The Village Newcomers (16 page)
Alex categorically refused to explain. ‘We had a push and a shove, that’s all.’
‘The head would not write a letter about such a minor incident.’
Alex sighed with impatience. ‘We had a tiff and before we knew it we were fighting. He came off worse, but then I am much bigger than him so it’s hardly surprising. Can I go now?’
‘No. You’re not seven, you’re almost seventeen and know the difference between truth and lies, and I’m still waiting.’
Alex slumped down into the sofa even further and remained silent, not daring to look at his dad because he knew that piercing look of his would demolish his own determination.
‘I’m very disappointed in you, Alex. I now have no case to offer to the head when I go on Friday. No defence of any kind. You leave me powerless. Off you go.’
Alex got to the door, put his hand on the knob and then turned back. ‘If I tell you the absolute truth it is just between you and me. If you can’t promise that then I won’t tell you. Mum and Beth must not know. They’d be devastated.’
‘I don’t understand why, but very well.’
‘Beth and I have always known you and Mum tell each other everything, but this time that rule has to be ignored, Dad. You’ve ignored that rule once before in your life, you know . . . when we were conceived and now . . . and now you’ve to do it again.’
Peter, totally humbled by Alex’s forthright statement, knew he had no alternative but to agree, and braced himself for what was to come.
Alex folded his arms to hide the fact that his hands were trembling. ‘I was in the showers after rugby, drying off, when I overheard a conversation going on and I recognised Jake Harding’s voice. It was the sniggering kind of conversation boys have and I realised he was saying that he’d “had” Beth while they were in the woods. That she was a virgin and he’d well, you know . . . then he started talking dirty about her and I just saw red. So I beat him up there and then without saying a word. Dressed and left for lunch. There was quite a lot of blood about, and I’m not telling you what Jake was saying about her.’ He got up from the sofa and made to leave.
‘Just a minute. You’re not saying that was the real reason for all her panic?’
Alex shook his head. ‘No, I’m not. I asked her after she’d calmed down and I absolutely know she was telling me the truth. She said she panicked when he began kissing her because she remembered Africa and that soldier, and she just fled. He won’t be saying it again about her if I’m around, because I shall beat him twice as hard.’
‘Whilst I admire your defence of her, please remember, Alex, that beating someone up is perhaps not the answer.’
‘I’m not daft, Dad. I do know the rules, but it gave me an awful lot of satisfaction.’ He grinned that charming grin of his, and Peter had to smile. Then he remembered his meeting with the headmaster on Friday and wondered what on earth he would say in explanation of Alex’s uncharacteristic behaviour. So much for Beth striking out into adult life. Damn his decision to take them all with him to Africa.
Chapter 8
The usual customers were sitting on their favourite settle in the bar of the Royal Oak when the main door opened and in came Ford with, very surprisingly, Muriel clinging to his arm. They were all so surprised that silence fell in the bar. Ford took her to the counter where Georgie was waiting to serve.
‘An orange juice for this lady. She’s thirsty, she says, so make it a nice big one, and a home-brew for me. Just a half, please.’
He took their drinks to the table where Jimmy and the others were sitting.
They all said, ‘Good evening, Muriel,’ but Muriel didn’t reply as she was greedily drinking her orange as though she hadn’t had a drink for years.
With half the glass of orange already consumed, Muriel looked up and spotted Don. ‘That was nice. Hello, Don. How are you? That fall you had from the roof, you seem to have got over it.’
Rather surprised she remembered him, Don said, ‘Yes, I have, thank you, Muriel. It’s all the good care I had at the time. And how are you?’
‘Oh! I’m very well.’ She leaned across to speak confidentially to him. ‘Who’s that man I’m with?’
‘That’s Ford. He’s just come to live in the village at Glebe House.’
‘Oh! He’s married to Liz?’
‘No, Liz doesn’t live there any more.’
‘Oh! Doesn’t she? I thought I hadn’t seen her for a while. I’m going on holiday, you know.’
‘Oh! Right,’ said Vera. ‘Where to?’
‘I can’t remember, but I am. Sun, that’s what I want, some sun.’ Then she drifted away in her head and was no longer with them.
Ford said softly, ‘I found her wandering down Jacks Lane, not knowing where to go next. I’d no idea where she lived and she didn’t seem to know, so I thought I’d bring her in here with me.’
‘We’d better take her back. Ralph will be going berserk.’ Dottie stood up. ‘Come on, Muriel, we’ll go and find Ralph.’
Ford swung Muriel’s chair away from the table so she could get out more easily, and he realised then how little she weighed. Poor old thing. Such a lovely, distinguished face, almost aristocratic. It was such a shame.
Dottie took her arm and led her towards the door.
‘Where are we going?’
‘We’re going back home, to your house. Ralph will be wondering where you are.’
‘Ralph? I don’t belong to Ralph.’
‘Yes, you do, Muriel. Come along.’
The passive way in which Muriel agreed to go with her, holding her hand with childlike confidence, broke Dottie’s kind heart. She remembered what a wonderful lady Muriel had always been, how thoughtful and generous in her behaviour, and how thrilled they’d all been when Ralph came back to the village and he and Muriel had married.
When they got to the door it was standing wide open. Dottie helped Muriel in over the step and took her into what she thought must be the sitting room, but it was obviously Ralph’s study, because he was sitting at a desk, his head resting on his forearms, apparently fast asleep. So she turned Muriel around, found the sitting room, and seated her in front of the stove, which was sending out heat as though it were the depths of winter. ‘You sit there and I’ll make a cup of tea,’ she said. ‘Here, I’ll put the TV on; you watch that till I come back with the tray.’
