Someone to Trust

by Someone to Trust (retail) (epub)

  ‘Well, Lucy?’ said Barney.

  ‘Well what?’ she said cautiously.

  He laughed. ‘You’re in a dream, girlie. I said at least you’ll hear good music at the Trocadero.’

  ‘Definitely,’ she agreed hastily. Although Palm Court wasn’t her style at all. ‘And it’s always a pleasure to listen to you play, Barney.’

  He folded his newspaper and, standing up, gave her a little bow. ‘Thank you.’ And he added that they were going to be late for church if they didn’t hurry.

  Lucy made haste. She was hoping Rob might make one of his rare visits to St George’s. He hadn’t been there last week but Dilys had made no mention of his being away so Lucy could only think he hadn’t managed to get to Ireland. Unless he’d gone this past week. Sometimes she imagined again the feel of his kiss on her lips and his arms round her and she’d have to remind herself that it had only been meant in a brotherly way.

  They slipped into a back pew at St George’s because they were late. It wasn’t until the second hymn that Lucy noticed Dilys and her aunt were missing from the choir. She did not spot Rob and Blodwen until she herself had slipped out of church as soon as the service finished and stood waiting for Barney and her mother who were being sociable with other members of the congregation. Lucy wandered over to the graveyard. Some of the stones were extremely large and lay flat on the ground. One had fancy wrought-iron railing rounding it, a reminder of mid-Victorian times when St George’s had been the church for people with money. Barney had told her how his great-uncle had moved out when the influx of Irish escaping the potato famine had sent the population of Liverpool soaring. Everton, which had once been a pretty village, had been swamped by housing for the poor. The really wealthy had then built themselves houses at the south end of Liverpool or out Bootle way.

  Suddenly Lucy noticed Rob and Blodwen standing in the doorway, talking to the vicar. Lucy took up a strategic position near one of the standing monuments to the dead so she could watch them. It seemed to her that Blodwen was doing all the talking while Rob stood around like a spare part. He glanced about him and Lucy lifted a hand. He saw her and began to walk towards her. She darted behind the gravestone.

  He peered round it, a smile on his face. ‘What are you up to?’

  ‘I thought you mightn’t want the girlfriend seeing you talk to me,’ she whispered.

  With an incredulous sigh he pulled Lucy out. ‘I’m not wearing a ball and chain, you know.’

  ‘She doesn’t like me… and I thought she might be talking to the vicar about your wedding arrangements.’ Lucy was having trouble keeping her hands off Rob. He was looking really smart today in a charcoal suit and a pristine white shirt. The silver-grey trilby he wore was pushed to the back of his head and a lock of dark hair curled on his forehead. His mouth looked soft and inviting.

  ‘No. She wants a big do and for us to buy a house first. So no wedding plans yet.’

  Lucy felt weak with relief, thinking there was hope for her yet. ‘Could you buy a house on your wages?’

  ‘If we can put a big enough deposit down, so I’m saving hard.’ He nudged the edge of the gravestone with the toe of his shoe, hands in pockets, a frown puckering his brow. ‘I’d rather marry sooner.’

  Lucy’s heart sank. It sounded like there was no chance for her but she rallied. ‘She still wants you to change your mind about being a policeman?’

  He lifted his head and smiled faintly. ‘She’s working on it, if that’s what you mean. She’s forever going on about me being my own boss and how good that would be.’

  Lucy glanced over her shoulder to see if Blodwen was still hogging the vicar. ‘She’s very pretty.’

  Rob nodded. ‘She has a good heart but she lost her first fiance in the war and that’s made her a bit hard – perhaps even desperate to have something extra in our marriage to compensate for not having him.’

  Lucy wondered if anything could ever compensate for losing the man you loved with all your being. Was second best ever good enough?

  ‘I haven’t been to Ireland yet,’ said Rob. ‘The case we’re working on at the moment is big. A doctor accused of poisoning his wife… a man of influence, with friends in high places.’ He grimaced.

  ‘Never mind,’ said Lucy lightly. ‘It can’t be helped.’ She searched for something else to say. ‘Dilys? Your aunt? Nothing wrong, is there?’

  A grin lit up his face. ‘They’ve been summoned to Wales. My great-aunt’s on her last legs and she has money. They’ll be back tomorrow.’

