‘Nothing to worry about. Baby is fine. She has all her fingers and toes,’ the midwife said, ‘but because she’s early, I’d like Doctor to have a look at her.’ Some minutes later the midwife was back with the doctor. Bill approached the doctor who put up his hand. ‘Doctor can’t tell you anything until he has examined your wife and daughter, Mr Burrell,’ the midwife said brusquely. ‘You must be patient!’
‘Fine! That’s all they can say - and be patient!’ Bill sat down. A minute later he stood up with a start. ‘It’s a girl. The midwife said, daughter.’ Bill sat down again, but couldn’t settle. ‘The doctor’s been in there a long time. You don’t think there’s anything wrong with the baby, do you, Bess?’
‘No… You heard what the midwife said. The baby was early, so the doctor has to check her over. It’s normal medical procedure.’ Bill frowned, he didn’t look convinced. Bess wasn’t convinced either, but she carried on, ‘They have to check all premature babies. It’s just a precaution, there’s nothing to worry about.’ Bess had no experience with babies, premature or otherwise, she just hoped what she said to Bill was of some help.
‘Mr Burrell?’ Bill turned at the sound of his name. ‘If you’d like to come in now, your wife is ready to see you.’ Bess took a step forward and looked optimistically at the nurse. ‘Husband only,’ she said. When Bill went into the ward, the doctor and midwife left.
Passing Bess and Frank the midwife smiled. ‘Mother and baby are doing well.’
‘The child has a good pair of lungs. Takes after her mother, I gather,’ the doctor said, winking at Bess.
‘Yes,’ Bess said, looking between the midwife and doctor. Her heart almost leapt from her chest with relief. ‘She’s doing well, Frank. Our little niece is doing well. Margot is too. She wanted a girl. She said she didn’t mind, but secretly I knew she wanted a girl.’ Bess looked along the corridor. ‘Do you think we’ll be able to see them today?’
‘You’re asking me? I have no idea about these things. Tell you what? I’ll go and find a telephone, let Maeve know Margot’s had the baby, so she can telephone Ena and Claire.’ Frank gave Bess a peck on the cheek and set off down the corridor.
‘Get Maeve to ring Mam when she’s told the girls.’ Frank waved in response. She probably won’t answer the telephone, Bess thought. She looked down at the bag at her feet. It contained an assortment of vests, socks, and bibs, two pale pink nightdresses, and two lemon blankets with white satin edging. She was engrossed in her thoughts when she heard Bill call her name.
‘Sorry, I was miles away. How are they both?’
‘Wonderful. The baby is the most beautiful baby I have ever seen. She’s very small,’ Bill cupped his hands, ‘but she’s perfect. Margot’s worn out, but she insists she wants to see you. The nurse said she’ll be in trouble if the midwife catches you in there, so you’re not to stay long, but she said to come in for a couple of minutes.’
Bess picked up the carpet bag and pushed open the door to Margot’s room. The sight that met her filled her with the happiest, warmest, feeling... ‘Hello, darling.’ She tiptoed over to the bed. Margot was propped up by an elaborate arrangement of pillows that allowed her to hold her baby daughter in her arms.
‘Say hello to your Auntie Bess, baby,’ Margot said, gently pulling on the white sterile blanket that swathed the tiny child.
‘Hello, beautiful girl,’ Bess whispered. ‘She’s absolutely perfect, Margot.’ Bess smiled at her niece through tears of joy, and then looked at her sister. Her hair was stuck to her head with perspiration. Her eyelids were red and looked heavy. ‘What about you? How are you feeling?’
‘Sore and tired. I expect I look a fright, but,’ she said, looking down at her daughter, ‘I don’t care. The only thing that matters is this little one is here and she is healthy,’ Margot cooed.
Bess was aware that the nurse, who had been hovering at the back of the room, had slowly made her way over to her patient’s bed and was standing at Bess’s side. ‘I’d better go and leave you to get some rest, darling. I’ll be back to see you as soon as you’re allowed visitors. Bye, bye, sweetheart,’ she said, blowing her little niece a kiss.
‘There are some things in here for the baby,’ she said, handing the bag to Bill. At the door, Bess looked back at Margot. She was already asleep. She mouthed thank you to the nurse and quietly left.
