Chapter Twenty-one
Alice could hear a murmuring of voices out in the yard and a shuffling of feet as Nellie and Kathleen told her all that they had found around at Peggy’s house.
‘What can we do now?’ asked Alice. ‘Shall I make them some griddle scones? I can’t leave because of Joseph but I have the buttermilk I got from Eric this morning.’
Nellie, desperate to do more to help, clapped her hands. ‘Yes, I’ll help.’
Kathleen nodded. ‘I’m going to give it another hour and then I’m going to the pub to fetch Jerry and ask him what we will do, but, sure, look, it’s gone eight; she’ll be back soon enough wherever she is. Peggy would never leave her kids for long, she’ll be back.’
They all turned as the back door flew open and Alice thought she was imagining things when Angela burst into her kitchen and then, with tears springing from her eyes, ran to Nellie and threw her arms around her and began to wail. Then the rest of the Doherty children filed in, Maura and Tommy behind them.
‘Maura! Tommy!’ Kathleen exclaimed. ‘Feck, I think I’m going to faint!’
Seconds later the noise in the kitchen was so loud, Kathleen could hardly hear herself think and Joseph, who had woken, thundered down the stairs.
‘Is that Captain Conor’s ship in the dock?’ said Tommy to Alice as Kathleen fussed over the kids and Maura.
‘It is, Tommy, and you can guess where Jerry is?’
‘What a night to come home. Is the haul waiting to come up?’
Alice had picked Niamh up and rocked with her on her hip. ‘Not yet. It has a list and needs to go into dry dock after it’s been unloaded. Jerry reckons there’s nothing wrong with it, that Conor’s overdone it with the barrels of dark rum from the Caribbean and he’s gone to see him down the Anchor.’
Tommy winked at Alice, then said, ‘I’m off to the pub, Maura, to see a man about a dog,’ and without another word he was out of the door and down the backyard, whistling as he went.
‘Tommy!’ Maura stood at the back door with her hand out. Tommy knew exactly what she was there for, the money from the sale of the Talk of the Town. He slipped his hand inside his jacket and, removing the money, placed it in her own. ‘Away with you,’ she said, grumpily, but Tommy could feel her warm smile on his back as he almost ran through the gate.
*
Back in the kitchen, with tea in her hand and Nellie and Alice feeding the children with griddle scones, Maura felt as though she could relax for the first time in days.
‘Sit down, Maura, leave them to us,’ Alice had said as she mixed the batter in the bowl. ‘They are far too excited so they need to get it out of their system and then, when they are done, I’m making some to take down to Peggy’s.’
Kathleen was on her knees at the press and, staggering to her feet, held a bottle aloft. ‘We definitely need a bit of this in our tea – Golden Knight, you can’t beat it. Maura, I can’t believe you are here, so much going on that I’ll tell you about when this lot are asleep. Speaking of which, you can’t sleep over the road, it’ll be freezing.’
‘We’ll be fine, Tommy and I, especially with this inside me, but could the kids spend the night here, Kathleen? Do you mind, Alice?’
‘Of course I don’t mind! They can all squeeze in together and we can put extra blankets down on the floor. It may not be the most comfortable night they will ever spend, but it will at least be warm and they will sleep after the journey they have had. Are you really back for good?’
Maura sipped and winced. ‘Jesus, that’s just taken the lining off my stomach, Kathleen. We are, Alice, and I’ll tell you this, we are never leaving again.’
Half an hour later, the kitchen table was filled with the crumbs from the scones and Maura was drying the faces of her children, lined up in a row, with a warm towel. Then Alice said, ‘Say goodnight to your mam,’ and Maura hugged each of her children.
‘Mammy, can I go and see Paddy?’ Harry muffled into her chest. ‘I’ve slept all the way home.’
Maura looked up at Kathleen, her eyes asking what she should do. Kathleen, alight with the excitement of having Maura back, said, ‘Go on, Harry, you go with Nellie and Angela and take the griddle scones.’
Minutes later, as the last of the murmurings came from upstairs, the three women sat before the fire, warm, alcohol-laden cups nursed in their hands. It only took seconds before the conversation turned to the shocking state that Peggy and Paddy were in – and the horrifying news to Maura that Frank the Skank thought he was about to move into her house. But it was the news about Peggy that concerned her the most.
‘Frank the Skank might think he is, but I’ve paid the rent, I still have the rent book – and what’s more, I have rights,’ said Maura. ‘Kathleen, are you sure the letter said the bailiffs were coming on Friday?’
Kathleen dug deep into her apron pocket. ‘See for yourself, I brought it back with me because I wanted to speak to Peggy about it myself.’
Alice gasped. ‘Kathleen, you didn’t!’
Kathleen held the letter out to Maura. ‘I did, Alice, because I knew that something was badly wrong. When did Peggy ever disappear from her own house? Or faint down at the rent office, eh? She’s quite obviously not been managing, but she never breathed a word, Maura. I knew things couldn’t be right, but they didn’t seem to be that wrong. Nothing that her fat lazy arse of
