The Hanging Valley (23 page)

TEN

I

The sun had just gone down behind Adam’s Fell, silhouetting the steep hillside against its deep crimson glow. The guests milled around in the Colliers’ large garden. Doors to both parts of the house were open, allowing access to drinks and a huge table of cheeses, pâtés, smoked salmon and fresh fruit. Music drifted out from Stephen’s stereo. Now it was Mozart, but earlier there had been Motown and some ersatz modern pop. The crowd was mostly early to mid thirties, apart from one or two older landowners and friends of the family. There were a couple of bright young teachers from Braughtmore, several members of Stephen’s management staff, and a great assortment of entrepreneurs, some with political ambitions, from all over the dale. The parties were a fairly regular affair; they helped maintain the social status of the Colliers and introduce those who had something to those who might be willing and able to pay for it.

Katie stood alone by the fountain, with a glass of white wine in her hand. She had been holding it so long it was warm. Occasionally a well-dressed young man would approach her and begin a conversation, but after a few minutes of her averted looks, blushes and monosyllabic answers, he would make an excuse to get away.

As usual, Sam had insisted she come.

“I didn’t buy you those bloody expensive dresses for nothing,you know,” he had railed when she told him at the last minute that she didn’t want to go.

“I didn’t ask you to buy them,” Katie said quietly. “I don’t even want them.” And it was true. She felt uncomfortable in finery, full of pride and vanity.

“You’ll damn well do as I say. There’ll be some important people there and I want you to make a good impression.”

“Oh, Sam,” she pleaded, “you know I never do. I can’t talk to people at parties. I get all tongue-tied.”

“Have a few drinks like everyone else, for a change. That’ll loosen you up. For Christ’s sake, can’t you let your hair down for once?”

Katie turned away.

Sam grasped her arm. “Look,” he said, “you’re coming with meand that’s that. If you’re so worried about talking to people, then just stand around and look decorative. At least you can do that. But you are coming. Got it?”

Katie nodded and Sam let go of her. Rubbing her arm, she went up to her room and picked out a cotton print dress just right for the occasion, gathered at the waist and cut low down the back. It looked particularly good if she tied her hair up. She decided to take a fringed woollen shawl, too; sometimes, even in July, the evenings got chilly. After Sam had approved of her appearance and suggested a bit more eye make-up, they left.

She could see Sam in his white suit talking and laughing with a couple of local businessmen. He had a glass of wine too, though she knew he hated the stuff. He only drank it because that was the thing to do at the Colliers’ parties.

Katie looked around for John Fletcher, but she couldn’t see him. John was always kind and, of all of them, she found him the easiest to talk to, or even to be silent with. She liked Stephen Collier, but felt more comfortable with John Fletcher. He was a sad and haunted man since his wife ran off—but at least she hadn’t gone because he mistreated her. Maureen Fletcher, Katie remembered, had been beautiful, vain, haughty and foolhardy. The small community of Swainshead couldn’t hold her. Katie thought John ought to be glad to be rid of her, but she never said anything to him. They never discussed anything personal, but he seemed, beyond the depths of his sadness, a good man.

Katie shivered. The sunset had faded, leaving the sky above Adam’s Fell a deep, dark violet colour. Even over the clinking glasses and the Motown music, which had started up again because some people wanted to dance, she could hear the eerie, mournful call of a curlew high on the fell. She began to make her way into Nicholas’s part of the house to pick up her shawl where Sam had left it, then decided she wanted to go to the bathroom, too. Pausing on the way, she admired the oak panelling and the old-fashioned style of his living-room, with its water-colours of Nelson and Wellington on the walls, and its rows of leather-bound books. She wondered if he ever read them. On a small teak table by the Adam fireplace stood a bronze bust. Looking closer, Katie saw the name “Oscar Wilde” scratched into the base. She’d heard the name before somewhere, but it didn’t mean very much to her. What a beautiful place for a monster like Nicholas Collier to live. It would be difficult to clean, though, she thought, taking in all the nooks and crannies with a professional eye.

Finally, she found the toilet, which was more modern than the rest of the house. There, she poured her drink down the bowl and hid for a while, idly glancing at one of the copies of
Yorkshire Life
so thoughtfully set out by the bathtub. Then she got worried that Sam might be looking for her.

