‘You don’t know, do you? It’s part of a fortification.’
‘Oh, thanks Fred, that’s just what I needed to hear.’ The maid uncovered her mouth to ask if Belle knew he had come here. ‘No, but she’d let me hide out here till it’s safe to get away.’ Dickie lit a cigarette, looking slighdy less persecuted now. At that same instant, his relief was snatched away by someone knocking on the door. Sally pushed him at the staircase and he wasted no time in bounding up it. Which was just as well, for the person didn’t wait to be admitted. Directly after the door had closed on Dickie, Brian poked his face round another one.
The delighted children pulled him into the room, scolding that he hadn’t been for ages. Sally would have been pleased to see him too, at any other moment but this one, saying that if he had come to see Belle she wasn’t here. Brian patted the collection of heads as he spoke. ‘Is she still at Court?’ Sally asked, had he been there? ‘No, but I’ve been following it in the paper. I knew it was the verdict today and … well, I was concerned to know the outcome, thought she might be glad of support.’
‘Oh, they were found not guilty, Doctor,’ Sally smiled.
‘That’s splendid!’ Brian pushed his dispositioned spectacles back up his nose. ‘You’ve been at the Court then?’
‘Wha … ? Oh no, Belle sent word to say she’d gone to celebrate at Mrs Feeney’s house.’ He asked, who with. ‘The rest o’ the family.’
Brian laughed. ‘No, I meant who brought the message.’
‘Oh! Er, a neighbour of ours saw her outside the Court and she asked him to tell me she’d be late home.’
‘Not much point my staying then, is there?’ Brian sounded regretful, then smiled down at Frederick who had donned a panama hat that came right over his eyes. ‘That’s a fine hat, Fred – fits perfectly.’
‘It’s me dad’s,’ replied Frederick. ‘He isn’t here, though.’ Sally felt herself go red and turned away to cover it, but Brian seemed not to interpret the child’s statement. ‘Very nice. Well, I’d better be on my way.’ He didn’t appear too eager to leave. ‘Has anyone got any coughs or sneezes for me to cure while I’m here? No? All fit and healthy; that’s good.’ He turned to Sally. ‘You might tell Belle I came.’
‘I will, sir. She’ll be grateful, I know … oh, wait a minute, that sounds like her.’ The door had slammed – typical of Belle’s entrance when something had angered her. ‘She must’ve changed her mind.’
‘You’ll never guess what’s happened!’ Belle came clomping along the passage.
The maid, seeking to prevent a storm of indiscretion, shouted hastily, ‘The Doctor’s here, Belle!’
If Belle had felt any surprise on hearing the announcement, it had disappeared from her face by the time she entered the room. ‘Such a long absence, Doctor. Can we gather you’ve not many patients today?’
Brian swallowed his disappointment. ‘I’m really pleased the verdict ended happily, Belle.’
If only you knew the half of it, thought Belle, but answered, ‘Thank you. You must have been in Court, then. I didn’t notice you in the gallery.’
‘No, I told him,’ said Sally hurriedly. ‘Ronnie Maynard passed on your message. You must’ve changed your mind about going to Peasholme?’
‘What?’ Belle frowned. Sally gave a quick look at Brian whose eyes were on Belle. She tried to convey the warning by twitching her mouth and gesturing to the hat on Frederick’s head. But Belle was slow in grasping the code. ‘Freddie, you look a proper juggins!’ She laughed and pulled the brim down under his nose. ‘Where did that come from?’
‘You’ll want me to put the kettle on!’ Sally’s voice was rather shrill.
‘I could certainly do with a cup of tea,’ sighed Belle. ‘But I’ll have to have it while I’m catching up with my work.’ She wished Brian would go so she could let rip to Sally about her uncle. ‘Children, go fetch your books.’ In their absence she told him, ‘I’m sorry I can’t entertain you, Brian, but as you can imagine I haven’t been able to do much in the last few days and I really must get on.’ It was said merely to get rid of him.
‘Belle.’ He toyed with the hat which Freddie had cast aside, pressing the dent back into its crown. ‘What I really came for was to say I’m sorry.’
