A Father’s Revenge. Kitty Neale

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СКАЧАТЬ shrugged. ‘With a prison record it won’t be easy, but I’ll try the building sites.’

      ‘Kevin, I don’t like the sound of this,’ Dolly protested. ‘First you say you’ll be living in one room and now that you’ll be labouring on a building site.’

      ‘There’s nothing wrong with good, honest labour, and as most of my earnings will go towards setting up a refuge I don’t want to waste money on renting a flat.’

      ‘But that could take you years.’

      ‘Everything starts with one small step,’ Kevin said piously. ‘I’m hoping the mission Rupert’s involved with will be interested enough to make a donation.’

      Bernie had been expecting this and said derisively, ‘I suppose you’re hinting that we should chip in too?’

      ‘No, Dad, in making John your heir, you’ve done enough.’

      ‘So your mother told you about our wills?’

      ‘Yes, she did, and as I’ll be involved in charitable work I won’t be earning a great deal, or buying property to leave my son. Though of course I hope you live for many, many more years, it’s a huge weight off my mind knowing that you’ve taken care of John. I can’t thank you enough.’

      Bernie was surprised. He’d expected Kevin to be upset about being usurped, but instead he was thanking them. Maybe he really had changed, maybe his religious conversion was genuine. If that proved to be the case, perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to help him out a bit – but not by way of a donation to this daft idea of a refuge. He’d give Kevin a few bob to tide him over until he found his feet, Bernie decided, but as he’d be leaving first thing in the morning, he’d have to get to the bank that afternoon before it closed.

      He looked at his son again; still a little wary, he decided not to say where he was going. Instead Bernie found another excuse to go out. There was no need to give the money to Kevin yet, and it might be prudent to hang onto it until the morning. If this was all an act on Kevin’s part, there was no way he could keep it up indefinitely and by morning it was sure to slip.

      Pearl was back in Battersea once more, this time for an appointment with the solicitor. It was four thirty by the time she left his office and returned to Bessie’s flat where Derek and Nora were waiting for her.

      ‘Well, what did he say?’ Derek asked as soon as she came in.

      ‘There isn’t any way around the conditions of the will,’ Pearl said despondently. ‘It’s watertight.’

      ‘So it’s live here, or nothing.’

      ‘Yes,’ Pearl said shortly, flopping wearily onto Bessie’s old sofa. It had been a long, fraught day and it hadn’t got any better. First they’d had to get the death certificate to arrange the funeral, which had been complicated as they weren’t Bessie’s blood relatives, but armed with her will they finally managed to get everything in place other than the flowers. At least the solicitor had said he’d sort out Bessie’s life insurance policy, and that it should cover the cost of the funeral.

      ‘So what are you going to do?’ Derek asked.

      Pearl sighed. ‘I can’t live in Battersea. You know that.’

      ‘It isn’t a case of can’t. It’s more that you won’t.’

      ‘If we move back here, John is bound to hear the truth about his father, and you’re right, I won’t have that.’

      ‘Why not?’ Derek said curtly. ‘He isn’t a child any more, and by keeping it from him it sounds more like you’re protecting Kevin than him.’

      ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’

      ‘All right, have it your own way, but if we don’t move back here, we can’t take Nora on.’

      Appalled, Pearl cried, ‘We’ll have to. I can’t break my promise to Bessie.’

      ‘Have you given any thought to how I feel about all this? What if I don’t want to take Nora on? What if I don’t want the financial responsibility?’ Derek said as he agitatedly ran his fingers through his hair.

      Pearl leaned forward to place both hands across her face. Derek was right; she hadn’t given him a thought. With the loss of her wage, he would be the one to bear the sole brunt of the financial burden.

      She felt the sofa dip beside her and as Derek’s arm wrapped around her shoulder, she leant against him. ‘You’re right. I’m sorry,’ she told him.

      ‘I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have got out of my pram, but you’re asking a lot of me, love. Surely you can see that it makes more sense to find Nora a place in some sort of institution?’

      Pearl felt as though she was being torn in two, with Derek tugging her one way and her promise to Bessie pulling her the other. ‘Derek, I’m sorry, I just can’t think straight at the moment. Let’s go home and we’ll talk about this later.’

      ‘All right, but you might have a job to persuade Nora to leave with us again. She’s done nothing but cry since you left and I can’t get her to come out of her bedroom.’

      ‘She’s confused, upset, and it’s probably where she feels safe,’ Pearl said, heaving a sigh as she stood up. However, she was pleased when in the event it only took a little persuasion to coax Nora into the car.

      ‘Peace at last. Nora’s gone to sleep,’ Derek said when they were half an hour into the journey.

      Pearl closed her eyes too. She had so much thinking to do, but at last, as they reached the outskirts of Winchester, she came to a tentative decision.

Chapter Eight

      ‘Other than thanking us for taking care of John in our will, you’ve hardly mentioned him,’ Dolly said as Kevin prepared to leave on Wednesday morning. ‘I know Pearl has sole custody, but she should let you see him.’

      ‘I want to achieve something first, to show John, and everyone else, that I’ve changed,’ Kevin replied.

      ‘John has only been told that you went to prison for robbery,’ Dolly pointed out. ‘Just recently he said he’d like to see you and I think he’s waited long enough, Kevin. It’s about time he met his real father.’

      Kevin knew his father was listening and that if he wanted money he still had to impress him. ‘Mum, I’ve hardly been a father to be proud of, and I wouldn’t blame Pearl if she refused.’

      ‘It won’t matter if she does. Your father goes to pick John up from Winchester once a month and he spends the day with us. When he’s here, if you just happen to turn up, Pearl needn’t know about it.’

      ‘It would be wrong to deceive her. If I’m to see my son, it must be with his mother’s permission.’

      ‘But …’

      ‘Dolly, you heard what Kevin said,’ Bernie interrupted. ‘I for one am pleased to hear that he wants to do things properly.’

      ‘That’s right, Dad. I don’t want to cause any upset, to СКАЧАТЬ