On her way back down the hall, she met Nicholas coming up. He was walking unsteadily, and his bright eyes were glassy. A stubborn lock of hair near his crown stood straight up. He looked like a naughty public schoolboy.

“Ah, Katie my dear,” he said, reaching out and holding her shoulders. His voice was slurred and his cheeks were flushed with drink. “Come to me, for thy love is better than wine.”

Katie blushed and tried to wriggle free, but Nicholas only tightened his grip. He looked behind him.

“Nobody around,” he whispered. “Time for a little kiss, my rose of Sharon, my lily of the valley.”

Katie struggled, but he was too strong. He held her head still, brought his mouth closer to hers and seemed to suffocate her with a long, wet kiss. His breath tasted rank with wine, garlicky pâté and Stilton cheese. When he stopped, she gulped in the air. But he
didn’t let her go. One hand was on her bare back now and the other was feeling her breasts.

“Ah, thy breasts are like two young roes that are twins,” he said, breathing hard. “Come on, Katie. In here. In the bedroom.”

“No!” Katie shouted. “If you don’t let me go I’m going to scream.”

Nicholas laughed. “I like a girl with a bit of spirit. Come on, I’ll make you scream, sure enough. But not yet.” He put one hand over her mouth and started dragging her along the hallway. Suddenly, she heard a familiar voice behind them and Nicholas’s grip loosened. She shook herself free and turned to hear John Fletcher tell Nicholas to take his hands off her.

“You go to hell!” Nicholas said, clearly too far gone in temper to pull back. “Who are you to tell me what to do? You’re nothing but a jumped-up farm boy.”

And suddenly, John hit him. It was a quick, sharp blow to the mouth, and it stopped Nicholas in his tracks. He glared at John as the blood welled to his lips and a thin line trickled down his chin. Out in the garden, a glass smashed and somebody giggled loudly above Mary Wells’s “My Guy.” Nicholas bared his teeth at John, put his hand over his mouth and stalked off to the bathroom.

Fletcher rubbed his knuckles. “Are you all right, Katie?” he asked.

“Yes, yes, thank you.” Katie stared down at the patterned carpet as she spoke. “I—I’m sorry . . . I’m so embarrassed. It’s not the first time he’s tried to touch me, but he’s never been that rough before.”

“He’s drunk,” Fletcher said, then smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ve been wanting to do that for a long time.”

“But what will he do? He looked so angry.”

“He’ll cool off. Come on, let’s get back to the others.”

Katie picked up her shawl, and they walked back into thegarden, which was lit now by strategically placed antique lanterns. Katie excused herself, thanking John again, and sneaked around the side of the house into the street. She felt she needed to be out of there for a while, at least until her heart stopped beating so wildly and she could catch her breath again. Her flesh felt numb where Nicholas’s hands had touched her. She shuddered.

There was no-one on the street. Even the old men had gone from the bridge. The lights were on in the White Rose, though, and Katie heard the sound of laughter and talk from inside. She thought the young policeman would be in there, the one nobody knew about but her. He hadn’t been invited to the party, of course, so he wouldn’t get the chance to spy on them that night. She wondered why he was really in the village. He hadn’t asked any searching questions of anyone; he just seemed to be there, somehow, always in sight.

Sighing, Katie crept back into the garden. A slow song was playing and some of the couples held each other close. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her back and flinched.

“It’s only me. Dance?”

“B-but I . . . can’t. . . .”

“Nonsense,” Stephen Collier said. “It’s easy. Just follow what I do.”

Katie had no choice. She saw Sam looking on and smiling with approval from Stephen’s doorway. She felt like she had two left feet, and somehow her body just wouldn’t respond to the music at all. It felt like wood. Soon, she began to feel dizzy and everything went dark. At the centre of the darkness was a biting, sooty smell. She stumbled.

“Hey, I’m not as bad as all that.” Stephen supported her with one arm and led her to the fountain.

Katie regained her balance. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I told you I was no good.”

“If I didn’t know better,” Stephen said, “I’d say you’d had too much to drink.”

Katie smiled. “About one sip of white wine. It’s too much for me.”

“Katie?” Stephen suddenly seemed earnest.

