From the way she said this Lancer gathered that Arabella lacked the rent money. He put an arm around Ruth’s thin shoulders, telling her, ‘It was great seeing you again, Ruth. I won’t keep you from your work any longer, and I promise that I will go to see Arabella now.’
Hearing the door latch being lifted struck terror through Arabella. A few hours earlier the rent collector had called. When she told him that she still had no money, then tried to come up with a lie that her husband had written that he would be home soon, he hadn’t believed her. Staring at her, undressing her with his eyes, he had told her menacingly that he would be coming back later in the day. He had left her in no doubt what he was coming back for.
Willing herself not to look at the door as she heard it opening, she gazed lovingly down at her little girl who was sitting on the floor playing with a rag doll that Ruth’s mother had made for her. She heard the door close and had the urge to pick up her child and flee. But that was impossible. Not only was there nowhere for her to run to, but she couldn’t even get out of the house.
Unable to stand the strain, she held her head high as she looked towards the door. Then a strangled almost incoherent whimper came from her. ‘Joby Lancer.’
It was him. As handsome as ever he stood there smiling at her. Unable to believe her eyes she blinked twice before exclaiming. ‘It is you, Joby Lancer.’
‘It’s me, Arabella,’ he assured her. ‘I have money now and I have come to take you away from here.’
Unable to move, she stood looking at him afraid to believe that this was really happening and not some mental breakdown caused by near-starvation and worry. Then she saw that Thelma was looking up at Lancer with one of her special smiles. If her child could see him then it was Lancer standing there. What she was experiencing was real. Yet she still decided to test the reality of it by asking a question, knowing full well what the Lancer she had known would answer.
‘Can we take Ruth with us?’
‘We most certainly can.’
That was proof enough for Arabella and she ran to him. He took her in his arms and she heard him quietly say, ‘Joseph was right.’
‘Who is Joseph?’
‘He was a very good friend of mine, Arabella,’ he answered. Then he kissed her. Clinging to him Arabella shed tears of relief. The terrible dread of the rent collector’s return faded away as she was held in Joby Lancer’s arms. At last she had a future, the secure and happy future she had longed for ever since she was a girl. The dark cloud that seemed to have settled on the house many years ago had suddenly been lifted.
By the Same Author
Christ in Khaki
The Honey Gatherers
Let Me Die Yesterday
Coming to the Edge
McFeeley’s Rebellion
Non fiction
Murder in Dorset
Copyright
© Theresa Murphy 2013
First published in Great Britain 2013
This edition 2013
ISBN 978 0 7198 1110 4 (epub)
ISBN 978 0 7198 1111 1 (mobi)
ISBN 978 0 7198 1112 8 (pdf)
ISBN 978 0 7198 0793 0 (print)
Robert Hale Limited
Clerkenwell House
Clerkenwell Green
London EC1R 0HT
www.halebooks.com
The right of Theresa Murphy to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
The Toll of the Sea Page 22