Dangerous Lady by Martina Cole Read Free Book Online

mouth to answer. Both women were looking at him expectantly. They saw his eyes open wide until they seemed about to start from his head.
    ‘Benny! Benny… don’t you bloody dare!’ His voice was so loud both women jumped in their seats. A split second later an almighty bang erupted from the garden, followed by Maura’s frenzied screaming. The three adults seemed to be catapulted from their seats as they ran out into the back yard. Maura had seen the hammer descend on to the cartridge just as she heard Roy’s voice from the house. The impact o f the hammer hitting the brass casing of the cartridge had caused a flash of blue light followed by an enormous bang. As if in slow motion she had seen Benny travel backwards through the air, landing heavily on his back among the
     
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    rubbish that littered the end of the garden. That’s when.;. she started to scream. Through her tears she saw Garry scaling the wall as he made a run for it. -
    Roy ran to where Benny was lying, his heart pounding in his ears. This time Garry had really done it. He had finally killed somebody. Picking Benny up gently he cradled his head in his lap, conscious of his mother standing in the garden, her hand over her mouth as if terrified of what she, might find. Benny was soot-blackened all over. The smell of burnt powder seemed to hang around him in a cloud. Looking down into his brother’s face, Roy felt the tears come into his eyes.
    ‘Benny … Benny!’ Roy’s anguished voice carried up into the pale blue sky. Janine, stunned, had gone to the little girl sitting on the crate. Instinctively she pulled the child to her breast, stroking the long blonde hair.
    Roy clutched Benny to him, cuddling the dirty head to his breast. Opening his eyes Benny looked up into his brother’s tearstained face.
    ‘What happened?’ His childish voice broke into everyone’s shocked thoughts. ‘One minute I was hammerin’ The next I was blown up!’
    Benny looked around him, a bewildered expression on his face. ‘Where’s Garry gone?’
    Picking him up, Roy felt the terror slowly leave his own body. ‘When that little bastard gets home, I’m gonna murder him. If it’s the last thing I do in this life …’
    Maura clung to Janine, enjoying the flowery smell of her. Her cries had subsided to little hiccups. Sarah let Roy carry Benny into the house, and as she looked at Janine comforting her only daughter, the ice in her heart melted. Going to the girl, she put her arm around her shoulders.
    ‘That Garry will be the death of me. Well, if you think
     
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    you could stand the strain of being part of this family, you’re welcome.’
    Janine’s white face made Sarah’s natural good nature come to the fore. Pushing the girl’s heavy red hair back from her face, she said, ‘I’m warning you, though … excitement like this is an everyday occurrence!’
    ‘Oh, Mrs Ryan, my father is going to go mad.’
    Sarah waved her hand at the girl, her voice sounding more confident than she actually felt.
    ‘He’ll get over it, love. He’ll get over it.’ James Grierson was stalking around his house in a fit of temper so acute he could almost taste it. Unlike his wife, who had taken herself off to bed like one of the heroines in the penny dramas, he, James Grierson, was going to do something. What exactly he wasn’t sure, but he would think of something. Stamping up the stairs he went into the bedroom he shared with Eliza.
    ‘How could a daughter of mine take up with that bloody scum? A filthy, stinking Ryan!’ He clenched his fists and raised them to the ceiling. ‘I could throttle the bitch. My God, my mother used to say: “Show me the company you keep and I’ll tell you what you are.” Never was a truer word said!’
    Eliza closed her eyes and groaned. Since Janine had told them that morning that she was pregnant, her whole world had fallen apart. Only a week ago, she had stood in their butcher’s shop and completely demolished the reputation of