A Liverpool Legacy by Anne Baker Read Free Book Online Page A

hand but that also needed more strength than she could find.
    ‘I’m sorry to see you so poorly, Mrs Hathaway,’ he said but her eyes were closing again. ‘Who looks after you?’
    It was Millie who answered. ‘I do.’
    He took her by the arm and steered her back to the living room, closing the door softly behind them. ‘Do you have anyone to help you?’
    ‘The neighbours do and Ryan McCarthy did. He was very good to us.’
    ‘He got you into this mess. If you weren’t having this baby, you might have managed.’
    ‘Yes, but it’s no good blaming him, is it?’
    He smiled and gave her a look that spoke of affection. ‘That’s the only way to look at it now. Your mother needs proper nursing, she’s really ill. You can’t possibly cope with an invalid as well as a job and everything else.’
    ‘I still have a job?’ Millie sniffed into her damp handkerchief. ‘I thought you’d said you were going to replace me.’
    ‘I am. Millie, I’m going to find a nursing home for your mother where she’ll be more comfortable. You’re not well enough to cope with all this.’
    ‘Mum will be fine here with me now, really she will. You’ve done such a lot for me, paid out so much money.’
    ‘You’ve managed marvellously well until now. You’re very brave and tougher than you look, but neither Arthur Knowles nor I saw you struggling, and we should have done. You must be worn out.’ He was taking out his wallet again and put two more pound notes on the table. ‘Buy some food, you both need to eat. And get some rest. I’ll see what I can fix up for your mother and come back to let you know.’ He patted her on the shoulder and walked briskly out.
    Looking round her unchanged living room, Millie found it hard to believe. Mr Maynard had come in like a fairy godfather, waved his wand and made everything seem almost rosy. She was not battling this alone any more. She went back to tell her mother, but she wasn’t sure whether she understood. She sat by her bed for an hour holding her hand.
    Pete Maynard went back to his car and sat in the driving seat for a few minutes to think. He’d rarely seen such raw poverty yet all was orderly and neat and clean. Her mother seemed close to death, but she was loved and cared for. He couldn’t help but admire the girl being able to cope with all that as well as an unwanted pregnancy and a boyfriend who had deserted her in her hour of need.
    He would have anticipated that from Ryan McCarthy. He’d had his fingers in the till for a long time. He should have had the guts to sack him when Sam West first voiced his misgivings about him. He hadn’t deserved the second chance he’d been given. Yet it had not soured Millie, she hadn’t blamed him for her predicament. She might be only seventeen but she had a real inner strength that he had to admire. She was only a couple of years older than his eldest daughter Valerie and to think of her in a similar position was heartbreaking. And Valerie would never have coped in the way Millie had.
    That evening, he told his daughters that he felt sorry for the girl but the truth was he felt guilty. How could Millie take care of her mother, look after herself and run a home on the pittance he paid her? All she needed was more money and she’d have managed it. Except her pregnancy meant she couldn’t work and that would cut off what little income she had and give her another mouth to feed.
    Millie had caught his eye as she’d flitted about the laboratory like an exotic butterfly, beautiful and intelligent and always jolly as if she hadn’t a care in the world. Arthur had taken to her and said, ‘She’s really interested in perfumes, always asking questions. She’s a lovely girl, a very attractive girl.’
    She was too attractive for her own good. He couldn’t let her sink.
    It was about six o’clock that evening when Millie answered a knock on her door to find Mr Maynard with two young girls on her step.
    ‘These are my daughters,’