Read Online Queen of the Mersey by Maureen Lee - Free Book Online

one of the most dangerous areas in the country.’
    ‘I’m being selfish!’ She laughed sarcastically. ‘What about you?’
    ‘Please don’t start that again,’ he groaned. ‘I would have been called up eventually. I’m just going sooner rather than later. Forget about yourself for a minute and think about Hester. It’s not fair, letting her stay in a place where she could be killed any minute.’
    ‘There’s a shelter at the end of the next street.’
    ‘I know, I’ve seen it, and I can assure you, if it gets a direct hit, it’ll be no safer than this cupboard.’ His face was dark with a mixture of anger and fear. ‘And you’ve got some daft idea about going to work. What happens to Hester then?’
    ‘Vera will look after her,’ Laura said defensively.
    ‘And how will you feel if there’s a raid and you’re at work, knowing the docks are being pounded to bits and Glover Street might not be standing when you get back?’
    She shuddered. ‘Oh, Roddy, don’t say things like that!’
    He took her in his arms. ‘I don’t want to frighten you, Lo, but that’s the way it’s going to be. I’d feel happier, knowing my family are safely out of harm’s way.’
    Hester came out of her room and immediately wanted to know where Queenie was.
    She was despatched upstairs to fetch her in case she was too nervous to come of her own accord. She reappeared a minute later, leading a fully dressed Queenie by the hand. Laura sent the pair of them to the nearest shop for four eggs and a loaf. She’d make poached egg on toast for breakfast.
    Agnes Tate’s ears would have burnt to cinders had she been able to hear the insults heaped upon her dyed-blonde head when Vera was told she’d walked out and left Queenie on her own.
    ‘The irresponsible cow!’ Vera screeched. ‘The bitch! She wants horsewhipping from one end of Glover Street to the other.’
    ‘I felt like strangling her myself,’ Laura conceded. ‘The thing is, I don’t know what to do about Queenie.’
    Vera’s expression changed from anger to concern. ‘You’re awful young, luv, to have a girl of fourteen dumped on you.’
    ‘I feel about twenty years older, not just seven,’ Laura confessed.
    ‘As for Queenie, poor lamb. Aggie led her a terrible life. She’s better off without her, not that she’ll realise that for a while. She can come and live with us for now, the little pet,’ she said generously. ‘She’ll be a sister for our Mary. Once she’s got a job, she’ll be able to pay for her keep.’
    Mary poked her head around the door. ‘I don’t want a sister, Mam,’ she whined, clearly jealous of her position as the only girl in the family.
    ‘You’ll have a sister whether you want one or not,’ Vera barked. ‘Anyroad, girl, you’d best be off if you’re going into town with your Roddy.’
    ‘I know, I’ve got to get changed. You don’t mind keeping an eye on Hester, do you? And Queenie too, I suppose. This is the first time Roddy and I will have been out together, just the two of us.’
    ‘And it’ll be the last for a long time,’ Vera said grimly. ‘Stay as long as you like, I don’t mind. I’ll feed ’em both. ’Fact, I’ll be cross if you come back much before it’s dark.’
    She didn’t feel the least bit different when she emerged from the Registry Office in Brougham Terrace. In law, she was now Mrs Roderick Oliver, but she’d never really thought of herself as anything else. Two guests, a married couple, who had arrived early for the wedding after theirs, had acted as witnesses, and the man had taken a snapshot of them with his Box Brownie camera. Roddie had given him their address to post it to.
    ‘You both look awfully young,’ the woman had exclaimed.
    ‘I wonder how she would have reacted if we’d told her we had a five-year-old daughter,’ Roddy laughed when they were outside.
    ‘Shocked and disgusted, I expect,’ Laura replied.
    ‘Look, there’s a tram coming. It’s going into town. Let’s run and we just might catch it.’
    They lunched in Frederick & Hughes in Hanover Street – known