Coming Home to the Four Streets by Nadine Dorries (best books to read for success .txt) 📕

head, he blurted out, ‘She told me her name is Mrs Wright and her husband’s name is Frank.’

Paddy also wanted to say that he had seen Kitty and Kitty had been trying to tell him something, but the look of complete horror that now crossed his mother’s face and the tears that sprang to her eyes made him think twice.

‘Dear God, can my life get any worse?’ Peggy blurted out. ‘Kathleen, it’s Frank the Skank who’s moving next door to me! Jesus, I think I’m going to faint.’

‘No, no you’re not, you just need a bit of breakfast. Get inside,’ Kathleen ordered Peggy, and then she called down the hallway, ‘Alice, knock on to Shelagh with the mop and you need to run to Cindy and tell her you have to cancel your hairdo. This is an emergency. We need the women round for a powwow; I may even have to read the leaves for we’ve got a big problem to sort out. Off you go, kids, and thank you, Paddy, you’re a very clever boy.’

Paddy grinned with pleasure. Nana Kathleen had said that in front of Nellie and everyone knew how clever Nellie was.

Peggy turned to face Kathleen. ‘You know who it is, don’t you?’

Kathleen pushed Peggy along towards the kitchen. ‘I do, he shopped the bizzies who were in on helping us on our docks and got them sacked – and not only that, not one of them can get a job because the minute Frank hears about it he has a word with whoever is taking them on. Some of them have left the police and are trying to get work elsewhere, but he has eyes in the back of his head and he finds out somehow. He’s a bad, bad egg that man. Jerry has told me that the men who work with him are the only people who dislike him more than we do.’

Peggy wasn’t listening; she had sunk deep into the well of her own despair. ‘I’m doomed,’ she wailed. ‘I’d rather throw myself in the Mersey than live next door to him; ’tis the only thing left to me, Kathleen.’

Alice came to the kitchen door, her face still and calm, hiding her resentment at being told to cancel her hair appointment. The waters ran deep with Alice and no one ever knew what she was thinking. ‘I’ve knocked on. Is it true?’ she asked.

Kathleen nodded her head as she herded a crying Peggy past her.

‘Frank the Skank?’ Alice asked. ‘Didn’t he get promoted to sergeant because he grassed on the dock police?’

Peggy turned to her, stricken. ‘Yes, yes, he did and they are moving in next door to me, into Maura and Tommy’s house!’ Peggy almost shrieked the last words as tears sprang to her eyes.

Kathleen rolled her own eyes and shook her head. ‘Alice, is there a drop of brandy in the press? Peggy needs it in her tea. Jesus, if it’s true, we all need it, for there’ll be no more hauls from the Morry. I mean, that’s not robbing – Conor gives it to us and it’s up to him what he does with his cargo. Isn’t it?’

Alice smiled. ‘Not quite, Kathleen, he lists it on the manifest when it’s being unloaded and the dockers count it off short.’

Kathleen waved her hand at Alice. ‘Oh, I know that, I know, but it’s not as if it’s anyone’s livelihood or the crown jewels, is it? I mean, he buys it cheap and sells the leftovers and no one gets hurt, Alice. Not so with the likes of Jimmy O’Prey. Now, when he gets home – which is any day soon, so Annie tells me – that’s who Frank the Skank should be worried about. He’s turned into a real bad lad, he has.’

Kathleen shook her head. Every family depended on the hauls that came up the dockers’ steps. Every wedding, christening, party, birthday and bit of a do was, in some part, courtesy of Captain Conor and the odd crate that fell of the back of any of the other ships. It was the means to dignity, to happiness and survival for the large Catholic families who depended on the docks and the measly wages of the dock board to earn a living.

‘Frank the Skank moving into the four streets is very bad news, Alice,’ Kathleen said, ‘so we have to stop this happening, somehow. We need to get our heads together and this will be down to the women to sort.’

The back gate clicked and Shelagh’s footsteps and those of the other women close behind her sounded on the cobbles in the yard. Shelagh would have knocked on to Deirdre, Deirdre to her neighbour and so on down the line it went. Even those who didn’t or couldn’t answer the call would knock onto the next kitchen to let them know the white smoke was rising, so everyone to Kathleen’s house.

‘Line up the cups, Alice,’ said Kathleen. ‘Brandy in first.’ She took a large gulp herself, straight from the bottle, just as the back door opened.

‘By God, it must be bad news,’ said Shelagh, her eyes opening wide, ‘the cut of you. You have the brandy out already?’

‘You’ve no idea how bad it is,’ said Kathleen. ‘Frank the Skank and his wife are moving into Maura and Tommy’s house!’ And as she began to measure the brandy into the cups, Maggie Trott came into the kitchen.

‘Oh, that is bad news for all of us,’ exclaimed Maggie and they all turned to look at her.

‘Do you know them?’ asked Alice.

‘Oh, I do,’ said Maggie, ‘and Frank the Skank is a nasty piece of work.’

Peggy staggered and Alice caught her before she fell, then Maggie eased her into a kitchen chair.

‘That’s it for me,’ wailed Peggy. ‘My life is over and done, it can’t get any worse than this.’

Kathleen placed a cup in her hand. ‘Here, drink this, queen, get it down you.’ Peggy knocked back the brandy in one and pushed