A Village Feud Read online

  ‘Dottie, I loved that. I could eat it all over again.’

  Dottie’s face fell. ‘I’m sorry I’ve—’

  ‘I didn’t mean it really, I couldn’t possibly find the room.’ She leaned back in her chair, which was small and squat rather like a Victorian nursing chair, beautifully shaped to one’s bottom which made it comfortable even without a single cushion to protect one from the hard wood.

  She saw the ceiling had a large damp patch on it, that the window wasn’t quite square and realized that the floor was sloping down away from the fireplace. Was the house sinking?

  Dottie saw exactly what it was Beth had noticed. She cleared her throat and said, ‘I pay the rent reg’lar but the landlord won’t do a thing. It’s hard to keep it nice when it’s like this. The bedroom ceiling’s even worse, the rain’s coming through the thatch. I shouldn’t have asked you back. I’m sorry, it was a mistake. Don’t come again.’

  ‘I haven’t come to see your house, I’ve come because you’re one of the few people I feel safe with, and I know you won’t tell anyone what I’ve told you.’

  ‘I promised I wouldn’t. Dottie Foskett might not be up to much but I do keep my word.’

  Beth stood up. ‘Thank you for lunch. Can I come again sometime? It feels so safe here.’ Unexpectedly she leaned over Dottie and kissed her cheek. ‘I must go. There’s no need to see me all the way home. I can manage. I’m feeling full of confidence today.’

  ‘Are you sure? I’ll gladly come.’

  ‘No, I’ll go by myself. I’ll have to run if I get afraid.’ She gave Dottie a smile and a wave. ‘Oh! I forgot, I should help to clear the lunch dishes.’

  Dottie got to her feet. ‘Not in my house you won’t. Off you go. See you next week.’

  Beth picked up the basket her mother had lent them, got outside the door and wondered if she really could walk all that way home up Shepherds Hill, up Jacks Lane past the school and then Church Lane and home. But the warm, comfy feeling having lunch in Dottie’s cottage had given her was still there so she thought she’d be OK.

  It was a beautiful winter afternoon, with a glorious blue sky and a splendid sun to take the chill from the wind. She stepped out bravely, one foot in front of the other, methodically, steadily, concentrating. She’d got about a quarter of the way up Shepherds Hill when a car drew up. The man inside offered her a lift. ‘I’m going your way. You must be the girl from the Rectory, I’ve seen you in your garden.’

  ‘No, thank you, I’m enjoying the walk.’

  ‘I’m Andy Moorhouse, you know. My wife’s Jenny.’

  ‘I don’t know you and I don’t want a lift.’ Beth left him and strode along the footpath. But he didn’t leave her, and slowly followed with his nearside window open, still persuading her to get in his car. ‘I’ll be delighted to give you a lift to the Rectory. After all, I live next door.’

  ‘I said no thank you. Please stop following me.’

  But he did just the same; it seemed as if nothing would put him off.

  ‘I’d enjoy your company. Now Jenny’s gone to Australia company is something I’m short of, and people like you are the sort of people this village doesn’t have; you know, someone with opinions, with something to say for themselves. Come on, jump in, we could enjoy a chat.’

  ‘I’ve said it twice now, I do not want a lift in your car.’ This time she shouted it good and loud and set off running fast, her heart beating madly, her breath jerking in her throat, and her legs like jelly. She could see the brow of the hill so she knew she wasn’t far from the school but it never appeared to get any closer. Then she heard the children playing out in the school yard. His car was still following her but he’d stopped shouting at her now. She raced past the school round the corner into Church Lane and fell against the Rectory door breathless. Her key wouldn’t fit in the lock because her hands were trembling so and suddenly he was standing behind her, reaching over her shoulder to help her put the key in the door.

  ‘Get away from me! Get away!’ Beth half turned, beating him with her fists. Andy was excited by her spirited response. ‘Hey! Hey! Only helping with the key. Calm down.’ His hand took the key from her grasp and fitted it in the lock. As the door opened Caroline was the other side of it preparing to open it for Beth, and the three of them met face to face. ‘Beth!’

  Andy got his side of the story in before Beth, breathless, could speak.

