Towards a Dark Horizon (13 page)

She shrugged her elegant shoulders as she slipped off the blue woollen coat to reveal a similar coloured dress underneath. It was a colour that suited her fair hair and gave her an angelic appearance.

‘I’m still in the wards and I have another eighteen months to go before my final exams, Ann.’ She looked unhappy. ‘I have to say I get very sad at some of the cases that come in – especially the children.’

I tried to make her smile. ‘Are you still getting semolina every day for your dinner? And have you made any more bloomers with the patients’ eggs?’

She grinned. ‘Yes to both questions.’

My reference to the eggs stemmed from her first six months in the infirmary when she had mixed up the patients’ eggs which had been brought in by their visitors. One lover of a soft-boiled egg had been given one that resembled a golf ball and Maddie’s mimicry of his outraged expression had me laugh. Once again I thought how long ago it seemed.

She tucked her hands on her lap like a small schoolgirl when the waitress, still muttering softly, placed our order on the table. ‘Will you be wanting anything else?’ she said.

I laughed. ‘Och, just a rich man, a lovely house, bonny bairns and loads of money,’ I said.

The waitress shook her head at us like we were daft and went off towards another table where the occupants looked sane.

‘If you marry Greg, you’ll certainly not be rich,’ said Maddie.

‘Och, I’m just joking. Granny always says, “Marry for love and work for siller”.’

‘Siller?’

‘Aye, it means silver – or money.’

She became serious. ‘Ann, what am I going to do about Danny?’

Although I knew it was coming my mind was still in a turmoil. I longed to tell her the whole story about Danny’s Hogmanay visit but I had made a promise not to interfere and I couldn’t go back on that.

‘Maddie, it’ll just take time – believe me. I know Danny and nobody will ever tell me that he doesn’t love you because I’ll not believe it. I think something happened at his grandad’s funeral that upset him and he’s got to get over it.’ There, I thought, I haven’t told any secrets but maybe this will explain his odd behaviour and strange actions.

‘I would wait for ever for him to come to terms with whatever is bothering him but he won’t confide in me and then he breaks off the engagement so I don’t know what to think. I’m so confused but I’ve made up my mind.’

I was suddenly afraid. ‘What are you going to do, Maddie?’

She opened her small handbag which lay on her lap and she withdrew a small box. ‘I’m going to return the ring,’ she said simply and quietly.

‘Oh, Maddie, don’t do that.’

She shook her head. ‘I have to, Ann. I can’t keep it forever. Anyway, Colin keeps asking me out when I have a day off and I think he’s really keen on me.’

‘Oh, I see.’ I didn’t have an answer. ‘Well, in that case, Maddie, you just have to do what you think is for the best.’

She looked so sad that my heart went out to her. Then, as if her mind was finally made up, she said, ‘Right then, I’ll send it back to him by registered post today.’

I felt just as sad. ‘I’m really sorry it’s come to this, Maddie. I really am.’

She smiled. ‘I know you are, Ann, and I’m grateful that I still have you as my friend.’

We called the waitress over.

‘Are you wanting your bill?’

‘Yes, please,’ said Maddie politely. Her shoulders shaking from suppressed laughter.

When we were outside she said, ‘That waitress was a real tonic for me as I haven’t smiled so much in a long time.’ She linked her arm in mine. ‘Come on, let’s have a good look around the shops – just to cheer ourselves up.’

We spent a couple of hours together but not much more was said about Danny and, although I wanted to say so much, my mind was numb and my tongue speechless.

I bought Lily’s book and crayons, explaining why she couldn’t come.

Maddie apologised for not coming back to the Overgate to see her. ‘I’ve got to get home and visit my parents and Joy. She’s at a small private school and doing well. I hope Lily is getting on fine at school.’

I knew it was all small talk and the real reason she didn’t want to come to the Overgate was in case she ran into Danny. But I understood and we said our goodbyes at the foot of the street.

A burst of sunshine shone in a golden glow over the wet streets but was almost immediately snuffed out by a dark cloud.

Although we made a promise to meet up again soon I had the sad feeling that it would be a long time before we saw one another again. However, we did promise to write. To keep in touch that way was better than nothing and I planned to keep her up to date with any news of the family.

As Maddie had said on parting, ‘We must keep in touch, Ann – whatever happens.’

