Eve and Her Sisters (15 page)

‘Mary,’ Eve searched for the right words, ‘did he try and do anything? You know what I mean.’

‘No, I’ve said, haven’t I?’

Eve wanted to believe her. More than anything in the world she wanted to believe that this man had been genuinely in love with a girl he had thought to be seventeen and that his intentions had been honourable. She glanced at Nell and Nell’s face reflected the same doubt she was feeling. When she looked at Caleb, her heart rose into her throat at the pain and anger she saw there and she knew he was fearing the same thing. More for his sake than anyone else’s, like an actress taking her cue she obeyed the inner voice that told her she had to bring some normality back to the situation.They might be wrong. Pray God, oh, pray God they were. Her voice assuming a calm she did not feel, she said quietly, ‘Then we have to trust you are telling us the truth until we speak to him and he can verify what you claim. But it was silly, very silly to meet this man secretly. You put yourself in considerable danger.’

Mary looked at her, a long look. More than anything else it confirmed to Eve that her suspicions were right but following the course she’d determined on moments before, she rose briskly to her feet. ‘The inn won’t take care of itself. Nell, go and join Cassie and I’ll help Mary in here.’

Caleb watched Eve organising everyone. He wanted to shout at her to stop being so damn cool and controlled, to yell or lose her temper, anything that showed feeling, but that wasn’t Eve. And yet . . . His mind caught at the memory of her face that afternoon, a memory that now seemed to have happened in another lifetime. She did have feelings but she buried them deeper than most. He must remember that in his dealings with her. But for this present situation . . . He groaned inwardly. Had Mary let this man touch her? However she acted and however old she appeared, she was still just a young girl. This man had turned her head with his talk of being a fine gentleman with money to throw around. He would go mad, stark staring mad if she had let herself be used.

He left the kitchen and went back out into the yard. He lifted his face to the snow-filled sky as he had done a little earlier, but this time his eyes were closed. He let the snowflakes settle on his face and hair.

Did it bode well that this man had come looking for her? Did it mean he held her in some respect? Or had he simply assumed no one would be any the wiser because he’d been told her only parent was a bedridden invalid? That might be nearer the truth.

But he would have known, wouldn’t he, loving her as he did, if she had slept with this Nicholas? He would have sensed it, felt something was amiss. And he hadn’t. She had seemed the same. Beautiful, bright, even angelic looking. Everything he could ever want.

He opened his eyes, wiping the snowflakes from his face. He knew why Eve had insisted on coming with him tomorrow. She was worried he might do something silly when he found this Nicholas Taylor. She was right, he might, if the man’s answers were anything but what Mary had indicated.They would have to see, wouldn’t they? But he was ready for anything.

He remained standing in the yard for some time. When he moved, it was not to go into the inn but across the cobbles to the meat store. It was icy inside and a grim place at the best of times. Shutting the door, he stood in the darkness, and for the first time since his father had died, Caleb cried.

‘And you say Caleb and Eve are going to Sunderland tomorrow to try and find this man?’ Toby Grant’s rough face was concerned as he looked at Nell. The two of them were standing at the far end of the long wooden counter which ran down the width of the inn, Nell on one side and Toby on the other. Cassie was serving customers some distance away and they could not be overheard, although the other girl constantly looked their way.

Nell nodded. Leaning forward, her elbows on the polished wood, she murmured, ‘I’m worried, Toby. About what Caleb might do.You saw that man, he’s a gentleman, he’s got a bit of money behind him. If Caleb loses his temper, it could mean him going down the line if the man turns nasty.’

‘But there’s nothing to say this man did anything except buy her trinkets. There might be nothing to worry about, lass.’

Nell looked at Toby. It had been after he’d first asked her to walk out with him that she had truly noticed him, but since then she had come to see beyond his nondescript looks and short, thickset body. Mary always called him a pit-yakkor and she knew her sister used the term of abuse to rile her. But Toby wasn’t a pit-yakkor. His unexceptional appearance hid an intellect that was keen, and as well as being bright he had a ready wit and a capacity for kindliness that was very attractive. His family were known for being God-fearing and hard-working, but she considered his father and three older brothers somewhat narrow-minded. Toby wasn’t like them. The more she’d had to do with him, the more she had come to feel she liked him. She liked him very much. But he always gave folk the benefit of the doubt. And while this might be commendable in some instances, she knew her sister had been up to no good.

