‘Where was she planning to go? Did she have any money?’

‘She wouldn’t say where she was going, but she had money in a post office account from when her grandparents died. She said she’d contact me as soon as she was settled, and that if I made Gribby go she’d come back.’

‘Did she contact you?’

‘Yes, she called from a phone box. If Gribby answered she always put the phone down. She would tell me that Petal had got a tooth, or was eating solids, things like that, but never about where she was. Always the same question: had I made Gribby go? Of course, I hadn’t. I couldn’t, she was too strong for me to deal with.’

‘Constance, the Church Army sister who befriended her in Whitechapel, said she thought Cassie was waiting for something. Was that for you to get rid of Gribby?’

‘I would imagine so. I got lower and lower during that time. Guilt, sorrow and fear are a potent mix and I now suspect that Gribby was feeding me something to keep me calm and under control, as everything seemed very cloudy and disjointed. About the time Petal would have turned three Gribby talked about getting a private detective to find her. She kept saying she was sorry she’d been nasty about the baby, that it was just the shock and she wanted to make amends. She even talked about doing up a bedroom for Petal, and how wonderful it would be to have a small child in the house again.’

‘Did the detective find her?’

‘Not that one. We hired several, and they all drew a blank. They weren’t that good, I suppose, just took my money and sat on their backsides. I had my last phone call from Sylvia on Petal’s fourth birthday. She said there was no point in her ringing me any more because nothing was going to change. She had to think of Petal’s future, school and such like. She was tired of sitting on a platform for a train that would never come.’

Molly could almost hear Cassie making that last remark. ‘That must have been just before she came to Somerset.’

Christabel began to cry then, tears streaming down her cheeks. ‘If only I’d been braver,’ she whimpered. ‘We could have had a good life together. We didn’t have to stay out on the marsh. We could have sold the house and moved anywhere we fancied. Now I’ve lost both my daughters and I’m going to prison. All because I was gutless.’

Molly’s heart swelled with sympathy for this broken woman. She couldn’t think of anything to say that would change Christabel’s life, but she got up and went to her and took her in her arms.

‘I get angry with my mother, too, because she stays with my father, who’s a terrible bully,’ she said softly. ‘I suggested we got a flat together in Bristol, but she won’t leave him, so I know how Cassie must have felt. I’ve been weak, too, working for Dad without a proper wage, letting him control my life. If it hadn’t been for Cassie’s death I’d still be the same, so I understand how it was for you.’

‘You are such a kind girl,’ Christabel said into Molly’s chest. ‘I hope that, whatever they decide about Petal’s future, she’ll be allowed to keep in touch with you.’

‘If I’m asked my opinion about you at the trial, I’ll say what Cassie would’ve said, that you were weak, but that that isn’t a crime or a sin. And if I can play any role in Petal’s life, and I do so hope I can, I’ll find a way that you can share in it, too.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

The train to London was crammed with people going Christmas shopping. Molly had brought a book for the journey, but she couldn’t concentrate because of the butterflies in her stomach, so she stared mindlessly out of the window.

Miss Gribble’s murder trial was to start at the Old Bailey tomorrow, Tuesday, 6 December, and George would be meeting her at Charing Cross Station today to take her to the hotel he’d found for them both to stay in until the trial was over.

She didn’t know if it was the trial or meeting George that was causing the butterflies. Both were scary, but in different ways. At the trial, she just had to answer questions truthfully but in front of a great many people. With George, there would be no one observing or commenting, but ever since the day he had rescued her from Mulberry House he had rarely been out of her mind, and she felt it might be love. He hadn’t made his feelings clear to her, though, and now they would be alone together every evening for the duration of the trial she felt it was time to push things forward. However, if she made a move on him and he didn’t respond, she was going to be so embarrassed.

She felt they were meant for each other, and George had said something similar in his last phone call to her about today’s arrangements. ‘It was always you and me,’ he’d said. ‘We held hands when we went into school the first day. We always told each other our problems. You were my partner in ballroom-dancing lessons.’

She’d joked that they could hardly base their future on such flimsy connections. But, after she’d put the phone down, she was sorry she hadn’t just agreed with him.

It was very cold. Under her new red houndstooth-checked coat she wore a twinset and a straight wool skirt with a petticoat beneath that. Recently, since it had turned cold, she had taken to wearing slacks when she went out of the hotel, but Mrs Bridgenorth had said they weren’t smart enough for London, so she just had to put up with an icy bottom and legs. At least her feet were toasty, in fur-lined boots.

Looking out the window and seeing sheep huddling together for warmth in the muddy fields, she smiled, remembering the song ‘Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen Bogen by the Sea’, which Petal had woken her with this morning.

It was such a silly song, by Max Bygraves, but Petal loved it. She was a good singer, so much so she was singing the first verse of ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ solo at the carol service in St Mary the Virgin on the Sunday afternoon before Christmas.

Molly was sure she’d be crying with pride when she heard her.

The question of what was going to happen to this child was another huge worry. It made the questions of whether George cared for her, and whether she would be struck dumb when she was asked questions at the trial pale into insignificance. Mr and Mrs Bridgenorth loved Petal, but they still saw her stay with them as a temporary arrangement, until something more suitable turned up. So far, nothing had, but Molly almost had heart palpitations whenever the children’s officer visited, afraid she’d come to take her away.

Christabel was to be a witness in Miss Gribble’s trial, but the solicitor for the prosecution had told Molly that she wasn’t going to be charged with any crime. It was quite clear to everyone who had questioned her that she’d had no knowledge of her husband’s murder, and that the later crimes of abducting Petal and imprisoning Molly had been done without her knowledge or help.

‘She’s been punished terribly for her weakness already,’ the solicitor had said sympathetically. ‘Her husband and older daughter murdered, the younger one taken from her. She’ll have a sad and lonely life in her house on the marsh. Even if she sells it and moves away, the sadness will go with her.’

Molly totally agreed with him, and it made her sad, too. Not for the first time, she wondered what Cassie would’ve made of it all. Molly suspected she would be angry that, after all she’d gone through to keep Petal safe, her little sister’s future still hung in the balance.

When Molly stepped off the train at Charing Cross, George came haring through the crowd and enveloped her in a bear hug. ‘I thought today would never come,’ he said. ‘Sarge asked why I was so excited about a trial – after all, I’ve been to dozens of them. He must have forgotten I’ve always had a thing about you!’