Rita
Returning to the Scene of the Crime
Rita stood by the tree and looked towards Hensal Grange. Memories flooded back to her. Hatred and anger coiled in her stomach until the tightness of it hurt. If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll get my own back.
Fifteen years she’d served. Fifteen years of hell. And for what? For that bastard, that bleedin’ bastard, Terence Crompton! Well, he was going to pay. Somehow she was going to make him pay.
Some of her anger was directed towards the huge banner-type sign over the gate, announcing ‘Hensal Grange Stud Farm’. So the bleedin’ bastard got what he always wanted, then? But at what cost to her, to Jack Fellam and that lovely girl, Iris?
Getting back into her car, she drove towards Fellam’s farm. Her nerves frayed at the thought of the reception she might get, but Jack was a link – a source of the information she needed. If she played her cards right and went under the guise of being sorry, she just might succeed in getting all she desired. The downfall of the high and mighty.
She’d made good, since her release. Three years of freedom had seen her turn her life from nothing to having a good income from her market stalls. Her uncle had always done the markets and she’d helped him as a kid, learning the ropes, the best stuff to sell and where to sell it. She’d started off with antique jewellery. With the money she’d come out of jail with, and some that she’d got from working the streets of London for a few months after her release, she’d bought some good pieces to get her going. Now she had four stalls and a fair few regular customers. Some bought off her, some sold to her, and others borrowed money on the strength of the value of their stuff, then forfeited it if they didn’t pay up. All in all, it was a good little number.
Recently she’d added another string to her bow – she’d set up a modelling agency. It was a game that covered a lot of different avenues: models for catalogues, models for calendars and playboy-type magazines; and besides these, she had others who came under the umbrella of ‘escorts’ who were willing to go the extra mile for a client, and who could please the opposite sex as well as their own. All of it raked in the money, as if the streets were paved with gold, and she’d only to take a shovel to get her share.
Turning her Triumph TR3, her bright-red pride and joy, into the lane that led to Fellam’s, Rita saw that the sign no longer said ‘Fellam’s Stud Farm’. A pang of guilt gripped her. That Terence bleedin’ Crompton had a lot to answer for. Well, when the day came that she did to him what he’d had her do to Jack, she’d have no guilt about it. She’d rejoice.
Pulling the car up a little way from the farm, she could see activity going on in the yard. Good God! Is that Dorothy? Yes, she was sure it was. And who was the young lady with her? Pretty thing, slender figure, a mound of red hair glistening like flames in the sunlight – similar to what Megan had, only a richer colour. Probably about eighteen years old. She couldn’t be Dorothy’s daughter, surely?
Feeling scared and more nervous than she’d ever felt before, Rita coaxed her car along, getting nearer and nearer. Dorothy looked up, shielded her eyes and waited. Stopping just the other side of the gate, Rita got out.
‘Dorothy, it’s me – Rita.’
‘Rita! What on earth?’
‘Look, I know I shouldn’t have come, but, well, I wanted to say I’m sorry to Mr Fellam.’
‘You have no right to—’
‘I’ve done me time, Dorothy. I did fifteen bleedin’ years, and I swear to God the fire weren’t all my doing. It were—’
‘Fifteen years can never pay for what you did. You took away Jack’s livelihood, and you robbed that young girl of her life.’
‘But . . .’
‘What’s going on?’
‘It’s that girl – woman. The one who set the fire and—’
‘Christ! What’re you doing here, lass? Don’t you think you brought enough suffering on us?’
‘I came to say as I were sorry, Jack. And I wanted to tell you why it happened and who was really behind it.’
The moment froze. No one moved or spoke. Jack stood looking at Rita with an incredulous expression that gave way to many emotions. Dorothy held his arm, in the same way a wife would. Was she his wife now? Rita supposed it was possible. She’d heard what had happened to Megan, and for it to have done so the very night she’d caused so much devastation only increased her guilt. And the girl – the beautiful nameless girl – stood where she’d been the whole time, by the sheds, watching with fascination on her face.
Rita could see that the barn had been rebuilt, but not as a stable. She supposed it was a cowshed, as she’d seen cattle in Jack’s fields when she’d driven along the lanes. Regret punched her as she looked at it. Why did I do it?
‘Look, you’d better come in.’
‘No, Jack, we don’t want the likes of her here. She—’
‘Dorothy, love, we should hear what she has to say. I know as she has done us a great wrong, but everyone deserves a chance at making amends. No one can do more than that, can they? And fifteen years is a long punishment.’