  ‘So you’re all on your own? Who’ll cook your dinner?’

  He jerked his head in the direction of the church entrance. ‘Blodwen’s mother’s invited me to Sunday lunch.’

  ‘What a pity,’ Lucy said forlornly. ‘I’m quite a good cook.’

  He stared at her and there was a look on his face that caused her pain. ‘Don’t, Lucy! I don’t want you getting hurt,’ he said in a voice so low that she could only just catch the words. ‘I’m in love with her. I’m not worth it. I should never have kissed you. Find someone your own age, love.’

  She wanted to say, But you’re not that old and I don’t want anyone my own age! Then she heard Barney say, ‘Lucy! Rob!’

  They both spun round and there was her stepfather with Blodwen. She was looking daggers at Lucy and, brushing past her, the older girl slid her arm possessively through Rob’s. At the same time Barney put his hand on Lucy’s elbow. ‘Time to go, lovey. Your mother’s gone on ahead to see to the dinner.’

  ‘Right, I’m coming. I was just asking after Dilys,’ said Lucy, pinning on a bright smile. ‘Rob. Blodwen.’

  The other girl inclined her head and Rob raised his hat, his face expressionless. Lucy watched them walk away and disappear round the back of the church. ‘I wouldn’t get too fond of him,’ said Barney, sounding slightly embarrassed. ‘Blod’s a lovely girl and she has suffered.’

  Lucy nodded but made no comment and they walked home in silence.

  To her surprise, and Barney’s obvious annoyance, there was no sign of Maureen when they arrived home. ‘Now where’s she gone?’ he said, throwing up his hand. ‘I want my dinner!’

  ‘I’ll see to the dinner,’ offered Lucy, checking the oven and noting the roasties were in. ‘Mam can’t have gone far.’

  He drummed his fingers on the table. ‘There’s something wrong with her. She’s getting very forgetful. Her mind isn’t what it was since she lost the baby.’

  ‘Perhaps I should go and look for her?’

  ‘No!’ he said firmly. ‘She might have nipped to the corner shop for something she’s forgotten. It’s getting a bit foggy. She’ll be back soon.’

  Lucy suggested, ‘Why don’t you go and play some music? I’ll hear it down here. It’ll be nice.’

  He took her up on the suggestion and after she had set the table Lucy raced down the yard and along the back entry into Devonshire Place. She did not get as far as the recreation ground before spotting her mother and Timmy coming towards her. She linked her arm through her mother’s to hurry her along. ‘He’s worrying about you. Said you’re getting forgetful,’ she told Maureen in a low voice.

  Her mother drew herself up to her full height. ‘There’s nothing wrong with my mind. I know exactly where I’ve been.’

  ‘And where’s that?’

  Maureen tapped her nose and smiled. ‘Some things you’re best not knowing, girl.’

  * * *

  ‘So you’ve remembered where you live?’ said Barney, sharpening the carving knife on the steel as Lucy and Timmy sat at the table. Maureen was standing across from him with the tureen of roast potatoes in her hand. ‘I’m sorry, darlin’! I went and forgot I’d promised to drop a knitting pattern in on an old friend.’ She went over to him and kissed the top of his head, afterwards pressing her cheek against his.

  Timmy and Lucy exchanged glances. If that was true, thought the girl, why hadn’t she said so when first asked? But she couldn’t really work up any enthusia
sm for finding out where her mother had been. Her own heart was sore. Why did Rob have to fall in love with Blodwen?

  Barney began to carve, talking at the same time about the new Rudolph Valentino film Son of the Sheik. ‘The Trocadero will be packed,’ he said, smiling happily. ‘The profits from my shares will go up. Remember when The Sheik was on, Lucy? Women were swooning all over the place.’

  Timmy snorted. ‘They’re daft!’

  ‘What do you think of him?’ Barney shot the question at Maureen as she dished out roast potatoes. She made no answer. ‘Didn’t you hear me, Mowie?’

  His wife looked at him. ‘What was that?’

  He looked exasperated. ‘You’re in another world. What’s up with you? You should be listening when I talk to you.’

  ‘I was listening. I was thinking about it.’ Maureen flashed a look of entreaty at her daughter. Lucy mouthed ‘Rudolph Valentino’.

