The House by the Brook

by The House by the Brook (retail) (epub)

  A man sitting in a corner looked vaguely familiar and he frowned as the man nodded his head. He knew him, but from where? The man stood, and, carrying his pint glass, he approached. ‘Ivor? Ivor Masters?’

  ‘Yes, but I don’t remember…’ Ivor paused for the man to help him out.

  ‘I’m retired now, but I was PC Jennings, the policeman who – er – dealt with your mother’s case all those years ago.’ Ivor didn’t know what to say. It was a most peculiar introduction and one he certainly didn’t want to continue. ‘As you say, a long time ago,’ he said, preparing to move away.

  ‘I see your father is living in Badgers Brook. He’s very happy from what I can tell. Really contented. Thanks to your kind-hearted wife. My wife Kitty and she are friends.’

  Still Ivor tried to get away. He didn’t want to talk about his parents. Not even now, when the reflection of his past was glaring persistently at him from the mirror of the present, a view he was trying so hard to forget.

  ‘I knew him when we were young,’ Mr Jennings went on, standing to prevent Ivor moving. ‘A well-liked and talented young man. He sang, and played several instruments, and your mother was a fine artist. So sad, when everything changed for them’

  ‘I don’t want to discuss it. Can’t you see that?’ Ivor said, his head lowered, his eyes staring at the floor. ‘I don’t remember what he was like before the illness began.’

  ‘The illness?’ Bob Jennings queried, pretending ignorance of his wife’s suspicions. ‘You don’t think it’s hereditary, do you? His “illness” as you call it was the result of his suffering during the First World War.’

  ‘That was when it revealed itself, but it was lying dormant, waiting to strike, and I know it will happen to me, one day soon. I’ve always know what was coming to me – I don’t need you or anyone else to remind me.’

  ‘You’re so wrong. You can forget all that nonsense, wherever it came from. Your parents will have passed on to you only good things.’

  ‘Stop this. You might be trying to make me feel better but it isn’t helping to pretend.’

  Bob Jennings sighed. ‘I can see I won’t be able to persuade you different, but talk to a doctor. The specialist who treated him is still alive. Retired now, like me, but he’ll remember.’ He took out a piece of paper and wrote down a name and address. ‘Talk to him and you’ll wonder why you didn’t talk to him before.’ Taking his still unsampled pint, he walked back to his seat.

  *

  Effie didn’t go into work for a few days. When her landlady called to ask if she was all right she was surprised to see Effie using a broom as a makeshift crutch to support a bandaged ankle. Since the fall, after leaving the scene of yet another accident, she had avoided seeing a doctor and hoped the sprain would heal without medical assistance.

  ‘How did you hurt yourself, dear?’ her landlady enquired.

  ‘I slipped off the steps at work when I was reaching to the top shelf for a new order book,’ she lied. Her ankle was very painful and, as she remembered the way she had dragged herself across those cold dirty fields, she swore that this was something else Jennie would pay for.

  It had been a surprise to see Bill. She had understood he was London, yet there he was, close enough to Jennie to pull her away from the wheels when she had tried again to kill her.

  *

  Marie made the boys promise not to start the Guy Fawkes bonfire before she was home. ‘And I don’t want it so close to the house,’ she added as Roger began gathering thin branches for the pile.

  ‘It’s not fair,’ Roger complained.

  Marie laughed. ‘It’s a long time since you’ve said that.’

  ‘Well it isn’t. Violet can’t stand too close, yet when we start building it near the window where she’d have a good view you say we have to move it.’

  ‘Violet is allowed outside, of course she is. In fact she’s looking forward to eating the potatoes we’ll cook in the ashes, but you have to be careful, that’s all. Fire can be very dangerous, remember.’

  ‘Grandfather says fire is beautiful,’ Violet told them.

  ‘And so it is, as long as it’s under control.’

  Marie had bought a box of fireworks and these she had kept hidden, in case the temptation to set a few off before the actual night was too strong. This night of the year was something everyone looked forward too, especially since the war years when they hadn’t been allowed. But safety was paramount.

