Love or Duty--A saga set in 1920s Liverpool

by Rosie Harris

  ‘Very well,’ she agreed. ‘If you tell me exactly where Kelly has gone, and how you know, then you can have all the money, the whole ten pounds you’ve asked for.’

  He grinned widely, showing so many brown broken teeth that it sent a shudder through her.

  ‘Kelly Murphy’s gone across to New Brighton,’ he told her. ‘She’s joining up with Bilkie’s Circus over there.’

  ‘How on earth do you know that?’ Penny gasped sceptically.

  ‘Spoke to her earlier on this morning. I was down by the docks and I saw her. She was wandering around like a stray cat.’

  ‘You saw her go on to one of the ferry boats?’

  ‘Better than that, I took her over there. We went on the Royal Daffodil. She said that the police were looking for her and she was running away because if they found her then they’d send her back to St Saviour’s Remand Home again. I felt sorry for her so I told her the best thing she could do was to join the circus.’

  ‘And she believed you?’ Penny asked incredulously.

  ‘She’s gone ain’t she and you and that doctor fellow don’t know where she is.’

  ‘Why would she want to join the circus?’ Penny mused.

  ‘To get right away from Liverpool and St Saviour’s and so as the rozzers can’t find her.’

  ‘If she’s only in New Brighton it will be easy enough for them to find her,’ Penny pointed out.

  ‘The circus is in New Brighton now but they’ll be packing up any day and moving back to Spain because that’s what they always do when the season is over.’

  ‘You say they are called Bilkie’s?’

  ‘That’s right. Everyone knows them. They’re a star attraction and they’re in the grounds of the Tower Ballroom. They’ve got a circus of wild animals as well as roundabouts, swing boats, coconut shies, boxing booths and all sorts of other sideshows. Ask for Ferdy Bilkie; he’s the big boss man and he’ll know where she is.’

  ‘How do you know all this?’ Penny repeated dubiously.

  ‘Everybody as what goes to New Brighton knows them,’ he said scornfully.

  ‘You seem to know a lot about them, though,’ Penny persisted. ‘Why did you tell Kelly to go there and how do you know the name of the man who runs it?’

  ‘I used to work for them; taking tickets on the carousel.’

  ‘Really!’ Penny looked at him in surprise. He was so scruffy that she couldn’t imagine anyone employing him. ‘What happened? Why don’t you work for them now?’

  The boy looked uncomfortable, then he grinned. ‘Ferdy caught me nicking some of the takings so he booted me out,’ he explained with an air of bravado.

  Penny bit down on her bottom lip wondering how much of this scruffy boy’s story she could believe. Somehow, even to her critical ears there was a ring of truth in it.

  ‘What makes you think that this Ferdy would let Kelly join his circus?’ she queried.

  ‘He’s always on the lookout for midgets and the like. She’s small enough for what he wants. He dresses ’em up as fairies and then trains them to dance or perform some acrobatics on the back of the elephant or on one of the horses.’

  ‘If you really are telling me the truth and Kelly has gone to join his circus then where would she live?’

  ‘In one of the caravans his lot have, along with all the other kids and dwarves. You satisfied now?’ he asked impatiently stretching out a grubby hand to take the money from her.

  ‘I want to know your name,’ she said, pulling back as his foul breath hit her in the face making her cough.

  ‘Not bleeding likely. You’ll tell it to the rozzers and I’d find myself locked up in a remand home the same as Paddy Murphy is.’

  Twenty-Two

  ‘I’m afraid he still isn’t free. There are still four patients waiting in Dr Cash’s clinic to see him,’ the receptionist told Penny when she went along to the hospital and asked if she could speak to him.

  Frustrated, Penny didn’t know what to do for the best. She wondered whether to wait until Bryn was available or if she should set off on her own to New Brighton.

  She didn’t altogether trust the boy who had told her where Kelly was and his story about taking her over there himself. He’d looked so dirty and his manner had been so shifty, yet it was the only lead she had as to Kelly’s whereabouts.

