Read Online Living a Lie by Josephine Cox - Free Book Online Page A

here?”
    Georgie made a face.
    “No such luck,” she groaned. Sticking her stomach out, she flared her nostrils and mimicked the foreman’s gruff voice.
    “It’s no good you asking me for
     
    permanent work, ‘cause I ain’t got enough to keep me regulars going, never mind tekking on a daft bugger like you. “
    Kitty shook with laughter. Last week the foreman had chased her out of the factory grounds, so she knew Georgie had portrayed him to perfection.
    “I’m sorry,” she apologised, ‘you really wanted that job, didn’t you?
    “
     
    Georgie shrugged.
    “So what, gal? I’ll get another. If I don’t they’ll keep me here, and I don’t want that.”
    “Would it be so awful?”
    “Bloody terrible!”
    “It’s funny, don’t you think?” Kitty thought she had come to terms with Georgie’s leaving, but with every passing day it got harder.
    “What’s funny?”
    “Well… you and me.” Kitty wasn’t sure how to put it, but in the end it came out simply.
    “You don’t want to stay and I don’t want to go.”
    “You might be glad to leave if you’d been here as long as me.”
    “What will you do?” The thought of that big outside world still terrified Kitty.
    Georgie, on the other hand, was thrilled.
    “I’ll have my own little place… a one-bed council flat, I expect. Through the week I’ll work my fingers to the bone and on a weekend I’ll dance the night away and come home with a good-looking fellow on my arm. After a while I’ll scrimp and save and buy myself a minibus… a bright blue one!”
    Kitty was fascinated.
    “But you can’t drive.”
    “I’ll learn.”
     
    “Then what?”
    “Then I’ll run people about… take them on outings and drive them to work. I’ll be my own boss. It’s what I want more than anything.”
    Kitty admired her immensely.
    “I’ll help you,” she promised.
    “When my father’s money comes to me, I’ll buy you the brightest minibus we can find, then you can teach me to drive as well.”
    Georgie shook her head.
    “Not you. Kitty gal,” she said.
    “I was never a scholar, and I’m no good at anything worthwhile … but you’ve got brains. You were meant for better things than driving a minibus.”
    Kitty had only one ambition in life.
    “I just want to be happy,” she said. It was enough.
    Georgie looked into those dark brown eyes and saw something there that was deeply humbling; there was loneliness and pain, of a kind that even their close friendship had not altogether erased. She knew her friend’s background, and understood better than anyone why Kitty wanted nothing but to be happy.
    “If anyone deserves to be happy, it’s you,” she said, and meant every word.
    Feeling herself being dragged back into frightening memories, Kitty put on her brightest voice.
    “I had two letters today.”
    Georgie made a face.
    “It’s all right for some.” Tugging at Kitty’s arm, she asked, “Come on then … who are they from? What do they say?”
    Digging into her pocket, Kitty withdrew the letters.
    “You can read them if you like,” she said, handing them over.
    “I don’t mind.”
    Georgie groaned.
    “How can you ask me to exert myself,
     
    gal? I’ve been working behind that bloody machine all day. My legs ache, my arms feel like lead weights and besides,” she grinned sheepishly, ‘you know I’m not all that good at reading.”
    “Okay, I’ll tell you what they say.” Kitty knew every word off by heart. She proceeded to return the letters to her pocket.
    “No.” Georgie tugged at her arm again.
    “Don’t tell me, gal.” Leaning back in the chair, she made herself comfortable and closed her eyes.
    “Go on then. Read the buggers to me.”
    Kitty opened the first one. It was from her Aunt Mildred. In a low voice she read the whole letter out:
    Dear Kitty, I’m sorry I haven’t written in a while, but I know you will understand when I tell you how ill I’ve been. All week I was laid up with the most awful flu,