First of all Dottie went to the front door and locked it firmly with bolts and keys so she couldn’t escape again. Ralph was still asleep so she decided to leave him. The poor old chap, he’s completely exhausted with looking after her, she thought.
They sat comfortably enough in front of the TV drinking tea. Suddenly Muriel said, ‘Thank you, Dottie. I don’t understand where Ralph is; he must have gone to the Store. My mother loved drinking tea sitting staring into the fire. She was very unkind to me, you know. Thought I shouldn’t have a life of my own. She kept me at home to look after her when she was old, and she wouldn’t let me go out with the others when I was young. Always said no, did my mother. To everything. Ralph dear,’ she shouted, ‘where are you? Has he gone shopping?’
‘I expect he has. He won’t be long.’
So they sat in silence a while longer watching TV. Dottie knew now that things were seriously wrong and that poor old Ralph had been keeping it all under wraps. Everyone in the village was aware of Muriel’s illness, but she didn’t think anyone had really seen just how bad it was.
Well, Muriel needed taking to bed. It was already half past ten and there was still no sign of Ralph waking up. What on earth should she do? What Muriel needed was a strong sleeping tablet to knock her out. No harm in that. At least Ralph would get some sleep. He couldn’t look after her twenty-four/seven without sleep, now could he?
Dr Harris! She’d ring Dr Harris. She’d know what to do. She was only next door.
So Caroline, staying up to finish reading a book she couldn’t put down, went instead to help with Muriel. She and Dottie tried to persuade her to take a sleeping tablet, but she refused point-blank, and finally they had to abandon the whole idea and get Muriel into bed without one.
Within a few minutes of lying down Muriel drifted off to sleep, and the two of them went to see Ralph.
He woke when Caroline tapped him on the shoulder. ‘Steady, Ralph, careful,’ she said. ‘Don’t get up straight away. Just listen to what I have to say. We’ve put Muriel to bed for you. She seems to be very settled and is asleep already. So there’s no need to worry. Would you like Dottie to make you a drink before you go to bed?’
Ralph was acutely embarrassed by the situation. He simply didn’t know what to say. ‘I’ve been asleep a long time, have I? Muriel! Did she get out? Has she been missing? Is she all right? I’d no idea . . .’ He stood up, dazed and alarmed.
‘Look, Ralph. Muriel managed to open the front door and go out. Dottie brought her home and then after a while she rang me because she was worried. And so am I. I’m very worried. Now go to bed and in the morning I shall come round and we’ll have a talk . . . about things.’
‘Hot chocolate, Sir Ralph? And perhaps a biscuit or two?’
Ralph nodded.
‘Go and sit by the fire in the sitting room and I’ll bring it in.’
So they sat with him while he talked a little, but always along the lines that there was nothing the matter with Muriel except she did get a little forgetful occasionally. Caroline didn’t press him. It was better left until morning.
Outside the house, after they’d waited to hear Ralph locking the door with every available security lock, they stood talking quietly.
‘I’ll give you a lift home, Dottie. It’s a long way to walk at this time of night.’
‘No, please don’t. It’ll do me good to have time to think for a bit. It’s blooming well upset me, this has. He just won’t accept she’s . . . kind of gone off the boil, will he?’
‘Once he does accept it that will be the end as far as he is concerned, so he won’t, but he obviously can’t go on like this. Thank you, Dottie, for looking after her. If she was able to think straight she’d thank you, too. Goodnight, then. Are you sure I can’t give you a lift?’
‘Absolutely. God, I hope I never get like that.’
‘She doesn’t know she is unwell - well, perhaps only occasionally - so that’s a blessing. Goodnight, Dottie, and thanks again for what you’ve done.’
By midnight the village was completely quiet. Not a light shone and nothing moved, neither car nor cat, except for an owl that swooped over the rooftops, briefly alighting on a thatched roof then diving away towards the fields again. Every other bird was asleep in its own secret spot. Even the badgers in Sykes Wood had given up their foraging for the moment. No smoke twirled from the chimney pots and there was no sound of a human voice, no squeak of a mouse nor scamper of a rat, not even a fox silently gliding by on the lookout for a foolish, unwary chicken. Quite simply, there was only the sound of silence, just as it should be in the autumn, in a village in the middle of the night when there was a hint of frost in the air.
But at about three in the morning, in the cottage with the heavily bolted doors, flames began leaping and crackling.
Chapter 9
It was Beth, sleeping on the first floor at the back of the Rectory, who was awakened first by the smell of smoke and the strange sounds of the crackling flames. She leapt out of bed the moment she recognised what had caused her to wake, and dashed to the window. All she could see was the weird, unaccustomed flashing lights in next door but one’s back garden, but she knew instantly what it was and screamed, ‘Dad! Fire! Fire! Get up. Now! It’s Ralph’s!’
Both Peter and Caroline jumped out of bed, forcing themselves to respond. They both rushed to the landing window and saw the colour of the flames lighting Ralph’s back garden. ‘Oh, God! Caroline, get Alex up! I’ll ring the fire brigade! Quick! Quick, Beth! Out, right away! Through the front door.’
Guessing how long it would take the fire engine to reach the village Peter knew that they all had to act immediately. He dispatched Alex to get the church key from under the seat in the porch and get into the church to ring the single bell. ‘For at least five minutes, Alex,’ he said urgently.
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