‘Oh no you’re not!’ Sam Jackson thumped his fist down on the table, making the dishes rattle and causing Cilla to burst into tears. ‘You’re not taking her round to mix with that Irish trash in Horatio Street any more. Go and smarten yourself up, girl, because you’re coming with me,’ he ordered.
‘Out with you?’ Trixie looked startled, wondering if she had heard him correctly. She couldn’t remember going anywhere with her father for years; not since before he’d gone into the army, in fact. She looked at her mother for confirmation, but Maggie looked even more surprised than she was.
‘Where are we going, Dad? If it’s for a walk, then can Cilla come as well?’
‘No, she bloody well can’t. We’re not going for a walk and you won’t be seeing her again for a while so you may as well say goodbye to her now,’ he added moving his chair away from the table.
‘What on earth do you mean by that?’ Maggie frowned. ‘Trixie always takes Cilla out on a Saturday afternoon. Why are you telling her to say goodbye to Cilla; what’s going on?’
Her father scowled angrily at Trixie. ‘Do as you’re bloody well told for once without the two of you asking so many damned questions.’
‘I will, when you tell me what I’m supposed to be doing,’ she said balefully.
‘I’m waiting, so get yourself ready and stop giving me lip. Pack your clothes and anything else you want to take with you into a bag because you won’t be coming back here again,’ he bellowed.
‘What on earth is he on about, Mum?’ Trixie asked, really worried now. She didn’t like the tone of her dad’s voice and her heart was thumping, she felt so frightened. She could tell from the look on her mother’s face that she was scared as well. Why couldn’t he tell them what he was planning, and not keep torturing them like this? she thought resentfully.
‘I really don’t know, luv,’ Maggie said quietly, putting an arm round her shoulders and giving her a reassuring hug. ‘What are you on about, Sam? Why in heaven’s name does she have to pack her bags?’ she demanded.
‘I would have thought it was obvious. She’s lost her job so I’ve fixed up for her to do some other sort of work.’
‘If you mean you want her to live in somewhere, then that’s one thing I won’t stand for,’ Maggie railed.
‘Shut your bloody mouth and don’t make things more difficult than they have to be,’ Sam told her furiously. ‘She’s lost her job and we can’t afford to keep her if she isn’t earning any money, now can we? We’ve got one useless little baggage to provide for so we don’t want another.’
‘Sam! That’s a terrible thing to say,’ Maggie exclaimed. There was a tremor in her voice and an ashen look on her face as she picked Cilla up and hugged her close.
‘Cilla isn’t useless,’ Trixie defended heatedly. ‘She’s learning her letters and already she can read a few words. She might even be able to go to school quite soon.’
‘Pigs might fly. She’s as thick as a plank and always will be, so don’t try to pull the wool over my eyes,’ he exploded.
‘No, Trixie is right. She really is telling you the truth, Sam. Little Cilla has turned the corner and is coming along by leaps and bounds,’ Maggie said placatingly.
‘I doubt it! If she is, then in future she’ll have to do it without Trixie there to help because I’ve other plans for her.’
Maggie took a deep breath and faced him challengingly. ‘You’d better tell me what these plans are, then,’ she insisted. ‘I’m well aware that she needs to get another job because I certainly can’t manage on the pittance I earn and the miserable amount you give me each week. I won’t have her going into service, though,’ she told him boldly. ‘I’ve always said that no child of mine will ever become a skivvy for other people.’
‘Watch your mouth,’ he snarled. ‘I don’t take any lip from you or her. She’s going to do as I say; I’ve set it all up for her.’
‘So you keep on saying, but why does she need to take her clothes with her if she isn’t going into service?’
‘Stop asking so many bloody questions,’ he bellowed angrily. ‘You’ve five minutes,’ he told Trixie as he stood up and rammed his cap on his head.
‘She’s not moving from this room till you tell me where she’s going,’ Maggie told him, standing between him and the door. Her arms were akimbo and there was a dangerous light in her grey eyes. ‘Come on, let’s hear it. I want the truth, mind.’
