Whispers in the Village (22 page)

‘Maggie could report it to the police.’

‘Oh! Maggie was it, saw me? A couple of drinks will soon sort that out. She wouldn’t dare.’

‘I might.’

‘And ruin all your good work? All the time you’ve spent trying to keep me on the straight and narrow. Some Christian you are. Well, I’ll tell you something, shall I? Something about you. You’re pining for that Gilbert fella. Pining! I can see it in your eyes, and him a married man, for God’s sake. And I’m the one to make sure everyone knows.’ He stabbed the air with a vicious forefinger. ‘So just keep out of my business or I’ll start the rumours up, this time about you and Gilbert. He must be a sexy devil, a family the size of his; wouldn’t be difficult to get people to believe me. Just a nod and a wink is all it takes in this place and they’d be on to it like a shot.’

Paddy spun on his heel and left Anna standing humiliated and afraid. She’d pray about her feelings for Gilbert and would have to get them under control somehow. She couldn’t afford scandal; her position was already precarious enough. What was it about rectors at Turnham Malpas? Were they destined to be the subject of rumours and counter-rumours?

The absent rector of Turnham Malpas had sent an email that had nothing to do with rumours. When Jimbo found it on his computer the following morning, just before he went to Matins, his heart almost burst with the shock of what he read.

To: Everyone at Turnham Malpas
From: New Hope Mission

Dear Friends

Pray for us. Pray for us. Your brother and sister in Christ need your prayers. Our beloved children were ambushed by rebels on their way home from school yesterday. Usually I collect them from school to bring them home for the weekend, but an Anglican missionary we k now suggested he drove them home as he was travelling to stay for the weekend with us. The car was attacked and the children are gone. Nothing of them nor their belongings was found at the scene. The missionary was discovered in a storm drain at the side of the road shot dead. Elijah has gone to search for them. We pray desperately for his safe return and that of the children
.

Peter and Caroline

Jimbo felt physically sick. His head pounded with pain, and for a moment his heart felt to have stopped beating. He drew in a huge gasp of air and wondered what use their fundraising was now. He printed out the email, folded it and placed it in his pocket, then went to tell Harriet and the girls what had happened. Fran burst into noisy tears, Flick went drip-white and Harriet clung to him for comfort. He gave the copy of the email to Anna to read in the vestry before the service.

‘This has come this morning,’ he said to her. ‘I thought you ought to know. Read it, please. God in heaven, Anna. We’ll have to pray like we’ve never prayed before.’

Anna’s problems faded away. Her hands shook so much she could scarcely read the words. ‘Dear God. Why? For heaven’s sake, when all they’re doing is helping put things right, to give these people the basic needs of a human being, and they do this. What possible good can it do, kidnapping two children? Political opponents perhaps, but
children
?’

Soberly Jimbo said, ‘We don’t know they were kidnapped, let’s hope they’re still alive.’ He caught sight of Gilbert signalling his readiness from the vestry doorway. ‘Gilbert’s waiting for you.’

‘Gilbert is? Ah! Yes. Tell him I’m ready. Just one minute while I pull myself together.’

Anna held the service, as she was bound to do, but the one she had planned was abandoned and she held an open pulpit for people to speak or pray as they wished. There was not a dry eye in the church that morning. They decided to pray, keeping an all-night vigil, a twenty-four-hour chain of prayer for Beth and Alex. What else could they do? Nothing. It was a last resort.

‘Some good us getting money together for such an ungrateful lot.’

‘Might as well throw the money down a drain. They’ll get no more of mine anyway. That’s for certain.’

Anna’s reply was, ‘We mustn’t let this affect us. Those who’ve done this aren’t the ones we’re collecting the money for.’

‘How d’we know which side they’re all on? Could be saying one thing and doing another.’

‘You’re right there. Blast ’em. Them two poor kids. It’s not right.’