  ‘What’s your answer then?’ pressed Barney.

  Maureen smiled. ‘I think he wears make up. I don’t think that’s very manly. It’s like wearing smelly hair lotion. I think it’s effeminate.’

  There was silence. Lucy held her breath. What had got into her mother? Barney had reddened and a slice of beef slid from the fork on to the table cloth. ‘There’s nothing effeminate about me,’ he muttered.

  Maureen’s lovely eyes smiled at him. ‘I like a man to smell like a man. It’s something you should take notice of, Barney. Now, do you want another roastie or is five enough? You’re getting a bit fat.’

  Lucy’s stomach quivered as Barney stabbed the beef. ‘There’ll be no wireless or gramophone in this house for Christmas!’ he thundered. ‘There’ll be no money for new fashions either. You’ve enough clothes in the wardrobe to last you a lifetime and that’s how long they’re going to have to last, Maureen.’

  She sniffed and dropped a boiled potato on to his plate.

  ‘And another thing,’ he snapped. ‘You’d be better keeping your eye on Lucy than looking up old friends. The girl has a fancy for Rob Jones and that way can only lead to heartache for her.’

  Maureen put down the empty tureen and picked up another of carrot and turnip. She smiled at Lucy. ‘I thought you were never going to get married? I thought you had plans?’

  ‘I have, Mam. There’s nothing for you to worry about,’ said Lucy hastily, wishing Barney had kept his mouth shut.

  Silence reigned while they all ate. Afterwards Lucy dashed upstairs, needing to get out of the house, to walk and walk until she was exhausted. Her brother entered her room, grinning like a hyena. ‘His face when Mam said that about the hair lotion!’ he choked, dropping on to Lucy’s bed and rolling about.

  ‘I don’t know how she dared,’ said Lucy, taking a coat out of the wardrobe. ‘She must have been mad. I’d love to know where she’d really been.’

  Timmy looked up. ‘I followed her,’ he blurted out. ‘I’ve been worried about the way she goes off. You wouldn’t know about it because you’re at work but she goes out some evenings, too.’

  ‘I know where she goes,’ said Lucy with a shrug. ‘St Anthony’s.’

  Timmy sat up on the bed. ‘How d’you know?’

  ‘She told me.’ Lucy stared grimly at her own reflection as she brushed her hair. ‘Anymore secrets?’

  There was a pregnant pause.

  ‘Well?’

  He cleared his throat. ‘I saw that Irishman, the one Uncle Mick used to knock around with and invite to our house.’

  Lucy dropped the hairbrush. So he was alive! Without Shaun O’Neill’s name even being spoken her stomach quivered and she felt sick. ‘Where?’ she croaked.

  ‘He was in a car with another man. They were driving along Mere Lane in the direction of the picture house.’

  ‘Did he see you?’

  Timmy’s blue eyes were thoughtful. ‘I’ve grown, haven’t I? I doubt he’d recognise me.’

  She nodded in agreement. He was almost as tall as she was now, would be twelve next birthday. She’d be nineteen.

  ‘What are you going to do?’ asked Timmy.

  Lucy picked up her green velveteen cloche hat and drew it over her hair while she thought about what he’d said. Her heart leaped inside her. ‘Visit Rob Jones. He said the police want Shaun O’Neill for a different crime than the one I have in mind.’

  ‘What about Mam? Should we tell her? The way she wanders about… what if O’Neill spots her and hurts her?’

  Lucy thought of what Rob had said about hating knives. She gnawed on her lip and came to a decision. ‘I’ll tell her.’

  She went downstairs and found her mother in the kitchen and told her what Timmy had said. Maureen went very still and did not speak for several seconds. Then she shivered. ‘I don’t know what there is to be scared of. He doesn’t know where we live.’

  ‘But he might, Mam,’ said Lucy earnestly. ‘There’s something I haven’t told you. I went to see Aunt Mac and she told me Callum was in an Irish prison with Shaun O’Neill’s brother. Callum might have mentioned where we live now.’

  Maureen stared at her and then laughed. ‘Like mother, like daughter! We are ones for secrets, aren’t we?’

  Lucy felt uncomfortable. ‘It was when you were ill. I didn’t want to rake up the past and upset you.’

