The Devil To Pay (Hennessey.) (5 page)

Still no reply so she turned and left him standing looking after her. As she took the path she knew led to her own cabin she heard a dog barking. She turned around to see Lando standing by his cabin door a dog jumping up to greet him. She couldn’t help but stop to watch this unexpected scene. Lando had squatted down and was letting the dog lick his face as he buried his face in its fur whilst rubbing its back and head. Adela thought, huh, so he keeps all his affection for his animals and so has none to spare for his fellow man…or woman.

She continued on towards her cabin. As she walked she thought of Jonas Lando and those animals in his outbuilding. They couldn’t be pets surely, they were wild animals. But they had seemed to trust him; the deer had in fact been eating something from his open hand.

She wished she knew what he was doing with that menagerie, but he was not the kind of man one could ask questions of. She wondered why he had acted as he had to her intrusion, he had been angrier than the situation warranted surely; oh he was a strange man. Typical, she thought, to have such an unfriendly, taciturn man for her closest neighbour. She hoped her cabin never caught fire or that a gang of cut-throats did not invade, she knew she could not rely on Mr. Belligerent to come to her aid.

And yet he had waited for her today, he had made sure she had not wandered into the swamp; he had not had to do that. But then maybe there was no swamp, perhaps he had just said that to frighten her, to make her look even more foolish than she already did, not that that would have been too hard. No, she would not think that of him, he had done her a favour and she would be grateful to him.

She reached her cabin and stepped inside, the interior was a welcome coolness. She slipped off her trainers, slid off her backpack then went to the kitchen to prepare something for her dinner. She made a sandwich and ate it sitting on the sofa facing the open fire, which was unlit of course. But she could imagine this place occupied in the winter time by a newly married couple…or even an old married couple…sitting in front of a roaring fire toasting bread or marshmallows and sipping glasses of warm chocolate or punch.

Suddenly an overwhelming sadness descended upon her, she heard her mother’s words sneering and sarcastic, “
My God, Dela,”
her mother often called her Dela, she had once said that he, (he being Adela’s father,) must have been drunk when he had named her, Adela was much too feminine and beautiful a name for her. “
My God, Dela, how on earth do you think you’ll
ever get a man looking like
you do, with that nose
and that forehead, you get those from that man,
(again her father), 
he was
nothing much to look at either. Your brothers of course take after my side of the family, good looking and tall.” (
Adela
was
only five feet four).

Adela touched her nose, just as she always had when her mother mentioned it, she had always been conscious of it; she knew it was too big for her face. But as she had got older her face had filled out more and her nose had no longer looked so obvious. That didn’t stop her mother from criticising though, hence the comments about her hair.

Adela had had boyfriends, not many, three in total including Connor Murphy. None of which had lasted long because she wouldn’t “put out” as they called it. Although when her co-workers and neighbours had heard about her win the single, and even married men, had started to smile at her and wink and two had even come onto her, and she had known their wives. She had said no of course to all of them, she knew what they were after and it wasn’t her mind, nor even or body come to that. She was a sensible woman after all. 

She knew her neighbours and co-workers laughed at her behind her back, and even to her face. The twenty eight year old spinster with no redeeming features…except her money now of course…locked up with a raging alcoholic and nut case, only leaving the house to go to work ten hours a week.

Her mother had railed and cursed and sobbed and threatened when Adela had taken the job at the local post office. She couldn’t cope alone she’d said, she die she’d said, she would kill herself she’d said, and it would be all Adela’s fault, ungrateful, selfish girl. But Adela for once had stood her ground and had assured her mother that she would only be working in the mornings, she would be home to take her to her appointments, to cook her meals and clean up after her.

Nevertheless her mother had made it as hard as possible for her, but Adela had stood firm and had stayed at the post office for two and a half years, even after her mother had died. Later she had taken another job in the evening cleaning elderly people’s homes. Until she had won the money that is.

Her mother had died three months before this momentous event and had left everything to David and Daniel and not a thing to Adela. Not a piece of jewellery, not an ornament, nothing. David had said she could remain in the house until she found somewhere else to live. She had hardly been able to believe that he was doing this, the house she’d been born in. The house she’d shared with her mother for twenty eight years. The house she had cleaned and cooked in. The house with the staircase she had carried her mother up when she had been out of it with the drink.

Daniel had not been interested in Adela’s future either, just the money he could use for his gambling and drinking. Not a single penny did they give her. Three months later that had not mattered one iota, not financially anyway, but emotionally it had hurt very much that her mother resented, even hated her enough to exclude her from her will.
 Adela shook her head and stood up abruptly. Well that was over now, she was here, free and rich, if not content and happy and at peace. She blinked rapidly trying to clear her mind of thoughts of her mother and the family who cared so little for her. After all, free and rich wasn’t a bad start was it?

She decided to read for a while out on the little porch at the front of the cabin. She picked up her book, a Sam Smith novel in which the hero Jake Keecher was about to save the girl, the day, and ultimately the whole wide world, or die trying.
 

Adela loved crime or suspense novels, she especially liked Sam Smith. But her favourite was Taylor Barton’s Fenn Llewellyn the Private Investigator. He was such a sweet man, romantic and very funny yet strong and tough. She wished she could meet someone like him, but for now she lived in her fantasy world of private eyes and F.B.I agents and other such romantic heroes. Maybe because the men in them asked nothing of her and were therefore safe.