Anna broke in to put a stop to the resentment. ‘It isn’t right, I agree, but we’ve to maintain our faith and think of Caroline and Peter and support them with our prayers. We must not let the poison of these murderers affect the way
we
think.
We
must behave as Peter would want us to. As I want you to. With courage and steadfastness. With honour and belief. Nothing we do or think must bring us down to the level of these rebels. In the long term the money is obviously desperately needed and we’ll see they get it. Bibles to spread the Word, along with medicines and syringes and dressings and drugs. What was it Jesus said? “Turn the other cheek”. This is one of those moments to remember that. God bless you all.’

A group gathered around Jimbo to put their names for the prayer vigil and Anna had to leave them to it. She stood in the vestry, alone, overcome by spiritual exhaustion, tears beginning to pour down her face. Unaware that Gilbert was standing in the doorway, his arms full of choir music he was wanting to put away in the choir music cupboard, she let the tears flow.

‘Anna!’ Gilbert put the sheet music down on the vestry table and opened his arms wide. ‘Anna, my dear. What a triumph! There, there, you’ve done brilliantly and saved the day. It could all have got very nasty in there and understandably so, but you spoke right to their hearts and just how Peter would have done. The thought of a child of mine in those unpredictable, spinechilling circumstances horrifies me. There, there. Come along now, dry your tears.’

Anna loved the comfort his words and his actions brought to her. They eased her soul, strengthened her resolve. He rocked her gently, talking softly to her as he would have done to one of his own children. Thinking that brought her abruptly to her senses. In the shelter of his arms she sniffed back her tears. ‘I’m so sorry. Making an exhibition of myself.’

‘Not an exhibition. You couldn’t have held it all together without some severe emotional drain, it had to come out. Now dry the tears, Anna, my dear, or—’

They heard the vestry door crashing back against the cupboard and before they let go of each other to see who was there, they were violently torn apart. Ashen-faced and breathing fire stood Dean Jones. He thrust Gilbert up against the music cupboard and threatened him with his clenched fist. ‘How dare you? How dare you touch Anna in that way!’

Gilbert, sensing he’d been thrust deep into an emotional whirlpool, shrewdly took a deep breath before he spoke. ‘Dean! Please. Have some sensitivity. Anna was—’

‘Sensitivity! It’s you without sensitivity, not I. How dare you put your arms round her. In public, too. Have you no shame?’

‘Look—’

‘I did look – and saw
you
.’ His face was now flushed and he was beginning to see he was making the most horrendous fool of himself, but his temper got the better of him and he hit out at Gilbert with more power in his punch than he had ever thought himself capable of.

Anna shouted, ‘Dean! For heaven’s sake!’ She shut the vestry door to keep things as private as she could but she guessed she might already be too late. She pushed him away from Gilbert, who now had blood running from his nose and stood, holding up both his hands. ‘I’m a pacifist. I can’t strike back.’ He took his handkerchief out and held it to stem the blood.

‘A coward’s way out! Huh!’

Anna, boiling with frustration at his idiocy, shouted, ‘Dean! I insist you leave the vestry at once. This minute.’

Gilbert shook his head. ‘No, I’ll leave. You need to talk.’ He gestured at the music he’d laid down on the table. ‘Please?’

‘Of course. I’ll put it away.’ When Gilbert had left, Anna spoke coldly to Dean. ‘You owe both Gilbert and me an apology. It’s my turn to say how dare you? Bursting in here when I was talking privately to him, behaving like an angry child, shouting, using your fists. What on earth is the matter with you?’

Her anger mortified Dean. All these beautiful sunlit weeks when he’d longed to tell her, had imagined how delighted she would be when he told her how he felt, fell away from him and he realized so clearly how she viewed him in her mind. A foolish boy with the hots for her. His eyes, shining with his love, slid away from her face and focused on the music laid on the table. Humbly and softly he murmured, ‘But he’s a married man. With children. How could he?’

‘Dean! I’d been crying because of the twins and having to take hold of the service and keep everyone together. I was exhausted, and he comforted me. Believe me, there’s nothing between us. It’s like you said, he’s a married man with children. Full stop.’

