Promise Made

by Linda Sole

  ‘I don’t think she will come,’ Daniel said. ‘I did ask but she said she wanted to stay there – and she had been drinking sherry.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ Emily asked. ‘Surely she wouldn’t – not in the morning …’

  ‘Alice said she had two bottles in her bag the other day in Ely. It made me wonder for a moment if she had … but then I realized that she wouldn’t hurt Charlie. Even if she has been lonely and miserable since Marcus died, she wouldn’t take it out on her son.’

  ‘Of course she wouldn’t,’ Emily retorted. ‘Don’t even think it, Dan. Frances might have a few drinks, but we can all do that when we’re upset – but she would never hurt Charlie. Look, I’m coming down tomorrow. I shall see if she will come back with me like she did last time – but somehow that was different. She still had Charlie then …’ She caught back a sob. ‘I can’t bear to think of it, Dan. It is heartbreaking to lose a child …’

  Emily replaced the telephone. She turned to see Amelia watching her. Her eyes were stinging with tears as she told her that Frances’s son had died in hospital.

  ‘She must be so terribly upset,’ Emily said. ‘I have to go to her, Amelia. I shall try to bring her home with me if she will come … but I don’t think I should take Robert to another funeral. It is nearly Christmas and he has parties to go to. Besides, I don’t want him upset. Will you help Nanny look after him for me? I shan’t be gone more than a few days. I shall certainly be back for the Christmas party here – and at the home.’

  ‘Of course I will,’ Amelia said. ‘If you are sure you trust me to take care of him?’ There was a hint of resentment in her voice.

  ‘I know you love him,’ Emily said. ‘Robert would be bound to wonder where his cousin was and I don’t want to tell him that Charlie is dead, not yet. So I think I should leave him here this time.’

  ‘He will be quite safe here with us,’ Amelia said and smiled oddly. ‘You’ve had nothing but tragedy in your family recently. This is the third death, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yes. I just hope it will be the last for a long time,’ Emily said. ‘It’s getting so as I’m almost afraid to pick up the telephone …’

  Emily glanced at her sister as the little coffin was carried outside to the churchyard after the service was finished. Frances hadn’t shed a tear, but her black-gloved hands were trembling so much that she almost dropped her prayer book, and she was very pale.

  ‘It will soon be over,’ Emily said, laying a hand on her arm. Frances moved forward, almost as if she were saying that she didn’t want to be touched. She had been cold and silent ever since Emily arrived, refusing to be held or comforted. She was very different to the way she had been after Marcus died, and Emily was worried about her. She felt that she was keeping it all inside and that the feelings she was denying would burst out when she could no longer bear it.

  She followed the little procession round to the churchyard. Rosalind Danby was weeping into a large white handkerchief. Dressed all in black, she was wearing a fox fur about her shoulders, her hat a dark soft felt. Sam Danby stood at her side, his expression one of anger and even hatred as he looked at Frances. Emily was shocked. Surely he couldn’t really blame her for what had happened to Charlie?

  Emily saw Daniel and Alice together. Daniel had his arm about his wife, supporting her as she wept. Dorothy and Mary were standing together. Several of the village people had come to support the family, but nowhere near as many as had been there for Marcus’s funeral. Emily noticed that one or two women directed an odd look at Frances, and she saw a couple of them with their heads together whispering.

  That was the trouble with rumours. Once people got hold of a tale, they couldn’t let it be, even if it wasn’t true. Emily knew that there were rumours about how Charlie had died, and she wondered who had started them. Someone must dislike Frances a great deal to have started the rumour that it was her fault that her child had died.

  She stood by Frances’s side, fiercely protective of the sister she loved. Emily asked again as they left the church if Frances would come and stay with her. She knew that Alice had already offered several times, but Frances wouldn’t leave her own house. She just said that she wanted to be left alone.

  ‘Are you sure you don’t want to come back with me?’ Emily asked as they walked down the church path. ‘It helped you the last time, Frances. Besides, it is almost Christmas. You can’t be alone for that, Frances.’

