Blood Brothers (17 page)

He made her a promise. ‘I won’t hurt you anymore,’ he whispered, ‘if you tell me who it was that you slept with…who took what was mine, eh? You have to tell me!’

Gripped with pain, Alice was determined as ever. She turned away.

‘All right, have it your way.’ He threw her aside, saying with a hint of approval. ‘You might be a dirty trollop, but you’re a stubborn bugger if ever I saw one!’

His manner changed. He was insanely calm. ‘So now, you’re making me do something wicked. Something I will not enjoy.’

He turned from her, his attitude surprisingly matter-of-fact. ‘Now you be a good girl while I find some rope, because I’m not done with you yet.’

When he left her there, Alice thought this was her chance, but when she tried to stand up, her legs buckled beneath her. Every bone in her body hurt. Time and again she made the effort to escape, and each time she crumpled to the floor. ‘God help us,’ she muttered. ‘Please God, help us!’

On his swift return, Frank saw that she had moved and he was greatly amused. ‘There you are. Y’see…you’re just too stubborn for your own good.’ He began tying her hands behind her back, and then he tied her legs together. ‘Stubborn,’ he kept saying. ‘Too stubborn for your own good.’

Alice looked up at him, wanting to speak, yet not wanting to tell.

‘Ah!’ He wiped a trickle of blood from her mouth. ‘So, now you want to tell me something, do you?’

Alice spoke in a whisper, ‘Don’t hurt them…please.’ He
would, she thought, he would murder her entire family without a second thought, because he was insane…completely and utterly insane.

He groaned, ‘Oh, dear, and I thought you were about to give me a name.’ He tied the knot twice over and prepared to put the gag on her.

‘Now then, I don’t want you calling out, or any such silly thing like that, not that anyone would hear you, way out here. Listen, I’ll lock the door behind me, so you won’t be disturbed.’

Leaning forward he whispered in her ear, ‘What I have to do won’t take long. I’ll be back before you know it.’

Alice was desperate. If she continued trying to protect Joe, her family would be murdered, of that she had no doubt. If on the other hand she told him about Joe, he would finish her off and then hunt Joe down.

Just now, he had given her a choice, and time was running out. Any minute now, he would stuff the gag in her mouth and there would be no second chance.

Her mind was in chaos but she had to make herself stay calm, think.

Joe was young and able, she reasoned, and if it came to an outright fight, Joe may well be a match for his brother.

Her parents were old, and could not defend themselves against Frank’s manic strength. After all, he was their son-in-law, and when he knocked on the door, they would naturally assume that he had come for help of sorts. They would have no reason to believe he was there to harm them.

What to do? What to do?

When Frank stooped to thrust the gag into her mouth, she panicked. ‘Joe!’ His name filled the room, and then she was sobbing. ‘Just one time…one time, that’s all.’

She saw his mouth fall open; she saw the horror in his eyes, and she looked away, her voice almost inaudible as she pleaded for Joe’s life. ‘It wasn’t his fault…it was me! I went to him
of my own free will.
I’m
the bad one. Listen to me, Frank! You were right. It’s
me
you need to punish.’

He wasn’t listening. Instead he was rocking back and forth, as though in a daze, his face wreathed in disbelief.

He stared at her for a second or two, then he stared at the floor, and now the rocking got faster and faster as he whispered over and over, ‘You and
Joe
!’

Suddenly he rammed the wet cloth into her mouth. When she put up a fight, struggling and biting, and screaming for help, he hit her hard across the side of the head, while driving the rag between her teeth and into her mouth with such force, she found it difficult to breathe.

Slowly shaking her head, she raised her tear-filled eyes to his, silently pleading for him to cut her loose; for someone, anyone to help her.

‘Oh, dearie me…’ He took pleasure from tormenting her. ‘Turning on the tears now is it?’ His answer was a vicious slap to the face. ‘Don’t try the tears on me, because it won’t work!’

As she fell away he issued a warning, by putting a finger to his lips, ‘Ssh.’ It was a clear instruction of how unwise it would be to try and plead with him in that way.

As he went out the door, he spoke to her as though everything was quite normal, ‘I’ll do what I have to do, and then I’ll be back. I’m glad you told me the truth, it makes everything so much easier. You really are a bad girl though, and as you must know, bad girls should be punished.’