  *

  Effie was obsessed with thoughts of Jennie. When she had aimed the car at Emily, hitting her, running the wheels right over her, she had been killed, so why had it failed – twice – with Jennie? If she and Bill were still seeing each other she had to die. Bill’s happiness couldn’t continue. But now her thinking was beginning to change. Making Bill suffer by losing Jennie in the same way he had lost Emily was no longer her main desire. She now wanted to kill Jennie because in her twisted mind she was the cause of all her own unhappiness.

  Confusing the time in between she believed Jennie had stolen Bill from her. Jennie was the reason Bill had abandoned her and sent her away to have their child alone. Jennie was the reason she had lost her child, having it taken from her without even being allowed to cuddle it.

  After contriving three car accidents she knew she had to try another method to get rid of her. But what? The car accident had almost been successful and no one had suspected her. No one knew she was able to drive and the chances of the police questioning her were remote. Yet getting away with it three times must have added to the risk of discovery. She had to think of another way. Trying a different method had its dangers and she didn’t want to end up in prison for killing someone who didn’t deserve to live. She had to deal with Jennie and somehow get someone else blamed.

  No one knew her in Cwm Derw and certainly no one in the lane on which Badgers Brook stood. Ignoring her still painful ankle, and with a notebook and fountain pen in her hands, she knocked on the door one afternoon and, when Rhodri answered, she asked if Jennie was in.

  ‘Working,’ Rhodri said abruptly, and began to close the door.

  ‘Or Marie? I have a message from Ivor, you see.’

  ‘Ivor?’ The old man frowned and stared at her. ‘Ivor?’

  ‘Is she here? Marie, is she at home?’

  ‘Working.’ This time he succeeded in closing the door, and Effie walked back down the path. A neighbour was at the gate and Effie asked. ‘D’you know where I can find Mr Ivor Masters?’

  ‘Gone away. Can I help? I know the family quite well.’

  ‘I’m from the hospital and I have to check up on Mr Rhodri Masters. His son is away you say? Then who’s looking after him? He needs constant care, doesn’t he?’

  ‘Marie is wonderful to him. The hospital keeps a regular eye on him, and there’s no trouble with the fires, not for a couple of years, since his wife died.’

  ‘Wasn’t it his wife who started the fires?’ Standing only a few feet from the door of Badgers Brook, Effie pretended to look through notes.

  ‘From the hospital you say? Then I would have thought you’d have known.’

  Again Effie thumbed through the notes, then looked knowingly at the neighbour and said, ‘I’d like you to confirm what we have on record. About the fires,’ she coaxed. ‘What have they to do with Rhodri? It was his wife who went to prison for setting fire to the school and houses, wasn’t it?’

  ‘Well, that’s the official story, but it was really him. That’s what most of the people involved believe anyway. His wife covered up for him, even going to prison. He was so ill, you see, and she knew he wouldn’t be able to cope.’ She frowned. ‘I thought the hospital would have known that, even though the police didn’t have the evidence. The psychiatrists would have put that forward as a theory at least, wouldn’t they? She was charged with causing the fires but everyone knew it was really Rhodri. He’s fine now, though. Seems the obsession with fires ended when he lost his wife.’

  Effie snapped the notebook close
d and, thanking the woman, walked briskly back to the bus stop. The sooner she got away from here the better. One nosy neighbour was more than enough. From now on she must make sure she wasn’t seen by anyone in the area. She took off the clumpy shoes, the stolen mackintosh and the old-fashioned hat and threw them away. The glasses, which she only used for reading, went into her handbag; twice they had threatened to tip her into the ditch again.

  Inside the house, Violet showed Rhodri the drawing she had made of the woman who had stood outside talking to Mrs Jenning.

  ‘I wonder why she was wearing glasses, Grandad? She wasn’t wearing them when she came into the shop. Nosy-parkering, Mam said she was, not intending to buy.’ She copied the drawing but this time left off the glasses and added curling hair, which she coloured with a red pencil, instead of the awful hat.

