The Cobbler's Kids (16 page)

‘So we’re right, then, are we?’ Eddy interposed. ‘You are involved in some sort of betting ring and you are using little Benny as a runner.’

‘You want to watch your mouth, whacker!’ Michael Quinn scowled. ‘I can kick you out any time I like.’

‘Don’t worry, I’ll be going soon enough. I’ve already told you I’d have gone before now if it wasn’t for Vera and Benny. I have to make sure that they’re safe.’

A dark flush spread over their father’s face. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ he snarled.

‘You know perfectly well what I mean. After the way you behaved with Rita I wouldn’t trust you as far as I could throw you. I also know that you thump young Benny across the head when you’re in one of your foul moods, too. I know how much it hurts because it’s exactly what you did to me when I was that age.’

‘I’ll thump your skull again right now if I have any more of your bloody lip!’

‘No you won’t,’ Eddy told him confidently. ‘You wouldn’t dare. Take me on and I’ll come out on top, whether you’re sober or fighting drunk like you were at our party.’

‘Beat me? A runt like you!’ his father scoffed.

‘I may not be as tall as you, but I’m a damned sight stronger, and I’ll prove it any time you like,’ Eddy told him calmly.

‘Look, you two, instead of bickering like a couple of rough-necks, shouldn’t we be discussing how to get out of this mess?’ Vera asked quietly.

‘You mean we should be dreaming up a pack of lies to save his skin,’ Eddy muttered contemptuously.

‘I was thinking more about protecting Benny. If they prove he has been a runner, no matter who it was for, they’ll say he is in need of care and guidance, and you know what that means. When they look into his family background they’re bound to feel they have to take him into care because he has no mother.’

‘There’s plenty of kids around here without mothers, though. Compared to most of them our Benny is well looked after. He’s got boots on his feet, and even if his clothes are patched and darned they’re always clean, and so is he. No, I don’t think he will be taken away. Not quite so sure about Dad though. When I’ve finished having my say they may well think that it would be better for all of us if he was banged up.’

The officious hammering on the shop door silenced them all. Squinting through the gap of the half-open door between the living room and the shop beyond, Vera could make out the burly figure of PC Walters outside. ‘He’s back!’ she gasped in a frightened voice, ‘and he’s got someone with him.’

‘You go and let them in and be careful what you say,’ Michael Quinn said, nodding towards Eddy.

Vera was taken aback when they came through into the living room and she saw that it was Steve Frith who was with PC Walters. She tried to catch his eye, but he studiously avoided her stare.

‘Is this the man who grabbed hold of you, sonny?’ PC Walters asked in a kindly tone, speaking directly to Benny.

‘No! That’s Steve and he’s Vera’s friend.’ Tears filled Benny’s big blue eyes as he violently shook his head and held on tightly to Vera’s hand. ‘It wasn’t him, it was another man.’

‘You’re not going to take a young kid’s word for it, are you?’ Michael Quinn laughed.

‘Well, he has confirmed what Mr Frith told me.’

‘Oh yes, what was that? Some cock and bull yarn I imagine.’

‘Mr Frith has told me that he’s a very close friend of your daughter and that they are going out together.’

‘And you believed him?’ Michael Quinn said scornfully. Then he spun round and faced Vera. ‘Go on, tell him it’s not true?’

Vera hesitated. She knew the predicament she was in and that unless she was careful she would antagonise her father. Yet Steve’s good name, and perhaps even his freedom, was in jeopardy if she said what her dad wanted her to say.

‘Well?’ Her father’s keen blue eyes glinted sharply.

Vera took a deep breath. ‘Steve is a friend, a very special friend,’ she pronounced, her voice shaking.

‘So it seems highly unlikely that he was the one who grabbed young Benny, or that he dropped the betting slips that seem to incriminate you, Mr Quinn,’ PC Walters commented as he walked towards the door.

He paused briefly. ‘You’ll be hearing more about this,’ he called back over his shoulder.

Michael Quinn waited until the shop door slammed behind PC Walters before turning viciously on Vera, his face livid.

‘Why tell trumped up lies to save that sod’s neck?’ he snarled, nodding towards Steve Frith. Without waiting for her to reply, he went on, ‘You’re to stop seeing him right now. Understand?’

