‘Peter will not let you conduct a search like that. There is too much animosity between you now. If you found it he would accuse you of planting the evidence on him.’
‘I was worried about the risk of Peter causing me serious injury when I embarked on the plan of goading him to fight. I asked a friend to come and be my protector. I think he could tactfully conduct the search under the supervision of one of the brothers or sisters you might pick. I would accept that arrangement. I would not have to be involved in the search and your appointee would watch my associate to prevent any planting of evidence. At present he is the only other person who knows the nature of this evidence. Could you persuade Peter to agree to such an arrangement?’
She had thought for a moment. ‘In an attempt to prove to you mine and Peter’s innocence I will try.’
‘Then I will signal my friend to come here in preparation for a search. He slept last night in the wood. Rachael, if Peter does not agree then I will have to advise Mr Hailsworth, as the magistrate, to order the search. That will be bad for the community even if nothing is found because of the rumours that will start when it is known that a search has been made.’
While Rachael had gone to try to persuade Peter to co-operate, Josiah had gone along the path towards the sawmill and lit a signal fire for Michael. It did not take long until he saw his friend coming along the path. Once Michael had reached him Josiah explained the situation and they both made their way to the farmhouse.
When they arrived, Rachael was in the courtyard standing by an angry looking but apparently co-operative Peter. Brother James was with her. He stepped forward and intercepted them.
‘Constable, Sister Rachael has asked me to supervise the search. I had experience once or twice at sea in helping with searches for contraband aboard ship. She thought that I would make me a good choice.’
‘I agree with her. I am sure you will discharge your duty diligently. This is Michael O’Carroll. He has been my friend for many years and knew me as a boy. He knows what I seek.’ Michael had shaken hands with James.
‘Pleased to meet you. I wish it had been in better circumstances,’ said the Irishman.
‘And I. Let us get this job done quickly,’ replied James.
And now the waiting was over as they all watched as James and Michael made their way towards the house.
Michael spoke. ‘We have not found that which Constable Ainscough seeks.’ There was an audible sigh of relief from Rachael and the other members of the community who had gathered. Josiah stood up.
‘Thank you, gentleman.’ But before anyone could say anything else they heard a man’s voice from the lane on the far side of the house.
‘Hello, is there anyone here? We are looking for Constable Josiah Ainscough?’ It was Phelan Hayes.
29
Parting
Josiah’s mind raced. Phelan had said “we”, Aideen must be with him. Had Aideen’s brother come to confront him about what had happened between him and Aideen on their ride. In which case a defence of “she sent the chaperone away” though true, was going to sound impossibly implausible and ungallant. It was also going to be a very embarrassing tableau in front of the brothers and sisters of Long Clough. But Phelan’s voice did not seem to have the tone of a brother about to defend a sister’s honour. In fact, Josiah thought that Phelan sounded his usual phlegmatic self.
As he watched Phelan Hayes appeared in the doorway from the house. In the shadows was Aideen’s elegant figure. As she came out into the light he could see she was dressed in a dark blue coat and matching bonnet. Aideen and Rachael were now together in the same place. Surely, both would immediately see his divided loyalties, even if no one else in the courtyard saw through him.
Phelan took in the strained expressions on their faces. ‘Josiah. What terrible thing have you done to offend these good people?’
At last Josiah’s manners came to his aid, at least in getting his voice to work and reducing the possibility that he was standing there with his mouth open.
‘Phelan, how pleasant to see you.’ Josiah swallowed hard. ‘Allow me to introduce you to Sister Rachael and Brother Peter of the community of the Children of Fire.’ Peter nodded and Rachael dropped a perfect country-curtsy.
‘I am pleased to meet both of you. I know you by your reputation in the Vale and wished we could have more time to become acquainted with you and the rest of the community.’ He bowed deeply including all the sisters and brothers into this flamboyant acknowledgement.
He held out his hand to Aideen. ‘This is my sister Aideen. It is on her insistence we have come.’ Aideen dropped a curtsy of her own to Peter and Rachael. Josiah thought there was not much to choose between her’s and Rachael’s though Aideen’s might have been slower, deeper and perhaps more practised.
Aideen stepped forward. ‘Josiah, can I have a word with you?’
‘Of course.’
‘Aideen,’ said Phelan, ‘remember that you will have very little time to make the Liverpool train if you are to catch the Dublin packet on this evening’s tide.’
‘Yes, brother. This will not take long.’
Josiah led Aideen out to the paddock. As he went round the end of the farmhouse he could see Mr Hailsworth’s landau. Evidently it had brought her to Long Clough was waiting to take her to the train. She stopped a few yards into the paddock and turn to face him.
‘Phelan and I have had some very bad news from Ireland. It arrived this morning by special messenger. Our father is very ill and has taken to his bed, which is very unusual for him.’
She was nervous and clearly distressed, unable to decide if her leather travelling gloves should be on or off.
‘His health declined slowly after mother died but he has become very frail in the last year. We fear that he is coming to the end of his life and so we have to cut short our visit.’
‘I am so sorry,’ said Josiah. He took her hands in his, trying to convey his sympathy; yet another bereavement to be added to her mother’s. Though more expected than that death, it would still bring back the feelings she had shared so recently.
