by Diane Allen
‘You’re very quiet tonight, Alice. Is something the matter? I know Nancy is in one of her moods – is that it?’
Alice looked at Gerald. A few weeks ago, she’d have thought it a dream come true to find herself alone in the manor’s dining room with the man she was beginning to have feelings for. Now she gave a wan smile and replied, ‘I think it’d be best if I left the manor tomorrow. I know you’ve only taken me in out of pity – Miss Nancy made that clear tonight – and I have my pride.’ She carried on eating her dinner, waiting for Gerald to comment.
‘Damn that woman! She comes out with such rubbish when she’s in one of her moods. I don’t know what has come over her – today’s episode was one of the worst I’ve seen.’ He cast aside his knife and fork and held his head in his hands. ‘We did not take pity on you, Alice. You are her only friend and she is to marry your brother. Sometimes her mouth runs away with her. Forgive her, Alice. She truly does not mean it.’
‘I know,’ Alice said sadly. ‘I went for a walk, but I needed time to think – so much has happened this last week or two. I was only gone a few hours. I’d never hurt Nancy.’
‘You are entitled to as much time as you wish to yourself if Nancy is otherwise occupied. She was supposed to be with me at my tenants’ meeting today, but she came downstairs barely dressed and started dancing in the hallway in front of my stockman. The embarrassment of it! I had to escort her to her room. We must be the talk of the dale. It’s no wonder we have such a bad name.’
Hearing the catch in his voice and seeing the tears welling in his eyes, Alice got up from her seat and rushed to his side. ‘Don’t worry, Gerald. I’ll look after her twenty-four hours a day until the wedding, and even afterwards if Will wants me to.’ She squeezed his hand. ‘She’ll be all right, I promise. I’ll stay and keep her mind occupied. It’s probably the pressure of the wedding that’s getting to her.’
Suddenly remembering whose hand she was holding, Alice hurriedly released it. Blushing violently, she returned to her seat.
‘I’d be grateful if you could, Alice. I have a feeling that this may be the beginning of a very rocky month or two. I hope that your brother knows what he’s taking on and that he has a great deal of patience. But let us talk of cheerier things, shall we? Where did your walk take you? You look as if you have benefited from the fresh air. It does one good to have some time to oneself. I sometimes head up to the Occupation Road and sit gazing upon our lovely valley. Makes you forget your worries, those fells rolling gently, dale after dale, until they reach the sea. Have you ever been to the sea?’
‘No, I haven’t. My father always said he would take me, but we never got to go. The nearest I’ve been is to the top of Leck Fell, where you can see it in the distance.’ Alice cast her mind back, remembering the sight.
‘Then we shall go! We’ll all go. In the summer, once the wedding is over, we’ll have an outing.’ Gerald smiled, his mood lightening as he picked up his knife and fork and continued with his meal. ‘By the way, Alice, I almost forgot to tell you: Jack is to be the new owner of your old home, Dale End. He made me an offer, and I agreed. It couldn’t be in safer hands. Eventually he will be leaving his work here and I’ll be sorry to lose him when that time comes. I do believe he must be thinking of settling down. He’ll be a good catch for someone.’ Gerald smiled and winked, not knowing that Alice and Jack were no longer courting.
Alice’s heart pounded. She felt as if she was going to be sick. Jack in her old home – how could he? She had always hoped for Dale End to be hers one day. Only this afternoon she had passed it on her walk and noticed it was still empty. Peering in through the kitchen window had rekindled old memories; she couldn’t bear to think of anyone else living there. And now Jack was considering settling down . . . She didn’t know what to think. Was it jealousy she was feeling or anguish? If she wasn’t careful, she was going to be left on the shelf, and that would never do!
14
‘February fill-dyke, that’s what it is. Have you ever seen rain like it? How am I supposed to get these sheets dry?’ Mrs Dowbiggin moaned to Faulks as she lifted the damp sheets onto the clothes drier above the fire. Pulling at the rope, she wound it tight round the hook before the pulleys let it slip again. ‘It’s rained all blinking February. What with the weather, my lumbago and her upstairs carrying on, it’s a wonder I’m not mad.’ She stretched and peered out of the window. ‘Anyway, the doctor’s coming to see her this morning. Master Gerald says she needs something to calm her nerves. He still thinks it’s the wedding that’s getting her worked up.’
