As she stepped onto the marble floor of the main hall, Bess saw Ena. She waved and her youngest sister retuned the gesture. ‘Have I got some news for you,’ Ena said, her voice high with excitement.
‘And me for you,’ Bess said. Opening the door to the office and standing back to let Ena enter first, she looked over her shoulder. ‘Any messages, Jack?’
‘Mr Donnelly is mending a lamp in the library. Other than that, no, Mrs Donnelly.’
‘Problems?’ The receptionist shook his head. ‘Indiscretions?’ He laughed. ‘Well you know where I am if you need me,’ she said, disappearing into the office before the receptionist had time to reply.
‘Katherine Hawksley’s mother isn’t dead!’ Ena announced, as soon as she and Bess sat down. ‘She is very much alive and running the family’s cotton business in a small town outside Carlisle. It took me a hell of a time to track her down. She changed her name some years ago, so Gerald Hawksley wouldn’t be able to find her. After fifteen years, she is still terrified of him.’
‘What’s she like?’
‘She’s a very nice woman who comes from a well-to-do family in Carlisle. It was Gerald Hawksley who married her for her money, not the other way round, like he would have people believe. And she didn’t abandon her daughter either. Hawksley was a big noise in the BUF and he threatened to have her killed if she didn’t leave.’
‘I still wouldn’t have gone without my child,’ Bess said.
‘Nor did she. Dorothy told Hawksley that her father was ill and she wanted to take Katherine up to see him. But he wouldn’t let her take his daughter, so she went up to Cumberland on her own. She didn’t go to visit her parents because her father was ill, she went to ask them if they would take her and Katherine in, because she was going to leave her husband. They said yes, but when she returned to the marital home, Hawksley had gone and taken Katherine with him. She had no idea where they were.
‘She went to the police and told them her husband had kidnapped their daughter. She told them that her parents had offered Katherine and herself a home, and that she wanted custody of Katherine.’
‘And?’
‘They said they’d look into it. But Hawksley must have had a copper, if not several, in his pocket, because a week later they informed her that she would not be getting custody of Katherine due to complaints that Sir Gerald had previously made, about her drinking. While Dorothy Hawksley was in Cumberland, Hawksley had told the police that he feared for his daughter’s safety when his wife was drunk. He also said some of the men his wife took back to the house when he was away on business were unsavoury characters. He hadn’t seen them himself, he said, but friends of his had.’
‘She hadn’t taken men to the house, had she?’
‘No, but Hawksley provided the police with the names of several men who would swear in court that she had. He also had a doctor on his payroll who was willing to testify to Dorothy Hawksley’s excessive drinking. He must have been planning to get rid of her, one way or another, for some time. Not only had he made a statement to the police, he had consulted a solicitor. The accusations he made were in black and white. Dorothy Hawksley didn’t stand a chance of getting Katherine back.
‘At the time, he told the police that he’d had to leave the family home and go into hiding with his daughter, because he feared his wife would become aggressive - again - and harm Katherine. The bastard even said he hoped his wife would get help for her addiction, and would one day lead a normal and fulfilling life. But regrettably, he said, it would not be with him and his daughter.’
Bess let out a long breath, blowing out her cheeks. ‘The poor woman.’
‘She employed a private investigating agency. They searched for months, but couldn’t find Hawksley and the girl. It was as if they had dropped off the edge of the world. The agency concluded that Hawksley had taken Katherine abroad. Dorothy was heartbroken. She believed that if she stayed in the house, even though it held the most awful memories for her, her daughter would know where she was and would one day come back to her.
‘Instead of Katherine coming back, two of her husband’s thugs turned up. They gave her a one-way train ticket home and a message; Leave by train now, or in a box later.’
‘How could Hawksley do that to the mother of his child?’
‘Dorothy said he was unhinged, and the higher he climbed up the fascist ladder the worse he became. She said if Hawksley didn’t get his own way, lost a business deal, or had a fall-out with someone in the fascist movement, he’d bubble up like a volcano. She said he never took it out on the person he was angry with at the time - he was too canny for that - he would wait until he got home and take it out on her. He beat her regularly, but he never laid a finger on Katherine.’
Ena shook her head. ‘Dorothy wouldn’t have left Katherine with Hawksley when she visited her parents in Cumberland if she thought for a second he would harm her. He worshiped the child. It was Dorothy who he’d taken exception to. She told me that the only reason she took the train ticket that Hawksley’s goons had given her was because, if she hadn’t, they
