Whispers in the Village (21 page)

They all shook their heads.

‘Thought I’d seen him in the ticket hall. Must have been mistaken. Where’s Greta and Mrs Charter-Plackett?’

‘They haven’t arrived yet. They’re going to miss the bus.’

‘It’ll be here in a minute. Shall we go without them?’

‘Well,’ said Sheila, ‘I don’t want to stand about with all this money; it could get stolen.’

Maggie thought, never a truer word. Out loud she said, ‘I’m going straight home. I’ll only spend money if I stay here.’

One of the weekenders with red-white-and-blue hair said, ‘Me, too. We’ll help you with them, Sheila.’

‘Thanks. I’m a bit worried about Mrs Jones and Grandmama, though. You don’t suppose they’ve been abducted? With all that money.’

‘To say nothing of their hair.’ At which they all had a snigger.

Harriet said, ‘She’ll have her mobile, I’ll give her a buzz.’

It was a while before there was an answer. ‘Hello, Katherine? Where are you? We’re all waiting for the bus …’

‘Harriet? I’m at the police station. I’ve been arrested.’

‘Arrested? Whatever for?’

The answer was confusing, to say the least. More an incoherent rambling than an explanation. If Harriet didn’t know better she’d have thought Grandmama was drunk.

‘But why?’

Then her phone went dead.

Harriet said, ‘Girls, come on, your grandmama’s been arrested. We’ll have to go.’

The three of them raced away, leaving everyone else astounded.

‘Arrested? What has she been doing?’

‘Whatever for?’

‘This’ll look good in the paper.’

‘Any publicity is good publicity,’ said Vince.

‘It won’t really get in the papers, will it?’

‘Sheila, you did get permission from the police to hold a collection today?’

‘Permission? I didn’t know we had to, Vince.’

‘Hell’s bells. What’s more, where’s our Greta? They were together.’

Consternation registered on all their faces. The bus roared up to the stop. Late as usual. He wouldn’t wait. ‘Definitely not. No can do. Get on. And don’t rattle your tins on my bus.’

‘Harriet will look after them,’ Sheila said comfortingly to Vince.

‘I’m off to the police station. I can’t leave her here. Wish Paddy was about, he’d know what to do.’ Vince got off the bus and marched out of the bus station.

Maggie thought that maybe Paddy wouldn’t be too keen on a visit to the police station, after what she’d seen him do. She needed to say something to someone about it.

Harriet, the two girls, Mrs Jones, Vince and a distraught Grandmama came home later that afternoon, all squeezed into one taxi. Harriet, having stormed the police station and using her most businesslike and forthright manner, had managed to rescue the two of them without charges being laid. Harriet had a sneaking suspicion that they’d been arrested more as a joke than anything, because she caught a twinkle in the eye of one of the officers, and he gave her a wink.

On the way home to Turnham Malpas, Grandmama complained long and loudly, while Mrs Jones sat mute from the shock. They’d never live it down. Never. The embarrassment! She clutched hold of Vince’s hand, wondering just how many people who knew her had witnessed the arrest.

Grandmama suddenly remembered Jimbo. ‘Whatever will Jimbo say? Never in all my life have I been arrested. Never.’

Harriet reassured her. ‘Most probably he’ll roar with laughter and ask why I didn’t take a photograph of you being marched off. So I wouldn’t worry.’

But Harriet’s reassurance did nothing to calm Grandmama’s discomfort. Added to which, she had the most horrendous headache coming on and she’d left her tablets at home.

The news of the arrest spread rapidly through the village from the rectory to right down Shepherd’s Hill. It also was spread through Penny Fawcett and Little Derehams because the bus went on there after Turnham Malpas and, being the Saturday shopping bus, it was packed to the door.

In the pub that night it was top of the agenda so far as conversation went. Vera, in with Don to give him a bit of a change, laughed herself silly, thinking of the times when Grandmama had made her feel small. Now it was Vera’s turn to laugh, and she made the most of it.

