Free The Likes of Us by Stan Barstow Page A

An’ I still can’t believe it. I’m always thinkin’ I’ll wake up one morning and find we’re back in Mrs Walshaw’s back bedroom.’
    There was a short silence while Eva gently rubbed her legs in the heat of the fire. Then Mrs Scurridge said diffidently, ‘You’re not... You don’t think you’re over-reaching yourselves at all, do you? You know what I mean: taking on a bit more than you can manage.’
    â€˜Oh, no,’ Eva said; ‘we’re all right. We’ve been saving up ever since we were married. Both of us working. An’ Eric was always careful as a single lad, y’know. He never threw his money around like a lot of ’em do. No, we’ll be all right. We shall have to pull our horns in a bit from now on; but we’ll manage nicely, thank you.’
    â€˜Well then,’ said her mother, satisfied. ‘You know your own know best. An’ I’m right glad ’ at you’re settled in a home of your own at last.’
    â€˜An’ you can come an’ see us any time you like now,’ Eva said. ‘It’s not far – just half an hour on the bus from Cressley.’
    â€˜Yes, I’ll have to see about it now. I’ll be poppin’ over one o’these fine days. Just let’s get a bit o’ better weather here.’
    Eva toasted her knees. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘an’ how are you keeping?’
    Mrs Scurridge gave a faint shrug. ‘Oh, so so. A touch of lumbago now an’ again; but I can’t grumble. I’ll be happier when we have a bit better weather. You feel so cut off here when there’s snow on the ground. Half a mile from the nearest house and hardly any traffic on the road at night.’
    â€˜You should get out more,’ Eva said, ’ stead o’ sittin’ in night after night.’
    â€˜Aye, I suppose I should. You get out of the habit, though. And besides, this weather–’
    â€˜No need to ask about me father,’ Eva said. ‘Seems this weather doesn’t keep him in. Where’s he gone tonight? Down town?’
    Her mother nodded, looking into the fire. ‘Dogs, I suppose.’
    â€˜Leaving you here on your own, is usual.’
    â€˜There’s no pleasure out on a night like this.’
    Eva nodded. ‘I know all about it.’ She drew in her breath. ‘I don’t know how you stand it. I don’t, honestly.’ Her gaze flickered round the room and the dinginess of what she saw seemed so to oppress her that she barely restrained a shudder. ‘Thank God I got out when I had the chance.’
    â€˜It was different with you,’ her mother said. ‘You’d have gone anyway, sometime.’
    â€˜Not if he’d had his way. It just suited his book having two women about the house to wait on him. An’ with my money coming in he could hang on to more of his own.’ She stopped, then burst out in angry impatience, ‘I don’t see it. I just don’t see it. A husband should be somebody like Eric, who considers his wife an’ looks after her. An’ when he stops being like that your duty stops as well. You don’t owe me father a thing. You could walk out of here tonight an’ nobody could blame you. An’ you know there’s a place waiting for you any time you want it now. You’ve somewhere to go now.’
    Mrs Scurridge threw a shrewd glance at her daughter’s profile, flushed pink now from the heat of the fire and her outburst of indignation. ‘Is that what Eric thinks too?’ she said. ‘What does he think about it?’
    â€˜Well... he thinks like I do. He doesn’t know why you stick it.’
    â€˜But that doesn’t mean he’d be happy to be saddled with his mother-in-law as soon as he’s settled in his first home. Especially a mother-in-law like me.’
    â€˜Why especially like you?’
    â€˜Well, I don’t