The Drowned Village

She nodded, still watching Jessie, as he fetched the child and took her back to the car. There was something odd about her gaze. It was full of longing, and something else he couldn’t quite put his finger on. Perhaps she was simply disapproving of Jessie’s muddy clothes. He held Jessie tightly in the car on the way back to Brackendale. She was a handful, but such a precious little thing.

It was two days later that the discovery was made. The exhumations were about a quarter done, when the gravediggers reached the not-quite-final resting place of Martha Atkins. There was quite a crowd waiting behind the screens for Martha’s remains to be brought out and loaded into the hearse, for she had been the grandmother of Maggie Earnshaw, and mother of Janie Earnshaw and also of Janie’s simpleton sister, Susie. All were standing solemnly waiting for the moment when the new casket would be carried out from behind the screen. Even Susie was to go with them to Glydesdale – Martha was her mother too, Janie had said, and besides, there was no one else available to keep an eye on her.

Jed passed by with Jessie as they stood waiting, and although Maggie glared at him he felt he should stop and pay his respects. He knew how emotional an occasion it was. Stella was at school and Jessie was, for once, behaving herself, so he decided to wait a while until the hearse left.

‘How do, Janie. Hello, Susie,’ he said, and nodded at Maggie who turned her face away. ‘It’s not easy, is it, this?’

‘No. But it’s got to be done,’ Janie replied. ‘I’m glad for you that Edie did not have to be moved.’

‘They’re moving Ma,’ Susie said, her round face gazing up at him, her eyes sad and worried.

‘They are, Susie, lass, you’re right.’ She was looking old these days, and indeed must be well past fifty, though he always thought of her as a child. He always had done, even though she was a generation older than him. She had that simple, childlike face and way of speaking. Even now, she was holding Janie’s hand, and shuffling her feet in the dirt.

‘Don’t want them to move her,’ she said, pushing her bottom lip outwards.

‘They have to, Susie. I told you, it’s so we’ll still be able to visit her, even after the village is gone,’ Janie told her sister gently.

‘Don’t want the village to go,’ Susie replied.

‘Oh no, please don’t let her start a tantrum, not now,’ Janie whispered, raising her eyes to the heavens.

Jed thought quickly, trying to come up with something to distract Susie, but Maggie was quicker. ‘Don’t worry, Aunty Susie. Remember what I told you about the cake we’re going to make for tea? With jam inside, and buttercream as well, and you can sprinkle the icing sugar on the top.’

‘And the first slice for me?’ Susie said, raising her round eyes to Maggie’s.

‘Of course. And we are going to do this as soon as we get back from moving your ma.’

Susie looked conflicted for a moment, as though deciding whether to protest against the moving of her mother, or continue to be happy about the prospect of cake for tea. But as Jed had seen so many times before, her natural happy nature won out and she smiled broadly. ‘We’re having cake for tea,’ she announced.

‘Cake for me too?’ asked Jessie, slipping her small hand into Susie’s chubby one.

‘If you like,’ Susie said, beaming down at Jessie, and the crisis was over.

There was some commotion going on behind the screens. Janie frowned. ‘What are they shouting about now?’

‘I’ll look,’ Jed said, and he pushed through a gap in the screens, leaving Jessie still holding Susie’s hand. He expected to be told to get back, but the three men – two gravediggers and an overseer – were all crouched on the ground, peering at something they’d dug up. The new coffin stood empty beside them – they had not yet dug deep enough to reach Martha’s remains. ‘What is it?’ he asked.

‘Something odd in the grave,’ the overseer said. ‘We weren’t expecting this.’

‘Course we weren’t,’ one of the gravediggers said. ‘How could we be expecting to dig up treasure? Ay-up, is it finders, keepers?’

‘No, it is not. We’ll have to inform the police. This looks very valuable, and it’s probably no accident that it’s in the grave.’

‘Maybe the relatives know something?’ the gravedigger said.

‘They’re standing just back, behind the screens,’ Jed said. ‘What have you found?’

The overseer stood up and took a step back, gesturing at a dirty package on the ground. Jed moved forward for a better look and gasped. Wrapped in oilcloth was an old tin box, and spilling out of that was a fistful of jewellery, gold, rubies, diamonds, necklaces, earrings, bracelets – all jumbled together. ‘Is it real? Or paste?’

‘Looks real to me, but that’s to be discovered, I suppose. So, let’s ask the relatives if they have any idea about this.’ The overseer stepped out from behind the screens, holding the tarpaulin bundle. ‘Ladies, sorry to intrude, but, ahem, this was found in the grave, on top of the coffin. Does anyone recognise it? Looks too valuable to stay buried in the ground.’

Jed watched as Janie and Maggie stepped forward to look. Both women gasped as they saw what was wrapped inside the tarpaulin. Susie hung back a little, her mouth open and her eyes wide.

‘No, sir, never seen that before. What’s it doing in my mother’s grave? She never had anything like that – I’d know if she had,’ Janie said, her hand over her mouth.

Maggie glared at her, and gave her a little kick as if to shut her up. She wanted to lie and say the jewels were her grandmother’s so they could keep them, Jed realised, but it was too late – Janie had told the truth.

‘I seen it before,’ Susie said quietly. Then, louder, ‘I seen that bundle.’

‘What? What are you talking about, Susie?’ Janie said. ‘How can you have seen it?’

‘When Ma were put in the hole. I seen it then.’

‘Don’t be daft, Susie, love. You weren’t at Ma’s funeral. Old Mrs Eastbrook looked after you, as Pa didn’t think you’d cope with it all.’

Susie was shaking her head. ‘It were later.’ She bit her lip, in a gesture that Jed knew meant she was scared she would get in trouble for what she was about to say.

‘Later?’ Janie frowned at her sister. ‘Ah, you’re talking rot.’ She turned back to the overseer Mr Banks and shook her head. ‘I’m sorry. Ignore her. The jewels are nothing to do with us, sadly. I hope you can find their owner.’

‘It were his pa,’ Susie shouted. She was pointing at Jed. ‘His pa. He put them in the hole with my ma. I seen him do it. I come out the house when I were supposed to be in bed, ’cause I wanted to say bye-bye to Ma and I knew she were in the hole. It were dark. I hid over there.’ She pointed to a large yew tree. ‘He never seen me but I seen him, and he dropped that in the hole with Ma and then spaded in the soil on top. I seen him. I seen it all.’

‘His pa?’ Maggie approached Susie and bent to look her in the eye. ‘Aunty Susie, do you mean Isaac Walker put the tin in the grave?’