  *

  The words of Bob Jennings echoed round and round in Ivor’s head. Could what he’d said be true? That his father didn’t have a hereditary illness? He fingered the piece of paper on which Bob Jennings had written the name and telephone number of the doctor who had treated Rhodri. The next afternoon he rang and arranged to see him. They were to meet on Wednesday morning, November 5th, Guy Fawkes day. The significance didn’t fail to register.

  The doctor confirmed everything Bob Jennings had told him. He also learned that the fires had been his father’s doing and his mother had protectively taken the blame. Ivor’s first reaction was shame. If only he’d known. If he had stayed at home for a few more years his mother would almost certainly have explained. Such love, for her to go to prison to save Rhodri from suffering.

  Running from home at the age of twelve he’d been too young to be trusted with such a secret, his mother would have known that pride alone would have persuaded him to boast. Pride in his mother for such a heroic act. And his attempt to end the merciless teasing and bullying he suffered would have made telling his tormentors the truth irresistible. Then her sacrifice would have been for nothing. His father would either have been sent to prison or to a hospital for the dangerously insane.

  He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t feel capable of walking back into Marie’s life and explaining he’d made a stupid mistake. How could he expect her to listen to him, let alone forgive him? He went to see Geoff.

  *

  Effie had been aware of the approach of bonfire night for several weeks. Beside the growing piles of wood and rubbish built ready for the bonfires, there were a few fireworks set off in the street; in fact, a group of boys threw a ‘jackie jumper’ on to the pavement near her feet and caused her to jump with shock as it followed her around as she tried to escape. The boys laughed but she pushed one so fiercely and unexpectedly that he fell into the road. The laughter stopped abruptly and the boys hurried off. She stood glaring at them, and as they turned and saw her watching they increased their speed until they were running, laughter restored, jeering calls reaching her as they disappeared around a corner.

  She walked home noticing the large number of huge piles prepared for burning, wood and a few unwanted household items collected in every available space. There were dozens of cardboard boxes, many filled with newspapers, all waiting for November 5th. It was then that she remembered seeing the early preparations for a fire in the garden of Badgers Brook.

  A night filled with flames, and a man known to enjoy destruction by fire. If she thought this out with care she could have a method for getting rid of Jennie and someone to take the blame. Bonfire night. An old man obsessed with burning. Perfect.

  *

  When Ivor had explained his fears to Geoff, they both went to the ladies’ clothes shop to see Marie. Jennie was there, and before either of the women could say a word Ivor pleaded with Marie not to send him away until she’d heard what he had to say.

  She picked up a dress on which the hem had fallen and began sewing, even though her hands were shaking so badly that she knew she would have to undo every stitch she made. It was only the second time they had met since he had left her and his unexpected appearance had confused her. Her heart was racing and banging so painfully in her chest it threatened to explode from her body. She was so afraid of what he was going to say, trying to stop her ears from hearing the words, trying to think instead of other things, mundane things like whether he would want a cup of tea, convinced she was about to be asked for a divorce.

  ‘I think you might be in danger tonight.’

  Marie almost laughed, the words were so unexpected, so ridiculous.

  ‘My father was the one who almost burned the school down and set fire to a neighbour’s house. My father. Not my mother.’

  ‘Rhodri? He’s no danger to us. He’s had plenty of opportunities to set fire to the house but he’s shown no interest in fire except to keep the house warm. You must be wrong. Now go away and tell your stories to—’ She was unable to complete the sentence. How could she refer to the new woman in his life? Mentioning her would give her credence, would make this whole sorry mess a reality.

  ‘It’s true.’ Geoff spoke for the first time. ‘Please listen to Ivor, Marie. We both think you should keep away from Rhodri, for his own safety. In fact, for tonight at least, he should be locked in where he can’t do any damage. We think you should call the police.’

  ‘No, I won’t do that. If what you say is true – and I seriously doubt it – he needs us to trust him.’

