Read Online Trinidad Street by Patricia Burns - Free Book Online

it, Pat O’Donaghue, boasting to anyone who’d listen how his little cousin had the sweetest voice on God’s earth, how they’d gone out of a Saturday night and she’d taken them all by storm, made strong men cry and had them all cheering and bawling for more, raising the roof, stamping on the floor.
    ‘Why don’t she sing down at the Rum Puncheon, then?’ Will had asked.
    ‘It’s not a singing pub, is it?’ Pat pointed out. ‘And you lot wouldn’t appreciate it, anyway. It’s not your common music hall stuff she does, it’s the real thing. Proper songs. Irish songs.’
    ‘Don’t mean to say we wouldn’t like to hear ’em,’ Will said.
    What he meant was
he
wanted to hear her. He didn’t care what shewas singing. She could sing in Chinese if she wanted. He just wanted to be there.
    ‘She’s something special, is our Siobhan,’ Pat said.
    Will knew it. He’d known it from the moment he saw her. But getting close to her was another thing. She was surrounded by the O’Donaghues. He hung about each morning just to see her go off to work with her cousin Theresa, who had got her a job at Morton’s. The clothes that had marked her out as fresh off the boat had gone within the fortnight. She was dressed like all the others now, but still you could pick her out at a hundred yards. Like Pat said, she was special. The set of her head, the way she walked, that air of pride. They all wanted to get to meet her, all the men. But at first when she went out of an evening, it was up to some club at the Catholic church with the other Irish girls. Once summer came and the light evenings it was better. She would put on her best clothes and parade with a gaggle of friends, like all the other girls, glancing at the boys who gathered on the corners to whistle at them.
    She went out with some of them. Will watched them with sick jealousy clutching at his guts, lads of Gerry’s age, or older men. None of them lasted for long, and she was safe enough. Ma O’Donaghue saw to that. She had to be in by ten o’clock. One minute past and Pat and Declan would be out looking for her, and whoever was with her would live to regret it. She was safe, but safe from him as well. With the entire O’Donaghue clan looking on, he could do nothing more than pass the odd friendly word with her, like any other neighbour.
    There was a stir amongst the crowd. Will looked towards the door, and there they were: Brian O’Donaghue, Pat and Declan, and some cousins of theirs, all talking in loud voices, swaggering, making an entrance. Will craned his head. She must be with them. They wouldn’t be acting like that otherwise, drawing attention to themselves. Then he saw her dark head, a straw hat crowned with daisies perched on top.
    ‘They’re here,’ Harry said.
    ‘I know.’
    ‘Looks grand, doesn’t she?’
    ‘Yeah.’
    All four of them followed her with their eyes as, encircled by her bodyguard of male relatives, she made her way across the room. A stool was found for her at the bar. A drink appeared instantly, as if by magic. She perched daintily with a glass in her hand, parrying remarks from the men around her.
    ‘I wouldn’t mind a bit of that,’ Charlie said.
    ‘You and the rest of us,’ Gerry told him.
    ‘Nothing to stop you asking her out,’ Harry said.
    ‘Nothing to stop her saying no,’ added Gerry.
    Charlie stood firm. ‘Who says she’d say no? Why would she say no to me? I could show her a good time.’
    ‘You! You don’t know how to treat a girl.’
    ‘And you do?’
    Will listened to them wrangling and felt old and tied down with unwanted responsibilities. His drink tasted sour in his mouth.
    He kept looking at Siobhan, waiting for her to look his way. The O’Donaghues were all round her but they were letting others into the charmed circle. He started to edge his way forward.
    She was sitting with one leg crossed over the other, easy, confident. Nobody would believe she was just sixteen years old and in the