  If what he’d told her was true then she was certainly worried about what might happen to Kelly. She had never visited Bilkie’s Circus although she knew where it was sited. She didn’t like the sound of Ferdy Bilkie and she felt unsure about what his real intentions were for Kelly.

  Perhaps, she resolved, it would be better to talk it over with Bryn and see what he thought about it all before doing anything.

  She went back to Bryn’s flat in Scotland Road and prepared a simple meal and then made a jug of coffee. She had just put everything out on the table when he came up the stairs.

  As they ate their lunch Penny told him that she had again gone to see Ma Reilly and Ellen Murphy and that neither of them had seen Kelly or been able to help in any way.

  ‘So we’ve nothing at all to go on,’ he said morosely.

  ‘Well,’ she said hesitantly. ‘I do have some news. A young lad stopped me as I was leaving Cannon Court and told me that he knew where Kelly was. He said she had gone over to New Brighton to join the circus.’

  Bryn looked startled. ‘Good heavens! How on earth did he know that? Or know who you were for that matter?’

  ‘I’m not sure how he knew me,’ Penny said lamely, ‘except that he had probably seen me coming away from the Murphys’ place.’

  ‘You say this lad stopped you in the street and told you that he knew Kelly had gone over to New Brighton to join the circus,’ Bryn mused thoughtfully.

  ‘That’s right. In fact he said he had taken her over there,’ Penny asserted.

  ‘He’d taken her there,’ Bryn repeated. ‘That sounds like a very strange thing for him to do.’

  ‘He obviously knows her and her family and he seemed to know all about Kelly and her brother Paddy being sent to remand homes. He probably knew she had run away from St Saviour’s and he was probably trying to help her.’

  ‘You’ve no idea of his name?’

  ‘No.’ Penny shook her head. ‘He wouldn’t tell me what it was.’

  Bryn pursed his lips. ‘I don’t trust his motives. Did he ask you for any money?’

  ‘Oh yes! He wanted money before he would tell me where Kelly was.’

  Bryn frowned. ‘I hope you didn’t give him any?’

  ‘Yes, I did. I gave him ten pounds,’ Penny admitted.

  Bryn’s eyebrows shot up. ‘His information didn’t come cheap!’

  ‘No, but at least we know where Kelly is,’ Penny defended.

  ‘True! So what do you propose we do about it? I suppose we ought to tell the police and let them deal with the situation.’

  ‘No, we can’t do that,’ Penny protested. ‘If we tell the police then it means they will go over there and pick her up and take her straight back to St Saviour’s.’

  ‘That’s going to happen anyway sooner or later,’ Bryn pointed out as he helped himself to a second cup of coffee.

  ‘I know, but perhaps it would soften the blow a little if we found her first and explained things to her. She might take it more calmly if we told her that although she has to go back there for the moment we will be doing everything in our power to get her released.’

  ‘Or we could leave her where she is and let the circus people take her with them when they go back to Spain,’ Bryn mused.

  ‘We can’t do that, Bryn! We don’t know what would happen to her; we don’t know anything about this Ferdy Bilkie,’ Penny exclaimed her voice full of concern.

  ‘No, but it’s certainly the easiest solution!’ Bryn countered. ‘We can’t simply walk up to him and ask for her back. This young scallywag who approached you this morning has probably made him pay out good money for her.’

  ‘Are you s
uggesting that this boy I spoke to has sold Kelly to the circus people!’ Penny exclaimed in a shocked voice.

  ‘If he asked you for money before he would tell you Kelly’s whereabouts then you can bet your boots he asked this Bilkie fellow for money before he handed her over.’

  Penny shook her head. ‘He wouldn’t do that, surely.’

  ‘If he went to the trouble of taking her over to New Brighton himself I’m pretty confident that he’s traded her,’ Bryn assured her. ‘Otherwise why bother to go all the way over there with her? He could have told Kelly where to go and who to ask for and left it to her to make her own way.’

