In the Bleak Midwinter

by Stan Mason

  She smiled briefly trying to hide her embarrassment and walked on forcing him to catch up with her again, This time he caught hold of her arm. ‘How did you feel about me at home?’ he asked. She tried to break his grip but he made her face him. ‘Please... I must know!’

  I thought that sometimes we may have been a little less academic.’

  He looked into her pretty face and smiled warmly. ‘I’m such a fool. I didn’t even think about us that way. What’s the number of your room?’

  ‘Ivan!’ she cried, taken aback by his audacity. To her dismay, he snatched the key from her hand and tossed it high into the air. ‘Give it back to me,’ she pleaded as he pulled it out of space before it hit the ground.

  ‘Number seven,’ he laughed, glancing at the disc to which the key was attached, She chased him in a vain attempt to recover the item ‘Number seven!’ he repeated teasing her triumphantly before tossing it to her as the others surrounded him demanding a return match with Josef.

  Anna stood alone watching them return to the fire as she tried to balance out her fears and her fancies. She had made a mistake by kissing him on the cheek. He would take that as a sign of encouragement. Of greater concern is that he knew the number of her room.

  At ten-thirty that evening, the village policeman arrived at the hotel on his bicycle to deal with complaints about the noise and also with the concern that a spark from the bonfire might carry to a number of haystacks some distance away, By this time, the students were practically exhausted so they doused the fire and returned to their rooms in the hotel. Ivan found Anna in the hallways, He took her by the arm to escort her into the hotel lounge where they sat and talked together until all the others had gone to bed.

  ‘What’s the matter? ‘he enquired with an element of concern. ‘Aren’t you happy?’

  ‘It’s late,’ she told him stifling a yawn. ‘Time for sleep.’ He nodded and they rose to go upstairs to her bedroom, She unlocked the door and turned to him. ‘Good night, Ivan,’ she said softly.

  ‘Anna!’ he responded passionately. Impetuously he opened the door and pushed her gently inside closing it behind him. She stood by the bed nervously, almost shaking with emotion, lying to herself that if she resisted him they might awaken the others. It was a feeble excuse which she knew to be false yet she sat on the edge of the bed gingerly with Ivan beside her.

  ‘All those months we studied together,’ he mused. ‘What a fool I was!’ In the darkness he ran his hand gently down the back of her neck, past her cheek to rest at her lips. Then he leaned forward and pressed himself closer.

  ‘No, Ivan... don’t!’ she whispered as a mild token of resistance, moving slightly away from him.

  He pulled he down easily on to the bedclothes. ‘I love you, Anna,’ he confessed softly. ‘I love you more than anything else in the world.’ He caressed her hair and her ears, kissed her neck, and then moved his hands across her shoulders down to the ample white breasts he had once seen in the mirror in her room in Russia.

  Anna realised suddenly that her dress was pulled from her and she trembled with excitement as he pressed strongly against her body before the world lit up like an aurora. For a moment, her conscience tormented her against her will but by then the battle had been lost.

  ***

  The next morning, Ivan awoke with Anna beside him. She was still asleep and he gazed at her angelic face felling good in mind and spirit. Outside, on the landing, the movements of the others could be heard.

  ‘Wake up, my darling!’ he told her, kissing her ear gently. ‘It’s time to get up.’

  She uttered low moan and turned to embrace him with one arm. He tried to shake her off and rise but she clutched him tightly. ‘No,’ she pleaded. ‘Don’t get up... not yet!’

  He pulled his arm away firmly. ‘We must! Come on!’ he urged. He tugged at the covers removing them from under her chin but she swiftly hauled them back again. He shrugged and dressed quickly before leaving the room. As he moved surreptitiously into the hallway, closing the door behind him, he became aware that he was being watched. Glancing ahead, he saw Josef leaving over the banisters above staring down at him.

  ‘What happened to you, overarch?’ he asked knowingly. ‘You didn’t sleep in your bed.’ Ivan paused as Josef came down the stairs towards him.

