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

do you think is going to pay the rent an’ put food on the table now? Not your precious Seth, m’girl. We’re on our own now, an’ things are going to change. When I say do somethin’ you’ll do it, no questions asked. Now get in there an’ light the fire, an’ then see to putting a hot-water bottle in the bed. An’ you be polite to Seamus unless you want more of the same.’
    Pearl could hear Patrick beginning to grizzle; the baby would be wanting his tea. That, more than her mother’s threats, made her do as she was told. Once the fire was blazing in the front room and the hot-water bottle was in the bed, Kitty picked up the half-full gin bottle and inclined her head at Seamus before glancing at Pearl who was feeding Patrick a bowl of thick rabbit broth. ‘You can dish up our dinner an’ put it to warm – we’ll have it later,’ she said, and left the room without waiting for a reply.
    Pearl continued feeding Patrick whilst keeping an eye on James who was sitting in his highchair eating small chunks of bread soaked in the broth. Since he had begun to feed himself after recovering from the flu it had been a great help, although occasionally he stuffed too much in his mouth and ended up choking.
    What would Seth and Fred and Walter be eating tonight in that terrible place? And Pearl knew it was a terrible place – she’d heard stories about what went on in gaols from Humphrey Fraser at school. Half of Humphrey’s family were in some gaol or other, and he was inordinately proud of it. And her mam, letting that man sit in Seth’s chair and then taking him into the front room! She wasn’t too clear about what went on in the front room, but she knew it was all to do with the big bed the lodgers had slept in, and her mother allowing liberties. That’s what she had heard Seth say to Kitty just after their father had died: ‘There’ll be no more liberties taken by the scum of the earth with you, in this house, not while I’ve breath in my body.’
    But whatever it was that went on, her mother didn’t intend to do it secretly any more, not now Seth had gone.
    To stop her tears falling, she applied herself to washing Patrick’s face – a procedure to which he heartily objected – and then got both of her brothers ready for bed.
    She could hear her mother laughing in the front room and the deep sound of Seamus’s voice, along with the bedsprings twanging. It made her stomach twist and tighten. How could her mam laugh like that on the day Seth and Fred and Walter were locked away? Eight years. Eight years . She would be eighteen years old by the time they were free, and that was old.
    Carrying Patrick in her arms, she stood behind James each step as the toddler clambered up the stairs on his hands and knees. Once in the bedroom she lifted both little boys into the cot and then sat on her mother’s bed as they snuggled deeper under their blankets. There was ice on the inside of the window and her breath was a white cloud in front of her when she breathed out, but although James and Patrick were already half asleep she continued to sit and watch the mound of their bodies by the light of the streetlamp directly outside their window.
    Her mam was doing bad things in the front room with the sailorman. She had been doing the same for years, but this was different somehow. Pearl didn’t put the word ‘brazen’ to it, just ‘different’.
    She rocked herself back and forth with her arms crossed over her stomach, making no sound so as not to disturb her brothers, in spite of the tears coursing down her face. And she didn’t know what to do. She was frightened, so frightened, and she didn’t know what to do . And then Seth’s words came back to her. ‘I need you to look after James and Pat for me. Till I’m home.’
    Slowly she took control of herself. She had promised Seth, and a promise was a promise. Drying her eyes on her pinny, she brushed a few damp tendrils of hair from her cheeks. James and Patrick