Sea Gem (54 page)

‘Your father too?’ Mary asked delicately.

Michael nodded. ‘He’s due two weeks’ leave and I know he plans to spend half of it here. He wants to see you and the Ozannes, to catch up on general news as well as to see to
his hotels and his old pals.’

Mary wondered if Michael knew anything. Certainly he appeared to be innocent but she had learned that people were often not what they seemed.

For three days they lived quiet lives, catching up on news but skirting difficult topics. One evening though Margaret came right out with it.

‘Where’s William?’ she asked bluntly.

Mary did not answer straightaway but went still and paled a little. Finally she met Margaret’s eyes frankly.

‘He died a while ago and I don’t want to talk about it. Not yet at least,’ she said heavily.

Margaret immediately sensed something was being withheld but she had enough sense not to push. She knew her mother. One day the story would come tumbling from her lips and she had a cold feeling
she would not like it. Knowing his Germanic tendencies, she had presumed William would have fled with the retreating armies. It had never entered her head he was long dead.

‘Good riddance,’ she said casually. ‘I never liked him indeed, to be honest, I loathed him!’

‘I second that!’ Michael concurred.

‘In that case, let’s talk of something more pleasant. Have you two any ideas what you want to do when you finally return?’ Mary asked gently, waiting with a quickly beating
heart. She had thought long and hard about the future and there were obvious moves to make but would the young couple have the taste for them? Perhaps they had their own plans? She just prayed they
did not want to migrate like so many others, including the Fallas, who had already hastily departed Guernsey for good.

Michael spoke for both of them. ‘This is our island, our home. It’s here we want to put down fresh roots and raise our children.’

Mary decided. ‘Well, there’s a job waiting for you which I don’t think I want to do any more. I can manage to get the glasshouses going again but not the holiday lets. I have a
feeling in my bones this could turn out to be big business in the next few years. How about you taking over for me? You would have this house and I would go and live in old Tante’s cottage.
It would be perfect for me while this large house is made for a family?’ Mary waited for their views. She knew she would be bitterly disappointed if they refused.

‘That’s marvellous!’ Margaret exclaimed getting in first.

‘There’s nothing I’d like to do more!’ Michael confirmed.

Mary sighed with relief, aware she had been sitting as if on a prickly burr.

Margaret eyed her with amusement. ‘And then there’s the shop?’ she reminded her mother.

Again a veil seemed to fall over her mother’s eyes and Margaret was puzzled. Surely there was nothing mysterious or sinister about the shop? How could there be, yet her mother had
withdrawn into herself again and was holding something back.

She knew she would have to be exceedingly patient. Sometimes Margaret had caught an expression upon her mother’s face that made her pause and reflect. Although the love between mother and
daughter was now stronger than ever before, Margaret sensed it was still possible for a shutter to fall rapidly where she was left outside, excluded from some knowledge. She mentioned this to
Michael but he had kissed her.

‘Patience! Giver he time,’ he told her. ‘Five years of misery cannot all be told at once and, for all we both know, she may have undergone events which she does not consciously
wish to remember.

From such wisdom, Margaret had learned to adapt herself to these strange retreats of Mary’s.

‘Change the company name,’ Mary said suddenly, breaking into her thoughts. ‘How about Noyen and le Page?’ she beamed at them.

‘Sounds good to me!’ Michael confirmed grinning happily, sitting with one leg slung loosely over the other.

‘I think tourists will come. I just hope they are not Germans,’ Margaret said thoughtfully. ‘All those hideous concrete fortifications everywhere. There was some character in
the old Martello towers but the Germans’ work is almost obscene!’

Mary gave her a long look. ‘I think it will be a long time indeed before Germans feel they are welcome here,’ she prophesied.

* * *

He came at last. He walked into the kitchen as if he had been doing it every day of his life. ‘Hello, Catherine!’ he said as he took her into his arms.
‘I’ve waited a long time for this day.’

They kissed, hugged and kissed again, words unnecessary as he stopped to let her take breath. Gently he guided her into the sitting room when he pulled her down on a battered but still
serviceable settee. He slid his arm around her shoulders, taking firm possession and she leaned against him, finally at peace with the world.

