Read Online To Have and to Hold by Anne Bennett - Free Book Online Page B

good.’
    ‘Carmel, you have seen nothing yet,’ Sylvia promised.
    ‘Jimmy Jesus is getting up on his soap box,’ Lois called.
    ‘Jimmy Jesus?’
    ‘The old fellow with the white beard,’ Lois pointed.
    ‘Is that his real name?’
    ‘No,’ Lois said. ‘Don’t know if anyone actually knows what his real name is. But that is all I have ever heard him called, ’cos as well as the way he looks he spouts on about the Bible, you see.’
    ‘There’s usually some fun when the hecklers start,’ Sylvia said. ‘I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m not ready for a sermon just yet a while.’
    ‘Me, neither,’ Jane declared. ‘Let’s take a look at the boxing.’
    Carmel didn’t say, but she hated the boxing, where a big bruiser of a man challenged those in the crowds for a match. ‘Knock the champ down and you win five pounds,’ his promoter urged from the corner.
    Carmel thought the champ, with his build, his beefyarms, legs like tree trunks, small, mean-looking eyes and belligerent features reminded her of her father.
    ‘I’m not surprised that no one has taken him up on the offer,’ she said.
    There were a fair few men in the audience, but none seemed anxious to take up the challenge, though they hung about for a little while.
    ‘It’s early yet,’ Sylvia told her. ‘Wait till they’ve sunk a few jars in The Bell. The weediest ones will think they can take on the world then.’
    ‘Have anyone ever laid the champ out?’
    ‘Are you kidding?’ Jane said, as she steered Carmel away. ‘Do you think they would be offering five pounds if people were likely to win it? Mind you, we have seen quite a few of the challengers spread their length on the sawdust.’
    ‘Ugh, it’s horrible.’
    The others laughed at Carmel’s queasiness, but kindly.
    ‘I’ll bet you’ll think this just as bad,’ Jane said, and Carmel thought that she was right for as they turned the corner, there was a man lying on a bed of nails. He had very brown and oily skin and there was a lot of it to see, for he had few clothes on, just something wrapped around his head that Lois told her was a turban and what appeared to be a giant nappy on his lower half. As the friends watched in horrified fascination, two girls stepped forward, shed their shoes, and stood one his chest and one on his abdomen. The man made no sound and he seemed not to either feel the girls’ weight, nor the nails they could clearly see were pressing into his skin.
    Eventually, the girls got off and money as thrown into the bowl by the nailed bed by impressed onlookers. The man got up and came over to the nurses.
    ‘Any of you lot like to try? Promise I won’t look up your skirts.’
    ‘Carmel might fancy a go,’ Jane said with a smile at the repugnance on Carmel’s face.
    ‘Carmel would not—oh, no, definitely not,’ Carmel declared vehemently. ‘I think it’s just, well, just awful.’
    The man shrugged as Lois pulled her away.
    Carmel wasn’t that keen on the man tied in chains either, but was quite willing to stay around to see he got free in the end and was unharmed, though the others eventually got fed up.
    ‘He won’t even try until there is at least a pound in the hat, and that could take ages yet,’ Lois said.
    ‘Have you ever seen him get out?’
    ‘No, I haven’t personally.’
    ‘I have,’ Jane said. ‘But just the once.’
    ‘How?’ Carmel asked, for the man was trussed up like some of the chickens she had seen hanging from butchers’ stalls earlier that day.
    ‘I don’t know,’ Jane admitted. ‘He had a cloak around him. Didn’t take him long, I do remember that. People say it’s a swizz, but you can examine the chains and all if you want. He doesn’t mind.’
    ‘Well, I don’t fancy waiting around any more tonight.’ Sylvia said. ‘And the musicians will be setting up soon, I should think.’
    ‘Music,’ Carmel said. ‘That’s more my kind of thing.’
    ‘Oh, you’ll like it, all right,’ Lois