‘The baby is perfect,’ Bess said, falling into Frank’s arms. ‘She is gorgeous and Margot is amazing. She’s so… so motherly.’
Frank laughed. ‘Come on, let’s go home.’ As they turned to leave, Bill came out of Margot’s room.
‘Thank you for being here. And thank you for this.’ He lifted the carpetbag to waist height. ‘Margot needs some undies and another nightdress, so while she’s sleeping, I’m going to go home and get washed and changed, and pick up some clean clothes for her. I’ll take this with me, so it’s waiting for them when they come home.’
‘Do you want me to take anything to wash?’ Bess asked, ‘I could bring it back when I come in next.’
‘No need. Margot bought new nightdresses, and she’s got drawers full of underwear.’
Outside the hospital, before going to their respective cars, Bill promised to telephone Bess that evening to give her an update on Margot and the baby’s progress, and to tell her when she could visit again.
Waving goodbye to her brother-in-law, Bess slipped her hand into Frank’s hand and strolled by his side to the car.
Bess called at her mother’s cottage on the way back from the hospital. There was no sign of life in the front or the back of the house. ‘Mam’s still out,’ she said, sliding into the passenger seat of Frank’s car. ‘I’ll leave her a note.’ She rummaged around in her handbag, found a pen and a scrap of paper and scribbled, Ring me at the hotel, Bess. She then dropped the note through the letter box of the front door.
Returning to the car, Bess’s face brightened. ‘I can’t wait to tell Maeve about the baby. And I’ll telephone Ena and Claire, keep them in the picture.’
Walking into the hotel, Bess saw her mother sitting behind the reception desk like Lady Muck, telling Maeve how big her children were when they were born. ‘The agony I went through having our Bess,’ she said, ‘And I can’t tell you what it was like having Margaret.’
‘That’s good, because there isn’t time, Mam,’ Bess said, shaking her head. ‘We get bigger every time she tells the story, Maeve.’
Maeve pressed her lips together to stifle laughter. ‘How’s Mrs Burrell and the baby?’ she asked when she had recovered.
‘If I told you that Miss Burrell was the most beautiful baby I have ever seen, would you think I was ever so slightly biased?’ Maeve didn’t hide her laughter this time. ‘But she is.’ Bess relayed every second of the time she spent at the hospital, from the moment she and Frank arrived, to the moment they left. ‘Did you have time to telephone Ena and Claire?’
‘Yes, and I telephoned them again, after Mr Donnelly rang. They both asked if you’d telephone them on your return and let them know how Mrs Burrell and the baby are doing.’
‘I’ll do it now. You coming through to the office, Mam?’ Bess asked, ‘or would you rather have a bite of lunch?’
‘I am peckish,’ Lily Dudley said, hauling herself out of the chair. ‘I mean, there’s no point me coming into the office with you, if you’re going to be on that contraption talking to the girls for the next goodness knows how long. I might as well go and have something to eat.’
‘All right. You go to the dining room and order what you want, and I’ll join you as soon as I’ve spoken to Ena and Claire.’
When her mother was out of earshot, Bess told Maeve how the only way the midwife could get Margot to stop pushing, was to get her to sing. Maeve bit her lip and smiled sympathetically. ‘I didn’t want to tell you in front of my mother, or it would soon be added to her collection of embarrassing stories about her girls. I’m not sure Margot would approve of me telling you. Bless her, she is more sensitive than the res
t of us Dudley sisters.’
Bess went into the office humming, “Oh, Johnny! Oh, Johnny! Oh!”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Still humming, Bess turned at the sound of a knock on the door. ‘Come in, Maeve.’
‘It isn’t Maeve,’ Sergeant McGann said, pushing open the door to Bess and Frank’s private office and marching in as if he owned the place.
‘Sergeant?’ The hairs on the back of Bess’s neck stood on end at the arrogance of the man. ‘If you’re here to see my husband, you should have telephoned. We’ve been out this morning and have only just returned.’ Bess was damned if she was going to share her good news with the unpleasant man. ‘Frank is rather busy.’
‘It isn’t your husband I’ve come to see, Mrs Donnelly.’ McGann paused and looked around - for effect, Bess thought - and sucked his teeth.
‘Sergeant McGann, I don’t mean to be rude, but I am also busy. Would you get to the point of this intrusion, please?’
