Towards a Dark Horizon Read online

The girl spoke slowly and quietly. ‘I don’t really know anything except that I was told to take her home as she’s been sick in the classroom.’

  But this wasn’t her home – at least not yet. ‘She lives with her stepmother and her father in Victoria Road. Did you not go there?’

  The girl nodded briskly. ‘Aye, I did but there was nobody in so the teacher told me to bring her to her sister’s house on the Hilltown.’ She became agitated. ‘You are her sister, aren’t you?’

  ‘Aye, I am so don’t worry – you’ve done the right thing.’

  The girl left to go back to her class with a couple of chocolate biscuits for all her trouble.

  Lily was lying on the bed. She looked so white and listless and when she opened her eyes they seemed too large and dark for her tiny face. I would have to get Granny – she would know what to do. But how could I tell her? I couldn’t leave Lily alone in the house.

  Then I remembered Davie. He had left school and he was searching for a job. Perhaps, if he was at home, he could take a message to the Overgate. I ran as fast as I could. Thankfully, he was in the house and he set off at once with my message. Lily was still on the bed and she was sleeping. I decided I would send for the doctor when Granny arrived because Lily looked really ill.

  I saw that she had been sick down the front of her jumper and I gently removed it. I still had some of her clothes in the house, including a nightdress. I went to fetch it plus a basin of warm water to clean her up. I was carrying this through when Granny appeared. She was panting and out of breath. ‘Davie told me that Lily isn’t well.’

  Davie stood quietly at the door. ‘I’ll get away home now, Ann, but, if you need any more help, just give me a shout.’

  I went with him to the door and thanked him. I was on my way back when I heard an angry shout from the room. It was Granny’s outraged cry and I hurried towards the sound.

  Granny had removed Lily’s jumper and blouse and I was shocked at her thinness but even more shocked at the state of her clothes. The blouse had holes under the arms and the vest and pants were the same. I also noticed that they were the same clothes I had bought her months before. If Margot was needing money to clothe her, then where were they?

  But, as I moved towards the bed, I got a further shock and found out the reason for Granny’s cry. Lily’s body was a mass of bruises – some looked newly done while others had the yellow tinge of healing.

  Granny’s face was a mask of anger and her eyes were dark with outrage. ‘Who did this, Ann? I just hope it wasn’t her father?’

  I shook my head violently. ‘Oh, no, Granny, he would never do this to Lily. No, it looks more like Margot’s hand.’

  ‘I think you should send for the doctor, Ann – just in case something’s broken.’ She set about washing Lily’s face and putting on the clean nightgown.

  I ran down the stair towards Connie’s shop. She would know what to do and she had a telephone in her house. I’d always thought they were a luxury but, now that there was this emergency, I was grateful to know that it was there and that Connie would be able to help me.

  She was having a cup of tea when I ran in. She smiled as I darted past the counter. ‘Where’s the fire, Ann?’

  I blurted out my story and she immediately leapt to her feet. ‘I’ll run round to the house and call my own doctor. He lives in Garland Place so he shouldn’t be long in coming.’

  ‘What about the shop, Connie?’

  This stopped her in her tracks and she looked at me. ‘I’ll only be five minutes. Can you stay until I get back?’

  I was impatient to get back to Lily but it seemed churlish to refuse when she was going out of her way to help. I nodded but added, ‘Be as quick as you can, Connie, because I’m really worried about her.’

  She was as good as her word and she was back within six minutes. ‘I was in luck, Ann. The doctor was in and he’s coming round at once.’

  I can’t remember if I thanked her. When I got back home Lily was awake but she still looked pale and lethargic.

  ‘The doctor is on his way, Granny. He’ll not be long.’

  I went and sat on the bed. Lily looked at me listlessly. ‘I’ve been awful sick, Ann – right in front of my teacher and my classmates.’

  I made soothing noises while Granny tried to question her about the bruises. ‘Did you fall down when you were sick, Lily?’

  Her face took on a closed look and she shut her eyes.

  Granny wasn’t giving up. ‘Did somebody hit you, lass? Come on, tell us.’

