Read Online Flowers on the Mersey by June Francis - Free Book Online

the stairs as the two women came out. ‘Hannah’s making up to Papa,’ she murmured.
    Esther stared at her. ‘Hannah! Not her! She doesn’t like men.’
    ‘I thought that myself but perhaps it’s Papa’s handsome face,’ she said lightly.
    Her aunt’s mouth tightened. ‘Handsome is as handsome does. He won’t get much change out of Hannah, whatever he says and does. I’m not going back in there right now. If thou likes I could show thee thy rooms?’
    ‘I think we could all do with time to calm down,’ said Rebekah’s mother. ‘Come on, Becky. Grab your case.’
    She nodded, considering it wiser to do as suggested, and followed the two sisters upstairs.
    As Rebekah unpacked her nightdress, toothbrush and toothpowder, her aunt came back into the room. She sat on the bed, her expression determined. ‘Thou doesn’t want to go to America, does thee, Rebekah?’
    ‘It doesn’t matter what I want,’ she said honestly.
    Esther nodded and sighed. ‘It’s always been that way. Girls have to do what they’re told. Duty – it’s a burden. But thou cares what thy mother wants? Thou wants her to be happy?’
    ‘She wouldn’t be happy without Papa,’ said Rebekah positively. She glanced at her aunt. ‘I heard you and Mama talking. It’s no use, Aunt Esther. If Papa has made up his mind, I don’t think he’s going to change it. Especially when he’s already got the tickets.’
    Esther played with the bobbles round the shade of the bedside lamp. ‘Thou doesn’t think thee can change his mind?’
    ‘Me?’ Rebekah was startled. ‘I doubt it.’
    ‘Some fathers and daughters are very close.’ A frown creased her plump face and she added with apparent difficulty, ‘Papa was very fond of thy mother. As I was. The light went out of our lives when she left. If thou could persuade—’
    Rebekah shook her head. ‘I’m sorry, Aunt Esther, but Mama’s your best bet. Papa and I aren’t the best of friends at the moment. Now, is there any chance of my having a bath?’
    Her aunt nodded and with a gloomy expression took her outside, indicating the bathroom before going downstairs.
     
    Rebekah lay in bed, listening. Eavesdropping had always been the only way she could obtain the information that her parents thought they should keep from her. Even here in her aunt’s house it did not seem to have occurred to them that they could be overhead. Her bedroom window was slightly ajar and theirs next door must also be open. Her fatherwas speaking, stressing each word. ‘Why did we leave Dublin, Sal? To get away from the fighting, that’s why. And Liverpool isn’t far enough away for me. Joshua Green told me that there’s cells of the IRA over here, causing as much trouble as they can by arson and cutting telegraph wires. You know the way they work to create chaos.’
    ‘Esther hasn’t mentioned anything about that,’ responded her mother in that controlled way of speaking she had when her nerves were fraught and she was on the brink of tears.
    ‘She wouldn’t, would she?’ he insisted. ‘It’s in her interests to keep quiet.’
    ‘She wouldn’t think of that!’ Her mother’s voice trembled. ‘Esther might have her faults but she wouldn’t deliberately keep something like that to herself.’
    ‘Perhaps not,’ he said mildly, before adding, ‘What I’d like to know is, if she cared so much about you, why haven’t we heard from her in all these years?’
    ‘You know why! Father didn’t tell her about my letters.’
    ‘So she says. More likely she wanted to keep all his money for herself.’
    ‘You can think what you like. I don’t believe that.’
    ‘You wouldn’t.’ His voice had softened. ‘You like to think the best of everybody. Believe me, Sal, it’s our future I’m thinking about in going to America.’
    ‘I don’t doubt that.’ She sighed. ‘But what if Esther takes ill? She has no one close.’
    ‘She has Hannah. She’ll be all right.’
    There was a short silence and her