Emily (22 page)

‘No, I don’t think so, Mr Francis. She doesn’t go out much just now.’ Mrs Purnell felt slightly guilty
that she didn’t take Deborah with her on her own social visits, but she was such a trial. ‘I, er – I think she is not too well at the moment. This dreadful business’, she waved her hand vaguely, ‘has upset her – has upset us all. I have only just started to go out again myself and then only to friends whom I know won’t expect me to discuss it.’

‘Of course,’ he nodded. ‘But Deborah wasn’t actually involved in the disturbance which occurred, I trust?’

Mrs Purnell looked perplexed. ‘Well, she was there when they found the child.’ She sighed. ‘Such a tiny baby. I have never seen one so small.’

‘But it was your son who involved the police?’ he persisted. ‘Over his damaged picture?’

‘Well, yes,’ she admitted. ‘Had it been left to me, I would never have involved them. I hate this kind of upset, Mr Francis, I really do.’

He sympathized. ‘I quite agree. There would have been no need for this adverse publicity to sully your name, no newspaper articles for the public to gloat over.’

‘Indeed.’ She wiped away a sudden tear. ‘I’m so pleased that you understand, Mr Francis.’

‘Well, of course, it affects me also, Mrs Purnell, because of my daughter. We have never had any public scandal; as you know, we keep our problems at home where they belong. However,’ he went on, ‘because of this upset, I have come to ask you if it would be a good idea if I took Deborah home to Holderness until the hearing is over? That is, if she would like to come and if her husband agrees.’

‘Oh, what an excellent thought.’ Mrs Purnell was
most enthusiastic. ‘And you know that they are in the process of buying a house of their own? It will give Hugo a chance to organize things in Deborah’s absence and have everything ready for her return.’

‘I didn’t know they were thinking of moving,’ he said, rather startled. ‘Will Deborah be cared for? Have arrangements been made for a good housekeeper and someone to attend her? She has had you to guide her since her marriage, Mrs Purnell. She has no knowledge of running a household herself.’

Mrs Purnell clasped her hands in front of her. ‘That is true,’ she murmured. ‘But I’m sure –’. She hesitated. ‘I’m sure that Hugo will attend to those arrangements. Deborah has her personal maid, of course.’ She gave another sigh. ‘But I rather feel that she doesn’t care for the girl very much. Oh, dear. I do wish that we still had Emily. She was such a treasure until she fell from grace.’

She rang the bell and asked that Deborah should come down, that her father was here to see her, and a moment later they heard her running footsteps as she clattered down the stairs and crashed into the room.

‘Oh, Papa! Papa, I’m so pleased to see you.’ She put her arms around him and hugged him. ‘Why did you not write to your little Deborah? I have missed you so much.’

He kissed the top of her head. ‘But I have written to you.’ He smiled, but was concerned at her appearance, at how thin she was and so pale. ‘Several times.’

‘Why, Miss Deborah, you know that your father has written to you. Don’t you remember?’ The maid Alice stood in the doorway.

Deborah froze her with a look. ‘No-one asked you,’ she said rudely. ‘Go away. I will send for you if I need you.’

Alice swallowed. ‘It’s time for your medication, ma’am. You mustn’t miss a dose.’

‘What medication is that?’ Roger Francis enquired anxiously. ‘Have you been ill, my dear?’

Deborah shook her head. ‘I don’t think so, Papa.’

‘When we were in Italy, sir,’ Alice explained nervously, ‘’Mistress was feverish and an Italian physician prescribed some medication.’

‘And you are still taking it?’ he asked in consternation. ‘I think you should see an English doctor and ask his opinion.’

‘That will be all, Alice,’ Mrs Purnell interrupted. ‘Miss Deborah can take it later if necessary. Leave us now.’

Deborah sat on a stool at her father’s feet and clasped his knees. ‘How is Mama?’ she asked. ‘And my dear Mrs Brewer? Do they miss me?’

‘Indeed they do,’ he said. ‘The house is very quiet without you.’

Mrs Purnell silently sighed and raised her eyebrows, but made no comment. What she would give for a quiet house again!

‘I wondered if you would like to come back to Holderness for a short while?’ he said. ‘For a holiday! The weather is very sharp and crisp, but the roads are still good.’

Deborah jumped to her feet. ‘Oh, yes please, Papa, I would like that very much.’ She headed for the door. ‘I shall go and tell Alice to pack.’ Then she hesitated, a frown on her forehead. ‘She doesn’t have to come, does she? I shall have Betty Brewer to attend me.’

