Sea Gem (49 page)

Mary stood a moment then spun on her heel and headed towards the small shed where she knew Raymond did his paperwork. She halted, astonished to see it was padlocked.

‘What’s this for?’ she snapped as Raymond hurried up.

‘It’s my private workroom, Madam!’

‘On
my
private property! Open it up!’ Mary ordered coldly.

‘Well,’ Raymond stalled, patting his pockets nervously. ‘I think I may have left the key at home in my other trousers.’

Mary’s eyes narrowed. He was lucky to have two pairs of trousers in these days when nearly all the islanders had to dress in disreputable clothing. Certainly those which he wore now were
almost too fine for his type of work. The cloth was of good quality, neither patched nor shiny anywhere. His blue shirt had collar and cuffs which had not been turned either. A dull suspicion,
which she afterwards knew had been growing for a while, roused its head sharply high.

She turned around, saw a shovel on one side, picked it up and before Raymond could protest she smashed it down on the padlock’s hasp. Her blow was accurate and it shattered. Mary dropped
the spade, forced the door open and stepped inside.

It was nothing but an old-fashioned garden shed with a crate as a seat while another doubled as work table. A variety of plant pots lay higgledy-piggledy with various tools strewn around. On the
wooden floor there was dried pellets of mud and much dust.

‘This is my office!’ Raymond protested flying into a panic as he saw his notebook there. It was large and thick, more of a ledger, which in reality it was.

‘
Your
office?’ Mary asked, with a dangerous edge in her voice. She walked over, picked up the book and opened a page at random. As her eyes read her lips were tight. She
turned another page, her cheeks going pink with anger, then she went back to the beginning. ‘I’ll read this in detail later,’ she said coldly, tucking the ledger under her
arm.

‘You can’t do that!’ Raoul cried. ‘That’s my private property!’

‘In which case it should not be here then, should it?’ Mary said with sweet acidity.

‘William won’t like you coming in here interfering!’ Raymond shouted, frightened now.

Mary threw him a long look. ‘William is dead. He’s been shot by a German soldier. William managed to shoot him back though so that cancels that out. From now on I shall be here every
day, running my business which I regret I have neglected. Rest assured though, I shan’t any more!’

Raymond was thunderstruck. ‘William—dead?’

‘Very dead.’ Mary confirmed. ‘I’ve not long come back from the mortuary and I don’t weep crocodile tears either. I’m sure William told you long stories about
me because we did not like each other and neither did we get on. However, I expect you only heard one side of matters which, when it comes down to it, don’t concern you anyhow.’

‘Dead!’ Raymond had to repeat, sinking down on his crate seat. ‘I can’t take it in!’ he groaned.

Mary’s lips were tight and her nostrils pinched. She had a good idea now what she was going to find in this ledger. Raymond and William, no doubt with Gwen aiding and abetting, appeared
not only to have been collaborating with the Germans but also dabbling in the black market. No wonder Raymond was showing fat when nearly all of them were getting thin. Thank God she had decided to
pry. She berated herself for not doing this before. Had Raoul suspected anything but been too embarrassed to say as Gwen was his sister? It was more than likely, she told herself.

Raymond sat stunned, looking at his boots, good ones too, Mary noted again. She tapped the ledger significantly.

‘If I find more of what I’ve already seen on two pages you are through!’ she said coldly. ‘You’ll be out on your neck first thing in the morning and I’m
prepared to let the Committee know about your activities!’ she threatened. ‘When the Allies win it will be God help you and the rest of your profiteers! Think about it all!’

Raymond did and quailed. William’s death was bad enough but for Madam to have his ledger—his heart missed a beat and he stood slowly. Turning he stepped towards Mary, then he grasped
her shoulder, in one strong hand spun her unexpectedly and grabbed the ledger. Mary was surprised but reacted with quick reflexes. She kicked out and hit him in the middle of his calf but it was an
ineffectual blow and Raymond was a strong man.

‘That’s my book.’ Raymond growled. ‘You’ll not have it!’

Mary snatched it free and stumbled outside with Raymond hot on her heels.

‘Give me that,’ Raymond snarled, temper getting the better of common sense, ‘or else!’

Raoul appeared suddenly, followed by Gwen: ‘Or else what?’ he roared and sprang forward, shouldering his sister aside.

Mary gasped. ‘Raoul! He’s profiteering!’

