The Price of Love (11 page)

‘You mean that I’m pregnant? I shouldn’t think so; I didn’t know myself until you told me just now.’ Patsy shrugged. ‘Fancy you thinking that it might be Sam’s baby,’ she giggled, tossing back her hair and staring at Lucy in amusement.

‘This baby isn’t Sam’s,’ Patsy went on defiantly before Lucy could speak. ‘I don’t know why you should think it could be.’ She gave a shrill laugh. ‘He’s been laid up for the last nine months so common sense should tell you he isn’t capable of anything like that.’

Lucy stared at her wide-eyed. ‘If it’s not Sam’s, then whose baby is it? Surely not Percy Carter’s?’

‘Don’t be daft!’ Patsy said scornfully. ‘Have you forgotten he was in hospital when I was visiting him?’

‘You also went out with him afterwards until Mr Carter put a stop to it,’ Lucy reminded her.

‘This baby has nothing at all to do with Percy Carter or your Sam,’ Patsy reiterated. Her blue eyes narrowed as she studied Lucy’s puzzled face. ‘No, the father is someone else and, as I have said, he’ll have to marry me, won’t he?’

‘Surely it depends on whether he’s free to do so,’ Lucy said.

‘He’s single so I see no reason why he can’t,’ Patsy mused. ‘What’s more, he’s crazy about me.’

‘Then you’ve nothing to worry about, have you? Except having to break the news to Sam,’ she added bitterly. ‘Or aren’t you going to tell him yet in case this other bloke turns you down?’

‘He certainly won’t do that,’ Patsy boasted.

Lucy bit her lip and shook her own head in despair. Patsy seemed to be making light of the problem but she couldn’t do that; there was so much at stake.

‘Sam means nothing at all to me; he hasn’t done for a long time,’ Patsy went on. ‘I can’t stand sick people and I certainly don’t want to be tied to a cripple for the rest of my life.’

‘You don’t mean that,’ Lucy protested. ‘You’ve been going out together for years. Sam said you were planning to be married after he’d finished his apprenticeship.’

‘That was then, this is now,’ Patsy quipped. ‘Boy and girl stuff. So much has happened since then.’

‘Sam still loves you; he couldn’t understand why you didn’t visit him more when he was in hospital,’ Lucy sighed.

‘Well, now you have the answer. I was fed up with him, so why should I waste my time going to the hospital to see him?’

‘Yet after he came out of hospital you were willing to take him out at the weekends in the wheelchair.’

‘Yes, but only because it meant Robert could come as well,’ Patsy told her smugly.

‘So are you going to tell me whose baby it is?’ Lucy demanded.

‘Of course, if you really want me to, and I suppose you will have to know sooner or later,’ Patsy said with a little smile. ‘It’s Robert’s baby.’

‘Robert’s baby!’ The colour drained from Lucy’s face. She felt faint. This couldn’t be happening, she told herself. She’d been working too hard and she was so tired that she was hallucinating. How could Patsy be expecting Robert’s baby, or think that Robert was going to marry her? Robert was already her lover and had asked her to marry him and the only reason that they weren’t already married was because of the bonfire incident and then the terrible accident last Easter.

Lucy took a deep breath, clenching her hands into tight fists to try and quell the pain inside her. ‘Is this true?’

‘Oh it’s Robert’s baby, all right,’ Patsy affirmed and there was a look of triumph on her face as she looked at Lucy.

‘I could tell that Robert liked me and after the accident you became such a drudge that you were no fun at all to be with so you can’t blame Robert for preferring my company.’

‘Had you forgotten that we would have been married by now if it hadn’t been for all that has happened lately?’

‘No one has mentioned it for months and you never seem to have very much time for Robert these days,’ Patsy pouted.

‘So you thought it was all right to steal him from under my nose while I’ve been trying to look after Sam? If you had any feelings at all for Sam, then you would have done more to help nurse him,’ she added accusingly.

‘I kept telling you that I didn’t like sick people and now that Sam’s probably going to be a cripple for the rest of his life I don’t want anything more to do with him.’

‘Why do you keep on saying that he’s a cripple?’ Lucy frowned. ‘He might have difficulty in walking at the moment but I would hardly call him a cripple. Apart from a slight limp he walks as well as any of us.’

‘He’s out of work and I don’t see him ever getting a proper job again,’ Patsy stated.

