Flowers on the Mersey Read Online Free PDF

just in time to see her father takea switch from the wardrobe. Both belonged to the owner of the house and the switch had never been used on her, although her father had told her how he had been beaten as a boy. Her eyes dilated with apprehension. ‘What are you doing?’
    ‘Down, miss. This is going to hurt me more than you.’ He swiped the air with the switch, making a whooshing noise, and took a deep breath. ‘I should never have listened to your mother when she said that we shouldn’t heed the scriptures where they say spare the rod and spoil the child, but I did because you were a girl.’ He advanced towards the bed. ‘But I never thought a daughter of mine would be cavorting with the likes of Daniel O’Neill! Didn’t you think of the danger you could be putting us all in?’ he shouted.
    ‘He only walked with me to Trinity!’ She struggled as he forced her face down on the bed and flung her skirts up. The first stinging blows landed on her cami-knicker clad bottom and she yelped. Never before had he raised a hand in violence against her.
    ‘You should not be walking with him at all!’ he cried. ‘There’s a price on his head, and if you had been seen by either side you could be dead! We could all be dead!’
    The blows, and the words, sent shock waves through her. ‘How do you know he’s got a price on his head?’ she gasped, trying to free her head from the folds of her skirts.
    ‘How do I know? Because I’ve seen the poster. His brothers had prices on their heads. The whole family’s rotten. His two older brothers are dead, but he and his younger brother are wanted. One of the soldiers said the one you were with is like the bloody Scarlet Pimpernel because he keeps disappearing.’ His swearing shocked her as much as being beaten. ‘Have you been meeting him regularly? What have you been saying to him?’ he panted. ‘Is it you that has been providing the Sinn Feiners with information?’
    ‘What information? I don’t know what you mean,’ she croaked, catching her breath as another blow landed.
    Adam Rhoades leant against the foot of the bed, the switch dangling from his hand, and said harshly, ‘Did you know that another army barracks has been attacked and several men killed? Also a goods train has been derailed. Becky, Shaun O’Neill is implicated, and if he’s involved then it must go without saying that his brother is as well.’
    Rebekah was filled with dismay. ‘I don’t know anything about that! I only met him today outside Old Mary’s. She’s an old neighbour of his mother’s.’
    There was a silence and she felt the bed give as her father sat on it. ‘You’re telling me the truth about only meeting him today?’ His voice was a little more controlled.
    ‘Yes!’ She struggled again to free her head. Howdare he degrade her in such a way at her age? She would never forgive him! Never!
    ‘Perhaps it was him the soldiers were looking for?’ he muttered angrily. She remained silent and when she did not answer the switch came down again but there was less strength in the blow. ‘Don’t you know better than to get involved with a man like that?’ His voice trembled. ‘Why was it you took so long to reach Trinity? Did you flirt with him?’
    ‘No!’ She stopped struggling and lay still.
    ‘I can’t emphasise too much, Becky, the danger you could have been in. We’ve had friends disappear. He could have known who you were and tried to get to me through you.’
    ‘Papa, he didn’t know who I was!’ she cried, her fingers clenching on the bedspread as she searched for the right words to channel his thoughts into a different direction. ‘It wasn’t like you say at all. We walked as far as the bay because it was such a nice day, and he told me a story about the Land of the Ever Young.’
    ‘What?’ He sounded disbelieving.
    ‘It’s the truth.’ She crossed her fingers.
    Her father made a disgusted noise. ‘Faery tales! The man’s a dreamer and a fool. That’s