  ‘Close the shop and come with us to find him. At least do that,’ Ivor said pleadingly. Pride, that sometimes foolish emotion, made her shout, ‘I don’t want to go anywhere with you, Ivor Masters.’

  Geoff added his concerns. ‘This isn’t the time for arguments and recriminations. We need to find Rhodri.’

  ‘I’ll come with you,’ Jennie said. ‘If it’s only for tonight, there’ll be plenty of us to watch him. I’ll phone Ernie and he’ll come too. We can make sure everything is all right without him knowing we’re concerned. Tomorrow it will be back to normal.’

  Seeing from Ivor’s and Geoff’s faces that they were seriously concerned, Marie nodded. ‘Violet will be home from school soon.’

  ‘Perhaps we should meet her.’ Ivor suggested.

  Believing that his appearance was only temporary. Marie shook her head. ‘I think it’s best she doesn’t see you at all. She’s slowly getting over your leaving us and it would be cruel to revive an interest you don’t intend to prolong.’ She was switching off the lights and picking up the door keys as she spoke, and didn’t see the look of pain that crossed Ivor’s features.

  Ivor and Geoff went straight to Badgers Brook and Jennie went with them. They called first to leave a message for Ernie to follow them.

  ‘The first thing is to find Rhodri, and from then on we don’t allow him out of our sight,’ Ivor said anxiously.

  There was no possibility of Ivor avoiding being seen by Violet, and as she and her mother reached the gate and saw him with Geoff, searching the sheds and garden, she ran to him and hugged him and chattered excitedly about all that had happened and how glad she was that he was back home. Holding her in his arms he looked at Marie and shrugged an apology, his eyes filled with unshed tears.

  ‘There’s no sign of Rhodri,’ Geoff said. ‘We’ve searched the house and garden.’

  ‘He often goes to sit by the brook, watching the birds. Perhaps he’s there,’ Violet suggested. ‘He feeds the foxes most evenings too. He’ll be frightened for them with the fireworks going off tonight. Perhaps he’s there, feeding them before the noises stop them coming. He’s been very upset at the thought of the noise.’

  At the edge of the wood, dressed in drab brown coat and unsightly hat, Effie watched them. She felt an increase in her heartbeat as Jennie walked down the path to greet a new arrival. It was Ernie. What was he doing here? The last she’d heard they were living apart, Jennie staying with her sister. She watched in disbelief as the couple walked arm in arm up the path, and felt the pain of jealousy as Jennie stroked her slightly swollen belly. She was going to have a baby! T
hat gesture of pride and protection left her in no doubt! Her arms ached as she felt the ghostly weight of a child. She hadn’t even held her baby and here was Bill’s father proudly escorting Bill’s latest secret love, who was going to have the joy of motherhood, something of which she, Effie, had been robbed.

  There was a discussion going on and she watched as Ivor and Geoff set off for the woods, while Jennie and Violet and Ernie went into the house. Marie stood at the door for a while and the twins came along the road from the direction of the bus, arriving back from work. The twins went to where the fire stood ready to ignite. Marie’s voice calling to them, a warning not to light it until everyone was present, came clearly in the evening air. She saw Marie’s arms beckoning to the boys to go inside.

  Effie knew she had to get them all out of the house, except for Jennie, but how was she going to arrange that? With darkness falling and everyone busy with their own fire, she took a risk and went to the bonfire and lit the paper someone had stuffed in its heart. She hid in the shadows as the flames leaped, and smiled as Roger ran out, shouting, ‘It isn’t fair.’ He was followed by the others, Marie carrying a bowl filled with potatoes to cook in the ashes.

  Effie ran into the house, and called softly in a sing-song voice, ‘Violet, come and find me. I bet you can’t find me. Shhh, don’t tell the others. There’s a present if you find me first.’

  Violet choked back a chuckle in her excitement and ran up the stairs, following the tantalizing voice. She ran from room to room, and when she went into the room where she slept she heard tapping and went to the heavy oak wardrobe. Opening the door she was startled in an enjoyable way as Effie stepped out with a finger to her lips to request silence. She handed Violet a shilling.