Laceys of Liverpool by Maureen Lee Read Free Book Online Page B

hadn’t been necessary to involve Cora Lacey. It left a nasty taste in the mouth. A third of the profits! She held out her hands to warm them in front of the small coke fire. It was cold in here. She shivered. The fire gave off scarcely any heat. Cora surrounded herself with nice things, but had no regard for creature comforts. No wonder Billy took himself to the pub night after night.
    She knew nothing about her sister-in-law other than that her maiden name was Barraclough, her mother had died when she was born and she’d been brought up in Orrell Park by two spinster aunts, both long dead. Nothing was ever said about a father.
    It was a constant wonder what she and Billy had seen in each other. Billy was hardly ever in, Cora rarely went out. In company they ignored each other. Billy seemed nervous in the presence of his cold-eyed wife, Cora contemptuous of her childish, good-natured husband.
    Her legs were numb with cold. Alice got up and walked around the room to bring them back to life. She picked up a glass vase off the mantelpiece. It shone like diamonds as she turned it back and forth in the dim light. She flicked it with her fingernail and it gave off a sharp, tinkling sound, like a bell. Cut glass! How on earth could Cora afford such a thing? Where had she got the twenty-five pounds from, come to that? Off Horace Flynn?
    ‘I reckon she does more than keep his books,’ Dad had said, or something like it. Alice shivered again at the thought of fat, greasy Horace Flynn coming within a yard of her, let alone doing his books – or far more intimate things if Dad was right.
    There was a child’s book on the table; a colourful cardboard alphabet book with an animal beside each letter. A for Antelope. She turned to the back page: Z for Zebra. A piece of paper fell out on which had beenwritten several simple sums: 1 + 1, 2 + 2, 2 + 1. The answers had been filled in by a clumsy, childish hand. Cora must have written the sums, Maurice had filled in the answers. She must be teaching him at home.
    For some reason Alice glanced at the wall where the cane usually hung. It wasn’t there. She noticed it propped against the green tiled fireplace. Her stomach turned. Was Cora whipping her little boy to make him learn?
    Alice suddenly longed to get away from this lovely, cold room with its expensive ornaments and return to her own comfy, warm house, where there wasn’t a single ornament costing more than sixpence, but which was far preferable to here. Hang Myrtle’s. Cora could keep her money and her business arrangement.
    She made for the door – and remembered John who would be sitting in the chair under the window waiting for her, glowering, wanting to know where she’d been, how many men she’d allowed to touch her. The accusations were getting wilder and wilder, more and more offensive. She couldn’t bring herself to tell Dad some of the things John had said. How many men had she serviced? Did they stand in line? How much had she made? Terrible accusations from the man she had thought would love her for ever. Alice suppressed a sob, just as Cora came into the room with a piece of paper torn from a writing pad.
    ‘Sorry I was so long, but it had to be worded carefully. Just sign here where I’ve drawn a line of dots. I’ve brought the ink with me and a pen.’
    ‘I’d like to read it first.’
    ‘Of course,’ Cora said smoothly. ‘You should never put your signature to anything you’ve not read first.’
    ‘I, Alice Lacey,’ Alice read aloud, ‘acknowledge receipt of the sum of twenty-five pounds from CoraLacey, entitling the said Cora Lacey to a third share in perpetuity of the business presently known as Myrtle’s Hairdressing Salon.’ She frowned. ‘What does “in perpetuity” mean?’
    ‘Till the money’s paid back.’
    ‘That’s all right, then.’ It wasn’t often she put her signature to anything. She sat down and carefully wrote ‘Alice M. Lacey’ on the dotted line.
    ‘What’s the M.