The Tangling of the Web, page 9
Rita’s response was to throw another two large lumps of coal on the fire, although she thought it wasn’t necessary, because things in the Four Marys would soon be red-hot!
Disgruntled Josie, who seemed reluctant to alight from the taxi cab, was given a gentle push by Flora, who then fished in her bag for a ten-shilling note to pay the taxi driver, who had turned around to face the women. ‘Here,’ she said, pushing the money towards the man, ‘and I’ll give you a wee tip if you’ll help us get these cases and boxes into the house.’
The driver glanced into the gloomy courtyard where Flora had indicated the house was. ‘No, luv,’ he drawled, ‘I’m particular where I go. And if my wife found out I had gone into that close I would end up singing soprano.’ He now scrutinised Josie and Flora. They certainly weren’t the usual Leith fallen women whose faces and bodies were prematurely aged by their dubious trade and too much alcohol. I wonder, he thought, what’s brought them down to this hovel? Getting out of his cab, he came round and hauled two over-laden suitcases and three badly packed boxes from the taxi and dumped them on the pavement before dropping Flora’s change into her outstretched hand. ‘That’s as far as I’m prepared to help you,’ he said, ‘so let’s be having the wee tip you promised me.’
Before she answered, Flora looked down at all of Josie’s earthly belongings. They looked just like how Josie herself felt right now – alone and abandoned. ‘Tip?’ she eventually spat. ‘Aye, you certainly could do with one, and here’s mine to you: hold on to that wife of yours because the women about here are very choosy about whose money they take for a service.’
By now Josie had picked up the over-packed suitcases and begun walking towards the dark, eerie vennel. Looking down at the three cumbersome boxes, Flora huffed before lugging them up into her arms.
Flora had just started to climb the stairs when she heard a scampering and then a shriek that sent her blood curdling. Throwing the boxes down, she bounded up the rest of the stairs in three leaps. Once inside Josie’s flat, she saw that the unshaded electric light bulb was swaying backwards and forwards, casting shadows around the room.
Her attention then rested on Josie, who was perched on the bunker, and it looked to Flora as if she was trying to open the window to jump out. ‘What’s going on, lassie?’ exclaimed Flora, but her voice trailed off when she saw that Josie was not alone in the room. Two rats, fighting on the table over a scrap of food, had joined her.
Without uttering another word, Flora grabbed a baseball bat, which had obviously been used by the previous occupants to deter the rats, and she began swiping at the vermin until she had them running towards the open door. Once the rats had scampered over the threshold she kicked the door shut, gave a quick prayer of thanks to whoever had left the baseball bat, and then she sank down on a chair.
‘Oh Flora,’ Josie lamented. ‘How can you still say that Sally has done all she can for us when she has no room in her life for you now and she’s put me in this rat hole?’
Offering a hand to assist Josie down, Flora replied quietly, ‘She’s had a hard time. Wish I could have put everything right for her because I owe her.’
Josie huffed again.
‘The best daughter any mother ever had, she is.’ Flora continued, ignoring Josie’s sarcasm. ‘And I know she’s just gutted that she’s only able to look after her own bairns right now.’
Josie’s answer to that was another ‘huh’.
‘Well, you can “huh” all you like, but the truth of it is she’s been good to us – both of us. And Josie, in no time at all you’ll realise that you have to, and can, stand on your own two feet. And know something else, Josie, a husband and a couple of bairns pulling at your skirts are what you need.’
Josie knew she should respond to Flora, but memories were now flooding in on her. A husband – she’d nearly had one, and she just knew he would have been a good one, but that blooming stupid war had taken him from her. And without really thinking it through she had given away the most precious thing she had ever had – her daughter. She didn’t mean to start sobbing, but she thought just how much better her life would be right now if she was sharing it with … ‘Damn and blast,’ she shouted before thinking, Why didn’t I given her a name?
Oblivious to Josie’s daydreaming, Flora continued, ‘And Sally did say she would make room for me when she gets into her flat at 68 Great Junction Street next week. But – och, Josie. I’m just too old now to be anything but a burden to her and it was me who decided that I should go back to my own wee croft house in Culloden.’
