Free Laceys of Liverpool by Maureen Lee

John’s glowering face wasn’t allowed to dampen the atmosphere during the meal. Everyone was too full of the hairdresser’s and what they had achieved.
    ‘What are you going to call it, Mam?’ Maeve enquired.
    ‘Why Myrtle’s, luv. I wasn’t thinking of changing the name.’
    ‘I think you should,’ said Bernadette.
    Danny nodded. ‘So do I.’
    ‘Why don’t you call it Alice’s,’ suggested Orla.
    Alice thought that sounded a bit clumsy and wondered how anyone could be as stupid as she was; fancy not thinking about a new name and not realising the upstairs flat was included in the lease! ‘You’re as thick as two short planks, Alice Lacey,’ she told herself.
    ‘You could call it Lacey’s,’ said Fion.
    ‘That has a nice ring to it.’ Bernadette nodded her approval.
    Danny said it sounded classy, Maeve thought it perfect, Cormac remarked it would go with the lacy curtains, Alice looked pleased, John merely scowled and Orla pulled a face, cross that Fionnuala’s suggestion had been taken up, not hers.
    And Fion glowed. She had actually christened a hairdresser’s and felt very proud of herself.
    After the table had been cleared and the dishes washed, Bernadette announced she was going home. Danny offered to walk with her as far as Irlam Road.
    ‘There’s no need.’ Bernadette went all pink again. She never knew what to say to Danny Mitchell.
    ‘Actually, there’s something I wanted to ask you,’ Danny said when they were outside. ‘Where did that bruise come from on our Alice’s face? She claimed to have walked into a door, but I’m not sure if I believe her.’
    ‘John did it.’ Bernadette had no intention of protecting John Lacey from his father-in-law’s wrath. She was slightly disappointed that Danny was only walking her home because he’d wanted to ask about Alice. ‘It was onThursday night, when Alice came back with the cheque.’
    Danny swore under his breath. ‘I’ll be after having a word with him as soon as I get the opportunity.’ Later that night, maybe. Alice had said something about going back to the hairdresser’s to put up the curtains so there was a good chance John would be alone.
    Thinking she was being helpful, Bernadette told him about the flat over Myrtle’s. ‘I said it would do for John, but Alice wouldn’t hear of it.’
    ‘Quite right, too.’ He sounded even more shocked by the idea than his daughter had. ‘You can’t chuck a man out of his own home, no matter what he’s done,’ he said, outraged.
    ‘Huh! No matter if he’d put your Alice in hospital or done the same to one of the kids?’ She forgot her awe of him and lost her temper. Men! The world would be a far better place without them. There’d only been one good one and he’d been killed in the war.
    ‘It’s not the way things are done,’ Danny said testily. He was beginning to wish he hadn’t offered to take her home. He’d always thought her a rather quiet little thing. He wasn’t used to women arguing with him. They usually agreed with his every word.
    ‘Well, it’s about time it was. Are you suggesting women are born to be punchbags?’
    He was flummoxed. What could he say to that? ‘I’m suggesting nothing of the kind.’
    ‘Yes, you are. You’re saying a woman can be knocked to bits and nothing should be done about it.’
    ‘She can always leave.’ He regretted the words as soon as they’d left his mouth, because the quiet little thing burst into sarcastic laughter.
    ‘In that case, if John hits your Alice again, I’ll suggest she ups with the four kids and parks herself on you.’
    Both seething, they walked the rest of the way to Irlam Road in silence.
    Alice finished hanging the white lace curtains and imagined the reaction of the customers tomorrow when they saw the changes that had been made to Myrtle’s – she corrected herself –
Lacey’s
. She must get a signwriter to change the name over the window and pushed to the back of her mind the knowledge that