  ‘Last time was different,’ Frances said. ‘I still had Charlie then – now I don’t. And I don’t feel like celebrating Christmas. Why should I? I have nothing to be thankful for …’

  ‘What are you going to do about the dog?’

  ‘Alice’s brother asked if he could have him. I told him to take it away. I don’t want the brute in the house.’

  ‘Oh, Frances. Toffee was a nice little dog.’

  ‘Stupid name,’ Frances said. ‘I always called it the dog – and I told Alice I was going to have it put down. Her brother fetched it that night. I am glad, because I couldn’t bear the sight of it.’

  ‘Oh, Frances …’ Emily looked at her with pity. This wasn’t like Frances at all. ‘Surely you wouldn’t have had Charlie’s dog put down?’

  ‘Why not?’ Frances looked at her bitterly. ‘Some people think I killed my son – why not his dog?’

  ‘No one who knows or cares for you thinks anything of the sort.’

  ‘You might not – but Daniel suspected it at the start. He practically said that I had neglected Charlie.’ Frances was so cold and removed from the situation, as if she didn’t know or care that she had just left her son’s funeral. ‘I’m not coming to Alice’s. I didn’t want to ask anyone back, but she insisted it would look wrong – so she can play host and make everyone think what a lovely person she is. I’m going home – and I don’t want you to come. When I’m ready I’ll be in touch.’

  ‘Frances …’ Emily stared after her as she crossed the road and disappeared round the side of her house. ‘Oh, Frances …’

  ‘Leave her,’ Daniel said coming up to her. ‘It’s no use, Emily. Alice and I have both tried to talk to her, but we can’t get through. She just shuts everyone out – and I’m sure she is drinking too much. Muriel told me she threw out three empty sherry bottles this week.’

  ‘Why on earth does she want to ruin her health with drinking?’ Emily frowned. ‘After Marcus …’ She broke off, shaking her head. ‘It’s just foolish.’

  ‘Exactly. It’s as if she is punishing herself. I think we must just leave her for the moment, Emily. If she won’t let us help her there isn’t much we can do.’

  ‘I don’t like to think of her alone in that house.’

  ‘It is her choice. Alice has asked her to come to us for Christmas, and so have I. If she won’t even come to you …’ He shook his head. ‘I’ll come up and see her in a few days, but I owe it to Alice and Danny to celebrate Christmas. It is the first we’ve had together and in our new house as well. I can’t worry about Frances all the time, if she won’t be sensible. Come on now, you’re only wasting your time.’

  ‘Yes, all right,’ Emily said. ‘I’ll try talking to her in the morning before I go back …’

  Frances could hear her front door bell ringing. She closed her eyes willing whoever it was to go away. She had drunk a whole bottle of sherry the previous evening and her head ached. She didn’t want to answer the door, and she didn’t want to talk to anyone, all she wanted was to lay here until she died.

  ‘Frances …’ Emily was shouting through the letterbox. ‘Let me in, please. I want to talk to you. I know you are there and I’m not going away until you let me in.’

  Frances groaned and threw back the bedcovers. Her head swam as her feet touched the ground. She felt sick and a hundred hammers were at work at her temples. She clung on to the stair rail as she walked down them, because otherwise she might have fallen. She had never felt this ill in her life!

  ‘I was asleep,’ she lied as she opened the d
oor to her sister. ‘Why all the fuss? I told you I would be in touch when I was ready.’

  Emily looked at her and then went into the kitchen. She was shocked when she saw the state of it. Frances was usually so fussy about her house, but it looked as if nothing had been touched for days.

  ‘Why hasn’t Muriel cleared this mess up?’ Emily asked as she filled a kettle. The range was low and she opened the door, raking the ashes to get a spark before putting on some wood and coke. ‘I’ll make you some coffee. It looks as if you need it.’

  Frances looked at the empty bottle on the table and the dirty glass on the sink draining board. There were several cups and saucers but no plates. ‘Muriel rang to say she wouldn’t be in for a while. Her husband is ill or something. Maybe she doesn’t want to come in, because she thinks I’m a murderer too.’

  ‘Don’t be silly, Fran. No one thinks that of you.’

