Читать книгу A Father’s Revenge - Kitty Neale - Страница 16

‘Thank goodness Nora’s still asleep,’ Derek said on Sunday morning. ‘She hardly leaves your side and we don’t get a minute to ourselves nowadays.’

‘I know, but it’s because she’s still unsettled. She’ll be a lot better when we move to Battersea,’ Pearl said, feeling awful that she couldn’t say the same for John. He’d taken the news that they were moving badly, though he had seemed somewhat mollified when Pearl had told him that he could spend every weekend with his grandmother in Winchester. As he’d been upset enough, Pearl hadn’t told him the truth about Kevin, but she knew it was something she had to face.

John came downstairs only moments later, mumbling a reply to their greetings. He sat at the table and poured himself a bowl of cornflakes, then paused. ‘Mum, I know you said that when we move to Battersea I can spend every weekend here, but you seem to have forgotten something.’

‘Have I?’

‘I spend one Saturday a month with my grandparents in Southsea.’

‘We’ll work something out,’ Pearl said. She hadn’t forgotten. It was another thing that lay heavily on her mind. One complication seemed to follow another and Pearl was at a loss to know what to do.

‘Well, Dad, if you ask me, it sounds like you’ll be spending hours every weekend driving me around,’ John commented, his eyes on Derek.

‘Yeah, but I don’t mind,’ he replied.

Pearl smiled at Derek and knowing that she had to get it over with, she took courage from his presence as she said, ‘John, I have something to tell you. It … it’s about Kevin … your real father. He’s been released from prison.’

She watched her son’s eyes light up, heard the excitement in his voice. ‘He has? Where is he now? Can I see him?’

‘Before we get into that, I’m afraid I have to tell you something about your father that I had hoped to keep from you …’

John’s brow creased as Pearl hesitated and he urged, ‘What is it, Mum?’

‘When I felt you were old enough to understand, I told you that your father was sent to prison for robbery, but I’m afraid there was more to it than that. You see … he … he tried to steal jewels from a shop, but the old man who owned it tried to stop him and your father, well, he …’ Once again, Pearl floundered to a halt.

Pearl saw the bewilderment on her son’s face, confusion instead of excitement now clouding his eyes. ‘He what, Mum?’

Her eyes went to Derek and he must have seen an appeal in them as he took over, saying bluntly, ‘He smashed the poor old sod’s head in and left him brain-damaged.’

John just gawked at Derek for a moment, the colour draining from his face. He then stood up, flung back his chair and without a word, he dashed out of the room.

‘Did you have to put it like that?’ Pearl said angrily. ‘Couldn’t you have softened it a bit?’

‘I don’t see how. It’s what Kevin did and, as you pointed out, someone in Battersea is sure to bring it up, and I doubt they’ll do it delicately.’

Though Pearl acknowledged the truth of Derek’s words, she was still angry. ‘I’ll go after John, tell him that Kevin’s changed, that he’s a different person, a good man who wants to set up a refuge for the homeless.’

‘You can make Kevin sound like a saint, but I ain’t so easily fooled,’ Derek called after her as she left the room.

In Battersea, Lucy cleared the table. She hoped that Clive would be happy playing with his toy soldiers for a while as she began to take up the sleeves on a jacket. The alteration wasn’t going to make her much money, but at least it was something. She needed more sewing, more clients, but with a sinking heart Lucy knew that even if she spent all day stitching, it was never going to make her a fortune.

What she still needed at the moment, and desperately, was the money she was owed from working in Bessie’s shop. Take today for instance. Instead of a bit of cheap meat, like belly of pork for their Sunday dinner, all she could make was a pot of vegetable stew.

Unable to concentrate on the sewing, Lucy threw it down. The trouble was that even if she somehow got her pay, once spent there’d be nothing to replace it now that the shop was closed and her job gone.

