Lakeland Lily by Freda Lightfoot Read Free Book Online Page A

stow her load of rotting wood in the stinking little cubby hole under her stairs, the Adams boys were rolling around the yard engaged in a bout of fisticuffs which it took their father’s and Arnie’s combined strength to bring to an end before they killed each other. Lily’s hatred for The Cobbles was magnified to enormous proportions. She must get out, she really must. She was in danger of losing all her dreams simply because she’d lost Dick.
    Arnie calmly returned to work on his nets, and Lily to her argument.
    ‘I’d bring good money into the house if I had a trade at me fingertips.’ But somehow the fight had gone out of her. She felt so utterly powerless, so overwhelmed by her situation, that she knew it to be useless.
    ‘Aye, in about seven years happen, if we survived that long.’
    ‘Why won’t you help me to escape?’
    Arnie’s mouth trembled as he looked at his wilful daughter, and his pale blue eyes held such an aching sadness that it pierced Lily to the heart. ‘Don’t you think that if I had the money to buy an apprenticeship, or whatever else you’d set your heart on, I’d do it? But I haven’t the money, Lily, and never will have. It’s a struggle to get by each day and put enough food in our mouths. So what’s the point in wishing for what thee can’t have? Be happy with what tha’s got. That way you don’t go mad.’
    Lily acknowledged defeat. There was nothing to be done. No escape. Only she couldn’t be happy with what she’d got, that was the trouble. She wanted so much more.
     
    Arnie took his troubles to the pub. Whilst he respected his wife’s abstemious nature, he didn’t share it. Being Church of England himself, he’d never signed the Pledge, and didn’t intend to start now. He and Hannah had come to an agreement early on in their married life, to live and let live. He never went home rolling drunk, not like some he could mention, so didn’t feel guilty. Not that he had the money to get drunk even if he had the inclination. He’d certainly little enough tonight, but he liked coming to The Cobbles Inn. There was a warm, friendly fug about the place, for all the filthy straw beneath his feet and dubious cleanliness of the tankards. He fastidiously brought his own because of it, though he was ready enough to join in any bit of fun that went on here: cock fight or bare-knuckle contest, a bit of crack with his mates. And he wasn’t averse to betting a bob or two each way, if he had any to spare. A little matter he failed to mention to his wife.
    ‘Aught on tonight, Jim?’ he asked the landlord, who jerked his head in the direction of the back room by way of reply.
    ‘I’ll happen look in later.’ Arnie ordered his usual half of bitter and, leaning against the bar, sank into unaccustomed gloom.
    He’d give anything to make Lily happy. She deserved to be. Such a bonny lass, and so young to suffer grief. He felt so fiercely protective of her, the pain was almost impossible to bear at times. Why didn’t she see that? He’d buy her the world if he could afford it. Didn’t she realise that if he could see any way to get her out of The Cobbles, he would? Drat the place!
    ‘Should have been razed to the ground years ago,’ he growled out loud.
    A deep chuckle came in response to this fervent declaration. ‘I don’t know, the beer’s not that bad.’
    The man at his elbow, for all he seemed little more than a boy, had the sort of physique Arnie would not have cared to tackle alone on a dark night. He had thick eyebrows that almost met in the middle, dark hair, and a swarthy complexion which hadn’t recently seen a razor. Dressed in a navy pullover, he had the air and bearing of a fisherman, but Arnie knew them all, there being so few left, and this man wasn’t one of them. But he seemed friendly enough, and the hand grasping the handle of his jug looked as if it had seen a fair day’s work.
    ‘I wasn’t talking about the beer. It was the whole place I meant - The