‘Nowhere.’
‘Look, you go in on your own. I am going to get us something to eat, we can eat fish and chips on the bench in the park.’
‘Thought you would have been sick of fish and chips Jim.’
‘Well I just fancy ‘em, we never eat them at work so this will be a treat, for a change.’
‘Don’t rush though, I will be about half an hour in here.’
Jim nodded and walked off further down the parade.
When she was sure Jim was far enough away, Betsy followed Florrie into the store. As soon as she approached Florrie, Betsy jostled her, pretending to be unsteady on her feet.
She was taking a chance but it had been three years ago now. ‘And the girl, in the state that she was in, would surely have forgotten me.’ Thought Betsy. For the time being her assumption was right.
‘Are you feeling unwell?’ Asked Florrie.
‘I’m having a bad day Dearie, my poor old back is hurting, I need to get home, I shouldn’t have come out today.’ She gushed breathlessly.
Florrie eyes filled with concern for the old woman, she wanted to help her. ‘Where do you live?’ She asked.
The girl was much taller than her. Betsy pretended to be racked with pain, her posture was bent over, making it difficult for Florrie to see her face properly.
‘Just along the parade, about four cafes down, up the stairs is where I live, not far but would you be kind enough to walk me back?’ She was pretending to be out of breath. Betsy had a quick glance at the ring again then took hold of her right arm to support her on the short walk to the stairwell entrance of the houses. They walked slowly out of the emporium, then suddenly, Betsy stumbled. She had been linking Florrie’s arm and with her full weight, she slid down giving Florrie a shock. She thought that she had the old dear well supported, with all her strength she held onto her tightly, she was afraid of her falling.
She wished that Jim had been around, she was cursing him for going for fish and chips. They were almost at the entrance to the stairwell, it was here that Betsy, with a final jolt, slid straight down Florrie’s arm to her hand, at the same time pulling off the diamond ring from her finger. Florrie hadn’t noticed, she was preoccupied with preventing the old girl falling. She helped her regain her balance and all seemed well. Florrie was perplexed to see that the old woman had made a remarkable recovery.
Betsy gasped, ‘Thank you, I just had one of my funny turns, I’ll be fine now.’
Florrie looked up the steep stone stairs, then said, ‘I’ll take you to your front door, let me help you up.’
Betsy held the ring tight, it was safely hidden in the palm of her hand.
‘No, no, you be on your way, don’t you worry about me, I can make it on my own.’
As if by arrangement, Freddie appeared at the top of the stairs. It was manner from heaven for Betsy. She could now get rid of the girl, she had what she wanted from her for the time being. She was anxious for her to go in case she noticed that her ring was missing. She also didn’t want her to see where her rented rooms were.
She looked up the stairs towards Freddie.
‘There’s me husband.’ She was careful not to mention his name. Freddie recognised the girl straight away. He ran down the stairs and began to help Betsy. A wink from Betsy was all that Freddie needed to know that there was a game afoot.
Florrie was satisfied that the woman was now safe in the care of her husband. It wasn’t until she met up with Jim again that she realised that her ring had gone. She didn’t suspect the old woman, she thought that it had fallen off and was lost on the promenade.
Jim was annoyed. He was worried that the loss of the ring would spoil their day out. They retraced her steps and searched the pavement for it. She thought it had probably been picked up by a day tripper and she resigned herself to the fact that she would never see it again.
‘The bloody thing was cursed anyway. God knows how me Ma came by it and I had to be careful where and when I wore it, in case anyone saw it. To tell you the truth, I am glad to see the back of it.’
Jim suddenly took her hands. ‘I will buy you a ring Florrie. A ring that you can be proud to call your own.’
‘Are you asking me Jim?’
‘I am, will you marry me Florrie?’
‘I will.’ She answered joyfully.
‘What were you doing talking to her?’ Asked Freddie.
When Betsy showed Freddie the piece of jewellery she couldn’t contain her excitement. She cackled, ‘Told you we would make money out of her one way or another.’
They were both now behind the closed door of one of their rented rooms.
‘We haven’t got time for long and meaningful conversations, I will tell you later. Now, go and see if they have cleared off, she is here with that Boyle lad. We must go back to Tollemache Street in case they come back here snooping.’
‘Did she recognise you?’
‘No, I don’t think so, I would say definitely not, come now Freddie, we must hurry.’
They had been together long enough to understand each other’s body language. There were times when one had to trust the other’s judgment. They had spent their lives living in the shadows, in a world of mistrust and would often find themselves cornered. This was such a moment. There were times when it was best to stay silent and follow the other’s instruction. He knew not to mess around with Betsy, he recognised her impatience, he read her signs of agitation. He just followed her advice.
He quickly checked that there was no one about. He could spot a copper a mile away and he clearly remembered what Jim and Florrie looked like. Soon they were on their way, turning left they went the long way round. Eventually, they were safely back behind their own front door.
Betsy was eager to tell Freddie the whole illicit tale of her crime, she could hardly contain herself.
Jim and Florrie’s day had been marred, a little, by the loss of the ring. In many ways this loss was a weight off her shoulders. In the early days it was exciting having such an exquisite piece of jewellery but having something that wasn’t rightly hers had recently been weighing heavily on her conscience.
