by Rosie Harris
Lucy took a deep breath, clenching her hands into tight fists to try and quell the pain inside her. ‘Is this true?’
‘Oh it’s Robert’s baby, all right,’ Patsy affirmed and there was a look of triumph on her face as she looked at Lucy.
‘I could tell that Robert liked me and after the accident you became such a drudge that you were no fun at all to be with so you can’t blame Robert for preferring my company.’
‘Had you forgotten that we would have been married by now if it hadn’t been for all that has happened lately?’
‘No one has mentioned it for months and you never seem to have very much time for Robert these days,’ Patsy pouted.
‘So you thought it was all right to steal him from under my nose while I’ve been trying to look after Sam? If you had any feelings at all for Sam, then you would have done more to help nurse him,’ she added accusingly.
‘I kept telling you that I didn’t like sick people and now that Sam’s probably going to be a cripple for the rest of his life I don’t want anything more to do with him.’
‘Why do you keep on saying that he’s a cripple?’ Lucy frowned. ‘He might have difficulty in walking at the moment but I would hardly call him a cripple. Apart from a slight limp he walks as well as any of us.’
‘He’s out of work and I don’t see him ever getting a proper job again,’ Patsy stated.
‘So you decided to ditch him and latch on to Robert, did you?’ Lucy said in a scathing voice. ‘Pinched him from under my nose because I was too busy looking after Sam.’
‘It started out as a bit of fun,’ Patsy admitted. ‘Flirting and the odd kiss.’
‘And you made the most of that and encouraged him even further,’ Lucy accused.
‘I didn’t take it seriously until the day Robert told me he loved me,’ Patsy declared.
‘I don’t believe you!’
‘He said that he was miserable because these days you had no time for him.’
‘So you offered him a shoulder to cry on and a great deal more besides,’ Lucy said bitterly.
‘One thing led to another, you must know what he’s like,’ Patsy muttered giving Lucy a wide-eyed innocent stare.
‘You certainly seem to know him a lot better than I ever did,’ Lucy said crisply. ‘I can’t believe that all this between the two of you has been going on behind my back.’
She got up from the table and moved away quickly, not wanting Patsy to have the satisfaction of seeing the tears in her eyes. She loved Robert so deeply that it was like a knife turning inside her. They had been sweethearts since their schooldays; they’d walked home hand in hand, sharing all their secrets and planning what they would do when they were older.
She felt so stupid; to think that this had been going on all these months and she hadn’t noticed. Her love for Robert was as strong as it had ever been and even though he had betrayed her she knew she would never stop loving him.
‘I’m going to tell Sam right now,’ Patsy stated, pushing back the chair and heading for the living room.
‘Patsy, do you have to do this now? It’s the middle of the night, why don’t you think about what you’re doing?’ Lucy begged as she followed her.
‘No, Sam may as well know; we can all start the New Year with a clean slate then,’ Patsy declared as she pushed open the door to the living room.
‘What do I need to know?’ Sam yawned. ‘I’m dog tired, I was thinking about going to bed.’
‘You can after I’ve told you my news,’ Patsy told him. ‘I’m expecting a baby, Sam.’
Sam’s jaw dropped. ‘A baby?’ He looked questioningly at Lucy. ‘You knew and you said nothing?’
‘Patsy only told me a few minutes ago, Sam.’
‘Actually, Lucy, you were the one who said that I was pregnant when I told you that I’d been sick every morning for the past couple of weeks,’ Patsy corrected her.
‘So does that mean it could be a mistake?’ Sam said in a puzzled voice.
‘No, I’m pretty sure that Lucy is right. Anyway, whether I am or not, it settles things between us, Sam.’
He looked at her, bemused. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, it’s not yours, is it?’ she said with a high, shrill laugh.
‘Are you saying that you’ve been knocking around with someone else and that it’s his baby, that it’s all over between us, Patsy?’ he asked in a stunned voice.
