No one in the dale knew what to think, but all the mams told their kids the same thing: if you see Benny Lightfoot, run like heck. And some of the dads after a few pints in the Holly Bush were all for going up to Neb Cottage and getting things sorted, though my dad said they were a load of idiots whod pissed their brains out up against the wall. There might have been a fight, but Mr Wulfstan were in the bar with Arne Krog and someone asked what he thought. Folk had a lot of respect for Mr Wulfstan, even though he were an offcomer. Hedmarried local, he didnt object to hunting and shooting, and he spent his brass in the dale. Above all, hed fought the Water Board every inch. So they listened when he said theyd got to trust the Law. Best thing they could do was keep the kids in plain view till time came for us all to move out of the dale, which werent too far away.
It were funny. The more worried folk got about their kids, the less they worried about the dam. In fact some of the mams were saying it would be a blessing to move and get this behind them and start off new somewhere, a long way away from Benny Lightfoot, just as if him and his gran werent going to have to move too.
Hot weather went on. Mere went down, dam went up. Folk said that with no water to hold in, it werent really a dam at all, just a big wall, like Hadrians up north, to keep foreigners out.
Except it hadnt worked. There were two in already. Arne Krog and Inger Sandel.
I knew them quite well cos Aunt Chloe often invited me to Heck to play with Mary. Also Arne remembered me from singing in the school choir last year, and when he heard I were singing The Ash Grove solo this year, he asked me to sing it to him one day. I were so pleased I just started right off without waiting for him to start playing the music on the piano. He listened till I finished, then sat down at the piano. It were one of them baby grands, Mr Wulfstan played a bit himself, but hed really bought it for Mary to practise on during the holidays. Mary didnt like playing very much, she told me. Id have liked to learn but we didnt have a piano and no hope of getting one. Anyway, Arne played a note and asked me to sing it, then a few more, then he played half a dozen and asked me which was the one that came at the end of the second line of The Ash Grove.
When I told him, he turned to Inger and said, You hear that? I think little Betsy could have perfect pitch.
She just looked at him, blank like, which meant nowt costhat was how she usually looked. She could talk English as good as him, only she never bothered unless she had to. As for me, I had no idea what he were talking about but I felt really chuffed that Id got something that pleased Arne.
This piano at Heck had to be shifted to St Lukes for the concert. There were an old piano in the village hall but it were useless for proper singing, and the one at school werent much better. If a cat ran up and down keyboard, hed have made it sound as musical as Miss Lavery when she tried to play it. So it had to be Mr Wulfstans baby grand.
My dad came to Heck with a trailer pulled by his tractor. Hed brushed most of muck off trailer and put a bit of fresh straw on the boards, so it didnt look too bad. It took Dad and two lads from the village to get the piano out of the house while Aunt Chloe and Arne gave advice. I tried to help, but Dad told me to get out of the bloody way before I tripped someone up. I went and stood by Mary and she held my hand. Her dad never spoke to her like that. If he hadnt seen her for half a day he made more fuss when he got home than my dad had made of me when I came back from hospital after I spent a couple of nights there when I broke my leg.
Mr Wulfstan wasnt there that day. Most days he drove into town to see to his business and this was one of them. We went through the village in a sort of procession, Dad driving the tractor, the lads standing on trailer making sure piano didnt slip, Arne, Inger, Aunt Chloe, Mary and me, walking behind. Folk came to their doors to see what was going off and there was a lot of laughing which hadnt been heard for a bit. No one had forgot about Jenny and Madge, but grieving doesnt pay the rent, as my mam said. Even the policemen who were in the hall looked out and smiled.
Rev Disjohn were waiting at the church. Getting it through the door werent easy. St Lukes isnt a big fancy building like you see some places. We learned all about it at school. Couple of hundred years back there were no church in Dendale andfolk had a long trek over the fell to Danby for services. Worst was when someone died and you had to take the coffin with you. So in the end they built their own church by Shelter Crag at the foot of the fell where they took the bodies out of the coffins and strapped them to ponies that carried them over to Danby. And when they built it they applied same rule as they did to their houses which was, the bigger the door, the bigger the draught.
Rev Disjohn were waiting at the church. Getting it through the door werent easy. St Lukes isnt a big fancy building like you see some places. We learned all about it at school. Couple of hundred years back there were no church in Dendale andfolk had a long trek over the fell to Danby for services. Worst was when someone died and you had to take the coffin with you. So in the end they built their own church by Shelter Crag at the foot of the fell where they took the bodies out of the coffins and strapped them to ponies that carried them over to Danby. And when they built it they applied same rule as they did to their houses which was, the bigger the door, the bigger the draught.
