The Rainbow Years by Rita Bradshaw Read Free Book Online Page B

to prove how much better she was feeling, with the result that she fainted clean away in Dr Boyce’s arms.
     
    By the time Wilbur came home at midday, the house was very quiet. He stopped dead on the threshold to the kitchen, eyeing Kitty who was stirring something in a pan on the stove.
     
    ‘Hello, Mr Shawe.’ Kitty was terrified of Bess’s father and it showed as she gabbled, ‘The doctor’s been and Bess is in hospital and Mrs Shawe is in bed. Amy’s with me mam and she’s said she’ll keep her until things sort out with Bess. I’ve stripped Bess’s bed and Mam’s soaking all the stuff in our poss tub ready for Monday’s wash so there’s nowt for you to do. Do . . . do you want to go up and see Mrs Shawe?’
     
    Wilbur kept her waiting for some ten seconds before he nodded at the pan, raising his eyebrows.
     
    ‘Oh, it’s some of me mam’s rabbit stew,’ Kitty said in answer to the silent enquiry. ‘I tried to get Mrs Shawe to have a little but she couldn’t. Mam’s put in a good few dumplings for you . . .’ Her voice dwindled away.
     
    Wilbur was enjoying himself. Kitty’s fear amused him. He had always considered her the runt of that litter next door and her friendship with his daughter irritated him.
     
    Still without speaking he seated himself at the kitchen table, breaking a piece of bread off the fresh loaf Kitty had placed there and chewing it as he watched her tip the contents of the pan into a large white bowl. Her hands were trembling as she set the stew before him and for a second he was tempted to move suddenly and make her jump, just for the hell of it. Instead he picked up his spoon and began to eat.
     
    Kitty walked across to the range where a pot of tea was mashing on the steel shelf to one side of the fire. She brought it to the table and placed it beside the sugar bowl. ‘I’ve got to go for me dinner,’ she said weakly. ‘I’ll come back later and see if Mrs Shawe wants anything, shall I?’
     
    Wilbur raised his head, staring at her unblinkingly. ‘Aye,’ he said slowly. ‘I’m going to the football.’
     
    Kitty nodded. Her mam had said he would. Her mam couldn’t stand Bess’s da any more than she could.
     
    Wilbur watched her collect the dirty pan from the stove and scurry across the room. He let her get right to the back door before he called, ‘You! Kitty!’
     
    Her eyes were like saucers as she came back to the kitchen threshold and his pleasure increased. He chewed long and hard on a piece of meat, prolonging the moment, before he said, ‘Thank your mam for the stew.’ He didn’t smile.
     
    ‘Oh aye, aye, I will, Mr Shawe.’ And then she fled as though the devil himself was on her heels.
     
     
    ‘I told you he’d still go to the footie, now didn’t I, Abe?’ Kitty’s mother plonked her husband’s dinner in front of him as though the situation next door was his fault. ‘And there’s you saying don’t be hasty, give the man a chance. Chance my backside.’ She glared at the serene-looking man now stolidly eating his meal, her glance encompassing the remaining five of her nine children still living at home before coming to rest on Amy who was seated on Kitty’s lap. ‘Poor little lass,’ she said to no one in particular.
     
    After dishing up her children’s food, Sally Price took Amy off Kitty and began to feed the toddler herself. ‘You sure you told him we’ll keep her till Bess is back?’ she asked Kitty after Amy had taken a few mouthfuls.
     
    Kitty nodded. There wasn’t room to swing a cat in the house with her three elder brothers in one bedroom, herself and her older sister in the other and her parents sleeping in the front room, but she’d known her mam would take Amy. Her mam was like that. And she thought a bit of Bess’s mam.
     
    ‘And he didn’t say anything?’
     
    ‘No.’
     
    ‘Ignorant so-an’-so. Still, now he knows he’s got no excuse to ship the bairn off to the workhouse.’
     
    ‘Sally.’