  He squirmed at the comment but managed to force a smile, punching the other student playfully on the shoulder in response. ‘Ask no questions... be told no lies,’ he uttered sagely continuing on his way to the bathroom.

  Josef stared at his departing figure thoughtfully and then moved to Anna’s bedroom, striking the door firmly with his fist. ‘Anna!’ he called out. ‘What’s happened to you this morning? Come on... get up!’

  It was half-an-hour later when Anna and Ivan shared the same breakfast table in an alcove set away from the others in the dining room. He showered her with a volley of flattering comments she had never heard from him before. His sentiments delighted her and he seemed intent on paying her a great deal of attention. However, as they came to the end of the meal, he produced the sting in the tail.

  ‘I have to go to Plymouth,’ he told her bluntly.

  ‘Plymouth?’ she echoed dumbly, trying not to show her disappointment.

  ‘I’m meeting Mr. Morton... the Member of Parliament who was here. He telephone this morning to say that he wanted to see me.’

  ‘I’ll go with you,’ she offered readily.

  ‘Not possible,’ he retorted sharply. ‘We’re the only two in the group who have a solid grasp of the English language. One of us has to stay here.’ She lapsed sulkily into silence. ‘Come on, Anna!’ he went on. ‘Things aren’t as bad as all that!’ He chucked her gently under her chin but she grasped his hand firmly and stared directly into his face.

  ‘You will come back to me, won’t you?’ Her eyes filled with tears and she was almost on the point of sobbing.

  ‘Of course I will,’ he assured her. ‘I’m doing this for all of us!’

  She retained the grip on his hand with uncertainty. ‘Promise me you’ll come back1’

  ‘Anna!’ he growled angrily, glancing over his shoulder uneasily. ‘What’s the matter with you?’

  She lowered her eyes, commiserating with herself on their very short-lived happiness together, Her female intuition told her that she was going to lose him and she felt cheated. ‘Do you really have to go?’ she pressed unreasonably, with a far-flung hope that he might find another solution. ‘Can’t we stay here and work things out together?’ She lapsed into silence again while he swallowed a mouthful of tea. Courageously she gathered her wits for another onslaught. ‘Perhaps there’s an alternative... ‘ she began.

  He lost his temper at that point and slammed the cup down hard into the saucer causing it to break into pieces. ‘I don’t want to hear any more!’ he shouted loudly.

  The others turned to stare at them and one of them smiled at the rest, ‘It’s their first quarrel,’ he explained sagely. ‘Now we know they’re in love.’

  Ivan lowered his eyes shamefully at the tablecloth. ‘I’m sorry,’ he apologised in low tones. ‘There’s nothing I can do about it.’

  She rose, turned her head aside, and tugged away at the handkerchief tucked into the sleeve of her blouse. He was a traitor having betrayed her! He had satisfied his passion and though nothing of leaving her! ‘Excuse me!’ she managed to say, heading for the stairs as she held the handkerchief to her nose. Running quickly to her room, she unlocked the door, and flung herself on to the bed, sobbing bitterly. Her instincts told her that she had good reason to feel empty inside. He would never come back!

  ***

  The arrangements for departure had been made for the following morning. The whole group went to the railway station to see Ivan off. The hotel provided a pony and trap to take him there while the rest walked. Peter had be
en chosen to go to Plymouth with Ivan as support. He was an older student in his late thirties, tall and lean with dark hair and a rugged face which masked the pain of personal suffering. Some years earlier, his wife had left him for a lover taking their four year old son with her. Two days later they were reported being killed in a motor vehicle accident which filled him with deep despair. For him, the plan to defect to the West was an acceptable antidote. It would help him to divest himself of the past misery of loss upon loss and all the bad memories behind.

