Tilly jerked her thoughts to the present. ‘Come on, you lot. Should’ve been gawn to school by now.’
‘Shall we wait for Alice?’ Beth asked as she got to her feet and pulled on her coat. Bobbie and Stevie got down from the table too.
Tilly frowned. She’d been so occupied thinking about Fran that she’d not realised that the two older girls hadn’t come out of the back room yet. Alice should have been about ready to go off to school and Sophy ought to have already left for work.
‘You lot get going,’ Tilly told them. In the next breath she yelled out, ‘Al … Sophy … D’you know what time it is? Get yourselves up and out!’
Having bellowed her wake-up call she whipped Lucy into her arms and followed the younger kids down the stairs. She stopped by Fran’s door. She guessed Jimmy would’ve gone to work by now. If he hadn’t she’d be turning around and going back up the stairs again.
Jack had told her how he’d found Jimmy with Nellie Tucker on the day Fran nearly died in childbirth. Tilly had so far managed to hold her tongue because the last thing she wanted to do at the moment, while Fran was so low, was further upset her sister. When Fran was in good health she found it hard to stand up to the bullying bastard she’d married. Now she was weak and no match for him at all.
Tilly had been making an effort to avoid coming face to face with Jimmy because she knew that a confrontation over it all was brewing and she’d end up telling him his fortune. Tilly found Fran’s door unlocked and her sister seated at the kitchen table, her elbows on wood and her head dropped in her hands.
‘Feeling rough again this morning?’ Tilly asked with gruff concern. ‘Need anything from the shop?’
‘Jimmy’s left.’ Fran’s voice sounded toneless.
‘Left?’ Tilly echoed. ‘What … for work?’
Fran shook her head, her loose fair hair swinging in strings about her pinched white features.
Tilly grabbed at one of Fran’s hands and moved it away from her face so she could properly see her expression.
‘He’s gone … said I’m useless ‘n’ a parasite ‘n’ he ain’t coming back.’
Tilly put Lucy on the bed then pulled out a chair and sat down. After a silent moment she said bluntly, ‘I ain’t gonna tell you it’s a shame, Fran.’ She drummed a few restless fingers on the table. ‘Ain’t gonna tell you it’s a surprise neither. Could see where this was heading straight off … soon as that work-shy layabout knew you wasn’t up to grafting and supporting him no more.’
‘He’s me husband,’ Fran cried and cuffed at her weeping nose.
‘He’s no good … never has been,’ Tilly retorted. She got up from the table and came round and put two squat, work-roughened hands on her sister’s shoulders. She squeezed fiercely to emphasise what she was about to say. ‘You was always too good for him. I thought you might bring him up, you know; thought he might change, hoped he might for your sake. I know you believed in him, ’cos you loved him and you thought he loved you and he’d do right by all those lies ‘n’ promises he’d given you. But he ain’t got it in him to change, Fran. He is what he is; it’s in his blood. And he’s got the bleedin’ cheek to tell you you’re a useless parasite!’
‘He wouldn’t even say where he’s gone. Don’t want me pestering him, he said. Just got his things together this morning and went.’ Fran raised her swimming eyes to Tilly. ‘I reckon he’s got a place ter go. He’s got a woman, alright.’
Tilly kept her thoughts to herself. Fran was already overwrought.
‘What am I going to tell the boys about their dad?’ ‘Tell ’em he’s gone and it’s safe to come home,’ was Tilly’s acerbic answer.
‘I know why he’s gone … I know alright,’ Fran said, pushing up from the table. ‘I know I’m his wife and I should let him, but I can’t though, Til. It hurts so bad when he comes near me. I just can’t let him ’cos the bleeding starts again and then he gets mad anyhow ’cos of the mess in the bed …’
‘Good riddance to bad rubbish.’ Tilly enclosed her sister in an embrace. ‘Hope he catches the pox off that scummy bitch.’
‘He’s gone to Nellie Tucker, ain’t he?’
Tilly shrugged and tried to avoid Fran’s eyes. ‘Who cares where he’s gone? He’s left you alone and that’s a good thing. You’re not well enough to be doin’ it, Fran,’ Tilly said. ‘If you fell straight away, it’d kill you fer sure.’
‘You know he’s been knockin’ about with her again, don’t you?’ Fran ignored Tilly’s wise words. ‘He told me he’s been getting what he needs off a real woman … rubbed me nose in it, he did. Made me feel I was nuthin’.’
‘Bastard!’ Tilly hissed through stretched lips.
‘Why didn’t you tell me if you knew?’ Fran wailed.
‘You’ve been ill; too poorly to bother about that slimy …’
‘Shut up!’ Fran wailed. ‘He’s a man … got needs; ain’t his fault I got ill and can’t do me duty.’
‘Is that what he told you? You’ve let him grind you down, you silly cow,’ Tilly said fiercely. ‘Can’t you see what he’s doing? He’s glad when you feel useless, he’s hoping you’ll do everything he tells you to. He’s hoping you’ll end up as his fuckin’ slave. You can’t let him do that to you, Fran,’ Tilly emphasised with a thump of a fist on the tabletop.
Fran turned away and, lifting her pinafore, scrubbed her face with it. But she said nothing.
‘When’s he done his duty?’ Tilly roared, incensed by her sister’s apathy. ‘Did he tell you that while you was struggling to bring his daughter in to the world he had Nellie Tucker up against the wall in an alley? Did he tell you that he knew for hours that you was in labour but he wouldn’t come home?’
‘He said no one could find him to tell him in time.’ Fran turned a wide-eyed, disbelieving stare on Tilly. ‘He said Jack caught up with him after it was dark.’
‘Yeah … Jack did,’ Tilly agreed caustically. ‘But Alice told him when he was up the corner gambling, at about midday. After that he made sure he wouldn’t get found. He made himself scarce alright.’ Tilly picked up Lucy and wobbled her back and forth on her hip. She sighed and stared at the ceiling. She hadn’t wanted to bring a fresh lot of tears to her sister’s eyes. ‘Let’s get out of here for a while. You up to a walk to the shop?’
Fran shook her head miserably. She took her pinafore up to her face again, scrubbing at her wet cheeks.
‘Yeah … you are … come on; let’s get you out for a walk ‘n’ if I see him or Nellie fuckin’ Tucker they’ll get what’s coming to ’em.’
‘You reckon that’s where he’s gone?’
Tilly nodded and buttoned Lucy into her coat to avoid her sister’s anguished stare.
‘Come on, let’s get out of this dump, just for a while,’ she said forcefully.
Fran knuckled her teary eyes. ‘Ain’t got no money for the shop.’
‘Me neither,’ Tilly confessed with a wry grin. ‘Old Smithie’ll let us have a few odds ‘n’ ends on the strap. Then come dinnertime I’ll use me few bob on a few drinks round the Duke. Might cheer you up a bit.’ She helped Fran ease her arms into her coat. ‘Jack’s got no more work with Basher after this week. Thing’s’ll be tight again with us.’ They went out onto the dark landing. ‘But now Sophy’s bringin’ in a wage packet that’s something.’
The two women started a slow descent of the stairs, Tilly