‘Of course.’ He took his notebook from his top pocket. ‘All right if I--?’ He pointed to the chair in front of Frank’s desk.
Grudgingly Bess nodded. The tedious little man lifted the chair and plonked it down directly in front of her. Sitting, he slowly turned the pages of the notebook. ‘Ah!’ he said at last, ‘got it!’ He cleared his throat, laid the book on her desk, and resting his hands on the top of it, made a steeple of his fingers. ‘Mrs Donnelly, how well did you know David Sutherland when you lived in London?’
Bess’s heart almost leapt from her chest, but the self-satisfied smirk on McGann’s face, reminded herself to stay calm. ‘I didn’t know him at all. I met him once at a first night theatre party given by my friends, Natalie and Anton Goldman. I had never seen him before that night, and I never saw him after that night - until he turned up here on New Year’s Eve.’
‘Several people that I have interviewed, since finding David Sutherland’s body in your lake, told me that on that night Mr Sutherland threatened to expose you by telling your guests something that happened when you lived in London.’ McGann glanced at his notes. ‘“What you got up to in London” was the phrase Mr Sutherland used.’ McGann leaned across Bess’s desk. ‘What did he mean by that? What did he know about you that you wanted to keep secret?’ Bess didn’t answer.
‘Did he have some sort of hold over you? Was that why your husband knocked him to the ground, to stop him from divulging something unsavoury, immoral perhaps, about your past?’
‘My husband only did what any loyal husband would do if his wife was being threatened by a fascist bully like Sutherland.’
‘Protect your honour?’ Bess didn’t answer. ‘Very noble of him, I’m sure,’ McGann said, making no attempt to hide the sarcasm in his voice. ‘Your husband must love you very much, Mrs Donnelly. Does he love you enough to kill for you?’
‘What? My husband didn’t kill David Sutherland, you know he didn’t.’ McGann raised his eyebrows, as if to say he was no longer sure. ‘If you’d had any proof that my husband killed Sutherland you would have charged him at Easter. I told you then, and I’m telling you now, on New Year’s Eve Frank stayed in the hotel. He didn’t go outside until all the guests had left. By which time, according to you, Sutherland was already dead.’
Bess picked up the telephone, and dialled 9 for reception. ‘Maeve, have you seen Frank?’
‘He’s taken Mrs Dudley home.’
Bess tutted. ‘I thought my mother was staying for lunch.’
‘She said she didn’t fancy anything on the menu, so Chef made up a plate of cold meat and she took it with her. They’ve only just left. Do you want me to see if I can catch them?’
‘No, it’s all right, Maeve.’
‘Is something the matter, Mrs Donnelly?’ Bess could hear concern in Maeve’s voice.
‘Yes,’ she said, barely able to keep the emotion out of her own voice. ‘Ask Frank to come to the office as soon as he gets back, will you?’ she said, and placed the telephone on its cradle.
Ignoring Bess’s explanation as to where her husband was on New Year’s Eve, and appearing not to have taken any interest in the conversation she’d just had with the hotel receptionist, McGann said, ‘Several witnesses heard your husband threaten to kill Mr Sutherland if he came near you, or the hotel, again.’
‘He lashed out in anger. But he wouldn’t have killed him. My husband is a war hero. He went through hell in Africa. But even after the fighting, watching his friends get killed, and being shot in the temple and losing an eye, he is still the most decent and gentle man I know.’ Bess swallowed hard, forcing down emotion that threatened to engulf her as she remembered how grateful Frank was when, because the army surgeon had acted quickly, the doctors at the Walsgrave Hospital were able to save his other eye.
‘My husband had been blind for months, not knowing whether he would ever see again. When his bandages came off, and the sight in his good eye gradually returned, and he was able to see,’ Bess said, pointedly, ‘Frank swore that he would never again hurt a living soul.’
‘But he did, Mrs Donnelly. He punched a man and threatened to kill him!’
‘He hit Sutherland because Sutherland was threatening me.’
‘But why was he threatening you, Mrs Donnelly?’
Bess felt her pulse pounding in her temples. Her heart was racing. She put up her hands. ‘Stop!’
McGann didn’t stop. ‘What did David Sutherland have on you? What did he know about you? Did you have a relationship with him?’ McGann shouted.
‘No! How many times do I have to say it? I did not have a relationship with that monster.’