‘Fair enough,’ she replied and donated a tight smile, but was obviously waiting for him to leave. He looked at her blankly. ‘I hope you aren’t expecting some sort of effusive reunion after it’s taken you four months to get around to it,’ came her shirty addendum. ‘I seem to remember that my apology was given short shrift in your house.’
‘I know.’ He looked dejected and fingered the rim of the hat. ‘I was just so blessed mad …’ the hat moved round and round in his hands. ‘It always seemed to be me who had to apol …’ His attention had become focused on the hat. ‘Freddie said this belonged to his dad.’ His face darkened with suspicion and he stared her in the eye. ‘He’s here, isn’t he?’
Belle regarded him impatiently. ‘Who?’
From the kitchen Sally listened with growing trepidation.
‘He’s here – hiding!’ Brian’s angry eyes darted around the room. He marched down the passage and into the front parlour. After a stunned delay, Belle marched after him, but was just in time to meet him coming back. ‘Who’re you looking for, for God’s sake!’ But he pushed her aside and set his feet at the stairs. ‘What the devil … come down! What do you think you’re doing? This is my house!’
Brian continued to stride up the staircase. Belle picked up her skirts and stomped after him, making further loud objections as he flung open the door of her bedroom … and there was Dickie lying on her bed, grinning up at him.
Hearing the cyclone’s approach, Dickie had looked for somewhere to hide, but there was no room in the wardrobe. There seemed nothing else for it but to adopt this brazen posture. ‘Good day to ye, Doctor! No illness in the house, I hope?’
Brian teetered on the brink of attack, glaring down at him. Belle had reached the top of the stairs. She took two more steps and launched her breathless objection, ‘Brian, what do you think …’ Her eyes were drawn past Brian’s angry expression to the grinning one on her pillow. For the moment she was speechless.
‘You know, you almost had me convinced.’ Brian’s scowl was still aimed at Dickie but his words were for Belle. ‘I thought your offhandedness was just hurt pride, thought that underneath you really missed me … huh! No wonder you hardly had the energy to smile at me when you’ve been serviced by the likes of him for the last four months.’
‘Now just a minute!’ Belle stuck a finger under his chin, but he was already charging for the stairs. ‘Brian! I didn’t even know he was here! I’ve just got back from Court – oh damn!’ Her surgical boot had mismanaged the stairs. A group of goggle-eyed children stood at the foot. ‘Get back to your books!’ They darted from the line of fire.
Brian gave one last twist of the knife as he opened the front door, ‘I should have known what you were when you slept with me!’ then slammed it in her face.
After a second of furious indecision, Belle careered towards the kitchen. ‘I tried to warn you!’ protested Sally. ‘I couldn’t say it outright, could I? That would’ve caused more bother.’ Belle uttered a screech of frustration and swung her leg towards the stairs. The sight of Dickie looking down at her forestalled her ascent. ‘Get down here, Uncle!’ With a rueful laugh, Dickie ran a hand around the inside of his waistband to tuck in his shirt, then trotted down the stairs. ‘Do you realise what you’re doing?’
His cockiness gave way to atonement. ‘I’m sorry about Brian. I’ll explain to hi…’
‘Damn Brian! You’re a wanted criminal – I could be arrested for harbouring you! What would happen to those children if I were thrown in gaol?’
‘Belle, this was the only safe place I could think of! They would’ve come straight to Peasholme.’
‘Well, you’re not staying!’
‘Ye wouldn’t throw me to the wolves?’
/>
‘They won’t eat poison.’
‘Belle …’ his eyes and tone reproached her.
‘Uncle, you must go!’
‘Just let me stay tonight till the heat dies down, then I’ll go to Leeds.’
‘And implicate Uncle Sonny again!’
‘Mm.’ Dickie stopped pleading and rubbed his chin. ‘You’re right, they’ll search his place, too. I’ll have to think carefully about this … but please!’ He cupped her angry face. ‘Let me stay here tonight, darlin’.’
His hands burnt her cheeks. Despite the endearment she felt threatened by his masculinity and twisted out of his grip. ‘All right, damn you!’ She caught Sally’s look of disapproval as the maid departed to the kitchen. ‘But what happens if Brian shouts it all over the place?’
‘No, he’ll want to keep quiet about it,’ said Dickie.