  She still stayed silent and the questioning came to an end with the arrival of the doctor. He sat by the side of the bed and took Lily’s wrist in his fat pink hand. He gave her a thorough examination. His eyes rested on her bruises but he gave her a smile which lit up his plump face. ‘You’ve got a bad dose of tummy-ache, young lady. You’ve been eating something that’s upset you.’

  He got up and ushered us out of the room but before he left he gave her another smile and she managed a weak smile in return. When we were seated in the kitchen, he questioned us, anger written all over his face. ‘Who is responsible for those bruises? That young lass has had a good beating. Which one of you did it?’

  We were both stunned but Granny recovered her voice before I did. ‘That wee lassie is my granddaughter and this is her sister,’ she said, pointing to me. ‘Up to a few minutes ago when she was brought back from the school, she was in the tender care of her stepmother so you’d better question her.’

  The doctor was taken aback by this onslaught. He had suspected one of us and he now realised how wrong he was. He packed his bag and made to leave. ‘Well, in my opinion, she must be kept here and not returned to that environment. I’ll make out my report about it.’

  After he’d gone, Lily seemed to be a bit better. I made her some milky pudding and some colour came back into her cheeks.

  Granny asked her again about the bruises but she seemed reluctant to talk about them so I gave it a try, saying, ‘Don’t be frightened, Lily. You’re not going back to live with Margot ever again. You’re staying here with me.’

  She stared at us with large frightened eyes. ‘Are you sure, Ann? She told me not to tell anybody about it.’

  I bet she did, I thought.

  Granny asked her about the bruises again and Lily seemed to think about it. Then she said, ‘Margot hit me because I didn’t do the cleaning quickly enough. She has this big black belt and she’d skelp me with it. Then, yesterday, when I was washing the stairs, she came down and gave me a shove. I fell down the steps, Granny, and hurt my tummy.’ She pointed to a large black bruise which almost covered her stomach and side. ‘Then she got so angry because the bucket of water got spilt and I had to wipe it up. I had to clean the lavvie after that. Then she held my head under the flush and I thought I was going to drown. And she doesn’t give us enough to eat and Dad is aye starving as well. She won’t spend money on food and she just makes wee snacks that don’t fill you up.’ She looked pleadingly at me. ‘Can I have a fishcake supper from Mr Nettie’s shop, Ann?’

  I tried not to look at Granny while this story was spilling from Lily’s lips but I knew she would be beside herself with anger.

  I tucked Lily up in bed. ‘No, I can’t give you a fishcake supper tonight, Lily, because you have been very sick but you’ll get one tomorrow night if you’re feeling better.’

  To say Granny and I were incensed with this was an understatement.

  Granny said, ‘I’m going round to see yon madam, Ann, and give her a few home truths.’ She went to put on her coat but I stopped her.

  ‘No, Granny, you stay here with Lily and I’ll go. If I set off now I’ll catch her before Dad gets in from work and I’ll tell her a thing or two.’

  I set off for Margot’s house, my anger almost boiling over and I was in a right state when I knocked on the door. She appeared in another lovely frock, a pastel floral creation, and she looked angry. Her face was screwed up with annoyance and, before I could open
my mouth, she launched into a tirade against me. ‘Did you pick Lily up from the school?’ she asked quite sharply. ‘She wasn’t at the gate when I called and someone told me she was with her sister.’

  I pushed her into the lobby. It wasn’t a hard push – more like a determined shove. I was in no mood for her nonsense or her sharpness. ‘Aye, she is and that’s where she’s staying for good.’

  Margot opened her mouth to speak but I gave her no chance. ‘She was brought home from school because she was sick. There was nobody in the house here which is a blessing because we’ve discovered she’s covered in bruises. The doctor is making out a report and, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll keep well away from her in the future.’

  She looked at me with a very haughty expression but I knew she was bluffing. ‘I only gave her a tiny push, for heaven’s sake. Your sister bruises so easily. I’ve only to give her a hug and she comes out in big bruises.’

