Memories of You (14 page)

‘So now you're calling me a thief?'

‘It's as good as thieving, what you do. So yes, you are a thief and you're a bully, too.'

The two boys stared at each other and Joe was aware that Danny had become very still. Oh, no, he thought. I should have kept my mouth shut. Whatever Tod does next he's bound to take it out on Danny, too. He was ready to defend his brother physically when to his surprise Tod simply shrugged and walked away.

When they went down to the hall they found that a long queue of boys had formed to receive presents provided by the charity board and handed out by Mr Ridley. There were jigsaws, board games, sketch pads, boxes of crayons and some totally unsuitable presents in Joe's opinion, like socks and handkerchiefs. The distribution was indiscriminate and once the parcels were opened a lot of swapping went on.

Ginger was over the moon with his game of draughts and Joe and Danny decided to be content with their socks. After all, they had the presents that Helen had sent them. For the rest of the morning they were given free time. Many of the lads wanted to stay indoors with their presents but one of the younger teachers encouraged a group to go with him for a game of football on the beach. Joe and Danny went along.

‘That's dangerous,' Joe said as he stared up at the gash in the cliff face above him. He had been sent to collect the ball when it landed amongst a pile of rocks at the foot of the sandstone cliffs. At first he couldn't find it and the rest of the boys began to shout impatiently. Danny had come over to help him.

‘Erosion,' Danny said.

Joe grinned. ‘If you say so.'

‘The sea crashes against the cliff face until it crumbles,' Danny said as he peered up to where the top of the cliff was hanging over without any visible support. ‘It's worse than when we went for a run last week. A spot to avoid, I think.'

The Christmas dinner was good and everyone would have been happy if they hadn't had to join in the ‘party' afterwards. This started with team games leading up to teatime with sandwiches and mince pies, followed by carol singing before they had the usual supper of hot milk and bread and butter, and went to bed.

‘Well, that wasn't too bad,' Joe remarked to Danny as they climbed the stairs. ‘We'll be able to write and tell Helen that we enjoyed ourselves. We don't want her fretting, do we?'

Danny didn't answer. He was staring down at the pieces of paper that littered the top landing.

‘What are they?' Joe asked but he already knew the answer. They were the torn and crumpled pages of a book.

He knew what he'd find when he picked them up but he gathered them up all the same and followed the trail to their beds in the dormitory. Both of their books had been destroyed. Only the empty covers remained on the beds.

He became aware of the silence and that the other boys were staring at them. Even Ginger didn't have anything to say.

Then Danny took hold of his arm and said quietly, ‘Pick all the pages up and we'll put them in our lockers.'

‘What's the point? We'll never be able to put the books together again.'

‘Maybe we will and maybe we won't, but at least we'll still have Helen's presents. And listen, Joe, that's all we're going to do. We're not going to say anything to anyone. Right?'

Joe looked at his twin and something about his determined expression surprised him. Danny had changed since he had come here and, he wasn't sure why, but this time he was happy to follow his younger brother's lead. He helped Danny pick up the torn pages, ignoring the sniggers of Tod's cronies – for who else but Tod Walker would have done this? Or ordered it to be done? But when he went to bed he couldn't sleep for the anger that raged through him, burning almost like a fever. Tod Walker would pay for this. One way or another he would pay.

 

Selma Partington couldn't remember when she had had such a happy Christmas. Probably not since she had been a child herself. I mean, it's been marvellous the way Hugh has spoiled me, she thought, but I'm not the important one now. Elise is. I'm a mother and we have our own darling little daughter to make our family complete.

However, Christmas this year would not be quite the same as Christmases she had planned for the future. Despite the fact that Miss Barton had already taken the matter of Elise's way of talking in hand, the child was still not quite ‘one of them'.

Next year she would have a party. No, two parties. One for a select group of friends and their children and another for Hugh's employees' children. Hugh would dress as Santa Claus and Elise would be a dear little elf to help him give out the presents. Nevertheless this year they would go to the pantomime. Hugh had asked her if she would like to go to their London house for a while and take Elise to the Lyceum to see
Puss in Boots
.

‘It would be fun,' he'd said, and although Selma was truly touched by his enthusiasm she had refused the offer.

‘No, darling,' she'd said, ‘we'll see what Newcastle has to offer.'

Secretly she was already dreaming of sitting in the box at the theatre and being noticed with Elise. Hugh would be with them and they would smile and laugh like the happy family they were. Everyone who saw them would admire them and would talk about the beautiful child who seemed to be so devoted to Selma Partington.

Selma thought her dreams quite modest for her first Christmas with Elise and they all came true. But even before the tinsel and the decorations had been taken down and put away for another year things went horribly wrong.

Ginger was the only witness. Most of the boys had grumbled at being forced to turn out for a run on New Year's Day. Only the really keen types stripped to their running shorts and vests without complaint and set off along the cliff top path as usual. Ginger wasn't a runner. He was small and slight, and malnutrition as a baby had weakened his bones and drained his energy. He was usually one of the last to return to Haven House along with Tod Walker.

Here was at least one thing that Tod could not bully someone else into doing for him. He had to complete the run along with everyone else and by the time he returned he would be in a state of complete fury. The others had learned to keep out of his way.

Ginger always hung back to avoid Tod and today was no different. Except that with the swirling mist coming in from the sea the way ahead was obscured and it was hard to tell who exactly was in front of him. This was really spooky, Ginger thought, like a Sherlock Holmes story he'd read, but he didn't expect that he would see a murder.

