Joseph Delaney - The Spook

As we crossed the yard I pointed to the barn. ‘Better shelter under there,’ I said. ‘I’ll go in and explain.’

No sooner had I spoken than the loud cry of a hungry baby came from the direction of the farmhouse. Alice ’s eyes met mine briefly, then she looked down and I remembered the last time we’d been together when a child had cried.

Without a word, Alice turned and walked into the barn, her silence no more than I expected. You’d think that after all that had happened, there’d have been a lot to talk about on the journey, but we’d hardly spoken. I think she’d been upset by the way the Spook had held her by the jaw and smelled her breath. Maybe it had made her think about all the things she’d been up to in the past. Whatever it was, she’d seemed deep in thought and very sad for most of the journey.

I suppose I could have tried harder but I was too tired and weary, so we’d walked in silence until it had grown into a habit. It was a mistake: I should have made the effort to get to know Alice better then – it might have saved me a lot of trouble later.

As I jerked open the back door the crying stopped and I heard another sound, the comforting click of Mam’s rocking chair.

The chair was by the window but the curtains weren’t fully drawn and I could see by her face that she’d been peering through the narrow gap between them. She’d watched us enter the yard, and as I came into the room, she began to rock the chair faster and harder, staring at me all the while without blinking, one half of her face in darkness, the other lit by the large candle that was flickering in its big brass holder in the centre of the table.

‘When you bring a guest with you, it’s good manners to invite her into the house,’ she said, her voice a mixture of annoyance and surprise. ‘I thought I’d taught you better than that.’

‘Mr Gregory told me to bring her here,’ I said. ‘Her name’s Alice but she’s been keeping bad company. He wants you to talk to her but I thought it was best to tell you what’s happened first, just in case you didn’t want to invite her in.’

So I drew up a chair and told Mam exactly what had happened. When I’d finished she let out a long sigh, then a faint smile softened her face.

‘You’ve done well, son,’ she told me. ‘You’re young and new to the job so your mistakes can be forgiven. Go and bring that poor girl in, then leave us alone to talk. You might want to go upstairs and say hello to your new niece. Ellie will certainly be glad to see you.’

So I brought Alice in, left her with my mam and went upstairs.

Ellie was in the biggest bedroom. It used to belong to my mam and dad but they’d let her and Jack have it because there was room for another two beds and a cot, which would come in useful as their family grew.

I knocked lightly on the door, which was half open, but only looked into the room when Ellie called out for me to go in. She was sitting on the edge of the big double bed feeding the baby, its head half-hidden by her pink shawl. As soon as she saw me her mouth widened into a smile that made me feel welcome, but she looked tired and her hair lank and greasy. Although I looked away quickly, Ellie was sharp and I knew she’d seen me staring and read the expression in my eyes, because she quickly smoothed the hair away from her eyes.

‘Oh, I’m sorry, Tom,’ she said. ‘I must look a mess -I’ve been up all night. I’ve just grabbed an hour’s sleep. You’ve got to get it while you can with a very hungry baby like this. She cries a lot, especially at night.’

‘How old is she?’ I asked.

‘She’ll be just six days old tonight. She was born not long after midnight last Saturday.’

That was the night I’d killed Mother Malkin. For a moment the memory of it came rushing back and a shiver ran down my spine.

‘Here, she’s finished feeding now,’ Ellie said with a smile. ‘Would you like to hold her?’

That was the last thing I wanted to do. The baby was so small and delicate that I was scared of squeezing it too hard or dropping it and I didn’t like the way its head was so floppy. It was hard to say no though, because Ellie would have been hurt. As it was, I didn’t have to hold the baby for long because the moment it was in my arms its little face went red and it began to cry.

‘I don’t think it likes me,’ I told Ellie.

‘She’s a she not an it,’ Ellie scolded, making her face all stern and outraged. ‘Don’t worry, it’s not you, Tom,’ she said, her mouth softening into a smile. ‘I think she’s still hungry, that’s all.’

The baby stopped crying the moment Ellie took her back and I didn’t stay long after that. Then, on my way downstairs, I heard a sound from the kitchen I hadn’t expected.

It was laughter, the loud, hearty laughter of two people getting on very well together. The moment I opened the door and walked in, Alice ’s face became very serious, but Mam carried on laughing aloud for a few moments, and even when she stopped, her face was still lit up with a wide smile. They’d been sharing a joke, a very funny joke, but I didn’t like to ask what it was and they didn’t tell me. The look in both their eyes made me feel that it was something private.

My dad once told me that women know things that men don’t. That sometimes they have a certain look in their eyes, but when you see it, you should never ask them what they’re thinking. If you do they might tell you something you don’t want to hear. Well, whatever they’d been laughing at had certainly brought them closer; from that moment on it seemed as if they’d known each other for years. The Spook had been right. If anyone could sort Alice out, it had to be Mam.

I did notice one thing though. Mam gave Alice the room opposite hers and Dad’s. They were the two rooms at the top of the first flight of stairs. Mam had very sharp ears and it meant that if Alice so much as turned over in her sleep, she would hear it.

So for all that laughter, Mam was still watching Alice.

When he came back from the fields, Jack gave me a really dark scowl and muttered to himself. He seemed angry at something. But Dad was pleased to see me, and to my surprise he shook hands with me. He always shook hands when greeting my other brothers who’d left home but this was the first time for me. It made me feel sad and proud at the same time. He was treating me as if I were a man, making my own way in the world.

Jack hadn’t been in the house five minutes when he came looking for me. ‘Outside,’ he said, keeping his voice low so that nobody else could hear. ‘I want to talk to you.’

We walked out into the yard and he led the way round the side of the barn, close to the pigpens, where we couldn’t be seen from the house.

‘Who’s the girl you’ve brought back with you?’

‘Her name’s Alice. It’s just someone who needs help,’ I said. ‘The Spook told me to bring her home so that Mam could talk to her.’

‘What do you mean, she needs help?’

‘She’s been keeping bad company, that’s all.’

‘What sort of bad company?’

I knew he wouldn’t like it but I had no choice. I had to tell him. Otherwise he’d only ask Mam.

‘Her aunt’s a witch, but don’t worry – the Spook’s sorted it all out and we’ll only be staying for a few days.’

Jack exploded. I’d never seen him so angry.

‘Don’t you have the sense you were born with?’ he shouted. ‘Didn’t you think? Didn’t you think about the baby? There’s an innocent child living in this house and you bring home someone from a family like that! It’s beyond belief!’

He raised his fist and I thought he was going to thump me. Instead, he smashed it sideways into the wall of the barn, the sudden thud sending the pigs into a frenzy.