Cathy Sharp - The Orphans of Halfpenny Street

‘Aw, don’t be like that, Alice luv,’ Jack said, coming up to her and swinging her round to face him. ‘Why are yer avoiding me these days?’

‘I don’t want anything to do with the likes of you, Jack Shaw. I keep meself out of trouble – and you’re bad news.’

‘Now where did you get that idea?’ Jack said, grinning at her. They were standing in the light of a street lamp, giving him a yellowish and slightly malevolent look as he gazed down into her face. ‘I could be good news for a girl like you. I’m going places, Alice, and I might take you with me if you’re nice to me.’

‘Go away and leave me alone,’ she said sharply. ‘I’ve asked you politely, but if you persist I’ll scream.’

Jack laughed, seeming delighted with her resistance. ‘A fat lot of good that will do you round ’ere,’ he teased. ‘There’s girls screamin’ all the time, most of ’em because they like it – they make out they don’t want it, but they do … just like you do, Alice Cobb.’

‘You just shut your filthy mouth,’ Alice said fiercely. ‘I know how to protect myself and I’ll kick you where it hurts if you touch me.’

‘She’s a feisty one,’ Jack said and his grin broadened. ‘Maybe that’s why I like you, Alice. You ain’t easy. I know you ain’t been with anyone and that’s why I’m interested. If you went out with me, you’d soon see I’m a proper gent. Jack Shaw knows how to treat a girl right. I’ll give you a good time, and I’m not talking about a quick one up against the wall either. I’ll take you to a dance or a nightclub and dinner – and then we’ll go back to my place. I’ve got somewhere really cosy but I only take special girls there.’

‘I don’t want to be one of your special girls,’ Alice said. She glared at him as he edged closer and then made a grab for her. Even though she tried to escape, he had her in his arms, pressed hard against him as his mouth closed over hers. His kiss surprised her, because she’d expected the kind of slobbery mess that some of the lads at school had tried on with her; instead his mouth was firm but soft, exploring hers sweetly in a way that made her heart jerk with fright because it aroused new feelings. His tongue explored the shape of her lips, trying to force entry but she kept it firmly shut and suddenly brought her knee up sharply. He yelled as she made contact with him and jerked back, clearly hurt and shocked. ‘I warned you. Just stay away from me, Jack. That was just a friendly reminder, next time I’ll really hurt you.’

Alice walked away swiftly, knowing that he was watching her. She half-expected him to run after her and give her a good hiding but he didn’t, though after a moment he called out, ‘I’ll have you begging me yet, Alice Cobb, and you just see if I don’t. I’ve got something you want even if you don’t know it yet.’

Alice didn’t dare to answer in case he changed his mind and decided to punish her for daring to protect herself. She knew that some of the gang he ran with would have slapped her about if she’d done the same to one of them, and a little shiver went through her as she wondered whether he would take his revenge another time.

He was mixed up in bad things, Alice knew he was, and she wasn’t going to let the sweetness of that kiss blind her to his character. Alice had no intention of ending up like her mother, tied to a smelly house with four children, no money, a drunken husband and no prospects of a better life. When she got married, if she did, she wanted to live in a decent place – perhaps out of London, in the suburbs. She wanted no more than two children and the money to raise them properly … but in her heart she knew that life wasn’t so simple. Girls like her too often gave their hearts to the wrong men and ended up having to get married to a man who would make them miserable – or even worse, ending up having a backstreet abortion in one of those filthy houses everyone knew existed but pretended they didn’t. Alice didn’t want that. No sweet-talking charmer was going to do that to her. She had too much of her mother in her.

Alice smiled as she recalled an incident from her childhood when her mother had chased her father up the lane with a rolling pin, and she’d battered him when she caught him. Sid Cobb went off for a while after that but in the end he’d returned to his wife and family. If she’d been him she would have stayed away, but it seemed her mother had something he liked even if he did drink half his pay every Friday night. Alice wasn’t sure whether it was her cooking or what they got up to in bed; they made enough noise to waken the dead sometimes.

She was still thoughtful, torn between anger and the memory of that sweet kiss, as she paused outside the house where she lived. The smell of stale cooking, the stink from the back yard and the odour of mildew greeted her as she opened the front door and went in. Immediately, she heard her mother screaming abuse at someone, but this time it didn’t seem to be her father. As she hesitated in the parlour that led in off the street, the kitchen door opened and a woman with long, straggling dark hair and a filthy apron came storming out.

‘I’ll swing for your ma one of these days, Alice,’ she said. ‘I swear I’ll take the meat cleaver to her if she clouts my Bertie one more time.’

‘I’m sorry, Matty,’ Alice apologised, because she liked the woman, despite her frowsy appearance. Matty Carter cared about her children and did her best to keep them clean, though she was losing the battle in this awful place, which three families shared, because her husband drank more than Alice’s father. In Mr Cobb’s case, he’d been driven to it by his nagging wife, but Matty never nagged her husband; he was just a bully and a brute. ‘What happened?’

‘He was fighting with your Saul as usual, and she waded in and gave Bertie a black eye.’

‘Oh dear, she shouldn’t have done that – I’m sure it was half a dozen of one and six of the other.’

‘Alice, you’re a treasure and that vixen doesn’t deserve you,’ Matty said and smiled at her before going out of the door and banging it behind her.

‘Alice, is that you?’ her mother’s voice screeched at her from the scullery. ‘About bloody time too. Where the hell have you been to until this time, girl?’

‘I worked late at the home, Ma. I told you this morning,’ Alice said. ‘You shouldn’t wait up for me, just leave the key on the string and I’ll let myself in.’

‘I’m waitin’ up fer yer father and he’ll catch it when he gets back, I’m tellin’ yer.’

‘It’s not Friday night …’ Alice said.

‘I bloody know it’s not and I want ter know where he is.’

‘Perhaps he had to work late?’ Alice suggested, though it wasn’t likely.

‘He’s took money from my pot to go drinking, that’s what he’s done. Saul give me half a crown from his wages from the delivery round and that bugger’s took it. I’ll teach him when he gets back, you see if I don’t …’

Alice sighed, because she could smell the beer on her mother’s breath and knew she drank whenever she got the chance; it was a case of the pot calling the kettle black, but she wouldn’t dare to suggest it.

‘Why don’t you try understanding him for once? Perhaps you wouldn’t quarrel so much then.’ Alice wished her father didn’t drink so much and would stand up to her shrew of a mother sometimes, but a part of her still remembered the man he’d been before his wife’s nagging drove him to despair.

‘You’ll feel the back of me ’and if you cheek me, girl. Get through to yer room or I’ll give you a hiding an’ all!’

Alice sighed as she went through to the shared bedroom. She tried not to disturb anyone but she knew almost at once that they were all awake, the boys lying in their beds and giggling, waiting for Pa to come home with bated breath. Alice sometimes wondered what sort of men they would turn into; their parents’ example certainly wasn’t a good one.