More Than Riches

by More Than Riches (retail) (epub)

  As he went from the room she shouted after him, ‘It’s not for you to sort out.’ When he ignored her and ran up the stairs, she sensed trouble brewing and wanted the boy out of the way. Taking his coat, she went to the front room and quickly dressed him for outdoors. ‘Come on, Danny, let’s be off, eh?’

  ‘Why’s Daddy shouting?’

  What she said was, ‘He was just calling up to his mam.’ What she thought was: because he’s a bloody bully.

  ‘Can I put Grandad’s soldiers away?’

  Having always taught him to tidy up behind himself, Rosie could hardly argue now. ‘’Course you can, but hurry up, there’s a good fella.’

  There was an unholy row building in Martha’s bedroom. First she could be heard yelling, then came the murmur of Ned’s controlled voice, then the sound of Doug’s above it all. ‘Don’t listen to him, Mam. I caught them talking about it… THE BUGGERS WANT TO PUT YOU IN A HOME!’

  One minute Rosie was tempted to intervene, and the next minute she couldn’t get away from that house quickly enough. Dropping to her knees she helped the boy put away the soldiers, and soon the two of them were outside and going down the street at a run. ‘If we hurry, we’ll just catch the five o’clock tram,’ Rosie said breathlessly.

  The boy giggled and she was relieved that he thought it was all a game.

  On the tram he fell asleep, and she lapsed into thought. She imagined the row still to be raging, and wondered whether she had done a cowardly thing in running away. But then she had the boy to think about and it was unhealthy for him to witness the scene that she believed was now taking place in that sad house. Moreover, even if she had stayed, she knew from experience it would have made no difference. Martha would still shout, and Ned would still try to reason with her. Doug would still come between them like he had always done, and in the end the outcome would be the same. And she dared not think too much about that!

  She cared for neither Doug or his mother, but she felt deeply concerned for Ned. When she had first arrived that morning, it was plain to Rosie that here was a man in the depths of despair. She hoped he would stand his ground against his wife and son. She believed he would. ‘Ned’s made of strong stuff,’ she told herself in a whisper. ‘He’ll manage.’

  But he was only flesh and blood, a man who, after giving his all and being scorned for it, had come to the end of his tether. Even while Rosie thought of him, he was losing ground between these two selfish creatures who cared only for themselves. ‘Doug heard wrong,’ he argued, red in the face from trying to explain. ‘As God’s my judge, I wasn’t planning to put you away. All I said to Rosie was that you really ought to be in a hospital where they could look after you properly.’

  Martha would have none of it. ‘You’re a liar!’ she told him, ‘Do you think I’d believe you before my own son?’

  Ned sighed. ‘No, Martha,’ he admitted, ‘I don’t believe that for one minute.’ He glanced sideways at Doug, who was standing at the head of his mother’s bed, one arm draped round her shoulders and a look of cunning on his face. ‘You’ve always believed him before me, so why should it be any different now?’ He was beaten and knew it. It showed on his face, and in the stoop of his broad shoulders. ‘I think Doug should go now. It’s better if you and I talk this thing through, Martha. There’s only the two of us can find a solution.’

  She stiffened. Clinging to Doug’s hand, she declared in a resounding voice, ‘He’s not going anywhere.’

  Ned stared from one to the other. His heart was weary, and he had no more stomach for these awful set-tos. But he was still master of his own domain and felt the need to remind them of that. ‘This is my house, and I don’t want him here. In fact, it wouldn’t bother me if I never saw him again after what he’s done.’ He saw Doug’s face and knew the taunt had hit home. ‘I reckon it might be a good idea if he goes before I say too much I might regret.’ He was alluding to the money which Doug had robbed from him.

  Martha caught the look that passed between them, and her curiosity was aroused. Looking first at Doug she saw that he had turned a shade paler, and she was instinctively suspicious. All the same she refused to accept that he could have done anything really wrong, so when she addressed Ned, it was angrily. ‘Stop bloody well insinuating, you old fool! If you’ve summat to say to our Doug, get on with it.’