‘It looks like it, doesn’t it?’ She tossed her head defiantly. ‘You wouldn’t want to bring up some other bloke’s kid, now would you?’
‘Whose child is it, then?’ Sam asked, looking from her to Lucy.
Robert roused himself and sat up straight on the sofa. ‘Is this true, Patsy?’ he asked in a shocked voice. The colour drained from his face, leaving it taut and grey.
She nodded. ‘Are you pleased?’
Robert ran a hand through his thick fair hair in a gesture of despair but didn’t answer.
‘Are you telling us that it’s his baby?’ Sam asked in disbelief.
‘I’m terribly sorry, Lucy, I seem to have let you down,’ Robert said awkwardly.
‘Let me down!’
The anguish in her voice made Robert look even more contrite. ‘I’ll go on helping you with Sam and so will Patsy for as long as you need us to do so,’ he added rather lamely.
‘Both of you get out of my house now; right away,’ Lucy said agitatedly. ‘I can’t bear to be in the same room as either of you.’
‘And don’t ever come back,’ Sam added bitterly as Robert propelled Patsy towards the front door.
As the front door slammed behind them Lucy pulled the cup of freshly made tea that Patsy had put in front of her closer, staring down into it as she stirred it round and round, trying to come to terms with the situation.
How on earth could this have happened without her noticing what was going on? she asked herself. Patsy and Robert had been thrown into each other’s company a great deal since the accident but Sam had always been there with them. Anyway, she had never thought that Robert even liked Patsy. He always said she was a flirt and that her mother spoilt her. He said he hated her shrill laugh and the way she tossed her hair and made eyes at all the men.
Yet Robert, staid, sensible Robert whom she’d thought was in love with her and planning to marry her, had been carrying on with Patsy behind their backs. And now Patsy was in trouble and what was even more disastrous was that it seemed she was determined that he should marry her.
All the plans she had been making about her marriage to Robert and even about Sam and Patsy marrying and living with them were now useless. The best thing she could do was forget all about them, Lucy thought bitterly.
Wearily she dragged herself upstairs to her bedroom after Robert and Patsy left. Perhaps this was all a nightmare or else she was imagining it because she felt so desperately tired and exhausted, she told herself.
Lucy slept until midday; when she went downstairs she found Sam staring moodily into the fire.
‘I bet you’re starving,’ Lucy said apologetically. ‘Give me ten minutes and I’ll rustle something up for our meal.’ She reached for her pinafore, slipped the straps over her head, and tied them.
‘There’s no hurry,’ he told her. ‘I’m not really hungry.’ He ran a hand through his short hair and her heart ached for him as she saw the utter misery in his eyes. ‘I’ve lost my appetite after what Patsy told us last night. It looks as though we’re both losers,’ he went on bitterly. ‘I’ve lost Patsy and you’ve lost Robert.’ He reached out and took Lucy’s hand. ‘It’s all my fault; if I could turn the clock back, then I would.’
‘It’s not your fault any more than it’s mine,’ Lucy told him. ‘I should have seen the signs and done something about it. I suppose I have been neglecting Robert for the past few months but he seemed to be so supportive that I thought he understood.’
‘So you’re blaming Patsy for this awful mess, are you?’
‘I don’t know what
to think,’ Lucy murmured dejectedly. ‘It’s the way things go in life; there’s certainly no point in blaming ourselves for what’s happened.’
‘What are we going to do now, then?’ Sam probed. ‘This isn’t what you had planned for 1922, is it?’
‘No, you’re right,’ Lucy sighed. ‘I was planning to marry Robert. I was even going to suggest that you and Patsy got married as well and that we all lived here together. That way we would have been able to meet the bills. As it is, we are heavily in debt and I don’t know how we are going to survive.’
Although she struggled to stop them the tears began rolling down her cheeks. Unable to restrain her pent-up emotions she began to sob, heart-rending sobs that came from deep inside her. Sam held her close, smoothing her hair and whispering words of comfort until finally her sobs abated and, apart from the occasional gulping sound, she was calm once more.
