Evil Angels Among Them (39 page)

‘No!' Bryony shrieked, grabbed the biscuits and flung the packet across the room. ‘Take them away! And leave me alone!'

‘It didn't go very well,' Lucy admitted to Gill downstairs. ‘She let me read her a story, but she got upset when I suggested that she might get up, and very agitated indeed when I offered her chocolate biscuits.' Ruefully she extended her hand with the smashed packet. ‘I'm sorry, Gill. I don't seem to have helped much.'

‘Do you have time for a cup of tea?' Gill looked at her beseechingly.

‘Of course.'

They settled down in the kitchen with the pot of tea between them. ‘What about Lou?' Lucy said in a way that was open to interpretation.

‘She's working in her office.' Gill looked down into her tea. ‘To tell you the truth, Lucy, Lou isn't being much help. She says that Bryony is just putting it all on, playing up to get attention. She says that if we ignore her she'll snap out of it. But I think that Lou can't cope – I think she's denying that there's a problem because she doesn't want to deal with it.'

‘And what
is
the problem?' Lucy invited.

Gill shook her head. ‘Where do I begin?'

‘At the beginning?'

‘You're sure you don't mind?' she said wistfully. ‘Only I really don't know what to do.'

‘If you can't talk to Lou,' Lucy pointed out, ‘you've got to talk to someone. Tell me what's bothering you.'

Gill gave a weary sigh. ‘It's a long story,' she warned.

‘I'm not going anywhere.'

‘Well.' She tore open the biscuit packet and tipped its contents on to a plate. ‘Have a biscuit. Or the crumbs thereof.'

‘Might as well,' Lucy agreed, taking half of a broken biscuit.

Gill sat still for a moment, as if gathering up her strength. ‘All right,' she said at last, and launched into her story. ‘Adrian and I were married for nearly five years. It wasn't so bad at first – I liked the idea of being married, and when we had Bryony I was over the moon. But Adrian was jealous of the attention I paid to Bryony, and he wanted her to be
his
little girl. That's when he started hitting me.' Her voice was matter-of-fact – horrifyingly so. ‘Adrian was clever. He was always careful to stop just short of breaking anything, and he usually tended to hit me where it didn't show. So it went on for a few years like that.' Her eyes were turned in Lucy's direction, but they weren't focused, looking through her into a past of remembered pain. ‘No one would have believed it, anyway – everyone thought that we were the perfect couple, with our lovely little girl. And people don't think that things like that happen in . . . good families. But one day I had had enough. He hit me once too often, and I got out. I was one of the lucky ones,' she added with a small smile. ‘You'd never believe how many women put up with the most horrific abuse, just because they don't feel that they have any options – they're economically and emotionally tied to a man who, having already completely destroyed their self-esteem, tries his best to kill them at every opportunity. But I got out. I took Bryony and went to a shelter for battered women. That's where I met Lou,' she said, looking at Lucy rather than through her. ‘She was a volunteer at the shelter. And she was splendid.'

Lucy nodded. ‘She would be.'

‘She helped me – us – to put our lives back together. She gave me myself back again,' she said simply. ‘Then I divorced Adrian, and moved in with Lou.'

‘There was no problem with the divorce?' Lucy asked.

‘It was a stalemate situation. He threatened to tell the court about . . . well, about Lou. And I had a counterthreat, that I would tell about the abuse. So we both agreed to keep our mouths shut, and it went through.' She shook her head. ‘But he wouldn't leave us alone. He kept coming round to Lou's house, supposedly to see Bryony – he had visitation rights, so he had every right to see her. But he would demand to see me as well, saying that I was his wife and he wanted me back. Lou hates his guts, of course, and most of the time she managed to keep him away from me.' Gill refilled Lucy's teacup, gathering her courage for the next part.

Lucy prompted her to continue. ‘Most of the time?'

‘Then there was the once – the awful time. Bryony was at school, thank God. And Lou was home sick from work – she had flu very badly. She was weak or she wouldn't have let it happen. Lou may be small, but she's very strong,' Gill added with a fond smile.

‘What happened?'

