East End 02-East End Diamond

by DS as Dani Oakley Butler

  Personally, Babs thought the suet pastry was a little soggy for her tastes, and she’d only managed to take a few bites before pushing the rest of it around her plate and trying to hide it under a mountain of carrots.

  Tony had wolfed his down, of course. Babs thought he must have an iron stomach.

  Violet smiled fondly at her youngest son as he asked for a second serving.

  Both Ruby and Derek had made good headway in getting through the mounds of steak and kidney pudding, boiled potatoes, carrots and cabbage, but even that wasn’t enough to appease Violet.

  “What on earth is wrong with you?” Violet said sharply, looking at Ruby. “That’s good wholesome food. I suppose your mother doesn’t make you things like this at home, but while you’re under my roof, you will clear your plate.”

  Violet looked at Babs as though she was daring her to respond.

  But what Violet had said was true enough. Babs couldn’t remember the last time she’d spent all afternoon in the kitchen preparing dinner. The children didn’t appreciate it anyway. It was easier to fry up a bit of steak or bacon.

  Even when she made a stew, she just bunged it all into a pot and stuck it in the oven for a couple of hours, and she didn’t have to do any more work the rest of the day.

  Sod making bloody pastry. There were more important things in life, especially now that she had Martin’s business to run.

  Of course, Violet Morton would never appreciate that. She couldn’t understand why Babs wanted to be involved in the family business anyway. She firmly believed that a woman’s place was in the home, and Babs shouldn’t be interfering in men’s affairs.

  Violet Morton was an idiot.

  “They get plenty of wholesome food, thank you very much,” Babs said sharply. “But they’re not used to having their plates piled high like that.”

  “The pudding was absolutely gorgeous, Mum,” Tony said, interrupting and trying to head off a potential argument between Violet and Babs.

  It worked well enough. Violet turned back to her son and beamed. “I’m glad you liked it. It’s nothing really. You know how much I enjoy cooking for you.”

  Babs’ eyes flickered to the clock. They’d been here for an hour and a half already. Surely they could be making their excuses and getting home soon. But Violet hadn’t finished goading her daughter-in-law yet. The old cow’s sharp voice interrupted Babs’ thoughts. “When was the last time you visited Martin, Babs?”

  Babs didn’t much enjoy visiting Martin. She found the whole thing tedious, but she did it out of duty. She had been to see him just a fortnight ago and told Violet so, although she would have preferred to tell the interfering old witch to mind her own business.

  Violet’s eyes narrowed as she looked at Ruby and Derek. “And when was the last time the children went to see him?”

  Babs sighed. They’d been through this already. But it seemed as if Violet still wasn’t bored of raking over the same old ground.

  The children hadn’t been to visit Martin for over six months.

  Martin changed his mind constantly. When he was first inside, he hadn’t wanted the children to visit at all, insisting they were too young. Then he’d decided he missed them and asked Babs to bring them along. They’d been visiting him regularly for the past five years, but six months ago, Martin decided he couldn’t stand it any longer.

  He told Babs he couldn’t bear to see the pity in his children’s eyes, so Babs had obeyed his wishes and had not taken the children to visit him since.

  Personally, Babs thought it was likely that Martin would change his mind again soon.

  She knew Martin well enough by now and was sure it was only a matter of time before he demanded to see his children again. The worst thing she could do in this situation was try to pressure him into it. If she did that, he would just dig his heels in.

  “As you know, Violet, they’ve not been to see him for a few months. Martin doesn’t want them to visit him and see him locked up. It upsets him.”

  Violet snorted. “He doesn’t have much of a choice, does he? He’s still got a few years on his sentence. If he was so worried about his children, he shouldn’t have got himself arrested in the first place.”

  Tony sensed the change of atmosphere as Babs glared at her mother-in-law. He leaned forward, pressing his palms flat against the table. “Now, come on, Mum. Martin didn’t exactly get arrested on purpose.”