They spent the rest of the day assessing their situation. There was only one thing they could do, Lucy decided, and that was to find somewhere cheaper to live.
‘Or perhaps we could take in lodgers,’ Sam suggested. ‘That way we would be able to stay on here.’
‘If we do that, then we will have to pay off the rent arrears and that will take us at least a year, or perhaps longer.’
‘So what is the answer?’ Sam frowned.
‘Probably the best thing we can do is skedaddle one dark night and tell no one where we are going so that no one can trace us,’ Lucy said dolefully.
‘Are you sure about that?’
‘I’m sorry to be letting down the people we owe money to like the coal man and the grocer, but I don’t think there is anything else we can do,’ she muttered.
‘Where do we go? We’ve no money for train or boat fares so we won’t be able to go very far.’
‘I know that. It will have to be somewhere in Liverpool, but there are lots of streets and courts off Scotland Road where they’d never think of looking for us.’
‘Patsy and Robert will wonder what’s happened to us,’ Sam pointed out.
‘I imagine they will both be relieved that we have gone and that they don’t have to face us,’ Lucy reminded him.
‘What about all the neighbours, though? They’re bound to wonder what’s happened to us and they might even start making enquiries to try and find us.’
‘I doubt it,’ Lucy said bitterly. ‘After a couple of months they’ll have forgotten all about us.’
‘Let’s leave it until tomorrow and see what we think then,’ Sam argued. ‘I don’t like the idea of giving up our home so easily. We’ve lived here all our lives. If Patsy and Robert don’t like having to face us, then let them be the ones to move away.’
‘We’re not doing it because of them,’ Lucy reminded him. ‘We’re doing it because we owe so much rent as well as money to so many tradesmen that it is the only way we can start afresh.’
She stood up and moved towards the kitchen. ‘Think about it while I make us something to eat. I really do think it would be for the best.’
Chapter Eleven
It took Lucy and Sam almost a week of debating what to do for the best before making up their minds that they had no alternative but to move to somewhere cheaper.
Their credit with the local shops had already run out and they were forced into selling what they could of their possessions; all the ornaments and trinkets that their mother had loved as well as their father’s tools and anything else that would bring in a few shillings.
Their minds were finally made up for them when the rent man threatened that unless they paid their back rent in full before the end of the week he would be sending the bailiffs in and Lucy was left in no doubt what action to take; finding somewhere cheaper to live was the obvious answer.
They both agreed that it would have to be somewhere in the Scotland Road area and Lucy spent a couple of days trailing around looking for somewhere suitable. It had to be rooms that were already furnished because if they were seen moving furniture out of Priory Terrace, that would alert the neighbours and the debt collector would be on their heels right away.
Finally, in desperation, Lucy decided to rent two furnished rooms in a three-storey house in Hans Court, even though it was not what she was looking for and she wasn’t at all sure that Sam would settle there.
The area was overrun with children, dogs and vermin of every description, but as Mrs Sparks – the officious-looking grey-haired landlady – was quick to point out, she was lucky to find rooms where the rent was only four shillings a week.
‘I’ve got someone else coming this evening to have a look,’ she stated as she stood in the doorway, arms akimbo, while Lucy took another look at the two rooms. ‘If you want me to let you have them then I need two weeks’ rent in advance.’
‘I’ll take them,’ Lucy told her as she counted out the money and put it into the woman’s grimy hand. ‘There you are, so can you give me the key, and I’ll be back soon with some of our things.’
When she went home and told Sam what she’d done and warned him that it was a pretty slummy area, his face dropped.
‘We’ve got to get away from here before the bailiffs arrive so I’m going to start sorting out the stuff we’ll be taking with us and begin carrying it there. If we’re careful and take it bit by bit, then none of the neighbours will notice. I can take a bagful on the way to work and you can do the same midmorning and again later in the day when you go for a walk.’