  Tired of always being the one in the wrong, Ned answered, ‘When will you come to see that you’ve a liar for a son? I’m telling you the truth, Martha. I wasn’t planning to put you away, like he says. Your precious son is out to cause trouble, and he doesn’t care if you get hurt in the process.’

  ‘Why would he want to cause trouble?’

  ‘Because he’s never forgiven me for sacking him.’ There! It was said. That would give her something to think about.

  Martha couldn’t believe her ears. ‘What! You sacked your own son?’ If she could have got from the bed, she would have thrown herself at him. ‘You’ve gone bloody mad!’

  ‘I was mad to trust him in the first place.’

  ‘What are you getting at? Why did you sack him? I want to know.’

  Doug was frantic. ‘Whatever he tells you, Mam, don’t believe him. He had it in for me because I turned up late once or twice. Honest to God, I didn’t do nothing to deserve the sack!’

  ‘You can believe him if you like, Martha, but it’s time you knew what kind of man your son is.’ Now that it was all coming out, Ned had no intention of keeping anything back. If he could get her to see the truth, it might be just the shock she needed to make her mend her ways. ‘While I’ve been breaking my back to earn the money needed to keep you comfortable, he’s been robbing me behind my back… collecting money and short-changing me. Money that should have gone on you, but went instead on booze and women.’

  ‘Lying bastard!’ Doug launched himself through the air, sending Ned backwards when his fist crunched against his jaw.

  Horrified to see them fighting like two wild dogs, Martha screamed for them to: ‘STOP IT!’ But it was too late for that. There was too much anger, too many years of suppressed emotion.

  Doug fought with the brute strength that comes from a kind of madness, and Ned, though fit and able, was no longer a young man. When Martha saw her husband falter, she whipped Doug into such a frenzy that he soon overpowered the older man.

  When it was over, Doug kicked at the figure lying on the floor. ‘Get up,’ he snarled. ‘You ain’t half the big man now, are you?’ Ned gave no answer. Instead he got to his feet and stood up as straight as his painful bones would let him. Staring at Doug through bruised eyes, he said in a wonderfully calm voice, ‘No. It seems you’re the big man now.’ He wasn’t angry any more, nor was he filled with a lust for revenge. Instead, he was strangely elated, as though he had been released from his burden.

  Doug burst out laughing, giggling insanely as he snatched a glance at his mother’s smiling face. ‘I gave him a bloody good beating, didn’t I, Mam?’ He was like a child hoping for a reward.

  It was Ned who answered. ‘I’m only sorry I didn’t give you a similar beating when you were younger. Happen then you might have turned out to be a son I could have been proud of.’

  ‘That’s enough,’ Martha ordered. ‘I want you to take him back. It’s only right that father and son should work together. And if he did help himself to a bit of money, it doesn’t really matter. There’ll come a day when he’ll inherit the business anyway.’ She smiled encouragingly at Doug and he smiled back, but their smiles fell away when Ned spoke in his new dignified voice.

  ‘He can’t inherit what isn’t mine.’ Delighted by their astonishment he went on, ‘I sold the business some while back, soon after I discovered there was money missing. What with all the expenses and business being quiet, I had no choice. So you see, there’s nothing to inherit.’

  Doug stared at him with disbelief, and Martha was trembling. ‘Who did you sell it to? she hissed.

  There was a world of regret in Ned’s voice, but st
rangely enough he was smiling as he went to the door. ‘Adam Roach,’ he said, and heard them gasp aloud. Before they could recover, he made a further statement. ‘I won’t be coming back again,’ he told them. Nothing else. Just that. And their shocked silence was immensely satisfying to him.

  Chapter Thirteen

  ‘God Almighty! Why didn’t you put a stop to it?’ Peggy was horrified to learn that Doug had moved his mother in with him and Rosie.

  ‘What could I do, Peggy?’ As they hurried across the road towards the park, Rosie held hard to the boy beside her. Daniel was a sturdy little fellow, with a ready smile but a quiet disposition. ‘Hurry up, sweetheart,’ she urged, always wary of crossing the road with him, though there was not much traffic because it was Sunday and most people were either in their beds or talking to the Lord in church. ‘My hands are tied and they both know it,’ she told Peggy now.