He smoothed back his hair and wiped his forehead, as though brushing off any visible signs of what he had done to her. ‘First things first though. People have to be taught a lesson. After that, you and I need to talk.’ He smiled at her, as though nursing a secret.

Keeping his gaze fixed on her for a moment; he watched her desperately struggling, and he gave a bright, happy smile. ‘Bad, Bad girl!’

He then closed the door behind him, calling as he went, ‘Don’t you worry now. I won’t be long.’

Then she was all alone in the eerie silence.

Straining to see around her, Alice looked for a possible means of escape; though when she tried to move, the ropes cut into her flesh.

Frank was off his head. Somehow she had to find a way to stop him. If she couldn’t find a way to raise the alarm, Joe would die, and so would she.

She heard the slam of a door, the car engine starting. And then the crunch of ground under wheels as the car moved off.

In the ensuing silence, all that could be heard was the rhythmic ticking of the grandfather clock; and the muffled sound of her sobbing.

As the morning light began to fill the skies, Frank drove like a man hellbent on killing himself; careering back and forth across the lane, he seemed oblivious to the deep ditches on either side.

‘I’ll bury the two of you together, that’s what I’ll do!’ He sneered wickedly at the thought. ‘You and the trollop, side by side in a deep, black hole.’

His laughter echoed across the fields.

‘You’re a dead man, Joe!’ He thumped the steering wheel. ‘A dead man!’

Rising with the daylight, as he had done all his farming life, Tom made his way down to the kitchen, only to find Joe already there. ‘Hello, son. I didn’t know you were up and about.’

Joe smiled. ‘I don’t know if up and about is the right description,’ he groaned. ‘More like dragging my feet.’

Tom chuckled at that. ‘Feeling the worse for wear, are you?’

‘You could say that, yes. I think I stayed up past my bedtime last night…what with you and me finishing off that bottle of whisky and talking till the early hours, I feel like something the cat dragged in.’

‘It’ll pass, once you’re out in the fresh air, don’t worry.’ Tom had truly enjoyed being with Joe, and although he had not managed to get much out of him with regard to where he’d been this past year, he consoled himself with the fact that the two of them were at least enjoying each other’s company; something they had not done in a long time.

‘Oh, but wasn’t it good?’ he said warmly. ‘Your mother tucked up in bed and you and me down here putting the world to rights?’

Joe readily agreed, ‘It was good, yes.’

With Joe having already brewed the tea, Tom just needed to pour himself one out, then add the milk and three spoons of sugar. ‘By! I need this!’

Joe was deep in thought. ‘I missed you when I was away,’ he said now, taking Tom by surprise. ‘Last night with the two of us talking together and laughing at nothing, I realised how much I’d missed being here.’

‘We’ll do it again tonight if you’re of a mind,’ Tom said, waddling to the table. ‘Want one?’ He raised his mug of tea.

‘Got one, thanks.’

Collecting his own mug of tea from the table, Joe took a long gulp of it. ‘As for doing it again, I think I’ll give it a miss.’ He groaned, ‘I’ve got a head that feels like two!’

‘It was a damned good wedding, don’t you think, Joe?’

Joe nodded. ‘It was, yes.’ Though it cut him to the heart, he thought Alice looked lovely in the church. ‘I hope they’ll be happy.’

‘D’you mean that, Joe?’ Tom reminded himself of how Joe had long been attracted to his brother’s wife.

Joe was alarmed. ‘What d’you mean?’ he asked sharply. ‘Of course I want them to be happy. Why shouldn’t I?’

Tom apologised, ‘I were only thinking how you haven’t yet managed to find a girl to share your life with. If you were just the smallest bit envious of Frank, I would understand it.’

Deliberately ignoring the last comment, Joe told him, ‘You don’t need to worry about me, Father. The right girl will come along when she’s meant to. Until then, I’m young and content enough to wait.’

Relieved, Tom took a long, deep breath, held it a second or two, then blew it out with the statement, ‘I’m very pleased to hear that, son.’ He had another question. ‘So? What are your plans now? You didn’t say much about that last night.’

Joe had thought long and hard on that one. ‘What would you like them to be?’

Tom looked him in the eye. ‘Me and your mother want you to stay right here, with us; for as short or as long a time as suits you.’

He leaned forward. ‘Listen to me, son, I don’t ask where you’ve been or how you fared, but I do know that since you’ve been back, there are times when I’ve glanced at you, and you’ve been miles away…kind of haunted.’