They did not speak for a while. It was enough they felt each other’s bodies and savoured each other’s scents. Mary allowed herself two drops of daily perfume from her last, carefully
hoarded bottle. He was freshly shaved and from his cheeks came an astringent aroma reminding her of new grass and fresh leaves.

‘What happens now, Victor?’ Mary murmured.

He pushed her away a little. ‘Thank God you don’t look like a half-starved waif any more,’ he told her slowly. ‘Have you any idea what the sight of you did to me that day
on the quay? I almost did not recognise you. Even so, you could do with a few more pounds of flesh on your bones because I like to have something to fondle.’ He grinned, ‘I’ve
never cared for skinny women!’

He paused, studying her minutely. ‘I have to get myself demobbed, first of all.’

Mary licked her lip. ‘Then?’

‘Then I intend to instigate divorce proceedings. I gather there are ways and means even if it means committing false adultery on the mainland with a paid woman. I’ll stop at nothing
now to be free,’ he stated flatly.

Mary took a deep breath. ‘What will Michael think?’ she asked hesitantly.

‘I don’t give a damn what he or anyone may think,’ he growled. ‘We are going to live our lives to suit ourselves now and devil take the hindermost!’

Mary felt troubled. The look on his face was implacable. ‘What will happen to Nicole?’

He grunted. ‘I’ll see she never wants for money. Anyhow I don’t think she’ll ever want to come back to the islands. She’ll make a home for young James and probably
meet someone else, if she hasn’t done so already.’

Mary’s eyebrows shot up. Tante’s words came back to her in a rush and she turned them over in her mind. A jealous female was a dangerous one but if Nicole had met someone else, how
could she object to being given her freedom? She wondered why unease touched her heart but she skilfully disguised this from him.

‘I want to see James and Emil as soon as I can. I think James is heading back to the island with his family any day now. With all the upset of war, I bet he’ll have plenty of
matrimonial cases to deal with and his practice will grow. He can represent us too,’ he told her. ‘Then there are my hotels. I must inspect them while I’m here. With your cottages
and my properties we can build up a business together.’

‘Michael is going to handle the cottages. I’ll be content with the glasshouses,’ Mary told him. ‘I’m going to move down to Tante’s cottage and let the
youngsters have this house.’

He nodded approvingly. Her cottage would be ideal for the two of them. Quite suddenly, the future beckoned promisingly.

‘I have a feeling you have a lot to tell me,’ he asked gently.

Mary nodded and he did not miss the expression in her eyes. ‘One day,’ she promised.

He flashed a look at his watch and grinned. ‘I want to go and see Emil today. I shall be here for a few days staying in my hotel,’ he told her standing, reluctantly.
‘I’ll be back in the morning so have some coffee ready.’ Diving into a pocket he pulled out some beans. ‘Get this ground ready for me!’

Mary did not want him to go but understood. They had the rest of their lives together. She waved with a light heart as he marched back down the path to where he had left a small army
vehicle.

He hadn’t been gone more than ten minutes when Margaret came back in, grinning a little sheepishly.

‘That was a put-up job,’ Mary laughed, ‘but thank you.’

Margaret put her arm around her mother. ‘You love each other very much, don’t you?’

Mary nodded. ‘Since long before you were even thought of but I didn’t have the sense to know it.’ She paused a little uncertainly. ‘Victor is going to divorce
Nicole.’

Margaret gave an approving nod. ‘Good. I shan’t be sorry for one and I don’t think Michael or James will either. Nicole’s become—strange. Whether it was
Jenny’s death or what, I don’t know, but I sometimes think she’s not all there except, now and again, I have the vaguest feeling she’s met another man, an airman. I think
you and Victor have earned your happiness,’ she replied and eyed her mother shrewdly. ‘Now what went on here, Mother? How did William die? I’d like to know.’

Mary took a deep breath, then the words were blurted out. ‘I executed him.’

‘Good God!’

Never in her wildest dreams had Margaret imagined this. She was staggered and, sitting on the settee, put her arms around Mary’s shoulders.

‘Why don’t you start at the beginning?’ she managed to get out at last.

Mary did. She took a deep breath and slowly started. As the tale unfolded, Margaret’s amazement grew.

