Paradise Lane Read Online Free PDF Page B

because she’ll drop her knickers for anybody with a couple of bob. She got that off her mother, of course. Her mother were a bit on the stupid side and a right trollop.’
    ‘Shut your bouth, you.’ The younger woman positively bristled with anger. This was too much, she thought. She had all her papers, a ticket for the boat, the money sent by Morton – and a sore nose. She would clear out of here now, today. ‘I’b goig,’ she announced with a sudden burst of energy that propelled her into the house. She hurled herself at the door’s inner side, pushed the bolt home. Ivy pounded with both fists, but the door remained closed. ‘Get round the back,’ she told her companion. ‘Hurry up.’
    She waited for several minutes, tried to ignore a small gathering that had begun to form at the Worthington Street end of Paradise Lane. As soon as Tom appeared, Ivy ran to him. ‘Locked?’ she asked breathlessly.
    ‘Bolted.’
    Lottie’s head poked itself through the lower half of a bedroom window. ‘What are you goig to do dow?’ she yelled.
    ‘How will Sally get in?’ asked Tom Goodfellow.
    ‘She wod’t.’ The handkerchief was dropped for a moment while Lottie addressed the congregation. ‘Look what she’s dod to by dose,’ she yelled.
    ‘Aye, what about the scratches on her face?’ replied a neighbour of Ivy’s. ‘She’s nobbut an old lady.’
    ‘Lady?’ screamed Lottie. ‘She’s a bloody bitch.’
    Ivy took Tom on one side. ‘Get home and see to our Sal,’ she advised. ‘And leave the rest to me.’

TWO
    Rosie Blunt’s posser had never looked so menacing. The owner of the implement claimed first place in the line, though Ivy Crumpsall was hot on the heels of the small, silver-haired woman. Behind Ivy, a pair of hefty girls from Worthington Street brought up the rear, faces almost splitting in two at the hilarity of the situation. ‘Rosie?’ yelled one.
    ‘What?’ Rosie was running out of patience with a lot of things. Had she been required to write a list of the banes of her life, Lottie Crumpsall and Ollie would have shared the top place. Ollie Blunt was a bloody great moan from dawn till dusk, and Lottie deserved the death penalty for neglecting that child. Rosie would have loved a little girl. ‘What?’ she called again, temper spilling into the words.
    ‘Are you fit for this?’
    Rosie left her end of the posser and walked down the short line. ‘I’ve fettled for yon daft husband of mine for over fifty years,’ she snapped. ‘There’s no door thicker than yon man’s head.’
    The girl stopped laughing. ‘Right,’ she said meekly. ‘You shout, then we’ll run.’
    Ivy relaxed her hold on the pole, gave her daughter-in-law one last chance to open the front door. ‘We’re breaking in now,’ she shouted. ‘When I’ve counted to ten, we’ll be giving you no more chances.’ She bent, pushed an ear against the letterbox. Not a sound came from within number 1.
    ‘We might make our Derek worse,’ she said to Rosie Blunt. ‘All the noise’ll fret him.’
    Rosie nodded quickly. ‘All that blinking hunger and thirst’ll fret him more, Ivy. Are we ready?’
    ‘Yes,’ chorused the invading force.
    They walked to the other side of the cobbled way, stumbled in the ruts between stones. As they waited for Rosie’s command, a voice reached their ears. ‘Ivy?’
    They all swivelled and saw Tom Goodfellow emerging from his house. He stood still for a second, wondered how on earth they expected to break down a door with a dolly posser. ‘No need,’ he advised them. ‘She’s just gone across the Recreation Ground carrying a couple of cases. She allowed Sally into the house, then bolted the door again until she left. Sally’s all right – she waved to me from her bedroom window.’
    ‘All well and good.’ Ivy motioned to the other women until they had laid down their battering ram. ‘Only we’ve not done, girls. We’ll happen give her a good send-off. Tom, if Lottie’s