‘Well, as it happens, I’ve made you some bread and beef to tek to school,’ she said. ‘And there’s a slice of apple pie as well.’
‘Oh, do I have to go now?’ Robin said. ‘I was going to ask if we could go out in Aaron’s boat first.’
‘He won’t have time today. Mebbe next weekend, and mebbe your ma will come again.’
He didn’t seem too disappointed, and thanked Giles for bringing him home and went off with Peggy, and was heard asking, ‘Have you been having a lot of toast, Granny Peg? I can smell burning.’
‘I can smell it too,’ Giles observed as he waved goodbye. ‘Has someone had a fire?’
‘I’d say so.’ Aaron dug his hands into his coat pockets. ‘Come and have a look. How much do you know about when Delia lived in Paull?’
‘Not very much,’ Giles admitted as they crossed into the next farmyard. ‘But I gather she had a wretched childhood.’
‘Aye, she did, but none of us realized,’ Aaron said grimly. ‘Surprising what goes on beneath our noses, and as for my own lad mekkin’ situation worse for her, poor lass. Anyway …’
They’d come out of the gate and crossed a narrow track, and Giles saw a broken-down cottage with a burnt-out barn. He saw a man with a shock of red hair, the same colour as Jenny’s and her mother’s, and other men pulling out tin trunks and burnt timber, and when he heard one of the other men call him Jack he guessed that the red-haired man must be Jack Robinson and therefore Robin’s father.
‘This is the Deakins’ place, but there’s no sign of either of them. There are fishermen and lifeboat men out on ’estuary trying to find him and folks searching all over ’village in case he’s done away wi’ her.’
Giles turned a shocked face towards Aaron. ‘Why do you think that?’
Aaron didn’t look at him as he spoke but kept his eyes firmly in front. ‘Back door was locked as if they were both out and there’s nobody in ’cottage. Me and Peggy both went upstairs to look for Mrs Deakin when ’fire began, but she wasn’t there.’
‘But – I still don’t understand why you should think …’ Giles said incredulously.
Aaron muttered glumly, ‘Onny good thing I can say about them is that they weren’t Paull people; they were from down Devon way. Fisher folk anyway, mebbe Brixham, and mebbe them folk were glad to see ’back of ’em. They turned up nearly thirty years ago, but never mixed wi’ villagers. Then one day our Jenny found this little lass lookin’ over our fence and brought her to our house to play. A good hour passed and she wasn’t missed and Peggy went to tell ’missus that she was with us in case she was worried, but all she did was nod and say send her back when you’ve had enough of her.’ He pursed his lips. ‘She’d onny be about three. Poor little lass.’
Jack came over to them and was introduced to Giles. He didn’t look Giles in the eye as he reluctantly shook hands, though Giles stared him in the face.
‘We can do no more here, Da. I reckon we should leave ’rest to ’police. Harry’s been to Hedon and notified them that summat’s amiss. There’s a boat missing from ’creek and it’s not one of Deakin’s. His are still tied up. Mebbe, mebbe …’ His boot scuffed the ground and then he looked up. ‘Somebody should tell Delia.’
‘What do you mean?’ Giles asked him. ‘Am I missing something here? Why should Delia be brought into this?’
Both men looked at him. ‘Course, you wouldn’t know if Delia hasn’t mentioned it,’ Aaron said. ‘And neither does Robin know.’ He glanced up at the cottage, then to the smouldering barn. ‘Delia was once Dorothy Deakin, and this is where she spent that miserable childhood.’
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Giles had a midday meal with the Robinsons. Peggy said she’d drive him back to Hedon to catch the afternoon train and asked him if he would explain the situation to Delia.
‘She might not want to come back yet,’ Giles suggested. ‘Not unless the police want to speak to her; and as she hasn’t seen her parents for years, there’s not much she can tell them.’ Then he added, ‘Have you thought that her parents might have gone off somewhere for a few days and the fire could have been accidental?’
Peggy nodded. ‘Aye, we could all be barking up ’wrong tree,’ she said, but her voice indicated that she thought otherwise.
‘True,’ Aaron acknowledged in the same tone. ‘But Deakin wouldn’t go anywhere at this time of year; it’s a good time for shrimping, and besides how could they have gone anywhere when his mule and cart are tied up at ’creek and his boats are still berthed?’
Giles gave up deducing what might have happened; he didn’t know the ins and outs of the fishing timetable or that of country people, but he said that he’d tell Delia about the barn fire and that neighbours were anxious about her parents’ whereabouts. I don’t think she’ll be too concerned about their situation, he decided, and they certainly haven’t troubled themselves about hers.
‘I don’t want to worry Delia unduly,’ he told the Robinsons. ‘She has had enough to deal with in her life without adding to it.’
Peggy nodded approvingly. ‘Quite right,’ she murmured. Looking straight at him, she asked, ‘Are you fond of her, Mr Dawson?’
He was taken aback by her directness. There was no artifice about this woman, no pretence; it was a straightforward question, so he gave a straightforward answer, but not before Aaron murmured, ‘Now then, Mother. Nowt to do wi’ you.’
‘I’m very fond of Delia, Mrs Robinson, and I don’t mind in the least answering your question.’ He grinned at Aaron. ‘But,’ he went on seriously, ‘at present I can’t make any commitment. I’m not a free
