Free Across a Summer Sea by Lyn Andrews Page B

You buy me nothing.’  
    ‘I keep you - or I did. Now you can keep yourself. I mean it. Out in an hour.’  
    She stared at him in shock. What was he saying? ‘Frank, you can’t mean it? I’ve done nothing wrong, I swear to God I haven’t!’  
    ‘You can swear as much as you like. I’m not putting up with you and your carrying on for another day!’  
    ‘Frank, for God’s sake, it’s Christmas Day! You can’t do this to us! You’ll break the kids’ hearts!’ Mary was beside herself. ‘I won’t go! I won’t go, Frank! I’m not moving an inch and neither are the kids!’  
    He turned on her. ‘Then I’ll bloody well throw you out! I’ll pick you up and physically throw you out of the bloody door onto the street!’ he yelled.   
    ‘You wouldn’t !’  
    ‘Just try me, Mary!’  
    She was horrified, she could see he meant it. ‘And the kids?’  
    ‘You should have thought of them before you started whoring around! Get their things together now and get out!’  
    He turned away and she clutched his arm. ‘Frank, please? I swear I’ve done nothing . I swear, nothing !’  
    Angrily he shook off her grip and returned to the kitchen.  
    Mary followed him, almost in tears. She couldn’t believe he was doing this. ‘Frank, you’ve got to listen to me! Please?’  
    Maggie was awake. ‘What’s the matter now?’ she asked irritably.  
    Frank turned on her. ‘You stay out of it!’  
    Mary threw out her hands in a gesture of appeal. ‘Oh, God! Maggie, he . . . he’s throwing us out! He won’t listen to me. He believes I’ve been . . . more than friendly with Richie, but it’s not true, Maggie!’  
    Anger flooded through Maggie. ‘Of course it’s not flaming well true! You’re a fool, Frank McGann! You don’t know when you’ve got a good wife. Look at some of them in this street. Lazy slatterns. The place like a pigsty and no meal on the table and no washing done and them sitting in the side passage of the Newsham House drinking every penny they get. You just be thankful she’s not like that.’  
    ‘I told you to stay out of it. It’s got nothing to do with you!’ Frank shouted.  
    Maggie wasn’t intimidated. ‘It’s got everything to do with me, it’s my house, in case you’d forgotten!’  
    ‘And I pay half the rent you can’t afford. If you insist and she stays then I go and there’ll be no way either of you can afford the rent. You’ll both finish up in the Workhouse. But it’s not me who’s going, it’s her! You think about that, old woman. Do you want to end your days no better than a bag of bones in the Workhouse? Because if you take her side I’ll make bloody sure that’s what will happen! I’m going to the pub and when I get back I don’t want to see her or the kids here!’  
    As the door slammed behind him Mary sank down in the armchair and began to cry. ‘Oh, Maggie, what will I do? Where will I go? Why is he being so unreasonable? Why won’t he believe me?’  
    Maggie hastened to comfort her. ‘Oh, Mary! God knows what’s got into him.’ She was thoroughly shocked herself.  
    Mary was beside herself with worry. ‘He means it, Maggie, he does! I’ve never seen him like this. He’s . . . terrifying!’  
    In her heart Maggie had to agree. It was a terrible, calculating hatred she’d seen in Frank’s eyes. ‘Try to take no notice,’ she soothed.  
    ‘Maggie, I have to. And I can’t put you in danger of losing your home and with it your chance to earn a bit of money.’  
    ‘That doesn’t matter, Mary. I can’t see you all thrown out on the street.’  
    ‘I know you mean well but we have to go. You can’t afford to keep us and even if he went and I worked, if I could get a proper job, we still couldn’t manage. You’d lose everything. You heard him, he’d make sure you ended up destitute. I have to go. I can’t let that happen.’  
    Maggie knew she was right and she raged inwardly at Frank’s callousness