The Pawnbroker's Niece

by June Francis

  She used most of the money she had left to buy a meal of eggs and chips and they spent the night in a shelter in the park. Rita lay on a bench curled up against Sam’s back. She pictured her mother welcoming her with open arms. She refused to think what she would do if that did not happen. She thought of Billy, pretending it was him she was nestling up against. If only he could love her. She would marry him and they’d live happily ever after.

  She sighed, wondering whether her aunt was worrying about her and if Margaret had thought of getting in touch with Eve. How was her aunt managing without her? Rita felt an unexpected longing to be back in the shop, talking to the customers, sleeping in her comfortable bed, eating good food and chatting about the day’s happening with her aunt. She had been good to her in so many ways but shouldn’t have said those hurtful things about her being like her mother and wanting to have her cake and eat it. Eve and Will! Her aunt had said something about his getting her pregnant!

  Rita wriggled, her thoughts uncomfortable. Sam murmured in his sleep. She put her arm around him to prevent him falling off the bench. She must have misheard her aunt. Surely Mr Brodie and her mother couldn’t have had an affair? Yet it would explain why Eve had run away and never got in touch with her sister again. What if Billy was the result of an affair between them…he would be her half-brother! And that meant that even if there was the remotest chance of Ellen and Billy falling out, she still wouldn’t be able to marry him. She moaned, hating her mother at that moment, and asking herself what the hell she was doing making such an effort, suffering in the process, just to see her. She must be as crazy as Jimmy!

  Chapter Fourteen

  Tiger Bay was an area east of the River Taff and as Rita stood with Sam on the quayside she could hear familiar sounds: the cry of the gulls, the hoot of a tug, and voices coming to her on the breeze from the docks and river. The only difference was that the accents were mainly Welsh, not Scouse.

  ‘So where will we start?’ said Sam, tucking his thumbs into his belt and turning away from the river to gaze across the road to the streets that ran off it.

  Rita’s eyes followed his. ‘Why not over there?’

  He nodded. ‘Is yer mam married to this negro?’

  ‘Yes! But I’ve forgotten what her married name is.’

  He chuckled. ‘Yer completely crackers coming this far without knowing that. We’re gonna have our work cut out finding her. It could take days.’

  ‘Let’s look on the bright side, Sam; we could find her today.’ Her voice was light despite the heaviness in her chest. She had come this far to get the truth from her mother and wasn’t about to give up on finding her just yet.

  They began their search, going up and down streets, knocking on doors of likely-looking places, or going inside in some cases where it was obvious the building was a guest house due to a sign in the window. They met with no luck. Several times they were told to beat it as soon as they opened their mouths and on more than one occasion they couldn’t understand what the person was saying because they spoke Welsh or heavily accented English.

  Then they had a bit of luck. A woman suggested they make enquiries at the corner shops or the post office. Rita had begun to feel desperate and was grateful for the suggestion. Sam said they should have a break first. ‘I don’t know about you but I’m hungry. Have you any money left?’ They were standing outside a sweet shop.

  Rita did not need to look to know that she had exactly tuppence. ‘How about some pear drops? They’ll last and stave off the hunger pangs.’

  ‘They’ll give us energy as well,’ said Sam.

  They went inside the shop and a small, smiling woman served them. On the way out Rita thought to ask about her mother. After all, Eve had a child, and sweet shops were popular places for mothers with children.

  The woman told them that lots of white women with half-caste children came into her shop. ‘I can’t give you names, lovey. But why don’t you try the preacher’s house? Lots of them go to chapel.’

  Not my mother, thought Rita, but decided there was no harm in trying. They asked directions and, sucking a pear drop apiece, followed the woman’s instructions to the letter. Soon they were being shown into a room filled with shabby old-fashioned furniture. A white-haired man came into the room a few minutes later and they explained to him why they were there.

  ‘Well, well,’ he said in a deep musical voice. ‘I’ve only met your mother a few times if it’s the right woman I’m thinking about. She plays the accordion and is from Liverpool.’

  Rita nodded, excited. Eve must be doing well if she had managed to buy another squeeze box and was setting foot in church.