  ‘Is there nothing at all you can do, gal?’ Coming to the bench just inside the park, Peggy fell heavily on to a seat, her blue eyes watching Rosie’s every move as she took off the boy’s jacket and folded it over her arm. The July sun was beating down and his face was growing redder by the minute. When he asked if he could play in the sand, Rosie let him go, but warned him not to stray. After he’d toddled off to make sandcastles, Peggy resumed her questioning. ‘Have you talked to Doug about it… having his old woman there, I mean?’

  ‘’Course I have.’ Day and night, whenever he was sober enough to listen, she had gone over the same arguments that Peggy was raising now. ‘I’ve told him time and time again that it’s impossible for the four of us to live under the same roof.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘He doesn’t want to know. He just says I’m selfish, and that I should be glad it’s not me lying in bed and having to rely on other folks.’ Rosie had come to the end of her tether, but she couldn’t help wondering about what Doug had said. ‘The trouble is, he does manage to make me feel guilty because it’s true, isn’t it? Evil as she is, Martha must feel every bit as bad as me. After all, she can’t really want to live with me, hating me like she does.’ Peggy sat bolt upright, her blue eyes blazing. ‘What! She’s probably enjoying every minute of it… knowing how unhappy she’s making you. You’re just too kind-hearted, that’s the problem, and the pair of ’em are taking advantage.’

  Rosie knew it. She also knew that the situation was an impossible one, and that there was no easy solution. Leaning back on the hard bench, she let her eyes rove over the colourful flowerbeds. At home there was an atmosphere you could cut with a knife, while here in this lovely place there was a sense of peace and her heart felt at ease. ‘I’ve thought and thought about what to do, but I can’t see a way out and that’s the truth.’ Her sad brown eyes gazed at Peggy, and not for the first time she envied her friend’s independence.

  ‘You could leave.’ Peggy voiced the same possibility that had lately crossed Rosie’s mind. ‘If you like, I’ll help you to find a place of your own?’

  She answered with a sigh, ‘I’ve already been looking at rooms to let, and I can tell you, it’s a thankless task. These past weeks I’ve lived on the tram, going in every direction. Last week it was Darwen, the week before that it was Accrington, and the day before yesterday I walked the streets of Bolton.’

  Peggy sat forward, an expression of surprise on her face. ‘You little sod! You never told me that.’

  Rosie winked cheekily. ‘Makes a change for me to be one step ahead of you.’

  ‘So when are you moving out?’

  ‘I’m not.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘It’s the same old story, Peggy… no money to speak of, and a young child. I’d be struggling worse than I am now, and on top of that Doug’s already threatened that if I should try “taking my hook” as he puts it, he’d have Danny away from me.’

  ‘Happen he’d try! Knowing you, though, you’d fight him tooth and nail.’

  ‘Oh, I’d do that all right, but it’s a risk I’m not prepared to take.’ Rosie’s whole life revolved round her son. ‘Besides, I’ve thought the whole thing through, and I’ve decided I’m staying put. Not because of his threats to take the boy, and not because of his mam’s wickedness.’

  ‘I think you’re mad. If it was me, I’d be off in a minute.’

  ‘No, you wouldn’t, Peggy,’ Rosie answered softly. ‘Not if you think about it. At first I felt exactly the same. I was afraid and unhappy about the situation. I still am. But why should I leave? That little house is my home. I’ve loved it since the first day I walked through the door.’ Rosie’s brown eyes shone defiantly. ‘No, Peggy. I’m on to Martha’s nasty little plan. She thinks she can get me out, but she’ll be sadly disappointed because I’m staying!’

  Peggy’s smile said it all. ‘I should have known. If Martha wants a fight, she’s met her match in you, I reckon.’ In a softer voice, she went on, ‘Be careful though, gal. She’s a wicked old biddy and she’d stop at nothing to see you out on the street.’

  ‘Happen she’s forgotten I’m a fighter.’ When she’d got up that morning, Rosie had felt as though she was carrying the world on her shoulders. But now, in Peggy’s company, relaxing in this lovely old park, she felt stronger of heart. ‘So you reckon I’m right to stay put then?’