‘So much passed between us during our ride that I could not leave without parting properly.’
‘A note in your own hand explaining would have sufficed. You will be needed at home. I understand.’
‘I wanted to be absolutely sure that you appreciated my affection for you. I thank you for the restraint of your own passion in the garden. Looking back, I now see that you were right. It would have been a mistake for us to have given way, though I in no way repudiate my sentiments. I desire you and hope that you desire me in return. But your offer of a proper courtship and time to allow us to know each other more broadly, before any proposal of marriage, was sensible and honourable.’
‘Thank you. I do not repudiate my affection for you either, nor do I think any worse of you for your actions.’
‘I also want to assure you that I sincerely want you to visit us in Donegal.’
He felt cheered by this invitation but he remembered the words of the song they had sung together at the dinner at Hailsworth Hall. That song suggested affection could be fickle. He hoped he was not as fickle as the character in the song.
‘I will come.’
She smiled for the first time. ‘I also want to give you fair warning Josiah Ainscough, there is only so much a girl like me can produce in the way of good sense, patience and restraint. If you don’t come quickly, you’ll find me on your doorstep demanding to know why you haven’t been to see me.’
Before he could move, she reached up and kissed him. There again was the softness of her lips, and the smell of lavender water and country air.
She turned away and walked briskly back to the carriage. Phelan appeared from the courtyard and helped her into the coach. He kissed her hand. Josiah joined him and they watched as the landau drove away. Josiah imagined that th
ey would go through Marple and then on to the railway station Manchester itself. As the landau disappeared out of sight, Phelan turned to Josiah.
‘Josiah, you will know better than I what passed between you and Aideen on your ride the other day, but she has been much changed by whatever it was. If I may be so bold, I hope all goes well between you. Let me reassure you that you will be very welcome to visit us in Donegal and while I can’t speak for the rest of the family, I will be on your side. Many men have fallen in love with her, you are the first one to whom she has returned the affection. She needs and deserves the peace of mutual happiness.’ He shook Josiah’s hand.
‘Thank you, Phelan.’
‘And now I must get back to the Hall. I have to make sure our entire luggage is ready to follow us tomorrow as well as riding to Liverpool to catch the morning tide to Ireland to follow Aideen.’
‘Have a good journey,’ said Josiah as he shook Phelan’s hand a second time. Phelan mounted his horse, that was tied near the chapel, and rode away.
Josiah returned to the courtyard. He tried to get his mind back to considering his position at Long Clough before he got there. He must now make a dignified exit from the community. It was inconceivable that they would want him to stay after placing Peter and Rachael under a suspicion of Elijah’s murder. He would pack up and throw himself on the mercy of Mr Hailsworth at the Hall.
As he came into the courtyard the first thing he noticed was Rachael’s expression. While waiting for the search to be completed she had remained controlled if stern but when Michael had announced that the search had not found its mark, she had looked the most relieved of anyone. But she now seemed almost as tense as she had been during the search.
Then Josiah realised that he and Aideen might well have been visible to the people in the courtyard, so that Rachael would have seen Aideen kiss him farewell: more confusion, more guilt. All he wanted to do was run away and hide, but instead he walked across and stood, hat in hand, in front of Rachael who did not look at him.
‘I am sorry, Sister,’ he said. ‘I have accused you and Brother Peter mistakenly and I have behaved miserably towards all the Children of Fire, but especially you. I ask your forgiveness and promise to clear my things out of the barn forthwith.’
Rachael looked at him in a rather vague way. ‘I’m sorry, Josiah, but I was thinking of something else while you spoke. Did I hear you say you want to leave?’
‘Yes.’
She stood up. ‘Yes. I suppose that is proper but let us not do so on bad terms.’ The focus returned to her eyes and she looked at him with her usual candour.
‘It is midday and the rest of the community will be coming in from the fields. Break bread with us once more before you leave. You and Mr O’Carroll must be as hungry as the rest of us with all this waiting and upset. If we all pull together then there can be food for all to eat before we part. A space in which to remember the good things we have shared while you have been here, not just the bad.’
They all rallied round. Bread and butter and cheese were found. The table was laid in its usual way and they were joined by those returning from the fields who had missed all the excitement. They stood together had in hand and sang as always.
James and Michael were in much demand to explain how they had conducted the search. Peter, tactfully positioned himself at the other end of the table from Josiah, who sat opposite Rachael at the top of the table. Elijah’s chair was left empty as it had been since his murder. Josiah watched the others and said very little to Rachael nor she to him. She too seemed to have fallen back into a thoughtful mood. He would miss Long Clough and not just because of Rachael. He would miss the whole community and their camaraderie.
When they had finished eating Josiah left the others to clear up the meal so that he could gather up his possessions from the barn. He was nearly ready, when Rachael, Peter and Michael, along with Mr Hailsworth’s chief coachman hurried into the barn.
‘Mr Ainscough, I have the brougham outside. I am instructed by Mr Hailsworth to fetch you most urgently. I am to say that he is ordering you to come.’
