Chapter 32 #2
‘What more do you want me to say?’
‘I want you to say you’re happy about it. That I’m the one you’d choose.’
‘I can’t. I’m sorry. I wish I could, but I just… can’t.’
‘Why not?’ he demanded in a choked voice.
‘I want to love you, Tony. I even try to. I suppose I just can’t forget how things began for us.
The way you exploited the information you had on my dad to get to me.
’ She turned away sadly. ‘I know there’s a good man in you somewhere.
I know you love me and I know you adore the baby.
But… I’m sorry, but I can’t quite manage to forgive you for the way we ended up here. ’
There was the sound of manly footsteps striding down the track, and two squeals of ‘Dad!’ from the Parry sisters outside.
‘Right,’ Tony muttered to himself. ‘Right.’ He turned and strode out of the door.
Bobby frowned at Lilian. ‘Where’s he going?’
‘I can guess. Put Annie in her pram and come on.’
Lilian ran out after her husband. Bobby put the whimpering baby down and followed.
George Parry was hurrying down the track to his daughters, but Tony sprinted up to him and blocked his way.
Lilian came jogging up the track behind him, Bobby behind her with the two girls gripping a hand each.
‘You,’ Tony muttered to the other man.
The captain examined him coldly. ‘Can I help you?’
‘You can. You can keep your damn hands off my wife, for a start.’
The captain stared at him. He looked unsure how to respond while Tony squared up to him.
‘I’ve never touched your wife, Scott,’ he said at last. ‘I respect her far too much.’
‘Tony, please, leave the man alone,’ Lilian said, putting a hand on her husband’s shoulder. ‘It’s true, I swear it. He never touched me. Come back to the house and let’s discuss things calmly.’
Tony ignored her, pushing the hand on his shoulder roughly away.
‘You wanted to, though, didn’t you, Parry?’ he demanded with a sneer. ‘Who the hell gives a fur coat to a woman and doesn’t expect to get into her knickers? Bringing your kids over to play happy families every day. Is she your wife? Is she?’
‘My wife is dead,’ George said stiffly.
‘So you thought you’d fill her place with mine, did you?’
‘Daddy, I’m scared,’ Jess whispered. ‘Can we go home please?’
The captain took his house key from his pocket and handed it to Florrie. ‘Here. Take your sister home. I’ll be there soon, when I’ve finished my discussion with Mr Scott.’
‘We don’t want to leave you,’ Florrie said.
‘This gentleman and I need to have some grown-up talk. I won’t be long, sweetheart.’ He looked at Tony. ‘I suppose it’s all right with you if my daughters leave before we continue this… conversation?’
‘Aye, get them out of the way. Some things it’s best bairns don’t see.’
‘All right, girls, go on.’
Florrie hesitated before taking the key from her father. She took her sister’s hand and they ran off towards their cottage.
‘And now I suppose you’re going to demand satisfaction,’ the captain said calmly to Tony. ‘Would you prefer pistols or swords?’
‘What I’d prefer is to plant my fist in your smug face, you bastard. You’ve been watching my wife ever since we came here. I’ve seen you. Maybe summat happened between you and maybe it didn’t, but I know well enough what was in your mind.’
‘You never could understand what a treasure you had in Lilian.’ The captain paused.
‘But for what it’s worth… I apologise. I did wrong in seeking out your wife’s company behind your back.
I knew it was wrong, and unbecoming of a gentleman, yet selfishly I pursued it because…
well, because her company was pleasant to me.
You have every right to be aggrieved, but I can assure you Lilian has behaved impeccably.
If it wasn’t that she had so few pleasures and holidays, I’m sure she would have told me to go to the devil long before now. ’
Tony gave a hollow laugh. ‘But that’s no good, is it, mate?
Because now she loves you. How can she not, with you standing there talking all posh with your pipe and your moustache and your sodding war wound, when it’s me she’s got to come home to?
I mean, I’m no war hero, am I? I’ve never had a bullet put in my shoulder by a Luftwaffe pilot on the beaches of Dunkirk.
I’m just Tony bloody Scott, that’s who I am.
