The Tulip Girl (42 page)

‘I’m okay,’ the boy said quickly and then the four of them were now bending over Jenny, afraid to touch her and yet . . . Gently, Steven cradled her in his arms. They saw the
blood oozing through her dress near her thigh. Her face was deathly pale and her eyes closed.

‘Where do you think Nick’s gone?’

Maddie was the first to ask the question two hours later when the four of them, Michael, Adam, Steven and herself had returned to the farm. Adam had escaped unscathed and Jenny’s injuries
were far less than they might have been.

‘You saved Adam’s life,’ Michael told her huskily, ‘and probably Jenny’s too. If they’d caught the full blast of that shotgun . . .’

They had taken Jenny to the casualty department and had been reassured that she would recover quickly once the pellets had been removed from her leg and her hand.

‘I really don’t know,’ Michael said now in answer to her question. ‘And at this moment I don’t care where he is. You and me, Maddie . . .’ He took her hands.
‘Have got a lot of talking to do. But first . . .’ he turned and smiled at Adam and his voice was hoarse as he added, ‘I want you to introduce me to my son.’

Maddie saw Adam’s eyes widen and his mouth dropped open as he glanced from Michael to her and then back again.

‘My dad. You’re – you’re my dad?’ There was no mistaking the excitement and the joy in the boy’s voice and all Michael and Maddie could do was to nod in
unison for neither, at that moment, could speak.

Adam was grinning as he turned to Steven and said, ‘Hey, Uncle Steve. This is my dad.’

‘Yes, old son, I know.’

Maddie cleared her throat and said, ‘I thought perhaps you’d told him.’

Steven shook his head. ‘I daren’t,’ he said, comically. ‘Jen threatened me with all sorts of dire punishments if I spoiled the moment for the three of you. And,’ he
added, glancing at each of them in turn, ‘I see that she was right. But now,’ he added as he put his hand on Adam’s shoulder, ‘let’s leave your mam and your dad to
themselves for a bit, eh? And we know Jen’s in good hands, so – what shall we do? Go fishing?’

Adam glanced at both Maddie and Michael, reluctant for a moment to leave, but then he smiled as he looked up at Steven and shook his head. ‘I’d like to, but there’s a lot of
tulips need knobbing if we’re to get a good crop of bulbs this year and build a float in time for the Parade.’

The adults glanced at one another and Steven winked at the other two as he said, ‘Right you are, then. Lead the way . . .’

Michael watched them go, the man and the boy crossing the yard side by side. There was a catch in his voice as he said, ‘Oh Maddie. My son. After all this time, I’ve found my
son.’

He turned then and opened his arms to her and she went into them as if the years between had never happened.

Much later, Michael said, ‘Now, we must talk.’ They sat together, squeezed into the armchair at the side of the fire that had always been Frank’s.
‘Incidentally . . .’ He patted the arm of the battered old chair fondly. ‘Where’s Dad?’

Stricken, Maddie stared at him. ‘You mean, you don’t know?’

‘Know what?’

‘Oh Michael.’ Tears sprang to her eyes. Tears for Frank, tears for Michael and even for herself. ‘He – he was taken ill ten years ago. Adam was about five months old . .
.’

Realization was clouding Michael’s face. ‘You mean, he’s dead?’

Haltingly, she told him about his father and they sat together in silence for several moments. She laid her cheek against Michael’s hair, feeling his inner struggle to come to terms with
the dreadful news. His father had been dead for ten years and he had not even known.

‘Didn’t you get Nick’s letter?’ she asked gently at last.

Michael shook his head.

‘But Nick came to see you when he was very ill. To ask you to come home to see him.’

Michael’s voice was hoarse as he said, ‘No, he didn’t. He only ever came to see me once. To tell me . . .’ He reached up and traced the line of her face with a gentle
finger. ‘To tell me that you never wanted to see me again and that you were going to marry someone else for the sake of the baby. Until this morning, I didn’t even know I had a son and
I still don’t know who – who your husband is. Is it Nick? Are you married to him?’

‘Oh Michael,’ she buried her face against his neck. ‘This is awful. Awful.’

He put his arms tightly around her and held her close, burying his head against her hair. After a few moments, he raised his head. ‘Tell me everything from the beginning, Maddie. Tell me
your side from the day I went away. And then, I’ll tell you mine.’

