‘Aunt Fran wants you to come home,’ Alice gasped out.
‘Alright, love.’ Jimmy gave Alice a crooked smile then ignored her and continued to play cards.
‘’S’important,’ Alice cried. ‘Baby’s coming.’
That got Jimmy’s attention, and that of the other fellows. Just for a moment they stared at her, then at him before their eyes returned to their hands. ‘Alright, Al …’ Jimmy said with another lazy smile that didn’t quite light his eyes. ‘Tell her I’ll be along in a minute. Off yer go, there’s a good gel.’ His tone had changed too. He was telling her to piss off.
Alice shrugged hopelessly and dashed back the way she’d come. Outside their house she found Bobbie and Stevie. Both the boys were shuffling about on the pavement, darting in and out of the hallway. As she came closer Alice noticed how scared they both looked. In a moment Alice knew why. A horrible moan issued forth from the interior of the building.
‘Aunt Til told us to come out.’ Bobbie explained their presence on the pavement.
‘She gonna die?’ Stevie asked Alice, his eyes huge in his thin, pale face.
‘Nah … ’course not …’ Alice reassured them. But she too had grown anxious on hearing that awful sound. She remembered when her mum had had Lucy that there’d been a lot of noise and mess. But her dad had been with her mum all the time and a great deal of help Alice thought. He’d only left her to boil up some water when old Lou Perkins had turned up and taken charge. She lived up the top of the road and apparently knew all about bringing babies in to the world. Alice wondered if perhaps she ought to go and see if Lou Perkins was in. If she wasn’t she’d probably be found in the Duke Tavern. On a Sunday dinnertime a good deal of the residents of The Bunk who had the cash to buy a drink or two could be found there, or one of the other pubs close by.
Leaving Bobbie and Stevie on the pavement Alice scampered up the stairs, forgetting in her haste to avoid the spot in the landing floorboards that was broken. She stumbled, rubbed her shin, and tiptoed towards Aunt Fran’s door. She peeped around it, searching for her mum.
Tilly 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