She read for a few hours then put her book to one side very satisfied with the conclusion, there went Keecher off to save the world again and if his luck was in, which it usually was, sleep with pretty women. She went indoors and switched up the A.C; it had become very hot indeed now, then decided to take a nap before getting ready for tonight. She was going to a theatre show in Mobile, they were putting on a comedy play and she was looking forward to it.

She had only ever been to the theatre twice in her life, one, because she could not leave her mother at night, that’s when she was at her worst. Two, she never had anyone to go with and was not confident enough to go by herself. Same with the cinema too, not that she was overly fond of the cinema, it reminded her too much of Connor Murphy and that awful groping and panting and pleading then anger as she kept removing his hand from down her blouse or from up her skirt. He had called her a tease then a bitch then a dyke. At fifteen she had not known what a dyke was, and wondered what a wall that kept water from flooding the land had to do with letting him know she did not want to be groped.

She lay on the bed and thought about her encounter with Mr. Jonas Lando today. What a strange man he was. And that’s when she decided, that come hell or high water, she would get him to smile at least once before she left Alabama…or die trying.

 
CHAPTER 3.

Adele awoke an hour or so later, stretched and looked at her watch it read 5.30. The play began at 8.00clock, plenty of time to get ready and make her way to the bus stop. She could of course easily afford a taxi but she liked the bus, she liked hearing the other passengers talking to each other in that soft musical accent.

She put a lasagne in the microwave which she ate with salad and cold new potatoes.

Then showered and made up her face. She was still new to this make- up thing. She had had very little opportunity to wear it; she never went anywhere, except to work and what was the point wearing make-up to clean toilets and sweep floors?

So she had worn make -up and a nice dress only a handful of times. For instance at Sally and David’s wedding where everyone had ignored her anyway, partly because she had been sitting with her mother and no one wanted to approach her, even David and Sally.

At 7.30 the happy couple had asked her to take her mother home. The latter had been on the brink of causing a scene but David had promised they would visit the next day before they set out on their honeymoon and her mother had agreed to leave, albeit belligerently.

She had got very drunk that night and told Adela that she had looked a right mess at the church with that awful dress which made her look like a witch, and her hair all over the place. In the morning the dress had been lying on Adela’s bedroom floor cut to ribbons, that day Adela had gone into town and bought a lock for her door.

The only other times she had worn make- up or a pretty dress was at David and Sally’s anniversary parties, ten in all, although she had not attended all of them, her mother had been “ill” on several of those occasions. Of the five she had attended she had been roped into helping serve the food and drink. David and Sally’s posh friends had thought she was a member of the catering staff and neither had corrected them.

Daniel had taken pity on her once and invited her to the pub and she had worn make up then. Although she had not worn a dress she had made an effort to look nice wearing white jeans and a pretty pink blouse, even so it took her all of five seconds to realise that she was over dressed. All she had done for three very long hours was watch her brother and his friends play pool or darts. She'd had a go at playing darts herself thinking, if you can’t beat 'em, join 'em. She had hit the board only twice and some smart aleck had suggested they put the board on the floor for her. She had refused to play pool because she did not like the idea of bending over the table with all those men looking at her posterior as they had done with all the other girls, although
they
hadn’t seemed to mind.

Apart from those few times she had never made much fuss about her appearance, but now she carefully applied blusher, eye shadow and mascara as shown to her by the nice lady in the beauty salon. She had also had her hair trimmed and her eyebrows shaped.

The owner of the salon had asked her if she wanted her hair cut short but of course she had said no. She wondered what it was about hairdressers that when they saw long hair they immediately wanted to cut it all off. She had come to the conclusion that they just wanted to show off the many and varied styles they could accomplish with hair. Not on her time nor on
her
hair thank you very much. The owner had scowled at Adela before shaking her head and walking away. But the nice lady, whose name was Alice, had rolled her eyes at the owner’s back and told Adela that she had lovely hair and was quite right to have refused to cut it.

She looked back at herself in the mirror and was amazed afresh at how just a little green to the eyes and a dab of red on the cheeks could make a person look quite different, quite nice in fact. What with the tan and the make up she looked really rather pretty.

She laughed at herself in the mirror, what,
her
pretty? Yeah, with cosmetic surgery perhaps.

She took her dress from the wardrobe; it was dark green with short sleeves a scooped neckline and came to just above the knee. This was one of only three expensive dresses she had ever bought and it suited her perfectly, according to the lady in the dress shop anyway, and this time Adela had to agree.

She had had her ears pierced when she was eighteen, a sort of treat to herself, and also a little rebellion on her part. Her mother had laughed until she had hiccupped and Adela had never again worn earrings in her presence. But now she put in small emerald studs that matched the dress perfectly as did the necklace and bracelet. These were not expensive items by any means but she had liked them and that was the important thing. Besides, she did not want to wear expensive looking jewellery while she was out alone, some of what Sally had said made sense anyway.

She put on her gold watch; again an inexpensive item but she had liked it, another treat to herself for her twenty first birthday. She did not let her mind dwell too long on how sad it was that most of her birthday presents had been gifts to herself.

When she was ready she picked up her shawl in case it got colder later, put her small gold coloured handbag on her shoulder and left the cabin. At home of course she would have taken her umbrella the weather being so unpredictable, but all she would need one for here was to keep the sun off her face.

She made her way to the town and the bus stop. She had checked the times of the buses to the next town which was five miles away, it was scheduled to arrive at 7.25; she looked at her watch, 7.15, ten minutes early. She had always preferred to be too early than too late. She had a fear of being late for anything, she was always at work ten minutes before everyone else, including sometimes Mr. Lowther, and she had had to wait for him to let her in.