Hope at Holly Cottage (19 page)

‘Peace over!’ Anna laughed as Charlie began to join in. But she felt she could never be happier than she was at that moment.

The slight young girl who sidled into the Tavistock café glanced furtively over her shoulder up and down the street before swiftly shutting the door behind her. She was well dressed in a blue summer frock belted at her tiny waist, and a grey, short-sleeved bolero of fine angora. Her neck was adorned with a double row of real pearls and her appearance smacked of money, but it was all at odds with her dark-shadowed eyes and her lost, nervous manner.

Anna didn’t recognise her at first. She’d had her hair cut, too, so that it sprang about her head in a halo of blond curls, and it was only as she spied Anna with baby Charlie and made a beeline for her that Anna realised who it was.

‘Frankie!’

Anna stood up, arranging her face into a broad smile, resolved not to show her dismay. Gone was the flushed young bride. Before her stood a timid, fearful mouse with grey smudges beneath her cornflower blue eyes.

‘Anna!’ Francesca leant forward and kissed her on the cheek. Constrained, and not like the bubbly girl she had known. ‘Oh, this must be the baby!’ Frankie gave what Anna thought might be a forced smile as she drew back and looked down at the pushchair parked beside the table.

‘Yes, this is Charlie,’ she replied warily.

But she needn’t have worried. Frankie’s face was suddenly radiant with admiration. ‘A boy, then!’ she grinned. ‘Oh, he’s lovely!’

‘He might be now, fast asleep and looking as if butter wouldn’t melt,’ Anna laughed nervously. ‘But he’s a right little monkey when he’s awake. Crawling now, he is, and in to everything!’

‘How old is he, then?’ Frankie asked, pulling out the other chair and sitting down at the table.

‘Eight months. I can’t believe how the time’s flown.’

‘No. I don’t suppose you can.’

Anna detected a rueful sigh in Frankie’s reply, as if for her, it had seemed an eternity. To cover up the awkward moment, she caught the waitress’s eye across the room. Her brow corrugated into a frown while they waited for the woman to come over. Frankie’s eyes had been scanning the other customers as if she was worried someone might recognise her. Anna’s heart bled for her. Had she really been reduced to this?

‘You got my note all right, then?’ Frankie began when they had ordered. ‘I was afraid you wouldn’t. Or that you wouldn’t come.’

‘Yes, of course. And your letter. Back in February, wasn’t it? I thought … well …’

‘I know.’ Frankie lowered her beautiful eyes and Anna
noticed her restless fingers repeatedly smoothing the check tablecloth. ‘I wanted to write but I had to wait until it was safe. I thought it’d be better if Gilbert believed I’d forgotten all about you.’

‘Are things really that bad?’ Anna looked across the table and saw Frankie swallow.

‘Yes. It’s as if what happened with you and Gilbert must be swept under the carpet. Wiped out. Once or twice I tried to talk about it but he got so angry, I daren’t mention it again.’

Her eyes flicked upwards at Anna as if she had said too much. But the difficult moment was diffused by the waitress arriving with their order. By the time everything was on the table, Frankie’s mood seemed lighter.

‘And you? Are you managing all right? I thought it was atrocious the way you were treated.’

‘Oh, I couldn’t be happier. I mean, things are tight moneywise, but we manage. It’s hard work but it’s fun living with Queenie. The cottage is pretty primitive. It’s a bit like stepping back a hundred years.’

Anna bit her lip at the irony of her words. That was exactly how she’d felt when she had first gone to Ashcroft Hall and been treated like a scullery maid in Victorian times. She was well out of it. Unlike Frankie.

‘This Queenie sounds a lovely lady.’

‘She is. You must meet her sometime.’

‘Oh, I don’t think that would be wise.’ Frankie glanced up from stirring her cup of tea. ‘If I parked the car by the road there, someone might see it. It’s pretty distinctive, and if it got back to Gilbert or Lady Prue, they’d want to know where I’d been. And they’d soon find out you were living there. There’d be hell to pay.’

‘Hell?’ Anna was appalled.

‘Yes. But enough about me.’ Frankie’s face suddenly brightened. ‘I want to hear about you and Charlie.’

‘Well, he keeps me busy every minute of the day! We don’t really see any other children up at Princetown, but I made a friend at the maternity home. She lives here in Tavistock and we see quite a lot of each other. And then there’s my friend, Ethel. I told you about her if you remember. Back in Plymouth. So, overall, I’m quite content.’