  ‘The past – we can never forget it,’ said Maureen slowly. ‘I think I’ll go to bed and lie down.’

  ‘I’ll do you a hot water bottle,’ said Lucy eagerly, thinking her mother had received a shock. ‘Mam, you’ve to stop wandering around in the evening on your own. You will, won’t you?’

  Maureen smiled and patted her cheek. ‘Of course. Don’t you worry. I’ll see to the hot water bottle. You’ve got your coat and hat on. You get off out, but be careful. Where are you going, by the way?’

  ‘Not far.’ After what Barney had said to her mother about her having a fancy for Rob, she wasn’t going to confess that she was off to his aunt’s house. He mightn’t be home yet after having lunch at Blodwen’s mother’s but Lucy could wait until he arrived home. She kissed her mother and left the house.

  The fog swirled about her but it was not so thick that she couldn’t see where she was going. She pulled up the fur collar of her coat and shrouded her mouth and nose in it and headed along St Domingo Road in the direction of Mere Lane. A figure loomed up out of the fog and she jumped out of her skin. He passed and she laughed at herself but was shaken because it had just occurred to her, that Rob’s aunt’s house lay in the very direction where Timmy claimed to have seen Shaun O’Neill. Was she completely mad to be going there? What would Rob say when he came home and found her on his doorstep? Should she go back?

  She stopped, gripped by indecision. Her heart told her to go on but her mind said, Go back! You’re making a fool of yourself. More footsteps muffled by the fog. Her stomach ached with the effort of trying to steady her nerves.

  ‘Lousy Sunday afternoon,’ said a woman’s voice.

  Lucy agreed and walked on. The fog appeared to be thickening and it was becoming difficult to get her bearings. She listened intently for any sound of traffic before taking her courage into her hands and crossing the road, feeling for the tramlines beneath her feet. Pale yellow light gleamed from the odd shop window and she followed that line of light with confidence. Then she heard a man coughing and tried to see where the noise was coming from. What if she was right to be scared and Shaun O’Neill was in the vicinity? She trembled as she listened to the coughing. Then it stopped. She walked on but could no longer see the lights. Was she even going in the right direction? She was no longer certain and was cold, really cold. She stretched out a hand but there was only space in front of her. Panic seized her and she began to run, her feet making a slapping noise on the ground. She stumbled off a kerb and then on to another one and was about to slow down when she ran slap bang into a wall. She clung to it. Perhaps she would die here?

  Lucy did not know how long she rested against the wall but eventually was shivering with cold and
so forced herself to keep close to it and carry on walking. She came to a flight of steps and instantly realised the wall belonged to a cinema. It must be the Mere Picture Palace. Relieved, knowing St Domingo Grove was just across the way and having got her bearings at last, she allowed a tram to rattle by before crossing the road.

  There was no answer when she knocked at Miss Griffiths’ door and she was disappointed, having hoped Rob would come home earlier because of the fog. She huddled on the front step, praying he would not be long. There was no way she would head back through that fog again on her own. She closed her eyes and allowed herself to drift.

  ‘Lucy! What are you doing here?’ Someone was shaking her shoulder. He sounded fed up.

  She forced up her eyelids and tried to move her limbs but they were stiff with cold. ‘Shaun O’Neill,’ she said through chattering teeth, accepting Rob’s helping hand to get up. She clung to the front of his overcoat. ‘T-Timmy’s seen him! He-He was in a car going along M-Mere Lane.’

  ‘What!’ Rob’s hand covered hers and his voice changed. ‘My God, you’re freezing! How long have you been here? You shouldn’t have come in the fog.’

  ‘I-I f-felt I had to tell you.’ She peered up at him. He looked worried and that made her feel better. He did definitely feel something for her. ‘I’ll g-go now. I d-don’t want to b-be a nuisance.’

  ‘You are a bloody nuisance,’ he said, sounding exasperated. ‘But I can’t let you go home like this. Let me get the door open. You’ll have to come in and get a warm.’

  ‘No! Y-You don’t want me!’

  ‘Shut up!’ He shoved her inside and switched on the light.

  Lucy stood in the lobby, shivering, looking up at him. ‘You’re angry,’ she said, trying to smile but failing miserably.