  Peggy nodded. ‘If it were me, I’d have cut and run the minute she came through that bloody door, gal. But I ain’t made o’ the same strong stuff as you, and yes, thinking about it, I reckon you’re right to stay. If you cleared off, the artful old sod would have won the day.’ She laughed out loud then. ‘Who knows? When she sees the other side of you, happen she’ll bugger off herself.’

  ‘Do you know what would be nice?’ Without waiting for an answer, Rosie went on, ‘If we really could live together. I mean, without all the rows and her dreadful temper. After all, she is my son’s grandmother.’

  ‘I thought you said she doesn’t have much to do with him now?’

  ‘Not since the accident.’ Rosie had always wondered about that. ‘Do you know, Peggy, she’s so deranged I sometimes think she suspects the boy to be Adam’s.’ The words came out without her meaning them to, and now she blushed to the roots of her hair. ‘I know it’s impossible, but why else would she turn on her only grandson?’ she finished lamely.

  Peggy was quick to notice Rosie’s frustration, and equally quick to put her at her ease again. ‘She’s turned on the lad because she’s an old cow, that’s why. And for no other reason.’ Following Rosie’s gaze to where Danny was playing, she suggested, ‘It’s such a glorious day, why don’t we walk back by way of Blakewater?’

  Rosie didn’t need asking twice. Having mentioned what had been in her heart these past weeks, she now wished the earth would open and swallow her up. Time and again, she had been tempted to contact Adam, but each time she cursed herself for such weakness. There was nothing to be gained from contacting him, and besides, there were other reasons why she hated herself for even having entertained the idea. She had cut him out of her life, and rightly so. The Adam she had known was not the same as the one who had snatched an old man’s living from under him. Ever since Doug had told her how Adam had schemed to price his father out of the market, she had felt like a traitor. It was obvious he wasn’t the same man she had known.

  But then, so much had happened. So many years had passed. He had changed, and so had she. Unwilling at first to accept Doug’s version of the story, she had spoken to some of Ned’s old cronies. But they had only borne out what Doug told her: how Adam Roach had bought him out, and it had broken his heart. The story was that Adam wanted Ned out altogether, but the older man had made it a term of the contract that he stay as an employee. Even now Rosie found it hard to believe that Adam could have done such a callous thing. Yet it was true, and like poor old Ned, she had to accept it. But in spite of all that, and even more to her shame, she still held a deal of affection for Adam. Strangely enough, Peggy touched on that very issue now.

  ‘It would have made it so much
easier.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘If the boy had been Adam’s son.’

  ‘He’s not, and you know that.’

  ‘I know. All the same, it’s a pity, because then Doug couldn’t really threaten to take him from you.’

  As long as I live and breathe, Doug will never take Danny from me.’ The dark and forbidding look in Rosie’s eyes momentarily subdued her companion.

  ‘Have you forgiven him?’ Peggy’s thoughts were running along the same lines as Rosie’s.

  ‘Who?’

  ‘You know who. Adam, that’s who. Have you forgiven him for taking away Doug’s inheritance?’

  ‘Doug lost the right to that a long time ago. Ned’s business was his own… built up over many years. I don’t believe he had any intention of leaving it to Doug. Oh, it might have been different years ago when Doug was a boy. But, thanks to Martha, whatever respect there once was between father and son long ago turned to indifference.’ There was bitterness in Rosie’s voice. ‘I’ve never heard Doug say one kind word about his father.’

  ‘It shocked me, I can tell you, when I heard about Adam Roach buying Ned out. I never believed he would part with his beloved wagon and trade. You know, gal, I reckon there’s more to all this than meets the eye. Ned wouldn’t have sold easily, I’m certain.’

  ‘I don’t suppose we’ll ever know what actually happened to make Ned sell. Apparently he was in financial trouble, and I’m not surprised at that. Happen he had no choice but to sell, and happen it was forced on him, I don’t know. But I do know this much. Ned taught Adam everything he knows, and all the thanks he got was to become Adam’s next takeover. It’s common knowledge how Adam Roach is fast becoming one of the county’s biggest coal-merchants.’