The Four Streets Saga

by Nadine Dorries

  ‘No, you don’t, but you do know my sister-in-law, Brigid.’

  ‘Brigid?’ Maura looked incredulous. ‘Brigid doesn’t live here any more. She moved back to Ireland months back.’

  ‘Yes, I know,’ the woman replied. ‘My mammy visited her yesterday.’

  ‘Your mammy?’ said Kathleen, joining in the conversation. ‘Mrs McGuire, would that be now?’

  ‘Yes, that’s right. I am Mary, her daughter. I live in America.’

  ‘Jesus, by all the saints, would that be ye, so? That means ye are the sister of Sean, who ran off with my son’s wife, Alice.’

  ‘I am that, yes,’ she replied wearily. ‘And it is their sin, not mine. I am not here to talk about them, Maura.’ The woman’s voice began to tremble as she looked down at the baby in her arms.

  The thought flashed through Maura’s mind that it was the sickliest baby she had ever seen.

  ‘This baby, Maura, is your grandson. I adopted him from the Abbey. He is the baby your daughter Kitty gave birth to. He is very ill and needs your help.’

  Maura could not speak, but as she looked towards the Green, her eyes searching for Tommy, she saw her once again, on the very spot where Maura had first laid eyes on her on the day of Bernadette’s funeral. Alice, standing on the corner of the street, tucking her hair back into her hat.

  Jerry had lifted Joseph out of his pushchair. The excitement of the children running around was all too much for him and he wanted to be on his feet, not pushed by his da.

  ‘Come here, little fella,’ said Jerry as he bent down to unclip his reins.

  Once on his feet, Joseph grasped the handle of the pushchair, which Jerry slowly propelled along, and toddled down the street.

  ‘Let’s visit Nana Kathleen on the cake stall, shall we, and see what treats she has for ye?’

  ‘Shall I look after Joseph, Jer?’ Little Paddy appeared out of nowhere.

  ‘Aye, go on then, Paddy,’ said Jerry, failing to hide the relief in his voice.

  He put his hand into his pocket. ‘And here’s a threepenny bit, Paddy. I’ll go and help Tommy now. You keep in my sight so I know where ye go. And buy yerself and Joseph a cake and play one of the games.’

  ‘Aye, I will, Jerry, thanks, Jerry.’

  Little Paddy tied to the pushchair handle the piece of string he used as a dog lead for Scamp and lifted Joseph into his arms. He half staggered as he wheeled the pushchair towards the cake stall. Scamp had become a local canine hero. It hadn’t taken many minutes before everyone on the four streets knew that Paddy’s little friend had found a murder weapon.

  ‘I was thinking of charging people to stroke Scamp,’ Little Paddy had confided to Harry, ‘but I changed me mind. I don’t want Scamp to get above himself. ’Tis magic, Harry, that the Echo took our photo with Scamp. Who would have known that us playing in the graveyard would lead Scamp to the mallet, to be sure it was a miracle, it was.’

  Little Paddy was delighted to have money in his hand. He had felt slightly detached from the fun, not having had a penny with which to join in, but that was Little Paddy’s life, always on the outside. Nothing in his life was quite enough.

  He wasn’t loved enough, fed enough or respected enough. The kids on the four streets sensed who was the weakest in the pack and it was always Little Paddy everyone made fun of. His only true friend had been Harry, until now. Little Paddy and Scamp were enjoying hero status for having found the murder weapon, which had elevated Little Paddy to a level of contentment he had never known existed before today.

  Harriet was aware that some of the children would have been excluded from the fun because they had no money, so she made sure much of the entertainment was free. However, she was also mindful of the fact that the aim of the fair was to raise funds for the new library.

  Jerry waved across at Tommy, who was red in the face from blowing his brass whistle, trying to impose some sort of order on the eighty children running around, demanding to know which race was next.

  Jerry ran over to help his mate and, as he did so, he noticed Harriet walking into the tea tent with one of the Rose Queen judges.

