Read Online Pure as the Lily by Catherine Cookson - Free Book Online

because, when she offered Mr. Tollett the money for them, he wouldn’t take it, even though she said to him, “They’re not for me, so if you don’t take it then I’ll have to go some place else next week to buy them.”
    “Who are they for then?” he had asked.
    “Your mother?”
    “No.” Her no had been flat-sounding; but her voice had risen on, The grannie! she loves bullets. “
    “Well, give them to your grannie with my compliments.”
    “Oh thanks, I will. But mind, next week you’ll have to take the money.” Oh, Mr. Tollett was nice. She hoped her ma’s leg stayed as it was for months. Not that she wished her any harm, only, as things were, life was wonderful.
    And then she got the St. Valentine’s card.
    “You’ve got a letter,” Alice said, staring at her very hard as she went into the bedroom to make her daily report, which was anything but accurate.

    “A letter! Me? Who from?”
    “That’s what I’d like to know. You carrying on with a lad?” The? a lad! “ Mary’s face stretched; her tone held deep indignation as if she had never thought about having a lad in her life.
    “No. You know I haven’t got a lad. What time have I got for a lad, from early morning till late at night? What time, I ask you? Where’s the letter?”
    Alice picked up the letter from the bedside table and handed it to her. It felt stiff. She examined it back and front, noting that the postmark was Jarrow, before she opened it, then she drew out a card.
    The card had a large rose on the
    front, deep red and of a cabbage variety. She stared at it, turned it over, then read: “From a silent admirer.”
    The face that now looked at Alice was as red as the rose on the card.
    “Give it here!” Alice’s hand grabbed, but Mary withdrew her arm quickly and said, “It’s mine.” Who’s it from? “
    “A friend.”
    ‘you said you hadn’t any lads. you’ve been havin’ truck with somebody, haven’t you? “
    “No, I haven’t. Anyway’—she thrust the card back into the envelope ‘what if I was havin’ truck with a lad, I’m past sixteen. Janie Anderson from across the road was married last week, remember, and she’s not seventeen yet.”
    Don’t you talk to me about Janie Anderson, that trollop. Do you want to land up in the same way as she did, going to the altar with her belly full? “
    “Oh Ma! Ma, what do you think I am?” Mary’s tone was indignant.
    “I know what you are.” Alice nodded her head viciously at her.
    “And—let me see you havin’ any carry-on with any of them round these doors and I’ll bray you till you can’t sit.”
    Bitterly they stared at each other and the knowledge that was between them rose to the surface and Mary was just prevented from hissing it out by Alee entering through the open door.
    “Come out of it.” He pulled at her arm and thrust her out of the bedroom. Then, looking at his wife, he said slowly, What a pity you didn’t take your own advice, isn’t it? “ Alice made no answer to this but her lips parted to show her teeth tight-clenched. The muscles on her neck went into cords as Alee went on, still quietly but authoritatively, “If she wants to have a lad she’s havin’ a lad; as she said, she’s turned sixteen. And she could take after her mother, couldn’t^ she, and make him run for it. Janie Anderson isn’t the first trollop.” And on this he turned round slowly and went out of the bedroom.
    In the kitchen Mary was sitting at the table. She had taken the card from the envelope and was staring at it, and she turned to Alee and, handing it to him, said, “I haven’t got a lad, Da, and I don’t know who it’s from.”
    And she didn’t know who it was from, not really, but she hoped it was from Hughie Amesden, because he was silent. Although he had only spoken to her that once, somehow she felt he was as much aware of her as she was of him.
    Alee read the message on the back, looked at the rose again, then said, “It’s bonny.... No