It had all seemed so final somehow and when she returned Danny’s ring it would be the end of an era. But would it be the end of our friendship? The answer was that I just didn’t know. I wondered what would Danny do now.

I hurried back to the Overgate to find Lily eagerly waiting for me. Granny raised her eyebrows but I decided to keep silent on our conversation – at least for the time being. I still harboured the hope that Danny would come to his senses and pay me another visit.

As it turned out, I didn’t hear from Danny about the ring but Hattie burst in one night when I was at the Overgate.

‘What do you think has happened?’ she snapped at us.

‘Your house has burned down?’ said Granny, jokingly.

‘Oh, it’s much worse than that!’ she cried. ‘Maddie has returned her engagement ring to Danny. Now the engagement will never be on again.’

I was surprised – not by the ring’s return but by the length of time it had taken. I had met Maddie three weeks ago and she was going to post the ring that day, by registered post. Why had it taken so long?

‘Did it come by post, Hattie?’

She gave me a suspicious look. ‘Do you know anything about this, Ann?’ Her voice was stern.

What do I do here? I wondered. Do I tell the truth or do I lie? Suddenly I was totally fed up with all this subterfuge. In my mind, it was so unnecessary. ‘Aye, Hattie, I do.’

Granny stared at me while Hattie looked dumfounded.

I explained. ‘I met Maddie a few weeks ago and she was going to return the ring then. The only thing I can’t understand is why it’s taken so long because she was going to post it that day.’

Hattie’s face turned bright red.

Granny, knowing her so well, said, ‘What are you not telling us, Hattie? I know you’re hiding something.’

She tried bluffing. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’

Granny wasn’t having any of this nonsense. ‘How did you find out about this if the ring was posted to Danny with his name and address on it?’

Her bravery collapsed. ‘It wasn’t posted. It was delivered by hand to Lipton’s shop.’

I was stunned. Surely Maddie didn’t confront Danny and hand over the ring? She had mentioned registered post to me so why had she changed her mind?

Now that Hattie’s bravado was gone, she seemed quite willing to spill the beans. ‘It was delivered by a company – a private courier firm – and Danny had to sign for it.’

Granny gave her a look. ‘Did Danny tell you this himself?’

‘No, he didn’t but I found the box with the letter in his drawer.’

Granny was shocked. ‘Don’t tell me that you look through your laddie’s things, Hattie? I mean he’s a grown man now and he’ll not want his mother poking her nose into his private affairs.’

Hattie flared up. Her eyes were blazing. ‘I was not poking my nose into his drawer.’

But Granny was adamant. ‘Well, how did you manage to find the box and read the letter?’

Hattie was furious now. ‘I didn’t read the letter but I was surprised to see the box. I’ll admit I opened that and saw the ring but that’s all. I then saw the brown envelope showing the name of the private courier and the slip showing Danny’s signature so I put two and two together. I was quite upset I can tell you.’

She wasn’t the only one surprised. What had made Maddie change her mind? She had certainly planned to post it that day. I was sure of that.

‘But that still doesn’t explain what you were doing in the first place.’

Like all guilty people, Hattie was trying to profess her innocence. And, like the guilty, she tried too hard by talking too quickly and overstating every sentence – even repeating herself. Her performance would have been a joy to behold if it hadn’t been so sad.

‘Well, it was like this …’ she chattered on. ‘It was like this. I got a present from Mrs Pringle. It was a pack of lavender-scented drawer linings …’

‘Lavender-scented what?’ asked Granny in amazement.

At any other time, Hattie would have been annoyed at her mother’s lack of social skills and how unacquainted she was with gracious living but not today.

‘They’re scented sheets of paper for putting in your drawers. They make all the contents smell nice. Well, it was like this. I had an extra one over and I thought that Danny might like one so I cleared out his drawer in the tallboy and that’s when I discovered the box with the ring.’ She gazed firmly at her mother. ‘But I did not read any letter. After all, that’s private. Anyway, how was I to know that Maddie had returned the ring?’

Granny said, ‘He probably didn’t want anybody to know about it, Hattie. It’s his own business.’

‘His own business?’ she replied in her cultured voice, her tones so clipped and precise that she could have been giving elocution lessons. ‘For heaven’s sake, I am his mother. Surely he could have told me?’