  But Violet was on a roll now, and there was no stopping her. “He’s never been much of a father to them. I don’t know what I ever did to deserve such a family. When I think of all the years I worked my fingers to the bone for you lot.”

  Babs closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She longed to tell the silly old trout to give it a rest. Both Ruby and Derek had been sitting in silence throughout the meal, looking absolutely miserable. Babs supposed she should thank her lucky stars they didn’t give their grandmother as much cheek as they did Babs. Otherwise, Babs would truly never hear the end of it.

  Violet reached out and put a hand on Tony’s arm. “If it wasn’t for my Anthony, I would have given up long ago.”

  Here we go, Babs thought. You could set your watch by her. The next thing out of her mouth would be a sob story about how fragile her health was, even though she was as strong as an ox, the crafty old bird.

  But before Violet reached that part of her rant, her eyes focused on Derek. “Heavens, boy, don’t eat with your mouth open like that. Did you not teach them table manners, Babs?”

  That was it. Babs had had enough of this. She gritted her teeth and turned to snarl at Violet. “That’s it. Come on, children, we are going home.”

  Babs would be the first to admit Ruby and Derek were little sods, but they were her little sods, and she wasn’t going to sit around and let Violet pick holes in them like that.

  It wasn’t as if Violet had been a perfect mother anyway. Martin and Tony were proof of that. The old cow had some nerve criticising her children.

  Babs got to her feet and glared at her mother-in-law. “Thank you for dinner, Violet. We’ll see ourselves out.”

  * * *

  The following morning, Linda was rushing about in a hurry to get ready. She’d overslept, and she was due at Bevels in less than half an hour. Her husband, Geoff, had come home roaring drunk last night, and it had taken ages for her to get back to sleep.

  She rubbed a hand over her tired eyes and then smothered a yawn. She hadn’t expected to still be an employee at Bevels after all this time. She had married Geoff over seven years ago, and she’d expected to have a baby on the way in no time, but it hadn’t happened yet. Seven long years of marriage and no sign of a baby.

  The first couple of years of their marriage hadn’t been too bad. At least Geoff had managed to hold down steady work at the docks, and they’d had two wages coming in. But when Geoff had been laid off, things got much worse.

  Linda looked at her good-for-nothing husband as he snored loudly and slept off his hangover. With a sigh, she picked up his dirty washing from the floor and then grimaced as Geoff gave a loud belch and turned over in bed.

  Linda hurried out of the bedroom, shutting the door behind her.

  She couldn’t be late. They only had one wage coming in now, so she had to keep her job.

  A short while ago, she had managed to get a promotion, and she now oversaw all the machinists.

  The new role came with a pay rise, and Mr. Bevel himself had told her a year ago how pleased he was with her work. Linda had been pleased as punch, and when she came home, she couldn’t wait to tell Geoff the news. She’d thought he might be proud of her, or at least grateful for the extra money coming in, but Geoff just laughed and then said she was stupid for not asking for even more money. In his opinion, Mr. Bevel was just taking advantage of her.

  Linda trudged down the stairs. She considered making Geoff a cup of tea before she left, but she was so irritated by the way he’d woken her up last night, she decided not to. He didn’t deserve it.

/>   She’d given up hope of Geoff ever getting another job. After he’d first been laid off, he was forever telling Linda he had a job lined up just around the corner, but it never seemed to quite materialise, and now Linda listened to his stories with a smile and a nod but didn’t expect anything to come of them.

  Linda stopped by the hall mirror and applied some lipstick. It was her little act of defiance. Geoff said she shouldn’t wear makeup for work because it made her look like a trollop. But that was silly. All the girls wore a little bit of makeup, and Linda felt more confident wearing lipstick and a little powder. It made her feel smart and properly dressed for work.

  She heard the sound of some schoolboys passing by and realised it was almost time for her to leave the house. The sound of their youthful voices reminded her of Jimmy, and Linda paused, thinking about the poor little lad and hoping he was okay.

