Paradise Lane Read Online Free PDF

patted a sweep of hair that threatened to tumble. ‘I’ve been invited to a mill do at the Empress tonight.’
    ‘Oh aye? And who’s looking after our Sal?’
    The younger woman tried to shrug, was stopped by the iron grip on her coat. ‘This coat cost seven and six,’ she snapped. ‘And Maureen’ll see to Sally.’
    ‘And Derek?’
    ‘Look, I can’t stop in all the while. I’m only thirty-three. Me life’d be over if I sat in there all day and all night long. Any road, it’s none of your business.’
    Ivy’s mouth stretched itself into a snarl that was made fiercer by all the gaps in her teeth. ‘I’ll bloody swing for you yet,’ she whispered. ‘And when that rope cuts into my neck, I’ll still think I’ve done the right thing. You’re scum, you are. Your mother were a cheap piece and all, still chasing men right till the day she choked on her own gin-soaked vomit.’
    Lottie’s patience was fully extended, not because of Ivy’s taunts, but on account of the expensive hairdo. She raised both hands, raked ten red-painted nails down Ivy’s face. ‘I hate you,’ she screamed as her mother-in-law backed away with scarlet rivulets decorating her cheeks. ‘You’re an ugly old bag, and you’re jealous because I’m still good-looking enough to get a decent bloke.’ She jerked a finger towards her own front door. ‘As for him in there, he were no use when he were right. I’m not stopping in with him coughing his filth all over me and—’
    Ivy’s balled fist made hard contact with Lottie’s nose. Both women stood motionless for a few seconds, the elder fascinated and stunned by all the blood, the younger struck dumb with shock. ‘If you’ve broke my nose,’ she managed eventually, ‘I’ll kill you. And when I’ve killed you, I’ll stamp on your horrible mug.’ Pain arrived then, a horrible throbbing ache that spread the width of her face and up into her skull.
    ‘Try me. Go on, try.’ Ivy’s fists were raised in the fashion of a prize fighter, the left punching air, the right defending her face. The hump seemed to be disappearing as she rose to full height. ‘Come on, you daft bitch, take me on.’
    ‘Sod off.’
    ‘Aye, I thought as much. All wind and water, you are. Now just you listen to me. I’m stopping in this here house till my son’s laid to rest. If you so much as show your face round these parts when we take him to our chapel, I’ll set all my mates on you. See, the difference between me and you is I’ve got friends, good friends as’ll stand by me come all weathers. If anybody catches sight of you when Derek goes under, you’ll have more than a broken nose.’
    ‘Mrs Crumpsall?’
    Ivy glanced over her shoulder, nodded in the direction of Tom Goodfellow. ‘I’m all right, lad. Unless poison sets in from them claws of hers.’
    Lottie’s nose was hidden beneath a white handkerchief. ‘She’s god ad broke by dose,’ she muttered with difficulty.
    Tom eyed Lottie Crumpsall, thought about the poor man inside number 1. Derek Crumpsall had lost all his dignity, needed to be toileted like a newborn. The pain showed in the good man’s eyes, yet he never flinched while he was lifted and turned, while bedsores were treated with lotions that seemed to serve no purpose. ‘A broken nose is nothing compared to a broken heart,’ he said in perfect English.
    ‘Why dod’t you bugger of ad all?’ spat Lottie through the makeshift face mask. I were goig to the Ebpress todight. Dot dow, though. Dot with a sbashed dose.’
    ‘What about that poor child of yours?’ asked Tom. ‘She’s in my garden now playing with the cat. Don’t you ever think about her? Aren’t you concerned for her future?’
    Fierce hazel eyes burned at him above a crumpled square of cotton.
    Ivy chipped in. ‘You see, she’s no brains. Most folk grow out of dance halls and the like once they’ve got kiddies. But this one wants to carry on like a girl of eighteen. And there’s money in it, too,