  He smiled at Caroline. ‘She couldn’t get the key in the door, so I came to help. I’m sorry if I’ve upset her, didn’t mean any harm.’

  Beth rushed past Caroline and fled into the kitchen, slamming the door.

  ‘Thank you for your help,’ Caroline said. ‘Heard from Jenny this week?’

  ‘Oh! Yes. An e-mail. She’s having a wonderful time. Her brother’s taking her on a trip to the Outback next week so she’s really looking forward to that.’ He made his face resemble an exceptionally weary Bassett Hound and continued, ‘We shan’t be seeing her again, though. She’s divorcing me, you know, staying out there. Made her mind up. Lovely girl, it’s making me very upset. I don’t believe in divorce, you see – I expect you’re the same, being who you are – and I can’t understand what grounds she’s going to base it on. None of it’s my fault.’ Out came his handkerchief and he mopped his eyes. ‘Still, I’ll have to grin and bear it.’

  Caroline’s instincts told her she should offer counselling to this man and she was on the verge of inviting him in when she recollected the terror in Beth’s eyes as she brushed past her and immediately changed her mind.

  ‘Yes, I’m afraid you will. Life can be inexplicably hard sometimes. Thank you for helping Beth. With the key. You know. Good afternoon.’

  She closed the door and stood with her back to it thinking. That man had terrified Beth. What’s more, that business of the divorce didn’t ring true. He was a creep. A fawning, lying creep. Beth! ‘Coming, darling.’

  Beth was gripping the edge of the sink, shaking from head to foot.

  ‘Darling! Tell me, please. Tell me what the matter is.’

  Beth shook her head. She was biting her bottom lip and refusing to look at Caroline.

  ‘Beth! How can I help if you don’t tell me? Tell me right now.’ Caroline was shouting, she didn’t mean to shout but her anger and frustration couldn’t be contained any longer. ‘What did he do?’

  ‘I was walking home … by myself … I felt really good after being at Dottie’s and I knew I could do it. All the way by myself. Then he pulled up in the car and offered me a lift and I couldn’t bear it. He said he knew me.’

  ‘Did you get in the car?’

  ‘No!’ She dug in her pocket for a handkerchief and scrubbed at her eyes. ‘No, I kept saying no and he kept pestering me. Then I started to run home. I had to get safe. Then I was breathing so fast I couldn’t get the key in the door and suddenly he was leaning across me to get the key. He is not a nice man.’

  ‘Darling! He should have taken your word that you didn’t need a lift, but for heaven’s sakes, Beth, nothing happened, did it?’

  Beth stared out of the window still frightened and on the verge of telling her mother about … but her mind shut down and that fear flooded through her and she couldn’t answer. ‘I shall kill him if he comes near me again.’

  Caroline was horrified. ‘Beth! My God. What a thing to say!’

  Beth turned to face her mother and said in a perfectly controlled voice, ‘When will Daddy be home?’

  ‘Well, it’s February now, so there’s March, April, May, June, and he’ll be here in July.’ Caroline tried pleading with her, something she’d promised herself she would never do. ‘Perhaps you’d feel better if you told someone about Africa, and that someone could be me.’

  Beth’s answer was to put her arms around her mother and say, ‘I love you Mum. When I met her I knew I wouldn’t have wanted that Suzy person for my mother, it has to be you, but you see, Daddy will be able to explain things and free Alex and me from what we’ve done and
I can’t say any more than that. Hold me tight. Please.’

  The two of them stood hugging, silently saying everything they needed to say to each other, and when tears began to run down Caroline’s cheeks Beth brushed them away with her fingers and kissed her cheek, realizing that her mother desperately needed to contribute to her recovery. ‘If you promise not to leave me by myself ever at all, I’ll go into Culworth with you tomorrow and look at the shops. There. That’ll be a start, won’t it? You helping me to do that.’

  Caroline gave her a great big smile. ‘Of course it will. I need some new shoes and we could get you some clothes, couldn’t we? It’s ages since you had anything new, isn’t it? Would you like that?’

  ‘I’ll try.’

  They heard Anna calling out that she wouldn’t be back till tomorrow morning and Caroline answered her. ‘Fine, see you then.’

