some money tucked away, ’ave yer? Manage without me, can yer?’
‘I wish to Gawd I had got money behind me!’ the old man replied harshly. ‘You’d soon be on yer way, an’ no mistake!’
Clem merely laughed. ‘All show and gab, that’s what you are. Go on! Get outta my road!’ With a hefty push he sent Thomas Isaac toppling backwards, into the wall. ‘As for you … !’ Grabbing Aggie by the arm, he wrenched it up behind her back, making her almost faint with the pain.
Blood pouring from his wounds, the injured youth took a step forward as if to go for Clem yet again. ‘Take your hands off her!’ His mouth was so swollen he could hardly spit out the words.
‘Or what?’ Clem jabbed at him with the shotgun. ‘Look at yer!’ he jibed. ‘By! Yer can hardly bloody stand.’
‘I can stand up to you any day.’ Squaring up, John clenched his fists. ‘Come on. I’m ready when you are!’
‘I would stop while the going’s good,’ Clem warned him angrily. ‘I haven’t got time for games.’ Turning his attention to Aggie, he ordered her to, ‘Get that old fool inside, and stay outta my sight, the pair of youse.’ Jerking a thumb to John, he suggested fiercely, ‘I’ll deal with this young thug!’
Aggie was in a dilemma. She couldn’t let go of the old fella, who by now was growing heavy and limp in her arms, and she feared for John, who was in a bad way. ‘You heard what Dad said,’ she answered with a warning. ‘If it’s to do with our Emily, then it’s for me to deal with it.’ Beckoning John she told him, ‘Come inside, lad. I need to see what damage is done.’
John shook his head. ‘There’s no need,’ he answered. ‘I’m all right. Look, you’d best do as he says … take Mr Ramsden inside.’ The last thing he had wanted was to cause trouble for Emily’s family.
Aggie hesitated, but then Clem said meaningfully: ‘You’ve got a choice, woman. Yer can watch me use the shotgun on this young bugger, or you can go inside, while I try and talk some sense into ’im.’ He kept a wary eye on John. ‘It’s up to you,’ he told her. ‘Either way don’t bother me.’
Aggie looked at John, who gave her a smile and a nod. ‘Go on,’ he urged. ‘Go inside.’ He gestured at Thomas. ‘He’s all done in.’
Clem appeared to have calmed down somewhat, so Aggie had little choice, because now the old man was beginning to shiver, and so was she. The ordeal of facing up to Clem had taken its toll.
‘Come on, Dad,’ she said kindly, letting him lean on her. ‘You’ve had enough excitement for one day.’
Hoping things would settle down now, she guided him inside.
Once they were gone, Clem turned on John, though he deliberately kept his distance. ‘You want the girl, don’t yer?’ His voice was little more than a whisper, with a certain inference that riled the younger man. ‘Want ’er real bad, don’t yer?’
John knew well enough what he was implying and answered him with a rush of disgust. ‘Not in the way you mean.’
‘Oh, an’ what way is that?’
‘Whatever you might think, I would never take advantage of Emily,’ John said proudly. ‘I mean to wed her – if she’ll have me.’
Clem took a step forward, the anger reddening his face. ‘I’ll tell yer what you’ll do, you young pup! You’ll stay away from my niece. In fact, you’ll get as far away from ’er as you can, an’ never show yer face round these parts again.’
John shook his head. ‘I’m not going anywhere. Like I said, I mean to wed her one day.’
‘So you’ll defy me, is that it?’
‘You can do your worst, Mr Jackson, but I’ll never leave her!’
For a time they regarded each other, the air heavy with hatred. When next Clem spoke, it was to dash all John’s hopes into the ground.
‘What if I decided not to punish you, after all?’ he asked cunningly. ‘What if I decided it were the girl that’s bad – and not you at all? By! A young harlot like that would need some discipline, wouldn’t yer say?’
As he watched the horror unfold on John’s face, he chewed the fleshy part of his bottom lip, like an animal devouring its prey. And all the while observing John, with a sense of delight that he could hardly conceal. ‘Yer wouldn’t like that, I’ll be bound, but there’d be nowt yer could do about it.’
‘I could rip your heart out … that’s what I could do!’ Stumbling forward, John realised he was in no fit state to do anything at that minute, but he wouldn’t let this bully beat him. He couldn’t let Emily be hurt. ‘You touch one hair on her head, and I swear to God, I’ll kill you.’
The dog bared its teeth at him and growled.
Clem merely took a step back. ‘You’re not going to kill anybody!’ he snapped. ‘But if yer think anything of the girl, you’ll get as far away from this place as you can, and as quick as yer can! Because if yer don’t, it’ll be Emily that suffers, I can promise yer that.’
With a flick of his wrist he had John by the throat and the gun pushed into his belly. ‘I could do for yer right now,’ he whispered, ‘but there’s no need. I can see now how I might have got it all wrong, and that it really were the girl that led you on.’ He gave a little sideways turn and spat on the ground. ‘Yon Emily’s no more than a little slut – I can see that now. She needs teaching a lesson, that’s what!’
He gave a sly wink. ‘If you were to sling yer hook and clear off from round these parts, I dare say she would realise her mistake and be the good girl she allus was.’ His face darkened. ‘But if yer insist on staying, I reckon she’ll just go on being bad. An’ then – well, I’d have no option but to give her a good hiding.’
Struggling to free himself, John was frantic.
‘The thing is,’ Clem took pleasure from seeing the boy cornered, ‘I can do whatever I want. Like the old man said, it’s me that’s got the upper hand round this place, and it’s me that will ’ave to keep order, if yer know what I mean?’
‘You hurt her, and it’ll be the last thing you do.’
‘Oh, I will hurt her! I’ll have to, won’t I – unless you do as I ask. Look now, if you really are fond of the girl, you’ll sling yer hook an’ never come back. Do that, an’ the girl will be safe. But if yer defy me, then like I say, it won’t be you as suffers. It’ll be her. An’ even if by some unlikely chance you get to me afterwards – well, by then it’ll be too late, won’t it?’ Grinning wickedly, he let his next words sink in. ‘Because I’ll ’ave got to our Emily first.’
‘You bastard!’
‘Oh, I’ll not deny it.’ Clem paused, before going on in a low, trembling whisper. ‘You’re right – I am a bastard. Of the worst kind.’ His eyes hardened until they shone like marbles. ‘It might pay yer to remember that.’
With that he turned away and strode into the distance, Badger trotting at his side, leaving John