  ‘High days and holidays, that’s the only time we see her, but when Caleb’s home from sea he worships here. He comes with his sister and they bring his son Joshua with them.’

  Rita was surprised to hear that her mother’s husband was sailing again. ‘I thought he’d given up the sea.’

  The preacher smiled. ‘All sailors give up the sea at sometime or other but for many the call remains too strong to resist.’

  ‘Yer have an address?’ asked Sam.

  The man shook his head. ‘I know where the house is and the name of the street but I can’t tell you the number. It does have a Rooms to Let notice in the window and…’ He looked thoughtful, then his eyes brightened and he snapped his fingers, ‘a wooden antelope in the fanlight.’

  Rita thanked him and they set off on what would hopefully prove to be the final leg of their journey. The days were short at this time of year and soon it would be dark. As it was they didn’t have to find the house to find Eve. As they walked up the street checking fanlights for antelopes, she heard her mother’s voice.

  Rita looked about her and there was Eve on the other side of the street arguing with another woman. Her mother’s deep husky voice was unmistakable and so was her blonde hair; she had a dusky-skinned toddler with corkscrew curls clinging to her hand.

  Rita was so relieved to have found her that she forgot about Sam, running across the road, calling, ‘Mam! Mam!’

  Sam hung back, suddenly feeling in the way.

  Eve turned and her expression was one of shocked disbelief. Instantly she put several yards between her and the other woman. ‘What are you doing here?’ she demanded crossly. Rita stopped in her tracks and angry tears filled her eyes. ‘Don’t look like that,’ groaned Eve. ‘You didn’t come when I asked you so why should I welcome you with open arms now?’

  ‘I didn’t come because Aunt Margaret burnt your letter before I could see it,’ she said fiercely. ‘Anyway, you have a nerve saying that to me after dumping me the way you did.’

  ‘I didn’t dump you. I left you for a reason. Why are you here? Is she dead?’

  ‘Of course not!’ Rita was shocked at the very idea of Margaret being dead. ‘We had an argument, so I left.’

  ‘What! Are you bloody stupid, Reet?’ Eve’s blue eyes widened and her pencilled eyebrows shot up. ‘Why d’you think I sent you to her?’

  ‘Two reasons,’ snapped Rita. ‘One, because you bloody wanted to get rid of me and two —’

  ‘Don’t swear!’

  ‘And two…you’re daft enough to think there might be money in it for both of us.’

  Eve smirked. ‘What’s so daft about that? Our Maggie’s unlikely to marry after all this time. Her money should come to us. I was Father’s daughter as much as she was.’ Eve gave a sharp nod of her platinum-blonde head and began to walk with that peculiar little wiggle she had of the hips, dragging her son behind her.

  Rita glanced down at him and his expression was one of resignation. She winked at him and he smiled shyly and attempted to bury his head in the skirts of his mother’s coat.

  Eve stopped abruptly, causing Joshua’s head to bump her leg. ‘What did you argue about?’

  Rita flushed. She had considered unburdening herself on her mother but had no intention of doing so now.

  ‘Answer me!’ Eve tapped the toe of her paten
t leather high heels on the pavement. ‘Well?’

  ‘Do we have to talk like this in the street?’ said Rita, trying to control her temper. ‘I’ve walked most of the way, sleeping rough. I’m hungry and would love a cup of tea.’ Suddenly she remembered Sam and glanced behind her but there was no sign of him.

  ‘Walked! You’ve no money?’ said Eve.

  Rita faced her mother. ‘No! I was angry and just ran way.’

  ‘You…are…a…fool,’ said Eve, stressing each word with a stab in the air of a scarlet-tipped finger. ‘You’d better go back immediately and make it up.’

  ‘Didn’t you hear a word I said, Mother? I…haven’t…any…money,’ said Rita slowly and distinctly. ‘You will have to give me some if you want me to go back to Liverpool.’

  Eve sighed exasperatedly. ‘Do you think I’m made of money?’

  ‘You can’t be doing too badly by the look of you. That coat hasn’t had much wear.’ Rita dropped her gaze. ‘And the shoes are really smart.’