Trixie looked from one to the other of them in astonishment, She’d never heard her mother speak like that to her father before and she was surprised; not that it seemed to be doing any good, though, she thought miserably.
‘Give over and stop making such a bloody fuss. I’ve found her a place to work where she’ll live in. You’ll get your money each week; I’ve arranged that already.’ He grinned. ‘Her wages have been paid in advance for the next three months.’
‘I’ve already told you, no child of mind is going to be a skivvy, so what is this job and where is it? She isn’t old enough to be taken on as a nurse in a hospital; not even as a trainee.’
‘She’s going to work as a housekeeper for a bloke I know. He’s taking her on a three-month trial and after that, if he finds she suits him, then he might marry her.’
Maggie started at him open-mouthed. ‘I don’t believe I’m hearing this,’ she exploded. There was red-hot fury in her eyes and in her voice. ‘Paid in advance, did he?’ she added contemptuously. ‘What you really mean is that you’ve sold our daughter to some fella like she was a bloody slave!’
‘It’s not going to be like that at all,’ Sam shouted. ‘She’ll be living in a better place than this, let me tell you. He’s a middle-aged bachelor with a nice home, and he earns damn good money; he’s not only highly thought of but is also very respectable.’
‘A paragon of virtue as well, I suppose, who wouldn’t dream of taking advantage of an innocent young girl,’ Maggie said acidly. ‘Where did you meet him, down at the boozer?’ she went on, her voice full of disdain. ‘What sort of services did you promise she’d supply him with, or would it be better if I didn’t ask that?’
‘Shut your foul mouth and mind your own bloody business,’ Sam Jackson snarled. ‘The deal’s done. She’s going there today, so don’t let’s have any more argy-bargy. One more word out of you and you’ll feel the weight of my fist.’
‘Don’t talk about me as if I’m not here,’ Trixie choked, tears streaming down her face. ‘You can’t do this, Dad. I won’t go and you can’t make me. This is my home and I want to stay here,’ she sobbed. ‘Mum needs me, and so does Cilla.’
‘You’ll do as I tell you. In the eyes of the law you’re still a child till you’re eighteen, so you have no bloody say in the matter. In fact, in a lot of things you have to do as I tell you till you’re twenty-one, so don’t you forget it.’
‘I’ve done nothing wrong, so you can’t send me away from home,’ Trixie gulped. She brushed away her tears with the back of her hand and went over to Cilla and hugged her. ‘Mum needs me to help her with Cilla, you know she does, Dad,’ she pleaded, looking at him hopefully.
Her father turned away. ‘I’ve said all I’m going to say, now stop blathering and get yourself ready.’
‘Please tell us who this man is and where he lives before I go anywhere,’ Trixie begged, her eyes filling up with tears again. ‘Please don’t make me do it, Dad.’ She caught at his arm. ‘You can’t expect me to move in with some stranger and have to put up with whatever he wants,’ she sobbed.
‘She’s right, Sam. You must tell us more about him. I need to know as well. Surely you can tell us both a bit more about what you have arranged and set our minds at rest. I’ll be worried silly if I don’t know where you’re taking her. Is she going to be safe with him?’
‘Stop building it up into such a disaster; you make it sound like a fate worse than death.’
‘It might as well be, since you insist that she has to live in,’ Maggie pointed out. ‘Some men, even so-cal
led respectable ones, have horrible habits.’
Sam glowered at her and his face grew a dull red. ‘I’m not bloody well asking her to move in with a complete stranger; I’ve known him, and spoken to him almost every day, for months.’
‘You’ve only seen him in the pub; you’ve no idea what he might be like when he’s at home in his own house. If he’s a bachelor then he’s used to being on his own so he might resent having someone living there with him.’
‘Why the hell should he? He wants someone to clean his house, do his washing and have his food on the table when he comes home at night and that’s the only time she’ll see him.’
‘What about letting me go with you to meet him first and have a chat with him. I’d be a lot easier in my mind if you’d let me do that,’ Maggie pleaded.