‘I know Mary,’ she said in a voice heavy with meaning.

‘Right.’ Toby stared at the girl he had fallen in love with the first time he had seen her. He had lost count of how many times he had asked her to walk out with him, but he knew she was weakening. She had turned fifteen in November but she was no silly bit lass who did nothing but giggle and act coy like some he could name. And lately she had begun to confide in him, treat him a bit different to the rest. His voice low, he said, ‘Look, lass, whatever happens it’s out of your hands. If this man has been . . .’ He paused. ‘If he’s taken advantage of her, then you can’t change things.’

‘But Caleb would go for him. There’d be hell to pay.’

‘Aye, well, let’s just hope this bloke’s got enough sense to deny everything then.’

Nell blinked. She gave a small laugh as she said, ‘I suppose that’s one way to look at it.’

Toby was recalling the sense of amazement he had felt when he had first realised the three new lassies at the inn were sisters. For the life of him he could see no resemblance. He liked Eve, she was tall and as thin as a lathe but she was nice enough and he knew Nell loved her. But Mary. If ever there was a lass who needed a firm hand it was that one. Pretty as a picture she might be, but he, for one, wouldn’t touch her with a bargepole. He’d nearly come to blows with one of his brothers when Mick had called Mary a whore in the making, but privately he could see what his brother meant. The way she looked at you, the air she had, it was as knowing as time itself. And yet Nell and Eve were so different. Still, that was the way of it in families sometimes. He had an aunty on his da’s side who was never talked about but he understood from one of their neighbours that Aunt Delia was no better than she should be. She’d left her man and four bairns and run off with a tinker, so he’d been told, and the tinker hadn’t been the first man knocking on her door when his uncle had been down the pit working.

‘Try not to fret, lass.’ There was a silence between them as he watched Nell bite her lip. He knew she was angry and upset in equal measure and he hated seeing her like this. Nell was made for laughter, it was in her wide-lipped mouth, her big hips and plump, high breasts. She was what his mam would call salt of the earth and she never let anything get her down, but this, this had knocked her for six.

‘I can’t help it,’ she muttered after a few moments.

‘You don’t think Mary’s in the family way?’

‘What? No, no, it’s not that. No, I don’t think that.’

‘Well, if what you suspect is true, that’s something to be thankful for. It’s a whole new ball game with a bairn on the way.’

There was another silence before Nell said, ‘You must think we’re an awful family.’

‘Don’t talk such rubbish.’ Looking Nell straight in the face, Toby said, ‘Lass, you know how I feel about you, I couldn’t have made meself any plainer. I’ll wait forever if I have to but I will wait. I won’t be going anywhere.’

As they continued to stare at each other, Nell put out her hand and placed it over his on the wooden counter. ‘I’m glad. It’s my half-day next Sunday.’

It took a moment for what she had said to register, but then his unprepossessing, big-nosed face lit up. ‘Nell, oh, Nell.’

 

The snow was thick when they came down for breakfast the next morning, but not so deep they couldn’t make the journey into Sunderland as Eve had secretly hoped, even though she told herself it would only have delayed the inevitable anyway. Mary had fallen into a sullen silence, speaking only in monosyllables when pressed, and no one dallied over breakfast. Caleb had informed his mother what was happening when he took her her hot water for washing. He had returned from Mildred’s room with a face as black as thunder and no one had asked him what had transpired.

Once Cassie and her mother had arrived and Nell and Mary were ensconced in the kitchen with a list of the day’s requirements, Eve and Caleb set off in the horse and cart. Caleb had insisted on wrapping a thick rug round her before they left and Eve was glad of this as the journey lengthened. The heavy blue-grey sky promised further squalls of snow before the day was out and it was bitterly cold, the frozen landscape through which they were travelling glitteringly white.