‘You bastard!’ Raoul snarled, then flung out one fist. Ordinarily, Raymond should have been able to beat him easily because Raoul too was losing his strength on their meagre diet but
Raoul had the edge of surprise. Also Raymond’s mind had still not assimilated the news of William’s death. He was in a state of shock, simply moving automatically.

Raoul caught him flush on the jaw. Knowing he must finish this fast, he let drive a hard left to Raymond’s middle that doubled him forward. He felt surging pleasure. It was good to use his
fists and lash out but if only this was a German. However if Raymond had gone bad, then he was the next best target. Again Raoul’s right cracked out with every ounce of strength behind the
shoulder. The blow caught Raymond on the exact point of the jaw and he went down, pole axed.

‘Raoul!’ Gwen screamed. ‘You’ve hurt him!’

‘I’ll hurt the bastard more before I’ve finished with him,’ Raoul shouted back at her.

Mary stood bemused, quite scared by this violence and wondering why this should be so after what she had been through only hours ago.

Raymond lay still, unconscious, oblivious to it all, so Raoul turned to Mary.

‘Get on home quick,’ he snapped at her. ‘I’ll handle this!’

Mary fled as Gwen fell to her knees, sobbing wildly.

‘You’ve really hurt him. I hate you!’ she screeched up at Raoul, tears flowing down her cheeks.

‘If you’ve been in it too then I’m finished with you as well,’ Raoul told her in a low growl.

‘Oh you stupid fool!’ Gwen shouted back at him as Raymond opened his eyes, moved his jaw experimentally and looked around owlishly. ‘He’s only been getting food to
help.’

‘Help who?’ Raoul barked. ‘We’ve seen none of it! You’ve both been black-marketeering for profit while there are women with children going without! You make me sick
to the bottom of my guts. Well, I’d not like to be in your shoes in the morning
and
—’ he paused for effect, ‘—the Germans don’t take kindly to that kind
of behaviour either. With William gone you’ve no protector against them and that’s been it, hasn’t it? William has been taking a handsome rake-off from you. Answer me,
girl!’ he roared down at her.

Gwen had never seen Raoul in such a white, blinding rage. All her life she had considered him an amiable, harmless brother, without a truly serious thought in his head. This bellowing maniac was
terrifying. Even as a child, Raoul had been quiet and serious; it had been she who had led. Only marriage to the dynamic, more go-ahead Raymond had shown Gwen what a bumbling fool her brother was.
Certainly this fiery-eyed man with snarling teeth and bunched fists frightened the life out of her. How he had thrashed Raymond too! Who would have thought he had that in him? Respect showed in her
eyes, tinged with heavy regret.

‘As we are brother and sister, why can’t we—?’ she started carefully.

Raoul swore. ‘Don’t try and bribe me!’ he spat back at her. ‘Good God! You’re as bad as him! You
disgust
me. The pair of you!’

Raoul turned on his heel and stormed off. He knew if he stayed and Raymond staggered to his feet to try another blow, he would end up thrashing him with genuine violence.

‘Mary!’ he gasped catching up with her. ‘Are you all right? Did he hurt you?’

She shook her head. ‘No—but it’s just as well you appeared when you did!’

‘I’ve just had a flaming row with my sister. I think you are going to find those two were in it up to their necks, paying William some kind of commission. My God! My own flesh and
blood crawling to the Germans. It’s enough to make a man puke! Anyhow, she’s through. Finished! Done!’ he grated, still trembling with temper. ‘From this moment on, I have
no sister!’

Mary halted and looked at him, biting her lip. ‘Raoul—are you sure?’ she asked in a soft voice. ‘She is family. You don’t have any others!’

Raoul’s eyes flashed. ‘I have you,’ he explained simply, ‘and there’ll be the boys coming back from war and—others!’

‘I don’t want to be the cause of family trouble,’ Mary told him.

Raoul shook his head. ‘It would have happened anyhow once I learned what the pair of them had been up to. Do you know Gwen even gave me a hint to join up with them? My own
sister!’

‘They are both out then,’ Mary told him, ‘but what do we do for labour to work the place?’

‘There’s me and you if you think you won’t be going to the shop so much,’ Raoul suggested.

‘We are not strong though,’ Mary remarked slowly.

Raoul thought about this as they stood on the drive. ‘I wonder if we could get a couple of TODT slaves? It would help them too. Although our food is rotten, it would be luxury compared to
what those poor devils receive.’

