So, on the Friday night, she marched across to the rectory and banged the knocker loudly.
Anna came to the door. ‘Maggie? How’s things? Do come in.’
Maggie followed her into the sitting room. Such a lovely room; it was just as it was when Caroline lived here. Beautifully furnished, in the most pleasant and relaxing way, with subtle colours and cuddling comfort everywhere.
‘Now, Maggie, do you have a problem? If so, spill the beans.’
Maggie straightened her skirt and coughed to clear her throat. ‘I’m not here to tittle-tattle.’
‘Of course not.’
‘But I am here to tell you something you won’t like.’
Immediately Anna thought about the incident with Gilbert in the church the other evening, when she’d got over-animated. Had she been seen holding his arm and talking so intensely to him? That night she could have reached up and kissed him without any encouragement. God! She hoped not.
‘You see, you didn’t go collecting with us, did you?’
Relief. ‘No.’
‘Well, we all went to wait for the bus to come back, we had a very successful morning, you know, collected far more than we’d expected. I needed … well … I needed to spend a penny, as yer might say and – do you know the ticket hall?’
‘Well, no, I don’t actually.’
‘Well, you have to go through there to get to the toilets and on my way back I saw Paddy Cleary steal a woman’s purse. It’s true, I’m not trying to get him into trouble. Plain as day. It’s been worrying me all week, but I can’t tell Greta Jones, ’cos she’s worried enough about getting arrested and that photo in the paper. So I thought I’d tell you. Is it all right?’
‘To tell me? Of course, but I wish you hadn’t had to. I thought he’d turned over a new leaf.’
‘We all did. We all thought that. But he did. Before my very eyes, he disappeared with the purse and the woman ran to catch her bus not knowing what had happened.’
‘Don’t worry, I’ll have a word with him.’
‘Oh! Thank you. It’ll be better coming from you rather than me. Greta Jones can’t half take the huff if she’s a mind to.’
‘I’ll tread carefully.’
‘Thank you very much indeed. I’m so relieved. Goodnight, Reverend. You’re doing very well, you know. Peter was a hard act to follow, but they’re all coming round to you.’
‘Thank you. I’ll attend to this matter as soon as maybe.’
‘I’ll be off then.’
Anna stood in the window of the sitting room, watching Maggie cross the road to her house and feeling thankful her news wasn’t what she thought it was going to be.
That night in the church after choir practice, she’d gone completely over the top talking to Gilbert. He had this strange effect on her, where she lost all common sense and went into overdrive, flirting almost. There’d been other men in her life before she was ordained but none had the capacity to alert her in the same way Gilbert did. He, being a happily married man with a pregnant wife and a large family, made absolutely no overtures to her at all. He treated her like a perfectly normal human being, although there was nothing normal about her when she was with him. She urgently needed to get it under control.
Her other problem was Dean. His kind of calf-love was very flattering but meant nothing to her and everything to him. She sensed it each time he came near her and avoided being alone with him as much as she possibly could. Maybe she was flattering herself but she felt it wouldn’t take much for him to kiss her, or at least to hold her. A romance with an inexperienced boy, which he was despite his twenty-two years, would be unkind of her and disastrous for him.
The third man in her life was Paddy. Damn Paddy. Anna glanced at her watch and decided she had time to catch him in the pub if she went right now. But she’d forgotten it was the awards night for the hair-dyeing competition.
Chapter 13
Jimbo was standing on a chair announcing the details. His powerful voice could be heard all round the saloon bar.
‘There were three categories of prizes. The most amusing, the most wicked and the most fashionable improvement. Lady Templeton has graciously agreed to present the prizes, which are … vouchers for a full treatment at the Misty Blue Unisex Hair and Beauty Salon in Culworth. These vouchers have been kindly donated by the salon, please note, and we are very grateful for their generosity. So … prize for the most amusing hair goes to … Vince Jones. He gets the full massage treatment as his prize.’
At this announcement great whoops of laughter roared round the bar.