Anybody back where I used to live can tell you who I am.
’ He swallowed a sob. ‘Couldn’t it have been anyone else, Parry?
’ he asked in a whisper. ‘I’ve had one damn thing to love in my entire waste of a life, and you… you had to take her away from me.’
The captain flashed Lilian a helpless look. ‘I really am so sorry.’
Tony laughed. He turned away, as if he was going back to the house, but Bobby knew better.
She had seen the clenched fist. A split second later he had swung, his knuckles catching the unprepared captain full in the face.
There was a cracking sound and George fell backwards with a sharp groan, clutching his stricken nose. Blood streamed from his nostrils.
‘I had to do that,’ Tony said in a strangely detached tone as he stood over his bleeding rival. ‘Wouldn’t be a man if I didn’t.’
‘Tony, for God’s sake, stop this!’ Lilian ran forward to wrap her arms around her husband’s back, trying to wrestle him away. George was staggering to his feet now, and Tony’s fist was still white-knuckled at his side.
‘Lil, get off me,’ he said, pushing against her with his shoulders. ‘Take Bobby and go back to the baby. This is between me and him.’
‘He’s bleeding, Tony! I swear you must’ve broken his nose. Just get the hell away from him.’
‘It’s men’s business. It doesn’t concern you.’
Still she held on to him. ‘I won’t leave you here to beat him to a bloody pulp. Come home, can you?’
‘Lil, I said get off!’ Tony gave her a rough shove, using all his strength to free himself. Lilian lost her grip and fell to the ground, hitting her head against a rock on the gravel track.
‘Oh my God!’ Bobby dropped to her haunches. ‘Lil, sweetheart, are you all right?’
‘I’m… fine.’ Lil put her hand to the back of her head, then stared woozily at her red fingers. ‘Oh. I’m bleeding.’
Bobby shook her head darkly at Tony. ‘What the hell did you do?’
Tony was staring at his injured wife, a horrified look on his face.
‘It was an accident,’ he said helplessly, to no one in particular. He looked from Lilian lying on the ground to Captain Parry holding the bridge of his gushing nose. ‘It was an accident.’
He bent down to try and help his wife, but Bobby pushed him away.
‘You’ve done quite enough. Get away from her.’ She turned back to Lilian. ‘Can you walk, love? Are you dizzy at all?’
‘It could be a concussion,’ the captain muttered nasally. ‘Scott, if you want to help then go for the doctor.’
‘It was an accident,’ Tony repeated again.
‘Leave, Tony, can you?’ Bobby said. ‘Walk to the Bull and ring for Dr Minchin. And don’t even think about coming back until you’ve remembered how to behave like a civilised human being rather than whatever that caveman nonsense was.’
‘I never meant… never would’ve… Lil, I am so, so sorry.’
‘Please,’ Lilian whispered. ‘Just go, Tony. I can’t be near you at the moment.’
Looking utterly defeated, Tony turned to head up the track.
‘Can you both walk?’ Bobby asked the two casualties. ‘We ought to get back to the cow house. There’ll be bandages and things in Charlie’s cupboards. I think I still remember how to apply a nasal splint. Thank God for the WAAF.’
‘I can walk,’ Lilian said, wincing as she pushed herself into a sitting position. ‘I need to get back to my baby.’ She looked at the captain. ‘George, are you all right?’
‘Don’t worry about me,’ he said, sounding as if he had a heavy cold. ‘A bloody nose is no more than I deserve for my part in this. Still, he’s certainly broken it. I don’t want the girls to see me gushing blood if I can help it, so anything you have in the way of bandages would be appreciated.’
Lilian shook her head, then grimaced from the pain of moving it. ‘I’m so sorry. You left them in my care and now they’ve been exposed to all this. How will we ever explain it to them?’
‘I’m the one who ought to say sorry. I’ve caused a lot of trouble for you, one way or another. I don’t know how you can bear to look at me, Lilian.’
‘Never mind all that,’ Bobby said firmly. ‘The more immediate concern is the fact you’re both bleeding all over the place. Let’s get inside.’