Read Online A Liverpool Lass by Katie Flynn - Free Book Online Page A

raised his mousy eyebrows comically. Lilac grinned back.
    ‘Know me again, gel?’
    Lilac laughed.
    ‘Oh yes, anywhere,’ she said joyfully. ‘Do you have any pennies? I could pay you back perhaps, one day.’
    ‘That’s good, because you don’t look like a beggar’s brat,’ the young man said. He slithered down from the bollard and dug in the pockets of his narrow trousers, producing a handful of small coins. ‘Want some fried fish and taters? I was goin’ to git meself some; we can share.’
    ‘Yes please,’ Lilac said ardently. She trotted beside him as he strolled out of the fascinating dock area, taking his hand to cross the wide and busy stretch of the main road. ‘Oh, I do love fried fish!’
    ‘Me too, though you’d think, bein’ at sea so much, I’d git sick of fish. Now did I tell you my name? I’m Joey Prescott and I’m from London, in case you ’adn’t guessed. I ’ails from the Isle o’ Dogs.’
    ‘I’m Lilac Larkin. I’m from Rodney Street, right here in Liverpool,’ Lilac said readily. ‘Where’s the shop for the fish? Is it far?’
    ‘Nah, not far, Lilac. That dress what you got on – looks like some kinda uniform.’
    Lilac shot him a suspicious glance, but he smiled blandly back and because she liked him she nodded, sure he meant her no harm.
    ‘Yes, that’s right. It’s the Culler. That’s an orphan asylum, but I’m not an orphan, not really. My brother Charlie says I’ve got a mam and a da all right, it’s just that I dunno where they are right now.’
    ‘There you are, then. And just where’s this orphing asylum when it’s at ’ome?’
    ‘I told you: in Rodney Street,’ Lilac said with what patience she could muster. This young man was obviously none too bright! ‘Where’s the fried fish shop?’
    ‘In Canning Place. Fact is, sweet’eart, I dunno whereRodney Street is – d’you know Canning Place, or South Castle Street or South John Street? Are they near Rodney Street? If so, we might walk rahnd there, take a look at this orphing asylum.’
    ‘No. Well, that’s to say I don’t know, because I don’t know where any of those places are, I only know the Scottie and Rodney Street,’ Lilac said rather untruthfully, since she knew the way between the two quite well. ‘And I don’t want to take a look at the Culler; I’ve run away from it, you see. So if you don’t mind, I’d rather stay with you.’
    ‘That’s all very well, but what abaht when the old Queen sails? What’ll you do then, eh?’
    ‘I could come on board with you, help you to ... to do whatever you have to do,’ Lilac said hopefully. ‘I’d like that.’
    ‘Ho, would you? But the crew’s men, not gels!’
    ‘We could cut off my hair and you could buy me some trousers. Then they wouldn’t know I was a girl ... I could be your cabin boy,’ Lilac said, with vague memories of the stories Nellie read her and the tales Charlie and Hal told jostling together in her tired brain. Because she was tired, a part of her quite wanted to give in, let Joey take her back to Rodney Street. After the fried fish, though, not before.
    ‘No, it won’t do,’ Joey said, after a pause during which they recrossed the busy street and slowed by a tram stop at which several people waited. ‘We’ll ride on a tram I think, littl’un. Give our legs a bit of a rest.’
    So Lilac sat proudly in the tram with her new friend, chattering away as though she had known him all her life, and rode in style past a great many of the huge, fortress-like docks – Wapping, Salthouse, Canning – before alighting alongside a huge and imposing building which Joey told her was the Custom House.
    ‘The fried fish shop’s really on South Castle Street,’ Joey said, taking her hand as they crossed the pavement. ‘But it’s only a step from here: can you smell it?’
    Lilac, sniffing, said she could and presently, with watering mouth, she found herself in a small, whitewashed room crowded with rough wooden tables and