The Knapthorne Conspiracy by Malcolm Ballard (best english novels for beginners txt) 📕

girls.” He stopped to draw on his cigarette. “Many years later the oldest one left home as soon as she could, sick of her bad-tempered, moody father. Found hersel' a boy to wed. It near broke her mother’s heart, too. That left Gina, the apple of her mother’s eye, at home by herself. Doris encouraged me to get her a pony now her sister had gone and I grudgingly agreed. Worse day’s work I ever did, buying her that.” With a shaking hand he stubbed out his cigarette and pursed his lips, pressing them hard together to stop his grief from pouring out in front of his visitor and it was several seconds before he felt able to continue. The atmosphere in the room from Frank's incessant smoking was repugnant and Bella just wanted to leave but it was impossible to do so before she found out the truth.

“It was like her birthday and Christmas had both come at once and, for a while there I think she genuinely did love me. But then that animal took up all the love she could give, leastways that’s what I thought.” Emotion got the better of him again and he struggled to overcome the sadness of bitter memories. Bella was finding the whole experience unnerving. For the second time in as many days she found herself listening to reminiscences from another era and seeing the pain and grief those memories evoked. Two men and two villages linked by a common bond, an arcane agreement binding them both to complicity in the concealment of two crimes, each as equally heinous as the other. Frank Allsop lifted his head slightly and sniffed once or twice before exhaling, then he began to cough, a terrible, wracking cough that shook his bony frame and made Bella wince. It took him some time to get his breath back but once he had recovered he took up where he had left off.

“Almost by accident, Doris discovered Gina was pregnant. Barely sixteen that pretty wee lassie was and already defiled. Never been near a boy in her life as far as we knew but that obviously wasn’t the case. She’d had a meeting with someone while out on that damned pony.” In a rush of movement he slammed his bony fist down on the arm of his chair. “I drove her into his arms!” It was uttered vehemently, his voice full of emotion. “If I’d have loved her, spoken to her like a proper father, it never would have happened!” With an anguished sigh he put his head in his hands as guilt and grief overcame him. For some moments he stayed like that, then drew his hands slowly down his face.

“I vowed to give the bastard a real hiding if ever I discovered who it was and it didn’t take me long. I gave him a beating he’d never forget!” Once again he raised his eyes to look at Bella. Eyes that were cold and lifeless.

“It was your father, lass, that got my daughter in the family way.” He got no pleasure from the look of shock on Bella’s face. “Aye, Patrick Foxton it was.”

So intent had she been on following the old man’s story, wondering what its relevance was, that she had completely failed to see what was coming. In retrospect it seemed an obvious conclusion now that she knew about it, not unlike solving a cryptic clue in a crossword puzzle. Surprise had been her reaction more than anything else. After all, what was there left that could shock her about Patrick Foxton? Echoes of rumours and snippets of information played back in her head, scattered pieces of a jigsaw that were slowly falling into place and building a picture of a man shot to death in a Dorset wood three decades ago. She felt a great deal of sympathy for Maria and tried to picture what it must have been like living with such a person. Little wonder she’d been driven into Rupert’s arms. And what about Frank Allsop, already harbouring animosity towards Patrick while struggling with his own demons? It wasn’t difficult to see how, after the death of Ruth Flint, Frank would have viewed him as vermin and disposed of him accordingly. The thought made her shiver and she harked back to her abhorrence on first hearing of Patrick’s murder. How her feelings had changed since the facts had come out! Now she had begun to sympathise with the sentiments of all those involved, especially the man sitting across from her. But Frank Allsop hadn’t finished yet. Hadn’t reached the conclusion of his story that would finally allow him to publicise his grief and expunge it once and for all.

There was no rush. Hadn’t he waited thirty years for this moment. Bella watched as he lit up another cigarette, inhaled, then began to cough. She couldn’t help feeling there was something terribly tragic about knowing the suffering he’d gone through during his life and the fact he was still being made to suffer, albeit as the victim of his own addiction. For someone like herself who’d led a fairly self-indulgent existence it made her realise how fortunate she’d been.

“How did you find out it was Patrick?” she asked him, when he’d stopped coughing.

“It was nae difficult,” he replied, without looking at her. “It’s nae like London doon here. Everyone knows everybody else’s business. It was a well-known fact he loved riding. Used to borrow a horse from one o' his pals in Knapthorne.” It was said in a matter-of-fact way but then his voice changed to something much uglier, full of anger and revulsion.

“When I confronted your father he laughed about it. Laughed!  He took my daughter’s innocence and abused her. A sweet, lonely child starved of love. And he had the nerve to boast about how she had enjoyed it. I should have killed him there and then, just like he did for my Gina.” Bella didn’t understand.

“What