What they hadn’t bargained for was a photograph of Greta Jones and Grandmama, and a piece about their arrest in the
Culworth Gazette
on the Wednesday of that same week. But who cared? All good for the New Hope Fund.

Mortification was rampant in the cottage on the Green, as Grandmama buried her head in her hands and groaned. Unfortunately Vince and Paddy relished every single inch of column space the arrest had been given, so Greta felt completely humiliated. They would keep howling with laughter and making merry quips, which tore at her heart.

But by Friday night the laughter had died down and Grandmama had begun to go out again and made herself as amused as everyone else about it. She even felt a little pleasure at everyone’s interest in her, and actually cut out the article and the picture of her and Greta being marched off by the police officers. Anyhow, she and Greta had collected more than anyone else in their tins. She’d heard it was a dazzling total.

Maggie still had the problem of Paddy stealing that purse in the ticket hall at the bus station. Should she or should she not say what she had seen? Greta ought to know, but she was suffering enough without her landing this thieving story on her. Someone had to be told. Then it dawned on her: Anna. After all, it was Anna who’d brought him to the village in the first place, and wearing a clerical collar she’d know exactly what to say, just like Peter had always known.

So, on the Friday night, she marched across to the rectory and banged the knocker loudly.

Anna came to the door. ‘Maggie? How’s things? Do come in.’

Maggie followed her into the sitting room. Such a lovely room; it was just as it was when Caroline lived here. Beautifully furnished, in the most pleasant and relaxing way, with subtle colours and cuddling comfort everywhere.

‘Now, Maggie, do you have a problem? If so, spill the beans.’

Maggie straightened her skirt and coughed to clear her throat. ‘I’m not here to tittle-tattle.’

‘Of course not.’

‘But I am here to tell you something you won’t like.’

Immediately Anna thought about the incident with Gilbert in the church the other evening, when she’d got over-animated. Had she been seen holding his arm and talking so intensely to him? That night she could have reached up and kissed him without any encouragement. God! She hoped not.

‘You see, you didn’t go collecting with us, did you?’

Relief. ‘No.’

‘Well, we all went to wait for the bus to come back, we had a very successful morning, you know, collected far more than we’d expected. I needed … well … I needed to spend a penny, as yer might say and – do you know the ticket hall?’

‘Well, no, I don’t actually.’

‘Well, you have to go through there to get to the toilets and on my way back I saw Paddy Cleary steal a woman’s purse. It’s true, I’m not trying to get him into trouble. Plain as day. It’s been worrying me all week, but I can’t tell Greta Jones, ’cos she’s worried enough about getting arrested and that photo in the paper. So I thought I’d tell you. Is it all right?’

‘To tell me? Of course, but I wish you hadn’t had to. I thought he’d turned over a new leaf.’

‘We all did. We all thought that. But he did. Before my very eyes, he disappeared with the purse and the woman ran to catch her bus not knowing what had happened.’

‘Don’t worry, I’ll have a word with him.’

‘Oh! Thank you. It’ll be better coming from you rather than me. Greta Jones can’t half take the huff if she’s a mind to.’

‘I’ll tread carefully.’

‘Thank you very much indeed. I’m so relieved. Goodnight, Reverend. You’re doing very well, you know. Peter was a hard act to follow, but they’re all coming round to you.’

‘Thank you. I’ll attend to this matter as soon as maybe.’

‘I’ll be off then.’

Anna stood in the window of the sitting room, watching Maggie cross the road to her house and feeling thankful her news wasn’t what she thought it was going to be.

That night in the church after choir practice, she’d gone completely over the top talking to Gilbert. He had this strange effect on her, where she lost all common sense and went into overdrive, flirting almost. There’d been other men in her life before she was ordained but none had the capacity to alert her in the same way Gilbert did. He, being a happily married man with a pregnant wife and a large family, made absolutely no overtures to her at all. He treated her like a perfectly normal human being, although there was nothing normal about her when she was with him. She urgently needed to get it under control.