‘Jenny and Steven didn’t tell you anything then?’

Michael shook his head. ‘No, apart from introducing me to Adam when I arrived this morning, they hustled me straight out here.’

‘So they haven’t even told you about – about the trouble I’m in?’

Again Michael shook his head.

‘So why did you come back now?’

‘Steven met me in Peterborough last Saturday. He told me you needed me, that you wanted to see me, but he wouldn’t say why. But I didn’t need to be told any more, Maddie.
I’ve waited years to hear that you wanted to see me again. I couldn’t get here fast enough, but I couldn’t come back with him then. I had to go back to camp and explain to my
Commanding Officer that I needed compassionate leave – urgently.’

‘How did Steven find you? We’ve had no word from you for years.’

There was a strange look on his face as he said, ‘I’m beginning to understand that, but all Steven did say was that he’d been to Mr Theo for advice and he was able to find out
where I was stationed. I stayed in the Army after my National Service. I didn’t know what else to do, since – since it seemed I was no longer welcome at home.’

Maddie groaned and closed her eyes at the eleven wasted years, but whispered, ‘Oh thank God for Theo.’

Michael blinked and then asked, ‘Theo, is it now?’

‘He’s been very kind to me. He – he’s my solicitor. But for him, I’d still be in the cells at the police station.’

‘The what!’

Sitting so close, she felt his muscles tighten.

Maddie sighed. ‘Oh Michael. There’s so much you don’t know . . .’ she looked at him sadly, ‘and so much I don’t know either.’ Her face was filled with
sorrow as she said, ‘And when you’ve heard the whole story, you might want to get on the first train out of here again.’

‘Never, my darling,’ he reassured her huskily. ‘Whatever it is, we’re going to face it together.’

So she told him all that had happened since the day he had walked out of her life. She told him of her love for him, her hurt at his desertion and how she had buried all feelings for him so deep
that she would hardly ever allow his name to pass her lips.

‘So Adam knows nothing about me? And yet he seemed to take the news quite calmly just now.’ There was a note of pleasure in Michael’s tone as he added, ‘He even seemed
pleased.’

Now came the most difficult part of all. ‘Well, I’ve never actually told him that Frank was his father. He was only little when he died, but he’s been led to believe . . . Oh
Michael, this is awfully hard . . .’

‘Go on, Maddie.’

‘It – it was your father I married.’

‘Dad? You’re joking?’

‘No. He – he was very kind to me. He persuaded me that it was the best thing for the baby. And when Nick, after one of his supposed visits to you, said you never wanted to come home
again and that you were signing on . . .’

Michael was silent trying to take in the enormity of the news he was hearing.

Maddie swallowed painfully but went on with her story, bringing him right up to date with the frightening events that were taking place now.

‘You mean, they’re digging poor Dad up?’

She nodded, unable to speak.

‘My God! This is a nightmare.’

‘I know. That’s just how I feel. But it isn’t, Michael. It’s happening and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it.’

His face was grim. ‘There must be. There must be something we can do . . .’ His voice died away helplessly.

There was a silence between them before Michael took a deep breath and began to speak.

‘Nick’s deceived us both. He’s played the go-between and yet lied to both sides. As I said, he only ever came to see me once, but I’ve written countless letters, sent
cards at Christmas and on everyone’s birthday. I even sent gifts at Christmas to the child I knew I must have, even though I didn’t know whether it was a boy or a girl.’

‘We never got any of them. We only ever knew about two letters. No wonder Nick always met the postman or went to the post office to collect the mail.’

‘He’s been very, very clever.’

Bitterly, Maddie said, ‘Twisted, I’d say.’

‘He must be in love with you himself, Maddie. That’s the only explanation for all this, for everything he’s done. He wants you for himself and he’s tried to get rid of
everyone else and . . .’

They were staring at each other now and then simultaneously they both cried, ‘Nick.’

‘It was him,’ Michael said. ‘He must have given Dad the arsenic and then, when they took him into hospital and started to do tests, he must have got scared and tried something
else.’

‘You – you mean, you think he caused the accident in the battery house?’ Maddie was horrified to think that Nick could want to kill the man who had been like a father to him.
‘But how could he have done it?’

Michael shook his head thoughtfully. ‘I think he might somehow have caused a problem with the batteries.’

