Nest of Sorrows Read Online Free PDF Page A

socks into which were tucked trousers of the same colour, up and up over belt and tunic, finally coming to rest on the cap. ‘May God have mercy on you,’ the old man said quietly. ‘Come away in. The children are at school and Rachel’s taken a job in the mill canteen. You are going into it, then?’
    ‘Tomorrow. I’m off for training. She’ll have to keep the house on while I’m gone.’
    ‘She will. I’ll see to it that she does.’
    ‘I . . . I want her home, Dad.’
    Joseph swallowed hard. This was the first time Peter Murray had acknowledged their relationship by marriage. ‘’Tis a time of severe turmoil, Peter. She will feel safer here, but I’ll try to get her to go back one or two nights a week.’
    ‘Thanks. And it doesn’t look all that safe here, does it? I mean, View Street’s nearer the sky than anything else round here. There’ll be bombs, you know. Has Ju . . . have the girls got their gas masks?’
    ‘They have. We all have. Lancashire Fusiliers then, is it?’
    ‘Aye.’
    ‘Front lines, I shouldn’t wonder?’
    ‘Eeh, I don’t know, do I? I mean – we’ll be the last to know when and where. Same as you’ve said over the last lot – we’re just the cattle, we go where we’re put. Only I’m going to try and get on, pass some classes if there’s chance.’
    ‘You’re looking for education? Out of a war? It might have been possible had you been a regular, but as a call-up . . .’
    ‘I’ve not been called up. It’s not my turn yet. But a few of us decided to go whether or not. I mean, it’s our country, isn’t it? He’ll be wanting more than Poland, you know. Next news, he’ll be prancing past the Eiffel Tower and that’s only a cough and a spit from England. I just thought I might take advantage . . .’
    ‘Of a war?’
    ‘It’s the only bloody chance I’ll ever get. Mind, as a Fusilier, I might not go far. The other feller’ll have a gun too, I suppose.’
    ‘He will. He most certainly will. Don’t think about it, Peter. I never thought about it. God alone knows how many lads I killed before they brought me down. It does not bear imagining. When you go in there, when it comes your time, just keep the tin hat on and the gun blazing. Does Rachel know you’ve joined up?’
    ‘No. She’ll not be all that interested.’
    ‘Ah, now, I wouldn’t be saying that, man. This is your chance now, not just for an education, but to see things right between yourself and my daughter. Though the damage to Katherine is probably beyond repair . . .’
    ‘Eh? What damage? Who’s been hurting her?’
    Joseph breathed a long drawn-out sigh. ‘How will they educate you when you can’t see past your own nose? The child is terrified of you, frightened to death. Where she expected love, she got coldness. Sure I’ve tried to be a father to her, but it’s not the same. Unless you can get round Katherine, the child is a wedge between you and Rachel for evermore.’
    Peter’s lip curled slightly. ‘She’s only a kid! How can a kiddy come between man and wife, eh?’
    ‘She resents you. For not loving her. Peter, she resents your resentment. Even at five years of age, she knows she was a disappointment to her father. Can you put that right?’
    ‘I don’t know.’
    ‘Do you want to? Do you love the little girl?’
    Peter hesitated. ‘No,’ he said eventually. ‘I don’t love her. I suppose this is the time for truth, what with the war and all. No point in lying over these things. No. At first, I thought she wasn’t mine. I know she is mine – I do know that now. Only I can’t get near her. It’s not just me. I know there’s something wrong with me if I can blame a baby for not being a boy and for its mother turning barren. But it’s her too. There’s summat about Katherine. It’s a way she has of looking at me . . .’
    ‘As if she knows everything?’
    Peter shot a grateful glance in the old man’s direction. ‘That’s it! As if she’s got all