Florrie wasn’t used to the fresh air and went to bed that night feeling tired. As she drifted off to sleep she began to ruminate about the day’s events. She didn’t suspect the old woman of robbing the ring clean off her finger but she began to think, that maybe, she had seen her before.
The image in her mind of the old woman’s husband at the top of the stairs triggered flash backs. Now in a deep sleep she began to experience terrible dreams of what had taken place three years ago. ‘How could they possibly be the same people who drugged me? But it was them! They took me away to that evil house where they had callously arranged for a dirty old man to molest me.’
She saw their faces again in a nightmare but the most vivid face in her dream was the man with the sinister stare, his cold blue eyes were penetrating. It was the man who had attacked her.
The next day she could clearly recall the awful day when she was taken to a house in Duke Street. Florrie was now sure that the woman she had helped in New Brighton and her husband were the very people who had lured her to her fate. She needed time to think and knew that Jim could be hot headed at times, for the time being she decided to keep it to herself.
As time went by, Florrie had been getting along better with her mother. Their relationship had improved since they were no longer living under the same roof.
Florrie now felt that the time was right to confide in her mother about the evening when the man had attacked her. She waited her opportunity. The day she chose to go and see her mother was Sunday, a quiet day for both of them.
At last, she felt able to calmly tell her everything. She could, also, add some details she had learned from Jim. She described the man who had almost raped her and the couple who had, apparently, arranged it. She had a vague recollection of the house in Duke Street. She went on to tell her how she’d recognised the woman in New Brighton. Her h
usband who appeared at the top of the stairs, looked strangely familiar. She was careful not to mention the ring.
By the time Minnie had finished her tale, tears began to well up in her eyes, adding quietly, ‘I know who these people are Florrie.’
‘Who are they?’
‘It’s a painful memory and difficult for me to talk about but I must tell you that when I was a child that woman arranged for men to molest me.’
Florrie couldn’t face her mother and looked out of the window. There was a flash of anger in her voice. ‘Is that what led you into this business of going with men?’
‘What makes you think so badly of me?’
‘You have been seen around town, arm in arm with different men and you have been coming home late, looking dishevelled.’
‘I know it is wrong.’ Replied Minnie in a subdued tone. ‘I never wanted you to find out.’
For a few moments the room fell silent. Mother and daughter were lost in thought.
Minnie spoke quietly when she replied, ‘I cannot blame it all on Betsy Hale, she just led the way for me. Most of it was my own greed and something I saw as easy money. Now I know that there is no such thing as easy money. There is, always, a price to pay.’
Again, they sat in silence, holding hands. Minnie was thankful that nothing worse had happened to her daughter. She always tried to protect her, this time she felt that she had let her down badly.
She recalled the day when Betsy came into the chemist shop and had purchased a bottle of chloroform.
‘I could have stopped the wicked old cow, I should have known she was planning evil.’ Minnie blamed herself.
She couldn’t believe that she had sold the woman the very chemical that was intended to bring about her own daughter’s downfall.
Following this conversation Minnie sat for hours pondering and planning. It took a little time for her to hatch a plan of retribution. She had, in the past often thought of wreaking revenge on the Hales, now she had a lot more reason to deliver her reprisal.
She knew full well that the Hales had most probably left the city and she imagined that it would be highly likely that they had gone ‘over the water.’ After all, the thriving seaside resort was crammed with every cheap jack, hawker and whore in town. ‘Where else on earth could they be?’ Wondered Minnie. ‘Florrie is right. It will be the Hales, just the sort of place for those two.’
It only took Minnie a couple of her half days off to spot Betsy in New Brighton. It took time to find out where she lived but she was determined to follow her. Eventually, Betsy led her to her front door in Tollemache Street.
Minnie was planning her revenge. A few innocent questions of her employer enabled her to prepare something pernicious. The Hales deserved nothing less for the damage they had done to her and her daughter and most probably others…
Minnie had recently been going with a man much younger than herself. His name was John, a seafarer in the Merchant Navy. He was very fit, a bit of a ruffian and a thief but Minnie liked him. He had just been paid off a ship and had money to burn during his leave.
Minnie asked him to take her for a day out in New Brighton and he happily agreed. She told him that she wanted his help to get her own back on someone.
It took little more than a promise of taboo delights to convince John to help her.
‘Why do you want to do that?’
‘I just want to have a bit of fun with someone who’s caused me some grief.’
‘You mean like play a trick on them, a joke?’
‘Yes.’
Soon they were boarding the steam ferry to New Brighton. They looked like any other respectable pleasure seeking couple.
‘Where are we going then?’ He asked.
‘We’re going to someone’s house and I want you to break in through the back way, they will of course be out.’
Minnie spotted Betsy and Freddie sitting at a table outside a cafe on the Ham and Eggs Parade.
‘Just come with me.’ She reassured him that the house would be empty.
They strode off in the direction of the Hale’s house in Tollemache Street. She knew their routine, they would be sitting there all afternoon, trying to control the comings and goings in their tawdry rooms.
‘Rancid pair of bastards.’ She thought to herself bitterly.
