Christmas to Come: a heartbreaking coming of age saga set in London's East End

by Carol Rivers

  'Bugger the Strattons and the Mc Nees,' Micky shouted again, his fists slamming down on the table. 'They are filth and should be treated as such.'

  'Micky – just think about it for a moment,' Bella broke in. 'Please!'

  'McNee is a brainless git,' Micky continued angrily. 'He's struck lucky, putting the fear of God into people just because they let him. And that is what is happening to us – the Bryants. Ronnie, you can't let this happen.'

  Ronnie stared into his brother's ashen face and wished with all his heart that he had the balls to take Billy McNee and rip him apart. But if he did that, it would be world war three and he couldn't allow that to happen. 'Billy McNee might be the brainless git, Micky,' Ronnie nodded, 'but he's ousted everyone in his path so far. Resistance is not an option for us. We are small fry in comparison to the big firms. Listen to me, the mob has changed into something I don't recognize now. What is happening today is out of our league. The specialist crews are moving in and taking over, disregarding manors and turf. They are heavies of the first order and we are not. We have had our day. Now we must put our brains where our muscle has been. And we can do it. All above board and legitimate too. Ten years down the line we will be wealthy, with businesses that are not corrupt.'

  But Micky was shaking his head as Ronnie spoke. 'Ronnie, you are making one big error here. The Bryants are a name and will continue to be so if we stop McNee right now. Once this is done, we step into his shoes and then we will be wealthy men!'

  Ronnie flexed his tight fingers, again amazed at his brother's refusal to learn from past mistakes. 'You have a short memory, Micky. We paid the price in '49. And I refuse to pay it again.'

  Micky sat back, his blue eyes ice cold. 'You are running scared, Ronnie. And you know what, all those that respect us now will be laughing behind our backs. We'll be standing jokes to the hard men of this city. The Blue Moon is our turf and ours alone. If it sinks, then we sink with it.'

  Ronnie looked calmly at his brother. 'I have seen this day coming and prepared for it, Micky. That's why I bought the garage, a legitimate business and you must grow it. There's no end to the potential. You can expand into the suburbs and make a name for yourself there.'

  'What if I don't want to?'

  'Then you would be throwing away a profitable future.'

  'Micky,' Joyce broke in, 'listen to your brother. He's right. The clubs are being carved up, and so will you if you don't get out now.'

  Ronnie watched the fury fill Micky's face. He admired his courage, his confidence and the desire to be someone that counted, to be a Name. But he could not see reality. He was wanting something he could not have. Ronnie also knew that Micky would never forgive him for selling out. In Micky's mind the Bryants were losing face and the loss of the Blue Moon and Joyce's business were the ultimate insult.

  Micky shoved back his chair and stood up. Ronnie watched as Bella rose too, fear filling her face as she tried to reach out for her husband. But Micky pushed her aside. The door slammed shut and there was silence in the room. An engine roared outside and Bella hurried to the window.

  Ronnie watched helplessly. It was the end of an era and everyone in the room knew it. He just wished that Micky could accept the fact too.

  Bella was sitting by the fire and the airey was warm, despite the fire having burnt low. The heavy chintz curtains were drawn back allowing the last rays of the sunshine to creep in the big window. It looked out onto the stairs that led up to the front door of the house. Just over an hour ago she had walked up the same stairs with Joyce, unaware of what lay ahead.

  She looked at the big moquette chair opposite where Joyce had sat drinking her cup of tea. Joyce hadn't said a word about McNee or the business. Instead, she had listened to Bella, who never needed an excuse to talk about Micky. Joyce had just let her talk to her heart's content as usual. Now Micky had stormed off and Bella knew he had taken Ronnie's decision hard.

  Bella felt alone and uneasy. Like Micky, she too found it hard to believe that Ronnie had relinquished the Blue Moon without protest. She didn't know who this Billy McNee was and she wished that Joyce had shared her knowledge of the man with her prior to the meeting so she could have been more prepared. But then that wasn't Joyce. She was loyal to Ronnie in every way and chose her moments carefully. Perhaps she too was anxious about her future? After all, what would she do when both her place and the club were sold? Ronnie had his other business interests. But Joyce had been an East End madam for years, loved her girls and the business itself.

