‘I’m really sorry about your parents, but I don’t want to talk about it any more,’ Emer said firmly. ‘Just bring me back, okay?’
Henry gave her a long, measured look.
‘I clearly got you wrong,’ he said coldly. ‘Thought you were kind, at least.’
He walked fast through the woods, and she almost had to run to keep up, tripping over tree roots, getting hot and sweaty. At last, they arrived in the parking lot. To her astonishment, she recognised Susannah’s pick-up, parked next to Henry’s. The driver’s side door opened, and Susannah climbed out, clinging onto it.
‘Susannah!’ Emer called out in shock. ‘My god, what are you doing here?’
‘I came to get you,’ Susannah croaked, looking as if she might collapse. How on earth had she managed to drive all the way across the island? ‘I was worried.’
Henry put his hand on Emer’s arm. ‘You’re staying with me,’ he ordered.
Emer felt fury rage up inside her. How dare this man tell her what to do? ‘Let go of me,’ she said, pulling her arm away.
‘Emer, please do as I say,’ Henry said to her, trying to pull her back. ‘I’m begging you, don’t go with her. Come back with me. She’s a liar, and she’s dangerous.’
‘Are you crazy? She’s sick, and she needs me,’ Emer said, shrugging him off.
‘Let her go, you bully!’ Susannah yelled at Henry, her voice hoarse with effort.
‘You just can’t stop yourself, can you?’ Henry snarled at Susannah, and took a step towards her. He looked like a giant, glowering over the tiny Susannah.
Emer pushed him aside and stood in front of Susannah to protect her. ‘Leave her alone,’ she told him.
‘She’ll brainwash you, just as she brainwashed Lynsey against me,’ Henry declared. ‘She’s plain evil. You old witch!’ He spat on the ground at Susannah’s feet, before turning on his heel and getting into his pick-up, Shadow jumping up beside him. He roared off out of the parking lot at breakneck speed.
As soon as he’d gone, Emer felt her heart slow down again.
‘Come on, I’ll drive’, she said, helping Susannah into the passenger side of the vehicle. The older woman was breathless, almost panting as she clambered back into the pick-up.
‘Susannah, what were you thinking of driving all the way out here?’ Emer asked her, as she reversed the vehicle and began driving back down the road.
‘I got to thinking,’ Susannah said. ‘Wondering why you were so secretive. I mean, Shirley really isn’t the hiking type. So I went down to the diner.’
Emer glanced across at Susannah. Her hair fell around her face in soft silver folds, and her eyes were the clearest blue. Emer knew in her heart she trusted her implicitly, despite what Henry had said.
‘Course, Shirley was there. But she told me you been seeing Henry Young. I was real worried you’d gone off with him then.’
‘Why?’
‘Henry’s not a good guy,’ Susannah sighed. ‘I know his dad, Silas, messed him up a lot. But when he dated our Lynsey, I could see how things were going to go. Just like with Katie.’ Susannah clasped her hands in her lap. ‘Besides, they were cousins. I had to put a stop to it.’
‘Is that why you and Lynsey fell out?’
‘Yeah, she said I broke her heart. But he would have done worse.’
Emer remembered Henry’s strange behaviour. Trying to force her to eat the egg sandwich, his assumption they were dating, even his behaviour in bed the night before. Had he been lying about his sperm count? Could he have tried to get her pregnant to trap her? It was abuse. Subtle, all the same. But without her realising it, he had been controlling her since their very first walk.
‘I’m sorry, Susannah, I’m an idiot.’
‘That’s okay,’ Susannah said, putting a cold hand on her arm. ‘I’m just glad it didn’t get out of hand between you two.’
Back at Susannah’s house, Emer helped her into bed. It was clear that the old woman was now in a lot of pain, trembling all over as Emer put her in her nightie.
‘Emer, will you give me something?’ she whispered, her voice tight with pain. ‘It’s real bad.’
‘Sure,’ Emer said.
It had been the first time Susannah had ever asked for morphine. Emer tried to make her as comfortable as possible. It touched her deeply that Susannah had left the sanctuary of her home to rescue her. She knew in her heart this old lady would never have killed anyone, even the man who had abused her sister. And she wasn’t going to insult her by ever asking about it.
40
Susannah
September 1966
Gripping the gun under her shoulder, with her free hand trembling, Susannah unlocked Kate and Matthew’s bedroom door. Kicked it open. She swung into the room, gun raised, but her brother-in-law wasn’t standing up ready for her. He was lying face down in the middle of the bedroom.
Susannah dropped the gun in shock. Blood was seeping into the rug on the floor, a big lake of red. Matthew was completely still and utterly dead. She saw a dent in the back of his head where it had caved in. On the floor next to him was her mother’s heavy iron pot, the one she used for boiling all his potatoes.
Everything spun in the room and Susannah tried to steady herself. She had been expecting a showdown with her brother-in-law, but not this.
‘I killed him,’ her mom said in a small voice.
She was standing right behind her, like a ghost.
‘Couldn’t bear it no more. Him beating up our Katie.’
‘Oh, Mom!’ Susannah wailed, turning to her mother.
‘I killed him for you, Katie,’ her mom said proudly, her eyes bright with
