Ha'Penny Chance (Ivy Rose Series Book 2)

by Gemma Jackson

  “I did indeed.” Doug stared at the woman sitting frozen in her seat. “Why don’t you come join us down this end of the table, Auntie Betty?” He waved a hand towards a chair across the table from him.

  Ann Marie, Jem, John and Sadie stared at each other and waited to see what would happen next.

  “Or should I call you Auntie Queenie?” Doug added.

  “Auntie Queenie!” Ivy fell back in her chair. “Me da’s sister – the sister who went down on the Titanic – are yeh talking about that one? The one he was always crying over – that Queenie?” Ivy was in shock.

  “I didn’t think you remembered me.” Betty stood and moved down the table, joining the rest of the people gathered there.

  “Only vaguely,” Doug admitted. “I have vague memories of visiting you with me da.”

  Ivy stared at her brother. She’d never been taken to visit anyone. Not by her mother or her da.

  “No,” Doug continued, “what made me think was seeing you the other day with Billy Flint. That got me to thinking and remembering.”

  “Billy Flint,” Ivy gasped. How did her little brother know what that man looked like? She closed her mouth and waited to hear more.

  “Billy Flint is me da’s brother, Ivy.” Doug was determined that Ivy should know everything she needed to know. There would be no more secrets. If Ivy had known she had family she could turn to when their da died, life would have been much easier for her. She deserved to know it all.

  “Your father never wanted her to know about us.” Betty refused to apologise for her own existence.

  “Betty, I have one day off from the theatre. Today, Christmas Day. I have no time to waste.” Doug leaned over the table. “I’m leaving here – going to America and a new life. I’ve asked Ivy to come with me but she’s refused. I will not leave here and allow my sister to continue on in ignorance. She deserves to know what’s what and I’m determined to tell her. I never want to think of my sister completely alone again. No offense to you, Jem – you were there when those who should have looked after and protected her ignored her very existence.” Doug looked around at the shocked faces. He was bloody well going to have his say. “I know she has friends, good friends, people who have been kinder to her than her blood relatives but she deserves to know that she’s bloody surrounded by family.”

  “I beg your pardon.” Ann Marie stared at Ivy’s brother in horror. Ivy had family that ignored her and left her to struggle on alone? She thought of the pathetic figure who’d fainted in the morgue from hunger and sorrow the first day she met her. How dare her family allow her to go through that horror alone and penniless? They should be brought to account.

  “Oh yes, Ann Marie, Ivy has family,” Doug said bitterly. “You probably know all of them. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn you visit their homes on occasion.”

  “Shay,” Betty said softly.

  “Enough with the bloody secrets, Betty!” Doug beat the table top, setting the glasses and bottles that remained rattling.

  “Shay, you don’t know what you’re saying.” But Betty actually agreed with him. She’d tried to keep out of Ivy’s life but it had proved impossible.

  “My name is Doug now.” He was not going to back down. Ivy had been abused enough. “I will never be Shay Murphy again. My name is Douglas Joyce and I plan to make the best of the opportunities opening up to me. I might be willing to let go of my name but I will never desert my sister again. Ivy deserves a whole lot better than she’s received from any of us.”

  “Éamonn changed his name and made the decision to keep us out of her life.” Betty wasn’t willing to say anything bad about their mother but Violet had been at the root of that decision. Violet Burton had left a trail of destruction in her wake. Betty might not be willing to say it aloud but she could think it. The woman had deserted her husband and children after all.

  “I really don’t care any more,” Doug said softly. “Ivy needs to know that she has two grandmothers, two grandfathers and a host of aunts, uncles and cousins all living within walking distance of The Lane. In fact she knocks on their back doors most Mondays.”

  “Me head is spinning.” Ivy took Jem’s hand in hers, holding on tightly. She needed his strength. She’d known her mother had family living about the Square, family that refused to recognise them but she’d never known about her da’s family.