  As Bella lifted the tongs and dropped a nugget of coal on the fire, she heard the latch go. Looking round, she hoped to see Micky, but it was Ronnie who stood there.

  'Can I come in?'

  Bella nodded, replacing the tongs. 'Course you can.'

  Ronnie closed the door behind him and took the comfortable chair that Joyce had vacated. The fire started to catch again and he unloosened the button of his suit jacket reclining his long legs in front of the hearth. Bella studied his face, the high, proud cheekbones and generous mouth that were a Bryant trademark. Yet when he looked into her eyes, Ronnie's expression was so different to Micky and Sean's. The light grey of his gaze was always a little unnerving. It was sometimes too intense as if he was reading her thoughts and now as he stared at her, she looked away.

  'Don't worry about Micky,' he told her after a moment. 'He was upset, but he'll get over it. I'm sorry he took it so hard, but I have no option.'

  'Really?' she replied, staring at he the tiny red flames licking the coal. 'Who is this Billy McNee? '

  'He is a thug, pure and simple, but a thug with half the city in his pocket. Joyce wasn't exaggerating when she called his outfit an army. He hires from abroad and ships them over on the boats. Jamaicans, Chinese, Eastern Europeans. They owe their lives to him and more importantly, their families lives. I've never met him. Not until the day he came to the club and brought Joyce's two girls who had agreed to work for him. And they are loyal girls, but like Joyce they could see the writing on the wall.'

  Bella looked up sharply. 'But that's a kind of blackmail, Ronnie.'

  'It could have been murder.'

  'I've never heard you talk like this before.'

  'I've never needed to.' He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. 'Listen Bella, I would be the first in line to row out Billy McNee if I thought it was worth it. But Billy McNee is the first in a long line of villains who will try to own the East End. Before the war it was different. We were trading on the business Dad had built up; the scrap and junk, doing deals from the yard and any street corner. We owned our turf, kept to the island and respected the territory of others. But during the war the black market replaced our totting. And now, after the battle with foreigners, we've got wars in our own backyards. Every Tom Dick and Harry thinks he's tough enough to demolish his neighbour. We have two choices as I see it. Get us back in the frame - as is Micky's inclination. Or bow out gracefully.'

  'Micky doesn't know the meaning of that word, Ron. He is a fighter.'

  'And I respect him for that. But I won't see thirty again and I want peace. If we resist McNee, the repercussions are endless. Would you want young Michael to grow up with his father and uncles carrying weapons and using them? Would you want to see even less of Micky than you do, when there is a chance with the garage you can have it all? Live without threat or danger and enjoy one another. If the Bryants opposed the new blood then we would challenge the upstarts who have no conception of talking a deal through. They use force at the drop of a hat. Anyone who stands in their way is eliminated.'

  'Even us?'

  Ronnie nodded slowly. 'Especially us. Until now McNee has kept to his manor. But the word on the street is he is moving across the city and offering a price to let it be known that he is a fair man. That is, fair in his estimation. Of course, he also offers protection; a monkey each month if you prefer. Now you do the sums, Bella. And tell me a wedge like that is worth staying in business for.'

  Bella's g
asp was audible. 'Five hundred pounds? For protection?'

  He nodded. 'Pay up and you don't have your windows smashed or your staff crippled.'

  'Oh, Ronnie, Micky would go crazy if he knew that.'

  'Which is why I decided to cut loose, make a clean break.' Suddenly his face darkened. 'But I tell you this, it has stuck in my craw that I can't help Joyce. And one day I will see justice done. But at this moment in time Billy McNee has scored.'

  She had never heard Ronnie speak with such passion before. 'Will McNee ever be stopped?'

  'Oh yes,' he assured her, a cold smile on his lips. 'There are others on the scene, like the twins from Bethnal Green. Billy Hill and Jack Comer, crews with formidable reps who will graduate into the big time. Odds on, it will be a turf war like the East End has never seen.'

