Free Off the Rails by Beryl Kingston Page B

was going to tell her she shouldn’t do it. ‘Yes, sir. I hope that was in order, sir.’
    ‘They speak of you warmly,’ he told her, still looking out of the window. ‘Uncommon warmly for gels so young.’ Then he turned away from the view and began his stately walk towards the door, signalling to his two attendants that they should make way for him, which they did. But as he passed the rocking horse he suddenly stopped. ‘What’s this?’
    Milly was standing very still beside the horse, holding on to its mane and sucking her thumb.
    ‘If you please, sir,’ Jane confessed. ’She’s my little girl, sir.’
    ‘Ah,’ he said. ‘Yes, yes. Of course. Is she healthy?’
    ‘Oh yes, sir.’
    ‘Um,’ the great man said and turned to Mrs Denman, ‘should there be any sickness in her whatsoever,’ he instructed, ‘you will remove her from the nursery forthwith. I trust that is understood.’
    ‘Of course, sir.’
    The progress towards the door continued. It was opened for him. He paused. He looked back at Jane. ‘Pray tell Mrs Denman should there be anythin’ that you require for any of the children,’ he said. ‘She will attend to it, will you not, Mrs Denman? This is all quite satisfactory, Mr Glendenning. I leave my family in your capable hands, Mrs Smith.’ Then henodded at Jane as if he were giving her permission to continue.
    She curtseyed without speaking. It seemed the proper thing to do. Then he was gone.
    ‘Well, well, well,’ she said to Milly when the door had closed behind him. ‘What do ’ee think of that, Pumpkin?’
    Milly gave her rapturous smile. ‘Pum, pum, pum,’ she said.  

6
    ‘F AMILIES ARE THE very devil,’ George Hudson said to Mrs Norridge as they sat over their dinner one cold Friday afternoon in late October. ‘They throw you out soon as look at you. They’re forever standing in your way. They choose the wrong man to be a partner when the best one’s staring ’em in their damned stupid faces. Blamed fools the lot of ’em. Don’t talk to me about families.’ He was more than a little drunk and hideously annoyed.
    ‘Never thought much to ’em mesself,’ Mrs Norridge confided, filling her tankard from the beer jug. ‘Not if my ol’ man was anything to go by. All sweetness an’ light an’ heart a’ my heart an’ give us a kiss when he was sober. But when he was tight, you should ha’ heard him. Hollerin’ an’ roarin’.’
    ‘What does that fool know about running a shop?’ George said. ‘I could run it wi’ one hand tied behind my back.’ His speech was slurred but what did he care? ‘One hand tied behind my back. And what do I get? We’re keeping it in t’family. In t’family! I ask you. That won’t get ’em any trade.’
    ‘Gives you a headache summat chronic does hollerin’,’ Mrs Norridge complained. ‘No good tellin’ ’im. Cos why? Cos ’e never listened to a word I said. Not one blamed word.’
    ‘They needn’t think they’re going to keep me down,’ George said. ‘I’ll be their equal one of these days, if it takes forever.’ And he slid slowly off his chair. ‘I’ll show ’em,’ he said to the table leg. Then he fell asleep.
    Mrs Norridge left him where he was. She was used to drunks and he was much too solid to be hauled into another position. ‘I’ll jest finish off that beer,’ she said to his boots. ‘Be a shame to let it go to waste.’
     
    Although he regretted his drunkenness, because he had such a thick head the following morning, George was not going to be put down. Mrs Bell was a fool to have given her stupid brother a partnership, but a fool can be outwitted and, once his head was cleared, he knew how he was going to do it. If she’d made up her mind that she’d only take a partner if he were a member of the family, he would have to become a member of the family. And the obvious way to do that was to marry Lizzie. She was the most unattractive woman he’d ever seen and almost as stupid as her sister