A Daughter’s Sorrow. Cathy Sharp

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СКАЧАТЬ Four

      Maggie welcomed me warmly into her kitchen. It was no bigger than ours, but it always smelt of good things. She looked at me and tutted as she saw the dried blood on my lip.

      ‘I suppose I don’t need to ask how that happened. Martha been up to her usual tricks, has she?’

      ‘We had an argument over Tommy. I wasn’t quick enough at getting out of the way.’

      Maggie looked savage and I knew she would have liked to have a go at Mam but didn’t want to make things worse for me. ‘I’ll make a brew. Sit yourself down and tell me what’s on your mind, love.’

      ‘Mam says we can’t afford to send Tommy away if he’s got the consumption. I don’t know what to do, Maggie. If he needs treatment …?’

      ‘Sure and wouldn’t that be the best thing for the darlin’ boy? It might do him the world of good if they sent him to one of them seaside places. The air will clean his lungs, so it will.’

      ‘We couldn’t afford to send him somewhere like that,’ I said. ‘He will probably finish up in the infirmary – and you know what that’s like.’ My throat felt tight as I blinked back my tears once more. ‘I can’t bear to think of him in there but I don’t want to lose him, Maggie …’

      ‘Ah, don’t take on so, love,’ Maggie said. ‘There’s something I heard that might help your Tommy.’

      ‘I could do with some help,’ I said, and blew my nose on Ernie’s handkerchief. ‘It’s daft to get myself in a state but I can’t help it, Maggie. I keep thinking about it all the time.’

      ‘I know what you mean. I should feel just the same if it were our Billy – or the other boys, though they’re grown up now with families of their own.’ Maggie hesitated. ‘I haven’t said anythin’ before because it’s charity and I know how you feel about that, but this is the church, Bridget. Father O’Brien sent one of the boys from Billy’s class at school to this place a few weeks ago. You don’t pay anythin’ unless you’ve got the money. It’s near the sea somewhere …’

      I stared at her in silence for a few moments, my stomach churning. I wanted to say that I wouldn’t take charity but I knew I couldn’t. Charity was a dirty word in my book, but if the Catholic Church ran this one I might just be able to accept it.

      ‘I shall have to talk to Dr Morris. If he says Tommy has to go away to get better, I’ll speak to Father O’Brien.’

      ‘Tell you what. I’ve been doin’ a bit o’ sewin’ for Father O’Brien’s housekeeper. I’m takin’ it back tomorrow afternoon. I’ll ask to see him and find out a bit more about it.’

      ‘You’re a good friend, Maggie. You make me feel so much better.’

      ‘That’s what friends are for, me darlin’.’ She poured me a cup of tea. ‘Now drink that up if you can manage it, and then I’ll bathe that lip for you.’

      ‘Could you wrap a bandage round my hand?’ I said. ‘I spilt some hot water on it and it feels a bit sore.’

      ‘More of Martha’s doing?’ She frowned as she saw the red patch on the back of my hand. ‘She’s a wicked woman that mother of yours. I’m tempted to give her a piece of me mind, so I am.’

      ‘She’s not wicked, Maggie,’ I said. ‘Just selfish and bitter. I wish I knew why she was like it, then I might be able to feel some sympathy for her.’

      ‘Don’t waste your pity on her,’ Maggie said. ‘It’s you and Tommy I bother about, not Martha.’

      ‘I’m all right,’ I said. ‘I was just a bit upset over Tommy, that’s all. I can put up with Mam and her temper as long as he’s all right.’

      ‘Don’t you worry about him,’ Maggie said, trying to cheer me up. ‘It will be like a holiday for him, so it will.’

      ‘He would like to visit the seaside,’ I agreed. ‘He’s never been. Da took Jamie, Lainie and me once years ago – to Southend in a charabanc, but Tommy hasn’t ever seen the sea.’

      ‘Well, this might be a chance for him,’ Maggie said. ‘You’ll see, love. It might all turn out for the best.’

      I knew she was just trying to lift my spirits and I smiled to please her, but the growing certainty that my little brother was very ill was like a lump of stone in my breast.

      I decided that I would try to see Lainie the next day, even if it meant taking half an hour off work. I wanted to tell my sister that Tommy might have to go away. Even if the charity paid the costs of his treatment he was going to need a few things.

      Mrs Dawson frowned when she heard me asking for time off.

      ‘You are being very thoughtless,’ she said after her husband had told me it was all right as long as I was quick and didn’t make a habit of it. ‘You’ve been late a couple of times recently. You should be working extra time not less.’

      ‘I’m sorry. I’ll stay behind tomorrow to catch up, if you like.’

      ‘And so I should think!’

      ‘It’s all right, Bridget,’ Mr Dawson said. ‘Just don’t make it a regular thing.’

      ‘No, sir. I’m sorry for the trouble I’ve caused.’

      I left work the moment Mr Dawson said it was all right and ran all the way to the Sailor’s Rest. By the time I got there I was out of breath and my chest hurt.

      Mrs Macpherson was behind the counter in the lobby when I went in. A seaman was settling his account and I waited until she had finished serving him before approaching her.

      ‘May I please see Lainie for a few minutes? I promise I won’t stop her working. I have to get back myself—’

      ‘I’m afraid you can’t,’ she interrupted, looking annoyed.

      ‘I’ve got time off work specially. It’s very important, Mrs Macpherson.’

      ‘I dare say it is,’ she said, a sharp note in her voice, ‘but you can’t see her because she isn’t here. She took her things and left this morning.’

      ‘Where did she go? Did Hans come for her?’

      ‘Not to my knowledge. She didn’t say where she was going. She told me she’d had a better offer and went, just like that. It didn’t matter that I would be one short in my staff, but that’s your sister all over. I’m disappointed in her, Bridget. It’s my opinion she went off with a man.’ Her mouth had gone thin and hard, her eyes cold.

      ‘But who? She was going to marry Hans … She cared for Hans. I know she did … Why would she go off just like that with someone else?’

      ‘Perhaps she had big ideas all of a sudden. Don’t ask me what your sister had in mind – and don’t ask any more questions. I’ve too much work to do to stand gossiping to you!’

      She turned her back on me and went through to her office, leaving me to stare after СКАЧАТЬ