‘Wait, wait,’ he laughed. ‘We must first of all ask your husband if he agrees. He might not want to be without you.’

Her face changed colour and expression, she became even paler and lost her animation. ‘He won’t mind,’ she whispered. ‘He never minds being without me. I stay with Alice.’

He felt curiously disturbed. She was frightened, he was sure of it. There was something wrong.

‘Hugo won’t mind,’ Mrs Purnell said heartily, ‘and it won’t be for long. Perhaps until your new house is ready.’

Deborah stared at her. ‘My new house? What new house?’

‘You know, my dear.’ Mrs Purnell gazed back at her. ‘You and Hugo are to have a house of your own instead of living here with me.’

Deborah came slowly back into the room. ‘No-one told me,’ she whispered. ‘Why didn’t they?’

‘But Hugo must have discussed it with you, Deborah. And besides, he took you to look at several houses!’ Mrs Purnell’s many chins wobbled as she patiently explained.

Deborah shook her head. ‘No. We went for a carriage drive and Hugo and his friends went inside some houses. But I didn’t. I stayed in the carriage with Alice.’

They heard the front door open and a murmur of voices and Deborah moved closer to her father. ‘There’s Hugo now,’ said Mrs Purnell. ‘You can ask him yourself if you may go, Deborah.’

As Hugo Purnell entered the room, Roger Francis noticed behind him, in the hallway, the hovering figure of the maid Alice and he assumed, he knew not why, that she had been waiting for her master to return. Hugo strode across to greet him. ‘How do you do, sir! How nice of you to visit us. Don’t you think that Deborah is looking well?’ He took hold of his wife’s hand and squeezed it affectionately. ‘She was not at all well, you know, when we were in Italy. She is not a good traveller, I fear, are you, my love?’

Deborah stared at her husband and shook her head.

‘I understand she has been taking some kind of medication? From a foreign doctor?’ Roger Francis’s tone of voice implied that foreign medicine was not equal to that of English.

‘Excellent fellow!’ Hugo rubbed his hands together and leant towards him. ‘Highly recommended. I have his address if you would like it. Deborah has come on in leaps and bounds since she saw him, haven’t you, Debs?’

His eyes stared mesmerically at Deborah and she wet her lips and nodded, her eyes not leaving his.

‘I called’, said Roger Francis, ‘to ask if Deborah would like a visit home, to her old home, that is. Her mother would like to see her and I thought that –’.

‘What! Leave me?’ Hugo’s face drooped. ‘Out
of the question, I’m afraid. Whatever would I do without her? Besides, I’m buying her a new house! We went to see one in Hessle the other day and decided that would be just the thing. Good air – river breezes.’ He patted Deborah’s cheek. ‘Deborah has to choose curtains and carpets and furniture before we can move in, haven’t you?’

Her face became a little brighter, but still she was confused. ‘If you say so, Hugo.’

‘I do say so,’ he smiled. ‘And then –’, his voice dropped as he turned to his father-in-law, ‘we have this other nasty business coming up soon. I’m afraid that Deborah will be wanted as a witness at the hearing.’

The weather suddenly became colder and down in the depths of the gaol the inmates shivered. Their toes and fingers turned blue, for few of them wore stockings or shoes and their food, barely warm when sent down to them, was usually covered in a skin of cold fat by the time it reached them.

Emily shivered by her small fire, which was always lit when the warders, in expectation of a gratuity, thought she expected visitors. At other times, they forgot to bring her wood to light it, even though she asked them several times. Mary came one day and had snow on her boots and she exclaimed at how cold it was in the cell.

‘Do you know what day it is, Emily?’ She put down her basket, which seemed fuller and heavier than usual.

‘I’ve lost track of time,’ Emily said wearily. ‘I seem to have spent the whole of my life in this place.’

‘It’s Christmas Day,’ she said. ‘Didn’t you hear the bells ringing?’

Emily shook her head. ‘Christmas Day! Have I been here so long?’ She started to weep. ‘If only
the hearing would start. I feel as if I have been forgotten.’

‘Not forgotten, Emily,’ Mary said, a shade reproachfully. ‘Your friends think of you constantly.’

‘I’m sorry,’ she snuffled. ‘I didn’t mean you, Mary, or Mr Francis. You have been so good to me. I meant the authorities. Why don’t they bring me to court and let me know the worst?’

