A Village Feud Page 19

  But he couldn’t move her. ‘Do you hear me? Walk with me. You’ll come to no harm. Not with me.’

  Then he tried wheedling and cajoling and persuading in the lightest, brightest of tones but Beth ignored him.

  ‘Did you know there’s some baby foxes just out of the den in the wood? They’re magic to watch. Would you like to see them?’

  By now she was rigid with fear and didn’t know how much longer she could remain motionless. The desire to run was paramount in her head.

  The stile leading to Sykes Wood was a matter of a few feet away and she pondered on bolting for the wood, but squashed that idea immediately. She had to stay in the open where someone, anyone might see her.

  Then he was breathing heavily, his face close to her ear and she smelled garlic and drink on his breath. Her nose wrinkled in disgust.

  ‘Do you hear me? How much longer will you stand here? Answer me, you little bitch, answer me.’

  His language and his attitude to her grew more alarming by the minute, and he tried again to pull her towards the wood. Her mobile phone was worse than useless to her because he’d never let her use it. Just when her desperation had reached uncharted waters, Mrs Jones, on her way home from the Store, hove into view round the bend.

  She was yards away but picked up on Beth’s panic immediately. She saw the grip he had on her arm, smelled his animal energy, and knew this was her moment, her drama.

  She ran towards the pair of them, shouting and swinging her shopping bag, arriving just at the moment when Beth couldn’t physically resist his pulling any longer. So intense and focused was Andy that he was unaware of Mrs Jones’s voice until the shopping bag hit him across the back of his head. Momentarily he lost his balance and relaxed his grip. He called Mrs Jones some foul names, but she didn’t care. Released, Beth began running, short of breath through fear, but away she went, heading for the school.

  Mrs Jones continued hitting Andy about his head and shoulders with her bag until she’d driven him into escaping her by running up the hill towards the village. Mrs Jones followed him as best she could but neither he nor she could see where Beth had disappeared to when they finally arrived in Jacks Lane. All appeared normal; the geese were demonstrating their authority to one of the Charter-Plackett cats, the children were playing in the schoolyard for their afternoon break, Kate Fitch was supervising and Beth – well, she’d disappeared completely.

  Andy, knowing he couldn’t inquire from Mrs Fitch if she’d seen Beth as that would look suspicious, had to retire to his house, bowed but not beaten, to watch from his window.

  Beth was hiding in the school kitchen with Maggie Dobbs. ‘I want my mummy,’ she said, just like she’d done when she was small at school and wanted to go home.

  ‘See here, Beth love, you’re safe with Maggie Dobbs. No harm’ull come to you. Why, you’re quite out of puff. Now, come on. Stop the tears, you’re safe now. Maggie’s in charge and nothing nor nobody will get at you while I’m here. Sit on this chair, and I’ll get you a glass of water. There you are, that’s it. Now, here’s the water, cold as ice out of this tap, do you a power of good, it will.’

  Beth sipped clumsily out of the glass, water dripping on her chin which Maggie wiped off with a clean tea towel, feeling Beth shivering right inside herself as she did so. She repeated her request. ‘I want my mummy. Please. Beth’s going to be sick.’

  Maggie nodded. She took her brand-new mobile phone from her bag and gave it to Beth. ‘You dial the number. I’ll speak.’

  So Maggie spoke and Caroline was there in minutes. ‘Darling!’ She said, and they were clutched in each other’s arms.

  ‘I want to go home.’

  ‘Of course. Thank you, Maggie, for taking care of her. Thank you very much. I’ll explain later. Sorry.’

  Caroline, with an arm around Beth’s shoulders, hurried her home. ‘It’s all right, Beth, we’re nearly there.’ She didn’t realize that Mrs Jones was rushing to catch up with them.

  ‘Doctor Harris! Doctor Harris!’

  Caroline turned to see who was speaking to her. ‘Come in, come in.’

  Mrs Jones followed her into the Rectory, breathless but determined to have her say. ‘You all right now, Beth? I saw it all, that’s why I’ve come.’

  Caroline led the way into the kitchen. ‘Sit there, Beth, till you catch your breath. Now, Mrs Jones, what is it? What did you see?’