  ‘So what do you think we should do now?’ she questioned. ‘Perhaps we ought to go over to New Brighton right away and see if we can persuade this Ferdy Bilkie to let us have her back,’ she added quickly before Bryn was able to reply.

  Bryn shook his head. ‘That would probably be a complete waste of time,’ he warned. ‘The minute you mention Kelly’s name this Bilkie fellow will deny all knowledge of ever having seen her.’

  Penny chewed on her lower lip in dismay. ‘There must be something we can do,’ she protested heatedly.

  ‘Yes, inform the police of her suspected whereabouts and let them handle it,’ Bryn responded gloomily.

  ‘Or we could go along to one of the circus performances,’ Penny suggested. ‘If we actually saw that she was there then Bilkie couldn’t deny knowledge of her, now could he?’

  ‘I’ll think it over.’ Bryn pushed back his chair. ‘I must go; I have another clinic this afternoon. We’ll talk about it again when I get back. I still think the most sensible action, and the right one, is to inform the police.’

  As Penny tidied away the remnants of their lunch she felt more and more concerned about Kelly’s safety. The boy had hinted that Kelly would be trained to become one of the performers in the circus and she wondered if she could believe this. After all, Kelly was only six years old, so what sort of role could she possibly undertake in the circus? What would they train her to do; become an acrobat or perhaps a dancer? Or would she merely become a skivvy at the beck and call of all and sundry.

  She was so young that somebody there would have to look after her so perhaps Bryn was right and letting Kelly go with them to Spain might well be the answer. But what if they were simply kidnapping her?

  The thought of what her fate might be if that was the case worried Penny so much that she couldn’t rest. Finally she put on her jacket and went out again to see if she could locate the boy she’d spoken to earlier that day.

  She walked the full length of Scotland Road, then to Ma Reilly’s in Blenheim Road and from there to the Murphys in Cannon Court. She didn’t knock on either door knowing that it was pointless to do so but she kept hoping she might see the lad she had spoken to earlier that day.

  She even walked round to the church to see if she could find Father O’Flynn and ask his advice but everywhere looked deserted. She was tempted to knock on the vestry door but she was afraid that if someone other than Father O’Flynn answered the door then they would want to know why she wanted to see him.

  The fewer people who knew about her concern over Kelly or her suspected whereabouts the better, she reasoned, in case they said anything to the police.

  She determined she would persuade Bryn to come with her to New Brighton and face this Ferdy Bilkie and find out the truth. It was the only way they would be able to find any answers to their many questions.

  She waited impatiently for Bryn to come home but he was so late that evening that although he finally agreed with her decision their visit had to be postponed.

  ‘We’re so short of doctors that I’m having to do double duty,’ he explained.

  He was kept extremely busy the next day, working right into the evening, making it far too late for them to visit New Brighton when he came home.

  ‘Provided nothing unexpected comes up that demands my attention and keeps me working late then we’ll go this evening,’ he promised her the following day as he ate a hurried snack at midday before hurrying back to the hospital.

  Penny dawdled after Bryn had left. She poured herself another cup of coffee and sat there wondering about Kelly. She was annoyed by the unfortunate delay because she felt that by not taking some positive action sooner she had failed Kelly.

  She picked up the Liverpool Echo in order to check what time the evening performance started so that she could make sure they arrived there in good time. To her surprise she saw that there would be a matinee that very afternoon.

  On impulse she decided to take matters into her own hands. She scribbled a brief note for Bryn so that he would know where she’d gone and in it suggested that he should follow her as soon as he arrived home. She hoped he would understand. Then she piled the dirty dishes up in the sink and snatching up a jacket and her handbag she made a dash for the door.

  With any luck if she managed to get a ferry boat direct to New Brighton she would reach the circus before the matinee started, she thought, as she hurried towards Water Street and headed for the Pier Head.

  It was late August, a warm, sultry day and time seemed to stand still for Penny as the crowded ferry boat ploughed its way up the Mersey towards New Brighton.