‘Good. I’m so pleased to hear it. But is there anything you need for Charlie? Money, for instance? That’s one thing I’ve got plenty of,’ she snorted, her voice for the first time tainted with bitterness.

‘No, honestly. We manage fine. Oh dear, no peace for the wicked!’ Anna grinned as Charlie stirred, blinked open his eyes and began to grizzle. She lifted him out of the pushchair and sat him on her lap, opening her bag and giving him a Farley’s Rusk to suck on.

‘He’s teething,’ she explained to Frankie.

‘Poor little thing. I suppose they can’t understand. Does he say anything yet?’

‘Good Lord, no. He’s only eight months.’

‘Is that too early? I’ve no idea about babies, you see. Not having one of my own.’ Frankie licked her lips wistfully but the next moment was smiling again. ‘I’ve finished my sandwich. Let me hold him so you can have yours.’

‘Would you mind? I’ve got a bottle of milk made up if he gets fed up with the rusk. You don’t have to feed him, though. He can hold it himself.’

She settled Charlie on Frankie’s lap and the other girl took him with a woman’s natural instinct, Anna reflected,
as she watched Frankie support Charlie with one hand while the other was ready to catch the rusk if he dropped it. Their meeting had fallen into place, the initial reserve over, and for ten minutes they chatted away like old friends. Then Charlie started fidgeting and holding out his arms towards his mother.

‘I’d better take him back,’ Anna said, ‘before he starts yelling his head off and spoiling everyone’s lunch.’

‘Yes, I suppose you’d better.’

Frankie sounded reluctant, but she lifted Charlie up towards Anna who had stood up to take him across the table. As she did so, the short sleeves of the bolero rode up over her upper arms. Anna gasped in horror as she gripped Charlie against her chest. On both Frankie’s arms were livid bruises as if someone had recently grabbed hold of her with brutal force and tried to shake the life out of her.

‘God, Frankie,’ Anna breathed in disbelief. ‘Did … did Gilbert do that?’

Frankie’s cheeks at once flushed as if with guilt and she hastily pulled her sleeves back into place. Her eyes met Anna’s almost defensively for a moment, but then her face dissolved as moisture collected in her eyes and she nodded slowly.

‘He … he wanted … you know,’ she whispered distraughtly. ‘I was tired and wanted to go to sleep, but he … he insisted. He said it was no wonder we weren’t getting a child.’

She hung her lovely head and Anna stared at her in horror. She had seen a flash of that other vile, latent side of Gilbert’s nature herself, hadn’t she, the day she had told him she was pregnant? No longer the charming, persuasive young gentleman, there was a secret violence in him when
he couldn’t get his own way. But to have turned on his defenceless, wronged wife like that was despicable.

‘Oh, Frankie,’ Anna repeated, utterly horrified. ‘Oh, if only there was something I could do—’

‘You have. Meeting you here has been a real tonic to me. And Charlie’s a little love. I’m so glad I’ve seen him. But now I must go.’ She rose to her feet decisively. ‘I do hope we can meet again like this.’

‘Of course we can. I’ll look forward to it.’

‘I don’t know when, though. It could be months. I’ll get word to you in the same way.’ She opened her handbag and took out her purse. ‘There, that’ll cover the bill. And take this for Charlie.’

She quickly placed two ten pound notes on the table, and Anna’s mouth dropped open. It was a fortune. ‘Oh, I can’t possibly—’

‘It’s Gilbert’s money. Charlie’s his child, and if he won’t accept any responsibility for him, then I will. Take care, Anna.’

She spun on her heel and made for the door before Anna had a chance to say goodbye – or shove the notes back in Frankie’s hand, although she had to admit that the money was more than welcome. She watched her friend leave the café, her heart weighing heavily in her breast. Frankie wasn’t the sort to fight back, but what could she, Anna, possibly do to help? She hugged Charlie tightly and kissed his little forehead before sitting him back in the pushchair. How blessed she was!

‘Thanks ever so for the lift, Jeffery.’

‘All part of the service,’ the young man grinned back. ‘I’m proper glad you an’ Carrie enjoyed the film. Does you both
good to get out without the little ones once in a while.’

‘Mmm, yes, it does. I’m so lucky to have Queenie to babysit. But I think I’d better go in before she starts wondering where I am.’

‘OK, see you soon, then.’

‘Thanks again.’