‘But that wasn’t what killed him. He fell backwards and hit his head. If Nick did plan it, he couldn’t have been sure of that happening, could he?’

‘No,’ Michael agreed. ‘But we’ve always been told how dangerous the battery house is. Dad instilled it into all of us. Maybe – maybe Nick
thought
it would
kill him. It was just chance that, in a way, it did. But I still can’t work out how he did it.’

Maddie bit her lip, frowning. ‘There’s something else I ought to remember, and I can’t. It’s – it’s something about that night but I can’t . .
.’

Michael kissed her forehead and murmured, ‘Don’t worry, darling. Maybe it’ll come back to you.’ He sighed heavily. ‘There’s nothing going to make it come
right, and yet . . .’ His voice fell away as he murmured, ‘I would like to know exactly what he did do.’

‘And – and now? Do you really think he’s been trying to poison his own mother?’

‘I wouldn’t put anything past him, not after what you’ve told me and what he tried to do today,’ Michael said grimly. ‘He could have killed Adam and Jenny, you
know. By the way, where is Mrs T? Is she still in hospital?’

Maddie’s eyes were wide as she gaped at him. Then, despite the sadness of the last hour or so and all the trauma they both knew they still had to face, she clapped her hand over mouth to
silence the laughter that bubbled up inside her. ‘Oh heck. I forgot all about her. She’ll still be sitting there in her hat and coat waiting to be brought home.’

‘There’s something else,’ Maddie said as they walked hand in hand out to the field where Steven and Adam were picking the heads from the tulips.

‘Oh no,’ Michael said. ‘I really don’t think I can handle any more.’ He gave her a rueful smile as he said, ‘Go on, then. My shoulders are broad
enough.’

Indeed they were, Maddie thought, for a brief moment revelling in the strength of him that she needed so desperately at this moment, more than ever before.

‘I think we ought to leave Mrs Trowbridge where she is for the moment, if the hospital can keep her. At least for another day, if we can.’

‘’Til we find Nick, you mean?’

‘Well, that, yes,’ Maddie agreed. ‘But she said something very odd to me the last time I visited her. Nick put his arm round me when we were with her and she looked absolutely
furious. I thought, like we’ve always known, that she doesn’t want him to have a girlfriend or even friends of any sort, but it was more than that.’

‘Go on.’

‘She sent him out of the ward, said she wanted to speak to me alone. And do you know what she said?’ They both stopped and turned to face each other, standing in the lane leading to
the field. ‘She said – she said that Nick is my half-brother.’

‘Your what? How on earth does she make that out?’

‘She said I was the bastard of her husband and Amelia Mayfield.’

Michael actually laughed aloud. ‘Oh Maddie, this is getting dafter by the minute.’

But Maddie was not laughing. She said nothing and Michael’s face sobered. He put his arm around her shoulders at the sight of her stricken face.

‘Don’t worry, darling. I’m back now and we’ll sort everything out. I’m here to take care of you now. I’ll look after you.’

They were the same words that Nick had used, but oh what a world of difference there was between the two people who uttered that same promise.

With Michael’s arm around her, they walked on and came to stand at the end of the field, watching Adam and Steven moving steadily down the rows, carefully deheading the tulips. Field after
field of blooms stretched far into the distance.

‘You did it, my darling Tulip,’ Michael said softly and at the sound of his loving nickname for her, Maddie’s eyes filled with tears. The rainbow danced and blurred before her
eyes, but now she allowed the tears to fall unashamedly and unchecked for they were tears of happiness. Michael was home, beside her once more, this time for ever.

They were all squeezed into Mrs Grange’s tiny living room behind the shop, sitting around the table or in the two fireside chairs. Adam perched on the arm of one of them,
leaning against his mother’s shoulder. Even Theo was with them. He had arrived at Few Farm to tell Maddie the bad news, that the result of the post-mortem had revealed extensive amounts of
arsenic in Frank’s remains.

‘It’s no more than we expected, Mr Theo,’ Michael had said and went on to tell him swiftly of the day’s catastrophic events, finishing by saying, ‘We’re just
on our way to Mrs Grange’s – all of us . . .’ he gestured not only towards Maddie, but to Steven and Adam too. ‘To see if she can throw any light on the mystery for us. It
might help us to understand Nick a little better.’