  Oh, yes, I thought, getting a hug from Margot was the equivalent of getting a good crush from a bear or an all-in wrestler. I said, ‘I don’t want to hear another word from you, Margot. The episode is closed but Lily is never coming back here to stay and, when I see Dad, I’ll tell him the same thing. I’ve no idea what you’ve done with all the money I gave Dad but it wasn’t used to dress Lily. She was dressed in ragged clothes and they were the things I bought her last year.’

  The mention of money made her bristle. ‘And where is that famous post office account that your father was going on about? He said it was to be mine but it’s just another one of your confidence tricks. Your father told me before we married that you were an heiress. I imagined it was thousands of pounds but now I know it was merely pennies.’

  If Dad had been in the vicinity of my foot I would gladly have kicked him. No wonder she had latched on to him. She thought he would be able to get his hands on the money with no trouble from me, in exchange for a share of the bed settee. Well, that had been her bad luck.

  I shot her a last warning look. ‘If you come anywhere near Lily, I’ll get the police on to you. You’ve got a choice. Be happily married to my Dad and keep your nose out of our affairs and we’ll do the same with you. If you don’t, then the police will hear about your “tiny pushes” of a defenceless lassie.’

  I turned on my heel and marched down the stairs. I knew I would have to keep an eagle eye on my sister because I didn’t trust Margot one inch. I sincerely hoped my threats about the doctor’s report and the police would make her keep her distance. One thing was clear in my mind – she wasn’t coming near us ever again.

  Lily was sitting at a cosy fire when I got home. She gave me an anxious look but I grinned at her. Granny was making tea and a super smell hung over the small kitchen.

  Lily was surrounded by her books and comics and she now looked totally happy. Granny and I would have to revert to the same arrangement over the school holidays and it would mean her living between the two houses again but I didn’t think she would complain.

  She ate a huge bowl of soup, followed by a plate of custard and milk. ‘Oh, that was great,’ she said. ‘I was really starving!’

  Granny and I laughed at her comical face but I knew she was still as angry as I was over the day’s events.

  Dad arrived at the end of that week. He looked totally washed out. I glared at him but he seemed so depressed that I relented and made him sit down at the table.

  He said sadly, ‘You’ve got to believe me, Ann, I didn’t know a thing about Margot hitting Lily. She was aye in her nightgown when I got in from work and Lily never said a word about it.’ He looked angry. ‘I only wish she had.’

  Would he have stopped it, I wondered? Yes, he would have – I was sure of that. He may be a fool with women but he loved us.

  13

  Maddie’s exams were over and she came to the house a few days after sitting them.

  ‘Thank goodness they’re out of the way,’ she said. ‘Whether I pass or fail, the wedding is the main thing now.’

  I was confident she would be successful with her exams and I told her so.

  ‘To be truthful, Ann, I really don’t care.’

  When I looked shocked at this, she said, ‘Oh, I know I’ve put a lot of work into my training but I’m just so glad that Danny and I are getting married. When he was acting strange, I really thought he had found someone else but, now that I know the full story, I feel wonderful.’

  Lily was now almost back to normal after her dreadful time with Margot and she was giving Maddie her full attention. Although Granny and I tried not to make a big thing out of it, Lily still had bad nightmares. Thankfully, however, these also seemed to be coming to an end – well, they seemed to be and those she did still have were less serious in their ability to make her wake up screaming.

  Maddie was chattering on about the wedding. ‘It’ll be on Saturday, the first of October. We did try for September but this is the date we’ve finally chosen. Now I’ll need you and Lily to come with me for your bridesmaids’ dresses soon. Mother and I are having a few problems over the colours but I thought a deep blue for you Ann and paler blue for Lily and Joy. What do you think?’

  Before I could answer, Lily piped up, ‘Oh, I think that’s wonderful, Maddie.’

  I laughed. ‘It’s your wedding, Maddie, so you should just pick the colours you want.’

  ‘Right then, we’ll meet up in two weeks time and discuss everything.’

