The Mersey Girls Read Online Free PDF Page B

my head’s about to take off and float round the room! You’re to bring a couple of girls home to tea when you start school next week; do you hear me, now?’
    But after holding aloof from them for so long, it was strangely difficult to infiltrate the little groups of girls, all in similar circumstances, who went to the small private school in Rodney Street. They had fathers as well as mothers and they lived in the smart houses surrounding the school, whereas Linnet caught the tram morning and evening and seldom talked about her home circumstances. Mammy had impressed upon her that she should not mention that her parent was little Evie, the actress, not to her schoolmates nor to the nuns who taught them. And Linnet had speedily seen that not talking about one’s mother also made friendships difficult.
    But today Linnet knew at once that this boy, this Roddy Sullivan, was different. He was from their own neighbourhood and despite her mother’s dismissive remarks about ‘street kids’ Linnet felt sure that he would be a friend worth having, if friendship were on offer. And if she had someone tough enough to take care of her and befriend her, someone who could take her round to Peel Square occasionally, then Mammy would be able to go off with her gentleman friend without a qualm.
    Because that, of course, was what it was all about. Linnet loved her mother dearly but she was quite shrewd enough to realise that there were times when she was a drag on her mother’s career. And Evie’s career was tremendously important to her. Linnet knew that it was her fault that her mother had not already reached stardom, and always felt guilty when she found Mammy in tears, staring at her face in the mirror, lamenting an imaginary line or a tiny wrinkle, reminding herself that she was not getting any younger, that the years were passing.
    I hold her back, Linnet told herself sorrowfully now, as Roddy considered her invitation. If it hadn’t been for me she’d have been a star by now, but having a big daughter of eleven puts a lot of people off. So if this latest gentleman friend means what he says and helps Mammy’s career, I must keep out of the way a bit more, learn to amuse myself. And with Roddy as my friend that will be very much easier.
    ‘Finished the licky? Well, if you means it, if you’re really a-going to take me back to meet your mam, we’d best clean ourselves up a bit,’ Roddy said as they crossed Homer Street and waited on the pavement’s edge at Juvenal whilst a huge dray dragged by two immense carthorses thundered past. ‘There’s a tap in Peely – want to go there first?’
    ‘There’s taps in our rooms,’ Linnet said, puzzled. ‘We can wash there.’
    ‘Ye-es, but your mam . . .’
    ‘Oh, yes, we’re a bit lickyish round the mouths,’ Linnet said, light dawning. Truth to tell, both their faces were now dirty and sticky, she guessed. Roddy’s certainly was and she knew it would be best if her new friend was at least clean. ‘But won’t your mam mind us going in?’
    ‘Where was you born?’ Roddy exclaimed. ‘The tap’s at one end of the bleedin’ square, gal! We can clean up wi’out anyone being any the wiser. Well, ’cept for the kids,’ he amended. ‘They’re everywhere, but they won’t care what we does, they’ll be playing some game or other.’
    ‘All right, we’ll go to your place first, then,’ Linnet said. ‘I – I don’t know where Peel Square is, though. It’s not far, is it?’
    ‘No, nobbut a step,’ Roddy said reassuringly. ‘It’s right instead of left, though – you get to Peely down Cazneau.’
    ‘Oh, I see,’ Linnet said, following close behind Roddy. Trams thundered along Cazneau Street with the horsedrawn traffic keeping well clear of them, and despite the snow and the cold there was considerable bustle as shoppers made their way along the pavements, trying to get back home before darkness fell. ‘We don’t often come down this way, me and