where?’
‘What makes you sure I know anyone at all?’
‘Don’t play games with me, Bernie. You either do or you don’t. Put me out of my misery, for God’s sake.’
McAllister heard the despair in her voice and sighed. ‘There was someone I knew would help you in Birmingham, England. It’ll cost you, though.’
‘How much?’ Aggie asked. ‘But then what does the price matter? If it was tuppence I couldn’t afford it. I never have a penny piece to call my own and the only money I see is the two farthings I get before Mass each Sunday morning to put in the collection.’
‘That then is no good at all,’ McAllister said. ‘You best put that idea out of your head altogether. Anyway, it would mean travelling to Birmingham. You’d hardly want to do that, even if the money could be raised.’
‘Are you mad?’ Aggie demanded. ‘I tell you, Bernie, though I have never left Buncrana in the whole of my life, I would go to Timbuktu if I had to.’
‘So, what will you do for money?’
‘That’s your department.’
‘And just why would I give you money, even I had any to give?’
‘Because this child is half yours,’ Aggie said. ‘And if you refuse to help me, then tomorrow morning early I shall tell your wife the same. I know you are right in what you say about the men here, my father apart; perhaps they will all blame me, but what of your wife? If you refuse to help me before I end my life, I will tell her that, in the guise of taking me home, you raped me one bleak night in December. You will have my death on your conscience for the rest of your life,’ Aggie went on. ‘And when you do die you will roast in the flames of Hell.’
The flames of Hell didn’t unnerve McAllister as much as the thought of his wife getting to know, and he didn’t doubt for one minute that Aggie would do as she threatened. After all, what did she have to lose?
‘You will have cooked your goose right and proper then,’ he said.
‘Bernie, my goose was well and truly cooked that night in December,’ Aggie said softly. ‘And, anyway, I think Philomena should know the type of man she is married to.’
But Philomena did know. That was the very devil of it. She had given him an ultimatum and he knew her well enough to know that the threats she had made, should he stray again, were not idle ones. One hint of this and he would be out on his ear. The scandal would stick to him too. In fact he might even be forced to leave town.
Better by far to find some way of sending the troublesome Aggie to Birmingham to his sister, Gwen. There was always money in the till that he could lay his hands on. He had done it many times before when he had been short, and though Philomena gave out to him, she put up with it. His sister would know what to do with Aggie and where the ‘little problem’ could be dealt with. He had no doubt that Gwen would be agreeable to this; she had never refused to do anything he asked.
‘Say something, for God’s sake,’ Aggie pleaded.
McAllister realised the silence had stretched out between them. ‘All right,’ he said. ‘Say I can get some money together and got you away, sent you to my sister, Gwen, in Birmingham – what would happen afterwards? Would you come back?’
Aggie let out a sigh of pure and blessed relief, but she said, ‘Huh, you know my parents and can ask that question? I’ll not be let back, never fear. And if you do this thing for me, then I will never breathe a word to Philomena, or indeed anyone else. As I said, I am ashamed of my part in it and I have no desire to broadcast it unless I have to.’
‘I would have to take you as far as Derry in the shop cart,’ Bernie said, ‘and in the early hours of the morning too, for you could hardly walk into the station in Buncrana in broad daylight and buy a ticket like any other body.’
Aggie knew she couldn’t, but she hadn’t thought as far as making arrangements. She was just thankful that he had thought of this, or in fact that he had agreed to do anything at all. She hadn’t been sure he would.
She was further gratified when he said, ‘I will write a note to my sister, to give you so that she knows all about it. She lives not far from the city centre and she will sort you out.’
Part of Aggie recoiled from being beholden to a relative of Bernie McAllister, who had got her into this mess in the first place, but then she had no idea what life was like outside her own small town. Maybe it was as well, certainly in the early days, to be with someone who knew what was what. So she said, ‘Thank you, Bernie. I really appreciate this.’
‘I should think so,’ McAllister said. ‘I am putting myself out a great deal to help you.’
‘I know you have put yourself out, but it is as much to protect your own skin as mine,’ Aggie retorted. ‘I am no fool.’
McAllister shrugged. ‘What is the good of arguing about it now?’ he said. ‘We need to deal with practicalities, like when you intend to go.’
Aggie swallowed deeply. She was scared rigid of leaving all that was familiar, of stepping into the unknown, but it had to be faced and there was no point in putting it off. ‘I suppose that it had better be done as soon as possible,’ she said.
‘I couldn’t agree more. How about the early hours of Wednesday morning?’
‘As soon as that?’
‘The sooner the better. And it is safer, so people say. Anyway, what is the purpose of delaying?’
He was right and Aggie knew that. She nodded. ‘All right then.’
‘I will be at the head of the lane with the shop’s cart at three o’clock,’ McAllister said. ‘You be ready because we have to be out of here as quickly as possible. We cannot take the risk of anyone seeing us.’
‘I will be there,’ Aggie promised, and she watched him move away until the darkness swallowed him.
Minutes later Aggie passed right by Tom, who had melted into the shadow of the hedge. His senses were reeling with what he had overheard, and he waited only until McAllister’s footsteps faded down the road before catching up with his sister.
‘Aggie.’
The girl nearly jumped out of her skin. ‘Tom, what are you doing here?’
‘What do you think?’ Tom said. ‘I am trying to look after you, and I tell you, Aggie, if I was fully grown I would take McAllister apart with my bare hands.’
‘That wouldn’t help the situation at all.’
‘Neither will this,’ Tom said desperately. ‘Aggie, you can’t just go to England. It’s madness.’
‘It’s the only thing I can do,’ Aggie said. ‘Look, Tom, there is no alternative. You do know what ails me, I suppose?’
‘I guessed, and then I heard you talking with McAllister after Mass. I was behind a tombstone and decided to follow you in case McAllister should try punching you again.’
‘I’m grateful, Tom, really I am,’ Aggie said. ‘But if you know it all then you will see that I cannot just bide here as if there is nothing the matter, though I will be heartsore to leave and I will miss you all greatly.’
‘But, Aggie, I might never see you again,’ Tom said plaintively.
Aggie swallowed deeply because she loved Tom dearly and would probably miss him the most of anyone.
‘That is a cross both of us must bear.’
‘Aye, because of bloody McAllister.’
‘And me, Tom.’
‘Don’t give me that,’ Tom said. ‘I saw you when you came in that night and you wouldn’t have known what you were doing. This is all McAllister’s fault, and because of him