Unforgettable by Jean Saunders Read Free Book Online

tram or a cab fare. But walking in the warm sunshine, her bags seemed to have got a deal heavier by the time she turned into the narrow cobbled street where all the houses appeared to be crammed into one long mass. The women neighbours stood outside gossiping in their overalls, the same as they always did in the afternoon, and it was just as if she had never been away.
    Most of the menfolk were dockworkers like her dad, and everyone knew everyone else around here, and all their business too. As people nodded and called out sympathetically to her, time seemed to have stood still, and for one horrifying moment Gracie felt as if she was being sucked back into a life she had looked forward so optimistically to leaving behind.
    And then she opened her own door and the welcome smells of baking met her nostrils, and her mum came out from the kitchen, smiling.
    Gracie dropped her bags and stood dumbly for a moment. She had expected to be confronted by a sickroom and a hushed atmosphere. Instead, at first sight her mum looked just the same, until Gracie realized how thin she was, her face almost gaunt, herarms like sticks; and she saw something like fear behind her eyes.
    â€˜Mum!’ she said, choked, and was clasped in the older woman’s arms.
    â€˜Now then, Gracie, I know your father’s told you the worst, but we don’t talk about it, and we don’t think about it.’
    The brave words, which were all for her daughter’s benefit, were abruptly halted by a racking bout of coughing that left her staggering to a chair.
    â€˜What do you think you were doing, baking cakes in your condition?’ Gracie said accusingly, because she couldn’t think of anything else to say.
    Her mother had always been strong enough to stand up to her drunkard of a husband, and now she seemed no more than a shell.
    â€˜I wanted to welcome you home,’ she was told in a laboured voice. ‘I hope you’ll stay for a while, Gracie—’
    â€˜Don’t be daft. I’m home for good now, Mum.’
    â€˜No, not for good, love. As soon as all this is over, you’re to go back to London. You’re not to stay here with
him
. He’ll wear you down, the same as he’s worn me down all these years, and you’re worth more than that.’
    â€˜Oh Mum! You should have left him years ago,’ Gracie said, not bothering to hide herdisgust of her father.
    â€˜Women don’t leave their husbands, Gracie. Besides, I loved him once, and he gave me you, didn’t he?’
    The painful coughing started again, and at last she had to give in and go to bed. The effort of baking cakes had been too much for her after all, and once Gracie had put her things in her old bedroom, she glanced in at her mother and watched her sleeping fitfully for a few minutes, her throat catching with sorrow at what they both knew was inevitable.
    Then she set about preparing an evening meal before her dad got home from his shift at the docks. This was how it was going to be from now on, she told herself numbly, back where she started, just as if she had never been away, she thought again. And she might as well forget all those foolish dreams about a handsome saxophone player with a lovely smile. Everyone knew that dreams were just for children, anyway.

4
    Mick Brown came home from the docks in the early evening, already reeking of beer and bellowing for his dinner.
    â€˜Hello, Dad,’ Gracie said steadily, hearing her mother’s intake of breath at the state of him. He’d never been one for knocking his womenfolk about, but his movements were clumsy and he was unsteady on his feet.
    â€˜So you’re back,’ he snarled. ‘Not before time too.’
    She smarted at his tone, but for her mum’s sake, she wouldn’t cause a fuss. ‘That’s not fair, Dad! I came as soon as I could, and anyway, I’m here now. And we’re both going to have to pull our weight in looking after