  ‘I saw it all happen. Has she told you?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Well, that Andy Moorhouse must have been waiting for her coming home from Dottie’s because when I got round the bend by Angie Turner’s there was that sod holding Beth’s arm and trying to pull her into Sykes Wood, dragging at her arm, he was. I raced up and swung my shopping bag at him. Feel, it’s heavy, two jars of marmalade in it I’ve bought for a neighbour, and it shocked him and he let go, and your Beth ran like hell, and he and me followed her, but we couldn’t see her when we got into the village. He went home and I stood and waited to see where she’d gone. If you need a witness you’ve got me. I saw him doing it.’

  Caroline laid a grateful hand on Greta Jones’s arm. ‘Thank you, thank you. I’m almost out of my mind with worry. I shall ring the police immediately and if they want to talk to you about it, will that be all right?’

  At this moment Anna walked in to the Rectory, intending sitting down in Peter’s study and putting in some spadework on her Sunday sermon.

  ‘Oh, hello. Has something happened? Shall I make myself scarce?’

  Caroline, almost beside herself, said, ‘It’s Beth. Andy Moorhouse has assaulted her. Greta witnessed it.’

  ‘Oh! Beth, my dear, I’m so sorry. What can I do to help?’

  Greta piled in with, ‘I saw it. He tried to drag her into Sykes Wood, and these two jars of marmalade …’

  Anna looked pointedly at Caroline and then went round the kitchen table and put her arm around Beth’s shoulders. ‘My dear. What a shock. Shall you and I sit in your dad’s study for a while till your mum’s sorted out what to do? Mmm?’

  Beth nodded. Anything that would bring her dad close would be a help. So she and Anna sat quietly side by side on the sofa in his study, and Beth looked round the familiar room and immediately felt cherished.

  ‘Why is he doing this to me, Anna?’

  ‘It’s because his mind has got very bent.’

  ‘What does he mean to do?’

  ‘Probably all he wants to do is look at you and admire you. You’re a very beautiful girl, you see. Don’t feel it’s your fault that you’re beautiful, it isn’t, not at all. With a Dad who’s so good-looking you’re bound to be beautiful. Just look on it as his mind not functioning properly; his is like a jigsaw all in pieces in a box and needing to be sorted. If your mum rings the police then it’ll mean the police questioning you, though. Do you feel up to that?’

  Beth was silent, then she said, ‘I’ve faced worse.’

  ‘Oh, my dear, I’m so sorry you’re having this dreadful time. I’m always ready to listen, you know, should you ever—’

  ‘No. No. Thank you. You’re very kind. There’s only Daddy who—’

  Anna dabbed Beth’s tears away with a tissue. ‘Absolutely. Yes, I understand. Absolutely.’

  In the kitchen Greta Jones was saying the same word just as emphatically.

  ‘Absolutely. It’s got to be the police, there’s no avoiding it. I haven’t imagined it; it’s just as I say. I’ll be in all afternoon if they want to question me and I shall tell the whole truth. I shan’t mince my words, so don’t you fret. The nasty devil. He must have been waiting for her just by the stile. Bought a new overcoat and a winter hat, Russian like, fur and them earflaps it has, instead of that old anorak. Changed his appearance completely, which is suspicious in itself. With Greta Jones on Beth’s side, as well as everyone else in the village, you won’t go far wrong, Doctor Harris. Don’t you fret, we’ll get him. I’ll see myself out.’

  Caroline wondered how many more appalling
incidents Beth was going to have to take on board. She’d never get better. The police. Right now.

  Inspector Gould was at the Rectory within twenty minutes accompanied by a woman police constable. After half an hour they were seen by Grandmama – who happened to be bored to tears and was looking out of the sitting-room window in the hope of someone passing by – knocking at Andy Moorhouse’s door. She had to crane her neck a little as the door wasn’t easy to see from where she stood. She waited, eyes glued to Andy’s vivid purple door. It took ten minutes of concentrated watching before there was any movement. But she was rewarded. Out of the front door of his cottage came Andy, handcuffed to the constable and accompanied by the inspector. He was whisked away towards Culworth at speed.

