Sea Mistress (57 page)

‘I wasn't doing anything, just being polite,' Ellie protested. ‘You didn't want me to rouse his suspicions, did you?'

He flung her away from him and she fell heavily against the edge of the table. She gasped in pain and then Rosie was helping her to her feet. Arian was sitting white-faced in a chair, she looked at Ellie in concern and Ellie shook her head warningly. She crouched on the fender box, wondering what Dan was planning, whatever he did, it would be dangerous because Matthew could set the explosives off at any time he chose.

And then everything seemed to happen at once. The door from the hallway burst open and Collins stood framed in the light, his eyes ablaze with anger. He glanced at Bridie who put her hand to her mouth to stifle her cry of fear.

The window was smashed in with a resounding crashing of glass and Daniel stood crouched on the sill. He measured the distance between himself and Matthew with his eyes and then he sprung. Matthew was forced onto the ground, someone screamed but Ellie was moving forward, dragging at the belt at Matthew's waist.

‘Look out, he's got some sort of explosive device!' she gasped as Matthew struggled fiercely, trying to twist free.

There was a rush of footsteps and then Caradoc and Boyo were in the room, joining in the struggle. In that moment, two things happened, the belt containing the device came away in Ellie's hands and Matthew twisted away from his captors.

He leapt through the window in one huge bound and his footsteps could be heard pounding across the yard. Boyo moved quickly, he took the device from Ellie's nerveless fingers and then he too had disappeared through the window.

Ellie ran after Dan as he darted through the hallway and towards the front door. She could see Matthew climbing into the van shouting at Parkins to drive away.

Boyo was pounding across the ground at a tremendous rate, he almost caught up with the van as it moved out of the roadway. Ellie saw his arm come back and then the metal device was arching through the air, in through the wildly swinging doors of the vehicle.

The explosion, like the sound of cracking thunder, suddenly shook the van. Flames shot out of the open doors and black smoke belched upwards. The van was torn from the shafts and the horses reared in fright, pawing the air, before racing away down the road.

Daniel was running then, towards the fiercely burning vehicle and Ellie watched, her heart in her mouth, as the other men, figures outlined against the flames, searched the area near the tannery wall. It seemed an age before Dan and Collins returned, holding the shocked and trembling figure of Harry Parkins between them.

‘Hewson is dead,' Dan said. ‘I don't think he stood a chance, not in that confined space. Mr Parkins managed to jump clear as soon as he reached the shadow of the tannery buildings.'

‘Aye, that I did, I wasn't going to let that madman take me anywhere.' Harry Parkins shook the dust from his coat. His face was red and there was a gash on his forehead.

Boyo came into the hallway, his face blackened by smoke. ‘I'm sorry about your van, Mr Parkins, I didn't know where I was throwing that thing, I only knew that Matthew Hewson had to be stopped before he killed someone.'

Dan put a hand on Boyo's shoulder. ‘You did the only thing possible in the circumstances. Come on, we'll go for the police, we must let them know what's happened here.'

Arian stood in the doorway. ‘May I come with you, Daniel?' She looked back at Ellie and smiled wryly. ‘I've got a wonderful story for my paper but somehow, it doesn't seem all that important any more. I think I just have time for my very important meeting. Goodbye, Ellie.'

In the parlour, Bridie and Martha still stood in shocked silence. ‘Come on, Rosie,' Ellie said, ‘I think we could all do with a stiff drink.' Her voice cracked with weariness and strain and it was Bridie who came to her and took her arm. ‘We'll get off home, I think it's best.' She glanced through the broken window at the smouldering van. ‘You were so brave, Ellie, I think you saved our lives.'

Ellie shook her head mutely. She drew a ragged breath, watching as Collins put his arm around Bridie. ‘Come on, my love, let's get back to Clydach,' he said dryly, ‘at least it's quiet there.'

Ellie took the drink Rosie held towards her and then, with Martha and Caradoc, sat waiting for Dan to return. When he did, it was with two policemen and a senior officer who came into the house and looked round the wrecked room with raised eyebrows. ‘You were all here when this . . . when the accident occurred?'

Ellie nodded and the officer smiled at her reassuringly. ‘You are Mrs Bennett I take it?'

She nodded again watching as he drew up a chair and sat facing her. ‘I think you'd better tell me all about it,' he said and his tone was so fatherly, so normal that suddenly Ellie began to cry.

‘There, there Mrs Bennett, take your time, I'll try to get this all over as quickly as possible, I know you have all been through a dreadful experience but it's going to be all right now.' He patted her hand. We'll have that . . . that wreck taken away as soon as possible. When you go out in the morning you won't even know anything happened here.'

Ellie doubted that but, haltingly, she began to tell him what had happened from the moment Matthew had come into the house until the men had burst in. He kept nodding his head and when she had finished, he checked her story with the others. After a time, he rose to his feet, touching his hat. ‘That's it then, I'll bid you good night,' he said genially. ‘Don't come to the door, I'll see myself out.'

Dawn was almost upon them when at last Ellie and Daniel sat alone in the kitchen, enjoying the warmth of the fire. It had scarcely seemed worthwhile going to bed, in a few hours, they would be on their way to Lampeter.

‘Look, Ellie,' Daniel said, ‘if you can bear to live on a vicar's stipend, why not sign the tannery over to Boyo, shake the dust from your heels completely?'

Ellie looked up at him. ‘That's just what I wanted to hear.'

Dan moved to the window and opened the curtains and a rosy dawn poked fingers of light into the room. ‘Today,' he said softly, ‘we begin our new life.'

Later, with her bags packed and loaded into the waiting cab, Ellie stood aside for Martha to go on ahead, watching as Dan helped the older woman into her seat, then she turned and kissed Rosie warmly. ‘Have a good life with Caradoc,' she said. ‘I hope you will be very happy.'

Boyo was at her side then, taking her awkwardly in his big arms, his face red, his eyes suspiciously moist. He didn't say anything, he just held her close.

Ellie struggled to speak though it was difficult with tears gathering in her throat. ‘It's all yours now, Mr Boyo Hopkins, as it should have been from the beginning. Promise me you'll employ a nice respectable lady to take care of you, and mind you eat enough, hear me?'

She released him and hurried towards the cab. As Dan took her arm to help her up the step, she turned for a moment and looked back.

‘Goodbye,' she whispered, her eyes blurred with tears. Then she turned away from the house, from the place where she had known happiness and pain. The house in which she had lain beside Jubilee and loved him like a daughter. Glyn Hir, where she had, at last, grown into a woman.

Daniel was right, her life was just beginning, a whole new world was unfolding before her. She reached out and twined her fingers in his and Daniel's clasp was firm and warm. Across the carriage, Martha pretended to doze and outside the window Ellie imagined she could see, through the unyielding earth, the first shoots of a new year forcing their way towards the sun.