Читать книгу Macgowan Meets His Match - Annette Broadrick - Страница 10

Late March 2004

“Welcome to Heathrow and thank you for flying British Airways. We hope that you enjoyed your flight and that you will remember us the next time you plan to travel.”

The disembodied voice from the public address system barely managed to get through to Jenna’s fatigue-numbed brain. With a stop in Singapore, she had been traveling for almost twenty-two hours. She’d managed to doze or nap during the trip, but what she had experienced was far from restful sleep.

She cleared Customs and was looking for a ride to her hotel by six o’clock in the morning, local time. Jenna had no idea what time her internal clock thought it was and at the moment didn’t care. All she wanted to do was find a bed and crash.

After two days and nights in London, Jenna was ready to embark on her adventure. She had told Basil the truth when she said she wanted to explore England. What she hadn’t told him was that she hoped to find some relatives who still lived in Cornwall.

She wondered if family was as important to other people as it was to her. Being without anyone for most of her life provided a strong motivation for Jenna to search for family. Of course, being on her own had made her independent to some degree, but she used to dream of a time when she’d have a home of her own and lots of family around.

The car she had rented was small and economical…just what she needed. She intended to take her time driving west, stopping when she grew tired regardless of the time and in general enjoying her very open-ended holiday.

If she drove west far enough, she would end up in the village of St. Just in Cornwall where she and her parents had lived for the first five years of her life. She’d been fascinated in school with the British Isles and Cornwall. It was her home place, after all.

At one time her father’s sister lived in the area. She hoped her aunt was still alive. She knew Aunt Morwenna would be surprised to see her after all these years.

Jenna spent her first night on the road at a village nestled in the rolling hills of County Devon. Its quiet pastoral tempo was a far cry from the fast pace of Sydney and London.

Before she went to bed that night she studied her well-worn map one more time. Cornwall jutted into the sea like a slightly bent finger.

The next day she found roads to follow that gave her glimpses of the sea. More than once she stopped at a lay-by and walked along the paths she found, thrilled to be here at last.

Jenna had no trouble finding a place to stay once she reached St. Just. Tom Elliott, the proprietor of a cozy inn, told her that they were getting a trickling of tourists at this time of year, so he had plenty of room for her.

She explained that she wasn’t certain how long she would be staying there and when she returned to the front desk, she asked him about things to do in St. Just.

“Well, if you like to hike, there’s plenty of hiking to be done. If you want to look for the stone circles, we have them, as well. There’s the golf club for those who have time to play.”

“What about jobs?”

He shrugged. “Depends. You’d have better luck finding decent wages if you look in Penzance. Many people living here work there. Are you thinking of settling in these parts?”

She laughed. “Oh, I have no plans at all, really. My family was from this area and I had an urge to see what it was like. If I like it, I might decide to stay.”

Tom nodded. “Yes, Craddock is a Cornish name, all right.”

“I’m looking for my aunt Morwenna. She’s a Craddock, but her married name is Hoskins. Do you know of her or of any other Craddocks still living in the area?”

“Not offhand, no. My wife and I moved here from London about five years ago to get away from the rush and lead a quieter life. Come summer, it’s far from quiet around here, but we do enjoy it. You might check at the pub down the street for any Craddocks. Somebody may know of a family or two. Besides, they have decent food there. I often go there for lunch myself.”

“Thank you,” she said, slipping her purse strap over her shoulder and heading down the street. Jenna wanted to check the local phone directory, but she was hungry and tired and decided that she’d have dinner at Tom’s pub first.

She found the pub in the center of the village. Once inside, she took her meal and tea to one of the tables near the front. She entertained herself watching the locals as they stopped by after a day’s work for a pint or two.

By the time she left the pub, night had cloaked the area. She returned to the small inn.

“How was your search?” Tom asked with a smile when she walked into the lobby.

“I decided to wait until tomorrow.”

