Another Man’s Child. Anne Bennett

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ have figured out who that was. Even wondered if you’d come to gloat.’

      ‘What?’ Norah said, confused. ‘What are you on about?’

      McCadden gave an ironic laugh. ‘You really don’t know?’

      ‘Know what?’

      ‘It was your brother did this.’

      ‘Tom?’ Norah cried. She could hardly believe it and her shocked reaction was genuine, McCadden saw. ‘Tom did this to you?’

      ‘Yes,’ McCadden said. ‘And he didn’t get all his own way I can tell you. I left my mark on him too.’

      ‘You did,’ Norah said, remembering her brother’s odd behaviour and what Sammy had told them about his blackened face on the way to Mass. ‘He didn’t get up for Mass this morning.’

      ‘Well if your father had had his way, I might not be getting up at all,’ McCadden said. ‘I might still be lying in the ditch in the mangled mess they would have made of me because the two of them attacked me first and I said only cowards think it takes two men to attack one.’

      Norah’s eyes grew wide. ‘You called my father a coward?’

      McCadden nodded. ‘I did.’

      ‘Surprised he didn’t kill you.’

      ‘He didn’t try because Tom said I was right and he would fight me fair and square.’

      ‘Who won?’

      McCadden shrugged. ‘I did knock him down in the end, but I think we were fairly evenly matched. All in all, Tom gave a good account of himself.’

      ‘And this was all over Celia?’

      Andy nodded. ‘To teach me a lesson, your father said. He could have saved himself the bother. I have already given my notice to the Fitzgeralds and not because of the money your father offered me or the beating he tried to give me.’

      It was news to Norah that her father had offered McCadden money – to stay away from Celia, she presumed – and she was surprised by the lengths he was prepared to go to in order to protect Celia from Andy McCadden, as if he was some sort of monster.

      ‘Unless I move on,’ Andy went on, ‘Celia will be given no life at all. I see how they have her at Mass and she is like a frightened little sparrow.’ He shook his head sadly and went on. ‘I can’t do that to her.’

      ‘How much do you care for her, Andy?’

      ‘A great deal. I thought you knew that.’

      ‘I had to be sure,’ Norah said. ‘Do you care for her enough to take her away from here when you go?’

      Andy started for that was the last thing he’d expected Norah to say. Knowing she had not been that keen on him in the beginning, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. ‘What rot are you talking? You know your father—’

      ‘My father mustn’t know,’ Norah cried. ‘You must sneak away.’

      Andy shook his head regretfully. ‘I can’t do that,’ he said. ‘For all Celia is eighteen now, she’s emotionally younger than her years. She needs to live a bit.’

      ‘She loves you.’

      ‘She has met no one else, that’s all,’ Andy said. ‘When I am gone they will ease up on her and she will meet someone else your father approves of.’

      Norah shook her head. ‘She won’t. She will be sent to America.’

      Andy looked at her disbelievingly. ‘There’s no point in that if I am not here anymore. Anyway I thought it was you going to America.’

      ‘It was,’ Norah said with a sigh. ‘Now, to keep Celia out of your clutches, she is being sent there. I doubt it would help if you disappeared off the scene now because my father wouldn’t know where you’d gone to and whether you’d be back. Celia’s fate, I’m afraid, is sealed.’

      ‘I still can’t take her with me,’ Andy said. ‘It wouldn’t be right.’

      ‘Is it right to send her to America where she doesn’t want to go?’

      ‘Maybe not,’ Andy conceded. ‘But your parents have rights over Celia until she is twenty-one.’

      Andy was silent and Norah heard the ticking of the clock and she felt quite desperate. This was maybe the only chance she would have to talk to Andy alone. She thought he would have jumped at the chance. The silence between them had begun to feel uncomfortable when Norah gave a shrug and said, ‘That’s that then. Celia will be going to America. That’s if she’s well enough to make the crossing.’

      Andy’s head shot up. ‘Why wouldn’t she be?’ he cried. ‘Is she sick?’

      ‘In the mind only,’ Norah said. ‘She is locked in her room every day and let out only for meals, not that she eats much of anything put before her. Andy, her clothes are hanging from her and she looks pale and listless. It’s like she is pining away and I think she is pining for you. Don’t desert her now, Andy. It would be too cruel and might indeed be the last straw for her.’

      Andy was greatly affected by Norah’s words and they changed his mind-set completely. He had seen Celia’s wretchedness and it was to help her that he had decided to leave, but if she was actually becoming ill and if Norah was right and his leaving now would not help the situation, then he had to do something else. And so, despite any misgivings he had about taking Celia with him because of her age and immaturity, and also despite the jurisdiction her parents had over her, he knew he had to get her away from her tyrannical father before he killed her altogether. How could he live with himself if something happened to her because he didn’t act?

      ‘Has the ticket for America arrived yet?’

      ‘No and it would be well to be away before it comes,’ Norah said. ‘If now you’ve decided to take her with you?’

      Andy nodded. ‘I’ll take her because I feel I must.’

      ‘She will die if she stays,’ Norah said. ‘Either before she goes or on the crossing, when she will be completely alone. Once that ticket arrives I think Daddy will have her on that liner faster than the speed of light.’

      ‘You’re right,’ Andy said. ‘I will not be able to work my notice and I do feel sorry about it because the Fitzgeralds have been good to me. And I’ll have to borrow Mr Fitzgerald’s horse too, because we’ll need a horse to get to Letterkenny by dawn to get the train down to the docks in Belfast before dawn and we daren’t use the roads. The horse’s hooves will sound in the night.’

      ‘So how will you know the way if you don’t use the roads?’

      ‘We’ll follow the rail bus tracks.’

      Norah knew all about the rail buses, the little red trains that ran on narrow-gauge tracks that people said had opened up the north of Ireland. ‘I’ve never travelled on one of those.’

      ‘Nor me,’ Andy said. ‘In fact I had never СКАЧАТЬ