  ‘Sam does,’ Frances said. ‘He came round here after the funeral and told me he was going to make me pay for what I’d done to his grandson.’

  ‘He is a nasty man,’ Emily said. ‘He’s got it in for you because you wouldn’t sleep with him.’

  ‘I tried to blackmail him into giving me double what my share of the property is worth,’ Frances said, shocking her sister. ‘I know too many of his dirty little secrets – that’s why he hates me. It isn’t because of Charlie, though I suppose that made it worse.’ She gave a sob. ‘I don’t care about him or the money. I would give it all away if I could have Charlie back again.’ Her eyes were dark with grief. ‘Do you think it was a punishment for what I tried to do? Is God punishing me because I am a bad woman?’

  ‘That is the most ridiculous thing I ever heard! Of course you’re not a bad woman, Fran. You loved Charlie.’

  ‘I loved him so much,’ Frances said, tears beginning to trickle down her cheeks. ‘I wish I were dead. There’s nothing left for me now, Emily. Nothing at all to live for …’

  ‘You mustn’t think like that,’ Emily said, a cold trickle of ice at her nape. She shivered, because the despair in Frances’s eyes was so awful to see, and there were no words of comfort she could offer. She had been expecting Robert when she was told of Terry’s death. After a while it had brought her back from the brink. ‘You have to try, Fran. You have to want to live for your own sake. I know the pain is unbearable now, but it will get better in time.’

  ‘Will it?’ Frances looked at her with empty eyes. ‘I don’t think I care enough to bother. I just want to die …’

  Emily made coffee and put the cup in front of her sister. ‘Do you have an aspirin or anything to take for the headache?’

  ‘No, I never use them.’ Frances said. ‘I’ve never suffered with headaches in the past … it will go I expect.’

  ‘Yes, it will pass – and you will start to feel better one day,’ Emily said. ‘Please change your mind and come with me, Fran. I know you would feel better if you stayed with me.’

  ‘It just makes it worse when you come back to an empty house,’ Frances said, picking up the cup and taking a sip of the strong coffee. ‘And I had Charlie then … it just seems as if there is no point, Emily. I wish I were dead. There’s nothing to live for now.’

  ‘So you want Sam to win, do you?’ Emily demanded, angry with her now. ‘For goodness sake stop this, Frances, or you will be really ill.’

  Frances shrugged. Emily wanted to take her by the shoulders and shake her, but she could see that nothing she could say would change the way her sister was feeling.

  ‘I’m going to leave you now,’ Emily said. ‘But when you snap out of this I want you to get on a train and come to me. If Sam hasn’t paid you what he owes you, we’ll get a lawyer to sort him out – but the main thing is for you to leave this place. You need to begin a new life, Fran, and you’re not going to do it here.’

  Frances stood up. She leaned forward and kissed Emily on the cheek. ‘I know you are trying to help me and I’m grateful. I am truly, but at the moment I don’t feel like thinking about the future. I can’t think because it hurts too much – that’s why I’ve been drinking, to numb the pain. I know it is stupid and I don’t want to be like Marcus. I’ll stop soon, but not just yet.’

  ‘I care about you,’ Emily said. ‘Daniel and Alice care too, even if Dan did wonder why you hadn’t taken Charlie to the doctor sooner – he really does, Frances so don’t pull a face. Your family knows you weren’t to blame – and you have to stop blaming yourself for what happened to Charlie.’

  ‘Perhaps.’ Frances gave her a fleeting smile. ‘You go, Emily. You have your son and a life waiting for you – and you can’t help me. Not yet. One day I may ask for help, but that isn’t today.’

  ‘All right,’ Emily said. ‘I’ll go but I am always there ready to help you, love. Remember that if you need me.’

  ‘Yes, all right,’ Frances said. She made an effort to seem cheerful as she went to the door with her sister. ‘Thank you for coming – and I’ll ring you when I feel better.’

  Closing the door and locking it, Frances went back to the kitchen and sat down at the table. She looked at the coffee her sister had made her, and then got up and poured it down the sink. She stared out at the garden for a moment, and then went to the dresser and took out her last bottle of sherry. She also took a packet of aspirin from the dresser drawer. Muriel had left it there, because she often got what she called water wheels in her head.