“I was thinking while you were gone and decided to check the phone directory. I didn’t find a Hoskins, but I found a Craddock who lives up the road a ways. Perhaps you could call.”

“A capital idea. May I use your phone?”

Tom moved the phone closer to her side of the counter and handed her the phone book. She looked up the number and dialed. When a woman answered, Jenna said, “Hello. I was wondering if you happen to know if Morwenna Hoskins lives in this area. She used to be a Craddock.” When the woman hesitated, Jenna added, “I’m her niece from Australia and I’ve lost touch with the rest of the family.”

“Ah. Well, I doubt very much Morwenna would mind my giving you directions to her place.” The woman gave her detailed directions to the row house where Morwenna lived. “I don’t know her very well, you understand. She keeps to herself.”

“Well, thank you for your help,” Jenna replied. When she hung up the phone she was dancing. “I’ve found her! Just like that. A phone call and there she is!”

Tom smiled at her exuberance. “That’s good. You haven’t been here a full day and already found some of your kin.”

Jenna practically skipped up the stairs to her room. Her aunt hadn’t been listed so she may not have a phone. But it didn’t matter. She’d wait until midmorning tomorrow and visit her. Jenna could hardly wait to see her aunt’s face when she identified herself.

She had a difficult time falling to sleep that night.

By the next morning, Jenna was filled with anticipation, although she was nervous, as well. This was the day that she had been waiting for all these years. She could feel her heart thumping.

Jenna found the place with no trouble. She pulled up in front of her aunt’s row house and slowly got out of the car. She took a couple of deep breaths to relieve the constriction in her chest, then walked up to the door and knocked. When she heard no one stirring, she worried that her aunt might have moved. Wouldn’t that be ironic after Jenna had come so far to see her?

Jenna knocked again and waited.

A female voice yelled, “I’ll be there when I get there. Just hold on. And you’d better not be peddling anything because I’m not interested!” At her last words Morwenna Hoskins swung open the door. At least Jenna guessed this was her aunt, although seeing her didn’t trigger any memories.

The years had not been kind to Morwenna. Jenna knew that she was in her fifties and yet she looked considerably older. Morwenna leaned on a cane and looked at her with suspicion.

“Well? What do you want?”

“I, uh, I mean, hello,” Jenna said. “I’m not selling anything. Actually I came from Australia to find you. I’m your niece, Jenna.”

Whatever reaction Jenna had expected, she hadn’t thought she would be stared at with such distaste. Morwenna studied her without stepping back to invite Jenna inside. Instead, her aunt continued to stand in the doorway as though she had never heard of her.

Jenna didn’t know what to say. Why wasn’t her aunt more pleased to see her?

Finally, Morwenna spoke. “My niece? If you’re from Australia you must be Hedra and Tristan’s girl.”

Jenna relaxed a little and smiled. “Yes. Yes, I am.”

Morwenna scowled. “I told them and told them that nothing good was going to come of their moving halfway around the world. That’s exactly what I told them. ‘Nothing good will come of your move.’ And I was right, wasn’t I? They were there no more than two years before they were gone—swept away by floodwaters or some such fool thing. I always said they should have listened to me, but then, Tristan always thought he knew best about everything.” She eyed Jenna warily. “So what do you want?”

Dismay swept over Jenna. “I, uh, I just came by to introduce myself. I’m afraid I don’t have many memories of living in Cornwall, but since this was the place I was born, I came back to get to know the rest of my family.”

Morwenna was shaking her head before Jenna stopped speaking. “You’ve had a wasted trip, then. You don’t have family around here. I don’t know where Tristan found you—he would never say—but it wasn’t around here.”

Jenna stared at Morwenna, thinking she had misunderstood her. “Found me?”

“It’s like what I told that man from Edinburgh that came looking for you a few months ago…we’re not blood relatives. Who knows where they got you? Hedra showed up here one day with a newborn, proud as she could be. Tristan was beaming from ear to ear. I warned them about taking somebody else’s child to raise. You never can tell what’s in the blood, you know. Why, someone unknown like that can grow up to be thief or a murderer or something worse.”

