East End Jubilee (41 page)

‘I’ll say it’s the fashion and I went to the hairdressers.’

Rose had decided her hair was the least of her worries. She had got used to the short style now, though it could hardly be called a style. Em had trimmed it with the scissors managing to even up
the edges over her ears. Rose felt the loss of her thick brown waves but she felt lucky to have survived the encounter with Norman Payne, though the sensation still persisted that someone was
watching her.

In the mornings she caught the bus to Kirkwood’s with Kamala Patel’s eldest, Nima, who worked at the sugar refining plant. Em called for Jane Piper and her kids for school and walked
in a crowd to St Mary’s. At five o’clock Rose joined the girls from the flourmill and waited at the bus stop for the number fifty-seven. There was always someone on it she knew and she
was never alone until she turned the corner of Ruby Street.

Bobby turned up at the weekend with a second-hand Hoover. The machine had a great shiny dome and a black cloth bag that blew out like a balloon when switched on. ‘I don’t want
anything for it,’ he assured Em. ‘It’s on its last legs and needs a new armature. But if you can stand the racket until it finally dies, you’re welcome.’

‘Does it suck up the dirt?’ Em asked sceptically and, Rose thought, a little ungratefully.

‘Of course. It beats as it sweeps as it cleans,’ Bobby intoned and gave them a demonstration on the square of almost threadbare carpet in the front room. The boards vibrated with the
noise but the cleaning was a success.

‘I’ll see if I like it,’ Em said off-handedly, ‘meanwhile, we’ve got better things to plan. Rose is seeing Eddie on Wednesday.’

‘I’ll take you,’ Bobby insisted immediately.

Rose frowned at her sister who didn’t hesitate, it seemed, to make use of the kind young man. ‘No, Bobby, not this time, thanks all the same. I’m going by coach.’

‘But it’s no trouble, honestly.’

Em tilted her head and walked out of the kitchen as Bobby stared after her like an abandoned puppy. ‘You could do without the hassle of a long coach journey after what you’ve been
through.’

Bobby was as sympathetic as ever thinking she’d been knocked off her bike as everyone else did. ‘She’s right, Rose. Let me take you.’

Rose shook her head. ‘It isn’t fair. Wednesday’s your only day off.’

‘So what else would I do with myself?’

‘I’ll pay for the petrol.’

‘No need.’ He grinned boyishly. ‘But Sunday dinner would be nice.’

‘You’re welcome anytime,’ she shrugged, throwing a glance to the kitchen, ‘though I don’t know what reception you’ll get—’

He put a finger over his mouth. ‘I know what you’re going to say. But I have to keep trying.’

‘You don’t have to win me over in the process.’

He grinned again. ‘You’re already spoken for, else I would.’

Rose smiled, but at the moment she felt like a bit of winning over, a bit of pampering. She was upset with her sister for not knowing how lucky she was to have such a gift in Bobby Morton. She
was upset with Eddie for not being at her side with his sword and shield ready to slay all the dragons, one dragon in particular by the name of Norman Payne. And she was annoyed with herself for
running down Ruby Street every day when she got off the bus for fear of that bloody brown car driving up alongside her again.

‘I bought this,’ Bobby whispered, quickly taking something from his pocket. It was a small deep blue box and he glanced over his shoulder as he opened it.

‘Oh, Bobby! It’s beautiful.’

‘Do you think so?’

Rose nodded silently as she stared at the delicate looking ring with a starry cloud of tiny, sparkling white stones surrounded by a narrow fringe of gold.

‘I didn’t have the nerve to ask her today. The Hoover was just an excuse to turn up.’

‘So are you going to ask on Sunday?’

He snapped the box closed and shuffled it back in his pocket. ‘I’ll have to work up the courage again.’

‘Oh, Bobby, I hope she says yes.’

‘If she does, I’ll be the happiest man on the planet.’

‘You deserve to be happy,’ she told him earnestly and he blushed, his fair skin darkening right up to his hairline. He smiled in his shy way and took her hands into his and she knew
he meant to thank her by squeezing them. But then he stopped and seemed uncertain of what to do next until with a look of sadness he touched the fading bruise on her cheek. Suddenly she felt his
warm lips brush the grazed skin and, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, he gave her the gentlest of kisses. Then, moving back awkwardly, he gathered himself and rushed past her and
out of the door.