An uneasy silence fell between the two women that was only broken when Flora said, ‘Look, Josie, if you think you cannae thole the rats, and remember they’ll only come into the house when the tide goes out, or get the enthusiasm …’ Flora looked about the room, ‘… to get the rat-catchers in and do the place up … how about coming to bide with me in Culloden? There’s plenty of room there. Could give you a room all to yourself, and the window looks straight over the Moray Firth.’
Flora’s offer hit Josie like a bomb. She knew she would have to answer Flora and she would have to be diplomatic. So she took her time and analysed every word before she uttered it, which was unlike herself. ‘Flora,’ she began, going over and taking Flora’s hand in hers, ‘I’m going to tell you a secret.’ Josie eyes roamed around the room as if to make sure there were no inquisitive rats about. ‘Now,’ she continued, ‘this has to be kept between us. You see, it will come as a real surprise to Sally, but our Daisy is on her way over from Australia.’
‘Are you saying your half-sister Daisy in coming back home?’
Josie nodded.
‘Ah well, I never said, but I thought that when Paddy took her and Luke away to the other end of the earth, I … well … your Daisy and Luke were brought up in Iona Street and right enough it might be classed as Edinburgh but you can hardly describe it as the outback.’
Josie pondered as she tried to work out exactly what Flora was saying, but as an answer evaded her, she said, ‘And Flora, believe me, I am so grateful for your offer, but I have to be here to welcome Daisy and Luke home.’
‘Suppose you’re right, but is it not an awful gamble you’ll be taking? They are your kith and kin, but – you hardly know them.’
Now it was Josie’s time to contemplate and Flora was surprised when she said, ‘Look. I know what you’re saying – so believe me when I say that if things don’t work out with Daisy and Luke when they arrive I’ll be on the first train to Inverness.’ Josie became pensive again before confiding, ‘But I’m a city lassie and the isolation of … Besides that I have to be close to that bitch of a sister of mine. Oh aye, Sally thinks she’ll manage without me, but she won’t. Never has.’
It was difficult for Flora to hide her laughter. Of course Sally was right in taking the opportunity to get Josie to be responsible for herself, but it was also right that Josie knew Sally was close at hand to support her – and if necessary get her out of the holes she continually dug for herself – not the other way around. Looking at Josie again and recalling her awful history, Flora conceded Sally was a necessity that Josie could never survive without.
When the bar door banged off the wall and the woman catapulted herself in she thought there was no one behind the bar. That was until Sally, who had bent over to massage her aching calves, appeared.
‘What can I get you?’ Sally enquired politely.
Jerking her thumb and looking to where the cubicles used to be, big Nancy replied in a voice that came from the soles of her boots, ‘The stupid idiot who had my workplace, better known as a Nancy’s cubbyhole, knocked down.’
Sally knew this was crunch time. She either stood her ground with this woman who was built like an Amazon or she shut up shop. Oh yes, Sally accepted she was dwarfed by Nancy, who in her bare feet stood a good eight inches taller than her. She also noted that Nancy’s shoulders were as broad as a wrestler’s, and it didn’t take much imagination to think that if ever Atlas required a rest from carrying the world on his back then Nancy would be more than able to stand in for him. The only things Sally could see about Nancy that marked her as feminine were her long blonde hair, which was swept up over her head and kept in place by four well-polished tortoiseshell hair combs, her sparkling green eyes and her Madonna-like face.
Stepping up onto an upturned lemonade box, Sally said, ‘The person you’re looking for is me. And believe me – in no way am I a stupid idiot.’
‘That right?’ Nancy answered, leaning further over the bar, which caused Sally to fall back but not far enough to tumble off the box.
‘It is,’ Sally retaliated loudly ‘And please note … are you a Miss or Mrs?’
Nancy cackled before responding, ‘I’ve missed nothing. And when you get out of hospital you would be doing yourself a favour to remember to call me Mrs Greenfield.’