Gill sighed and continued. ‘Adrian came – he'd expected to find me alone. He said he wanted me and Bryony back, that I was still his wife, that we were a family. When I said no, he called me names. Dreadful names. He called Lou names. By then she'd dragged herself out of bed, but she was too weak . . .' Gill's voice trailed off, then she forced herself to go on, speaking with clinical calmness. ‘He raped me. In front of Lou. He hit me, and then he raped me. It was horrible – more horrible than I can tell you.'

‘Oh, Gill!' Instinctively Lucy put out a hand and touched her arm. Power, she said to herself. It was all about power.

Gill took a deep breath. ‘After that, of course, we knew that we had to leave London,' she continued. ‘To move away and not tell Adrian where we were going. Walston seemed the perfect place – out of the way so he'd never be able to find us. I could grow my herbs, and Lou could work from home, and we could bring up Bryony in peace. And then, then that interfering old woman across the road had to get in touch with Adrian and tell him where we were!' It was the most emotion that she'd displayed so far. ‘After that, it was just a matter of time before he came. I should have expected it, I suppose.'

There were so many questions that Lucy wanted to ask. ‘What about Bryony? What was his relationship with her? Did he . . . ?'

‘He never hit Bryony,' Gill said quickly. ‘Never touched her. He adored her, or adored the
idea
of her, liked seeing himself as the perfect father. He would have spoiled her rotten if he'd had the chance. And Bryony has always loved her father.'

Lucy was incredulous. ‘Even with the way he treated you?'

‘Oh, she didn't know about that.' Gill smiled bravely. ‘That was between me and Adrian, and I didn't think it was fair to poison her mind against her father, just because of what he did to me. But after . . . what happened that last time . . . I just couldn't bear to see him again. And I didn't want Bryony to see him either. It might not have been right, and I couldn't help feeling guilty about it, but I just couldn't bear it.'

‘No one would blame you,' Lucy declared. ‘Any mother would have felt the same.'

Gill sighed and closed her eyes, suddenly weary. ‘But now I just don't know what to think,' she said softly.

‘What do you mean?'

‘I'm just so terrified that he's . . . done something to Bryony,' she confided, reaching the nub of the problem at last. ‘The way she's acting – it's not normal. Something has traumatised her, and I'm so afraid that Adrian has . . . hit her. Or . . . something worse. God knows, he's capable of it. I didn't think he'd ever hurt her – but what if I was wrong? Don't you see?' She looked at Lucy imploringly. ‘I don't know what to do. I can't talk to Lou – I can't tell her what I'm afraid of. If she even thought he'd done anything to harm Bryony, she wouldn't stop at breaking every bone in his body. She'd kill him, Lucy! She'd tear him limb from limb!'

There was no question, Lucy told David, of leaving Walston while Bryony was in such a state. And Gill, she added: for whatever reason, Gill had confided in her and no one else, and she must now remain available to help her see it through.

‘But love,' David remonstrated later that afternoon. ‘It's Monday already. We can't just stay indefinitely. And you don't know how long it will take for things to sort themselves out.'

‘I'm not going,' Lucy stated. ‘Not today. Gill needs me, and Bryony needs me.'

‘And the office needs
me
! Love, I've got work to do!'

But in the end he gave in, as she knew he would. ‘One more day, then,' David agreed, sighing.

Lucy was never quite sure, afterwards, at exactly which moment during the long night she realised that Bryony held the key to the Walston murders, or what it was that had triggered the realisation. But positive she was, and in the morning she managed to persuade David that she was right.

‘But how will you get her to tell you?' he demanded. ‘The poor kid is obviously terrified.'

Lucy smiled her closed, secret smile; not for nothing had she spent the early hours of the morning lying awake beside him, her brain in ferment. ‘I've got a plan,' she assured him. ‘Trust me.'

She waited until Tuesday afternoon before she went to see Bryony again. The girl was still refusing to get out of bed, though hunger had driven her to eat some ice cream and eventually a cheese sandwich. Fergus McNair had come and gone, shaking his head. ‘She's not a happy lassie,' he told Gill. ‘And it's not getting much better. I'll get on to the chappie in Norwich – perhaps he'll be able to see her tomorrow.'