  Anna appeared in the kitchen doorway and stood looking at the two of them. She nodded and as she turned to leave she said, ‘You two look happy, in fact very happy. That’s nice. Bye!’

  After the door banged shut Beth said, ‘She’s not a bad old stick, is she?’

  Caroline burst out laughing, the first time she’d laughed wholeheartedly since they’d come back.

  Chapter 14

  Alex couldn’t believe that Beth was going shopping the next morning. He sat on her bed and asked how she would manage. ‘I thought you daren’t go out.’

  ‘I daren’t, but I went down to Dottie’s for my lunch. I just felt I needed to go. I loved it; it’s nice and safe. That old house is falling down but it’s so comfortable, though there’s hardly any furniture in it, and I felt really warm for the first time in ages; you’d feel all right in it, too. So I walked home all by myself and everything was going well when that nasty Andy Moorhouse from next door pulled up in his car and offered me a lift and wouldn’t accept I didn’t want one. I lost my nerve and raced home. But,’ Beth looked him full in the face, ‘I’ve decided I’m going to face up to it and make myself go out. Like you’ve done. Be brave for Mummy’s sake, she so needs to help us.’

  Alex, not given to loving gestures, bent forward and kissed her cheek. ‘That’s great, I’m glad you went. I expect that chap reminded you of—’

  ‘Don’t say it. Just don’t.’

  ‘I won’t then, but not saying it won’t make it go away.’

  ‘When Daddy comes home—’

  Alex picked up his school bag. ‘I’ve a load of work to do. Why don’t you ask at school for some homework? It would give you something to do.’

  ‘I could, couldn’t I? When Daddy comes home—’

  ‘I don’t want to think about it. I don’t know if I have the same faith in him as I had, not since I fully realized what happened about us, you know, us being born.’

  ‘Well, I have. And I can’t wait for him to come home.’

  The following morning Caroline went out to their garage in Pipe and Nook Lane, drove the car out and parked at their back gate, thinking it might be a good idea for Beth to feel she wasn’t going out under the full glare of the village.

  She came out of the house, slammed the back door behind her and ran out down their garden path to the car. She appeared to be in a happy mood for which Caroline was grateful. Beth shut the car door, fastened her seat-belt and smiled at her mother with such delight that Caroline wondered if they were at last on the road to recovery.

  As they trundled steadily down Pipe and Nook, narrow and twisting as it was, Caroline spotted in her rear mirror that Andy from next door was leaving at the same time. Some reason she couldn’t quite fathom made her decide to pull in and allow him to pass her as soon as she reached the Culworth Road.

  Satisfied he’d disappeared into the distance Caroline pulled out and drove on, only to find as she glanced in her rear-view mirror that he must have pulled off and rejoined the road as soon as she went by. She didn’t say anything to Beth and could only hope that it was pure coincidence. Maybe he had to leave a letter at some cottage door or other. Whatever his reasons for being behind them again she had to ignore him. Beth, blithely ignorant of her mother’s worry, sat silently watching the countryside roll by.

  When they reached Culworth Caroline chose to park in the new multi-storey car park, built by the council despite the savage protest of the people of Culworth.

  The two of them strolled away from their car, deep in conversation about which shop they should visit first.

  ‘You choose, darling, it’s your expedition not mine.’ Caroline glanced briefly behind her before she crossed to the stairs only to realize that Andy was creeping along behind them. But to her relief she remembered that the Social Services office was close by, so of course he would be walking this way.

  She dismissed him from her mind and engaged herself in shopping. At Beth’s insistence they called in the school uniform shop first for a new school skirt, which gave Caroline a tremendous boost. She must be thinking of going back to school. Hallelujah!

  After the school shop and a visit to a shoe shop for Caroline to buy her shoes, and a teens shop where Beth could indulge herself, they decided to call in the Abbey Coffee Shop for a rest. It happened to be the busiest part of the morning and they had difficulty finding a table. When they did Caroline asked if she should go to the counter to get the coffee.

  ‘Is it coffee or would you prefer hot chocolate?’

  ‘Hot chocolate with the cream on top, please.’

