Faith - Lesley Pearse [15]
She ran out of the Corner House then, ignoring her mother calling her back, and kept on running until she came to Regent Street, where she was too out of breath to run any further.
Leaning against a wall to catch her breath, she knew she’d said too much and that her mother was unlikely to forgive her. What’s more, she’d left her coat at the Corner House and the wind was icy. And she had no money to get on the tube, or even a key for the front door; that was in her coat pocket.
An hour later Laura arrived home. She’d got on the tube without a ticket easily enough, but when she got off at Goldhawk Road she had to spin a yarn to the ticket collector that she’d had her coat stolen, and ask if she could bring the fare along to him the next day. He let her off, but as she walked up the road shivering in her thin dress, she was really frightened about the reception she would get at home.
Meggie opened the front door to her. ‘Mum’s really angry with you,’ she whispered, her dark eyes wide with anxiety. ‘Uncle Vincent put us in a taxi to come home. He said you needed taking in hand.’
Laura gave her little sister a squeeze. Meggie was a worrier; at only seven she already had frown furrows in her little brow. She and Ivy were prettier than Laura had been; their hair was dark brown and very shiny, and their eyes were bigger. But Meggie’s worrying spoiled her looks – right now she looked like a little old lady.
‘I don’t care if I’m in trouble,’ Laura said loud enough for her mother to hear. ‘And that man isn’t your uncle, he’s just Mum’s fancy man.’
Her mother appeared in the doorway. ‘How could you be so nasty?’ she asked, her voice sharp with hurt. ‘Why can’t you be glad for me, and that you’ll all live in a nice warm, comfortable home? He’ll make a much better father to you all than Bill.’
‘Will he?’ Laura replied insolently. ‘He doesn’t want any of us, only you. How long will it be before he’s picking on Freddy, telling Ivy off for wetting her knickers, or getting angry with Meggie because she’s timid?’
‘He’ll grow to love you all once he’s got to know you. But he’ll be out at work all day so you won’t see much of him except at weekends.’
In a flash Laura saw that her mother wasn’t entirely convinced about Vincent. She could see it in her eyes, hear it in her voice. She loved his house, she loved what he could do for her, but she didn’t love him.
‘I think you’re making a mistake, Mum,’ Laura said. ‘Once we’re in his house, if anything goes wrong and he throws you out, where will you go then?’
‘Nothing will go wrong unless you mess it up for us,’ she replied. ‘He’s a good man, Laura. A kind and decent one with a bit of brass too. Don’t go looking for problems.’
Laura went on into the living room and flopped down on the bed. She remembered only too well how her dad used to moan about the noise his children made, so it was obvious a man who had never had any of his own would have no real idea of what it meant to have four readymade ones suddenly swarming round his house. She thought her mother must be stupid if she hadn’t thought about that.
Her mother followed her into the front room and stood there silently looking at her for a couple of minutes.
‘Can’t you try to like him?’ she said eventually, her voice quivering as if she was going to cry.
‘Can’t you just be his mistress and we carry on living here?’ Laura asked, thinking that was the perfect solution. ‘I could babysit on the nights you want to be with him.’
‘You silly mare,’ her mother exclaimed. ‘Don’t you understand that I want to get us all out of this rat trap? You’ve got no chance in life living here. I know you get called names at school because of the way we live and it makes me feel really bad. You’re clever, and I want you to go on to university and have all the chances I never had. This is the only way I can see you getting that.’
Laura was stunned that her mother had actually considered her future, and it made her feel ashamed of