Born Bad

by Josephine Cox

  Her attention was caught by the man now entering the store. Thickset, with a hostile manner about him, she suspected it could be Phil Saunders. There was a certain familiarity about him.

  To her horror, he stood for a minute, hands on hips, his black eyes scouring the room. At one point, he actually glanced at her and Harry … then at the child, and now again at Harry.

  For a moment Kathleen held her breath, but then to her great relief, he turned away. It seemed he had not recognised either her or Harry – probably because Harry had his back to him. She was immensely grateful for that.

  Saunders might have left at that point, had it not been for Amy’s shrill voice, which carried the length of the showroom. ‘Harry! Have you a minute?’ He was so intent on questioning Kathleen, that she called him twice. ‘Harry!’

  That was when Phil Saunders’ entire body seemed to expand. Stretching himself to his full height, he looked at Amy, then he followed her gaze until his attention was brought first to Kathleen, and then to the man she was talking to.

  At first he wasn’t sure, but then he smiled. ‘My God! Harry Blake, of all people.’ The smile slid away as he followed Harry back to the counter.

  Because of the boy, Kathleen kept her distance for the moment; her lips muttering a prayer that commonsense would prevail and there would be no bitter confrontation.

  Aware that Judy had come back inside, she waved her over. ‘Don’t interfere,’ she warned. ‘Let them talk. There are things they need to get off their chest and I suppose now is as good a time as any.’

  Judy was paranoid. ‘You don’t know what he’s like. Phil has been known to carry a knife, and he’s not afraid to use it!’

  When she made to run forward, Kathleen held her back. ‘Harry is no fool,’ she informed Judy. ‘Sure, he’s been through the war and is well able to take care of himself.’ Though right now, she too was afraid of the outcome between these two old rivals.

  Harry recognised Phil instantly; the same shock of hair, the same piercing, hostile gaze, and the swagger that identified him now, as it did then. Arrogant as ever, Phil Saunders had not changed over the years.

  Thrusting himself between Harry and Amy, Saunders addressed Harry in a hard voice. ‘Well, well! I never thought to see you again, not after you ran off with your tail between your legs.’

  Realising that the other man was merely goading him, Harry asked, ‘What d’you want, Saunders?’

  Phil stared at him, his face twisted with loathing. ‘I think you and me had best have a little word. Just so there won’t be any misunderstandings.’

  ‘I’ve got no wish to talk with you,’ Harry informed him coldly. ‘I think you’d better go.’

  Saunders persisted. ‘We can talk here, or we can talk in private. I don’t much care one way or the other.’

  ‘I don’t think you heard me right. I said, I think you had better go.’

  ‘Make me!’

  Surprised by Phil Saunders’ sudden arrival, Harry suspected that for obvious reasons, Kathleen had deliberately misled him, and that the woman he had seen really was Judy.

  He now glanced at Kathleen and, sensing real trouble, he made a subtle, sideways gesture with his head. Kathleen nodded. Taking Judy and Tom along she left the store.

  Satisfied, Harry returned his attention to Saunders. ‘The same old Phil – ready to fight the world,’ he said. ‘Go on, then. Say what you’ve come to say, then get out.’ Most of the customers had come and gone, and though there was a couple still browsing, they were far enough away not to hear the heated exchange between Harry and Saunders.

  Addressing Amy, Harry asked, ‘Amy, I wonder if you could please see to the customers?’

  ‘Sure.’ Aware of the tension, she did not need asking twice.

  ‘Huh. Quite the big boss-man, aren’t we, eh?’ When Saunders prodded his finger into Harry’s chest, Harry caught hold of his hand and gripped it so tight that Saunders could neither open his fist nor escape the other man’s iron-fast grip. ‘Bastard! Let go … damn you!’

  Harry had something to say first. ‘It seems to me there are things on your mind that you want to share. Things from the past, maybe?’

  ‘How right you are, Blake.’ Pulling hard to release his hand from Harry’s grip, Phil warned, ‘You’d best watch your back, because I’m on to you.’

