No Cure for Love (28 page)

She had come to find him deliberately so as to get her hands on it. She knew what was in there and how it could damn him. She had sought him out, feigned regret and wriggled on his lap - for Munroe.

Danny’s mind roared with fury. Ellen had stolen his ledger from under his very nose for the man who had sworn to expose him and who was working against him.

‘The bitch,’ he ground out, as those around him backed away.

‘Ellen?’ Mike asked in a voice of disbelief. ‘Surely she wouldn’t—’

At her name Danny exploded. ‘She’d do anything for that bastard doctor.’ He took hold of the bottle on the table and hurled it on the floor. It smashed and the contents spilled over the floor. No one moved. ‘She never let me touch her before. Never. But she’d suffer me touching her just to get the ledger for
him.
’

Grabbing the table before him in his paw-like hands, Danny raised it over his head. A couple of women screamed, men left their drinks and made for the door. Henry Forster had come out from his parlour to see what the rumpus was about, but stood still by the bar watching, like everyone else, as Danny stood for a few seconds with the pine table aloft then heaved it towards the mirror that covered the wall behind him.

The table met the shiny surface of the glass, shattering it into hundreds of shards.

As the last tinkle of glass faded, Mike crunched over the wreckage towards Danny. ‘You’ll have to get it back off her, Danny,’ he said in a tense voice. ‘Or we’ll swing.’

‘I’ll get it back, that I will,’ Danny said, breathing hard, with flecks of spittle around his mouth and on his chin. ‘Mike, go and see if she goes to Munroe and I’ll go to her home.’ His lips drew back into a demonic grimace. ‘And seeing as our Ellen has a liking for doctors, the surgeons at Bart’s Hospital can have her corpse when I’m done with her.’

Where is that girl? Ellen thought, as she ran into her small front parlour. She had told Josie specifically not to go out, to wait for her at home. Ellen put her hand on the stove. It was still warm but hadn’t been attended to for an hour or so by her reckoning.

She bit her lip fearfully. So far everything had gone to plan. The ledger was safe and now she had to make sure she and Josie would be safe, too, by getting to Robert’s rooms at the hospital as soon as possible. They needed to be out of Danny’s reach because when he found his precious ledger was missing it wouldn’t take him long to realise who had taken the slim book. And his fury would be deadly.

But now Josie was out somewhere and what if Danny found Josie?

Fear, panic and terror coursed through Ellen.
For the love of Mary, Josie, come home.

Dashing upstairs, Ellen gathered together the bundle of her books, marriage lines and poor pieces of jewellery that she had packed in her old carpet bag before leaving for the White Swan two hours earlier. She returned downstairs hoping that Josie would appear.

Her hopes were dashed as she looked again around the deserted lower room.

She’ll feel my hand when she does arrive,
Ellen thought, as panic at her precarious situation swirled around her. She didn’t have time to waste.

The front door rattled for a second, then the latch lifted up as the string outside was pulled. Relief swept over Ellen.

The front door opened, but it was Danny Donovan, not Josie, who stepped into the small front room.

He closed the door behind him and smiled artlessly at her.

‘Ellen, me darling girl, I thought seeing as we were getting on so famously a little while back I’d pop by. It’s not too late, I hope?’ He spoke in a convivial tone and tilted his head to one side.

Although her heart was galloping in her chest, Ellen matched his smile. ‘I thought you were out visiting with Mike,’ she replied, noticing that despite her best efforts her hands plucked nervously at the fabric of her skirt.

He moved forward, his leather boot shedding slurry from the street outside onto her rag carpet. Ellen stepped back and found herself backed against the table. Danny stopped just in front of her and put his hands on both hips. His smile widened, crinkling the small lines around his eyes.

‘He can handle the night’s business by himself so I thought why wait until Thursday before I had you bouncing on my lap showing your, gratitude,’ he said, winking at her.

Ellen relaxed a little.

When she had seen him in her doorway her heart had nearly jumped out of her mouth. She felt sure that he would have discovered the ledger was missing by now, but maybe he hadn’t... and he was, after all, just coming to get what she’d promised him in the Swan.

