Shattered Dreams Read Online Free PDF Page A

of mine. Anyway, I must be off, see you later when I get back home.”
    Eddie was left feeling angry, but despondent. Though he was in love with Irene, was falling out with his mother worth it in the long run?
    J.C. got on the train at Chester Station. He wasn’t going far, just down to Queensferry, but he had this urge to go and visit a little cottage on the main street. He was sure of a welcome there, it was the place he went to when he needed a bit of affection.
    He lit a cigar as he sat back in the First Class carriage and thought about Alice. No one loved him as Alice did and he was sure he loved her in return. She had been the family Nanny when the children were younger and of course he hadn’t meant to put her in a compromising position that night, but Glad had gone back to stay with her mother for a few days in Holywell and he always knew that Alice worshipped him. He could tell from the way she always had his slippers warming and a nice cup of tea ready for him when he came in from work.
    Things had gone on from there and they snatched what happiness they could over the next year or so, until she had come to tell him that she was expecting. She’d asked him to leave Glad and set up home with her somewhere that no one would know them. Maybe in the Welsh countryside, where he could perhaps buy a bit of land and work a small holding. Alice, though, was happy enough when he said he’d buy her a little house, somewhere he could visit and get to know their baby. She’d been happy with that, Alice adored him and would never have resorted to blackmail, when perhaps another girl would have done.
    Gladys Dockerty was running over the list of wedding invitations with her daughter, Caitlin. Caitlin was a small chubby girl who had never lost her puppy fat and was too fond of cakes and steak and kidney puddings to ever lose her weight.
    “I’ve decided to invite Marjorie Buckley to be Eddie’s partner at the wedding, Caitlin. I would have asked you to have her as one of your bridesmaids, but with you having all your sisters that should be enough. Your father has told me that Eddie has proposed to a most unsuitable young lady. She’s a shop assistant for heaven’s sake, not quite what we were wanting for your father’s son and heir.”
    “And you think that by throwing Eddie and Marjorie together is somehow going to make him un-betrothed, Mother? You don’t know our Eddie very well then.”
    “Caitlin. I know your brother very well, he is my first born son, after all. I know that he’s expecting to inherit everything from your father and will change his mind when I tell him that he will get nothing if he disobeys me.”
    “And does Eddie know that the bungalow he’s working on is going to belong to me and Larry? Because if he doesn’t, I’d like to be there to see his face when Dad tells him.”
    “Oh, you can be so heartless, Caitlin. No, he hasn’t been told yet and I think it was quite underhanded of your father to pretend that the bungalow was going to be his.”
    “Well he’d better tell him soon, because Eddie’s nearly got the roof on, he’s been working every night on it. Probably that’s why he’s proposed to the shop girl, so that they can get married when he’s finished it. Anyway, Mother, will you telephone Miss Clarence in Chester for me soon, because I’ll have to go to a dressmaker for my wedding dress? I’ve looked around Liverpool and there’s nothing suitable in the department stores.”
    Aunt Miriam’s face was wreathed in smiles when Irene told her that Eddie had proposed.
    “And when is he taking you for your engagement ring, dear? He’s bound to get you a solitaire, not like this little thing that your uncle gave me. Still, I know they say that opals can bring bad luck for the wearer, but we had a happy marriage for nearly forty years.”
    “Oh, I don’t mind what Eddie gets me, Aunty. I’m so pleased that I’m going to marry him, I could burst. I’ll be able to leave work