Jenna stared at the woman, doubting her ears. Was the woman insane? What was she rattling on about…and what did Morwenna consider worse than murder?

“Am I understanding you correctly?” Jenna finally managed to say. This woman was shattering her world. “You’re telling me I was adopted?”

“Are you deaf or something? Yes, that’s what I’m telling you. You’re adopted.” Her eyes narrowed. “You didn’t know, huh?”

“No. I had no idea.”

“Well, somebody should’ve told you before now, to my way of thinking. I can remember when I got the news that Tristan was gone. That was an awful time for me. My only sibling and all. A terrible time. If he’d only listened to me, he might have been alive today.” Morwenna made a face. “I was real put out with them people calling from Australia, wanting me to take you in. I told them I had eight of my own to raise and I certainly didn’t need a seven-year-old underfoot, as well.”

Morwenna’s words beat at Jenna as though each one was a stone aimed at her heart. She had no way to protect herself, nothing to say. So the authorities had attempted to find a member of her family to take her before placing her in an orphanage.

Jenna stared at the woman in horror. She had to get away. Thank goodness she hadn’t been invited into the woman’s home. She would have felt suffocated by her anger and cruelty.

Despite the shock of discovering she’d been adopted, she was fervently grateful that she was no kin to this woman.

“Thank you for clearing up my confusion,” Jenna said quietly. “You mentioned a man from Edinburgh asking about me. Could you give me his name?”

“That’s been a few months ago. Let me think…I believe it started with a D. Something D…Davis, Dennis…no, that’s not right.”

“Could you describe him?”

“Why? You thinking about looking him up? He said he was from Edinburgh but he didn’t fool me. He had an American accent. No telling where he was from. Wait a minute. His name sounded French…Dumas! That’s it. Something Dumas. I don’t remember his first name. You look nothing like him, if that’s what you’re thinking. He has dark hair and eyes and he’s tall.” Morwenna flicked a glance up and down Jenna as though to emphasize her statement.

Jenna knew she was far from being tall, so she nodded her understanding. “I appreciate your help,” she said, wanting to run while Morwenna was drawing breath and before she continued talking.

She turned and walked back to her car, her shoulders back and her chin up.

Only after she entered the pub where she’d eaten the night before did she realize that she was trembling. She vaguely recognized that she was in shock. She asked for a cup of tea and when it was ready she went over to one of the back tables and sat down.

Nothing about her life was how she had thought it was. The Craddocks had adopted her. Why hadn’t she known? There was nothing in the papers her parents had left to have warned Jenna. Her birth certificate showed Hedra and Tristan as her parents and said that she was born at home. She didn’t have to look through them again to know that there had never been a mention of an adoption.

Jenna flashed back to the time when she’d been taken to the orphanage. She had never felt so bewildered or so alone. Jenna realized that the only constant in her life since then was that she had no one…no one at all.

So what was she going to do now? She’d come from Australia on a one-way ticket. She had enough money to live on while she searched for employment. With her references and skills, she expected to have little trouble finding a position.

Morwenna said that the man who had come looking for her had come from Scotland. She considered that information to be a lead of sorts. How strange. A man by the name of Dumas from Edinburgh knew who she was. Was it possible that she had been adopted there? What if the man was her father, trying to find his adult daughter? Maybe he’d moved to America since she was born. If so, that would explain his accent.

Now he was back and was looking for her. Did it matter that she bore no resemblance to him? Perhaps she looked like her mother.

Since meeting Morwenna, Jenna knew she didn’t want to stay in Cornwall. There was nothing to stop her from looking for work in Scotland. Perhaps she’d find Mr. Dumas there and he could explain his connection to her.

The thought calmed her. She didn’t have much of a lead, but it was something. Someone knew of her existence and had come searching for her. The thought gave her some comfort.

At the moment, it was the only comfort she had.