Read Online Nest of Sorrows by Ruth Hamilton - Free Book Online

studying.’
    Rachel sighed heavily. ‘I’ve had enough, Peter,’ she said finally. ‘I know you’re drinking again. I know you can’t control yourself when you’re drinking.’ He turned his face towards the fire as she went on in a whisper, ‘I know what you’re like. Nobody knows better than me what you’re like. Thank God the two girls don’t know the half of it. But I’m your wife, I’ve had to put up with your temper. Oh aye, and I’ve the marks to prove it too!’
    ‘That’s nowt to do with this,’ he mumbled shamefacedly.
    ‘No,’ her voice was ominously low. ‘Happen it isn’t. But if you hit my daughter half as hard as you hit me . . .’
    ‘That’s private,’ he snapped, turning to face her, though he could not quite meet her eyes. ‘And I don’t mean it. I don’t want it to happen. It’s just when I’m . . . when I’m . . .’
    ‘When you’re drunk.’ She paused fractionally. ‘It can’t go on, lad. I shall have to go and stop at our Annie’s. And you can just forget about Hawthorne Road. Even if we did keep this family together, you’d never manage that rent, not with the amount you drink and put on horses.’
    ‘But I—’
    ‘When she gets in, I get out. And Katherine and Judith too. Our Annie’ll take us in. I’m not stopping here for you to use my daughter as a target.’
    ‘Oh aye?’ His voice arrived muffled. ‘And what about their education? Who’ll pay for that once you’ve hopped it? I’d like to see you putting the pair of them through The Mount on a doffer’s wage, especially after you’ve paid your Annie. She’s a grabber, is that one. There’s more Irish navvies kipping at her house than there is in all Liverpool.’
    ‘Then the girls will have to leave the school.’
    He was suddenly sobbing, head in hands, back shaking violently. ‘Oh God,’ he moaned, ‘I don’t know what gets into me. It’s something about her. Like she’s defying me.’
    Rachel sniffed. ‘No excuse to hit a little girl. No excuse at all.’
    ‘Please?’ He was pleading now, tears coursing freely down his cheeks. ‘Give me a chance, Rachel. Just give me a chance . . .’
    She hesitated. ‘Right,’ she said at last, her tone firm and determined. ‘We’ll stop together on one condition, Peter Murray. Leave our Katherine to me. If you can’t deal with her without hitting her, just leave her to me.’
    ‘What? And let her get away with what she’s done?’
    ‘You hit her first. And you can’t expect a wiry lass like her to put up with being clobbered. She might be thin, but she’s strong. Remember how she dealt with the lads? She got them in more trouble than enough when they kept going for her. She’ll have you, Peter. She’ll get the police or the cruelty – just you wait and see.’
    But Katherine didn’t bring anyone to the house. She simply stalked in, head held high, her eyes bravely meeting her father’s as he sat huddled over the fire nursing his sore nose. And he knew when he looked at her that she had won. Whatever he did to her, she could and would do worse. His defeat did not come with the battered nose, oh, no, the battle had been lost as soon as he raised his hand to her.
    Without a word to anyone, the girl walked stiffly through the room and into the kitchen. It seemed that no-one breathed as she opened the stairway door and went upstairs. Judith received her without comment. The drama was over and she had a book to study.
    ‘You’ve lost her.’ There was a note of finality in this statement from Rachel. ‘What ground you made up, you’ve just lost. There’ll be no getting her back now. You are the biggest damn fool I ever met in my life.’
    ‘Aw, shut up. She’ll get over it.’
    ‘She won’t. And neither will you, you big soft lad. Shouldn’t you go to hospital and see if your nose is broke?’
    ‘It’s not broke.’
    Rachel began to set the table for breakfast, her mind filled by a picture of Katherine’s determined