  ‘Well, if she wasn’t the priest’s sister, I would say that they was flirting outrageously now, wouldn’t you?’ he said to Tommy.

  ‘Jesus, I haven’t a fecking clue. Would ye stop that fight at the finishing line, Jerry? It was definitely Brian what won, will ye tell them for me.’

  Little Paddy, having struggled with Scamp and an objecting toddler, put his foot down and, with it, Joseph back into his pushchair. He was already salivating at the thought of buying one of the huge cheese scones that he had watched Maura pile high on a plate. Little Paddy had had only a slice of bread and dripping for breakfast and his stomach had begun to rumble the second Jerry had placed the money in his hand.

  ‘Let’s go and get some grub, eh?’ Little Paddy said to Joseph who had voiced no objection to being put back in his pushchair, now that he was being pulled along by Scamp. Little Paddy spun the pushchair round to head towards the cake stall, but his progression was halted suddenly in midflight.

  ‘Oh, Holy Jesus, Joseph, is that yer mammy?’

  It took Little Paddy only seconds to recognize the woman walking towards them. Her eyes were fixed on Joseph, and she appeared sadder than Little Paddy had ever seen her when she lived on the four streets.

  ‘Hello, Alice,’ said Little Paddy nervously. ‘Have ye come back?’

  Alice glanced around. She was safe; everyone was busy. With her plain headscarf pulled low over her forehead and tied under her chin, she looked very unlike the Alice who had left the four streets only months before.

  ‘I have, Paddy. I’ve come to collect Joseph. I’m taking him with me now.’

  At the sound of his mother’s voice, Joseph sat up in his pushchair and his bottom lip began to tremble. His mother had been absent for a large part of his very short life, but he knew her. He knew her features and her voice, and he put out his arms. He wanted to be close to her and feel her.

  But Little Paddy swung the pushchair round, away from Alice. Joseph strained against the reins, beginning to turn red in the face and working himself up into a scream as he attempted to scramble his way out.

  ‘Right, well, ye see, Alice, Jerry has paid me, like, threepence to look after Joseph, so I can’t let him go until I take him back to Jerry first.’

  ‘Don’t be silly, Paddy.’

  Alice spoke firmly but no louder than was necessary so as not to attract attention. The last thing she wanted was to alarm Little Paddy or her beloved son. The sight of him made her heart crunch in pain. She had been thousands of miles away, and here she now was, only six feet from him, yet the barrier between her and the child was just as if an ocean lay between them.

  ‘Don’t be silly, Paddy,’ Alice said again, her tone laced with tension. ‘I am his mammy and, look, he needs his mammy. He wants me to pick him up.

  ‘Shh, Joseph, Mummy’s here,’ she whispered, moving forward and bending down to unclip the reins.

  Little Paddy broke out in a sweat. He knew this wasn’t right; he couldn’t run off and leave Joseph but he had no idea how to stop Alice either.

  ‘Oh God, no, please don’t get me into trouble, Alice. Shall I shout for Jer to help ye?’

  Little Paddy looked around frantically. Jerry was down at the bottom of the green, organizing children to collect their prizes. Tommy had lined up a group of children for the next race. There were adults everywhere, but each was busy and distracted, and not one was looking his way. Music drifted over from the accordion, competing with the sound of children squealing and laughing.

  ‘Oh God, please, please help,’ Little Paddy whispered to himself, jumping up and down frantically. He shouted to Harry, standing on the side of the green, watching the games with Declan.

  Little Paddy knew Harry couldn’t join in the races and so he shouted louder, ‘Harry, Harry, over here!’

  But the noise drowned him out and Harry didn’t so much a
s turn round.

  Little Paddy looked at Alice.

  ‘Please, Alice,’ he begged, ‘I think Jer will be mad with me and ye know what my da’s like. Please, Alice, don’t take him until I fetch Jer.’

  Alice was struggling with the reins. When Little Paddy had fastened them and put Joseph back in his harness, he had accidentally crossed the leather straps. Alice paid no attention to Little Paddy. It was as if he weren’t there and she was in a world of her own, where only Joseph existed.