  Frances took the pills and the sherry to the table and sat down looking at them for a minute or two. She squeezed out all the pills, of which there were ten. Was that enough? It was all she had so they would have to do. She had no idea how many it would take to kill her, but she put them all in her mouth and took a long swig of the sherry to swallow them with. After that she drank some more sherry, and then some more. By the time the bottle was half-empty she was feeling sleepy. She slumped forward on her arms at the table and fell into a deep slumber.

  ‘She must have done it shortly after you left her,’ Daniel said when he telephoned Emily the following morning. ‘Muriel went up there to see if she needed her and found her unconscious. They rushed her into the hospital and they tell me she is recovering. She probably didn’t take enough aspirin to kill her, but the packet was empty. It couldn’t have been a full one.’

  ‘She told me she never took them,’ Emily said, feeling her throat constrict with emotion. ‘I don’t think I can come back for a few days. We have so much going on here for Christmas. I must spend some time with Vane and Robert. Will you get Frances some flowers from me? I’ll send her a card – and get down as soon as I can to see her.’

  ‘Alice says she wants her to come here for a while, but I don’t know if she will. I think she would be better off getting right away from the village. You can imagine the kind of tales that are flying around at the moment.’

  ‘Yes, I can – and I imagine I know where they started too.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Sam hates her, because he tried it on a few times and she told him to get lost. And she blackmailed him for twice what that property she had a share in was worth.’

  ‘Blackmail? That would make him furious, but I don’t know what you mean? He wouldn’t have tried anything with his son’s wife, surely? Sam is a bit of a tough case but he isn’t that bad.’

  ‘You don’t really know him, Dan. Frances told me what he does at that London property. It knocked Marcus for six when he discovered that his father was running brothels and perhaps worse for all we know. Frances believes that’s why he started drinking so heavily.’

  ‘I can’t believe this,’ Daniel said. ‘I’ve know Sam Danby for years. I would have said he was a hard man in business, but fair.’

  ‘Maybe he is when he is in Stretton. He likes to play the big man, the councillor with village affairs at heart – but underneath he is rotten, Dan. About as rotten as they come, and I think he is Frances’s enemy. I’ve told her to be careful of him, but she doesn’t seem to care at the moment.
’

  ‘I am finding this difficult to believe,’ Daniel said. ‘I don’t doubt that Frances told you these things – but how could she know? Did Marcus tell her?’

  ‘I think she went to the apartment block in London and spoke to one of the girls there. Apparently, she thought Frances was looking for a job – or a room to ply her trade.’

  ‘Good grief,’ Daniel said. ‘The sly old dog! No one here knows anything about any of this, Emily.’

  ‘No, well, they wouldn’t,’ Emily replied. ‘You wouldn’t expect him to broadcast it locally, would you?’

  ‘No …’ Daniel was thoughtful. ‘I still can’t quite believe it – but if it is true, Frances should be careful. Sam wouldn’t take kindly to blackmail about a thing like that …’

  ‘That is what I told her, but she didn’t seem to care.’

  ‘Well, she is in hospital for the moment. We must hope she is feeling better by the time they let her out. I suppose she could be in trouble for trying to commit suicide – it isn’t exactly sensible behaviour, is it?’

  ‘They might decide to keep her under supervision for a while, until she stops feeling suicidal,’ Emily said. ‘Poor Frances. I knew she was desperate, but I didn’t think she would do something like this.’

  ‘No, well, I shall take Alice to see her in a day or so and we’ll see how she is then.’

  ‘You will let me know?’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ Daniel said. ‘I had better go now, because we are having an early lunch. We have some last-minute shopping to do for Danny. Oh, and Happy Christmas, Emily.’

  ‘Happy Christmas to you, Alice and Danny. Give Frances my love when you see her.’

  ‘Yes, of course.’

  Daniel turned as Alice came to call him to the table. He was surprised and slightly disbelieving over Emily’s revelations concerning Sam Danby. It might be true, but it just might be a mistake on Frances’s part. He wasn’t convinced himself, but of course you never could tell …