‘Talk sense, woman! What’s he going to think if I do a thing like that?’
‘That we both think the world of our daughter and that we want to make sure she isn’t going to come to any harm,’ she told him boldly.
‘For Christ’s sake, give up and let your tongue have a rest. I’ve told him she’ll be there by three o’clock this afternoon and I intend to keep my word. If we don’t get a move on then we’re going to be late and that will be a bad start.’
‘I don’t like it, Sam. She’s only a kid and—’
As his hand went up to silence her with a blow, Trixie grabbed at his arm, diverting it. ‘That’s one of the reasons why I don’t want to leave home,’ she railed. ‘Mum needs me here to protect her from your bullying as well as to help with Cilla.’
For a moment she thought she was in for a hiding but she didn’t care. If he punched her in the face, or even walloped her with his belt, she’d be bound to have a mass of bruises and he wouldn’t be able to make her leave home and go and live with a stranger in case he spotted them.
Sam Jackson was too clever to fall into that trap. Although his face was puce with rage and his fists were clenched into tight balls, he managed to keep them at his side.
He grabbed Trixie by the hair and began pushing her towards the bedroom. ‘Get your coat and whatever you want to take with you and let’s get going,’ he muttered.
She still had an arm around Cilla and the child immediately started to scream as if she was the one being hurt, not Trixie. Snatching Cilla from Trixie, Sam almost threw the child at Maggie.
All three of them were crying and his voice was rising with increasing anger as he yelled at them all to shut up.
‘You’re going, and that’s all there is to it,’ he shouted at Trixie. ‘Wipe your face and comb your hair; you look like some gutter urchin,’ he growled.
‘Well, that’s all right because that’s what you’re trying to turn me into, isn’t it!’ she retaliated, now confident that under no circumstances was he going to hit her.
‘At least tell us where she’ll be living,’ Maggie begged. ‘Is it far away, will she be able to come and see us regularly?’
‘She won’t be coming visiting and you won’t be going out looking for her. Is that understood? This is a clean break. Perhaps later on, when she’s settled in, then she can come and see us if she behaves herself.’
‘You make it sound as if she’s going to be a prisoner. Will you be seeing her?’
‘No, I bloody well won’t. She’s going to make a new life for herself. Like I told you, if she proves satisfactory then the bloke says he’ll marry her.’
‘I’m far too young to get married,’ Trixie protested, looking at her mother for support. ‘You said yourself I’m only a kid,’ she taunted. ‘Anyway,’ she went on, ‘what happens if I don’t like him? I might already have made plans to marry someone else.’
Even as she spoke the words her heart sank. If she had no freedom then she wouldn’t be able to see Andrew and he was the only man in the world she would ever want to marry.
‘If it seems a good set up to me and I agree that he can marry you, then I’ve only to sign the right papers and you’ve no say in the matter,’ he told her with sneer. ‘Now have you got your things together, because I’m ready for off.’
‘I haven’t packed anything at all yet,’ Trixie prevaricated. ‘It’s going to take me a while . . .’
Sam didn’t wait for her to finish. ‘You had your chance,’ he told her. ‘I’ll give you five minutes, so make sharp.’
Hastily she grabbed what she could find and stuffed it into a battered old fibre suitcase that her mother brought out from the back of the cupboard.
‘I’m not waiting any longer,’ Sam said, grabbing hold of the suitcase and fastening it shut. He began to push Trixie towards the door, not even giving her time to kiss her mother or Cilla goodbye.
‘Wait, Sam, let her put her coat and hat on, it’s absolutely freezing out there,’ Maggie protested as she held out Trixie’s coat so that she could put her arms into it.
Sam grabbed it and her hat but didn’t pause. ‘She can put them on out in the street if she’s cold,’ he muttered as he pushed her through the door. He ignored the fact that Maggie was struggling to hold back her tears despite the fact that Trixie’s distress was breaking her heart, and the pleading look Trixie was giving her mother.
