Liverpool Angels Read Online Free PDF Page A

would help to cheer them both up. He didn’t fancy sitting here for the rest of the evening; the gloom was almost palpable.
    John shook his head but thanked him. ‘Thanks, but I’ve never been one for the drink, Billy, you know that. And I’ve an early start tomorrow.’
    Maggie sighed, seeing her husband was anxious to get away. ‘Oh, get off with you, Billy. Go and have a drink. You’re right, it’s been a desperate day.’ Even though she was bone-tired she wanted to talk to her brother about Mae and she didn’t want Billy chipping in.
    ‘I’ve your clothes washed and dried and ready to put in your bag,’ she said to her brother. ‘You are sure this will be the best thing to do? Go back to sea?’ she asked again.
    John nodded. ‘I . . . I can’t stay, Maggie, I just can’t ! Maybe filling my days with sheer hard slog might help me to . . . to get through.’
    ‘At least I’ll know you’re being well fed,’ she replied. He’d hardly eaten at all since he’d been home but the gruelling physical work would bring back his appetite and the long hours would ensure he slept. She prayed that when he returned home next time his raw grief would be less acute.
    ‘I’ll leave you the usual amount of money, Maggie. You still have bills to pay and I don’t suppose you can rely entirely on what Billy earns.’ He’d had a bit saved up but that had gone on the funeral expenses – not that he’d begrudged it.
    Maggie nodded her thanks and got up and gently took the sleeping baby from her crib, a deep drawer lined with a blanket. ‘It’s about time you held her, John. You’ve barely looked at her and her mam was so . . . so proud of her, she told me so the evening before the fever took hold.’
    At first he hesitated but, thinking that Beth would have been upset if she’d known, he took her gingerly from his sister. She was so tiny, he thought. Her head was covered with a soft down of silvery blond hair and her mouth was like a miniature rosebud. Gently she stirred in his arms, slowly opening her eyes and looking up at him with a wide deep blue gaze. A ghost of a smile hovered on his lips. She was so like her mother it was uncanny, he marvelled, feeling the first stirrings of affection. Beth would never be truly gone from his life, he realised, for each time this little one looked at him he would see his wife. Tentatively he reached out to touch her soft little cheek with his index finger and her tiny fingers curled around it, callused and rough as it was. The smile grew and slowly spread across his face. ‘Mae. What a pretty name. You’re just as beautiful as my Beth too.’
    Maggie smiled too, relief surging through her. It was the first time he’d spoken Beth’s name and she’d feared that he would totally reject his daughter. ‘I promised Beth I’d bring her up, John. That I’d love her every bit as much as Eddie and try to make sure she never wanted for anything.’
    ‘Thank you for that, Maggie, but I’ll do whatever I can to help. She is my child and I . . . I do love her.’
    ‘I know you do. We’ll both do our best for her, John, for Beth’s sake.’

S ome semblance of normality did return to Maggie’s life as the days passed. She was constantly busy for her time was taken up with the household tasks, the shopping, the cooking, the washing, but it all seemed harder now, for Beth had always done her fair share of the chores and there was Mae to look after now too. She was struggling with morning sickness and although she remembered how she’d blurted out the news of her pregnancy to Billy he’d not made any mention of it at all. She decided that she would confide in Agnes before Mrs Webster’s sharp eyes detected her increasing girth.
    ‘I thought you’ve not been looking at all well lately, Maggie, but I put it down to everything that’s happened and all the stress and strain and the broken nights with Mae,’ Agnes said as the two friends were sitting beside the