  ‘Oh, for goodness’ sake.’ Her voice was heavy with frustration. ‘I will just take the pushchair with me. Sit down, Joseph, Mummy is here now.’

  Joseph held out his hands. Alice leant forward and wrapped her arms round the son who had so obviously missed her. It tore her heart apart that he remembered her, that he loved her and wanted to be in her arms, that he did not pull away or condemn her for leaving him. Love was forgiveness and her baby son had needed no words. He had only his open arms. Alice knew she was forgiven. Leaning against the pushchair, she held him tightly, but he didn’t object. His crying subsided as hers began and her hot, salty tears ran onto his scalp, darkening his blond curls. Alice was not a woman known to cry, until today.

  Joseph, comforted, allowed Alice to stand as she held onto his hand. He grasped her fingers tightly. He was not about to let her go or leave his sight. As she stood, she pressed the pushchair handle down and spun it round, ready to head towards the Dock Road.

  Little Paddy had broken out into a sweat. He felt faint with fear and knew that, at any second, he would have to do something.

  ‘Alice.’ Little Paddy sounded stronger than he felt. ‘Please don’t take Joseph. I might have to do something drastic. The dog is tied to the pushchair. I might have to set him on to ye or sumthin’.’

  Alice seemed not to hear as she strode quickly away. Suddenly Little Paddy saw Jerry wave towards him and then break into a sprint. He heaved a huge sigh of relief.

  ‘Paddy, hold onto the baby,’ Jerry shouted as he ran, but Alice was already on her way down the road.

  Scamp now took exception to being separated from Little Paddy and, with one bound, he leapt up, bit Alice on the arm and lodged his teeth in her coat sleeve. Alice screamed. Joseph screamed. Little Paddy screamed. The air was filled with growling, snarling and screaming, and then as Joseph began to cry, Alice found her voice.

  ‘Get this dog off, Paddy, get him away,’ she yelled, as the dog’s yellow teeth refused to dislodge from the woollen cuff of her Macey’s coat.

  In a split second, Jerry had reached the pushchair and detached the dog, while Little Paddy untied his well-knotted string dog lead from the handles.

  ‘Thanks, Paddy, ye did a good job there. Take Joseph to Kathleen, please, will yer,’ said Jerry.

  Little Paddy felt sick with relief. ‘Aye, Jerry. D’ye want the threepence back?’

  Little Paddy held out the coin and was thankful that Jerry didn’t notice. He quickly popped it back into his trouser pocket and ran with the pushchair over to Kathleen, bumping into Harry on the way.

  ‘Jesus, Harry, Alice came back from nowhere. She just appeared like a ghost and scared the feckin’ shite outta me she did. She stared at me with her weird eyes and I swear to all that is holy, she was trying to turn me into stone and then when it didn’t work, she tried to kidnap Joseph and run away with himself sat in the pushchair. Scamp wasn’t having that and attacked her, hung from her arm with his teeth he did and bit her, and then Jerry came and paid me for looking after Joseph and saving him. I’m away to Nana Kathleen with Joseph now, so we can be safe in case she comes after us and tries it again.’

  Harry looked at Little Paddy gravely.

  ‘Paddy,’ he said, placing both hands on his hips, ‘you have to stop telling lies and making stuff up, or, I swear to God, you will get locked up one day.’

  Jerry held Alice by her arm and inspected the small puncture wound on her wrist. They could both hear Joseph crying for his mother as Little Paddy wheeled him away, and Jerry could see the pain in her eyes.

  ‘The dog hasn’t drawn blood, Alice, so ye will be fine. Have ye come back to steal my son?’

  Alice hesitated. Her answer should be yes. But she knew that if she said that out loud, it would be a lie. She had returned for so much more.

  She looked first at the man who had loved her without ever being loved back, then turning to the green and Joseph, saw the woman who had been a mother to her and who was now lifting Alice’s baby into her own arms to comfort him.