That was bad enough, but she might still be able to stall him. If Josie arrived home, as she should have done by now, Ellen still might be able to get them safely away from Danny.

Danny raised his hand slowly and Ellen only just stopped from flinching. He lifted a coil of hair sitting on her shoulder and turned it over between his fingers. He studied it in the dim light from the lamp then turned his attention back to her.

She forced herself to give a little laugh. ‘Well, Danny. It’s a bit late and’ - she sent him a shy smile - ‘you know, I’m not... not prepar—’

He twisted the length of hair around his finger and his eyebrows rose up. ‘Now, don’t be bashful there, Ellen, me love. You were willing enough a while ago.’

A sorrowful expression formed itself on his face. ‘You’re not expecting anyone else, are you?’

‘No. It’s just that—’

‘Like our esteemed Doctor Munroe,’ he asked, cocking his head to one side.

Fear like ice, cut through Ellen, but she managed to summon up a confused expression. ‘Why would he come here? I told you he’s finished with me.’

With a lightning move, Danny grasped the back of her head and yanked her to him. ‘So you can give him my ledger,’ he snarled.

Her head throbbed where he tore at her hair but she held on to her perplexed look. ‘Ledger? I don’t—’

Danny twisted her hair and Ellen screamed.

‘Where is it?’

Leaving Danny with a fistful of her hair, Ellen wrenched herself free of his grasp and jumped behind the table. ‘I do ... don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘Don’t fecking give me that,’ he said, taking hold of the edge of the table. ‘My ledger. Where is it?’

Ellen backed away. ‘Honestly, Danny, I don’t kn—’

Danny’s balled fist smashed across her face. She felt her lip split as she staggered back, frantically clutching onto anything to stop herself falling. Her head landed against the small table at the side of the fire, knocking the cups and saucers on it to the stone floor with a crash.

He wagged his finger at her, a playful smile hovering on his lips. ‘Now, don’t you be playing games with me, Ellen. You fooled me for a moment there,’ he said, ‘I thought you had seen which field your harvest was in at last.’ The ingenuous expression fell away and the sadistic one returned. ‘Wriggling on my lap and letting me feel you up.’ His hand shot out and took hold of her hair again. Twisting it around his fist he pulled her face up to him. ‘I know you filched it for him. That bastard doctor of yours. Now where is it?’

He threw her away from him and Ellen staggered back.

‘If you’ve lost your book, it’s probably because you’re too drunk to remember where you put it,’ she said, keeping her voice as level as she could despite her swollen lip.

Danny dashed to the middle of the small room. Although he was a large man he could move swiftly enough if he needed to. He took hold of the table and tossed it aside as if it had been a milking stool. Then he went to the dresser where the crockery sat clean and neatly stacked.

With a great sweep of his arm Danny cleared the top, then crunched over the broken china towards the mantelshelf.

‘Where is it?’

‘I told you I haven’t got it,’ Ellen repeated.

He grabbed her small collection of books and started to tear them apart, throwing the torn pages behind him.

Ellen tried to slip behind him to the door but Danny caught her. His eyes roamed down to her breasts and his hateful expression changed to one of lust.

‘He must have fecked you good, Ellen, if you’re ready to cross me like this,’ he said, as his free hand took hold of her breast. He fondled it for a few moments, then his hand closed painfully around it. ‘Now give me that ledger or I’ll be sending you to meet your old mother.’

‘I told you I—’

Her words were cut short as he slapped her across her face again. Ellen’s knees buckled and at the edges of her vision small stars appeared, then burst. Blackness crept over her mind, but she forced it away as Danny held her upright by the scruff of her neck and hair.

‘Where is it, Ellen?’ he said, as more blows rained down onto her. ‘I’ll find it anyhow.’ Danny’s foul breath assailed Ellen and nausea rose in her throat. ‘But before that I’ll teach you a lesson that you will never forget,’ he said, putting his powerful hand around her neck and squeezing.

Ellen gasped for air as the vice-like grip of his fingers tightened.

I’m going to die,
she thought, as jumbled images of Robert and Josie swam around in her mind.