Eddie took her in his arms and hugged her. He had spent the last week in gut wrenching agony and now he saw what they had done to her all his fears were realized. ‘My
poor Rose, my darling . . .’ His body ached with anger and frustrated protectiveness and for the first time in his life he couldn’t think of a gag. He couldn’t make light of
something so precious to him and he could hardly contain his emotion as he held her face between his hands.

‘Sit down, Eddie, love, everyone’s watching.’ Her voice was calm and soft and he did sit down but only because he was in danger of punching the first screw who dared to come
over in the face. The officers regarded embraces, when couples were locked together, starved of physical contact for so long, as the most appropriate time for passing or exchanging messages, drugs,
sharp implements and other illicit items prohibited by Her Majesty’s hotels.

Not that the screws were able to halt this forbidden traffic. They didn’t have eyes in the backs of their heads and some of them, Eddie acknowledged generously, ignored what was going on
under their noses in return for a peaceful life. His friend Solly, for instance, received information from his accountant disguised in the dog-ends that he slipped in his shirt pocket. Solly was
not a smoker and he’d coughed his heart up frequently after a visit from his wife.

But when Eddie felt Rose’s slender frame leaning against his own he didn’t want to let her go. It wasn’t a case of transferring illicit items, he had none to pass and Rose
certainly had no intention of doing so. Just holding her was enough to make him live again, to resurrect the man inside that had disappeared since being wrenched from the bosom of his family.

The honest truth was he’d kidded himself into believing that he was going to get out of this mess, repay his debt to Norman Payne and start afresh. Yet when the new kid on the block had
pressed a small, inconspicuous parcel into his hands last week and he’d opened it to discover a lock of Rose’s lovely brown hair, he’d known it was all over.

‘Eddie, it’s all right. I’m fine. I just got me hair cut short, that’s all.’

He stared into her sweet face as they sat down on the hard chairs and he gazed into her lovely, earth brown eyes that seemed to look right through him. She could never lie to him, not that she
ever tried. His Rose, his good, sweet Rose, what had they done to her?

‘I know you don’t like it, but—’

‘I
know
, Rose. I know what happened.’

She stared at him and fear clouded her eyes. Her lips trembled but she bravely put on a smile. ‘I don’t know what you mean, love.’

‘You were never any good at telling porkies.’

She blushed deeply then and his heart went out to her for being so brave.

‘Last week a new bloke in here gave me this packet. Inside it was some of your hair. I nearly did me nut. Tell me, Rose, what happened, before I bust me gut.’ His voice shook and he
had to push the anger down, hide his fury and demented worry. If she knew how he was feeling, what he was capable of at this very moment . . .

Her face was as pale as china, her hair unfamiliarly shorn from her brow. He couldn’t bear to think of how it had happened, how they’d touched her, terrified her. And it was all
because of him. Of what he’d done with his life, screwed it up, abused the gift of a wife who loved and trusted him.

‘Oh, Eddie, I was trying not to worry you,’ she said forlornly and the breath came out of her mouth on a long sigh. ‘But you must believe I’m all right. They . . . they
didn’t hurt me. All they wanted to do was frighten me and they did that all right.’

His screwed his fingers together in anger and his heart seemed about to burst. ‘It was him, wasn’t it, Norman Payne?’

She nodded. ‘The man you owe money to. Oh, Eddie, why didn’t you tell me?’

‘I couldn’t,’ he whispered pathetically. ‘I wanted to, that first year after Marle was born I wanted to so much. But I knew you wouldn’t like it. I knew you
wouldn’t go along with floating. I wanted to give you everything, to make life—’

‘Eddie.’ She stopped him mid-sentence, a cold, distant look that he didn’t recognize coming over her face. ‘Please don’t say you did what you did for me and the
girls. Please don’t say that.’

His blood felt chilled in his veins. He had lived so long now with the dream of making good in his heart,
the
dream, the dream to make them rich, to buy new clothes, to have a nice house
full of expensive furniture and carpets, to run around in a posh car and clean it every day outside the front door. To take the girls to school and let the other parents see them climbing out of
the motor with him in a brand new suit and Marlene and Donnie dressed like the little ladies they should be. This was his dream and now she was saying she didn’t want to hear about it.

