Faith - Lesley Pearse [83]
Meggie could see for herself what an awful predicament her sister was in. She had told lies about herself at school too, for much the same reasons. Like Laura, she wished more than anything that she was someone else.
Meggie poured out how much she hated her job at the baker’s, hearing their mother go on and on about Vince, his other woman, and how they might end up destitute, yet Laura made her see that there was a light at the end of the tunnel.
‘I can’t have you here while Jackie’s around, but there are lots of things I can do to make your life better,’ she said. ‘I can help you to get a better job, get you special cream to make your spots go, and help you choose clothes that make you look nice. You’ll lose that weight if you feel better inside about yourself, and maybe then you could get a flat of your own, so I can come and see you there. You don’t owe anything to Mum, but you do to yourself. Vince is gone now, no one is going to do those horrible things to you again, and I’ll be around to help you.’
‘So that’s how it was, Stuart,’ Meggie said when she’d finished explaining. ‘We made a kind of pact. I wouldn’t turn up uninvited, and if we ran into anyone she knew when we were together, she’d say I was her cousin.
‘I wasn’t happy about it, it felt like I was something shameful, but later I got a buzz out of our secret meetings. We used to meet on Saturdays whenever she wasn’t working. We’d go shopping and have some lunch, and she used to buy me clothes and bits of makeup, and she taught me stuff about getting on in London, speaking better, even about boys. I actually think it was better for me that way than having to share her with other people. I got the very best of her, she gave me confidence, ambition and so much love.’
‘How long did this go on for?’ Stuart asked incredulously. He couldn’t imagine how Laura had managed to keep it from Jackie when they were so close.
‘Right up till she went to Scotland and met you,’ Meggie said, and smiled at the surprise on his face. ‘Of course it wasn’t all sisterly love, sometimes I’d be really nasty to her when I felt low. But Laura was like a rock, she kept on phoning and arranging meetings regardless.’
‘Did you stay living in Barnes?’
Meggie shook her head. ‘Heavens no! I left even before the house was sold!’
‘What happened there?’
‘The court decided that Vince’s sons should get his business, and the other assets were to be divided three ways between them and June. She got several thousand pounds.’
‘So she didn’t have to go back to live in a hovel?’
‘If she’d listened to Laura’s advice she could have been on easy street for the rest of her life – she had more than enough to buy a little house of her own. And her widow’s pension. But being Mum, she wouldn’t listen. She farted around in one rented place, then another, and frittered the money away. I already had a room of my own in Islington, and when Ivy was fifteen she came to live with me. Freddy joined the Navy as soon as he left school. We didn’t exactly cut ourselves off from Mum, but we distanced ourselves. None of us could stand her constant moaning, her slutty ways. And there were always new men coming into her life, so we let her get on with it.’
‘And you did very well for yourself to end up owning a lovely house like this one,’ Stuart said. What work do you do?’
‘I buy and sell properties,’ she said with a degree of pride. ‘I might never have met Jackie, but I guess Laura told me enough about her to inspire me. Ivy’s in it with me too. She’s happily married now with two sons and she lives in Bromley, but we have a little office upstairs and she comes over two days a week and deals with the paperwork and the books. I do the buying, selling and organize any renovations.