‘So you decided to ditch him and latch on to Robert, did you?’ Lucy said in a scathing voice. ‘Pinched him from under my nose because I was too busy looking after Sam.’

‘It started out as a bit of fun,’ Patsy admitted. ‘Flirting and the odd kiss.’

‘And you made the most of that and encouraged him even further,’ Lucy accused.

‘I didn’t take it seriously until the day Robert told me he loved me,’ Patsy declared.

‘I don’t believe you!’

‘He said that he was miserable because these days you had no time for him.’

‘So you offered him a shoulder to cry on and a great deal more besides,’ Lucy said bitterly.

‘One thing led to another, you must know what he’s like,’ Patsy muttered giving Lucy a wide-eyed innocent stare.

‘You certainly seem to know him a lot better than I ever did,’ Lucy said crisply. ‘I can’t believe that all this between the two of you has been going on behind my back.’

She got up from the table and moved away quickly, not wanting Patsy to have the satisfaction of seeing the tears in her eyes. She loved Robert so deeply that it was like a knife turning inside her. They had been sweethearts since their schooldays; they’d walked home hand in hand, sharing all their secrets and planning what they would do when they were older.

She felt so stupid; to think that this had been going on all these months and she hadn’t noticed. Her love for Robert was as strong as it had ever been and even though he had betrayed her she knew she would never stop loving him.

‘I’m going to tell Sam right now,’ Patsy stated, pushing back the chair and heading for the living room.

‘Patsy, do you have to do this now? It’s the middle of the night, why don’t you think about what you’re doing?’ Lucy begged as she followed her.

‘No, Sam may as well know; we can all start the New Year with a clean slate then,’ Patsy declared as she pushed open the door to the living room.

‘What do I need to know?’ Sam yawned. ‘I’m dog tired, I was thinking about going to bed.’

‘You can after I’ve told you my news,’ Patsy told him. ‘I’m expecting a baby, Sam.’

Sam’s jaw dropped. ‘A baby?’ He looked questioningly at Lucy. ‘You knew and you said nothing?’

‘Patsy only told me a few minutes ago, Sam.’

‘Actually, Lucy, you were the one who said that I was pregnant when I told you that I’d been sick every morning for the past couple of weeks,’ Patsy corrected her.

‘So does that mean it could be a mistake?’ Sam said in a puzzled voice.

‘No, I’m pretty sure that Lucy is right. Anyway, whether I am or not, it settles things between us, Sam.’

He looked at her, bemused. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, it’s not yours, is it?’ she said with a high, shrill laugh.

‘Are you saying that you’ve been knocking around with someone else and that it’s his baby, that it’s all over between us, Patsy?’ he asked in a stunned voice.

‘It looks like it, doesn’t it?’ She tossed her head defiantly. ‘You wouldn’t want to bring up some other bloke’s kid, now would you?’

‘Whose child is it, then?’ Sam asked, looking from her to Lucy.

Robert roused himself and sat up straight on the sofa. ‘Is this true, Patsy?’ he asked in a shocked voice. The colour drained from his face, leaving it taut and grey.

She nodded. ‘Are you pleased?’

Robert ran a hand through his thick fair hair in a gesture of despair but didn’t answer.

‘Are you telling us that it’s his baby?’ Sam asked in disbelief.

‘I’m terribly sorry, Lucy, I seem to have let you down,’ Robert said awkwardly.

‘Let me down!’

The anguish in her voice made Robert look even more contrite. ‘I’ll go on helping you with Sam and so will Patsy for as long as you need us to do so,’ he added rather lamely.

‘Both of you get out of my house now; right away,’ Lucy said agitatedly. ‘I can’t bear to be in the same room as either of you.’

‘And don’t ever come back,’ Sam added bitterly as Robert propelled Patsy towards the front door.

As the front door slammed behind them Lucy pulled the cup of freshly made tea that Patsy had put in front of her closer, staring down into it as she stirred it round and round, trying to come to terms with the situation.

How on earth could this have happened without her noticing what was going on? she asked herself. Patsy and Robert had been thrown into each other’s company a great deal since the accident but Sam had always been there with them. Anyway, she had never thought that Robert even liked Patsy. He always said she was a flirt and that her mother spoilt her. He said he hated her shrill laugh and the way she tossed her hair and made eyes at all the men.

Yet Robert, staid, sensible Robert whom she’d thought was in love with her and planning to marry her, had been carrying on with Patsy behind their backs. And now Patsy was in trouble and what was even more disastrous was that it seemed she was determined that he should marry her.