Faulks grunted while he read his newspaper.
‘Morning, another beautiful day.’ Alice entered the kitchen carrying Nancy’s breakfast tray. ‘I thought I’d bring you this, Mrs D – save you entering the ogre’s den. I’m afraid Nancy’s moods are not improving. If this keeps up, I’m going to lose my temper. I have come so close to telling her what I think of her this last day or two. My mother would have put her over her knee and walloped her, no matter how old she is.’ Alice helped herself to a cup of tea from the teapot.
‘Get him to serve you – he’s doing nothing.’ Mrs Dowbiggin kicked Faulks’s foot and glared at him. ‘Doctor’s coming today; she’ll calm down once he’s been. I must admit we haven’t had a session like this for a while.’
‘What makes her like this, Mrs Dowbiggin? I used to think it was her scars hurting her, or not having anything to do, but she says she’s not in pain, and with the wedding she has plenty to occupy her at the moment.’
Mrs Dowbiggin mouthed some words and pointed downwards.
‘What?’ Alice was lost.
‘Cover your ears, you.’ She swiped poor Faulks round his head with a damp pillowcase, then leaned conspiratorially towards Alice. ‘Women’s problems. Nerves, you know.’
Alice blushed. ‘I see.’
‘Her mother was the same. Nearly insane with it, she was. Too highly bred, if you ask me,’ Mrs Dowbiggin whispered, half covering her mouth. ‘Dr Bailey will give her something and then she’ll be right again.’
‘I’d better go up to her. I said I’d play whist with her until lunch – not that I dare win a game: it’d probably be more than my life’s worth!’ Alice gave a mirthless laugh and went back upstairs, thinking that if her brother only knew what he was taking on, he’d surely think twice.
She knocked gently on the half-closed bedroom door and then entered. Nancy was sitting in front of the mirror, examining her face.
‘Look at me! How could anyone want to marry me? Your brother’s only marrying me out of pity; he doesn’t love me. I’d be better off dead!’ she wailed. Then, wrapping her arms around herself and rocking back and forth, she repeated over and over, ‘I’m nothing to no one. I’m nothing to no one . . .’
‘For God’s sake, Nancy, I’ve had enough of this self-pity! You’re getting married in another month. You should be looking forward to having a new home and a man to love you. I’ve no man and no real home. Do you hear me complain? Stop this relentless moaning. I can’t take it any more. I’m going to my room until your mood’s improved!’ Then Alice marched out, slamming the door behind her.
Back in her own room, she agonized over whether she should tell her brother how much worse Nancy’s moods were becoming, and how she’d inherited them. How near to the edge of insanity had her mother been? Alice wondered. Even though Will said he was marrying Nancy for her wealth and her tantrums were a small price to pay for what he would get in return, would he feel differently once they started married life and he had to live with her? The Stone House works were now safely in his hands, the deeds having been signed over last week, so it was probably already too late for him to back out.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the doorbell: Dr Bailey had arrived. A few minutes later she listened as Gerald talked to him on the landing before opening Nancy’s bedroom door. Then she heard Gerald’s tread on the stairs as he left the doctor to examine Nancy. Quietly Alice closed h
er bedroom door and crept downstairs. Knowing that Dr Bailey would stop by Gerald’s study on his way out, she slipped into the adjoining room, hoping to eavesdrop on the doctor’s prognosis in case there was anything that her brother should know. Sure enough, she heard him knock on the study door and go in, but when she tried to listen through the wall, it was too thick. She couldn’t hear a word.
After a while, the two men left the study together. Gerald was escorting the doctor to the front door. Alice opened the morning-room door a crack and peeked out.
‘I’m sorry you have had to come out in such bad weather,’ said Gerald, passing the doctor his hat and cloak.
