The Take by Martina Cole Read Free Book Online

to return to the front room. She stood in the freezing cold kitchen and cuddling the child to her she waited until she heard him stumble up the stairs to bed with her sister.
    Maggie waited another ten minutes until she heard voices, and then she deemed it safe. She brought the child into the front room and settled her beside her so they were both comfortable. Rox wanted a story, and as Maggie spun her a yarn she could hear the bedsprings above her creaking.
    She lay there for hours, and the dawn was breaking before she dared to close her eyes and sleep. It had been a close shave this time, but she was determined to best him. She always kept it to herself because of Jackie. Freddie used that knowledge and she lost a serious amount of respect from him because of it.
    There was no one to confide in because it would cause too much trouble. Her father would cause a war, her mother would cause a bigger war and the family would be smashed apart in nanoseconds.
    The worst of it all was she couldn't even tell her Jimmy. He idolised the man who in turns frightened and disgusted her on a daily basis.
    She was almost fifteen years old and already her life was becoming a series of deceptions.

    'What's the matter with your arms, Mags?'
    Her mother's voice sounded worried. 'Has that fucking Jimmy been pushing you about?'
    Her father was up and out of his chair in seconds. 'You what, Lena? What's wrong with her?'
    Maggie pushed her mother away. 'For crying out loud, we was mucking about that's all, he don't know his own strength!'
    Lena looked into her daughter's lovely face and saw the confusion there.
    Maggie turned to her father. 'Tell her will you, Dad. Jimmy would never hurt me in a million years.'
    'She's right, Lena, he worships her.' He picked up the Sun from the table and laughed as he said, 'He is a big lad for his age, be fair.'
    He went back to his chair and his television, happy that his younger daughter was OK.
    Lena wasn't so convinced. 'You ain't been yourself lately. Everything all right?' She nodded, pointing with her head towards her daughter's tummy. Realising what her mother thought, Maggie's eyes stretched to their utmost. 'Thanks a lot, Mum! I ain't like me sister, getting a belly full before I have even had a life.'
    Lena knew by the scandalised tone in her daughter's voice that she was wrong about that much at least.
    Jackie burst through the door, her eyes red rimmed from crying. 'He's gone.'
    Lena rolled her eyes at the ceiling as she filled the kettle with water. 'What, he on the missing list again, then?'
    Jackie was lighting a cigarette, and didn't even bother to answer her mother's question.
    'The airing cupboard is full of puff and the stink is going right through the house. I'll fucking skin him when he finally turns up.'
    She was opening a brown vial that contained her Dexedrine and swallowed them down without a drink of any kind. Almost immediately, she picked up the bread knife and started to cut herself a sandwich.
    Lena took the bread knife off her and put the bread away. 'How can you eat on those things?'
    Jackie laughed. 'They take a while to work, but I smoked a joint on me way over and now I have the munchies.'
    Joe was almost catapulted from his chair then. 'You what? Drugs is it now, you dozy mare!'
    Lena was trying to calm her husband down but he was roaring and swearing now in pure anger.
    'Fucking Persian rugs now, not just the slimming pills, and the slimming injections. Oh no, she has to start smoking the Jamaican Woodbines.'
    He pushed his face into his daughter's and bellowed, 'What about them poor kids of yours, eh? Bad enough they are lumbered with that useless ponce as a father, now they have to contend with you and all. He was higher than Halley's Comet last night in the pub with that skinny little Hutchins girl hanging off his arm…'
    Maggie and Lena both closed their eyes in utter hopelessness at his words. As usual they had kept that gem of information to themselves.
    'What, little