‘Mother!’ she exclaimed with admiration. ‘I think you’ve been marvellous. Not many women could have done what you did,’ she hesitated. ‘Does anyone else
know?’

Mary nodded. ‘I suppose I had become a little complacent. I never knew William watched me leave the shop just as he never knew someone spied on him. Thank God they did!’

‘Who was it?’ Margaret breathed with awe.

Mary would not be hurried now. Telling the story again was like a catharsis. ‘After I had shot William and the German and faked that homosexual scene, I began to have a queer feeling I was
not alone. Yet I could neither see nor hear anything. I was on edge and I suppose it was a latent instinct.’

‘
Who
was there?’

Mary laughed. ‘Someone you’d never guess who would stand by, watch a killing and do not a thing about it. Emil le Norman.’

‘The policeman!’ Margaret cried sitting up straight. She was receiving shock after shock.

With a great calmness Mary finished her story. ‘Emil and I exchanged silent, secret messages but, many months later, I told him the truth. I also explained about Edwin,’ Mary said
harshly. ‘It was he who called it a judicial execution.’

Margaret let out her breath, shaking her head at this incredible tale. ‘He was right,’ she said slowly. ‘Dear little Edwin, he would have made a lovely man but, at long last,
he has been avenged. May his soul rest in peace.’

‘So now you know it all. I’ve yet to hear about your adventures.’

Margaret shook her head. ‘Tame by your standards though I think Michael has some stories to tell and probably his father as well. Even so, I bet they can’t match your
tale.’

‘Incidentally, where is Michael?’

Margaret gave a chuckle. ‘He bumped into an old schoolfriend down the road and I left them yarning. You know how men talk. I’ll go and round him up while you put the kettle on for
tea.’

Mary agreed and saw her daughter out but left the door ajar for their return. She boiled the water, warmed the pot, put the tea in and left the filled teapot to infuse. She heard a sound at the
door and guessed they were back. They had timed it nicely.

‘In the kitchen,’ she called merrily.

A figure appeared and blocked the doorway so Mary turned, her eyes opening wide with shock.

Mary’s lips set tight. ‘Who are you? What’s the idea of walking into my home uninvited?’

Nicole le Page eyed her while the erratic thoughts in her mind started to crystallise. There were so many days when she had headaches that only dear Henry could soothe when he stroked her head
but now he was away getting his discharge. The urge to return to the islands had swept through her like a flood. She had simply followed her instinct. It was only when on the island that reason
returned temporarily. She knew then what had to be done.

‘I’m Nicole le Page,’ she replied to the question.

Mary’s heart missed a beat. She did not like the look in the other’s eyes. For a fleeting second, it was as if she were back facing Duret again. She would never have recognised this
white-haired woman who had turned dumpy with a misshapen body. Then when the other moved nearer, Mary did see old similarities.

‘You’re my husband’s mistress,’ Nicole hurled at her.

‘Rubbish! We’ve been separated by a war!’ Mary hurled back while her mind raced.

‘You always fancied him before though, didn’t you?’ Nicole retaliated. ‘Oh I know! I’m not quite as stupid as Victor thinks. That kid of yours, the one that
drowned. He was Victor’s, wasn’t he? Don’t deny it. I could see a likeness!’

Mary snorted as she recovered from the initial shock. ‘You’re the only one who could then. You must have an overworked imagination.’

‘Don’t try and avoid the issue. Look how Victor was always around here—’

‘Visiting his grandmère!’

‘And you, you tart!’

Mary started to boil. ‘Get out of my home,’ she barked, in the tone of voice she had kept for William.

Nicole pulled a short coat aside and pulled out a long knife. ‘This is for you. You deserve to die so you don’t steal other women’s men!’ she chuckled, a maniacal grate
in her voice.

Mary swallowed and thought rapidly. If only Margaret and Michael would return! She eyed the knife and was disconcerted to see how steady it was in Nicole’s hand. What also worried her was
that Nicole held the knife in the correct manner for an upward swing, always more lethal and more difficult to block. It crossed her mind to wonder how she knew that or was it simply Nicole’s
luck?

She estimated how many steps to the door but Nicole blocked the way. There was only one thing she could do because in Nicole’s eyes was lethal intent.

‘I’m going to kill you,’ Nicole said in a slow, cool voice and advanced a step.