‘But Rose—’

‘I only ever wanted us to be happy, to have time together, to be a family,’ she said softly. ‘I didn’t want things, not material things. I wanted love. And you and the
girls meant everything to me. All the love in the world I could ever dream of.’

Eddie stared into her face and wondered where his brains were. Which direction he had been going for the last six years without his wife. Oh, they’d compromised all right. He’d kept
quiet about his dreams and so had she, apparently.

‘I’ll always love you, sweetheart,’ he protested, ‘but I wanted more for us. I wasn’t the same man in ’45 as I was when we were kids. Me and millions of other
blokes came back from the brink of death and wanted to live life with a capital L. Being bunged a few quid for a load of junk didn’t satisfy the hunger in me. I needed to prove I was capable
of giving you a good life.’

‘You could always have got a job.’

Eddie stared at her, this woman whom he loved so much and who was almost a stranger to him. ‘Me, as a nine to five geezer? Oh, Rose, you know that ain’t my style.’

‘And Norman Payne’s way of life is?’

‘’Course not,’ he said bitterly. ‘I never meant to get into debt.’

‘Was that five hundred pounds yours, or was it Norman Payne’s?’

He felt the skin over his face tighten. ‘By rights it was ours.’

‘No, Eddie. It was bad money and I’m glad he took it back. I’d rather live on bread and water than take anything from him ever again. I told him so, too. I told him I’d
rather see you in here than outside, working for him.’

Eddie swallowed, his world turning upside down. ‘Rose – no one speaks to that bastard like that—’

‘Well, I did and I meant it.’

‘He could have killed you,’ Eddie breathed fearfully. ‘Not just cut off your hair.’

‘I wouldn’t be much use to him then, would I? He wants to get to you through me. He said you gambled away our lives and sold him your soul.’

Eddie had no reply to give her. His addiction had taken him deeper and deeper into debt and all the things he had dreamed of had slowly started to fade away. Yet he still went on, robbing Peter
to pay Paul, trying to find a way out of the living nightmare he’d fashioned for himself.

She reached across the wooden table and covered his hand with her own. ‘Eddie, I can take anything Norman Payne wants to dish out, as long as we’re fighting on the same side. You
don’t want to work for him, do you? I mean, that isn’t even a consideration, is it?’

‘’Course not.’ His heart raced. He couldn’t admit to Rose and barely to himself, that in his darkest hours he had been tempted. To agree to any crumb that Norman Payne
might throw at him. In his heart of hearts, once or twice, he’d been prepared to quit the struggle and take the easy way out. Especially when that great oaf had pushed Rose’s hair into
his hand with a smirk across his pock-marked face that reeked special delivery.

Oh yes, he’d been tempted. What good was he going to be to Rose when he got out of here? He’d have form. A record that would make him a no-no in civvy street. That is, if he wanted a
job. But the thought of becoming a company man, yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir, filled him with horror. Even if someone took him on, he’d hate every breath he took in a factory,
warehouse or dock. And that was all he was good for, manual work. With no qualifications, no special skills, he was as useless as a boat without a hull.

‘Eddie, it’s not too late. We can pay back the money—’

‘How?’

‘I’m working now. I’ve got a good job in the canteen but I’m going for an interview next week for a job in the office which will be more money.’

‘Norman Payne ain’t interested in HP,’ he told her bitterly. ‘And anyway, I don’t want you to have to work.’

She sat up and stiffened her shoulders. ‘Well, things have changed, love. You couldn’t expect them to stay the same.’

‘It ain’t right. You should be looking after the kids. Matthew needs a—’

‘A father, Eddie, that’s what he needs.’

He felt his stomach contract with regret. He knew only too well he had been deprived of the pride and joy a father takes in a boy heir. But he hadn’t intended for this to happen. It
wasn’t as if he’d deliberately got himself nicked. God, what was happening to him? He felt his world was slipping out of his grasp. He couldn’t protect his family or look after
them in here. It was so unfair – the whole bloody past year was unfair and he still had another to do.

‘Anyway,’ he said, trying to calm his emotions, ‘the most important thing right now is you. I was going barmy thinking you’d come to some harm.’

‘No, they didn’t hurt me.’

‘Tell me what happened.’