At last they got it in and set it up. Dad and the farm lads went off with the trailer. Inger sat down at the piano and tried it out. It had had a right jangling, getting it on and off trailer and through that narrow door, and she settled down to retune it. Aunt Chloe said she had some things to do in the village and shed see us back home. Mary and I asked if we could stay and come back with Arne and Inger and she said all right, so long as we didnt go outside of the church. Arne said hed keep an eye on us and off Aunt Chloe went. Arne wandered round the church, looking at the wood carvings and such. Rev Disjohn sat in a pew watching Inger at work. I often noticed when she were around he never took his eyes off her. She were too busy to pay any heed to him, playing notes, then fiddling inside the piano. It was dead boring so Mary and I slipped outside to play in the churchyard. You can have a good game of hide and seek there around the gravestones. Its a bit frightening but nice-frightening, so long as the suns shining and you know that theres grown-ups close by. Not all grown-ups, but. You can still see the old Corpse Road winding up the fellside from Shelter Crag. I were hiding behind a big stone at the bottom end of the churchyard and I could see right up the trail through the lych gate and I glimpsed a figure up there. Like I told the police after, I thought it were Benny Lightfoot but I couldnt be absolutely sure. Then Mary suddenly came round the headstone and grabbed me, frightening me half to death, and I forgot all about it.
Now it were her turn to hide, mine to seek. She were goodat hiding because she could keep still as a mouse and not start giggling like most of us did.
I went right round the church without spotting her. As I passed the door, I heard Arne start singing. Inger must have finished tuning and they were trying it out. I stepped inside to listen.
The words were foreign, but Id heard him sing it before and he told me what it meant. Its about this man riding in the dark with his young son and the boy sees this sort of elf called the Erlking who calls him away. The father tries to ride faster but its no use, the Erlking has got his child and when he reaches home the boy is dead. I didnt like it much, it were really frightening, but I had to listen.
Arne saw me in the doorway and all of a sudden he stopped and said, No, its not right. Somethings wrong with this place, perhaps its the acoustics, perhaps you havent got the piano quite right. I have to go back to the house now. Why dont you play your scales to little Betsy here? She has a better ear than either of us, I think. Let her say what is wrong.
I recall the words exactly. He were looking straight at me as he spoke and sort of smiling. He had these bright blue eyes, like the sky on one of them sharp winters days when the sun is shining but the frost never leaves the air.
He picked me up and set me on his shoulder and carried me up the aisle. I remember how cold it felt inside after the hot sun. And I recalled the time Dad put me on his shoulder in the hay loft.
Arne set me down in a pew next to the vicar and ruffled my hair, what there was of it. Then he said, See you later, and smiled at Inger but she didnt smile back, just gave him a funny look and started playing scales as he went out. Every now and then shed pause and look at me. Sometimes Id nod, sometimes shake my head. Dont know how I know if somethings right or not, I just do.
We must have been there another half hour or more. Finally she were satisfied and we said goodbye to the vicar. He wantedto talk but I could tell Inger werent interested in him, and we went out of the door. It were like stepping into a hot bath after the cold church, and the bright light made my eyes dazzle.
Then I remembered Mary.
I called her name. Nothing. It were like being at the bottom of Madges garden again.
Inger called too and Rev Disjohn came out of the church and asked what were up.
Its nothing, said Inger. I think Mary must have gone back to the house with Arne.
She said it dead casual, but I saw the way she and the vicar looked at each other that they were worried sick.
I were sick too, but not with worry. Worrys for what you dont know. And I knew Mary were gone.
We hurried back to Heck. Arne were there and Aunt Chloe. I thought she were going to die in front of us when we asked if Mary had come home. Id heard folk say that someone had gone white as a sheet often enough, but now for the first time I knew what it meant.
Vicar had stopped off at the hall on the way through the village and the police were close behind us.
I told all I could. Are you sure it was Lightfoot? they kept on asking and I kept on saying, I think it was. Then Arne said, I think that this young lady has had enough, dont you? And he put his arm around me and led me out of the house and took me home.
They went searching up the Neb again, with the dogs and everything, just like last time. And just like last time, they came back with nothing.
And they went looking for Benny again, and he werent to be found either.