  Harry shook his head. ‘Like I said … always ready to fight the world. Well, you listen to me, Saunders. I’m sure neither of us needs trouble, so unless you intend being difficult, I suggest you say what’s on your mind. After that, you can make yourself scarce.’

  Releasing Saunders, he remained alert, knowing from old that this man was dangerously unpredictable. Many times in the past, he and Saunders had clashed, and each time the latter had backed off. But he was older now, and judging by his current mood, much more aggressive; he obviously had old scores to settle.

  Discreetly rubbing the life back into his numbed hand, Saunders launched straight into the attack. ‘I want to know what’s going on here!’ he demanded. ‘And don’t try telling me there’s nothing because I know damned well there is. Why else was Judy so insistent on coming here, pretending to want a new sofa, and not being too keen on having me along?’

  Harry shrugged. ‘It seems to me you’ll have to answer that one yourself.’

  ‘She knew you were here, that’s why. You forget, Blake, I’m nobody’s fool. Admit it … you and she are up to something!’

  ‘You always were a distrustful devil.’ When it now seemed that Saunders was about to argue, Harry pre-empted him. ‘For your information, I have not spoken to Judy since the day I left, and you know how many years ago that is.’

  He gave a quiet smile. ‘So! You actually believe that Judy would cheat on you, do you? That sounds to me like you’re not too sure of your woman. You and Judy are together, so she obviously loves you. Or does she?’

  Incensed by Harry’s cynical remarks, Saunders took a step forward, his manic eyes boring into Harry’s face. ‘As far as me and Judy are concerned, you are history! You’re no threat to me or my marriage, and I don’t know why I ever imagined you could be.’

  Suppressing the instinct to knock him off his feet, Harry would not be drawn. ‘Right, is that it then?’

  Enraged by Harry’s controlled manner, Saunders thrust his face close. ‘You lost! D’you hear me, Blake? You lost! Judy is mine now! She is my wife, and she loves me, and remember this: I’ll kill any man who tries to take her from me.’ He paused, staring at Harry,

  Harry got his message all right. ‘The trouble with you, Saunders,’ he pointed out, ‘is that you can’t let go of the past. You can’t believe that Judy chose me over you, and it still riles you to think about it.’

  ‘Oh, you’d like to think so, wouldn’t you, eh?’ Raring to fight but cautioned by Harry’s strong build and that quiet controlled manner, Saunders was so fired up, he appeared to be hopping on the spot. ‘You’re wrong, Blake, and you know it. Look how your ridiculous little fling came to nothing in the end. Judy didn’t want you … she wanted me. ME – PHIL SAUNDERS! A better man than you will ever be. I would never desert her, but you did. And that’s just fine by me, ’cause your loss was my gain, so to speak.’

  Saunders continued to gloat. ‘I expect you’re sorry now though.’ He attacked Harry where it hurt most. ‘It’s plain to me that you obviously don’t understand women. They’re a strange breed. Where we men can use ’em and chuck ’em and not think twice about it, a woman is different. She has feelings for a man; deep, strong feelings that make her want to be with him night and day.’

  ‘Is that so?’ Harry was determined not to let the other man see how he was beginning to rile him.

  ‘Well, you wouldn’t know, would you?’ Saunders believed he now had the upper hand. ‘I do, because I know how Judy feels about me. So there it is.’ He shrugged his shoulders. ‘Either a woman has feelings for you, or she doesn’t, and Judy decided I was the one she wanted. Unfortunately, where you w
ere concerned, Judy never really had any feelings at all.’

  He gave a hideous grin. ‘After all, with you gone, she didn’t waste much time before she picked up with me.’

  Harry let that bitter comment wash over him. Aware that Amy was returning, he addressed Saunders in a calm and quiet manner. ‘You’ve had your say. Now get out.’

  As he turned away, Saunders grabbed him by the arm. ‘I’m not done yet, matey.’

  Harry looked at Saunders, then glanced at the heavy hand across his arm. ‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you,’ he said meaningfully.

  Seeing a certain gleam in Harry’s eye, Saunders swiftly moved away. ‘You listen to me, Blake, and listen good,’ he growled. ‘If I find out you’ve been anywhere near my wife, I swear I’ll have you good and proper. You won’t know where or when, but I’ll be there, and I will have you.’