Minnie was taking a chance, she expected the back yard door to be locked. John slowly pressed down the latch of the door, much to their surprise it was unbolted. They looked up and down the entry to check that no one was around before they entered the yard.
Once in the yard, they found that the back kitchen door was locked.
‘Get the window open John, climb in and unbolt the back door.’
John grinned back at her, then broke the glass with his elbow. Sliding the window open, he was quickly inside.
‘What now?’ Asked John.
‘Have a look around, you can go and look upstairs if you like. See if you can find anything worth pinching I won’t be a minute.’ Said Minnie.
As he went upstairs, she opened the door of the parlour. She had rightly guessed that the Hales were still heavy gin drinkers and found a green bottle of spirit on the sideboard.
She took the bottle into the kitchen and opened the top, she then tipped out a small trickle into the sink. She carefully topped it up with the clear liquid from the bottle that she had brought in her handbag. She replaced the stopper and shook the gin bottle vigorously. The sulphur and turpentine mixed readily with the spirit. It was surprisingly odourless and colourless.
‘You poxy, syphilitic, old bitch, it’s time for you and that bastard to suffer.’ She muttered to herself as she put the empty bottle back in her handbag.
She made sure that there were no tell tale drops running down the bottle. Everything was left as it had been when they came in.
Minnie called up the stairs, ‘Come, John. We must go now!’
As he turned to leave, he helped himself to a ring which had been left on the corner of the dressing table.
John had no idea that it was a real diamond ring as this did not appear to be a well off home. He thought that the stones were probably made of glass. ‘Besides, it might do as a ‘prezzie’ for me sister-in-law for putting me up during me leave.’ He muttered to himself, omitting to tell Minnie about his find.
They quickly left the house, each with their own secret and souvenir. As they strolled through Vale Park he casually asked, ‘What did you do in there, you haven’t poisoned some poor bastard’s dinner have you?’ Minnie then laughed. He was only kidding and hadn’t thought for a minute that she could possibly do such a terrible thing. John shrugged then dismissed it from his mind. He was just curious as to what she had been up to. Minnie quickly changed the subject.
When the Hales came home they were furious to find that the window had been broken and forced open.
‘Some bastard’s got in and he must have left by the door. Anything missing Duchess?’ She ran upstairs to check her dressing table, then shouted down to Freddie.
‘The fucking ring’s gone! Strange that, I wonder who the fuck knew I had that ring?’
‘Must have been disturbed by a neighbour or even by us coming back in, more than likely a brat, thieving little bastards they are, had enough of them in Liverpool, I thought it was quiet around here.’ Said Freddie. ‘Never mind, nothing else has been pinched and the Fu Dogs are still full of money.’
For the Hales, this harmless looking break in was to be the end of their sordid games and exploitation of young women forever!
They reacted catastrophically to their poisoned evening drinks. The sulphur and turpentine that Minnie had poured into their gin had very quickly left the fiendish pair deaf and blind. Betsy was dying of tertiary syphilis, but this intervention brought about her demise earlier. Freddie died not long after her.
They spent their final days in the hospital ward of the workhouse. The cause of their slow and painful death was never fully established.
Chap
ter 17
Trial and Retribution
New Brighton – 1928
Margaret was pleased to see Sophie when she answered a knock on the door. It was just before ten in the morning.
‘Hello Sophie. Come in.’
‘It is time for me to go back to my time, Aunty Margaret. With all that I have learned here, I have a mission to complete. I must change into my own clothes.’
‘I know it is dear, come upstairs, your clothes are ready.
Sophie didn’t have much time to spare she had to be at the merry-go-round in New Brighton at one o’clock. Larry had told her that he would call her to the ride, he would be waiting in the middle. He warned her to be on time. ‘Jump on at one o’clock prompt or it will go wrong, you will be trapped in 1900.’ She was anxious to be on time.
In Jessie’s old bedroom, Sophie quickly changed her clothes. She caught sight of herself in the mirror. It seemed a long time ago since she had seen Larry’s face so vividly.
‘Put Jessie’s old coat on Sophie to hide your flimsy dress. Give it to Jim in New Brighton, he’s gone ahead of you, he will be there with Florrie, I believe he knows that it is time for you to go.’ Said Margaret.
‘So you believe in Larry too.’
‘Now hurry up dear, you cannot be late.’ Warned Margaret.
As she turned, a lovely ring on the dressing table caught Sophie’s eye. She picked it up and admired it.
‘I love this Aunty Margaret.’
‘I want you to have it as a keepsake Sophie. My late husband’s brother, John stays here when he’s on leave. He is in the Merchant Navy. He gave me the ring the other day, he said it was a little thank you for letting him stay here. But I’ll never wear it, I’m not that fussed on rings. Please take it, it is something for you to remember us by.’
Sophie thanked her. Margaret gave her a quick hug, then guided her down the stairs to the front door. They said goodbye on the doorstep and never saw each other again.
Sophie stretched out her hand and admired the lovely ring as she hurried up the street. She had to find a cab quickly to take her to the Pier Head to catch the next steamer to New Brighton.
A Wanton Tale Page 21