A Daughter's Duty Read Online Free PDF

Oh, how she wished she’d tried harder at the interview!
    ‘Would you like to go on the river?’ asked Charlie, and Marina blushed as she remembered again the drenching she and Rose had had on Big Meeting Day. But she nodded and he paid for a punt and they floated out on the water. Marina sat on a cushion and watched Charlie as he poled the boat out over the water, sailing back round the bend the way they had just walked. And she felt like a queen, or at least as good as Princess Margaret Rose.
    It was on the way home that she met Rose again. Marina had got off the bus from Durham in Bishop market place and walked along to the bus stand for Jordan. Rose was huddled in a doorway there, her shoulders hunched as though she was cold though it was quite a mild evening. There was even a pale shaft of light from the setting sun lighting up the doorway and Marina could see that her friend was looking worse even than she had the last time she’d seen her. Her hair was lank and worn simply clipped back from her brow, which was bumpy with spots and whiteheads. But she wore a new coat of navy blue and a little velvet hat to match, one of those with a hairband inside so that it hugged the top of the head.
    ‘Now then, Rose,’ Marina greeted her. ‘Waiting for the bus?’
    ‘No, I’m just standing here ’cos I like it,’ Rose replied, but she grinned as she said it and the grin transformed her face and for a moment she looked like the old Rose.
    ‘Still making a fortune at the factory, are you?’ Marina leaned against the wall. ‘That’s a new coat, isn’t it?’
    ‘Factory sale,’ said Rose. ‘You should go, there’s some real bargains there. Mind, I get a discount.’
    A picture of Dad giving her the money flashed vividly through Rose’s mind. He had come into the house just as she was telling her mother about the factory sale. Mam liked to hear about things outside the house, always listened to her eldest child with great interest, so Rose saved up pieces of news to relate to her at the end of the day.
    ‘Buy yourself something nice, pet,’ Alf Sharpe had said, handing over three pounds. He’d smiled at her then, his glance going over her neat figure and lingering on her pert young breasts as they thrust against her blouse. Automatically she had hunched her back and turned away.
    ‘You see, Rose?’ Mam had said, pleased. ‘You’ve got a good dad, haven’t you?’
    ‘How’s your mam, Rose?’ asked Marina now. ‘Mine says the doctor’s been again.’
    It was as if shutters had come down on Rose’s face, she was all closed up again. ‘She’s bad,’ she answered and turned away, looking up the street in search of the bus. She stood with her back to Marina, discouraging any further conversation. After a few minutes the bus did come and it happened that Marina got on first, fully expecting her friend to come and sit in the seat beside her. It was like a slap in the face when Rose walked past her and took a seat at the back of the bus. Righto, Rose Sharpe, Marina said under her breath. If you don’t want me as a friend I can do without you. But what on earth was the matter with her?
    ‘Did you say something, pet?’ Eddie the conductor asked as he held out his hand for the fare.
    ‘Just that I’ve got a return ticket,’ Marina replied. She stared out of the opposite window when Rose got off at the stop before hers.
    Rose knew exactly what Marina was thinking but she just couldn’t help herself. She walked past her and got off the bus and trudged up John Street to her back gate before remembering she was supposed to get the rations from the Co-operative store, so she had to trail back along the street and down the main road. When she finally got back with both arms pulled down by the weight of the carrier bags, she stopped for a moment or two just outside the gate in spite of the string handles cutting into her fingers. She had to steel herself to go in.
    ‘You’re back then, pet,’ said her father.