‘You know very well that Steve had nothing to do with what happened to Benny, so how could you be so wicked as to imply that it was him?’ Vera railed. ‘Do you know the trouble he could have been in?’

‘A few months inside the Waldorf Astoria would have kept him out of our way,’ her father muttered, glowering at Steve.

‘Ruin his life, more likely!’ Vera said bitterly.

‘It would have kept him away from you, though,’ her father retorted grimly. ‘I don’t want to see him around here again and I don’t want to find out that you’re meeting him on the sly either, so he can piss off, right now,’ he added savagely.

‘Why don’t you want us seeing each other?’ Steve questioned. ‘I have a good job, and I’ve never been in any trouble in my life.’

‘Don’t give me any of your lip, I saw the way you were all over my daughter at the party,’ Michael Quinn roared. ‘You’ll put her in the family way and then sod off before any of us know what’s happening. That will be another mouth for me to slug my guts out trying to bring up,’ he railed.

‘Stop it, stop it!’ Vera clamped her hands over her ears. ‘Stop saying such dreadful things.’ She reached out and took Steve’s hand. ‘I love him!’

‘That’s right and I love her. We’re getting married as soon as Vee’s old enough to do so without having to ask your permission.’

‘Certainly no point in you asking because you wouldn’t get it,’ Michael told them scathingly.

‘There’s nothing to stop us eloping,’ Steve declared. ‘Isn’t that right, Vera?’

As she opened her mouth to reply, her father’s eyes narrowed.

‘If she clears off with you then I’ll stick Benny into some sort of home or orphanage the very next day,’ he warned.

Caught up in a new dilemma, Vera looked from one to the other of them beseechingly.

Steve Frith shook his head in disbelief. ‘He wouldn’t do that, not with his own little kid.’

Vera shivered as she looked up at her father and saw the cold challenge in his eyes as they met hers. ‘He would,’ she said in a dull whisper. ‘He’d do it all right. I can’t condemn Benny to a fate like that.’

Steve stood his ground. ‘He doesn’t mean it, he’s only bluffing,’ he insisted.

‘Steve, much as I want to be with you I could never let that happen to Benny,’ she said dispiritedly.

Michael laughed cynically. ‘My daughter knows that when I say something I damn well mean it. She knows I’m not bluffing.’

‘Come on, Vera? You’re not going to let him bully you like this are you?’ There was deep anguish in Steve Frith’s voice as he pleaded with her.

Vera shook her head in despair, tears making rivulets down her ashen cheeks. ‘It’s no good, Steve. I could never desert little Benny.’

‘What about if we take him with us …’

‘Take him! Take him with you? What do you think he is, a bag of potatoes or a sack of coal that you can pick up and take without so much as a by-your-leave. I’m the kid’s bloody father …’

‘And such a caring father that you’d stick him in a home rather than look after him yourself,’ sneered Steve.

Michael laughed harshly. ‘Our Vera’s made her choice. She wants to stay put so the best thing you can do is sling your hook. Don’t come round here ever again because you’re not welcome,’ he pronounced triumphantly. ‘Now bugger off and leave me and mine to get on with our lives.’

Vera tried hard to hide her tears and despair over losing Steve Frith from her friends and family. She stubbornly refused to let her father see how upset she was, although she deeply resented his callous interference.

She missed Steve dreadfully. Surely he could see the predicament she was in! He loved her, so he must understand how important it was that she made sure Benny was safe. She didn’t blame him for staying away, not after the way her father had treated him, and the things he’d said to him, but they could always have arranged to meet somewhere else, he didn’t have to come to the house. They’d been so close that she was deeply hurt that he had simply walked away.

At work, Joan Frith wasn’t exactly hostile, but she was certainly very cool. Vera wanted to talk to her about what had happened, why she and Steve had broken up, but she couldn’t find the right words to do so. She couldn’t explain without disclosing things about her father that she preferred to keep private.

She loved Steve and now that she knew he loved her too she felt devastated, but she simply couldn’t abandon her little brother. Benny was so vulnerable. Although he’d grown up in Scotland Road he wasn’t nearly as tough as most of the children of his own age.