  Later that afternoon Mrs Jones was rewarded for her enterprise by two women police officers pulling up outside her cottage. They went inside and her neighbours counted the minutes until they emerged. But they didn’t take her with them because five minutes after the car left, she was shaking her new yellow duster out of her front window. So what did she know that they didn’t?

  The police, with the help of Beth telling how she saw Andy leaving in the middle of the night in his car, finally dragged the truth about Jenny’s disappearance from Andy. Jenny Sweetapple’s remains were found in the quarry after a thorough clean-up and removal of ten years of accumulated rubbish. It was a mammoth task with the police on duty whenever the digger was working and when it wasn’t. But there she was under a mattress, beneath a shopping trolley, under a pile of cardboard boxes and grass cuttings and wrapped in three torn binbags … anyway, she had been found at last. To think they’d been harbouring a murderer all this time. Mind you, they’d never liked him, had they?

  Everything went very flat after Jenny Sweetapple was found. It was such a long time to the trial but they were all agreed on one thing: they’d sit in the public gallery and see him sentenced.

  Weeks rolled by, sometimes slow, sometimes fast, till it was time for the Annual Village Show. Only a month to go and Peter would be home. No one wished for his return as much as Caroline, for she longed to be held in his arms and feel again the comfort of his presence. Beth’s avowed intent to go back to school after Easter never happened. What with the attempted attack on her by Andy Moorhouse and the subsequent questioning by the police, she was back almost at the beginning of her troubles. Alex had three weeks away from school due to stress, he said, but in reality it was his heart breaking for his twin.

  Putting on the Show was its usual frantic hard work but somehow the joy had gone out of it and it felt like slavery rather than the happy occasion it had used to be. The rivalry was there when it came to the prize-giving, though, but even that had lost its sharp edge. Jimbo closing the Store became an even worse trial than it had been when he first closed, and he was on the receiving end of a few acid comments from people who in normal circumstances thoroughly approved of everything he did. He didn’t even offer to supply food for the tea tent as he had always done, and that caused Pat Jones some heartache when she volunteered to run it, forgetting Jimbo’s ready supply of food wouldn’t be available.

  Stocks Day, with Anna Sanderson in the guise of the Grim Reaper, somehow didn’t have quite the same meaning, because the outfit she wore was the one Muriel had lengthened for Peter the first year he was in Turnham Malpas, and it was so long on her the hem lay on the grass and when she walked she had to hold it up for fear of tripping over it. They couldn’t ask Muriel to alter it as Muriel, well, she wasn’t quite herself of late and that was another thing which upset everyone. Despite the trials of making sure she didn’t trip up over her long skirts, Anna made a really good fist of being the Grim Reaper. Willie had fitted her with a special microphone because practising a week before the big day proved that Anna’s voice wouldn’t reach the huge crowds, especially if it was windy. Willie’s forethought saved the day for Anna; they could hear every word. Some of them felt quite tearful about her leaving when Peter came back, especially those who had received her sympathy and valuable advice at times of trouble. All in all they supposed they were glad it was Anna who’d been shepherding them through what had proved difficult times.

  Though they all remembered how they valued Peter and longed for him to be back. Come back, Peter, was the cry on everyone’s lips.

  And come back he did. Caroline went to the airport to meet him, eager to see him but almost afraid of how to behave when they’d been separated for so long.

  She was standing at the arrivals exit, amongst what appeared to be a vast crowd of other eager greeters. Living in a village for so long she’d almost forgotten how many people there were crammed into the metropolis and began to feel like an ant, unknown and insignificant. There was no missing Peter, though; at six feet five he towered above most of the exiting passengers. His hair was lightened by the sun and his eyes were bright with anticipation, but he was thin, oh, how thin. She raised her hand to attract his attention and his eyes fixed on hers. He hurried towards her, thrusting his way through the crowd until he was within touching distance. For a brief second they simply drank in the sight of each other, too emotional to smile, and then, what joy, they were in each other’s arms.

