The Favourite Child (34 page)

Furious with herself as much as him, Bella came to her senses and began to fight. She slapped his hand away, kicked him in the shins, hearing his cry of pain with a sense of satisfaction. But he only found her puny attempt at retaliation amusing. She was rewarded with another slavering kiss, with the stench of his tobacco-tainted breath as he roared with laughter. ‘Go home, Quinn, damn you! You’re being ridiculous.’

His rage now seemed to fly completely out of control and he struck her across the face with the knuckles of one hand, making her cry out as she fell back across the table. ‘So, tis ridiculous I am now, is it? And did ye get something from that clinic of yours, like I told ye to?’

Bella could taste blood on her swollen tongue but was desperately trying to remain calm and not panic. That way she hoped to persuade him to come to his senses and leave. ‘No, of course I didn’t. I’ve already explained, birth control is available for married women only. It wouldn’t be right or proper for me to use it, for any single woman to make use of the clinic’s facilities. Stop wishing for the moon.’ She gave a half laugh and again attempted to push him away. It was a mistake.

‘More fool ye, then,’ and with a vicious shove Quinn thrust her down onto the rag rug, ripping open her blouse as he straddled her. He pinned her down, using the pressure of one arm held across her throat, while clumsy fingers fumbled with the ribbons on her camisole. Finally losing patience, he tore them apart with his bare hands and reached greedily for her breasts. Seeing the naked lust in his blue eyes Bella lost all control and screamed as loud as she could. He silenced her with a blow.

‘Ye realise at last that I mean business, don’t ye, my lovely? Are ye going to beg for mercy? Aw, now wouldn’t I jest love to see that. Miss High-and bleedin’-Mighty begging for her virginity. For ye are still a virgin, are ye not? Isn’t that what this maidenly reluctance is all about? Not like our Jinnie. Oh dear me no.’

He was unhooking and dragging off the leather belt at his waist, unbuttoning his trousers and Bella no longer even had the power to utter a sound, so great was her fear. But she was crying, her hands flying everywhere, desperately seeking some purchase, turning her into a termagant of fury and terror as she begged and pleaded for him to leave her alone. But he wasn’t listening. He was too far gone in his excitement.

It was then that the door flew open.

It all happened so quickly that Bella didn’t have time to think. One minute she was fighting a hopeless battle against what felt like a dozen pairs of hands and a huge pressing weight on top of her, the next a sound like a roar filled her head and somehow Quinn had been ripped from her and was flying across the room. He landed with a crash against the back door, his head meeting solid oak with a terrible crack.

‘Are you all right?’ The voice came out of nowhere. Then Dan’s face swam into focus, his arms came about her and she went into them on a gasp of heartfelt relief.

They sat at the kitchen table and sipped their mugs of sweet tea as if it were the most normal thing in the world for Bella to be in a dressing gown at this hour of the day. As if it were of no account that she’d almost been raped by Quinn and Dan had stepped in at just the right moment to rescue her.

Neither of them spoke for some long time, each reluctant to face the inevitable conclusions. Eventually she thought to ask how it was that he happened to be there, just when he was most needed.

It was a moment or two before he answered, and then with a sheepish half smile. ‘Aren’t I always?’

They smiled shyly into each other’s eyes. ‘You certainly used to be.’

The truth is that I’m never very far from your door. I come over regular and hang around for a bit, just to check that you’re all right. At other times I follow Quinn. I like to know what the bastard’s up to, pardon my French, because I’d an idea he might try something like this, and I was proved right, wasn’t I? I saw him come, but wouldn’t have done owt only I heard your scream.’

Bella couldn’t find anything to say. She merely gave a small nod of agreement. At length, knowing she should show some gratitude for his opportune arrival and the way Dan had manhandled Quinn out of her front door, she said, ‘I’ve behaved like an idiot, haven’t I? Perhaps I felt the need for some excitement in my life, after Seedley Park Road where everything was always so predictable, so dull. Father always petting and humouring me, wanting me to be the perfect little lady. Mother constantly complaining and having hysterics whenever I set foot out the door. I felt weighted down by their expectations and demands, needing some release, some small rebellion to prove I could manage my own life. Except that it got a bit out of hand. I’ve been an utter fool, haven’t I?’ She smiled ruefully up at him and Dan’s mouth twisted with amusement.

‘I’m glad you said that and not me. You’d ‘ave clocked me one if I’d risked saying it.’

‘Maybe, but I’m right, aren’t I? Go on, admit it.’

‘Nay, I daren’t. Let’s just say that I’m glad to be of service. Glad you’re safe and sound. I wouldn’t have liked owt to happen to you.

His gaze was so intense that Bella was finding it difficult to meet it, so filled with shame was she for her behaviour. She really didn’t deserve a friend like Dan.

She longed to tell him how often she had thought of him, how much she’d missed him; how much she’d once enjoyed his company and the fun they’d had together, while Quinn had only troubled and disturbed her. She wanted to ask if she might see him again, if perhaps one day he might even want to kiss her again. But she couldn’t quite find the words. ‘More tea?’ she suggested and he shook his head, got slowly to his feet.

‘Nay. I’m swimming in the stuff. I’d best be off.’ He put the words immediately into action and Bella was forced to do the same and follow him to the door.

‘You’ll come again though? Now that you know where I live. Properly this time, not hiding in the shadows.’ She was almost holding her breath waiting for his answer.

‘Happen.’

‘I’ll take that for a yes, shall I?’

