Lights Out Liverpool by Maureen Lee Read Free Book Online Page B

‘A fine man like Francis Costello!’
    ‘I’m sick to death of hearing people say that,’ Eileen said exasperatedly. ‘Everyone thinks the sun shines out his arse, me dad in particular. I even did meself for a while, but we hadn’t been married long before he showed his true colours.’
    Annie took hold of her arm. ‘Come on, luv, let’s get out of here. I’ll help you clear it up later. How about that whisky?’
    ‘I’d sooner not go outside, Annie, not with everyone still there and feeling sorry for me. Anyroad, there’s already a bottle of Johnnie Walker in the parlour. I’d prefer a cup of tea, instead. I’ll close the front door on the way down, else I’ll have the world and his wife back in again.’
    ‘He began coming round to our house when I was about fifteen to ask me dad help him get on Bootle Corporation, like,’ said Eileen. ‘He had such a lovely way with him, a real Irish charmer, that me dad was really taken with him. We all were. He kept on coming, even after he’d won the seat, and after a while I got the feeling he was interested in me. I suppose I felt flattered – he was older than I was, ten years older, and the women were all wild about him.’
    Annie smiled ruefully. ‘I always said he looked a bit like Clark Gable, and he has the same sort of smile, a touch devilish in its way.’
    They were on the second cup of tea. Annie had urged her to ‘Get it off your chest, luv. You’ll feel the better for it.’
    Eileen nodded. ‘He has, too. When I was twenty, he asked us to marry him. I turned him down, I don’t know why. Our Sheila was married by then, and I expect I was waiting to meet someone I’d feel about the same way she felt about Cal. Francis must’ve told me dad, because
he
started going on about me being left on the shelf and saying I was getting on. After a while, I realised he really fancied having Francis for a son-in-law. He never liked Calum Reilly.’ In fact, her dad resented the man who’d taken his favourite daughter away from him.
    ‘In the end, I said “yes”, mainly to please me dad,’ she said simply. She leaned back in the easy chair, remembering. It hadn’t been a very difficult decision. She didn’t feel as if she were making a sacrifice, because men like Francis Costello didn’t grow on trees.
    ‘Here, you’ve let your tea go cold.’ Annie jumped to her feet. ‘I’ll fill it up for you.’
    ‘We were fine for a while,’ Eileen continued when Annie returned, the cup filled to the brim. ‘Then gradually he began to turn against us. He became dead unreasonable, criticising every little thing I did, losing his temper if he found a speck of dust or if I’d run out of something he wanted. No matter what sort of meal was waiting on the table, he’d find something wrong with it. At first, I thought it was me own fault, but in the end I decided that, right down at heart, Francis wasn’t nice at all, though he liked people to like him. He liked being popular and everyone saying what a fine chap he was, but I reckon he found it too much, having to be nice at home as well.’
    ‘Oh, Eileen, you should have told us this before,’ Annie said gently.
    Eileen shrugged. ‘It never crossed me mind to tell anybody.’ Not until this morning, when Francis left and everyone expected her to be heartbroken. Anyroad, it was too embarrassing, and even now she hadn’t told Annie the half of it. There was the way he treated Tony, picking on him all the time till the poor little lad didn’t know whether he was coming or going, though she’d stood up to him over that. But standing up to Francis only brought more misery in its wake. When particularly irked, he’d squeeze her wrist or shoulder until tears came to her eyes with the pain. She knew he’d hit her if he thought he could get away with it, but the wife of a fine man like Francis Costello couldn’t be seen with a bruised face or a black eye. After all, he had his reputation to consider.
    Eileen