Sunlight on the Mersey Read Online Free PDF Page A

are always starvin’ when they get ’ome from school. Ow’s your Rose? I ’eard the doctor ’ad been yesterday.’
    ‘Much better this morning, thanks, Maggie. She’s got rheumatic fever though.’
    Maggie sucked in her breath and shook her head. ‘Yer got ter be careful with that, Kate. It can be serious, leave her an invalid, it can. Look at Dora Foster’s youngest. Poor kid, ’e can ’ardly get up the stairs now, gaspin’ fer ’is breath an’ his knees all deformed, like.’
    Kate nodded, thinking of poor little Billy Foster. The child was fortunate that he had survived but now he was virtually a cripple. Dora hadn’t been able to afford to pay for a doctor and so the child had been left in a terrible state. Thankfully Rose had received medical treatment and the best care. ‘Iknow but Dr Mackenzie said she should make a complete recovery and I’m going to make sure she doesn’t overtax herself. I’ve got plans for our Rose when she’s on her feet again.’
    Maggie held out the coins to pay for her purchases and looked very interested. ‘What kind of plans would they be then, Kate?’ she asked. Rose Mundy had always been far more spoiled than Kate’s other two.
    ‘I’ve got to discuss them with Bill first, Maggie, but you’ll be the first to know after I’ve done that,’ she informed her neighbour.
    Maggie nodded but before she could comment further two other customers arrived, Ada Marshall and Sal Appleby, both of whom she knew well.
    ‘’As your Rose got the scarlet fever, Kate?’ Ada asked bluntly, nodding to Maggie by way of a greeting.
    ‘No. Why?’ Kate demanded.
    ‘Well, I ’eard she was took bad and I ’eard there’s at least four cases of it in Blackstock Street and that’s just round the corner, so ter speak.’
    ‘And yer know once these things get goin’ it’ll turn into an epidemic before long,’ Sal added.
    ‘She’s on the mend now, thank God,’ Kate replied. ‘Now, what can I get you, Ada?’ she asked, determined that she wasn’t going to show how much this latest piece of news had worried her. Sal was right, these things usually resulted in an epidemic and Rose was in no state to combat yet another disease. She resolved to speak to Bill tonight.
    Thankfully she managed to get supper over early. Charlie went out with a couple of his mates for a pint and Iris had made arrangements to meet her friend from work, Florence Taylor.
    ‘She seems a lot brighter today, luv,’ Bill remarked as he brought down the empty jug to be refilled with barley water.
    ‘She is and she’s slept quite a lot so that’s a good thing. Dr Mackenzie is calling in the morning so we’ll see what he has to say. Now, there’s something I want to talk to you about, Bill. I heard today that scarlet fever is raging again and our Rose isn’t in any condition to contend with that too.’
    Bill frowned as he sat down opposite his wife. ‘I’d heard that quite a few kids in Blackstock Street have come down with it but how will that affect Rose? She’s confined to bed; she’s not going to be in any danger of catching it.’
    ‘But we’re both in contact with so many folk from around here and who knows how these things are spread? No, as soon as she’s well enough I want to get her away from this neighbourhood, Bill. The weather is getting warmer now and you know what that means. Flies, rotting rubbish in the gutters and ashcans, people falling prey to all kinds of illnesses. I want to send her to stay with Gwen Roberts for a couple of months. She’ll be delighted to have Rose, I know.’
    Bill stared at her, a bit confused. ‘You want her to go to Tregarron?’
    Kate nodded. Gwen Roberts was an old friend who lived in a small village in Denbighshire. Granted she didn’t see her very often, usually only a couple of times a year when anomnibus trip was organised from the village to Liverpool for shopping purposes, but they wrote regularly. As a young girl she had gone on a very rare