He refused to let go of Trixie’s arm as she struggled to get her coat on and to fasten it up.
‘Where are we going?’ she panted as he propelled her along Virgil Street and into Scotland Road.
She felt scared stiff but she was doing her best not to show it. His threats that she wouldn’t be able to come back and see her mother and Cilla were still ringing in her ears and they, together with the uncertainty of what was going to happen, were all frightening.
It was at times like this that she wished he’d never come back from the war; if he hadn’t, none of them would have had to put up with his bullying.
As they turned into Scotland Road she wondered if she could make a run for it but, although her dad was carrying the suitcase in one hand, he was holding her arm so tightly that there was no chance of her twisting free.
If only she could find a way of letting Ivy and Ella know what was happening but even her mother didn’t even know where she was being taken.
Whatever would Andrew think when she didn’t contact him as she’d promised to do? He might even think it was because she didn’t want to see him again, she thought desperately, yet there was nothing she wanted more.
‘Look for number twenty,’ her father ordered, his grip on her arm tightening as they turned into Cavendish Road.
Trixie’s heart thudded. She’d never even been down any of the roads this far from Scotland Road before and now, or so it seemed, number twenty Cavendish Road was where she was going to live and with a middle-aged man who was a complete stranger. How could her father do something like this to her? she wondered.
They paused as he spotted the number painted in white on a black door between two shops. ‘This must be the place,’ he said, pushing her towards it.
She was so petrified that her legs wouldn’t move. Her father nudged her forward and she stumbled. She would have fallen if her father hadn’t still been holding her arm so tightly.
She was shaking so much that when the door opened she could only stare at the man who stood there, more convinced than ever that it wasn’t just a bad dream but a terrible nightmare.
Chapter Thirteen
Trixie could hear her father talking, hear the welcome being extended to both of them to come inside, but the shock of seeing who’d opened the door and was standing there was so intense that her mind refused to function.
As her father, who was still holding her arm in a tight grip, propelled her over the stone step into the passageway beyond, Trixie blinked hard, not to dispel tears, but to try and clear her mind. She didn’t want to believe it but the man whose home they were in was none other than Fred Linacre.
It couldn’t be, she told herself over and over again. He certainly looked like Fred but there was difference. This man was wearing slippers and a dark brown
knitted cardigan, and had a pipe stuck in the corner of his mouth. The Fred she knew always wore a pristine white coat-style overall. His white shirt and navy and red tie were the same, though, and so, too, was his voice.
‘You’ve brought her, then,’ the man greeted them, and it was his tone more than the words that sent a shiver through Trixie as they followed him along the stone passage where he opened another door on their right.
Again they followed him as he climbed up a staircase to a small landing where a door led into a living room. She could hear her father carrying on a conversation and laughing heartily at something one of them had said but she was feeling so confused that she couldn’t take in what they were saying.
As she stood in the living room looking around the bleakness of the bare walls and sparse furnishings filled her with dismay. There was a dark brown leather armchair pulled up in front of the open fire, and a dining table covered with a dark brown chenille cloth and two upright chairs with seats of brown leather. There were no pictures or ornaments, no rug on the well-worn brown lino that covered the floor; nothing at all that turned the bleakness of the room into a home. Even the mantelpiece was bare apart from a clock in a dark wood case that stood in the middle of it.
‘Here’s the rest of your money,’ Fred said, pulling a small rolled-up bundle of notes out of his back pocket.’
‘You don’t need to check it; it’s all there,’ he stated as Sam Jackson started to flatten out the bank notes.
‘Right; that’s it, then. I hope I can count on you to keep to your part of the bargain,’ her father challenged as he stood up and put his cap back on.
‘Everything as we agreed. No meetings of any sort till the three months are up.’
‘That’s Easter time, then. Trixie’ll still only be sixteen till—’
Fred Linacre hurriedly moved towards the door as if to show Sam Jackson out. ‘We’ll discuss all that another time, when we’re on our own.’
Love Changes Everything Page 11