‘You’re very sure!’ She pressed a hand to her brow. ‘God …’
Dickie held out his hands. ‘He doesn’t know I’m a wanted criminal, does he?’
‘Not yet, but when he does …’
‘I’ll be well away. What happened after I’d left Court?’
‘We didn’t tarry when that detective set off after you. I’ll have to go and tell the family you’re here.’
‘No!’
‘Uncle, they’re worried sick!’
Yes, they would be. He thought about his wife. Poor Dusty … but if Belle went and told her where he was she’d come straight here and maybe the police would follow. ‘Look,’ he told Belle, ‘just wait till after I’m gone and tell Dusty I’ll be in touch.’
‘I think we have a few things to discuss; you are charged with murder.’
‘Ye want to know if I did it?’
‘It would be rather nice to be able to feel safe in one’s bed.’
‘An’ if I tell ye I didn’t do it ye’d feel safe, would ye?’ he said lightly. ‘Talking about beds, where am I goin’ to sleep?’ She told him, the sofa. ‘Belle,’ he groaned, ‘ye realise this will ruin my reputation. An’ Brian’ll be so disappointed to find he was wrong. Couldn’t ye just…’ He laughed roguishly, causing her harsh facade to cave in.
‘You’re a wicked old villain.’ She threw a light punch. ‘How you can act so casually …’
‘Oh, please! Wicked and villainous yes, but never old.’ Belle said, ‘Pff!’ Then, ‘Sally! Put the kettle on now. Are you hungry, Uncle?’
‘No, I couldn’t touch a thing.’ His smile grew frayed as he probed under his breastbone. ‘I’m not so cool as I look; that little escapade has churned me up good an’ proper.’
‘You still haven’t answered me about the murders.’
He looked grim and sat down. ‘My past has taken a long time to catch up with me but it’s certainly made up for lost time. Rest easy, Belle, I’m no murderer.’
‘Then why did you run if you didn’t do it?’
‘Because I did. One of them anyway.’ He was told not to speak in riddles. ‘Just because I killed him doesn’t make me a murderer. I never meant to, and I only hit him in self-defence.’
‘But surely you could have told the police that?’
‘I can’t go through all that rigmarole again!’ objected Dickie. ‘I consider myself very damned lucky to get off that fraud charge.’
‘Mother said you had the luck of the devil.’
He gave a bitter laugh and said, ‘She would … but I may not be so lucky with these charges.’
Belle found a packet of cigarettes and handed him one, using a taper to light both. ‘I don’t have time to hear your story now, I have to see to the children, but I would like to hear it later. In the meantime, I think it’s best if you go back to my bedroom …’
He brightened. ‘Now there’s an invitation!’
‘ … and keep your face away from the window! There’s plenty of books up there to occupy you.’
‘I’m not much of a reader. Can’t I come an’ sit in on the kids’ lessons?’
‘It would be far too distracting, especially for Freddie. He’s got very poor concentration at the best of times … Besides, I’d prefer it if you kept away from him and the girls as much as possible.’ On that ominous note, she left him.
* * *
Later, when the children had gone to bed, Dickie sat with Belle on her sofa, both puffing on cigarettes, and he began to tell her what had led up to the arrest. ‘Ye know at the trial when I said about the time I ran away from home and everyone thought I was dead?’
‘You could make a living on the stage playing corpses.’
‘Well, as I said, I was eighteen at the time… what I didn’t say in Court was that I was in a tight corner, never mind the reason …’
‘I think I know that already.’ Belle glanced at him. ‘It would be round about the time that Nick was born.’
He studied her. ‘Ye know about all that?’
‘“All that”, being you and Uncle Sonny’s wife? Yes, I know. I was rather afraid it was going to come out at the trial when the Prosecution kept harping on about her being unfaithful.’
