Josephine Cox - Songbird

“Is she younger or older than you?”

“She’s twenty-six – four years older and a great deal wiser than me.” Ellen gave a knowing smile. “A bit selfish too, as I recall.”

“In what way?”

“Well, for a start she never let the arguments upset her, the way I did. Instead she always managed to blame everybody else for her own shortcomings. Rather than try and make things better at home, she began making plans to get away from there. Eventually she went to Spain to live with my aunt. Last I heard, the two of them had gone into the hotel business and were doing very nicely, thank you. Mind you, I think she was jealous of me. I went to stage school and had extra music lessons while she had to go out to work in a boring office.” Ellen gave a chuckle. “I daresay I was a spoiled brat, and if I’d been her, I would have hated me too!”

Maddy grinned, but then asked, “Don’t you miss them?” She would have given anything to have her parents back.

Kicking off her shoes, Ellen fell into the big squashy armchair. “Oh, Sally always kept herself to herself, and Aunt Dora never had much to do with me. In fact, I reckon she only signed this place over to me because she felt guilty, seeing as she had already taken Sally under her wing.”

She fell silent as she thought of it all. “I didn’t know Aunt Dora as well as Sally did, so I don’t really miss her. But if I’m honest, I do miss Sally. I reckon her and me could be friends, now that I’ve grown up a bit. No way do I miss my parents though. My mother was a secret drinker, you see, and as for Dad… well, he’d always idolized her. In his eyes, she could do no wrong. He was either too stupid or too besotted to stand up for himself. And now I gather he’s got himself into a similar situation with a new woman. No. I’m well out of it. I’m lucky enough to have the best grandad in the world, though. He’s my mum’s dad, but I wish in a way he’d been my father.”

Clambering out of the chair, she gave vent to her curiosity. “What about you, Maddy? Are you still in touch with your family?”

Maddy took a moment to answer; it was still painful to talk about it, especially with a virtual stranger. “My dad got ill when I was seventeen,” she answered softly. “It turned to pneumonia, and he went downhill so fast, it was frightening. He never recovered, and from then on, it was as if Mum had gone with him.”

“In what way?”

Maddy shook her head. “She just never got over it. It was as if her world had come to an end. She gave up her job, hardly ate or slept.”

She remembered it as if it was only yesterday. “Sometimes early in the morning, I would hear her go out of the door, then hours later I’d find her up the churchyard, kneeling on his grave. It was awful, like she was a different person – someone I didn’t know any more.”

Her voice broke. “I tried so hard to help her, stopped going to school and stayed at home to keep her company, but she didn’t want to be helped. She wanted my dad back, nothing else… just my dad.” She paused. “I miss her so much. I miss them both, every day, every minute. It’s like an ache that won’t go away, so if I feel like that, how must she have felt?”

“Did you talk to her – about your dad, I mean?”

“Time and again I tried, I really did! Sometimes when I heard her sobbing in her bedroom, I’d knock on her door and beg to be let in. But she wouldn’t open the door. In the end, there was nothing anyone could do for her.” She shrugged. “Less than a year later, she followed him. And left me behind.”

“Oh, Maddy… I’m so very sorry.”

Maddy didn’t hear her. She was back there, living it all over again. “The doctors said it was a massive heart attack that killed her, but others said she died of a broken heart. And the more I think about it, the more I believe they were right. It wasn’t her fault – she just couldn’t live without him.”

“Have you any brothers or sisters?”

Maddy wearily shook her head. “My parents married late in life. I was an only child.”

“Are there any aunts and uncles?”

“There’s nobody. For a time I really thought there might be a future and a family with – that man – but I was stupid even to entertain the idea. I should have seen through him a long time ago, but I didn’t, and now I’m carrying his child.” She looked up with soulful eyes. “Oh Ellen, I’ve been such a fool.”

There was a timeless span of silence while Ellen and Maddy reflected on the evening and all its consequences, and possibly came to terms with some of what had happened.

A moment later, without saying a word, Ellen crossed the room, wrapped her arms round Maddy, and held her for what seemed an age.

To Maddy, already grieving for Jack and fearing for her darling Alice, that warm and sincere embrace meant more to her than Ellen could ever realize.

A short time later, Ellen gave Maddy a quick tour of her two-up, two-down home. “This used to be my aunt’s bedroom.” She led Maddy into a surprisingly large room, with deep windows and homely décor. There were seascapes hanging on the walls, and a deep fluffy rug either side of the bed. “You should have seen it before,” Ellen revealed. “It was stuffed with all manner of old relics – and I’m not just talking about my aunt either!” When she laughed, it was a bright, infectious sound that set Maddy off.

“That’s better,” Ellen told her. “A laugh is as good as a tonic. Now – how about a pot of tea and some beans on toast with a poached egg on top, eh? We’ll feel better when we’ve had some grab, and that nipper of yours probably needs feeding!”

Before they went back downstairs, Ellen showed Maddy her huge collection of shoes and clothes hanging in the alcove cupboards. “There’s never enough room up in the wardrobes,” she explained with a grin. “So if you need to move in with me, I’ll have to sort myself out.”

“Thanks, Ellen.” Though they had only just met, Maddy felt as if she had known the other girl all her life. “The thing is, I’m not sure what to do. I can’t go back to the flat, as it belongs to him , and the police are bound to be all over the place, they’ll probably be searching it before long.”

Only now did she truly accept the enormity of her own situation. “For all we know, the police could be looking for us right now, wanting to question us. Then there’s him – he blames me for what happened, I know he does. He said so, and he’s a vindictive man. I know what he’s capable of, and I can’t put my baby in danger. So you see, I think it might be for the best if I heed Alice’s advice and get away from London altogether, at least until it all blows over. But I can’t – won’t – go, until I find out how she is.”

Ellen understood her concerns. “What makes you think Steve Drayton would want to harm you?”

Maddy described what had taken place earlier. “When they were taking him away in handcuffs, he said something to me. I can’t get it out of my mind. It wasn’t just empty words. It was a real threat, which I have to take seriously.”

His words were emblazoned on Maddy’s mind. “He said I should look over my shoulder, because wherever I went, he would find me.” Her flesh crawled as she recalled the demonic look on Drayton’s face. “We both know what he meant by that,” she murmured. “He means to kill me, if he can. I’m what he would call ‘unfinished business.’”

Ellen did her best to comfort her newfound friend. “He can’t hurt you if he’s locked up. And he will be – for a very long time, I reckon.”

Maddy gave a sad smile. “You don’t know him like I do.” Many times she had overheard his conversations on the phone, and because she was so infatuated with him, had chosen not to believe what she was hearing. She knew now what an evil creature he was. “It won’t make any difference if they lock him up and throw away the key, he’ll still get to me,” she assured Ellen. “He’s pally with every lowlife in London. And because he knows their every secret, they owe him favors.”