Read Online Perseverance Street by Ken McCoy - Free Book Online

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    She sat down, still holding Christopher, and never in her life had she felt so alone. Her own mother had died when she was a baby, her father had been unknown and she’d been brought up in various children’s homes. Larry’s middle-class parents had totally disapproved of him marrying her; convinced that she’d trapped him into marriage by getting herself pregnant.
    In truthher pregnancy had been the result of two very good friends having too good a time in the Crown and Mitre one evening and ending up in bed at her lodgings in Leeds. Her friends considered that her becoming pregnant had worked more in Larry’s favour than hers as there was no way she’d have married him otherwise. Larry had always fancied her like mad and proposed the evening she told him she was pregnant. She wasn’t at all sure it was what she wanted.
    ‘I didn’t tell you for that,’ she had said. ‘I told you because … well because I thought you should know.’
    ‘So, what are you going to do?’
    ‘I don’t know.’
    ‘So, marry me. You and I get on OK, don’t we?’
    ‘We get on great, Larry. Always have, but …’
    ‘But what?’
    ‘Well, apart from anything else you live in a nice house in Roundhay and I live in lodgings in Meanwood. You work at a bank and will probably end up a manager. I work in Marks and Sparks selling underwear. Me getting pregnant is no foundation for marriage.’
    They were in Roundhay Park, standing by a lake. Ducks were heading their way hoping for breadcrumbs. Larry was staring at them, hoping for inspiration. All he could come up with was:
    ‘If it’s any help I actually love you, Lily.’
    Lily probably knew that already. What she didn’t know was the strength of her feelings for him. Were they strong enough to endure a lifetime of marriage?
    ‘AndI’d make a good dad.’
    Lily also knew that to be true.
    ‘And if I married you I’d hardly need go chasing after other women like some husbands do.’
    Lily smiled. Larry was a great friend but not a womaniser. She and he had got together because she felt more comfortable with him than with any other human being. He made her laugh and he had a strong shoulder to cry on. He put his arm round her. It wasn’t an arm she would ever shrug off.
    ‘I know you don’t love me like I love you – that would be impossible. But I know you love me a bit.’
    ‘Do you now?’
    ‘Yep. I can tell by the way you’re letting me hold you. Come on, right now, who would you rather marry than me?’
    ‘I don’t know. Maybe I haven’t met him yet.’
    ‘Hmm.’ He tried another tack and murmured into her ear. ‘This er, this baby of ours. Did you enjoy making it?’
    ‘I believe I did. Having said that I’ve never done it before so I’ve got nothing to compare it with.’
    ‘Oh, take my word for it. It doesn’t get any better.’
    ‘Oh, really? There speaks a man of the world. How many girls have you done it with?’
    ‘Including you?’
    ‘Yes.’
    His lips moved silently for several seconds as if adding up a long list. ‘You mean properly, like we did?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Altogether … one – includingyou.’
    She laughed with relief that they’d broken their ducks together, as it were. Why would she be relieved? Why did she want to be his first? They sat down on a lakeside bench and stared at the water silently for several minutes. Afternoon sun glinted on the water. It took her another week to say yes to him. But by that time she was as sure as she could be of any man. Not that she’d known many men. He wasn’t Errol Flynn but he had too much going for him for her to say no.
    The memory of that had brought a smile to her face. It was still there when a shattering of glass brought her back to reality. A brick had come through the window, missing her and the baby by inches. Still holding him she ran to the door to see a neighbour’s boy running away. Hilda Muscroft was standing in her doorway with arms folded, laughing. Lily stepped into