Faith - Lesley Pearse [105]
From then on it was a round of violence. She didn’t have to do or say anything to set him off, he would attack her for any reason, and always he yelled at her to get out of the house and never come back. But she wasn’t going to go without Barney because she knew that was what he hoped for.
Yet the more he hit her, the more verbal abuse he subjected her to, the more worthless she felt. She sometimes felt that Greg was right, that she was scum, and that maybe she had no right to Barney.
It was a Friday night in early June when she finally saw that he would kill her eventually if she didn’t get out.
He came home around eight stinking of drink, and asked where she’d moved his golf clubs to. The last time he played golf he’d left his bag in the kitchen, and Barney had pulled out one of the irons and smashed a vase with it. Laura had then put them for safety in the hall cupboard where they kept the coats. She was washing up and so she told Greg where he could find them. The next minute he’d got her by the hair, dragging her out of the kitchen.
‘You bloody well get them,’ he roared at her. ‘You lazy fucking whore.’
She knew he would hit her even if she kept quiet, and the injustice and cruelty of it made her snap. ‘You hit me again and I’ll go down to your factory and tell them that you’re a wife beater,’ she yelled back at him.
For a second she thought that had stopped him in his tracks for he opened the hall cupboard door and pulled out his golf club bag. But suddenly he whirled round on her, caught her by the shoulder, and with his other hand pulled out a club and hit her with it.
It landed on her shoulder and she managed to get away from him, running out to the kitchen. But he came after her and slashed at her legs, making her fall to the floor.
He had her at his mercy then and he hit her over and over again, yelling out obscenities that were so vile it was as though he was possessed by an evil spirit. She screamed, begged him to stop and think of Barney upstairs, but it made no difference.
The pain was incredible. Each stroke felt like a burn, and she tried to curl herself up to protect herself, but she thought the blows raining down on her back would kill her.
Then as suddenly as he’d started, he stopped, dropping the club on the floor beside her. ‘You’ve done this to me,’ he spat at her. ‘You’ve turned me into something evil, like you.’
He left then, rushing out of the house, not even stopping to pick up his golf bag. She heard his car start up and roar off down the road.
She was beyond tears, in shock with both the pain of the beating and the idea that he could hate her that much. But she knew that somehow she had to get out with Barney that night. Once he had gathered his wits he’d be back for his son.
There was no point in calling the police. They would call it ‘a domestic’, and say she must stay in the house with Barney and claim her rights through the courts. Greg had the money and the legal contacts. First he’d whip Barney away, then on Monday morning he’d be at his solicitor’s with some story about her endangering Barney. He’d make people believe him too, he was good at that, and she’d never get her baby back.
It took all her strength to pull herself up on the cupboard doors, and then one painful step after another until she reached the stairs.
Packing a couple of cases with her and Barney’s clothes was hard enough when every movement was like having a dagger going though her, but how she got them downstairs and out into her car, she really didn’t know. She filled another small bag with Barney’s toys, then went into Greg’s study to see if she could find any