  She wondered whether she should have made more of an effort to be part of Jimmy’s life. After all, Kathleen, his mother, had been Linda’s best friend, and she probably knew more about Kathleen than anybody else in the world.

  The last time Linda had seen Mary Diamond, she’d been taken aback. She looked so much older. Her hair was now completely grey, and her face was heavily lined. The thing that worried Linda the most, though, was Mary’s heavily bloodshot eyes and shaking hands. Most people liked to think of Linda as naive, but she knew the signs of someone with an alcohol problem when she saw them.

  Of course, she felt terrible for Mary, and she understood why the woman had turned to drink after the loss of her only daughter, but she couldn’t help thinking it was just another blow to poor Jimmy.

  Pressing the lid back onto her lipstick and slipping it into her bag, Linda made a decision. She was going to make more of an effort to look after little Jimmy for Kathleen’s sake.

  * * *

  Babs woke up with a start.

  What on earth was that noise?

  As if in answer to her question, she heard it again. Derek’s roar of frustration, followed by Ruby’s high-pitched screaming.

  “Those bleeding kids,” Babs muttered under her breath and threw back the covers.

  She shivered as the cool air hit her body, but determined to give the little sods a piece of her mind, she stood up and stomped out of the bedroom.

  By the time she got downstairs and into the hall, she saw both Ruby and Derek glaring at each other angrily, and they were still shouting.

  Babs pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger and gritted her teeth. She’d only been asleep a few hours. After dinner last night, she’d gone by to check the club. And what she’d seen there had worried her. It wasn’t that the club wasn’t busy. On the contrary, Mortons was jam packed and doing great business, and that’s what had thrown Babs for a loop.

  According to Tony, they hadn’t been doing very well, and takings were down, but Babs couldn’t see how that could possibly be true.

  She doubted it was Tony himself who was cheating the club. He didn’t have the smarts for that, but something dodgy was going on, and it was down to Babs to get to the bottom of it.

  So the last thing she needed this morning was her children going at it like hammer and tongs.

  “Keep your noise down,” Babs yelled over the children. “Now, what the hell is the matter with you both?”

  She glared at the children as they began to talk over each other.

  Babs groaned. Ruby and Derek were both teenagers now, and there was no reason why they weren’t perfectly capable of getting themselves up in the morning and making themselves breakfast. Babs didn’t think she was asking much. She just wanted them to pull their weight.

  Sometimes it seemed like everybody was out to make Babs’ life more difficult. Why couldn’t they just get ready for school without kicking off for once? Was it really so much to ask?

  “He stole my hairbrush,” Ruby yelled, pointing at her brother.

  Babs jerked her head to look at Derek and saw the offending hairbrush in his hand. “Well? What are you doing with your sister’s hairbrush?”

  “Well, I wasn’t going to use it to play the flute, was I? I was going to brush my hair,” Derek said sarcastically, earning himself a clip round the ear from Babs.

  “You cheeky little bastard. You keep a civil tongue in your head when you’re talking to me, do you hear?”

  Babs shook her head in disbelief. All this bleeding noise over a hairbrush!

  “For goodness sake, Ruby. Does it really matter if your brother uses your hairbrush? From the noise you pair were making I thought someone was being murdered.”

  Ruby looked horrified at the very idea of Derek using her hairbrush. She pointed at Derek’s hair again. “No. I don’t want him to use it. He uses that Brylcreem, and it will make my hairbrush all sticky.”

  Before Babs could reply, Derek turned and snarled at his sister. “Fine. Keep the stupid brush!” And as he said those words, he flung the hairbrush back at Ruby, but she wasn’t prepared and didn’t catch it in time, and the hairbrush struck the mirror behind her shoulder.

  The mirror hanging in the hallway was one of Babs’ most prized possessions. She’d inherited it from her late mother.

  At the sound of smashing glass, Babs felt sick. Her lower lip wobbled as she turned to survey the damage.

  Derek’s face paled, and Ruby’s eyes grew wide in shock.

