Page 85 of The Winter Bride

Annie put the possibility of moving back to her hometown to Nancy that evening as she was getting Adam ready for bed.

Nancy flushed. ‘Actually, I’ve been ’alf expectin’ this,’ she admitted. ‘You’ve been like a cat on ’ot bricks fer some time now an’ I knew yer weren’t ’appy, so I spoke to Jamie about it.’

‘And what did he say?’

Nancy began to fiddle with the edge of the tablecloth. ‘He told his mam an’ she said that if yer do go ’ome I can stay wi’ them at their place in the East End till me an’ Jamie get wed. It ain’t that I don’t love yer both,’ she added hastily. ‘But I couldn’t leave Jamie now. I know I won’t ever love another chap like I love ’im.’

Annie felt tears prick at the back of her eyes, although this wasn’t entirely unexpected. It was obvious that she and Jamie were very much in love, and his parents were good, hard-working, respectable people so she could hardly raise any objections. She knew they would keep Nancy safe and treat her as one of their own. But she would miss her so much.

‘In that case I’ll have to give leaving here some serious thought,’ she said quietly. ‘But don’t worry, I’m not in any rush. I’ll decide after Christmas and the wedding.’

Nancy nodded and for the time being the subject was dropped.

The next few days passed peacefully, although Annie was still not sleeping properly and found herself getting up during the night to check no one was loitering outside.

She’d enjoyed the time she had spent looking after Adam herself, and had made the decision that if she did return to Nuneaton she would not start any other businesses until he went to school. He was growing up so fast and she didn’t want to miss a single milestone in his young life. In fact, she was concerned that she may have been neglecting him. Admittedly she had always been close by, but Nancy had spent far more time with him than she had. She also felt that it would be no bad thing to put some distance between herself and Alex. Since the night at Marie’s when they’d dined together, he had been constantly on her mind, although she hadn’t so much as mentioned his name to Marie. The less she knew about what they had meant to each other the better. After all, Marie knew he was a married man, so she was hardly likely to condone their feelings for one another.

Back in Nuneaton, a young girl pulled the collar of her coat up and hurried beneath the canopy of the bare branches of the weeping willow trees that grew on the banks of the River Avon in Riversley Park. She was nervous about being out alone so late, but her boyfriend was ill and had been unable to walk her home. Still, she reasoned, she was almost at the entrance to the park now, and once she reached the street lamps she would feel less vulnerable. All around her the grass was coated with thick hoar frost and her breath hung on the air like lace in front of her as she quickened her steps. The sound of the wind soughing through the trees made her continually look from side to side.

She peered ahead into the darkness and frowned as she saw a dark shape moving towards her. Within seconds the person was level with her and she stood aside to let them pass, but they stopped dead. Moving quickly she tried to pass them instead, but a hand snaked out and grasped her arm making her scream. It was clearly a man by the height of him, although it was too dark to see his face.

‘Let me go,’ she gasped fearfully, but he merely chuckled.

‘Not yet, me pretty. I reckon you and I could have a little fun together.’

His leg suddenly came behind her knees and she felt herself falling onto the freezing ground. It was then that she really began to scream and fight for all she was worth as she realised his intention. But the screams were shut off abruptly as his hand came across her mouth and she felt his heavy weight on her. And then he slapped her face so hard that her head rocked on its shoulders and she saw stars. That was when she realised that she was going to die and tears began to stream down her cold cheeks.

The blows kept coming until she began to feel light-headed and stopped struggling. At that moment the moon sailed from behind the clouds and as she looked up into his face she whimpered with terror. It was like looking at the devil himself. A disfigured face full of hate and menace. Then suddenly some other forms appeared and the heavy weight was roughly lifted from her.

Vaguely she heard loud voices and saw her attacker being thrown to the ground as another pair of hands tried to help her to her feet. Her rescuers were three young men who had been on their way home from the pub.

‘Get off me, you bastard!’ It was the voice of her attacker.

‘Looks like we’ve got the chap who’s been killin’ all the women,’ she heard one man say breathlessly. He and another of the men had her attacker pinned to the ground with his arm twisted up his back. ‘Ron, run fer a copper an’ tell ’em to come quick. We’ll keep ’im ’ere.’

The third man hared away and the young woman breathed a shaky sigh of relief as she realised that she would live to see another day. But she was painfully aware that it would have been a very different outcome if the men hadn’t come along when they had. The largest of the men had the attacker firmly pinned down now, so the second man quickly crossed to the victim.

As things slowly swam back into focus, she lowered her head and wept tears of relief as the man comforted her as best he could until the police arrived.

‘It’s all right, love,’ he soothed. ‘We’ve got the bastard now, an’ hopefully he’ll be hanged or locked up fer a very long time.’

Early the next evening as Annie and Nancy were sitting at dinner, the phone rang and Annie hurried downstairs to answer it. She was surprised to hear Peggy’s voice. She usually rang much later when she knew Adam was in bed so they could have a good natter.

‘Hello, Peggy, is everything all right?’ she asked.

‘Everythin’ is fine wi’ us,’ Peggy assured her. ‘But you’re never gonna guess what’s ’appened ’ere now.’

Annie grinned. ‘No, I’m probably not unless you tell me,’ she agreed.

‘Well, I reckon it’ll come as a bit of a shock,’ Peggy warned.

‘Go on, spit it out.’

‘It’s Reggie. It’s all round the town that he were arrested late last night after tryin’ to rape a young wench in the park. Poor girl, he gave her a right good hidin’! Luckily some chaps ’eard her screams an’ got to her just in time, then they tackled Reggie until the police came to arrest ’im. They reckon it’s ’im attacked all those women.’

‘Good grief,’ Annie gasped, almost dropping the phone. She had known Reggie was bad through and through after what he had done to her, but she had never thought he would go to those lengths. She felt guilty now about not mentioning his name to the police before. Could she have prevented some of the murders if she had? But then Reggie was Monty’s brother and she hadn’t been able to bring herself to do it.

‘A-are you sure?’ her voice was shaky.