Mary nodded. It was an idea. ‘I expect the Germans would want a rake-off.’

Raoul snorted. ‘It seems to me they’ve been getting this anyhow through William and those two back there!’

‘I’ll approach that Hauptmann who told me about William,’ she murmured. ‘He might be sympathetic. He can but say no!’

‘Make it clear that we are on food production,’ Raoul added hastily.

Mary touched the ledger. ‘If I let the Hauptmann see this—Raymond and Gwen will be arrested. I’d not feel good about that. God knows where they could end up.’

Raoul was inclined not to give a damn at the moment but he could see Mary would have a guilty conscience if they were deported.

‘Just give the Committee the facts and ask them to arrange what they can,’ he suggested cunningly. ‘Why not let them see that book too!’

Mary brightened. It was one way out of the impasse and she put the ledger in his hands. ‘Here! You deal with it. I have a feeling if I read that and find what I expect to find I’ll
be after those two with the carving knife. Anyhow, I honestly don’t feel like coping with any more worries. Tonight I want to sleep and sleep and sleep.’ she said, suddenly sad and
washed out.

Raoul patted her arm. ‘Why don’t you go in now and go to bed? Damn me, no one can blame you after what you’ve been through. Leave all this to me,’ he said kindly, pushing
her towards the front door. ‘Go and sleep the clock round and let me handle what I can.’

Mary turned, smiling gently. ‘Thank you, Raoul. You know, my life these last few years would have been dreadful without you and Amelia. I sometimes doubt I could have carried on all
alone.’

Raoul went scarlet with embarrassment and pleasure. ‘Get in,’ he growled to hide his feelings, ‘and just do as you are told for once!’

Raymond and Gwen were ostracised and left the parish and their home. The Committee had them both up for questioning and it was made very clear to them that they would be lucky
to find any sympathy on the island, such was the disgust with which profiteers were held by the majority of islanders.

‘Where did Gwen and her husband go, do you know?’ Mary asked Raoul one morning.

‘To the other side of the island, though fat lot of good it will do them. When the war finally ends, there’ll be no place for them on Guernsey. They are relatively safe at the
moment, living with others of their kind but God help them, a day of reckoning will come.’

Mary wondered how they were managing to live. Without William’s help they would have little money for food but she felt no pity for them. Their crime had been unforgivable when so many of
the islanders were sliding into genteel starvation.

True to his word, Raoul found two TODT slaves to work in the glasshouses but the two skeletally thin youths who appeared had the gaunt faces of men three decades older. They were useless until
they had been given food. Even the islanders’ limited rations must have appeared as a banquet because it was wolfed down.

Somehow Raoul managed to browbeat the Germans into providing some extra rations and, for a while, they fattened up a little and were able to help. Then out of the blue, the TODT slaves were all
removed from Guernsey and vanished as if they had never been.

In March of that year an Irish informer leaked to the Germans the names of the brave men who turned out the
GUNS
newspaper. They were arrested, interrogated with severity and sent to
hard prisons on the Continent. Without the
GUNS
newspaper, information became hard to receive.

Owning a wireless was now as dangerous as having a firearm though a few defiant, heroic people still did. What they learned was passed only by quiet word of mouth to selected, trustworthy
recipients because gradually, after so many years of occupation, a dull rot had begun to set in. Many girls were open Jerrybags and Mary was often scared about her work.

The fisherman’s visits were erratic and how he slipped in and out of Guernsey was a mystery to Mary. He brought no letters though and it seemed ages since she had heard from Margaret or
Victor. Even the Red Cross mail that did arrive was sparse.

Mary worried incessantly about her daughter and Victor, who now seemed a dream. Sometimes she had a job picturing his face and it was out of the question to think of him coming into her shop.
This was another problem. The shop’s shelves had so little to sell. What food they did manage to grow was handed to Amelia who stored it in the cottage loft for safety but she always set
aside a portion to be taken to those worse off than themselves. They were gradually being reduced to eating anything which was not poisonous. Seaweed, tea from bramble leaves, boiling their
precious root vegetables in sea water and eating bread which had so much brick dust in it that their teeth began to wear down. Fuel was more valuable than gold and there was only enough for
cooking. In the cold weather people wore all their clothes and often went to bed in the afternoons to conserve energy and keep warm.