House of Angels Read Online Free PDF

that she mightbe right. Mercy Simpson was not nearly as tough as she might pretend, which was something she’d need to change in the months ahead.
    ‘How about if I make the appeal on your behalf?’
    ‘Oh, I couldn’t ask you to do that for me, Jack. It wouldn’t be right.’
    ‘Why wouldn’t it? It’s no skin off my nose. He can only say no, can’t he? Though he’d have to give me a damn good reason why, if he refused to do owt for you. Here, give me that letter, and I’ll see what I can do, eh?’
    ‘I’m not sure.’ Mercy glanced at the letter, which lay between them as they sat cross-legged on the dusty wooden floor. She stared at the familiar handwriting penned in her mother’s carefully rounded script, and thought of walking into Josiah Angel’s fancy store, looking like the scarecrow she was. Mercy quailed at the thought. She’d be tongue-tied. Even if his minions allowed her in to see him, she very much doubted he’d listen to a word she said, let alone read any letter she held in her filthy paws. And yet…
    ‘No, Jack, it’s my responsibility. I’ll do it. I’ll make an extra effort and clean mesel up a bit. Happen ask your mam if she can find me summat decent to wear. Then I’ll go and see him. Beard the lion in his den, as it were. Anyroad, I’m curious to know what he looks like. He’s me da, after all.’
     
    Jack felt a nudge of pride for her spirit, but he also felt very slightly cheated. There was nothing he’d have liked more than to find some excuse for challenging thatman, anything to use against the bully who so pitilessly exploited folk in order to satisfy his own greed.
    The cottages and lofts that Josiah Angel owned and which Jack’s entire family inhabited, along with several others, were naught but damp, rat-infested fleapits, with insufficient privies to serve all the poor souls who occupied them. People had taken to using the streets rather than face the stink of lavatories that often overflowed. Yet rents were going up time and again despite the fact that the amount of weaving work available, much of it provided by his friend and colleague Henry Hodson, was rapidly decreasing. The weaving trade was dying before their eyes, nothing was being done to save it, and yet the workers were still being screwed for every last penny.
    Oh, aye, Jack had his own reasons for doing battle with the man, besides supporting Mercy.
    He’d privately relished the prospect of giving him a punch on the nose for what he’d done to poor Florrie, and by default little Mercy here. Course, he could always make a few enquiries on his own account; sniff out the opposition, like, test the waters, check out the lie of the land. Jack trotted out all his favourite catchphrases in his head, savouring the thought of these investigations.
    He resolved to keep a close eye on what went on, and if the man didn’t treat her right, he’d soon find that Mercy was not alone in her current difficulties. Josiah Angel might be able to fob off Florrie and her child, but the fellow would find that he, Jack Flint, was a very differentkettle of fish. He’d soon discover that the lass now had friends capable of protecting her, ready to stand up to bullies like him. And by challenging the evil bastard, Jack would be doing all the occupants of these buildings a favour.

Chapter Four
    Mercy hesitated as she reached Angel’s Department Store, desperately trying to summon up the courage to enter. She’d done the best she could with her appearance, scrubbing her face with Pear’s soap and water till it shone, and Jessie had washed her hair with lye soap, and combed the tangles out of it. Mercy had rarely done such a thing more than once a month in her life, and since Mam had been ill, hadn’t bothered at all, soap being something of a luxury. She’d been astonished to rediscover her own fairness, and how soft and slippy and clean her hair felt. Really quite wonderful. It had grown so long, Jessie had pinned it up for