the maltese angel (22 page)

It was Patsy who said,"

"Tis a stone. Look!" She pointed to Fanny's skirt where, lying near the hem, was what appeared to be a large pebble.

Ward examined it as it lay on his palm. It was pointed at one end, flat at the other. "Tis a catapult stone." It was a whisper from Billy.

"What? God!" Ward thrust the stone into the pocket of his breeches, then looked along the fence that bordered the wood. And Carl was doing the same as he cried, "They must be in the wood."

"Get your mistress back to the house. Patsy. Help her, girls!"

ordered Ward; then he was racing alongside the fence, with Carl running in the opposite direction, each looking for a place where he might get over the barrier of wired palings that fenced the boundary of the Hall, for in many parts the wire had become entwined between the many

saplings, so forming an almost impregnable tangle.

Ward had to go to the very end of the field before he found a place over which he could climb. Then he was running through trees,

zigzagging here and there and stopping now and again to listen for running footsteps.

The woodland opened out abruptly into a narrow field, crossing which was the path leading, in one direction, to the village and to the

Hollow in the other, and bordering it on the far side was Morgan's Wood. Presently, while he was standing still, two running figures

appeared on the path. One was swinging a can, the other had something dangling from his hand, something he could not make out from this

distance. But they were the culprits, he'd bet, Michael Holden's

grandsons. He'd had trouble with the young scamps before, jumping the walls and crossing right through the middle of his corn. By! when he got his hands on them. But he checked his thinking at this moment; surely, they couldn't have got that far in this short time; they would have had to cut through the Hall's private grounds. Well, they could have done that, and come out on to the path before it turned to the Hollow. Just wait till he got his hands on them.

He now turned as Carl's voice hailed him: "Seen anybody?"

He returned to the fence, shouting, "The two Holden youngsters."

As Carl put his hand out to help Ward over the fence, he said, "Oh, those two! They can use a catapult all right."

Billy now arrived on the scene, saying, "You said the Holden

youngsters? Where did you see them?"

"Running down the path near Morgan's Wood."

"That far? They'd have to be goin' some to have got from here to there in that short space of time, don't you think?"

"Those two rips have got wings on their heels. But by God! they'll need them if I get hold of them;

another half inch and that stone could have put her eye out. "

The thought seemed to act as a spur for he now started to run, with Carl at his side ..

Fanny was sitting in the kitchen holding a damp cloth to her temple and the girls and Patsy and Annie were standing around her. But she said immediately to Ward as he entered the kitchen, "Now, now, it's all right. Don't make a fuss. Only," she smiled now, "I'll likely have a black eye in the morning."

"You could have lost your eye."

After a pause, she said, "Well I didn't, and don't take it so seriously. It was someone's prank."

"Someone's prank, be damned! And look, don't sit there. I think you should get upstairs and rest."

"Oh, Ward."

"Never mind " Oh Ward". Come on." He pushed the others aside and drew her up, and as he led her from the room, Annie said, "Nice end to a picnic party, if you ask me." Then turning to Patsy, she went on,

"Does your lot down there use catapults?"

"No, our lot down there doesn't use catapults." And the word was emphasised as if it had been fired from the instrument itself.

"Don't you speak to me like that, miss."

At this. Patsy tossed her head and went from the kitchen with Annie's voice following her, saying, "It's coming to something. By! that it is." Then she, too, went from the kitchen and up the stairs and, after tapping on the bedroom door, she opened it, to be greeted by Fanny saying, "Will you stop this silly man from making such a fuss, Annie?"

"If you can't stop him, ma'am, how d'you expect me to."

"Shall we send for the doctor. Daddy?"

Ward turned to answer his daughter, but any derisive remark was checked by Fanny, saying, "No, my dear. I don't need a doctor. Look, you and Angela go downstairs and see if there is any way in which you can help Patsy and Carl. You could get the chickens in; being so hot, they

won't want to roost inside and who knows but Mr. Fox may be passing by."

