The Lights of London Read Online Free PDF Page B

soddingcarrot cruncher. Up from the sticks, are you, dear?’ Still walking along, she turned to Tibs. ‘No wonder she’s so flaming dopey. They’re all like that down there.’ She gestured vaguely over her shoulder towards where she imagined the countryside might be. ‘It’s all that fresh air, see. Can’t be no good for you, can it?’
    Tibs flashed a warning glare at Sal, then returned her attention to Kitty. ‘Here, I’m a country girl and all,’ she enthused in her broad cockney croak. ‘I come from …’
    ‘Here, hang on a minute.’ Agitated by her friend’s siding with this feeble-minded bumpkin of an interloper, Sal decided she’d had enough. ‘I’m sorry, Tibs,’ she said with a haughty sniff,
‘but
I’ve heard your life story before. You won’t think I’m rude if I say I’ll be getting along, now will you, girl?’ With that, she stretched her lips at Kitty in a thin approximation of a smile and strode off ahead of them.
    She was quickly out of sight, but Tibs noticed that her clip-clopping footsteps over the cobbles gradually slowed down until she was walking at the same pace as they were – albeit a dozen yards in front. Close enough to shout for help, Tibs thought with a fond grin, but far enough away for her to make her point. Typical of Sal.
    Kitty interrupted Tibs’s thoughts with a pitiful sigh. ‘I never meant to upset your friend,’ she said in her soft rural burr. ‘I’m that sorry.’
    ‘Don’t you worry yourself, sweetheart,’ Tibs reassured her, pleased to hear Kitty talking, even if she did sound as miserable as the coalman on a sunny day. ‘It don’t take much to get that one going. Sal might be me mate, but even I have to admit she ain’t got much patience.’
    ‘You’re right lucky, you are.’
    ‘Me? Lucky? How come?’
    ‘I’ve never really had a friend.’
    ‘You don’t mean that.’ Tibs sounded shocked. ‘Everyone’s got friends. Someone they can turn to.’
    ‘Not me.’ Kitty shivered. ‘I’ve never had the chance to make any, see.’
    Tibs shook her head. Poor cow. They were right what they said: there’s always someone worse off. ‘So you reckon you’ve got no one to turn to? No one at all?’
    Kitty shook her head.
    ‘And you’re soaking wet, love you. And it’s parky enough to freeze the doodahs off of your … and I’ll bet …’
    ‘This is your last chance, Tibs,’ Sal bellowed out of the fog. ‘Now, are you coming or what?’
    Kitty began weeping miserably. ‘You’d better go. Your friend’s waiting.’
    ‘Don’t be daft, and don’t go fretting and crying all over the place. It ain’t worth it. Nothing’s worth it.’ Tibs risked squeezing Kitty’s arm. ‘Anyway, you should be smiling. You’ve got yourself a friend now, ain’t you? Whether you like it or not, I’m gonna look after you. We’re gonna be a team see, Kit, me and you. Little Tibs and big Kitty. There’ll be no stopping us.’
    Good job she don’t know the mess I’ve made of me own bleed’n’ life, thought Tibs.
    ‘
What did you say
?’ Teezer – his knee swollen and aching from where Buggy had fallen on him in the shoreway and his head thick with purl – stuck his face close to the man who’d dared question his right to barge past his table.
    The man recoiled. ‘No harm meant, mate. I just asked you to be careful, that’s all. You nearly had the lady’s glass over, and …’
    ‘And
I’m
just asking you to shut your noise, while I mind me own business and make me way to the front ofthis here theatre.’ Teezer pulled himself up to his full, barrel-chested height. ‘Or d’you wanna make something of it?’
    As usual, Buggy couldn’t resist throwing in his long-winded two penn’orth of nonsense. ‘I wouldn’t actually call it a theatre, Teeze. More of a big room, really. In fact, its very much like a lot of little rooms that have been knocked through and …’
    Teezer spun round. ‘Buggy.’
    ‘Yes, Teeze?’
    ‘You’re another