was sitting on the edge of the bed, bending over Fran who was restlessly twitching on the mattress. At that moment a groan issued from between Fran’s bluish lips.
‘Shall I go and see if Mrs Perkins is home?’ Alice volunteered in a quiet hiss.
‘Is your dad back with Jimmy?’ Tilly frowned over her shoulder at her daughter.
Alice shook her head. ‘Uncle Jimmy’s up the corner. I found him. He said he’s coming in a minute.’
That information made Tilly’s eyes and mouth narrow but she was soon swinging her attention back to her sister. Fran had dug her heels into the bed as a contraction took her huge belly arching towards the ceiling.
‘S’alright … ’s’alright,’ Tilly soothed Fran while pressing her palm to her hot forehead. She looked back at Alice. ‘Yeah … would you go ‘n’ see if Lou’s in, Al? Then get your dad back here quick as can be. When you pass the corner if Jimmy’s still there tell him he’s needed home now or I’ll come ‘n’ fetch him back meself.’
Alice had turned to go but her mother called her back.
‘Al … Al … wait a minute. Before you go, get that kettle set to boil and get some more water from the sink in that there bowl.’ She nodded her head at a tin bowl on the table that held dirty crockery.
Alice unloaded the plates and cups and quickly did as she was told. As she was about to leave for the second time her mother stopped her again with the instruction, ‘Shout up the stairs fer yer sister. Sophy’ll have to get down here with me and keep the hot water coming in case I need it soon. Beth’ll have to see to Lucy for a while.’
Alice nodded and hared up the stairs, garbled out to Sophy what her mother had told her then ran down again and out into the wintry air.
She gasped out to her cousins where she was going and made no objection when the two boys started running behind her as she went on her errand to fetch Lou Perkins.
As they passed the gamblers’ corner Alice called to the boys behind. ‘Go ‘n’ tell yer dad it’s urgent and he’s got to go home straight away or me mum’s after him.’ Stevie and Bobbie seemed for a moment as though they would do so. They hesitated; then having stopped and considered, they speeded up and caught up with Alice again. They both knew that telling their dad something like that was likely to get them a good cuff in front of everyone, then more later in private.
Alice banged on the door of number ninety-two. ‘Is Mrs Perkins at home?’ she panted out at the old man who’d opened the door. He removed the pipe clenched in his yellow teeth to croak, ‘No, she ain’t.’ He made as though to shut the door.
‘Baby’s being born down the other end. D’you know where she is?’
The old man opened the door a little wider. ‘Poor little mite,’ he grunted in his tobacco-roughened voice. ‘Might find her at the Duke or the Pooles Park.’ Having aired his sympathy, and his opinion on Lou’s whereabouts, he closed the door without any further ado.
Eventually Alice ran Lou to ground at the Pooles Park Tavern. She was merry but not drunk. Not the sort of drunk state that Alice had seen her mum in, anyhow. She came with them and puffed behind the trotting youngsters, gasping at intervals, ‘Bleedin’ ’ell, slow up; me legs ain’t as young as your’n, y’know.’
As they turned the corner Alice saw her dad pacing back and forth outside on the pavement. As soon as he glimpsed them he strode to meet them. Something in his demeanour seemed to give Lou her second wind and she speeded up. A grim head flick and a muttered, ‘First floor, second door,’ from her dad and the woman disappeared in to the sombre interior.
‘That’s what happens sometimes,’ Tilly said quietly to Sophy. She had taken her daughter into a corner of the room because Sophy had started to sob uncontrollably. The atmosphere in the confined space was heavy with the reek of sweat and blood. By the bed Lou Perkins was cleaning up Fran, who was lying quite still now, her greyish countenance turned away to the wall. Lou dipped the rag into tepid water that had long ago turned crimson and again wiped Fran’s encrusted thighs.
Tilly knew her sister was lucky to be alive. The baby girl had been breech and stillborn after struggling for almost two hours to get its tiny body free of its mother’s hips.
Sophy’s wide-eyed stare was fixed on her dead cousin. The baby girl had been wrapped in a pillowcase and placed at the foot of the bed. ‘Why’d she have to die?’ Sophy gurgled. ‘Ain’t fair.’ She swiped a hand over her runny nose.
‘Sometimes it’s more’n fair,’ Tilly contradicted her harshly. ‘Sometimes it’s a blessing. When it’s your time you should wish yourself so lucky.’
‘Don’t want to interrupt, but ain’t it about time you took yourself off home to see yer wife?’
It was softly spoken sarcasm but had the required effect of making the couple immediately scramble apart. A moment before they’d been locked together, the woman with her back to the wall and her arms and legs encircling her partner. Jimmy Wild glanced over his shoulder, cursing under his breath. He’d recognised his brother-in-law’s voice straight away. Nellie Tucker jerked together the edges of her coat and tightly belted it over her rucked-up dress. It was late afternoon and dusk had already descended, bringing with it a clinging icy mist that had shrouded the furtive pair from prying eyes, or so they’d hoped. But Jack had spotted them … eventually.
It was over five hours since Fran had given birth to her dead daughter. Since that time Jack had been out searching for Jimmy to tell him the awful news. Having looked for him in all his usual haunts he’d been about to give up when, quite by accident, he’d finally run him to ground. Cold and hungry, and hunched into his coat, Jack had idly glanced into an alleyway he’d been passing on his way back to Campbell Road and caught a glimpse of what looked to be a courting couple bumping against the wall. After a moment or two of observation he’d realised his search for his bastard of a brother-in-law was at an end. So carried away had Jimmy been that he’d not even heard Jack call out to him the first time.
‘No need to be sarky, mate,’ Jimmy said easily. ‘Ain’t as if Fran’s never had a kid before. She knows what to do. I’d just get in the way.’ He gave a conspiratorial chuckle. ‘Last time, with Stevie, I got told ter stay outside and didn’t do nuthin’ but go up and down the stairs.’
‘So this time you thought you’d go up ‘n’ down with that old bag instead, did yer?’
‘’Ere … you …’ Nellie started to protest at the insult. She surged forward but was shoved stumbling back against brickwork by Jimmy.
‘If I was you,’ Jack told her with silky menace, ‘I’d get meself off home sharpish, just in case I copped a stray one.’
‘That don’t sound like you, Jack.’ Jimmy sneered a laugh. ‘I know you ain’t got the balls to clump a woman even when the bitch deserves it.’
‘Whereas you have, eh?’ Jack said quietly. ‘Nellie know that?’ He jerked his head at the sullen-faced tart. ‘She know how much you like using yer fists on a woman ‘n’ telling her she deserves it so you can be the big man?’
‘What you so riled up about?’ Jimmy