  Ivan paced up and down the platform nervously. The train was late and he was becoming in patient. By this time, the sun peered through the clouds reducing the chill of the morning but he noticed nothing except that Anna was not there. She was a myopic foolish woman who failed to appreciate that he shouldered the responsibility for all of them. This was no time for sentimentality! He scanned the horizon but it was unbroken apart from a few trees and bushes and the generous line of rocky ridge. A shrill noise in the distance heralded the long brown train snaking its way towards the station, puffing short bursts of black smoke from its funnel. Peter opened a carriage door and climbed inside. Ivan followed, closing it behind him before leaning out of the window to face the others, Hands touched him as a token of good luck and faces pressed forward mouthing words which he could not hear, for his eyes remained fixed on the ridge of the hill which was still unbroken.

  At the hotel, Anna watched the others depart for the railway station and she sat down on a felled oak where she had rested on the previous evening. She poked the earth sulkily with a piece of twig, criticising life itself for separating two lovers, He was a callous heartless person walking out of her life without the slightest attack of conscience. In her heart, however, from experience she knew he was not like that at all. There were all those good times they had shared together back in Russia. Suddenly, she felt an impetuous urge to see him again. It was imperative to get to the railway station as fast as possible although he would think of her as a romantic fool. Running to the forefront of the hotel, she stared at the long road ahead. It was too far to walk before the train departed so she decided to adopt another plan. As luck would have it, the local postman was imbibing a pint of best bittier with the hotelier in a private room and he had rested his bicycle against the outside wall. Anna seized the machine and started to pedal desperately in the direction of the railway station. The train’s whistle screamed in the distance spurring her on to greater effort although she still had a long way to go.

  By this time, Ivan had given her up in the belief that she no longer cared for him and he was terribly disappointed. The station master looked up and down the platform to satisfy himself that all the passengers were safely installed, then he signalled to the guard who smartly brought down his green flag. The train slid forward with a grinding sound increasing speed at every moment. Anna had not come! He glance at the ridge finally and his face broke into a smile as excitement rose within him. The line had broken and the sunlight reflected on the gleaming object racing down the hill, Incredibly it was Anna riding a bicycle! He waved wildly from the train window as they stared at each other from the distance but the train was moving too fast for her to close the gap. Reluctantly, she stopped some way back , waving her arms at him frantically, as the tears welled up in her eyes preventing her from seeing him clearly. She stepped off the bicycle and stood on tip toes watching the train disappear with a pain of anguish striking at the pit of her stomach and the desire to burst into tears... but nothing came! By now, it had become impossible to distinguish the train at all. It had become shrouded with the Cornish morning mist, and all the carriages seemed to have merged into one... until it was no more!

  Chapter Four

  The next morning, Morris was waiting for Sadler at the appointed time and place. He sat in a large black limousine ready to take the banker to the mine. Sadler smiled as he opened the car door noticing that the other man still wore his fur coat and old trilby hat. He came to the conclusion that Morris never divested himself of his familiar apparel and probably even slept in it.

  ‘I hope you’ve collected some details for me to examine,’ began the banker determined not to let the tally-man take control of the situation.

  Morris opened the glove compartment and passed a sheaf of papers to him. ‘I may not look the part,’ he responded, ‘but at least I do my homework... especially where money’s involved. I think you’ll find everything you need there.’

  Sadler began to browse through the papers but Morris soon interrupted him to share his knowledge with the banker. ‘The mine was regarded as one of the wonders of the world in the nineteenth century,’ he stated before driving off. ‘Only locally, of course. The ruined engine houses at the Crowns perched on the granite cliffs are a fantastic sight even today. In fact they’re one of Cornwall’s greatest attractions., They served the Crowns Engine Shaft which is a dry mine in spite of its location beneath the Atlantic Ocean. The Diagonal Shaft was sunk over two thousand six hundred feet at an angle of more than thirty-two degrees. At its greatest depth, it was thirteen hundred and sixty feet below sea level.’ He took one hand from the steering wheel and pointed to his head. ‘I told you. It’s all up here. The whole set up at the mine’s fantastic. Do you know how many mines actually make up Botallack? There’s Botallack itself, Wheal Cock, the Crowns, Carnyorth, Parknoweth, Park Bunny, Wheal Loor, Buzza, Wheal Bal, Wheal Hen, the Tolvan, Wheal Button and Wheal Hazard. It all covers a square mile of ground. And another thing, it’s the heartland of one of the richest mineral districts in Cornwall.’