Caleb hadn’t said two words other than to inquire if she was warm enough, but as they were approaching South Hylton the sound of a woodpecker’s rapping, crystal clear on the still air as they passed the depths of a wood, brought his head tilting. ‘Life goes on.’ He looked at her with a wry smile. ‘Nature doesn’t stop whatever the problems us foolish human beings are struggling with.That’s why I admire it, I suppose.’

‘That and its beauty I suspect.’ Eve was so glad he was more like himself. If he was talking, that had to be a good sign.

He nodded. ‘Look at that beech tree. It must be all of one hundred and twenty feet and it’s as lovely in winter as it is in summer. It’s thought that groves of beech trees once provided the inspiration for Gothic architecture, did you know that?’

Eve shook her head, fascinated he was talking like this.

‘You can see why in the winter when the strength and power of their mighty form is best displayed. The strange smoothness of the bark, the way the silver-grey glimmers in the light—’ He stopped abruptly, shaking his head with a self-deprecating smile. ‘I’m rambling. Sorry.’

‘You’re not,’ she protested. ‘It’s interesting.’

‘Interesting.’ His voice had a harsh note to it now. ‘Did you have an inkling of what was going on?’

‘With Mary and this Nicholas fellow? Of course not. Neither did Nell, I’ve asked her. Mary kept us all in the dark.We had no idea she was doing anything other than seeing Kitty on her time off. If I’d have known I’d have done something.’

‘Aye, I know. I knew that. I’m sorry.’

‘Do you think what happened before, with Josiah Finnigan, led her to this?’ It was the thought which had kept her awake all night. She hadn’t protected Mary then and she hadn’t protected her now. ‘Changed her in some way, I mean?’

Caleb shrugged. ‘I don’t know.’ Then seeing her face, he added quickly, ‘I shouldn’t think so, no.’

He did think that and she couldn’t blame him. She thought the same herself. Nell was of the opinion that with or without Josiah, Mary would have proved wayward, but then she and Mary had never got on. Oh, Mary, Mary. Her fingers knotted together under the rug, Eve kept her eyes straight ahead, not wishing to see the condemnation she was sure was in Caleb’s face. And what if anything happened to him because of her? That was the other thing that had haunted her during the night hours. He loved Mary. She knew he did. And being the sort of man he was, he would want to kill Nicholas Taylor if he had interfered with her. But she wouldn’t let that happen. No matter what she had to do.

 

Seven hours later they were on their way home and Eve had had to do nothing. All their inquiries had proved fruitless. No one knew of a gentleman called Nicholas Taylor. Caleb had torn about like a man possessed, they had neither eaten nor drunk anything all day, but although he had left no stone unturned, it seemed Nicholas Taylor had vanished.Whether the man had given Mary a fictitious name or whether he lived elsewhere they did not know, but one thing was for sure.There was no Nicholas Taylor, gentleman, owner of his own firm, in Sunderland.

Eve’s relief made her feel faint on the way back. It was either that or the fact she had eaten no lunch and Caleb had dragged her from pillar to post all day.

Caleb, she knew, was upset at the outcome although he had not expressed this in words. He had not said anything at all for some time. When he did speak his words brought Eve sitting straighter.‘I shall return tomorrow, I’m not leaving it like this.This man can’t vanish into thin air. He’s somewhere.’

‘Return? To Sunderland you mean?’ Eve asked anxiously.

‘Where else? I might get a lead from someone.’

‘But we would have found him if he had his own business, Caleb.And if he doesn’t, he’s one of hundreds, thousands.’

‘Business or not, I’ll keep looking. Maybe he was exaggerating, maybe he just works for someone. The next step is to check that out.’

Eve shook her head slowly.‘You can’t ask the name of every man in the town, Caleb.’

‘I’ll find him somehow. I’ll track him down.’

‘No, you won’t. We have to face facts. He either gave Mary a false name or he lives elsewhere or both. It’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack, a needle that doesn’t even want to be found. He-he knew what he was doing.’

She glanced at Caleb’s profile.The dark, heavy sky was nothing to the expression on his face. ‘He’s gone now and he won’t show his face again. And Mary said nothing happened, remember.’

‘Do you believe her?’ He looked straight at her.

‘Yes,’ she lied, knowing it was what he wanted to hear. ‘I believe her. She just liked the presents, that’s all.’