Another slight pause as he considered the matter. ‘Aye, I reckon you can take that for a certainty.’ Then he flicked on his cap, politely doffed it to her, and quietly took his leave.

1930

As the decade drew to a close and a new one dawned, the feeling of optimism in the two cities of Manchester and Salford became superseded by one of increasing unease. Within a few months it became apparent that the careless Twenties were over, and the Hungry Thirties had begun.

This was brought forcibly to the notice of the occupants of Seedley Park Road one Friday afternoon in early summer. Jinnie, having given up her job when she married now discovered that her comfortable life as a loving wife without a care in the world, was over. It ended with the arrival of Edward home from the mill one evening when he starkly announced that he’d lost his job. The mill owner, Mr Josiah Collins, realising it was the only way that his mill might survive, had put the operatives on short time. Edward’s services, along with other clerks and office boys, were dispensed with, as the redoubtable Miss Tadcaster could now run the entire office single handed. She was, however, expected to do so on reduced pay, as was the manager. Overnight Simeon found that his weekly wage had been halved.

Emily, unable to take in the full import of this catastrophe sat buttering her second scone and complained bitterly about her husband’s employer who had always, in her humble opinion, been a vindictive piece of goods.

‘How will you manage?’ The more streetwise Jinnie wanted to know. ‘How will
we
manage, Edward, if you don’t have a job at all?’

He reached over to stroke her silken hair. ‘I shall find another, my sweet, fear not. I have qualifications.’

‘Of course, I was forgetting. But we’ll have to make savings, won’t we, since Mr Ashton is also earning less. Will Mrs Dyson or Tilly lose their jobs too? I should hate that to happen but if it were necessary I’d do the work Tilly usually does, Mrs Ashton, if you take on the cooking.’

Emily looked askance, eyebrows raised in surprise that Jinnie should even entertain such a notion. ‘Heavens, what a very gloomy outlook you have of life, child. I suppose that comes of living in the slums.’

Jinnie looked around at each member of this new family that she’d joined, seeking some sign that they understood the terrible calamity which had unexpectedly befallen them. Simeon was frowning, though more with annoyance than from any sense of foreboding. Edward was already reaching for the
Manchester Evening News
and taking out a pencil, preparatory to marking likely jobs. Emily rang the bell and ordered more tea.

Following the trauma of that day, Bella took to keeping her front door not only closed but firmly locked. Her neighbours took great offence, even her ‘ladies’ objected to having to knock and ‘hang about on t’doorstep’ whenever they called, until she explained that she’d been having a few problems with a certain unwelcome intruder. They knew at once whom she referred to, so Bella described the whole sorry episode. She tried not to go too deeply into why Quinn should choose to attack her, since she’d no wish to disclose all her shameful secrets. Yet something in the knowing quality of their studiously bland expressions made her suspect that they guessed much of it.

Mrs Blundell said she’d thought Billy Quinn were up to summat when she spotted him hovering about one day. ‘I told him to bugger off. Fat lot of good that did. I should’ve called t’police. Nasty piece of work he is, for all his pretty looks.’

Aunt Edie brought her a slice of ginger parkin, and Mrs Solomon said that Dan happening along at just the right moment served only to show how things always turned out for the best. He came out of the tale a hero.

‘Now you can be friends again, like you used to be.’

It seemed that Bella’s ‘ladies’ knew more about her affairs than they were letting on. In a way this increased her sense of shame, yet their reaction to her was entirely non-judgemental, as if accepting that a few wild oats must be sown in every young woman’s life.

Violet’s condemning silence on the matter, however, was even worse than an ‘I told you so’.

‘All right. I should have listened to you,’ Bella wearily admitted. Violet merely buttoned up her mouth still tighter.

But the episode dinted Bella’s confidence badly. Where once the thought of Billy Quinn had excited her, now she felt wary, even frightened of him. Whenever she ventured out, if only to the corner shop for a loaf of bread, she found herself constantly glancing over her shoulder and jumping at every shadow, just as if she were being followed, and not by the benevolent Dan. She took another week off work to fully recover. And as if this weren’t bad enough, by the time she was finally well enough to go out and about normally again, she’d lost the job at Kendal Milne.

Dr Syd insisted that instead of seeking another, she give her full attention in future to the work of the clinic and to visiting the mothers in their homes. ‘It’s vital that someone keeps a regular check on them, else how will we persuade them to come in for their check-ups.’

At any other time Bella might have protested but she was so shaken by the incident that she readily agreed. The clinic would be her sole concern, for the moment at least.

In spite of Edward’s qualifications, his years of experience and his optimism, he did not simply walk into another job. Every day for a month or more, he combed the
Manchester Guardian
,
The Evening Chronicle
and any other paper he could lay his hands on. Even if he was fortunate enough to find a suitable position actually being advertised, which was in itself rare, whenever he telephoned it was only to be told that the post had been filled.

‘I’ll find work soon, love,’ he told an anxious Jinnie. ‘Don’t worry,’ and at first she didn’t. She believed in him utterly. They’d been married little more than a year, were a young couple deeply in love with every faith in a good future together. Besides which, being short of money was not unusual for Jinnie and certainly the Ashton’s idea of poverty bore no relation to her own definition of that state. Food still appeared regularly upon the table. Emily still took afternoon tea once a week at the Midland Hotel. She went shopping on King Street and bought a new gown or hat, should she desire one. Neither Mrs Dyson nor Tilly, nor even Sam the handyman/chauffeur had been laid off, so what was there to worry about? If Mr Ashton did not earn quite what he had once earned, they couldn’t claim to be on the bread line.