  The banker failed to reply as he examined the map of the mine carefully. ‘You missed out Wheal Owles and Wheal Edwards,’ he said eventually, ‘Any reason for that?’

  ‘Did I?’ uttered the other man. ‘Must be getting old. Memory’s starting to go.’

  Sadler glanced at his suspiciously. He could not imagine Morris forgetting anything when it involved money. There had to be a good reason for him to ignore the two mines.’

  ‘It closed in 1895,’ continued the driver smoothly, ‘to be reopened in 1907. Unfortunately the bottom fell out of the market for the tin price and they closed it in 1914 just before the First World War.’

  ‘What do you know about mining, Mr. Morris?’ The banker decided it was time to test the man.

  ‘In the vernacular, damned all! But I don’t know how to repair launderette machines either yet I make a lot of money out of them. I leave it to the experts who can do the work so much better and there’s always plenty of them around. Why buy a dog and bark yourself is my motto. How do you operate in banking?’

  Sadler touched the side of his nose mimicking the previous actions of the other man in his office. ‘If I told you that, you’d be as wise as me,’ he returned with a grin on his face.

  Morris found the comment very amusing and he made a loud wheezing noise that represented a laugh. ‘I bet you could tell me some stories that would make my hair curl,’ he went on.

  The banker stared bleakly at the long road ahead momentarily thinking about some of his past history at the bank. It had been the first day of April but it wasn’t an April Day Fools joke. Without warning, the banking hall had been invaded by six men wearing woollen ski masks, carrying shotguns and pistols. They charged at the staff door, rocking it off its hinges, and took up strategic positions within the branch, Two men remained in the banking hall to prevent anyone else entering; two others began to empty the cashiers tills into sacks they had brought with them. The two other men ran down the stairs to the bank vault to open the safe but Sadler had other ideas. He was in the vault checking securities when an alert but terrified clerk ran down the stairs to warn him of the danger. Reacting swiftly, he pushed open the safe door leaving the light on, and ushered the clerk into a small alcove. Within seconds, the raiders descended the stairs, saw the open safe and raced inside. As they entered, Sadler nodded to the clerk and they rushed outside and closed the
safe door, turning the security codes of the safe so that it couldn’t be opened. Before the robbers realised they were firmly trapped inside their muffled cries being heard vaguely from the outside.

  ‘Two down, four to go!’ he told the bewildered clerk who recognised that he would be designated as a hero for his actions.

  Showing remarkable contempt for personal injury or danger, he stood composing himself by the tiny lift which was used to carry copper and silver coins from the vault to the cashiers upstairs.

  ‘Call out to the bandits but make sure you press the lift button to send me upstairs at the same time,’ he told the clerk seriously. ‘When they come down, I’ll be at the top to lock the door leading downstairs. They’ll be trapped right here with no way out which leaves one problem. You’ll be trapped in here with them. I advise you to turn out all the lights and hide... and keep your nerve.’

  Ignoring the pained expression on the clerk’s face, he squeezed himself into the tiny lift and signalled to the subordinate who kept shouting at the top of his voice as he pressed the switch on the lift. When he arrived at the top, the two bandits were outside the safe in the dark. Sadler tore open the lift door and emerged quickly to locked the door at the top of the stairs, running and a metal rod through the iron loops at each end of the doorway which was used to reinforce it against any serious assault. So far, so good! His adrenalin surged through his body as he pressed the klaxon alarm which sent a tremendous howl through the morning air like a wailing banshee. The two bandits in the banking hall realised that the game was up and they fled into the street empty-handed tearing off their masks and trying to hide their weapons. Subsequently, when the police arrived, four of the six bank robbers were captured. Sadler and the clerk did indeed become heroes, applauded by the police and their bank colleagues for their intuition and bravery. It wasn’t long before promotion was in sight for both of them with Sadler becoming promoted as the manager of his present branch much to the chagrin of other contenders with more experience and much longer service.