‘Me too. Your mother told you, I suppose?’ When she nodded he sighed. ‘There aren’t many things I’m ashamed of, Belle, but that’s one of them. Sonny worshipped that girl. It doesn’t matter that she was a whore, I didn’t have to go and prove it but I did … anyway, we’ll be here all night if I tell you every gruesome detail, but to cut it short, it looked as if I was going to be forced to marry her an’ I just had to escape. I was away for three years. During that time I lodged with an old biddy name o’ Torie Hughes.’ He grinned fondly. ‘Me an’ her, we got on like a house on fi … Christ, I could’ve picked a better phrase.’ He flicked ash at the fire. ‘Anyway, one day I’d been to market an’ when I came back there were two blokes attacking her. An’ d’ye know what I did? I hid myself in the pigsty till they’d gone, listened to them thumping the life out o’ her an’ never lifted a finger … When I came out she was dead. My first thought was: what if somebody thinks I’ve done it? So instead o’ reporting it, like an eejit I buried her and took what money she had, used it to make myself into a rich man.’ He fell silent.
‘What about the other one – I presume there is just the one?’
He sighed. ‘That happened a couple o’ years later. I’d come back to York, wanted to show the family just how well I’d done … you already know how that turned out. By chance I met up with a woman I’d known a long time ago when I was a lad. She was a prostitute and in a right old state with herself – came to me for help. I was in a hotel room at that time ’cause this detective was after me. Anyway, her pimp comes elbowing his way in an’ starts beating her. She cried out to me to protect her. I remembered how I’d stood by an’ let those men kill Torie. I had to do something. So, I picked up this heavy bowl and clouted him with it – lots o’ times. God, he had a head like an elephant, I thought he’d never go down. Anyway, in the end he did … but he cracked his temple on the fender an’ killed himself.’
‘Gosh, what did you do?’
‘Stuffed him in the wardrobe an’ ran like buggery. A while later I met up with Sonny. Ye know what happened after that.’ He narrowed his eyes. ‘This detective fella, I can’t recall his name but I know he was from a West Riding force ’cause it was in his district that Torie was killed. Anyway, he’d been tailing me for quite a while…’ Dickie frowned. ‘How in hell did he manage to catch up with me after all these years?’
‘He must have wanted you very badly,’ said Belle. ‘You realise that running away like this is going to make you look even more guilty.’
‘Tell me what else I can do.’
‘Why don’t you try facing up to your problems for once?’ When he made a face she asked, ‘Have you made up your mind where you’re going to run to?’
‘It’ll have to be Leeds – that detective won’t expect me on his own patch – but Nick’s place, not Sonny’s.’ Belle gave her opinion that he would be better off making for the nearest port. ‘I can’t go
back to America yet, I promised Mam. Still, if we get the adoption contracts signed …’
‘Ho no!’ said Belle tartly.
‘Ye said if the trial worked out OK we could have them!’
‘It’s hardly worked out OK.’ The children’s grandmother had been apprehensive enough about the fraud trial, what would she say to this?
‘Come on! Dusty hasn’t done anything wrong, there’s no call for you to punish her.’
‘I don’t see it as punishing anybody! No one in their right minds would send the children to such a hazardous life.’
‘It wouldn’t be hazardous once we got to America.’ His niece pointed out that he could still be extradited. ‘No, I’ve got friends in the New York Police, they’d tell me if there was any danger o’ that. Come on, Belle.’
‘It’s not open to discussion, Uncle. All I’m prepared to give you is a fair chance to get away.’
He looked at her sourly. ‘Well, I’m not heading for any seaports yet. At least if I lie low at Nick’s for a week or two I’ll have more chance of escape than you’re willing to grant me.’
The door to the kitchen opened. Sally entered, unfastening her apron. ‘Right, I’m going up – unless there’s anything else you want doing?’ Belle thanked her and said there wasn’t.
‘You’ll want some sheets putting on that sofa for your guest, won’t you?’ She didn’t look at the man, but her sternness of tone implied he was not welcome.
‘We’re sitting on it at the moment,’ replied Belle.
‘Yes, well, I’ll just get you some out and you can put them on when you finish talking. You’ll be coming up soon, won’t you? It’s getting on, you know.’
‘Yes, I can tell the time, Sally, thank you. Leave the sheets, we can get them.’ Belle was firm. ‘You’ve heard the most of it now, off you go. If he springs any more secrets I’ll tell you tomorrow. Goodnight.’ She laughed softly as the indignant maid stalked off to bed. ‘Don’t worry, Uncle, she won’t give you away, much as she disapproves. Now to return to the topic – how will you get to Leeds? You can’t take your car, it’s at Peasholme.’
Dickie (Feeney Family Sagas Book 4) Page 39