That was her fault, she thought sadly. She had probably been too protective after her mother died, but she had felt it was necessary to show him all the love and affection she could. As a result, he was far more dependent on her than he should be.

Night after night Vera cried herself to sleep with tears of frustration and despair. She found she was missing her mother more than she would have believed possible. She longed to be able to confide in her about her love for Steve Frith. She needed her not only to console her, but to tell her how to face the future without him.

At work, an even deeper rift developed between her and Joan Frith when Joan told her brusquely that Steve had packed up his job in Liverpool and gone off to Australia.

‘Mam cried buckets when he told her what he was going to do. She tried her best to get him to change his mind, but he wouldn’t listen to a word she was saying,’ Joan said bitterly.

Vera was heartbroken by the news. If Steve had truly loved her, as much as she loved him, she thought sadly, then surely he wouldn’t have done such a thing. He would have stayed close and waited to see if her dad would change his mind, not only about them going out together, but about them getting married, too.

Australia was on the other side of the world. It would be years before Steve would have enough money to come home again. No matter how hard she saved, she’d never be able to afford to go and find him.

It was all so permanent. It meant that their relationship was completely over. She knew that the only thing she could do was dry her eyes and get on with her life, but it was easier said than done. Seeing Joan and Liam Kelly together constantly reminded her that it was all over between her and Steve and made her feel more desolate than ever.

She spent more and more time with Benny. She went somewhere with him every evening, whether there were boots to be delivered or not. She refused to let him out on his own in case he came to some harm.

‘You’re making a right nincompoop out of that kid,’ her father told her scornfully. ‘Let him stand on his own two feet! He’s almost eight, old enough to do things on his own without you holding his hand.’

Vera ignored him. When her father grumbled about the dirty dishes in the sink, or that his shirt wasn’t ironed properly, or anything else, she simply shrugged and took no notice.

His constant bickering, and his anger, washed over her. It was as if there was a wall between her and the rest of the world, one that only Benny could penetrate.

When Michael found that his repetitive grumbling and shouting at Vera had no effect, he craftily tried a different ruse to bring his daughter to heel.

In the weeks that followed, when she came home from work Vera found he was rarely on his own in the shop. A chap called Bill Martin, one of his drinking companions, was usually there with him.

Vera didn’t like the man who had suddenly become so friendly with her father. He was thickset, of medium height, and had a pockmarked face and small dark eyes. His scant brown hair was receding, and he had a thin, pencil moustache, which she thought not only looked ridiculous, but drew attention to the cruel twist of his thin lips.

Vera hated the way he leered at her and the suggestive compliments he made about her appearance. Even more, she disliked the fact that he continually tried to curry favour with Benny, and win him over with gifts of sweets and toys.

Encouraged by Michael, he would even offer to accompany her and Benny when they went off to do the deliveries.

‘Could you give them a hand, Bill,’ her father would suggest. ‘Rather a load for the two of them to manage.’

‘There’s no need, I’ll take Benny’s old pram,’ Vera would say quickly, hoping to discourage him.

‘You don’t want to be seen out pushing that,’ Bill would laugh. ‘People might start getting the wrong idea,’ he’d add as his eyes raked over her from top to toe.

She knew it brought the colour rushing to her face and she resented his smug laugh in response.

Vera found that the more she tried to snub Bill Martin, the more persistent he became. It worried her that her father encouraged him so much and seemed to find nothing wrong with his attitude towards her.

Soon it led to rows between the two of them. Her father became angry when she constantly rejected Bill’s help, and told her to mind her manners.

‘Manners? My manners?’ she questioned angrily. ‘He’s the one who needs to mind his manners. I don’t like him, in fact I can’t stand him, and the sooner he realises that and leaves me alone the better.’

‘You’ll have a long wait then you silly bint because Bill Martin wants to marry you. What’s more to the point, I’ve told him he can.’

‘You’ve done what?’ The colour drained from her face and she felt herself shaking. ‘Me, have Bill Martin as my husband! I’d sooner die.’

Her answer infuriated Michael. ‘You’ll do as you’re bloody well told, so tell him “yes” when he asks you to marry him, and do it with a bloody smile on your face or I’ll …’

‘Thump my bloody skull?’ she sneered. ‘You can thump it all you like, but it won’t make me change my mind.’