‘Not at all, Gerald. Let me know when you come to a decision. As I said, we can do something about it, but it might be as dangerous as seeing things through to their natural term. And you never know, she might calm down in another month or two. I’ve given her a draught to calm her, so she will probably sleep the rest of the day. You know where I am if you need me. Good luck, old man.’ Dr Bailey patted Gerald on the back before dashing out to his carriage in the pouring rain.
‘Damn, damn, damn the man. I’ll bloody kill him!’ Gerald Frankland picked up his riding whip from the hall stand and thrashed the side of his leg with it. ‘I’ll bloody kill him. Alice, Alice, where the hell are you?’ He shouted loud enough for all the manor to hear him.
Alice came out of the morning room and stood in front of him, defiant but frightened by his show of temper.
‘Get your cloak on. You’re coming with me, else I won’t be responsible for my actions when I catch up with your brother.’ He thrashed the whip against his side again. ‘I’ll wait for you outside – and no gossiping with them downstairs.’ Then he was gone, pulling the huge door behind him with a bang.
Alice ran and grabbed her cloak, putting her hood up to stop her hair from getting wet. Following the sound of Gerald’s raised voice, she caught up with him at the stable.
‘Damn it, man, are you going to take all day doing this?’ Gerald Frankland was bellowing at Jack, who was harnessing the team to the carriage as fast as he could, his fingers fumbling with the buckles.
At last everything was ready. Elbowing Jack aside, Gerald ordered Alice to get into the carriage, while he sat on the board. He lashed the team with the whip and they set off. The rain was torrential and the horses slipped on the treacherous surface, but Gerald, drenched to the skin and looking like a mad man, drove them faster and faster until they reached Stone House. Pulling the carriage up abruptly at the cottage door, he shouted for Alice to get. Then he stormed up to the cottage door and swung it open, whip in hand, his cloak dripping with rainwater and his eyes flashing with rage. Will was sitting at his kitchen table with his back to them. He turned round in shock at the intrusion into his home.
‘Get up! Get up and fight me!’ Gerald swung his cloak off and grabbed Will by the neck. ‘I’m going to bloody well kill you, you stupid fucking man! The doctor reckons she’s pregnant – my bloody sister, pregnant! – and it can only be yours, you bastard.’ He held Will by the neck, pinning him against the kitchen wall. ‘Couldn’t you keep it to yourself till you got married? I’d have told you then that she can’t have children. It’ll drive her mad; her mind can’t take it. Already she’s had to be sedated. Now we’ll probably lose her, you fool!’
Alice stood watching her brother gasp for breath as Gerald Frankland squeezed tighter.
‘You marry her in April, by God. You stand by her and your bastard child, no matter what state she gets into, else I’ll kill you.’ Gerald’s hand shook while he kept his hold tight upon Will’s neck. ‘And another thing – you can keep the works and the cottage, but you’re not going to get a penny of her allowance, nor any more orders through me. Thought me a fool, did you? Thought you’d make sure I couldn’t renege on my promise by getting her pregnant? Well, your little plan’s backfired. Now you can watch her getting worse and worse with her rages, just like my mother did. You will earn every penny that this place is worth. Not that it’s worth a lot – I’ve been propping it up for years. Italian marble is all the markets want now, not this common black limestone marble.’ He sneered at Will, gasping for breath. ‘You’ll find you’re not much better off than you were when you started, but now you’ll have a wife and child – and you’d better treat them right.’ He released Will, then punched him hard in the stomach.
Will knelt, bent double and gasping for breath, on the flagstone floor. Alice rushed to his side. Even though he had confessed to her that it was only the money he was after, she had hoped that secretly he did think something of Nancy. Now there was a child to consider as well. If only she had known of Nancy’s problem, she could have told Will not to bed her and not to use her to get his own back on his employer. He should have been more respectful. He’d seen the agony and torment his sister had gone through at Christmas, after she had destroyed her baby. Will had only to spend an hour with Nancy to realize that her mind was on the brink of a dark precipice. And he was the cause of it.
Gerald kicked Will’s crumpled body. ‘Get up, you bloody coward! Get up and talk to me. I’ve done what I wanted to do, without actually breaking your neck. Now we sort it out. Alice, get him a drink of water. I won’t give him the satisfaction of choking to death, because I need him alive so he can stand by my sister.’
