Faith - Lesley Pearse [97]
It hadn’t actually occurred to her that Meggie had her own demons, but then she was so wrapped up in her own misery that she didn’t think to cast her mind back and consider what might have lain beneath her sister’s withdrawal from her.
It was all there in the letter, a confession about her prostitution.
The saddest thing to Laura was that she had known all along, and she could have saved Meggie so much anguish by admitting it.
When Meggie told her all those years ago that she was the assistant manager of a night club, she had been suspicious because her sister was so young. She went to the club one evening and met the real assistant manager, a man in his fifties. She also saw what else went on there. Young, pretty women calling themselves hostesses were in reality just whores looking to pick up a client. The club made their money from overpriced drinks and got a percentage from the girls’ takings.
Had Meggie only just started it, Laura would have reacted differently, but by then Meggie had been doing it for six months or even more, and it wasn’t as if she was doing it for herself. She took care of Ivy, got her through secretarial school, and made a real home for her, all when she was so young herself.
Laura weighed up all the pros and cons and decided to ignore it. She didn’t feel she could take the moral high ground, not when she had supplemented her own income by shoplifting for years.
How else could Meggie have bought that little house in Islington? Laura was only able to give her the deposit, and the repayments would have been impossible to meet on a shop or office worker’s salary. She watched as Meggie turned into a ball of fire to do that place up; it meant everything to her. And so what if the money came from selling herself? Her motive was of the very best, creating a decent home for her younger sister.
The important thing was that Meggie stopped the moment she was able to. She didn’t languish feeling sorry for herself, she just got out there, sold that house and bought two more just like it. Laura could remember her knocking old plaster off walls, digging up the gardens, painting, papering, and tiling the bathrooms. She even went to night school to learn basic building work and had her nose in DIY books night after night.
Laura was proud of both her sisters for using their limited talents and their gritty determination to make something of their lives. Yet Meggie had an extra special place in her heart, as she had been a rock, a confidante, and the one person she always knew she could turn to for support.
It shamed her to think how she had hidden her sisters away for all those years, and yet they had never been angry or bitter about it. They hadn’t been able to come to her wedding, parties, or visit her in hospital when she had Barney. There’d been no holidays in Scotland with her, nor had they been able to come to Barney’s funeral. So many clandestine meetings, and phone conversations that were stilted because Greg, Jackie or Stuart was within earshot. She had to buy birthday cards and presents in secret, and anything they wanted to give her she had to pretend came from a mere friend.
Freddy had refused to be party to any of that. Laura had met him only once when he was home on leave from the Navy and staying with her sisters. He was seventeen then, a skinny lad with a severe haircut and a crop of acne, but a very adult manner.
‘If you aren’t honest enough to admit to your husband and friends that you have brothers and sisters, then I don’t want to know you,’ he’d said with undisguised scorn. ‘I understand why you lied in the first place. I’ve avoided talking about our parents and Mark and Paul too. But I wouldn’t pretend they don’t exist.’
He had never changed his mind. He would be thirty-eight now, married, and when she last spoke to Meggie back in ’93, he had three sons, and was living in Plymouth and still in the Navy. Meggie