‘All right! All right! The prize for the most wicked hair goes to the three Charter-Plackett girls. They’ll have to fight that out by themselves. Prize for the most fashionable improvement goes to … wait for it … Greta Jones! She gets a complete makeover. Give them a big hand for being so sporting.’
The pub was crowded and the applause thunderous. Anna ordered her drink from Georgie and leaned against the counter, watching the presentation.
‘OK. OK. Silence please. Thank you. Most important of all, between them they collected … yes, pin back your ears! A wonderful total of six hundred and forty-two pounds, thirty-seven pence, which includes the two pounds they paid to enter the competition. The nearest guess to that was Paddy Cleary’s. He guessed six hundred pounds. Come along, Paddy, and collect your prize.’
Lady Templeton handed over to him vouchers for five free drinks in the Royal Oak Bar.
‘So those of you who paid fifty pence to wager on the amount they collected and only guessed between twenty and three hundred pounds were way out. But … their wagers contributed another twenty pounds to the total. Three cheers for the hair-dyeing competition. Hip hip …’
Jimbo led the cheering, then climbed down from his chair and went to kiss his prize-winning family.
Anna caught Paddy in a state of euphoria about his prize.
‘I need a word. Outside. Now.’
‘But I’m treating Greta and Vince—’
‘Now.’
‘Oh, hell!’ Anna-with-the-banner again. He thought he’d got rid of her.
After the fug in the bar, the outside air struck him forcibly. ‘Damn blasted cold out here. What do you want? Some more ornaments gone missing, so blame Paddy who hasn’t set foot in the rectory since he got kicked out?’
‘No. Someone saw you on Saturday.’
‘I expect they did, there were dozens of people in Culworth.’
Exasperated, Anna said sharply, ‘Stealing a purse?’
Paddy pushed his hands in his jacket pockets. ‘Who was stealing a purse?’
‘You. In the ticket hall.’
Somehow he wasn’t being quite so clever as he had been at persuading others he wasn’t a thief. ‘All I did in the ticket hall was wait in the warm for the bus.’
‘No, Paddy. You stole someone’s purse from her shopping bag and don’t deny it.’
‘You said it, not me.’ He glanced towards the lighted window of the pub, the vouchers burning a hole in his pocket.
‘What I can’t understand is, where is your money going? You’re getting paid, you’ve a roof over your head, why do you need to steal as well? Old habits, is it? You’ve got a very comfortable home with Greta and Vince, you’ve done them some good because they enjoy your company, and they’ve done you some good by providing you with a stable home like you’ve never had before.’
Paddy looked anywhere but at Anna’s face. Why the crusade? he thought. Why the hell did she never leave him alone? ‘Look, if Greta and Vince don’t know nothing about what I do, that purse and such, what harm is it doing? Just mind your own damn business and let me get on with my life.’ He turned to go. ‘And you get on with yours.’
‘Maggie could report it to the police.’
‘Oh! Maggie was it, saw me? A couple of drinks will soon sort that out. She wouldn’t dare.’
‘I might.’
‘And ruin all your good work? All the time you’ve s
pent trying to keep me on the straight and narrow. Some Christian you are. Well, I’ll tell you something, shall I? Something about you. You’re pining for that Gilbert fella. Pining! I can see it in your eyes, and him a married man, for God’s sake. And I’m the one to make sure everyone knows.’ He stabbed the air with a vicious forefinger. ‘So just keep out of my business or I’ll start the rumours up, this time about you and Gilbert. He must be a sexy devil, a family the size of his; wouldn’t be difficult to get people to believe me. Just a nod and a wink is all it takes in this place and they’d be on to it like a shot.’
Paddy spun on his heel and left Anna standing humiliated and afraid. She’d pray about her feelings for Gilbert and would have to get them under control somehow. She couldn’t afford scandal; her position was already precarious enough. What was it about rectors at Turnham Malpas? Were they destined to be the subject of rumours and counter-rumours?
The absent rector of Turnham Malpas had sent an email that had nothing to do with rumours. When Jimbo found it on his computer the following morning, just before he went to Matins, his heart almost burst with the shock of what he read.