  Alice had discovered that it was nowhere near as difficult to leave behind a person as it was to leave behind an entire life. She hadn’t just left Jerry; she had unfastened herself from her own existence. It felt now as though each day in America had passed in a haze of unreality.

  Alice met Jerry’s eyes. She stalled. ‘How can you ask me that?’

  ‘Because I can’t believe, Alice, that even you would try to steal my own son away from under my very nose without so much as a by-your-leave. You did that when you walked away as my wife, but ye surely cannot think you can do it with my son?’

  She could see Maura standing by Kathleen’s side. Alice wanted to run over and tell her that she had loved Kitty and cared for her, and that her heart had broken for the first time ever when she had heard the news that Kitty was dead. That was why she had visited the abortionist on Kitty’s account. Because she had wanted to help, to find a solution. She had wanted to find a way out for Kitty, because she had cared.

  All around her, everything and everyone was familiar and safe and known to her. She was surrounded by the people who had helped her through her transition from that wretched woman she had once been, to a mother. And someone they regarded as one of their own. Although she had traded this life for a new one of opulence and opportunity, even Alice knew that no amount of money could buy the security she had here, with these people. She and they were bound forever by a secret, a deadly secret, one she would find hard to carry alone for the rest of her life, without them.

  Jerry knew Alice well enough to read her thoughts and know exactly what was flashing though her mind.

  ‘If you’ve not come to steal Joseph away, have ye come back to us then?’

  ‘I can’t. I’ve caused too much damage,’ she whispered.

  ‘If ye mean Sean and Brigid, he was always going to live in America and she never was. His leaving would have happened anyway.’

  ‘Would ye have me back?’ Alice looked at Jerry, but she dared not hope.

  The money and the big house, they were as nothing compared to the homely comfort of the two-up, two-downs on the four streets. And what she and Sean McGuire, the man she hadn’t really known and never would, had for each other was a sham compared with the love she had for her son, Joseph. It had taken another woman’s desperate fight to save the life of a child who wasn’t even her own flesh and blood to make her realize that.

  She held her breath as she waited for his reply, knowing that, if he said no, the torrent of tears now building up inside her, for the second time in her life, would overwhelm her.

  Jerry didn’t answer straightaway, despite the words being on the tip of his tongue. He could deal only with how he felt. The imaginary arguments and discussions with Alice that he had had in his head in the minutes before he fell asleep each night appeared to have temporarily deserted him. Even so, the fact that she had left with his own friend, one of his workmates, was surely beyond healing or repair. Would his other workmates and friends understand? Would the four streets forgive her? Amongst them again, would she become a living scandal? Would they all shun her?

  He made no reply as he let go of her arm.

  ‘Alice.’

  Jerry turned as he heard Maura’s voice. She was coming towards them with a smart woman whom Jerry had never seen before, carrying a baby.

  Alice looked at Maura. With tears rolling down her cheeks, she whispered, ‘I’m so sorry, Maura.’

  Jerry stared, amazed. It was the
first time he had seen Alice cry.

  ‘Are ye home to stay, Alice?’ asked Maura.

  Alice turned to look at Jerry.

  In those few words, Maura had answered all of his doubts.

  ‘Aye, she is,’ he replied. ‘She is.’

  We hope you enjoyed this book.

  Nadine Dorries’ next book, The Mothers of Lovely Lane, is coming in summer 2017.

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  From the Editor of this Book

  An Invitation from the Publisher

  First published in Great Britain in 2015 by Head of Zeus Ltd

  Copyright © Nadine Dorries, 2015

  Jacket design: KS Agency

  Jacket image: © Getty Images

  Author photo: © Cassie Dorries

  The moral right of Nadine Dorries to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  9 7 5 3 1 2 4 6 8

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  ISBN (HB) 9781781857649

  ISBN (XTPB) 9781781850091

  ISBN (E) 9781781857632

  Head of Zeus Ltd

  Clerkenwell House

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