‘What then?’
‘He raped me!’ Bess screamed into McGann’s face. ‘Are you satisfied now? That--- That vile excuse of a man raped me. You want to know if I killed him? If it was me who bashed him over the head and shoved him into the freezing lake?’ Bess looked at McGann, her eyes blazing with anger. ‘Believe me I wanted to kill him. I have wanted to kill him many times. I was so ashamed after he violated me that I turned my back on the man I loved. I wanted to kill him then!
‘Because of him I lived a solitary existence for years, when I could have, should have, been happy and loved. I spent those lonely years feeling dirty and used - unworthy of the love of a decent man. David Sutherland all but destroyed me. He took away my self-respect and left me feeling disgusted with myself.’
A heart-breaking smile spread across Bess’s face. ‘It wasn’t until the man I loved, who loved me, made me realise that what David Sutherland did to me was not my fault. It was only then that I allowed myself to love, and to be loved.’
Bess exhaled a long breath. ‘Sutherland hurt Margot’s friend so badly that she almost died. He hurt me so badly that I wanted to die. Did I kill him?’ McGann lowered his gaze to his notebook. ‘Look at me!’ Bess screamed. ‘You were happy to look at me when you were accusing me of having a dirty secret in my past. The least you can do is have the decency to look at me now!’
McGann lifted his head and looked into Bess’s eyes. His own, Bess thought, showed no sympathy, no remorse. ‘No. I did not kill David Sutherland. Nor did my husband. But you can be sure that whoever did, would have had a damn good reason for seeing that evil bastard dead.’
There! She had done it! She had answered the question that she had dreaded being asked since New Year’s Eve. With an overwhelming sense of relief, Bess burst into tears.
Frank crashed through the door, Henry hard on his heels. ‘What the hell is going on?’
Bess held her arms out to her husband, tears streaming down her face. ‘Get him out of here, Frank. Get him out of here!’ she sobbed.
McGann jumped up and came face to face with Frank. ‘What have you done to her?’ Frank shouted, stopping Bess’s interrogator in his tracks. He elbowed McGann out of the way, dropped to his knees at Bess’s side and put his arms round her.
Furious that McGann had interviewed Bess without him, or Inspector Masters, being present, Henry said, ‘You’d
better go, McGann.’ Without his usual need to have the last word, the police sergeant left. Henry followed him out of the office and across the marble hall to the hotel’s main entrance. He put his arm out and barred McGann’s exit. ‘Your card is marked,’ Henry hissed. ‘If Masters doesn’t have you kicked off the force for this, I will.’
Back in the office, Frank told Bess she needed to rest. ‘Come on love, I’m taking you upstairs for a lie down. You’re exhausted.’
‘But I need to---’
‘You don’t need to do anything, except take it easy for an hour or two. Come on, darling.’
Frank helped Bess to her feet and walked her to the door. ‘Wait a minute Frank, I must look dreadful. I don’t want the staff to see me looking a wreck. And what will the guests think if they see me like this?’
Frank opened the office door and stuck his head out. ‘There’s no one about.’ He took Bess by the arm, walked her quickly past reception, across the hall and past the kitchen to the staff stairs.
‘He knows, Frank. McGann knows about London.’
‘Confound the man!’
‘He suspects me of killing Sutherland. That’s why he came here, to accuse me.’
Frank took the key to their suite of rooms from his pocket and opened the door. Bess went in ahead of him and dropped onto the settee in the sitting room. ‘I think it would be best if you had a lie down on the bed,’ Frank said, from the doorway of the bedroom. ‘Come on love, have a proper rest.’
Bess forced herself off the comfortable settee and went into the bedroom. Frank had pulled back the eiderdown. ‘You’re right. I feel emotionally drained. I’m so tired I think I might even sleep. I’ll try anyway.’ Kicking off her shoes Bess fell onto the bed.
Frank lay beside her and held her until she dozed off. She slept fitfully, her eyes moving beneath their lids. She twitched, and a minute later jolted herself awake. Then she sighed heavily and, safe in Frank’s arms, drifted into sleep.
When he was sure Bess had settled, Frank slid off the bed, pulled the eiderdown up around her shoulders and quietly left the bedroom.
Foxden Hotel (The Dudley Sisters Saga Book 5) Page 13