Episode 21: The Woman Who Came Back
The last guests had gone, but Agnes was still standing in the sitting room, staring at the door through which Thomas and his bride had left.
“She has Maggie’s face,” she said.
Robert was gathering empty glasses. “Aye, you’ve said that already.”
“And Thomas didn’t even feel the needle.”
Robert gave a short laugh.
“Of course he didn’t feel it. He’s likely been drinking most of the day. I could have driven a nail through his boot and he wouldn’t have noticed. He was bleeding when I punched him, the day he came back!”
“You weren’t there beside him. I was.”
“And I’m here now, Agnes, listening to you talk about fairies when our son has just come home.”
Agnes folded her arms.
“I’m going to go to Martha Hay tomorrow.”
Robert set the glasses down harder than he intended. “Then go. But don’t go filling the town with stories about our boy.”
Neil sat quietly by the stove. Robert had an explanation for everything, but Neil wondered whether he believed any of them.
By morning, Agnes was ready to leave. Neil persuaded her to let him accompany her, partly out of curiosity and partly because he wanted to hear what Martha Hay might say about Thomas.
The folk healer lived in a small cottage beyond the town. There were no strange signs outside, only a crooked gate, a patch of vegetables and a dog too old to bark at visitors.
Martha greeted Agnes as though she had come to borrow sugar.
“It’s been a while. Come in out of the cold.”
Within minutes they were drinking tea at her kitchen table.
Agnes told her everything: Thomas’s disappearance, his sudden wealth, the needle, and finally Maggie Barclay.
“The girl looks exactly like the daughter we buried,” she said.
Martha did not seem surprised.
“Families sometimes see the dead in the faces of strangers.”
“Not like this,” Agnes insisted.
“And you think your Thomas is a changeling?”
“I don’t know what else to think.”
Martha turned towards Neil.
“You’ve been quiet. What do you make of it?”
“There’s a letter,” Neil said before he could stop himself.
Agnes looked sharply at him.
“What letter?”
Neil hesitated. He had kept the paper hidden since finding it in Thomas’s boot.
“Nothing. Just something we found while he was missing.”
Martha watched him for a moment.
“People are often more frightened of an ordinary secret than a fairy tale.”
Agnes shook her head.
“And what about the needle?”
“Did you see blood?”
“No. That’s what I keep telling everyone.”
“Then perhaps there was no wound.”
“I stuck it into his hand!”
Martha poured more tea.
“I’m not saying you didn’t. But if you want to know what happened, you’ll have to watch him rather than test him.”
Agnes was disappointed. She had expected a charm or perhaps a prayer, not advice that sounded much like Robert’s.
Neil was beginning to think that everyone was asking the wrong questions. Agnes wanted to know whether Thomas was really Thomas, while Robert seemed interested only in his son’s new wealth. But Neil wanted to know where Thomas had been for six months, why he had kept the London address secret, and where all his money had come from.
On their way home, a man approaching from the opposite direction stopped to greet them.
“Mrs Jefferey! I heard the good news about Thomas. You must be delighted to have him home.”
“Aye, we are,” Agnes replied.
The man turned towards Neil.
“Funny thing, though. I was back visiting family in Ayrshire recently, and I saw Thomas in Kilbirnie.”
Neil stopped walking.
“Kilbirnie? In Scotland?”
“Aye, that’s right.”
“Are you quite sure it was Thomas?”
The man laughed.
“Of course I’m sure! I was drinking with him in the Glendale Arms. We had quite a conversation!”
Neil looked at Agnes, whose face had suddenly turned pale.
“But that’s impossible,” Neil said quietly.
“Why?” asked the man.
“Because Thomas was missing. Nobody knew where he was.”
The man looked puzzled.
“Was he not staying with your family in Kilbirnie then?”