The mist thickened and Ginger slowed down. He bent over and grasped his knees when he began to cough. This will be the death of me, he thought, and when the coughing spasm passed he straightened up and rubbed at his watery eyes with cold fingers. By the time he could see again the mist ahead had cleared and there, just like in the story, two figures were struggling on the very edge of the cliff.

Ginger blinked and stared at them. It was Tod and Joe . . . or was it Danny? From this distance he couldn't tell the difference. It shouldn't have been either of them. Both twins were reasonably fit and they usually got back to Haven House long before the likes of Tod Walker. Then, while he was still puzzling over this, it happened. Did Tod scream in terror as he went over the cliff or was it the eerie screech of a startled gull?

The mist swirled in again and Ginger remained where he was, trembling with fright. By the time the way ahead had cleared there was nothing to see, no one on the path ahead of him, and he set off fearfully, half-convinced that he had imagined it all. But then he came to a place where the turf was scuffed and he paused and inched towards the edge of the path. He looked down towards the beach, already knowing what he would see.

Tod Walker lay in a crumpled heap amongst the boulders. His eyes were open and he was staring upwards but Ginger knew that he couldn't see anything. Nor would he ever see anything again. What must his last visions have been? The lowering sky? The cliff face hurtling upwards as he plunged towards the rocks below? The silhouetted figure of another boy looking down on him?

Ginger began to tremble uncontrollably as he tried to make sense of what he had witnessed a few short moments ago. Joe . . . Danny . . . Which one of them did this? And had it been an accident or something more sinister?

He had taken to the Norton twins straight away – lively Joe and quiet, thoughtful Danny. Nice lads, both of them, and Ginger couldn't believe there was a bad bone in their bodies.

It must have been an accident. Ginger edged back from the cliff top and when he could no longer see the horror of what lay below the trembling subsided. The best thing he could do was to get back sharpish and see what was up. But whatever had happened he decided it wasn't his place to land either of the twins in trouble.

By the time he got back to Haven House just about everybody had had their showers and they were filing into the dining room for tea. Ginger climbed the stairs slowly. As he reached the landing Joe and Danny came towards him.

‘Tail end as usual?' Joe said.

Ginger thought Danny's smile was strained when he said, ‘Don't tease him, Joe, can't you see he's whacked?'

Their expressions didn't give anything away. What was happening here? What had happened on the cliff top? Had Tod had a go at Danny and had Danny had to defend himself? Or had the bully boy picked a fight with Joe and Joe had got the better of him? Whatever the truth of it was Ginger baulked at asking them. He realized that for the sake of friendship he didn't want to ask any questions in case he didn't like the answers.

But when was anyone going to notice that Tod Walker had not returned?

The answer to that came just as Ginger was taking his place at the table. At last one of the teachers spotted that Tod had not signed in and Mr Jenkins, in a very bad humour, started questioning everybody. Joe and Danny shook their heads and professed ignorance like everybody else and Ginger kept quiet. Whatever had happened on the cliff top he was prepared to give the twins the benefit of the doubt, so the best thing to do was wait to see how things developed.

It didn't take the search party long and by the end of the meal Mr Ridley called for silence and told the boys that there had been a tragic accident. Accident, Ginger thought. It could have been, couldn't it? Perhaps Joe or Danny didn't mean Tod to go over the cliff. By now he had convinced himself that was the truth of the matter and his spirits revived. He decided that he wouldn't have to say anything. He would let things take their course. After all, it was sad but true that no one, not even his bunch of cronies, was going to grieve over Tod Walker. He looked across the table to where the twins were sitting next to each other, smiled at them hesitantly and then turned his attention to his supper.

 

‘I think Ginger saw what happened,' Danny said later when the dormitory was silent. He had come to perch on Joe's bed and he kept his voice low, so as not to risk waking anyone else.

‘Why do you say that?'

‘Well, think about it. He was the last home so he must have been behind us.'

‘Doesn't mean he saw anything.'

‘What about the way he was looking at us at suppertime? Sort of worried and thoughtful. What was that about?'

‘You're right. That was odd.' Thoroughly alert now, Joe sat up.

‘Do you think he'll say anything?' Danny asked.

‘He would have said by now.'

‘Maybe not to the teachers, but when the police come. He wouldn't want to lie to them, would he?'

‘I'm not sure. He's been a pal, remember.'

‘Yes,' Danny said. ‘But can we count on that? After all, this is serious.'

They both sat silently for a while, taking in the gravity of the situation. The enormity of what had happened. Nothing in their young lives had prepared them for this. Instinctively they drew together, each wanting to protect the other.

Then Joe said, ‘I think it's time to go.'

‘Where? To Helen?'

‘First place they'll look. Besides, Aunt Jane would turn us in.'

‘Helen will worry.'

‘We'll have to send word somehow.'

‘But we can't tell her what happened.'

‘No.' Joe sounded grim.

‘We can't ever go home, can we?' Danny said bleakly.

‘We haven't got a home. But no, we can't.'

‘What will we do?'

‘I'll think of something. And remember, Danny. Whatever happens, I'll always look after you.'

 

When Hugh came home the house was in uproar. Servants hurried up and down the stairs and there was already a pile of luggage in the hall. He found Selma emptying the contents of her wardrobes on to her bed.