  Bella felt the weight of his words and knew she had reason to be afraid. Not only for Micky but for young Michael. She didn't want to spend her life wondering if Micky would come home in one piece each day, or whether Michael was safe at school. If Ronnie was to be believed, the sooner they adjusted to a new life the better.

  'What will Joyce do?'

  He smiled distractedly. 'I'd like to put a ring on her finger but she's refused me.'

  'But she caught my bouquet, Ron. You two were meant for each other.'

  'That's what I told her.'

  'She loves you, I know she does.'

  'Not enough to marry me, apparently,' Ronnie sighed.

  'She'll change her mind, she's just upset.'

  He looked into the fire. 'I don't want to lose her, Bella.'

  Suddenly she saw the real Ronnie, the man who always kept his feelings hidden, who she looked on as someone even stronger than her Micky. If Ronnie loved Joyce as much as she loved Micky, he would do anything for her, and at this moment in time, the one thing that meant the world to Joyce were her girls. And she was loosing them. Ronnie had been unable to help her and it was destroying him.

  She knelt down beside him. 'Ronnie, it will all be all right. I know it will.'

  He nodded, taking her chin in his fingers. 'The family and Joyce, who I consider as part of this family, is what I am doing this for, Bella. My natural inclination is to take hold of Billy McNee and crush him. But I have better sense than to screw up what I have worked so hard to preserve. I would give my life for you all, for Sean and Micky and you and young Michael. I love you all and want the best for each one of you.'

  For a moment they looked into each other's eyes. Bella felt a ripple go through her body as he drew nearer. The fire crackled and his mouth full parted as he bent slowly towards her. Then suddenly he jerked back his head and stood up.

  The front door closed quietly behind him. She closed her eyes and sank back on her heels. She didn't want to think what had almost happened then.

  Ashley was humming along to Hank Williams singing Your Cheating' Heart at the same time lacquering the curly blonde hair of the young girl sitting in the chair next to Bella. The salon was busy, as it always was on Saturdays. And with Christmas in sight, the December rush was on. The six pink hooded hair dryers in the next room were humming away, the heads beneath them covered in purple hairnets with pads of cotton wool pressed to each ear. Behind each magazine was a face, oblivious to the soft music that was being played in the main salon.

  Ashley winked at Bella as he teased the girl's curls into place and Bella smiled shyly, inhaling as she did so the strong odours around her. On the trolley was a box full of pink, blue and white plastic rollers, all of which had just been removed from her own head. Sean had gone off to find a brush that was suitable for the management of her thick, shoulder length hair. The ponytail that she always wore was about to be styled into a long, glossy pageboy.

  'Now, where shall we comb your parting?' Sean frowned intently as he appeared again, his long, artistic fingers rearranging the loose chestnut locks that fell about her head.

  'On the right. It always falls back if I comb it any other way.'

  'You should use more lacquer.'

  Bella coughed gently as Sean enveloped them in another cloud of spray from the bottle.

  'Seany, give the girl a break,' Ashley warned, rolling his eyes. 'She doesn't need to be drowned in it.'

  'I know, I know,' Sean answered tartly, raising his voice above the strains of the Chordettes singing Mr. Sandman. 'But there's a wind blowing out there and she has to walk all the way back through the foot tunnel.' Sean placed a hand on Bella's shoulder. 'Will you be in time to collect young Michael from school?'

  Bella nodded, grateful the lacquer had now been returned to Ashley. 'It's their Christmas party today, so the bell won't go till a bit later.'

  'Just you look after yourself then. It's still blowing a gale out there.'

  Bella had brought a headscarf, although she was reluctant to use it over her new hairstyle. The winds of the last six weeks had been ferocious. As she had walked through the foot tunnel from Island Gardens to Greenwich she had heard it whistling after her like a steam train.

  'What about that tornado last week, then?' Ashley said as he removed the white towel from around his customer's shoulders. 'It ripped the roof off Gunnersbury Station as if it was a piece of cloth. And one of our customers told me she was over Acton visiting her daughter and they saw a car lifted into the air.'

