Maura heard footsteps. They were leaving! Praying that the wash-house door was open, she rushed in on tiptoe and closed the door behind her, peering through the gaps in the wood.
‘I’m off down to the docks,’ said Frank the Skank. ‘The Morry is in and I reckon they will be trying for a haul any time now.’
‘Why worry?’ Heartfelt asked. ‘You don’t need the bother. Concentrate on getting your Margaret in next door and then plan what you are going to do with the money. We didn’t clear the docks of bizzies so that you could go lifting collars, we did it to give us a free run, remember that. Don’t go looking for enemies. If Tommy Doherty is back, he’s not a man to be messed with, we need to be careful tonight.’
Frank sounded concerned. ‘They reckon down at Whitechapel that it was him who murdered the priest; they just had nothing to nail it on him.’
‘Aye, maybe,’ Heartfelt said. ‘Who knows? But that priest was a baddun and I believe there’s more to that than we know about. It’s all the more reason to take care,’ he said and was away down the entry.
Maura bit her lip and closed her eyes as, only inches away from her, Frank unbuttoned his trousers and relieved himself against the backyard wall. You dirty sod, she thought, resisting the urge to lift the washing paddle and hit him over the head with it. Buttoning himself up, he turned and stared at the wash-house door for so long that Maura felt as though she would pass out if she had to hold her breath a second longer. Then Frank walked away and the backyard gate slammed shut and she counted his footsteps down the entry until they disappeared.
*
Stepping into her kitchen, Maura flicked the switch and the overhead light spluttered into life. The kitchen was spotless, and she was home.
‘Oh, holy feck!’ she screamed as a rat ran across the kitchen door and, grabbing a kitchen chair, jumped onto it. Suddenly the door to the stairs opened and little Paddy dashed in and scooped up the rat, followed by Harry.
‘Paddy, what is that?’ Maura demanded, pointing at the rat little Paddy was slipping into his pocket, the intrusion of Frank the Skank and Mr Heartfelt instantly forgotten.
‘It’s Max, Auntie Maura, but don’t tell my da, please.’
Harry was grinning from ear to ear and then he said, ‘Ma, did you hear all that? We were hiding on the stairs.’
Maura jumped down from the chair as little Paddy said, ‘I did, and Frank the Skank is a bad man.’
‘He is, Paddy, and it would seem Mr Heartfelt isn’t the upstanding citizen he likes everyone to think he is.’ Maura pushed the chair back under the table as little Paddy walked over to show her Max.
‘Would you like to stroke him?’ he asked. ‘And Auntie Maura, who is being turfed out into the street? Maybe we should go and warn them. Is our mam back yet. Where is she, Maura?’
Maura grabbed little Paddy by the shoulders and pulled him into her. ‘She will be here soon and no one is being turfed out, Paddy, no one.’
Harry stood close to them and said to Paddy, ‘There’s no point struggling, Paddy. She does that to me too, you just have to grin and bear it. It won’t last for long.’
And as Harry smiled up at Maura, he looked the happiest Maura had seen him since the last time he had been with his best friend in her kitchen. ‘You’re more like brothers, you two. I should never have let you be separated,’ she said as she stroked little Paddy’s hair.
After a few moments he said, ‘Auntie Maura? You’re crushing Max.’
‘Well, I’m very sorry, Max. But shouldn’t he be in bed now, Paddy?’
‘Oh, no, Auntie Maura, rats are nocturnal, they run around the streets, they come up from the river and…’
Maura shuddered. ‘Paddy, I’ve only been this close to a rat before when I was trying to clobber him with the end of the mop.’ She was keen to begin her search of the Nolans’ house for clues as to where Peggy might be. ‘Now I’m just going to check the fires upstairs, so you take Max back to his own house now, I’m sure he will be more comfortable in there.’
‘Ma might be back now,’ Paddy said hopefully. Maura smiled, but in her heart, she was not convinced.
‘Maybe, Paddy,’ she lied. ‘Off you run now, boys, and I’ll follow you in five minutes.’
*
As she made her way up the scrubbed wooden staircase, pleasure at the warmth of her house quickly replaced her anger at finding Frank the Skank in her kitchen. She could not fault the efforts of Shelagh and Deirdre – there was nothing at all for her to do and so she did what she had wanted to do for so long. She went into the children’s bedroom and there it stood, the old oak wardrobe and Kitty’s bed. She turned the key in the lock, the sound as old and as familiar to her as any, and reaching in, she removed Kitty’s dress, one she had never washed. Pulling it towards her, she held it to her face and inhaled deeply. The smell of Kitty assailed her senses, her eldest daughter, her best friend, her heart. She stood for a moment and let the fabric of the dress absorb her tears that fell every day without fail as she whispered, ‘I’m home, Kitty, I’m home…’
Chapter Twenty-six
Maggie had finished her second port and lemon far quicker than she had intended as a cheer rang out around the pub.
‘Jesus, are my eyes deceiving me?’ A voice rang above the cheers and Eric swivelled around in his chair and looked behind him to see who it was.
‘What’s the