  Harry stared him out. ‘I hear you, Saunders,’ he acknowledged. ‘So now that you’ve got that off your chest, you can make yourself scarce, either under your own steam, or with a bit of help. Which way will it be?’

  The other man stood for a moment, his face contorted with rage and his fists tight by his side. He wanted Harry dead and buried. He wanted him off the scene altogether. But there was time enough, he thought cunningly. Time, and opportunity enough.

  For now, Phil Saunders had one more card up his sleeve.

  Lowering his voice almost to a whisper, he confided in Harry, ‘Don’t think I don’t know the real reason why you ran out on her. Judy told me. She tells me everything. That’s why she’ll tell me what’s been going on between the two of you.’

  He giggled like a maniac. ‘Oh yes, she’ll tell me all right, don’t you worry about that.’

  With his last, sly comment, Saunders turned round and hurried away before Harry could question him further.

  Saunders thought he had been very clever. Tell a man you know his secret and he’ll worry that you really do know something! he thought triumphantly and congratulated himself on having the last laugh over his old enemy.

  Cut to the heart, Harry watched him go, all manner of questions racing through his shattered mind.

  Did Judy actually tell Phil that Harry left because she had deceived him and was with child and that regardless of his love for her, their relationship was irretrievably damaged by that deception?

  If Judy had confided all that, had she also told him about the abortion? And if he knew that, why hadn’t Saunders made more of it? Why had he let it go so easily, when he could have goaded Harry far more viciously than he had done so far?

  Harry suspected Saunders was merely fishing with his throwaway comment. Or was he holding back, to keep the information for another time?

  In spite of his misgivings, and because the alternative was too awful to consider, Harry made himself believe that Judy would never have told Saunders what had really happened between the two of them.

  ‘Sick in the head,’ he concluded. ‘That’s what he is.’

  Outside in the car, Judy saw her husband striding towards her, and her heart sank; she prepared herself for the worst.

  When he climbed into the car she was astonished to see that he was actually grinning to himself. ‘That’s unsettled him,’ he boasted. ‘That’s got him wondering what I know that he doesn’t.’

  In the blink of an eye his mood changed and the darkness was on him again. Turning slowly, he looked at Judy, his eyes boring into hers. ‘So, my pretty.’ His voice had that meanness she had come to fear. ‘What have you been up to?’

  Judy shook her head. ‘Nothing. Why do you say that?’

  ‘You and Blake,’ he said. ‘The two of you laughing at me behind my back.’

  ‘NO!’

  ‘That’s why you wanted to come here. That’s why you didn’t want me along, because you’ve been meeting up. He’s had you, hasn’t he?’

  ‘NO! I would never do that.’

  ‘Why not? You did it before. When I offered you everything, you chose him.’

  ‘That was a long time ago, Phil, but I chose you in the end. I said yes when you asked me to marry you. That should tell you something, shouldn’t it?’

  ‘All it tells me is that you only latched onto me, because he deserted you.’

  ‘No, Phil! It was more than two years after he’d gone. I was over him,’ she lied. ‘I wanted you. When you asked me to marry you, I was thrilled, you know that.’

  For a long, unsettling moment, he stared at her, then in a kind of whisper, he demanded to know, ‘There’s something that still puzzles me.’

  ‘What is it?’ She was grateful that he seemed more curious than angry.

  ‘Why did Blake leave you, and in such a hurry? One minute he was here, and the next he was gone – and nobody knew where.’

  When she hesitated, he asked again, in a harsher voice, ‘Well? Cat got your tongue?’

  Made nervous by his persistent questioning, Judy answered, ‘He went to join up. What’s so strange about that? He left because … well, because I told him I didn’t want him; that I didn’t love him any more.’ The last thing she wanted was for Phil to know the truth; that she had been pregnant, and the reason Harry left was because she had deceived him – not because she wanted to, but because she could see no other way.

  ‘You might as well know. I’ve been doing my sums,’ he revealed.

  ‘Doing your sums?’ She never knew what he would say or do next.