  “I regret to say this,” Ann Marie stated loudly, “but your family does not deserve the extraordinary person that is Ivy Rose Murphy. She is someone any family should be proud to claim. I’d like a list of those family members, Doug. I will be sure to avoid them in the future. I will also be extremely happy to tell them why.”

  “I’ll see that you get it, Ann Marie,” Doug grinned. He knew who this woman was now. He knew just how rich and influential Ann Marie Gannon was. With her on her side, his sister would be all right. Ivy had made a life for herself. A good life surrounded by people who cared for her and would fight in her corner. She’d done it all on her own. She hadn’t asked for or received help from their family but she bloody well deserved to know who they were.

  “I’ll just tidy the table.” Sadie stood and began collecting the dirty glasses and empty bottles. She’d been sitting there like a lump on a log, listening to the revelations. It was better than the fillums any day.

  “I’ll help you.” Ann Marie wanted to sit here and express her opinion. She wanted to hear everything that was about to be revealed but she couldn’t let Sadie do all the work. She was trying to learn to live without servants after all.

  “With the best will in the world, Ann Marie,” Sadie grinned, “you’re feckin’ useless. I’ll get finished faster on me own. You sit there and listen to what’s what. You can hold up our Ivy’s end of the story. I’m just going to tidy these things away. I won’t wash the dishes. The girls can do that later. That’s their job and I’m not doing it for them.”

  “I’ll help you.” Jem released Ivy’s hand and stood up. She’d tell him everything she wanted him to know.

  “Is there e’er a chance of a pot of tea?” Ivy almost whimpered. She needed an ocean of tea to deal with these revelations.

  “Ivy Murphy,” Jem laughed down at her, “don’t ever change. If the world was going to end in two minutes you’d be the one putting on the kettle.” He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. Her family might not look out for her but he would. “You’ve made your own family this year, Ivy, and everyone here knows it.”

  Jem went to put the kettle on. His Ivy needed her tea.

  “And so say all of us!” John Lawless glared around the table, making sure everyone there knew he had Ivy’s back. The Lawless family owed the woman everything.

  Ivy watched the man she would marry hurry away to attend to her needs. She smiled at Ann Marie’s indignant expression. Her friend was ready to go to battle for her, it seemed. She looked at her brother with loving sadness. He was leaving her again. She let her eyes examine the people around the table. Jem was right – she’d made her own family this year and they were the best in the world.

  The End

  Here's a sneak preview of book 3 in the Ive Rose Series -

  The Ha'Penny Place

  Chapter 1

  “I feel as if I’ve spent half me life standing on the Dun Laoghaire docks waving goodbye to people.” Ivy Rose Murphy looked into her brother’s eyes, determined to imprint his image on her memory forever.

  “At least this time you’ll have something to remember me by.” Shay Murphy AKA Douglas Joyce, star of stage and soon to be famous on the big screen, jerked his head in the direction of the newspaper cameramen loitering around the shipping company’s first-class lounge, hoping to capture an image for their papers. He had delayed his departure because of his sister – he couldn’t wait any longer. He had places to go, worlds to conquer. He thought the second day of 1926 an ideal time to step out into the unknown.

  “Being in the dailies might be alright for you,” Ivy nudged her baby brother gentl
y, “but for the likes of me it’s mortifying.” He’d left home for the first time as the penniless Shay Murphy – today he was the feted entertainer Douglas Joyce. It was far from this kind of attention both of them were raised. Ivy’s ivory cheeks were stained with red. She’d never become accustomed to people looking at her and shouting questions. Had these reporter people no homes to go to?

  “The state of us and the price of best butter!” Doug/Shay grinned down at his sister, his sparkling violet eyes so like hers it was easy to see the relationship between the pair. “The last time we were here I was down there,” a nod of his head towards the crowds of shabbily dressed people milling around the docks, “sick to my stomach with nerves and fear of the unknown. The pair of us weren’t dressed up to beat the band neither.”