Sally gulped. Her knees buckled. But she drew herself up and pointing to a recently hung notice on the wall she said, ‘Like it says there. From today, and that means right now, with the approval of the Leith Police, there will be no more soliciting in this saloon bar and the management will not serve anyone they consider to be inebriated.’
Nancy laughed. She removed the offending notice from the wall and flung it out of the now open door.
‘Atta girl, Nancy, you tell her the story o’ the three bears. And while you’re at it explain that we rule in here – no her or the thieving bloody brewers and if they dinnae like it they can sling their hooks,’ the slurred voice of Sam Steele, who had come into the bar with another six worthies, spat.
‘Now, sir, I don’t know who you are and what you think you’re going to get away with, but let me tell you … you had better go back to the bar that allowed you to get into the state you’re in because you’ll not be served here tonight or in the future unless you are sober.’
Raucous laughter echoed around the now very busy pub. Nancy, taking her cue from Sam, got behind the bar and began pulling pints. ‘Drinks on the house, boys, because Little Red Riding Hood is in charge and she’s incapable of blowing out a candle never mind barring all of us.’
Sally knew flight would be the end of her bar career, so she decided now was the time to fight. She had thought it might come to something like this and so she had planked a walking stick behind the bar. All Nancy knew was a painful whack on the back of her hand that caused her to stop pulling pints, and she whined in pain. She knew immediately that it was Sally who had struck her and, painful as it was, with both hands she grabbed Sally’s hair and pulled her out of the bar and into the saloon. ‘Stupid bitch,’ she hissed, ‘so you think you can do me. Well, you’ll need an army to help you and where will you get that?’
Flora and Josie had just entered into the salon when they became aware that Sally was in trouble. Without a word being spoken, Josie gave a totally unexpected thump to Nancy’s back. However, before she could deliver a second blow, Nancy, who was badly winded, started to buckle at the knees before landing on her back on the floor. Looking up through dazed eyes for her assailant, she was dumbfounded to be confronted with a jubilant Josie, who was being egged on by a sniggering Flora. ‘Where will she get an army?’ Josie rasped before leaning over Nancy’s face. ‘Sure she doesnae need one when she has … us!’
This threat didn’t have the desired effect on Nancy, who was lying on the floor like a stranded whale. All she could do was laugh uproariously because of the absurdity of the situation. Here was an old pensioner who looked like a refugee from the poorhouse and a woman who looked as if she had been cut off at the knees trying to put the fear of death into her – her, who could floor a navvy with one hand while throttling a cheating upstart with the other.
Sensing that Nancy wasn’t intimidated in any way by either Flora or herself, Josie screamed, ‘And if you’re thinking we wouldn’t have the bottle to sort you out then think again … Or better still go down to Bernard Street and look at the other rats who tried to scare us … You’ll easy ken them – they’re the ones nursing their fractured skulls.’
Flora’s jaw dropped. This was a Josie she’d never seen before. It wasn’t that she had thumped Nancy that was surprising, it was the way she had taken the story of the rats and used it to have everybody believe the vermin had been two big strapping men. Nodding, Flora reluctantly conceded that the rat story was just another flight of fancy for Josie, who by the morning would have convinced herself she had sorted out two burly bullies.
Surveying the mayhem about her and being buoyed up by the arrival and actions of Flora and Josie, Sally sprang up on her box again. Eyeing each of the voyeurs in turn and beckoning them to come closer, she smiled sweetly before suggesting, ‘Now if anybody else fancies their chances against us, come right up here now!’
With all that was going on, nobody had noticed that the inspector and sergeant from ‘D’ division headquarters had sauntered in until the obese, ruddy-complexioned sergeant, whose face resembled that of a well-slapped backside, banged his truncheon on the bar. ‘Hello, hello,’ was his opening remark before warning, ‘this here establishment’s, or to be truthful this den of iniquity’s, licence is up for renewal in three weeks.’ He strolled over and pinned up the notice that he had retrieved from the gutter back up on the wall. Menacingly pointing again with his truncheon to the assembly, he went on, ‘So these now, let us say, “liberal” rules that should have been applied in here will from now on be strictly adhered to!’
