The Barefoot Child by Cathy Sharp

Author:Cathy Sharp [Sharp, Cathy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2019-03-26T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

Sal Todd stood looking at the young girl lying in her spare bed. She looked so pale against the white linen and there was blood in her hair. When Todd first brought her home after the assault, Sal had washed her body, wincing as she saw the bruises on the pale, soft flesh and wiped the blood from between her thighs. She would have known what had happened to the poor girl even if her Toddy had not told her what he’d seen.

She felt a surge of fear as she remembered her husband’s return the night he brought Lucy home like this. He’d had blood on his hands and the look in his eyes was terrible as he carried in Lucy’s prone form. Sal had always wanted a daughter of her own but she and Toddy had married late and Freddie was her only son. Freddie was sitting downstairs in the kitchen, blubbering because Lucy was ill and she wouldn’t let him see her; he’d hardly stopped since the night Lucy was brought home half-dead.

‘Oh Toddy,’ Sal had whispered in horror when she saw him carry the girl into their kitchen and place her gently on the old sofa. ‘What ’ave yer done?’

‘I ’ad ter stop ’im, Sal. He took her down and I was too late to stop it – but I pulled the bugger orf ’er – and then …’ He’d looked at her then, her big strong husband, and she’d seen horror and fear in his eyes. ‘I done fer ’im, Sal. I ’it ’im wiv me cleaver and the blood went everywhere.’

‘Oh, Toddy!’ Sal’s heart had clutched with fear, because her gentle giant had done murder. She was terrified, because if the constable discovered what he’d done they would hang Toddy, and she didn’t know what she would do if that happened. ‘Not murder …’

‘I never meant to kill him,’ Toddy said. ‘I was goin’ ter knock ’im down wiv the cleaver, but I must ’ave killed him by all the blood.’

For a moment she was stunned by the horror of what had happened – but surely the monster that had raped this poor girl deserved to die?

‘We must get her into her bed,’ she said, thinking quickly and blocking out the horror of what her husband had told her. ‘And then you take off those clothes and I’ll put them under the copper and burn ’em. What did yer do with the cleaver?’

‘I dropped it,’ Todd said bleakly. ‘When they find it they’ll come after me.’ He put a hand to his throat, his eyes widening. ‘I’ll ’ang, Sal – they’ll try me and I’ll ’ang.’

‘No, you won’t,’ his wife said and looked at him hard. ‘You ain’t a murderer, Toddy. He were a wicked devil and got what he deserved – so you just forget what ’appened to ’im. You’ve more than one cleaver and there’s no way they can prove it was yours – unless someone saw you?’

‘I didn’t see anyone,’ Todd said and frowned.

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