A Liverpool Legacy Read Online Free PDF Page B

with all his staff. They said he was a fair and considerate boss.
    Her mother no longer had the energy to do housework when she came home from Bunnies, so Millie took it on bit by bit. She got up early to do it and make breakfast for her mother. On two evenings each week, she went to night school with Ryan, and he took her to the pictures and to dances at the weekend. Millie was in love and enjoying life.
    Ryan had a friend whose family earned their living as greengrocers, making a series of weekly rounds through the residential streets of Liverpool selling fruit and vegetables from a horse and cart. Ryan earned a little extra pocket money mucking out the stable and giving the horse food and water on Sundays. Millie loved going with him to help. He had a key to the stable and considered it a valuable asset because there they could have peace and privacy.
    For the last year, her mother had been taking the odd day off work because she didn’t feel well enough to go, but Millie only realised how seriously ill she was when the doctor came to visit and told them she had breast cancer. The diagnosis seemed to knock the stuffing out of her mother and she went downhill quickly. Soon she had to give up work completely and spend much of her day in bed. She was able to do little for herself.
    Millie looked after her with the help of the neighbours. She continued to go to work because her small wage was the only income they had. Ryan was very generous, he did their shopping when she was pressed for time, bought little extras for them, and sometimes put in money of his own. He also cleaned out the grate and laid the fire so Millie could concentrate on caring for her mother. She didn’t know what she would have done without Ryan. With his help she was just about able to manage.
    She continued to go to the stable with him on Sundays and by way of repayment he asked for favours. She was scared and held back but not for long. ‘Why should I do all this for you when you won’t do anything for me?’ he asked. ‘Anyway, you’ll find it fun.’
    Perhaps it was over the following six months, but that all changed the morning Millie woke up feeling that all was not as it should be with her body. She’d been fearful that she might become pregnant but Ryan had said no, he’d take good care that she didn’t.
    Today, she was horribly afraid he could be wrong. With sinking heart and full of dread she got up and rushed through her early morning routine. She said nothing to anybody, hoping against hope she was mistaken. At work, she did her best to forget it and immerse herself in her work.
    The passing days brought worry and growing certainty, until Millie had to accept she was going to have a baby. It was a calamity. She was sixteen and knew there was no way she could possibly carry on in this way for more than another few months. She knew only one person who could help her but she was unable to screw up her nerve to tell Ryan. He lived for the good times, she was frightened of telling him, frightened he’d not respond in the way she needed. A baby would be a huge complication in his life too.
    It was getting colder so she took to wearing her mother’s larger bulky pullovers to hide her changing shape and blessed the fact that she was required to wear a shapeless white coat at work.
    One Saturday night Ryan took her to the Odeon to see Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in The Big Sleep . He was keen to see it as he’d enjoyed many of the Philip Marlowe books. A neighbour was sitting with her mother and for Millie it was a rare break. In the semi-dark she held his hand, her eyes were on him more than on the film and she was taking in little of the story.
    In the interval, she forced herself to say, ‘Ryan, there’s something I have to . . .’ but he was intent on kissing her. She turned her head away to avoid his lips and felt tears of fear and frustration burn her eyes. Ryan rubbed his cheek against hers and seemed not to