After shedding so many tears when Paul died, Lucy wasn’t one for crying nowadays, but still her eyes welled up at the thought of attending another funeral, this time Bessie’s. She had no idea what arrangements had been made and so far Pearl hadn’t been in touch to let her know. She’d have to ring Pearl in Winchester, but that meant going to the telephone box and paying for a long distance call. With a heavy sigh, Lucy ran her hands through her hair. She just couldn’t afford it … but then it struck her that she still had the keys to Bessie’s shop. She’d go there to use the telephone, and under the circumstances, surely there was nobody who would mind.

Lucy finished the jacket and put it to one side ready for collection. ‘Come on, Clive,’ she called. ‘Get your coat on. We’re going out.’

Derek didn’t like the way he was feeling, the direction his mind was taking him, but now that Kevin had been released the past was coming back to haunt him. He could remember the day that Pearl had married Kevin Dolby, her belly already rounded in pregnancy. She had been besotted by him, madly in love, only to have her illusions shattered when Kevin had been convicted of robbery with violence.

If it hadn’t been for the fact that they were moving back to Battersea, he doubted Pearl would have told John the truth about Kevin, but for the life of him Derek couldn’t understand why. Was it because she was still in love with Kevin? Was that it? Had she been hanging on to some sort of long-held dream – a dream that when Kevin was released they’d get back together, with John in ignorance of what his father had done?

No, no, of course Pearl didn’t want that, Derek told himself. He was being stupid, his fears arising out of his own stupid insecurities. Instead of worrying about the past, he should be thinking about the future: though Pearl had inherited Bessie’s shop and flat, he still had to find work.

The telephone was ringing and with everyone but Nora upstairs, Derek went to answer it. It was Lucy Sanderson asking about Bessie’s funeral arrangements. He told her it was to be held on Friday, where and when, said they’d see her there and then ended the call.

As Derek replaced the receiver, Pearl came downstairs, her face pale and drawn. He held out his arms and she walked into them to lay her head on his chest as she spoke. ‘I didn’t make Kevin sound like a saint. I just told him what Bernie said – that he thinks Kevin has changed – but John doesn’t want to know. He said from now on, he’s only got one father, and that’s you.’

‘Are you happy with that?’ he asked.

‘Of course.’

To Derek her reply sounded terse, and his irrational fear of losing Pearl rose again as he blurted out, ‘Do you love me?’

She leaned back to look up at him. ‘You know I do.’

‘Say it then.’

She looked puzzled. ‘What’s brought this on?’

‘Just say it, Pearl.’

‘For goodness’ sake, I love you, Derek Lewis. There, are you satisfied?’

‘I would be if it sounded like you meant it.’

‘This is ridiculous and after seeing the state John was in I’m not in the mood for this,’ Pearl said as she pushed his arms away. ‘Now I’ve told you I love you, and maybe after all these years of marriage I don’t say it enough, but neither do you.’

Derek hung his head. ‘Yeah, you’re right and I’m sorry. It’s just that with Kevin being released and all this talk of him turning over a new leaf, I thought you might want to go back to him.’

Pearl’s eyes widened, her voice high as she cried, ‘Are you mad? Not only did he almost kill a defenceless old man, while awaiting trial he was also accused of raping a young woman. She had no proof so the charge was dropped, but as I’d once had a taste of Kevin’s perverted idea of lovemaking, I knew she was telling the truth.’

There was a gasp of horror and they both turned to see John standing behind them on the stairs. He stood frozen for a moment, a look of sheer horror on his face and then, as he had done earlier, he fled.

‘Oh no!’ Pearl cried. ‘Derek, he must have heard everything.’

Nora appeared, her face creased with confusion as she asked, ‘What matter, Pearl?’

‘You see to Nora and leave John to me,’ Derek said. ‘I’ll go and speak to him.’

Pearl nodded, looking sick with worry, while Derek was inwardly raging. So it was true – Kevin was a rapist, and thinking of his sick, evil hands on Pearl, Derek wished that he was standing in front of him now.

His huge fists clenched – fists he hadn’t used since his days as a boxer, fists he had never used outside of the ring, yet all he wanted now was to use Kevin Dolby as a punchbag.