Her other problem was Dean. His kind of calf-love was very flattering but meant nothing to her and everything to him. She sensed it each time he came near her and avoided being alone with him as much as she possibly could. Maybe she was flattering herself but she felt it wouldn’t take much for him to kiss her, or at least to hold her. A romance with an inexperienced boy, which he was despite his twenty-two years, would be unkind of her and disastrous for him.

The third man in her life was Paddy. Damn Paddy. Anna glanced at her watch and decided she had time to catch him in the pub if she went right now. But she’d forgotten it was the awards night for the hair-dyeing competition.

Jimbo was standing on a chair announcing the details. His powerful voice could be heard all round the saloon bar.

‘There were three categories of prizes. The most amusing, the most wicked and the most fashionable improvement. Lady Templeton has graciously agreed to present the prizes, which are … vouchers for a full treatment at the Misty Blue Unisex Hair and Beauty Salon in Culworth. These vouchers have been kindly donated by the salon, please note, and we are very grateful for their generosity. So … prize for the most amusing hair goes to … Vince Jones. He gets the full massage treatment as his prize.’

At this announcement great whoops of laughter roared round the bar.

‘All right! All right! The prize for the most wicked hair goes to the three Charter-Plackett girls. They’ll have to fight that out by themselves. Prize for the most fashionable improvement goes to … wait for it … Greta Jones! She gets a complete makeover. Give them a big hand for being so sporting.’

The pub was crowded and the applause thunderous. Anna ordered her drink from Georgie and leaned against the counter, watching the presentation.

‘OK. OK. Silence please. Thank you. Most important of all, between them they collected … yes, pin back your ears! A wonderful total of six hundred and forty-two pounds, thirty-seven pence, which includes the two pounds they paid to enter the competition. The nearest guess to that was Paddy Cleary’s. He guessed six hundred pounds. Come along, Paddy, and collect your prize.’

Lady Templeton handed over to him vouchers for five free drinks in the Royal Oak Bar.

‘So those of you who paid fifty pence to wager on the amount they collected and only guessed between twenty and three hundred pounds were way out. But … their wagers contributed another twenty pounds to the total. Three cheers for the hair-dyeing competition. Hip hip …’

Jimbo led the cheering, then climbed down from his chair and went to kiss his prize-winning family.

Anna caught Paddy in a state of euphoria about his prize.

‘I need a word. Outside. Now.’

‘But I’m treating Greta and Vince—’

‘
Now
.’

‘Oh, hell!’ Anna-with-the-banner again. He thought he’d got rid of her.

After the fug in the bar, the outside air struck him forcibly. ‘Damn blasted cold out here. What do you want? Some more ornaments gone missing, so blame Paddy who hasn’t set foot in the rectory since he got kicked out?’

‘No. Someone saw you on Saturday.’

‘I expect they did, there were dozens of people in Culworth.’

Exasperated, Anna said sharply, ‘Stealing a purse?’

Paddy pushed his hands in his jacket pockets. ‘Who was stealing a purse?’

‘You. In the ticket hall.’

Somehow he wasn’t being quite so clever as he had been at persuading others he wasn’t a thief. ‘All I did in the ticket hall was wait in the warm for the bus.’

‘No, Paddy. You stole someone’s purse from her shopping bag and don’t deny it.’

‘You said it, not me.’ He glanced towards the lighted window of the pub, the vouchers burning a hole in his pocket.

‘What I can’t understand is, where is your money going? You’re getting paid, you’ve a roof over your head, why do you need to steal as well? Old habits, is it? You’ve got a very comfortable home with Greta and Vince, you’ve done them some good because they enjoy your company, and they’ve done you some good by providing you with a stable home like you’ve never had before.’

Paddy looked anywhere but at Anna’s face. Why the crusade? he thought. Why the hell did she never leave him alone? ‘Look, if Greta and Vince don’t know nothing about what I do, that purse and such, what harm is it doing? Just mind your own damn business and let me get on with my life.’ He turned to go. ‘And you get on with yours.’