“Yes?”

“I enjoyed our little chat in your kitchen that time. It’s good tohave someone . . . someone outside to talk to.”

“Outside what?”

“Oh, business, family . . .”

The occasion seemed so long ago that Katie could hardly remember. And Stephen had ignored her ever since. She certainly
hadn’t imagined it as an enjoyable occasion for either of them. But there was something so little-boyish about Stephen, especially now when he seemed so nervous and serious. The muscle in the corner of his left eye had developed a tic.

“Remember what we talked about?” he went on.

Katie didn’t, but she nodded.

He looked around and lowered his voice. “I think I’ve made my mind up. I think I’m going to leave Swainshead.”

“But why?”

Stephen noticed a couple of his senior executives heading intheir direction. “We can’t talk here, Katie. Not now. Can I see you on Friday?”

“Sam goes to—”

“Yes, I know Sam goes to Eastvale on Fridays. I don’t want to see Sam, I want to see you. We’ll go for a walk.”

“I—I don’t know.”

His tone was urgent and his eyes were pleading with her. The two men had almost reached them. “All right,” she said. “A walk. A little one.”

Stephen relaxed. Even the tic in his eye seemed to disappear. “Ah, Stephen, here you are,” one of the executives, a plump,florid man called Teaghe, said. “Trust you to corner the prettiest filly at the party, eh?” He cast a lecherous glance at Katie, who smiled politely and made an excuse to leave.

She poured herself another glass of wine for appearance’s sake and leaned by the side of the French windows, watching the lantern-lit dancers in relief against the huge black mass of Adam’s Fell. The garden was a tangled web of shadows, crossing and knotting like an enormous cat’s cradle. As the warm light caught their features at certain angles, some of the dancers looked positively Satanic.

So, although she had never thought of herself as a sympathetic listener—so bound up in her own shyness and discomfort was she—Stephen had asked her to be his confidante and she had agreed to go for a walk with him, to listen to his problems. It was more than Sam ever asked her to do. There were only two things he wanted from her: work and sex.

She trusted Stephen as far as she could trust any man. He hadn’t tried anything last time, when he could have, and he’d been distinctly cool towards her since. But why did he want to leave Swainshead? Why did he seem so on edge? Was he running away from something? Still, she thought, if he was going away, and he really liked her, then there was just a chance he might take her with him.

She suspected that it might be a sin to desert her husband, but she had thought so much about it, she decided it was worth the risk. Surely God would forgive her for leaving a man with such vile and lascivious appetites as Sam Greenock? She could make amends, do good works. She might have to give Stephen her body, too, she knew that. If not on Friday, then later, if he took her away with him. But that was one sin nobody could catch her out on. She had learned how to comply with all the things men wanted, but she got no pleasure from them herself. She thought it was just because of Sam, her only lover for years, but when Bernie had forced himself on her and she hadn’t had the energy or the power to fight him off, she knew that she could never enjoy the act with any man. Bernie had at least been kind and gentle when he got her where he wanted her, but it made no difference to the way she felt about what he was doing.

She looked at the lantern-lit guests again. Sam was dancing with an attractive brunette, probably from Collier Foods, and Nicholas was back in circulation, talking and laughing by the fountain with a group of commuters who lived in Swainsdale and made their money elsewhere. His lower lip was swollen as if he’d been stung by a bee. When he caught her glance, he glared at her with such lust and hatred that she shivered and pulled her shawl up more tightly around her shoulders.

II

In Toronto, Banks combined sightseeing with his search for Anne Ralston in the English-style pubs. The weather remained uncomfortably hot and humid, and a window-rattling thunderstorm one night only seemed to make things worse the next day.

Banks gave the CN Tower a miss, but he walked around the Eaton Centre, a huge shopping mall with a glass roof and a flock of sculptured Canada geese flying in to land at one end, and he visited Yonge and Dundas after dark to watch the hookers and street kids on the neon strip. He took a ferry to Ward’s Island and admired the Toronto skyline before walking along the boardwalk on the south side. Lake Ontario glittered in the sun, as vast as an ocean. He went to Harbourfront, where he sipped Carlsberg on a waterfront patio and watched the white sails of the yachts cut slow as knives through treacle in the haze.