Reluctantly, it would seem, the girls left the room, and as Annie

followed them Ward pulled a chair up to the bed and sat down, saying,

"First thing in the morning I'm going into that pub, not for ale, but to tell Mike Holden to take his hand to those two devils of his."

"But it may not have been them; surely, all boys use catapults."

"Not with pointed flints as ammunition."

"Well, tomorrow's Sunday, so leave it to the beginning of the week ..

Please."

The look he gave her and his silence told her he would comply.

But at seven on Monday morning, well before he would have made his way to The Crown Head, he was shouting down from the landing window into the yard, "Carl! Billy! Carl!" and when they appeared, from different buildings, in the stockyard and peered up at him through the early morning light it was Billy who shouted back, "What is it, master?"

"This ... my ... it's the mistress. I cannot waken her. When I left her at half past five I thought she was still asleep. You, Carl, ride in for Doctor Wheatley as fast as you can go. Now!"

Carl made no comment but immediately ran to the stables, and Patsy, who had appeared outside the dairy, ran with him and helped to saddle the horse. And it was significant to their understanding that neither of them spoke a word.

Doctor Wheatley's house lay at yon side of the village, and the

shortest way to it was through the village. Carl had galloped the

horse as far as the cemetery wall, and was just pulling her into a trot when from a side road there appeared a small gig, which he recognised immediately and he pulled up to the side of it, crying, "Oh! Doctor Patten.

"Tis well met. I'm on my way to

fetch Doctor Wheatley to the mistress; the master can't get her

wakened. "

Philip Patten leant from the seat, saying, "Can't get her wakened?

What d'you mean, Carl? "

"Well, she was hit by a catapult 'twas a sharp stone on Saturday when we were all eating in the meadow, and she's been in bed since.

And now 'tis as I said. "

Hit by a catapult stone and now can't wake up? The Gibsons were the old man's patients and he was very touchy about trespassing, as he termed it, unless one was invited for consultation, and then who dare express an opinion that went against his. But what young Carl was

describing was very like a coma, and by the time his superior could manage to get to the farm after the load he had on him last night, it might be too late to do anything that would be of help. After four hours at The Grange, he wanted nothing but his bed at this moment, having endeavoured to bring Drayton's grandson into the world, which he had done, although without thanks, for the poor mite was a mongol.

"Ride on. I'll follow."

As soon as Philip Patten looked down on Fanny he gnawed at his bottom lip before he asked Ward, "Has she been moved at all?"

"No."

He now gently pulled back the bedclothes and began to examine her while Ward stood at the other side of the bed, staring at him as if to

extract from his expression the reason why his beloved Fanny was in this state. He watched the doctor go to his bag, open it, then close it again before turning to him, saying, "Go and tell Carl to ride for Doctor Wheadey and request him to bring some leeches with him and make it as quick as possible."

"What is it? What's wrong with her?"

"I don't really know yet. Ward," Philip Patten lied.

"I would like another opinion. Go now and get him away."

Ward didn't respond straightaway to the command, but remained for some seconds looking down on Fanny, his lower jaw moving as if he was

grinding his teeth.

A few minutes later Annie entered the room and was surprised to hear the young doctor talking away to the mistress, which she thought was silly, because if the poor thing could hear him she would have made some sign, wouldn't she? Tommy Taylor went like that, but he tapped a finger.

It was only half an hour later when Doctor Wheatley entered the room, which indicated he had indeed answered the call promptly; not so much, perhaps, because of the patient's need, but because the young snipe was not only on his preserve but had sent him an order, a veiled order maybe, but nevertheless an order, to bring leeches, which suggested he had already diagnosed the trouble. So it wasn't unusual that he should ignore the young know-all and go straight to the inert figure in the bed.

"Well! Well! What have we here, Mrs. Gibson, eh?" He took the limp hand and wagged it; then let it go so that it dropped back on to the coverlet, and he turned to Ward and said, "How did this come about?"

"She was hit on the temple by a stone from a catapult on Saturday."

"Saturday! It's now Monday. Why didn't you inform me before?"

"She seemed all right until this morning."