  “You’d an arse in yer trousers aself, not like some of them poor buggers.” Ivy was determined to fight off the tears that had been threatening for days. She’d cry an ocean when he was gone but she’d be deep-dipped and fried before she’d see him off on his great adventure with tears running down her face.

  “You made sure of that, Ivy.” Doug examined their twin images in the long glass windows that circled the upper-deck lounge. They looked like two wealthy toffs. The purple tweed suit his sister was wearing covered her from neck to ankles. It was too long to be bang-up-to-the-minute fashion-wise. He’d tried to talk her into the shorter lengths but she’d been horrified at the very thought of exposing her ankles to the world. But, over the suit, Ivy wore his gift of a beige cashmere coat and hat with elegance and style. She looked like she should be in the ‘fillums’ herself. The sight of his own expertly tailored clothing amused him. The good looks and talent he’d been born with had seen him this far. He wondered how much further he could climb.

  “I wish you’d change your mind and come to America with me, Ivy,” Doug said for what felt like the thousandth time. He’d saved the money for Ivy’s first-class ticket to the land of dreams. He’d had such great plans for them in their new life in America. He’d been offered the chance of a lifetime. A talent scout had approached him with an offer to star in the new ‘talkies’– newfangled pictures being made with sound. He’d grabbed the chance with both hands. But the hard-headed woman in his arms had refused all suggestion that she should leave her hand-to-mouth existence in the tenements of Dublin. He’d tried to give her the money he’d saved for her but she’d insisted he’d need it more than she ever would. He’d reluctantly agreed.

  “I’ve given yeh me opinion,” Ivy stated firmly. Who knew what Shay was going to find in this place he talked about, Hollywood if yeh didn’t mind, and talking pictures. What would they think of next? It would never catch on and Shay was going to need his wits about him to keep from starving. She had her own life to lead and had no wish to find herself in a strange country without a penny to her name and no way of making one. She’d stick to what she knew, thank you very much. She was making a life for herself that many a woman would envy. She’d a roof over her head, food on the table and fire in the hearth. She was wealthy in comparison to her tenement neighbours.

  “Smile, Ivy!” Ann Marie Gannon shouted. She was completely unaware of the crowds around her. The expensive camera in her hands held all of her attention. She was determined to record this moment for Ivy.

  “Ann Marie, I swear to God yeh sleep with that bloody camera.” Ivy turned in her brother’s arms and smiled at her friend.

  Ann Marie had bought the camera as a Christmas present to herself. It seemed to Ivy the woman was determined to record every moment of daily life. It was a good job she was learning to develop the film herself or she’d be in the poorhouse. The woman might be loaded but she hadn’t a lick of sense about saving the pennies. Ann Marie’s beige silk suit was bang-up-to-the-minute, the shorter skirt-length exposing her shining silk stockings and butter-soft beige leather shoes. The hat she wore was a song to the milliner’s art and framed her pretty face. She’d covered the expensive garment with the long black woollen coat that Ivy’s tailor friend and neighbour Mr Solomon had made for her. The coat was covered in special pockets Ann Marie had designed for her equipment.

  “It’s a shame Mr Smith has gone ahead,” Ann Marie said, referring to Doug’s friend Johnjo Smith. The man had gone aboard the ship with the luggage. He was determined to earn his keep as Doug’s ‘dresser’. “I’d have liked a few more photographs of him.” She was frustrated at the time it took her to set up the shots but she’d get quicker. She was determined to capture the world around her on film.

  “It’s almost time, Ivy,” Doug said as a loud bleat from a foghorn cut through the sound of the milling crowd.

  “Write to me.” Ivy hugged her brother to her, her heart breaking.

  “It will be weeks before I arrive in California.” Doug was glad the studio was paying for his first-class ticket to America. He would have to earn his passage by allowing the studio publicity crew to follow him on the voyage. The film crew and Johnjo would be travelling third class but he would be travelling in style. He expected to be asked to sing and dance for his supper. He didn’t care – for the chance he’d been offered he’d stand on his head and whistle if they asked him. “You’ve seen the brochure of the ship that’s going to take us from Liverpool to New York.” Doug was trying to distract himself from the pain of this parting.