With a guttural growl and a bone-shaking thump Danny let go of her and Ellen sank to the hard floor. She felt the roughness of the knotted rag rug against her cheek, felt air, struggling back into her lungs. Lifting her head she saw the faded colours stained with bright red blood. Putting her fingers to her mouth Ellen felt sticky dampness.

‘Bitch,’ he said as spit flecked the side of his mouth. ‘Where is it?’

Ellen’s head pounded and her focus began to blur as the foot of the fire grate came level with her line of vision.

‘Answer me, woman.’

As Danny’s toe knocked the wind out of her she crumpled back onto the floor. Struggling for breath, she tried to roll into a ball to protect her vital organs. With a swift movement Danny’s hand snatched up the poker and raised it over his head.

‘For the last time, give me the ledger!’ he screamed.

Ellen looked up at the man above her through her half-closed eyes. The iron taste of blood was in her mouth. She swallowed. Danny was now swaying above her with a murderous expression on his face. Ellen would never need to wonder what the devil looked like because in her small front room he was manifest in the person of Danny Donovan.

Her lips twisted painfully as she summoned the ghost of a smile. She was dead anyway, whether she gave him the ledger or not.

She didn’t want to die, but more than that she didn’t want those she loved, Robert and Josie, to live in the evil shadow of Danny Donovan.

With steely determination, Ellen looked into Danny’s cold, blue eyes.

‘No,’ she said in a surprisingly firm voice. ‘And may the Virgin curse your black soul to hell.’

For one second she thought she was saved because Danny’s face went purple and he started to tremble. His raised arm shook and the poker wavered.

God strike,
Ellen prayed, as Danny’s rasping breath tore around the small room.

Then with an animal bellow, Danny swung the poker in a wide arc and down on her.

Ellen’s arm came up to shield her head and the narrow metal poker smashed into her forearm sending reverberations down her arm. She sank backwards under the blow and felt the poker break her collarbone.

A vision of Robert came to her mind. He was sitting on a riverbank and beckoning to her.

Danny and the pain were receding and Robert was drawing ever closer. Then from somewhere a scream ripped through the scene and the river bank and Robert vanished and the pain returned.

Ellen braced herself for another blow, but now with neither pain nor Robert to focus on, the swirling blackness in her head engulfed her.

 

‘Me mam’ll be wild,’ Josie said, as she saw the light flicker through the window of her front parlour. She had only been out an hour and had meant to be back before her mother returned.

‘She might not be in yet,’ Patrick Nolan said, as he gazed down at her.

‘She’s in. Look, the street door’s ajar,’ Josie replied, pointing at the crack in the door.

‘I’ll come in and explain,’ Patrick said drawing himself up to his full five feet ten inches.

Josie gave him an uncertain smile. ‘She’ll be mad enough at me for going out. Let alone returning with you.’

Patrick gave her a severe, very manly look as he gazed down at her, noticing the light of the windows above them. ‘I would think that your mam would be grateful that I did the right thing and escorted you home.’ He ran his hands back through his thick black hair.

‘Any other day, perhaps, But she’s been like a cat on hot cobbles all day,’ Josie said, remembering Ellen’s tension over their supper.

‘Even so.’ Patrick went to walk across the street, but Josie caught hold of his arm.

‘I’m safe now,’ she said, looking up at him. ‘You go on home.’

‘I’m sailing soon,’ he said, with just a hint of a youthful warble in his voice. ‘You’ll come and see me off, won’t you, Josie?’

‘Try and stop me,’ Josie said, forcing a smile. She heard a tremble in her voice. Proud though she was, her heart was near to breaking at the thought of his leaving.

He pulled his shoulders back. ‘I’ll be a captain one day, just you wait and see if I won’t, and then I’ll speak to your mammy,’ he told her.

‘I have to go, Pat—’

The sound of an almighty crash from inside her house. Josie glanced across and saw a large shadow against the curtains. Leaving Patrick, she dashed over and threw open the front door. It crashed against the wall.

To Josie’s horror Danny Donovan stood in the middle of the room with a poker raised above his head.

Dumbly, Josie stared down at the inert body of her mother at his feet. The images before her tumbled around in her mind as she tried make sense of what she was seeing.