‘Of course, I will come. What is the trouble?’
‘There has been an accident at the mine, an explosion.’
‘Below ground?’
‘No, in the forge. Mr McBrinnie has been killed.’
30
A Dreadful Consequence
The brougham clattered along at top speed. Instead of its normal single horse, a pair had been harnessed up, turning it from a gentleman’s town dawdler, to an out and out flier, with all the shaking that implied. Even so, on the rough road from Long Clough and the steep climb to the mine, it was still relatively comfortable, giving Josiah a space in which to compose himself.
He wondered what they would find when they arrived. There would be McBrinnie’s body, with what it might tell him about how he had died. There would be the forge damaged by the explosion and debris ready to tell its story, if he was calm enough to discern it. But he was far from calm. His mind was a sea of mixed feelings and fears with all that had happened that day. The worst of those fears was that he had caused McBrinnie’s death.
The sudden death of the suspect Josiah was most sure had been directly involved with Elijah’s murder, meant McBrinnie was now beyond not only justice but also questioning, which led to the thought that McBrinnie been killed to guarantee his silence. In which case, had the nail used on Elijah that Josiah had passed to McBrinnie via Merriman precipitated the killing? Would McBrinnie have understood that the nail’s significance or was Josiah assuming too much about the relationship between McBrinnie and his accomplice?
McBrinnie would definitely have known that the nail had not been found by Josiah in the forge but would he have realised that it indicated Josiah’s suspicion of his involvement? When it came down to it, Josiah had great difficulty in imagining the dour McBrinnie instigating Elijah’s murder in such a dramatic manner. In which case it was McBrinnie who was the accomplice. So McBrinnie might have felt compelled to bring to the attention of the lead perpetrator how the nail had been returned. That person would certainly have realised the significance of the nail and killing McBrinnie out of hand reduced any risk attached.
Josiah had to face the fact that his actions might have caused McBrinnie’s death. Although he had not intended such an outcome, he knew he would have it on his conscience for a very long time if that were the case. But thinking that way was of no use and to distract himself he turned to his friend.
Michael, who sat next to him, had volunteered to come with him from Long Clough, an offer Josiah had gratefully accepted. But even Michael seemed lost in his thoughts.
‘I think this is the quietest I have ever seen you,’ Josiah observed. ‘Why so thoughtful?’
‘Just thinking how strange life is.’ Then he grinned and winked at Josiah. ‘As well of course remembering the beautiful and charming young lady in blue.’
Josiah coughed embarrassed. ‘You saw us then?’
‘Yes, though I think I was the only one; the rest were concentrating on her brother. I must say, Josiah, that for someone who only a little while ago was lamenting his inability to play the game of love, you seem to have learned some interesting gambits in a very short while.’
Josiah blushed and Michael laughed. ‘Only teasing, lad. Actually, I was wondering what you knew about Miss Aideen and Mr Phelan in general. Remind me, their family name is Hayes?’
‘Yes it is Hayes.’
‘Phelan Hayes. You know Phelan’s a Celtic name; it means wolf. Aideen is similarly a Celtic name; it means born of fire. It comes from the same root as the name of St Aidan who founded the monastery on Lindisfarne. To top it off Hayes means fire as well. Phelan Hayes is a fiery wolf and Aideen Hayes is doubly fiery. No wonder she came all that way, in such a nice carriage, to give you such a passionate goodbye kiss.’
Josiah blushed again
. He did not believe in the fate of names. Many believed that a name conferred almost magical powers and determined a person’s destiny or character. In the tradition of biblical names in Methodism, his name, Josiah, was straight from the Old Testament. Josiah was a king of Judah who renovated the Temple in Jerusalem and as a result rediscovered the lost books of the Law of Moses. Josiah had read the story but he did not see much similarity between himself and the ancient king.
‘Perhaps that is why Phelan always wears a flame red flower on his jacket,’ Josiah joked.
Michael did not laugh. ‘I saw the flower. Does he always wear it?’
‘I don’t know about always but he was wearing one when I met him at Hailsworth Hall.’
The brougham got back onto level ground and soon they were in the yard of the mine. Johnstone was there looking strained.
‘When did it happen?’ asked Josiah.
‘About midday.’
‘Anything unusual going on at the time?’
‘Nothing. I had spoken to McBrinnie only a few minutes before. We were discussing problems with some of the rails in the deep mine. He said he would go down and have a look later. I watched him walk over to the forge. I even saw him go in through the door. Not more than half a minute after that there was the explosion and the front of the forge disintegrated. Only the stone built walls at the back are still standing properly.’
Josiah looked over. It was difficult at this distance to see much. But there was thin column of smoke rising from the forge into the otherwise blue sky.
‘I better get over there.’
‘You will find Merriman. He’s inspecting what’s left. They got McBrinnie’s body out about half an hour ago. It was clear he was dead even before we got it out. I’ve never seen a more horribly disfigured corpse.’
‘Is there any reason why Mr McBrinnie would have anything explosive in the forge?’ asked Michael.
‘None at all,’ replied Johnstone. ‘Merriman makes it his business to ensure explosives are stored safely.’
Children of Fire Page 18