Anna got out of the little Austin Seven and turned up the lane beside the lodge. The dank mist of the November night made her shiver, and once Jeffery had turned the car round and disappeared into the murk, an eerie silence muffled the moor once again. Anna hurried along the short distance to the cottage, which was no more than a long, low shadow in the gloom, and crept silently inside. Despite what she had said to Jeffery, she expected Queenie to be fast asleep in bed. Anna knew she herself would feel tired the next day but it was worth it to have a few hours to relax. Going to the pictures with Carrie and enjoying the heroism and excitement in a repeat showing of
The Dam Busters
, which she had missed when it had been shown in Tavistock the previous January, had been a welcome change – even if she would really have preferred something more romantic. It had been like being back with Ethel, making her feel young again – even if she was only just turned twenty!

The cottage felt instantly cosy and welcoming after the penetrating damp outside. Queenie had left one of the oil lamps on very low so that a diffused amber glow reflected on the whitewashed walls. Anna tiptoed towards the range, not wanting the heels of her shoes to click on the flagstones. It was only then that she heard the low, hushed crooning and realised that Queenie wasn’t in bed but was sitting in one of the sagging armchairs. She must have been having
trouble with Charlie and was rocking him to sleep on her lap. Anna could hear the muted snuffling he made when he was nodding off, so she didn’t want to disturb him just at the wrong moment.

‘There, there, Charlotte, my darling,’ she heard Queenie’s soft, lilting whisper. ‘You go to sleep, my little one. Mammy’s yere. She won’t let you down again.’

Anna’s heart froze. Dear God. Was Queenie losing her mind? But somehow she didn’t think so, although there had been the occasional, odd moment – always with Charlie – when some deep-seated, emotional memory seemed to stir.

Queenie looked up, startled for a second as she evidently hadn’t heard Anna come in. Then she inclined her head towards Charlie who must have only just drifted off, as his mouth was still working in the way babies do before they sink into their deep slumber.

Anna smiled down knowingly, attempting to conceal her concern. In the jaundiced shadows, Queenie’s face looked even more seamed than usual, tinged with a wistful contentment that spoke of hidden, past regret. Anna was curious, but above all she wanted to heal the hurt that she read in Queenie’s strange, opalescent eyes.

‘’Er’s just gone off,’ Queenie mouthed. They both knew they would have to wait a few minutes until Charlie was so heavily asleep that he wouldn’t wake up again as he was slid into the cot Anna had bought second hand, together with the pushchair, from someone in Princetown.

Anna sank into the other chair, the enjoyment of the evening with Carrie dissipated by her worry over Queenie’s murmured words. There was some buried but never-forgotten secret in the elderly woman’s heart. Something that rose,
unbidden, to the surface and was so strong that Queenie was powerless to resist it.

At last Charlie seemed well asleep and so Anna took Charlie from Queenie with a grateful smile. She felt uneasy and wanted a little cuddle with her son before putting him down for the night. She watched him for a second or two in the apricot shadows cast by the luminous coals in the grate. His face was peaceful and serene, and she felt she could watch him all night. She reluctantly dragged herself away. There was another matter to be resolved.

Back in the kitchen, Queenie was making some cocoa, shuffling about in her worn slippers and her old dressing gown.

‘Oh dear, he hasn’t had you up all evening, has he? I’m ever so sorry.’

‘Oh, no, cheel. ’Er’d just woke up a bit grizzly, like. ’Er was soaking so I changed ’is nappy an’ gave ’en just a little feed an’ a cuddle. So don’t you fret none. You deserves a night out yere an’ there. Good film, were it?’

‘Yes, it was. Takes me back, going to the flicks. Ethel and I used to go quite often. We had a television, but it wasn’t the same as the pictures.’ She answered almost without thought and sat down, cupping her hands around the hot drink Queenie handed her. She shivered with apprehension and felt as if she was taking her life in her hands, but she had to ask for both their sakes. ‘Queenie, who was Charlotte?’ she gulped.

She heard the old lady draw a breath and for some gruelling seconds there was total silence. Anna thought she had made a terrible mistake and was torn with remorse. Queenie gave a huge, wrenching sigh and Anna glanced
sideways at her. Queenie’s eyes had become glazed as she stared into her cocoa, but her hands were strong as they held the mug quite firmly.

‘I suppose you should know, cheel. No one else in the world does. No one what counts, that is. An’ if I ’as to tell someone, I thanks the Lord it’s you.’

Her head bobbed up and down as if she were accepting her own words, but as she sipped her cocoa, Anna thought she had changed her mind. Or perhaps she had become so lost in her own emotions that she had forgotten Anna was there, or so entangled that she couldn’t find her way out. Anna swallowed her own drink, expecting that to be the end of it. But then Queenie put down her empty mug decisively on the table, and leant back in the chair again.