  “A floating palace, you mean.” Ivy had been astonished at the sheer glamour of the ship that would carry Shay and Johnjo to the new world. The brochure was almost bald now. It had been passed from hand to hand in ‘The Lane’ and was the talk of the place still. “You better get going then, Shay.” Ivy could hardly speak past the lump in her throat. “I want to hear from yeh regularly. You remember that.” She hugged him tightly, her body shaking in his arms.

  “I’ll write. I promise.” Doug hugged his sister close. Who knew if they would ever see each other again? But he refused to allow himself to believe this was the last time he’d see his sister. He’d make it in these new talking pictures, he swore. “I’ll send for you when I’ve made me fortune.”

  “You do that and if I happen to make me fortune before you I’ll come visit yeh in that heathen land.” Ivy pressed a kiss into his cheek and stood back. She had to force herself to let go of him.

  “Goodbye, Ann Marie.” Doug bent and pressed a kiss into the woman’s cheek, careful not to knock her gold-rimmed glasses askew. “Take care of my sister, please – if she’s ever in need, let me know,” he whispered into her ear before stepping back.

  Then he waved out the window at Jem Ryan who was standing down in the street by his gleaming black automobile.

  Jem returned the wave, raising his fancy trilby from his head. He was outside the double entrance doors that led into reception and to the stairs up to the first-class lounge. He was waiting for the two women. He leaned against his automobile. He wouldn’t trust anyone but himself with the new (second-hand) machine he’d bought from an Anglo-Irish family leaving the country. The vehicle, which he kept polished to a high shine, was his pride and joy.

  Ivy was going to be heartbroken. He checked the pocket of his black suit for the clean handkerchief he’d put in there specially.

  The first-class departure lounge exploded with the cries and last-minute instructions being given by the voyagers’ families. Some of the people in the lounge were travelling for business, but some like Shay would be travelling to make a new life for themselves. These people were the lucky ones, travelling in style to their new lives. Ivy was caught up in the excitement of the crowd. She had little time to think any more about this final goodbye to her baby brother. Shay was a man now. She’d done her best by him. She’d lit so many candles and prayed so much for his success in his new life that God must be sick of listening to her.

  Ann Marie followed the crowd down the stairs and out onto the docks. She snapped her camera as quickly as she could, hoping she’d capture images worth keeping. She was aware of Ivy peeling away from her brother and walking slowly in
the direction of Jem and his automobile.

  “You doing alright, Ivy?” Jem put his arm around Ivy, pulling her in close to his side.

  “I knew this moment was coming, Jem, but, God, it hurts to let him go again.” Ivy felt the strength go from her knees. She leaned against Jem thankfully, her tear-washed eyes searching the crowd for Shay’s distinctive blond head and fashionable hat. She watched him walk away without looking back. “I don’t know if I’m on me head or me heels.”

  “You’ll be able to sit down and collect yourself soon,” Jem promised. “That fancy hotel Ann Marie is taking us to for a cup of tea will soon put the smile back on your face.” He knew Ivy was nervous at the very thought of stepping through the doors of the Royal Hotel in Dun Laoghaire, so mentioning it would take her mind off her troubles.

  “I’ll be losing the run of meself if we keep this up, Jem.” Ivy stood upright, forcing her knees to lock into place. “What in the name of God is the likes of me doing going into fancy hotels for tea, I ask yer sacred pardon?”

  “I’ll be with you this time,” Jem said. His life was certainly looking up since he’d started keeping company with Ivy and Ann Marie. “The hotel has a special place to leave the automobile – I checked.”

  “Ivy, quick – wave, there’s Doug and Johnjo!” Ann Marie shouted like a hooligan as she came back in the direction of her waiting friends. She was almost skipping along. This was such an adventure. “Look! There they are, up there on the top deck – wave!”