Twisted Strands (7 page)

And from the back seat, under a rug, came an echoing squeal of fright.

As the engine noise petered out, Richard and Eveleen stared at each other and then slowly they turned together to look at the figure now sitting bolt upright on the back seat,
startled and dishevelled but otherwise, like them, mercifully unhurt.

Their faces were a picture of surprise as they both said together. ‘Bridie!’ whilst the girl stared back belligerently.

‘What on earth are you doing?’ Eveleen asked.

‘Running away,’ the girl said promptly. ‘To Nottingham.’

‘You mean you want to come and live with us?’ Richard asked.

The girl’s chin rose defiantly. ‘No, ’cos I don’t suppose you want me either.’

Richard and Eveleen exchanged a swift glance then Eveleen asked, ‘Whatever do you mean?’

Bridie bit hard on her lower lip, but not before the two adults had seen its sudden tremble. Richard reached over the back of the seat and touched her hand. ‘What is it, love? You can tell
us.’

Now tears filled the girl’s eyes as she blurted out, ‘I’m just some girl’s bastard that nobody wants. Even Mr Stephen called me that, didn’t he?’

‘He
what
?’ Eveleen cried and Richard’s mouth tightened angrily.

‘Yes, he did. Forgive me, Bridie, but in the heat of the moment I didn’t really think about what he was saying. I wish now I
had
punched him on the nose.’

Even amidst her tears Bridie gave a hiccuping laugh. ‘I wish you had too, Uncle Richard.’ Then she sighed and said, ‘But he’s not the only one. It’s what they
called me at school.’

Eveleen gasped. ‘Oh, how cruel!’

‘Well, no-one’s going to call you it ever again, if I can help it,’ Richard said firmly. ‘But now I want you to tell us exactly why you want to run away from your gran
and Josh.’

Bridie plucked at the edge of the rug and avoided the concerned look on both their faces. ‘It – it’s not, Josh, so much as – as . . .’ she mumbled, hesitant to
speak ill of Mary to her daughter, but Eveleen was quick to understand and to end the sentence for the girl by saying wryly, ‘My mother.’

Richard probed further, but gently. ‘Is it something that’s just happened?’

‘Well – sort of.’

They waited, oblivious now of the time or even of their predicament, whilst the motor car’s wheels settled even deeper into the ditch.

‘She was telling me off. Nothing much, just that I hadn’t fed the hens and that I was always running off to play with Micky and not doing my work.’ She looked up at Eveleen.
‘You know.’

Eveleen nodded and said softly, ‘Yes, I know.’

‘And then I said I’d run away and she said where to and I said I’d go to you.’ Again there was silence, until Bridie blurted out, ‘And she said you were too busy to
be looking after a troublesome child like me.’

‘Oh, darling.’ Eveleen laughed, trying to make the sensitive girl understand. ‘That’s just your gran’s way. She’s always been a bit – well –
sharp.’

Richard was watching Bridie’s face and said softly, ‘There’s more than that, isn’t there, love?’

Bridie blinked but then nodded. ‘It – it was about Andrew. You see, I thought if you and Uncle Richard didn’t want me, then Andrew would. I was sure Andrew loved me . .
.’ Her voice, thick with disappointment, faded away.

‘He does love you, Bridie. We all know that.
You
know that.’

‘Yes.’ The girl was leaning towards them now, almost shouting at them in her anguish. ‘But
why
does he love me?’

The two adults stared at her, completely mystified. Then Richard gave an awkward laugh. ‘You’re getting a bit deep for me now, Bridie. You might well ask why anyone loves
another.’

The girl shook her head vehemently. ‘No, no. You don’t understand.
He only loves me because I’m the daughter of the love of his life.
He doesn’t love me for
me
.’ She jabbed her forefinger into her chest with such ferocity that it hurt.

‘Who on earth told you a thing like that?’ Eveleen said, angry and disgusted at the person who could have been so unfeeling.

Bridie hung her head and plucked at the edge of the rug again, shredding the fabric between her restless fingers. ‘Gran,’ she muttered.

Eveleen groaned and closed her eyes for a moment. ‘I might have known,’ she murmured.

‘Look,’ Richard said, thinking quickly and leaning over the back seat to take Bridie’s cold hand in his, ‘we can’t sort all this out sitting here and we’ve
got to get help from someone to pull this contraption out of the ditch or we’re never going to get home tonight. But I want you to promise me something, Bridie.’

