The Maid's Quarters Read Online Free PDF Page A

instant!”
    “Or you’re going to see my fists coming at you, Nyturn,” Mr.
McKinnell said from beside her.
    “You’ve no right to do this! I’ll send for the police!”
Alice cried.
    “Go ahead girl!” Nyturn said, as he directed men to the
second floor. “Go ahead. We’ll see what the coppers say about moochers trying
to steal out of one of Mr. Donahue’s houses.”
    “We’re not moochers! And Mr. Donahue told me yesterday that
you were to come here and give me the key so I could get our things.”
    “But Mr. Donahue ain’t here now, is he, girl?” Nyturn said,
and looked about at the burly men that he’d brought with him. “What are you
standing here staring for? Get the sledgehammer and break up this furniture!”
    Mr. McKinnell charged Nyturn full on, and the two men
tumbled to the floor. Another neighbor, young Robbie Duff, heard McKinnell’s
shouts and ran in, taking on two of Nyturn’s men. Mrs. McKinnell smacked the
third man in the head with a pot. She called to Alice.
    “Help me, Alice. We’ll drag this no good, worthless bit of a
man out on to the street.” Bet McKinnell straightened when Alice’s ma passed
them. “Get any valuables you have, Maeve. They’re aiming to tear it all apart,
and Bert and Robbie can only hold them off so long.”
    Alice took hold of the man’s pant leg, while Mrs. McKinnell
took the other and began dragging him out the door. She saw her mother
frantically pulling drawers out of the china cabinet lying on its side. She
hurried back into the house to help her mother, carrying an empty box Mrs.
Spretz had handed her, intending to help her gather any valuables that were
still unbroken. She stopped suddenly, seeing her ma kneeling on the floor,
sobbing, and piecing together a cream pitcher and its handle.
    Maeve Porterman looked up at her daughter. “All of my ma’s
furniture and linens in pieces. This came from the old country, too, you see.
It was the last of her china,” Maeve said between the shouts and gasps of men
fighting with fists.
    “Come, Ma,” Alice said. “Bring it with you then, put it in
here. Where is Jimmy’s medicine?”
    “I’ve got it,” Maeve said, as she struggled to her feet.
    Alice wrapped an arm around her mother as they hurried out,
stepping over and around debris on the floor. Once outside, Maeve went to Jimmy,
who was crying and being comforted by Mrs. Spretz as he sat in the cart he was
being wheeled in. Alice turned around, went inside, and called to Mr. McKinnell
and Robbie Duff.
    “Come out now,” she said to them. “There is nothing more to
be done here, and I don’t want to see you hurt on our account. Come along now.”
    The men contented themselves with shouting obscenities at
each other as they tumbled out of the house. Nyturn was telling one of his men,
now holding his jaw, to hurry to the police station.
    “This rabble’s got to learn their lesson! Hurry now and get
there and back with a copper before these ruffians run off.”
    Mr. McKinnell pointed to his house. “I live right there.
Tell him to come see me and I’ll tell him what happened, I will.”
    Maeve was crying as she held Jimmy in her arms, a blanket
tucked around the boy. Jimmy was staring at their house and patting his
mother’s arm. Mrs. Spretz and Mrs. McKinnell were shouting at the men while
wielding rolling pins and frying pans. Other neighbors were calling out their
dissatisfaction with hisses and boos. Nyturn and his men were pointing fingers
and hollering back at the crowd, threatening to find out which of them rented
from Mr. Donahue, so that they could be thrown from their houses, too.
    “Stop!” Alice cried, and the crowd quieted and looked at her.
“Stop and settle your tempers. It is over, and there is nothing to be done
about it. Go back to your homes.”
    “Go ahead and leave! The police will find you!” Nyturn
shouted.
    “The police?” a voice said. “What is going on here?”
    Alice turned and saw Mr. Donahue. He tipped