The Favourite Child by Freda Lightfoot Read Free Book Online

no intention of leaving, not now that she’d met Edward.
    Two weeks had gone by, let alone the two days she’d been allowed, and not once had she made a bolt for the door, not since she’d first clapped eyes on him. But for all Jinnie meant never to leave of her own accord, not for a minute did she believe herself to be safe. A part of her looked on this merely as an interlude, a well-earned rest in a bleak life. Each morning she expected Billy Quinn to turn up on the doorstep and march her home to beat the living daylights out of her for thinking she could escape. And if that happened, or rather when it happened, she’d deal with it as she always did, with fortitude. What did it matter so long as she could still have Edward to smile at her and make her heart race.

Chapter Four
     
    Jinnie sensed that Mrs Ashton was sorely tempted on a number of occasions to throw her out, and would have done so were it not for the attentive presence of her son. Emily soon began to insist that Jinnie was well enough to be up and about every day, and not spend it malingering in bed. After that the pair would sit in the front parlour and play cards or backgammon in the evenings, though Jinnie was careful not to be caught loitering on the stairs or in the hall from which it was a short step to the other side of the polished front door. She was right to be cautious, for a sharp warning was swiftly received when Emily caught her on her own one day.
    ‘I’m not sure where you think all this fuss and attention will get you, but you should realise that I’m not so easily taken in as my children seem to be. I don’t give a jot for your opinion, a mere street urchin, but that of my son I hold in high esteem. No one can accuse me of being unkind to the poor, nevertheless I’ll not have him taken advantage of by some little money grabber. Do I make myself clear? I shall rid my house of your presence Jinnie Cook, though it may take time and must, of necessity, be done with complete discretion. I’m sure we understand each other.’
    Jinnie wisely made no response to this blunt statement. She confined herself to spending endless days amidst the shadows of the front parlour, waiting for Edward to return home from the mill each evening, hoping he would find time to talk to her.
    ‘Why don’t you come out with me one afternoon, if you’re bored?’ Bella suggested. ‘I’m off to see one of my favourite people, Violet Howarth. Do you know her? She has a large and noisy, though surprisingly healthy family. They live in one of the small courts off Liverpool Street. Why don t you come? Violet is a tonic for anyone.’
    Jinnie shook her head. ‘Happen not. Best if I keep me head down, eh?’
    ‘Why? Who are you afraid of?’ But Jinnie wasn’t saying. Instead, since it was a Saturday, Edward offered to take her to a matinee and so Bella went out alone, as always.
    Edward took Jinnie to see Charlie Chaplin, and the following Wednesday they saw Douglas Fairbanks in a swashbuckling film called The Thief of Baghdad . Jinnie confessed that it was the first time she’d ever been to the pictures. After this, it became a favourite occupation. Once, he took her to the Picture House on Oxford Street to see The Jazz Singer . Jinnie had never been so amazed in all her life to hear Al Jolson say ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain’t heard nothing yet’
    ‘And then he actually sang ,’ she told Bella excitedly the next morning. ‘Clear as a bell it were. I would never have believed it, if I hadn’t heard it with me own ears.’
    ‘You and Edward seem to be best chums,’ Bella teased. ‘I think he’s rather sweet on you,’ and laughed out loud to see Jinnie blush.
    ‘Don’t talk soft. As if he’d look twice at a girl like me. He’s just being kind, that’s all, and I really should be off home, not hanging about here all day with nowt to do.’
    ‘You must get properly well first, then we’ll make decisions and find you somewhere decent