all he’s getting, treating you like that. I won’t have you treated like an animal, Kate. You’re my sister.’
By this time, Reggie had oriented himself to this unanticipated situation and wriggled his arms free while his adversary was discussing him with the girl. He traded an equivalent punch to Algie’s mouth, which sent him reeling.
‘Who does he think he is, your mad brother?’ Reggie fizzed as he got up from the ground, his manhood suddenly deflated, dangling limp in the cool night air, his anger all at once frothing over like a bottle of ginger beer violently shaken. ‘I’ll teach him not to part a man from his pleasure.’ He lurched after Algie and grabbed him by the lapels.
‘Stop it, you two!’ Kate urged in a hoarse whisper, but desperate to be heeded.
Reggie was just about to throw another punch at Algie, when Kate grabbed his arm. ‘Stop it, the pair of you!’
‘He attacked me, the bastard,’ Reggie protested vehemently.
‘I’ll kill him,’ Algie rasped, his indignation overwhelming his apprehension. ‘Just—’
‘Stop it!’ Kate placed herself between them, stumbling over a line of potato shoots.
Both men seemed to calm down. Reggie surreptitiously checked his flies to ascertain if any material damage had been occasioned to his courting tackle during the scuffle.
‘You’ll waken the dead, you pair,’ Kate added, perceiving that the worst of the incident was passed. ‘Algie, do us all a favour and clear off, and in future don’t be such a damn fool. Next time mind your own business.’
‘But he—’
‘Yes, I know …’
‘But you—’
‘But me what?’
‘He was hurting you.’
‘Clear off, Algie,’ she repeated impatiently. ‘And go and wipe your mouth. Your lip’s bleeding, by the looks of it.’
‘My lip?’ He put his fingers gingerly to his mouth, then inspected the ends in the moonlight for signs of blood. ‘You’ve split my lip, you swine,’ he complained to Reggie, his indignation surfacing again.
‘Serves you right. Come near me again and I’ll knock seven bells out o’ yer.’
It was all about to flare up again. Kate placed herself between her brother and her clandestine lover once more.
‘Go, Algie … clear off. I’ll see you inside.’
Algie turned to go, his shoulders hunched in humiliation at having perceived the situation between Kate and Reggie so wrongly. ‘If I catch you here again, Reggie bloody Hodgetts, I’ll do the same,’ he said as a parting shot, trying to salvage some credibility.
‘Balls!’ rasped Reggie, determined to have the last, meaningful word.
Once inside, Algie stood on the hearth looking into the mirror by the light of an oil lamp at his bleeding lip. He didn’t like the look of the cut and tried to stem the bleeding by dabbing it with a rag moistened with cold water. If it hadn’t healed sufficiently by tomorrow night his ability to engage Marigold in some earnest spooning would be seriously impaired.
Kate eventually returned, shutting the door behind her grumpily.
‘You article!’ she scoffed in an angry, grating whisper, trying to keep her voice down so as not to arouse her mother and father. ‘In future, if you ever see me with a man, whoever it is, just don’t poke your nose.’
‘I thought he was hurting you,’ Algie muttered defensively. ‘I thought you didn’t want his … his … attentions. I thought he was raping you.’
‘Raping me!’ she gibed. ‘You idiot.’
‘I was trying to protect you.’
‘I don’t need your damned protection. A fat lot you know about women …’
Algie turned round to face her. ‘I always had the feeling you might be a bit loose, our Kate, but I never reckoned you were that much of a slut. Couldn’t you find somebody with a bit more about him than Reggie Hodgetts? He’s the scum of the earth. He stinks. I swear I could smell him.’
‘Oh, shut up,’ Kate replied sulkily.
‘Can’t you see it? What if he’s put you in the family way and you have to marry him? Would you like to spend the rest of your days living on his filthy narrowboat with no room to swing a cat?’
‘Don’t be stupid, Algie,’ she protested, but calming down. ‘I’d never marry him. I ain’t in love with him, am I?’
‘Then what’s the big attraction?’
She turned away, reluctant to answer that it was sexual pleasure, for fear of debasing herself further in her brother’s estimation. Instead, she lifted the kettle off the hob, checked to see if there was water in it, and then lifted it onto a gale hook over the dying fire so it could boil.
‘Tell me, our Kate, what’s the big attraction?’
‘Does it matter?’
‘Yes. It does matter. He’s a nothing. He’s lower than slime in a duck pond.’
‘It doesn’t matter, Algie, ’cause I shan’t be seeing him no more.’
He welcomed this unexpected nugget of information. ‘That’s a bit sudden, eh? Are you sure?’
‘I ought to know.’
‘So it’s done some good, my parting you? Was it your decision or his?’
Kate made no reply.
‘At first I thought I’d have to fetch a crowbar and prise you apart,’ Algie continued derisively. ‘Aren’t there no decent chaps at the Amateur Dramatics Society you could take up with, if you’re that desperate? Don’t nobody decent ever come into the bakery shop?’
Kate didn’t answer and they remained silent for some minutes. She went to the brewhouse to swill out the teapot.
‘D’you want a cup of tea?’ she asked, a little more civilly, when she came back inside.
‘I might as well. Is my mouth still bleeding?’ He dabbed his lip again and inspected the rag for blood.
‘No, but it’s swelling up … And it serves you right.’
‘I can’t believe you’re such a trollop, Kate,’ he commented, still preoccupied with what had occurred. ‘My own little sister.’ He shook his head to emphasise his disdain. ‘I’d never have thought it of you.’
‘Leave it be, Algie.’
‘Why should I?’
‘Because you’re being stupid. What about if the boot was on
