Condemned, R.C. Bridgestock [most romantic novels TXT] 📗

help us understand at least some of their thinking. The 1559 Act of Supremacy made the Protestant Church of England the nation’s established church. Roman Catholic baptism, marriage and burial registers were collected together, as I said. But few Roman Catholic records registers were surrendered because, according to Lily, they contained records of illegal marriages between 1754 and 1837, and under the terms of Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act, it was a legal requirement to be married in the Church of England. Which explains the lack of records at St Anne’s, given it was a Roman Catholic church, don’t you think? The records have likely been lost for years.’

‘I guess so,’ said Charley. ‘A Catholic wouldn’t perhaps agree to the Church of England’s claims to be both Catholic and Reformed…’

‘To be honest, what intrigued me most about interviewing Lily was not what we may, or may not, find in words written down, but in the tales she tells. As gripping as they are, whether they are true or not, I don’t know. Most people around the turn of the century couldn’t write, so the records that were kept were by the people who could, and those would be the educated folk, who were in the minority, weren’t they? The papers that we brought back today might authenticate some people’s lives by a formal civil registration, but not all the births, deaths and marriages will be included, so, how do we know what is fact or what’s just folklore? I guess we don’t—’

‘Well, you don’t have to be a genius to see that the old hag is as mad as a box of frogs!’ said Wilkie, through a mouthful of pork pie. ‘We can’t take a thing she says as gospel.’

Charley chuckled. ‘We wouldn’t take anyone’s word as gospel. You know that. We’d have to have irrefutable evidence, and that’s quite hard, when anyone who could give us that evidence is believed to be dead and buried! Go on, Annie.’

‘We know from previous enquiries with Lily Pritchard, that Jeremiah Alderman’s children were said to be incestuous, and that the stillborn of Catherine were thrown on the fire by Lily’s mother, Agnes. Those little ones will not be registered in these books.’

‘If the stories of the stillbirths being thrown on the fire are true, of course,’ said Wilkie.

‘Lily told me that there is no doubt that Michael and Connor O’Doherty would only record what they would have wanted to be read in the future.’

‘Or, maybe the priest wouldn’t be told about the stillbirths in the parish, birthing being seen then as woman’s work?’

‘We’ll never know the truth, because the truth may be so bizarre and unthinkable for us to comprehend, that these days we would automatically think something so macabre was a made-up story – and a thriller at that!’

Wilkie Connor reached to take a coffee mug from the tray on Charley’s desk, and opening a bag of little cakes from the bakery bag. He offered them around, and added, ‘Like I said ’afore, there is no doubt in my mind that what the Pritchard woman gave us will tell us nowt we don’t already know.’

‘Did the old woman have any further thoughts since our last visit as to who the skeleton at Crownest might be?’ asked Charley.

‘No, she reiterated what she had said before about Catherine and Lucinda; nothing new.’ Annie blew out her cheeks, and shook her head. ‘I can’t believe there were so many people going to the other side of the world in them days!’ she said.

‘How could we prove that the corpse is Catherine, or Lucinda, without being able to get DNA from a descendant?’ asked Annie.

‘We can’t,’ said Wilkie. ‘No dental records, no hospital records.’

‘It’s also a possibility that Agnes is the one entombed at Crownest,’ said Charley.

‘Killed by whom, and why?’ said Wilkie.

Annie took a brown paper bag out of the carrier, laid it on her knee, and tore it open to reveal a slab of carrot cake. She took the icing-sugar carrot off the top and gently placed it on her tongue. ‘I’d have thought there may have been a few who could have felt like killing her, her husband for one,’ said Annie.

‘Does Lily know what happened to her mother or where her grave is?’

Annie took another bite of her cake and spoke with a mouthful. ‘Apparently not. She was a young girl when she was told that she had died, leaving her an orphan.’

‘Lily did say, however, that if you were not a devout Catholic you wouldn’t be allowed to be buried in the graveyard, so when death occurred you’d either be burnt, or buried in an unmarked grave in the surrounding countryside,’ said Wilkie.

‘That’s a good enough reason as to why our lady, whoever she is, was entombed in the cellar at Crownest, isn’t it?’ said Charley.

Annie appeared thoughtful. ‘It seems to me that she was much loved, by someone who tried their hardest to give her a pagan burial because he, or she, didn’t want her to be buried in an unmarked grave.’ She paused for a moment. ‘Let’s say it is Lucinda then. She is supposed to have gone to Australia, to be with Catherine. If she didn’t arrive, wouldn’t questions have been asked, and if she was pregnant, like we said before, where is the child?’

‘Good question,’ said Wilkie. ‘We’ve had no luck with our enquiries into the immigration records on this, on the other side of the world. Whoever the woman is, she’s got to be someone who had connections with the house,’ said Wilkie.

Charley put her elbows on her desk, and bowing her head, she put her fingers to her brow. ‘I said that,’ said Charley. ‘It’s so infuriating that we have no surviving relatives of the Alderman family to be able to speak to! If only we were having this conversation when Adam, Felix’s illegitimate son, was alive. There is no confirmation, so far, to say that Catherine set off for, or even arrived in Australia,