For the success of Lucy's plan, it was essential that she should be alone with Bryony. ‘Stay in the kitchen,' she directed Gill. ‘I'm going to try to get her out of the house, and you mustn't be about.' She went up the stairs and approached Bryony's bed. ‘I've brought you a present,' she said, holding out empty arms.

In spite of herself, Bryony was intrigued. ‘What is it? I can't see anything?'

‘That's because it's an invisible cloak,' Lucy explained, shaking it out and smoothing the folds in the air. ‘And when you put it on,
you'll
be invisible, too!'

Bryony sat up in bed. ‘Where did you get it?'

‘Never you mind,' Lucy said mysteriously. ‘But I want you to put it on, and then we'll go for a walk.'

‘And no one will be able to see me?'

Lucy gave a solemn nod. ‘No one. Not Mummy, or Lou, or Doctor McNair. Not even me.'

‘Or the horrible man?' Bryony said in a small voice.

‘Especially not the horrible man.'

Bryony got out of bed. ‘Where are we going?'

‘You'll see. We're going somewhere special, and when we get there I'll tell you a special story.' Lucy made swirling motions in the air around the little girl. ‘There – how does that feel? It must be working – I can't see you!'

‘It feels fine.' Bryony wrapped her arms around herself.

‘Do you have your shoes on?'

Bryony giggled. ‘No. But Mummy won't be able to see that I'm barefoot, so she can't tell me off.'

‘You'd better put your shoes on,' Lucy urged. Bryony complied, then took Lucy's hand.

‘I'd better hold on to your hand, so you know I'm still here,' the little girl suggested.

‘Good idea.'

They went down the stairs and out of the house, hand in hand, through the village and towards the church. Lucy held her breath, hoping that they wouldn't encounter anyone who would speak to Bryony. But her luck held; they reached the church without seeing another soul, and slipped inside. Not leaving the emptiness of the church to chance, she locked the huge wooden door from the inside; David, primed to cooperate, had already decoyed Harry away by inviting himself to tea at Harry's cottage.

Bryony breathed in deeply, savouring the fragrance of the church. ‘This
is
a special place,' she agreed. ‘It even smells special. And I love the angels!' She pointed up to the angel roof, then giggled. ‘I forgot. You can't see me!'

‘You can take the cloak off now,' Lucy suggested. ‘We're all alone, and no one will bother us in here.' She made a show of unwrapping the little girl and folding up the cloak. ‘Let's put it right here, shall we, so you can wear it on the way home?' She led Bryony down the aisle of the nave, stopping halfway; she sat down and pulled the little girl on to her lap gently. ‘Let's make ourselves comfortable, shall we?'

Bryony settled in Lucy's arms. ‘You promised to tell me a story.'

Smiling, Lucy stroked her hair. ‘You said that you loved the angels,' she began.

‘They're wonderful,' Bryony agreed, looking roof-wards. ‘All shiny, and singing invisible songs.'

‘There are some angels up there, as well.' Lucy pointed over the chancel arch at the Doom painting. ‘See there? On the right?'

Bryony nodded. ‘I never noticed that before.'

‘Well, I want to tell you the story of that picture, which some people painted way up there a long, long time ago. It shows God – can you see God?'

‘In the middle?'

‘That's right. Did your Mummy ever tell you that you must be good, because God knows if you're good or if you're bad?'

‘Yes.' Bryony nodded solemnly. ‘Sort of like Father Christmas, only God is real even though we can't see him.'

Lucy smiled. ‘Well, Bryony darling, this picture shows what happens to the people who are good and the people who are bad. The good people are on the right, with the angels. The angels are taking them to heaven, where they'll live with God for ever and ever.'

‘And what about the bad people?'

‘They're on the other side.' Lucy pointed to the left. ‘The devils are taking them away, and they'll be punished.'

Bryony turned to look at her. ‘Is that what happens to bad people?'

‘It's called the Last Judgment,' Lucy explained. ‘It says in the Bible that it will happen one day, maybe a long time from now. And the bad people will be punished as surely as the good people will go to be with God.' She paused, choosing her words carefully. ‘But until then, darling, God relies on us to help him, so that bad people can't go round being bad all their lives, and hurting other people. If we know that someone has hurt us, or hurt someone else, God wants us to make them stop.'