Born to Trouble by Rita Bradshaw Read Free Book Online Page A

bairns to feed, so I can’t give it away for fun no more, if you get my drift.’
    Seamus got her drift and it didn’t bother him an iota. He had paid for his pleasure since taking to the sea as a youth, leaving his seed in accommodating bellies in every port he’d docked at. Smiling, he said, ‘Suits me, lass. An’ I take it I can stay the night for the right price, being as we’re old friends, as it were?’
    Kitty smiled back. Seamus was a good sort, he’d always brought a couple of bottles of gin with him in the past, and she had other ‘friends’ she knew would be as reasonable. ‘Don’t see why not. It’s up to me now, isn’t it?’
    He put his arm round her waist, drawing her against him. ‘How about we get some gin on the way back, eh? An’ how are you off for grub? I could eat a horse.’
    Kitty hesitated. The bit of money Seth had put by for what he’d called a rainy day was fast disappearing, and if Seamus was prepared to fork out . . .
    Seamus took the hint. ‘Come on, lass, we’ll call and get a few victuals, how about that? I sail the morrer but I’ll see you all right afore I go. Can’t say fairer than that.’
    The fog had drawn in an early twilight and Pearl had already lit the oil lamp in the kitchen when Kitty walked in. The relief at seeing her mother swamped everything for a moment and she didn’t realise Kitty wasn’t alone.
    ‘Oh, Mam, what happened?’ She had been like a cat on a hot tin roof all day, but since her mother had left earlier, her anxiety had known no bounds. After shouting at James for no other reason than that the toddler wanted some attention, she’d tried to pull herself together. Settling James on the clippy mat in front of the fire with a saucepan lid and a wooden spoon, she’d let him bang away to his heart’s content while she’d seen to Patrick, propping the baby up in the desk bed with a crust to chew on. He was teething hard and miserable with it. Once her baby brothers were occupied she had made the pastry for the cow-heel pie they were having for dinner, using the leftover pieces for a few jam tarts, but when it had begun to get dark and her mother still hadn’t returned, each minute had seemed like an hour.
    As Seamus followed Kitty into the kitchen, Kitty said, ‘This is a friend of mine an’ he’s stayin’ the night,’ without answering Pearl’s question.
    As Seamus plonked a sack holding items of food on the table, Pearl’s eyes went to it and then the bottles of gin in her mother’s hands. She had seen this man before. He was one of her mother’s visitors. When he smiled at her, saying, ‘Hello there,’ in a friendly voice, she stared at him for a moment before again saying to her mother, ‘What happened?’
    ‘What do you think happened?’ Kitty began to unpack the groceries as Seamus sat down in the armchair that had been Seth’s since Thomas’s demise, ruffling James’s curls as the child looked up at him. ‘They’ve bin sent down.’
    ‘How – how long for?’
    ‘Eight years.’ Kitty reached for one of the bottles of gin and after pouring a good measure into a cup, she passed it to Seamus before doing the same for herself. Without looking at her daughter, she said, ‘Now go an’ light a fire in the front room. It’ll be as cold as the grave in there.’
    ‘The front room?’
    Pearl’s voice had been high, and now in one swift movement Kitty took hold of her arm and pulled her out into the hall, shutting the kitchen door behind her. ‘Take that look off your face an’ do as you’re told,’ she hissed. ‘Seamus is a good pal of mine an’ he’s already set us up with enough grub for the week, so you mind your manners.’
    Pearl jerked herself free. ‘How can you have him here and let him sit in Seth’s chair when the lads—’
    A ringing slap across the side of her face cut off her words and then she felt her head bouncing on her shoulders as her mother shook her. ‘Don’t you come the madam with me. Who