‘But it doesn’t come anywhere near what Iris’s term is. That girl will suffer till her death, as will her family. The injury you inflicted on her head means that she cannot cope without help.’
‘I never meant for that to happen. I was made to do what I did by that Terence Crompton. He wanted me to destroy your stud farm, Jack, so as he could start his own. He said he’d see me right, said he loved me, but once he’d had me and I’d done as he’d wanted, he betrayed me.’
‘Hark at you. Can you hear what you’re saying, Rita? And all as if it should excuse you. Well, we heard it all at the trial, and we don’t want to hear your lies again. Because even if you are telling the truth, it beggars belief that you think it a justification for your vile actions.’
‘I don’t, but all I’m saying is that bleedin’ bloke up at Hensal Grange was behind it, and it looks as though he got what he wanted, don’t it? Hensal Grange Stud Farm. His dad wouldn’t fund him, not while you were in the same business, he wouldn’t. The final straw were when his dad said he would see you through the war and make sure you had the funds to come out the other side. That made His High-and-Mightiness flip. He came up with the plan to make it so as you lost everything and it would cost too much to help you start again.’
‘Dorothy, I reckon as we should welcome Rita in. She’s nowt to gain by coming here. She’s come because she wants forgiveness. I, for one, would like to give it her. There’s been enough upset. We can’t keep living with bitterness.’
‘Well, if you say so, Jack. Come on in then, Rita, but don’t expect much change from me. I’ve had a hard job picking up the pieces of what went on that night, and though it wasn’t all down to you, what you did put the tin hat on it.’
Nothing about the farm that Rita could see had changed much. She’d never been inside the house before, but it was as she imagined it would be. Jack motioned to her to sit at the wooden table in the centre of the huge kitchen. He and Dorothy sat opposite her, and the girl stood behind Jack.
‘Who’s this then? She has the look of Megan. Well, sort of.’
‘This is Harriet, me granddaughter.’ Jack looked full of pride as he said this. ‘She’s Sarah’s lass by her first marriage. Sarah’s married to Richard now, Megan’s half-brother – but no relation to Sarah, of course. They have two boys in their early teens.’
‘Pleased to meet you, Harriet, I’m sure.’ The girl smiled. She was a stunner. ‘If you don’t think me nosy asking, Jack, how is Sarah?’ With Jack telling her that Sarah was well and happy, Rita felt she could ask about the others. ‘And everyone else around at that time – did everyone survive the war?’
‘Pretty much. A few tragedies, even amongst those who did come home, but I don’t think as anyone you knew copped it. P’raps you’d do better to get on with why you’re here, Rita. Making conversation isn’t comfortable. It took me a lot to get over what you did. My insurance company refused to pay out, as arson wasn’t covered. You hit me with a blow I couldn’t take, on top of what else’d happened that night.’
‘I know. And that made it an even worse atrocity, if that were possible. But I have no other motive than to see if you can forgive me. It’s a lot to live with. And, like I say, I did me time. I wanted you to know that, though it don’t excuse me none, I did tell the truth at the trial. I were daft to believe that sod Crompton, but I were young and looking to better meself. Having escaped the filthy, overcrowded hole that were me home in the East End of London, I weren’t about to go back there. I never thought as I’d be capable of doing what I did, though. And, to tell the truth, I never really thought it through – what could happen, and how it would affect you. I didn’t, Jack, and I’m sorry.’
‘Well, lass, what you did were bad, but it came nowhere near what had gone just afore it, though in itself it caused me more heartache than I could take. But I appreciate you doing this. It can’t have been easy for you and, as far as I’m concerned, I forgive you.’
‘Ta, mate. That means a lot to me. I know you can’t forgive me, Dorothy, and I understand. You thought a lot of Iris, and it were terrible what happened to her as a consequence of me actions. I take it you and Jack are married?’
‘Yes, I stayed on after the war. We worked together for ten years before Jack came to love me, but to my shame I’d loved him from the moment I set eyes on him.’
‘Oh, I knew how you felt – we all did, and you couldn’t help them feelings. The thing is, you didn’t act on them. We knew you wouldn’t, not with him having a wife and being so happy, but you didn’t hide how it were for you, where Jack were concerned.’
Dorothy blushed, and a look passed between her and Jack that told of their love. Rita thought she’d never stop being sorry about what happened to Megan, but it was good to see the happiness that Dorothy and Jack had found together.
Although Rita knew everything she needed to know about Terence Crompton, she had to sound as though she didn’t. ‘I suppose High-’n’-Mighty Terence Crompton got married, did he?’