  She should have taken action much sooner she reproached herself. It was almost three days since Kelly had disappeared. It was so near the end of the season for the circus people that some of them may have already packed up and gone back to Spain. If so, they might well have already taken Kelly there with them.

  She found this thought very disturbing and she realized that it was ridiculous to worry about it when all the time Kelly was probably still in New Brighton, so she turned her mind to more pleasant things.

  Bryn declaring his love for her had been something she’d dreamed about for so long that she still found it hard to believe that it had come true and that he really did feel the same way about her as she did about him.

  Their concern over Kelly’s disappearance had rather overshadowed them showing their feelings for each other since that night, she thought sadly.

  Once they knew that Kelly was safe they’d celebrate in some way, she told herself, and wondered what her parents’ reactions would be. She sensed that although they tolerated Bryn they were by no means as enamoured by him as they had been by Arnold.

  Arnold had been very much the blue-eyed boy and it seemed could do no wrong in their eyes They seemed to be blind to his faults and to his selfishness like she had once been.

  In countless ways, she reflected, he was the exact opposite of Bryn. Arnold only cared about himself and his own prospects. Thank goodness she had discovered his true nature before it was too late.

  Twenty-Three

  Penny made sure that she was at the very front of the disembarking crowd waiting impatiently for the gangway to be lowered as the Royal Daffodil pulled in alongside the landing stage at New Brighton Pier.

  In the distance she could see the outline of the circus Big Top and as she hurried off the boat and made her way towards the grounds of the Tower Ballroom she could hear the music coming from the adjacent funfair.

  Apprehensively she bought a ticket and made her way into the huge tent. It was packed and the fanfare of trumpets announcing that the start of the show was imminent had already blared out by the time she’d climbed up the narrow wooden steps and found her place on the hard tiered seats that surrounded the ring on all sides.

  It was such a sweltering hot day that once inside the tent the smell of human bodies mingled with the stench of animal droppings that pervaded the air was almost overpowering.

  As an introduction to the main attractions clowns were performing a variety of tumbling tricks around the arena. They were being loudly clapped and cheered by hordes of children who were making the most of the last few days of their summer holidays.

  The first main event brought screams and gasps from the audience. A huge iron cage covered by a green cloth and obviously carrying some great animal
inside it was wheeled into the centre of the ring to a fanfare of music. A ringmaster wearing a smart black and gold uniform and a black top-hat that was also trimmed with gold braid whipped away the covers. He then began wielding a very long gold-topped cane to stir the sleepy lion inside the cage and make it get to its feet.

  As it stood up it shook its huge mane and then let out a tremendous roar that had the older children clutching at each other and screaming. Many of the younger ones burst into tears or hid their faces in their mother’s skirts because they were so frightened.

  They all watched with bated breath as the ringmaster took his life in his hands and stepped inside the cage. He then coaxed the lion to climb on to a stool, reach out a paw, take food from his hand and finally to lie down and go to sleep again.

  When the lion’s cage was wheeled away it was replaced by a huge black bear that sat on a stool and threw things into the air and then caught them again; this was followed by a gaggle of monkeys who had the children in fits of laughter as they performed their naughty antics.

  Between each act there were tumblers and acrobats as well as dancers of all shapes, ages and size to keep the vast crowd entertained. Penny avidly watched every movement in and around the arena as they performed hoping she might catch sight of Kelly but to no avail.

  She began to wonder if the boy had been lying and he hadn’t brought Kelly over there at all. The only thing she could do now, she decided, was to wait until the performance was over and then go to the back of the tent and ask to see Ferdy Bilkie himself and find out what he could tell her.

  As there came a lull in the proceedings Penny was about to leave her seat to go and see if she could find Bilkie when the ringmaster stepped into the centre of the arena. There was a hush of anticipation as he took off his top hat, bowed to the audience, and held up a hand for quiet.

  ‘We now come to the star event,’ he announced. ‘This is something so very special that it will make you gasp in amazement. Today, we have a new artiste who is appearing for the very first time. She is a beautiful angel and she has come down from heaven to entertain you.’