‘I think we’re mad to walk out and leave so much of our furniture behind,’ he grumbled.
‘It’s the only way we can go without anyone knowing where we’ve gone,’ Lucy reminded him.
‘They won’t be out of pocket if they sell off what we’re leaving behind,’ Sam said sourly.
‘Good! That eases my conscience quite a bit,’ Lucy affirmed. ‘From now on I am determined never to get into debt again.’
‘As soon as we’ve moved I’m going to try and get work of some sort, even if it is only selling newspapers on the street corner,’ Sam told her.
They waited until after dark that night to leave Priory Terrace for good. It was a bitterly cold January night and as she raked out the fire and cleaned out the grate so that the house was left neat and tidy, Lucy wondered how they were going to manage to keep warm in their new place because there was only a tiny black iron grate in the larger of the rooms and nothing at all in the smaller room.
Sam was waiting impatiently for them to get going so, taking a last look round at the only home they’d ever known, she brushed away the tears that were running down her cheeks with the back of her hand and squared her shoulders.
‘Time for off,’ she said, struggling to give him an encouraging smile which Sam ignored.
Both of them were carrying large bundles as they left Priory Terrace and caught a tram as far as Exchange Station.
‘I thought if we walked from here, if anyone happened to see us on the tram, they’d think we were going somewhere by train,’ Lucy told him as they made their way along Scotland Road, Sam walking rather slowly because he was finding it difficult to manage the bundle he was carrying as well as his stick.
‘This is a funny time of night to be arriving,’ Mrs Sparks greeted them when she opened the door. ‘I’d already locked up for the night. Not running away from the law, are you?’ she asked suspiciously.
‘No, of course not,’ Lucy said with a forced laugh. ‘We couldn’t make it any earlier because we wanted to come together and so we had to wait until I finished work.’
‘Oh yes? So one of you has a job, then?’ Mrs Sparks commented, looking questioningly at Sam’s stick.
‘This is my brother, he was involved in an accident but he is almost better now,’ Lucy explained.
‘Brother? You never mentioned a brother. When you gave me the names Sam and Lucy Collins, I thought you were married; a husband and wife. You never mentioned that it was your brother who would be sharing the rooms with you.’
Lucy looked at Sam w
orriedly. Surely this woman who had taken two weeks’ rent, eight shillings of their money, wasn’t going to turn them out into the street because they were brother and sister?
‘Does it make any difference?’ Sam asked. ‘As long as you’re getting the rent for the rooms regularly, surely that is all that matters,’ he added sharply.
‘Well,’ Mrs Sparks sniffed, ‘I’m not at all sure about that. I keep a respectable house.’
‘I’m sure you do, Mrs Sparks,’ Sam told her heartily.
‘So what sort of sleeping arrangements are you going to make then?’ Mrs Sparks asked, her sharp eyes fixed on Lucy.
‘If it makes you feel any happier, let me assure you that I will be sleeping in the living room and my sister will be using the bedroom,’ Sam told her.
‘Well, I suppose that makes it all right, then,’ Mrs Sparks admitted reluctantly.
‘Now if we can come inside out of the cold I’d be grateful. I find standing around out here on the doorstep is making my bad leg ache,’ he sighed, before giving her a broad smile.
Both Lucy and Sam found living in Hans Court very constraining. Within days of moving in, Lucy knew she had made a terrible mistake and wished she had given Sam’s idea about lodgers more thought.
She had always prided herself on being levelheaded and thinking things through before taking any action, but this time she had certainly not done so; she would have given a great deal to go back to their clean and comfortable three-bedroom house.
She knew that everybody would be talking about the way both she and Sam had been jilted as well as the disgrace of having the bailiffs in, and pride had made her act impetuously. There had been only one thought in her head and that was for her and Sam to get as far away from Priory Terrace as possible.
Well, she’d certainly done that, she thought morosely. The only thing to be said in favour of her action was that they should be able to manage to meet all their bills.