All the plans she had been making about her marriage to Robert and even about Sam and Patsy marrying and living with them were now useless. The best thing she could do was forget all about them, Lucy thought bitterly.

Wearily she dragged herself upstairs to her bedroom after Robert and Patsy left. Perhaps this was all a nightmare or else she was imagining it because she felt so desperately tired and exhausted, she told herself.

Lucy slept until midday; when she went downstairs she found Sam staring moodily into the fire.

‘I bet you’re starving,’ Lucy said apologetically. ‘Give me ten minutes and I’ll rustle something up for our meal.’ She reached for her pinafore, slipped the straps over her head, and tied them.

‘There’s no hurry,’ he told her. ‘I’m not really hungry.’ He ran a hand through his short hair and her heart ached for him as she saw the utter misery in his eyes. ‘I’ve lost my appetite after what Patsy told us last night. It looks as though we’re both losers,’ he went on bitterly. ‘I’ve lost Patsy and you’ve lost Robert.’ He reached out and took Lucy’s hand. ‘It’s all my fault; if I could turn the clock back, then I would.’

‘It’s not your fault any more than it’s mine,’ Lucy told him. ‘I should have seen the signs and done something about it. I suppose I have been neglecting Robert for the past few months but he seemed to be so supportive that I thought he understood.’

‘So you’re blaming Patsy for this awful mess, are you?’

‘I don’t know what to think,’ Lucy murmured dejectedly. ‘It’s the way things go in life; there’s certainly no point in blaming ourselves for what’s happened.’

‘What are we going to do now, then?’ Sam probed. ‘This isn’t what you had planned for 1922, is it?’

‘No, you’re right,’ Lucy sighed. ‘I was planning to marry Robert. I was even going to suggest that you and Patsy got married as well and that we all lived here together. That way we would have been able to meet the bills. As it is, we are heavily in debt and I don’t know how we are going to survive.’

Although she struggled to stop them the tears began rolling down her cheeks. Unable to restrain her pent-up emotions she began to sob, heart-rending sobs that came from deep inside her. Sam held her close, smoothing her hair and whispering words of comfort until finally her sobs abated and, apart from the occasional gulping sound, she was calm once more.

They spent the rest of the day assessing their situation. There was only one thing they could do, Lucy decided, and that was to find somewhere cheaper to live.

‘Or perhaps we could take in lodgers,’ Sam suggested. ‘That way we would be able to stay on here.’

‘If we do that, then we will have to pay off the rent arrears and that will take us at least a year, or perhaps longer.’

‘So what is the answer?’ Sam frowned.

‘Probably the best thing we can do is skedaddle one dark night and tell no one where we are going so that no one can trace us,’ Lucy said dolefully.

‘Are you sure about that?’

‘I’m sorry to be letting down the people we owe money to like the coal man and the grocer, but I don’t think there is anything else we can do,’ she muttered.

‘Where do we go? We’ve no money for train or boat fares so we won’t be able to go very far.’

‘I know that. It will have to be somewhere in Liverpool, but there are lots of streets and courts off Scotland Road where they’d never think of looking for us.’

‘Patsy and Robert will wonder what’s happened to us,’ Sam pointed out.

‘I imagine they will both be relieved that we have gone and that they don’t have to face us,’ Lucy reminded him.

‘What about all the neighbours, though? They’re bound to wonder what’s happened to us and they might even start making enquiries to try and find us.’

‘I doubt it,’ Lucy said bitterly. ‘After a couple of months they’ll have forgotten all about us.’

‘Let’s leave it until tomorrow and see what we think then,’ Sam argued. ‘I don’t like the idea of giving up our home so easily. We’ve lived here all our lives. If Patsy and Robert don’t like having to face us, then let them be the ones to move away.’

‘We’re not doing it because of them,’ Lucy reminded him. ‘We’re doing it because we owe so much rent as well as money to so many tradesmen that it is the only way we can start afresh.’

She stood up and moved towards the kitchen. ‘Think about it while I make us something to eat. I really do think it would be for the best.’

It took Lucy and Sam almost a week of debating what to do for the best before making up their minds that they had no alternative but to move to somewhere cheaper.

Their credit with the local shops had already run out and they were forced into selling what they could of their possessions; all the ornaments and trinkets that their mother had loved as well as their father’s tools and anything else that would bring in a few shillings.