‘Yes, he married Louise and they’re very happy. They have three children: a boy and twin girls. It’s best you forget it all now, Rita. You look like you’ve made a life for yourself. You have the trappings of money. So let things lie, eh?’
‘I don’t have much choice, Dorothy, but I’d like you and Jack to believe me story. What happened to Theresa Crompton then?’
‘More than you can imagine! None of us knows the full story, as a lot of what she did was hush-hush and will remain so for a long time, but she worked behind enemy lines in the war. She’s changed. Looks like a dropout when she comes to visit, which is on very rare occasions. Her looks have gone, her hair is like wire and she smokes constantly. I reckon as she’s been through stuff we can’t imagine. They captured her, you know. And it’s said as she’d have been shot, or suffered a worse kind of death, but our lot and the Americans got there just in time to save her and all the prisoners from the prisoner-of-war camp she was being held in.’
‘Theresa, a war hero! Blimey, how did all that come about? The pair of them twins were as lazy as anyone could get, and were into all sorts as would make your hair curl. Bugger me!’
‘Aye, well, that’s as maybe, but she’s paid her dues for whatever it is you refer to. He hasn’t, not by a long shot, if what you say is reet. Terence Crompton came out on top, as his type allus do. His dad passed on sudden, and he’s come into the estate, besides having the best stud farm in the whole of the county and a good wife and happy home. He has a life to envy. It don’t seem right.’
‘You’re right, Jack, it don’t. What about his mam? She were a fragile thing when I worked there.’
‘Funny that. She were, weren’t she? And had been since her sister died . . .’ Jack’s pause spoke volumes. She’d never got to the bottom of it all, but she’d heard there had been a scandal surrounding Jack and Lady Crompton’s sister back in the early thirties. Rita watched as he shifted uncomfortably, before he continued, ‘Well, after Theresa went to war, Lady Crompton threw herself into charity war work and grew in strength. Everyone said it was Theresa’s efforts making her feel guilty, and it brought her out of herself. She’s still very active in the community and lives over in Tarrington House now.’
‘That’s good to hear. You say Theresa visits, so where does she live then?’
‘Somewhere in London, we think. By, lass, you’ve a lot of interest in them all.’
‘Nah, not really – just making conversation.’ She hoped they believed her. Jack sounded suspicious, and the last thing she wanted was them thinking she was up to something. ‘I am interested to know how Mildred and Penny went on, though. Have you kept in touch?’
‘Yes, they’re fine. They both went back home. Both are married and have families and seem happy enough. Look, Rita, I’ll be honest with you. I’m not wanting to keep in touch with you. Like Jack has, I will forgive you, but that doesn’t mean we welcome you as a friend. Here, I’ve made you some tea and there’s some cake, but I would appreciate you leaving when you’ve had them.’
‘I get your gist, Dorothy. I couldn’t fail to, with how blunt you put it, and I can’t say as I blame you. It’s enough for me that you’re willing to forgive me. I live and work in London and am doing all right for meself, so I have no need to come up ’ere again. I have what I come for, except . . . Well, I wondered if you’d give something to Iris’s family for me?’ Rummaging in her bag, she found the envelope. ‘It’s a bit to help with her care, or just to make things easier for them. And tell them I’m sorry. I can’t make amends, I know that, but this might help them.’
‘I doubt they will take it, but I’ll try. If they don’t, I’ll give it to charity. Is there anything in particular you’d like it to go to?’
‘Horses. Anything to do with horses. I pay a regular amount to a charity as looks after clapped-out racehorses, and mares as have dropped that many foals they’re knackered. It’s in Sussex, but I bet as there is something around here as does the same thing.’
‘I’ll see to it for you. And, well, I know I’ve been short with you, but I do appreciate you coming. I’ll see you out.’
‘Right-o, Dorothy. Ta-ra then, Jack. I’m glad to see as you’re all right now, and nice to have met you too, Harriet. Remember me to your mam – only tell her about me being sorry first, and I hope she understands.’
Once on the open road again, Rita relaxed. You did well there, girl, coming over all contrite. They bleedin’ well fell for it. Her smile widened. She’d found out quite a lot, most of it useful. She regretted not actually seeing Terence bleedin’ Crompton, but that would come.
When she took her revenge, he had to know it was her, but in such a way as he couldn’t do anything to her, because him knowing would make her revenge all the sweeter. Now, to find Theresa. Her living in London would make it a bit difficult, as anyone could lose themselves there, but she had folk as could find out most things. She didn’t doubt one of them would come up with an answer for her – they had to, because she’d never got over Theresa, and she hoped as Theresa felt the same. Besides, Theresa may hate her brother as much as I do, and might make a useful ally.