at the tarnished brass number on the door and gave an involuntary start. 103. The coincidences kept stacking up. Sky knocked.
The door was opened by woman of about sixty. She was petite; her hair would once have been black but was now heavily threaded with grey. The colour of her puffy eyes seemed to match her hair and her skin, so that they hardly stood out from her face at all. She was dressed in drab navy trousers and matching blouse, which buttoned right up to her neck, and reflected the tiredness of her whole appearance.
‘Mrs Lassiter?’ Sky asked as politely as she could.
‘No. I’m not Mrs Lassiter. What do you want with her?’ She stared at Elijah with interest as she spoke.
‘We’re friends of Tessa,’ Elijah told her in a low voice. ‘We just wanted a quick word.’
‘She’s already had police and all sorts round, and she couldn’t tell them anything… so if you’re thinking she can tell you -’
‘No.’ Elijah stopped her. ‘We just wanted to see her. Tell her how sorry we are to hear about everything… we really liked Tessa.’
The woman seemed to weigh them up. ‘Five minutes,’ she decided finally. ‘She’s really not well.’
They followed her in to a tired and dusty sitting room which looked as though it hadn’t been decorated since the start of the war. Overloaded shelves dominated one corner, almost blocking out what little light managed to penetrate the dirty windows. The colour of the walls had faded to such an extent that nothing of the original design remained. In a dark corner of the room, at first hardly noticeable, was the sorry, hunched figure of another woman propped in an enormous wing-backed armchair. She looked about sixty, but bore the unmistakable marks of years of illness which made it hard to tell. Her dress had the same functional lack of imagination as the navy outfit her carer wore, and she had an air of tragic loneliness and neglect about her. She looked at the visitors with confusion. Elijah was disappointed to see how little she resembled Tessa
‘These are friends of Tessa’s,’ Mrs Lassiter’s carer shouted at her, causing Elijah to wonder if she was deaf as well.
Mrs Lassiter squinted at Elijah with a glimmer of recognition in her eyes that died as quickly as it came. ‘Are you from Tessa’s school?’ she asked them with a distracted air. She looked as if she had just remembered that she had left the kettle on in another house and wondered if she ought to get back to it.
‘Tessa doesn’t go to school now – remember, Margaret?’ the carer said loudly. She turned to the visitors. ‘I told you…you’ll get no sense out of her,’ she confided in a carrying whisper.
‘Have you got her PE kit? She lost it you know, the other day… and they’re not cheap,’ Mrs Lassiter continued, undaunted.
The conversation went round in circles like this for ten minutes. There was no point in staying. Elijah wasn’t sure what he had hoped to find, but it wasn’t this. The carer led them out into the drab hallway, which still displayed the sun-bleached marks of once elaborate and beautiful wallpaper. A threadbare cobweb dangled low and caught Elijah as he walked under it. The whole experience had been utterly depressing for all of them.
‘Thanks anyway,’ Elijah told the carer. She saw their dejected looks and perhaps decided to send them away with any titbit she could recall about Tessa’s past. Suddenly, her tongue loosened and a great outpouring of family secrets and gossip began to spill out.
‘Poor thing. I’ve lived next door for years and they never had much luck. Such a shame, such lovely folks too. Took Tessa in when no one else would give her so much as a potato, brought her up just as if she were their own –’
Sky interrupted, ‘Took her in?’
‘Surely you knew… Tessa is adopted.’
Sky’s mouth dropped open. Elijah mirrored her bemused expres
sion. There was so much they didn’t know about her, the girl who had done so much for them. She had been homeless, just like them. He was hungry to hear more. Before, he had been irritated by the woman’s gossiping; now he wanted her to keep talking. He wanted to know everything.
‘She never mentioned it,’ Jimmy told her.
‘Just like her… lovely girl, never felt sorry for herself, though, God knows she had more reason than most. Margaret found her in one of those awful camps. God knows why, but she had this mad idea about rescuing one of them kids. Oh yes… her mother was a flighty piece by all accounts, left Tessa’s father and took off with Tessa and the baby to live with another man.’
‘The baby? What baby? What happened?’ Sky asked.
‘As far as I know, and this is only hearsay, mind, the father tried to snatch both of the kiddies back. He only got one of ‘em though, the baby, and the mum weren’t bothered ‘cause she got Tessa back. Course, then she goes and gets herself sectioned and poor little Tessa would have been better off back with her dad in Ringwood after all.’
‘But what about the baby?’ Sky insisted.
‘Well, I don’t know. Grown up I suppose. I’ve only ever know Tessa.’
‘How old was she when all this happened?’
‘Tessa? Let’s see… she’d have been about five or six. From what Margaret told us, she had been in a Primary Unit until she was old enough to go to that place on Hayling… you know the one?’ Elijah nodded grimly and she continued. ‘That’s where Margaret found her. Such a tiny, pretty little thing she was, beautiful big eyes, quiet as a mouse when she arrived. Course, that soon changed and she got that wonderful job… a real credit to Margaret. Such a shame she doesn’t know it.’ The woman gave a theatrical sigh and glanced behind her down the hall.