The girl looked up at him trustingly. ‘What?’

‘If you will go back home now and be a good girl, Eveleen and I will say nothing about this to anyone.’ As Bridie opened her mouth to protest, Richard went on firmly, ‘And
we’ll let a week or two elapse and then we’ll ask your gran to let you come and have a holiday with us in Nottingham. We’ll have time to talk about this and to reassure
you,’ he squeezed her hand comfortingly, ‘that we all love you because you’re
you
and not because of whose daughter you are.’

Bridie smiled tremulously, but was still not convinced.

‘And now,’ Eveleen said brightly, ‘because your auntie Eveleen has been so very naughty, we really must get help. It’ll be getting dark soon.’

Richard laughed aloud and said, ‘No-one’s hurt, that’s all that matters. Including our stowaway. Now,’ he went on, ‘who do you know with a big, strong
carthorse?’

Bridie stood up and began to scramble out of the motor. ‘Micky’s dad. I’ll run and fetch him.’ And before either of them could stop her, she was running up the lane.
‘Wait there,’ she called back. ‘I’ll fetch Mr Ted.’

‘As if we’re going anywhere,’ Richard remarked ruefully, as he climbed out and stood in the lane looking at his beautiful new motor car, tilted forlornly in the ditch.
‘Really I ought to put you across my knee.’ He arched his black eyebrows wickedly at his wife. ‘If I didn’t think you might enjoy it.’

‘Really, Richard,’ Eveleen admonished, but she was smiling playfully. ‘Fancy saying such a thing.’ She stood up and held out her arms to him. ‘Darling, I am
sorry.’

‘You’re forgiven,’ he said, lifting her out and setting her down on the road. Then he slid down the grass slope and tried to examine the motor.

‘Do you think it’s damaged?’ Eveleen asked anxiously.

‘As far as I can see, no.’ Richard climbed back up towards her. ‘Luckily the ditch is only very shallow and so the workings beneath the car haven’t touched the bank.
It’s still actually resting on its wheels as far as I can make out. So, hopefully, not a lot of harm done.’

Eveleen gave a sigh of relief. ‘Thank goodness.’

At that moment they heard the sound of clopping hooves coming down the lane and turned to see Bridie running ahead of a man leading a huge shire horse towards them. Walking beside him was a
young boy about Bridie’s age.

‘It’s Ted.’ Eveleen clapped her hands. ‘And that must be his son, Micky. Oh, it’s ages since I last saw them.’

Richard smiled at his wife indulgently and, as she hurried towards them, her hands outstretched, he murmured wryly, ‘Ah well, it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good.’

The motor had been pulled easily back onto the road and Richard, after a better inspection, declared that he thought no serious damage had been done. ‘Mind you, if a
wheel falls off between here and Nottingham, I’ll know who to blame.’

He held out his hand to Ted Morton. ‘Thank you so much for your help.’

‘Glad to be of service, Mr Richard,’ Ted said. Then he glanced at Eveleen and winked. ‘But you don’t have to cause an accident to get to see me, Evie. Come and visit me
and Alice soon, won’t you? And me mam and dad are always asking after you.’

Ted and Eveleen had grown up together and their fathers, living and working on the same farm estate, had been good friends. As a youth, Ted had flirted with her, but Eveleen had always managed
to answer his saucy comments with good-humoured banter.

She laughed now. ‘I see you haven’t changed, Ted Morton. But we will come and see you all. I promise.’

As they lay together in bed that night, their arms about each other, Eveleen said, ‘I don’t know whatever possessed my mother to say such a thing to poor Bridie.
Mind you,’ she added bitterly, ‘I ought to know.’

‘I can hardly believe she would say such a thing.’

‘Oh, she would. Believe me.’

‘I’ve never seen that side of your mother.’

‘You wouldn’t. You’re a man.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘My mother dotes on men of all ages. She’s no time for girls.’ Eveleen’s sigh came from deep inside. ‘If we had been lucky enough to have a son, she would have been
besotted with him. But a girl? No.’

Richard’s arms tightened about her. ‘Don’t say that in the past tense, my darling. There’s plenty of time.’

‘Is there? I’m the wrong side of thirty now.’

In the darkness, he kissed her forehead. ‘Remind me to order you that bath chair.’

Eveleen dug him in the ribs.

‘Ouch!’