  ‘Aren’t they just?’ said Eve, smiling. ‘Well, you can come in but you’re not stopping. I thought Caleb had run out on me when I wrote that letter asking you to come but he’d just gone back to sea without telling me. Couldn’t stand being on shore for long. His ship’s due in tomorrow.’

  Rita was hurt and baffled by her mother’s summary dismissal of her. ‘Why can’t I stay and meet him?’

  ‘Ask no questions and you get told no lies,’ said Eve, mounting a flight of steps. ‘All I’ll say is that you’ve improved since living with our Maggie, which is what I hoped, but I don’t want any competition.’

  ‘Competition! Me?’ Rita found it hard to believe her mother had said that.

  Eve took a key from her pocket and opened the door. She led her daughter through to a kitchen on the ground floor and lit a gas lamp protruding from a wall. ‘You can stay the night but no longer — and you’ll have to sleep in Josh’s room,’

  ‘He sleeps on his own?’

  Eve raised her eyebrows as she put on the kettle. ‘I can’t have him in my room. Every movement he makes disturbs me.’

  Rita realised what her mother was up to and was unable to conceal her disgust. ‘You mean you’re entertaining men while your husband’s away.’

  Eve pointed a finger at her. ‘You keep your thoughts to yourself. That’s why I can’t have you here when Caleb comes home. You have too much to say for yourself. Now, tell me what the argument with our Maggie was about.’

  ‘What’s the point?’ said Rita, her eyes smouldering. She sat sideways on a kitchen chair and rested her arm along the back. ‘You’re not really interested in me. If I were in trouble you wouldn’t help me. She’s done more for me than you ever did.’

  Eve looked unmoved by that comment. ‘Then why run away? If you’ve come all this way you must be desperate to get something off your chest. What set Maggie off? She used to have so much self-control when we were kids, it was unnerving.’ Taking a loaf from the bread crock she picked up a knife and cut several slices. Joshua reached up to take one and received a rap across the knuckles with the handle of the knife for his trouble. ‘Wait until you’re given.’ His bottom lip quivered.

  Rita rose from her chair. ‘D’you have to do that?’

  ‘Don’t interfere, Reet. You don’t know what it’s like until you have one.’ Rita blushed. ‘God, it’s not that, is it?’ cried Eve, dropping the bread knife. ‘You haven’t gone messing about with fellas and got yourself caught?’

  The colour ebbed from Rita’s face. ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘What d’you mean you don’t know?’ snapped Eve. ‘You either have or you haven’t!’

  Rita told her what had happened in the stables. Her mother listened without interruption. Then she asked her a few questions before saying, ‘I don’t know what you’re worrying about. I’d say he didn’t do enough to get you pregnant, but you can never tell.’ She poured boiling water into the teapot. ‘Who did you say the fella was?’

  ‘Jimmy! I don’t know his second name but his stepfather is William Brodie, who’s up to his eyes in debt to Aunt Margaret. She’s been threatening to have the bailiffs in for ages but there’s something between them that stops her.’

  Eve’s expression froze. ‘Well, who’d have believed they’d meet up again and our Maggie would be in a position to have her revenge on him. They were mad about each other once but then Alan came between them.’

  ‘You mean his brother?’

  ‘So she’s talked about them, has she? She couldn’t make up her mind which one she wanted and in the end she made a damn daft choice and let Will slip through her fingers.’

  ‘Aunt Margaret seems to think you were very close to him.’ Rita watched her mother’s eyes carefully.

  Eve’s pencilled brows drew together. ‘What’s that sister of mine been saying?’

  Rita took a deep breath. ‘That he got you pregnant.’

  Eve threw back her head and laughed. ‘She always was jealous as hell of me! But that’s plain daft! I’m not the sort he goes for.’ She handed a cup of tea to Rita. ‘Your father Harold was a very nice man. He was besotted with me. A steward on one of the liners, he died at sea of blood poisoning. My life and yours would have been very different if he hadn’t.’

  This information was a relief to Rita but she was also puzzled. ‘Then who was she talking about?’