Dean’s shoulders slumped and a tentative hand went out to her. He touched her cheek and then withdrew his hand immediately. ‘I’m sorry to have caused … you of all people … grief. That was why I came in here because I wanted to help. I knew you’d be exhausted.’

‘Well, thank you for thinking of me, thank you very much. But you’ve to put me out of your mind.’ Awry smile crossed her face. ‘You deserve someone much more beautiful and exciting than me. I’m much too old for a strapping young chap with prospects like yours. There.’ Anna kissed a finger and pressed it to his cheek.

Dean clutched her hand and held it to his lips. ‘Anna! Anna!’

There came a hurried tap and an immediate opening of the door and there stood Muriel, flushed and embarrassed.

Anna snatched her hand away, immediately conscious of how things must look. ‘Thank you, Dean, for your kindness in thinking of me.’

Dean caught sight of the disgust on Muriel’s face and wished himself anywhere but where he was. He managed to control himself long enough to say, ‘Think nothing of it. Glad I could be of some use.’

Muriel covered her confusion by saying, ‘I’ve come to see if you’re all right. You’ve done so well this morning. I couldn’t have done a quarter of what you’ve done in such difficult circumstances. Not a quarter. Didn’t you think she did well, Dean?’

‘She did indeed, Lady Templeton. Must go.’

He nodded to Anna as he squeezed past her on his way out.

Anna rubbed her eyes to make sure there were no tears lingering there, straightened her cassock and looked as brightly as she could at Muriel.

Slowly and deliberately Muriel said, ‘I’m glad it was I who came in just then, because I shan’t say a word of what I saw.’

‘Muriel! He was comforting me because I was crying, that’s all. Nothing more.’

‘Of course, my dear, I know that, but there are others who would delight in passing on what they’d seen. In your position you can’t be too careful.’ Oh, dear. Oh, dear. At such a time as this. Poor Dean. Poor Anna.

‘Terrible news, isn’t it, about the children. Peter and Caroline must be distraught.’

‘Anna, my dear, having no children of my own, I can’t even begin to understand what the pain must be like for them. We’ve known the twins since the day they were born, you know, they’re both very dear to us all. It’s so hard to bear. However, thank you for this morning. You held us together.’ She shut the door behind her and slowly made her way up the church and wished, how she wished, Peter and Caroline would be at the door saying good morning to everyone. But they wouldn’t be.

Throughout the night, silent figures could be seen making their way to the church to maintain the chain of prayer for Beth and Alex. From down Shepherd’s Hill they came, from Penny Fawcett, from Little Derehams, from big houses and tiny cottages, from Church Lane, Stocks Row and the Culworth Road, an army of sympathizers praying with desperate hope in their hearts for Peter and Caroline and that the children might be recovered safe and sound.

It had a profound effect on the village. What should have been a fun week looking forward to the midnight skinny-dipping event became more sad than they could have ever imagined. Sales in the Store suffered and Jimbo was inundated with people coming to see if there was any more news, standing around and cluttering up the floor space but not spending money. He chided himself for thinking on those terms but his thoughts were really the outcome of his pain. He had two more emails from Peter, each saying nothing more had been heard, not even a ransom note, which might have given a smidgen of hope.

But time moved on, intricate arrangements had been made, and, willy-nilly, the skinny-dipping had to take place as a demonstration of their steadfast faith, if nothing else.

Early on the Saturday morning, the men installing the temporary lighting arrived to begin work in the back garden of the Store ready for the Sponsored Skinny Dipping at midnight. They arrived with a large van which they parked at the bus stop, an action which rattled the bus driver when he arrived to take everyone into Culworth for their shopping. ‘Who’s this, then? Making a film are we?’ he asked sarcastically as he drew up alongside the van.

There was quite a crowd waiting for the bus and they informed him of the reason for the van.

‘A skinny-dipping? Good God! You lot?’

With as much dignity as she could muster given her vivid red hair, Greta Jones said, ‘Yes, for charity.’

‘What the hell will you get up to next?’