‘Serves you right.’ She paused and then added seriously, ‘But I did take to heart what you said the other day. I’ve made plans to cut down my workload a little. I’m
giving Helen more responsibility.’

‘I’m glad. It might help her too.’

They were silent, each thinking about Eveleen’s friend. Shortly after their own marriage, Helen had begun walking out with a young man who worked in the factory. She had been ecstatically
happy and they had been planning to be married, when the young man had been taken ill. Consumption had been diagnosed and the last sight Helen had had of him had been waving to him through the
window of the hospital, where no visitors were allowed.

He had died during the week they had planned to be married.

‘She went through a dreadful time,’ Eveleen murmured, ‘but just lately she’s begun to look a little happier. I think she might have met someone else. She’s not
saying much, not even to me, but I can’t blame her for that. She must feel rather afraid to love again.’

‘Like someone else I know, though for a very different reason.’

Now Richard was kissing her mouth and all talk was stopped, except his murmured words of love.

‘Mam, we’ve been thinking. We’d like Bridie to come and stay with us for a holiday.’

They were visiting one Sunday and Eveleen broached the subject as she helped her mother to wash up after dinner.

Mary crashed a plate down on the draining board and glanced over her shoulder. ‘So that’s what the little madam’s been up to, is it?’

Eveleen kept her expression as innocent looking as she could manage. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’

‘Oh, I think you do. She’s been telling you how badly I treat her, no doubt making it far worse than it is. She needs a firm hand, Eveleen. She’s a wild, disobedient little
tyke and Josh won’t discipline her, so I have to.’

Mary dried her hands on a towel and turned to face Eveleen. ‘He treats her very much like your father, my poor Walter, used to treat you. You girls wrap these men round your little fingers
and they can’t see any wrong in you. Look at all that business with Stephen Dunsmore. If you had only listened to me, you’d have saved yourself and all of us a lot of heartache. And
maybe,’ she wagged her forefinger in Eveleen’s face, ‘just maybe your father would still be alive to this day.’

Eveleen had fought hard through the years to come to terms with her mother’s accusation, but even now the words were like a knife in her heart.

‘It was all your fault we were turned out of our home and had to go to Flawford and look where that led. Rebecca setting her cap at Jimmy and getting herself pregnant just to trap him. I
don’t blame him for running away to sea. I would have done the same if I’d been in his shoes, but it doesn’t stop me missing him every day of my life. And I’ve you to thank
for that.’

‘Mam,’ Eveleen said, trying hard to hold onto her patience, ‘do you have to rake up the past and throw it at me every time we come home?’

‘Only because, if Bridie comes to live with you, she’ll copy some of your bad ways. She’s better staying here with me where I can keep her in line.’

‘I didn’t say anything about her coming to live with us. I just said for a holiday.’

‘Oh aye. But once she’s there, she’ll wheedle her way round you. And Richard, because he’s every bit as soft with her as Josh is. She’s desperate to get away from
me. She even suggested going to Andrew’s. I soon put a stop to that.’

Yes, I know you did, Eveleen thought resentfully, and in a very cruel way. But she held her tongue. Old as she was now, answering her mother back would still serve no purpose. She finished
drying the dishes and pulled down the sleeves of her blouse. She wished that she had left it to Richard to speak to her mother. She was sure that he would have won Mary over.

By the time Josh, Richard and Bridie returned from their walk around the farm, Eveleen and her mother were barely speaking to each other. The two women were sitting in silence on either side of
the fire in Mary’s best parlour, a room only used on Sundays and special occasions. Richard came to the hearth and stood between them, rubbing his hands and holding them out towards the
blaze, for the May day was unusually cold, a blustery wind blowing and rain threatening.

‘All settled, then?’ he asked, glancing from one to the other.

Eveleen shook her head. ‘My mother doesn’t trust me to look after her.’

Mary turned to Bridie standing near the table. ‘Go upstairs, child. This is not for your ears.’

‘But, Gran—’ the girl began.

‘Do as I say,’ Mary snapped. The girl glowered and clamped her jaws together to silence any protest. She turned and wrenched open the door leading into the small hallway. No-one in
the room spoke as they listened to her stamping her way up the stairs and slamming the door of her bedroom.

Josh ran his hand across his forehead and Eveleen and Richard exchanged a glance.

Frowning slightly, Richard pulled out a chair from beneath the table and placed it carefully next to Mary.