Double Danger Read Online Free PDF

Vale of Lennox.
    ‘This is a great place,’ they said. ‘It’s really beautiful here. Look at the beautiful view of the Campsie Hills.’
    Jessica couldn’t deny it. The grassy Green, the gardens, the trees and of course the hills rising high up beyond the village were indeed beautiful and peaceful. Too peaceful for her taste, though.
    At long last, they returned to the cottage and to bed. Jessica didn’t sleep well and awoke in the morning feeling so sick that she barely made it to the bathroom. She was still violently retching when Mrs Mellors came hurrying through.
    ‘Jessie, Jessie.’ She put a comforting arm around Jessica’s shoulders. ‘I’ll phone for the doctor.’
    ‘No, no.’ The vomiting stopped and thankfully Jessica was able to straighten up.
    ‘Well, get dressed and come through and have a cup of tea and then I’ll walk you over to the doctor’s surgery. It’s just across Abercromby Street.’
    ‘Och, I don’t think …’
    ‘You’ll do as you’re told for once,’ Mrs Mellors interrupted.
    And so they eventually walked arm-in-arm to the doctor’s surgery.
    ‘The surgery’s in his house,’ Mrs Mellors explained. ‘He lives there with his mother. She’s a right pain in the arse and fancy calling the poor guy Pinkie. Pinkie Plockton, she christened him, and he’s been suffering as a result ever since. He’s got red hair, which makes it worse. I can just imagine how the poor soul would be tormented at school.’
    Dr Plockton had a rather shy but pleasant manner and after he examined Jessica, she and Mrs Mellors sat opposite him at his desk. It was then that he announced that Jessica was pregnant.
    ‘I knew this would happen,’ Mrs Mellors cried out. ‘I knew that bastard would be too selfish to use a contraceptive.’
    ‘I take it Jessica is your daughter,’ Pinkie Plockton said.
    ‘No, no, but I wish she was,’ Mrs Mellors said.
    ‘She’s like a mother to me,’ Jessica managed, but her mind was in a turmoil. She didn’t know whether to be pleased or frightened. She felt a bit of both. In one way, she felt glad that something of Brian was inside her and she would have a baby that she could always love as part of him.
    In another way she felt frightened at her own ignorance. She hadn’t a clue how to look after a baby.
    After they had left the doctor’s surgery, Mrs Mellors said, ‘The least that bastard can do is pay for the kid’s upkeep. Take some responsibility.’
    Jessica bit her lip worriedly. ‘Do you think I should tell him then?’
    ‘Of course you should write and tell him. You’ve got his address, I hope.’
    ‘Yes, it’s this compound place in the desert. He told me where it was and all about it.’
    ‘Well, you’ll write to him right away, do you hear? Don’t let him get away with it.’
    ‘OK, OK.’ She sounded her usual cheeky self, quite sure of herself even. But inside was a different story. She tossed her hair and it bounced about as if she hadn’t a care in the world.
    Inside she was so near to fainting she didn’t dare close her eyes.

6
    The clinic in the Calton was there for drop-outs, tramps, prostitutes and any riff-raff who slept in the streets. They needed not only medical treatment but a change of clothes, a wash, a dose of methadone, or even a bowl or soup. They could get it all at the clinic. People donated bags of clothes. If there were decent suits in the bags, the clinic only gave out the trousers. ‘The suits are just for a funeral,’ they said. And when the suits were given out for funerals, it was just on loan. ‘You bring that good suit back,’ they were warned, ‘or you’ll never set foot in here again.’
    Jessica had got to know one of the nurses, a young woman called Evie Jeffreys. Evie bought woollens from Mrs Mellors’ stall.
    ‘Nobody could get lovely hand-knitted goods like that anywhere else but in the Barras,’ she often said. She loved a walk around the market too. Jessica felt a lot in common with Evie