To: Everyone at Turnham Malpas
From: New Hope Mission
Dear Friends
Pray for us. Pray for us. Your brother and sister in Christ need your prayers. Our beloved children were ambushed by rebels on their way home from school yesterday. Usually I collect them from school to bring them home for the weekend, but an Anglican missionary we k now suggested he drove them home as he was travelling to stay for the weekend with us. The car was attacked and the children are gone. Nothing of them nor their belongings was found at the scene. The missionary was discovered in a storm drain at the side of the road shot dead. Elijah has gone to search for them. We pray desperately for his safe return and that of the children.
Peter and Caroline
Jimbo felt physically sick. His head pounded with pain, and for a moment his heart felt to have stopped beating. He drew in a huge gasp of air and wondered what use their fundraising was now. He printed out the email, folded it and placed it in his pocket, then went to tell Harriet and the girls what had happened. Fran burst into noisy tears, Flick went drip-white and Harriet clung to him for comfort. He gave the copy of the email to Anna to read in the vestry before the service.
‘This has come this morning,’ he said to her. ‘I thought you ought to know. Read it, please. God in heaven, Anna. We’ll have to pray like we’ve never prayed before.’
Anna’s problems faded away. Her hands shook so much she could scarcely read the words. ‘Dear God. Why? For heaven’s sake, when all they’re doing is helping put things right, to give these people the basic needs of a human being, and they do this. What possible good can it do, kidnapping two children? Political opponents perhaps, but children?’
Soberly Jimbo said, ‘We don’t know they were kidnapped, let’s hope they’re still alive.’ He caught sight of Gilbert signalling his readiness from the vestry doorway. ‘Gilbert’s waiting for you.’
‘Gilbert is? Ah! Yes. Tell him I’m ready. Just one minute while I pull myself together.’
Anna held the service, as she was bound to do, but the one she had planned was abandoned and she held an open pulpit for people to speak or pray as they wished. There was not a dry eye in the church that morning. They decided to pray, keeping an all-night vigil, a twenty-four-hour chain of prayer for Beth and Alex. What else could they do? Nothing. It was a last resort.
‘Some good us getting money together for such an ungrateful lot.’
‘Might as well throw the money down a drain. They’ll get no more of mine anyway. That’s for certain.’
Anna’s reply was, ‘We mustn’t let this affect us. Those who’ve done this aren’t the ones we’re collecting the money for.’
‘How d’we know which side they’re all on? Could be saying one thing and doing another.’
‘You’re right there. Blast ’em. Them two poor kids. It’s not right.’
Anna broke in to put a stop to the resentment. ‘It isn’t right, I agree, but we’ve to maintain our faith and think of Caroline and Peter and support them with our prayers. We must not let the poison of these murderers affect the way we think. We must behave as Peter would want us to. As I want you to. With courage and steadfastness. With honour and belief. Nothing we do or think must bring us down to the level of these rebels. In the long term the money is obviously desperately needed and we’ll see they get it. Bibles to spread the Word, along with medicines and syringes and dressings and drugs. What was it Jesus said? “Turn the other cheek”. This is one of those moments to remember that. God bless you all.’
A group gathered around Jimbo to put their names for the prayer vigil and Anna had to leave them to it. She stood in the vestry, alone, overcome by spiritual exhaustion, tears beginning to pour down her face. Unaware that Gilbert was standing in the doorway, his arms full of choir music he was wanting to put away in the choir music cupboard, she let the tears flow.
‘Anna!’ Gilbert put the sheet music down on the vestry table and opened his arms wide. ‘Anna, my dear. What a triumph! There, there, you’ve done brilliantly and saved the day. It could all have got very nasty in there and understandably so, but you spoke right to their hearts and just how Peter would have done. The thought of a child of mine in those unpredictable, spinechilling circumstances horrifies me. There, there. Come along now, dry your tears.’