Granny looked a bit sorry for her. ‘If I was you, Hattie, I would forget about it and make sure he doesn’t get to hear of your snooping. He’ll tell you in his own good time.’

Hattie was almost crying with disappointment. ‘I never thought it would come to this – I thought that, after a few months, he would pull himself together and get back with Maddie. After all, that’s what I had to do – put on a brave face and go back to work so why can’t he? But can Danny do that? No he can’t.’

I had heard enough and I wasn’t going to let her run him down. ‘Of course you know the reason for that, Hattie, don’t you?’

She looked at me as if I had lost my senses.

I continued, ‘If you hadn’t made him promise not to tell the Pringle family or Maddie, then this whole sorry story would be over and done with. At the time, I advised him to tell them the truth because I don’t think they would have given a toss about what happened so long ago. But, no, you made him promise to keep quiet and it’s breaking him up. You’re to blame, Hattie, not Danny.’

She opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. Meanwhile Granny remained silent.

After a moment or two, she made a sound, her words strangled with fury. ‘My fault? My fault, indeed. It wasn’t my fault but the fault of that awful Mick Malloy and his band of merry boozers. It was his fault.’

‘Aye, in the beginning, Hattie, but not now. If you hadn’t been so keen to keep up appearances it would have been over a long time ago. In fact, I just wish that I’d told them the truth – Maddie and her parents. If I hadn’t promised Danny not to, then I would have.’

Hattie struggled into her coat.

Granny called after her, ‘Now mind what I told you – don’t mention what you found.’ She turned to me. ‘I sometimes think I’m talking to myself with that lassie – she’s so pigheaded.’

‘I could honestly kick Danny,’ I said. ‘It’s been over a year since they split up and Hattie’s yapping on about Maddie returning the ring. What does she think she should do? Pine away with unrequited love, for heaven’s sake?’

I told Granny about Colin. ‘Maddie wants to be fair to Danny. She doesn’t want to go out with another man if she still has her ex-fiancé’s ring, does she?’

Granny shook her head. Her eyes were sad. ‘There’s times when I wish that Dad Ryan was still alive then this wouldn’t be out in the air. What a tragedy.’

‘Aye, it is, Granny, but it’s also a lesson to us all to tell the truth and not have any skeletons in our cupboards.’

She chuckled. ‘Och, I don’t know about that. I think most families have them – rich or poor, it doesn’t matter.’

I looked at her. ‘Have we got any in our cupboard?’

‘No, I don’t think so but I bet the auld Queen Mary is kicking herself for her ignorance of the Wallis Simpson woman. That’s a real scandal in the royal cupboards.’

‘Well, we now have a new King and it’ll soon be his coronation. I wonder if the ex-King will marry Mrs Simpson?’

‘Well, he’d better because he gave up his throne for her,’ she said caustically.

Would Greg give up his job in Glasgow to marry me? I wondered. That was a thought.

After I left the Overgate, I toyed with the idea of going to see Danny but decided against it. He wouldn’t mention the returned ring – I was sure of that. He had hidden it away as if the very sight of it distressed him and now Hattie had unearthed it. Would she keep quiet about it or make a fuss? Anything was possible with her in this mood.

Then, to make matters worse, Greg’s letter arrived and it contained disturbing news.

He wrote, ‘Danny has asked me to find out some details of accommodation here. He is hoping to get a transfer to Glasgow soon. What on earth is going on?’

What could I tell him? I didn’t want to lie to him as well, as I felt my entire life was now one large untruth. Also he knew the story about Maddie and Danny and he knew they wouldn’t split up over something trivial.

I wrote back with the truth – or, at least, most of it. I told him the engagement was over and I didn’t elaborate. Instead I filled the letter with newsy items which I knew wouldn’t fool him but I did say that he could ask Danny why he was leaving if his transfer came through. Then it would be up to him to explain.

I’d planned to see Danny that night but Lily came home from school with some sad news. ‘It was twins again and Janie’s mummy had the babies but they weren’t breathing,’ she said with tears in her eyes.

I was upset to learn that this pregnancy had been another set of twins and, instead of meeting Danny, I decided to visit Mrs Baxter to give her my sympathy. It was dark when I set off for Dallfield Walk and the close wasn’t lit when I got there. The door was opened by her husband. Inside, the room was cosy and Mrs Baxter was propped up in the bed in the corner of the room.