  ‘Probably Bella, his wife. Although…’ Eve frowned.

  ‘Although what?’ asked Rita.

  Her mother shook her head. ‘I’m not sure. Anyway, if that’s what our Maggie thought, then no wonder things went wrong between them.’

  ‘You knew Billy’s mother?’

  ‘Of course.’ A cynical smile twisted Eve’s painted lips. ‘Now she always looked like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth but you know what they say — appearances can be deceptive.’

  So Bella was a sexpot, thought Rita. ‘Anything else you can tell me about when you were all young?’

  ‘Not really. I’m not one for living in the past.’ She paused to butter bread and gave half a round to Joshua. He sat on a low three-legged stool, chewing on the bread and staring at Rita from big brown eyes. ‘He’s the apple of Caleb’s eye, you know?’ said Eve.

  ‘I’m not surprised. He’s a sweetie.’ Rita smiled at her half-brother.

  ‘I can tell you something our Maggie doesn’t know,’ said Eve, waving the knife about. ‘I’d put it out of my mind until now. She was waiting to hear from Alan about joining him in China and Father didn’t want her to go. I was paying one of my rare sneaky visits trying to cadge money from him, and a letter arrived by the afternoon post. The envelope had foreign stamps and the address was in Alan’s handwriting. I commented about it to Father and he told me not to mention it to our Maggie and he’d give me some money.’

  ‘So you kept your mouth shut,’ said Rita slowly, unable to take her eyes from Eve’s face. ‘How could you?’

  Eve shrugged. ‘I needed the money. Besides, I didn’t want her to go. I knew I was right when the news came that Alan had gone missing during some riots and was presumed dead. If she’d gone out there she could have been killed alongside him. I saved her life.’

  ‘You would see it like that,’ said Rita, shaking her head. ‘I don’t think she’s ever forgotten him either. She’s led a really unhappy life.’

  ‘She hasn’t done so bad. She’s got the shop and all Father’s money.’ Eve pushed a plate of bread and butter across the table towards Rita and smiled. ‘William asked her to marry him after Bella’s death and she turned him down because she blamed him for his brother’s death. Just because he was out there at the time! Crazy, if you ask me. Anyway, you can tell our Maggie that she’s wrong about me and William — and I’ve got your birth certificate to prove it. Besides he did long trips and wasn’t around. It can be very frustrating being married to a sailor, I can tell you that much.’ She leant across the table. ‘Now, tell me all about you and our Maggie and how you got on before
this row that sent you flying down here?’

  Rita told her about working in the shop, about the McGintys and her aunt’s dream house. The information about the latter caused Eve to appear very thoughtful indeed.

  It was not until Rita was lying on a mattress in the tiny box room where Joshua slept that she thought of Sam again. Thoroughly ashamed of herself for forgetting him, she crept downstairs and eased back the bolts on the front door. She gazed up and down the street but could not see him. Wondering where he was and feeling terribly guilty, she went slowly back upstairs.

  The following morning Rita stood outside the lodging house, peering about for a sign of Sam, wondering where he had slept last night and feeling sad that she might never see him again. She was resigned to having to leave the boarding house that day, but at least all her efforts to see her mother had not been wasted. She had met her half-brother and Eve had reassured her about the identity of her father. She had also given advice on how to get rid of an unwanted baby, which Rita prayed she would not have to use. She had also been told how to turn men on and off like electric light bulbs, and not to be put off by her experience with Jimmy. ‘Men can be beasts but there are good ones out there. Sex can be fun with the right lover. Otherwise, sweetie, I wouldn’t have been so good at it and made money,’ said Eve, more frank with her daughter than she had ever been. As it was, Rita did not want to think about sex at that moment.

  Eve came and stood beside her. ‘Well, it’s been nice seeing you but you’re better off with our Maggie.’

  Rita turned to her. ‘In that case, Mam, as I told you, I’ve got no money so you’re going to have to sub me. I can’t walk all the way back to Liverpool. I need enough for a train ticket and something to eat.’ She held out her hand.

  Eve sighed and opened her purse. ‘I was waiting for you to ask me for money.’ She offered a ten-shilling note.