‘Mr Hibbert says the magistrates’ hearing will be after the Christmas recess. So not long now,’ she added, trying unsuccessfully to bring cheer to Emily. She started to unpack her basket. ‘I’ve brought slices of goose, straight from the oven, and stuffing, roast potatoes and parsnips. I told the cabby to drive as fast as he could so that it wouldn’t go cold before we ate it.’

Emily stared at her. ‘Do you mean that you are going to stay and eat here?’ she asked in amazement. ‘But you must go home! If it’s Christmas, you must have friends who want you with them. You can’t spend Christmas here!’

‘I can and I will,’ she said, unwrapping plates and parcels. ‘I do often spend Christmas with friends, but sometimes I spend the day alone, because that is how I like it – when I can’t be with the one I want to be with. But this Christmas I want to spend with you and we shall pretend we are somewhere else. Where shall we be, Emily?’

Emily wiped away her tears. ‘Tell me about your little house behind the shop. That’s where I should like to be, so that I can smell the perfume of flowers drifting through.’

So in the cramped and cold cell as they ate their Christmas dinner, Mary told of her cosy house behind the flower shop with the heavy curtains to keep out the draughts and the bright cushions on the chairs and the rug in front of the fire, and Emily imagined that she was there and not incarcerated in a damp prison cell awaiting trial for murder.

‘You must have missed Sam very much when you first went away,’ Emily said. ‘How could you bear it? I felt sad for my poor dead baby, even though I hadn’t known him. But I cradled him in my arms and knew that I would have loved him.’

Mary was silent for a moment, then said softly, ‘I have missed him every day of his life, though I’m sure he doesn’t think about me. He won’t even remember me. But’, she sighed, ‘I had to go. Roger was promised to someone else and his father told him he would disinherit him if he married me. I couldn’t let that happen, he loves that place, that land, and I knew that he would always look after Samuel and my mother, which he couldn’t have done if I’d stayed. It would have been such a scandal if people had found out. But’, she said, ‘if we had known what unhappiness lay in front of him, then perhaps we would have taken a chance and stayed together.’

‘Unhappiness?’ Emily queried. ‘You mean because he didn’t love his wife?’

‘Not just that. You realize that Samuel is a – little slow?’

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Granny Edwards always said he wasn’t right sharp. But he’s clever in other ways,’
she added defensively. ‘He knows how to fish and trap.’

Mary smiled. ‘I’m sure he does. Not like his step-brother and step-sister. Theirs is a more serious situation.’

Emily put her hands to her mouth. It hadn’t occurred to her that Sam was related to Deborah Purnell and her brother. ‘Oh,’ she murmured. ‘They say that the poor boy is insane. He’s in an asylum. And Miss Deborah, she’s, well – she’s a little excitable!’

‘Yes. Roger didn’t know that derangement ran in his family. His father knew, for he had had another child before Roger, but he chose not to tell him. Not until it was too late. My Samuel was lucky,’ she spoke softly and slipped into her native Holderness tongue, ‘not like them other poor bairns.’

As they finished a portion of Christmas pudding and put away the dirty dishes into the basket, they heard footsteps coming down the passageway and Ginny appeared at the gate, clutching a basket. ‘Oh, Emily,’ she peered at her through the bars, ‘I’ve been that worried about you.’ The warder unlocked the gate and let her in and Emily introduced her to Mary, saying only that Mary used to know her father.

‘I haven’t been able to come before,’ Ginny said. ‘Mrs Marshall heard that I’d been visiting you, I don’t know how, one of ’other maids I expect. Anyhow she said I hadn’t to come again. She said she didn’t want anyone from her house becoming involved. But then after dinner today I appealed to her and asked if I could bring you some victuals that
were left over. They’ll only be wasted, I said, and it is Christmas and Emily is half-starved in that place. So she said I could and that I had to report back to her and tell of what went on in these places.

‘Old cow!’ she said bitterly. ‘Her and her cronies, they can’t wait for you to come to court.’

‘Well, it seems they won’t have to wait long.’ Emily’s meal suddenly turned sour as she thought of what was to come, then she said, ‘Ginny! As I’ve eaten well today, dare you ask ’warder to take you down to the other cell, where I was before? There’s a woman there called Meg, she doesn’t get any visitors and I know she won’t have any extra food, so she’ll be glad of mine. Will you do that for me?’

‘But Emily,’ Ginny objected, ‘it’ll keep. It’s cold turkey leg and a bit of ham. Tomorrow you might be glad of it!’

‘Tomorrow I’ll think of how Meg would have been glad of it. She was kind to me in her own way, Ginny. I’d like her to have it.’