  He rounded on her. ‘Don’t come the innocent with me! Do you think I’m stupid? As far as I can make out, you were still only fourteen when you and Blake were together.’ He looked at her in a way that really unnerved her. ‘Why did you let everybody think you were sixteen?’

  Judy went on the defensive. ‘No reason.’

  ‘So, if you and he were at it, Blake broke the law. He should be in jail.’ And he would be the one to turn him in, he thought.

  Judy’s stomach turned. She knew without a doubt that her husband would go to the authorities. It would suit him down to the ground to get Harry put away. ‘We were not “at it” as you say.’

  ‘Am I supposed to believe that?’

  ‘Of course. It wasn’t that kind of relationship. I was just a kid. We were just going out together, that’s all.’

  ‘So, are you saying I was the first?’

  ‘Yes, because you were.’

  He paused, biting his lip, deep in thought. ‘I never really gave it a thought until now. Maybe I should have.’

  Judy’s mind was spinning. ‘Think about it, Phil,’ she suggested. ‘You know how that first time with you was very difficult. Remember how painful it was for me.’

  He paused again. ‘There was a drop of blood on the carpet, I remember that.’ He peeked at her out of the corner of his eye. ‘So he never touched you in that way?’

  ‘No! I just told you.’ Because of the circumstances, she had deceived Phil, and he was conceited enough to believe he was the first, but he was not. As far as she was concerned, Harry was still her one true love to this day.

  The only reason she had agreed to marry Phil was to hide many dark truths, and to feel safe so she would never be hurt again.

  Because of that, she had held out on Phil right up until the wedding night, when he had been so hungry for her, he took her right there on the bedroom carpet.

  Taken unawares as she came out of the bathroom, she had instinctively resisted his vicious attack. That was the reason for the blood. That was when she realised what a terrible mistake she had made.

  That was when the past came flooding back with all its horrors.

  Her present ordeal was not yet over, for now he had started the engine and was roaring away, demanding over and over, ‘You’d best tell me what you and Blake have been up to – and don’t give me no lies! Not if you know what’s good for you.’

  He was relentless. ‘I’ll deal with you first. Blake will keep, for now.’

  He sounded so calm, but Judy knew from experience, that this was when he was a
t his most dangerous. Over the years she had learned to read his moods, and right now, he was more crazy than she had ever seen him.

  Inside the store, Mr Jacobs had emerged from his office, in time to hear the last exchange between Saunders and Harry.

  ‘Is there some kind of issue between you and that man?’ he asked sternly.

  Harry confirmed. ‘There was – years ago.’

  ‘And now?’

  Harry looked at him, but said nothing.

  ‘I see.’ Jacobs was not best pleased. ‘I will not tolerate trouble in my store. If you and that man have a grudge, you must keep it outside these walls. If you don’t, then I shall simply have to let you go.’

  Harry nodded. ‘I understand.’

  ‘So tell me, Harry – do I need to be worried?’

  ‘No,’ Harry assured him. ‘You have no need to worry.’

  ‘Good!’ Crossing to Amy, Jacobs asked her to bring him the sales figures and a mug of strong coffee.

  Compiling the figures for the day’s sales, Amy took the paperwork up to the office, where Bernie Jacobs spread them out on his desk. ‘So what do you think then, Amy? Did we do well today?’

  ‘It’s been really busy,’ she replied. ‘Best sale yet, if you ask me.’

  ‘Thank you. Oh, and would you remind the salesmen about the office meeting … eight-thirty tomorrow? I know I’m bringing them in early for a Sunday, but I want them all here on time, raring to go, and full of ideas for the Christmas promotion.’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘That’s all for now, Amy.’ He looked up at the wall clock. ‘It’s almost five o’clock. Tell the others it’s time to lock up. Then they can go. I’ll see them in the morning, eight-thirty sharp.’

  Amy delivered his instructions.

  Half an hour later, after the monies were counted, bagged and duly delivered to the safe in Jacobs’ office, the salesmen left one after the other, until only Harry remained, leaning on the counter, his thoughts miles away – on Judy, and the thug she had married.