Alice passed Will a cup of water. He drank it down and spluttered, thanking her with a hoarse voice. Both men then sat down at the table while Alice stared out of the kitchen window at the incessant rain on the mountainside. She wished herself far away, away from this rain-sodden dale with all its problems, away from Nancy and away from the two men arguing at the table, their voices bitter with the fine line of love and hate running through them, both fighting for what they needed and what they thought was best for them.
‘The first Saturday in April, one o’clock – you’d better be there, else I’ll come and shoot you myself.’ Gerald Frankland rose from his chair, picked up his whip and smashed it down on the table. ‘If you lay a hand on her or deny her the attention she deserves, so help me God, I’ll break you.’ He turned to Alice. ‘Are you coming, or is blood thicker than water? You do know Nancy will need you?’
Alice looked to Will. Hands clutching his sore neck, he nodded for her to go. She didn’t want to leave her brother; she’d have liked to stay with him – as much to give him a piece of her mind as to make sure he wasn’t badly hurt – but she knew her own security depended on the Franklands. Besides, Nancy needed her, and she was carrying Will’s baby. That little nephew or niece would be a Bentham, part of her family. Though she didn’t know what would happen to her after the wedding, for now Alice would stay by Nancy’s side.
She pulled her cloak around her and climbed into the carriage. The horses, drenched and sweating from their chase up the dale, were eager to make the return journey so that they could be unharnessed and get back to their stables. Gerald and Alice rode in silence, their mood matching the weather. Rain pounded the roof of the carriage, competing with the deafening roar of the river as the waters surged, frothing and swirling round the smooth grey limestone formations.
When they finally arrived, Gerald handed the reins to Jack and stormed off across the yard without a backward glance. Alice climbed down from the carriage and followed as Jack led the team into the shelter of the stables. She was in no hurry to return to the manor.
Jack lifted the tack off both animals and began to brush the withers of the first horse. He kept his eyes on the horse, not even glancing in Alice’s direction as he spoke. ‘He’s pushed these horses hard. They’ve a fair sweat on them, even in this weather. Must have been something urgent that you were both about.’
Alice leaned against the stable door, not knowing what to say. Gerald had warned her against gossip, but Jack could be trusted. ‘He’d every right. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in such a mood.’
‘Oh, aye, he’s got a temper, has our master. Only once in a blue moon, but when he blows, he
blows and there’s no holding him back. He once whipped a dog that bit him to within an inch of its life. He’d every right then; according to him it needed to learn a lesson. What’s he in a temper for today, then?’ Jack carried on grooming, chewing on a straw as he spoke, still averting his eyes from Alice.
‘Our Will. I suppose everyone will find out soon enough,’ Alice sighed. ‘Nancy’s having Will’s baby and she’s going to be real ill while having it – her state of mind can’t handle it.’
‘Same old story for his lordship then: a dog’s bit him again. And you don’t bite the hand that feeds you.’ Jack led the first horse into its stall and combed out his curry brush. ‘Your Will’s been a fool. Miss Nancy loved him without him getting her pregnant. He should have taken more care.’ Finally he looked at Alice. ‘It must be something in the water up at Stone House.’
‘What do you mean by that, Jack Alderson?’ Alice glared at him in defiance, now certain that he must have heard her talking to the horse.
‘Nay, nothing. I’m not saying anything. Next time I see him, I’ll tell your brother to keep it in his pocket. Happen he’s not the only one who should. By the way, I found this outside Dale End’s kitchen window.’ He fished out the fur-trimmed glove that Alice had lost the day she went walking up the fell. ‘I take it that’s yours? I saw you wearing a pair like it on the day you came back with Miss Nancy from Kendal.’
‘Thanks. I’ve been searching for that everywhere. I hear you’re buying Dale End – are you going to be living there? It seemed so deserted.’
‘Well, you can’t live at home for ever and I thought it was time to be settling down and making my own home.’ Jack started grooming the second horse. He still couldn’t look at Alice; he loved her so much, but when he’d found out the things she’d kept from him – that she’d been untrue and slept with another man, then got rid of a baby – it had caused a hurt in him that was going to take a long time to heal.