  It was almost the end of the school holidays and Lily was so excited. She could barely concentrate on anything other than the wedding. She was almost driving us all daft with her constant chatter about being a flower girl. One day, she told Connie, ‘I’m to be in a pale blue frock and shoes and I’m carrying a bonny bunch of flowers in my hand and I’ve to walk behind the bride in a sedate fashion along with Ann and Joy. I’ve also got to be on my best behaviour because everybody will be looking at me and I don’t want to let myself down.’

  Connie burst out laughing. ‘You sound just like your granny, Lily, and I bet you’re repeating her words.’

  Lily looked outraged. ‘No, Connie, it’s me that’s speaking the words – not Granny.’

  Later on, after Lily had gone back to the Overgate, Connie asked with a smile, ‘Is there going to be a bride at this wedding or is it Lily’s show?’

  We both laughed at this. To listen to Lily, anyone would think she was to be the star attraction but I was grateful to have her back to normal – constant chatter and all.

  Connie asked about Margot and Dad. ‘Have you had any more trouble from her?’

  Thankfully I hadn’t. ‘I never see them much. Dad appeared a few weeks ago but there’s been no more sight of him since then. I’m a bit worried about him because he’s got so thin and I know she doesn’t feed him right.’

  Connie was unsympathetic. ‘Well, he’s a grown man and he shouldn’t let her get off with that sort of treatment. Still, some men are daft when it comes to a woman.’

  She picked up a huge pile of papers and dumped them on the counter. The poor wooden structure groaned at this rough treatment.

  She was obviously in the mood for discussing men. ‘I aye remember my cousin’s wife. She was a good-looking woman but a proper besom. He was a quiet man but when he told her something important she aye said she didn’t remember it. But, if another man spoke to her, she could remember every word – chapter and verse plus all the commas and full stops. He gave her a lot of money one day to pay a big bill and she spent it on a new outfit then she swore blind he had told her to spend it on herself and that he’d never mentioned paying a bill. Aye, she was a carbon copy of Margot.’

  This knowledge didn’t really help me but it did prove that men sometimes picked the wrong qualities in women and often overlooked the gentler and kinder women such as Rosie.

  Another constant worry was the talk of war. These rumours had been hanging around since 1936 when Germany invaded the Rhineland but, as far as our customers were concerned, it was going to happen
sooner or later.

  Joe seemed to follow Hitler’s every move and he was always in the shop telling us about another of Germany’s antics. ‘He’s planning to conquer Europe and he’ll do it. Don’t you folk forget it,’ he warned.

  Previously, when he had uttered these doom-laden statements, most of us had ignored him but the papers were now saying the same thing. It seemed as if the world was in turmoil.

  But Maddie’s happiness was infectious. Lily and I went to meet her in D. M. Brown’s department store. Her mother was there with Joy who seemed pleased to see Lily but she was playing up about being a flower girl. Lily on the other hand could hardly wait.

  ‘Look at Lily,’ said Mrs Pringle. ‘She’s looking forward to being dressed up, aren’t you, Lily?’

  Lily’s face was beaming and she nodded so briskly that it was a wonder her head didn’t fall off.

  Joy gazed at us for a full minute then conceded. ‘Only if we’re dressed the same.’

  She was certainly being lukewarm about the whole event and Lily couldn’t understand this attitude. She looked at Joy as if she’d just arrived from another planet.

  We all made our way to the bridal department where the atmosphere was hushed and expensively perfumed. Long racks of white gowns filled three sides of this room while the fourth wall held a colourful kaleidoscope of bridesmaids’ dresses. I had never seen anything like it and neither had Lily. We stood with open mouths and wide eyes.

  An assistant appeared as if from nowhere and sidled over. She seemed to float rather than walk over the deep piled carpet and it was obvious that Mrs Pringle was a valued customer in this shop.

  The assistant spoke. ‘Madeleine, may I offer my congratulations on your forthcoming wedding?’ Her voice was quiet and cultured. It matched her slender black-frocked figure. Her hands I noticed were softly white with slim fingers and she wore no rings.

  Lily tugged my sleeve and said in a stage whisper, ‘Who’s Madeleine, Ann?’

  ‘That’s Maddie’s full name, Lily, but she gets called Maddie for short.’