The old man now pursed his lips, looked down on Fanny, then again

lifted his head sharply towards Ward, and as if he had made a decision he said, "Go down and get them to bring up a bowl of very hot water and towels." Then he took off his coat as if he meant business.

As soon as Ward had left the room, however, the urgency went out of his actions, and now addressing his partner, he said simply, "Coma?

What do you think? " and Philip Patten replied, " Yes; through a clot on the brain, I would say. "

"Would you?"

They stared at each other; then Doctor Wheatley said, "She should go to hospital."

"I doubt if she would make it."

"Would you now? Well, perhaps for once you're right and so we will try your other notion with the leeches, for what it may be worth in this case. And you know something. Patten? She is one problem, but

there's a bigger one looming up in him, should she go."

"Yes, I'm aware of that."

The old man again stared at his younger associate;

that's what he couldn't stand about the fellow, that bloody cocksure manner of his.

They had bled her. They had wrapped her in hot, then cold towels, but to no avail; and so the day wore on and it came to six-thirty on the Tuesday morning. Annie was dozing in a chair at one side of the bed while Ward sat close to it at the other side. He was resting on his elbow, his back half bent as he held the limp hand. When his head

nodded he gave a slight start and blinked rapidly. Then, his eyes

wide, he stared down at the face on the pillow. It had changed. There was no colour in it; it had changed into that of a wax doll. He was now on his feet, muttering, "Annie. Annie; come here."

When Annie reached his side she muttered, "Oh my God! No!" and he echoed her last word, but as a yell:

"No! No! Fanny! Fanny!"

When the door was thrust open and Jessie's frightened face appeared, Annie cried at her, "Tell Carl to ride for Doctor Patten. He's nearest." Then she almost fell on her back as Ward thrust her aside and, throwing back the bedclothes, lifted Fanny bodily into his arms and rocked her as he would have a child, the while moaning, "Love.

Love. No, you can't! You can't leave me. No! Fanny, don't go. No!

No!

I can't go on. Wake up! Wake up! "

He was still walking the floor bearing her limp body in his arms when Philip Patten hurried into the room and exclaimed, "Oh, dear God!"

Then putting out his hands, he checked Ward's flagging steps and said softly, "Come; lay her down ... Come. "

As if in a daze. Ward allowed himself to be led towards the bed and to let his beloved slip from his arms, but remained looking down on her, and Annie whimpered, "All through a catapult."

"Catapult," Ward took up the word; then he repeated the word:

"Catapult! That's it! That's what killed her! They killed her!" And with his arm thrust out towards the doctor, the fingers stretched

accusingly, he cried, "Bear witness, you! she's dead! They killed her, and, by God! I'll finish them."

The sudden movement of his body as he sprang towards the door startled them all and motivated Philip to run on to the landing crying out to him, "Wait! Hold your hand a moment. Wait!" and then to step quickly back into the room and to address Annie: "Who does he mean, they? Who was he referring to?"

As Annie shook her head it was Patsy who answered him: "He thinks it was the young Holden lads."

"The Holdens? Dear God!" And on this he dashed from the room; and on reaching the yard, he shouted to where Billy and Carl were standing on the road outside the gate, "Go after him! He's making for the Holdens and their lads, and the state he's in anything could happen. I'll

follow on." Then he rushed back into the house and up to the bedroom again ..

Ward entered the village from the church end, and as he ran alongside the cemetery wall and so into the street, William Smythe, the verger, paused while putting a large key into the vestry door, which he then left in the lock and hurried down the gravel path and into the street to watch Ward Gibson in his shirt sleeves racing along it. And he

wasn't the only one to be surprised by the sight: Fred was loading the van with the early baking and he could not at first believe his eyes.

Instead of running after

Ward, however, he rushed into the house, shouting his news.

Jimmy Conway was heaving a carcass from the back of the cart. He, too, stopped in amazement; then he shouted across to Hannah Beaton, who was humping a sack load of potatoes up the two steps into the shop: "Did you see what I've seen? Or am I seeing things? Where's he bound