  'And those poor souls on the South Goodwin Lightship,' Sean added in a whisper. 'All the crew died except one. He clung to the ship for eight hours before he was rescued.' Quickly resuming his normal voice he added, 'Even our customers were afraid to venture out. Goodness only knows how many appointments we had to cancel.' He smiled brightly into the mirror, cupping his hands on either side of the Bella's head. 'How is that for you, darling?'

  'I love it, Sean. Thanks.'

  'Micky taking you somewhere nice is he?'

  'I wanted to see that new film The Barefoot Contessa with Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardner. But Micky said he has something special in mind. I've bought a new dress especially and Gina and Lenny are babysitting.'

  'Well, he'll have to chain you to his wrist for the night. Ava don't hold a candle to you.'

  'I wish that was true, Sean.'

  He looked into her suddenly sad gaze and bent close to her ear. 'Now listen you. You are a beautiful girl, in your prime, but lately I haven't seen much of that lovely smile. I don't know what's wrong, but it can't be all that bad, as you have your health and your little boy is a credit to you. Money can't be a problem,' Sean added wisely, 'as your old man is making it hand over fist. So, my recommendation is to go out and let your hair down with your new dress and lovely hairstyle. A bit of fun will cure your blues and that's a promise.'

  Bella knew Sean was speaking the truth and she dearly hoped that she could win back her husband's attention in such a way. He hadn't been himself at all lately. She knew Ronnie and Micky had quarrelled over Ronnie's decision to sell the club to Billy McNee. Micky believed the family was looked on as a spent force now and he missed the kudos the Blue Moon had provided. Once he hadn't come home and he'd stayed out all night. She had worried herself sick and not slept. But the next morning he had walked in the door, claiming he'd had to work. They had quarrelled bitterly and the rift between them had become even deeper.

  Bella listened to Sean as he continued to try to cheer her up, but she was only half listening. Her thoughts were on her family, mainly Micky and his behaviour lately. He was cold and distant and never told her she looked like Lana Turner any more. He rarely commented on her appearance or the effort she put into keeping nice for him. That was why she was here today in the hopes that a new hairstyle would make him notice her again. She wanted their relationship back the way it was and would do anything to achieve it. Micky used to be happy at the still. He had been his real self then, always excited about what he was going to do next. Somewhere along the line, he had changed and now she was wondering if Ronnie was partly to blame for this.

  Micky had his faults, but he was not a coward. He was a Br
yant and a proud one. And she knew that in his heart he believed his brother had chosen a coward's way out. And he had no respect left for Ronnie because of it.

  'You should go out more,' Sean was saying as he met her gaze in the mirror. 'All work and no play, you know how the saying goes. Me and Ashley can get real stroppy with each other if we don't have a bit of fun.' He winked at her, comically tapping the side of his nose as they gazed in the mirror. 'So you just enjoy yourself, give your old man a cuddle in the back seats and take Uncle Sean's advice.'

  Bella wanted to! More than anything she wanted their marriage to succeed. In the five years she had been Mrs Bryant, she had never regretted marrying Micky. She had a lovely home and beautiful son and she wasn't short of money. Most women would be satisfied with what she had. But now there was a chasm between them and she couldn't find a way to bridge it. Perhaps she was blowing things out of proportion? Micky had promised her a treat tonight, something they hadn't done for ages. Maybe this was a fresh start.

  Encouraged by Sean's words, she imagined her and Micky dancing to some slow, sweet music, alone in their little world in the middle of a crowded dance floor. His whispered words were telling her she meant the world to him and that he wanted her – no, needed her – like he used to when they first met. Then he would drive them home and after taking her to bed and making passionate love to her. And in a few weeks time she would discover that she was pregnant! She could see Dr Cox's face smiling at her, telling her that Michael would soon have a little brother or sister.

  The dream grew brighter and more vivid by the moment and suddenly her heart started to beat fast. Her smile in the mirror was radiant as she thought of being close to her husband again and the wonderful prospect of having the family she had always dreamed of.

  Chapter 19