Joe smiled a wistful, sad smile that touched old Tom’s heart. ‘I’m not haunted,’ he promised, ‘though I will admit I had my bad times while I was away.’

He wanted so much to confide in his father, about the ugliness of prison life, and the loneliness that had taken over him. More than that, he desperately needed someone to understand about his feelings for Alice, the one girl he could not forget. ‘Some day when I’m ready, I might tell you all about it,’ he told Tom ‘But for now, I just need to do what makes me comfortable.’

‘I see.’ Tom leaned back in his chair, ‘And being here with me and the family, has that made you feel comfortable?’

‘Yes, Dad, it has,’ Joe told him fervently. ‘It’s been really good, being here with you and Mum.’ He made no mention of Frank, because Frank was the enemy; and always had been.

Tom confided his own feelings, ‘Like I say, for what it’s worth, son, there is nothing me and your mother would like better than for you to stay here.’ He added thoughtfully, ‘Not just because Frank is planning on acquiring his own farm; though if I’m honest that is a consideration. No! It’s just, well, we want you here at home with us, where you belong. I can tell you have a lot on your mind, and I’m sure there’ll come a time when you’ll share your troubles with us, but for now, don’t you think it makes sense for you to stay, and be kind to yourself for a time?’

He persuaded in a fatherly way, ‘That way, son, you’ll have no one to answer to, and there’ll be plenty of time to decide what it is you want to do with the rest of your life.’

Joe had a question of his own. ‘Do you really think Frank will strike out on his own if he gets the finances to do it?’

Tom had no doubt. ‘Frank is my son and I love him, but I know what he’s like…what he’s
always
been like. Truth is, if he gets an idea into his head, there’s no stopping him! If Frank Arnold is hellbent on doing something, he’ll see it through to the end.’

He paused, before going on in a quieter voice, ‘I’m afraid your brother is a law unto himself. If he means to become the gentry landowner, he’ll walk over anyone who gets in his way, and he won’t give me nor his mother a second thought.’

He lapsed into deep thought, before confiding in a whisper, ‘Between you and me, there was a time when me and your mother got really worried about him. He was such a difficult boy, so unpredictable…we never knew what he’d be getting up to next.’

Looking straight at Joe, he asked, ‘I don’t suppose you recall the time he tied that boy round the tree…nigh cut the poor little bugger in half with the rope he did!’

Surprised to see how his father had seemed to age just by talking about Frank, Joe wanted to put his mind at rest. ‘We were just kids, Dad. We were playing cowboys and indians, that’s all.’ He was quick to assure him, ‘Looking back, I agree it was a silly thing to do, but I don’t think Frank meant any harm.’

Tom shook his head vehemently. ‘It was a cruel and spiteful thing to do,’ he said sharply. Then in softer tone, ‘He doesn’t get it from me or your mother, that’s for sure!’

Joe had seen how his father was going back over the years and it worried him, because if he was dwelling on that particular episode, what else was he thinking about? Did he suspect that Frank had murdered their little dog? And what about all the other things Joe knew and had never told…did he know about them too?

Joe quickly changed the subject. ‘So, you want me to stay, do you?’

Tom’s face brightened. ‘O’ course we do! Me and your mother were talking about it in bed last night…’ He added with a mischievous twinkle in his eye, ‘There’s nothing much else to do when you get to our age.’

‘Right, well, d’you want to know a secret?’

‘Only if it’s a good one.’

‘Well, first of all, I should tell you, I had already decided to leave straight after the wedding.’ When he saw his father’s expression fall, he went quickly on, ‘Now though…after Frank told us of his plans to move on, I’ve decided to stay. I want to work here, with you and Mum. Like you say…I need to take some time to decide what I want long term.’

Added to that, he needed to stay close in order to keep a wary eye on Alice. ‘So, Dad, I don’t reckon I’ll be going off on a new adventure for some time to come.’

Tom’s eyes filled with tears. ‘Oh, son, that’s the best news you could have ever given us. Wait till I tell your mother. Oh, she’ll be that pleased!’

A few minutes later, Nancy came into the kitchen, yawning, and in a cranky mood. ‘I thought when you got to a certain age, you were allowed to have a lie-in; especially on a Sunday!’

‘Ah, but you’re a farmer’s wife, so you need to be up with the lark,’ Tom declared, a secret little smile written across his ruddy-red face.