The Angel in the Corner - Monica Dickens [140]
‘You leave her alone then,’ Lennie gibbered, ‘or I’ll –’
‘Oh, shut your trap, you little rat.’ Joe pushed him aside and slouched towards the back door.
‘Where are you going?’ Virginia asked. ‘Don’t you want your lunch?’ What a silly thing to say. Just the sort of futile thing one did say after a crisis.
Joe turned at the door. ‘Lunch?’ he said vaguely, as if the word meant nothing to him. ‘God, no. I’m not hungry. I’m going to get some air. I feel like hell.’ He brushed the back of his hand across his forehead. His face was pale and sticky with sweat. ‘I think I’ll go and chop some firewood. Do me good. I’ll pretend I’ve got Lennie’s neck under the hatchet.’ He gave a short, brutal laugh, fumbled with the door-handle, and went out into the little courtyard.
Virginia sat down and tried to smile at Lennie. The side of her face was flushed and burning. ‘It’s all right, Lennie,’ she said. ‘Don’t look so upset.’
‘I am,’ he said. ‘Proper upset. It’s not right, Mrs C. He’s getting so he’s not safe any more when he’s been drinking. He’ll chop his hand off out there, the state he’s in,’ he added, not without satisfaction. ‘I tell you what it is. I reckon he’s drinking so bad these days because he can’t forget what he did to our baby.’
‘What do you mean?’ Virginia frowned. ‘It wasn’t his fault. She could have died even if I had been there.’
‘Didn’t you know then?’ Lennie poked his head forward to search her face with incredulous eyes. ‘Didn’t he ever tell you?’
‘Tell me what? What are you trying to say?’
‘He dropped her on the stairs. He’d been down with her in the bar, drinking, see. He wasn’t too steady on his legs and he dropped her. Out there on the stone. I saw her laying there, just before he picked her up. I’d been in the storeroom, see, waiting for Nancy. He didn’t know I was there, but when I heard him slip and curse, I came into the Public, and I saw it, although he never seen me. He just picked up the baby and run upstairs. Oh, crumbs, Mrs C.,’ he said, watching Virginia’s face. ‘I’m ever so sorry. I made sure he’d have told you.’
Virginia was surprised to hear herself speaking in a normal voice. She sat with her hands on the edge of the table, propping herself up, because she felt so faint. ‘It doesn’t make any difference,’ she said. ‘Jenny is dead now. It doesn’t make any difference.’
‘If that’s the way you want to look at it.’ Lennie fumbled with his shirt-collar, which Joe had pulled out of place. ‘Do you feel all right now, Mrs C.? If you don’t need me, I think I’ll pop out and get my lunch. This little upset has made me a bit peckish.’
‘Of course,’ Virginia said flatly. ‘Go and get your lunch.’
‘You sure you’ll be all right?’ Lennie hesitated, glancing towards the back door, where erratic sounds of chopping could be heard. ‘Oh, well,’ he said, as Virginia nodded, ‘I’ll say bye-bye for now. I shan’t be more than a few minutes.’
When he had gone, Virginia tried to think. Her mind was numb. The thoughts would not come. There was only a picture, a picture of Jenny, lying in a tiny heap on the cold stone at the foot of the stairs. Dead? Perhaps she had been dead already when Joe put her back in the crib, and he had not had the courage to tell her.
The back door burst open and Joe came in, cursing. ‘Nicked myself,’ he said, holding up a bleeding finger. ‘Moral – always sober up before you use a chopper.’ He flung the hatchet down on the table and went to the sink to hold his finger under the tap.
‘Joe,’ Virginia said quietly, sitting with her head down, not looking at him, ‘why didn’t you tell me you dropped Jenny on the stairs the night she died?’
Joe wheeled round. ‘Who says I did?’
‘Lennie. He was in the public bar. He saw it.’
‘Oh.’ Joe came towards her, sucking his finger. He had not turned the tap off tightly, and it dripped with