Nancy was now upright again, and she sauntered saucily over to the sergeant before whispering so loudly that everyone could hear, ‘And another condition that has been ignored by some, but from tonight will also be strictly adhered to, is that anybody who wishes to purchase from my store will require, whether they are in uniform or not, to put his money …’ she paused to pat her bosom, ‘… here on the counter first.’
It was obvious the inspector was aware of, and obviously embarrassed by, his sergeant’s dalliances. ‘Point taken, Nancy,’ was all he said, but the look he gave his sergeant spoke volumes. ‘Now, Sergeant Lawson, the other pubs we have to check tonight are the Pale Horse in Henderson Street and the Vine in North Junction Street, so I’ll finish up in here and you go to the Pale Horse now and we’ll rendezvous …’ the Inspector checked his watch before adding, ‘… in exactly one hour’s time at the Vine.’
The disgruntled sergeant grasped immediately that he was being put down. He wasn’t surprised, as it was common knowledge within the force that he and David Stock hated each other. Lawson also knew that Stock, who thought he was a disgraceful officer, would like to see him dismissed from the force.
On leaving the premises, Sergeant Lawson thought some more about bloody Inspector Stock, who had blighted his career and held up his advancement. He had concluded long ago that he being a man’s man – a bloke who liked a drink, his football, a wee flutter on the gee-gees and bit of hanky-panky on the side – was the real reason why Bible-punching Stock didn’t rate him. But what red-blooded man would want to be like sober, stolid Stock, who went straight home at the end of every shift to look after his invalid wife? Lawson shook his head, thinking, Is it not enough that the poor lassie has to be saddled with a miserable, joyless nonentity like her husband without also being landed with multiple sclerosis?
As soon as Lawson departed, David Stock removed his hat and laid it on the bar. ‘Now, who is in charge here when Ginny’s away?’
Getting down off her box, Sally came around to the front of the bar and extended her hand to David. ‘My name is Sally Stuart, and once Ginny has me trained up I’ll be in charge here.’
‘That so?’
Sally nodded in unison with Flora and Josie.
‘And …’ David continued, turning to Flora and Josie.
‘Flora here is my mother-in-law, who I am trying to persuade to stay here in Leith, but she is adamant that she’ll be on the Inverness train next Monday morning.’
‘And I certainly will be. You see, Inspector, I used to only be Mrs Mop around here, but when I found out …’ Flora turned to Sally and winked mischievously, ‘… my daughter-in-law was going to be my boss, I stacked my pail behind that door and I’m now heading for my own wee croft, where I’ll be in charge. And Josie here is Sally’s sister and she’s going to be staying in one of the flats behind the King’s Wark.’
’You never are,’ David gasped. ‘Hasn’t anybody told you that it’s rat-infested?’
‘They didn’t, but Flora and I found out for ourselves tonight. That’s why we’re here to talk to Sally.’
Accepting that he was an intruder in this family get-together, David pursed his lips, lifted his hat up and donned it. ‘I mustn’t keep you any longer. Just want to say you can rely on the local police to give you every assistance that you require to get things sorted out here. Oh, by the way, Sergeant Lawson is being moved inside to be a desk sergeant and a Sergeant Green will be taking over this patch.’
Before leaving, he nodded to each of the women in turn, even Nancy, who was still hanging about.
‘See him,’ Nancy said when David was out of earshot, ‘now he is a man that not only would I not take money from for a service but I would pay him for doing me the favour!’
Sally didn’t know how to answer Nancy. It was true the inspector was a good-looking man who carried his mature years well. She did think he had a lot going for him and not only because he had an honest face and a way of making people think that they mattered. There was something else about him … Why, she wondered, do I feel myself getting hot and embarrassed when I’m thinking about him? Have I not had enough of men to keep me going the rest of my life? Besides, he is a happily married man. Noticing everybody was now staring at her, she suddenly blurted, ‘Look, Nancy, you now know you cannot pick up men in here …’