Anna loved the comfort his words and his actions brought to her. They eased her soul, strengthened her resolve. He rocked her gently, talking softly to her as he would have done to one of his own children. Thinking that brought her abruptly to her senses. In the shelter of his arms she sniffed back her tears. ‘I’m so sorry. Making an exhibition of myself.’
‘Not an exhibition. You couldn’t have held it all together without some severe emotional drain, it had to come out. Now dry the tears, Anna, my dear, or—’
They heard the vestry door crashing back against the cupboard and before they let go of each other to see who was there, they were violently torn apart. Ashen-faced and breathing fire stood Dean Jones. He thrust Gilbert up against the music cupboard and threatened him with his clenched fist. ‘How dare you? How dare you touch Anna in that way!’
Gilbert, sensing he’d been thrust deep into an emotional whirlpool, shrewdly took a deep breath before he spoke. ‘Dean! Please. Have some sensitivity. Anna was—’
‘Sensitivity! It’s you without sensitivity, not I. How dare you put your arms round her. In public, too. Have you no shame?’
‘Look—’
‘I did look – and saw you.’ His face was now flushed and he was beginning to see he was making the most horrendous fool of himself, but his temper got the better of him and he hit out at Gilbert with more power in his punch than he had ever thought himself capable of.
Anna shouted, ‘Dean! For heaven’s sake!’ She shut the vestry door to keep things as private as she could but she guessed she might already be too late. She pushed him away from Gilbert, who now had blood running from his nose and stood, holding up both his hands. ‘I’m a pacifist. I can’t strike back.’ He took his handkerchief out and held it to stem the blood.
‘A coward’s way out! Huh!’
Anna, boiling with frustration at his idiocy, shouted, ‘Dean! I insist you leave the vestry at once. This minute.’
Gilbert shook his head. ‘No, I’ll leave. You need to talk.’ He gestured at the music he’d laid down on the table. ‘Please?’
‘Of course. I’ll put it away.’ When Gilbert had left, Anna spoke coldly to Dean. ‘You owe both Gilbert and me an apology. It’s my turn to say how dare you? Bursting in here when I was talking privately to him, behaving like an angry child, shouting, using your fists. What on earth is the matter with you?’
Her anger mortified Dean. All these beautiful sunlit weeks when he’d longed to tell her, had imagined how delighted she would be when he told her how he felt, fell away from h
im and he realized so clearly how she viewed him in her mind. A foolish boy with the hots for her. His eyes, shining with his love, slid away from her face and focused on the music laid on the table. Humbly and softly he murmured, ‘But he’s a married man. With children. How could he?’
‘Dean! I’d been crying because of the twins and having to take hold of the service and keep everyone together. I was exhausted, and he comforted me. Believe me, there’s nothing between us. It’s like you said, he’s a married man with children. Full stop.’
Dean’s shoulders slumped and a tentative hand went out to her. He touched her cheek and then withdrew his hand immediately. ‘I’m sorry to have caused … you of all people … grief. That was why I came in here because I wanted to help. I knew you’d be exhausted.’
‘Well, thank you for thinking of me, thank you very much. But you’ve to put me out of your mind.’ Awry smile crossed her face. ‘You deserve someone much more beautiful and exciting than me. I’m much too old for a strapping young chap with prospects like yours. There.’ Anna kissed a finger and pressed it to his cheek.
Dean clutched her hand and held it to his lips. ‘Anna! Anna!’
There came a hurried tap and an immediate opening of the door and there stood Muriel, flushed and embarrassed.
Anna snatched her hand away, immediately conscious of how things must look. ‘Thank you, Dean, for your kindness in thinking of me.’
Dean caught sight of the disgust on Muriel’s face and wished himself anywhere but where he was. He managed to control himself long enough to say, ‘Think nothing of it. Glad I could be of some use.’
Muriel covered her confusion by saying, ‘I’ve come to see if you’re all right. You’ve done so well this morning. I couldn’t have done a quarter of what you’ve done in such difficult circumstances. Not a quarter. Didn’t you think she did well, Dean?’
Whispers in the Village Page 16