  “I’m sorry, Mum. I didn’t mean to break it,” Derek said.

  Babs had never felt more like crying than she did right at that moment. But instead, she straightened her shoulders, turned to glare at her son and gave him a sharp slap around the side of the head.

  “Seven years bad luck you’ll have now! And you deserve it! Go on, the pair of you, get to school. I’m sick of the sight of you.”

  After the children had gone, Babs sat down at the foot of the stairs and looked up at the broken mirror. It had shattered, but the glass had remained within the mirror’s frame, thankfully. It seemed like a symbol, reflecting the state of her life right now. Everything was broken.

  She tried to make the house look nice and prepare meals for the children while keeping the business running like clockwork. And this was the thanks she got for it.

  Everyone took her for granted. If she wasn’t careful, she was going to have a pair of monsters on her hands. Ruby and Derek were spoilt little gits, and she was going to have to decide what she was going to do about it.

  If she didn’t act soon, it would be too late. Already the selfish little brats didn’t listen to her half the time.

  As Babs got to her feet, preparing to go back upstairs and get ready for the day, there was a knock at the door.

  Babs groaned. Who on earth could that be at this time? If it was one of the children, she would throttle them. She was not in the mood to see their faces again this morning.

  She opened the front door a crack, remembering she was still wearing a nightgown, and there on the front step was Frieda Longbottom, an old friend of her late mother’s.

  “Oh, Frieda, it’s you, love. I’m sorry I was out late at the club last night. I’m still in my nightie. Why don’t you come in? I’ll go upstairs and get my dressing gown on, and we can have a brew.”

  “Right you are, love. I only stopped by to see if you were all right. I heard an almighty racket coming from your place as I was passing. I was heading to the club to start the cleaning. If you’re busy, don’t let me get in your way.”

  “I’ll be honest with you, Frieda. I could do with a chat. I’m sure the club can wait ten minutes.”

  Frieda came in the front door, and then shut it behind her as Babs hurried upstairs to get her dressing gown.

  By the time Babs got back downstairs, Frieda had started making a pot of tea and set two cups down on the kitchen table.

  “Now,” Frieda said. “Why don’t you tell me all about it?”

  Babs sat down, and as Frieda suggested, she told all about her worries with the club and how the children had been
playing up. It felt good to get it off her chest.

  “I’m at my wits’ end, Frieda. Really I am. I need to sort those little sods out one way or another. But it’s not easy. I’ve had to bring them up single-handed with their father inside. And God knows Violet Morton hasn’t been much help.”

  Frieda grunted in agreement. She’d never had much time for Violet Morton, and in her eyes, Babs could do no wrong. She adored Babs as if she was her own daughter and she’d watched her grow up into a lovely young lady. Personally, Frieda believed Babs was wasted on Martin Morton. A woman with her looks and brains could have done so much better.

  They chatted a little while longer over their tea, and Babs thanked her lucky stars she had a friend like Frieda she could turn to. She felt she could tell Frieda anything… Well, almost anything. Babs had a secret she’d never told anyone.

  And as much as she loved and trusted Frieda, she wasn’t prepared to share that secret.

  Babs’ marriage to Martin had never gone smoothly since the early days, and after he’d had an affair with Kathleen Diamond, Babs had been thirsty for revenge, so when Dave Carter had approached her, asking for a little information on Martin, Babs had been more than happy to oblige.

  She’d given him little details here and there but had never really imagined quite how the information she provided could damage Martin. She certainly hadn’t expected to be part of the reason her husband had been banged up.

  But she couldn’t say she was disappointed. In fact, she was rather pleased. The only thing that terrified her was the chance that Martin might find out. For the entire first year Martin had been locked up, Babs had been on tenterhooks, positive that Martin was about to find out at any time, but Dave kept his word and hadn’t told anybody about Babs’ involvement, at least as far as she knew.

  It seemed her secret was safe for the time being.

  CHAPTER 6