  Caroline had to ask, ‘Will you be all right?’

  Beth replied happily, ‘Yes. I can see you from here.’

  ‘OK.’ But she hadn’t gone more than a few yards when she spotted Andy cosily ensconced at an empty table. The whole situation became alarming. She looked across to Beth and saw her eyes were focused on her, so she waved her hand and Beth waved back. But while Caroline ordered their drinks and paid for them Andy moved across to their table and engaged Beth in conversation.

  ‘Hello there, Beth. Out shopping I see?’

  Beth froze and didn’t reply. Instead she fingered her mother’s vegetable knife which she’d hidden in her coat pocket. She wanted to get up and move away from him but her legs wouldn’t obey her.

  ‘Mind if I join you? Beautiful morning, isn’t it? I should be at work but it’s too good a morning to spend indoors. Ah! Here comes your mother. Good morning, Doctor Harris.’ He got to his feet and took the tray from her.

  Caroline felt her anger mounting like a volcano in her chest.

  But Andy had his answer ready before she could object. ‘I asked Beth if she minded me sitting here, thought perhaps she’d feel unhappy at being by herself. I’ll get my coffee now you’re here.’ He left them to join the queue.

  Caroline saw an empty table ‘We’re moving. Look, over there, that table’s vacant. Quick!’ She watched the pantomime he performed on arriving to find the table vacant. He looked swiftly round and homed in on their new position.

  ‘Got to the wrong table. How silly can you get?’ He seated himself very casually next to Beth and offered her the sugar.

  ‘Mr Moorhouse, Beth and I would like time to ourselves. Would you kindly remove yourself to another table? We don’t wish to be unfriendly to a neighbour, but we have personal things to discuss.’

  But he smiled. ‘Don’t mind me. As you see, there isn’t another table available.’

  ‘I’m sorry, but please. Go share a table with someone else, not us.’

  ‘Isn’t it a lovely village to live in, Turnham Malpas? I don’t think you could find a more friendly village anywhere at all. Everyone has been so kind since Jenny left me. So kind. Do you know the other day I—’

  Andy carried on making small talk so smoothly and unthreateningly that for a moment Caroline felt she was being very rude to the man. After all, he’d a right to come into Culworth and into a cafe´, too. What could possibly happen in the refined atmosphere of the Abbey Coffee Shop?

  Her guard was lowered and they chattered on about this and that, and it wasn
’t until Beth caught her eye that she remembered how frightened of him Beth was. Maybe her first instincts were right. It was only when he began addressing his conversation to Beth, asking her about school and why she wasn’t there on a school morning and he’d seen her in the Rectory garden a few times and was she not well, that Caroline said between gritted teeth, ‘If you don’t leave us alone I shall call the manager and have you removed.’

  ‘Removed? Whatever for?’

  ‘For pestering us when you’ve been asked not to sit at our table.’

  ‘Now really, Doctor Harris—’

  ‘You’re still here.’

  ‘I’ve done nothing wrong, but I will go if that’s what you want.’

  He didn’t, however, move.

  ‘Well?’

  It was Beth who took action. She picked up his coffee pot, flipped open the lid, and poured the contents down the front of his jacket and trousers. And was it hot! He leapt to his feet and tried to brush the hot coffee from his clothes but it had soaked through in an instant.

  He looked at Beth, but instead of the angry response Caroline expected he smiled and said, ‘My! What a feisty young lady you are. Very feisty. Wouldn’t like to meet you out on a dark night. You’d be a real handful.’ His voice and his face were filled with pleasure and not anger as he looked at Beth. But it changed to shock when he saw what Beth had laid on the table, and he slumped into his chair.

  To her horror Caroline saw the vegetable knife from her kitchen drawer, somehow cleaner and shinier than normal, lying beside Beth’s mug with her fingers gripping the handle.

  ‘I shall use it, if you don’t move.’ The voice she used wasn’t even hers, and the anger in her face wasn’t Beth’s anger at all. She was a total stranger, with strengths and determination completely alien to her. She snarled, ‘Do you hear me? I shall use it, believe me.’ She edged the knife closer to him, staring into his eyes as she did so.