  There weren’t words adequate enough to express how they felt. They hugged and kissed till all reason had vanished. Finally Peter said, ‘Let’s get to the hotel, then we can really talk.’

  ‘Am I glad you’re home, my darling. I’ve been counting the days, it’s been so long.’

  Caroline had booked an airport hotel room so after a brief taxi ride they were in their room, free to talk at last. At first they made general conversation, chattering about this and that, none of it of any consequence except they were putting out feelers, trying to reach the closeness they’d always enjoyed.

  Peter finally asked the question he’d been wanting to ask from the moment they met. ‘Well now, what about the children? Will you tell me truthfully what the problem is? How are they really getting on?’

  Caroline said they were fine, not wishing to spoil his first few hours with problems.

  Peter looked at her and said, ‘Caroline! Please, my darling, stop shielding me, I know things are not fine.’

  Startled, Caroline asked, ‘How? Has someone e-mailed you?’

  ‘No one but you. But I do know from yours they’re not flourishing. It’s what you left out, you see.’

  Caroline sat down on the bed and invited Peter to join her. He put an arm around her shoulders, saying, ‘Go on, then. Tell me, please. Have they not improved at all?’

  So Caroline had to tell him the whole of the story, of their dread of wide open spaces, of Beth’s fear of leaving the house, of Andy Moorhouse and about Beth taking a knife out with her, which made Peter gasp, and Jenny’s murder, of Beth’s screaming nightmares and Alex’s ability to calm her down.

  He listened silently, almost withdrawn, while he assimilated what had happened.

  ‘You see, Peter, they won’t confide in me. They both say they’ll tell you when you get home. I feel I’ve let them down very badly. Perhaps if I’d been their real mother they’d have been able to tell me, but I’m not and they can’t. I just hope they can tell you, because they’ll never get cured if they don’t tell someone.’

  Peter released his hold on her and went to stand at the window and look down at the crowds thronging the street on their way to an evening out at the clubs.

  ‘Elijah told me something of what had gone on. About the massacre, the wholesale destruction of the villages, the burning of our church and your clinic, which we’ve now rebuilt and improved on with some of the money the village sent to us, and the raping … she …’

  ‘No, not Beth, she did tell me that.’

  ‘Thank God.’

  ‘But something happened which has frightened the life out of them and they need you desperately.’

  ‘All I have to do is to deliver papers and reports to the mission headquarters here in London tomorrow morning and then we can go stra
ight home.’ He turned from the window and said, ‘Never as long as I live am I going out there again. Never. I’m being entirely selfish when I say this but there were some days when I could barely function for pining for you, Caroline. Occasionally I thought I heard your voice and turned to see you but of course you were never there. I suffered utter devastation in my heart. Actual pain. Just to see you would have been enough. I love you so very much and I shall never be parted from you again.’ He opened his arms wide and she rushed into them.

  Chapter 16

  In the event it was almost eleven o’clock and the bright summer evening already gone before they reached Turnham Malpas. Peter drove most of the way home, glad to be at the wheel again and eager to get home where he belonged. Caroline could feel her burden lifting the nearer they got, and she could sense contentment filling her very bones. She rested her hand on his thigh as he drove and he turned to smile at her. ‘Happy?’

  ‘Never been happier. I just want to hear you singing in the shower when you come back from your run, then I’ll know you’re definitely home.’

  ‘Running! It’ll be a while before I get back in my stride. Three miles seems like a marathon. I’ve done no running at all for almost a year.’

  ‘You’ve lost a lot of weight, far too much, so I wouldn’t worry about three miles each morning, that can wait.’ She smiled at him but he didn’t return it.

  They reached the bend in the Culworth Road and were almost home.

  ‘I’ll drive up Pipe and Nook, shall I? Give ourselves a bit of privacy for a while longer?’

  Caroline nodded. She imagined that the children would be in bed but she hadn’t taken Beth’s sleeplessness into consideration. She was watching from her bedroom window and was down the stairs and opening the back door almost before Peter had got his luggage out.

  ‘Daddy! Daddy!’

  She ran down the path in her bare feet and flung her arms about him, clinging to him like a limpet.